If you have your Bible tonight, let me invite you to open it to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. So we'll continue our study through this epistle. Who appreciates tonight their big toe? Anybody here? Who despises their big toe? Anybody? Well, I could say, You know, I assume that you appreciate your big toe because it's part of you. It's part of your body. And your body is important and it's valuable. It's what you live in. It's the means by which you function. And so it has value. And you appreciate every part of it, I assume, for the most part. You know, last time we saw that you were spiritually gifted. Tonight we're going to see you are part of the body. And Paul's addressing here things about spiritual gifts, and we're gonna review a little bit and set the context here. Again, Paul, beginning in chapter seven in verse one, is addressing a series of questions that they had, and he's offering some correction, and certain things they needed to see relative to the body of Christ and relative to the spiritual gifts that God gifted them with and how they're to be used. And so last week we saw a number of things. Paul was writing this information to dispel their misunderstanding or ignorance regarding spiritual gifts. Verse one, chapter 12 says, now concerning spiritual gifts, or actually the spirituals, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant, for you know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. And therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. You know, it comes to spiritual matters of this sort. There's no shortage of confusion in the evangelical world today. And God doesn't want you to be without understanding. And so the Corinthians were struggling when it came to discerning the use of these spiritual gifts. They were confused. They were carnal, they were misusing them. The tongue speakers were spiritual in their own eyes because of the spiritual gift they received. They thought they were something when they were nothing. And they thought because they spoke with tongues that they could flash their gift in the congregation and in their own mind that they exalted themselves. And what Paul is gonna make clear is that just because you have that gift doesn't mean you're spiritual. In fact, they were confused. They were returning in some ways, some were, to the way of thinking in their heathen days, when ecstatic speech was part of the operation, when they practiced their idolatry. And so whatever they were doing as pagans, part of the salvation, led them into idolatry. And Paul had to tell them plainly in verse three that no one who's led by the Spirit of God can give an utterance that says something that's doctrinal false, doctrinally false, and apparently that was happening. Our God is a God of truth. The Spirit of God is called the Spirit of truth. And so when something false is being uttered, that's obviously not from the Spirit of God. In fact, the word speaking there in verse 3 is the Greek word la'eo, and when you put it amidst two other words, it simply means to make a noise. And so he's like saying, I want to make known to you that anyone making any kind of noise, whether it's intelligible or unintelligible, any kind of noise, if it's gibberish, It has nothing to do with the Lord. And that's what's going on here. And so evidently some of the same people that were influenced prior to salvation with this ecstatic speech that was going on, some of that was still going on. And to claim it's from God was the wrong claim. The spirit of God wasn't influenced in them in that regard. And so that's another aspect of their spiritual immaturity. They were ignorant. You know, when you were swept into some emotional state, like some of them were, and not in control, you know, when the Spirit of God is at work, there's always control. It's not gonna be something that's out of control. And so, under the Spirit of God, you would actually say something that was led by the Spirit of God, and it wouldn't be gibberish. It'd be a language that was understandable. And so that certainly sets it apart from what we hear in the modern movement that's going on. Thirdly, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you've been gifted for service in the church. And Paul begins to mention this in verse four. He says, there's diversity of gifts, but the same spirit. There's differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities. or operations, but it's the same God who works all in all. You know, we looked last time when it comes to these gifts. And we know from chapter one, verse seven, six and seven, that this church had all the spiritual gifts. They were gifted above all else. But what is a spiritual gift? It's a gift by God's grace given and we'll see sovereignly by the Holy Spirit. And it's so that you can minister in the body. You can serve in the local body. It's all part of it. And it's a gift. And the term means gift. It's based on grace. It has nothing to do with who you are by nature, your bloodline, your economic status, your natural ability, or anything you might think you have going for you. That has nothing to do with it. It's a gift given sovereignly by God. And so your spiritual gift was given to you as God's sovereign choice. He's in charge. He's the giver. He's the distributor. and he's the one who gives it. It's his wisdom that determines what gift or gifts you did receive. You didn't earn it. You weren't worthy of it. That had nothing again