The Christian life - Spiritu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Brothers and sisters, two verses that I want us to read there in first Peter chapter four. As I said, this is going to help us just to get a basic definition of what spiritual gifts are.

But before we get into that, we're going to be doing just a brief review of the topics that we have covered. So let us just read the scriptures first. As I depart in point, this is the apostle Peter in his first letter in chapter four. This is verse 10. It says, As each has received a gift, Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.

Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The word of the Lord. And as I said, dear brother and dear sister, we are going to be addressing the topic of spiritual gifts. We have that word here that says as each has received a gift, That gift is to be to be used for the service of one another as good stewards of God's varied or varied, perhaps the pronunciation of that word, grace.

But before we get into the spiritual gifts, as I said, I want to remind you of what we have covered so far in this series about the church. We have addressed the life of the individual, the life of the family and the life of the church. The purpose of this series, as we have been saying for the last six months or whatever time we have been sharing with you, is that the church will come to a common, united understanding of the life of the individual, the life of the family, and now the life of the church. That's why we started by speaking about the nature of the church. And if there is something that we are going to, or we have to remember from that Bible study, is that we believe that those who belong to the church are those who are regenerated.

That is, that the membership of the church are those who, by grace through faith, have been baptized into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, have been regenerated, and by God's providence, partaken of the ordinance of baptism, and they belong to the church. So the membership of the church is not one that is in the flesh, or according to traditions of men, or just by filling in a form that you belong to a church, but rather the membership of the church is regenerated membership. That was the first thing that we ought to remember. Second thing is that once a person has been baptized into that body, once a person has been put into that community of regenerated people, those who by grace through faith have been united to the Lord, they are called to devote themselves to fellowship. So as God is in the light, we are to walk in the light.

And if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we will be able to have fellowship with one another. Biblical fellowship is the result of genuine, powerful, spiritual fellowship with Christ. A church cannot have genuine community if the individuals are not in priority, given their hearts and souls, to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have fleshly interactions and shallow connections, but we will never be able to have the devotion of self to fellowship as the the disciples of the early church had in Acts chapter 2, if we are not walking in the light as he is in the light. So the membership of the church is regenerated and biblical fellowship is that that departs from fellowship with the Lord.

And then last week we spoke about church government. church government. Now, when we speak about church government, we spoke that the church has authority to regulate herself or itself. That authority is given from the Lord Jesus Christ and is to be seen in the context of the church through the congregation. So church government is congregational in nature.

There's no one above the church. There's no one mediating the church and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And the church has the power through the scriptures and the spirit to be authority to herself, of course, under the authority of the scriptures. The government of the church is to be congregational in nature.

And now we come to spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts. Each one of those members of the church that are saved, generally saved, we have here that according to Peter and according to the Spirit of God, each one of them, as you have there in verse 10, it says, as each has received a gift. Not some, not the minority, not the majority, but as each has received a gift. So that means that once a person is genuinely saved, that person is not only receiving the gift of salvation, namely eternal life, but also that person, that Christian is receiving a gift. And a spiritual gift in this case, because it comes from God and God is a spirit and a spiritual gift.

And that gift, according to Peter, here is to serve one another. And if you go there down, it says whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything. in order that in everything, that is, in order that in every single performance or activity of the gifts that each one has received, in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Each believer, by the grace that saved him or her, does not only receive eternal life, but also is equipped with a gift, no majority, no sum, no minority, but every single believer receives this gift to serve one another. And that is a very basic definition that will help us, at least just to have it in our minds there, and then to work a little bit more into deeper concepts about these spiritual gifts.

So why is it important for us to think about these matters? Why is it important for the church, for Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church, to think about the spiritual gifts that each believer receives upon their salvation? Well, it's very important because we live in times in which the church has become kind of like a business-like organization in which you have parties or members of the church who are active in exercising gifts or exercising, you know, things that they do or roles. And a vast majority of the church remain in a passive role just being a Passively just receiving information or receiving whatever thing they receive from the church and then you have basically a church that is working as a business-like organization in which members of that organization and categorize and Distributed in different ways that are not biblical if we come to Acts chapter 2 a passage that we have visited in the past and Here in Acts chapter 2, a passage that, as I said, we have reviewed for different Bible studies and in different sermons, we can see the completeness of the Church, or the necessity of the completeness of the Church, namely that each one of the members, those who by grace through faith are saved, are actively participating in a collective manner. active and collective, nor passive and individualistic, but active and collective.

If you remember in Acts chapter two, the powerful sermon given by Peter after the Holy Spirit was poured upon the believers, many people were pierced and they were asking how to be saved. And then the apostle preaches the gospel and many people are saved. And in there in verse 41, we are told something about those who believed and those who were generally saved. In verse 41 of chapter 2, Acts, then we have these words given to us by the Spirit. It says, so those who received his word, that is the preaching of the gospel by Peter.

In other words, those who were saved, those who were genuinely saved. They had a good soil, good ground, they received the word by faith, and they bear fruit. So those who received his word, it says, were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Then you have there what the church is.

The church is the proclamation of the gospel. Then the Spirit of God coming upon the heart of that person, piercing the heart of that person. That person receives the word by faith. Then that person who is already saved, now partakes externally of baptism into the water, out of the water, and that person now is in the context of the church. Upon baptism of the Spirit, initially, when that person is regenerated, that person has been already inserted into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But baptism is an external manifestation of that spiritual reality that now joins them to the context of the visible, if you want, of the manifested church. In this case, thousands were added to the church. Now pay attention to verse 42, to the pronouns. The pronoun is the word that we use to replace a name. So I don't say Nelson, but I say he, or we don't say Katrina, we say she.

