“Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts…” (Part 2 of 6)

In 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, the Apostle Paul addresses the confusion that existed in the early church around the subject of spiritual gifts.

Plenty of those misconceptions still exist in our day. Today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alistair Begg clarifies these issues and explains the ultimate reason why God gives spiritual gifts. When we read of Aphrodite of Greece or of Venus of Rome or of Ishtar of Syria or of Astarte of Phoenicia or of Issus of Egypt, in every case, the worship of these nonentities known as gods and goddesses find their root in Genesis 11 and find their expression in two things. Number one, in ecstasy.

Number two, in immorality. All of the mystery religion was marked by ecstatic activity and by immoral activity. And so he calls them to think back to their pre-Christian experience to the paganism from which they have come. These people understood that ecstasy was a kind of supernatural, sensuous communion with a deity. It was dramatic, it was bizarre, it was obvious, and it appealed to the natural man.

Now you can sense where Paul is going with this. The Corinthian believers were confusing ecstasy with spirituality. They were lacking in discernment, and therefore they were tempted to assume that what is dramatic must be divine, that because something works, it must be wonderful. And that power is the touchstone of reality.

Let me say that again, because it is so apropos our day. Untaught Christians came to assume that because something was dramatic, it must be divine, that because it worked, it must be wonderful, and because it was powerful, it must be reality. Now, notice how Paul appeals not to their emotions, but to their minds. He says, now think about what you know.

Use your brains, he says, think this out. You know that before you were saved, you were led and you were influenced by two things. You were influenced by your own depravity on the inside, and you were influenced by the attractions of Satan on the outside. Somehow or other, he says, you were influenced and you were led astray to mute idols. Now, loved ones, this addresses very carefully and very clearly for us the condition of men and women outside of Jesus Christ. I don't suggest that we go out from here to use this verse as an introduction to personal evangelism, particularly tomorrow morning, but when you encounter your friends tomorrow morning, realize this, that they are pagans, and that somehow or another they are influenced and they are led astray, and the place where they end up is with dumb, mute idols. They live with an illusion of freedom while all the time they're in bondage.

They think they can really see things when all the time they're really blind, and they are held in captivity. Now, let me just turn you to Ephesians in order to drive this home to verses that you know well. Ephesians chapter two, again, he uses the same process. He says, now let me tell you what you were before you came to Christ. He said, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and in your sins. This is that in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. So he says, the spirit of the evil one was at work in you in your pagan life.

If you turn forward to chapter four of Ephesians in verse seventeen, he says, so I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles or the pagans do in the futility of their thinking. And then he explains what the futility of their thinking is. They're darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. Then he says, you, however, you didn't come to know Jesus Christ in that way. When he writes to Titus in chapter three, he explains the dramatic intervention of God.

In Titus 3, at one time, he says, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. Listen, folks, let's just pause for a moment here and find out if we understand this and if we believe this about our non-Christian friends. The problem with our non-Christian friends is not somehow that they're unhappy and they need to be happy. It's not that somehow they've got gaps in their life that they need some kind of spiritual experience to fill up.

It's not that they're lost and they need a little bit of direction. It is not that they feel guilty and they need to be freed ultimately from their guilt. It is simply this, that they are foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by passions and pleasures. They live in malice and in envy. People hate them and they hate one another. This is a wonderful explanation of what we read about in our magazines and what we read about in our newspapers.

This is why we've got the problem we've got. Now, this is why when the Spirit of God takes somebody out of that background and drops them in the church, this is going to be pretty interesting, isn't it? Because here comes Brother George. He'd been a Christian for two days now. Last week, he was deceived, he was destructive, he was hated, he was being hated, he was led astray to mute idols, he was committed to matters of sensuality, and he met Christ at the crossroads.

The Spirit of God has regenerated him and now he's within the church. Do you think he's got some junk hanging off the back of him? Do you think he's got some confusion in his mind about what really took place? Do you think that he might be tempted to drag some of that pre-Christian experience right into his new Christian experience? Do you think that he might be prepared to bring some of the stuff, as it were, from out there in here? Of course. And he does.

And she does. And that is why, unless the Bible is taught to baby Christians, they remain baby Christians. They neither understand what they've come from, nor do they understand what they've come to.

We march them in here and speak to them in a language that is complete unbelievable gobbledygook. They get about thirty percent on a good Sunday and five percent on a bad Sunday, and they're searching around here for somebody in this church who will be to them their spiritual confidant, guide, and the answerer of their questions. Most of them think I'm their guy. So they come to me. It doesn't take them long with me to realize I'm not.

And I need to send them back to you, because you are. Unless, of course, you don't understand that God gave you spiritual gifts so that you would be able to minister to these dear folks when they come to faith in Jesus Christ. How could it ever be that we would have difficulty in a church of this size of putting together an effective discipleship program for new Christians? Is it because we don't have enough Christians that can take new baby Christians through the first five weeks of what it means to be a Christian?

