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Then that we could take up First Corinthians 12 and perhaps.
Touch on chapters 13 and 14 as well. I'm not just sure how far we'll get in four reading meetings, but if we can remember to move along, perhaps we can give a overview. It deals with the subject of the one body of Christ. We are living in that time frame when there is one body.
It sometimes is confusing and I think it is helpful just to go over those scriptures.
In South America, where the Lord is working in a marked way, it is precious to my soul to see how they are laying hold of these truths. And it is a joy to see so many young people here, and I suggest that we go over that.
What do my brothers say?
Chapter 12.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.
Which worketh All in all.
Of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all, for to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another the Word of knowledge, by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.
To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh at one in the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body.
Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him? And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body?
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.
Nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honourable. Upon these we be still more abundant honour, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness, for our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Where one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. And God has set some in the church. First apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles, Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts? And yet shall I unto you a more excellent way.
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It's been mentioned that in chapter 12 we have the body presented.
In chapter 13 we have the oil that makes it function smoothly and in chapter 14 we have the body in its function as in verse 23 of chapter 14 it says if therefore the whole church.
Become into one place. That's what we call an assembly meeting.
So I just present that as a brief overview. I also like to mention that you'll notice in verse one the word gifts is in italics, which means that it was added by the interpreters.
The translators and Mr. Garbage translation. He puts it spiritual manifestations.
It's the same in chapter 14 and verse one. Follow after charity, love and desire, spiritual manifestations. It's not so much of the gifts, It's not wrong the word gifts because the Spirit manifests his presence through the gifts. But the point is spiritual manifestations.
And he goes on to say that they were gentiles and in the gentile world they were carried away to these dumb idols.
In chapter 10, we find that behind idols are evil spirits.
And they were carried away and there were spiritual manifestations in the heathen world.
It's quite interesting that some that have gone to Africa and been in heaven areas.
Find that the phenomena of speaking in tongues is practiced by people who have never heard of the Lord Jesus. It is a phenomenon. It's a spiritual manifestation of the presence of demons spirits. So he's speaking here of spiritual manifestations and.
In this case, in this chapter, it is the Holy Spirit we're talking about in verse three and forward it's always with a capital S and in verse 13 by 1 Spirit we are all baptized into one body. So it's interesting the.
Taking it in that context, spiritual manifestations.
Does it start with the 12Th chapter? Does he and so?
The subject in our chapter, the manifestation of spirituals or the effect of the Spirit of God.
We read in chapter two of First Corinthians.
And verse 2.
We have more of what he had presented before then before he developed on other topics and he says in verse two of chapter 2.
For I determined not to know anything among you.
Save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Reading a little article recently in a calendar and it referred to was a meeting place in England and they had a verse on the front of the building. It said we preach Christ crucified.
And the building wasn't well kept and so it was a vine growing and it just grew and grew and grew. And it came over the sign and it hid the word crucified. And it said, if you went by, you can see we preached Christ.
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And then the wine kept growing and growing and then it hid the word Christ. And it said, if you went by, it says we preach. And then it kept growing and finally you couldn't see anything. And so.
What's missing?
And much of christianity's discourse they often read first Corinthians chapter 12 I was involved with a young man recently he'd been involved with other Christians who.
Are Speaking of gifts and tongues and manifestations and all these things and.
You might follow their discourse. That's right. That's verse. That verse is there. That verse is there. But the the thing that's missing.
Is that second verse of chapter 2?
The person of the Lord Jesus and his work on the cross, it's all based on him and his work. So before the apostle Paul could develop anything, he wanted to make sure that they they were, they were settled on that Jesus Christ and him crucified. You don't have that. You don't have anything.
In this chapter, we.
Being by the Spirit of God through Gentiles and they had had previous experiences before they were saved. They had had previous spiritual experiences before they were saved. And I wonder if this verse 2 is not reminding them or or warning them. Don't borrow from where you came from. Don't think that the spiritual impressions that have been made on on you will be similar to how the Spirit of God works.
And I think this is a real danger today. We live in a day where many gatherings of Christians, many leaders in these organizations, are desperate to keep the people still coming. They've got budgets. They've got and love for God's people, too, trying to keep the people. And they are employing strange methods, bringing things into God's people.
