Now, uh, let me read again, from 1
Corinthians 12.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not
have you ignorant.
Remember that ignorance is an ugly word.
It's almost a swear word in our day.
But all it meant was not in form.
Everybody's ignorant on something.
The most learned man is ignorant on something.
Einstein couldn't keep his own bank account balanced
and turned his checkbook over to his wife.
That's a well-known fact.
He couldn't run a motorboat.
He was running an outboard motor, grounded it
on a sandbar on the bank.
Instead, I guess I was thinking of something
else.
So it isn't disgraceful to be ignorant, but
it could be dangerous to be ignorant of
certain things.
We've all got to admit we're ignorant, well,
of most things.
We specialize in certain things.
But he said about spiritual gifts, it could
be dangerous to be ignorant.
For ye know that once you were Gentiles,
pagans, carried away under these dumb idols.
And Paul wasn't using slang.
Dumb to Paul was an idol that couldn't
speak.
God spoke.
Idols couldn't.
Even as you were led.
Wherefore I give you to understand that no
man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus a curses.
And that no man can say that Jesus
is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.
Now, in order that you might not be
ignorant, but know, I'll explain, says the Apostle.
There are diversities of gifts but the same
Spirit.
There are differences of administrations but the same
Lord.
There are diversities of operations but it is
the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit, the outworking
of that indwelling Spirit, is given to every
man to profit withal.
For to one that is for the profit
of all.
For to one is given by the Spirit
the word of wisdom.
And to another the word of knowledge for
the same Spirit.
To another faith for the same Spirit.
To another gifts of the healing by the
same Spirit.
To another the working of miracles.
To another prophecy.
To another discerning of spirits.
To another divers kinds of tongues.
To another interpretation of tongues.
But all these worketh that one and the
self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will.
Now, that's the general text for the last
Sunday sermon and several to come.
Clear up for the time Brother Paris Reathead
comes.
But I want to point out to you
that we cannot live our Christianity in a
vacuum.
That it is a total impossibility that we
should become Christians and then enter into a
glass ball and be suspended and have everything
exhausted from it and thus suspended in a
vacuum live our lives.
We must live our lives in relation to
something we call our time.
And everybody did it including Paul and Christ
and John and James and Peter and Luther
and Wesley and Knox and all of them.
No Christian ever tried to live if he
knew the word of God and was not
ignorant of it to live in disassociation from
the times in which he lived.
Now the word our times or times the
word is used by Christ and it's also
used by his apostles.
The word times, t-i-m-e-s
means conditions prevalent at any given period.
We familiarly talk about hard times.
People are balancing whether they'll vote for one
or another hoping that by voting for one
they can stall off hard times.
Then we talk about evil times and the
Bible talks about perilous times.
And then the political parties all promises good
times.
So we have hard times, good times, perilous
times, evil times and just plain wonderful times.
But the word times always means condition.
Could be financial, could be religious, could be
political, could be social but conditions prevalent at
any given period with particular emphasis upon the
relation of these conditions to God and to
the scriptures.
Now Christ Jesus our Lord excoriated the religious
leaders of his times because they did not
know the times in which they lived.
Let us look here.
In Matthew 16, the Pharisees also with the
Sadducees came and tempting him desired him that
he would show them a sign from heaven.
He answered and said unto them, When it
is evening you say it will be fair
weather for the sky is red and in
the morning you say it will be foul
weather today for the sky is red and
lowering.
Oh you hypocrites.
You can discern the face of the sky
but you cannot discern the signs of the
times.
The wicked and the adulterous generation seeketh after
a sign but there shall no sign be
given unto it the sign of the prophet
Jonas.
And he left them and departed.
It's quite significant that he turned his back
on these sign seekers.
And these Pharisees and scribes who were the
religious leaders of their days they wanted miraculous
proof that Jesus Christ was who he claimed
to be.
And our Lord rebuked them not only sharply,
I would say almost brutally by saying you
read the sky and your good weather prophets
but you're wiser in weather than you are
in religion.
The signs are all around you.
Moral signs of the times and religious signs
of the times and political signs of the
times and yet you demand that I perform
some miracle as a proof that I am
who I claim to be that I'm the
son of God.
Now there's an apostolic warning for sometimes that
I want to read to you.
I don't like it.
I wish you didn't have to be here.
And I think you will bear me record
that I have preached on this very rarely
maybe not frequently enough.
But the old man of God, Paul was
about to die.
Not to lie down calmly and surrounded by
newspaper men and doctors issuing bulletins and friends.
