You'll turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. While you're turning, do you all have this handout? Okay, is there anyone that needs one of these? Raise your hand, we'll get you one real quick. There's a couple, few people around need one of these handouts. Make sure you're, 1st Corinthians 12 in your Bibles while they're handing this out I'm not going to strictly be using this handout this morning and in the sense of just referring to it back and forth, back and forth. But I want to take a moment as a part of my introduction to point some things out to you as we consider these spiritual gifts here in 1 Corinthians 12. First of all, let's read together. We'll start in verse 7, but to each one, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, but to each one is given the manifestations of the spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of the spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. one in the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually just as he wills. Now in culture and society we recognize something often and we see it in our culture today. Extremes are everywhere. Extremes are everywhere. You have people that say there's no person that's ever been a racist, and then you have people that say everybody's been a racist. You have the person that says there's no such thing as any good politics and government, and then you have the person that thinks politics and government solves everything. We have these extremes everywhere we go. It doesn't matter what happens in anything in life, there's always extremes. We have cars that we drive. And then we have some people that they fix cars that you can drive 300 miles an hour. And then you have some people who think it's important for them to get on the interstate and do 35 miles an hour. There's extremes in everything. I want you to see this morning that there may be some difficulty in working through the ideas of the spiritual gifts that are listed here, but there are certain things that you need to understand. And one of those things is, whatever these gifts are, it is apparent from the context of the whole of this letter, the Corinthian church has taken everything to an extreme, including these spiritual gifts. And that's causing a problem. The other thing I want you to note is, is that there are things that we deal with all the time that are peculiar to a particular instance. And they need to be kept inside of that instance. And we're gonna see that. with the Corinthian church as well, and that's part of this handout. When you look at this handout, there are three lists. One list of the gifts that are in 1 Corinthians 12, one list is the gifts in Romans 12, and one list is the gifts of Ephesians 4. I've color-coded this for you. The ones that are in yellow are gifts that are only listed in Corinthians. The ones that are in green, gifts that are listed in Corinthians and Romans. The ones that are in blue, these are offices that are listed as gifts to the church. And this, I didn't know what else to call this, magenta. Is that right, ladies? It's not purple, is it? It's not purple. Pink? Somebody said pink. Okay, whatever. I got magenta on here. Whatever color it is to your eyes, you can go back and write whatever it is in later and make yourself feel better. These gifts, purple, magenta, pink, these are gifts that are listed in Romans. Now I want you to note something. The majority of all the gifts here are listed in Corinthians. And gifts that we are not often sure how to define them, qualify them, and quantify them are most peculiar to the Corinthian church. Now that tells us something. You say, well, what does it tell us, Pastor Brandon? It tells us we need to be really careful because if I'm going to build a whole doctrine of what the gift of the word of wisdom is, I only have it peculiarly mentioned, I mean, as a gift, peculiarly mentioned in the Corinthian church. I better be real careful how I start building doctrines for whole gifts which are not named in other places. If we're not careful, and I think this is part of the problem that the church has had, especially in America in the last 120 years or so, if we're not careful, we will take ideas of some of these gifts and we will build whole doctrines off of them and they will lead to great extremes in the body of Christ and cause us a lot of problems. One of those problems is we will actually lose the importance of the infallibility and sufficiency of scripture. Another problem is we will actually lose the gospel itself. I want you to take some time when you have an opportunity at home to look at how these lists work out and notice. Prophecy, helps, and service are only in Romans and Corinthians, but when you see the rest of these lists so peculiar, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, distinguishing of spirits. This is only given to Corinthians. And note how it's happening. Remember, Paul is addressing here questions that were given to him. And he's coming back to the Corinthian church and saying, you know what? I'm gonna address these questions, and part of the reason I'm gonna address them is, is because you all are out of order. And you say, well, Brandon, how do you know he's saying they're out of order? Well, if you read 12, 13, and 14, the whole idea, and it's mentioned specifically at least twice, Paul says everything needs to be done in order, which he's saying, implicitly, it needs to be done in order because why? You're out of order. They're taking these gifts, whatever they may mean, and