Brothers and sisters, we have finished the overview of the Old Testament under the banner of the theme of the Bible, the Kingdom of God. And I do want to take up the New Testament and do something similar with the books of the New Testament, because the New Testament is the revelation of the fulfillment of all that was anticipated in the Old Testament regarding the kingdom of God. The Old Testament is all about anticipation, looking forward. The New Testament, the new covenant scriptures are all about fulfillment. So we will do something similar with the New Testament books as we did with the Old Testament books, but not just yet. We'll take a little break from that. And I want to bring you a series of sermons on the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts. And I was first inspired to bring these messages early last summer when we conducted our first vacation Bible school. And many of you stepped up to fill the various roles that were necessary to kick off that ministry. There were, first of all, those who initiated the very idea. Those who volunteered to organize VBS. At least one person agreed to secure materials to teach. Others volunteered to do the teaching. Others to cook, to do artwork, to serve, to lead music, and just to assist in monitoring the children. As you recall at that time, I brought to your attention the fact that we as elders were doing nothing. But I delighted in that fact, that we as elders were not doing anything, because it reminded me that we are not the only ministers in the church, but the whole body of Christ, every believer, is a minister. And the scripture that informs this, of course, is Ephesians 4, 11, and 12, one of the gift passages. And there we read of the ascended Lord Jesus, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastor-teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. You see, pastor-teachers equip the saints, but the saints all do work of ministry so that the body is built up. A few verses later in 4.16, he says of the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. We are not, pastors are not the only ministers. Every believer in the church is a minister. All the saints do the work of ministry, and that's where spiritual gifts come in. Now, in saying that, I would say to Pastor Clinton and myself, we do have job security in the sense that we are ministers of the word, and there will be the need for ministers of the word until Jesus returns. So it's not either or, it's both and. We are ministers of the word, but all of the people of God, all of you are ministers. A healthy church. is one in which the whole body is mobilized to use their God-given spiritual gifts to serve their fellow believers and to reach unbelievers with the gospel. So as I bring these messages on spiritual gifts, it's not in the form of a rebuke or a corrective to something that is grossly deficient in our church because We're grateful to God that many of you are serving the Lord, you're doing ministries, you're using your spiritual gifts, but the pattern of sanctification in the Christian life is always to reach higher and to press on to greater maturity and usefulness. And so the Apostle Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 4, commends the Thessalonians for their love for one another, but then he says this in verse 10, but we urge you, brethren, to excel still more. I think we are, by and large, a body of believers who are using their gifts, who are doing works of ministry, but we want to excel still more. So before we turn to the books of the New Testament and do with them what we did with the Old Testament, showing the unfolding of the great theme of the kingdom of God, we're going to take up this topic of spiritual gifts. And I begin with this, the gift of the Holy Spirit. You see, before we talk about the gifts, plural, of the Holy Spirit, we do well to distinguish the gifts from the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our brother John Ruther wrote an excellent book entitled, The Gift of the Holy Spirit, commended by a lot of notable theologians in our day. And he opens with these words, the spirit gives gifts to his church, yet the spirit himself is the gift. And let's consider the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit. You are aware that John the Baptist, and this is recorded in all four Gospels, announces, I baptize with water, but the one coming after me, who is Jesus, he will baptize you with what? The Holy Spirit. In each of the Gospels that is mentioned, Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. And then Jesus in his final extended discourse, what we're studying in Sunday school under Pastor Clint, in the upper room repeatedly promises the gift of the Holy Spirit to his followers. He says things like this, John 14, 16, I will ask the Father and he will give you Another helper. And it's noted that the word another, there are two words for another in Greek. One heteros, which means another of a different kind. This is the word alos, another of the same kind. And then in John 14, 18, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you, Jesus says. How? Well, 14, 26 says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. And