The Holy Spirit - Session 3 - Ron Matsen

[Music] well welcome to the briefing room here at the river lodge in rappero in new zealand tonight we're going to be looking at session three of our teaching on the holy spirit uh you'll remember in session one we dealt with the character of the holy spirit and last session we looked at the work of the holy spirit and tonight we're going to be looking at the gifts of the holy spirit now by word of caution it's important that you understand that neither one of these subjects in these sessions could possibly give you a really thorough understanding or teaching in this area and it really is meant to be an overview and so no doubt especially as we get into the issue of the gifts uh and then later in the fruits of the spirit in our fourth session uh there you may be left with a sense of desperation that your questions weren't necessarily addressed or answered but nonetheless we'll try to give an overview of this topic tonight the gifts of the holy spirit now we're going to begin by dealing with an issue of semantics there is a difference between the gift of the spirit which you see referenced in scripture and the gifts of the spirit and it's important that you don't confuse the two aspects of the spirit in that sense the gift of the spirit is given to you when you are born again we dealt with this uh in our last session in the work of the holy spirit within the life of a christian and of course acts 2 38 38's a good example of that that is the gift of the spirit that happens when you are born again jesus is the giver john chapter 16 verse 7 tells us that that the one who gives the holy spirit and sends the holy spirit to jesus christ and the spirit is here to do the work of jesus christ and as a result this produces the work of the spirit in our life so when we look at the work of the spirit we recognize that the spirit is responsible for our regeneration that's what the spirit does having drawn us out of the world by opening our eyes to the truth of the gospel the spirit in a regenerated born-again believer is to provide that process of regeneration the sanctification process in the believer is the second romans chapter 5 gives us insight into that setting apart you are a chosen vessel now in christ you are not your own it's so important that people understand that relationship with god that in christ you are not your own the spirit is our guarantee there is that sense which the spirit bears witness with our spirit but the work of the spirit is to be the guarantee of the purchase price he's the occupier john chapter 15 jesus says that he is with you and will be in you he says this to his disciples before his crucifixion and resurrection speaking of a relationship which we would enjoy with the holy spirit as we experience new life in christ through that regenerative work of the holy spirit this holy spirit occupies us he is also our teacher jesus says in john chapter 16 verse 13 that he will come and give you those things which are mine and and and the spirit's work in the believer is to deliver to us the things that are christ and of course we then ended our study last week dealing with or at least giving an overview of spirit baptism acts chapter 1 verse 8 that reference to the third relationship where the spirit in the world is with us as a believer is in us and as we are empowered to be his witnesses in jerusalem judea samaria and the uttermost parts of the world the spirit comes upon us to enable that work of being a witness and so that's the work of the spirit but when we talk about the gifts plural of the spirit probably it would be better to refer to it as the gifts from the spirit where the gift of the spirit and the life of a believer is something that is given by jesus christ and the gifts of the spirit are given by the spirit and we'll make reference to that uh and the verses that make reference to that a little later paul as he was writing to the corinthian church in rome in 1 corinthians chapter 12 really gives us the framework of what we're going to be working on tonight in fact it's very interesting that most that we will be dealing with tonight will come from paul's epistles to the corinthian church who by the way were the most apparently the most charismatic of the churches uh in the apostolic age certainly where the apostles were involved and that the spirit seems to be identifying this particular church uh they were very charismatic and yet as a result of their desire for spiritual gifts and spiritual manifestations paul of course needed to teach them and correct them so that they would be rightly responding to that which is a true work of the holy spirit and so he begins in chapter 12 verse 1 by saying now concerning spiritual gifts brethren i do not want you to be ignorant you know it is sad that this area of ignorance concerning the spiritual gifts has caused great division within the church partly because people on both sides of the question really don't know what they're talking about i don't mean to be mean by saying that what i am saying is it's an emotionally charged issue when it doesn't need to be and as paul is going to address this in one corinthians he addresses it in a manner that says i don't want you to be ignorant here's something we need to understand ignorance leads to misunderstanding about differences and then differences then cause disputes oh you do it this way and i do it that way how can the spirit be there when you're doing this well how can the spirit be there when you're doing that and so differences when they're not understood lead to disputes disputes then cause division well then you can just stay over there you're obviously a heretic well you're a heretic because you don't agree with me and and something which should be empowering to the body of christ is one of the chief sources of division within the body of christ something that is supposed to enable the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel becomes an end in itself rather than a means to the end which is to go into all the world and preach the gospel it becomes an end in itself and when disputes cause division that ends in destruction jesus said when he was challenged about his ministry whether it was from god or not speaking of satan says a house divided against itself cannot stand and sadly because of ignorance the body of christ the local churches can have real disagreements when it comes to the area of the aspects of the holy spirit and the working of the holy spirit and not that i would presuppose that through this one study we would be able to settle all those issues but we will certainly try to give you a biblical basis for paul's teaching here which i think gives us uh the best balance on how to go forward he continues in verse four by saying there are diversity of gifts but the same spirit there are differences of ministries but the same lord and there are diversities of activities but it is the same god who works all and all but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all now in