they're becoming so extreme with them that they've lost order in the church. And losing of that order has brought confusion in the church. That confusion has brought divisiveness in the church and that divisiveness is splitting the church. So we want to follow the last few weeks with our main heading from a few weeks ago. Paul addressed present concerns with the Corinthians. And we said two weeks ago, the Holy Spirit will enable a person to call Jesus their Lord. The Holy Spirit will enable a person to call Jesus their Lord. And then last week, the Holy Spirit will agree in perfect union with the son and the father. The Holy Spirit will agree in perfect union with the son and the father. It leads us to our main point this week under that larger main heading of Paul addressed present concerns within the Corinthians. The Holy Spirit will grant a variety of gifts in the church. The Holy Spirit will grant a variety of gifts in the church. Now it's pretty plain here that Paul is saying that these gifts are granted by the Holy Spirit and they are granted in the church. But we need to note several things that are taking place here. Number one, the uncertainty of these gifts is expressly noted. The uncertainty of these gifts is expressly noted. And what would we be dealing with there under that number one? Well, letter A. It is uncertain the exact nature and function of all of these gifts. It is uncertain the exact nature and function of these gifts. Multiple commentators. And, you know, not only in reading in the last few weeks and months about some of this, but over the years I've been perplexed about these gifts. Have you ever read about something and the more you read about it, the more you thought to yourself, I have no idea what they're saying. I mean, there's just certain things that, you know, That's why you appreciate some people in medical fields, or when you're dealing with health insurance stuff, having that conversation with somebody earlier. I get these documents about health insurance stuff, and you start reading these documents, and the more I read the document, I think to myself, I have no idea what they're talking about. They could be talking about feeding a dog for all I know, and I just, I don't know what they're talking about. Sometimes the more you read about these gifts, if you dive in after a while, you're saying to yourself, what in the world are these gifts? Well, there's an uncertainty of these gifts, and it's expressly noted here, and it's uncertain to the exact nature and function of these gifts. One writer says, a modern writer, it is, and this guy's very conservative, reformed conservative, he says, it is difficult to determine with precision what some of these gifts actually entailed. Another writer says, clearly the Spirit gives many gifts and there is no one definitive list. What most of these gifts were is uncertain. Now these are guys that have studied the scripture all of their lives. They're not faultless men. I could list countless others who have some similar statement about these gifts. But you know what, I can also read, and I have read, Pentecostal brethren, who they are for sure what every one of these gifts are. And to them, every one of these gifts is supernatural, and they ought to be used this way and that way, and boom, boom, they have an idea for every single one of it. The problem I have though is, under this heading, recognize that the scripture does not define and illustrate every single gift in this list. recognize that the scripture does not define and illustrate every single gift in this list. Now what I find interesting when God tells us to do something and he commands it of us, I can find it multiple times over from Genesis to Revelation where it is commanded and I'm told exactly what to do. Aren't the Ten Commandments pretty clear? One of the reasons we read them this morning. They're pretty clear. Even if you want to discuss something like the Fourth Commandment and try to figure out exactly the application of the Fourth Commandment, don't you and I get the basic understanding the Fourth Commandment says? There's a day set aside to worship God and you must do it. We get that, right? You shall not lie. What does that mean? I get that. When I come to a place and it tells me there's a gift called the word of wisdom through the spirit, that becomes very hard to define scripturally. It wasn't until the early 2000 that Pentecostals finally had a few theologians come together and put out a systematic theology. You have a theological construct over the last 150 years that's been building, and it took them 150 years to come up with a systematic theology. Why? Because most of their theology is built off of unfolding new revelation coming to them. You and I look at the scripture and we say the scripture defines for us who we are and what we are to do. Sometimes it is giving us an instance of something that's not necessary for me to repeat. The identification of this word of wisdom as we'll look at it in just a moment, maybe it's not meant for us to try to work that out and reproduce it. Well, not only are the nature and the function of the gifts difficult, and scripture doesn't define and illustrate every single gift in the list, but recognize that the scripture gives information regarding several offices and gifts, but not every one of these gifts. When you go back to that list, those lists I gave you, notice how in the New Testament there's unfolding offices. And then by the time you get toward the end of the New Testament, certain