Temporary Gifts The Spirit Gave

Transcript

GR 1347
03-18-07
Temporary Gifts the Spirit Gave
1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of 1 Corinthians together on Sunday morning and we are in chapter 12, so you might turn there in your Bibles. We're covering everything in chapter 12, but we haven't been doing it necessarily in verse-by-verse order. Paul has been talking about spiritual gifts, and this is an essential section for the church of Jesus Christ because this tells us how God has equipped the church to function. There is much written on the church today, much written saying how the church ought to function, what it should do to be effective and so on, but here is God's plan for His church. Very simply, a person places his faith in Jesus Christ, recognizing that they are sinners and Jesus Christ is the Savior who died on the cross, who was raised from the dead. When they placed their faith in Him, they are baptized with the Holy Spirit, verse 13 of chapter 12. That is the action with the Spirit of God that identifies you with Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. So God can declare you forgiven, cleansed, righteous, because of the finished work of His Son and your relationship to Him.

At the end of verse 13 not only were we placed into the body of Christ, which is the church, but we were made to drink of one Spirit. The Spirit of God came and took up residence within the life of the believer. Our bodies became His temple, as Paul had expressed it earlier in this letter. And the Holy Spirit identified us with Christ and took up residence within us, He also gave us a gift, a special ability to function as an essential and necessary part of the church of Jesus Christ. The analogy is with the human body. And so in verse 14 Paul said, the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. In other words, parts of the body can't compare themselves and can't declare themselves not a part of the body. If you have truly believed in Christ and been identified with Him, the Spirit of God has taken up residence within you, you are a part of the body. But just because you are not the same part as another person, doesn't mean you can say I guess I'm not part of the body. Sometimes I've heard people say, well, I guess I'm not needed in this church. I mean, that is an affront to the living God. That He has placed each one in the body is clearly set down.

He works through the various parts. Verse 16, if the ear says because I am not an eye I'm not part of the body, that doesn't make it any less part of the body. In other words, you are placed into the body by a sovereign act of God. You don't remove yourself by simple statements. So this kind of comparison, every part is necessary is the point. There is only one body, but there are many parts. So I have to be careful about comparing myself with others in the body, because we don't all have the same function. We're reminded in verse 18, God has placed the members, each one in the body just as He desires. We've been through this in a previous study, it is the sovereign work of God to place us according to His purposes in the body.

Verse 20, now there are many members but one body. This is the opposite of what he said in verse 14, the body is not one member but many. Now verse 20, but now there are many members, but one body. One body, many members; many members, one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Every part of the body has a role to play. Not every part of the body will be of the same importance, not every part of the body will be of the same prominence. But every part of the body is essential. God hasn't placed any extraneous parts and we can look at that, is my one finger as important as one of my eyes. Well I might say, no, I'd rather lose a finger than an eye. But nonetheless my body functions most effectively when I have all my fingers, all my toes, all my parts. And they're all functioning as they should. And sometimes it's those parts of the body that are not as prominent that are even more essential. Parts of this could even be applied as he gets down in verses 22-23 to organs of the body and so on. Every part is doing something when it is functioning as it should. It is not less important because it's not as visible as another portion.

We've been talking about the gifts that are mentioned. There are a number of gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12-14, Romans 12, Ephesians 4:11—key passages on the gifts. We can come up with 18 or so gifts of the Spirit. Depending how you count them, you may have one or two or more. We've been talking about whether all the gifts that are listed are presently operating in the church and noting some of the differences. Our understanding at Indian Hills is that some of the gifts that are mentioned were given for the early development and establishing of the church and are no longer present today, 2000 years after the church came into existence. For example, we looked at the gift of apostle. 1 Corinthians 12:28, God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps and listing various gifts. And you'll note there he does say some gifts are more important. First in order of importance was apostles, second was prophets, third teachers. And we have other gifts that are necessary for the body.