No. How would it be that we would have such difficulty in launching discipleship evangelism programs in this church? Is it because nobody understands discipleship and nobody understands evangelism?

No. It's because fifteen hundred people are sitting out there waiting for somebody up here to initiate everything that always happens. God gave you spiritual gifts, you, so that you may be useful. And all of the previous life that we brought out of paganism leads only to confusion. Therefore, we need to sit and be taught. We need to be taught as we teach. We need to grow as we learn so that when we recall what was our past, we will be able to help the new Christian who is still entrammeled by so much that they bring to this newfound Christian faith as a result of having been made brand new.

The believer's life is dramatically different. Previously, he says, you worship dumb idols. You worship false gods. And people today are coming to faith in Christ from the worshiping of mute idols.

What it means here—and that's why it's helpful in the NIV, it translates it mute idols. In other words, they can't speak. You can pray to them, but they can't answer. You can ask for help, but they can't say anything. You can confess your sins, but they can't forgive you.

You can long for their power, but they can't unleash it. Now, why does Paul take time on this? He takes time on this because the Corinthians were bringing their baggage from the past into their experience of the present.

They were finding obvious and great difficulty in distinguishing between what was fake and what was real, understanding true worship as opposed to perverted concepts. And so, in helping them out, Paul, in verse 3, and with this we conclude, makes clear what the real issue in relationship to spirituality is. It is, he says, the matter of the lordship of Jesus Christ. All spiritual gifts must ultimately be brought to this touchstone. There's a great sanity and practicality about this which is helpful tonight, as it was helpful then. All right, our final point.

We looked, first of all, at the information they required, then at the superstition they recalled, and finally at the explanation they received. Therefore, I tell you, he says—and you need to know this—that no one who's speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed, and no one can say in reality, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. What did Jesus say of the Spirit's ministry? He said that the burning desire of the Holy Spirit would be to glorify him. John 16, 14, the Holy Spirit, he said, will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

This is Paul's overall criterion for genuineness in the matter of spirituality. A number of commentaries that I read were at pains to suggest that this phrase, on the lips of this individual, Jesus be cursed, is a hypothetical situation. The commentaries point out, surely no Christian, even in the chaos of Corinth, is going to make such a statement.

I'm not so sure. When things get crazy, they get really crazy. If you get yourself wrapped up in a situation where you're prepared to believe just about anything that comes your way because it is dramatic or bizarre, you will eventually, if you're untaught, be led to believe even in heresy.

And if you've never been in this kind of context, just thank God and take my word for it. Because I don't need to go to Corinth to reveal this kind of expression. I think Leon Morris is probably more on track when he suggests that—and you need to look at Galatians 3 for a minute here. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hung on a tree.

Okay? So we have this thing that they would have known from somewhere that there was a deal about, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. The Jews would certainly understand that. They repeated it with frequency, and they denied the reality of Jesus on the basis of it. And Leon Morris says, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some excitable and imperfectly instructed Corinthian had distorted Galatians 3.13 by means of some ecstatic utterance.

So because it was coming out in a different language, because it was being expressed in the framework of a sensuous, ecstatic environment, people began to say, You know what? You've got to admit, man, that's powerful. I mean, you've got to admit there's something happening there. You've got to admit there.

I don't know what it is, but it's something. You hear young Christians talk like this all of the time. And so Paul makes it clear.

Make sure, he says, that you don't begin to judge accuracy and orthodoxy on the basis of experience rather than on the basis of content. This is why I labor with you. This is why we labor in this church, to teach systematically and consecutively through the Bible.

It's challenging both for teacher and for hearer. There is no question about that. There are a hundred other ways to go at the average Sunday in this church that would be fifty times easier for you and a hundred times easier for me. I can do it. I've got more stories than you've ever heard. I've got more jokes than I'm prepared to tell. I've got more sentimentality in my little Scottish backbone than many of you have ever encountered.

I've got it all there. I don't do it. I won't do it. I am shut up to the Word of God because I want to see that after my departure, as Peter said, you will be able to recall these things. You will be grounded in the truth and you will not become susceptible to the rogues and the vagabonds who may come in amongst you to draw away even sensible people after themselves. I've been in churches where people have come into the church and while the worship service was going on, had set themselves up in another room within the building claiming that they had the true touchstone on spirituality and they understood it.

They even at one time barricaded the whole church and locked all the pastors and all the elders and everybody out of the church except the people who had come into the same ecstatic experience of the Spirit of God that they believed was the touchstone of reality. We're talking about Scotland. We're talking about boring places.

We're talking about routine situations. I tell you, if they can do it there, there's no saying what they can pull off here. Now, let me wrap this up. The fact that there were impressive signs of power was causing them to fail to think critically. The fact that it was taking place in the context of the church by someone who made great claims of spiritual power was a causing them to abandon wise judgment and to embrace foolishness. Content was being ignored. It was being lost sight of under the dramatic and the bizarre.