that paul not only gives us a framework but he gives us the objective of these gifts of the holy spirit see it's important that we understand the objective of why these gifts are given to us for example if you had a child and you were giving him a present and it was a shovel a spade and it was because your objective was you wanted to teach him gardening and so uh here's a present for you you're going to really enjoy this this spade we're going to go out and and we're going to plant seed and we're going to get working in the garden and the kid looks at this spade and says this would make a nice tool to bash my big brother over the head and sometimes in a sort of a clumsy sort of a way what i'm trying to say is we need to to understand the purpose of the gifts of the holy spirit as with our last session we talked about the purpose of the baptism of the holy spirit is not so i can feel good about myself or i can have some kind of a spiritual high you may in fact as a result of it feel a sense of spiritual awakening and you may feel very good but that's not the purpose of it that's a byproduct of it the same thing here the gifts of the spirit are for the prophet of the whole body of christ if we approached spiritual gifts in that manner we would not have so much competition and and differences in depend and division over differences the greek word used here for gifts of course is charisma and charisma something is a word that we use quite often oh he's a charismatic character it's used strangely enough only 19 times in the new testament notice as paul is laying out here there's diversity of gifts those are manifestations and we're going to address a few of those manifestations in this study this evening there are differences of ministries that is addressing administrations so you can have many different manifestations and then of each manifestation you can have different administrations how they are dealt with can be different and then there's diversities of activities that is in operation basically what you come up with is you come up with an appreciation that in the spirit's work through born-again believers there's a wide variety of spiritual activity i like to put it this way if we could know the total number of gifts which by the time we get through this evening tonight i think you may agree with me that that's a number that we cannot know but certainly more than most people quickly identify if we knew the number of gifts and then recognize that each of those gifts can have different ways in which they are administered not the same and then of each of those gifts which are administered different there can be different activities associated with that administration what you basically come up to as an understanding is that there is a great variety of the way in which the spirit accomplishes the purpose of glorifying jesus christ now it's important that we understand that within the ministry of jesus christ here's a bit of homework for you to do on your own time but i encourage you to do it and that is this in the gospel period in the in the gospel accounts look at all the times that jesus performed a miracle a healing of some sort or another and what you will discover is that he healed a number of blind people he healed a number of lepers and so on and so forth but in no circumstance will they ever be exactly the same there's always something fresh always something new and in many instances something unexpected now i'm not advocating that we do not exercise spiritual discipline here but what i am trying to get across at this juncture is for us to understand that as we approach this idea of spiritual gifts it's there are far more variations of the way in which the spirit works in individuals depending on all kinds of circumstances probably the most oft asked question of me concerning the gifts of the spirit is when somebody comes to me with a little tiny list they've been a christian for you know 10 15 20 years and they say you know i've been praying the lord would give me a gift in the spirit so i could be productive in the body of christ you know and i'm looking at these nine gifts listed in 1 corinthians 12 and i just don't see myself as having any one of those it's because they're approaching it from the perspective that god is limited with regards to how he expresses himself through the vessels which are now there to be vessels of honor to bring glory to jesus christ and so um just just a way of expressing the fact that paul lays down you don't need to be ignorant and notice before he gets into the teaching on spiritual gifts he then says now you need to appreciate there are a diversity of gifts and there's different kinds of administrations of those gifts and then of those administrations there's even different operations within the administration so you see it as a multiplying factor in that sense paul continues in his instruction to the corinthian church by saying 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 healing 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 but one and the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he wills please take note the holy spirit is the one who makes the call he is the one who is going to deliver that which is necessary as he is now orchestrating the the aspects of your life now that you are raised from the dead and you are christ but it's the same spirit who's working in and through individuals that's why when you have someone who wants to shoehorn god into a box that says this is the way the spirit moves or this is the way the spirit heals or this is the way the spirit works as soon as i hear somebody trying to give you a one two three four five six seven type of a recipe for how we can direct the work of the spirit you automatically know you have somebody who's ignorant of spiritual things because you notice the way paul is building this up he says don't be ignorant god works in ways which are beyond our capacity to fully understand or appreciate and that there are and then he gives a list of nine and some people stop here say oh they're nine gifts of a spirit no there aren't and we'll talk about that in a few minutes a word of wisdom a word of knowledge faith how about that faith which is a gift of the holy spirit the gifts of healing notice the plural there gifts of healing the working of miracles plural prophecy discerning of spirits we'll spend some time talking about how important it is that we discern spirits different kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues now paul stops here because if you know anything about the history of the church in corinth you know that they had a real problem with the audible gifts and so he saves for last the last two gifts which were giving the church the most problem and so he'll address that in more detail in chapter chapter 14 and we'll touch on that uh during our study tonight and so he looks at these nine as he's addressing this church to the romans he adds to that list six more romans chapter 12 beginning in verse three for i