The Work of God in Giving Gifts

Transcript

GR 1344
02-11-07
The Work of God in Giving Gifts
I Corinthians 12:7, 11, 18
Gil Rugh

Turn to I Corinthians 12 in your Bibles. The church at Corinth 2000 years ago, the subject of spiritual gifts were the cause of division and conflict. Two thousand years later the subject of spiritual gifts is still a cause of conflict and division and it is absolutely essential that the church have its position on this matter firmly based upon the scriptures. A number of years ago, it's been 20 years ago almost now, some professors at an evangelical seminary had to be dismissed because they had changed their doctrinal position on spiritual gifts and they sought to have the seminary change their doctrinal statement so that it could reflect their changed view of spiritual gifts. And the seminary would not do that and these three men had to be released.

But it was interesting, I was rereading this past week a statement that one of these men, now these are all three men who are trained in Bible, who have doctor's degrees in the area of Bible and theology, who had been teaching for years at an evangelical seminary. And one of the professors in appealing to the seminary board to change the doctrinal statement made this statement: “Any theological formulation that does not stand the test of scripture and experience together needs to be reevaluated.” Now that's a serious matter. Thankfully the seminary rejected that appeal and these men were indeed removed from their position. This professor was asking and saying that any theological doctrine or position that does not meet the test of what the scripture says and what my experience shows need to be reevaluated and redone. So he wants the seminary now to have their doctrinal statement say we believe that the Bible and every individual's experience is the authority for the life of the church. How would that function? How would you do that?

And yet for much of the church and for many individual Christians, well-meaning Christians, they get confused on this matter. As soon as you elevate experience to the level of scripture, so we say it's the scripture plus our experience that determines our doctrines and our beliefs, you have in effect replaced the scripture with experience. Anything you make an equal authority with scripture will soon replace the scripture and become dominant.

Turn back to I Peter 2. We must come to the scripture with the commitment that the scripture is the sole authority, the absolute authority, and my experience and your experience and anyone's experience must be subjected to the authority of scripture. That does not mean I can explain everyone's experience in the world, but I can by measuring it by the scripture determine whether it is a biblical experience, an experience from God or not. Note what Peter says in I Peter 2:2, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the Word so that you may grow in respect to salvation. You see what it is, it is the pure milk of the Word, the unadulterated, unmixed milk of the Word that brings growth in the life of the believer. When you begin to mix other things with the Word you begin to nullify its effectiveness to accomplish its work in the life. That's true with the gospel for salvation. If you believe that you must believe in Christ plus keep the Ten Commandments Paul says you are anathema, you are under a curse, you are not saved. You believe you must believe in Christ plus be baptized, plus do good works, plus join the church, plus anything, you've corrupted the gospel, you've canceled its power to bring about salvation in your life. And so it is, you mix anything with the gospel you nullify its effectiveness in producing growth. We think it's not such a major issue to say the scripture plus our experience because aren't our experiences important? Well certainly we experience God's work in our lives, but the only way I understand God's work is through the authority of His scripture. And even an experience that may be very precious to me has to be subjected to the scrutiny of scripture. And I can look back over my life and some things I had to give up because under the pressure of being required to submit those experiences to the authority of scripture, I had to acknowledge that they don't stand the test. And so I cannot claim them as biblical.

Come back to I Corinthians 12. It becomes a key area in the subject of the spiritual gifts. We're going to be analyzing the gifts individually, but we're going to lay some of the foundational matters that Paul discusses first. In verses 4-6 Paul talked about the unity there is with the gifts of the Spirit and the diversity. There are various kinds of gifts given to various individuals, but there is only one God dispensing these gifts. So they work in unity and harmony, in oneness, but not in sameness. So in verses 4-6 you have the varieties repeated three times. There are varieties of gifts, varieties of ministries, varieties of effects. And then that emphasis on the same. The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God. So that gives unity and harmony, oneness to the diversity that exists in the exercising of the gifts.

