[0:00] Well as you can see we are continuing our study tonight through our big salvation diagram and we've reached the wonderful topic of gifts of the spirit.
[0:15] And for our text this evening we're going to go back to the passage that we read in first Corinthians. Now there are varieties of gifts with the same spirit and there are varieties of service with the same Lord and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
[0:33] To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit. To another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healing by the one spirit.
[0:48] To another the working of miracles. To another prophecy. To another the ability to distinguish between spirits. To another various kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues.
[0:58] All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
[1:08] And as usual we'll use our same five top five headings as what do we mean by gifts of the spirit who does it apply to, why are they necessary and why are they given, how does it all work and now what are the implications.
[1:25] So gifts of the spirit. We're going to start with a question. Is the free church charismatic?
[1:39] Is the free church a charismatic church? Let's see if I can move this over. Wait a thought smaller to this or that way. There you go, you'll get it like that because it tends to be on that side.
[1:52] We'll try that. It'll take a wee while to make the forms smaller. Is the free church a charismatic church? The answer to that is a very big, yes, we certainly are a charismatic church.
[2:09] Now you're probably gasping hot out of our point of views because of the right answer. Absolutely, we have to tell you, we have to decide what does the word charismatic mean.
[2:21] Well, this is the thing. The word charismatic comes from the Greek word charismatic, which is the word for gifts or the singular is charisma, charisma, charisma.
[2:34] And so the basic meaning of the word charismatic in relation to the church is the fact is basically saying that the church has been given gifts.
[2:47] Somebody comes from Donald MacLeod to say that the church is charismatic is to say that it possesses spiritual gifts and it depends on these for its effectiveness.
[3:02] Apologies that a couple of words are missing there. To say that the church is charismatic is to say that it possesses spiritual gifts and that it depends on these gifts for its effectiveness.
[3:14] And so that principle applies to the whole church. The entire church is charismatic. And we have to bear in mind that the label charismatic that is used today of particular churches is referring to churches who have a particular view of the spiritual gifts.
[3:36] The adjective charismatic applies to the whole church. The modern sort of charismatic church is referring to a particular view of these gifts.
[3:47] We might have a different view from those who call themselves charismatic churches, but in the basic fundamental sense of the word, we are absolutely charismatic. We believe in the gifts of the spirit.
[4:01] And of course, there are other words for this confusion can lie. Are we a Catholic church? Yes, we are a Catholic church because we're part of the universal church. And same way, we're an Orthodox church.
[4:14] And we have to make sure that we remember what these words really mean, what the basic foundation was. The New Testament makes it very clear that the church has been given particular gifts by the Holy Spirit.
[4:28] And these are identified really in five main passages. Apologies that part of it's not showing. But we can see them here. The gifts are all in red.
[4:40] And if you look on the back of your sheets, there's a list of them all. And I'll explain the list in a wee while because it's a bit confusing. We read to that passage, we read the top two because they're both in 1 Corinthians 12.
[4:51] Romans 12 is another version. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
[5:10] And all the gifts they have highlighted in red. Ephesians 4, 11, apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers. The shepherds and teachers is referring to one thing. There should be a teacher written there.
[5:22] And in 1 Peter chapter 4, whoever speaks as one who speaks all it goes of God, whoever serves as one who serves. And so that gives us quite a list.
[5:34] And it's on the back of your sheet and it's on the screen here. The way this list works is I've mentioned every single reference in the verses that we read, if you know what I mean.
[5:47] Some things are repeated in different places. So that's the black ones. So this is just going through each of those passages, picking out the gifts that are mentioned. And I've numbered each gift as it appears for the first time.
[6:01] And the double-dub ones are written in black. So there's a big list. We've got 20 there. And even that's not necessarily a complete or definite list.
[6:16] Some suggest that marriage and celibacy are also gifts, as it speaks about them in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 7.
[6:27] But as a basic guide, we have got 20. Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, help, and administrating various kinds of tongues, utterance of wisdom, utterance of knowledge, faith, distinguishing between spirits, interpretation of tongues, service, exhortation, giving, leadership, acts of mercy, evangelists, shepherds and teachers.
[6:49] Shepherds and teachers is the one thing. So we have a big list. But in some ways, a list is not the most helpful thing. And in some ways, we've got some challenges here, because to start with, there's not agreement among people as to what exactly all of these mean.
