1 Corinthians 12:1

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as you were led. Wherefore, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations but the same God, which works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto every man for the profit of all.

Father, as we look into your Word, we pray that by your Spirit you would give us wisdom and understanding. You would open our hearts that we would receive from you your Word, which is able to transform us by the renewing of our minds, to wash us, to sanctify us by your truth. God, would you do that today? It's my desire, Lord, that I be more like you—the way that I respond, the way that I act. Transform me, Lord. Transform my brothers and sisters, that we would be a right representation of you in the world in which we live. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.

You can be seated. For some time now, I have been looking forward to this section of 1 Corinthians. As we have spent almost a year now dealing with division, immorality, idolatry, marital problems, licentiousness, and legalism, the list goes on and on of the things that the church at Corinth was facing. I've been looking to this section, chapters 12 through 14, as something of a refreshing oasis. The reality, however, is that this next section of 1 Corinthians deals with spiritual matters.

The passage is just as exhortative and instructive as the previous sections, perhaps even more so. The root of the problems that the Corinthian church faced were spiritual issues. That was the core issue. The Corinthian Christians, like so many in our day, were ignorant of spiritual matters. Paul had certainly instructed them in such things when he established the church, but they deviated from his clear teaching and instruction. They allowed pagan ideas to invade and influence them.

Even in the area of spiritual matters, it is important to recognize that the Corinthians were not lacking in spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 7, Paul stated that very thing: "You are not lacking in any spiritual gift." While they were not lacking in gifts, they were lacking an understanding of where such gifts came from, what those gifts were for, their purpose, and when and how to utilize them. Spiritual gifts are not toys to be played with; they are not trifles to pass over, nor trophies to take pride in. They are tools to be employed by the believer.

It is a child who plays with them, an immature individual or a fool who neglects them, and a boaster who parades them. However, it is the wise steward of God who will utilize them for the building up of the body of Christ. That is the purpose of a spiritual gift given by God: to build up and to edify one another within the body of Christ.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." The "now" in verse 1 takes us back to the beginning of the section in chapter 11, verse 17. There, Paul said, "Now this I declare unto you, I praise you not, that when you come together, you come not for the better, but for the worse." Beginning at chapter 11, verse 17, Paul is addressing issues that the Corinthians were facing in their public and corporate worship.

Problems had arisen in the church that were disrupting and distracting from what God had called them to in the public worship setting. The first issue he addressed, beginning in chapter 11, verse 17, and going through the end of chapter 11, had to do with the Lord's Supper. Now he turns to the exercise of spirituality. It is like saying, "My second issue that I want to address with you is this: spiritual gifts."

You may notice in your Bible that the word "gifts" in verse 1 is probably italicized. This means that it was not in the original language, the original Greek manuscripts in which this was written. The word translated as "spiritual" or "spirituality" here is the Greek word "pneumaticos." The beginning of that word, "pneuma," is what we translate into English as "spirit" or "breath" in the New Testament. The ending, "I-K-O-S," indicates that it is a word characterized or controlled by something.

So, Paul is now going to speak to them about those things that are characterized or controlled by the Spirit of God. As we go through chapters 12 through 14, we will see that it speaks about gifts and not necessarily the gifted ones, but the actual specific gifts. He says regarding spirituality, which is another way we could read this, that the word "pneumaticos" appears 26 times in the New Testament. Twenty-five of those times, it speaks of things that are dominated by, controlled by, or characterized by the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul is going to begin to speak about the activities and the gifts that are characterized and controlled by the Holy Spirit, of which he says, "I don't want you to be ignorant." Notice that before he says this, he calls them "brethren." This is very important because it reminds us that people within the body of Christ can be wrong and not exactly in line, orthodoxy-wise, in their practices, but still be brethren within the body of Christ. There are people who come to Christ and enter the church without having everything sorted out. It reminds us that people do not just get it when they become Christians. In one way, it would be nice if they did.

You confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and a switch turns on; instantly, you have perfect knowledge of all things in the Bible. That would be great, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, it doesn't happen. This brethren here in verse 1 reminds us that you don't just get it when you become a believer. Therefore, discipleship is essential.

When we are first born again, we are babes in Christ. We need to be raised up and equipped. This brethren reminds us that we need to patiently instruct those who aren't entirely correct in their understanding or their application of spiritual things. If we are, in one sense, further along or have a better understanding of these matters, we need to patiently instruct those who do not know.

