Ministry of Spiritual Gifts, Part 3

Romans 12:8

     I want you to open in your Bible now to the twelfth chapter of Paul's letter to the Roman church, Romans chapter 12.  Need I say that this has been a marvelous and exciting and thrilling study for us over the last couple of years in this great epistle?  I know it has for me and continues to be a source of great joy and encouragement and blessing.

     And as we have come to the twelfth chapter, it's almost as if we've been digging a long time and we finally discovered gold.  And here we are at the point we've been waiting for for so long, when we can see how all of this doctrine that we've had to dig through is finally settled and we've arrived at the treasure that God has for us in the matter of how to live as God would have us live, to know His blessing and give Him glory.

     Let's remind ourselves of how Paul introduces the great truths of the practical section of this epistle that begin in chapter 12.  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your spiritual worship.  And do not be conformed to this world but be ye being transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.  For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or service, let us attend to our serving; or he that teacheth on teaching; or he that exhorteth on exhortation; he that giveth, with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness."

     Now in reading that passage, we realize that we have arrived at a very crucial point in this great epistle, the key point, the turning point where doctrine turns to duty, where theology turns to practice, to life.  And Paul is saying in view of all that God has done for us described in eleven chapters, which he calls the mercies of God, in view of all of that, he calls us to a total consecration of soul, body, mind and will in an act of complete self‑sacrifice, putting ourselves on the altar of sacrifice. 

     It isn't a new thought.  Jesus called for that, didn't He?  "Except a man take up his cross and follow Me, can't really be My disciple.  Except he deny himself, unless he's willing to turn his back on father and mother and brother and sister, if he's not willing to count the cost and lay down his life, he's not worthy to be My disciple."  It's the same idea.

     There comes a turning point in the life when we are to lay it all out for the service of Jesus Christ.  And I really have to confess to you that it is a daily thing.  Paul said, "I die daily," didn't he, in writing to the Corinthians.  I die daily.  It's every day that I have to put my life back on the altar because it has a way of crawling off. 

     But I really do think there has to be a starting point.  And I can remember when that was for me.  I can remember, as some of you know, when I was thrown out of an automobile going about 75 miles an hour and slid down the road about a hundred yards on my backside and wound up three months in bed.  That was a real turning point in my life.  I mean, you can't really argue with that kind of activity.  If the Lord's going to play that way, you might as well give in.  And that's what I did.

     And it was then at the very strong and sovereign prompting of God through that, that I said, "Lord, here's my life, I no longer want to make the choices, I want You to make the choices.  I no longer want to be in control in any sense."  And my life went on the altar.  And I remember the prayer I prayed that very day standing on that highway after I'd gotten off so I wouldn't get hit by an another car after I had already spun all the way down the road, I walked off and I remember saying, "God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it.  If it's a small job, give me the grace to do it and be satisfied, if it's a big one, give me the ability to do it and be humble."  And I gave everything to Christ standing on that highway.

     For me, that was really the moment of putting myself on the altar, as it were.  And then it's a constant daily process of maintaining that level of dedication and commitment.  And that's where it all starts, with that act of self‑sacrifice.

     Now why do we do that?  Why are we suppose to present ourselves?  Well, the answer is in order that we may serve God properly, as described in verses 3 through 8 and following, so that we may be of use to Him, so that we may maximize our giftedness, so that we may serve His cause and His purpose and His holy Kingdom, and His people and reach the lost and do His work in His way.  And once we've made the proper sacrifice, then in verse 3 we will come to the proper attitude.  And the proper attitude is not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think properly or rightly or soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.  The first thing is to have a humble evaluation of ourselves.  Out of self‑ sacrifice comes the attitude of humility.  I've just put my life on the altar and now I'm nothing.  I'm not trying to salvage my own ego, I'm not trying to fulfill my own goals and desires and build my own reputation, I just want to do what God wants me to do.

     I've said to the Lord so many times, "Lord, I thank You for all You've done in my life, but if You choose to take it all away, that's okay, too.  I just want You to know that my relationship to You is not predicated on what privilege You've given me.  I want to come to the place where I know what Paul meant when he said I know how to bound and I know how to be abase, but in whatever state I am, there with to be...what?...content."  Because for me all life really is is putting my own self on the altar and saying, "There I am, Lord, You do whatever You want to do and if You give it to me, great.  And if You take it away, that's great, too, because it's Yours."

     And Paul had that attitude.  He said, "If I live, I live unto the Lord.  If I die, I die unto the Lord.  I am the Lord's whether I live or die."  And that is the right attitude.

