[0:00] Good morning. I have been blessed to be here this morning. Come what may, here on earth, if I belong to my Lord, He will fill me with peace.
[0:42] And we can go through life's journey with Him. He has promised not to leave us. So what a blessing, what a privilege we are as God's children to face life, both the joyful and the not so joyful times, because we have the Lord.
[1:09] And ultimately, that we face death with confidence that we will be in the presence of our King. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[1:30] This morning I've titled the message, Being Spiritually Discerned. Out of the passage that was read for us. How many of us can speak in tongues?
[1:45] There's only five hands. The rest are dumb. Mute, I mean.
[1:59] So that was a question to get us our attention. What do we associate speaking in tongues with? Gibberish.
[2:16] Charismatics. Any other thoughts? Different languages. Thank you. And so we're going to look at the Corinthians wrestling with some of this.
[2:36] But the church since the Corinthians has struggled greatly with some of these doctrines. And in my estimation have gone off track.
[2:52] Have gone off track with the intent of Scripture. And with the reality of Scripture as well. So this morning we want to look at spiritual giftings.
[3:07] And the Corinthians had lifted up speaking in tongues. And by the way, in their day, speaking in tongues was speaking in different languages.
[3:24] It was not a static utterances. And in the early church, God literally gave them languages that they had not learned.
[3:38] A freebie. How I wished for that when we moved to Bolivia. It didn't happen.
[3:56] Languages. Yet, the Corinthians lifted up the gift of languages above all other gifts.
[4:08] And they valued, compared one against another. Oh, you only have the gift of knowledge. I can speak languages. And so they would elevate themselves.
[4:23] And Paul is correcting them. He is correcting them. And putting it in proper place. So, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 all deal with this.
[4:38] So, it's going to be an interesting teaching journey through these next chapters. As we look at this. Because there is more confusion out there in the church on this subject than perhaps any other.
[4:54] And so, what does the Bible teach? Well, first, as the Apostle Paul starts off here, in verse 1, he says, Now, concerning spirituals.
[5:12] And notice the word gift is italicized. It's in italics. It means it wasn't there in the original text. It's added. And so, regarding the spirituals.
[5:28] Brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. Well, it flows better with spiritual gifts. Because the rest of the chapter, the context, it refers to spiritual gifts.
[5:40] So, we can safely say that word is not incorrect in there. And so, what Paul is identifying is that the spirituals has two sides.
[5:55] The Holy Spirit and? What's the other side? Demonic spirits. He's recognizing there's two sources.
[6:11] There's two sources to the voices that are in our lives. And so, or in the Corinthians as well. So, he says, I do not want you to be ignorant.
[6:24] I want you to recognize this. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols. However, you were carried.
[6:34] In other words, your backgrounds, you had a mix of spiritual influence that was satanic.
[6:46] You had gods that couldn't speak. Remember that. Remember that there are powers in the demonic world.
[7:13] Is that real? There are powers in the demonic world. They are above us in power. We cannot minimize that.
[7:26] But to learn to recognize the source of the Spirit. And so, he is very clear here in bringing that out.
[7:41] Verse 3. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
[7:57] Under the influence of demonic beings. You cannot call Jesus Lord.
[8:08] That's what he's saying here.
[8:18] The evil enemy influence will not drive you to say that. In fact, will resist.
[8:30] All the way. So, that is one way to tell. Where is the source of this? And so, there are...
[8:42] Genuinely, the Spirit of God will lead us to call Jesus as Lord. This is the Holy Spirit.
[8:55] Turning to 1 John 4. A little bit further on that. 1 John 4. The first three verses. 1 John 4.
[9:19] Verse 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
[9:33] But by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
[9:43] And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.
[9:58] So, again, John gives us a test that we can use to determine whether someone or even ourselves are influenced by the Holy Spirit or by a different spirit.
[10:16] Okay? There is only the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, one spirit that is of the Lord. All other spirits are demonic and under the evil one.
[10:33] Under his influence. And so, no one without the Spirit of God will confess that Jesus has come in the flesh as the Son of God.
[10:48] Confessing Jesus as deity, as God, come in the flesh to save mankind. This acknowledgement only comes by the Holy Spirit.
[11:01] And when Jesus turned to Peter and said, Who do you say I am? What was Peter's response? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, deity.
[11:24] And Jesus replied? Okay.
[11:35] No, he added some different words. His name was Peter. Okay. But Jesus replied, Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father.