to do with it. And the Trinity was unified on this distribution and function of spiritual gifts. Verses four through six again bring that out. The Trinity was unified. It's not like they were up in heaven duking it out to figure out how this thing would shake out. And so God was in charge, and Paul's trying to let them know, those especially that have a heightened view of themselves, that you've got nothing to boast in. You know, Paul is explaining that there's variety here. There's actually variety in the Trinity. God is diverse, if I can say it that way. He's the Father, he's the Son, he's the Holy Spirit. And they're always in agreement. They're in perfect congruency. They're all God. And so God's in charge of the gifts. He's in charge of the ministries. He's in charge of the operations. That's why earlier in this epistle, Paul said some plants, some water, but God gives you the increase. And so sometimes I think we're a little, maybe not as aware as we should be of how God is really directing this whole thing and undertaking it. And so you have a gift or gifts given to you by the Holy Spirit. The Lord gives you opportunities to exercise your gifts. The Father produces the results. They're all in it together. They're all trying to give the increase and it's all about God getting the glory. And that's a train of thinking that we're all to really be aware of. And so we think of the mission of church. God has got a mission for the church. It's not like he said, hey, let's have a church and I think I'll give some gifts. No, there's a point to it all. And you got the Spirit of God working, you have the Lord working, you have the Father working, so that the objective and mission of the church is accomplished on earth, in and through us. It's kind of weird. It's kind of wild. I've often wondered why God hasn't used angels. It's because this is the church and he wants to do it through the church. That means you and I are part of the equation. But the mindset of the carnal believer and the saints here at Corinth, They were thwarting the cohesion that the Spirit of God wanted to produce, because they were making it all about themselves instead of about Christ. And so the purpose of these spiritual gifts is edification and unification of the local church. This is really the theme of the whole chapter. Notice verse seven, the manifestation of the spirit, spiritual gifts is given to each one. And notice it's for the profit of all. It's not about what you can get out of it. It's about how everyone benefits from it. And he explains the gifts in verses eight through 10. And he mentions a number of them. And then in verse 11, he says, but one and the same spirit works all these things. It's his business. and he distributes to each one individually as notice he wills. And so we're all gifted so that the whole body of believers is benefited. You've received a gift, I've received a gift. It should be exercised properly in the body of Christ. And so it's built up and edified and encouraged. And so the church suffers when its purpose is lost. And when an individual somehow thinks he's more important than the rest of the church, that's how things get skewed. And we have envy, strife, and division. And so we can say the opposite is true. Spiritual gifts were not given to build up the individual privately. And this is missing in the line of thinking in some circles. We want Christ to have the preeminence, not an individual so that everyone stands up and notices him or her. It's about Christ. And I say this because both then and now, people claim that speaking in a tongue is a private prayer language, and that's a valid use of the gift. But you see, no gift is ever given for personal edification. And so that directly contradicts what God intended the gift to do and what it was given for. But the net result of being used is being used to build up one another. Now obviously there's a boomerang effect. If I'm used by the Lord to build someone else up by the grace of God, well that's obviously gonna encourage me as well. And so it's not like that isn't true, but that's a secondary byproduct. It's not the point of it all. And verse 11 is kind of, and so what that means, is you're not to pray for a specific spiritual gift. I mean, the end of verse 11 is Paul's driving this principle home. He says, the one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. It's his call. Because I've heard people say, well, you gotta pray for the right spiritual gift. No, it's a gift, and God gave it to you the moment you got saved, and you had no idea what it was at the time. And so as a human being, you have no say in what spiritual gift or gifts you receive. The Holy Spirit is omniscient. He knows what gift or gifts he wants to give at any given time in history in order to accomplish his purposes for the local church. And so that's an important mindset to recognize that God's got this thing. He's directing it as he sees fit for his glory. And so we looked at some of these things last time. And now he's gonna drive it home and develop really the principle of verse seven, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. He's gonna drive that home using an illustration in verse 12 going forward with the human body, the analogy of a human body. And the main point of this section is God wants unity amongst the diversity. That's the point of the analogy. See, there was an elitist view of some of the oaths who thought they were spiritual because they had a