[7:09] For example, what is this? What is utterance of wisdom and utterance of knowledge? There's not agreement as to what that is.
[7:20] It's not necessarily completely clear. The nature of prophecy, right, at the start, and the nature of tongues is another discussed topic where there is not agreement.
[7:37] Not all of these gifts are of the same sort. Some of the gifts are nouns, like Apostles, prophets, teachers. Some of the gifts are verbs, like speaking and serving.
[7:49] Some of them apply to very few people, like the Apostles. Some of them seem to refer to principles that apply to all of us, like faith number 11 or giving number 16.
[8:01] That's surely part of every single aspect of life. And there's also overlap. Here you've got shepherds and teachers. Here you've got teachers. Is that the same thing? Is it different things?
[8:12] We're not necessarily sure. Is serving number 14 the same as helping in number 6 or administrating? It's not completely clear, you know, exactly how to analyze all of these.
[8:29] That's why a list is helpful but not 100% useful. It's not like the Ten Commandments, where we have a clear list of ten, or the Three to the Spirit, where we have another clear list.
[8:43] The gifts of the Spirit, it's a little bit more complex in gauging an actual list, which is really emphasizing an important point.
[8:55] It's not so much the actual specifics of the gifts that we should perhaps focus on, but the fact that whatever we list, whether our list is 20 or 22 or 18 or 19, the key point that's been emphasized is that there is a wide range of abilities and a wide range of gifts that have been given to the Church by the Holy Spirit.
[9:19] And in many ways, the first rule and perhaps the most important rule in looking at this topic is to think about the overall picture rather than just to focus on specific gifts. It's easy to dive in here and think, oh, let's talk about tongues, or let's talk about prophecy, or something like that, and to lose sight of the bigger picture, because the bigger picture of the presenting, presentation of all these gifts is really quite amazing, because if you were to ask the question, what does our Church today need in order for it to survive?
[9:52] What does our Church need today in 2016? Well, we need to hear God's voice. We need to be able to know what God's instruction is.
[10:06] We need to have financial resources. We can't survive if we don't have any finance. We need to be ordered and structured. We can't just have a free-for-all with things like chaos.
[10:18] It has to be a level of coherence, a level of structure, a level of order. We have to learn together. We have to grow together. We have to help those who are in difficulty. We have to reach out to those who are outside of us.
[10:31] All of these things are essential for the survival of our Church. We don't reach out, we'll never survive. If people don't give to us, we'll never survive. If we aren't orderly and growing and learning, we will never survive.
[10:45] The remarkable thing is that if you think about all the things that we need as a Church for our survival today, they are all in that list.
[10:56] Everything that we need for our survival is provided by the Holy Spirit. It reminds us of the promise that Jesus made.
[11:07] I will build my Church. Jesus is giving the gifts that are essential for the Church's survival, growth and sustaining.
[11:19] It reminds us of a very, very important point. That is that the Church is not building.
[11:30] The Church is being built. We are not building ourselves. We are being built. We are being built by God.
[11:42] Ephesians 2,19. You are no longer a Saint, you are a fellow citizen with a Saint. You are a member of the household of God. Built. Now that you could easily translate being built. It's a passive verb.
[11:53] We are being built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Same in the next verse. You are God's field, God's building.
[12:04] That should say here. God gives us the spiritual gifts because God is building his Church. Everything that we need for our existence and survival is provided by him.
[12:15] Isn't it amazing that 2000 years on, from when these words were written in the New Testament, the very things that we need in Carlisle for us to survive, God has provided them from day one.
[12:30] And we just praise and marvel at his wonderful, wonderful work. So we keep in mind the bigger picture. But then we ask ourselves the question, who?
[12:42] Who are the spiritual gifts applicable to? Well remember we said at the start that the word for gifts is the word Charismata. And that comes from the same word family as the word Charis.
[12:55] The word Charis as I'm sure many of you will know is the Greek word for grace. And so there's a key link between the idea of gifts and the idea of grace.
[13:07] And that of course is what grace means, a free gift. And this may sound like an obvious point, but it is absolutely essential to remember that the gifts of the spirit are gifts.