As then, so now. Okay, says Paul, when you were pagans, we can understand that kind of confusion. But now that you are believers, how can you fail to recognize the counterfeit? So notice that the test is doctrinal.

We will never be able to spot what is counterfeit until we have a thorough grasp of the genuine. What a person truly believes about the lordship of Jesus Christ is the test of whether or not what he teaches and does is by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always leads men and women to ascribe lordship to Jesus Christ as one indivisible person, one to be obeyed and to be obeyed completely. And obviously the issue, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, is the matter of sincere confession. Anybody can mouth the words, Jesus is Lord. But nobody can make a sensitive, true, heartfelt expression of that unless they are truly in Christ. That comes across very clearly even in the words and ministry of Jesus himself.

In Matthew chapter 7 and in verse 21 he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And many people will come to me in that day, and they'll say, Lord, didn't we get involved in ecstatic stuff? Didn't we prophesy in your name? And in your name didn't we drive out demons? And in your name didn't we perform many miracles? And then I will say to them plainly, I never knew you.

Away from me, you evildoers. So it is possible by means of phenomenal dramatic displays to bring the deluded in your train. And if you're good from a pulpit like this, all you need to do is close your Bible and draw people after you, stay dramatic, stay emphatic, stay dogmatic, and weak-willed people will follow in your track. So Paul says we better have an objective standard by which we're going to assess all of this. To confess Jesus as Lord means nothing unless it involves the affirming of his person and of his work and the obeying of his commands. Luke chapter 6, 46, Jesus says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things I tell you? He says, Don't use my name. Don't call me Lord and disobey me.

You can only say and mean Jesus as Lord by the ministry of the Spirit, dramatized in a life of wholehearted obedience. Now, we'll go on from there next time. The fact is, it's not a human discovery. It's a spiritual one. This statement can be made only where the Spirit of God is at work within the heart.

Be prayerful about these studies, won't you? We're going to get into territory in a diverse church such as this, people coming from all kinds of backgrounds, and I know a number of you are just sitting there. You just can't wait for this stuff. And I'm glad that you can't wait.

But this is too crucial to fiddle with, dear ones. You understand that, don't you? That the Spirit of God has given gifts to the church so that God's Spirit has been given to God's people so that God's world might be drawn to God's Son. So when we sit in here on Sunday nights, this is not an end. This is a means to an end. Every Sunday school class, every discovery of fresh biblical truth is not an end.

It is a means to an end. And the end is this, that those who tonight are trapped and led astray to all kinds of mute idols may come and declare, Jesus is Lord. Because you and I exercise the gifts God gave in the power of His Spirit so that those who tonight do not know may come to know. The reason God gives spiritual gifts is so that we can encourage and edify others to point people to Christ. You're listening to Alistair Begg with a message in the series in 1 Corinthians called Firm Foundation.

This is Truth for Life weekend. Alistair will be back to close with prayer in just a minute, so please keep listening. In addition to the teaching you hear on this program, Truth for Life recommends books on a variety of topics to help you learn more about the scriptures. The book we're currently featuring is titled, Our Ancient Foe, Satan's History, Activity, and Ultimate Demise. It's not often that we recommend a book about Satan, but the truth is, as believers, we are in a spiritual battle. The Bible makes it clear that the devil is real. He is our mortal enemy.

In fact, his tactics have been used against God's people since the beginning of time. Each chapter in the book, Our Ancient Foe, provides practical advice on how to stand strong against the schemes of the devil. You'll learn how Satan uses lies, deception, temptation, and accusations to undermine our faith. You'll also find out how you can stand strong against the devil's attacks using Christ's power.

Satan knows his days are numbered. In fact, the final chapters of this book focus on Satan's ultimate demise and Jesus' victory over sin, the devil, and death. You'll find the assurance provided in this book a great comfort. The book, Our Ancient Foe, comes highly recommended by the team here at Truth for Life, and this is the final weekend I'm mentioning it.

You can find out how to request your copy when you visit us online at truthforlife.org. Now let's join Alistair as he closes this program with prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank you for the intense practicality of the book here as we read it, for the great spiritual wisdom of Paul. We thank you for the timeless impact of its truth. We pray that you would save us from speculative tendencies that you will give to us a genuine desire to know you, to love you, to be filled with all the fullness of your spirit, and to manifest in our lives the evidences of your abiding presence.

We ask this in order that you may be glorified as we bring forth much fruit and so prove to be your disciples. Thank you for today. Thank you for one another. Thank you for all that we have discovered of your grace and your provision. And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling, to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, tonight and forevermore. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Hope you can join us again next weekend as Alistair explains who qualifies to receive a spiritual gift and why. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.