In one sense, Paul is softening the blow before he addresses their ignorance. The word "ignorant" is translated from the Greek word "agnoeo," from which we get our English term "agnostic." Paul uses the phrase "I would not have you to be ignorant" a number of times in his letters, drawing the reader's attention to matters of supreme importance. This is vital; you need to know this. You ought not to be agnostic.

He uses these same words, "I would not have you be ignorant," when he speaks about God's future plan for the Jewish people in Romans chapter 11, verse 25. He states, "For I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, of this thing," and then goes on to discuss God's future plan for the Jewish people.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13, speaking about the second coming of Christ and the rapture of the church, Paul says, "Brethren, I would not have you be ignorant." Then, here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 1, concerning spirituality and those things dominated by or controlled by the Spirit, he again states, "I would not have you be ignorant."

Now, it's interesting that 1,900 years later, the very things that Paul emphasizes in the New Testament as vital—things we should not be ignorant about and should not be confused about—are still the subjects of confusion in the church. Nearly 20 centuries later, there is still confusion about God's future plan for the Jewish nation, about God's second coming, and about Jesus' second coming and the rapture of the church.

And about spiritual gifts, these are the sort of things that divide fellowships and ruin churches. Paul says, "I would not have you be ignorant." In verse 2, he reminds them that they were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as they were led. They know where they came from; they know their background. They were Gentiles, or literally, pagans and heathens. Paul is not only speaking to those who didn't come from a Jewish background into Christ; he is speaking to all of us, regardless of our background before we came to Christ.

The Corinthians understood their former life and conduct before their transformation in Christ. In Romans chapter 12, Paul describes how we, when we become Christians, are transformed. However, that transformation had not been as dramatic as one might have hoped or expected for the Corinthian church. They were a church filled with just about every problem imaginable. As we have already considered while going through this book, they had divisions over personality and philosophy. There was carnality and immorality, worldliness, and a preoccupation with worldly things. They were suing each other and rebelling against authority, even the authority of the Apostle Paul.

There was a lack of discipline, and they were filled with licentious behavior, marital problems, idolatry, selfish pride, and abuses of the Lord's Supper. Now, they were also abusing spiritual matters. As I have mentioned before, this very reason led Ray Stedman to call this book "First Californians." So many problems filled this church, all of which were a carryover from their previous life.

When you become a Christian, when you put your faith, confidence, and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, you are not instantly perfected. We come into the body of Christ, with God welcoming us with open arms, warts and all. There are many things that need to be transformed. Prior to their conversion, the Corinthian believers...

Had been carried away, says Paul, with idolatry. The city of Corinth was filled with rampant idolatry, and our world today is no different. We may not have little silver or golden statues that people go to temples to offer sacrifices to, but don't think for a moment that idolatry is done. Our culture is filled with idolatry. There are different kinds of idols and different kinds of temples today, but those idols still survive.

Man was created by God to worship, and he will worship something. Even if a person is an avowed atheist or agnostic, claiming there is no God or expressing uncertainty about God's existence, they are still worshiping something. Generally, that worship becomes self-focused; they begin to worship themselves. We see that in our culture today. Self-idol worship is huge.

But even more than that, look around our culture today. We have idols—things that people look to, trust in, and hope in. Paul says that when you were Gentiles, that is, when you were unbelievers, you were carried away unto dumb idols. The word "carried" or "led away" speaks especially of one who is carried away as a prisoner or led away as a slave. Apart from their choosing, they have been carried into this.

It is extremely important that we understand that those who don't know Christ are slaves to sin. They are in slavery to sin, as stated in Romans chapter 6. They are in slavery to idolatry. When you share your faith with them and seek to share the gospel, they may look at you and say, "I'm not ready to follow after Christ because I like my freedom." However, it is a false sense of freedom. They don't truly have freedom; they are slaves to sin. They are caught, shackled, and dragged away to dumb idols. They are not free; they are prisoners.

But Jesus Christ came to set men free. We who have come to Christ have understood this freedom. We recognize that John 8:32 is true: Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

The prophecy of the Messiah as revealed in the Old Testament states that He came to set the captives free. Isaiah chapter 42, verse 7, tells us that He came to open the blind eyes and to bring out the prisoners from the prison house, those who sat in darkness. Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61, verse 1, when He came to His hometown of Nazareth in Luke chapter 4. This passage reads, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

We who now know Christ have been set free, and we are called by God to share that freedom with others. In 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, it states, "But you, speaking to the church, are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light." That is the call that God has given to us: to go into this world and proclaim to those who are still in darkness the way out, so that they may come out of darkness as well.