As you've alluded to that belong in hedonism and and and by the way, just not to be contrary, but to just for the sake of clarification, what happens in in the heathen world that was mentioned as tongues is not the same as the Scriptural.
Gift of tongues. The phenomenon may have a certain similarities. The phenomenon may look outwardly something similar.
It is not the same and in these leading verses here in this chapter, the Spirit of God is making it very plain. Do not confuse where you came from in heathenism with or how demons work and what the influences felt like to how the Spirit of God works. And sad to say, there are many Christians today that are looking for an experience. They are looking for a subjective impression.
To be made physically and emotionally in their beings that they are being told is in evidence of the spirit's activity and this is extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous under Eugene Peterson, the message and all of that movement, so-called spiritual formation, spiritual theology, that line of things is mixing in Transcendental Meditation to get the experience.
These are dangerous days.
That we're living in. And so you know, the ye were Gentiles, not Gentiles anymore. They are now the Church of God. That refers back to chapter 10, verse 32. But they were carried away unto these dumb idols. Even as you were led, so they were led.
By demons, and we'll find in the next few verses that what they were led to and to express.
Is exactly the opposite the way the Spirit of God would lead his own dear people.
So you have two distinct.
Tests in verse three of the Spirit of God working, it says wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. In other words, if it is the Spirit of God that is leading, it will not lead to anything derogatory toward the person of our Lord Jesus.
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And then it says, and that no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
So that it is by the Spirit of God that the Lord Jesus is given His place of Lordship. We recognize him as Lord.
B They could say that, couldn't they? But this is really talking about somebody who is under this influence. When they're under this influence, they whatever they're speaking and and they would not be able to say Jesus is Lord. It's not just that.
Commonly speaking, they don't say Jesus is Lord, but when they're under the influence of this spirit, they cannot say that Jesus is Lord.
The testimony of a young man who went to some of these meetings and there was definitely a power there. And when it came on him, he felt like he was floating. And like Wayne said, it was an experience. But in between the meetings he felt an emptiness in his soul and he couldn't explain it.
And one day he read this verse three of our chapter.
The end there that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.
As I said, I'm going to test that spirit that's there. And when he went the next time and felt the presence of that spirit, he said he tried. For an hour and a half, he swept in his efforts to try to confess Jesus as Lord. He said I couldn't do it.
He says, I got up and I left and I never went back. So these are tasks and the Spirit of God is here to exalt the person of the Lord Jesus. And even though we are in weakness in our meetings, sometimes, brethren, these are the characteristics of the leading of the Spirit of God, the manifestation of His presence.
As Christians we have to be aware of aren't there? And the Epistle to 1St Corinthians is primarily a corrective epistle because all these errors were manifested Corinth. And so just to give a brief outline to the book, the 1St 10 chapters by and large address moral laxity and worldliness, and I hope that all real Christians are concerned about those two things.
Moral laxity and worldliness. God's standards about worldliness and moral laxity have not changed. And so he addresses that in the 1St, 9, 1/2 or 10 chapters. And then in Chapter 11 Through 14, we have a second error that's often ignored by Christians, and I think it's important to recognize, and that is what we call assembly disorder or ecclesiastical error. Many people don't understand the position of the assembly assembly at all.
Which we find throughout the New Testament, and they think that's not important to Christianity, but it is. And the Spirit of God, according to Scripture, is recognized as the one who directs in the assembly, sometimes called the president in the assembly. And again, that's widely ignored in Christendom. So what we're looking at in these three chapters has to do with ecclesiastical error or assembly order.
Recognized by its disorder. Oftentimes we learn truth by the disorder. And so that's what the Apostle Paul was teaching them here. And then in the 10th chapter, we have the third fundamental error that we need to be concerned with, and that's doctrinal error. They had error regarding the resurrection of Christ. So I just mentioned those things because we find them throughout Scripture. And when we search for truth, we should recognize that we need to search on that basis.
Is there moral laxity and worldliness? Is there? Is the assembly recognized? The Spirit of God's place recognized in the assembly? One of the early articles that Brethren wrote was looking at the clerical system as the.
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As the modern day sin against the Holy Spirit, some people find that strange perhaps, but.
