Oh, it's red. Okay, we can start. The very end of the alphabet, which is crossed sticks, mark, sign, signal, monument. So, cross of revelation. Cross of, that's it? Mm-hmm. May my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. May my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your promise. May my lips overflow with praise for you teach me your decrees. May my tongue sing of your word for all your commands are righteous. May your hand be ready to help me. I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation. Law is my delight. Let me live that I might praise you. May your laws sustain me. Act straight like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. Nice. Nice. And then we start with Aleph again next week. If you were watching when we first turned it on, I don't know. What do you call it? The lights on the pulpit were flashing, but they weren't red. And so Sergio says we're live, so we're going with it. But anyway, got a couple of prayer requests here. John in Australia is coming off of antidepressants after 20 years and he's slowly taking himself off. And so we want to keep him a prayer for sure. And Jill got a job we prayed for last week. She's been looking for one for several years and she got a job, but she still has a painful fungus. It's not as bad, but she still has it. And then Kim Grady will have aortic heart valve surgery. That was a day ago. She emailed this morning and says, I'm in the hospital waiting, and I'm sure she's already had it or she's still in surgery. Also, two family members who were estranged from her have reached out praying for restoration and turning To Jesus for them, so they hadn't talked in a long time and they both heard that she's going to go in for surgery and maybe this will be something. So we'll pray for that. And then Becky out in Colorado is still having some problems that. She's sleeping again, but she can't gain weight and she's got one other issue that is just distressing her a great deal. So we want to keep all of them in prayer. And we'll do that before we do anything else. Heavenly Father, we certainly pray for these people and whoever else that might have emailed that I forgot to write down or anybody else is just silently struggling with their own difficulties or finances or whatever is keeping them from having a good and happy relationship with you at this time. that they would be able to get through that. And above all, that their communion with you wouldn't be strained in any way, but they would know that you're sovereign and that all things do have a good purpose, even if we don't understand it. And Lord, we thank you for the chance to meet here and to share in your word. And we certainly thank you for anybody that's online that's watching with us. And we ask that you bless them. Anybody that watches later, maybe they'll hear something that will bless them in their doctrine and turn them to a right understanding of your word and not be confused about improper or out of context teachings, which can only bring harm to people's walk with you. So we pray these things and we thank you for this class again. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, we have I'm going to read this before we get into it this day in Christian history today. It's August. I can't believe it's August. It's August 1st, which means we only have 60 or 90 or 120 days of heat left and then it'll get cool. But the rest of the country, did you see it's 37 degrees up in Minnesota yesterday? They said it broke 120 year record. It's global warming. What happens is it's a heat pump and it's like an air conditioner. When you pump the heat in, it causes cooling. Yeah, okay, August 1st, there was more to Francis Scott Key than just one song. Did you know that? Francis Scott Key was born in Maryland on August 1st, 1779, the son of an army officer in the Revolutionary War. He received his law degree and opened his first practice in Frederick, Maryland in 1801. In 1802, he married and then moved to Georgetown, Washington, D.C. to enter legal practice with his uncle. He worked in Washington for the rest of his life and served as the United States District Attorney for three terms until his death in 1843. During the War of 1812, the British occupied Washington D.C. and set fire to the Capitol and the White House. The British then began advancing on Baltimore. Key was authorized by President James Madison to help negotiate the release of a Washington physician, William Beans, who had been taken prisoner by the British and was being held aboard the ship Tonant, I guess, in the Potomac. Key went by sloop, the Minden, out to the Tonant and negotiated successfully for the release of Dr. Beames. But they were not allowed to return to land because the British fleet was preparing an imminent attack on Baltimore. He and the others on the ship watched the British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Throughout the night of September 13, 1814, Key stayed on deck watching the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, hoping and praying the American fort would stand. At dawn's early light, Key saw the American flag still flying and was overcome with joy. The flag was still there. He began writing the Star Spangled Banner on an envelope on his way to shore and edited it in his hotel room that night. The poem was printed in the Baltimore American on September 21st, 1814, set to the tune of a well-known British drinking song that soon gained nationwide popularity, but it was not until 1931 that Congress officially adopted it as the national anthem of the United States of America, and it wasn't until 2016 that the sports figures in the United States, led by Colin Kaepernick, stop standing for it. I added that in, of course. This song and story are familiar to most Americans. Less well known is the fact that Francis Scott Key was a dedicated Christian. He seriously considered becoming a clergyman in the Episcopal Church. He was a lay reader in the church and a faithful visitor of the sick. Key was one of the founders of the American Sunday School Union and served on its board for many years. While he was on the board, they launched the 1830 Mississippi Valley Campaign, which sought to establish a Sunday school in every town in a 1.3 million square mile area within two years. Key worked actively in Washington to publicize the Mississippi Campaign and raise funds for it. The campaign actually took 50 years to complete, with 61,297 Sunday schools started, reaching 2,650,784 pupils. Francis Scott Key also wrote the hymn, Lord, with glowing heart, I'd praise thee. Lord, with glowing heart, I'd praise thee for the bliss thy love bestows, for the pardoning grace that saves me and the peace that from it flows. Help, O God, my weak endeavor, this dull soul to rapture rays. Thou must light the flame, or never. Can my love be warmed to praise? Praise my soul, the God that sought thee, wretched wanderer far astray, found thee lost and kindly brought thee from the path of death away. Praise with love's devoutest feeling, him who saw thy guilty-born fear, and the light of hope revealing, bade the blood-stained cross appear. Francis Scott Key was deeply committed to God and country, both in word and in action. Do you take seriously your responsibilities as both a citizen and a church member? Well, there's a lot of citizens that don't attend church, and there's a lot of church members that don't care about this country, and I wish that they would get their heads straight. But, well, they try to act more pious by saying, well, I follow the Lord and not the nation. Well, we're members of this nation, just as Paul was a Roman citizen. He never deferred from that. People just need to think more clearly on the issues that the Bible actually presents. And plus, the Lord is the one who established the nations. Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, be faithful to him and serve him with all your heart and all your soul. What was confusing about that was that he was going to do the negotiations for the release of a doctor on Potomac River, and he couldn't leave because they were bombing Fort McHenry, Baltimore Harbor, the Potomac. are nowhere near each other. He must have gone down the Potomac to the harbor or something. I don't know. I'll have to look at the map and figure that. Well, you know the area. I don't. I know nothing about it. Had you not said that, I would have been clueless. And guess what? I still am. OK, we're in chapter 12, verse 6. But if you've got something earlier to go to to get us started, go ahead. Go back to 4. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 4. Beginning of the parable. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. Six, there are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all man. Okay, Paul moves to the third precept which governs our Christian life. The first was gifts, the second was ministries, and the third is that there are diversities of activities. Some translations call these operations or administrations. According to Vincent's word studies, they are outward manifestations and results of spiritual gifts. I like Vincent's very rarely if I come across a comment of his that I thought that isn't well done. He's very on target 99% of the time. If someone has the gift of preaching, the manifestation of that is the weaving together of words to build up and edify others. You know, I say that because that's what preaching should be, but my sermons don't really follow that pattern. I'm not here to spin words together and make people happy. I just want people to know the Word of God. So the sermons at the Superior Word are a little bit different, but at times I try to throw in something to make people laugh or Something, but that's just not my thing. I'd rather stick as close to the Bible as possible. Anyway, if they have the gift of tongues, they will either be able to speak or translate a language in order to build up others through the impartation of that language. We'll get to that in more detail later, but please remember that the word tongue means language. Thank you. If they have the gift of giving, their activity will be seen perhaps in what they give in order for the ministry to continue to grow and meet its needs. It should be noted that for the most part, the gifts which are given to believers are not unique to the