The Gift of Prophets

Transcript

GR 2257
11/15/2020
The Gift of Prophecy
Romans 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12-14
Gil Rugh

Let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 12. Let’s have a word of prayer before we look into this portion of the Word. Thank You, Lord, for the young women who have just ministered Your truth in song. Lord, we pray that truth will be impressed by the Spirit on their young hearts, each one individually, as well as on our hearts. Lord, we desire that Your Word will be a living Word, a powerful Word, used of the Spirit in all ages, as we minister together as a body of believers. Thank You for the portion of Your Word we’re looking into this evening, the work of the Spirit in providing spiritual gifts for each one of us. Lord, how precious is the truth, that You love us, had Your Son die for us. Now by Your grace You have joined us spiritually in the body of Christ to one another, and to our Savior, who is the head. We pray these truths will give us greater understanding and be a blessing and encouragement to continue to serve together. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.

Romans chapter 12 builds on the doctrine that has preceded in the first eleven chapters. The wonder of the salvation God has provided that brings forgiveness of sins, and is very crucial to what we’re talking about. When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you are spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. We saw that particularly in Romans 6. At that time, the Spirit of God identifies you with Christ and you become part of the spiritual body of Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13 puts it, “…by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” He’s not talking about water baptism there, but spirit baptism. One Spirit identified us with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, so we could be spiritually joined to Him. Part of the body of Christ, which is the church, and the manifestation of the church, universal, comprised of all believers wherever in the world, is the local church. We noted spiritual gifts are those special abilities, because the analogy is the body. If you’re going to be a body, compared to the physical body, you have all the different parts and they each have a special place to make the body function as it needs to. That’s the picture spiritually. Something of our individuality is lost, but gained. Each of us individually is gifted by the Spirit, but that is not to enable us to function as individuals, but to enable us to function as part of a body, to make a contribution to the body, so that the body can grow and mature. It’s such a simple, clear analogy to our physical body. Literalism explains itself when you give it some thought.

So that’s what he’s working through in chapter 12. It’s interesting to me, and I think to you, that when he’s laid that such clear and full doctrinal foundation relating to our salvation, the first thing the Spirit directs him to speak about are our spiritual gifts and function as a unified body. One in Jesus Christ. And just like our physical body, it’s an indication of a problem in the body that must be dealt with if one part of the body begins to work against itself. Works out of harmony with the rest of the body. Then that becomes a concern. It must be corrected. That’s the picture spiritually. There is a unity, there is a harmony, because it’s the Spirit of God that not only indwells each of us individually, but indwells us as a body of believers. So as we’re functioning in submission to Him, we function in unity and can grow together.

We’ve looked at the opening verses. We talked about how these gifts are gifts of grace. That’s the Greek word for the gifts, they’re grace gifts, and in verse 3, Paul said, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone…” And the grace given to him was as an apostle who would bring God’s truth and new truths from God to the church. So it was God’s grace given to him. The end of the verse, he said, “…as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Your spiritual gift is a measure of faith. God has allotted a gift to each one. And that is, basically, I take it, the way it’s put here, a measure of faith, the ability to trust God in a certain area. Then it enables Him to use you as He has gifted you to function. We see that. You look at some people functioning in the body and you say, I don’t think I could do what they do. Because God hasn’t given you that gift and the faith to exercise that gift. He says basically the same thing down in verse 6, “…since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us…”It’s the same thing that Paul said about himself in the beginning of verse 3, “…grace given to me...” Grace has been given to each believer, and we are to exercise that gift. At the end of verse 6, “…according to the proportion of his faith.” We have different gifts and we have different degrees of gifts, if you will. Not everybody is gifted with the same gift to the same extent. God determines that. So, I don’t measure myself even if I have it with my gift to someone else who has the same gift. You can’t, because they may have that gift to a greater degree, and have been gifted with the faith, and will be used of God in a greater way than I am with the gift that I have. But my goal is to use my gift to its maximum potential. To be willing to walk by faith and trust God to use me in the greatest way possible with the gift He’s given me. So he’s talking about the gifts.

We talked about the gift of tongues. It’s not directly mentioned here, but it’s become such a key issue in our day, regarding spiritual gifts. We noted there are permanent gifts and temporary gifts. Gifts that were temporary in the sense that they were given during the early period of the church when the New Testament wasn’t completed, so they enabled the church to function when they didn’t have the completed Word of God. Remember the church is a new entity, beginning in Acts 2. So, we’re just learning about it when Paul writes the letters that he writes, about the church that had not been revealed before, and how God now is working in the church, in distinction from the way He worked with Israel as a nation in the Old Testament. We’re a body, gifted. So, until the New Testament is complete, you had certain gifts that were for the foundation and helped lay the foundation for the church, and had a special purpose during those early periods of the church. We call them sometimes miracle gifts, which demonstrated that God was really at work in a new and special way in giving new and additional revelation. Once the church is established, the revelation of the New Testament is complete, then those gifts passed out of existence.