If the President of the United States were here, we'd all respect his authority and expect his lawyer, respect his order. And so in these chapters we're going to see that the Spirit of God is the one who is to direct in the assembly and how important that is. And so the clerical system per Southeast is a modern day sin against the Holy Spirit because it displaces him with man's order. So I just mentioned that there's those 3 great errors in Christendom.
I shouldn't say imprisoned him, but abroad. And we're all prone to each one. But what we have instruction about here is not only assembly order, but the proper place of the Spirit of God directing in the Assembly of God.
So here in the opening verses then he's addressing an issue that is very prevalent around us and that's imitation. You know, there are 4 chapters in Second Timothy and each one of them the apostle deals with some particular departure from the truth in chapter 3. It's imitation. One of the ways that the truth is undermined is by imitation. Something that looks like the truth, something that looks like.
A scriptural practice. But when you get beneath the surface, that's not what it is. And I think we could say too, that in the Epistles we have doctrine and instruction relative to Christianity. In the Epistles we see the history of the the formation of the church in the Acts of the Apostles and the Jews rejection of that truth, but the doctrine.
For Christianity and for the church we get in the epistles, and there are two epistles I'm thinking of in particular, Ephesians and Colossians, that we could say are ecclesiological. They asked, they answered the question, what is the church in the mind of God? What is this mystery that God has revealed? But in the Corinthian epistles we have what we might call ecclesiastical truth. How does that church, once we understand what it is, what does it look like here on the earth? How does it function?
What do the members do? And when we come to deal with that subject, we have to realize that in the world in which we are, we have such a thing as imitation. What happened in the garden right at the beginning of man's history, somebody slipped in there and had a word that undermined something that God had said. Well, we could say, well, that's an imitation.
In one way or another, and it was used to turn them aside.
If you sit down and think about it, I'm sure that each one of us can think of any number of things around about us in, in the Christian profession today. Many like you say that are, are, are coming in and being embraced that may at first have just a little bit of, of, of error. It may just get off the track just a little bit. But when you go down the track, you know, for for decades or a few 100 years or so, that which God has given might be almost unrecognizable.
And that's why it's very important that we heed the word of God, that each one of us here, we, we make the word of God our own. We spend time in the Word of God. We learn the different character of these epistles and the different books of the Bible so that we have some sense of what it is that God has revealed to us in its purity. And that's what Paul is getting at here. The Corinthians, this is not Ephesians.
Where he can take the mystery and he can lay it out for the people of God in Corinth. Corinth was a byword in the Roman Empire in Greece. And you see chapter after chapter as you use the word corrective, there's something he has to take up that they needed to gain clarity on so that they could move on. And it's very interesting that these things that have to do with the function of the assembly and gifts.
They're later in the epistle because in the 1St 4 chapters.
He has to set their minds straight regarding men. They thought too highly of men.
The best of men are but men at best. And then we have moral issues. And then some of the issues that you mentioned they they were, they needed to be instructed on the issue of marriage. Is that apropos today? Absolutely.
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Everything in God's order has a place, and the Christian needs to understand the place that those things have. And he talks about the table, the one body, and he talks about the Lord's table. He talks about the place of the man, the place of the woman. It's only after he deals with some of these things that now he says, all right, we have to deal with this thought.
Of the spiritual manifestations, what are the character of them? So this is a warning about the dangers of imitation, especially as you brothers have said that the background that they came from, the things that they knew for all of their lives, it was all around them in the Pagan religion and philosophy.
They had embraced something new that came from the Lord, that came from the holy and the true, and they needed to see the difference.
On imitation we have two Corinthians 11 in the same line of thought, brother, 2 Corinthians 11.
We find 3.
3 words connected generally with the truth of the Lord Jesus, Verse one of Chapter 11 of Southern Corinthians. Second Corinthians.
With the God, he could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me if I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy.
Who have espoused you to one husband that might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
There's imitation, but I fear lest by any means, as a serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if you that come and preach it another Jesus, that's another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or if he received another spirit, there's a spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, you might well bear.
With him. So there's the Lord Jesus, his name Jesus and the Spirit mentioned and the gospel, but it's way different, way different than what we have revealed to us by the Spirit of God and the Word of God about the Lord Jesus.
Christened them. And I like to just clarify that when we use that word, we're talking about everybody that professes the name of the Lord Jesus. That's right, isn't it, Eric?