certain gift and they were missing the whole point. And so in verse 12, Paul introduces us to the body. And again, what he has in view is the human body relative to the body of Christ. He's going to use the human body to illustrate what's true of us in a spiritual sense in the church. And if you think of your human body, it's extremely amazingly diverse and complex. It's one body, and yet we have thousands of parts that are mutually related and independent. You know, your body is not just working at random. It's working in perfect synchronization to how God designed this thing to do. Who here thought about taking a breath here today? That's just God's design of the body. It's happening. It's part of the incredible complexity and amazement that he put it all together. I mean, your body's carrying out innumerable things tonight, whether you're aware of it or not. But obviously the body needs to cooperate within itself in order for that to function. If I have a nerve ending that's short-circuiting and tells me to quit breathing, I got trouble. And so my nerves need to be firing properly so that I breathe, so that my heart beats, and so forth. And so he says here in verse 12, For as the body is one and has many members, that's your human body, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. And so there we have the analogy being stated for us. So also is Christ. And so he's using the word body here to emphasize the unity amongst all the parts. All the parts are working together so that your body functions the way God intended it to function. And so, Paul's used this analogy in another place. He used it also in Romans chapter 12, verses four and five. His emphasis is different here, as we'll see, though. He says, for as we have many members in one body, same thing, but all the members do not have the same function. Your eye and your ear do two different things. So we, here's the spiritual analogy, being many, are one body in Christ, but individually we're members of one of another. And he goes on to say that we have different functions. because of that. And so here, and the emphasis in Romans 12 here is the diversity. The diversity where the emphasis in 1 Corinthians is the unity. He wants them to be unified, and here he says, he's emphasizing the diversity, he's saying, let's use the gift you've got. He's not shortchanging the unity, but he's emphasizing something different here in Romans 12.6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that's given to us, let's use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy, and he goes on to say in the next few verses, if you have a different verse, or a different gift rather, then use it. That's really the essence of what he's saying here. But again, in 1 Corinthians 12 here, Paul's looking at the church at Corinth, and he recognizes that they have a different set of issues going on. They're divided. They're not unified. Some are puffed up with pride, and they're pitting one against the other. My gift's better than your gift, you loser. You know, something like that. I'm smarter than you are. They had factions. They were following different teachers. I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulist. I mean, what a fiasco. And so some churches need to recognize the reality of the unity in others, maybe the reality of their diversity and their giftedness. And so here the problem was recognizing the diversity in this church. So he needs to urge them to understand the unity. And he's urging them and us to recognize that we're mutually, to be mutually interdependent on one another in the body. That's going to be his emphasis. That's what God designed in the spiritual body. That's what God has designed in the human body. And so the human body is a perfect analogy because we recognize very intuitively that that has to be the case. And so what's needed for them to strive for unity embraces the differences. Instead of eradicating the differences, they need to embrace them, and they weren't. They weren't. So what's the bedrock of our unity? We're told there in verse 13, for by one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. We've all been made to drink to that one spirit. And so every believer in Jesus Christ has been baptized into Christ's body through the Holy Spirit. And that's every believer. This is what happens to you the moment you got saved, the moment you put your faith in Christ. It's impossible to be a Christian and not be baptized into Christ. It's a spiritual baptism. There's only one spirit baptism. It's the baptism of Christ with the spirit that all believers receive when they're born again. It's called the baptism of the spirit. Now, in some circles, the baptism of the spirit is defined by what they call speaking in tongues. None of that's mentioned here at all. You know, I've heard it called the second baptism or the second blessing, and it's evidenced by something. This is very clear. The word all shows up. There's not the have and the have nots. You're either in Christ or you're not. You either have the spirit of God or you don't. You're a part of the body of Christ or you're not. There's no stages involved here. And sometimes they'll even say things like, well, you've been baptized by the spirit, but have you been baptized in the spirit? And those are the same Greek prepositions. That distinction is a false distinction. They mean the same thing. And so the moment you saw that Christ loved you, Christ died for you, Christ paid for