[11:51] Right? The Holy Spirit. So Jesus confessed, Jesus. Peter confessed to Jesus, You are Lord.
[12:02] Under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Under God. So then, to the Corinthians, he is introducing this to recognize that there are different sources.
[12:19] We need to be careful. And there are different manifestations of the spirituals. But only one right one that will lead us to glorify the Son.
[12:35] Always. Notice, both here and in 1 John 4, the test revolves around Jesus Christ and His identity.
[12:45] Right? Right? The Spirit lives in us to exalt Jesus. Not me, not you, but our Lord.
[13:00] God's holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy but the same Spirit.
[13:34] There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all.
[13:47] What do those three verses bring together? Regarding gifts. You might not have caught it, but the Trinity is mentioned.
[14:05] There are diversities of gifts by the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
[14:17] And there are diversities of activities, but the same God. They are united. They are in sync, in unity, as they've given us gifts.
[14:34] So, we recognize then that spiritual gifts come from God. They're gifted to us from God through the Holy Spirit.
[14:49] Verse 7, But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. So manifestation, the making knowns of the Holy Spirit, by gifting us, by equipping us, is given to how many?
[15:14] To all. Does that include you? to all? To all. God has gifted you.
[15:26] You may ponder or try to discover what that gift is, but He has gifted you.
[15:40] And as you give yourself to the Lord, He will bring that out. He will flush it out. And it will be apparent to everyone what your gift is.
[15:51] As we step out, these gifts will flush to the forefront. And sometimes, we liken it to a parked car is hard to steer, but set it in motion and it's a lot easier.
[16:12] God wants us to step out and He will reveal. And He does. Verse 7 also has the purpose.
[16:27] The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for what purpose? For the profit of all.
[16:43] Who is all? It is the local church setting.
[16:56] The people that God has placed us with. So He has gifted you for the profit of all. He has not gifted you to lift yourself up, to be prominent.
[17:13] He has gifted you for the purpose of the body being edified or built up. And so, the men and ladies up here just a little bit ago were gifted for the profit of all.
[17:39] Who profited by the singing this morning? We all did, did we not? Praise the Lord. And so it is with each gift.
[17:51] And many of our gifts are not so visible or up front here. But they do not profit of any less nature than the ones that are more visible.
[18:07] And we need to understand that. And again, I really, I really like to emphasize this. I love to come into a clean church.
[18:24] That is, that is so good. And it's, it's an unseen thing. Yet it's clean.
[18:35] And so people come in here whatever hours and they clean. And so praise the Lord for that. So the teaching here is to the Corinthians, to us, is that that giftings come from the Lord to each one for the purpose of God's family.
[18:56] So that we are built up encouraged. and then verse 8, he goes on to list some of the giftings.
[19:11] For to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
[19:42] But one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. Now, some of these gifts, we maybe struggle to understand exactly their intent, or what they actually are, and yet, many of these giftings by the Holy Spirit, we refer to them as sign gifts that were given for a purpose and for a season.
[20:33] And there are two lines of thoughts. The first one is, and it's caught up among many churches, is that these gifts will last till glory while the earth stands.
[20:55] That God will gift you with healing, with the gift of being able to heal others, of tongues, of all of them listed here.
[21:08] The other line of thinking is that they were temporary gifts in the early church, till God's revealing of himself was complete.
[21:28] In other words, till the canon of scripture was fulfilled. And we call it the apostolic era. God's love.
[21:40] Now that second one is where I understand it to be. And we're going to dig into it a little more because it responds with reality.
[21:57] how many of us were gifted with a language that you did not learn?
[22:10] That was a sign gift in the early church that many, and in Corinth as well, they spoke in tongues.
[22:23] and not only, not only were they able to speak in tongues, others received the gift to understand a foreign language and to interpret it.
[22:34] wouldn't that be great? I've never met someone who got a free gift of language.
[22:50] I know people who learn easy compared to myself. I struggle with language learning.
[23:04] others have it very easy and yet I've never met someone whom God says, there you go. And likewise with interpreting.
[23:15] I've never met someone that can go around and heal people. Have you? Does that mean the Lord does not heal anymore?
[23:34] Of course he does. But the giftings, let's look at some examples. Well, let's go through this list and maybe take it one at a time.
[23:47] I'll try to give a brief explanation of what they may have been. So starting in verse 8, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and this also is a speaking gift, spirit.
[24:03] And it has to do with the ability to understand the word of God and to skillfully apply it to life. The word of wisdom.
