An Overview of Spiritual Gifts

Transcript

GRM 1196
09/16/2018
An Overview of Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 12; Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to talk a little bit with you from the Word about spiritual gifts tonight, and then we’ll open it up for questions and address some of the things you’ve written about and open it up for anything you might want to talk about. Again, just going to do an overview on some of these things we do on Sunday night. We have booklets from studies that we’ve done earlier. We have a booklet on spiritual gifts that summarizes the issues. We also have a booklet on tongues. These are on the literature rack that you can pick up so they’ll give you a little more detail than we’re going through as we look at these things like tonight and may be helpful for clarifying things if you have any questions.

Let’s go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Again, we have done extensive studies in these passages but just to draw some key points out and I want to talk about some of the issues that are around spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts basically are enablement’s that the Holy Spirit gives to a person when they place their faith in Jesus Christ. The picture is that we are like the physical body and for the physical body to function effectively, it has a variety of parts. There is a unity, one body but it’s comprised of the variety of parts, and each of those parts contribute something that enable the body as a unit, to be effective, and that’s the spiritual picture so it’s not something that is confusing at all. The most extensive portion on spiritual gifts in the New Testament is 1 Corinthians chapters 12 to 14.

We’ll just touch on chapter 12. It begins, “now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware” and you come to verse four, and this is truth for those who recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord. They have come to the salvation in Him and the recognition that He is sovereign. Sovereign over our lives individually, sovereign over the church because God has given Him as head over all things to the church. So, verse four, “now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” and you’ll note through this section the emphasis on diversity and oneness. “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” That’s what gives unity. The Spirit who gives the gifts and controls and empowers us in the exercising of the gifts is the same Spirit for every one of us, the Holy Spirit of God. That gives unity to this diversity. There are varieties of ministries, the same Lord. There are varieties of ways of serving but there is one Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons and you note the triune God is involved in this.

We have the Spirit in verse 4, we have the Lord in verse 5 referring particularly to Christ, and God referring to the Father in verse 6, so verse 4, the Spirit, verse 5, Christ, verse 6, God the Father. This is the work of God, all three Persons of the Godhead involved. This is foundational material but of utmost importance. We understand what God is doing with the church. He brought us together as the manifestation of His body in this place. Let me just remind you back in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, if you keep your finger in chapter 12 and come back to chapter 1 verse 2, Paul is writing to “the church of God which is at Corinth.” It’s comprised of those who have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling,” and we are “joined with others in other places,” but he’s writing to the church at Corinth. Then down further in chapter 1 he says in verse 7 “you are not lacking in gift,” so each local church I take it has been comprised, brought together, and the people God has brought together to comprise that church have the gifts necessary for that church to function, as He wants it to function. It is a church that is to function under His control, His authority, His enablement. That’s what we have in chapter 12. It’s the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God, working in each one of us individually, but He’s created variety.

Just like we have the body with all its parts we have one head from which the direction for all the parts come, so there is the one God controlling. That’s why the New Testament emphasizes so much the unity and harmony, and when part of my body does not function, as it should, obviously there is a break down. When part of my body won’t listen to the instructions from the head, there’s not functioning. Several years ago, I had problems with some mini strokes and one Saturday night I was working at my desk, I got up and went to do something and my arm and hand wouldn’t work. My head’s telling that hand pick up that book. No response, there is a breakdown. Something between the head and its instructions and the arm, it wasn’t listening, it wasn’t functioning. The analogy He uses is so simple, so clear, none of us have any reason to be confused. This is the spiritual picture. This is what the body of Christ in this place is, that’s why conflict, division, is a denial of what we claim as believers. The basic truth of what we are as the church.

Verse seven; you have this same thing, the individuality of it but the unity of it. “To each one” and that each one is going to be a repeated emphasis, it’s in verse seven, it’s down in verse 11, to each one. Then down in verse 18, each one that’s the individual, so you say in verse 7, “to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit.” That’s what your spiritual gift is; it’s a manifestation of the Spirits presence and work in your life. He demonstrates His presence by giving you that gift, that enablement to function in a special way to make a contribution to the functioning of the church. That’s why there are no spectators. Now if my arm and my hand don’t function that part of my body or any individual within it, according as it should, to that extent the body is limited. It’s not doing what it should so we’re not observers if you’re truly a believer.