your sins in full, and you made a choice at that point in time to put your trust in Christ alone as your Savior, you are at that point placed into Christ, all right? Jesus Christ is the head of the church, he is in heaven, the body of Christ is on earth right now, at least the manifestation of that, because the universal church is invisible, and one day we're all gonna be together with the Lord. And so the moment you got saved, put your faith in Christ, you were placed into the body of Christ, we're members of him and we're members of one another. The church which is his body, it's a living organism. And so it doesn't matter what your background was or is, you're baptized by the Spirit into Christ at that moment. In fact, it's passive. Verse 13 says, were. For many, by one Spirit, we all were, were. At a point in time in the past, we were all placed into Christ, end of story. Now, there's seven different baptisms in the Bible. Three are dry and real, four are wet and figurative, and it's important to keep those straight. We're not gonna talk about those tonight, but when it comes to a real baptism, it's something that God does. God placed you into Christ. That's a real baptism. Water baptism is a physical illustration of that reality. But that's something that happened to you the moment you got saved. And it's a privilege for you as a believer to express that publicly by identifying yourself with that. As you go down in the water, you picture going down with him, dying with him and coming out of the water, you're raised with him as you're in Christ. And so the waters picture something, but the real ones are something God did. You know, when people think that baptism always means water, I don't know what they do when Jesus says, I'm going to baptize with fire. It's hard to kind of reconcile those two, doesn't it? And so God administers the baptism. They're real. In fact, baptism means to be identified with something. It's identification. When you take a piece of cloth and you immerse it into a color of some kind, that cloth is now identified with the color that you immersed it into. That's how it was used. In the same way you were baptized by the Spirit, you were identified with the body of Christ. That's your essential identity now. You're identified in Adam prior to this. prior to salvation, but now you're thoroughly identified with Christ. A transformation is taking place. And so you're placed by Christ via means of the Holy Spirit into the spiritual body of Christ, which means since you belong to Christ, you're in Christ, that is an unchangeable position. You've received all things to pertain to life and godliness. All the benefits of being in Christ are all yours freely by the grace of God, because you've been placed into him. Again, there's no have and have nots. You got it all the moment you got saved. Secondly, he says, all believers have been made to drink of one spirit, and that one spirit is the Holy Spirit. And so, this is distinct from being baptized by the Holy Spirit. When you got baptized into Christ, it had changed your essential identity, but drinking of the Spirit is to partake of him. As the moment you get saved, you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. It's a mark of ownership, but He indwells you, and now you can rely on Him or drink from Him. This is similar to what basically Jesus said in John 4, 14 when He's speaking at the woman in the well. He said, whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life. Speaking of the Holy Spirit that we can drink from. And so we're made to partake of that spirit. That spirit energizes us, teaches us, does all these things. And so that's his way of communicating that reality, that we're all partaking of that Holy Spirit because we're in Christ. In fact, he makes a distinction here. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew. It doesn't matter if you're a Greek. It doesn't matter if you're a slave or you're free. You've all been made to drink into that one spirit. In fact, he could have added like he does in Galatians, male, female, none of those things, those distinctions don't matter. Doesn't matter what your race is. The Bible cuts through all the things people naturally divide over when you're placed into Christ. But he says in verse 14, for in fact the body is not one member but many. So the body is not one member, but many. The word member there technically means limb. It refers to an arm or a leg or some part of the human body. And so when you think of your body, it's not just your arm. It's not just your leg. It's a combination of many things that make up the one body. So all those things are essential, crucial ingredients to making up your body. And so there's unity. You have one body, but we have all kinds of parts in our body, and that is true spiritually. And he's saying all parts are necessary and important. And this is gonna be the point he drives home in verses 15 through 24. In fact, at McDonald, Summarizes very nicely says when we see that diversity is essential to a normal healthy body. It will save us from two dangers Versus 15 through 20 from belittling ourselves and saying well you know I'm just a pinky and from belittling others because the elitist ones with the showing gifts were looking down their long nose the ones that didn't have it and Thought they were something when they were nothing That's like my nose telling my elbow that I'm better than you. How dumb is that? It's dumb. And so, in verse 