The Gifts of the Body, Part 2
Selected Scriptures
Tonight we want to continue our study of the subject of the gifts of the Spirit. We're going to be considering several selected passages of scripture.
First of all, tonight we will take another step and we will talk about the definition of the specific spiritual gifts. Christ revealed Himself first in a human body, through which all His attributes were manifest. And He has a new body today since His human body is gone into glory, His new body is the church, a spiritual body.
We who know Jesus Christ are that body and every Christian is a vital member of the body. And just as a human body must work together and totally to be healthy, so we must function in interdependence upon each other in order to be one body united.
Now, God has set in order a plan for the orderly function of the body. And the plan is this, each believer has certain grace gifts, charismata or newmatica, certain spiritual gifts. And these gifts the Holy Spirit gives a believer and then ministers through that gift to the rest of the body, so that your gifts are not so much for you as they are for the other members of the body of Christ.
Through these gifts then, the Holy Spirit ministers to the other members of the body and this network of inner mutual ministry strengthens every part and allows the whole body to grow strong and healthy.
Now, last week we saw some of the basic principles regarding this divine plan. Just let me read them and make brief comment. Principle number one, spiritual gifts are important and essential for the health of the body. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:1, "I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning spiritual gifts." And that phrase is a phrase that he uses only four other times. The Holy Spirit uses only four other times in the New Testament, each other time it deals with one of the cardinal aspects of salvation, so in terms of importance, the spiritual gifts concept ranks with the doctrines of basic salvation because it is that important for us to understand. It is the life and death issue of the health of the body of Christ.
All right, the second thing, the Holy Spirit is the source of these gifts. They are not sought. You cannot go after them to seek them. Principle number two, the Holy Spirit is the source of these gifts.
Principle number three, we're still reviewing. If you weren't here last week, the tapes are available on all of this series. Principle number three, the gifts are not natural abilities. They are sovereignly bestowed manifestations of the Spirit's power through divine enablement.
And as I said last week, the Holy Spirit may elect to us a man in the area of his natural ability and gift him in that area or he may not. Sometimes our natural aptitude is used. Sometimes it is not. And the point is the Holy Spirit gives these gifts sovereignly.
Principle number four, there is no hierarchy in the gifts. All the gifts are equally important, equally necessary and equally honored.
Principle number five, gifts are no sign or guarantee of spirituality. Some people have the idea that if you have a certain gift you're automatically spiritual. That is not biblical. All believers possess them even carnal ones. And the gift can be counterfeited and operated in the energy of the flesh. Having a particular gift is no guarantee at all that you are spiritual.
It is also not guarantee that you're always right. We saw how in 1 Corinthians 14 it even says that those who were prophets had to get their minds together and you had to hear the word of two or three of them before you could make a decision. Just because you have a gift doesn't mean you're always right.
Gifts can be misused. The greatest living example of that was the whole Corinthian problem. They were in the midst of misusing their gifts. So we see that the possession of a gift doesn't guarantee spirituality or infallibility on the one who exercises it.
Principle number six, the gifts when rightly exercised in the Spirit, have the promise of divine energy. When you really operate your Spirit given gift and the energy of the Spirit, you find that there is power as a result of it. When wrongly used however, 1 Corinthians 14:33 will show you what happened. When you exercise your gift wrongly it says, "For God is not author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints."
In other words, when you misuse your gift or exercise it in the flesh, it doesn't bring about unity, it brings about confusion. And so the gifts when rightly exercised in the Spirit are the promise of divine energy. That's why Peter says in 1 Peter Chapter 4 in verse 10, he says, "If you're going to speak and you have the gift, then do it in a Godly fashion. If you speak, speak as the oracles of God. If you minister, do it as the ability which God gives." In other words, use your gift in the energy of the Spirit.
Principle number seven, when the gifts are used, the body profits. The body of Christ must be one for the sake edification and result in testimony. The only way we will ever be healthy and build up is if we profit together and the way we prophet is in the exercise of these gifts. Both the one who exercise his gift profits and the rest of the body to whom the gift is ministered. As I minister to you, your build up is you minister to me, I'm build up.
Principle number 8, the gifts of the Spirit are distinct from the fruit of the Spirit. Now we didn't get into that last week. In Galatians 5:22 and 23, we have an important catalogue of the fruit of the Spirit. And it says this, "For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control."
Now, the fruit of the Spirit are attributes which every Spirit walk Christian possesses. Fruit of the Spirit are characteristics, gifts of the Spirit are services. And that's the distinction. Every believer walking in the Spirit has love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, all of those.
Those are characteristics of a Spirit walked believer. Gifts are the service of that believer. And while you're serving, those gifts should also at the same be manifest.
Principle number nine, you can have a gift and not be using it in a great theological statement. Most Christians are in this situation. And that's why Paul is in...Paul talking to Timothy is an example where he said stir up the gift, you know. You can have a gift, but not use it.
