Ron Dunn Podcast - Building Up The Body (Part 5)

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

Ron Dunn preaches part five from "Building Up The Body"

I'm going to read verses 3 through 8, verses 3 through 8, and this is a continuation of a message which is a continuation of a series on building up the body. And the last several Sunday nights we've been dealing with this matter of the body of Christ and God's plan for it, God's purpose for it, and God's provision for it. Last Sunday night we began discussing naming the gifts of the Spirit. We saw previously the nature of spiritual gifts. Last night we began naming the spiritual gifts, and we took those that were mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We did not mention those in Ephesians chapter 4 because in a previous message we dealt with those. Tonight now we come to the gifts that are listed in Romans chapter 12.

We begin reading with the third verse, reading through verse 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 Now that expression, the measure of faith, is extremely important. And next Sunday night when we discuss the matter of identifying and exercising our gifts, we will deal with this measure of faith and we will see that it plays a very vital part in the Exercising of spiritual gifts God has 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, or he that teacheth on teaching, or 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, when the Holy Spirit takes up residence in a believer,

he does not come empty-handed, but he comes bearing gifts and distributes to everyone as he wills, not as we wish, but as he wills, supernatural endowments, supernatural abilities that give us the capacity to function in the body of Christ. And when we function properly, as Ephesians 4 says, when we are adjusted to the head and then we function properly,

then the body is built up and cemented in a spirit of love. And so God's provision for the growth and the edification of that body is the proper adjustment to the head and proper functioning of the members of that body, or the exercising properly of spiritual gifts. And it is these spiritual gifts, these supernatural capacities that lifts the church out of the realm of an institution and organization into the realm of a living organism and a living body. It lifts the church out of the realm of the superficial into the realm of the supernatural. So much so that I think we could say if it isn't supernatural, it's superficial as far as God is concerned.

And few of us, if any tonight, would argue with the fact that the church of Jesus Christ is supernatural in origin. I like what Vance Havner says about the church. He said, I know it has to be a divine institution, for no other institution would have withstood the way we've run it all these years. I think that's irrefutable evidence that it is of God.

The lousy way we seem to run it. The abuse that it's taken. Who would deny that it is of supernatural origin? But not only is the church of Jesus Christ of supernatural origin, it was intended to be of supernatural operation. It is to be supernatural from beginning to end.

It is to be bathed in spiritual power and supernatural endowments. And God has seen that this is to be so. And he has made provision for this so that the church, when it recognizes and exercises this matter of spiritual gifts, it becomes, as we've said previously, it becomes self-contained.

It becomes independent. Not independent of the Lord, but independent of the world. You don't then have to run to the entertainment world to try to gain a crowd. You don't have to run to the finance business world to try to make ends meet. You don't have to run to the Madison Avenue fellows to try to find out how you ought to organize and promote. The church discovers that it does not need the world's help, and it does not

need to bow to the world's standards, that it in and of itself is sufficient to be everything and do everything that God originally intended it to do. These are the purpose of supernatural gifts. Now, I think there have been two sins against the gifts of the Spirit in our day as in days past. One is misuse and the other is no use. And because the gifts have been misused, we have felt that has justified non-use of them. And both are sins against the Spirit and both are extremes. There is to be a balance there is to be the use the exercise of the spiritual gifts as god has ordained and in the manner and method that god has prescribed

now tonight we're going to continue this matter of naming and discussing these various gifts taking the list in romans 12 and then that other gift that I found that really I didn't find it. Somebody else had already found it and wrote it there a long time ago, but I can't find it listed in any of the lists. And as I mentioned last week, I have not attempted to classify these gifts because it seems to me that a classification of the spiritual gifts is both artificial and arbitrary. Because these lists, none of them are exhaustive. They overlap. None of them are complete. And therefore, I have not attempted to classify the spiritual gifts into this category and this category. We've simply been taking them one by one

and explaining them on the basis of what the word means and how it was used in the New Testament. But I must say this, that the gifts that are listed in Romans chapter 12 have an almost obvious difference from those that were listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I think the difference is this, that these that are mentioned in Romans chapter 12 are less spectacular in their operation. They are less spectacular. The gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 seem to be the more extraordinary,

the more spectacular of the gifts. But these in Romans 12 are less spectacular, and I would say are of a more practical nature, and are probably more widespread within the body of Christ. I think that I personally know a great many more people in the local church who have the gift of, let's say, exhortation, or the gift of showing mercy, than I would say have the gift of miracles, or the gifts of healings, as is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, or the gift of an utterance of knowledge, or an utterance of wisdom.