[13:20] They are undeserved, unearned acts of grace that are freely given by God. The gifts of the spirit are not achievements, they are not skills that we develop, they are not qualifications that we attain to by our own efforts.
[13:38] They are gifts from God. And a gift inherently involves two parties, which it says on your sheet there. Whenever there's a gift exchanged you have a giver and you have a receiver.
[13:50] And the giver of course is God. And Paul highlights this when he says that although there are a variety of gifts there is only one source. There are a varieties of gifts with the same spirit and there are varieties of service but the same Lord.
[14:03] There are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. It is God who provides them. And this emphasises that when it comes to spiritual gifts, the emphasis and the focus is on the glory and the grace of the giver, not on the abilities or the talents of the recipient.
[14:32] The key point in all of this is the glory of the one who gives, not on the one who has the gift at all. As part of my studies I had to speak to a minister who you have surely heard of, Eric Alexander.
[14:49] He was minister at the Throne in Glasgow for many years, a wonderful preacher and an absolute gentleman. And I was interviewing him about Martin Lloyd-Jones because he had, my book was writing a dissertation on Martin Lloyd-Jones and Eric Alexander was a friend of his and had known him while Martin Lloyd-Jones was alive.
[15:08] And this is what Eric Alexander said to sum up Martin Lloyd-Jones' life. For anyone who has not heard of Lloyd-Jones, he was one of, if not the greatest preacher of the 20th century, certainly in terms of the English language, an absolutely phenomenally gifted individual.
[15:28] And Eric Alexander says about him, There are few men that I have known in my lifetime on whom I saw the power of God in preaching rest so remarkably and so vividly.
[15:41] I was profoundly impressed by the quality of the man. He was not a superman, he was a man and had the failings and that fallenness brings with it. But the quality so outdid the failings.
[15:53] And then this last sentence especially, my constant memory of, that should say, my constant memory of him is one that breeds thanksgiving to God.
[16:04] And that sounds it up that the gifts that a man like Martin Lloyd-Jones had are a reason to thank God because it is him who imparts the gift.
[16:18] And I thought that that was a wonderful example of how this whole issue of gifts should be understood. Whatever gifts we see in our fellow Christians, it must always breed within us thanksgiving to God.
[16:32] And of course this raises a very important point about how we should view the work of God and other people and in other places because we all know that there have been times in the Church's history where there has been an unhelpful influence of a critical and a jealous culture between Christians or between churches.
[16:59] People will see blessings in another place and they will view them with suspicion. And I'm sure that that's something that people know of or people have come across.
[17:14] But as I'm sure you all agree, this is something that we must never ever do. We should only view something with suspicion if it is unscripted.
[17:26] That is the test as to whether we approve of something or not. If something happens in a different denomination from Irish or if something happens in a different place on the mainland or somewhere else, if something happens in a way that is very different to the way we do things, we should not view that with suspicion or with envy unless it sounds something that's unscripted.
[17:51] That's a different story. The spiritual gifts that we see in ourselves or in others should make us be thankful to the giver, to God, the one who gives.
[18:05] In terms of God giving, it's a work that he does as the triune God. Unfortunately, I don't have time to go into this in a huge amount of detail.
[18:16] But Ephesians 4 is an important passage here. There's one body, one spirit, just as you are called in the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who's overall and through all and in all.
[18:29] That's emphasising really that it's from God himself that all these gifts come. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. This is telling us now that there's a specific role of Christ in this.
[18:43] When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. So basically that's telling us that when Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father from that position of triumph, he is able then to give out gifts, to distribute spiritual gifts by means of the Holy Spirit through as a result of all that he has achieved on the cross.
[19:12] So in many ways, if you look at your diagrams, the back of your sheet, there's a link between the gifts of the Spirit and victory at the very top. Remember how we've been paving everything off as we're going up and down.
[19:23] I think we can legitimately pair gifts of the Spirit with victory because Christ's victorious position is one whereby he is able to distribute and give out spiritual gifts.
[19:37] So it's very much something that God does Father, Son and Spirit. Like I said, we can't go into detail because we're already running out of time. That's the giver, God. The receiver is us. We receive these gifts.
[19:52] Now, two key points that are written on your sheet there. No one has every gift. Different gifts are given to different people.
[20:03] But the second key point is that no one has no gifts. No one has no gifts. Every believer is a spirit baptized believer. Every believer has spiritual gifts.