The gift of apostle and we discussed some of the matters related. Are apostles present today? We're just going to remind you that there are four things necessary for a person to have been an apostle. 1) He had to be personally appointed by Christ. We looked at passages on that. 2) He received his message directly from Christ. This is crucial. If apostles are present today, we have men receiving new revelation from God. Paul claimed in Galatians 1 that he didn't learn the gospel from other men, he wasn't taught it by other people, he received it by direct revelation from Christ. That was characteristic of an apostle—he received direct revelation. 3) Note this one. He had to have seen Jesus Christ after Christ was raised from the dead. Because one of the responsibilities of an apostle was to be an eyewitness, to be able to give firsthand testimony that Jesus Christ was alive, He had been raised from the dead. And remember in 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul said he was the last of the apostles, verse 8. I was one untimely born. The earthly appearances and ministry of Christ come to an end with Acts 1, but then the Apostle Paul in Acts 9 meets Christ on the Damascus Road and Christ reveals Himself to Paul. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, I was the last one, last of all He appeared to me, one untimely born. I was born out of time, I'm a unique case. So to be an apostle you had to have seen Christ after His resurrection and Paul says I'm the last one to do that, to meet that requirement. 4) He had to be able to perform miracles that verified the fact that he was an apostle and he was receiving direct revelation from God.

Let's talk about the gift of prophecy. That's the second gift listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28. The first gift in importance was apostles. The second gift of importance is prophet. Now we've talked about the gift of prophecy and prophets in connection with chapter 11 and you can go back and review that if you would like, beginning with verse 4. We are going to talk about it in more detail when we get to 1 Corinthians 14, because really the subject of tongues and prophecy takes up the whole of the chapter. So we don't want to get into too much of that until we get to chapter 14 and work through that chapter. So there'll be some questions left in your mind, particularly on tongues and prophecy that we can't resolve until we do get to chapter 14. Just to let you know there is more on that coming.

But to summarize for you and remind you. A prophet was a person who received direct revelation from God. We say, well then he's an apostle. No. Both apostles and prophets received direct revelation, but a prophet did not have as broad a ministry and as broad an authority as an apostle. An apostle not only received direct revelation, but he had authority over the church. Now we find Paul often referring to his authority as an apostle in leading the church. All apostles received direct revelation and thus in that sense are like prophets, but not all prophets could be apostles because the gift of apostleship is broader, and they are clearly distinguished here as first in importance are the apostles and they are somewhat all encompassing in their authority over the church and the gift that they exercise. Gifts are dispensed by the apostles, we'll see more of that in a moment. But the prophets did receive direct revelation from God.

Some of that can be recorded in our New Testament, someone who was a prophet but not an apostle. But there would have been many prophecies given that were not recorded as part of our New Testament. Remember at this stage, these years after the church came into existence in Acts 2, they did not have a New Testament. They could not turn to 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, Hebrews, whatever, to find out what God's intention for the church was. So there were individuals in the church to whom God spoke and they gave that revelation to the church, it was a part of how the church could function and know the will of God until the Word of God for the church was complete. That's why Ephesians 2:20 says, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone. Because the truth revealed to the apostles, the truth revealed to the prophets is the foundation for the church. And we looked into Ephesians 2-3 where Paul says the mystery concerning the church and Jew and Gentile brought together as one body and so on was revealed to him. It wasn't known before God revealed it to him. Now we are studying Paul's letter to the Corinthians, we are building on the foundation of the Apostle Paul, the revelation given to Paul. So it was truth revealed through apostles and prophets that form the foundation for our New Testament.

Come back to the book of Acts. Let me just show you a few apostles. Acts 11:26, the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So we move from using the name disciple to using the name Christian. And so you find that using the term disciple passes out of existence, it's not used in the epistles to the church. Now verse 27, now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. Remember Jerusalem is the home church, the mother church. That's where the church began. So you have prophets, plural, coming from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the reign of Claudius. At this time disciples determined that they would be taking up a collection, particularly to help the poor in Judea and Jerusalem. You'll note Agabus is a prophet, among others, they are plural here. We're not told how many there are, there were prophets, plural, one of them was Agabus. And he gave a prophecy that did come true in the days of Claudius.