church. That's usually the case. Non-Christians have oratory skills and speak to build up and edify others. That's why we have business symposiums that have great speakers come up and motivate the company into making great sales or innovating new things or whatever. People around the world are able to speak in a multitude of languages. Grandmother used to have a guy pretty famous you might have heard his name mckinley canter she used to come out and play you know what cards and stuff at the house they had a card table and they just. Spend the whole night playing cards and talking and this guy could speak like forty languages some huge number of languages. And I have no idea if he was a Christian or not, but that's a gift that he had. The guy Pimsleur, right? You've heard of the Pimsleur method or the Rosetta Stone. Well, Pimsleur has a way of teaching languages, which is very good at memorizing how to speak languages. Anyway, I don't know if he was Christian or not. Probably not, but if he was, that's great. But he had the gift of languages. If you want to know how to speak, say, something in Hebrew you've never heard before and you hear it and you're like, it just overwhelms your mind. All Pimsleur did was to have everything spoken to him said backwards. So if I'm saying, um, uh, uh, let me think of something in Hebrew. That's very simple. Um, well, hang on. We'll go to sleep is in English. I'm thinking of something that, um, uh, let's see here. Um, uh, uh, Korean that'll come to mind very quickly. Chownan Charlie in the DA. Okay. Well, it kind of comes out and you're like, what? Well, all you have to do is say DA. Okay. In the, in the DA. Okay, and then Nen, Chao Nen, Chao Nen, Charlie M. Nida. And so you process it going backwards instead of forward. You back build and you learn very quickly how to properly pronounce the language, whether it's Hebrew or Greek, or I don't know why I couldn't remember any Hebrew, but whatever. So if you take the Pimsleur courses and you can buy them, you know, I took the Hebrew and the Greek and the Korean and the Japanese, and I already spoke Japanese with Hideko. But it's a very good way of learning a language, but it is rote memory. You're not going to learn how to speak back and forth to one another. You're going to learn how to rote memory, and they'll also give you a writing course at the end, usually of their Pimsleur courses. But from there, you have to learn to speak to other people, or you just lose it very quickly. But you never lose the ability to say those words. You'll just remember them. So that's just one way. That was his gift. What? He knew the 40 languages. Oh yeah, and he said that when he learned a new language, he always knew that he had mastered a new language because he would start dreaming in that language. Once he dreamt in it, he knew that he was to the point where he had mastered it. So yeah, McKinley-Kanner. And I don't know if it was 40 or 27, but it was a very large number and he could speak them fluently. So there you go. um let's see here and likewise that's people speaking around the world multiple languages and likewise there are people who give to charities to help others in almost every culture and nation on earth and that's one of the gifts that's listed in the bible is giving right so all three of those are things that people already have and yet Everybody's got them, right? This is true with the vast majority of gifts and types of ministries and the activities derived from them. Almost every gift that you will find in the Bible as listed as a gift is actually something that other people have as well. Well, we'll go on. The difference is that for the Christian, the gift moves from a world-centered perspective to a Christ-centered one. The true spiritual gift is one which is used to glorify God as opposed to self or something less than God. This is an important distinction that should not be missed because many claim that they have a certain gift of God and yet it's not used for his glory. The book of Acts shows this on several occasions. For the Christian though, there are diversities of activities but it is the same God who works all in all. That's Paul's words. When the activity is used appropriately, it will bring honor to Jesus Christ and thus it will honor God the Father. It is God, as Paul says, who works all in all for that very purpose. This is confirmed by Jesus' words which say that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. That's from John 5 verse 23. Life application. You have been given a gift. If your heart is still beating, you have a gift, no doubt about it. It is intended to bring glory to God. And so allow God to work through you and your gift to bring him the glory that he is due. It came from him. All things come from God. All things. It's what we do with them that is either appropriate or inappropriate. But if you can use your gift to the glory of God. All right. Verse twelve, seven. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Right, this one says for the profit of all. The word but, which begins this sentence, does not mean a contrast. It may be more properly thought of as and, or now, or some other word that various translations have chosen. Rather than a contrast, we are being given further explanation of verses 4 through 6. Taken together, they read, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. These diversities of gifts are made manifest in individuals, not for the self to revel in or to be unduly self-pleased with, but to profit everyone as they partake of what the Spirit has granted through that person. Paul will explain in the coming verses to the Corinthians that most of the gifts are gifts which are geared specifically for Christians. However, there are those people that possess these same talents and abilities who are not Christians. We saw that in a previous verse. Paul isn't speaking about them. It is true that God formed all men and who are Who we are was given by God, whether we acknowledge it or not. But until the gift or ability is directed towards Christ, it cannot be considered under this verse. All right, Paul is speaking of those gifts which benefit the church and the people of the church. As each of us bears abilities from God, and as they were given by his wisdom, then we shouldn't feel elevated over others because we have been given a gift which is perceived as somehow better than others. Nor should we feel depressed because we feel our gift is less than others. We should be thankful and satisfied in that which was given by God. Everybody got that. It all came from God. So he disperses it according to his wisdom. And so actually nobody should boast over anybody else, whether he's in the pulpit or whether he's, as we said a couple of weeks ago, cleaning the bathroom or, or vacuuming the floor or whatever you're using your ability, your time, your gifts for the glory of God. life application, our use of who we are as individuals is to be for the glory of the Lord. So let us use our gifts to his honor. No matter what gift we possess, if it was given by God, it must be an honorable gift because it is intended to bring him honor. Okay. Yes. Manifestation. To bring the light. To bring the light. To bring out. That's right. To make manifest. Manifestation of the spirit. Is it something you can see in someone else? Well, you should be. And I'll tell you, like I said, somebody may have a gift, which is the same as a Christian. But you can see that they are directing it towards Christ, towards God, to the glory of God. OK, because listen. When I first met the Lord, I'd never seen anybody open a Bible in my life. And so I said I saw some Jehovah's Witnesses reading the Bible and I thought, oh, they must be pretty good. Right. And I went over there and they all claim they have these gifts. Right. I can tell you they don't, right? They may have the same abilities and capabilities. People in a regular church is really starting to come down out there. Good stuff. Anyway, but the manifestation is that it is exalting God in Christ. That is the main thing that we need to remember because if you're exalting God in general, Hindus do that. You know, Buddhists do that. Everybody's out after God. Muslims believe that they are exalting God by blowing themselves up, whatever. Okay. Those things do not mean that the spirit is being manifest in them. They're manifesting their gifts, but they're not manifesting them in the spirit because it's not glorifying of Christ. Christ is the key in this. If it is honoring of him, that gift is being made manifest. It seems in my memory that manifest it said like putting something under the microscope. That's right, something you can't see but that it is brought out. That's right. But it has to be Christ-centered and Christ-directed. It has to be. If it's not, then it's useless. And there are Christians that have gifts that do not use them to glorify God. Here's an example. When you go to work and you're a wastewater treatment operator, like I was for years, I could go there and I could just do my job and leave. And that's a gift that I was given was treating wastewater. I loved it. I was good at it. I enjoyed it. And when I went back into wastewater, after I met the Lord, I went back and I closed that business down the road and everybody would come up and they would, when they had a crisis at home or when somebody died, the first thing they did was come to me and ask, Can you tell me about this? What can you do about that? So the question is, was I manifesting Christ in my gift? OK, you have to answer that. I'm not going to. I'm just saying that I don't care who it was. It could be the biggest atheist on the planet and he hated God or a gay guy worked with. But when they had a problem, they would always come and talk to me. OK, yeah, it's funny how that works. When when the ball drops, people tend to want to seek after an answer to it. All right. And who are they going to go to? The guy that's in the bar every night. Right. Yeah, can you pray for me? Even people, I hear that one in 7-Eleven almost every week. One of the people, I go in and get my, today it was a burrito, sometimes it's a hot dog, whatever. But I go in there and I get it, and yes, I love their food. Anyway, almost every time, one of them will say, can you pray for me? And one of the girls yesterday, she came out, I was