It seems that these gifts in Romans 12 are of a more practical nature in ministering to the body of Christ, and are probably more widespread. And I would even venture to say that most of you will more than likely find your spiritual gift listed in Romans chapter 12. Now let's take these one by one. Paul mentions seven in this passage. The first one he mentions we discussed earlier, but I want to discuss it again with some more emphasis upon it. Beginning in verse 6, he says, Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.

Now, as stated earlier, the word prophecy is made up of two Greek words that means to speak forth or to speak before. And it has the idea of a person spontaneously under divine impulse and impression speaking for God. And there are two categories of prophecy. One is the matter of foretelling, predicting the future. And if you'll read over in the Old Testament prophets, you'll find that this was a very real part of their ministry. And in the book of Acts, there are two occasions mentioned where there is the actual prediction of something that is to occur in the future. The matter of foretelling a direct revelation from God and the prophet speaks that direct revelation from God predicting, foretelling something that is to come to pass.

Now, of course, the mark of a true prophet is that his predictions are always true, are always accurate. God doesn't grade on the curve. And for a prophet to say, well, I'm right 90% of the time, it means that he is not always prophesying as God would have him to prophesy. I've had some that come to me say, I have had a word of prophecy, and they would utter a word about a specific thing

and come to find out it would not come to pass as they thought it would come to pass. That is not the mark of a prophet. In the Old Testament, all their prophecies came true. Now, we have some modern-day prophets and prophetesses who make predictions, and if you're grading on the curve, they'd come out pretty good, they'd pass, they'd graduate to the next class. And simply because they make some right prophecies, we seem to think they are of God. But the mark of a true prophet is that when he really speaks from divine revelation,

his prophecy is always true and always comes to pass. That's one aspect of prophecy. There's another aspect of it. Now, I used to believe that this first aspect, foretelling, prediction, was the main emphasis of prophecy. But the more I studied it, I became aware that actually that is not the main emphasis. And as you study the message of prophecy. But the more I studied it, I became aware that actually that is not the main emphasis. And as you study the message of the prophets in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament, you'll find that this matter of foretelling, of predicting the future, really only plays a very small part in their ministry. Not only is prophecy the matter of foretelling, but it is also the matter of foretelling, of foret also the matter of forth telling, of forth telling,

of speaking the word of God to a generation. Now, this is different from teaching in that the prophet does not expound or explain or interpret his word. He simply receives a word from God, and he speaks that word to the people. He doesn't explain it. He doesn't expound it. He doesn't interpret it. He simply declares the word of God. I think we have prophets in our generation who speak to our generation, who speak to God's people and bring God's message.

They're not teachers. They're not expositors. But rather, they are declaring to us the whole counsel of God. I think we need prophets today. The prophets in the Old Testament, for instance, would come upon the scene of idolatry and the scene of spiritual deadness, and they would bring a message from God to repent because if you do not repent, God is going to send judgment. That is the ministry of a prophet. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, you have

this ministry of a prophet delineated a little bit further. And he says that the ministry of a prophet, the speaking of prophecy, benefits two kinds of people. In verse 3, to believers, he says, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men, to edification, that means building up, edifying, to exhortation, that means encouraging them, spurring them on to be obedient to the word of God, and comfort. Now that's the ministry of a prophet to the believers.

He edifies, he exhorts, encourages, and he comforts. Now over in chapter 14 and verse 24, we have a ministry of a prophet to the unbelievers. But if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. And when a prophet exercises his ministry,

not only does it edify and encourage and comfort the believers, but it convinces and convicts the lost and brings them to a confession and a worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. I almost would say, or rather I would say that almost prophecy, a part of prophecy would be testimony, testifying.