Not to die that way but to be
led with his hands tied behind his back
and to kneel down and have a Roman
soldier knock his head off with a sword.
That's how he died.
He was about to die and he knew
it and said the time of his departure
had come.
But before he went he wrote his young
Timothy a letter.
And in it he said this.
This know also that in the latter days
perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own
selves covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy without natural affection, truce breakers false
accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are
good traitors, heady, high-minded lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God having a form
of godliness but denying the power thereof for
all from such turn away for of this
sort are they which creep into houses and
lead captive silly women.
Now Paul didn't say that all women were
silly so don't any of you women suddenly
develop a phobia against the holy apostle.
He said silly women but of course there
are silly men too.
But he said that the way they would
work would be to lead captive silly women.
He didn't say they'd lead captive wise women
and there are many wise women.
But these silly women are not only silly
they're laden with sins.
Led away with divers lusts ever learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth.
Then in the fourth chapter he said I
charge thee therefore before God and the Lord
Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and
the dead that is appearing in his kingdom
preach the word the instant in season and
out of season reprove and rebuke and exhort
with all longsuffering and doctrine for the time
will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears that
is they shall they having itching ears shall
heap to themselves teachers you'll notice the punctuation
that's actually what it says they having itching
ears will heap to themselves teachers teachers don't
have itching ears they may too but that's
not what the apostle said and they shall
turn away their ears from the truth and
shall be turned unto fables now in these
days when we preachers are told that we
should hurt nobody's feelings and that we should
remember to be cultured and aesthetic at all
times I just want to point out that
the illustration that Paul used here is taken
from no more fragrant a place than the
swine pen for they had a disease in
those days which pigs got that made their
ears itchy and the only way they could
get any relief was going to rock piles
and rubbing their ears vigorously against the rocks
and Paul, this learned man this man who
is said to be one of the six
great mentalities of all time said so by
the scholars to be and who is a
cultured man if ever one lived actually said
about the last times that things should be
in a position that the only proper illustration
would be the pigs who have the disease
that makes their ears itch and he says
they shall heap to themselves teachers because they
have itching ears now that's what Paul said
and he gave us a preview of some
times I wonder if they could be these
times he said for instance that they should
be lovers of their own selves I ask
you to notice whether these are times of
selfless service or of self love you answer
that yourself I ask you whether these are
times of boasting for there verse 2 says
there shall be boasters that is he's talking
about the church now he's not talking about
the world Paul was mucking with the world
this is a church, it's a religious world
he says there are boasters these days would
be boasters in those days and if those
days are these days I'll leave it to
you boasters then he said there should be
disobedience to parents verse 2 and there isn't
anybody from J.
Edgar Hoover down to the corner policeman or
the school teacher but what would say that's
the day in which we live then lovers
of pleasure more than lovers of God I
ask you my brethren who gets paid the
most the president of the United States or
the pleasure givers you know who the president
of the United States is a piker compared
with the clowns that give pleasure to the
world and to God's dear saints who expect
to wave a harp a fan in heaven
forever having a form of godliness but denying
the power thereof you decide that ever learning
but never seeming somehow to come to a
knowledge of the truth printing more Bibles than
ever have been printed in the history of
the world editing more religious magazines than were
ever heard of having more Bible schools and
seminaries and Christian colleges than were ever known
ever learning and yet somehow never seeming to
come to a knowledge of the truth they
will not endure sound doctrine that is doctrine
that is grave and sensible and they want
it spiced up itching ears with religious leaders
to scratch them and turning unto fables four
of four that's what it says turning unto
fables that is the gospel is now preached
by means of fables we call it fiction
and men are getting rich and buying outboard
or rather crab and cruisers and homes in
Florida writing religious fables for the feeble minded
and today these conditions are upon us my
brethren and strange voices are being heard and
strange directions are being taken by the church
of Christ after the second world war that
is about 1946 I would take it or
five I risked a little prediction and told
the congregation that we were in for a
strange development a series of strange developments my
only error was that I misjudged the distance
they would go and the multiplicity of them
now specifically there's the voice of the boaster
heard in religion and the voice of pleasure
and the voice of the ear scratcher and
the voice of the fable and the voice
of family rebellion now if this was out
in the world among what's called juvenile delinquents
I wouldn't have much to say about it
but if you think this is an extreme
statement you come to me after the service
and tell me so and I'll appreciate it