Now unbelievers that come, they are just observers because they don’t belong to the body of Christ, they don’t have anything to contribute to the body of Christ. They are not controlled, indwelled enabled by the Spirit and he gives examples. “To one is given the word of wisdom.” Remember he said each one, so there’s the word of wisdom through the Spirit, “to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit,” so you see He gives different gifts but it’s the same Spirit, so these gifts don’t work in conflict with one another. They work in harmony with one another because it’s one Spirit that is controlling and enabling. “Another faith” and you have the diversity of gifts. You come down to verse 11, “but one and the same Spirit works all these things,” so He is the enabling power. It’s supernatural that we can be brought together as we are, and function in a way with every part, some more, you know prominent some less prominent, but everyone important, because “it’s the same Spirit who works all these things,” and note this, “distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

You don’t get a spiritual gift by seeking it. You discover it. How do you discover it? Well part of it is functioning. We had lunch today and my great grandson, Jack, he’s just great. Now there’s a reason they call them great grandsons. He’s better than my kids are, he’s better than my grandkids; he’s the best so far. You know they just get better as you go along, so he is my great grandson but he’s learning to use his hands, so you know you’re trying to give him something with a fork. He wants to take the fork and do it himself. The trouble is when he gets the fork he throws the piece of watermelon over on the people at the next table. You know, people are happy to sit next to your kids, they don’t know their great, but you realize the parts already there. He has to learn maybe what it is, and part of that is, you function.

Just because, you know, we talk about the gifts, doesn’t mean you can’t do anything that’s not you’re gift. We all do a variety of things. We will excel, make our greatest contribution with the gift, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do other things and I will find out what my gift is by functioning. You know, doing different things, I just don’t sit down and say now what would my gift be. Opportunities come up, we all serve, things I can do and areas of functioning and there’s a need here, well maybe pretty soon I realize this is where I’m most effective. This is where God seems to use me in the greatest way, where it seems I make the best contribution to the body. That’s a process of discovery, if you will, but it’s not just saying this is my gift and so that’s what I’ll do. Others recognize that over time as I function, they encourage me in it, but it’s important to note, it’s the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts, just as He wills. I don’t want to be dissatisfied with what God has called me to do and has gifted me to do. That happens, I take it, when we’re born into the family, just like our physical body. The little ones born, all the parts are there. It will become a process of discovery so pretty soon that hand will function more coordinated to the instructions of the head, and so using these things they’ll find out you don’t have to put everything in your mouth to find out what it is. You know there’s a discerning process, all of that goes on.

Even as the body is one, so he’s taking us back. You know the Lord is gracious. He addresses us on the simple level, even as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though they are many are one body, so also is Christ, so you see, you could out and say, now you understand. Your body has many parts but it’s only one body, so it is with the body of Christ. There are many parts but it’s one body. We don’t take this seriously. When my physical body begins to work against itself, I want to know what the problem is and is if it’s correctable or what can be done, but in the church we just say, oh well you know churches have these kinds of issues. The Spirit has no conflict with Himself; that would be blasphemy, so when we are out of step, with one another somewhere along the line, we’re out of step with the Spirit. That ought to make us all want to examine, do a diagnoses like those that go to a doctor. Let’s get this worked out.

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, all made to drink of one Spirit,” so our position in the body is not determined by our race, nationality, stature. That means, for example, in New Testament times there may be slaves with a gift that is of greater recognition, importance, there is a structure in the gifts, as we’ll see. Some gifts are more important. Some parts of the body are more important. Some parts of the body, if they don’t function, it is a major disaster, others you compensate, so some of these masters may be sitting under the teaching of their slave because their slave was gifted as the teacher, the master was given the gift of serving. Now wait a minute, I’m the master here, I should have the prominent--no that’s not the way it is, “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” that puts us on level ground, so to speak, in that we’re part of the one body.

Now the Spirit determines what part we have. It doesn’t matter what you are out here. It doesn’t matter how important your position is there. The Spirit puts you in the body. It happened when we were baptized into the body. When did that happen? When you placed your faith in Christ, you were identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, the baptism of the Spirit, which made you part of the body. Until that happens, you’re not part of the body. I mean it just can’t happen. It has to be by the action of the Spirit, with the new birth. We were made “to drink of one Spirit” at the end of the verse. We became partakers of the same Spirit. The emphasis in the gifts is on the Spirit. We’ve seen Father, Son and Holy Spirit are involved but the emphasis is on the Spirit. There are Spirit driven gifts if you will. We are all made to partake of the one Spirit, that’s what enables the master to accept the fact the slave is his equal in the body of Christ.