15, he says, for the foot should say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body. He said, therefore, not of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eyeball, I'm not of the body. He said, therefore, not of the body. If the whole body were an eyeball, who would do the hearing? If everyone was an elbow, I mean, you can take this and run with it and have a lot of fun with it. If the whole were hearing, who would do the smelling? And so, by comparison, he's saying, you know what, because I'm not a prophet, because I don't speak in tongues, I'm really not part of the body. Does that make any sense? No. Conversely, those that are speaking in tongues and prophets, We'll look down and say, well, I don't need the other gift because I'm the top dog. I got the flash going on here. I'm an upfront showy dude. And so I'm better than you are. So hopefully you see that captures the line of thinking that was going on in this church. Now, I need to tell you, you know, if you don't think that you're an important part of the body, or necessary part of the body, you're thinking wrong. Because God here says that you are. God says that you are. You're important. You're important to the body. He made you part of this body. He gifted you and placed you in this body, as we're gonna see in a second. And so just because you're a different part of the body than someone else doesn't mean you're not part of the body and an important part of the body, because from God's perspective, you are. I mean, someone might be saying, if I don't have this certain spiritual gift, I guess I'm not part of the body of Jesus Christ. Well, I guess I'm not a hand, I'm just a foot, so. Well, do you think your foot is important? I bet you do. Now, we're gonna see here at the end that every part of the body is important in every other part. I mean, you take away my heart, the rest of my body ain't gonna do real good, right? But if you take out my appendix, I can get by. So there is some different degrees of importance in the body parts, and he brings that out actually in verse 28, which we'll get to. But we all have a different function, and we're all part of the body, and every part is important. And so verse 18, he really, this is an important verse. God has placed the members in the body as it has pleased him. Notice verse 18. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased. Now this is true in your physical body. Aren't you glad God gave you two eyeballs right here instead of one on your arm and one on your butt cheek or whatever? That would be real good, wasn't it? You know, he arranged the body so that we'd function at the highest possible level. Right? And he's saying the Holy Spirit did the same thing in the spiritual body. Notice he emphasizes every one of them, each one of them. God gifted you with a gift he wanted you to have, and then he placed you in this particular body. He set you in this local church to make a difference in it. And so not only is the Holy Spirit giving you a gift, but God says, I've sovereignly placed you in this body as it's pleased me, God says. If it's about you, is it about you or is it about pleasing Christ? If it is, then you're gonna be thankful for whatever gift he gave you. In fact, has said is in the middle of voice, which means God has set up the body himself for his purposes. It's his setting and view here. As a reminder, that movie about the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal, And if you watch the movie, Herb Brooks is picking out everyone and he makes a list and he hands it to his assistant coach whose name was Craig. And he said, this is my team. And the guy looks at him and he says, well, these aren't all the best players. And he says, these are all the right players. And he put together a team that won the gold medal. So it's wrong for you to think that you're not part of the body because you've been given a different gift to someone else. You're part of the body and God wants to work in you and through you to bring the whole thing to its maturity. That's all part of it. We're all in this thing together just like your elbow and your pinky and your nostril are all working together in your own body. All believers are important. They're all necessary. All are precious to God. And that's something the spirit of God wants to drill through all of our thinking. And so he asks a question in verse 19. If they're all one member, where would the body be? If everybody's an eyeball, I mean, how grotesque is that? Bunch of eyeballs looking at each other, and that's, you know, I mean, we could really take this and run with it. But now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body. I mean, he's bending over backward to make it painfully obvious what he's talking about here, right? I mean, how strange if we were all a belly button or something. It's absurd. Now in verses 21 through 24, he addresses those who think they're something relative to other people in the body because of their gift. He says, in the eye cannot say to the hand, now this is the eye thinking it's something and looking down at the hand, I've got no need of you. Nor again can the head say to the feet, I have no need of you, thank you very much. No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. That's why I asked you about your big toe. Is your big toe necessary? Now you can get by without it, but it's not easy, right? I mean, I don't want to give up my big toe. I don't think you want to give up your