there won't be any hard feelings at all
I could be over I could be extreme
in this statement but I'm ready to be
corrected but am I reasonably near to telling
the truth when I say that so completely
have we parents lost control of our children
that if you find an obedient teenager these
days he is a paragon and a wonder
and is looked upon as being something unusual
instead of being the most normal thing in
the world even in religious circles we have
made jokes of it men have made money
drawing cartoons about little bald headed fathers who
were kicked around by their children but it
is a long way from being a joke
the crime of the middle aged and the
elderly began in their teenage or younger still
and the rebellions and the opposition to law
and morality and righteousness which is found everywhere
began in the home now conditions will become
worse they used to say during the war
you remember they had a phrase they used
I thought it was rather a quaint one
it said they used to call them communiqués
communiqués from MacArthur communiqués from Eisenhower communiqués from
somebody in charge said this we have done
this and we have suffered this setback and
we have made this advance and we believe
that conditions will worsen before they get better
remember that phrase conditions will worsen before they
get better they expected them to get better
but they figured honestly the only proper honest
thing they could say was that they were
in a tight spot and they expected they
had to do some more running before they
finally could get to a place where they
could stand and make a successful defense that's
what they meant but they called it worsening
well now let me tell you Christians you
Christians that conditions are going to worsen before
they get better Christians are deceiving themselves and
each other by intensified activity by increased publicity
for religion and this is moving and growing
and increasing like a cattle stampede and it
grows by imitation and by the intoxication of
success old was it Lord Bacon yes I
think it was Lord Bacon who said that
there be some things which the more skillful
you can do them the worse man you
are and the intoxication of success is the
intoxication of the imitation of men who point
to success as a proof that they are
right when success in a wrong thing only
proves that the man is more wrong than
if he failed in it cause he's skillfully
able to do wrong and then the encouragement
of crowds there isn't anything that can make
a little man big quicker than crowds take
a tiny little man surround him by a
crowd and he manages by that peculiar psychological
osmosis the power of the crowd leaks through
the thin hide of the little henpecked brother
and for a moment he's a big man
because he's surrounded by people and he's safe
it is the same psychology as the little
fellow with the thick glasses and no chin
who gets in the big car that his
dad bought him takes the muffler off and
roars around the corner on two wheels he
somehow manages to gather from those eight great
roaring beautiful cylinders something of its power what
he doesn't have in himself he gets from
his engine now I pity such a fellow
as that and I can only hope the
day will come when he'll be able to
stand on his own two feet and not
have to borrow power from a machine I
didn't intend to say this and I'll make
some of you furious but you'll get over
it probably and I hope it won't be
serious enough to bring on a heart attack
but it is my conviction that the reason
the secret society used a big long sesquipedalian
rumbling two ton words to name some little
fellow a butcher maybe or a teller in
a bank who has become for the time
grand exalted high potentate ruler of the local
unit the reason they do that is that
there are so many of their members that
can't open their mouth at home and they
can't call their soul their own and between
the tax collector and the auditor and their
wife and their teenage children they haven't got
anybody they can talk back to except the
goldfish but they become members of this or
that society and strut about in the doorman's
uniform and calling themselves the high grand exalted
potentate and you let mama talk to the
potentate and you'll see him take that uniform
off and put on a bib and do
the dishes like any good boy well I
think that's the psychology back of it I
don't know but that's the psychology back of
a great deal of religious activity the intoxication
of crowds and the intoxication of success and
the power of suggestion did you ever notice
how the suggestion has a power if they
sing about it and talk about it enough
Mrs. Housewife goes right out and buys it
they know that and so they do it
it's mostly harmless I suppose because all the
advertised products are good they're never as good
as they say they are but they're as
good as the average so you don't go
wrong in buying advertised goods that's just a
little lesson on the side but the point
is brethren that the power of suggestion is
still a tremendous thing and if a successful
happy group is doing something then we all
want to imitate it now brethren we're in
these times and we as a church and
I as a pastor and these brethren with
me and you as a congregation we can
do one of two possible things we can
be opportunists and take our cue from the
leaders and sacrifice eternal values for temporal success
and I've been around long enough that I
don't even have to end that paragraph you
know what I'm going to do God helping
me or we can do a second thing
we can go into the mount and get
our pattern and come down from the mount
and recognize ourselves as and maintain the character
of a called out assembly a disinherited minority
that because of our beliefs and our lives
and our moral lives we're disinherited and rejected
that we can maintain our characters and art
on the water floating on it in relation
to it but not down in it what
relation then should we take to the world
the same relation that Noah's ark took to