And while we're looking at verses 4-6 there are three facts that we noted here about the gifts. First, they are freely and graciously given. In verse 4 the word for gifts, charismato, the word charis is the Greek word for grace. These are grace gifts, gifts given graciously, not deserved, not earned, not merited, but bestowed by the grace of God. Secondly, they are means of serving. Verse 5, there are varieties of ministries. That word translated ministries we carry over into English as our word deacon. It means ways of serving. The word deacon in its various forms means to serve, be a servant. There are various ways of serving, and the gifts are way of serving. They are for the benefit of other people. We read I Peter 4:10 where Peter said that as we each one have received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And thirdly, they involve our activity and our working. They are energized by God Himself. Verse 6, there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all people. We noted that word translated effects and the word translated works are the same basic Greek word. We get the English word energy or energize from this word. We just carry it over into English, energa, energize, energy. God is the power in enabling these gifts to be effective. They will involve our activity because we are being energized by God Himself.

We also noted in verses 4-6 the Spirit, the Lord and God the Father are all involved in these gifts. One God eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And all three persons of the one God, the triune God are involved in the gifts. Hard to consider any other area of Christian life any more important than the subject of God's enabling power at work in your life as an individual believer, as a demonstration of His presence in your life and your ability to function as part of His family.

Now what we're going to do is pick up three verses that are separated by several other verses. Usually we take the verses in the order they come, but the subject of the spiritual gifts and identifying the gifts and talking about what is involved in some of these gifts is going to take some time. But I want to deal with the foundational matters that Paul gives, then we'll go back and look at each of the gifts individually. And don't think I am avoiding the hard stuff, I may be, and the Lord may come this week and then I'll be glad I did. But we will get to it. But be sure we understand what God says through Paul. We're going to look at verse 7, 11, 18. And what happens between these verses, verses 8-10, he will give an example of some of the gifts that God bestows, supernatural abilities that enable a child of God to function as an effective part of a local church, the body of Christ. Verses 12 and following, down to verse 17, he'll talk about the analogy of the church as the body of Christ, and he'll draw that analogy from the physical body to a spiritual body. And just like the physical body is one body with a variety of parts, hands, ears, eyes and so on, but they make up one body, so the spiritual body of Christ has many parts, but they make up one body. So it's in that context that Paul wants us to understand the work of God in giving these gifts and His sovereignty in it all.

So let's pick up with verse 7. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So again we're going to have the emphasis here on the variety there is in the gifts and also the unity. He begins by saying, but to each one. And the first word in this sentence in the Greek text is the work to each one, to each. And Greek like some other languages is flexible, and you can arrange your words to give the emphasis you want. So here the Spirit directs Paul to put that word each right up front, to give it stress. To each one is given the manifestation, and the emphasis here is that these gifts are personal and individual. In other words, God does not just dump a basket of spiritual gifts on the church and over time people just pull out some of the gifts that they might like or a gift that they might really desire to have. And over time, then, the church has the gifts taken up because over time, well, what's the need? Well, this is all that's left. Well, I'll do that, so that becomes your gift. That's not how it works. Each individual is personally gifted by God. The enabling power of God so designs the gift for me that it fits who I am, who He has made me to be, who I am now in Christ, and how He intends me to contribute to the functioning of the spiritual body of Christ. And that's true for every single one. Doesn't matter whether this church is made up of 100 people or 1000 people. God's plan has sovereignly done what is right for this church. Remember in I Corinthians 1 along about verse 7, Paul told the church at Corinth, you come behind in no spiritual gift as you await the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The church at Corinth had every single gift it needed to function the way God wanted it to function.

This emphasis is given every time in the New Testament we talk about spiritual gifts. Turn back to Romans 12, and we'll look at the other three passages in the New Testament that deal with spiritual gifts. Verse 3, for through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment. Now note this, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. And that measure of faith is talking about spiritual gifts as he comes on to use the analogy of the body, again as he uses in I Corinthians. But you'll note the end of verse 3, God has allotted to each a measure of faith. So each individual Christian has been the recipient from God of a gift to enable him to function as God intends.

