1 Corinthians chapter 12, a classic of the
Bible on spiritual gifts.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not
have you ignorant.
You know that you were Gentiles carried away
into these dumb idols even as you were
led.
Therefore I give you to understand that no
man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus accursed.
And no man can say that Jesus is
Lord but by the Holy Spirit.
Now there are diversities of gifts but the
same Spirit.
And there are diversities of administrations but the
same Lord.
And there are diversities of operations but it
is the same God which worketh all in
all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given
to every man to profit with all.
For to one is given by the Spirit
the word of wisdom, to another the word
of knowledge by the same Spirit.
By the way, notice the frequent repetition of
that little phrase at the end, by the
same Spirit.
To another faith by the same Spirit, to
another the gifts of healing by the same
Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to
another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to
another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the
interpretation of tongues.
But all these worketh that one and the
self, same Spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will.
For as the body is one and hath
many members, and all the members of that
one body being many are one, so also
is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and
have been all made to drink into one
Spirit.
For the body is not one member but
many.
If the foot shall say, because I am
not the hand, I am not of the
body, is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, because I
am not the eye, I am not of
the body, is it therefore not of the
body?
If the whole body were an eye, where
would be the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the
smelling?
But now hath God set the members, every
one of them, in the body, as it
hath pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where
were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but
one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, I
have no need of you.
Nor again the head to the feet, I
have no need of you.
How much more these members of the body,
which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.
And those members of the body which we
think to be less honourable, upon these we
bestow more abundant honour.
And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
For our comely parts have no need, but
God hath tempered the body together, having given
more abundant honour to that part which lacked.
That there should be no schism in the
body, but that the members should have the
same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it.
Or one member be honoured, all the members
rejoice with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and
members in particular.
And God hath set some in the church,
first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, after that
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities
of tongues.
Are all apostles?
Are all prophets?
Are all teachers?
Are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues?
Do all interpret?
But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet
show I unto you a more excellent way.
This is the word of the Lord, and
strange as it may seem, 1 Corinthians 12
is followed by 1 Corinthians 13, that great
chapter of love.
I want to share with you a little
bit this morning about the ministry of the
Holy Spirit.
He is rather neglected, or misunderstood, or forgotten
in so many areas these days.
And it's so sad that the one who
was sent to unite the body, is these
days the centre of controversy.
Christian work is so planned that we don't
need the Holy Spirit anymore, and Christian living
is so organised that we don't have much
time for it.
But Jesus said in John 15 and verse
5, without me you can do nothing.
Not without my help, not without a little
reinforcement, but without my life, you can do
nothing.
It was A.
W.
Tozer who says in his book, In Pursuit
of God, I think, if the Holy Spirit
were withdrawn from the church today, 95%
of what we do would go on, and
nobody would know any different.
If the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the
New Testament church, 95% of what they
did would stop, and everybody would know the
difference.
Programme is substituted for Holy Spirit strategy.
Do you ever have the misfortune to attend
church business meetings, perhaps?
You don't have that in your area, but
I do, and there's a complete dichotomy in
a church business meeting between the very nice
opening evangelical prayer and the benediction, and what
happens in between.
Have you ever been at a church business
meeting when somebody has stopped it and said,
just a minute, what do you think the
Lord wants to do about this?
I haven't.
We make our plans and ask him to
bless them, without really stopping to ask what
his plan may be.
Yet, the Holy Spirit is the substitute on
earth today for the bodily presence of Jesus,
2000 years ago.
He's here to replace him.
You remember that when the Lord was here,
heaven opened more than once and said, this
is my beloved son, hear him.
Not now, not now.
Now it is, he that hath an ear
to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches.
That's the way in which every letter to
the seven churches in Revelation concludes.
He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches.
Of course, that means giving him time and
room.
Supposing an angel came and stood behind you
now and said to you, how many minutes
are there in a day?
What would you answer?
960?
Left?
960 And suppose that angel said to you,
yes, and how many minutes of those 960
do you give time to talk to me?
Oh Lord, seven?
Seven minutes out of 960?
Would we have to say that?