For instance, Revelation 19.10 says, For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The spirit of prophecy is that it testifies of Jesus. I think you would come very close to testifying of Jesus as being a part of the ministry of prophecy, for it simply declares the counsel of God, speaks forth what God wants to say to a particular congregation. Now let's move on to the next one, and that is the gift of ministry. Verse 7, our ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Now, this gift of ministering is similar to the

gifts of health that is listed in 1 Corinthians 12, 28. But there is a difference. Now, we could couple them together, but I prefer just to take each one of them because there is a different emphasis in the meaning of the words. And we'll not go back to the gift of health since we've already discussed that. Here it is the gift of ministry. It's the words. And we'll not go back to the gift of help since we've already discussed that. Here it is the gift of ministry. It's the word from which we get our word deacon. It's the same word that is translated in Acts chapter 6 of waiting on tables.

The word deacon means, originally it meant through the dust and it had to do with very lowly type of service. Very lowly type of service. The root of the word, etymology of the word, means through the dust, indicating the humble, lowly nature of the service. And it came to emerge to mean simply waiting on tables or acting as a servant and waiting on others to meet their needs. It has to do with very practical service, very practical service.

Now, this is not the ministry of the Word. This is not preaching the Word. But this is ministry not in speech, but ministry in service, ministry in action. It's the word that is used in Luke chapter 10 and verse 40, where Martha, while Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, Martha was in the kitchen serving. And so this word is very broad in its meaning, indicating any kind, all kinds of practical service.

And by the way, I think this is one of the basic gifts of the Spirit to the body of Christ. I would shudder to think what our church, what any church would be like if God had not gifted some people with the gift of ministry, the gift of serving, of practical service. I think Dorcas in Acts chapter 9, it is, was a lady who exemplifies the gift of ministry.

You remember when she died, the people came to Peter and were bemoaning the fact that she had died because she was a woman who did good works. And they brought garments and coats and other things that Dorcas had sewn for them and had made for them. And she was a woman of good works who served and ministered to the physical needs of others. And so Peter went in and he exercised the gift, not of healing, the gift of miracles, and he raised her from the dead. I think Dorcas exemplifies ministering not to the spiritual needs, but to the physical needs. This is what a deacon is supposed to be. He is a man who ministers to

the physical needs of the congregation, as is revealed in Acts chapter 6. And I think a great many people have the gift of ministry. Now there is one particular thing that is very significant. Peter in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 11 speaks about the gift of ministry, uses the same Greek word, and he says the person who has the gift of ministry is to do it as God gives him ability. And that phrase literally means God will supply him the strength. Now, it doesn't say that about exercising any other gift. And the word he uses for strength indicates physical strength or might or power, the energy to do something, the strength to do something. Now, the gift of ministry is an

unspectacular gift. It is a demanding gift. It's just plain work. It's just flat-out work. And I think it is significant that Peter says the man that has the gift of ministry ought to exercise that as God supplies him strength. And God will have to supply him strength to do it. Because it takes physical strength to do it. It's a demanding job. And many times it's a thankless job. I think some of you will discover that you have the gift of ministering. You have a supernatural desire to just want to help others. To minister to the needs of others.

But not only do you have that desire, you have that ability. Now I mentioned last week when we talked about the gift of others. But not only do you have that desire, you have that ability. Now, I mentioned last week when we talked about the gifts of helps that any time that you have a spiritual gift, that means a supernatural endowment to do it effectively. Now, some of us, we want to try to help

and all we do is just louse things up. We just get in the way. I'm that way about some things. I try to help in certain situations. I find out We just get in the way. I'm that way about some things. I try to help in certain situations. I find out I'm just in the way. And so I excuse myself from a lot of work that way. I say I don't have the gift of help.

But by the way, somebody might say, well, I have the gift of teaching and they teach and they can't teach. I mean, there's just no clear communication of the truth. They don I have the gift of teaching, and they teach and they can't teach. I mean, there's just no clear communication of the truth. They don't have the gift of teaching. That's a screwdriver trying to hammer a nail into a board. It's a misfit.