In calling us to that work, God also gifts us for that work. He enables us to do the work He has called us to do. Paul reminds us that we were Gentiles. In times past, we were pagans and heathens, but we are no longer heathens. Therefore, we need to let go of our heathen ideas and practices. We are not to allow our new life in Christ to be influenced by the previous heathen ideas and philosophies that we carry.

The sad reality is that we often do allow those things to influence us, just as the Corinthians did. The Corinthian Christians came out of a pagan background and a culture oriented toward what was called the mystery religions. Revelation chapter 17, verse 5, tells us that in the last days, these things would rise again under what is called the Babylonian system. These mystery religions began in Genesis chapter...

At what was called, or has come to be called, the Tower of Babel, a significant event took place. After the flood, when Noah and his sons, along with their wives, were saved from the deluge upon the earth, men began to multiply again. One of the great grandsons of Noah, a man by the name of Nimrod, sought to establish a city in the valley of Shinar, which is in modern-day Iraq. He gathered the people together and said, "Let us make a name for ourselves." Thus, they began to build this city and construct a tower that would reach up into the heavens.

The purpose of that tower was religious. Not only did they build a city and a tower, but they also established the first organized counterfeit religion. Nimrod married a woman named Simiramis, who became the first high priestess of the Tower of Babel religion. She is said to have miraculously been impregnated by a beam of sunlight, a counterfeit of the virgin birth. In Genesis 3:15, when God said to the serpent that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent, Satan understood this and began to counterfeit it very early. Simiramis supposedly named her son Tammuz.

In Genesis 10, we learn that God disrupted the construction of the Tower of Babel by confusing the languages of the people. One day, they all spoke one language, but then God confused their language, and they began to babble. As they babbled on and on, their languages became confused, and they started to join with one another based on mutual understanding. They were dispersed from the valley of Shinar and began to spread throughout the world. The mystery religion that began at the Tower of Babel continued, but it took on different names. Simiramis became known as the goddess called the Queen of Heaven.

Of fertility, sensuality, and war, among the Assyrians, she was called Ishtar. Among the Phoenicians, she was called Asherah. Among the Egyptians, she was known as Isis. Among the Greeks, she was called Aphrodite, and in Rome, Venus. It's all the same exact deity; actually, she never was a deity but a false god. It's all the same, just under different names.

Simiramis was said to have come down from the moon miraculously in an egg that came to be called Ishtar's egg. It's pronounced Easter. Ishtar's miraculous child, Tammuz, is called Baal among the Phoenicians, Osiris among the Egyptians, Eros among the Greeks, and cute little Cupid among the Romans. Tammuz was noted to have been especially fond of rabbits. He became a great hunter like his father, Nimrod. One day, while he was hunting, he was gored by a wild pig. The day of his death was remembered annually by each of these false religions. Before his death, they would observe a fast from meat for 40 days.

Lent did not come from Christianity. I'm sure you recognize that Satan is an incredible counterfeiter, but he has also done a very good job of bringing these pagan practices and mystery religious practices into the church. These pagan religions observed baptismal regeneration, meaning they believed that they could be saved by baptism in water. They held certain feast days and fasts, partook in self-mutilation, and engaged in penance and flagellation. They believed in pilgrimages and public confession, and they thought that offerings could be given to pay for one's sins.

The mystery religion that dominated the pagan practices of Corinth was filled with ecstatic euphoric experiences. These experiences were brought about through various pagan practices and rituals. They would enter into a trance-like euphoric state called ecstasis or enthusiasmos in Greek, from which we get our English word "enthusiasm." However, enthusiasmos means something different than enthusiasm in English. While enthusiasm suggests giving it our all, enthusiasmos carries a deeper connotation.

In the Greek context, one writer explains that "enthusiasmos" was a state wherein a person was brought into a euphoric state through contemplative vigil, fasting, tense religious expectancy, whirling dances, physical stimuli, the contemplation of sacred objects, the effect of stirring music, and the inhalation of fumes and incenses. William Barclay, the great commentator, explains that the worship of the Greek goddess Cybele and the Greek god Dionysus was accompanied by loud clanging cymbals and blaring trumpets. This constant dissonant noise was used to bring people into an ecstatic state where they would check out, empty their minds, and be led by their emotions. It would always result in an immoral orgy.