say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as god has dealt to each one a measure of faith for as we have many members in one body but all the members do not have the same function so we being many members are one body in christ and individually members of one another having then gifts differing according to that grace that is given to us let us use them if prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry let us use it in our ministering he who teaches in teaching he who exhorts an exhortation he who gives with liberality he who leads with diligence he who shows mercy with cheerfulness now as we look at this list you recognize that he's added some things which are the gifts of the spirit not generally recognized as gifts of the spirit prophecy of course he's repeated that we dealt with that in in 1 corinthians 12 the sense of ministry ministry here is that of service one to another that's a gift of the holy spirit do you have the capacity or do you want or would you like to see the lord minister through you in whatever capacity whether it's it's verbally to someone as an individual or by serving them a cup of coffee or a cup of tea ministering serving them teaching that of giving instruction exhortation that's a gift that is rarely appreciated when it's received nobody likes to be exhorted but nonetheless it's a necessary gift for the body how about this one that that of giving and that it is to be with liberality you know i've met people who god has truly blessed because they have a heart that just gives they see themselves as a vessel used by god but not a vessel as you and i might think of a vessel like a cup they're a vessel that's more like a conduit through which as the lord flows in it flows back out again and god sees that type of person as someone that he can enable to give and god blesses them because it flows through the conduit when you become a cup and begin to try to trap the reservoir there's an example of that in israel the jordan river starts up at mount hermon and makes its way down the mountains and flows through the galilee but then it reaches the dead sea where it stops the galilee is full of fish the dead sea is dead and that's the way people can be you're either a galilee or you're a dead sea and that idea of giving with liberality that individual who says lord none of this is mine anyway one of the most uh sometimes disturbing discussions that i can have with an individual is when they come to me and they they're looking for someone to be a referee concerning their finances and the question that oft is uh given to me is ron what's your position on tithing and i'll i'll normally not ask them immediately i'll i'll try to say what's the what's the motivation behind this well i'm struggling is it ten percent of gross or ten percent of net and now do we take gst out of it or you know i'm being ridiculous but you get my can we take our electric and our our property taxes out first because obviously those have nothing to do with us and and i'm just trying to figure out where my ten percent and i normally lead them down a line of question because eventually i'm going to get to my point and that's simply this i say to them i don't believe in tithing to which i love them when they go no i don't believe you should give god 10 i think you should give him a hundred and you get that sense of that wasn't what i wanted to hear because that's the sense that we should all have but some people are truly gifted in that area they just have a liberal heart and and i just love to see what god does through them another gift he who leads with diligence leadership is one of those qualities that is not as easy as it appears in fact most people who god has led into leadership recognize that really what it means is you get to paint a great big target on your back some people follow that target other people shoot their arrows at it and as a leader really that's that sense of being a shepherd and so leadership is a gift i had a person one time say to me uh he was concerned about you know what his ministry gifts might be and and he said i i'd just like to know if god would like me to be a leader i really do want to be a leader i want to be a leader and i looked at this fellow and i said the way you'll find out if you're a leader is if you follow the lord and people follow you but if you spend your time trying to get the people to follow you you're not a leader when people follow you because you're following the lord then that's the type of person that's in biblical leadership how about this one is a gift he who shows mercy with cheerfulness as a gift of the spirit mercy is an interesting quality we're all familiar with grace we love to say i love the grace of god grace is unmerited favor isn't it we all want unmerited favor rarely do we really want justice unless it's for someone else we certainly don't want god to treat us according to his justice in the sense of us standing on our own right and righteousness before a holy and righteous god no we want to be standing in the righteousness of christ justified by his work but mercy is something which is interesting because it's a quality that many people overlook quality is not giving someone what they deserve when we think of god's loving kindness toward us it is his mercy which endures forever and we trust in his mercy because if he wasn't a merciful god the moment we break his law we're toast we're dead in that sense do you get what i'm getting at and that's why we are told to show mercy one to another mercy is not pity mercy is not giving someone what they deserve so someone offends you someone injures you someone does something that really riles you up you'd really like to let them have both barrels mercy because that's a quality that god has is something we need to see in our life and in many instances that ability to show mercy really is a gift of the spirit and we need to we need to to seek that and see that in our life that mercy is a gift of the spirit because it's not easy to do is it mercy is very hard to give when we see it as pity wrongly defined i can pity them they're a bunch of idiots but mercy oh i'd like to give it to that guy you know she deserves that and you know and they haven't come to you and sought forgiveness it's one of the questions people ask you know well how far should you go when people have offended you well you're to extend them unlimited mercy just like god extends you unlimited mercy you can't forgive people who haven't who haven't repented forgiveness is the gift that is offered to repentance but what you are obligated to give is mercy we're to be merciful to those who have injured us here's another gift that people overlook celibacy that's not one that's high on a lot of people's lists but paul makes reference to it in 1 corinthians chapter 7 verse 7. he says for i wish that all men were even as i myself but each one has his own gift from god one in this manner and another in that now i chose just a portion of where he makes a reference to the fact that at this time in