Turn over to Acts 13:1, now there were at Antioch in the church that was there prophets and teachers. Prophets are different than teachers. Remember 1 Corinthians 12:28, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers. There were prophets, plural, and teachers. And they named some of them—Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manean, Saul. So at this time, then, the Spirit speaks through the prophets. Verse 2, while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said. How did He say that? It must have been an audible voice from heaven. No. Through the prophets that were there, this message would have been given. Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul to the work which I have called them to. And they are sent out by the Spirit.

Now come over to Acts 21, we're going to pick up Agabus again. Remember, we just read about Agabus' prophecy that there would be a famine in the days of Claudius. Well in verse 9 we're told that Philip had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. You see that diversity of prophets and prophetesses in the church in these days. Then verse 10, as we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, this is what the Holy Spirit says. Note this prophet claims he has a message from the Holy Spirit. In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles, referring to Paul.

Now let me say something here. We noted when we talked about apostles. Some try to say apostles are present today. Now to do that they have to redefine apostle so that all four of the requirements for an apostle won't be true apostles today because none of them are seeing Jesus in bodily form, as He revealed Himself to the apostles in New Testament times. There are some who try to say there are prophets present today. Now they're not exactly like New Testament prophets. One man has done a doctrinal dissertation on this and written books and articles on the subject. He claims that there were two kinds of prophets in the New Testament—infallible and fallible. Now if you were a fallible prophet, you don't have a message from God. You know what they did to prophets in the Old Testament who said I have a message from God and it turned out not to be true? They stoned them to death. There are not fallible and infallible prophets, there are true prophets and false prophets. This idea that we can decide and have now fallible prophets in the church. The reason I mention it now is, they take this prophecy of Agabus and say here is an example of a fallible prophet. His prophecy was not true. That was news to me, but you'll note he says in verse 11, this is what the Holy Spirit says. Now this is a blatant lie if the Holy Spirit didn't say it. And it's not possible the Holy Spirit made a mistake. What did he say? In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. He says, see, it's not true because it wasn't the Jews who bound Paul, it was the Romans. So it wasn't a true prophecy. Now, why did the Romans bind Paul? It was at the instigation of the Jews. It came true exactly as Agabus said. In fact later it's referred to as fulfilled in that.

So we have to be careful, people redefine the gifts and the terms and what's required so they can declare themselves as a prophet and say well, not all that the prophets said came true. Well everything given as a prophetic message had to come true. They try to do this because obviously today there are people standing up in some churches claiming to have a prophetic message and then it doesn't turn out to be true. Instead of calling them false prophets, they say well, there are prophets who don't always have true prophecies and they're fallible. There is no such thing. All right, so here you see another example of how prophets in the church were operating and receiving information and passing it on for the church.

Back up a few pages to Acts 15:32, Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message. Now there are some people who believe that prophecy is the same as preaching today. When they say that they say it's not exactly the same as New Testament prophets because New Testament prophets received direct revelation. Prophets today are preachers who preach.......... Then they're not prophets, don't confuse the issue. If you don't receive direct revelation, you're not a prophet. Now there are similarities. Preachers give lengthy messages. Judas and Silas were prophets, they gave a lengthy message. But the lengthy message they gave had been received directly from the Lord. They couldn't stop until they were done. I'm a preacher, I could have stopped sooner and didn't, because I'm just preaching what they already have given. I'm teaching it to you, proclaiming it to you, but I didn't receive it from the Lord directly. I have it in my Bible just like you do.

So prophets are no longer present, otherwise the Word of God is not complete. We don't need new revelation, we need to understand the revelation given. So the prophetic gift functioned while the New Testament was being formed under the direction of the Spirit. And he gave direction to the church, and how it should function, and what it should do, how should the church move out. Send Paul and Barnabus out. Now we have a completed New Testament, we go to the New Testament and find out what God has said. So this is the gift of prophecy along with the gift of apostle, it's not longer present today.

Third gift I want to mention with those gifts I believe are no longer present—the gift of miracles. We'll have more to say about ceasing of gifts at the end of chapter 13, so right now we're just giving basic information on these gifts. The gift of miracles. Back in 1 Corinthians 12:10, to another person the effecting of miracles, that ability to do miracles is given. Down in verse 28 it's mentioned again. After teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing and so on. Miracles, dunamos, we bring this word over into English in words like dynamic, dynamite and so on. It means power. The miracles are demonstrations of power, the ability to do supernatural works of power. That was the gift of miracles.

Now I want to go to Acts 5 with you, and I want to just look at the demonstration of some of these supernatural works of power. Acts 5. This has to do with Ananias and Sapphira, who sell some property and give part of the money to the church, which was fine, but they lied and said they gave all the money. Peter will address them and call them to account. He said they didn't have to give any of it, it's yours. But to give part of it and then lie and say you gave it all is a lie against the Holy Spirit. So verse 3, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the price of the land? And then verse 4, what I just said, it was yours, you didn't have to give it. But when you say you gave it all, you had to have given it all. The end of verse 4, you have not lied to men, but to God. Serious matter here. We need to take these things to heart in the church.

As he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last. He died. And great fear came over all of them. You can imagine. Ananias being told stand up, you said you sold your property for so much, and you said you gave it all to the church. Yes. You lied to the Holy Spirit. He falls over dead. Let's face it, fear would permeate, all of us would be thinking, I wonder if I've been accurate on everything I've said. I sure don't want to imply that I'm giving more than I'm giving. That's a miracle of power. Now it's not a miracle of healing, it's the opposite. It's not restoring life, it's taking life.

Then his wife comes in and she repeats the lie and supporting what her husband said. Verse 9, so Peter says, why is it you've agreed together to put the Lord to the test? Those who carried the body of your husband out are now here to get your body. Verse 10, immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last. Now those who had carried out the body of her husband now come in and find her lying there dead and they carry her out. Great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard these things. Now note this, at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people. Note verse 13, and none of the rest dared to associate with them. However, the people held them in high esteem. That's caused holy fear. This is part of God's plan at this point. You'll note this is all taking place through the hands of Peter and other apostles, verse 12. These miracles of power established the authority of the apostles over the church and any opposition to their leadership and authority had serious consequences, guaranteeing a unified church here.

Turn over to Acts 9:36, now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which translated in Greek is called Dorcas. This woman was abounding in great deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did. So here is a godly woman, she gets sick and dies, verse 37. Verse 38, since Lydia was near Joppa, the disciples having heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him imploring him, do not delay in coming to us. Why are they calling for Peter? Come, you don't want to miss the funeral? No, obviously they have more in mind than this. Don't delay in coming to us. So Peter went to them. When he arrived, verse 39, they brought him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping, showing all the tunics and garments Dorcas used to make while she was with them. Peter sent them all out, knelt down and prayed. Turning to the body he said, Tabitha, arise. She opened her eyes, she saw Peter, she stood up. That's a miracle, a work of supernatural power. Here you have Peter doing just the opposite, in chapter 5 putting people to death and chapter 9 raising someone from the dead. Miracles, works of supernatural power.

Chapter 13, Paul's first missionary journey, verse 8, but Elymas the magician, for so his name is translated. His name had been referred to as Bar-Jesus up in verse 6, now we find out the same man called Elymas. Was opposing them, verse 8, seeking to turn the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, away from the faith. But Saul who was known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him and said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of righteousness. What an evangelistic message here. Will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you, you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. Immediately darkness comes over him and he starts to look around and says, somebody lead me. I can't see, I don't know where I am, I don't know where to go. It's a miracle, supernatural work of power, done through the hands of an apostle, the Apostle Paul.