     And so, out of a self‑sacrifice comes humility.  You're not in control.  Your life isn't for you anymore.  And so as you look at yourself then you're not going to think more highly than you ought to think, you're going to think honestly about what you can do for God.  You're going to look rightly and fairly and honestly and sober mindedly and evaluate properly the giftedness and the capability that God by His grace has given to you.  There's no sense in living with delusions of grandeur, imagining yourself to be indispensable to the Kingdom of God or able to do things far beyond what reality would indicate.  And so we have to have the proper attitude.  You start with the proper offering and then you go to the proper attitude.

     And then you need to understand the proper relationship.  Service demands an understanding of that, doesn't it?, in verse 4.  "For as we have many members in one body," that is I have one body and it has members, ears and eyes and nose and organs inside and fingers and arms and legs and all of that, "and all of those members don't have the same function," in fact each one of them has a different one, "so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another and we have gifts that differ according to the grace that is given to us."  So we go from a proper sacrifice, the right sacrifice to the right attitude to the right relationship.  And we understand that we are essential to the body of Christ. 

     So on the one hand this is a marvelous kind of paradox, I have put my life on the altar and I look at myself humbly and say, "I'm not the beginning and the end of all things, I give my life to God, whatever He chooses to do, I want to do that."  And so I rightly evaluate my function.  But immediately after that I am reminded that I am important to the body of Christ.  And that's the balance because I have a function.  I am a member of His body.  And as a member of His body, there is a function that I must do.  And you remember in our last study, we went into that in some detail, looking not only in this passage but also at other passages, namely Romans 12 which deals with the church as a body.

     And so, we begin then to apply our theology.  We begin to really move into the area of practical living with the right sacrifice and the right attitude and the right relationship.  And that brings us, doesn't it, to verse 6 again, and the right service, or the right ministry.  Now that we've put our life on the altar, now that we have properly evaluated the gift that God has given to us, the abilities we have, the ministries His Spirit desires to work through us and that we understand how vital that is to the ongoing and growth and development of the body, it is time for us to get moving.  And so he says if you have the gift of prophecy, then do it.  If you have the gift of service, then get serving.  If it's teaching, then teach.  If it's exhortation, then exhort.  If it's giving, then do it with liberality.  If it's ruling, do it with diligence.  If it's showing mercy, do it with cheerfulness.  That's all exhortation. 

     He's not really getting into a technical definition of the gift, as much as he's saying get at it...get at it.  It's a call for action.  You, who have been recipients of the mercies of God, you who bask in the glories of all the eleven chapters which define for us what God has done on our behalf, get busy doing what He has called you to do on His behalf.

     Peter, you'll remember we mentioned this, gives us similar exhortation in 1 Peter 4:10.  "As every man has received the gift, you have a spiritual gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the multi colored grace of God."  And there's that idea that God's grace gifts to us are multi colored.  God is like an artist with a palette and on the palette there are many different colors and he mixes those colors and paints us a unique color all our own.  And according to the multiple colors He has and the multiple way He has designed us, we need to get on with doing what He's gifted us to do.  If you've received it, then do it as a good steward...that is as a good manager of your giftedness.  It isn't really yours, it's His, He gives it to you to use in His behalf.

     So, Paul is calling us then to the right service.  And I only remind you again that you must understand the right relationship, that is that you're essential to the body of Christ.  You must have the right attitude, that's one of humility.  You are essential.  You're not indispensable.  You are essential, but only in humility will you operate as you should.  And it all begins with presenting yourself as a living sacrifice. 

     And so, Paul calls every believer to ministry.  There can be no such thing as an obedient Christian who isn't ministering.  Now let me remind you that by that I don't intend to say that you have to be ministering within the organized structure of your church.  I believe every Christian ought to belong to a church.  I don't like the idea today that people just kind of float around and they don't want to identify.  I don't think that's biblical.  I think in the Scripture people identified with a local assembly of believers.  In fact, the New Testament indicates that when they moved from one church to another, letters of recommendation were sent to the following church that they might know all about this person's ministry and life and service.  And we know on the day of Pentecost how many people were redeemed and we know a couple of chapters later how many more were redeemed.  And the reason the numbers are so accurate is, no doubt, they kept a record of who belonged.  It's very important that you have that identification and that accountability.  And the New Testament knows nothing about Christians who don't belong to a local assembly of people.