That is a pronoun. So now see in verse 42, the pronouns referring to those people who believed. It says in verse 42, and they those are those who received the word were baptized and were added to the church they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers and all came upon every soul, not only to the elders and not only to the leadership of the church. It was not only the leadership of the church devoting themselves to all of these things, but it was all of them. It says all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed, all of them who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they, all of those who believe and had all the things in common, they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day attending the temple together, that is the thousands, all of them, you know, of course, as providence allowed them, and breaking bread in their homes, they, all of them, received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. That was the church. Nothing of passivity and individualism. Nothing of an organism or an institution in which you had just a secluded group of men doing and the others passively receiving whatever thing to please their emotions.

Rather, what we see here is that the church, even here by the numbers, hundreds and thousands, by the numbers they were devoting themselves to spiritual matters, to the teaching of the Word, to fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, to prayers, to providing for one another. They were not individual, they were not passive, but rather they were active and they worked as a body in a collective. This is what the scriptures testifies of the church, not only in the book of Acts, but as we progress through the New Testament, the commandments and the instructions of the apostles in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ will be for the church to love one another, to serve one another, to be actively doing works of grace, to do good to everyone, especially to those of the household of God, to continually be active and operate as a body. Now, the picture of the church in which there is a vast majority of the church in a complete passive role is not only unbiblical, but is contrary to the health of the church. A church cannot be healthy if the church is individualistic and if the church is passive in their members.

The church necessitates and needs that each one of the members, because they have received a gift, they will be active, always working for the benefit of the collective. So as you can see, this is very important. Because in us, we have lots of ways of Babylon. And when I say that, I mean, we have lots of ways that we have taken from Christianity and from tradition. And, you know, I don't want us just to think that we are and they are not.

What I just simply want us is to think through the scriptures who we are and then to choose that which is according to the scriptures and that which is not according to the scriptures should be rejected, even if it's what we have experienced and seen for many Many years we have to submit ourselves to the scriptures and let me submit to you brethren That the way that many churches in the Western world operate is only with the purpose of having people passively seated in chairs Satisfied with whatever means some people with music some people with programs some people with a charismatic preacher Some people with just a nice building or whatever activity is attached to church so that they will endure 23 minutes of a sermon And then they will take their money out of their pockets and put it into a bag to give it to the church for a purpose that many times is in the flesh. Now, this is very sad. This is very sad. And the way that these things are changed is through the preaching of the word and through the word abiding in our hearts, but also changing the ways, the crooked ways that already abide in our hearts and in our church. So beloved brethren, I want us now to meditate and to think a little bit deeper on this concept of spiritual gifts.

So I have said to you from the words of the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 4, that the spiritual gifts are given to each believer. And this is to serve one another. It's managing, if you want to be stewards of God's grace. Now, if you come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, You may know, of course, from your reading of Scripture, that 1 Corinthians chapter 12 addresses, perhaps is one of the most famous passages of the Scriptures that address the topic of spiritual gifts. So now, to that simple definition that we have given from 1 Peter chapter 4, I want us to see three characteristics.

of spiritual gifts. Three characteristics that will help us just have a deeper definition of what spiritual gifts are. Because if by grace through faith you are in Christ, then that means that you have a gift or you have gifts of the Spirit. that should be used for the service of one another, right? According to Peter.

So let us see three characteristics from the first 11 verses of chapter 12 that I hope will help us have a deeper understanding of this definition of spiritual gifts. So what we're going to do is that we're going to read those 11 verses, and then I'm going to point your attention to those three characteristics that I want us to pay attention to. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it reads, now concerning the spiritual gifts or gifts of the Spirit, the spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to meet idols. However, you were however you were led.

Therefore I want you to understand that no one is speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is a curse and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit That is that that is contrary and opposite to the mute idols that he has spoken about But now let us pay more close attention to verses 4 through 11 Let us read these paying attention and having in our minds. This is spiritual gifts. It says verse 4 Now, there are varieties or differences of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish or discern between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. Verse 11. All these what is these gifts, right? All of these gifts that have been mentioned.

All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually and as he wills. You can see that there's a lot of information there about the spiritual gifts and actually more than three characteristics we could get. But I think just paying attention or focusing on these three will help us to grasp something practical for our church. The first characteristic that I wanted to see from these 11 verses is that the gifts or spiritual gifts are the gifts off the spirit. The spiritual gifts are gifts of the spirit.

These are not yours. They are gifts of the Holy Spirit. So then that means that this is not produced in and of yourself. This is not conceived with your intellect and your ability and your wisdom and your extensive experience about whatever matter you consider that your experience about. These are gifts of the Spirit.

And these gifts of the Spirit comes with regeneration whenever that happens to a person. These are gifts of the Spirit, and we're told in verse 11, primarily, it says, all these gifts of the Spirit are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. First thing that I want you to see is that these gifts of the Spirit are not produced on your own strength, but rather they are empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is that they are energized, it says literally there, energized by the Holy Spirit. That means that a gift of the Spirit is not something that you struggle at, and that is something that is a burden upon you, and something that you are not good at, and that you have to do, and that you must do it, and there is a burden upon you that you have to do it, but rather And a spiritual gift is energized, is empowered, is moved by the Holy Spirit.