[20:16] And Paul explains this magnificently in the chapter that we read where he talks about the human body. Just as the body is one and has many members, so all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.
[20:30] For in one body, we were all baptized into one spirit. We were all baptized into one body. Jews are weak slaves or free. And we were all made to think of one spirit for the body.
[20:41] It does not consist of one member, but of many and so on talking about the wonderful illustration. A hand and eye, all the different parts of the body are different, but all essential.
[20:53] God is telling us that we are all part of this body. We all have different gifts. We all have different functions. And the amazing thing about all of that is that it's telling us that every part is essential.
[21:07] That's the emphasis that Paul is making. Every single part of the body is essential. And that has wonderful implications for us because it tells you, you individually, that you are an essential part of God's work force.
[21:26] You are an essential part of God's body. I find that wonderful because I don't know about you, I'm sure you're probably just like me, but you very often feel like you are useless. Very often you stand before God and you think you must be so disappointed in me.
[21:49] You think, what can I contribute? What can I do? I can't offer anything to God's cause. You can see everybody else doing all sorts of things. You look at yourself and you think, I feel useless.
[22:03] It is so, so easy to feel like that, but it is not true. It is absolutely untrue.
[22:16] And I can completely understand anyone who feels like that, but it is not true. Remember, the building of the church is God's work and it happens because of His grace. It is something that He is doing and God is telling us that He has given us gifts.
[22:35] It is His doing. And it's a wonderful reminder that every life in here, every Christian in here and in our church is in a unique situation. We all live in a unique situation. We all have a unique set of friends or family members or colleagues or contacts or routines and God the Holy Spirit is in you and in me in our own situations to accomplish His purposes in the context that we live in.
[23:06] And that is such a wonderfully, wonderfully encouraging thing. Wherever you are, whatever your routine is, whatever your life is on a day to day basis, God is using that.
[23:17] God can use that. God will use that. Never ever think that your life has to radically change to be useful to God. Never think that you have to be a completely different person if you're going to serve God. God can use all of us and will use all of us as we are, where we are.
[23:36] He has placed us in His providence in His purposes to do His work. We are part of His building. Now of course, we can hinder that by our own sin and that's why we strive to put to death the deeds of the body as Paul says in Romans chapter 8.
[23:54] The point is, never ever, ever feel like you are used to this in God's service because God is guaranteeing to us that that is an impossibility, an absolute impossibility.
[24:07] You look at that list of gifts, it is guaranteed that you have at least one of them. Very often you can't see it yourself and yet I can see it and others can see it. So you are an essential part of God's church.
[24:24] The second wonderful implication of this is that the gifting of each part of the body tells us that we are utterly dependent on each other in our Christian lives. That's why Paul says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
[24:41] Now this is quite amazing because if you imagine that the apostle Paul could walk in here tonight, imagine he could walk through that door right there. He would come in and he would say, I need every one of you. I need every one of you in this church.
[25:02] And I think that's amazing because it's so easy to think of great Christians like Paul and other people and think that they would never need us. They're in a completely different league to us. It's so easy to think like that and yet that's again completely wrong.
[25:15] There are no leagues. Every Christian is dependent on one another. And the wonderful truth of this, of what Paul is saying here, tells you that the Church of Christ needs you just as much as it needs John Piper or David Robertson or Donald MacLeod or John Blanchard or any famous, important, wonderful, high profile Christian that you might think of.
[25:40] God needs you in his church just as much. And I think that's amazing. And I need you as well because a church is not about a minister and accomplishing anything in this church is not about me or anything that I do.
[26:02] It's something that we do together, that we do collectively. We are incredibly dependent on one another and I am far more dependent on you than you are on me.
[26:16] And so the gifts of the Spirit are a wonderful reminder that the Church needs you and you need the Church. And we can very often forget that either because we can be puffed up and think that we don't need the Church or we can far more likely to be filled with negative thoughts of ourselves where we think there's no way the Church would need or want me.
[26:42] But when we think either of those things we're forgetting what God is saying. The Church needs you and you need the Church and I'm taking too long as always. Next question, number three, the last, these questions are quicker.
[26:56] Why? Why is it that we have gifts of the Spirit? Well again, this is a crucial question and it's easily forgotten. I'll read, I'll just read some of these verses but they all say a similar thing.