out in the dumpster pulling out all the recycles and stuff, and Billy walked out and she says, the world is so selfish. And I said, yeah, it really is. And she said, my cousin killed herself. She says, what a selfish thing to do. And I know she wanted to talk, right? Usually I won't go any deeper than that, but you know, that would normally not be a place where we would stand and have a conversation, but you know, there was a need for it. And so when I talked to her again, I'll have some more information for her, but that's just, are you using your gifts for Christ or not? That's the ultimate thing about gifts. And you had something. Absolutely. Paul's gifts existed in Paul all his life. He had a zeal for the Lord. He spoke more languages than all of them. Well, how do we know that? He spoke Aramaic. He would have because that was the lingua franca of Israel. He spoke Hebrew because that was the national language that they spoke in the synagogues. He would have spoken Greek, and we know he did because he wrote in Greek, okay? He would have had his own dialect from Tarsus of Sicilia. He would have spoken Roman. He would have spoken probably several other dialects as he moved about in his training. So the guy was well-educated. He knew these languages. He said, I speak more tongues than all of you, and it wasn't speaking of goofy languages that don't exist. It was real languages. Did he use them for the glory of Christ? Absolutely not until he met Christ. All of those gifts existed in him, but Christ was made manifest in him, and those gifts became manifest in the light of Christ. So that's the answer to that right there. Very good point. Okay, so I don't remember where we were now. 12-8, go ahead. To one, there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom. To another, the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit. Oh, man, that rain is just coming down. It was great because I looked at the, you know, about two hours ago, it looked like it was really going to storm. And I emailed a couple of people before I left, and we're going to get a great storm. And then it just fizzled. And I looked at the radar, and this big, big storm went over Fort Myers and a bigger one over Tampa, and it went around us. And so I thought, we're not going to get any rain today. Look at this. This is wonderful. This is a gift from God, that's what that is. All right, grace. Anytime it rains, I don't turn it down. All right, this verse, 12.8, begins with a list of gifts given by the Spirit, and it builds upon the thought of the previous verse. The 4, which opens the verse in my version, shows this. Verse 7, with the added 4 of verse 8, will relay how Paul is directing us. He says, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all four. Okay, this then intends for us to look at this list from that context. We can note the following. One, The gifts are to be mentioned have an external source, which is the Spirit. Two, they are given to believers and thus boasting or feelings of unworthiness over lacking a particular gift should be excluded. Three, the gifts are intended to profit all and not merely intended for private gain. And so, Paul begins the list with two. One is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. Wisdom is more than knowledge concerning an issue. Wisdom involves the proper handling and application of knowledge. Everybody got that? Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is higher than knowledge. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines wisdom as knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life, The natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand. Knowledge of what is proper or reasonable, which means good sense or judgment. The Bible speaks in great length about wisdom. I don't know if I'm going to quote this one in here, but. Let's see here. I don't see it. Yes, it's the last thing I'm going to say down at the end of this, so I won't say it now. One of my favorite verses in the Bible. Anyway, the Bible speaks in great length about wisdom. It is timeless, endless gift that finds its source in the Creator itself. Therefore, for created man there must be a starting point to true wisdom. Discerning what that starting point is will lead to a right application of all knowledge. You have knowledge, you don't have wisdom, what is the starting point for wisdom in the application of all knowledge? The Bible regards this starting point on several occasions when it states The fear of the Lord, that's right, is the beginning of wisdom. That's Psalm 110 and elsewhere, 110 verse 10 and elsewhere. Proverbs as well, that's correct. All knowledge which is possessed by man must be evaluated through the fear of the Lord. For example, to evaluate life without this fear has led to the theory of evolution, a doctrine contrary to the Bible which was given by the Lord. to evaluate morality without a fear of the Lord will inevitably lead to faulted morals. This then is a high and noble gift which is granted to those in the body. After noting the gift of wisdom, Paul next says that to another, the word of knowledge through that same spirit. Knowledge logically precedes wisdom. It involves experiential awareness and then processing that awareness in a way which is catalogued and then retained. Again, Merriam-Webster dictionary provides a definition of knowledge. They say information, understanding or skill that you get from experience or education. Also awareness of something. The state of being aware of something. That is knowledge. I'm aware that it's raining right now. I have a knowledge that it's raining. I may not have wisdom though. I may go outside without a coat and it's cold or whatever and I get a sniffle and then I die of the flu. So wisdom is the taking that knowledge and it's using it in a proper way. Just because you know something doesn't mean that you have wisdom. Even though knowledge is required for wisdom, the source is the same. There can be no experience without something to be experienced, all right? Therefore, the gift of knowledge in created man must have a starting point as well. Wisdom has a starting point, knowledge has a starting point, it must start somewhere. For right knowledge, the same source is for that of wisdom, just as the Bible tells us in Proverbs 1 verse 7, which is, I think, what you just said out loud, but we'll go there anyway and read it. Proverbs 1, verse 7. Okay, hang on. Proverbs 1, verse, are you there right now? No. Okay, I thought you were just, yeah, I think, I think you're correct. Hang on. Proverbs 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, verse 7. It says, yes, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom instruction. So you have wisdom, you have knowledge. They're both the same source, okay? That's... Each thing has to have its own source, and in both of these, if you're properly directed towards the Lord, it will be from the Lord directly, the fear of the Lord. Here's the wisdom is seeing things from God's point of view. That's probably from Dr. McGee. That sounds like something McGee would say, that's right. That's seeing it from God's, but it can also be, you know, God doesn't care if you wear shoes or not, but it takes wisdom to say, I'm going to put on shoes when there's thorns on the path, right? I went over to Israel and I walked on the Jericho Trail and most of the time I didn't have shoes on, I was, but there were points where the thorns were so bad, if I didn't, I would have come home bloody and with 10,000 thorns in my foot. So I had to put on shoes, you know, that is a right application of knowledge. There's a thorn. I have a foot that cannot withstand thorns. I'm going to put on shoes wisdom. Okay, I would call that wisdom, but it doesn't really do anything from God. So there is a wisdom, but the beginning of true wisdom is what this is speaking about spiritual wisdom, moral wisdom, those type of things. The beginning of that is the fear of the Lord, okay? So, let's see here. The word used by Solomon for knowledge in that particular verse is da'at. It's the same word used for the first time in Genesis 2, verse 9, which concerns the tree of the knowledge, the da'at, of good and evil. Man lacked proper knowledge until he ate of the fruit. The experience is what brought him to the state he was in. But it was knowledge which was acquired by failing to consider the Lord. in the decision he made because the Lord already said, okay, what to do and what not to do. He was deceived and man fell. The gaining of knowledge apart from the Lord will inevitably lead to pride followed by disaster. Paul speaks of this concept in 1 Corinthians 8 verses 1 through 3. Let's go there because it's been a while since we were in chapter 8. Now concerning things offered to idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up. but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. All right, so there you go with that. Such gifts then must be used in accord with the giver or they will be harmful rather than helpful. And when I say in accord with the giver, that's a capital G, the giver of the gifts. Okay. And then life application in Proverbs, Solomon gives us a great, great life application. He says, wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And in all you're getting get understanding. That's right. So that's one of my favorite verses in the Bible is right there in Proverbs 4 verse 7. As a matter of fact, when I was traveling around the country, I'm trying to think of which capital it was at. I think it was West Virginia. I may be wrong on that. One of the capitals had that in big letters chiseled right into concrete or a granite right up at the top of their capital building. that right there. I'm surprised it hasn't been taken down yet, but it's still there. It wasn't 2010 when I went around anyway to take that down. Like I said a week or two ago, they'd have to take down the 10 Commandments, which are etched above the heads of the the Supreme Court of the United States. It's a it's just ludicrous what's going on in this nation, but whatever. 