Spirituality and its blessings are explored, contrasting the earthly blessings of Israel with the heavenly blessings of Christians. The sermon emphasizes that true spiritual blessings, such as redemption, forgiveness of sins, and an incorruptible inheritance, are received through divine revelation and faith in Jesus Christ, not by human effort. It highlights that the Holy Spirit enables spiritual understanding and transforms believers into a spiritual house, offering spiritual sacrifices and receiving a spiritual body like Christ's. The ultimate spiritual blessing is found in the cross of Christ, offering forgiveness and eternal life.
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internal verses. First Corinthians chapter twelve, please. First Corinthians chapter twelve. I want to read the first seven verses. First Corinthians twelve. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. He know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaketh by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus a curse, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. And there are diversities of administration, but the same law. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same job which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man with profit with all. We've been taking up the book of First Corinthians, and we're going to be into some very interesting chapters. In chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, you're right into the very heart of the Epistle almost.
There's been so much trouble and so much commotion going on in Corinth. We could hardly call it a church because of what was going on. And so the Apostle Paul has been trying to point out to them their troubles, and he concluded the first section with the Lord Supper in verse chapter eleven. And what is to say that should answer a lot of the problems that we have been taking up? But now he opens with a new introduction now concerning Spirit of this. We'll be speaking on the charismatic movement, the tongue.
That's very interesting, so we trust you'll be getting out to these meetings. In chapter twelve we have the gift given, and then we have the more excellent gift, the best gift of all, in chapter thirteen, and then we have the function or the exercise of those gifts in chapter forty. So these are very significant in the light of conditions in our present days. She's pointing out here the powerlessness of idolatry which had controlled them for many, many years. She speaks of that in verse two, ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
And so they had been under the influence of idolatry for so long, attending so many, though, of those idolatrous seats. And there was quite a lot of chattering going on and dancing and obscene things not only done but said. And he's trying to bring before them, now you've got a background that lends itself to the emotional. Are you trying to carry some of that excitement and emotionalism over from your record before you found Christ into the era of Christianity? And so he's trying to take up this subject and telling them, now there's a possibility that your past has a lot to do with the promotion of the present, taking up these funds and other things.
And if I so prove to them how they can identify the true identity of the exercise and operation and leading of the Holy Spirit of God. Now we tell you that in verse three. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse. In other words, the truth of the true identity Christ is the fact and also the identity of the Holy Spirit's leader is that Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, he said, you may call Jesus Lord just by ordinary conversation.
Many can do that. Oh, yes, I know the Lord. The Lord is mine. Was that revealed to you by the Holy Spirit? Or was that just something that you're accustomed to seeing? And he's pointing that out at the end of that verse, verse two, or verse three. He says, Jesus and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. That's a good thing. Lots of people can say, well, yeah, I know the Lord. I know the Lord. Are you saying that because of your background?
Are you saying that just because it's common knowledge, or are you saying it from experience, the utterance of the Holy Spirit of God? They had been accustomed to a lot of things proceeding out of their mouths in the idolatrous world. A lot of things they didn't understand, a lot of babbling. Now, says the Apostles. You can't bring that over into this era of Christianity. Now you claim you know Christ. Is Jesus Christ Lord? Or is this just a carryover for what you've been into before you've confessed to know Christ?
Because a number of humanism is active today, and even in non-Christian countries, we'll be pointing this out in the future. In non-Christian countries, the tongue movement rages. They utter a lot of things they don't know what they're uttering, even in the idolatry of the world. No, he says that this is just a carryover. And, oh yeah, I know Jesus, Lord. Is that the utterance of the ungrieved Holy Spirit in your heart? For instance, you read over in Matthew chapter seven. The Lord says, no man calls me Lord, but by the Spirit, or rather in a day to come, he says, many are going to say unto me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in my presence?
Have we not done many wonderful works? We've eaten and drunk in my presence. He says, depart from me, you workers of aniquity. I never leave. creatures, those who take the communion, those who perform miracles. And in that coming day was all a farce. They didn't know Christ of Lord at all. What an exposure would have been too late. Many, he says, shall say in that day, Lord, we did this, we did that.
It didn't come from the Holy Spirit. It didn't come from a changed heart. No man called a Jesus, Lord, except by the Holy Spirit of God. We'll go into that more tonight, pointing out how the disciples called him Lord. Today the word Jesus is used. That's his Savior name. That's his name of humiliation. He wants to be known as Lord, Lord of my life. There's a big difference. Gifts were given here in Corinth, but they were being abused for self-disclay instead of the purpose for which God had given those gifts.
The gifts that they had been given by the head of the church, wherefore the edification, not only of themselves, but of others. But they can't get edified if you hear a language they don't know. The only way you can be edified is to hear a language they do know. You know what they're talking about. It builds you up. But here you find them in Corinth, and they were using T-disp or tongue-disp, and they came behind in no-disp. There were no fools. They were educated men. And they were using whatever they knew to exalt themselves.
Why, here's an opportunity for me to take a lead and be noticed and become proud. And the way they'd go off into a flight of language they didn't know, they were doing it for self-disclay, not that they might be edified and God be glorified. What a state called some Jews. Another thing they had been accustomed to, I've already said to the leadership of demons in their idolatry. And that's getting help from a spirit of power. Behind those idols was a spirit of power.