The gift of tongues was one of those. We talked about how tongues was the ability to speak in a foreign language that you had not learned. We looked at the evidence of that in the New Testament. I think it is overwhelming and compelling. It wasn’t babbling speech. It wasn’t just a collection of syllables and sounds. It was a speech that was recognized from the beginning. Acts 2, the first demonstration of tongues is with the founding of the church, which served two purposes, really. One, to show the judgement that had come upon the nation Israel, and two, to be manifest evidence that God was doing a new work.

Another thing that I ought to pick up about tongues before we move on, some promote it in our day as a prayer language, and you may want to leave a marker in Romans 12 and come over to 1 Corinthians 14. I want to touch on this since… If you’re familiar at all with the modern-day charismatic movement… It’s a movement that believes that all the gifts are present, including the miracle gifts and speaking in tongues in a prominent place, in much of that movement. Some pick up from 1 Corinthians 14. They say there is a use of tongues that is a private use for your own personal edification. They pick that up from 1 Corinthians 14, verse 2. “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” In contrast to the one who prophesies, and we’re going to talk about the gift of prophecy in a moment. “But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.” In other words, if I started speaking in the Mandarin Chinese language, most of you wouldn’t understand it. I might not understand it! Speaking in my spirit, but you wouldn’t benefit from it. Verse 4, “One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.” Now keep in mind, we want to remember what the spiritual gifts are for, and I’ll run through that with you in a moment. But it says you edify yourself. That’s not the purpose of spiritual gifts. It’s to edify others.

Now, there is an element where I can benefit quite frankly, before I preached my sermons. I’ve taught them to myself a number of times through the week. Sometimes I’m sitting in my office by myself, in my study at home, and I’m talking, working through what I’m going to do. There’s a certain benefit I get from that, because it helps clarify it in my mind. So in a sense, I’m sitting there teaching myself, and impressing it upon myself, because first I have to make sure it’s clear to me. If I study in putting it together, that now enables me to grasp it more clearly so I can express it to you. And part of that is, much of my time is spent teaching it as I’m sitting in my chair there. I’m not up going through it like I am now, but I may be sitting there talking about it and trying to get how I’ll express it, and I like to do it verbally. There’s a benefit to that, but it’s really not the purpose of my gift. Somebody said, “Gil, what’s your gift?” My gift is teaching. “Oh, what do you teach?” Oh, I teach myself every day, at home in my study. “Oh.” So, self-edification is not the gift, but there is a side benefit to it. Many of you who do teach often will say you get more benefit, learn more out of it. I do more than you do when I preach, and you think I drag it out! Give me some sympathy. I’ve listened to that same sermon half a dozen times at least through the week before I preach it to you, but that’s not the use of the gift as God gave it.

So, one who prophesies, he’s speaking to people. But a tongue will not be understood. So, Paul does say in verse 5, “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy…” Now he’s not saying everybody ought to have the same gift because we’ve already gone through that the Spirit delegates the gifts. But I’m not putting down tongues. It was a real gift, but it has to be used properly. As an apostle, Paul was multi-gifted. He was gifted as an apostle. With that he got direct revelation as prophets would, a different gift. He did miracles as someone with the gift of miracles did. So, the apostles, because of the uniqueness of their position, would exercise a variety of gifts and that kept some from thinking they were more important, and Paul was dealing with that with the Corinthians. He’d tell them I speak in tongues more than you all. So, it’s not saying you have that gift and I don’t.

The apostles were in a unique position. It was crucial for the early church that it remained focused under the authority of the apostles because that is through the line where the line of revelation will ultimately come from and the firm establishing. Otherwise, you’d have everybody starting their churches. We have that today, but it’s supposed to be all under what? If they are biblical churches, they are all under the authority of biblical truth. In the early days you couldn’t say, let’s look in Romans and see what it says, or Corinthians, because those letters had to be written during the time of the early church. So, I don’t think tongues is a prayer language. Come down to verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” Because I may not understand it myself. Verses 27 and 28, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret; but if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God.” Now people say, well, see you should exercise your gift as a private language with God. Well, similar to what I said about using my own gift that way. Well Gil, I don’t think the church benefits from your gift so use it yourself at home, in your study. The gifts are for the benefit of the church, of the body functioning together, so it’s just a way of saying the gift doesn’t function. Now if they had the gift of tongues, they might use it privately, but it’s not really the exercising of the gift. And that’s the context of chapter 14, that it’s for the edification of the church.

I have several problems with the private prayer language interpretation. Number one, spiritual gifts are means of serving other believers. Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 5. Note what he says, “And there are varieties of ministries...” That word translated ministries and we’re going to talk about it shortly as well, is the word for serving. We get the English word “deacon” from it. There are varieties of ways of serving. He calls it ministries here because it’s being done for the benefit of the body, but it’s ways of serving. It’s not serving yourself. My hand is not for its own benefit; my fingers on the hand, it’s all for the benefit of the body to work it out. You cut it off from the body and what it contributes to the body, you cut off all those fingers and they are basically useless for their purpose. Their purpose is fulfilled when they serve in the context of the body.