That’s why, as a general rule--early on, we had someone who had a high degree come be part of the body--what did we say? Well in the body here, he’ll just be, and we’ll call him by his first name. One of the family members said you know my father said he worked hard for that degree, he expects the recognition. I said you understand your father is just another member of the body, and he has to come to accept that and by God’s grace, he did. No matter how important I am out here, here we’re just members of the body and each of us are contributing to the body. That doesn’t mean we don’t show respect to one another, honor one another, show preference to one another, but we don’t elevate ourselves. Each of us are to think of others as better than myself, because we appreciate, you know, this finger may not be as important as this eye. I’ve ten fingers I only have two eyes, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter to me if I lose one of my fingers. You know the picture is so simple even a little kid could grasp it, so verse 14 “the body is not one member but many, so one Spirit many parts, so the foot can’t say, ‘Because I am not the hand I’m not part of the body.’ The ear can’t say, ‘Because I’m not an eye I’m not part of the body,’” and what kind of body would you have if it was an eye? You know it’s like a gross test, science fiction kind. It’s so clear we need them all. You know I would miss my hand. I would miss my eye. Every part contributes something.

Verse 18 reminds us, “but now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as He desired.” No room for jealously no room for lack of appreciation for what God has gifted me to do and for what God has gifted others to do, because only He could do that. You know, you just don’t get saved and here’s a pile of parts. Which one do you want to be? No, He places us in the body as he desired. How gracious is that, you have exactly the part to play in the body, that God determined for you. What He desired for you to be able to contribute. Could it get any better than that? Somebody asked what part you play in the body; I play just the part that God desired for me to have. He put me just in this body so I could contribute as He intended. If all were one member, where would the body be? “There are many members, one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have need of you,’ the head to the feet, ‘I have need of you.’”

On the contrary, you know how many times does He go around on this, but why do we accept division, conflict, disarray in the body? It’s a denial of the basic truth of what the church is. This was the problem at Corinth. Some of those were using their gifts as an occasion of pride. Then you don’t appreciate the other person’s gift because it’s not as important as my gift and verse 27 summarizes it. Now you are Christ’s body, individually members of it. Well you know this summarizes it a little bit here. We are to have, verse 25, that “there may be no division in the body,” but the members “have the same care for one another.” Is it important to me that I’m a member of Christ’s body? Well then, I’d better be careful. You know I don’t want my finger to poke itself in my eye that’s damaging to the body, but somehow when it comes to spiritual things in the body we just say, “Well, you know I don’t like it.” Wait a minute this is not my body, this is Christ’s body and He put us in here and he expects us to function.

God has appointed in the church verse 28 and there is order. That doesn’t mean there is not order just like there is in the body, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, these gifts that are involved in the reception and communication of truth or the teaching of the truth that have been passed on. Then there are miracles, gifts of healing and the other gifts and he goes on. Not everybody has the same gift, and this is where the context is for the great chapter of love, because when you get to chapter 14 he goes back to spiritual gifts. You know we sometimes get very familiar with the love chapter, chapter 13, but we ought to appreciate what he is saying about it here is particularly in the context of how the body ought to function. How it must function. We remember it is Christ’s body. This is the body of Christ into which we were placed by God’s grace when we believed in Christ, so what good am I if I don’t function in love, and all the other parts of the body look out for the other parts?

Then you come back to chapter 14 and some of the more splashy gifts were getting the attention in the church at Corinth, spectacular gifts. This is a great chapter. We’re not going to go through the rest of this. The other major chapter, which is much smaller, is Ephesians chapter 4, verses 7 to 16, and even a smaller section is in 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 10 and 11. Only two verses there, he breaks the gifts down into speaking gifts and serving gifts. Those involving verbal communication of the Word and all the other gifts that are built around that, because remember, the church is the pillar and support of the truth, so here gifts of, for example teaching, get greater prominence than perhaps gifts that are used in another area, but that doesn’t mean the other gifts are less important. Paul made that they have great importance in the gifts that don’t get the great attention. Every part has a contribution to make.