Turn over to chapter 20 verse 6. It is a characteristic of the apostles and prophets that they preach long messages and I hope it can be true of the third in the list, the teachers. Paul is traveling verse 6, sails from Philippi, came to Troas, stayed there seven days and on the first day of the week they gather together to break bread. Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, he prolonged his message until midnight. They brought lunch. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered, so the picture is you have a room, it's crowded, it's late, you've got the oil lamps burning and just a drowsy situation. Then there is the young man Eutychus, we're not told how old he is, but he's a young man. He's sitting on the windowsill and he's sinking into a deep sleep. And as Paul kept on talking he was overcome by deep sleep. Some of you can identify with this. And he fell down, and they're on the third floor. And he falls down out the window and is killed. They picked him up dead. Paul went down, fell upon him, embracing him said, don't be troubled, his life is still in him. And he raises him from the dead. Verse 12, they took the boy away alive and were greatly comforted. That's a miracle, supernatural work of God's power through the Apostle Paul.

Turn over to chapter 28 verse 3. Paul here is being transported by ship to Rome. The ship wrecks, and remember the account. They're washed up on shore, they build a fire, they're gathering sticks. Paul is a prisoner, but he's gathering sticks. He gathers a bundle of sticks, carries it to the fire and a viper comes out of the bundle of sticks and latches itself on his hand. Some of you have watched nature programs on television, you see a poisonous snake bite, it lets go and the poison does its work. This viper didn't just bite him and let him go, this viper bit him and hung on so that it is hanging on his hand. Verse 3, when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand they began saying to one another, undoubtedly this man is a murderer. Though he's been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live. I mean, this man is such a vile person, guilty of such a heinous murder that even though he escapes drowning in the sea, justice won't let him go. The snake got him. So now they're all waiting for him to drop over. Verse 5, however, he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm, but they were expecting he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. After they waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their mind and began to say he was a god. People are fickle. You don’t want to build your life upon their opinion. I mean, one moment they say he had to be the worst of the criminals, the vilest person; the next moment they're ready to fall down and worship him. The point is, here is a miracle of power. I mean, Paul doesn't fall down dead, he's alive. Now I realize we have snake handlers in portions of the world today and some of them die if they get bit. Their trick is not to get bitten. That wasn't a problem for Paul, he got bitten, so bad that the snake is hanging on. Just shake him off, then keep going about my business. Doesn't lie down and say, quick, get a tourniquet, we have to do something, draw out this bad blood, try to get the poison................ He just goes about his work. It's a miracle, a demonstration of God's supernatural power.

Now people say, we have a God. Isn't God a God of miracles? Now, I want you to be careful of this. I don't want you going out of here and saying, Gil doesn't believe in miracles. I do believe in miracles, I believe God answers prayer, I believe that God heals people as the answer to prayer today. I do not believe that the gift of miracles is present today. And in fact if you study the scriptures, you'll find that there are really only three periods of miracles in the Bible, times when miracles came in abundance. The days of Moses. Remember he goes and confronts Pharaoh and you have one miracle after another taking place. And then events associated with the exodus of the Jews and so on. This was a time of miracles, and it validated the ministry and message that God communicated the Mosaic Law to Moses. The days of Elijah and Elisha. These two great prophets, one miracle after another happening with them, from having an iron axehead rise up from the body of the lake and float to the raising of a dead child. This is a period of miracles under these two prophets. And then the days of Christ and His apostles. Now there are other miracles that occur sprinkled throughout the Bible, but if you're looking for a time when we have a cluster of miracles, miracles coming in a group of a large number, those are the three times you find in the Bible.