To have the gift of ministering not only means that you have a desire, your heart leans in this direction, there's something about you that wants to serve practically the needs of others, but also that you can do this effectively. And God supplies you strength to do it. And by the way, you're to exercise this gift only as God supplies you strength. Somebody says, how much am I to do? Just as much as God gives you the ability to do and no more. It is to be exercised in the strength of God. And so this is a very practical gift, a very broad and basic gift, the gift of ministry. Is this your gift? Next, he mentions the gift of teaching, the gift of teaching. And the word teaching very simply

means to give instruction. Now, I want you to notice the difference between prophecy. Prophecy is declaring the Word of God without explanation, without exposition, without trying, attempting to explain it and make it clear. And it is aimed at the will primarily. Prophecy, the Word of God, declaring the counsel of God. Teaching is aimed at the understanding. And teaching is simply taking the Word of God that has been spoken and has been revealed and is unfolding that Word so that people can grasp it. It is the supernatural ability to communicate clearly the Word of God.

Now, I want to keep emphasizing as we go along that these spiritual gifts do not refer to a natural talent. The word charisma just does not allow for that. And the other Greek words that are used for gifts does not allow that. It is not a matter of a person having a natural ability and a natural talent and then him dedicating that for God's service and using it. Illustration. When I pastored my first church, we always needed Sunday school teachers. Some of them thought we needed a pastor. But I felt like we needed teachers. And we had some Sunday school teachers, rather some public school teachers

who were members of that church. I thought, they make great Sunday school teachers, rather some public school teachers who were members of that church. I thought about it. They make great Sunday school teachers. I mean, they're able to teach and get paid for it. That's their living. They've been to school, high school, college, some of them to graduate school. Some of them had a master's degree. I said, man, they make great teachers. They do that for a living. They do that five days a week, nine months a year. And we enlisted some of them to teach in Sunday school. You know what I discovered? enlisted some of them to teach in Sunday school. You know what I discovered? I discovered some of them were the worst Sunday school teachers we'd ever had.

Now, they could go to school, and they could stand up there, and they could clearly communicate math. They could clearly communicate English. They could clearly communicate calculus, history, government. But you put them in a Sunday school classroom, and they could not clearly communicate the, history, government, but you put them in a Sunday school classroom and they could not clearly communicate the Word of God. Now, I say that to say this, that the position of teaching the Word of God does not come by training and natural ability, but it comes from a supernatural endowment that God places, giving the person, first of all, a desire to unfold the Word of God

and then the ability to communicate it clearly. You know what I wish? You know what I think ought to be? I think that everybody teaching in our Sunday school ought to have the gift of teaching. Now, I'm not sure you could have a one to ten ratio on that. See, you know, well, I won't get into that. A couple, several years ago, a book came out,

The Ten Largest Sunday Schools, and you know, all my life I'd heard the only way you can grow a Sunday school is have that 10 to 1 ratio, one teacher for 10 people. And this book came out, 10 largest Sunday schools in the United States. And by large, I mean 3,000, 4,000, 5,000. And I think eight of them had large Sunday school classes, and two of them had the 1 to 10 ratio. The rest of them would have a class with 50 or 100 in it. And what that proves is there's no one way to do it. Just, you know, God works differently in different ways. My personal conviction is this, that if we say now we must have one teacher for every 10 people, we can't have any more than that. What we're going to do is to staff some of our classes with

people that are not able to teach. And we're going to have people in our Sunday school classes who are not being communicated clearly the Word of God. And anybody in this building or anybody that goes to a Baptist Church knows that some of the hardest places to learn the Word of God is in the Sunday school class. Most of you have been in Sunday school classes since year one, and yet you tonight will have to acknowledge on the part of many of you a woeful ignorance of the word of God. I'm just sharing with you what my personal conviction is. I think I base it on the Word of God. I'm just sharing with you what my personal conviction is. I think I base it on the Word of God.