his life he was single now most biblical scholars believe that paul was first of all he was a member of the sanhedrin and if so uh he would have been a rabbi and to be in that position he would have been married and many people have speculated there's nothing in scripture to tell us what happened to paul's wife none the left at the time of his conversion in his public ministry he is single he makes reference to it but he calls it a gift from the spirit his ability to not desire to be married in that sense that is a what he calls a eunuch made by god and that's a gift of the spirit celibacy in that sense paul explains to the corinthian church means that the person can be holy and totally devoted and it's another way to um to identify a person who's just devoted to the lord he says you know if you if you if you can be a celibate and be devoted to the lord you'll be more productive you won't have the cares of this world but if you can't then mary says in ephesians chapter four he adds a few more gifts beginning in verse 10 he who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things and he himself gave some to be apostles some prophet some and some pastors and teachers and so in this list these are positions but as positions they are gifts apostles of course are those who saw christ and were an eyewitness now a broad interpretation of the word apostle just simply means one who is sent out that's why when you have some people go around today saying i'm apostle this an apostle that well they're taking a broad understanding which is not inaccurate in the sense of the use of the word apostle but then again every time you send your children to the local milk bar to pick up a pie for you they're your apostle so you should call your children's apostles then you see what i'm saying you can get silly with these terms by the way and i just i intentionally sort of uh use that example so that we don't get caught up with these titles but it simply means those who are sent out paul's the one who defines uh what a uh what apostolic authority is it had to do with the establishment of the foundational doctrines of the church and paul saw himself as an apostle born out of season because he physically was sent out by jesus christ after the resurrection indifference to those who were part of the public ministry of jesus christ who were sent out by him all right so the apostles prophets we've dealt with that these are the people that foretell and forth tell the word of the lord in other words they deliver god's word but they also tell the future and so there are two aspects to being a prophet evangelist we've dealt with that in a lot of detail in our two-part briefing series called the gospel where we deal with the evangelist and also on our briefing package called the great commission the evangelist is an individual who has a specific message which is the message of reconciliation we've all been given the ministry of reconciliation the evangelist is the one who goes and proclaims the message of reconciliation to the world which we know as the gospel pastors overseers really are those who are tending the flock they're shepherds and many people use this term pastor as again some kind of an exalted term when in fact it simply means the one who is serving for the needs within uh the local fellowships of of christians and teachers of course uh as a position and as a gift this is also uh paul repeats this but in terms of of individual uh types of gifts within the church the teacher is then one who is taking the bread and breaking it and offering it an explanation evangelists make a proclamation teachers give an explanation and that's what we're hopefully doing in our session tonight we are teaching now one observation i want us to be sensitive to and that is that although we have gone through about 19 gifts depending on how you number them uh i don't think this is an exhaustive list in the same way in which we don't have an exhaustive list of all the miracles that jesus performed john tells us that he says if we be if we try to write down all that could be written concerning the life and ministry of jesus christ i i he says i suppose it will fill all the libraries in the world so what we're given is a selected list to give us an appreciation for what is taking place it's not a definitive list and it's also important for us to notice that in many cases in fact i hesitate to say that in most cases we'll find that these are not permanent gifts oh i have the gift of this or i have the gift of that it's an enabling that god gives in the moment for that purpose and i'll show you some examples of that as we go down through some of the specific gifts but it is something i need you to be sensitive to because there is this almost one-upmanship that can happen within charismatic fellowships where it's almost like uh you know scout badges you know and what gifts do you have well i have the gift of this and i have the gift of that you know and they're always the the the flamboyant was you know i have the gift of wisdom wow okay that's good and also discretion i can see i have the gift of prophecy i've not met many who say i have the gift of not telling anyone my gift i have the gift of cleaning toilets you know i have the gift of quiet works you see what's to brag about that and and when you get into this trying to say i have that gift as if somehow it's it's a set of badges that go on the lapel of your jacket it's a dangerous place and i'll show you examples where that is not the case even among the apostles as reported in the book of acts that things occurred and happened as it was necessary for the spirit to accomplish the work at that time and it's important that they were given by the holy spirit as he deems it important when corinthians chapter 12 verse 11 tells that he gives it as he wills we don't play nor direct that work now when we look at just these nine gifts we could have gone through the 19 but for the sake of time we'll go through the the nine gifts that are in one corinthians chapter 12 and we'll we'll look a little bit uh in detail with regards to how they're described in other words some of their administration we've talked about the diversity of gifts we've shown you at least 19 but we're now going to look at these nine and look at their administration in other words how do they actually evidence themselves we'll start with the word of wisdom it is the greek phrase logo sophia sophia the word uh wisdom sophia is used 59 or 51 times in the new testament and when you look at it in context it's always referring to wisdom that is from god wisdom when you define the difference between knowledge and wisdom wisdom is experience based knowledge you can have knowledge you can go to school women you can learn about child bearing and then you have a child that knowledge can be useful to you but after you've experienced child bearing now you have the wisdom of childbearing you've ex you've put to practice that knowledge and you have experience now that that gives it maturity and that's what