     But I'm not necessarily saying by saying that that you can only minister your gift through an officially designated and entitled function in the church.  You can minister it any place.  In fact, I suppose a good place to start would be at home, wouldn't it?  I mean, if you have the gift of showing mercy, shouldn't folks in your house know that?  If you have the gift of giving, shouldn't people close to you know that?  If God uses you to exhort or to teach, shouldn't people around you notice that?  Now it might get a little heavy if your gift is preaching...  But for the most part, where you need to begin your ministry is around the people that you spend your time with.  And they might be good ones to evaluate the legitimacy of your giftedness anyway.

     So, Paul is saying get on with it.  Do it.  And what does he do?  He lists seven different categories of giftedness: prophesying, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading and showing mercy.  And it's a similar list, isn't it, to the one in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.  In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul gives a similar list.  He adds a few that aren't here, and Paul here has a few that aren't there.  And then in 1 Corinthians 12, he also lists the sign gifts, the miraculous gifts which we believe have passed away with the apostolic era.  And here in Romans, you just have the continual permanent gifts.  There's no sign gift given here, tongues or interpretation or miracles or healing, those are not mentioned here.  These are those which are the ongoing ministries of the church.

     Now keep in mind that these are broad categories, very broad.  Within the area of prophesying, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, showing mercy there are multiplicities of possible manifestations.  The variety of gift areas, the degree of giftedness, the measure of faith that is poured out, at the end of verse 3 it's mentioned, you have to take all of that into consideration.  You have variety of gifts, you have degrees of giftedness given to each individual, you have a measure of faith for the use of that gift for whatever extent God wants it used.  You can add to that that 1 Corinthians 12 says there are many manifestations of the gifts, there are many administrations of the gifts.  It is also obvious from Scripture that there are many combinations of the gifts, as God mixes the colors on His palette.  And then you would add to that varying amounts of Bible knowledge from individual to individual, varying amounts of skill and preparation, varying amounts of wisdom and experience, diverse personality, diverse opportunity.  And when you get it all mixed together, every Christian comes out unique so that every one of us stands alone in the body of Christ with a function that no one else can fill except for us.  And should we not fill it, the compensation won't be as good as it was if we had done our job.

     And I know...I think it's a real mistake to over simplify the gifts and just say, "Well, we have a whole lot of people who have the gift of teaching and if you don't do it, we'll get some other folks who have that gift."  That...that's...I don't think that's right to do that.  If you over simplify the gifts, and you just figure there's a gift of this and a gift of that and a gift of this and a gift of that and everybody fits exactly into those categories, you're going to create a lot of problems.  Let me tell you the problems.

     First of all, you're going to create the problem that basically I just mentioned, the problem that says, "Well, if I don't do it somebody else with the gift will."  Right?  In other words, you're going to give excuses to people who really don't want to do anything under the idea that somebody else will step in.  Listen, people must be aware of the fact that there's nobody put together like they are.  As I've said in our series earlier, every one of us is a spiritual snowflake, there's no two of us alike.  If you don't do it, it isn't done the way God would have chosen originally to have it done.  Oh, He'll stick something in the gap, but you'll forfeit the blessing and God's purpose in its truest and purest sense has to be passed on to others who wouldn't be initially His choice.

     Another problem that you get if you over simplify the gifts is the problem of confusion.  I see confused people all the time and they ask me this when I travel around, "I'm having a terrible time defining my gift.  I went to a seminar and they told me all these were the gifts and I don't seem to fit into any one.  I sometimes think I have a little of this and then I think I have a little of this and I just don't know what my gift is."  And I always say to them, "Don't worry about it.  Your gift is what you are, that's all."  It resists a label.  And if you keep trying to label it and over simplify and over define it, you're going to cause confusion.

     And then there's another problem that comes when you over simply the gifts and that is a rationalization that says, "Well, that's not my gift, I can't do that.  Sorry, I'd certainly like to give to this cause but my gift is not giving.  Praise the Lord," see.  "My gift is taking, do you have anything I can...?"  See.  I mean, there's a lot of that rationalization.  Well, that's not my gift, I'd certainly like to help but, you see, I have the gift of showing mercy and I'm certainly not going to teach anybody anything or exhort anybody, no, no, no.

     See, that over definition, that over simplification becomes an excuse.  And then, of course, I think an over definition has another problem, and that is it leads to self‑deception because people get locked in on a gift they think they have and they don't have it.  "Well, I've got that gift.  Once I taught something and somebody said, `Boy, that was good,' that's my gift."  And they narrow it down and they think that's it and that may not be it.  So we resist that over simplification.  You are absolutely unique and you need humbly to evaluate your giftedness even though it resists a definition.