That's why, when we get to 1 Corinthians 13:1, Paul says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become as a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal." These were the things that dominated the pagan landscape of the ancient world. Through ignorance of spiritual things, these practices began to creep into the Corinthian assembly, and the people didn't even know how to discern what was right and what was wrong.

1 Corinthians is one of the early letters of the New Testament, written around the mid-50s A.D. This means it was less than 25 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. Already, Satan had begun to come in and taint and counterfeit the work of God's Spirit within the church. There were counterfeit gifts through false manifestations and misguided selfish use. One of the chief evidences of spiritual immaturity is a lack of discernment. When we take anything that seems to be spiritual and assume that it is genuinely of God, we incorporate it into the church. This is a lack of spiritual discernment and an evidence of spiritual immaturity.

When people say, "Well, that seems to be good; it's pragmatic spirituality," they assume that if it seems to be good, it must be of God. They believe they can incorporate it into the church. This is evident when the church starts to incorporate yoga and contemplative prayer.

Prayer labyrinths and Eastern meditation practices are being used to try to induce some sort of spiritual experience within the body of Christ. All of that is paganism coming into the church. The Corinthian believers did not know how to discern God's Spirit from other false spirits. So, Paul begins to give them, in verse 3, the first test. He is going to provide several tests as we go through this next section.

In verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 12, Paul states, "Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit." Notice that Paul says, "Wherefore I give you to understand." They had come out of pagan practices, out of enthusiasm and ecstasy, and had brought this confusion into the church. Paul emphasizes that they need to understand this information clearly. They cannot discern right from wrong, true from false, and so he provides a test to help them understand what is right and what is wrong.

He presents this test in both a negative and a positive form. First, the negative: no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. It is actually hard for me to imagine, and perhaps you will agree, that in the church of Corinth, there could be someone who would stand up during the exercise of spiritual gifts and say, "I have a word, and here is the word: Jesus be damned." That is literally what is being said here.

Apparently, there were people in the church who were rising up in the midst of a spiritual setting and saying, "Jesus be anathema" in the Greek, or "Jesus be accursed," or "Jesus be damned." And everyone thought, "Well, that must be of God because everything that is happening here, the experience of what is happening here, clearly indicates that the Spirit of God is present." Would you ever, in a million years, think that some Spirit-led believer could call Jesus damned or accursed? Of course not. It is just not possible.

It is possible for believers to misjudge spiritual experiences, and yet the Corinthians did just that. They based their judgments on the experience itself rather than on the content of what was being expressed. How could someone within a church context, who was apparently a believer, get away with calling Jesus accursed while others thought it was spirit-led?

The gatherings of the Corinthian believers were degrading into an ecstatic frenzy where just about anything could happen. Everyone figured it must be of the Lord because it was a prophecy, or it was given through an interpretation of tongues, or it came from someone who had the gift of healing. They assumed that because of this, it must be real and true.

Notice that it says no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. Several commentators agree that this is likely coming from a person with a Jewish background within the body of Christ in Corinth, as the Greek word "anathema" has Jewish origins. Many commentators also relate it to the earliest forms of the Gnostic heresy that entered the church.

You may wonder what exactly the Gnostic heresy is. It rose to prominence in the second century AD. The Gnostics within the church, especially from the northern part of Africa and Alexandria, Egypt, believed in a dualistic universe with a good God and a bad God—two warring entities. The good God was completely spiritual, and everything spiritual was good and of Him. In contrast, the bad God oversaw all things physical, which they deemed to be bad.

These Gnostics began to believe that Jesus, the man, was just a common wicked man. They thought that at His baptism, the Christ consciousness or the Christ spirit, the divine, came upon Him to enable Him for ministry. Before His death on the cross, they believed that this divine spirit left Him, and the cursed Jesus, the wicked man, died on the cross. They maintained that this Christ consciousness still existed. In all honesty, this is the same idea espoused by Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle.

Consciousness, the Christ spirit, and she will say, "I believe in Christ and I believe in Jesus." She is speaking the same terms about different things. It's absolute paganism; don't be deceived by it.