wisdom is that's why wisdom is found not in necessarily the novice it's dangerous to go try to find wisdom from young counterparts wisdom is found in the way of those who are covered with the scars of the decisions they made in life that's the person that you want to see you want to go as it were the old man of the sea wisdom and so when we speak of the word of wisdom we're talking about the capacity to s to address something which is beyond your experience base just to speak into something which is beyond not only your knowledge more importantly your experience jesus promised this to his disciples he said therefore it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer for i will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or to resist jesus preparing his disciples for the fact that after he had departed they would be drawn before tribunals and so on and so forth he didn't want them to worry about that he would give them what they needed in that hour they would have the word of wisdom and it would come out and we see in the book of acts that happening often individuals who seem to flounder prior to the death and resurrection of jesus christ peter the greatest example he all of a sudden wax lyrical after the day of pentecost man he just he's on fire he's hitting on all cylinders and that's that word of wisdom as if it all sort of came home and made sense but it's not something that he is generating it's a word of wisdom that is there it's a steadying word of experience in an area where you may not necessarily have that experience so that's a gift of the spirit the word of knowledge the greek word knowledge here is gnosis and it's only used 29 times in the new testament it implies a full or complete understanding not just a general awareness but a real intimate detailed knowledge you know we have this uh situation recorded in acts chapter eight where uh peter hears of an outpouring of the holy spirit people are coming to the lord in samaria and he goes there and he prays for the people and as he lays his hands on them they receive the holy spirit and in the crowd is a man named simon who was previously a sorcerer and he sees it and we pick it up in verse 20 he offers money and and so peter said to him your money perishes with you because you thought that the gift of god could be purchased with money you have neither part nor portion in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of god repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray god if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you for i see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity do you see a lot of knowledge that he has there he's never met this man we know by luke by luke's account of the book of acts that who this character is but we know that because the uh the narrator has told us what his background is but you need to appreciate peter is coming into samaria doesn't know this man from adam and then as the holy spirit is being poured out on the the fellowship of people there he makes a misstatement and all of a sudden peter just has the word of knowledge your heart is in the wrong place you know we're told in scripture to be very careful about judging another person's heart because we can't see that but in the word of knowledge you have knowledge and you're able to immediately address something i've heard of ministers who uh stand uh have stood in the pulpit and and felt as a result of uh an explanation they wanted to give a a fictitious story and so this one fellow was standing in the pulp and he says he was going to talk about uh people sort of indulging themselves and and uh so he said it'd be like it would be like a fella who decided to go out today and you know and and really congratulate himself on what a great life he was living and go out and buy himself a fancy car and and he names the car and names the color and and he says it's white cadillac and so on and so forth and you've been driving around the neighborhood just showing off and after you know he's using an example like a justific fiction and afterwards a fella comes up to him just be red how dare you he said how dare you you know make fun of me like that in front of the whole church fellowship and the pastor was like what are you talking about he says man you just you nailed it right there i just bought a white cadillac and i drove it around the neighborhood and and uh i can't believe that you would you know openly rebuke me like that you know but but the word and word of knowledge comes like that it's it's not something in fact that you will necessarily even be aware of it'll just be something that it will just occur to you and you'll say this is the problem isn't it you'll see somebody disturbed about something and the lord will just open it up and you'll say this is what's bothering you isn't it yes how did you know that who's been talking to you well i'm i'm just and that will come as a gift of the holy spirit faith it means a type of faith which is trusting in god this isn't the type of faith that necessarily that we a responsive faith this is a faith where we put our trust in god in hebrews chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good testimony now when you recognize the scripture also tells us that jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith you recognize that there is a faith which is a gift from god which is unto belief unto everlasting life and then there is a faith by which we live our life and that faith produces work and that's what hebrews chapter 11 is all about it's called the hall of faith because by faith these people did these various things the byproduct of their faith was not simply to have a belief system but rather it motivated them to produce works gifts of healing these are those miraculous answers to prayer which we all look for when we need them the book of acts is full of instances of sudden healing the gospels of course in the ministry of jesus christ sudden healing we have this situation that took place in acts chapter 3 verses 1 to 10 peter and james at the gate beautiful here's a man who had been lame for 40 years and every day he was brought and set by the gate beautiful which means during the 30-year plus ministry and life of jesus christ he would have walked by him it's one of those things that when you put that parallel truth together it's astonishing and these guys would have been used to seeing him there you know how many of you notice a rhone's road sign that's that's been up for 40 years and never changed pretty soon you just become blind to it but as you get in in acts chapter 3 you recognize that these men walked by this person who has been sitting there for 40 years and it says and peter looked at him and saw that he had faith to be healed and said silver and gold i do not have but such as i have i give unto you in the name of jesus christ rise and be healed why didn't you do that before peter because it was at that moment the spirit moved his heart and he proclaimed that which would bring glory to jesus christ you see james chapter 5 beginning in verse 14 tells us that we are to ask for healing verse 14 says is anyone sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer of faith will save the sick and the lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven it's a wonderful promise and i wish it was the only passage in scripture that dealt with the issue of healing because it would be a slam dunk in my mind it would be the idea that says there it is all we got to do is just do that and there we go we're going to have healing but we have this nagging question are all healed you see if you are used to building theology on single verses or single portions of scripture people love to latch onto james chapter 5 verses 14 and 15 and latch onto that and just say it over and over again but what's important is is to recognize that the answer to that question is given to us in scripture itself paul had something he called the thorn in the flesh he tells the corinthians about it 2 corinthians chapter 12 beginning in verse 8. he says concerning this thing i pleaded with the lord three times that it mark depart from me and he said to me my grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in weakness therefore most gladly i would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of christ may rest upon me what is paul doing here he's admitting that he applied james chapter 5 verses 14 and 15 three times lord i'm doing what you told me to do i'm coming to you with this infirmity take it away and the answer came booming back no my grace is sufficient for you why because if we truly are gods then not just our heart but our body belongs to him and if he chooses for his purposes to accomplish his will in this manner who as who as the clay can say to the potter why have you made me thus we are to ask and we're to ask in faith believing no doubt about it we have the strange advice of paul to timothy no longer drink water only but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities what he was a disciple of paul paul doesn't say hey man go back and just remember james 5 14-15 do it get some elders to anoint you and put oil over you you just you don't have enough faith man in this case he says take some medicine we have this salutation to timothy greet priscilla and aquila and the household of uh anissophorus erastus stayed in corinth but tromepheus i have left and melita sick what tromepheus he's one of your servants why didn't you just do your paul thing man i've read the book of acts you you've done all kinds of miracles in ephesus they took the sweat bands from your wrist and they laid upon the sick and they were healed you had nothing to do with it people brought sick people out into the streets that perhaps your shadow would touch them and they were healed and yet one of your own disciples is in melita sick why what about isaiah chapter 53 verses 4 and 5 another favorite passage for people who love to cling to isolated verses because they want to believe that if they have enough faith they will be healed they love to quote chapter verse four and five surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by god and afflicted and he was but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed the number of times i've had people quote that to me of course by his stripes we are healed what about that well there's a way of interpreting scripture which is important for us to recognize and understand and that is you always interpret the old testament in light of the new testament the new testament brings to light the mystery of the old testament peter actually quotes from this passage 1 peter chapter 2 beginning in verse 21 for to this you were called because christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed what is the stripes of the cross of christ healing they are healing us from our terminal illness of sin that's how isaiah 53 4 5 is interpreted by the holy spirit through the mouth of peter in the new testament that's why it's important to come with the whole counsel of god concerning this that when we see him bearing in his body that which he is clearing us for the atonement pays for our sins by whose stripes you were healed let's move on the working of miracles the word miracle here is dunamis and those of you that are familiar with charismatic themes know that dunamis means power it's used 123 times in the new testament but strangely enough it's only translated nine times as miracles so the working of power rather than just the working of miracles it can also be translated power 71 times as strength seven times as might four times and as virtue three times so the idea of the working of miracles is a translator's choice of words it can also be the outworking of power in your life what power power to do all kinds of things which is miraculous let me tell you what i know my character and when i see myself responding against the natural sense of my own character i know that has to be a gift from god that's not natural for me to act that way and so when we think of work of miracles let's don't simply segregate that and and make that simply the signs and wonders which are certainly uh appropriate to do so but but it can also simply mean the working of power in your life spiritual power in your life you see miracles were signs following the apostles 1 corinthians chapter 2 beginning in verse 2 tells us for i determined paul says for i determine not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified i was with you in meekness and fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of god notice the use of power dunamis dunamis dunamis that i was doing these things in the power of god producing that which brings glory to god but it was all by the power of god not of us one of the things that saddens me is when i do see things that are being reported as works of the spirit which the net result seems to be nothing more than the glorification of the supposed vessel wow look at how powerful that guy is which of us would say to a scalpel that was in the hand of a skillful surgeon after the completion of the operation wow can you show me that scalpel i just want to stand and just worship that scalpel no it was just an instrument in the hand of the surgeon you need to recognize god has used all kinds of strange creatures to accomplish his purpose donkeys in the old testament and donkeys in the new testament so we need to appreciate the fact that the working of miracles is something that god does use to verify and validate there were miracles at corinth that paul makes reference to truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance and signs and wonders and mighty deeds no doubt don't get me wrong here i love to see things that are miraculous which are supernatural but they happen in god's ways in god's timing and he is always the one that gets the credit i remember as a youngster you know going to meetings where they would say next saturday we're going to have a miracle service and i used to always wonder as a kid how do they know how do