He's the one that gives and he's the one that empowers the person to exercise that gift in the context of the church. And we are told in the second statement that is the spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. The spiritual gifts that are given in the context of the church do not depend on the will of the person. On whose will they depend. on the will of the Spirit, who distributes, is that word there, or apportions, when you have a cake and you cut portions of the cake and then just give to a person whatever portion they want to receive, apportions or distributes according to the will of the Spirit.

So that means that the gift that the Lord has given me might not be the same gift that the Lord has given you. And that is completely through the glory of the Lord. No one should be worried and concerned about the gift that they have not received, but rather be thankful for the gift that they have received because they have received it from the Spirit. And the gifts that they have not received is because the Spirit did not desire to give that to them. I don't know if that produces the same in your heart, but at least in my heart, it produces freedom because we have something in our flesh that it is fleshly performance that is in our flesh.

So in our flesh, we have performance. We want to be seen. We want to be observed. We want to have reputation. We want to be followed.

We are prideful in our nature. That is the scene that is within us. So then, naturally speaking, men will always When I say men, I mean humanity. Humanity, naturally speaking, always try to tend to have power. Otherwise, you can see what is going on in the world.

Naturally speaking, men, humanity, will try to have power to be followed, to be observed. And because of the indwelling sin that we have, We, at times, we will try to pursue those gifts that we consider of higher reputation. Why? Because they are followed, they are heard, they are the ones that teach, they are the ones that lead, giving less importance to many important gifts of the church and neglecting the gifts that, spiritually speaking, each person has been given generally. pursuing in the flesh what they should not be pursuing, instead of being thankful for what the Lord has given them according to his will.

That is the first thing. The gifts of the Spirit are the gifts of the Spirit. In this glorious relationship that you have with Christ by virtue of the gospel and your salvation, this God of this universe has given you a gift of gifts to your soul so that you will use that in the context of the church. Now, the second characteristic that I want to show you is that these gifts are not the same. In verse 4 it says, Now there are variety of gifts, but the same spirit and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord and there are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

A dear brother and sister, the church was not designed to operate only with the exercising of one or two spiritual gifts in one or two people in the context of the church. The church was designed and was created and was redeemed to operate with a variety of different gifts. a variety of different gifts, and the church depends, the health of the church depends on every single gift that she has been provided with by the Lord through the members of the church. From the smallest to the biggest, from the lofty to the not so lofty, to the one that is heard and observed, to the one that happens When no one sees each one of the spiritual gifts that I personally has been given is of massive importance for the congregation. Now, beloved brethren, imagine, gifts, spiritual gifts are so important to the life of the church.

And then at times when we think about a Christian church, and it will say, what does a Christian church do? What do they do? And then we say, okay, they just preach the word, people go and listen to the word, they have Bible studies and prayer meetings, perhaps they share the gospel, and that's it. church is much more than that. Elevating certain gifts and elevating certain activities and then diminishing, diminishing many of the spiritual gifts that other brethren will have in the context of the church.

What happens? Then you end up with a congregation that have the vast majority in a passive role And then the church suffering because they do not receive the power of the spirit through each one of the members, many of them and a variety of them. And we should be very thankful to the Lord that he has ascended into heaven to give the church and to give to the church different variety of services for the benefit and the health of the church. Now, the third thing that I want you to see is found in verse seven. Very cold?

Are you cold? No, I'm okay. Okay, brother. So the third thing, the first thing that I said to you is that the gifts of the Spirit are gifts of the Spirit. Is the Spirit of God the one that empowers a person?

And is the Spirit of God the one that distributes? We are not to pursue in the flesh. We are not to try to produce in ourselves those gifts. The church, second thing, the church receives a variety of different gifts. It's not only preaching and teaching, it's a variety of different spiritual gifts.

And the health and the life of the church depends upon the exercising, the doing, if you want, of each one of those spiritual gifts. Now, the third thing that I want you to see is in verse 7. But the apostle does something very interesting from verse 4 through verse 6 that is leading towards the statement that he gives in verse 7. And here the apostle in verse 4, 5, and 6, he is going to use a statement, the same statement in different ways. So he says, if you see, now there are varieties of gifts, but the Same spirit it says there are varieties of service But the same Lord and there are varieties of activities But is it same God and then uses the argument of verse 11 who empowers them all?

These words that the apostle uses from verse 4 to 6 are very important because it tells us something of the spiritual gifts. Because we may be tempted to think that spiritual gifts are spiritual gifts, right? That they're spiritual, that they happen in the spiritual world. that they happen there abstractly, that they happen in my imagination, that they happen, you know, when I'm sleeping, or they happen just, you know, five minutes before, five seconds before I eat, or that my spiritual gift is just happening in my thoughts and my spiritual life. We are told here in these almost synonym statements very important things about gifts.

Gifts are service and gifts are activities. They are given by the same spirit or the same Lord or the same God, which he concludes is the one that empowers, as he has said in verse 11, all of those in everyone. So gives our service and our activities. And then he concludes in that small argument in verse seven to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. For the common good.

The spiritual gift that a person has received should have as the goal the good of the church and of the congregation. Now, my dear brother and sister, saying those words are very simple. And sometimes we just diminish, you know, like the the importance and the depths of those words is just by saying, you know, I come to church and move the church. I do this. I preach and I teach.