12 9. Yes, 9 10 does say wisdom. The fear of the Lord That's right. Proverbs 9, I knew it was in there as well. So you've got wisdom in Proverbs 9, 10. It was 1, 7 is knowledge, but then it mentions wisdom in the second clause of that same one. So it says it a couple of times in the Bible or two or three times. Well, just over here, wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. There you go. Well, that's because the wisdom is the right application of the knowledge. And so it's pleasant to your soul because you have wisdom to direct the knowledge. That's right. OK, 12, 9. to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit. Okay. Paul continues his list of gifts of the Spirit. Here in verse 9, he notes that to another faith by the same Spirit is given. This is obviously not speaking of saving faith, because anyone who is in Christ has exercised faith in order to be saved. At that time, he was sealed with the Holy Spirit. See Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. I finally, it was two weeks late, but I finally had somebody argue with me about my talk two weeks ago about eternal salvation. I got an email and the guy says, you know, you need to keep the Bible. You need to put the Bible first. And then what did he do? Everything he sent me, everything was out of context, everything. There was no context. It was just, and most of them didn't even talk about you know, retaining salvation at all. It was just, you know, this guy's depraved. Well, that doesn't mean he lost his salvation. Anyway, it went back and forth for a while. And finally, you know, each time I would send him my commentary on that verse, and he wouldn't read it. It was obvious because I get an email back three seconds later, right? And so finally, at the very, when he finally said something, well, I'm done with this or whatever. Good, because I'm done with the two. But Then he came back with another question, well, how do you address 1 Timothy 4, 9, I think it was. And I said, well, I already sent you that. If you just read it, I didn't spend 10 years typing up a New Testament commentary for people to ignore it. That's why I did it, so I don't have to answer these questions. Here, go read that and that'll tell you what I believe. Right? Anyway, so, but I have to tell you that salvation is eternal. If you disagree with that, you are incorrect. Every single one of the verses that he brought to me, I gave the proper application of it and it is in context and it is taking the entire issue in the proper context. Don't just fly off the handle and start sending a lot of verses without context because all that does is make you look like you don't know what you're talking about, okay? The first thing I would recommend before sending me an email on that particular issue is to go read the commentary of the verse, and it's on the Wonderful One website. It's right there, or Superior Word website. All the commentaries are there. Go read them, and if you disagree, then tell me what you disagree about the commentary. Otherwise, what's the point? You know, I was thinking today, when I do a commentary on a verse, even if I already know what I think I'm going to say, the first thing I do every morning, I post at what? We'll say five o'clock I post it. By then, I have already typed up another commentary for 12 days from now, and I have read, I've read. Charles Ellicott, I've read Vincent's word studies, I've read John Gill, I've read sometimes Adam Clark, I've read Meyers' New Testament commentary, which I don't always read because it's a little complicated, and Cambridge Scholar's commentary, Bengel's commentary, Joseph Benson commentary. I've read all of those. I've gone through it before I have typed that and then I get to posting the next one, right? So it's a long morning. By five o'clock, I've already got that done. And what? Well, yeah, usually I wake up without an alarm clock at 345. If I'm not up by 345, then the alarm clock goes off at 348. But anyway, and that's not to brag. That's just saying that I am not going to type up a commentary until I've read what other people think about it, just in case. I want to know what they think and why they think it. And I'll just sit there sometimes. I'll say, man, that was a really great insight. Or sometimes I'll say, You just never know. Anyway, you want to not just listen to somebody in a pulpit and say, oh, I've got the answer to that. Study, what do you say? That's why I say every time we have a class here, what do I say? Inevitably, go check what I've said. Because I could be completely wrong. As I said last Sunday during the sermon, you'd just be blowing smoke. So don't blow smoke. All right. Be a Berean Christian. Don't just listen to people, but go and study three or four or ten commentaries on a verse before you go making your decision. Because one person, as it says in the Proverbs, and this is a misquote, will present his case and it sounds right. And then the next man comes along and you think, oh, that sounds right, too. Now you've got a dilemma because only one is correct. It's still really coming down out there. Anyway, where were we? We were at The end of 9. Oh yeah, we're reading, let's see here, Faith by the Same Spirit. Okay, therefore, I just said Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. Therefore, this must be speaking of the great faith that carries individuals and even congregations through difficult times. That's the faith that Paul is speaking about. That builds them up in hopes of meeting and overcoming obstacles that can move mountains in order to smooth the path ahead. And which says, it will all be okay because the Lord is with us. Such faith is seen at times where it is most needed, and it is to such individuals that people turn for reassurance and edification. There's always somebody in the church that has a lot of wisdom, and he never says anything. He just sits there quietly. But when the ball drops and somebody needs somebody to think it through, that guy is sitting there. Inevitably, you will find somebody in the congregation. If you just search him out, somebody back there has an answer to that particular dilemma. May not be the same person for every dilemma, but somebody knows what's going on. He just sits there and quietly attends church, but he's got all that knowledge and when it's needed, it will come out. In his next thought, Paul notes that to another gifts of healings by the same spirit. They're passed out. It should be understood that the same preposition for faith is given for healings. In the previous verse, and in this verse, the prepositions are listed as follows. Wisdom, dia, or through. Knowledge, kata, which means according to. Faith is en, which means in or by. And healings are en. which means in or by, it's the same preposition which was used. Wisdom has its own preposition, knowledge has its own preposition, faith and healings have the same preposition. Where wisdom comes through the spirit and knowledge is given according to the spirit, faith and healings are both in or by the spirit. Therefore, faith and healings come about in the same fashion according to Paul's description. This then must be healings which are beyond the normal go to your doctor for a cure healings, okay? They are those healings which come by faith through prayer. That is why we pray here. I do not believe in faith healers. You will never convince me of a faith healer on this planet, but I do believe in faith healing and there's a giant difference between the two. I would not pray for these people at the beginning of our class or at the end of our sermon every week unless I believe that the Lord was able to heal those people. Having said this, there is no reason to accept the overly ostentatious and quite profitable displays of supposed healings which permeate the charismatic churches of today. Sickness and disability can be as much a gift or a learning experience from God as it is to be healthy. Everybody know Johnny Erickson Tata. We've all heard of her. We all know that she has done more for Christ than probably all of the people in this church combined, right? We just know that. She's talked to hundreds of thousands of people. She's reassured people that have had similar disabilities, and she's done it where she has to take three hours a day just to get dressed and ready to get out into the world. Three hours. Painful, painful bed sore she has, right? And yet she's able to administer to people all over the world. She's been all over this world doing that. All right. So sometimes sickness is its own blessing from God. To suppose that one can. claim healing in Jesus name is to usurp God's right to leave someone sick for his good purposes. A few sicknesses of note, we'll verify this before I get into those sicknesses of note, I would like to tell you that we had people when we went out on our mission work that we don't have any now, but we would have people that would claim healing in Jesus name over somebody. Then the next week we would come back and they'd still be sick and miserable. And it did no good for our witness to them because that person was still sick. And he just embarrassed us by saying, I claim, you know, that's his choice. He wants to be charismatic and attend those churches. That's fine. But he claimed things that he had no right to. He was usurping God's authority to leave that person sick or to lead them to understanding why they're sick so that they can be a glory to God, whatever. It is inappropriate to claim anything in Jesus' name. You do not claim, you ask, you pray about it, you come to him and petition and praise him in the process. But claiming things in Jesus' name, I claim that Maserati, that is sinful. All right, if you do that, stop doing it. Here we have a few sicknesses of note. One, in 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, Paul, Paul, Now I used this example, yeah, thorn in the flesh. I used this example one time, somebody posted something about how great Benny Hinn was on Facebook years ago. And I said, well, he's in the hospital right now, isn't he, with a bad heart? And you know what his answer was? Oh, well, healers can't heal themselves. Yeah, that's a good excuse. Okay, anyway, Paul suffered with a thorn in the flesh, which he begged the Lord to remove. Instead of doing so, he was told that the Lord's grace was sufficient for him through his sickness. He was told by the Lord that his strength is made perfect in weakness. Okay, there we have an example. We have a couple more though, don't we? Two. In Philippians 2, 25 through 30, Paul writes in detail about the sickness which almost resulted