offices are dying out and moving on and certain offices are staying in place. Pastors, teachers, deacons have rules and matters that are given specifically to them toward the end of the New Testament. Paul's last group of letters are these pastoral epistles. And in the pastoral epistles, he does not mention the carrying on of words of wisdom as a special gift, the carrying on of the word of knowledge as a special gift. He does not mention to pastors and teachers or give any command to carry on with the speaking in tongues. and yet those offices are specifically left and in Timothy what are those offices told to do? Preach the word in season and out of season. That's the command given to those offices. The apostles are a certain group, that office dies out. We have no more apostles. There's nothing in the scripture where Paul says, make more apostles. He doesn't even say to the church, here's a guide by how you can recognize apostles, but he does for pastors and deacons. We need to see the New Testament in its congruency. and not take things like these spiritual gifts, pull them out, and then by eisegesis, by reading back into the text, put something back there that the text never intended. Is there an identification that wisdom is important in the scripture? Yes. Dr. Robert L. Thomas has a book on the spiritual gifts. He's a conservative biblical scholar, more modern, but he has a whole book on understanding the spiritual gifts. It's a couple of hundred pages just spent on 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. But as I read his material, some of those things are very helpful. I've had this book for years. I've looked at it multiple times, and the more I go over the book, I wonder myself sometimes, boy, you're really making, trying to make something happen here, instead of looking at the whole of the New Testament. Now he's conservative and I'm gonna use him a little bit, but I want you to understand that there has to be a context where the Bible gives us an indication of what these gifts actually are and illustrates it for us. And I have nowhere in command that it's told to us, not even here in 1 Corinthians 12, does Paul command the words of wisdom and the words of knowledge. He doesn't even command that. He just says it's among you, Corinthians, and you're out of order with it. Wow. Well, not only is it uncertain the exact nature and function of these gifts, but it's uncertain how to group these gifts. Multiple writers have tried to group these gifts and set them apart in particular ways, but every time you look at these groupings, in some way the groupings fall apart. One New Testament scholar said, Paul listed nine manifestations of spiritual gifts that interpreters have attempted to group in different ways, but no pattern can sustain scrutiny. And he's right. Because every time you start trying to group them together, there's always one that bleeds into another category. Or there's always one that kind of, you're saying, does it even fit anywhere in there? Can't really group them together. He's just listening to the Corinthian church. Here's what's going on among you. And it's out of order and we need to deal with it. Now I will say that some groupings are more helpful than others if you want to do some reading on this that's fine but you got to be careful about all these groupings and some of these groupings are more helpful than others. But I will say due to the lack of detailed biblical information regarding these gifts no outline is absolutely complete. Well number two, the definition of these gifts is peculiarly noted. I say that word peculiarly very carefully because I can't say it fast. If I do, it doesn't sound right. But this is very peculiar to the Corinthian church. That's why the definitions become peculiar in its context. Letter A under number two, word of wisdom. If we're looking at these identifications, and all I've done is just taken these straight out of the text, I'm not doing anything great with them in their sense, but word of wisdom. Now I wanna give you two conservative perspectives this morning on this gift, the word of wisdom. One conservative perspective, as one writer notes, this first gift, Lagas, Safias, okay. If you ever hear the word sophisticated, okay, that's from the Greek context of wisdom. Something is sophisticated. The word Safia is the word for wisdom. And this first gift has that context to it, Lagos Safios, which likely refers to a spoken message of wisdom in the sense of a spirit-inspired insight into the affairs of life. It's understood in this manner, the message of wisdom refers to the Holy Spirit bringing to mind something found in Scripture. In this case, the Old Testament, in which the Holy Spirit now prompts us to mention to others. So now, what you see this conservative scholar doing is, he says, okay, I'm gonna define this gift, but I'm also going to try to apply it to you. And he's trying to do this and say, there is a gift there, but what does he do with the gift? He says the gift is no longer supernatural, but it's tied directly to the word of God, and even for the believers in Corinth, it was supposed to be tied to the word of God, Because they were to tie the word of wisdom to the Old Testament That it would be God by the Spirit bringing their remembrance or to their mind the Old Testament Scriptures in a way in which they could speak that word of wisdom From the Old Testament Scripture in the particular instance or context that God wanted them to speak it Well Okay, that's one conservative way to