Now about the extent of the gifts, we have what we call permanent gifts and temporary gifts. That’s the view we hold at Indian Hills and have taught in the years I’ve been here. You divide it, usually a cessationist or a non-cessationist. In other words, do you believe some gifts have ceased and are no longer present today or do you believe all the gifts are present today? We would be cessationist here. I believe that the Scripture indicates that certain gifts were given for the foundational period of the church. After the church foundation was laid, the doctrine was given, additional revelation from God, those gifts ceased. That would be apostles, prophets, two of the very prominent gifts. What did they do? They received special revelation from God and passed it on. For example, the apostle Paul, he writes to the Galatians, “the truth I have taught you I didn’t receive from man. I received it by a revelation from God.” Now that revelation was recorded in the letter to the Galatians, for example, so we don’t need more revelation on that, God directed him. That would be true through our New Testament. The last Revelation was given to the apostle John and we’ve been studying the Book of Revelation, which is God’s final revelation, so there’s no new revelation being given and the miracle gifts that were given—come over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and this is just a summary. You can get the information on line if you want the series of studies we’ve done or check the booklets.

Second Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12. Paul says, “the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles,” so the evidence of Paul’s apostleship and the truth of the new revelation he was given by God was demonstrated by the ability to do miracles and the Corinthian church had that. There were certain miracles present still, varied gifts were there but they were a result of apostolic ministry there and served as an ongoing conformation of the truth of the teaching that Paul had given them, but they would not be passed on to the next generation. This is an important distinction and division. In Acts chapter 5, verse 12, we’re told that these miracles were being done by the apostles. “At the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people.” Now again at Corinth there were miracle gifts but they had received that from the hands of the apostle as confirmation of the truth of what Paul taught, but now with the completed word of God, the truth itself is its own confirmation and that’s true through the Old Testament.

You know we have periods of miracles but you know we don’t expect that to go on with the establishing of the church and the New Testament revelation being given. That’s evidenced by the fact, I think, that there’s no doubt the gift of tongues, for example in the Book of Acts, was the ability to speak another language that you had not learned, and I see no evidence that the gift of tongues was anything other than that. This issue of the gifts keeps coming back. If we’re not clear on these things, confusion comes. We had the Pentecostal Movement, we’re familiar with, back in the early nineteen hundreds. A lady spoke in tongues and that was the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. That was further amplified by a revival that took place in the first part of the nineteen hundreds, so we’re familiar with Pentecostalism, denominations associated with that. In the 1960’s it took a little different twist when we have what we call the Modern Charismatic Movement where an Episcopal priest in California supposedly got a gift of speaking in tongues and what we know as the Charismatic Movement.

Then we had the third wave, John Wimber and Peter Wagner. I had contact with those men out in the 70’s. I had a chance to spend quite a bit of time with them and interacting. They hadn’t started that movement yet, but the foundations were being laid for it. Then, with the starting of the Vineyard Movement and so on called the third wave because the first one was the Pentecostal Movement in the early nineteen hundreds. Then the 1960’s you had the second step in that with the Charismatic Movement. Then you had the third step, which is the third wave as they called it and that’s had great impact. The Vineyard Movement, signs and wonder and doing miracles was the door to evangelizing the world and the demonstration of this power. You know it’s just not biblical and even more recently Peter Wagner has continued. John Wimber passed away in around 1997 of cancer. Peter Wagner become a promoter of the New Apostolic Movement. All these things bring together ideas of the Spirit of God working, doing the same thing He did in New Testament times.

This is built on concepts, we talked about hermeneutics and kingdom, and when you’re confused on that, you open the door to a mess. They think we’re in the kingdom. It’s “Kingdom Now” theology to one degree or another, so we ought to be seeing the same things happen as when Christ was on earth, the same thing as happened in the Book of Acts. It’s premised on the fact, the kingdom at least started when Christ came to earth the first time, and it continued when the church was established and the spiritual kingdom was developed, and so we should expect and that’s why we talk about narrative theology. You take your theology from the Gospels, from the Book of Acts and so if it happened then it should happen now. Isn’t Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever? So if He did miracles when He was on earth, He’ll do them today. If miracles were done through the apostles we’ll have “The New Apostolic Movement,” we have apostles present today.

Wait a minute that just—all you have to do is stop and think, “is Jesus walking the earth in His physical body today?” No, well then when you read Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, it doesn’t mean He’s doing the same thing in the same way all the time. In His character, His nature, He is the unchanging God. That’s why we can trust Him and His promises but that doesn’t mean He does the same thing today as He did then, but that’s the ground, the foundation, so this idea if you’re in the kingdom we ought to see kingdom things happening. What will happen in the kingdom? Well sickness will be dealt with, poverty will be dealt with, and you get the health, wealth, prosperity kind of theology. Didn’t God say in the kingdom we will have all things and the blessings and all illness will be dealt with? John Wimber still died of cancer. Well I thought we were in the kingdom we take care of these things, they get dealt with, so we get that going on.