Now people think, God is a mighty, all powerful God, why wouldn't He do them today? Well, God does what pleases Him. Could God do miracles through a gifted person today? I guess He could. It would be like, could God destroy the world with a flood today? Well I guess the answer is yes and no. If you mean could He, does He have the sovereign power to do it, of course He does. But could He do it? No, He couldn't. Well the answer is yes or no. Well it can't be yes or no. He could because He's the God who has the power, but He couldn't because He's the God who said He wouldn't. Remember after the flood of Noah? He put the rainbow in the sky, a demonstration of the covenant He made with Noah that He would never again destroy the earth by water. So He could and He couldn't. So understand that God sovereignly............. All the promises of God in the Bible are God choosing to limit Himself in one way or another, guaranteeing He will do something or He will not do something. Remember Paul's argument in Romans 11. He can't wipe out Israel and be done with them.. Why? The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Could God destroy the nation and wipe out every last man, woman and child who is a Jew on the face of the earth? Of course He could, He's God. The nations aren't even a drop of dust on the scale, compared to the power of God. But could He? No, He couldn't, because He said He wouldn't. So we understand when we start talking about God can do anything, you're limiting God when you say................ No, I'm not. I mean, I believe God annihilate the earth like that, but I also believe He couldn't. He could because He has the power, it would be nothing to Him. But He couldn't because He said He wouldn't. I mean, God limits Himself. You say, oh you're limiting God. No, I'm just going to the Word of God to find out what God says He does. That's how we have to find out. So we find these miracles have a purpose.

Turn to 2 Corinthians 12. I realize some of this is overlap, but that's good for us. Verse 12, Paul says, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. These are the signs of a true apostle. You don't have every believer running around doing miracles, we saw some of those mighty miracles in the book of Acts we read through. What was characteristic? They were all done in the context of an apostle's ministry. That's the evidence that Paul is a true apostle. That's what he tells the Corinthians. You should not be questioning my apostleship, what he's been defending in these closing chapters of this letter. His giftedness as an apostle, some at Corinth were questioning whether he is an apostle. He says I did the signs of a true apostle among you, signs, wonders, miracles. There can't be any question. If every Christian were running around doing signs and wonders and miracles, it wouldn't be a sign of an apostle. It would be a sign that every Christian can do signs, wonders and miracles. So they are connected with the ministry of an apostle. Now if apostles aren't present, then you won't have the miracle gifts present. If Paul is the last one to be qualified as an apostle, then the gifts of signs, wonders and miracles ended when the apostles pass off the scene.

Come over to Hebrews 2. And the contrast here, remember we were in this passage in a previous study, angels were used on Mt. Sinai to give the law to Moses. And any disobedience was punished. Now verse 3, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, after it was at the first spoken through the Lord. During His earthly ministry Jesus spoke these things. It was confirmed to us by those who heard. So that continued on, they received it from Christ. How do you know? God also testifying with them by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. The church at Corinth had gifts, where did they get them? Through the ministry of Paul as he brought them the gospel and the Holy Spirit came upon them. And so the gifts that they received and particularly those who received the Word of God had their message validated by signs, wonders, miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit. These miracle gifts were for the purpose of validating the ministry of the apostles, those receiving direct revelation from God. How could you know for sure that God had spoken to them? There were false apostles, 2 Corinthians 11 Paul talks about false apostles being present. How could you distinguish between the true and the false here? They both sound so convincing, they both have a message they say is from God, and they both sound good. How do I know? I don't have any New Testament to compare it to. Well, who did the works of power? Who did the miracles? Would I like to be able to do miracles? Sure, I would, then I wouldn't have to be just dependent on my teaching you what the Bible says. You'd have to believe me or I'll strike you dead, or something like that. You know, remember what Jesus said? If they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe even if one is raised from the dead. So once you have the Word of God, God is not going to give you additional proofs. We now have the completed Word of God, you either believe it or you don't. But while it was given, God validated the message.