And it doesn't exclude us. We are included in it. And so these principles apply to us as just as much as to anybody. And I think it's important when we speak of this, I find that sometimes people that are not really seriously into the word tend to start looking at people and groups. You can't do that. If you want to see the truth in its clarity, you have to look at the person of the Lord Jesus. You have to look at His word.
And this is for all of us to be exercised about. Now we come down to verse 4-5 and six and you'll notice.
That in each word verse, verse four, it's diversities.
Verse 5 differences, it's really the same word, it's just that they used a different English word and Verse 6 diversities and So what we have in these 3 verses and what's the truth of the.
Church or the body of Christ is unity and diversity.
To me, it is a most beautiful thing to see in the body of Christ. Is there one brother exactly like another brother? Have you ever seen a brother exactly like Dave Newbie?
I've never seen anybody. He's totally different than all the rest. But is there unity? Yes. And that's the way God works. He takes from the diverse and he makes unity. And it's beautiful to see. In verse four, it's the spirit. In verse five, it's the Lord. In verse six, it's God. So the whole Trinity is involved in this work.
Beautiful brethren, to enjoy it that there is one body and so there is diversity of gifts. No one has exactly the same gift.
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All different measures. It may be the gift of teaching in several brothers here, but it's not exactly the same in any one of them. But it is the same spirit. So if we are guided by that same spirit.
There's not going to be contradiction. There may be a brother that will help clarify a little better something by a comment later on and this is the value of the reading meeting brethren, where the Spirit of God is at liberty to use one and another that are different, but it is the same spirit verse five. There are differences of administrations or we might say ministries.
What the Lord has given to you may not be the same as He's given to me, but it's the same Lord that directs that. And so there's not going to be contradiction. And verse six, there are diversities of operations. The way I operate may not be the same as you operate, but it is the same God which worketh. All in all, I think this is so beautiful to appreciate.
In the body of Christ, how God works, brethren, he's working in the world today. And so there are there is diversity and there is unity at the same time.
Secret of the Trinity, isn't it? There is one God, but there are three persons. That's a mystery we can understand entirely, but that's the secret behind this unity and diversity. Now, if we go to the world of Islam, we find there's no diversity. It's only one God. Where is the love in that? Where is the affection? Where is the diversity? There is none. It's a monolithic structure and it excludes that diversity that we have.
And so it sometimes said that God came in time. He came out of his essential fulfillment. God didn't need man, but he chose man. But in the Trinity, God was complete in himself. That's not true of Islam, is it? Where they claim there's just one God. And I might mention that one God is not the true God. If we look at history, we see that that one God was simply.
The the one of many demons that became predominant and he exercised authority and finally had enough followers that said, well, we're just going to claim this one God as the God of overall. So it's not the true God. Let's not be fooled about that. When people say that the God of Christianity is the same as the God of Islam, that's patently false. He's simply a demon that was exalted above other demons. But the true God is a Trinity.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we see here, and yet one God.
But we have the word distinctions here in the new translation in the King James, you have diversities and differences. It's just the one word here, the same word as distinctions. And what you're saying, Eric, shows that the thought of distinction God is a God that makes distinctions. And it goes back to the distinctions of the persons in the Godhead.
And we live in a day where the move is toward sameness, homogenization, making everything the same, getting rid of the thought of gender or whatever it might be. That shows some distinction that God has made. But what God has done in his activities among men is to recognize the beauty of the distinctions that God has made.
Not every member is the same, and we learn in a chapter like this that every member, distinct from something from the other members, has their own particular function that contributes to the profit of all. If a member does not exercise what they have for the profit of all, then the collective we miss out on that.
So we have a unity.
Diversity within that unity, and God has designed it in that way for a particular function. And we see if we go to the gifts in the Ephesians chapter 4, that everything is for edification. We have that in chapter 14 here, and everything is for the building up of the body in love, that we might come to that point where we grow up under Christ in all things. He is the center and the focus of the whole purpose.
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Of God in the assembly.
He wants to draw us near to himself.
One another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
I believe that attitudes necessary to keep the unity of the spirit of loneliness and weakness and long-suffering with our brother and forgiving him. When you read on, there is one body, one spirit usually.
One Lord, 1 faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, true all, and in you all.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to measures, the gift of praise.