Come over to Ephesians 4, another major section on spiritual gifts. Verse 7, but to each one, note the emphasis, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. He goes on to talk about the giving of the gifts and then he'll talk about some of the specific gifts down in verse 11. What we want to pick up right now is the emphasis, each one has been individually and personally gifted by God. Turn over to I Peter 4:10, a verse that I referred to a moment ago. Note how it starts, as each one has received a special gift, a charisma, a gift of grace. As each one.

Come back to I Corinthians 12:7, but to each one. What has to be fixed in our minds, there is no believer in Jesus Christ who has not been specially, supernaturally gifted by God for ministry. And that gift is assigned to you individually and personally. I don't assign that gift to you, the church doesn't decide. It is to you individually and personally and he goes on to say in verse 7, to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit, the manifestation of the Spirit. You know what a spiritual gift is? It's the manifestation of the Spirit's presence and working in your life. It's a manifestation. I stand here, you don't see the Holy Spirit, He is a spirit, He doesn't have tangible form and existence in a physical way like we do. But through the manifestation of my spiritual gift His presence is evident. That's true for each one of you. The Spirit manifests His presence in your life as you function using the ability that He has given you, and empowering you to use. So it is a manifestation of the Spirit.

Now every believer has the Spirit. There was a time early in my Christian life where I was part of a church that taught that you got the Spirit as a second work of God's grace. You were saved but you had to have a second experience after salvation where the Holy Spirit would come upon you in power and now you were enabled to serve as a Spirit-empowered Christian. That's one of those things I had to abandon under the pressure of being required to submit my experiences and beliefs to the scripture. Come back to Romans 8, and we're going to talk more about this in our next study when we talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But just to remind you, Romans 8:9, however, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. So you are either in the flesh or in the Spirit. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you are in the Spirit. You'll note it's a mutual abiding. The Spirit is in you, you are in the Spirit. But note the last part of verse 9, we're not talking about two kinds of Christians here, we're talking about a Christian and a non-Christian, there's a contrast. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him. If the Spirit of Christ is not dwelling in you, you're not a child of God, you don't belong to Christ. Now the Spirit manifests His presence in your life, one of the ways He does is by the gift that He has given you, that ability He has given you that enables you to function as a part of the body of Christ.

Turn over to Ephesians 1:13. Our English Bible begins a new sentence here, it's one long sentence in the Greek text. But in Him, or in whom, you also, referring to Christ from the preceding verse, after listening to the message or truth, the gospel of your salvation. Now you'll note the order here. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So in Him also after listening to the message of truth, the message of the truth is the gospel of your salvation. That's the message that you are a sinner, under condemnation, destined for hell, but Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. He was raised in victory. If you believe that you will be cleansed, forgiven and made new. So verse 13, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. What here is said is that you heard the gospel, you believed it, and the Spirit of God came into your life as a seal or a pledge, a down payment, God's guarantee that He would complete what He has begun in your life, the redemption of God's possession. You were purchased by the blood of Christ and the guarantee now that God will bring that process of salvation to completion and glorification is the Spirit of God dwells in your life. If you don't have the Spirit, you don't belong to Him. I have the Spirit. How do you know you have the Spirit? I feel Him. Well my experience is unreliable. Some days I feel more spiritual than other days, some days I have stronger feelings about the presence of God and my relationship with Him. On other days I don't have feelings as strong. But the fact is, He is there. If He weren't there, I wouldn't belong to Him. And one of the evidences He is there is the gift that He gives, and the exercising of that gift and supernatural ability in functioning as part of the body of Christ.