in the death of Epaphroditus, a sickness he had no control over. Three, in 1 Timothy 5.23, Paul wrote to Timothy that he should no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities. Why didn't Paul just claim healing over Timothy? No more infrequent or, you know, limiting infirmities over you. I'm just going to claim you into health. Why didn't he do that? Paul wrote to Timothy that he left, what a terrible apostle, I can't believe he did this, he left Trophimus sick in Miletus in 2 Timothy 4.20. Why didn't he just heal him before he went out? Because that is not the purpose of the healings that are revealed in the Bible. They're to give God glory and to show that they are capable of doing these things when the Lord directs. But he left Trophimus sick in Miletus and so much for faith healers. I have no respect for those people at all. Anybody that claims that is false. Anybody. I'm sorry. There is no such thing as a faith healer. There is faith healing. All right, if you disagree, I don't care. In these and other instances, because if it was true, then Paul would have healed all of them, every one of them. In these and other instances of infirmity found in the New Testament, and there are others, there was no arrogant display of claiming healing. It was understood that the Lord had determined for these people to suffer through their sickness. Many verses are ripped out of context in order to justify that healing can and should be expected. Such misuse can only lead to dissatisfaction in one's walk with the Lord. I can't tell you how many people have emailed and said, why is the Lord lying? They heal this guy and he doesn't heal you. It's constant stream of this type of stuff. A good example of such a verse is from 1 Peter 2, 24, which says, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died the sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you have been healed. That's one of them that our friend used to claim down in the projects. He claimed that all over him. It has zero to do with healing of the flesh. Zero. All right? This verse has nothing to do with physical healing. I went to look for my place. The context in which Peter writes is healing from sin. Sin. Without proper doctrine and rightly dividing of the word of God, the supposed gift of healing used by many people only brings discredit and not honor on the Lord, and it fills up lots of pockets of people that take advantage of other Christians, okay? Who himself bore our sins? in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you are healed. If you just take by whose stripes you are healed and claim it all day long, Sounds good, and it doesn't do anybody any good at all because the context is sin. We are healed from sin. You may spend the rest of your life in a bed after coming to Jesus Christ. You may never get up out of your wheelchair after you come to Christ. You may... I won't say it. I was going to make an ugly joke, but I did one on Sunday, so... Life application. Ensure context is always considered when quoting scripture, especially when you're talking about things like healing people or when you're talking about eternal salvation or you can lose your salvation. Be careful. Use the word of God rightly. Handle it properly. Pray about it and study. Study and read commentaries and let the word of God dwell in you richly. All right, 1210. To another miraculous powers. to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. Okay. And it's starting to rain hard again. Nice. I love it. It will. Okay. That's fine. Paul continues with his list of spiritual gifts in verse 10. The first is the working of miracles. This is a separate category than healings, which has already been mentioned. It could be a reference to Jesus' words in Mark 16, verse 18. Let me take you there so you know what I'm talking about. It says here, Mark 16, verse 18. The what? He who believes and is baptized will be... Oh, 18. Yeah. They will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Okay. So there we go. Could be. Whatever the miracles are, they are above and beyond what one would normally expect from a person. Exceeding general capabilities. However, there are those who have unusual abilities and who will claim their gift is from the Spirit. People can do an astonishing array of unique things, but this doesn't mean that their ability is truly a spiritual gift. It can only be considered as such if its intent is to bring glory to God. Paul next says that to another prophecy is given. There are two types of prophecy in scripture. The first is foretelling. This is speaking of something future which is otherwise unknowable. Everybody know that. Jeremiah says, thus says the Lord, blah, blah, blah, and this is going to happen and then it happens, right? There are instances of this recorded in the book of Acts, believe it or not. However, this is such an abused practice in modern times that the only word which can be used for such utterances is False. People prophesy over others about prosperity, deliverance from sickness, marital issues, etc. They claim all kinds of stuff in churches over people. I claim healing of your marriage and blah, blah, blah. It goes on and on and on. If you haven't been to one of those churches, take time to go to one some Sunday morning and maybe not. That's right. Anyway, these are not God-centered, but man-centered and have nothing to do with true prophecy. Foretelling ended. I hate to say it. If you disagree, we're going to disagree on this issue. It ended with the word Amen at the book at the end of the book of Revelation, verse 2221. He says Amen and foretelling prophecy ended. OK, you know, the thing that I find really appalling is when people will take a couple of years ago, there was this Jewish boy in a synagogue that was standing up and giving a prophecy about Gog Magog. Right? And it went all over the internet. Christians were posting this and saying, listen to this kid's prophesying. A Jew that is not even in Christ is prophesying. And they're posting that as if it's some type of a scriptural thing. He's not even in Christ. That would never happen in a million years. Until the Jews come to Christ, they are not going to receive prophetic revelation. But, oh, they're Jewish. It's got to be true. Absolutely appalling what people do. Anyway, the other type of prophecy is forth telling. This is speaking forth an explanation of scripture. Pastors who rightly divide the word of God, speaking from the pulpit or in teaching classes are forth telling the word of God. It is an ongoing gift which will last throughout the church age. Everybody got that? Foretelling. You're giving explanation. It is a prophecy concerning the Word of God. Paul next states that to another discerning of spirits is given. This is an immensely valuable gift. There are true preachers and there are false preachers. There are people who can actually speak in tongues and there are those who utter nonsense. There are those who really have the gift of healing others through prayer and intercession and then there are charlatans who stand on the stage and mock the Lord through supposed healings. To be able to recognize the difference between what is true and what is false takes Discernment. And that discernment is only certain when based on a knowledge of scripture. It's the only way. One cannot support a feeling of discernment without... Hey, how we doing there? A little wet? Yes, one cannot support a feeling of discernment without backing up that feeling with knowledge. Otherwise, there may be lacking of discernment about one's own feelings. Everybody got that? We do not base our analysis of the Word of God on emotions. We don't base our theology on emotions, and we don't base it on feelings, whether they're connected to or separate from emotions. Feelings do not give us theology, all right? Otherwise, I'll read it again, there may be a lack of discernment about one's own feelings. John writes about the use of this gift in his first epistle in 1 John chapter 4. Here's what he says. 1 John 2, 3, and 4. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world, and the world is filled with them to this day. You need to learn to test the spirits. How can one test the spirits unless they know what is false? It's the only way you can do that. You cannot test the spirits unless you already know what is false. And how do you know what is false? Anybody? It's right here. The Lord has given us what is true and he has given us what is false. If you don't know this, you cannot test the spirits. You can say, gee, I don't like that guy. I've got a feeling about him. He might be the greatest preacher in the world. I'm talking about doctrine wise. And then you have somebody else that's a great, great orator, thinking of a guy out in Texas right now, that can speak better than almost anybody on the planet, and yet his doctrine is horrifying. Absolutely horrifying. But I got a feeling he's a good speaker, so he must be a good theologian. It doesn't work that way, okay? To be able to recognize the difference between what is true and what is false takes discernment, and that discernment is only certain when based on a knowledge of Scripture. One cannot support a feeling of discernment without backing up that feeling, okay? I already said that, but I've said it again. Okay, the answer is that they can know what is false through knowing the Word of God. The Word was breathed out by the Spirit, and therefore the Word will provide right discernment concerning that which is false. That is why we have been given this Word, is so that we can determine what is right and what isn't. And I will tell you that unless somebody has read this book many, many, many times, I don't know how they can be teachers. I went to a church to preach one time out, and it was Arcadia or somewhere. I don't remember. They asked me to come and preach for them, and I went out there. It was a Southern Baptist Convention church. And you know where their Bible study came from? It didn't come from the Bible. It came from the Southern Baptist Convention book on something. It's some crazy book that had nothing to do with the Bible. It was just, it was one of the worst Bible studies I've ever sat through. Never mentioned the word of God once. Okay. Yeah. I mean, just that's how can it be a Bible study? That's exactly right. Okay. The word