We go down to verse 11.
And he gave some.
Pastors some teachers to the perfection of the Saints, for the works of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ.
So we come in the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God.
Then we go to university.
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint suppliers according to the work.
Every part of Nikki the entries to the body under the edifying of the self and love.
Lord has an individual work for each one of us.
Working together to identify the body and I like reversal. Cut in Colossians 2.
In verse two, that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding through the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and the Father of and of Christ, and whom our head all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. May our hearts be knit together in love, not our desire to know more about the war, and that's where that should be.
What we have in verse seven of our chapter, what you're saying, Brother Matt, that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone, not merely man, but every woman as well, that is a member of the body of Christ to profit with all. And this is something to be exercised about.
Young brother and sister.
Your sisters scripture is clear that you don't take part in speaking in assembly meetings, but doesn't mean that you're not there for profit. And I must say, in my travels around, sometimes I see meetings where the sisters are more evidently awake than the brothers.
So we need everyone.
And so it is the Prophet.
This manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone to profit with all. So if you're not exercised in your place, brother or sister, this is goes for the younger brothers too. Then the prophet that God means for all is not going to be evident and God wants it that way. How important it is then we tend to exalt one person or another.
Or tend to look at them. The Lord deliver us, brethren from that. Let's look to that man to whom we are united in glory, the Lord Jesus. It's through him that the Spirit of God directs in his body down here in this world. And even though we live in a world that is totally disarrayed as to the public manifestation of the oneness of the body of Christ.
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Still, the truth remains and we are responsible to act accordingly.
The gifts and Ephesians chapter 4 is something.
If you're a teacher, you're always a teacher. If you're a prophet, always a prophet. Go on these manifestations with spirit, the word of wisdom and what we call these things. Is the Spirit of God working in certain situations different. We need to. We just need to recognize that.
The thought was the same, that God that is given for the benefit of others.
Let's just read it verse again quickly.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
For the perfection of the things.
The gift is for the 1St.
It's for this purpose of edifying.
Similarly with the Spirit of God. It is given to every man who profit. The ball is given to the blessing of others. Let's not get selfish and.
I had this gift for that gift, but let's let's recognize that.
Are for the purpose for the edifying research, for the benefit of the benefit.
Of those around.
Make the comment, again just to emphasize the importance of what we've been speaking about, that the assembly order or ecclesiastical order, which again I say is often diminished or not recognized by many dear believers, is actually based in the Trinity, in the Godhead. So that order comes and is based in the Trinity. And so as you mentioned, Bob, starting with verse seven, we have the order now of the assembly, but where did that order come from?
It comes from the very essence of who God is, a Trinity and one God. And so it's not an insignificant thing. Many people say, well, that brother is a nice brother. Why can't he break bread? Well, does he recognize the authority of God in the midst? Those are important questions, aren't they? Does he recognize ecclesiastical order? Is that important at all? It's not insignificant. It's based in the very nature of who God is.
And so, as you mentioned, beginning with verse 7, now we have that assembly order begun, but the foundation is God himself, the oneness and the diversity of God himself. That's not insignificant. There could not be anything more significant. And so ecclesiastical order is extremely important, and that's what we have here.
It's manifest in the one body, isn't it? We mentioned Christendom, which is really the House of God, isn't it? That includes all professors.
That's what we had really in the 1St 9 1/2 Chapters of First Corinthians. But now we have the one body and that's only those who are real believers and sealed by the Spirit of God, isn't it?
Patient leave out to every man and at birth.
Through each it says and because I think it includes men as well as.
Our sisters as well, don't you think?
They are just as much members of the body and useful.
As the brothers.
Same with Ephesians 4:00 and 12:00 we read before.
That we understand that God had given in the 11Th verse. He'd given men, you might say to the prophet, the whole body and their activity at Ephesians 4 and 12 for the perfecting of the Saints, not just the brothers and sisters also. So these men given to the church in verse 11 for the perfecting of the Saints and the Saints being perfected for the work of the ministry, for the work of the service. It's not limited to those mentioned in the 11Th verse. He's perfecting the Saints through these ministries.
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In view of all the Saints being active in the service for the work of the service, for identifying of the body of Christ, So everybody's active. There are main actors, you might say, helping the others, forming them, instructing them, and they are active and the result is the edifying of the body of Christ as we read later on verse 16.