Principle number ten, spiritual grace gifts come in combinations. I believe that Christians have more gifts than they think they have. I look at the Apostle Paul and I can't figure out any gift he didn't have frankly. You look over there in Paul's writing to Timothy who was in a sense a lesser light in terms of popularity than Paul, and in 2 Timothy Chapter 4, Paul says this, "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the living and the dead it is appearing and His kingdom, preach the word," he obviously had the gift of prophecy, "be diligent in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort," he had the gift of exhortation, "with all long-suffering and doctrine," he also had the gift of teaching, "but the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts so they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears." Now verse 5, "Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist," he also had the office of evangelism, "make full proof of they ministry."
So evidently, Timothy had a combination of many things. And that's simply an illustration. There you have ten basic principles regarding spiritual gifts. I'm going to leave it at that and I'm going to let you look up those verses, let the Spirit of God be your teacher.
We want to look at the gifts specifically and may I apologize at this point to you who have not been here in the past. We're trying to cover a lot of territory. And because of this, we're skipping over a long lengthy review. And if you'd like to catch up as I said, we have available those tapes which you could either purchase or check out of the library and hear the messages that lead up to this one.
And this is rather a technical one from some standpoints. All right, now we come to the spiritual gifts. And we want to look at these specifically tonight and see what each of them is so that you might understand what your gifts are in order that you might operate your gifts and the energy of the Spirit that the body might be healthy and that our witness might be effective.
Now there are two kinds of spiritual gifts, permanent edifying gifts and temporary confirming signed gifts. There are two kinds of gifts, permanent edifying gifts and temporary confirming signed gifts.
First of all, there are the permanent gifts which edify or build up the body. They are gifts which do no cease which began in the early church and still go on today. The first on there is the gift of prophecy. Now in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, in verse 10, it says, "To another," in the middle of the verse, "to another prophecy." That was one of the spiritual gifts. In Romans Chapter 12, don't try to chase around with me on this, I'll read them to you. In Romans 12 verse 6, it says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us whether prophecy let us prophesize."
One of the gifts and the first one on the list, the first permanent gift was the gift of prophecy. That means preaching. It does not mean foretelling the future. It does not mean reading the crystal ball. It is the gift of preaching. It means to tell forth. That's exactly what it means, to tell forth, to declare. It is the gift of preaching.
Now, here comes a very important thing and we're going to be interjecting some things along here that are going to tie together at the end, and I want you to get this. This is critical to understand. An interpretive issue, there is a gift called the gift of prophecy and there is a ministry called a prophet. The gift of prophecy and the man who is a prophet are two different things.
Now, I want you to hang on to this for a minute. The gift of prophecy is not to be confused with the office of a prophet. I'll show you what I mean. 1 Corinthians 12:28 shows us the difference. In verse 10 of Chapter 12, it says, "prophecy is a gift." In verse 28, it says, "And God hath set some in the church." Some what? Some Apostles? Some prophets, some teachers. Now that is not a gift, that is a man. You see it?
In verse 10, you have the gift of prophecy or preaching in verse 28, you have the office of a prophet, and they are different. And unless you understand this, you do not understand the nature and the character of this particular spiritual gift. Now notice in verse 28 of 1 Corinthians 12 that it says, "and God hath," and it doesn't given a grace gift, it says, "God has set ethatah, which means God has appointed. And it says, "God has set some," and the some does not refer to gifts, it refers to men.
Down in the middle of verse 28 it says, very importantly after the teachers, it says, "after that miracles and gifts of healing and helps," in other words, the gifts are made distinct by the little phrase after that. God established certain men in the church and on top of that He gave certain gifts. Do you see what I'm getting at? The gift of prophecy is distinct from the office of a prophet. And I'm not talking about an Old Testament prophet. I'm talking about a church prophet, early church prophet.
Now, I want to show you another verse, Ephesians 4:11, very important. And here you have the same thing again. These are not gifts in Ephesians 4:11, they are men. You might put it this way. They aren't gifts, they're gifted men. Verse 11, "And he gave some," some what, some gifts, no, "some men, apostles, some more men, prophets, some more men, evangelists, some more pastors, and teachers." Now, those are not spiritual gifts, those are gifted men given to the church.
Verse 12, "For the perfecting of the saints," see we need leadership in the church don't we? And so God has not only given every member of the body of Christ certain gifts, but He's given the church in total certain gifted men. And a prophet and a gift of prophecy are thus distinct.
Now, may I add this, that a prophet, the New Testament prophets, the early prophets belonged to a special call, watch this, for a special time in history. They belong to the first century church, the apostolic era. There are no "prophets" today, any more than there are apostles today. There are neither of those today.
They undoubtedly had as one of their gifts the gift of prophecy, right? If they were prophets, they undoubtedly had that gift. But they were a special breed for the beginning years of the church and they have ceased to exist. Though the prophets have ceased, and I'll show you why in a minute, the gift of prophecy or preaching still goes on doesn't it? I hope it does.
The gift is still going on. The office of prophet has ceased. And the Greek word as I said for prophecy simply means a foreteller or a preacher. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, he says, "Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts," again in the expression of your service, plural, "but rather that you may preach." Every time you see that word you can pronounce it preach.
Verse 3, "But he that preaches speaks unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort." And he compares here with tongues in verse 4. "He that speaks in a language or a tongue edifies himself, but he that preaches edifies the church." In other words, preaching was a dominant thing.
And you know, there's kind of a running deal today where people are kind of putting down preaching and they want to get together in these little groups and just, you know, nobody wants