Now it begins to make changes today. When you start allowing for that, you start allowing for new revelation, because if there are apostles today, didn’t Paul get new revelation? I didn’t receive this from man, I got it from God, so we have men who claim to be apostles who are getting revelation from God, who claim to be prophets. They get revelation. Well, we say that’s far out there, various forms of this. I’ve read to you a book, primarily a compilation of the experiences of Dallas Seminary men, with a major emphasis of Charismatic theology. Pentecostal is experience, experience, experience! Many years ago, when I was in California and having these kinds of contacts, I sat down at lunch with Rodman Williams, who was theologian at Melody Land which was the center of the Charismatic Movement in the United States at that time and he’s the theologian of the Charismatic Movement. He’s written three major volumes on the theology of the Charismatic Movement. I asked him, (I’ve shared with you) with all the diversity you have here, what gives unity? “It’s our common experience in the Holy Spirit, not our doctrine, not agreement on the truths of the word, experience.” That’s subjectivity and I read you these Dallas men. They have come to the conclusion, and this is not all professors at Dallas, but that’s where it is. Here’s what one of the editors of the book, he’s still a professor at Dallas. “I found that the bible was not adequate. I needed an existential experience of the Holy One. Quite frankly, I found that the bible was not the answer. I found the Scriptures helpful but without feeling God, the bible gave me little solace.”

Now we’ve talked about this and I’ve used this example before. I think there is experience, there is feeling in a relationship. It comes out of, as we talked about in Philippians, the Word of God working in our life, but you begin to separate experience from the bible, you’re out here just floating out in space. That’s why none of these men are involved in spiritual formation. Spiritual formation, where certain practices are often drawn from monastic times, and the monks, whereby certain things, and you get into certain things that will create an experience. The Emerging church got into this, well the kind of lighting, the kind of setting you create the mood. Well we know experiences can be controlled. You get a good person; he could come up here and tell a sad story that could be totally false and make everybody cry. You’re moved by it. Once you move off, so I just think we’re getting a form of that mystical charismatic theology adopted by those who prided themselves in the authority of the bible, and now over time they’re saying, “We found the bible was not enough.”

Now this comes closer to home in the New Apostolic. If you believe that the gifts continue, you believe God still speaks, so the bible is not a closed book, revelation is not done. This is a book written about New Apostolic Churches and so one of these apostles said, “The Lord spoke to me to come to this church each morning,” the church, that was where he was on vacation, “to sit inside the pulpit overlooking the mountains and commune with Him.” On the last morning, God spoke clearly and simply saying, “My church is like this beautiful building. It is beautiful on a hill but empty and captured by the world system. He told me, “go and wash the feet of young men who will become the patriarchs of the coming move of My Spirit” and then those He selects, each one of them must have a vision, and integrity, and been emotionally healed and this is new revelation. I’ll bet you haven’t even read this book. I hope you haven’t. You don’t even know who this apostle is but here he’s got this revelation from God. God spoke to him.

A number of years ago, I don’t know where I was but when I turned on the TV, they had the charismatic channel and it had Benny Henn on. You know what Benny Henn was saying? “When I was shaving this morning, God stood beside me and spoke to me and He said, “Benny” and he goes on and talking about what God said. You say, well these guys are far out there. Let me read you what this person says, this man writing says, “Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock.” This gets pretty definite, it sounds like Benny but it’s not. “Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock. God actually spoke to me. There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words were in English but they had about them an absolute self-authenticating ring of truth. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks today.” You know who that is? That’s John Piper. I didn’t think he would be in line with these radical charismatics. It says, “God spoke to me on this day this precise day at this precise time in the morning.” He and this is what he goes on to say. “God may as well have taken me by the collar of my shirt, lifted me off the ground with one hand and said with an incomparable mixture of fierceness and love.” End of quote what he said.