Come back to I Corinthians 12. Now since a gift, and we'll note this here, we'll talk about it more in future studies. To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit. Since a spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Spirit, they are distinct from what we would call natural talents. Because if it's just a natural talent, unbelievers who do not have the Spirit of God have natural ability. So we'll talk more about this in future studies, but you understand a spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Spirit in the life. So that's something that distinguishes a believer from an unbeliever. We'll talk more about this when we get into the details of the spiritual gifts. But right now just fix in your mind, a spiritual gift is a manifestation, a demonstration of the Spirit's presence and working in my life.

And this manifestation is there for the common good, at the end of verse 7. And it is a repeated emphasis when we talk about spiritual gifts. We noted up in verse 5 that the spiritual gifts were ways of ministering, ways of serving. Verse 6 emphasizes the fact that it is God energizing, operating, these are operations and workings of God in our lives and through our lives. Here we are told this manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Doesn't say it is given to each individual for each individual's personal and private good, but spiritual gifts are given for the good of other people, others in the body of Christ, the common good, the common benefit.

Go to Ephesians 4, and here in this extended section on spiritual gifts, which we will be back to a number of times in the course of our study in I Corinthians 12-14, come to the conclusion of this in the operating of the spiritual gifts. Verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. So again this picture will be of the body, the physical body, and the analogy of the physical body to the spiritual body. Many parts, one body. That's true spiritually. Verse 16, from whom the whole body, from the head, being fitted and held together, note this, by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Now you see that emphasis, what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part. This becomes a serious matter. Jesus Christ came and died on the cross, the church is referred to as the church which He purchased with His own blood in Acts 20. We are the body of Christ and the provision in that, in His death and the purchasing of us for Himself, bringing us into His body, so that each and every person could contribute to the functioning of that body so it would grow to maturity. So a person who is not exercising his spiritual gift and not functioning, is depriving the body of its proper growth, limiting it in its ability to bring glory to Christ. It's an act of great selfishness. People say, well, look, I know the Lord, I study my Bible, I don't have to be part of a church. Says who? It's not optional if you're a believer. That's why we define membership as a person who professes to be a believer in Jesus Christ and attends this fellowship. That's what membership is. It's not an optional second step. We'll talk more about this when we talk about the baptism of the Spirit that places us into the body of Christ.

But not function is to that extent............... You know a while back I had a malfunction, I want to be careful how I say this, a malfunction in the brain. People say, that's no surprise to us. But you know I had a minor clot, but it didn't primarily show up in my head. I couldn't move my arm or my hand. What's wrong here? I can't do anything, it won't move. And it wasn't the problem with my hand, the problem was a malfunction, so to speak, a little piece that was like a clot for a period of time in another part of my body. I couldn't help but think of how the body of Christ works. Well, my whole hand, this part of arm didn't work, that must have been a big clot. If it had been a big one you wouldn't be here. Just a little piece, but that little piece had an effect on a larger part of my body. Why? It wasn't working right, didn't function as it should. And God uses the analogy of the physical body because it is so clear, it cannot be misunderstood. We all know what it's like. When you go out today, put these two fingers in the door and then close the door. I guarantee it will affect the whole body. I walk by there and you're stuck in the door and you're singing a song, and I say, what's wrong? Oh my fingers are stuck in the door, dumb fingers, but that's all right, just two fingers. Your whole body is in pain, is bothered and limited. I mean, God uses this basic simple illustration of the body and it will be developed as we move through I Corinthians and it's one of the most common examples or illustrations or metaphors in the whole New Testament, so we can understand it. Every part has to function as it should, and to the extent that a person does not, he is fighting against the Holy Spirit, he is grieving the Holy Spirit by not allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself with the gift He has given. And to that extent he is stifling the growth of the body. That becomes a serious matter. Christ died, if you will, to put this body together. Now I decide I don't feel like, I'm not going to. It's like when you have a little child in your family, you just can't let him decide the family's not going to function. And when I have a problem in my body, I had a splinter recently and pretty soon the whole end of my finger was sore. Pretty soon I couldn't touch anything with that finger. All it was, I could hardly see it, I had to get a magnifying glass, I got one I used to use for coins. There it is, got it out and you know what? Doesn't bother me at all now. I can squeeze it, but before, every time I touched it, ouch, that hurts. Every part. All right, I've belabored that to death.