So I'm doing things for the church. Doing things for the common good, for the good of the church, is not something that happens here. Something that starts here. That is that the intention initially of the heart, the desire, the genuine desire of the heart, is the common good. And then because there is a desire in the heart for the common good, then I do whatever I have been called to do.

Whatever gift I have, whatever service I have, whatever activity, I do it now for the common good. Good to the brethren is not physical or material in nature. It manifests that way. But it starts in the heart. That's why the Apostle says in chapter 14, verse 12, if you turn your page, this is a very important verse that concludes all of this section there about the spiritual gifts in verse 12 of chapter 14.

It says, so with yourselves, if you're there, brethren, chapter 14, verse 12 of 1 Corinthians. So with yourselves, since you are, since with yourselves, speaking of the previous argument, since you are eager for the manifestations of the Spirit, just take that statement, since you are eager for the manifestations of the Spirit, namely the spiritual gifts that were coming with power and prophecy and speaking in tongues and all of these things that were happening in the context of the church, and some people wanted to speak in tongues and some people wanted to prophesy, he says this, Strive to excel in building up the church. Strive to excel in building up the church. Now, brethren, the church is not edified only by the things that we do. The church is edified by the heart that we have when we do the things that we are called to do.

There is absolutely no benefit in us or me myself here preaching whenever I preach for years and years and years. If in my heart there is not genuine desire to edify your soul, I could be doing this from pure pure, selfish desire to prove myself that I'm able to do something, to prove myself that or just derive satisfaction from understanding doctrines and understanding the scriptures, or just simply to be heard, to be observed, to be called myself a preacher or a teacher or an elder, all of those words that people are satisfied just by receiving. I could have spent hours reading and studying the scriptures with a heart that is disconnected not only from the Lord, but from a genuine desire to see our kids saved or to see people being edified, people mortifying their sin, mortifying their pride and dying to self. I would be not only a hypocrite, but I will be, you know, laboring absolutely in the earth. I will be pushing the earth.

But yet I would be able, humanly speaking, to spend many years to preach the word. And many of you may say, wow, you know, they preach the truth. They say these words that we don't hear in other churches. And all of this could be happening secretly in my heart. Same things, of course, I can only use my personal example because I'm not in any of your hearts.

But the same thing happens in the heart of every believer. The interest for the common good, my dear brethren, starts in your heart. It's not when you come and push the table or when you come and do this or that. It does not start there. It starts in your heart, your service to the church, your service to the brethren.

Everything about our faith is about our hearts. Everything about the Lord Jesus Christ is about what we have in our souls, what we have in our spirits, what Jesus Christ in us, living through us. We are masters in doing external things. We are masters in doing things in the flesh, speak things in the flesh. We are masters even to at times deceive ourselves through emotions.

We are masters at deceiving ourselves even, you know, just to inflicted or given emotions and bringing ourselves to emotional state in which we think. We are masters at that. If the Spirit of the Lord is not governing our every day, bringing us to conviction, revealing the sin that we have within us, and showing us the way of glory that is in him, we will never be able to love the brethren as we ought to. We will not be able to use our spiritual gifts for the common good, for the common good of the people. Those three characteristics are very important.

As you can see here, brothers and sisters, And let me, because here perhaps I may lose you when I get into this next thing that I'm going to do. Let me just remind you, and even if the Bible study just finishes there, my dear brother, my dear sister, by virtue of what Christ did upon the cross. Because it's not that God only gives us gifts just out of nowhere. You know, when he died upon the cross, he conquered death. And when he conquered death by his resurrection and he ascended into heaven, he took captivity captive, right?

Ephesians chapter four. And then he gifted his church. He gifted his church with all these gifts, especially the gifts of the ministration of the Word of God. But he gave to each one of the believers gifts that they will grow in maturity in the statue of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they will be edified one with the other, that they will love one with the other. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished upon that cross.

not only that we were saved, but also that we received the Holy Spirit. And by that Holy Spirit in us, then now we can love one another, we can minister one with the other, and then we can do church according to what is written in the scriptures. That is, proclaiming the truth, loving one another, growing in holiness, and bringing the kingdom of God in our hearts, within our context, and to the world. As the Lord comes and then he establishes his kingdom. Now, of course, I do have to mention this, so please bear with me, because you will see here that in this list of spiritual gifts that we have in front of us, we have spiritual gifts that we need to conclude are these spiritual gifts that we should pursue or that we should have in the context of the contemporary church or not.

If you see there in verse eight, it says, for to one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom. Charismatics have changed that drum. They have read, I don't know if you've heard this, Words of faith is the word, right? Words of faith. Brethren, this is a complete read, like reading into, you know, this is a complete practice that is complete read into.

This simple statement there, for to one is given through the spirit, the utterance, or the word of wisdom. Perhaps if you have a different Bible, that will be where they get that. A word of wisdom to another, a word of knowledge. I was trying to remember what was my first impression when I read this for the first time like 10 years ago. I don't recall exactly, but if I tried to remove my mind from every doctrine that I know, I would have thought, as a simple Christian, as a wisdom, what the Old Testament says, a word of wisdom, and knowledge, what the Old Testament says, a word of knowledge.