This is how though, what happens? These men are not clear on their hermeneutics. John Piper is an admirer of Daniel Fuller. Daniel Fuller is deceased now, but he was his professor. He lists him as the one he learned from, his hermeneutics from. Then George Elton Ladd, you know what characterized these men? The Fuller Seminary where John Piper studied, and I just used John Piper because he’s not far away in his theology. Generally overall is these more radical--but you begin to absorb part of this because he is a non-cessationist. He does not believe that some of the spiritual gifts ceased. If they haven’t ceased, then why wouldn’t God speak to him? Maybe he’s not just a preacher, he’s a prophet. You get on dangerous ground now. It infiltrates among believers. He believes we’re in the kingdom. That’s what characterizes these men. It’s what characterized Daniel Fuller, George Elton Ladd as a great promoter, the one who popularized “already, not yet.” We are already in the kingdom. We don’t yet have its fullness but we’re already in it. That was John Wimber’s theology. We’re in the kingdom. Well he started the Vineyard Movement, the radical charismatic; well these men aren’t that radical. That’s why it’s so dangerous. If you’re in the kingdom now, that bad theology catches up to you. Now remember, if we’re in the kingdom, we should be doing kingdom things. Well now, you see all these variations. Where does it leave us?

That’s why a week ago I talked about, “we’ve got to be careful we don’t elevate our feelings, what we think to the level of Scripture. I want to have my emotions involved in my relationship with the Lord as I come to the word. I want it to impact my heart, my soul and be moved by it, but I don’t want experiences that are separated from the word. It’s as though, wel,l I’ve had the word over here but I need experiences over here, so then we come up with spiritual formation. A number of these men in the Dallas Book are teachers of, which is we learned from the monks, how you do these things and this and through that you develop a really— more like Roman Catholics. They build a cathedral, they have the incense, they have the garments, they create an experience for people, a mood, a feeling and it is disastrous.

I’m not on an anti-Piper crusade, but you see the connections go back. He strongly credits Daniel Fuller for influencing him and his hermeneutic. George Elton Ladd for helping him grasp that we are in the kingdom, even though the fullness of the kingdom will come at a future time. We’re in the kingdom. What’s the next step? God spoke to me on this day at this time in the morning. It was clearly God speaking. Then I read you from a radical charismatic and he says the same thing, God spoke to me. God speaks. He has spoken, this is His word. It’s living, it’s alive, and we can’t depart from that, so those are just some of the examples.

All right, let me open it up for a few questions. There is a list of spiritual gifts, the temporary and the spiritual—what I view as temporary and permanent gifts are in the book on Spiritual Gifts so if you wonder which gifts are which, I’m not going to go through those again. Let me just open up for any questions you have. We’ll do that with the little bit of time we have. Next week I’ll take more time for questions. Anybody got any questions on spiritual gifts or anything else?

Gil, do you believe we have one main spiritual gift that we function under or perhaps, there are multi-gifted?

Response: You know it is hard for me to say. For me I only have one but you know some people seem to have more than one and some of the gifts seem to go together. Perhaps. Celibacy is called a spiritual gift but that obviously would be a support gift like Paul said for himself. He’s an apostle primarily but he had the gift of celibacy. It’s called a spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians, each of us have our gift, and it’s the same word as used for spiritual gift. In a way we’re all serving and we serve in a variety of ways but some people will excel perhaps in the area of giving, so I don’t know that I have a final answer for that. I say function, and where you see yourself most effective, you’ll probably concentrate most of your time, but you know, I don’t--more than one gift. There’s probably enough variety in the gift. You know different parts of the body seem to do a variety of things, so I wouldn’t have a problem if a person says, “Well I think I have these two gifts.” We all give but there is a gift of giving and I take it those are people that, you know, are especially moved of God to give in exceptional ways more of what they have maybe than what someone else would. In a sense, we all give but we’re not all gifted in that way. I tend toward the one gift view but I wouldn’t want to get out on a limb. I think that’s the primary gift but I don’t think I ought to limit myself. If there’s a need here, an opportunity maybe, I can step in and help with it, but a person gifted in that area will probably excel there. That’s a little bit the way I would look at it.

I’ve got a follow-up. How about, we’ll just say teaching for example. The variety of effects that come out of teaching like maybe can you speak to someone who maybe has a gift that’s maybe more to adults, and more to children.

There’s a different emphasis in some of the gifts. You know Charles Ryrie, when I was a student in college, he was the president of the college and he would speak in chapel. He wasn’t there the whole time I was there, just the first year, but I remember him saying, “If you think you have a gift of teaching don’t think you just have it for this setting,” but I do think just from observation, some people are especially effective in teaching in this context. Maybe with children for example, so someone else maybe with adults, but as I look, quite honestly, in my early years of getting experience I taught children’s church and children’s Sunday school. In one sense it’s the gift of teaching but over time you probably, you know we have people who have been involved in our children’s ministry, for example teaching there for years. There is a certain effectiveness they have with that age group that maybe they wouldn’t have teaching in another, maybe an adult setting, but it’s the same content.