Okay, so I take it the gift of miracles and with that gifts like healing have passed off the scene. What's the difference between healing and the gift of miracles? Well healing is a more specific miracle gift. A person with a gift of miracles had a more broad gift. We saw Peter take the life of Ananias and Sapphira with the power of the Spirit. We also saw Peter raise up Dorcas from the dead. You hardly want to call healing taking the life of Ananias and Sapphira, so healing is a more limited aspect of the gift of miracles. It is different. A person with the gift of healing had the ability to bring health to a person. You know there is evidence in the New Testament that this gift is passing off the scene, even in the times of the apostles. Go to 1 Timothy 5. I want you to see, even in the days of the apostles, individuals like Paul weren't running around healing everyone. And it wasn't a matter of who had enough faith or who didn't have enough faith. 1 Timothy 5, Paul is writing to Timothy. He has a great affection for Timothy, but he tells Timothy in verse 23, no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach, and your frequent ailments. Why in the world didn't Paul just heal him of his ailments and get it over with? What do you mean, here is one of those that he calls his son in the faith and one he is entrusting much responsibility and here is Timothy ministering at Ephesus and he has a lot of stomach trouble. Why didn't Paul just heal him? I don't know. In other words, this wasn't a gift he was just running around doing. It served a purpose, it validated the ministry of the apostles. But that didn't have to go on continuously. In this context it would have served no purpose except to bring health to Timothy. That wasn't the purpose, it was to validate the ministry of the apostles. That didn't have to be done in this context. So Timothy has to use natural means, the taking of wine that would help with some of his stomach ailments.

2 Timothy 4. So I got up and left earlier, I had a headache and took an aspirin. I could have just sat here on the front bench and said, Lord, heal my headache. I did pray that, but I thought Lord, while you're doing that I'll go get an aspirin. No different than Timothy drinking a little wine for his stomach's sake. 2 Timothy 4:20, Paul again writing. Now here he is at the end of his ministry and Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. What kind of apostle are you? You left him sick at Miletus. Why didn't you heal him and bring him with you? So you see these gifts of miracles and healing served a specific function and purpose, and even the apostles weren't running around throwing out handkerchiefs indiscriminately or pouring vials of water on heads or declaring people healed. It doesn't say, I tried to heal Trophimus at Miletus, but you'll note the guy just didn't have enough faith to get it done. I mean, you can see the gift is waning even before the apostles are off the scene, because it served its purpose.

Look at Philippians 2:25, but I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier who is also your messenger and minister to my needs. I mean, here is an important guy. Because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you heard that he was sick. And indeed he was sick, to the point of death. He was sick, he almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. You don't get the idea that the great miracle worker, Paul, just raised him. Paul went through a difficult time here, beseeching the Lord to spare Epaphroditus. Otherwise that would have been a burden on top of a burden to lose him. Why is Paul even concerned about that? I mean he's an apostle, he can heal anybody he wants. No, that's not the way it was working. So you see here even in Paul's life and ministry he just doesn't run around and heal everyone anymore than Christ healed all the sick in Palestine. The gifts were used for a specific purpose and function. If we don't carefully analyze, we just get drawn in. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. Our God has all power, why wouldn't He be doing miracles all the time? Do you think God wants His people sick? I listened to one man say God has prepared a mansion in heaven for you, why would He want you to live in a chicken coop on earth? I mean, what does that have to do with anything? I mean, in other words, since Christians are going to heavenly mansions, places that God has prepared for them in glory, therefore we should expect mansions on earth. People come up and develop their theology out of their own stupidity. I mean, I have to come to the Word of God to find out what God says. I believe God is a God of all power, all sovereignty. We pray for one another. James 5, James says, if any among are sick let him call for the elders. He didn't say call for someone with the gift of healing. Call for the elders and have them pray. God can heal. Don't go away saying, Gil doesn't believe God has power today. I believe God does mighty things. We pray for one another, we pray for health, we pray for salvation, we pray for God's guidance and direction, we pray for wisdom. And those answers to prayer are the sovereign God doing what only He can do. But the gift of miracles has ceased. I can pray for you, you can pray for me. But I can't walk up and just tell you, get up and be healed. You have a precious child that dies, I just can't walk in and raise it from the dead. I can't walk into a hospital room and heal the sick. But then again, the apostles didn't do that indiscriminately. Epaphroditus had to be prayed for, had to wait to see if God would answer the prayer and raise him up.