I was interested because I read in, I
think it was, I forget which magazine, so
I'm trying to tell you, in the average
life of 75 years, we spend 25 years
asleep, 17 years at work, six years in
travel, seven and a half years dressing, nine
watching TV, six years eating, four years being
sick, and six months in prayer and Bible
study.
If I believe in the Holy Spirit, I
just can't afford to live like that.
He needs time and room.
It's sufficient, of course, to begin with, if
he that hath an ear, one person, one
person has an ear to hear, and that
person must have a capacity to wait on
God and listen.
All fruitful Christian service begins and continues in
hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying.
I don't think that has much to do
with our outward ear.
God has many ways of getting his message
through.
It comes through his Word, chiefly.
I would say that the Word of God
without the Spirit of God is dead.
I don't care how fundamental it is, it's
dead.
And the Holy Spirit without the Word of
God is dangerous.
It isn't based on the Word of God,
it's dangerous.
But where you have the Word of God
linked with the Spirit of God, you've got
dynamite.
And that's what we need in these days.
You read a chapter in Acts, like Acts
13, especially the closing part, where the disciples
went everywhere preaching the Word, the Word.
That was their authority.
He can speak that way.
He also speaks through outward circumstances.
I haven't time to ask you to read
this, but I'll just give you the chapter,
Acts 16, verse 9, how the Word of
God got into Europe, and how the disciples
were led by closed doors as well as
open doors.
When anybody comes to me and says they're
absolutely sure that God is leading them somewhere,
every door is opened wide.
It's been so wonderful.
I find that every door shuts slam in
my face before God opens one of them,
which is his.
You may not agree with that.
But in spite of all these things, everybody
must have willingness to be still, to be
silent in the depths of our hearts to
our own plans and our own ideas, and
wait for a revelation of the will of
God.
Now, in revealing his will to us, the
Lord has gifts of the Spirit, and we
were reading this morning this amazing chapter in
his Word.
Look at one or two verses with me,
would you?
First, at verse 13, for by one Spirit
are we all baptized into one body.
Notice that word, all.
Now look at verse 28, and God has
set some in the church.
Now that word some is not in the
RSV or in the NAV, but it's implied.
God has set some in the church, first
apostles, secondary prophets, thirdly teachers, and so on.
He has baptized all in the Spirit, and
he has given some apostles and prophets and
teachers and so on.
Now turn to verses 4 through 7.
Let me just read them again to you.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the
same Spirit.
There are differences of administrations, but the same
Lord.
Diversities of operations, but the same God who
works in all in all.
The manifestation of the Spirit is given to
every man to profit with all.
And just leave it there at the moment.
Now what is the Lord saying?
What is the Word saying to us in
that?
He's saying this, isn't he?
He knows what is the best gift for
each one of us.
Verse 6, in order that we may fit
into the body, the church, verse 7, and
also verse 11.
All these worketh that one and the self,
same Spirit, divide into every man severally as
he will.
That's tremendously important.
I'll say a word or two more about
that in a minute.
Of the gifts here, and there are 14
of them, none of them are natural talents,
natural gifts.
Verse 4, and there are 11 repetitions of
this phrase, by the same Spirit.
They're all given by the Spirit of God.
Therefore I should never envy anyone else's gift.
Never.
But we need all of them within the
fellowship of the church.
But you can't have them all.
You and I will have the gift that
the Lord knows we need in order to
take our part in the body of Christ,
for the blessing of other people.
That's the teaching of these verses, and especially
as we go on in verses 14 through
21.
There are 17 references to the body here.
The foot, the eyes, the hand, and the
head, all make up the body.
Therefore, and how important this is, each of
us can say, my place in the body
of Christ is not my choosing.
The Holy Spirit is sovereign.
I am not where I am because I'm
put there by a committee.
I'm not there by the appointment of other
people.
God may have used them as instruments to
direct me.
But I am where I am, and what
I am, by the sovereignty of the Spirit
of God.
And that means when I'm facing a crisis,
I'll be jolly slow to resign.
Remember that.
You're not where you are, or you ought
to be, because of somebody's decision, somebody's passing
a committee.
You're there because the Lord has put you
there, and that will keep you there.
You'll be slow to resign.