then 16, 13, but when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. And so both John the Baptist and Jesus promise the gift of the Holy Spirit. When was that fulfilled? When was that spirit given? Well, that happened on Pentecost. And so consider the giving of this gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise was fulfilled at Pentecost when the Spirit's coming is variously described. First of all, it's described as a baptism. In Acts 1, 4 and 5, where the resurrected Jesus is preparing to ascend and go back to heaven, he says these words to his followers. It says, gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father, wait for what the Father had promised, which you heard from me, where John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. The gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is called a baptism. It is also called an outpouring in Acts 2 17. Peter explains when when the people are marveling over the people speaking in languages they did not know and people understanding them and they're marveling at that phenomenon and Peter explains it this way quoting from the prophet Joel and it shall be in the last days. God says that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind. Later on in his sermon in Acts 233, therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear. So the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is a baptism. It's also an outpouring. It's also called the gift. In Acts 238, when people respond to Peter's sermon, Asking, what shall we do? He says, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then in Acts 10, where Peter is preaching to the Gentile Cornelius and his family, we read, all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. So the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost is a baptism. It's an outpouring. It's the gift. It's also called the filling, Acts 2, 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues. It's also referred to as the Spirit falling upon them. Acts 11, 15, and 16, as Peter is explaining to his fellow apostles why he went to Cornelius and the Gentiles. He says, as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as upon us at the beginning. Now, how are we to understand this? Brothers and sisters, what happened at Pentecost was a historic momentous, once for all sending and coming of the Holy Spirit. And the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost is closely connected to Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. As again, we read in Acts 2, 32 and 33, this Jesus God raised up again. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, having been received from the Father, Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see in here. The coming of the Spirit, the giving of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the result of Jesus being raised, ascended, and enthroned at the right hand of God. Listen to what theologian Richard Gaffin says. Pentecost is nothing less than the establishment of the church as the new covenant people of God, as the body of Christ. The spirit given at Pentecost constitutes the body of Christ as a dwelling place of God in the spirit, Ephesians 2.22, as the temple of God in which the spirit of God dwells, 1 Corinthians 3.16. Close quote. So the Church, brothers and sisters, is the Spirit-baptized community. Everyone who is baptized with the Holy Spirit is part of the universal body of Christ. And at this point, let me make something clear. We've referred to the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You are aware that there are some Christians who believe that the baptism in, with, or by the Holy Spirit is an experience that you need to have subsequent to conversion. You've heard that, right? Okay, when I believe, I get the Spirit, but to really have the Spirit filling me for victory over sin, for usefulness in the kingdom, for spiritual power, I need to have this second experience, sometimes called the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Now what that does is divide the body of Christ. You have the haves and the have-nots. Those who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and those who have not. It kind of divides the body of Christ into first class and second class citizens. And we fly quite a bit because our family's in California. And I'm always very self-conscious when I walk, I'm getting into the plane and I'm walking by the first class section. They have all this leg room. They're going to be fed special meals. We never pay for our seat, and so we sit wherever the airline assigns us, and it's always over the wing. My wife always says, here we are, over the wing again. That's right. But I'm always self-conscious walking past the first class people and wondering how they're looking. Yeah, no, I'm just the back of the plane person. I didn't pay enough to sit first class. But what this doctrine does, it divides the church into first class citizens who have received the baptism of the spirit and second class citizens. Well, we just, you know, are converted, but we haven't had the baptism yet. Brothers and sisters, That's wrong teaching. And let me show you why. Seven