they know he's going to do a miracle then well they were leading everyone to believe that if you brought this guy he's got this ability and he'll bring it to us and so what did that cause all the people in the church to do to look to the individual oh such and such is coming to town great man i'm going to go get all my neighbors and i'm going to tell them about the lord and bring them down there and and they're going to learn wow that's not the way the new testament worked in every incident when you see a public miracle takes place at the hand of the apostles they're immediately saying don't look at me as if by my righteousness this man stands here before you whole sadly today an opportunity that came along boy we'd be on tv worldwide and they'd be selling our books and and uh because it's all about me because i want to tell you why god chose me and of course that really misplaces where the glory is supposed to be it's supposed to be with god himself the gift of prophecy so much we could say here it's only used this word is only used 19 times in the new testament strangely enough it primarily means prediction of the future by the way it can mean forth telling in other words making a declaration thus saith the lord that is also prophecy be careful by the way it's a it's a trap that many people can fall into they can fall into the trap of saying thus saith the lord when the lord hasn't spoken you've got to be careful about that jeremiah complained there are prophets around saying thus saith the lord the lord hasn't spoken be careful of saying hey this is what the lord would say to you today when people come and people come up and say to me i got a word of the lord for you i'll say wow let me sit down i've gotta i'm gonna seriously this is like i'm gonna real can we record this or write this down or no it's just the word of the lord i just you know kind of was sitting there and i want to tell you something was it a word of the lord or not or is it a personal unction that you feel or a desire that you want to communicate to me do you say i'm saying we we wrongly use that term word of the lord too often prophecy is very serious in the old testament if you gave a prophecy they didn't come true they stoned you now there are guys running around plaguing the church today who call themselves prophets who make all kinds of predictions that nobody holds them accountable shame on them and shame on the people who enable them to stay in ministry prophecy it is seen as one of the best gifts for the church 1 corinthians 14 pursue love and desire spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy for he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to god for no one understands him however in the spirit he speaks mysteries but he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men that's that word of the lord that comes out it's prophetic and i have met people who have that prophetic word not necessarily in the predicting of the future but in the sense of putting their finger on critical issues uh that need to be addressed and it's and it brings edification and exhortation and comfort and it's a prophetic word but we are told that when someone utters something that is classed as prophecy we are to judge it ooh this makes people very uncomfortable let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge but if anything is revealed to another who sits by let the first keep silent for you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged and the spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets for god is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the saints oh that we would practice that today these guys going around saying thus saith the lord this thus saith the lord that and if you go up to them and say i'd like to challenge you on that you're immediately rebuffed with that sense of don't you try to quench the spirit don't you didn't you hear what i said god's told me this well if god told you that then can you explain this to me why is it in contradiction with what the scripture says over here you see truth never is afraid of being tested and so if they declare truth they should never worry about somebody saying can i test that please i went to a meeting one time where when they would have individuals who would stand up and say i really feel like i have a word of the lord they had a scribe in the room and they'd say stop everybody stop and they would record exactly what the fellow said now if it was a word of exhortation or encouragement i mean you know fine fair enough but if there was any predictive component of it they would they would copy it they would date it and they would remind everyone in the room that they were going to be measured against what they said thus saith the lord guess what that rarely happened when you put testing in the middle of a lot of this foolishness that's going along around a lot of that stuff evaporates strangely isn't it interesting the next gift paul deals with is discerning of spirits that's that type of critical analysis the greek term literally means a judicial estimation in other words to pass judgment oh oh i thought christians weren't supposed to judge one another no we're not to judge one another's heart because we are not god but we are to judge the fruit that's on the tree we are to judge and so when we are dealing with discerning of spirits we are told in 1 john chapter 4 verse 1 beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits where they are of god because many false prophets have gone out into the world you know i've been in those charismatic type services where when when the quote spirit begins to move if you begin to question what's happening there boy you're immediately the big black stamp goes across your forehead oh man he's an unbeliever that boy you're going to quench the spirit here to which i say i sure hope so i want to quench a false spirit i want to be the quench of something that's false why not but people are so afraid of that test the spirits there you go there's that's really how to deal with it let's get this out to see the bible says that end times there will be lying signs and wonders are we paying attention to that prediction in acts chapter 16 paul was in philippi and it happened as he went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us who brought her master much profit by fortune telling the girl followed paul and us and cried out saying these men are the servants of the most high god who proclaim to us the way of salvation and she did this for many days but paul greatly annoyed turn and said to the spirit i command you in the name of jesus christ to come out of her and he came out of her that very hour now i don't know if you've ever paused to think about that passage in acts chapter 16 but to recognize what takes place how did he know she said everything that was right she didn't say a lie she says these are the men that declare to us the way of salvation how did he know because he was given at that point the gift of discerning of spirits and he