And that will keep you from being dissatisfied
with the place you have in the body,
and it'll keep you from being envious of
the place of other people.
That's, if you really get hold of that
in your heart, that saves a tremendous lot
of oh, criticism and bad feeling and so
much that goes on.
To put all that together, let me stress
again verse 11, and ask you lovingly to
bear in mind one or two things.
Nobody since Pentecost, until the return of the
Lord, has all the gifts of the Spirit.
Nobody.
Of course, and I'm thankful to say this,
the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12
is incomplete.
There's a further list in Ephesians 4, which
includes evangelists and pastors, that's fortunate.
Some of us will be out.
In addition, in Romans 12, you have the
gifts of service, exhorting and giving.
But you just cannot have them all.
But you can have all the fruit.
The gifts of the Spirit are for ministry
and service.
The fruit of the Spirit is the character
and life.
And the fruit of the Spirit, of course,
Galatians 5, 22, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and self-control.
You can have all that, but you can't
have all the gifts.
Then nobody has a right, therefore, to demand
that everyone else should have their particular gift.
Nobody.
But all of us should reveal the fruit.
I'm not pleading for a manifestation of the
gifts apart from the fruit, or for the
fruit apart from the gifts.
Both should be combined in an effective witness
for the Lord Jesus.
The Lord is sovereign in distribution of the
gifts which are related to ministry and service.
The fruit is related to character, the purpose
of God for all of us, Ephesians 3,
19, that we might be filled up with
all the fullness of God.
That's the fruit.
Therefore, it should be clear that to say
that to speak in tongues is an essential
evidence of baptism in the Spirit is quite
unbiblical.
And it's unbiblical on two grounds.
First, not all Christians can have that particular
gift.
If this was the one gift that mattered
above all others, it would be majored upon
in the New Testament, in every letter.
Instead, it's only mentioned in 1 Corinthians, and
then only in three chapters, and then with
a view to keeping it under control.
Furthermore, it's no evidence of spiritual maturity, because
the Corinthian church was absolutely carnal, but it
came to possess all the gifts.
Therefore, the phrase, baptism in the Spirit, needs
to be defined from Scripture.
1 Corinthians 12, 13.
You've all been baptized by one Spirit into
the body of Christ.
Baptism always refers in the Bible to initiation,
a new beginning.
How do I just put this to you?
Take, for instance, Acts 1-5 and Acts
2-4.
You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit,
referring to a new situation, a new relationship.
You never find the word baptism in the
Spirit in Acts again, except in two instances.
You find it in, you might like to
note it, chapter 10, in the home of
Cornelius, and chapter 19, at Ephesus.
Both of these were Gentile situations.
Cornelius, and at Ephesus, a strange company of
twelve people who never heard of the Holy
Spirit before.
They had been baptized in the baptism of
John, and they were baptized in the Spirit.
The word baptism in the Spirit is used
in reference to the Lord Jesus once, in
chapter 12, verse 50 of Luke, where he
spoke of an overwhelming experience.
I have a baptism to be baptized with.
How am I straight until it be accomplished?
The baptism into a new relationship occurs once.
The filling of the Spirit in growth and
maturity occurs over and over again.
Have you ever heard of a great Methodist
teacher, a couple of generations ago, Charles Inwood?
He said something very lovely about the fullness
of the Spirit.
There is no such thing as a once
and for all experience of the fullness of
the Holy Spirit.
It's a moment by moment faith, in a
moment by moment filling.
At the moment I begin to believe, at
that moment I begin to receive.
And as long as I go on believing,
I go on receiving.
That's marvelous.
That's exactly what happens.
There are some people, and I would identify
myself with them, who have had a very
nominal experience of the Lord Jesus at the
beginning.
Suddenly, one day, a new revelation takes place
in their lives.
It's like a fresh baptism into power.
I don't want to quarrel about words, but
speaking very untheologically, it's like being born again
all over again.
For seven years I lived a defeated Christian
life.
One day, Major Ian Thomas, the founder of
Caithnary Hall, spoke at a meeting in which
I was present.
He said, what do you think the Lord
would expect of you?
I sort of shriveled up, I'd like to
get under my seat and thought, oh I
know.