I think that God would bless when the Sunday school classes are staffed by people who have the ability to communicate the Word of God clearly. Gift of teaching. Do you have the desire and the ability to communicate clearly the Word of God that's a gift a spiritual gift a supernatural gift to explain and apply the truth of the Word of God all right next is the gift of

exhortation verse 8 are he that exhorteth on exhortation now the word exhort means to beseech or to comfort. Literally the word means to come to one side to help. To come to one side to help. The background of this word is this, that the family or the tribe or the clan had a head. Now he was the paraclete. It's really the same Greek word that is translated in John 14, 15, and 16 as comforter.

Same word translated advocate in 1 John 2, 2, the paraclete. The one who comes to your side to help. And let's suppose now that I was a member of a family, or the member of a clan or a tribe and I got into trouble and I was dragged before the law courts. Now the head of the family, the head of the tribe, the head of the clan would come to my defense and he would come to stand by my side to help me, to aid me, to hold me up in order to defend the family name. And that's why the Bible says that Jesus

Christ is our advocate, the same word, because he stands before the Father tonight. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So when I sin, Jesus Christ is standing at my aid before the Father to defend the family name. Because if I were to lose my salvation, the father's name would be disgraced. So he is our advocate. Now, there is a ministry of exhortation where God gives some people the ability to come and to encourage. And the dominant word in this matter of exhortation is encouragement. Encouragement. Now, teaching aims at the understanding. Encouragement or exhortation is aimed at the will or the heart of a person. And here's the way these interwork.

And really when you see the interworking of all of these gifts, it's a beautiful thing. This is the reason it is so necessary for people to stay in their realm. That's what Paul is saying. And not jump fences and try to exercise another person's gift. Because God dovetails it all together perfectly. So here is the prophet who speaks the Word of God. Here you have a ministry. The man who just serves and helps in practical needs.

Here's the teacher who stands and unfolds the Word of God. Just lays it out so anybody can understand it, but that's not enough. The exhorter comes along and you know what he does? He challenges you to take the Word of God

and do something about it. Exhortation is primarily this. It is encouraging people to act upon the Word of God, to do something about it. I believe that James, Brother James, may have been an exhorter because he said,

Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, thereby deceiving your own selves. Jesus was exercising some exhortation in Matthew chapter 7 when he says, He that hears my words and does not do them is a foolish man. Now all of us have gone and we've heard men preach or we've heard men teach

and they just unfold the Word of God and say, God bless you, that's it. And you sit there, well, no challenge, no admonition, no exhortation. Well, he's just exercising his gift as a teacher. He's not an exhorter. He's a teacher. He just unfolds the word of God. I have in my library a set of books, expositions of the Holy Scriptures. They are fantastic. And when I was in seminary, I was given this advice. Read that fellow last because he does such a magnificent job

of explaining and dissecting and teaching the Word of God that if you read him first, he'll color everything else you read. So you read him last because it'll discourage if you read him first because he said all there is to say about it. And so I save him for last and discover he's already said it all. But he has a fantastic ability just to communicate clearly the Word of God. But you know what? He never, if rarely, applies that teaching.

There's no personal application. And in one of our homiletic classes in seminary, the professor took that man as an example, and he said the only thing wrong with his preaching is there is no application. He's a teacher. Now, the exhorter, the exhortation comes along. He takes the truth of God's Word, which you understand.

And see, you know more now than you're living up to. But the exhorter comes along and he says, Now listen, this is God's truth. Now here's, you need to do it. I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you to put this into practice, to do something about it, to let it play out in your everyday life.

I really believe that we could call a counselor an exhorter, a Christian counselor, because he is one who sits down and encourages the person to put into practice truths that he knows. And by the way, I think that there ought to be charismatic counseling. Counseling, you may call it revelational counseling or charismatic counseling, but it is counseling that is done not on the principles of psychology and psychiatry,

not on man's wisdom, but it is counseling that is done on the wisdom of God's Word. And it is simply taking the Word of God and making it applicable to the lives of people. J. Adams has written several books on counseling and he takes, as you read that book, you become aware that what this man is doing

is not applying the principles of man's wisdom, but he's taking the Word of God and he's applying it to life situations. Bill Gothard is another one that does it. There are many that do it. But I think there is place and room and urgency within the body of Christ for what we might call charismatic counseling. Great harm can be done by counseling that is based on man's wisdom. But it is a person who has a supernatural ability to take the truths of the Word of God and apply them to a person's life and encourage him to be obedient. That's