You have those different manifestations of the Spirit and the verses that follow. Verse to one is given by the Spirit, the word of Wisdom, to another the word of Knowledge. Interesting distinctions.
I've noticed, brethren, if it's a question of.
Knowing It's important to know, brethren, and there are those that give a word of knowledge in its proper way.
But wisdom is not exactly the same, even though it's related.
Wisdom is taking knowledge and making it real in our lives. So their brethren that may have given, been given the manifestation of the Spirit in a word of knowledge that may not have real wisdom. There is a distinction there. And so God uses one and another. That's why we need each one of us. Brethren, I need you.
You need me. We cannot be isolationists to another faith by the same Spirit. And I take it this is a special manifestation of the Spirit? Just to give an illustration that helped me understand. Because faith is something that is common to us all, brethren, and it is the gift of God. That's why we're saved by faith. It is the gift of God. But here it is a special manifestation of the Spirit.
Remember, in a certain area the brethren were concerned about a certain situation and there was one particular brother that said, brother, I think we can count on the Lord and go forward. And it was because of the impulse given perhaps by the Spirit of God and that brother that they carried on. And that may be an illustration of what it is. Faith is given.
As a manifestation of the spirit to another gifts of healing. So you have the miraculous gifts here, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, diverse kinds of tongues, another interpretation of tongues.
It was a help to me. Our late brother Jimmy Smith gave an explanation of why in the book of first Corinthians you have the miraculous gifts listed. You don't have that in the other two places where gifts are mentioned. In Romans chapter 12 you have them mentioned and in Ephesians 4, as we've heard, but.
It's in First Corinthians that we have the miraculous gifts. Why the difference?
And he took us back into Acts chapter 18, where you have the apostle Paul in Corinth. And he went, as was his custom, into the synagogue of the Jews. And when the Jewish people started contradictory, contradicting why he separated the disciples in verse seven, it says he entered into a certain man's house named Justice.
One that worshiped God, whose house joined hard was right next door. It really means to the synagogue. So the assembly meetings were held right next door to the synagogue. And I remember our brother Jimmy Smith suggesting that because it was right next door, perhaps there were Jewish people that came in to hear the word in the assembly meetings. And since these miraculous gifts were signs to the Jewish people.
At the beginning of the church's history, God gave them, and perhaps even in assembly meetings he gave these. But there are things to regulate their use. Chapter 14 we read about the question of tongues.
00:50:09
And if there was nobody to interpret the tongues, then they were to be kept. They were to keep silent. So I think it was helpful to me to see. That's why you have in this list in First Corinthians 12, the miraculous gifts.
Turning knowledge, I was thinking of a verse in Second Timothy or First Timothy chapter 6.
Knowledge falsely so-called knowledge that popped up and knowledge that doesn't and so verse twenty of first Timothy six, he says, oh Timothy, keep that which is committed that I trust avoiding profane and vague babblings and oppositions of it says science, which knowledge falsely so-called. There's things that are called knowledge, but they're not knowledge. They're ignorance really, because God has revealed things to us.
We have the things revealed to us in the scriptures and we have a verse in First Corinthians chapter 8.
It's a revelation of things that God has given us to know and understand.
And I'm sure we appreciate.
Knowledge of all sorts of aspects of the truth, knowledge and prophecy and knowledge and all sorts of things connected with the person of the Lord and church truth and whatever. So First Corinthians 8 and verse.
One it says now is touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puff it up.
But charity edify it and so it's a concern that we need to have because we are natural men in the flesh. We do have the Spirit of God.
And we can have our minds taken up with sound knowledge.
And it's going to puff us up because we're like that. We're subject to that. I know so much, you know, but there's not knowledge that does not puff up. And we have that in second Peter, chapter one.
I.
Second Peter One.
And verse three, according as his divine power given us unto us all things.
That pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him.
That called us to glory and virtue.
The knowledge of him, I wonder, brethren, is it possible?
For the knowledge of Him not to sink down in our hearts and move us and make us humble and make us appreciate every aspect of truth He gives us to understand. But connected with the personal Son of God and who He is and what He's done for His Father, what He's done for you and me, His virtue and His glory, the glory of that person. How could we ever think of being an apprentice of the Lord Jesus with any measure of pride or thoughts towards ourselves?