Come over to 1 Peter chapter 4. Hebrews, James, 1 Peter. This is one of the significant passages on the gifts in the New Testament, not as extensive as 1 Corinthians or of Romans but important, nonetheless. In 1 Peter chapter 4, look at verse 10. “As each one has received a special gift (the gifts of the Spirit), employ it (how?) in serving one another...” There’s our word again. In ministering to one another. It is translated “ministry” in 1 Corinthians 12, the same. “…in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” God’s grace is multifaceted because each of us has different gifts and that shows the diversity of His grace in so gifting us that when He brings us together in a body, we all function in a coordinated way. That’s why when unbelievers infiltrated among the churches of the New Testament, like Corinth, they didn’t help bring unity, they brought division.

We saw that in the book of Jude. Those false teachers, apostates, cause divisions because they can’t, they don’t fit. It’s like when you get a foreign object in your body. Well, that’s going to cause problems, an infection, something like that. The unbeliever just doesn’t fit. Oh, there’s maybe a superficial adjustment, but they just don’t belong. Sometimes there’s a reason when people say, “I just didn’t feel like I belonged.” Well, first you want to be sure you do belong to Christ. Now maybe this wasn’t the local body He wanted you to be in. He puts you in a body where He wants you, but that’s key. It’s to serve one another. So, that’s where to talk about a private use of my gift, they are not given for that. They are the manifold grace of God given to serve one another and when you are serving others with your gift you are good steward. A stewardship you’ve been entrusted with, the responsibility by God that must not be wasted. He bestowed His grace on us not only in salvation, but as part of that salvation a gift to make us effective in bringing glory to Him by helping the body mature and grow. So, when people talk about a private use of the gifts, I think it is just contrary to what the gifts are by nature. The gifts are to build up the body, not yourself. There’s benefit and so on that comes from exercising your gift in the context of the body and that helps the body grow.

Back up to Ephesians chapter 4, not too far past Romans. Galatians, Ephesians. This passage in Ephesians 4, along with the others, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Romans chapter 12, and the passage we were just in, 1 Peter, are the four main passages in the New Testament on spiritual gifts functioning in the church. Here in Ephesians chapter 4 he’s talking about the gifts we are given as a result of the resurrection of Christ. So, there are abilities given to people in the Old Testament, but the gifts of the Spirit as a result of the Spirit permanently indwelling people did not happen until after the death and resurrection of Christ and the establishing of the Church. And that’s what he tells us. Verse 7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” The gift that comes from Him and it’s a result of His work. That’s going to enable us to function as one body. That was the first part, verse 3 of chapter 4 said, “…being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The Spirit does not fight against Himself, does not divide Himself. We don’t produce the unity, but we are responsible to preserve that unity in the bond of peace. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of our calling…” You see the oneness with the diversity. “…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…”

Where does the division come from? Well, there’s a division in the difference of the gifts and we have to understand that there’s a diversity. “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” And that happens after He ascends on high; then the grace was given. That began with the giving of the Church, the sending of the Spirit as He promised He would do, when He ascended to the Father in verse 8, and that was after His death. We are founded on what the preceding chapters of Romans were. Verse 11, “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, (note) for the equipping of the saints for the work of serving...” There’s our word “serving” again. “…to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith…” We’re growing to a mature, complete person. The analogy of the body again.

We ought to be ready to fight for the unity of the body, not to tear the body of Christ, but to maintain the unity because that’s God’s purpose. We can’t grow to maturity in Christ. That’s why the devil works so hard to fracture the body. We understand it. When something goes wrong in your physical body that’s serious concern and the more serious the problem, the more serious our concern, naturally, because what? All the parts of the body are there to function harmoniously and we are in best health when all the parts are working properly. When one part begins to break down no matter how small it may be, it can cause large problems. That’s the picture. God puts it down so low. I remember J. Vernon Magee, home with the Lord now, but I think some of his teaching still airs on some programs, talked about “putting the cookies on the lower shelf” so everybody could benefit. This is what God has done for us. He just uses the simple basic analogy of our physical body and yet it seems like we forget it an awful lot when it comes to putting it into practice.

The gifts are for the benefit of the body. Verse 12, “…for the building up of the body of Christ…” until we all get to maturity as the children of God, and that’s measured by our Christlikeness. Then we are no longer children in our immaturity state. But we are “…speaking the truth in love, (in verse 15) we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, Christ.” He’s the head over the body. This is His body. If we’re following His directions, we won’t be fractured because He does not give conflicting directions to His body. You know, the simplicity of it sometimes seems almost overwhelming. We are becoming more like Him. Look at verse 16. That’s why we came here. “…from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, (every part, every piece makes a contribution) according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” So, you appreciate the diversity of gifts. That’s what makes the body able to function in unity and that means we have to have an appreciation of one another and one another’s gifts and the need we have for one another. And to recognize some gifts will get more applause, some get less, some get more recognition, some get less, but everyone is important, everyone makes a contribution. There are parts of your body that you pay little attention to until something goes wrong. And then you may go sit with a doctor and he explains to you what part that really plays and how important it is. Suddenly you have a greater appreciation for that part of your body than you ever had before. That’s the picture.