But there are brethren in the context of the church that have been gifted to speak wisdom and to speak knowledge, to speak as teachers or preachers. But you know things have changed Anyway, it says for to one is given through the spirit the utterance of word of wisdom and to another the word or utterance of knowledge According to the same spirit and to another faith by the same spirit all of those Let's say that we are okay and say yes, you know wisdom and knowledge and faith. We are okay there We feel okay that we can have that in the church, but then he says to another gifts of healing by the one spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another the ability to distinguish between spirits to discern spirits to another even though yeah to another various kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues and continues we have here that which is called you know from a theological point of view the spiritual gifts many times when you hear that the spiritual gifts the spiritual gifts will be kind of like reduced down to all of these just five or four spiritual gifts that we read there you know like the healings and the miracles and and the speaking in tongues and the interpreting of tongues and working all of these supernatural things. And the other ones, you know, the other ones, the other, if you come even with me to Roman chapter 12, very quickly, which is a parallel passage to that. The same apostle is speaking in a parallel passage of the same matters in Romans chapter 12.

It says in verse 6, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Same thing that I have tried to emphasize, right? Given to each by the same grace. Let us use them, right? Not let us have them abstractly and spiritually in our minds.

but let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. All of them are given by the Spirit, and all of them are equally important for the life of the church. the ones who received the gift of prophecy, the one that received the gift of healing, the one that received the gift of interpretation, the one that received the gift of mercy, the one that received the gift of exhortation, the one who received the gift of contribution or distribution. Every single spiritual gift is not to be diminished in importance.

but is to be uphold as important for the context of the church, not because of the person who performs the gift or has the gift, but because of the spirit who has given that from his will to the church, and he knows it all, and he knows what the church needs. But what I want us to do if we return to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is, of course, to try to think and meditate upon those spiritual gifts that are the ones that bring sometimes controversy, those miraculous, if you want, spiritual gifts. Now, this is something that I think I did with the men during the men's meeting. But I just want us just to see our answers very simply the question of if these miraculous spiritual gifts are for today. So I'm going to argue, as we have done before, that the spiritual gifts should be distinguished.

Spiritual gifts should be distinguished. Oh, there should be a distinction. The spiritual gifts should be distinguished, or there should be a distinction. And that distinction is in two categories, if you want. The first category are those who belong to the church for all generations through the generations until the Lord Jesus Christ comes.

And they are to be actively conducted or performed or done through the context and the age of the church or the time of the life of the church. And there's another category of spiritual gifts that I'm now going to try to demonstrate to you. These are spiritual gifts that witness witness to the testification or attesting, perhaps that is Spanish, the attesting of the Word of God that was given once the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected. So I'm making that claim that there is a distinction. And these spiritual gifts that we speak about, you know, sometimes miraculous spiritual gifts such as tongues, interpretations of tongues, and the gifts of healing not saying that we don't believe that the Lord heals Lord heals but the gift of a person having at will the ability to come at every time at will and to heal another person or the the the gift of at will be able to prophesy things from God, or things about the future, or the ability of the gift to speak in tongues that have not been learned, another person to have the ability at will to interpret those tongues.

And all of these spiritual gifts are gifts that are given in a specific time to attest to the Word of God that was given from the Lord Jesus Christ to the disciples. And this is how the argument is presented. So if you come with me to Hebrews chapter 1, I've done this with the men, but this is just simply how I'm just going to present it to the rest of the church. If you come to Hebrews chapter 1, we're going to do it, and I'm just going to try to present to you and demonstrate the truth of the statement that I have just made. So Hebrews chapter 1.

So I'm just going to be referring you to, I think, four or five scriptures. So bear with me and try to follow this argument just for us to have peace in our minds about the spiritual gifts that we are to have and pursuing this time and also have clarity about these matters. Now, Hebrews chapter one, it says in the first three verses or two verses. Long time at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, right? This is in the past.

God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. Verse two. But in these last days, this is after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these last days, he has spoken to us. The us is the church, right?

By his son. whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." So the author of Hebrews, who very likely, because of how he starts, is an apostle. But the author of Hebrews says, in the past, God spoke to the fathers, spoke his word to the fathers, and the means that he used to speak to the fathers of the Old Testament was the prophets. So the prophets were the channel that God used to speak to the fathers in all time.

Now he says, in these last days, he, that is God, has spoken to us, the church, perhaps an apostle, the church, he has spoken to us. And now the means by which God has spoken to us is not the prophets anymore, but is who? Jesus the son and these actually these two verses are very important for the book of Hebrews He is actually the foundation of the whole book of Libra Hebrews because it's about a message that has been spoken and a message that should be careful paid attention to. And the whole book of Hebrews is just going to argue that this message of salvation is so great in the person of Jesus Christ that you need to carefully pay attention to and that you're not to deviate from this message that you have received. And this, here, the author of Hebrews is going to explain of the exaltation of Christ.

And then if you come to chapter 2, here we're going to have something about this message that has been spoken to us by the Son. It says in chapter 2 in verse 1. Therefore, like, you know, if we remove all of like, you know, removed by in our minds, all of those verses, it says, therefore, if we jump from that verse, God has spoken to us now through the sun. Therefore, in chapter two, we must we must pay closer attention to what we have heard. You see how it continues.

God has spoken to us through the Son. Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, because the Son has spoken. And when he has spoken, there is something that is to be heard. So he says, Therefore, we may pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it, what we have heard. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable on every transgression or dissolved receipt at just retribution."