times in the New Testament, the phrase, baptism in with or by the Holy Spirit is used. Four of those are in the Gospels, where John says, I baptize with water, the one coming after me, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Who is the baptizer? Jesus. Into what will he baptize? The Holy Spirit. Again, it's mentioned in Acts 1, just before going back to heaven, Jesus says, the baptism with the Spirit is coming soon. It's going to be Pentecost. And it's mentioned again in Acts 11, as Peter reflects on the Gentile Cornelius experience. The seventh and final time that the phrase, baptism in with or by the Holy Spirit, is very critical. It's the only time it's used in the epistles, the teaching portions of the New Testament. And it is in 1 Corinthians 12, 13. And you need not turn there. But 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says this. For by one spirit, I'm going to say in one spirit, with one spirit, We were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. We were all made to drink of one spirit. The same phrase. Now, if in the other occasions, Jesus is the baptizer and the element into which he baptizes is the Holy Spirit, it's safe to assume that's the case here. Jesus is the baptizer. We are baptized with or into the element of the Holy Spirit. Now, who are spirit baptized according to this teaching verse? or even as the, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were all made to drink of one spirit. Every Christian in Corinth is a spirit-baptized Christian. And what's the analogy? We were made to drink of one's spirit. When you drink water or some other liquid, you ingest it. It becomes part of you. Remember the old Gatorade commercial? Is it in you? Well, the spirit is in every believer. Every believer has been baptized with the Holy Spirit by Jesus. It happens at conversion. That's why our brother John in his book says this. I do not pray to be baptized in the spirit because that has already happened to me at conversion. So we're not talking about the gifts of the Spirit yet. We're talking about the gift, the Spirit as the gift given to us. It was promised by John the Baptist, promised by Jesus, and the Spirit came at Pentecost. And then you'll note that in Acts 8, there was a similar experience among the Samaritans. In Acts 10, a similar experience among the Gentiles. What is God saying? Well, according to Acts 1.8, you shall receive power when the Spirit comes upon you. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. God is showing that this gospel is a universal gospel. It's not just for Jews. And what you Jews experienced on Pentecost will be experienced by the Samaritans. The half-Jews will be experienced by the Gentiles in Acts 10, because the Spirit is saving people throughout the world. It's a universal gospel. And so, I like what Brother John says, the Spirit was officially poured out at Pentecost, and he is poured into our hearts personally at conversion, thus making conversion the sinner's Pentecost. Right, John? You said it. And you know what? The gift of the Holy Spirit is the best possible gift that God could give us. Because in giving us the Holy Spirit, who is God, he's giving us himself. My wife is a wonderful grandmother. And every time we go to California, I'm reminded of that. She does something special for our two granddaughters. Every morning, she puts a special little gift under our two pillows. And they know it's there. And they are knocking on the door early in the morning. They want to see what grandma has put under the two pillows for them. Usually dollar store gifts, sometimes a little more expensive. But the gifts she buys are not gifts they could just take and run off with and play. They're often interactive. They're stickers. They're coloring books. They're little games that she or I could play together with the children. Because the best gift that you give, that we give to our children and grandchildren, is not a material gift. It is the gift of ourselves. It is our presence with them, right? And we want our grandchildren to know us, not as the one who gives the gift, but the one who is involved in their lives and interacts with them. And so many of our gifts are interactive gifts. Well, God has given us the gift of himself. It's an amazing reality. Do you realize that God by the Holy Spirit lives in you, Christian? Now, that doesn't make you God, but it does make you and me a temple of the living God. In giving us his Holy Spirit, he has given us the best gift possible, his very self to be in us. And the Spirit of God within us has many ministries. Among them, and again, citing John in his book, what are some of the ministries of the Holy Spirit within us? He illuminates our minds to understand the truth. He bears witness with our spirits that we're children of God, Romans 8. He leads us to put sin to death, Romans 8. He guides us in our prayers. We don't know how to pray as we ought. The Spirit helps us. He fills us. He produces his fruit in us, right? But our focus in our study in the upcoming weeks will be on the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to his people. And so let's move to second major point this morning, the meaning of