He expects me to be some tremendous person,
etc., you know, some terrific Christian.
I listened again.
He said, nothing but failure.
I pricked up my ears, because the Lord,
if that's right, I'm a candidate right now,
ready.
He said, God expects nothing from you but
failure, but God has given to you the
Holy Spirit that you need never fail.
And that just absolutely lit up the whole
situation to me.
Not that you cannot fail, but you need
not fail.
That absolutely transformed my life.
That understanding that the Christian life is not
by might nor by power, but by my
spirit, says the Lord.
Like Hudson Taylor on the beach at Brighton,
thinking his missionary career was over for being
a complete failure, suddenly said to himself, oh
Lord, it isn't what Hudson Taylor does for
you that matters.
It's what the Lord does in and through
Hudson Taylor, a life of complete exchange.
Therefore, I must recognize something, and it's this,
that every Christian is a charismatic Christian.
You can't be a Christian if you're not.
The word means grace, gifts, excuse me, a
moat.
Charismatic grace, charismatic gifts.
And if I haven't got any grace, I
haven't got any gifts, I'm not even a
Christian at all.
And I don't understand what all the fighting
is about.
It's terribly sad that in the mind of
so many people, so many Christians, the charismatic
movement is identified only with the glossolalia, only
with speaking in tongues.
It's far wider than that, worldwide.
The charismatic movement, so called, has made the
greatest impact on the evangelical church of the
century, all over.
The trouble has been that wherever you have
reality, you've got counterfeit.
So Satan is pretty good at that.
And many people have been completely disillusioned by
the insistence of so many people that everyone
should have that particular gift.
And therefore, the reaction of so many people
has been, don't touch any of it, we've
got it all.
Got it all.
Just look at us.
Look at the average church congregation, got it
all.
Any excitement there?
Any joy?
Never saw such a miserable bunch of people
in my life, as I see at some
churches, honestly.
Got it all.
I was preaching at a church, a Methodist
church in Grantham, a couple of weeks ago.
Grantham, you know, the place where the 125
engines are made and so on.
And once, a great center of Methodist worship.
It was the Free Church Council Annual Anniversary
Meeting.
That meant, I think, every free church except
Anglicans.
So I was back there.
And it was a Methodist church with accommodation
for at least 1700 people.
You know, one of these huge galleries that
went right round, and a great big pulpit
way up there on the level of the
gallery.
And do you know how many people were
at the service?
Fifty-one.
Fifty-one people out at the place.
That seat, it's 1700.
And I thought to myself, Lord, what's the
matter here?
What's gone wrong?
I don't know what had been wrong.
I've gone wrong.
But somehow I sensed that those people, at
least 51, very rarely heard the Gospel.
Very rarely.
We've got it all.
Oh dear.
Don't touch it.
Well, forget the charismatic movement.
You go to a church.
I don't like naming places, but Benestroit is
a great friend of mine.
You probably know Jim Graham.
Some of you do, in Amersham, near Amersham.
My, that church is alive.
Packed full.
He has seven elders in that church.
And they meet with him every day, every
morning at seven o'clock before they go
to business.
Over an hour.
They pray together, worship together, and plan the
Sunday preaching together.
It's a one-man ministry.
That's out.
All these people share in the ministry of
the Word of God.
I don't know, some of you may be
not in that particular land, but I mean,
if you're in the ministry, it's no good
thinking that you're going to lead the thing,
and everybody else is going to follow.
They won't do that.
The trouble in many churches is that they
appoint people, especially people with money, to be
treasurer.
And these people who put in, who are
in business, simply carry on their business in
the church.
And give the fag ends of the time,
to the ministry of the church.
Can't work.
The men are dead tired anyway.
What you need, surely, in a church is
a shared ministry.
And the moment you're prepared to put people
into that, they go off your neck then.
Because they realize something of tension, something of
the strain of preaching and of ministry, and
share it with you.
And you have a shared ministry that's shared
at depth, in prayer, in concern, in love
for other people.
It's wonderful to see a church like that
at Jim Graham's, absolutely packed, twice a Sunday,
and having to rebuild and so on.