So we want to be careful to have a biblical focus on this, not just hear somebody talking and telling stories and I'd like to believe that, because I'd like to believe God wants me healthy for my entire life. And God wants me wealthy my entire life. And God wants .............. No, all these things all of a sudden become part of our carnal desires as I become focused here. Obviously Paul goes through a great deal of suffering and pain and hardship because it was God's plan for him.

All right, so I take it the gift of healing, the gift of miracles, all these supernatural gifts go together. There are three gifts, let me mention, that I list with the temporary gifts and others do. There is not a lot said about them and so I could understand if someone put them as permanent gifts, because these other temporary gifts that I have mentioned are clearly laid out what they involve and why they existed. And so we know they are not present today. The gift of the word of knowledge. I would take it that would have been present before the New Testament was completed. We needed direct revelation, direct knowledge, knowledge that didn't come from the Word. The Old Testament, the prophet said my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because they chose to ignore the Word of God. During the time the New Testament was being completed, there were those with the gift of knowledge where God would reveal truth about certain things to them. That was necessary for the church again to function. It would seem that it's related to that, and we'll see some indication of that when we get to chapter 13. So I've classified that as a temporary gift.

Now someone would say there are people in the body who have exceptional knowledge of the Word. You might think of a professor who does a lot of research, may not be good in communicating truth, but researches things out and makes it available. Well a person who defined it that way, they might see it present. But it would seem to me the indication of scripture is it's a temporary gift, and there is special knowledge provided during a time when you couldn't go to the New Testament to resolve those things. We'll see more of that in chapter 13.

The word of wisdom I've put in the same sense. Now we are told to go to the Word of God for knowledge and wisdom, but they couldn't do that. They didn't have a completed New Testament. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord and to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, in order that we might prove what is good and acceptable and perfect, the will of God. So it's by our mind being made new as God's truth is taken in that we are able to discern the will of God. But before you had the completed revelation of God, then you had individuals who had special wisdom to give direction.

This may well be true with the gift of discerning spirits as well, which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. Now how do we discern the false from the truth? Well, we put it up to the Word of God. We talked about some who claim they are apostles today. How do I discern whether that's true? Well, I apply the test of scripture, I analyze them in light of what the scripture says, I discern the spirits to see if they're genuine. What did they do before the New Testament was complete? They couldn't go to Romans, they couldn't go to 1 Corinthians, they couldn't go to Hebrews, they couldn't go to these passages. Well there were those who were given special ability by the Spirit. We see some of this is necessary during the foundation stages of the church, when the foundation is being set. Remember Ephesians 2:20? We are building as the church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone. We're not called to establish a new cornerstone, we're not called to establish a new foundation. We are called to build upon the foundation that was given through apostles and prophets and Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of that. So we're not in any way limiting God. We have every gift necessary for the church to function today. Some of these gifts were simply given. When you build a house you call people in who do the foundation, then you have framers and those who do drywall and all of that. But you don't keep calling back those who laid the foundation. You're putting on the roof, oh call those who poured the foundation. No, the foundation is laid, we build on the foundation. All the rest of the house will be built on this foundation. That's what we are doing 2000 years after the apostles and prophets, we're building on the foundation. So their gifts and the gifts associated with them that validated their ministry and message that is now part of our scripture, we no longer have those gifts. But we have the gifts that are necessary for the functioning of the body. We'll talk about the gift of the tongues and then some of the permanent gifts next time. We're not limiting the church, well the church is handicapped. No, the church has every gift it needs, every person in the church is gifted, and now we have the completed Word of God that is a resource for us that the church did not have in its early years. But now is in our hands.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Word. Thank you for its clarity and its truth. Lord, that we would be diligent students of the Word. Lord, some of these matters may seem tedious, but it's important for us to examine carefully the truth that you have revealed. Not to have a general knowledge of it, but to know the details so that we are careful with the scripture, we show ourselves approved to you, workmen that do not need to be ashamed, and that we will grasp these things, be careful in our handling of them, be true students of the Word. It is our desire that individually and as a church we might honor you with our life and our service. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.