was breathed out by the spirit and therefore the word will provide right discernment concerning that which is false. If somebody hasn't read this word many, many, many times, they probably should not be teaching this word. They need to take it in complete context and that means starting at the beginning and reading all the way through to the end again and again and again until it is in their head and they can say, I know that that is incorrect. I know that that is false. If you don't do that, and people get this wrong too, here's what they do. They go to theological seminary and they get trained on the word of God and then they learn the word of God. It's too late. You now have a presupposition about what the Word of God says. They have told you what the Word of God says, and so you always have those blinders over your eyes. A person needs to be in the Word and read it many, many times before they go to any theological training. I am absolutely certain of that, because if not, you are going to have presuppositions, and they are going to be biased. Okay, that is the natural way. And that doesn't mean that somebody that reads the word many times won't have presuppositions, but at least they'll be based on his reading of the Bible and not somebody else telling him that. All right. So you know when you're ready at that phase, your Bible looks like your Bible. Yeah, this isn't that old, too. This is what Tom Alley gave me. We've got a whole bunch of Bibles over there that I have retired. Lots of them. There's a couple here. There's a couple in the back. And I got a few on my desk at the house. But there's lots of Bibles that have been worn out. And that one, this is why Tom got this for me. You remember why, Tom? We were at a church on the beach, and every time I preached, what happened? Pages were blowing all over the place. I'd open it up and they'd blow out and somebody be running down the beach because there's wind out there. Tom finally said, that was one of the reasons. Oh yeah, that's true. This has got bigger letters. And I needed that too because I've been slowly growing blind. But yes, somebody said to me, oh, it was Burke. He said, I'm going to get you a new Bible because he was watching the Prophecy FDA. He says, every time you hold that up, it looks terrible. And I said, I love this Bible. This was given to me by Tom Alley. Yeah, this is my new Bible. That's right. Anyway. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's the sign outside the church says it all. What does it say? It says falling apart. Yeah. Life that's falling apart usually has a Bible that isn't. That's exactly right. And nobody has told us to take that sign down yet. I'm surprised. I'm surprised code enforcement hasn't come and said you need to have a permit for it, but they haven't. So thank goodness for that. Or maybe it's legal. I don't know. Whatever. But anyway, let's see here. What do you see up there? Biblically correct. That's right, biblically correct. That's exactly right. Okay, so let's go on. Paul's next item in the list is that to another different kinds of tongues have come. He will later show that this is a lesser gift, even though it's raised way up in some churches, it's a lesser gift and a most abused one, even during his time. He will spend an immense amount of effort explaining it because of this. The word tongues in the Greek is, anybody know? in the Greek? Glossa. Glossa, like we have a glossary, right? Glossa. It literally means tongue, such as the tongue in the mouth. It is also figuratively used to describe a tongue, such as tongues of fire. The fire looks like a tongue, and therefore it is called a tongue. And it is used to describe that which a tongue is used for, to speak or make sound. Therefore, language and sound is called a tongue, okay? There is no verse in scripture that shows these to be anything more than known spoken languages. In fact, in Acts 2, 8 through 11, all of the tongues are explained as known languages. We'll go there really quickly. 2, verse 8 says, and how is it that we hear each in our own language, okay? our own tongue in which we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Why didn't he just have them speak in a gobbledygook language that nobody can understand? Because people needed to understand what was going on. That's why. Because God is a God of order, structure, and harmony. Guess what it says he did back in Genesis chapter 11? He divided the lip and the tongue of the people, right? I know that's a misquote of that, but he took their languages and he developed them from one language and he spread them out over the whole face of the earth. This is what God has done. They are his languages. It is disgraceful to God what churches do with tongues in this world today. It is absolutely disgraceful. They are disgracing what God has done. Okay? If you disagree, that's fine. Don't send me an email because I don't want to hear it. I do not. This is something that is holy, it is sacred, and people treat it as if it's, you know, something that Anyway, okay, this is consistently the case throughout the rest of the New Testament. It is always referring to a known language and one must insert their own presupposition to come to the conclusion that these tongues are either ecstatic or incoherent. Paul, for example, says in 1 Corinthians 14 that he's spoken more tongues than all of those in Corinth. This doesn't mean in frequency, but rather in acquired languages. He knew Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and probably Latin, and his native dialect as well. He may have known other languages too. I said that earlier. There it is. And he finishes with, to another, the interpretation of tongues is given. Later, you know what? We had that happen today, right? We had somebody send us a new thing, which I put on the table for communion, right? And the Hebrew was written in a way that was kind of odd upon it. I could read it, but one of the words I was a little confused with, and so I said to Sergio, what is it? Okay, what did he do? He interpreted it right okay so i read it i knew everything it said except one word and i was pretty sure but the way that the kuf was made the letter kuf it looked like a dalet in a line and i thought how is that i i just and then i suddenly realized it says kadosh kadosh kadosh which is isaiah 6 1 i think holy holy holy is the lord god almighty i think it's six something anyway and then it says jehovah sabbeoth the lord of hosts. So there you go. I thought it was nice and it fits the table. So there we go. Anyway, so he interpreted that for me. Okay, now I can read Hebrew. I can speak it, but I don't always know what it says. So sometimes I will sit down with I think I did it this last week or two weeks ago called up Sergio as I do from time to time and we sit there and we talk about the Hebrew and he interprets something to help me understand what I'm reading. Okay, because I'm reading it. I don't understand it. The commentaries say nothing on this particular thing or they say something that's has nothing to do with it, and I want to know why that word is there. And then Sergio will say, well, I can tell you what it says, but, and then we talk about it some more, and then we go back and forth. And if necessary, he'll get Rhoda involved, who knows Hebrew even better than he does. And one time he was sitting with a bunch of pastors, and they got together and they blah, blah, blah, back and forth for a couple of minutes, and they said this and this, and it was one of the greatest theological points out of the entire book of Leviticus. Nobody has ever commented on that little thing. It was, I think you may remember if I say he and who, it was the same word, translated or said differently and why is the difference? No commentaries on it anywhere, nowhere, because they're a couple chapters apart and who would think to even look. But one said he and one said who. It's because one was tied to the masculine word and one was tied to the feminine word and there was a theological point being made in the book of Leviticus. You gotta remember, I made a little poem out of it. He and who? Who are you? You know, anyway, so, but that's what we'll do. Sergio and I will do that. Because I may know the tongue, but I don't interpret it. Okay, that's what this is speaking about. This is speaking about real life. It's not speaking about rolling around on the floor and making things up. Yeah, anyway, let's see here. Let me see if I can find where it was. Frequency. That's right. Languages. Okay. Aramaic, Greek. And to interpret the languages, Paul will show that if someone speaks a tongue, a known language in a congregation, there must be an interpreter. That's right. Therefore, if a person speaks a language and yet doesn't understand that language, they must have someone interpret what is spoken. OK, when I give the Lord's Supper, I know what I'm saying, and then I interpret it because it would be inappropriate for me to say it. And every time I go through a verse in the Bible and I give it in the Hebrew, I give it for a reason. A lot of times I don't. I just give you the verse, right? Because there's nothing important in those words. But anytime you're in the poetry, remember in Balaam when he said his oracles, I always said the Hebrew because it's very difficult Hebrew and there's different translations and people don't know why it says what it is. I will always give the Hebrew and then I will explain what it says in English and then I will explain what it means because even saying it in English doesn't make any sense quite often. But when I give the Hebrew, it is for a reason. I don't just do it arbitrarily. There's always a reason why I give the Hebrew in there. OK. This is not at all unusual. Many people, for example, learn biblical Hebrew and Greek in college. I know somebody right up in St. Pete. He came down and gave a sermon here recently, right? He is trained in biblical Hebrew and Greek. He knows biblical Hebrew and Greek better than I or Sergio will ever know. In our entire life, we will never know as much as he does. He was trained at Dallas Theological Seminary. He's got a master's degree in both languages, and he is a giant brain, and yet he can't speak any Hebrew or Greek at all. I can speak Hebrew and Greek to him and he says, how do you do that? Well, I don't know, how do