spiritual gifts. Shifting from the spirit adds the gift to the gifts the spirit gives. What is the meaning of spiritual gifts? Well, the gifts of the spirit are not the same as the gift of the spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are not the same as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace. However, as we'll see, you can have the best gifts exercised to the nth degree, but if you do not have the first fruit of the Spirit, love, it's worth nothing. So the fruit of the Spirit is connected to the gifts of the Spirit, and that all the gifts must be exercised in love, as we'll see. Sandwiched between 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, two gift passages is 1 Corinthians 13, and it's all about love. But to learn what is meant by spiritual gifts, let's just look together at some of the Greek words that are used to describe the gifts. And you've heard of these words. One is charisma, the plural charismata. You've heard of charisma. That means a gift of grace, a favor which one receives without any merit of his own. Romans 12 and verse 6, since we have gifts, charismata, that differ according to the grace, charis, given to us. 1 Peter 4, 10, as each one has received a gift, charisma. 1 Timothy 4.14, Paul says to Timothy, do not neglect the spiritual gift, charisma within you. 2 Timothy 1.6, for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift, charisma of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. That's one word. Another word is in Greek, didomi. It means to give as a gift, to supply, to furnish. And so in Ephesians 4.11, he, the ascended Christ, gave Some as apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastor-teachers. Another word is pneumatikos, pneuma from spirit. And it means pneumatikos means spiritual belonging to the spirit in reference to things emanating from the divine spirit or exhibiting the effects its effects and so its character. It's interesting in 1st Corinthians 12 1 Paul says now concerning spirituals brethren now most of our translations will say spiritual gifts. But the actual word in the Greek is simply spirituals, probably to be understood as spiritual gifts. Now concerning spirituals, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 1 Corinthians 14.1, pursue love, yet earnestly desire spirituals. Most will translate that spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14.12, so also you, since you are zealous of spirituals, probably spiritual gifts. And 1 Corinthians 12.4-6, I'll just read those verses. because they use different words. Now, there are varieties of gifts. That's charismata. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. There are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. That's the word from which we get deacon. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all in all. And that's the word from which we get energy, energematon. So what are spiritual gifts? The theologian Richard Gaffin says this. Any capacity of the believer, including aptitudes present before conversion, brought under the controlling power of God's grace and functioning in his service, is a spiritual gift. Any capacity of the believer, including aptitudes present before conversion, brought under the controlling power of God's grace and functioning in his service is a spiritual gift. He goes on to say spiritual gifts comprise all the ways in which God, by the power of his spirit, uses Christians as instruments in his service. And he goes on to say, and this is interesting, biblically speaking, charismatic and Christian are synonyms. The Christian life in its totality is to be a charismatic life. Christ's church as a whole is a charismatic movement. You know, there's a subset of Christianity that has kind of hijacked that word. Oh, we're the charismatics. No, biblically speaking, the whole church is a charismatic community. We are the charismatic movement, the whole church. Don't let a subset of Christianity hijack that word. And as the weeks go on, we'll see more of what this means. Now, my own attempt at a definition of spiritual gifts is this. Spiritual gifts are diverse gifts of God's grace given by the Holy Spirit to the saints to minister for the unity and edification of the spiritual body of Christ and for the glory of God. And sometimes the question is asked, and it's a good question, what is the connection between spiritual gifts and natural temperament or natural ability? It's a good question, right? How much is natural and how much is supernatural? Well, Richard Gaffin partly answered that. He said a gift includes aptitudes present before conversion. But theologian Sinclair Ferguson takes a stab at answering that question. I think he answers it well. He says this, the New Testament nowhere analyzes the precise nature of these spiritual gifts or their relationship to an individual's natural abilities and dispositions. That relationship is inevitably complex. But we may surely assume, for the holy divine and holy human character of the way in which the Spirit gave scripture, that he does not totally bypass the specific characteristics of our humanity in distributing these other gifts. You see what he's saying? The Bible is