And so knowledge is a good thing, but if it's separated from the person, it's a dangerous thing. And don't we have to recognize that it's been things that have happened among us? It's not that we don't know. We know, but we divide in the name of the Lord. How can that be? That's because I believe there's a lack of connection between the heart and the mind. And so may the Lord help us that we would have the knowledge of him, his virtue and his glory. And if it makes us like Him, then how we're going to be kept from from ourselves too.
I can think of three men who knew.
And they serve as a real object lesson for all of us. They had knowledge, Balaam.
And Judas Iscariot.
And Caiaphas solemn lessons, something that we can take up on our own at home and learn some very edifying and and profitable lessons from. They had knowledge, didn't they?
Ecclesiastes 712 Says this wisdom is a defense and money is a defense, but the Excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Something to chew on, brother.
00:55:05
Going back to the signed gifts a little bit, the signed gifts are common at the beginning of a dispensation, aren't they?
Think of when the Israelites came out of Egypt. They were great sign gifts up through Sinai. But then once in a once a dispensation is established, the word of God becomes the authority. Now the time may come when the word of God is rejected categorically. We call that apostasy. And then oftentimes signed gifts come back. We see that in the apostasy of the 10 tribes and Elijah and Elijah.
They they undertook many miracles because the authority of the Word of God was completely rejected.
But in Christianity now, the signed gifts have were established at the beginning, but then the Word of God, these epistles and the other parts of the Word of God, they were completed by the apostle Paul and the other apostles and prophets. And so the Word of God takes that place and gives authority to what they said originally that wasn't there. We know that they stood in the face of a religion that was almost 2000 years old.
How could they contradict Judaism, which they traced back to Abraham, while the signed gifts gave authority to what they said? But then the Word of God was established as we know and completed in the 1St century, and now it's a question of obedience to the Word of God.
We can say that God can heal even today, can't we? No question about it. But it's not a gift to heal. Not a particular person that does that.
Just to follow up a little bit what you're saying there, Eric, it's a very profitable study to notice that the different junctures of history in Scripture where you had miracles and so forth, First of all, with Moses and Joshua, God was doing something different, something new.
And then as you say, with Elijah and Elijah, he was working among the 10 tribes and calling them back to himself. And then thirdly, Christ and the apostles. And then the last time, I think we can say is that the inauguration of the millennial Kingdom where the prophecy of Joel will be fulfilled completely. In each of those cases, God is doing something new and bringing in, you might say, a new dispensation speaking.
Conventionally he's doing something new, rendering some particular testimony to himself, and he's using those, but they aren't the run-of-the-mill at all times.
Matthew 16. Just a comment there, I know it times up.
Matthew 16 and verse 20.
To justify.
Sign gifts and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following.
Oftentimes what we have is we have the use of the words to confirm the signs. It's the opposite. So we have signs and we go in the Scriptures and we say this is what's happened over there. That's not the way it worked. It was confirming the word. And so when we have the word, as you were saying, we have the word of God, I don't need to see a miracle. I know what happened. The word says it happened.
Lazarus was risen from the dead. I don't need to see a man being raised from the dead because the Word of God gives me a witness to that. And my faith is based on what I what I see is in what I read in the Word of God.
For a close I'd like to touch verse 11. All these that had been listed there worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man or everyone severally as he will. Spirit of God is in the Church of God.
He is in the body, and here it is that divides severally as He will. How important it is to recognize His presence, brother, and in our midst. Again, I say, I find that so often we tend to look at human instruments. Are there human instruments? Yes, there are. Don't look at them. They're just human instruments and they can fail to be looking to the Lord Jesus.
01:00:01
He is the head, He is the one that gives through the Spirit these gifts, these manifestations of the Spirit. I should never be jealous of another man's gift. Could Christ give them? I think there's a nice, nice illustration of that, verse 11. And the Tabernacle isn't there? There were the wood boards that were covered with gold and founded in the the silver sockets. A picture of individual believers.
But there were bars on the outside that held those together, as well as rings on the top. Those are pictures, perhaps of the gifts that God gives. But then there was a rod that went all the way through the middle and held the whole thing together. And that's the Spirit of God.