Come back to I Corinthians 12. I'm just testing your patience, that's one of the fruits of the Spirit. Verse 7, to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Verses 8-10 he gives some example of spiritual gifts, and we're going to wait and look at these in detail because we'll do the gifts together and some of them will take us more time than others as we identify them and how they work and so on.

Look at verse 11. After talking about some of the variety there is in the gifts in verses 8-10, he says in verse 11, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. So you have this diversity, verses 8-10, this gift given to this person, this to this, this to this as an example. But there is unity because it's one and the same Spirit who works all these things. The all these things refers to the gifts that we've gotten some examples of in verses 8-10. So there is diversity, but there is no division because there is one and the same Spirit who is working all these things. Interesting, I mean, we saw Father, Son and Holy Spirit involved in the matter of the gifts in verses 4-6. Now here in verse 11 we're told it's one and the same Spirit who works all these things. That's the Greek word we get the word energy or energize from. One and the same Spirit is energizing all these things, if you will. Well that's the same word that was used of God the Father in verse 6, there are a variety of effects or works or energy. But the same God who works, or energizes, in all these things. So God the Father is working here, God the Holy Spirit is working here. These are not things you can do in your own ability and your own power. This is one and the same Spirit working all these things. He is giving the gifts and the operation of this gift is a manifestation of His presence and His being at work. How do you take a group like this with this diversity and have a harmonious church function as one body, like the physical body does with all its parts. You have one Spirit working in all these things. One and the same Spirit.

Note verse 11, one and the same Spirit works all these things, now note, distributing to each one individually. There is that emphasis again, you'll note, on the personalness of this. Each individual, He distributes a gift to each one individually. It's like God is clarifying and emphasizing. Don't miss the point. It's not just to each one, it's to each one individually. I mean how honored that God with His Spirit would bestow on me and distribute to me individually, personally this special ability. To you. There is no believer excluded here. And how else could God say it, He keeps repeating it—to each one, to each one individually. The Spirit distributes to each one individually, just as He wills. Very important statement here, fix it in our minds, we're going to repeat it in another verse in a moment. Just as He wills. The sovereignty of the Spirit here. You do not get a gift because you want it, you do not get to select the gift that you might prefer. The gifts are distributed according to the sovereign will of the Spirit of God. Very crucial matter, foundational. Well if I become more spiritual, would I get a different gift, a more important gift, a better gift? Well how do you say it's a better one? I mean, my body functions as each individual part, and one seeming minor part quits functioning properly and my whole body may be shut down, large portions of my body. My body's ability to function will be limited. Some of you have experienced that as you've had a problem with a portion of your body. And that limits your mobility, your activity. The Spirit bestows the gifts as He wills. So there is no room for personal pride. I mean, you must be a godly man to have gotten that gift, you must be an important woman to have been given that gift. Well, I'd like to take the credit for it, but the fact is I had nothing to do with it. I'm responsible in the exercising of my gift, but I didn't pick it. In fact, quite frankly, originally I had in mind another gift. The one I ended up with was the one I didn't think I wanted, but it was the one God had given me. So it's just as He wills. As we move through the study of the gifts we'll have to reemphasize this, because some of the problems comes with the gifts, we think we get them because of certain activity on our part. That just is not true.

Now what happens after verse 11, he draws an analogy of the physical body and the spiritual body. Verse 12, even as the body is one, has many members, all the member make one body, so also is Christ. So that's our spiritual connection and the picture we want to draw. You have a physical body with all kinds of parts—fingers, hands, arms, ears, eyes, so on. But there is only one body and all the different parts together make that one body. And you don't have too many, you don't have too few. You don't say, well, I have ten fingers, who needs ten of anything? And you know they're pretty much the same, take off the thumb. At least there are eight, so it won't matter if I cut off two or three on each, I'll still have extra. I only have one nose, why would I need ten fingers. We say we don't have any extra parts. Ten fingers are exactly what the body should have. Remember some of you were here when we studied one of the men of the Old Testament. When he caught kings he cut off their big toes and thumbs. Why? It hindered their ability to walk and their ability to function with their hands. It's not, well I have ten fingers, ten toes, one nose, let's just have one finger and one toe. No, it doesn't work that way. You have just the right amount. So that's the comparison and the analogy and so you have how you get into the body in verse 13, we'll talk about that in our next study, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And then he talks about physical parts of the body, and they all have a role to play.