a divine human book. It is the Word of God beginning to end. But God used human personalities, human works, human styles. And so it's an intensely human book. Each book of the Bible has the earmarks of its own author. They're different, but it's divine. So it's a divine book, it's a human book. And I think he's saying that with spiritual gifts, it's the same thing. You have some natural abilities born of your natural temperament, but God then takes those and endows them with the spiritual power. So it's probably a mix of what is naturally given to you and then what is supernaturally endowed by God. That seems to make sense to me. Now let's make a final point. This morning, we'll have many more in weeks to come, the importance of spiritual gifts. Why is this important? Why is this study important? Why should it be important to you? Why should it be important to our church? There are many reasons. I want to give you four. The first is this, and you can turn for a moment to Romans chapter 12. Spiritual gifts are a priority of the consecrated life. Let me explain what I mean by that. In the book of Romans, for 11 chapters, the Apostle Paul unfolds in the most systematic way, more so than anywhere else in the Bible, God's way of salvation, right? Systematically unfolding the gospel in the first 11 chapters of Romans. He begins by taking two and a half chapters to level the human race and establish that the entire human race is under sin. For the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And then in chapter 3, he begins to give the answer to mankind's sin problem, and it begins with the glorious doctrine of justification. He was raised because of our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, Romans 5, 1, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. All humanity is under the wrath of God. The solution is God's salvation, beginning with justification through faith in Jesus. Then in chapter 6, he answers the question, well, since grace is so abundant, shall I continue to sin that grace might increase? The answers with that strong Greek negative, may it never be. And he goes on to say that the grace that forgives you in Christ changes you. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? We're new creations. And then in chapter 8. which has been called the Mount Everest of the Bible, the highest peak of the mountains of saving faith. He talks about the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he ends chapter eight with talking about the inability of anything in the universe to separate us from God's love in Jesus Christ. And then in chapters 9 to 11, Paul kind of steps back, or he zooms out, and he gives us the big picture of God's plan to save Jews and Gentiles until the end of the age. And then we come to chapter 12 of Romans, and it begins with, therefore. And as the saying goes, when you see a therefore, you want to ask, what is it therefore? All right? And so here is why it's there. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For 11 chapters, he has expounded the glorious gospel. It is a message of mercy. We are getting from God not what we simply don't deserve, but we're getting what we ill deserve. Salvation is all about mercy. And I urge you, he says, by the mercies of God expressed in the gospel. I've just expounded for 11 chapters to do what? What should be the result of one who has been saved by the mercy of God? What we have in verse 1 of chapter 12 is whole-souled, whole-bodied commitment to Jesus Christ. If you have understood that message of God's mercy, if you have embraced it and believed it, how should you then live? I urge you, in light of the mercies I've just expounded for 11 chapters, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. He is calling us to whole-souled, whole-bodied consecration and commitment to God through Jesus Christ. Elsewhere, Paul says, you're not your own, you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. To the Thessalonians, he closes his first letter, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, if you have embraced the gospel that comes from the mercy of God, how should you live? You lay it all on the altar. You are all, I am all yours, Lord. Every part of me, body, soul, spirit, all belongs to you. Whole soul, whole body, consecration and commitment to God in Christ. But what is that going to look like? Well, it strikes me that right after that he says this in Romans 12 beginning at verse 3. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. or just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another since we have gifts that differ and then he goes on to enumerate the gifts What I'm saying here is that spiritual gifts are important because when Paul talks about the fact that the proper response to the mercies of God in the gospel is that you give your whole self to him, what's the first thing he mentions as an expression of that whole-souled commitment to God through Christ? You've got gifts that differ. and you need to use those gifts. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought. The implication is don't think more lowly of yourself, but the call is to have an accurate self-assessment and concerning what? concerning the use of your gifts. So my point is that spiritual gifts are important because the first practical expression of a God-consecrated life is the use of your spiritual gift. A second reason spiritual gifts are important, spiritual gifts are to be a particular focus of the Christian's contribution to the body of Christ. Again, Romans 12, six days. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. We sense from this that God is saying that every believer should be able to locate him or herself within one of these areas of giftedness or others listed elsewhere. I don't think there's an exhaustive list of the gifts. And what he's saying is, whatever your gift is, you need to, as people say today, you need to lean into it, right? Make it your focus. Do it, do it well. Develop it and improve it because it's what God has given to you to contribute to the building up of the body of Christ. It's your major thing. Make it your major avenue of service to others. That's why I'm saying spiritual gifts are to be a particular focus of the Christian's contribution to the body of Christ. Now, let me be quick to say, however, that most of the gifts are also areas of general responsibility. If you're a parent, whether you have the gift of teaching or not, you're called to teach your children, right? We're all called to be merciful because Jesus was compassionate. We're all called to exhort. We're all called to give. You know, I might be at the fellowship lunch and say, well, God hasn't given me the gift of serving. I'm not going to clean any tables. I'm not going to wash any dishes. It's not my gift. Oh, this person is hurting. No, I don't have the gift of mercy. I'll leave that to somebody else. No. The gifts are all the general responsibility of all of us. But that does not negate the fact that you still have a major focus. I made this statement. A general responsibility does not rule out a particular focus. Kids who go to college take general education. They have to take all these courses, but they usually have a major. This is my major, but I have all these other courses. So the fact that you are called to do all of these things to some degree doesn't negate the fact that you have some particular things that are your strength, and you are to major on those. You're to lean into those, develop those. A third reason. Spiritual gifts are important. Spiritual gifts are a pointer to the victory and perfection of Christ. First of all, spiritual gifts point to the victory of Jesus Christ. Spiritual gifts are a manifestation of the triumph and enthronement of Christ. The very fact that the Spirit is in the world, the very fact that the Spirit has formed this new community, the Church, and the very fact that there are spiritual gifts possessed by God's people points to the fact that Jesus, who died and was buried, was raised, ascended, and enthroned at the right hand of God. And from that position, he and the Father have sent the Spirit. So the very presence of the Spirit in the world, the presence of the church, and the reality of spiritual gifts exercised by God's people are proof positive that Jesus Christ is reigning on high. And so spiritual gifts point to the victory of Jesus Christ over death, over the devil, over hell. But spiritual gifts also point to the perfection of Christ. And there's one verse that's curious. 1 Corinthians 12, 12. Listen to this. Or even as the body is one, see, throughout chapter 12, he's going to compare the church to the physical body, right? In future weeks, we're going to see the body has eyes, ears, feet, hands. So the body of Christ has different members. And so he uses the analogy of the physical body to the church. But listen. chapter 12, verse 12 of 1 Corinthians. For even as the body is one, physical body, yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is, and you expect him to say, so also is the church. But he doesn't. He says, so also is Christ. You see, this brings the head, Christ, together with the body. It's a figure of speech called metonymy in which a part is given as representing the whole. It's like when our UN representative votes at the UN, we say the United States has voted. So Jesus is so identified with his body, the church, as to have the church actually called Christ. So when you unite with the church in a visible, functional way, you're proclaiming your part in Christ. Christ the head and Christ and the church as his body are inseparable. So as you find your place in the church and use your gift in the church, you're expressing your part in Christ. As members of the body of the church, we each represent some aspect of Christ. And Jesus not only has all the graces in perfection, but as I said in my prayer, he has all the gifts in perfection. He is the perfect prophet. He is the perfect teacher. He is the perfect giver, the perfect leader, the perfect man of discernment, man of faith. All the gifts exist in Jesus in perfection. And we, the church, represent him. And the more diverse Our gifts are the better we represent Jesus. It takes a whole church full of diverse gifts to accurately represent Jesus Christ. And so if we only have some gifts, but not others, we give a distorted