Again, comparing that of the past, the message of the angels, according to Paul in Galatians chapter 3, speaking that the law was given through intermediary angels. Here, again, comparing the Old Testament with the New Testament in verse 3 says, How shall we escape? So, if that message was spoken so seriously, then verse 3, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Speaking of this salvation, it says, it was declared at first by the Lord. He spoke to the fathers through the prophets, and now he has spoken to us through the son.

It says there, it was declared at first by the Lord, and then it says, and he was attested or confirmed to us by those who heard. Here, perhaps referring to the 12, to the apostles. He was attested to us by those who heard. heard. And now those who heard, you remember 1st John, that which was from the beginning, which we have seen, which I heard all of that, that John says in 1st John, it was attested by those who heard.

And now it says in verse four, while God also bore witness, that is attesting the message of those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs, and wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to His will." You see the similar words, right? So that those who heard the message from the Lord, namely the apostles when they were speaking, that God was bearing witness to them by signs, and wonders, and miracles, and by gifts of the Spirit that were distributed according to his will. Now you can see here, perhaps I hope, that there were miraculous things that took place, namely signs and wonders and various miracles, and here the apostle or the author of Hebrews adds, and gifts of the Spirit, that these ones attested the message that was proclaimed by those who heard." I think that that clearly, you know, at times some other brethren will try to diminish the weight of that argument here from Hebrews and say different things.

But I think that it's very difficult to disconnect the spiritual gifts that Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and that speaks in Romans chapter 12 from what it is contained here. Now I want to show you these signs and wonders and miracles and gifts of the Spirit that were distributed according to His will in the ushering of the coming of the Holy Spirit and what happened in Pentecost. So if you come quickly with me to Pentecost, to Acts chapter 2, let me show you a couple of things there. So now I don't think that I have to read the whole chapter because you remember the Lord Jesus Christ was ascended. He says that they are to remain and that they are to pray and they indeed they pray.

And then the Holy Spirit comes in the day of Pentecost and the Spirit of God distributes right tongues and they start to speak in different tongues. And then here we have people that are coming from other nations that had come to Jerusalem, right? We have people from other nations, and then they now can hear how these disciples now are speaking in their own language. They can hear that in their own language, and the utterance of their mouths is of the glories of God. He's speaking of the glories of God.

Now, you remember that, and then in verse 14 we're told, But Peter, standing with the eleven, you remember that there was an accusation, perhaps, that he was drunk? But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only the third hour of the day that this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. So that is what you see today is the fulfillment of what the prophet Joel had said.

And what is what the prophet Joel said? It says, verse 17, And in the last days, that's last days after the coming of the Messiah, he shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." In the Old, it says, remember what Hebrew says? God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. And now in these last days, He has spoken to us through the Son.

He has spoken through the Son. But also we know here that with the ushering of the coming of the Holy Spirit, The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of this prophecy that was given in the Old Testament, actually comes to happen. That now people of all ages are prophesying. It says, I will pour out my spirit and all flesh. What just happened is the fulfillment of that.

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs in the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor, and smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost now has empowered the church and gifted the church, not only men or prophets, but we have here that male and female and servants to prophesy and to speak the words of the Lord. Many of these people, where now they return to their places, they return to their cities, they return to their nations, and they have now this gift of prophecy and speaking the majestic things of the Lord. According to Hebrews chapter two, we are told that all of these now majestic signs that are going to come by the hands of the apostles, primarily done through the book of Acts, signs and wonders and signs of the Spirit were done to attest the message of those who had received a message from the Lord and were speaking and testifying to those who heard. Come with me now to the book of 1 Corinthians once again.

And I try to conclude my argument here. If you come to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I mean. This one is very difficult to explain because of how the apostle mixes the words. So let me attempt to do it. I don't want to abide more in this thought any longer because I want to return to spiritual gifts for our church.

But let me try and see if the Lord helps. So when the Spirit of God, brethren, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, but just thinking about what we have read in Acts chapter 2, When the Spirit of God came and was poured upon the disciples, and when the disciples started to speak of the glories of God, many of the Jews, remember that the Jews claimed, I don't know what the word is, but you know, accused them that they were drunk. So many of the Jews heard all of those things that were spoken, and not only the Jews that were supposed to be the religious people that were supposed to be the covenant people that were supposed to be the believers. They were supposed to be the, you know, the Christians, if you want. They were supposed to be the Church of God, if you want.

They were supposed to be the people of God. These people, when they heard the prophesying of the apostles and the prophesying of all of these people, servants and everyone, they criticized that and they did not receive that. And there were also people that were non-believers there, that were people who were outside of the covenant, they were not Jews, and they were also amazed. They were amazed that they were hearing all of these words that were spoken in their own language about the glories of God. Now, the apostle is going to give us the explanation of that in 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

I will try to explain this very shortly. And if you have any questions, you can ask later. I don't want to dwell any longer here. But let me just explain this one here. Now, brethren, what happened at Pentecost was, in a sense, a judgment.

Judgment to the Jews. Judgment to the Jews that God, now God was speaking to them through the lips of peoples of other tongues and peoples, you know, peoples that were low in their eyes, and they were speaking in tongues or in languages of peoples of the hidden. And this is what the apostle is going to speak here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. If I'm able to explain us here, the apostle applies it there into the church. It says in verse 20, Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.

Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written, by people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to these people, and even they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Now, the apostle is taking now the church in a different moment in which the church now is prophesying and speaking in tongues with all of these spiritual miraculous gifts that were given there in Pentecost chapter 2. Now, let me see if we can just go through these verses, because the apostle writes there in a somehow mixed way. So it's difficult to follow.