look at it, but we don't have the fullness of of this biblical idea of what to do with this. Now, I'm not against this. Okay, let me say this. If you want to talk to somebody about wisdom from the scripture, I'm not sure it takes a special gift to do that. Because I think the spirit of God works in every believer. And that every believer in studying the scripture and understanding it rightly can have a discussion with someone about the wisdom from the scripture. Now could it be that some people in the church are better at speaking that wisdom than others and God may use them a little more than they may another? Fair enough. But it's still based upon the truth of the scripture and it's not new revelation. If you go read the Pentecostals and you read the material from Pentecostal churches and even historically groups that would have tended to go with the Pentecostals like the Quakers and others like that, any type of special thing like this was new revelation. I go back to this time and time again. If you've got to have something for new revelation, then you're saying the revelation we have been given in God's word is not enough and it's not closed and we need more and more and more. And you're also saying the final word that was in Christ is not the final word. If someone wants to take this into the context and say, well, you know what, God can use a believer to give a word of wisdom from the scripture to another believer by the power of the Holy Spirit, I don't have a problem with that. But most of the time when you see this gift used and noted, it's in our modern churches in a supernatural way, and that somehow it's new revelation. I do have a problem with that. The Word of Wisdom, if it's a new revelation, we really just need to start adding books to the Bible. If somebody comes, well, it's new revelation based from the Bible. That's not new revelation. If it's coming from the Scripture, then it's coming from the Scripture. It's not new. It's the revealed Word that God gave. this Robert L. Thomas that I mentioned, he says, the gift so labeled, speaking of the word of wisdom, has a more restricted sense because it refers to a specific spiritual function of a certain group in the body of Christ. Later on, he links this to the first and second generation of teachers in the early church, such as the apostles and missionary teachers like Apollos. So he's saying this was a special gift, the word of wisdom, that was only to the first and second generation of apostles and missionary teachers in the church, and it was specifically given to them. And he goes on to say, it was a special revelatory gift used by these early church leaders and them only. Now see, he's conservative enough to know the cannon's closed. So he says this gift was only used in the first and second generations of Christian teachers, the apostles and missionary teachers, but once the cannon was closed, the gift dies out and it's done. No matter whether you view this gift as something supernatural or something that is based on the word of God, You're gonna have to ask the question, at some point, with the identification of the word of wisdom, is the word of God enough? Is the word of God enough? Thomas later goes on and he says, this passage, speaking of the spiritual gift passages and specifically word of wisdom, This passage points clearly to divine revelation received by Christian leaders which they transformed into words of communicating to others of their generation. But later on in his book, he makes the case that all of that was done and finished in the first and second generation of these apostles, their disciples, and their missionary teachers. that it was a specific gift in a specific time and that it died out just like some of the other gifts did. Well, word of knowledge. Here's two other perspectives with some definition. Word of knowledge. Word of knowledge is closely related and tied to word of wisdom. Kind of makes sense. One writer says, this likely refers to a spirit-given insight into the mysteries of God associated with the revelation of Jesus Christ. He goes on to note, it would be connected to teaching, preaching, and spiritual counsel. It would be the exact opposite of paganism, which looked for hidden or secret knowledge. Whatever the word of knowledge is, it has to be in some way tied to God's word in a way that we can express it rightly and know it truthfully and it can be examined and illustrated according to God's word. Another writer says, the word of knowledge is in the same category as the former gift, word of wisdom, yet a distinction exists between them. While the word of wisdom brought direct revelation, the word of knowledge was the ability to grasp that objective in revelatory data and by inspiration apply it in various connections. He's saying that these two are tied so closely together that you need the first one, where the word of wisdom is divine revelation given in that first or second generation of believers, that then those who gave the word in the word of wisdom have others who can follow along and take that word of wisdom and give a word of knowledge from it and pass it down. Once again, the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, if based upon the word of God, are all fine. If I have God's wisdom in his word and I can gain knowledge from his word and that knowledge can be passed down, then ultimately the spirit of God can use believers in any way to do either one of these things. But it's when you claim that it's a supernatural gift that you have to go back