Ryrie’s view was, you have the gift of teaching, you can teach in church, on the mission field, kids, adults, if I remember him correctly. I’m not remembering from what I read, I’m remembering him from speaking in chapel, but I think I would look at it probably as a variety. I’m probably more effective as I would look at it, teaching in one setting than I am in another, but then again that’s where I function most. I have no problem with God, He not only gifts us, he directs us in the exercising of the gift, and so if He’s going to use you in children, He probably has maybe put together that complex, things that go together with being effective in teaching in this context verses another context. I would see it would be part of the gift.

Yes, this is different, but I wanted to share this when I mentioned the problem I have with John Piper and those who say the kingdom’s already started—you have to understand how far away they can get. Daniel Fuller was his mentor, he says. Daniel Fuller wrote a doctrinal dissertation. It’s been published and this comes out of that, the book he wrote. It goes back quite a few years, but this is his hermeneutics. “Because Christ was a physical descendant of Abraham, (this is Daniel Fuller writing) there would then be every reason to regard those united to Him as the seed of Abraham in a physical sense.” You understand what he’s saying, “Because Christ was a physical descendant of Abraham, there would then be every reason to regard those united to Christ as the seed of Abraham in a physical sense.” In fact, the very language of Galatians 3 require the idea of an ontological or physical relationship to Abraham. You see what he’s saying. Every person who has placed their faith in Christ and been identified with Christ is now a physical descendant of Abraham.

You know I’ve read the book and he goes through Galatians trying to, and other portions to put this all together, to conclude that believing Gentiles are Abraham’s physical seed. That concerns me. When Piper writes a glowing recommendation for this book as a place to learn hermeneutics, I lose confidence in him altogether. The Gentiles are the ontological or physical descendants of Abraham? You see what we do; we begin to blur Israel and the church, because the church is the physical descendants of Abraham. How in the world can you say that? Of course, Christ was the physical descendant of Abraham, his lineage back to Abraham. Somehow, he can redo Scripture and Gentiles do become physical, spiritual descendants of Abraham, not physical according to Galatians, but he’s so twisted, if you get connected to Christ who is a physical descendant of Abraham, that makes you a physical descendant of Abraham. Just an example, sometimes people think, “well I don’t think anybody goes that far.” I just wrote on the bottom of this page in my book, it is impossible that a Gentile could ever be the physical seed of Abraham. It’s so absurd but that’s what happens, you get off track in this area and now I just can’t understand that. For example, Piper, and you know he’s not as far away as some people are, but how great an influence Daniel Fuller has been in his life and then George Elton Ladd, and so they’re off on spiritual gifts.

This destroyed Martin Lloyd Jones church; some of you are familiar with Martin Lloyd Jones. He was covenantal. He was a non-cessationist. You know what happened after Martin Lloyd Jones retired from his church? He ended up with The Kansas City Prophets. Some of them went over and joined Martin Lloyd Jones church and destroyed things. You open the door with bad theology, you can’t decide who comes through the door. Bad theology always catches up to you. That’s why, well people say we shouldn’t make such an issue over some of these things. We have to get it right! Where does it stop? Well, all the gifts can be present today. God spoke to me yesterday morning. I wish I could walk in here with that added authority and say, “You know what, God spoke to me this morning.” Well now that puts me on a different level than all of you because, did He speak to you, he spoke to me, and Benny. That’s not good company, so I’ve got to be careful. All right, we’d better stop, it’s 7:30.

Let’s pray. Thank you Lord for the riches of Your word and Lord we would not want in any way to diminish those riches that in them we find the sufficiency because they unfold the glorious truth of Christ. They are living Scriptures. They are alive and powerful. They pierce to our innermost being. We love them because it’s a book, because they are the revelation of You. Your love for us is the love we have for You. They give a solid foundation for what we believe, not the subjective feelings that come and go day by day but the unchanging truth of Your word. Lord, we want that to be rich in our lives. Not a dull book but a book that is alive and moves us, controls us by the power of the Spirit so that our lives are a testimony for You. Use us in all we do this week. May we be a testimony with boldness wherever we are we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.