So, all of that to come back. I think the talk about the private use of tongues as a personal prayer language is to ignore what Scripture says. 1 Corinthians 14 is talking about the functioning of the gifts in the context of the body and basically what he says is, if there’s no one there to interpret the foreign language that you’ve been gifted to speak, keep quiet. You can use it at home. If for some reason I didn’t have opportunity to teach, maybe I’m home, there’s nobody to teach, maybe I’m in prison. I could still teach myself, work through the Scripture, reflect on it, try to understand it more clearly and use the abilities God has given me to do that, but that wouldn’t be the use of my gift. If someone told you your gift is this and they said well, why don’t you just exercise that privately at home. Well, that’s just telling you, we’ll leave it there.

Your gifts are to build the body, not yourself. The context in 1 Corinthians 14, and we looked there, is the building up of the body. It’s talking about public worship. And he gets on to that as you move through. We’re not going to go through all those verses right now. In 1 Corinthians 14, verse 22, he says, “…tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers…” particularly unbelieving Israel. Remember we looked at the passage. Israel had been told in the Old Testament, and that’s where 1 Corinthians 14, verse 22 drew it from, the book of Isaiah. When you see foreign languages, hear them being spoken in your midst, languages that are not your native tongue, languages you don’t understand, that’s a sign of God’s judgment. When the Assyrians came in and conquered the northern ten tribes and people heard the Assyrian language being spoken in their streets that told them something. They were under judgment. Babylonians come in and conquer the southern kingdom, you hear that foreign language being spoken, that tells you something. On the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when the Jews gathered together and they heard them speaking in languages, diverse languages that they had come from other parts of the empire and they could understand, then they saw two things. The judgment of God on the nation Israel and the miracle of God doing a new thing that was going to carry the gospel to the nations of the world. The great commission is to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations. Israel is under judgment. God’s work of salvation is focused in the Gentiles, we saw that. So all of that to deal with the prayer language.

Sometimes Christians get caught up in these things because they think they are missing something. I was doing reading on this. Reading some seminary professors with vast degrees, intelligent men, and to read what they’re saying. They’ve moved into the charismatic movement from being where we would be in our position on it. ‘Well, I just felt I needed something emotional.’ As soon as you go there, what’s the guideline? The Devil can give you strong feelings. I want to be careful. I can be diluted by my own emotions. You open yourself up to something, you want to be careful. ‘I’m seeking this from God until I get that emotional experience.’ Well, you might get a supernatural emotional experience, but from where you don’t want it. Remember, false worship? Paul warned the Corinthians it’s the worship of demons. Be careful, you’ve moved it. This is a realm you don’t dabble in. False worship is the worship of demons. Paul warned Timothy to warn those he ministered to. Be careful of the doctrine of demons. So I say be careful. That’s why we stay with the Scripture. There is emotion. But my emotions are under the authority of Scripture. I’m really disturbed, there’s a whole book that came out. I mentioned to you I was reviewing some of the writings and another who’d been a former professor at a seminary I had been influenced by for many years. Well, I realized I had to get out of just this intellectual, rational approach and get something more emotional. Well, there is emotion in a real relationship with the Lord. Sometimes I feel myself drying up and I want to get right with the Lord, and Lord, this is a love relationship. This is a relationship where You work on my life, and it’s personal, but I want to be careful that I’m not looking for my emotions to provide for something that I’m missing. So, that’s where we are with the gifts.

Come back to Romans 12. We’re making progress, it just may not seem like it. We’ll begin with the gift Paul picks up with in verse 6. “…since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly; if prophecy…” Then he’s going to give some samples of gifts. And as you compare the different lists of gifts from 1 Corinthians and Romans and Ephesians and 1 Peter, you put together, and it’s not the purpose complete, it’s giving an example. We talk about our physical body given as an example of how all the parts work, and you don’t have to give every part of the body. You get the point with the picture. If your gift is prophesying, you exercise it according to the proportion of faith. Not everybody is going to have the gift of prophecy to the same extent. Look at the Old Testament prophets. I take it, it’s the same gift in the sense you received direct revelation. Not every prophet was an Isaiah. We brought in the minor prophets, where we looked at the book of Amos in our early study today. Well, Amos is minor in that his prophecy is small. He didn’t carry the same weight, God didn’t give him the same breadth of inspired revelation to be recorded for our benefit, as He did Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. They’re major prophets. Not because their prophecies are more true, but there were much more of them. They’re greater. So, you exercise it according to the proportion of your faith. In other words, I trust God as I submit to Him to use me to the greatest extent with the gift He’s given me. I won’t be sitting in a corner moping because somebody’s getting more attention and has a greater gift of prophecy. I think the gift of prophecy, some interpret it to apply today as the gift of preaching. I’ve mentioned I don’t think that’s true. I think the gift of prophecy, as it’s recorded in the New Testament, there would be no reason to see it as different than what a prophet was in the Old Testament. They received direct revelation. I think prophecy is that level. That’s why it’s given a high level importance.

Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, just after Romans. Paul gives a list of gifts and importance. Not all of them, but the top ones of importance. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28, and he’s doing this because the Corinthians were getting out of whack because obviously if you have the gift of speaking in a foreign language that you hadn’t learned, that’s sort of striking. You’d be telling people they ought to come hear our pastor. He’ll start speaking in different languages that he’s never studied. That’s sort of spectacular. But when you’re just giving out the word of God, even the new word of God, it can sometimes come across as, oh, yeah, I don’t recognize the miracle of it. It is a miracle! Look at verse 27, “Now you are Christ’s body, (he’s writing to the Corinthian church) and individually members of it.” So the unity and the diversity. The unity, the diversity. And when the diversity begins to tear apart, we have to fix it. But the unity does not nullify the diversity. “And God has appointed in the church…” This is God’s appointment, not my choice, not your choice. “And God has appointed in the church (now note here, he gives an order) first apostles, second prophets, third teachers…” Similar to what we have in Ephesians.

Why are those gifts given? Then he just says, “…then miracles, then gifts of healings…” There is a diversity of the gifts, but these three gifts have a priority, why? They all deal with the word of God, the communicating of the word of God. In Ephesians 4 you had the speaking gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints because it’s the word of God. As Ephesians goes on, that provides the nourishment that enables all the rest of the gifts to have the nourishment necessary so you begin to function properly, so that the body can grow. So, the first was the gift of apostleship, and that had the most breadth of gifts. Apostleship included most of the other gifts which kept, for example, Paul in a position of authority. Those with the gift of tongues couldn’t say, ‘Well, you don’t have the gift of tongues.’ Paul could say, ‘I speak in tongues more than you all.’ But his gift wasn’t limited to that. So, an apostle, and then he’s getting direct revelation from God, so he needed that. They become most important.

Remember in the early church, the apostle primarily stayed centered in Jerusalem, when the church was scattered by persecution, so there could be a central authority. And then with the salvation of Paul and God’s appointment to him as the last of the appointed apostles, the gospel gets carried out. But even there, when there was a disagreement, they came back together at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 to resolve a dispute because it would be resolved by the apostles. Their authority remains central. Now, some try to pass that on to this day. It’s not so. Because why? We don’t need it. We have the word of God to go to. But, in the early days of the church, like at the Jerusalem Council, they had to sort through this stuff. They didn’t have completed revelation. The Spirit of God hadn’t given 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, or Ephesians. These things had to be so natural that you needed special revelation and then you had to have a way of testing the revelation. That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” The diversity of those gifts, so you should have no question about my authority and the truthfulness of what I am writing to you, which we now have as our Corinthian letters.

So, the priority of the gifts. Prophets were next because they get direct revelation. Teachers are third. But they don’t get direct revelation. That’s why they’re third, because God has given the order. Prophets were under the authority of the apostles because there were false prophets. There were false apostles. The genuine apostles were recognized, validated by genuine miracles. And under that, you had prophets who received because we have New Testament Scripture that’s not written by apostles. We’re not sure about the book of Hebrews, whether it was written by Paul as some hold, or Luke, who wrote the New Testament book of Luke, and he wasn’t an apostle. He wrote the book of Acts, but he wasn’t an apostle. But he got direct revelation of God and we’d classify him as a prophet because he was receiving direct revelation. The Spirit was guiding him as He did Old Testament writers.

So, direct revelation. Teachers, they take the word of God. Now I can be evaluated. You have a Bible. You say, ‘Well, that’s not what my Bible says.’ You’re responsible and James says don’t many of you be teachers because you’ll have a greater judgement. Why? This weighs on me after 50 some years as a teacher of the word. You know, sometimes I think, Lord, I have to have this correct. I have to have sorted this out. Lord, do I have this straight? Am I going to explain it clearly? Why? I’ll have a greater judgement. Why were you careless in handling the word? Well, you know, I’ve had a lot of things that… Wait minute. That’s God’s word! It has to be handled correctly, and it takes a gift as a teacher to communicate the word clearly and understandably. That doesn’t mean okay, the other gifts are not so important. The body can’t function if you don’t have the other gifts. When Marilyn and I dated, she never commented on my liver. But she talked a lot about my beautiful blue eyes. At least that’s the way I remember it. If you talked to her, she’d say, oh yeah. He’s getting old. But that doesn’t mean the parts of the body that aren’t given all that attention aren’t important. So, when he goes on, you understand that the priority ought to be on the word of God. People pick their choice. Well, the people were friendly, I enjoyed it, I liked being there. The doctrine’s not maybe what it should be… Well, then, move on. But, by the same token, the church ought to be what it should be.

So, all the gifts. Verse 28. Miracles, healings, administrations, kinds of tongues. “All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they?” They’re rhetorical questions. Obviously, no. We’ve been through that. The Spirit has delegated to each one as He wills. “All are not all teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have the gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts.” Now people can see, see we can desire a gift. He’s talking to the church. The church ought to put its attention on the more important gifts. The Corinthian church was getting it reversed. Let’s put attention on the tongues, that’s sort of spectacular. We want our church to focus on those kinds of gifts.