But let me see if we can follow in verse 22. It says, you can read it later on. If I fail to explain this clearly, you can read it on your own later on. Thus tongues, which was speaking in a language that was not natural to the person, thus tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers. It says, but tongues are a sign that is not done for the believer, but it's for the unbeliever.

Think about in Pentecost with all of these people, they had to come and say, well, we hear them speaking our own language. It says, the tongues are not a sign for believers, but for unbelievers. While prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for those who profess to believe. Prophecy is a sign for those who can agree with the prophecy and say, this is the word of the Lord, because those are the believers. Those are the ones that say, yes, this is the word of the Lord.

While the unbeliever is confronted with a tongue, it says in verse 23. And here's where it gets confused. But you can read that in your own time. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, the tongues are for believers. It says, if, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter where they will not say that you're out of your mind.

Will they not say you are drunk? In other words, they will not say that you're crazy. Verse 24, But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever, an outsider, enters, he is convicted by all, all of those believers that are prophesying, He is called to account by all the secret of his heart to disclose. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. And all the believers that are in the context of the church, as they see that the unbelievers mightily converted by the prophesying of the word, will say the Lord is among us.

The Lord has now has saved the soul that has been confronted by the prophecy that was pierced in the heart of this person. Salvation has taken place among us. And this person has been now converted from an unbeliever to a believer. I said to you that this is a little bit confusing to understand what the apostle says. But my dear brethren, I submit to you that these spiritual gifts given to the apostles and given to this age of the church was with the purpose through signs and miracles and mighty works.

to demonstrate and to attest the veracity of a message that was new not only to the Jews who were professing believers, but also to the Greeks that they were seeking, you know, like a wisdom and the others were seeking what a sign, right? The Jews were seeking a sign and the Greeks were seeking wisdom. So this miraculous thing, we're attesting to all of them of the power of the Lord. Once the word of God comes, all of that, there is a Bible study that we have done explaining that extensively. Let me just leave that behind, please.

My dear brother and sister, I had to say that because this is important for whoever is here, whoever is online, and whoever is going to be paying attention to this later in the future. But the most important thing here is that we know that the Spirit of God gives and distributes to each one of the believers a spiritual gift that is to be used for the common good. And I don't know if this is the question that you have in your mind, but at least it's the question that I had in the past and that I had also when I was preparing this is, How do I know what my spiritual gift is? How do I know what my spiritual gift is? Because, you know, at times we can be easily confused by our providential experiences, that all of the things that we did before we were saved, and all of these things that they were governed by God's sovereignty and by God's providence, you know, that we learned these, that we grew, and we experience all of these things, and we grew to be good at this particular thing, and we grew to be good at this particular thing.

But how do we know what is a spiritual gift? This is very important, my dear brother or sister, because many churches, many churches, sadly, what they will do is that they will take the physical, natural experience or gift or talent that a person has and equate that to the spiritual gift that they have for the church, and then to translate worldly experience in whatever they've done in their lives into this is what you should do in the church. Now, many times the Lord can use providentially what we have learned, what we have gone through, and what we have experienced for us to put it in the service of the church. But we are to be very careful in distinguishing those things that providentially we have learned and the spiritual things that the Lord has given to us. You will see that many churches, especially in America, are run by the deacons, and the deacons are businessmen.

They're men, you know, that have experience in this and that, and then the preachers are only preaching the Word, and the deacons are the ones, are the leadership of the church, and they're the ones that are deciding what the church should do, because they have this worldly skills that now they are taken into the context of the church. While the Lord can use providentially many of the things that we learn, we are to distinguish, spiritually speaking, the gift that we have. How do we do it? Well, if you come to Romans chapter eight, we can learn from there in the same way that we learn about the most important gift that we have received, which is salvation. Salvation is the most important gift that we have received, right?

That to be saved and in the person of Jesus Christ. And spiritual gifts are not different to salvation. They are given by the Holy Spirit. They are not produced in ourselves. Just as our salvation is not produced in ourselves, it's produced by the Spirit.

Our spiritual gifts are produced by the Holy Spirit. And we are told in Romans chapter 8 that the way that we discern that we have received the gift of salvation is by the testifying of the Holy Spirit. It says in Romans chapter 8 in verse 12. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. It says, The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. In other words, it's the Spirit himself, the one that testifies to ourselves that we have received the gift of salvation. In other words, that we are children of God.

It's the Spirit himself that bears witness with our own spirit that we are children of God. My dear brother and sister, when it comes to our spiritual gifts, the spiritual gifts start by the spirit working in us. And the spirit is the one that leads us in that which we want to do for the church. If you remember, we're not going to go there because I want to bring to conclusion this very soon. But in 1 Timothy chapter 3, speaking of the role of the elder, or if you want, speaking of the gifts that the elder has to have or receive to be an elder, to be a shepherd, to be a pastor, it says that if anyone desires to have the office or the role of a bishop, of an overseer, he desires a good thing.

That is, that the Spirit of God has equipped a man with everything that he needs to be an elder, but at the same time, he has moved the desires. You think that we produce desires in our own flesh? Even our desires are governed by the Lord. So he has given the desire to a person to do a particular thing. But when I say desire, I'm not speaking about desire to do a Bible study.