big toe. Every part is necessary. Some more than others in a sense, but everyone is necessary and they have a role to play. And so God wants us to recognize we're in this together regardless of how you've been gifted. In fact, as believers in a body, we're all mutually dependent on one another. That's the point of these three verses. You know, my eyeball sees something, but can my eyeball pick up something I need, or do I need a hand to do that? And my feet need to take me over to wherever I need to go so I can pick up whatever my eye sees. I mean, this is all intuitive, but it's worthy of giving it a thought or two. And so the eye can't say to the hand, I have no need of you. I like how one pastor summarized this. He says, while some in Corinth were bemoaning the fact that they did not have the showy gifts, those who did were belittling those with the more quiet and less prominent gifts. The eye and the head, which are highly visible, and the focus of all who engage each other, represent the people with the public gifts. They so overestimated their own importance that they disdained those whom they perceived as less gifted and less significant. They apparently, and were apparently indifferent. I have no need. They were self-sufficient. Arrogance is a lovely thing, isn't it? The point he's driving home is you gotta have it all if you're gonna function as a body. All parts are needed. We're mutually dependent. And again, if I didn't have a nerve telling my heart to beat right now, I wouldn't be much use to you or me or anybody else. I mean, how well would your arms work if you didn't have any bones? And so you can't say, I don't need my bones, because I've got muscle. No, it all works together. You know, I thought of this today. It hit me like a brick. There's those out there that say, you know, I don't need the church to worship God. Well, they don't understand a thing about the church of God when they're saying that. I mean, read this passage and tell me where you can say that. That's utter arrogance. They don't understand God's design for the church. What do we need a church for? I worship God out here in the woods. You know, I could say to those who don't come when we gather together, why aren't you here? I mean, God gifted you to make a difference in the local church, and you're not here. So how can you benefit? the rest because you were gifted so that all would be benefited if you don't come. Not only are you shortchanging yourself, you're shortchanging everybody. I mean, God purchased you with his own blood and placed you into his church. That should tell you that it's kind of important to him, don't you think? I mean, he's given you a new destiny. He's given you a new objective for breathing air. He wants your life to count in light of eternity. Imagine that the judgment seat of Christ For those that don't think much of local churches, he says, hey, I gave you this gift to build up the saints in the body. How'd that go? Oh, well, I never went. Big swing and a miss, and you lose out on all the rewards he wants to give you. See, sometimes we can become so self-absorbed, we think the world around us, we miss the big picture. So he says here, in verse 23, those members of the body which we think be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and the unpresentable parts is having greater modesty. Now, in the original language, he's talking about your private parts. And he's just thinking about You know, these things require attention, but they're not there to see. And if you think about it, you know, I'll use my heart, for example. You don't really see it, but that doesn't mean I don't need it. That doesn't mean it's not doing something of incredible importance. It's very necessary. You know, a body can survive without an ear or a hand or a foot. But it can't function without the unpresentable parts. Well, we're going to take out your liver and pancreas. Too bad for you. Now we're going to take your brain out. I mean, these are the parts we don't see, and yet they're extremely important. Their function isn't public, but they're essential to the body's survival. And so the church is not to be like our society here, which honors those that are already honored. It's to be counter-cultural. It is to appreciate and honor all, even the parts you don't see, that aren't that apparent. You know, I wonder at the judgment seat of Christ if someone who hardly was visible in the body is going to be well more regarded and rewarded than me because they prayed for me and they prayed for you. And they did this little thing over here that nobody noticed and did this little thing over here that nobody noticed. God says, you were faithful to the gift I gave you. Here's your reward. And then you got the hot dog in the front of everybody, thinking it's all about him, and he's gonna be way down the totem pole. I mean, someone might not know how valuable someone else is in the body of Christ until we stand before the Lord. I don't know. But the point he's making is that we're all important. We're all in this together. In fact, Paul brought that out in the other section in Ephesians when he talked about spiritual gifts. Ephesians 4, 15 and 16. But speaking the truth in love may grow in all things to him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which each part does its share, Same principle, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Just saying it a different way. He's spelling it out different for the