the flood water Noah's ark could not escape
its time it floated on the boiling seething
brackish waters of judgment but it never splashed
a single drop into that earth and it
never became a part of that seething judgment
beneath it it floated clean and always there
was the thickness of the hull between the
people of God inside and the brackish waters
below and so we can think of ourselves
in that way and we can think of
ourselves as a royal priesthood in a holy
nation I believe in ministers and I believe
in ordination of ministers I'm on the ordaining
council in this district and I've been helped
to examine many a young man I was
ordained myself Spurgeon said no man ever laid
his empty hands on his empty head but
that was Spurgeon I believe in ministers and
I'm not against them but I'm saying this
to you my brethren that we are not
the ordained minister is not only a priest
he is one but he's not the only
one all of the people of God are
priests and this is a royal priesthood and
the simplest and humblest one of you listening
to me now that would think this the
least applicable to you if you're a true
Christian you're a priest of the most high
God as surely as the minister or the
bishop and we can think of ourselves as
a company of priests a company of priests
we need not go to a priest to
get entree into the presence of God we
are priests and we can enter into the
presence of God without the mediatorship of an
earthly priest God gives certain gifts and the
church has traditionally taken those gifts and has
recognized them and has called men out laid
their hands on them and said here we
believe this man is so gifted of God
that we want him to preach to us
and help lead us that's been traditional in
all the denominations and I'm for it and
I believe in it let us not pick
this one man out and say this gifted
brother whom we now ordain to the ministry
is the priest the rest of us are
just followers not by a long shot my
friends every one of you has as much
entree into the presence of God as the
most famous preacher that lives in the world
today and you have just as much right
in there and you can come just as
certainly let's suppose a man has a family
of twelve children once in a while they
do yet have them suppose you had the
family of twelve children let's suppose the oldest
boy now reaches 25, 27 years of age
and he's been to college and he has
made good somewhere in the political world or
somewhere in one of the very many worlds
within worlds and he becomes famous and he's
named in pictures from the paper and he's
known and he's a big fellow and when
he comes back home as Yogi Berra went
back home to California to see his mother
or as Joe DiMaggio used to two well
known fellows all right they've made good in
their field and now let's suppose that there's
a whole string of other ones on down
27, 25, 23, 21 on down the line
to the little guys now when it comes
to entree to the father's heart or place
on the father's lap or food to eat
or clothing to wear a roof over the
head or a kindly blessing does this famous
fellow who's known over the world does he
get it all?
no he gets his share and he gets
no more than his share but all those
little steps down to the littlest tiniest one
that can climb up on their lap and
go to sleep they all have entree into
the presence of the most high God and
so you and I my dear friends are
all priests of God and we must recognize
ourselves as being such not alliance people, oh
no no not Presbyterians, not Methodists, not Lutherans
not any denomination but anybody within any denomination
that is a true child of God now
our position closing very quickly there's some things
we must stand against and not in the
name of false charity smile at the altars
of Baal for any of you who thinks
that I'm against too many things let me
give you that text in Exodus which God
gave to me nearly 30 years ago it
said that thou shalt not bow down to
their images nor do after their works nor
follow their gods but thou shalt destroy their
images and idols and quite break down their
images now that is the root etymological meaning
of the word iconoclast somebody that breaks idols
some fellow who's been down on his knees
to an idol for 40 years doesn't take
kindly to the fellow that comes around kicks
the idol over and breaks it and he
said you disillusion me well you poor fellow
shouldn't you be disillusioned now while you have
time to do something about it instead of
waiting to be disillusioned when Gabriel blows his
horn but brethren the things we're against do
not constitute our creed our glory does not
lie in breaking idols our glory does not
lie in opposing things the scripture says ye
shall receive power when the spirit comes upon
you and ye shall be witnesses unto me
and power means ability to do not ability
to destroy it's a positive and not a
negative word and when Jesus and the apostles
promised his church power he meant of course
they were to have power to stand against
evil but that wasn't the primary meaning of
the word it was that they should have
power to do good the man who tells
truth has to stand against the lie but
he's not conscious of standing against lies he's
conscious of telling truth the man who's honest
in his business has to stand against dishonesty
but he's not conscious of standing against dishonesty
he's conscious of being honest and the man
who is decent must stand against indecency that
he doesn't congratulate himself always and stand that
he's standing against indecency he stands for decency
and that's his power and so the bible
gives us power to do and witness we
are to tell what we have seen and
heard and felt and experienced that all centers
around the person of Christ ye shall be
witnesses unto me a witness is somebody that
was there and saw it a witness is
somebody that tells it a witness is called
to the bar, to the court and he's
put in the witness chair and they say
what did you see?