[24:16] Now, let's turn to Acts 6, just as an example to this. Acts 6, in the life of Stephen, on his last message.
[24:28] Acts 6, 8 to 10.
[24:52] Okay, and Stephen was the first name and the deacons that they chose. And it's in verse 8, it says, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
[25:06] And then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen.
[25:19] And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. this is an example of that gift.
[25:38] The young man that was shot in the U.S. here, what was his name again? Charlie. He, I believe, would fit this category.
[25:51] God had gifted him in apologetics and defending the Scriptures. a man of wisdom, discernment. The next one, the word of knowledge.
[26:05] The word of knowledge, and that is the ability to grasp and speak, to convey the truth of God's word, and as revealed to them.
[26:17] And Paul spoke of this, the gift of knowledge, in Ephesians chapter 3, when he says, to me was given the mystery, the knowledge of the mystery, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs with the Jews.
[26:34] And it was a revealing from God to him, and he proclaimed it to the church. So he had the word of knowledge in that aspect.
[26:46] The third one is that of faith, to another faith by the same spirit. Now this is not saving faith.
[27:00] This is the gift of faith, of believing in a deeper sense. It's that, the ability to pray, to ask God to do things beyond, to move the mountains and lives and so on.
[27:19] And so some people have the gift of faith, to believe in a deeper sense, and to pray earnestly for God to work. So this is beyond our normal faith in trusting God.
[27:38] Perhaps the twelve spies, two of them, expressed that kind of faith. They were mentioned in Sunday school this morning on the video, and they stepped out and put away human fear and trusted God, you will conquer the land of Canaan for us, let us go in your strength.
[28:08] And the other ten cowered and said, no, can't do it. No. The gift of faith. How many have read the story of George Mueller?
[28:25] A number of you. He had a vision from God to help orphans. And he prayerfully pursued that and when he died, he had his hand in helping 60,000 orphans.
[28:48] 60,000. We had a report Wednesday night from Mexico by Brian on orphans. Their orphanage houses, what did he say, 27?
[29:02] 27? George Mueller had a vision and by faith, trusting God will provide, he started a work and others caught and many orphanages built.
[29:21] The gift of faith. The next one, gift of healings. literally, to go heal people.
[29:36] And the early church had many examples of this. And we're going to look at a few, or at least at one. Let's turn to Acts 19.
[29:50] We know that Jesus' ministry was filled with those kind of miracles, showing himself to be deity, the king, God's son.
[30:06] Acts 19, 11 and 12. Paul is in Ephesus, he's teaching in the school of Tyrannus for several years. And verse 11, now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
[30:40] Not only did Paul have to speak over them or touch them, they would take handkerchiefs from Paul's pocket and go and touch someone with that, and they were healed.
[30:54] healed. This is a gift of healing. Generally, when the church preaches and teaches that one of the manifestations of the Spirit today is that you have to have the gift of healings, I have yet to see it in real life.
[31:30] And whenever I hear reports of someone who has this gift, unfortunately, it's always happened in another country.
[31:45] Usually Africa, by the way. God treated that as a temporary gift.
[31:58] God still will use His people to heal. And He calls us to pray for someone to lay hands on in specific incidences, and God still heals.
[32:15] by the way, I am a living testimony before you. From ten years ago, and my MS symptoms, I am healed of that.
[32:28] And I can only give God the credibility. That high chair that George is sitting on in the back was bought for me ten years ago so I could sit up front.
[32:45] praise the Lord. He does heal continually in many places. The working of miracles.
[33:07] That is a divine act contrary to nature. It's also a temporary sign gift. used to proclaim the Savior. Acts 6 verse 8.
[33:22] We had already read that. Stephen did signs and wonders, and they couldn't resist his wisdom. His face shone, and they killed him. Prophecy.
[33:37] Prophecy in the Old Testament is hearing from God and proclaiming it to the people. a new revelation. The word of God is today complete.
[33:51] There is no new revelation from God. It's complete. It's written. So when I hear God told me last night, my flags go up.
[34:10] prophecy is done. It does not mean that God cannot speak through us, but he does not give us new scriptural revelation. It is done.
[34:23] In these last days, he has spoken to us through his son. Prophecy. Today, prophecy is generally taken to prophesy, is to forth tell the word, to explain it, to teach it.
[34:44] And discerning spirits. There's the next one listed there. gifts of healings and other working miracles and prophecy and then discerning of spirits.