exhortation. All right? Next is the gift of giving. The gift of giving. Now, some of us may be surprised that this is a gift. By the way, this is a good point to say that while we not all, not all of us have all of these gifts, yet we are to exercise and exemplify in our life the characteristics of these gifts. Now, not all of us have a supernatural gift of giving, but we ought to give, see. I want to put that in, lest some of you think, praise the Lord, I don't have the gift of giving. I don't have to give. Boy, that's a close call. Now, would you believe this? There is a supernatural endowment placed upon a man to give.

Now, the meaning of this word is not simply to give. It's not simply to disperse. But rather, the meaning of the word is to communicate or to impart or to share one's own possessions. Now, you see, I could find somebody out here that was in desperate need and I could come to the church and I could say, I found a needy family over here and we really need to help them. And they would say, all right, preacher, you just take whatever money is needed to get them out of that fix and I could give them money. But that wouldn't be what he's talking about there because I'm giving somebody else's possessions. This word means to impart one's own possessions because it means to share, to communicate one's own. And there are some people within the body of Christ that feel themselves called and feel an urgency and a desire to help financially those who are in need.

They do not give out of emotion. It's not that we stand up here and make an emotional appeal and suddenly they're struck emotionally, and in that emotion they give. That's not it at all. But it is their supernatural endowment. They see a need. They're able to detect a need.

I know some people that have had this gift, and the uncanny thing is that they are able to discern between those who really are in need and those who are just promoting. See? It is a supernatural gift to share your possessions with somebody else. Now notice, he says that he is to do it with simplicity. Simplicity.

The word has the idea of without mixed motives. The root of the word literally meant without looking back. It indicates a disposition that doesn't want to look back. Now, that's very important and instructive. Paul here is warning us against a danger. There are always dangers in any gift because you can amuse it.

Here's a man who has the gift of giving, the gift of liberality, takes his possessions. By the way, I don't see anything in the Scriptures that indicate he has to be wealthy. That's not contained in the Word at all. And this doesn't mean a man has to be wealthy to have the gift of giving.

Not at all. I know some people that are of average means that seem to have an unusual ability just to give at the right time. just to give at the right time. Just to give at the right time. But they're to do it with simplicity, without the disposition to want to look back. Now, you know, there's always a temptation

when you and I give some money to somebody to want to look back and check up on it and see how it's doing. None of your business. You give it and that's it. Don't look back on it. No strings attached. You see how important that is?

Paul just seemed to know us real well, didn't he? You'd almost think he was writing under inspiration. How many times have you been disposed to give somebody something and then now you want to check up on them, see how they're doing with it. That's none of your business. You just give with simplicity, no mixed motives,

not to propel yourself forward. It's kind of like Jesus said, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Give it and forget about it. Give it and forget about it. Next gift. By the way, anybody here have the gift of giving? Some of you do. Next gift is the the way, anybody here have the gift of giving? Some of you do.

Next gift is the gift of ruling. The gift of ruling. We're going to have to hasten on. The gift of ruling. He that ruleth. Now, this is akin to the gift of governments that we found in 1 Corinthians 12, 28. The government, the word means steering. And it was used of the pilot of a ship who had hold

of the helm and he would steer the ship through uh into the harbor and it was uh used of guiding administration is one translation of the word now what is the word to rule literally means i stand in front of is what the word means i stand in front of, is what the word means. I stand in front of. Now, this term was applied to physicians who would direct the treatment of a disease, or it was applied to magistrates who would watch over the execution of a certain law. Now, the difference between governments, which is guiding and administrating, and ruling is that governments are guiding may be done privately. For instance, let's use a very basic illustration. Here is a committee,

and this committee has the function to guide the church in a certain course. Now, you may never see that man. That man may never stand up publicly and give you his counsel of guidance, but privately, behind the scenes scenes he steers the church. He guides the church. But the ruler is the one who stands in front and takes the lead. He does it publicly. This word would apply to any position where superintendence was needed,

where visible management was needed. And God has gifted people in the church to just take the lead. To sum it up, I think this gift is the take charge and see that it gets done ability. Now, that's free translation, and I'll grant you that, but I think that really expresses what's in the idea. It is the ability to take charge and see that it gets done. Now, you can give some men a job. They're good men. Their hearts are good and right with God. And you can give some men a position of leadership in the church.