Desire for the common good. Remember, this is the object or the purpose of spiritual gifts. I desire something to do something not for my own self, not for my own benefit, not for my own exaltation, not for my own name, not to feed my ego or my pride, not to just simply, you know, tick boxes that appease my religious list of things that I have to do. But when the spirit of God is moving in a person, he will give to that person, namely a Christian, A desire to do something, whatever it is, preaching, serving, or distributing of mercy, whatever it is, for the common good. And the Spirit will move that person.

That is what is to walk in the Spirit. And that is not left only in a desire. Because you remember how the deacons or the seven men were chosen in Acts chapter 7? The apostle said, go and choose from among yourself men that are filled with wisdom and with the Holy Spirit. Because then the congregation had the ability to see and to discern in a brother or a sister that the Spirit of God is working in such a way that it is clear that this brother or sister has the desire to do something for the church.

And when they do it, then the benefit of the church is clearly invisible. It is the Spirit of God that initiates everything in our life. He moves in reality within us and is attested, if you want, approved, if you want, or confirmed by the congregation. It does not only happen for elders or for deacons, but then we can see that a brother or a sister has been given the gift of mercy, or the gift of abundant love, or the gift of faith, or the gift of whatever gift a person can be given, and then we discern those things. The beauty of the spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, is that when we see those gifts in others, the flesh will produce naturally envious thoughts.

the Spirit will rejoice in the truth. Love rejoices in the truth and does not rejoice in inequity, it says 1 Corinthians chapter 13. So that when we see as a congregation the gifts in brothers and sisters, then we rejoice in our heart. It does not happen externally. It happens in the heart.

Let me just give you a warning from 1 Timothy chapter 4 and then we will conclude. If you come to 1 Timothy chapter 4, The Apostle is going to give to Timothy an exhortation about his spiritual gift, which can be taken for all of us, for whatever spiritual gift the Lord has given us in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Let us read from verse 12. So Timothy was a pastor of this church, the Church of Ephesus, but he was a young man. Okay.

It says in verse 12, and he was receiving opposition from others. So it says, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers An example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. That was his gift, right? It says now in verse 14, do not neglect the gift you have.

In this time, it was given to him, it says, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. I think I mentioned something of this last time when we spoke about church government laying hands. But it says, do not neglect the gift you have. Now, this is for Timothy, but of course, here, implicitly speaking, Timothy was able, at least theoretically speaking, to neglect the gift. It's not that just because he received this gift, now he was empowered and energized constantly by the Holy Spirit, and then he's going to be a machine that is all the time doing what he was called to do.

It's the Holy Spirit in him giving him and empowering him to do what he has to do, and he has to do it. It says, do not neglect the gift you have. Brethren, what gift, what spiritual gift do we have? What spiritual gift do you have? What is the spiritual gift that is so necessary for Cornish Strong Reformed Baptist Church to be edified and for the common good of the brethren?

How have you dealt with that spiritual gift given to you? It's not that you don't have. It's not that you have to wait, you know, until you learned all of these doctrines for you to receive a spiritual gift. When you were saved, you were equipped with a spiritual gift, whatever it is for the church. Have we neglected these spiritual things and left our spiritual gifts just in this abstract spiritual world and just simply thinking about them?

Or individualistic, just in a individualistic and in a passive way, just performing and doing those gifts for us? Because pay attention how the contrast in verse 15 of what he says to Timothy. It says, practice these things. It says, Do not neglect the gift that you have in verse 15. Practice these things.

Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. For him, he was called for a particular matter. But that which we have been is a great call. You know, it's a great call, according to Paul in Ephesians chapter four. It's a great call that we have been given.

It says, practice these things and immerse yourself. Brethren, at times, you know, I will go and see online. I think I've told you some of you. I will see these athletes, you know, especially the ones that play tennis or people that play soccer or these athletes that are the ones that run just to see how they give themselves to worldly endeavors. How they give their time, how they give their bodies to things that are going to pass away.

They give themselves to a sport, they give themselves to music, they give themselves to a career, a reputation, a job. They give themselves in ways that at times, not at times, most of the times, are unseen in the context of the church. And we have the greatest calling, we have the greatest duty as Christians, we have the greatest message, we have the labor, the task that will endure until the end. All of these sports, all of these things will pass away. Yet you see men in the flesh and falling in their sins, practice and immersing themselves, my dear brother and sister.

what this world has accomplished in us through many, many, many, many, many years. And even the result of what we see today is that this world has accomplished for many, many years to make people individualistic, lazy, and passive. This world has accomplished to make people individualistic, lazy, and passive, and this is in our flesh in the context of the Church. We are to, by virtue of gratitude for the salvation that we have, not to neglect the spiritual gift that we have received from the Lord. and by His grace, not thinking that we have a strength in and of our own, not thinking that we have the ability to do it on our own, relying on our intellect and our abilities, but relying on His feet to be diligent.

not to pursue built-in empires and to have lots of money and to do all of these things, but to treasure up things in heaven, brothers and sisters. Because when time comes, that which is of real value is not the treasures that we have on the extensive bank account or the multiple cars or the reputation and accolades and the titles and the education and whatever. All of these things are not benefit. What is of benefit is the church walking in the light as the Lord Jesus Christ is in the light, the church loving one another, not with fleshly love, but with love that is in the spirit, with the church walking in truth, with the church concerned for the common good and seeking the Lord to abide in the spirit so that the spiritual gift that we have received will be put to practice for the benefit of the brethren. Amen.