you do what you do? Right? Because languages have more depth than just speaking or understanding or whatever. When I, let me see, I don't say anything about it. When I taught the Korean people, I had the Bible class for the children at the Korean church I attended for a few years, okay? They, most of the Koreans here could not speak English at all, or they did very poorly. And we had one girl, for example, come over, Yoonhee, she stayed, she got me, she's been in the church here. Anyway, she came over and she didn't speak any English at all, couple words, right? Very little. So she wanted to take English classes with me. And then when we would have a class, she was able to say that's a preposition that follows after that points that she knew the structure of English better than I will ever know in my life. And yet I'm a native English speaker. So how does that work? She knows English like Will Groban knows Hebrew and Greek better than anybody else. They know all of the mechanics of the language, but they can't put those mechanics into speech. And so that's what I did was teach her and all of the Koreans there how to speak English. Whereas I didn't learn their mechanics and so I'm still as stupid in English as I am now. To this day, they could tell me where my sentences are wrong, but I can't. I know that I'm speaking properly, well, usually, but I have found this is just a little thing for you if you start teaching in another language and you want to teach people English. Yes. I found this out. I tried every language book that I could find, English language teaching book, and I tried in there and nobody could learn anything. It was just a disaster for like three months. And then one day somebody says, well, what does that mean? And I said, you know, I said something like the devil in the deep blue sea. And they said, what does that mean? And I said, well, and I explained it to him. They said, oh, and I started printing off idioms, thousands of idioms. And I took them in and I taught them. And those people within a couple of months spoke English better than any Koreans I've ever met in my life. Beautiful. Because you learn the idioms, what people are just saying arbitrarily that we don't even know we're saying. And all of a sudden they're no longer confused because they hear all of the words they do know, but they don't understand how to put them together with something that what does that mean? You give them the root of the idiom and they picked it up immediately. Amazing how quickly they picked up English idioms. Okay, anyway, and I. Okay, we'll go on. Yeah. Okay. Teaching and on the other hand, or people can speak those languages. Okay. I'll read that again so you understand. Think of Will Groban. This is not all unusual. Many people, for example, learn biblical Hebrew and Greek in college, and yet they cannot speak it. Will Groban, okay? Rather, they can only understand it in writing. On the other hand are people who can speak those languages, but who do not understand what they are speaking because they have never been trained in the language structure. That would be me. I have to teach myself every single thing that I do for a sermon, everything, because I don't know what Will Groban knows. He could take it apart and he could say, well, this leads to that, blah, blah, blah. I don't, and so it's a very tedious, long day on Monday when I am studying the Hebrew. OK, some speak languages and acting or sing them in songs, and yet they have no idea what they're saying. You watch the people that sing Handel's Messiah, right? They're singing in English and many of them will be Germans. It's a whole thing in German and they have no idea what they're singing, but they can sing it. Beautifully. If you ever listen to, you know, the German whatever orchestra, and they'll sing Handel's Messiah, and you think they're English. They're, you know, Americans or something. And vice versa. People will sing Beethoven, like his Ode to Joy or whatever. They'll sing it in German. They have no idea what they're singing, but they can do it, right? Languages are complex. They're very difficult. Paul says that if someone speaks in a tongue, they must have an interpreter to explain the words that are uttered. Okay, life application. Paul's list today has been taken to such unhealthy extremes in churches that only self-aggrandizement and humiliation of the name of Christ is the result. A gift, if properly exercised, will have the purpose of edifying others, building up the church, and especially bringing glory to God. The showy use of supposed gifts which call attention to someone are to be shunned. A church is to be conducted in an orderly and harmonious way, or it's not a properly functioning church. I don't care how many people are sitting in the pews. I don't care how much money they pull in every week. It is not properly functioning if they are not glorifying God. 1211. All these are the work of one and the same spirit. He gives them to each one just as he did. Okay, this is a little different, but one in the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. Same thing, just different structure. Okay, from verses 5 through 10, a list of the different workings and gifts of the spirit were provided. However, and despite this, they all have the same divine source. Thus Paul states, but to show that regardless of the gift or ministry, they have a common value because of their common source. It is noted that one and the same spirit works all these things. That's Paul's words. Logically, if one boasts in his particular gift over that of another, then they're boasting over what was determined by the Spirit of God. A tenuous position, to say the least. He gave that person this gift, he gave that person this gift, and you're saying mine is better than yours? Well, the Spirit didn't think so. The same is true from the other angle. If a saved person possesses a particular gift and yet they are displeased with that gift, then their unhappiness is implicitly showing disdain for what God has appointed to them. There's nothing wrong with desiring the best gifts, as will be noted by Paul, but there is something wrong with not being satisfied with what one has at the same time. This is because it is the Spirit who is working out these things and distributing, as Paul says, to each one individually as he wills. Eagerly desire the greater gifts, he says, but be happy with what you have because the Spirit has given it to you. Who can charge God with wrongdoing? It's absurd to even contemplate it. The Spirit knows each person's abilities and capabilities and makes his distributions according to that superior knowledge. In this, there is an implicit confirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. The Spirit is described as possessing personal traits that only an individual could possess. Further, the omniscience of the Spirit is noted in the way his workings are depicted. and his sovereignty is also seen in his will to choose the appropriate distribution of the gifts. As this is so, the decisions made by the Spirit are decisions in accord with the will of God. Therefore, let us be thankful for our gifts and be pleased to strive for more or better gifts as we develop in Christ. Life application, whatever gift you possess, use it well, and in a way which brings glory to the Lord. A gift given and yet unused, it's a wasted gift, right? 1212. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. Okay, a little different here. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body But all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. So also is Christ. So you see there's a different approach in those last couple words. Read yours again. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts. Though its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. So it is with Christ. This one says, so also is Christ. So it's a different approach of how they're portraying the body, okay? Paul now introduces a metaphor to help us grasp our position in the body and the gifts we have received from the Spirit. In doing this, he will make a somewhat complicated issue more easily understood. God fashioned man as a soul, body, unity. Anybody know what that's called? It's a big term, very big term. I've said it in a couple sermons, and the first time I said it, and Linda heard it, she went like this, and now I know she remembers. Anthropological Hylomorphism. Yes, I knew you remembered. Okay. Anthropological is man. The traits of man and Hylomorphism means the duality. Anthropological Hylomorphism. Okay. So did you get that into a poem by chance? Into a poem? I could probably get it into there somehow. We'll see if we can fit that into one of them one of these days. Anyway. Okay. Well, let's do, let's do the Pimsleur study. She says she can't repeat it. So say ism. Orphism. Morphism. Hylo. Hylomorphism. See, there you go. Anthropological, you say logical. Anthro. Anthropo. Morphological. anthropomorphological hylomorphism. See, that's how you do it. That's how you would learn the Pimsleur way. And you learn very quickly. You said it. You may not remember it, but you did say it. Okay, so here we go. We are a soul, body, unity. People say man is soul, body, and spirit. Incorrect. Please know that man is not a trinity. We are a hylomorphic unit, okay? A soul, body, unity. Now, what that means is we have a spirit when We come to the Lord. The spirit is the connection to God. It's not a separate part of man. The spirit connection to God was cut when man fell. Everybody understand that? The spirit is what is the connection to God. Our spirit died. It was disconnected from God. We are soul, body, unity. The spirit is the connection to God. So we're not soul, body, spirit. We are soul, body with the spirit connection or no spirit connection to God. Okay. All right. Just remember that because it is precise. All right. We want to be precise in that particular. Well, it's our spiritual connection to God and the Holy Spirit is the one that grants it. But it's not the Holy Spirit, not a part of us, but he has sealed us with his spirit. He is working through, the Godhead is working through the Holy Spirit to seal us and to bring us To God, OK, but the spirit is the spiritual connection. It's not a separate part of man. It is the connection to God. Let's think of an example. We have a telephone and we have sound. How are we going to do that? You would have just think of how you would connect to somebody else. OK, it's not a separate thing. It is a connection to them. You've got the two things you put the third in and you make the connection. That's what that is. OK, yes. First comes to mind, which I can't find in my mind, where it is. The spirit returned to him who gave it? Yes, that's from Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Okay. Here, here we go. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. We want to go to Psalm Ecclesiastes. It's a small little book right towards the end of I mean, right after Proverbs, you got Job, and then Psalms, and then Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, the five wisdom books. Anyway, he says here, it's such a beautiful passage. I feel like reading the whole thing, but I won't. Anyway, yeah, let's do it. I'll give you a short sermon on this and we'll finish this first. Remember now your creator, Ecclesiastes 12, in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. That's speaking of a guy getting old. You no longer have pleasure in your years, right? The years draw nigh. The days are no longer pleasurable. When the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are not darkened, then the clouds do not return after the rain. That's speaking of somebody that's young. The clouds haven't darkened yet. It's not gloomy in your life and in your thinking. The clouds do not return after the rain. Okay, just keep having problem after problem, keep up one after another, more rain. Okay, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble. Now you're getting old and what happens? You start having the keepers, your house is your body, the keepers tremble. Okay, and the strong men bow down, that's obvious. You get old, you bend over. When the grinders cease because they are few. You lose your teeth, that's right, okay? And those that look through the windows grow dim. It's your eyes. You can no longer see right, okay? Which is happening to me here, okay? When the doors are shut in the streets, what's that? You're hearing and the sound of grinding is low. Your ears are going bad. When one rises up at the sound of a bird, the older you get, you get up early all of a sudden. It just happens. Your eyes pop open, right? You get up at the sound of the bird and all the daughters of music are brought low. The very birds that are there when you wake up, you can't even hear them. The daughters of music are brought low, okay? Also, they are afraid of heights. You get old and you sure don't want to go upstairs anymore, right? Okay? And terror is in the way. You go outside and there's always something scary out there. You want to just stay inside and not get attacked, all right? When the almond tree blossoms, That's right, it's all over your beard, buddy. Yeah, the almond tree, your head looks like a blossoming almond tree. The grasshopper is a burden. All night long, you can't hear anything except the drone of the grasshopper. And all night long, you hear it going and you can't get to sleep because of the grasshopper. It's a burden because you're old and that's all you can hear is this droning sound. And desire fails. Uh-oh, okay. For man goes to his eternal home. Anybody? Yeah, death. You're going into the grave. And mourners go about the streets. That's the people they used to pay to mourn. And you'll see it in the book of Matthew, I think it is, and Luke, where the mourners come in there mourning. They pay people to come and mourn at the death of a person. Mourners go about the streets. Remember your creator before the silver cord is loosed. Anybody? Your back. Okay, your spine. You break your back, you're done. Or the golden bowl is broken. That's right, your head. Or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain. The heart pumping out the blood, okay? Or the wheel broken at the well. The well is pumping it out. You've got the aorta and the ventricle and it's pumping, okay? Then the dust will return to the earth as it was. From the dust you came to the dust you shall return. And the spirit will return to God who gave it. That's what you were thinking of right there. The spirit is going back to God. That is a poetic way of saying that his soul is departing the body. The spirit and the soul are the same, okay? They just use the term spirit here, but the soul departs, the body goes back to God. He's being gathered to his father. So this is not man in general, this is a safe man. Well, I don't know. All he's doing is giving a poetic form of death in what's coming upon man. But it says spirit. That's right. But that's what I'm saying. It's like the Daughters of Music. He says the Daughters of Music and he's speaking of birds. He's using a poetic form to say that your breath is now leaving your body. He's not making a theological discussion about what happens between the soul, the body, and the spirit. He's not doing that. He's just simply saying that the spirit returns to God. God gave the spirit. He breathed the breath of life into man. and then the breath of life goes out of the man. Okay. That's what he's speaking of. Okay. I'd have to, it's probably the word ruach, which is breath. That's right. It's the same word. Ruach is breath and spirit. And I could check it, but we don't have time. We're almost out. But anyway, that's what he's speaking about. So he's saying, do all of these things now while you're young, because your time of death is coming. And it's going to come in this progression with these bodily failures. And then you are going to punch your ticket. Remember your Creator before those things happen. And that's where he ends up. He says, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find acceptable words and what was written was upright words of truth. The words of the wise are like goats. Goat is the thing that you poke a cow with to get him going. And the words of scholars like well-driven nails given by one shepherd and further my son be admonished by these of making many books there is no end and much study is wearisome to the flesh let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter you can read book and book and book and book about the bible and never read the bible the word of god and you're no further along in your walk but what does he say fear god and keep his commandments where do you find them In the word, for this is man's all for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. That's my favorite sermon. Anytime I go to another church to preach, I always use that one. My favorite sermon. Anyway, I just short little talk about it right there. OK, so we got to finish up this verse before we get done. Let's see here. Yeah, we'll just go back up here in one body. There are many members. God fashioned the man. There are many members. We have arms, legs, fingers, toes. Eyes, ears, internal organs, a covering of skin, bones, and so on. Despite each being an individual thing, I gotta read quick because we're running out of time, together they comprise a single unit. Paul says they are all members of that one body. None are independent of the body but are a part of the whole. As noted, they being many are one body. The finger on your right hand isn't independent of the hand and the hand isn't independent of the arm and so on. Each member is dependent on the whole. If the finger gets cut off, it's no longer a part of the body and it cannot continue to function unless you're watching a horror movie. The same is true with any part of the body. If it is removed, it simply ceases to function. In the human form, then, there is a united existence where every part of the body has a particular function and without which the body will not be able to function properly. Understanding this, Paul says, so also is Christ. The body of Christ, meaning the individual believers, this is for everybody here because you all have a gift and you might think my gift isn't very good, all right? Individual believers have been given individual gifts. and are not independent of the body. Instead, they are all the members of that one body, being many, and yet they are one body. He's going to talk about this more in depth. Don't feel jealous of people that do something else because your gift is just as good to the working of the body and maybe more important because Paul talks about the things that we conceal, okay? They have more honor because of where they are. We think that they're less honorable, but we treat them with more honor. He'll talk about that later. Life application. If someone is saved, they are a part of the body of Christ. Here's another logical thought concerning eternal salvation. You are saved and you are now a part of the body of Christ. You are in Christ. What would happen if Christ were to cut that off? He would be cutting off his own body part. It will not happen. Anyway, in that body they are assigned a particular gift which is intended to meet the needs of the body. Okay? This is why the Spirit gives gifts according to His wisdom. It is a specific gift to meet a specific need. If God fashioned man to be a marvelous organism which functions properly, how much more will He fashion the members of the body of Christ to function properly? Whatever gift you, whatever your gift, use it with this in mind. All right, Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful talk about the human body and how it's equated to the body of Christ and how we are each a part of that body. We all have something that we can do for you and in some way or another we will bring you glory if we're willing to use it for your glory. So help us to remember that no matter what it is, a person stuck in a bed that cannot do anything else, They can pray. They can pray for each person that comes to their mind. They have a ability, they have a gift, and they can use it if they're willing to. They can send out letters of comfort to other people. They can encourage them. They can do all kinds of things in a bed without even being able to move. Lord, help us to understand that each one of us is valuable and that our gift is valuable because it was given by you. To your glory, let us use them, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, let me back this baby up here. Well, let's see here. We're going to go to break. There we go. But don't let them lie.