That’s what many of the faith healers do, right? The people don’t go there to be taught the word of God, they come to see miracles. Our family was saved when we were living in a suburb of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Kathryn Kuhlman was the faith healer. She packed out Carnegie Hall every Sunday afternoon. My Dad took me to sit in the meetings. She had 300 ushers and maybe they all professed and were healed at her services. You can read a biography of Kathryn Kuhlman. I don’t necessarily recommend it. But you went there for the healings, the spectacular. It’s like the Corinthian church, that’s what Paul said, we’ve got to get this put into perspective. The church ought to have its focus on the primary gifts. The other gifts will come out of that. People who have come to trust Christ and are now growing in His word, will be directed by the Spirit to find their place in the body and begin to contribute. So, it’s not that these gifts aren’t important, but that’s not where you focus. Well, we’ve got to desire the greater gifts as a church. Not individuals, because he already told us, God puts them in there as He pleases not as we please. It’s the Corinthian church ought to put their focus where it is, it’s why he told them up there. First Apostles, second prophets, third teachers. And the teachers are prime focus today. I get that as a pastor/teacher, responsible for the oversite of the body and also the gift of teaching. Not everyone who has the gift of teaching is a pastor/teacher. We’ve talked about that, a pastor/teacher has the gift of overall oversite, leadership, not just the ability to communicate the word. I sometimes make the distinction between a professor/teacher and a pastor/teacher. Professor/teachers sometimes are exceptional in teaching but they’re not gifted as shepherds, overseers. The pastor/teacher has the gift that provides the oversite as well as the teaching. So, prophets, they are crucial. They were second in importance because they are getting direct revelation. First Apostles, second prophets.

Come over to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 20, and he’s using a different picture here. Instead of the body, he talks about a building. In chapter 4 he’ll talk about a body. All these things talk about how parts come together. In a building, what do you do? You take all the different things necessary for the building and put it together. When you’re done, you have one building. When you go to a building supply place, they just have stacks of parts. They really don’t function in any real helpful way until somebody comes in and gets the necessary parts and puts it together to have a building, a house that is useable. Other than that, they are just parts on the shelf or stacked up. Like our body, it’s the parts together that make it work. So here he’s using a building.

Verse 19, “So then you are not longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, (the picture of a family) having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets…” You see the foundation. The teachers aren’t even mentioned here because “…Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” That’s why it’s so important. You get a casual atmosphere toward the church, the local church, but God takes it very seriously. This is His building. The place He dwells. He not only dwells in another occasion in the body of the individual believer, but then He dwells in the body corporately as the Church. That’s why early in 1 Corinthians he said anyone who destroys the church will be destroyed by God. That’s why the devil infiltrates among churches and destroys them, but sometimes he uses his servants and those servants who destroy the church are on their way to an eternal hell. That’s why he is warning the Corinthians about the divisions among them. Your divisions are fracturing the church, in danger of destroying it. You understand, if you are part of the destruction of the church you’re marked out as an unbeliever. Go back and read the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians.

So, here the foundation of the apostles and prophets. We are building on that foundation. I am a teacher. I’m not adding to that foundation. “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” That’s in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians. Here he uses the picture of the cornerstone, which is what all the building is measured by. It’s the measuring stone of the building. All these different analogies. We are growing up into Him as the Head. He’s the foundation. He’s the cornerstone, all being fit together. So now we come and study what the Spirit has directed the apostles and prophets to write, to record for us. That’s the foundation. Once the church looks for other things, they’ll drift to where? You don’t know. They are “carried about by every wind of doctrine” as Ephesians 4 says. So, the gift of prophecy to be exercised according to the proportion of faith that God has given to that prophet.

We’ll go on. Come back to Romans 12, verse 7, just so we identify where we are. The next two gifts, “…if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching...” We’re going to walk through some of these gifts. Then through verse 8 where he’ll tell how you exercise these gifts, not only in proportion to your faith but with the proper attitude, conduct, diligence and so on. Very important! The church recognizes this, appreciates it, then the church grows. When we get out of line with Christ, whether it’s like the cornerstone that is the measuring or the head who is in charge, it’s all the picture. And believers can drift, unbelievers infiltrate. Paul talked about that with the Corinthians, and believers get off the track. If I’m not functioning in submission to the Spirit, now I’m out of line because I’m not obeying the Head. I’m not following the directions of the Spirit who always functions in connection with Christ, the head of the body. Now I’m going to be a problem in the body. It’s like if you broke a bone in your arm. Now that bone is poking you. It’s got to be fixed. It’s a part of the body, but it’s not aligned with the body, functioning as it should. It doesn’t obey the commands of the head. It needs a remedy. But you know what? It can get confusing and Paul talks about this when he writes to the Corinthians about those causing division.