Nominating committee recommended them. Church voted them in. But nothing gets done. I mean, they're in position. They're in charge. They don't really know what to do,

but when they try to do it, it doesn't seem to gel and it never really seems to get done. Now, we ought not to put men in positions in this church because they're popular or because they're spiritual or because they're good men, but because of the ability that God has given them.

There are some men and women in this church who ought never to be elected to positions of leadership because they do not have a supernatural ability to take charge and get things done. And if you put something in their hands, it may never get done. But then there are others in the church, you give them something to do,

it may be just emptying a trash can, or it may be taking a committee and steering that committee all the way through to success. But you give them that position, and you know what happens? They take charge and it gets done. You can sit back and quit worrying about it. You'll know they'll get it done.

They'll see it through. That's the gift of ruling. It doesn't mean dictatorship. That's an unfortunate translation. It means taking charge, taking the lead in something and seeing it through. The gift of ruling. All right, one more, and we'll be through. The gift of showing mercy.

He that showeth mercy, let him do it with cheerfulness. Now, mercy is the outward manifestation of pity. The outward manifestation of pity. It assumes a need on the part of the one who receives it, and it assumes adequate resources on the part of the one who administers it. Now, showing mercy differs from ministry and helps in that showing mercy is ministering to those who are what we might call unfortunate, debilitated, in desperate need of pity. It is the outward manifestation of pity. It is going to those who really need your pity.

Not just needing financial help or physical help, but they're in need of pity. And it is outwardly manifesting this, showing mercy. A girl that has this gift might find herself wanting to be a nurse. There's something about her, something in her heart just goes out to those that are in need, and she wants to help. Showing mercy.

It's direct, personal ministry to those who are in need. It is a gift of sympathy. It is to feel sympathy with the misery of another and to manifest that sympathy in definite acts, doing something about it. Not just feeling sorry for them, but doing something to relieve their need. Now, these are the gifts mentioned here.

And there's one more now that I want to share with you. Now, just say a word about it. 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11. As every man hath received the charisma, the charismata, the gift, and it's not the gift, it is a gift, the definite article is not there, 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. Now, the one that I want to mention is that one mentioned in verse 11. If any man speak, if any man speak. Now, the context does not allow this to refer to general conversation, because in the 10th verse he is using the definite word for gift, a gift of the Spirit, the same Greek word that Paul uses in Romans 12, and it's used in 1 Corinthians 12. Any man who has received

the charismata and then he uses two as an illustration, one of speaking. The gift of speaking and I mentioned that I've not found this listed in any of the listings

and perhaps it's because most think that this just applies and overlaps to the gift of teaching or the gift of prophecy. But yet it is a definite word used altogether. If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. Now what he's speaking about here is charismatic speaking, not everyday talk, not everyday conversation.

But he's saying simply this, that this man that has the gift of speaking, what he speaks is to be the Word of God. He is to speak the Word of God. He is to speak the Word of God. Now, I think that you could probably say this might be what we would call a gift of preaching, an ability just to speak. It's not so much prophecy.

It's not so much teaching. It's not so much exhortation, but it is the ability to speak. And when he speaks, you know he's speaking the Word of God. Someone said to me the other day, you know, you can go hear this man and that man and this man and that man, but you can always tell when he's speaking the Word of God. You can always tell when the man is speaking, as it were, the oracles, the Word of God.

And there is a charismata of speaking, the ability to just speak and to speak the Word of God. You call it preaching if you want to. Now, the conclusion of the whole matter, Peter makes in that 11th verse, that in all things God may be glorified. You see, what the Bible is concerned with is not what particular gift you have and whether or not it's better than the other, more spectacular than the other.

That's not at all what God is concerned about. The only thing God is concerned about is that in all things, God may be glorified. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.