There were some in the context of the church at Corinth who were saying, "Jesus be damned, Jesus be accursed." It is very plausible that they were pointing back to the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses, in Deuteronomy 21:23, said, "He that is hanged upon a tree is accursed of God." Cursed is any man who hangs upon a tree. Therefore, there were people within the Corinthian context who were apparently believers and supposedly Spirit-led, saying Jesus is accursed. They had separated Jesus the man from the Christ consciousness or Christ spirit. They said the man is accursed.

I believe Paul is confronting this head-on at the end of 1 Corinthians 16:22, where he says, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema." The same Greek word is used. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ—Jesus the man is Lord, the Greek word "kurios," connected with God. Jesus is God; He is the Christ, the Christos, the Messiah, the anointed one. If any man love not Jesus the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned, says Paul.

But there were people, apparently believers, supposedly Spirit-led, standing up in the context of the church at Corinth, saying, "Jesus be cursed." Paul said, "Let you understand, no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed." Then he gives a positive form of this test: no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit. No one can speak damnation to Jesus who is Spirit-filled and Spirit-led. Furthermore, no one will be able to confess Jesus as Lord apart from the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.

Paul is not merely talking about just verbally saying Jesus is Lord. Turn in your Bibles briefly to Matthew chapter 7. Clearly, there are people who are not believers, who are not reborn or born again, who say with their words that Jesus is Lord.

In Matthew chapter 7, verse 21, Jesus says, "Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven." Now notice this verse 22; it may be the scariest verse of the New Testament. Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?" This is something that is associated with the Spirit of God. "Have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out devils?" That is, healings and miraculous signs. "And in your name done many wonderful works."

The word "wonderful" there is the Greek word "dunamis," the same word that Jesus used in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, when He said, "The Spirit of God will come upon you, and you shall receive dunamis power." Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name done many wonderful works?"

And I will profess unto them, "I never knew you; depart from me." Notice this: "You who work" or "you who practice lawlessness" in the present indicative form, speaking of someone who continually does wickedness.

What is meant by this? It means that no one can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Spirit. No one can truly acknowledge Jesus as Lord in their life and conduct, but by the Spirit of God. So when someone curses Jesus, this is sufficient evidence that they are not of the Spirit. Conversely, when someone confesses Jesus by their life and conduct, this is sufficient evidence that they are of the Spirit.

That is why Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them." This test is clear: if someone is apparently speaking by the Spirit and doing something that is supposedly spiritual, ask them who Jesus is. What is your confession about who Jesus is?

Notice what the Apostle John says in 1 John, chapter 4, verse 1: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God." Why? Because many false prophets, that is, people who are apparently spiritual, have gone into the world.

Again, stay in 1 John for a second. Let me read to you 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 3: "Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse." What this means is that there are other spirits that are able to come into the context of the body of Christ and say things that are false, make professions, and cause experiences that are not of the Spirit of God.

So John says, "Church, be wise and test every spirit." Test it to know whether it is of God, because there are many false spirits and false prophets that have gone into the world. John continues in 1 John 4:2: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God." Here's John's test: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."

The Gnostics said that Christ did not come in the flesh; they believed Jesus was just a spirit. Furthermore, in verse 3, John states, "Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and that is the spirit of Antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world."

Nineteen hundred years ago, just because something is done in a church context and by Christians does not necessarily mean that it is orthodox and right. There are loads of things being done in the name of Jesus today that are way far out. So when someone stands up and makes a profession that is against the Word—remember, Jesus is the Word; He has given us His Word—if someone makes a profession that is against the Word, we must be discerning.

The Word of God is not to be believed when someone makes a profession that Christians do not sin. That is not supported by Scripture. However, there are some within the church today who say, based on 1 John 3:8 and 9, that Christians do not commit sin. What this reveals is an immature understanding. They may be a brother or sister; they may be a Christian, but they don't understand the Scriptures and need discipleship.

When you read 1 John 3:8, it states that those who are born of God do not commit sin. The word "commit" is in the present indicative imperative tense in the Greek, and it speaks of someone who is continually and habitually walking in sin. A Christian will not continually or habitually practice sin; they will be convicted of that sin and will repent of it. God will sanctify them by His Spirit through His Word.