That’s why he writes to the Corinthians and did it the same with the Galatians. For the Corinthians he says, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Don’t you know the Spirit of God dwells in you unless you believed in vain. Galatians has basically the same thing. I’m afraid I may have had a wasted ministry with you. Maybe you didn’t really believe the gospel. It was just a superficial emotional response. That’s why he’s concerned for the Corinthians. Something is wrong, your local church is not a model of unity. It’s fractured. Even when you come for the communion there’s the division among you. Something is wrong! So, he has to end his letter by saying you better examine yourselves. Each one individually. Are you really in the faith? Why am I not fitting? Why am I out of sorts? Sometimes in conversations I take it to other churches. People come, there’s something wrong. They are upset about their church. I say are there other people upset? No. Sometimes I usually know something about that church. Why are you the problem? Well, you don’t know what they’re doing. So everybody at that church is out of alignment with what God wants them to do but you? Well, I think there’s another person. You know, as soon as you sort it out it ends up and we end up going, are you sure you are a believer? Maybe you don’t fit in with believers, because you’re not one of them. This is the kind of issues that come up when you see how strong God is about the unity and He didn’t put any gift in the body that doesn’t fit the body. Since He is the one doing it, it comes together as He wills.

We’ll stop there and then we’ll pick up with the gift of serving a little bit, the gift of teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, mercy, cheerfulness, and then he’ll be ready to tell us how we should be working together and the evidences of that. Let’s have a word of prayer then I want to address a question that I received. Thank You, Lord, for Your word. Lord, it is easy for us to go through these portions of Your word that we’ve been through many times. But if we are honest, sometimes when pressure builds, when issues come up, we forget. We don’t want to remember, so we become a problem. We become a problem for ourselves, as well as for the body. Lord, we want to take these truths to heart because we want to live our lives day by day in obedience to You, and it is a serious matter when we are out of step with the directions of the Spirit of God in our lives and in the life of our church. We want our testimony to be strong and clear, faithful to Your word, and we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.

I want to pick up a question that I received. I do have a slide I’ll go through. Let me read the question first. It has to do with judgments of Scripture and what we have to sort out because Scripture sometimes seem to conflict with itself. And yet we know it doesn’t conflict with itself; so somehow, we’re trying to sort it out. John 5:24 says “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” Well, it says he does not come into judgment. Then Romans 14:10 says, “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Well, I thought Christ said we don’t come into judgment. Now he says we must stand before the judgment seat of God. Then 2 Corinthians 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for what we have done.” 1 Corinthians 3:13 says “…each man’s work will become evident…” then we receive our reward. I didn’t read the whole thing for time here. John 5:24 Jesus says believers won’t experience judgment. These other passages say that we will. So what is the situation? It is true and this is where it is important to sort out what the Scripture talks about. Let me just give the foundation, since John 5:24 is foundational. I think Jesus is drawing a line there between a believer and an unbeliever. In the context, you pass out of death into life because you believed. You’ve entered into eternal life. You will never come into judgment regarding your eternal destiny. So, that’s been settled. You’ll never come into a judgment for hell, but scripture talks about different judgments.

Let’s start with the resurrection chart here. Yes, this is the chart of the resurrections. I’ve put this up because the judgments take place in the context of resurrections. I’ll list the judgments in a moment, but this is the chart. Christ is the first one resurrected from the dead with a glorified body. He’s called the “first fruits,” that assures a coming resurrection. Then we have the resurrection of the church at the rapture. So, you see different resurrections will occur. The church is taken to heaven. The marriage of the lamb occurs, then we’ll return to earth. Now it is here, at the rapture of the church, this resurrection where the church will be judged. We talked about this in our study of the book of Revelation. At the bema seat of Christ which is a judgment for reward, like 1 Corinthians chapter 3 says. And there is a loss of rewards, but we will be saved. 1 Corinthians says, even if you bear the loss of rewards, you will be saved. So, nobody at this judgment is going to hell, but it is a judgment and that’s what Paul is writing about when he says we will all stand before the judgment seat. It won’t be the same judgment, but here a judgment for rewards. I’ve had people tell me, well I don’t really care if I get a reward as long as I know I’m going to heaven. That’s good enough for me. It shouldn’t be good enough, because God says it’s not good enough. In 1 Corinthians 3 He says it’s important. The rewards will be important. You will suffer loss. Now I may not be able to fill in all the blanks on that, but there’s not going to be any sorrow in heaven and no tears. You know, I’m good to go. I think when we stand before that judgment seat it will be clear why it was so important that we be faithful.