he says I didn't see anything but my
mother-in-law told me they'd dismiss him
in three seconds they don't want to know
what his mother-in-law told him there
what did you see?
they say did you hear what did you
hear that night?
well I'm stone deaf I didn't hear a
thing they write it on a pad I'm
stone deaf well you can't talk to a
witness like that so the Christian that hasn't
seen anything and hasn't heard anything he has
no right to break anybody else's idols I'd
rather worship Baal than to break down Baal's
idols and never worship Jehovah at least they
had something wrong and false but the prophet
who did not know Jehovah had no right
to call anybody to Mount Carmel he had
to be able to give them something better
and you'll remember that when the 400 prophets
of Baal were put to confusion everybody cried
Jehovah he is God Jehovah he is God
they cried not against the destruction of the
Baalites but against somebody they'd found they'd found
God and they said now we know we've
found Jehovah the emphasis was not upon the
destruction of Baal but upon the discovery of
Jehovah and so my brethren no man has
a right to break an idol unless he
has a true God no man has any
right to stand against something bad unless he
has something good to put in its place
no man has any right to criticize someone
who's going the wrong way unless he has
the right way himself now we must not
sit on our hands and react somebody said
and pastor said to Mr. Moody Mr. Moody
I don't like the way you evangelize Moody
said how do you do it he said
I don't well Moody says I like my
way better now we must not sit on
our hands brethren that's our trouble we're in
a place where there's we're so pressed in
on the inside from all directions we're pressed
all directions almost anywhere you go we are
running to old Baal somewhere and so the
result is that a lot of us we
sit on our hands and react brethren I
won't do it by God almighty he'll help
me I won't do it I believe that
we have a message that's the biggest thing
in the world and I have no apology
for it I believe that we have a
Christ that can meet any need anywhere and
we need not kneel before the learned nor
before the communists nor before the Catholics nor
before the one worlder nor before the great
pahai religionist which takes all religions and makes
them one we need not kneel before the
psychologist who's supposed to be able to know
all that goes on inside us we need
not kneel before anybody we kneel only before
one and that one has been raised from
the dead and sat at the right hand
of God the Father almighty and he wears
the only triple crown there is I repeat
for he is Lord of heaven, earth and
hell he is Jesus Christ our Lord so
you and I have got to demonstrate something
there's no possible use for us to talk
how wildly astray evangelicalism is if we don't
have something to put in its place say
well all right you don't like what I'm
doing you don't like what I believe what
do you got have you got something to
give them listen to this being let go
they went to their own company and they
reported all that the chief priests and elders
had said unto them and when they heard
that they lifted up their voice to God
with one accord and they said Lord thou
art God which has made heaven and earth
and the sea and all that in them
is they weren't listening to seminars on whether
Christ was virgin born or not or on
the deity of Christ they simply said Lord
Jesus thou art God which has made heaven
and earth and the sea and all that
in them is who by the mouth of
thy servant David has said why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine vain things
the kings of the earth stood up and
the rulers were gathered together against the Lord
and against his Christ for by a truth
of a truth against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before it
is done and now Lord said Lord we're
just about through now about ready for the
amen now Lord they said behold their threatening
and grant unto thy servants that with all
boldness they may speak thy word by stretching
forth thine hand to heal and that signs
and wonders may be done by the name
of the holy child Jesus and when they
had prayed the place was shaken where they
were assembled together and they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost and they spake the
word of God with boldness they went out
against anybody they were out in favor of
somebody and that somebody who had been raised
from the dead and they were out preaching
him and the multitude of them that believed
were of one heart and one soul neither
said any of them that ought the things
they possessed were their own but they had
all things common and with great power gave
the apostles witness of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them
all the church that has great grace upon
it can break idols because they've got something
to show to put in their place and
brethren for us to take the stand we
do and have no great grace on us
and no great power on us is to
put ourselves in the position of the seven
sons of Siva who told the devil to
come out of a man and the devil
turned around and said we know Jesus and
we know Paul but who are you?
and they tore his clothes off his back
so may God help us we're for something
not against something we're against something only because
we're for something and what we're for is
so infinitely greater than anything that we can
possibly be against that 95% of our
message and thought and prayer should have to
do with what we are for