was annoyed by it and he recognized ah this is if you can't beat them join them kind of spiritual warfare i'm gonna come along and i'm gonna masquerade as the holy spirit because she was looking for a chance to be validated and there's a lot of spiritual activity by people who are like this soothsayer who are masquerading as presenting the spirit of god when they are not and and paul had the discerning of spirits to be able to determine hey this isn't the lord speaking this is a demon you know don't don't get that hollywood idea of what demons how they reveal themselves you know and uh you know they make you hiss when you talk and and you know you look like a snakehead or something you know and uh it's perfect and your face gets all red or something no he presents himself as an angel of light next we see different kinds of tongues the greek word there is glossier it is translated tongue or language what's important for us to recognize is this is not some random babel it is a language in every place that it is translated in the new testament it is a language not repetitive babel is not tongues tongues are always translated when they are translated as praise interestingly enough acts chapter 2 we read in verse 6 when this sound occurred the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language when the outpouring of the holy spirit happened on the day of pentecost there were people from all over the place came and they heard in their own language verse 11 creations and arabs we heard them speaking in our own tongues what the wonderful works of god one corinthians chapter 14 verse 16. paul says otherwise if you bless with a spirit how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say amen at your giving of thanks since he does not understand what you say the context there is and i commend to you the whole of chapter 14 to go read it in its entirety you'll discover that paul is saying to them look you guys are out of control because you're just being silly and you're exalting yourself in what you believe is some kind of an authentic spiritual manifestation which isn't and it's out of control and it causes nothing but confusion notice what he says when tongues at the day of pentecost as specified here in 1 corinthians chapter 14 how can we agree with you in prayer or in your praise and the praise is being translated in that you're giving thanks now in the holy chapter 14 paul gives a comprehensive teaching on the proper use of tongues both private and public and like we don't have enough time to go through that here but nonetheless it is something that you need to spend some a considerable amount of time reading the whole chapter in its context not just cherry picking things uh through it here the interpretation of tongues it literally means the translation of tongues every time tongues are interpreted in scripture they're interpreted as praise and worship and it's always directed to god there are never a message from god i was raised in a pentecostal church where we had every week a message from god and it would be somebody would stand up in the church they would say something in an unknown tongue of some sort or another and then someone would be an awkward pause and then someone would stand up and say my little children and then you know and they would tell you something and that was called and we all waited every sunday you wanted a message from god you will not see any messages like that in the new testament anywhere and yet it's widely practiced in churches today that's not what the scriptures say at all the interpretation of tongues peter at pentecost is quoting from joel chapter 2. but this is what was spoken of by joel and it shall come to pass in the last days says god that i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams and on my men servants and on my maidservants i will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy i will show wonders in heavens above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the lord it shall come to pass that whosoever calls on the name of the lord shall be saved we're familiar with that passage of what is about to happen and paul or peter is using this joel prophesied and this is the fulfillment of that when we have people ask the question are the gifts for today paul then goes on in chapter 2 verse 38 and peter excuse me peter goes on and says then peter said to them repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the lord our god will call peter really answers that question which sadly down through the ages there have been who have said those who have said well the gifts of the spirit were for the apostolic age but now of course since the completion of the canon of the new testament we no longer need the work of the spirit through these gifts anymore well does the church need the gifts of the spirit today well let's take a look at those gifts do we not need wisdom do we not need knowledge or faith or healings the working of miracle or power the word of declaring the word of the lord prophecy we certainly need the discerning of spirits the use of the different types of tongues and all that can be said there there's a whole bible study that you can get in just looking at the use the proper use of the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues of course the church needs ministry and teaching and exhortation it needs people to give liberally it needs leaders and those who show mercy it benefits from those who are sent out apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers as peter said that it's for you and for your children and unto everyone who believes and so i'm one of those who clearly believes that the gifts are for today but they need to all be done decently and in order so we've looked in this session with the to the gifts of the holy spirit and in our next session we'll be looking at the fruit of the spirit let's pray lord as we bow our heart before you we recognize that this is a subject lord which we can't possibly cram into the short amount of time that we've given it and we appreciate the fact that as we as believers trust in you that your spirit will lead us into all truth lord that we don't have to rely upon the cleverness of man nor the words of man to to understand the things of a spirit for they're spiritually discerned you give us eyesight for that and father i pray that even as we consider the verses that have been laid out before us in the commentary lord that you would promote that which is true and right and righteous and and acknowledges and glorifies you lord and everything else is lord you may be blown away as as as chaff lord for father we want to see you rightly represented in the spirit's work uh rightly addressed in our life and so father we just thank you and and in the name of your son jesus christ we just pray all of these things [Music] amen [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

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Length: 72min 46sec (4366 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 26 2020