and ask the question. If it's a supernatural gift then supernaturally it becomes divine revelation and divine revelation is always a new revelation. Take a moment and think about the whole of the scripture from Genesis to Revelation. What is God doing? He's giving divine special revelation. It's not the light of nature. It's not general revelation. It's something new. Every order of those books, those groupings, The first five books of the Bible, it was something new when all of that was given in a way where it was constructed in the time of Moses that it had been passed down through that oral tradition and then God used Moses and those following to write these words. And it became inscripturated so that following generations could read that word. Is God now going to give us new information that needs to be inscripturated about the creation of the heavens and the earth? I don't think so. The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, if they were supernatural in the church of Corinth, Then Paul is saying, you know what? These gifts are among you. He doesn't name them anywhere else in any other church. Why doesn't he name them in Thessalonica? Why doesn't he name them in Philippians and Colossians? Specifically as gifts. Now wisdom is mentioned, and Dr. Thomas likes to go through and coordinate all these passages that talk about wisdom, but I can do that with anything. That's just, that's internet surfing. I can take any major word of the Bible and connect it to the whole of the Bible and do anything I want to with it. There is nowhere else in the New Testament that these specific phrases are used and named as peculiar gifts in the whole of the Christian church. They are specifically named in Corinth because those gifts were being called out among the church of Corinth and Paul is saying, fine, those gifts are there. Even when he names tongues, later he says, I've spoken in tongues more than all of you. You know what he's saying? Big deal. You guys think you got this thing licked and you got this special gift, you know what? All you Corinthian Christians who have the gift of tongues, line up. I don't know how many of them there were who said they had the gift of tongues, but let's say it's 20 of them. And Paul's saying to those 20, I've spoken in tongues more than all of you put together. You guys are making a big deal out of something that's not the right context. The word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, these are things that may be used among you by the Spirit of God, but Paul does not name them anywhere else in any other church as a gift. And he does not command them as gifts to be carried on in the church in any other letter. And he doesn't even command that here. All he says to them in Corinth is, it may be named and seen among you, but you're using it out of order, And you got some bigger problems because your whole church is out of order. You can't even come together and eat a meal right, much less the Lord's Supper. Oh, and by the way, you're telling me that you have word of wisdom and word of knowledge, but not one of you can go to this brother who's an adulterous, awful sin and speak to him about his sin? Where's the word of wisdom and where's the word of knowledge now? You don't think the Holy Spirit would be prompting somebody with the gift of the word of wisdom to go to this brother and say, hey bud, get out of your sin. Sorry folks. We're always looking for something special to call upon ourselves so that we look better. I have this, look at me. And Paul's saying, that's the problem. You guys are too busy trying to call and look upon yourselves than dealing with the plain truth of God's word. Well, let's look just briefly at faith here. If we were to consider faith from multiple evangelical perspectives, we have to note first and foremost, the word does not refer to the gift of faith as in repentance and faith. It can't be that. If it's talking about the gift of faith, like Ephesians 2, gift of faith, then Paul's saying there's only some of you that are saved and have been given the gift of faith. So it can't be that sense. And most scholars agree with this thought. Well, that leads us to a place to say the word becomes uncertain in its meaning. Because there are some that say this word faith here is linked to the idea of having faith enough to be healed. Someone has the gift of healing, they are capable of healing you, but they can't heal you because you don't have enough faith. They draw that off of the Gospels and the Lord Jesus giving a context to the idea of your faith has made you well or whole. I think that's a misnomer in the sense of that because what the Lord Jesus is saying is you have believed. He's dealing with changed people. Even those that he performed miracles upon them or he healed them in some way he was saying to them you have believed. Go pick up your mat and sin no more. I don't believe the Lord Jesus was preaching a second doctrine of faith where there's this second element of faith to where you can be healed if you have enough faith and if there's someone who has the gift of healing. Well, if we think about this identification of faith, we have to be careful because in its context, it brings up all kinds of things in the imaginations of our minds. Sadly, there have been many, many, many, many, many people in the American church context and even across the world that have deceived people into thinking they just didn't have enough faith and that's why they weren't healed. That's one extreme and I think it's a