     I told the folks in the radio Bible conference this week that through the years I have obviously become very much aware of what it is that the Spirit of God wants to do through me.  I know what that is.  Now there are other things that I can do.  I mean, I have enough sort of basic human intelligence to do some things and I could spend my life time doing some good things, some nice things, some helpful things that would be outside the mainstream of my giftedness.  And at the end of my life I would have done some good things but I would not have used the gift that God gave me.  And so I want to do the best thing, the most needful thing, the thing God has most gifted me to do and labor in that area.  And to be honest, my gift resists definition, too.  I don't understand it, it's just a whole lot of stuff that comes together and comes out what I do.  When I'm walking in the Spirit, I see it and I don't need to define it.

     Now let's look at those seven gifts again and just remind ourselves if the areas that the Lord uses to mix our gift in with our personality and our experience and our opportunity and our Bible knowledge and our measure of faith and all of that.  First he mentions prophecy and he says in verse 6, if you have prophecy, then do it according to the proportion of faith.  And the prophecy means to speak publicly, if you have a gift for public speaking.  And prophecy is defined absolutely for us in 1 Corinthians 14:3, it tells us exactly what the gift is.  "He that prophesies speaks to men," that's what it says.  He's a speaker.  He gets up and speaks.  What does he speak about?  He speaks edification, exhortation and consolation.  He builds them up with truth.  He exhorts them to obedience and he comforts them.  He is a public speaker who brings edification, exhortation and consolation. 

     Sometimes in the Bible these men who were with...who had the gift of prophecy gave revelation from God, direct divine revelation.  Other times they reiterated something God had already revealed.  Sometimes they preached the Scripture.  Some of the New Testament preachers who exercised prophetic gifts who spoke publicly, quoted Old Testament truth as well as giving new revelation.  Now since all the revelation is complete, the one with the gift of public speaking today speaks the revelation already revealed, doesn't he?  And so it is the gift of speaking publicly. 

     And it emphasizes primarily the application of God's Word to the time and the place and the present situation.  And we saw that.  So this is the preacher, the one who confronts a society, who proclaims God's Word, who brings God's truth into the picture.

     I had lunch not long ago with the man who owns the Los Angeles Times and many other newspapers and television stations.  And a very fine gentleman.  And I was very honored to spend some time with him.  And he said to me, "I want to ask you a question, John."  He said, "I've come to Grace and I just wonder when I hear you speak why you don't use your platform to speak to some of the social evils of our time.  Why don't you speak to some of the important political issues and why don't you speak to some of the current problems in our society and to the nuclear issues?  And so forth and so on."  And I really knew where he was coming from.  And these are the things that are on his heart and they're the things that impact our society and they're important things.  He said, "Why don't you speak to those things?"

     I said, "Because I believe God has given me a spiritual calling and a spiritual ministry and a spiritual gift for proclaiming God's Word.  And I have one goal in my life and that is to let God have something to say in our society."  I said, "When you work in the L.A. Times, you can let the whole world know what your view is and what your editor's views are and what your columnists' views are and you can include the letters that come to the editor and get all the public opinion you want and I just want to throw God's opinion into the middle of the mix.  Because I believe God also needs to be heard."  And I commend him.  He said to me, "That' makes sense, I never thought of that."  But he says, "God does have a right to be heard in the midst of this."  I said, "That's what I believe God has called and gifted me to do, to bring the truth of God to bear upon the scene."

     Now how do you exercise the gift of prophecy?  According to the proportion of faith.  Now you can translate that the proportion of THE faith, that is consistent with the revealed faith, the Scripture.  Or you can translate it subjectively to the proportion of faith, either way is fair with the Greek text.  On the one case it means when you preach, or when you speak publicly and when you give God's message, it ought to be consistent with THE faith, the revealed faith, the Bible, the faith once for all delivered to the saints, Jude calls it.  Or according to the proportion of faith God's given you.

     In other words, preach according to the measure of your gift.  Either way would be a fair way to translate and I don't want to pick one over the other.  The best way to say it...to see it is to see it both ways.  What you should do when you exercise the gift of prophecy is to exercise it to the maximum measure of the ability God has given you and true to the Word of God, right?  That's what its total message is.