When someone stands up and says that true Christians don't get sick, the Bible does not support that. As we will see in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul himself had a thorn in his flesh, which he prayed to God three times to remove, but God did not take it away. Does that mean that Paul the Apostle is not a Christian?

In the passage we will look at in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, it is stated that not all speak with tongues. When someone claims that true Christians are materially blessed and that you will be healthy, wealthy, and wise, that is not established in the Scriptures whatsoever; it is false.

Spiritual gifts are extremely important. We need God to work in us by His Spirit to accomplish the work He has called us to do for His kingdom. The church is not just an organization or a social club; it is an organism, a living body that has been brought to life by the Spirit of God and continues to fulfill its life and mission by the Spirit's power. We need God to work in us by His Spirit, but spiritual gifts are not just toys to be messed with.

The Corinthians were playing with them. They are not trifles to be passed over or neglected. There is a very large group in the church today, men I highly respect, who say that many of the gifts of the Spirit have ceased. They are called cessationists. I highly respect Alistair Begg and John MacArthur, but I completely disagree with them. They claim that many of these gifts are no longer in use.

These gifts are not trifles to be neglected; they are not trophies to be paraded. They are not truly spiritual, and that is false. That is not what the Scriptures declare at all. They are divine enablements for ministry, given to every believer in some measure for the edifying, equipping, and building up of the body of Christ. They are to be used decently and in order to glorify Christ. Anytime they are not focused on glorifying Christ, if they are glorifying an individual, they are not of God. Jesus clearly said in John chapters 14, 15, and 16 that when the Spirit would come, He would glorify Him.

If the focus shifts to a man, and that man claims to have the Spirit on TV, he is false. I am sure I will get a letter on that, but he is false. The church cannot function, and it certainly cannot mature, without properly and faithfully using the gifts that God has given to His people for ministry.

Satan will try to counterfeit the Spirit's gifts. He will try to induce believers to neglect them, ignore them, misunderstand them, abuse them, or pervert them. Consequently, Paul's teaching here is incredibly important for us, and the importance of it is proved by how much the enemy is counterfeiting these things in our day.

For the next three or four years, we are going to cover chapters 12 through 14. We've made it through three verses today; that's pretty good. But I have to ask you to...

Agree to do something with me as we study through these things. You must leave your preconceived ideas, notions, or opinions about the gifts of the Spirit at the door. We must bring our understanding of these things to the Scriptures and allow the Scriptures to be that which informs our experience, not our experiences to inform the Scriptures.

We believe the Bible to be the true and complete Word of God, which directs us in our daily life and practice, not our experiences. I will guarantee you that I am going to teach things from this passage that you may not like, but I believe that it is what the Scriptures say. We will go through this expositionally and carefully to see if this is what God's Word says. If it supports things that we have apparently experienced, we need to understand that when we were new believers, and even if we are new believers now, we have brought into the church certain experiences that are spiritual but not of the Spirit of God. Those things need to be set aside in favor of God's Word. He needs to direct us; His Word needs to inform our practice. Amen.

I would encourage you this week to read through this passage carefully, and next week we will cover one more verse—well, maybe more.

Let’s stand and pray. Father, it is clear that pagan ideas have influenced our faith. Lord, we can, in some ways, use the cultural things that we hang on to, to bless You and to bless Your kingdom. But Lord, help us to come underneath the umbrella of Your Word and to follow faithfully what Your Word says. Lord, we need You to direct us by Your Spirit because we recognize that we have come from a fallen background. We have come from a place where we are slaves to sin, from a world completely dominated by practices that are against You and counterfeit to the real.

We want to know You truly and in reality, and experience Your closeness, the reality of Your Spirit in our lives. Father, I believe that it is of You that we are in this passage for such a time as this. The work that You've called us to as a church cannot be accomplished without Your body here at Calvary Chapel of Escondido being directed and empowered daily by You.

You've gifted every single believer here in this room today to accomplish a task for Your name, and each part is important as each joint supplies its need. We are all parts, members in this body; some are more prominent, but Lord, the more visible and prominent are not always the essential. Those things that are often unseen, Lord, are of extreme importance—things that we couldn't live without. Not a single one of us in this room today will probably ever see our heart, but without it, we cannot live. We may never see our lungs; we probably wouldn't want to see our liver.

Lord, all parts are needed and essential. Work in us, I pray. Transform us by the renewing of our minds, that we might prove what is Your perfect and good will. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank You.