[34:59] And we talked about that up front, the ability to detect whether someone is speaking by the Holy Spirit or not. And we won't turn there, but in Acts 8, Peter exposed Simon the sorcerer as having an evil spirit and doing miracles by his spirit.
[35:21] And he confronted him and exposed him for who he was. It was a gift of discernment. We need that.
[35:36] We need a discerning gift. And then we'll get to tongues, different kinds of speaking in tongues and also interpretation of tongues.
[35:47] Now why were tongues given? What's the biblical reason? Does anyone know? Spread the message?
[36:03] Okay. There's a clearer reason yet. Okay. Okay. So at Babel, he confused languages.
[36:26] Okay. Right. Yeah. If we turn the page to chapter 14, 1 Corinthians 14.
[36:56] I'll start in verse 20 through 22. He says, It's a quote of Isaiah.
[37:26] And it's a refusal for Israel to recognize their God, to repent. And Isaiah prophesies that with men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people.
[37:40] He's referring to Babylon and to Assyria. I will take my people captive and there in a different language they will hear about me.
[37:52] Verse 22. Therefore, tongues are for a sign. not to those who believe, but to unbelievers.
[38:07] But prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for those who believe. So the gift of tongues was given so that the gospel could go forward to the unbeliever in the early church.
[38:23] church. And so we need to keep that in context as we understand these giftings properly.
[38:35] today. I want us also to turn to 1 Corinthians 13.
[38:53] I'm going to cut short here because we won't have communion yet. 1 Corinthians 13.
[39:06] It's a very interesting chapter. We often call it the love chapter, but it brings out the best gift, love. But in verse 8 through 11, love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will fail.
[39:26] whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
[39:41] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with.
[39:53] When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
[40:07] I've often taken this in the personal context, but if we zoom out and take this in the context of giftings of the Spirit, he says that prophecies will fail, the tongues will cease, and knowledge will vanish.
[40:28] And he says also that now we know in part, but then we will have the whole. When that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be done away with.
[40:45] When I was a child, I spoke as a child. It's referring to the infancy of the church. The beginning of the church.
[41:00] And when God's revelation was complete to the church, these things ceased to be. And we have no more record in church history of these gifts being given.
[41:14] So they were for a season, for a purpose, and we need to keep it in that perspective. The tongues one was high and up on the list for the Corinthians, and guess what?
[41:32] In the church today, it's the same way. In fact, many teach that if you cannot speak in tongues, not in languages, but as in static utterances, you do not have the filling of the Holy Spirit.
[41:54] That is false. That is wrong. That is reading into Scripture what's not there, not understanding God's purposes.
[42:09] You know, a while back, Mike gave me a book on a man, an Alberta man, Archie Rurick. He started off ministry at PRBI, right at the foundings of PRBI, the Bible school here, but God called him into a deliverance ministry where to help people who were possessed by evil spirits.
[42:39] and he acknowledges at the end of his life that when he looked at speaking in tongues as the church practices it today, that he found that almost every instance, and he quoted I think 95% or even higher, was related to demons.
[43:00] is that shocking? He then quotes another man, a contemporary, another man that he worked along with, who also God was using in deliverance ministries, who made the statement, every situation that I have come across in my ministry years involving speaking ecstatic utterances was demonic.
[43:44] Now that's very bold. You know what I did with that? I went to see Mr.
[43:55] Tycroft. because he also has been involved in some deliverance ministries, and I said, this is what this author is writing about his experience, and he says, it's true, that those are my findings as well.
[44:11] I have proven it. So men and women, we need to be careful to be caught up in these expressions that elevate self, and not God.
[44:28] God. And we will speak more of this in the chapters to come, but I need to close so we can go on. It is so, so important that we rely on the Word of God alone, not on experience-based on what others are saying, but on the Word of God to stay on track.
[45:03] May the Lord bless us with this. I would love to teach a lot more on this, maybe next time. With that, we're going to close, and we're going to have the communion service.
[45:19] to pray in closing. Lord, thank You for giving us Your Word in Corinthians 12, the purpose of the giftings that You give us.
[45:32] We praise You for that, Lord. it is the giftings of the Spirit that enable us to serve, to encourage, to profit one another, so that we are encouraged to serve as well.
[45:50] And yet, Lord, out of this, it gets abused and misled. So, Father, protect us from that as Your Word brings clarity to this.
[46:04] And we praise You for that. So, Lord, as we partake of communion now, may You bless this part of the service as we commemorate Your giving of Yourself, of Your body, and of Your blood shed for us.
[46:19] In Jesus' name, Amen.