     And I remember as a person, I see myself as having a little bit of this gift of speaking publicly the Word of God, and I remember where I started doing that.  I remember when I did that early and I did that before anybody recognized it, before I was ever heard by anybody, standing in a bus depot shouting at people milling around.  I did it on a street corner in a rainstorm.  I preached in missions to inebriated people who couldn't wait till I get done so they could get a free meal and couldn't care less about what I said.  But I was beginning to exercise that gift.  Preach anywhere I could preach, little country churches to dear souls, preach my heart out to three little old ladies, one time, in a little town and they just grinned and thanked me.  Probably thought to themselves the poor kid will never cut it.

     But if you have that gift as we said in the last couple of studies, you need to use it.  John Stott has written a very fascinating book called Between Two Worlds in which he talks a lot about this prophetic ministry.  And he has some great illustrations of a passionate heart of the one gifted to prophesy.  He writes about Justin Martyr who was a great preacher in the mid second century, in his first apology toward the end of that first apology, he gave an account of the weekly worship of the Christians.  Now we're in the mid second century, going to find out what the Christians did when they met together.  And he says prominence was given to preaching, to proclaiming God's truth.  He writes, "And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place and the writings of the Apostles, or the writings of the prophets are read.  And as long as time permits, then when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts the people to the imitation of these good things."  I mean, they were doing this back in the second century.  They called them the president.  I don't know where they came up with that name but they did.  They read the Scripture and then somebody got up and called them to response.

     Eusebius who was the bishop of Caesarea at the beginning of the fourth century and one of the great fathers of church history was able to sum up the first two hundred years of the church in this way.  Speaking of preachers and teachers, "They set out on journeys from home and performed the work of evangelists, making it their aim to preach to such as had not yet heard the Word of faith at all, and to give them the book of the divine gospels.  But they were content to lay the foundation only of the faith in some foreign places, appointing others as pastors to whom they entrusted the care of those lately brought in.  Then they would depart to other lands and nations with the grace and cooperation of God," end quote.  Preaching...preaching established churches and preaching was what went on once they were established.

     John Chrysostom who preached for twelve years in the cathedral in Antioch before he became the bishop of Constantinople, way back in A.D. 398 gave an exposition of Ephesians 6:13 which has come all the way down to the present in which he preached on "take the whole armor of God," and in that he voiced his opinion about preaching.  In fact, he says, "Only one means and one way of cure has been given us and that is the teaching of the Word.  This is the best instrument, this is the best diet and climate, this serves instead of medicine, this serves instead of cautery, or cauterizing, and cutting, whether it be needful to burn or to amputate, this one method must be used.  And without it nothing else will avail."  And he went on to extol the virtues of proclaiming the Word of God.  And his biographer says, "He was a martyr of the pulpit, for it was chiefly his faithful preaching that ended in his exile."

     And I don't know if you remember the story of Hugh Latimer who was born in 1485.  He was a preacher of the English Reformation.  He died a martyr.  But Hugh Latimer was a marvelous, marvelous person.  Listen to what he wrote.  "And now I would ask you a strange question.  Who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England that passes all the rest in doing his duty?  I can tell, for I know who it is.  I know him well.  But now I think I see you listening and hearking that I should name him.  There is one that passes all others and is the most diligent preacher in all England.  And will ye know who it is?  I will tell you.  It is the devil.  He is the most diligent preacher of all others.  He is never out of his diocese.  He is never from his cure.  You will never find him unoccupied.  He is ever in his parish.  He keeps residence at all times.  You will never find him out of the way.  Call for him when you will, he is always at home.  He's the most diligent preacher in all the realm.  He is ever at his plow.  No lording, no loitering can hinder him.  He is ever applying his business. You will never find him idle.  I warn you, where the devil is resident and has his plow going, there away with books and up with candles, away with Bibles and up with beads, away with the light of the gospel and up with the light of the candles.  Yea at noon day, up with man's traditions and his laws, down with God's truth and His most holy Word.  O that our preachers would be as diligent to sew the corn of good doctrine as Satan is to sew cockle and darnel.  There never was such a preacher in England as he."

     And then he concluded his sermon, "The prelates are lords and no laborers.  But the devil is diligent at his plow.  He is no unpreaching prelate.  He is not lordly loiterer.  But a buy plowman.  Therefore you unpreaching prelates, learn of the devil, to be diligent in doing your office.  If you will not learn of God nor good men to be diligent in your office, then learn of the devil," end quote.

     Now what he was trying to say was you people that aren't preaching as you ought to be preaching, you better realize there's somebody out there preaching.  And unless you start preaching, he's going to win everybody to himself.  So Paul says if you've got the gift...what?...use it...use it.