[27:09] To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So with yourselves, since you're eager for the manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the Church.
[27:22] Ephesians 4 we can jump down to you, gave them apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for works of ministry for building up the body of Christ. You can see the emphasis that is being made in all of these verses that the purpose of spiritual gifts is that the Church would be built up.
[27:40] The good of the Church for the benefit of the Church. I love the version Romans 1, 11 and 12. Paul says, I long to see you that I might impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.
[27:52] That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith both yours and mine. The purpose of these gifts is to build one another up and to collectively build up the Church. And the tragic thing is that so often the opposite is what happens.
[28:10] It's amazing how we can take something wonderful that God's given to us and we can turn it completely upside down and use it for completely the wrong purpose. Because this is what was happening in Corinth. There was divisions in the congregation and it appears that these were the results of using the different spiritual gifts to create different factions and different groupings and dividing the Church into different sections.
[28:34] And that's why Paul goes immediately from 1 Corinthians 12 into 1 Corinthians 13. Where he is basically saying that unless we love one another, spiritual gifts are of absolutely no use.
[28:48] Spiritual gifts should bring the Church together and should collectively build up the Church, not separate, not divide and not create tensions.
[28:59] That was happening in Corinth and the same thing is happening today. Because there are big divisions in the Church between Christians who have different views on spiritual gifts.
[29:11] Different parts of the Church have different views and we use that as a reason for dividing. And that is precisely the opposite of what the gifts are intended for.
[29:27] The gifts are to build up the Church. As Ephesians says, it's to equip the saints for works of service, to build up people, to enable us to minister to one another, to help one another.
[29:39] So this is a wonderful reminder of what's on your hand there, the collective emphasis of the Christian faith. A spiritual gift is never, ever, ever about me.
[29:51] People might think, I've got this gift and I'm going to do it wonderful. That is utterly incorrect because it's never about me. It is about what we can do for each other and what we can do for the cause of Christ.
[30:03] That's why spiritual gifts should bring us together. They have one source and their purpose is to unite us and to make us depend on one another as God builds His Church.
[30:16] It's all about bringing us closer together. That's why they're there. How does it all work? Well, the Bible gives us wonderful imagery in all of these things.
[30:27] I'm sorry to be rushing a wee bit, but time isn't marching on. Paul has already used the image of a body and he also uses the imagery of building a house.
[30:38] And this is very helpful in terms of understanding spiritual gifts. You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
[30:49] Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
[31:00] In Him you also are being built together for a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. And so just as with a building, there is a foundation and this tells us it's built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
[31:17] And the emphasis there is on the word of God, the prophets and the apostles. Their role was to communicate God's word. And so at the heart of the spiritual gifts is an absolute focus on God's word.
[31:34] The foundation for the gifts of the Spirit are the word of God. And all the other gifts are built on that just as our house is built upon a foundation.
[31:46] The word of God is the foundation and instruction for how all of these gifts work. Paul speaks about this in 2 Timothy. The old scripture is believed out by God is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
[32:04] The idea of being equipped, the idea of having abilities in God's service is founded thoroughly and totally on the word of God.
[32:17] Now, from that point there are different views as to how it all works because some people believe that what we would call the revelatory gifts, a apostleship, prophecy, speaking in tongues, some argue that these have ceased.
[32:36] That's why it's called cessation. I don't know if that's the word, we'll just spell it, but I think it might be spell check. I'm arguing that those gifts have ceased, that the others have continued, that those have ceased.
[32:48] Others argue that nothing has ceased and that they have all continued. And this is where we would get the difference between, the main difference between a reformed position and a pentecostal or charismatic position.
[33:01] The traditional position of the reformed church would be that some of these gifts have ceased. Whereas the charismatic churches in the modern sense of the word would argue that they have continued.
[33:14] Now, we don't have time to really get too absorbed in this discussion, but the key point in all of this is the question of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.
[33:28] And the basis for the view that some gifts have ceased, which is the view that I would hold myself, is based on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.
[33:42] Some pentecostals have views that we cannot agree with on that reason. For example, some people will say, the Lord has told me to say this, the Lord has told me that we should do that, the Lord has told me that this is right and this is wrong.
[34:03] Now, we cannot accept that kind of language if it is threatening the authority of Scripture. Because our rule is the Bible and God guides us through His word.