impression of Jesus, a lopsided view of Jesus. Suppose we have You know, men who are wonderful teachers and preachers, but nobody who serves, nobody who shows mercy. People will come into the church and say, well, the teaching's good, the preaching's good, but boy, it's cold as ice in there. Nobody greeted me. Nobody invited me over. Or if you have a wonderful church of servants and mercy showers, but the preaching is weak and people can't follow it, they say, well, the people are wonderful. But I don't know if I could sit under that teaching. You see, it takes the whole body with all the gifts to represent Jesus well. That's why the gifts are important. We trust God to give all the gifts we need to represent Jesus well. And that's why whatever your gift is, you need to stir it up and use it because the body needs it. And then fourthly and finally, spiritual gifts are important because they are to be the earnest pursuit of the church. 1 Corinthians 12 31, but earnestly desire the greater gifts and 14.1, pursue love yet desire earnestly spirituals, pneumaticon, but especially that you may prophesy. Now, let's be clear that the Corinthians had a lot of problems. They were misusing and abusing spiritual gifts. Chapters 12 to 14 of 1 Corinthians is a context of correction. But that does not negate the fact that the apostle twice tells them to earnestly desire the greater charismata and pneumatica, the spirituals. The word he uses, zelao, burn with zeal for the spiritual gifts. And again, the Corinthians then, and many people today, are misguided and wrongheaded in the pursuit of spiritual gifts, And we'll need to sort that out, but that doesn't cancel out Paul's exhortation to a church to pursue spiritual gifts with earnestness or with zeal. So brothers and sisters, this study is important. It's important to you as an individual believer, and it's important for us as a church to understand what God says about spiritual gifts. It's most important because, as I said, the body of Christ represents Jesus. We want to represent him well. It's kind of like marriage. Calvin and Abby, six days, you're going to get married. I preached my son's wedding eight years ago in a month. And my son is a preacher. And I said to him, I said, Jeremy, Starting today, you're going to have a new pulpit from which to preach the gospel. You've been preaching from a wooden pulpit. Now you need to preach Christ from your marriage. Every marriage preaches Christ, either well or poorly. What does it depend on? How well we as husbands love our wives sacrificially, like Jesus loves the church. How well we as wives submit to and respect to our husbands as the church Christ. To the degree we do it well, we preach the gospel well. To the degree we do those things poorly, we preach the gospel poorly. That's my greatest concern for my marriage, not my happiness. It's, Lord, I want us to preach the gospel well. So I want us to fulfill our roles well for the sake of the gospel. Well, similarly with the church, the church is the body of Christ. And we, by the use of our gifts, represent Jesus to the world. And we should want to do that well. So hopefully this subject will be of very personal and practical interest to you. I hope you'll ask, what are my gifts? Do I know what they are? Have I been using them? Have I been neglecting them? How can I grow in my usefulness to build up the body of Christ his church and to glorify God. Do I have enough interaction with the people of God so that my gift is being used or that I'm even partaking of the gifts of others? Some of you are so detached from the body that your gift can't be used because you're not with the people of God enough. Nor can you benefit from their gifts because you're not with them enough. So we need to be with the body to use our gifts. Hopefully some of these questions will be answered and some motivation will be given to you in the weeks ahead. But if you are hearing my voice and you're not a regenerated, forgiven, and changed believer in Jesus, spiritual gifts should not be your first concern. Your first concern ought to be to receive God's gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ your whole life. Whatever, whether you've been religious and moral or not, everything you've earned leads to death. You cannot earn salvation. It comes only as a gift. And you need to lift up the empty hands of faith and say, God, I received the gift of your son who died on the cross to pay for my sins, and I receive him as my only hope of forgiveness and eternal life. That's the first need of the unbeliever, receive the gift of Jesus for eternal life. Well, let's pray. We're gonna sing and then go to the supper. Our Father, thank you for the gift of the spirit. Thank you for his presence, your presence among us that has formed the church and dwells in the church. And he dwells in each one of us, making us individual temples of the living God. Help us to marvel at that. And in the weeks ahead, help us to understand spiritual gifts, which ones you've given to us. and help us to put them into practice for the building up of the body and for your greater glory through your church, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.