Corinthians, because they were thick-headed. We're all in this together. So God has put the body together as he sees fit. And as every part does its share, we're all built up and edified. How cool is that? So now comes the application, beginning in verse 25. That, in order that, I never read verse 24, but our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body, having given greater honor to the part which lacks it. To what end, verse 25, that there should be no schism or division in the body, and that the members should have the same care one for another. Since we're all in this together, since God decided what spiritual gift you have, and he's given you all things that you have anyway, there should be no schism in the body. But when you have envy, strife, and division, which are byproducts of carnality, how's that all going? You got schisms everywhere. You got factions, because you know what? I'm gifted and you're not, so there. Blah, blah, blah. Enough to make a billy goat puke. See, God's expectation, because he brought us together and put us together in this body, is there'd be no schisms, not some superiority-inferiority complex. No one's to be neglected at the expense of anybody else. No one's to be praised at the expense of anybody else. If they really understood that there wouldn't be any divisions in this body, but they obviously didn't, and that's why there was divisions in the body. Secondly, there should be the same care one for another, which apparently wasn't going on. You know, sometimes I liken it to parents with children. You've got four different children with four different bents and four different personalities. You love them all and give the appropriate care to all of them. It's not like you're saying, I'm going to love this one, this one, and this one, and you No, and God wants you to function in the church the same way, having mutual care and concern for one another. Shouldn't be some competition going on. We should be loving one another with a pure heart fervently because we're connected to each other. We belong to each other. We're gonna live together with each other. We're members one of another. Verse 26, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. He's stating what is. He's not telling you to do something. He's not telling you to suffer. He's stating this is how it is. I mean, if you stub your toe, does your whole body hurt or just your toe? It's your whole body. I mean, if I get a toothache or whatever, it affects more than my tooth. My whole body's in disarray. When I get a migraine headache, it's not stuck in my brain. Even Plato said, we don't say my finger has a pain, we say I have a pain. So it is with the body of Christ. We all hurt together. It's not this lone ranger mentality. And so we're to have this mindset and care for one another. You know, I thought about this. My shoulder hurts, okay, which it does. But, you know, I'm going to show my shoulder. I'm going to bang my elbow on the sidewalk because I, you know, I'm competing with my shoulder and I want my elbow to hurt more. Does anybody think like that? I mean, we're to care for one another. And so in verse 27, what does he say? Now you are a body of Christ and members individually. God puts you together. We're all members one of another. And if one part of the body's honored, the whole body's honored with it, which means we don't have to be jealous of one another. We're set free from that. But again, since my shoulder hurts, I'm gonna slam my elbow onto the concrete, see if I can one-up my shoulder. You know, if my shoulder hurts, I want that to get better so my whole body can rejoice that my shoulder is feeling better. And so if one's hurting in the body of Christ, we should all want them to be better so we can rejoice with one another, not rub their nose in it. I mean, if your body's feeling great, your whole body rejoices. And so I'm making further application. He says in verse 28, God has appointed these in the church. And so he's gonna give a hierarchy of spiritual gifts here relative to their impact on the edification of the church. So the principle is this, God himself has given gifts in order of importance for the church's edification because the whole purpose of a spiritual gift is so that the whole body is edified. In fact, verse 28, it says, God has appointed. That's in the middle voice again. God has intensely set an order up in his church for his benefit and ours, and he's got a special purpose in doing it this way. so that edification takes place. You know, God has even set up the human body that way. You know, your eyes and your head are here. They're important. I remember I was asked, would you rather lose your eyesight or your hearing? I chose my hearing. I'd rather see than not hear if I had a choice. because there's a level of importance there, and there's a level of importance when it comes to the body in terms of its edification. So he says, what's the order? First Apostles. Apostles were given by God as foundation layers of the church. We read about that in Ephesians chapter two and verse 20. They were given special revelation, Paul in particular, and writing these epistles was giving direct revelation and so forth. And so, obviously very critical because the word of God is a critical factor in us understanding who God is, understanding the will of God, and so forth. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in the word of God, so that's prominent. Then prophets, and prophets had a function at this point in the local church because the canon wasn't complete yet. They didn't have all the letters of Paul, and so there was prophets that God gifted, so they would instruct the congregation, because the word of God wasn't done yet. Then he got teachers, the teachers are important. So you have the word of God being given, then you have those who's gifted to teach the word of God to the congregation. And then he lists miracles, then gifts of healings, and then helps. And administration is extremely important. I remember discussing with a believer years ago, through talking, he says, I got the gifts of help, and I said, I'm really glad you do. And he's helped me tremendously. And I'm very grateful for that. And he knows it, and he loves doing it. And he's not trying to be something he's not. Administration's, and what's last on the list? Varieties of tongues. You'd think if they were so important, they'd be number one, but they're at the bottom of the list. But the count of Corinthians, the ones that had that gift out, they were the catch-me-all. And Paul says, guess what? You're at the bottom of the list. That's kind of humbling, isn't it? And verse 29 is important, too. Are all apostles? What's the answer? No. Are all prophets? What's the answer? No. Are all teachers? What's the answer? No. Are all workers of miracles? The answer is no. Do all have gifts of healings? No. Do all speak the tongues? No. Do all interpret? No. Which flies in the face of a lot of churches that think everyone should have the gift of tongues. Paul just said here, no. And I've had to gently explain to people that that's not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And then all people weren't gifted to that. And so God himself has given the gifts in order of importance for the church's edification. That's the issue here. But the Corinthians, those that had the gift, loved it. They, in their own mind, consider it the highest form of spirituality, and Paul puts it last. And so if the gifts are given to profit everybody, logically it follows that the gifts that bring the greatest amount of edification should be given priority. And that's what Paul and God ordained. Now, he says in verse 30, but earnestly desire the best gifts. Now, some people read that and say, see, we're supposed to covet the best gift. It's not what it means. It means earnestly desire the manifestation of the best gifts. In other words, a teaching that which is going to identify the body. In other words, that's what you want being displayed. Because in Chapter 14, he's going to address how tongues are being misused in particular. And so spiritual gifts are very important when it comes to the proper functioning of a local church. And so as I'm led of the spirit, as I'm walking by means of the spirit, God's gonna work in me and through me so the gift that he's given me can be used for the benefit of the whole body. And that's true of you as well, whatever gift or gifts you have. And to the degree that we're all functioning like that is the degree that the body of believers are going to be built up and edified. But the problem comes in when the believers are carnal. Instead of using the spiritual gift that God gave them for the benefit of others, they use it to serve themselves. They're missing the divine intent of the gift. They want to use it to draw attention to themselves. That's what was going on in Corinth. There were some glory homes in the church that wanted to get all the attention. So in their minds, they elevated themselves because they could put on a dog and pony show of some kind. You know, that's the trouble with our flesh. Our flesh wants to look good. Our flesh wants to appear good in the eyes of others. And so if I'm in my flesh, the bottom line is not am I doing what God would have me to do in the way that God would have me to do it for his glory, it's I wanna make sure people stand up and notice me for whatever reason. And you're missing it. They were missing it. But I like how verse 31 ends. And I'm gonna show you a more excellent way. And you know what the more excellent way is? Love. The love chapter of the Bible, chapter 13 is next. Love is the key to it all. You know, love of God has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. It's been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, and so if I'm loving you, I'm gonna be concerned about your edification, about you being built up, not only individually, but corporately as a body. And so if we're all loving one another, all these problems go away, don't they? It's kind of cool. And that's God's design. So next time we'll begin to talk about love. So why don't we pray? Father, thank you for the study tonight. Thank you for the importance of the local church. I pray we'd all be impressed with that. that this is important to you. This is your program for this dispensation. This is what you designed. You want us to not only take it seriously like you do, but you've gifted us to function in it so that we could be a benefit to everybody else. Maybe we just ponder that and we wouldn't lose sight of it and recognize its importance so that we think like you'd want us to think relative to the local church. And we present ourselves to you as living sacrifices and be someone you could work in and through and use to fulfill the very reason you've left us here and gifted us as such. So thank you for this study tonight. We thank you for our dear Savior. It's in his name we pray. Amen.