But all because there is an acknowledgement of
the charisma of the Holy Spirit, giving him
time and giving him room.
Now, there's one other danger of this.
It's this, that why is it, I wonder,
that some people would tell us that certain
gifts of the Spirit, um, like prophecy, healing,
and tongues in particular, were withdrawn after the
first century.
And are not for this age.
Why?
I don't think we can arbitrarily dispense with
three gifts because we don't understand them.
And are perhaps afraid of them, but accept
others' granting.
And you can do that.
I believe the whole church worldwide needs all
the gifts of the Spirit.
And especially in these last days, when Satan
is turning on his power against the church
as never before.
And you can't defeat the devil with second
-class weapons.
The rise of Satan, worship, witchcraft, and all
the allurement of the occult, etc.
You can only answer that with a power
of the Spirit of God, set free and
let loose.
And I find that the evidence of reality
in this charisma, especially in the gift of
tongues, is that the people who have that
gift never speak of it.
I know many people who received a new
touch of Holy Spirit life.
If I may speak, um, of my family.
They came home from Central Africa on a
photo some years ago, about 15 years ago,
I suppose.
I remember them saying, when they came home,
they said to me, unless the Lord does
something with us, we can never possibly go
back.
They, they were spending a holiday with us
then in New Jersey.
They went across to the other side of
the states and went to a church that
was alive.
And they received a new touch from God.
And in the course of that, in the
sheer joy of it, they, they spoke in
tongues.
And they had a great sense of freedom
and liberty.
And I wouldn't have known that if I
hadn't asked them.
Because they didn't speak of it.
But, but I saw, I saw Jesus shining
out of them.
I saw the reality of Christ shining about
them.
They were different people.
They'd come home depressed and down and ready,
ready to resign and quit.
Now, weeks later, months later, they're absolutely full
of joy and went back to the field.
But as I asked them, have you received
that gift?
They both said they hadn't, but never have
told me.
And that sense seemed to be so genuine.
When you see Jesus shining through, oh, of
course, there are many, many people who are
filled up with the Spirit of God who
don't speak in tongues.
And there are many people who are speaking
in tongues who are not filled with the
Spirit.
And a great evidence of reality is somehow
that Jesus comes right through.
And you can't mistake that.
I was speaking at a church in Redhill,
near London, some little time ago.
And at the end of the service, a
lady came up and spoke to me.
And she said, what a pity you haven't
got it.
And I said, I beg your pardon, ma
'am.
She said, what a pity you haven't got
it.
I said, what do you mean?
Oh, come to our church, you'll get it.
You really would.
You must come to our church and get
it.
So I said to her, my dear lady,
I'm not looking for it.
I'm looking for Him.
It's the giver I want, not the gift.
If I have the giver and all of
Him, He'll give me what gifts He knows
I must have, that I need for my
share in the ministry.
I think all I would say is the
Lord needs to help us to keep all
this in balance, remembering that the function of
the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus real
to us, to make His word live, and
to make our witness for Him effective.
So get your priorities right.
Right.
And remember that between chapter 12 and chapter
14 is that great chapter of love.
And our unlikeness to Jesus is exactly in
proportion to our failure to love.
Like that.
That's all I think I should say on
that subject this morning.
Let's just have a word of prayer together.
Thank you, dear Lord, that we're members of
your body.
And where one member suffers, we all suffer.
May that love and care and sharing be
constantly with each one of us, and that
people may recognize that the love of God
is in our hearts, and works through us
to your glory and your praise.
Thank you for the brief time we've had
together.
And Lord, may the river of God flow
this way, and may each one of us
know the just overflowing of your power constantly.
That we may not grieve your spirit, but
that we may be filled up to overflowing
with the power of the living God.
Hear our prayer.
And Lord, teach us to accept whatever gifts
you may give us, and that we may
take our part in the body, not to
criticize other people, not to judge or condemn
or to be jealous, but to love and
to care, and that it may be body
life all the time.
Hear us, Lord, and grant us your blessing
today and through these days, till Jesus comes
again.
And may the joy of the Lord be
our strength always, and the shout of a
king in the camp.
We ask it in your dear name.
Amen.