Then you come down after talking about the importance of the different parts of the body to verse 18, but now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desires. Now this is true of the physical body. I mean, now we can turn on the television and watch pictures of a baby developing from conception and all the stages of development and the parts form. And they say, now you see there's a thumb, he's putting it in his mouth. And it is amazing. You know you just don't get a sack in the womb with all the parts, then you just figure out how to put it together when it comes out. You say, that's not the way it is. Who sovereignly determined that a hand would be a hand? What do you think you'd look like if your hands were up here and your ears were on the end of your arms? We say, then you wouldn't have a normal body. Why? Because the parts have to be there and where they belong to function as they were intended. So the point of verse 18, God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as He desires and that includes the physical body and the spiritual body. God has placed the members.

Now we saw in verse 11 the Spirit of God distributes the gifts, just as He wills. Now we're told in verse 18 it is God the Father who has placed the members, each one in the body, just as He desires. And there you see the same thing we saw in verses 4-6, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit working in perfect harmony. God sovereignly determines the gifts and the Spirit bestows them as He wills, and His will is always in complete harmony and agreement with the will of the Father and the will of the Son. This is an important matter that you talk about the triune God, actively involved. And note here in verse 11, now God has placed the members, each one of them. Why does God have to keep saying this? Well what's the problem in the church at Corinth? Division about the gifts, conflict over the gifts. Let's just stop here and say, wait a minute, God is sovereign. You are an important, necessary part of the body because God has made you an important, necessary part of the body. Not because people recognize you as important, honor you as important, but because God has made you important in placing you in the body. That's why. I mean, the picture is so beautiful and so simple and so clear. God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body. We're talking now about the physical body, that's true, and in the spiritual body which is the comparison he keeps drawing throughout here.

When did you get these? Well, look at the physical body. All the parts are there from the beginning, from conception. They're all there. And that development takes place and when the baby is born there they are. Now the baby doesn't yet know how to use them all, so you clip the nails so he doesn't scratch his face. Soon he'll learn you don't scratch your face with your fingernails. But at that point how to use those parts hasn't come together. But they're all there. I mean, that's what it's going to be, that foot will be a foot. And if that baby lives to be 100, that foot will still be a foot, that hand will still be a hand, that ear will still be an ear. And there is a beautiful uniqueness. You know as human beings here we sit, all of us have two ears, but you know all our ears are a little bit different. They all serve the same purpose, they enable us to hear, but we're not going to do an ear examination, but we all know ears are different and ear lobes are different. Our noses are different, our eyes are different. I mean, there is diversity. That's why we look around and we recognize who each other is. If all the parts were all exactly the same, we would all look exactly alike, right? Then we'd have to carry nametags around. I look like so-and-so but I'm so-and-so. Well how do you know? Maybe I picked up his nametag. No, there is the beauty of even with the parts there is the uniqueness. That's why God did each one individually. So you may be an ear in the body but you're not an ear just like another ear in the body, so to speak. But all these parts function together and they work beautifully. Just as He desires.