So that’s the first judgment. Then you come where when Christ returns to earth with the church to establish His kingdom there is a resurrection, Old Testament saints and tribulation saints. Tribulation saints are those who became believers during this seven-year period and now, they were martyred, they are raised from the dead. So, there’s a resurrection here. You will have Old Testament saints and tribulation saints who are resurrected, receive their glorified bodies here. No Old Testament saints were resurrected here, they don’t receive glorified bodies here; church saints do. Old Testament saints and tribulation saints, which are part of God’s program with Israel because this is the last seven years of God’s four-hundred-and-ninety-year program with the nation Israel. So, they’re judged here and for these saints it will be a judgment of rewards also, because they are believers, but it is distinguished from here. It’s not one judgment. Also, at this point there is a judgment of the living set up. In other words, all the people that have come through here and survived will be judged. That’s Matthew 25, the judgment of the “sheep and goats” are Gentiles. The judgment of Israel also takes place, so all unbelievers here are executed, cast into hell. So that only living believers in physical bodies go into the thousand-year kingdom. So you see we’ve had a series of judgments, resurrected church saints, resurrected Old Testament saints and tribulation saints, and also living people who came through the tribulation. Some of them became believers and survived. Some of them did not. The unbelievers will be judged here, executed, they cannot go into the kingdom, cast into hell. Believers, so they are going into the kingdom in their physical body, part of their reward. They inherit the kingdom, enter into the kingdom prepared for you by My Father from the foundation of the world. You read about it in Matthew 25. Then there is the last judgment of Scripture, the Great White Throne and that occurs here, and it is the judgment of all unbelievers. They will be judged here. That’s the resurrection of unbelievers. So, no unbelievers have been resurrected, but now all unbelievers are resurrected. We wouldn’t call their bodies glorified, but they are durable. They are resurrected with bodies that cannot die. So, there is a bodily resurrection. That’s Revelation chapter 19 and here they are judged. This is the judgment particularly that Christ was distinguishing, the judgment and resurrection of life and a resurrection to condemnation that He talks about. We have passed out of judgment into life, the same as calling it the judgment of condemnation. A resurrection of condemnation because these are all. All unbelievers from the beginning of time who have died, for whatever reason, and all unbelievers who come through the tribulation here, any who were killed, now they get a transformed body. So, everybody is going to get an eternal body that can live for eternity. God did not intend us, when He created us, to live as disembodied spirits. That’s why 2 Corinthians 5 says that we are looking for the resurrection. We are not looking to die and leave our body. We’ll go to be with the Lord. But that’s not the fulfillment of God’s purpose for us. God’s purpose for us is to dwell in this physical body that He created. So, unbelievers are resurrected here with a body that will not die but can suffer pain for eternity. We’ll suffer joy and no pain; they will suffer nothing but pain. So, they are resurrected and sentenced to an eternal hell and the smoke of their torment ascends into the ages of the ages as Revelation 14 says. Revelation 20 gives the actual judgment. There are at least five judgments that take place, the church, Old Testament saints, tribulation saints, the living, and then here resurrected unbelievers. So, you see the body, this body has a purpose. It doesn’t matter, be careful, we don’t mistreat the body. But how we dispose of the body I don’t see as of major importance. Cremation could be acceptable or not acceptable. It seems to me the bible adopts whatever practices are carried out. The prime example of that is Joseph in Egypt. The Egyptians embalmed the body to preserve it for the afterlife. What did Joseph do with his father when he died in Egypt? He had him embalmed for thirty days, then took him to bury him in Israel’s land. Well, it was a pagan practice, but it was the practice in Egypt. Joseph wasn’t embalming his father in line with the Egyptian pagan thought. So, I don’t see how we dispose of the body because bodies that were buried thousands of years ago, they’ve disintegrated into the dust, dust to dust. So, it doesn’t matter cremation. I know some write against cremation, but this is where I am on it. All that does is accelerate the process of getting it to dust. But the bodies that were buried thousands of years ago, the dust is… And what about the sea gives up the dead that were in them, we are told. Well, what about the body that was buried at the sea, then the fish ate the body, then people caught the fish and ate the fish? You know, I don’t solve God’s problems. He says they’ll be resurrected as they were. This body has a permanence. They say we dispose of the body, we have a certain respect for it and I know I’m coming back in this body, glorified. Even the unbeliever will have the body he is in resurrected and it will never experience physical death again, but it will live in the realm of eternal death, separation from God in eternal hell. And remember what hades was like with the rich man in Luke 16. He had died and he lifted up his voice and he’s in hades; so even the spirit can suffer terrible pain, or it can enjoy God’s presence. So loved ones who are in heaven now because they were believers, they are enjoying the presence of God without their body. But the purpose and plan of God is not complete until we’ve all been brought to judgment. We’ll be at one of these judgments or the other. Then we will have bodies that are permanent, either glorified or eternal in the sense of the body in which they will suffer the eternities of hell.

So that’s a little bit to answer the question. You have to be careful in the passage you are in. To whom is he speaking and what judgment will they be attending? We will be at the bema seat of Christ where the church will receive, and the individuals, will receive their rewards. Our eternal destiny is settled because no charge can be brought against God’s elect.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord, for the riches of Your word. And Lord, You have revealed so much to us and we want to grasp it and be as clear with what we received, and the secret things belong to You. Thank You for not overwhelming us. We are overwhelmed with what You have revealed and we will have eternity to grow and to learn and to appreciate with an ever-increasing fullness the wonder of the infinite God that loved us, that provided salvation for us, in whose presence we will live for eternity. So may that shape our thinking, guide our conduct as we serve You in the days of this week. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.