[34:21] And sometimes, yes, His word can speak to us. That's, we're absolutely in agreement with that. But if somebody says the Lord has told me and it's completely random or completely out there and if it's in contrast to Scripture, for example, the Lord has told me to leave my wife.
[34:36] No, he hasn't. Never will. Because God does not say that, because the Bible does not permit that.
[34:47] And anything else along those lines, we wouldn't be able to view it. But not every charismatic would use that kind of language. And we mustn't label all charismatic as the same brush. Some are very, very faithful to the authority of Scripture.
[34:59] And they would say that whilst gifts of prophecy have continued, they would say only if it conforms to Scripture. So we can have much more respect with people who hold that kind of view.
[35:12] In fact, there's many people in our own churches who would use similar language even though they wouldn't say that they are charismatic. So the question and the emphasis is always about the authority of Scripture.
[35:23] If somebody says to you, the Lord says that the only thing that should come out of their mouth is a quotation from the Bible. Because that's how God speaks through His word.
[35:37] So personally, I would say that the gifts of tongues and prophecy and the gifts of healing have ceased. Not that the healings don't happen. I wouldn't say that.
[35:50] I wouldn't go far as to say that God doesn't heal people. But the specific gift of healing, like you see in the Book of Acts, I would say has ceased. But I am very happy to respect the views of somebody who doesn't think that as long as they hold 100% to the authority of Scripture.
[36:06] And of course the same applies to baptism, to worship, to church government. People can have different views on how to understand Scripture. But if we share the view of the authority of Scripture, then we can respect what they are saying.
[36:21] The key point in it all is that spiritual gifts work hand in hand with the word of God for the building up of the church. If something is in line with the word of God, we can support it. If something undermines or contradicts the word of God, then we avoid it.
[36:41] But the key point in all of this is that it's built on the foundation of God's word as we have it provided through apostles and prophets who wrote the New Testament.
[36:53] Okay, last one, very quickly. No. Well, first of all, I'm going to say that we should marvel in these gifts. Absolutely marvel in these gifts. When you hear the word gifts of the spirit, it's very easy nowadays to sort of think, ooh, what's this person saying?
[37:12] Is this person charismatic? Is this person a bit out there? It's so easy to be suspicious, to be uncomfortable, and to then just keep away from the whole topic altogether.
[37:23] That would be a terrible, terrible mistake because we should marvel in these gifts. Whether the gift of speaking in tongues has ceased or not, it is an amazing, amazing gift.
[37:34] And what we read about in Scripture should make us marvel. And it is absolutely astounding the way God used that gift in such a wonderful way in the New Testament.
[37:46] As I said, I would be of the view that it ceased at that time, but not everyone shares that view. But that doesn't mean we should view the whole thing with suspicion. We should marvel at all of these gifts, marvel at the provision that God has made.
[38:01] We should also hold on to two principles that should always accompany spiritual gifts, two fundamental things, the authority of the Bible and the essential role of love.
[38:13] And if you go home and read the wonderful chapter that is 1 Corinthians 13, remember that that is all talking about the priority of love in the use of spiritual gifts.
[38:24] Love should be at the centre of it all. Third thing, spiritual gifts should bring us closer to God and closer to each other. Remember, this is all about depending on each other.
[38:38] As a church, the more we depend on each other, the more we'll accomplish. There's things you can do that I can't do, things I can't do that you can't do. And by working together, we can achieve more.
[38:50] The whole point of spiritual gifts is that everyone can contribute and that we all pull together to serve and glorify God. It's not something that should make you think, oh, well, this person is so much better than me because they've got gifts that I don't have.
[39:06] That's the complete opposite of what it's saying. It's saying that that person's got a gift, I've got another gift, let's work together and glorify God. That is at the heart of what Paul and the Bible say about spiritual gifts.
[39:21] So we should marvel at these gifts. We should hold onto the principles of the authority of the Bible and the role of love. Spiritual gifts should bring us closer to each other and to God.
[39:32] And fourthly, and maybe even most importantly, we should use our gifts. Because the gifts that God has given to you are given to be used.
[39:49] Used in his service, used for his glory, used to build up his church. You've given us the gifts, let's use them.
[40:03] Amen. Let us pray.