It's the will of God. No sense in my being frustrated over my gift. My responsibility is to function as God wants me to. Now again, that doesn't meant the only thing I will do in the body is what I'm gifted to do. I do other things, and one of the ways I have found out where I was most effective is I did a variety of things. And since it's a manifestation of the Spirit's presence, others in the body should see that gift and recognize it. So I shouldn't be so proud, this is my gift, I don't care. I know what my gift is, nobody can tell me. Well, that's pride, that's stubbornness, because the gift of the Spirit is a manifestation of His presence and the manifestation ought to be observed and seen by others. If I contemplated whether God was directing me into a preaching ministry, one of the things that was necessary was for that to be confirmed by others whose evaluation could be trusted. We'll talk about this with the gifts, but it does get to be a problem in some of the prominent gifts like teaching. People say, that's my gift. Nobody is gifted to listen but they're gifted to teach. Nobody else thinks they're gifts, but, this is my gift. I can bore them to the grave, but that's my gift. No, we have to be open. This is not personal. I'm not going back to that church, they told me I don't have that gift. Well, maybe you don't, but you do have a gift. And if you're trying to do something that you're not gifted for, the body is suffering by the lack of your contribution to what you could really contribute to.

Isn't that true in the body? Aren't you glad you learned to walk on your feet and pick up things with your hands? Now I've seen people who have lost their hands and can do marvelous things with their feet. But the body functions most effectively when each part does what it was created to do, right? We won't go any further.

All right, we don't select our own spiritual gifts. I know what's going to happen. Three weeks down the road we're talking about gifts and we're going to have people say, I got this gift when............ Then we're going to have to come back to these verses. I didn't write it, it's not my plan. I don't give out the gifts, I don't determine who gets the gifts. It's what God says, He did it the way He desires. And if you're going to build a body you just don't throw parts together, it won't work.

All right, let me summarize this and we can stop here. Next week in our next study we're going to talk about the baptism of the Spirit and what it means to be placed into the body, how that occurs, the significance of that. Very important area, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And it needs to be understood properly, and what the signs of the baptism of the Spirit are. And then we'll be ready to move into the subject of the gifts themselves and what they are. Are they all present for today, how they operate and so on.

Several key things have been stressed just in these three verses. 1) The recipients of the gifts, all believers individually and personally. It's been repeated in these three verses. The recipients of the gifts, every believer individually and personally. 2) Secondly the nature of the gifts, they are a manifestation of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in a life. That's what a gift is. The manifestation of the Spirit, He is the one who has produced that ability in your life according to the sovereign plan of God for you to function and contribute to the body. That's the nature of the gifts, they are a manifestation of the Spirit. 3) The purpose of the gifts, they are for the benefit of the body of Christ, they are for the common good, they are for serving others. A gifts is not primarily for your benefit. The emphasis is what it does for the body. Remember we saw in Ephesians 4, each individual part makes a contribution to the building up of the body, not the building up of itself, but to the building up of the body. That's the purpose of the gifts. 4) The source of the gifts, they come from the sovereign God and that means He determines what the gift you get is.

Note the process of discerning what my gift is. The sovereign God has bestowed a gift on me, when did I get it? When I trusted Christ. When did the Spirit come and take up residence in my life? What is a gift but a manifestation of His presence, so it's there from the beginning. Now I did a variety of things and a lot of things, it became clear over time where I could contribute most effectively in the body. That still doesn't mean I don't do other things that may need to be done that are not particularly areas of my giftedness. That doesn't become an excuse for me not to function. We'll talk about this with individual gifts. But there will be an area where you have your major contribution in the ministry of the local church. And that's the subject of the gifts. Every believer has them and that's what enables us to serve God in honorable and effective ways.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your work in our lives. Father, it is awesome and almost overwhelming to consider that you have not only saved us, but in your sovereign plan you have prepared and given a gift to each one of us that is specially fitted for us individually, so that we can function as you intend in enabling the body to build itself up in love. Lord, I pray that these truths that we consider regarding this crucial area about how we as a church are to function and how we as individuals as members of the church, the body of Christ, are to function, might be used of the Spirit to make us more effective in functioning as you intend us as your people. Thank you for its beauty and its simplicity. Above all, thank you for the honor of being instruments used by you for matters that are of eternal importance in bringing glory to you. We pray in Christ's name, amen.