false extreme and it brings a lot of problems in because one of the problems is do you say well God put this on that person because they're so awful and then I'm not even going to give them enough faith to be healed. Lord Jesus answered that about the towers falling, did he not? Ultimately, trial and tribulation that befalls us is frowning providence. Certainly there are things that we're directly affected by our sin, that's true enough, but God may not take some trials and tribulations out of our life because he wants to walk us through the whole of that trial and that tribulation and it has nothing to do with whether we have enough faith. Matter of fact, I think it's the opposite. I think the scripture shows that what God is doing is building our faith and our trust as he walks us through the trials and the tribulations. Because what is he always doing? He's reminding us in trials and tribulations You're not in control, I am. You cannot save yourself, I alone save. You cannot keep yourself, I keep you and hold you in the palm of my hand. In trials and tribulations, God is building our faith, not questioning whether we have enough so that someone who has the supposed supernatural gift of healing can heal us. We won't have time this morning to deal with gifts of healing and affecting miracles but the idea of faith is so closely linked to them to some Christians that it has misplaced the identification of what this faith is. I think the idea here is that there are some in the Corinthian church according to one writer that they had an intensive manifestation of trust. Even in some sense, it was something very special that God had given them. And don't we see that in the Christian life? There are some people that you know they're believers, but they walk in just steady fear all the days of their life, even as believers. We read in history of certain people that have fear and depression that just tend to bound them up. But there's other believers, it seems as though they never have fear. I think Paul here is speaking of the identification in the Corinthian church that there were some people that just had that certain measure of faith which they just didn't seem to shake very easily. Not that they were never shaken, but they just didn't seem to shake very easily. I think it would be more in line with Scripture to see this gift of faith as something that God has granted in the context of the believer's heart. by the Spirit of God, that those people walk by faith and not by sight. And some do that readily and more easily in the context of their Christian walk than others do. That's why they're so important in the church. Because sometimes there's some of us, it's not even a person-to-person thing, sometimes it's a context-to-context thing. There's some things I have fear about that my wife doesn't. And I get strengthened and encouraged by seeing her not fear something. And there's other things that I don't have any fear of and she does. The context of this gift I think can be worked out in the understanding that God is very merciful to his people. He grants them. Not the salvific faith at moments and times, that's granted one time and boom, it's done. But there are other times in the life of believers that he gives us faith in ways that we are strengthened to continue forward, to move onward. I think it would be sad to relegate the gift of faith simply to be totally connected to healing and miracles in such a way that it's just saying you just don't have enough of it. You and I sometimes can have all of the faith we want to in God's purposes and him still not take a trial or a tribulation or an illness away. because he never intended to do it before time began. There are certain things we will walk through and with the whole of our lives, and God is granting us faith day by day to walk in it and through it. He's already saved us by faith alone in Christ alone, but he's strengthening our faith I hope we will be careful to begin to see the peculiarity of these gifts to the Corinthian church and not to try to expand them in some way, that they go far and wide beyond what Paul was intending to do. Hopefully as I build upon that and we get to the end of this list, you will see more and more how these gifts, shaped in the context of the Corinthian church, give us a better understanding of how to deal with the whole of the context of the Christian life. It'll take a little time to do that, but I want you to see these things a piece at a time. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you're merciful to us. Once again you've given us a day to worship in glory in you to spend some time in your word even if it's only to look at just a few phrases. Or will you guard our hearts against anything that would detract from your infallible, sufficient word that you gave. Those books that were written and that the church has held true throughout time, Lord, keep us from walking away from your word alone. And yet, Lord, we do ask that you would work in our souls by the power of your Holy Spirit. We do not want to be people that only have one or two persons of the Trinity in our mindset. We believe in one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. and we are in need of your spirit to work. But all we're asking, Lord, is that your spirit work in us according to the truth of your word, that we would not be a people who invent new doctrines, but we will stick close and near to the truth of your word by the power of your Holy Spirit in all that we say and do. In Christ's name we pray, amen.