And they were led. They were served by that power, that strange power to go off. into these bursts of tongues that David known or anywhere else knew. Now he says, you have got the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit leads you, he leads you to give utterance of things that are understood that will edify the hearer and glorify God. and you'll have a proper understanding of the Lordship of Christ. How were they to identify the reality of the Holy Spirit, this new power that came in when they trusted the Savior?
He certainly wouldn't speak disrespectful of the Lord Jesus Christ. We tell you that in verse three. No man who has the Spirit of God in him would call Jesus a church. No one man that the fruit of God treading in his heart would speak anything disrespectful of the Lord Jesus Christ, and rather that spirit would lead there to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and call him, Lord, he is my Lord. The fruit of God leads an unsaved person to acknowledge I am lost.
The Spirit of God dealing with a person who is not a Christian is the first thing he leaves that person to see that he or she is lost. And when that person is repentant, the Spirit of God will leave that person to fight, as you have in Romans ten and I. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, up it. Thou shalt be saved. That's what the Spirit leaves a person to do, not to turn over a new leaf, not to try to live better, not to join the church. No. He leaves that anxious soul to Jesus.
And if ever there's a time when a person is calling Jesus Lord and acknowledging him as such is when he gets saved, because God's not going to save you until you're willing to abandon yourself to Jesus Christ. No man will God save until that person has given up on his own endeavors to save himself from his willingness to trust Christ entirely and absolutely for eternal salvation. The child shall contest with thy love Jesus as Lord. and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And so a person can only know Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord by divine revelation. Remember the case over in Matthew sixteen. The Lord asked his disciples, Soon do men say that I am? Well, one says, Elijah, one of the prophets and so on. But who do you say I am? Simon Peter speaks up, and he says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord Jesus said immediately, Blessed are thou, Thou Simon Barbarone, and flesh and blood, get this, flesh and blood did not reveal this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
Salvation is a revelation of the living Christ at God's right hand. That's what salvation is. Revelation is not good work. Salvation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. If you take a child in going to school, maybe its first year, worse it, and it's being taught to listen to it. And the teacher has difficulty in trying to get through to their child what to and to do. And the little child gets fancy to see it.
And all of a sudden it dawns on the little mind, two or two or four. It's excited. I've got the answer. That was a revelation to that little child's mind that two and two are there. You hear it. That's what salvation is, it's a revelation. You come and all you want to be saved like that little child wants to know the answers of two and two. What does it mean? Finally it dawns upon that little mind. I see it. That salvation. A person wants to be saved, they long to be saved, not by your works of righteousness which you have done.
But as a lost sinner giving up hope in self, you say, Lord, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be. And then when you're at the end of yourself, and you're no longer trying to save yourself, it's gone then. It's revealed to you all the time when a person is saying, well, I do the best I can, and I'm as good as my neighbor, you're not good at this thing. But when you're at the end of the road, and you say, Lord, I've lost, I'm going straight to hell.
unless he takes. And when, as a guilty sinner, you cast yourself on the mercy of God, God will reveal it unto you. Blessed and God hath not revealed the Son to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. I can't reveal it unto you. I suggest showing the scripture. So here's how first this thing is a revelation from God. something you didn't see or know before, yet it's simple. You've got the answer. I like the little child. Why, if you're excited, I got the answer. The answer is Jesus Christ, a living, loving, tender, broad-right hand.
Jesus, my Lord, you take over from now on. What did the Lord say about the Holy Spirit? he shall glorify me. And when a person has accepted Jesus Christ and the Spirit comes in to dwell, says Christ, he shall glorify me in that person. And that's what Paul trying to get across to do here. You can glorify God. You can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ until the Spirit of God is in you.
And give you the authority that says, My Lord, that's what God is doing. He's glorifying himself and his son to the Holy Spirit in human hearts. Christians, he did not glorify God. That man's chief aim is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. So here you have this wonderful experience of the revelation of Jesus Christ you are. You know, in idol worship, it was known for its strong emphasis, I've already mentioned, on emotionism.
It was another mystery God for reasons, decency, and order. We'll get into that in chapter fourteen, for the last verse I think it is of chapter fourteen. God is not the author of confusion. No. And let everything be done decently and in order. I ask you this question in a lot of this traditional stuff. Is there order? No, there's a lot of disorder. God says that everything be done cheaply. And you know, I've heard this song get the jettlers when they've actually got one of the men that's taken folks off the wall and covered up the women in the eyes, full to be filled with the Spirit and talking in tongues.
That's not peace. When the Spirit of God is leading a person in his hungry group, it's done cheaply, it's done in all. That's what the Bible says very, very clearly. Now concerning these spiritual gifts he's talking about, in verse one, now concerning spiritual gifts. I want you to notice something. That word gift is in the italic, you know. It's a different type of print. It's not in the original language. But you'll find it in other verses in the chapter, other places where it is.
It's not in the appellate. For instance, you'll find in verse nine, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gift. Now, the word gift there, that's in the original language. That's not in the appellate. And also you'll have it over in verse twenty-eight. Gists of healing now, that's not in italics. Verse thirty-one, that's not in italics. That's in the original language. But in the first verse here, it is in italics, meaning it's not in the original language. And the word used here can be used either in the masculine gender or the neuter gender.
and the Lutheran Gentler, government rules of sex and report. It refers to themes. And so what the Apostle is trying to get across here, the right word is, instead of now concerning spiritual gift, for the word gift says in italics, now concerning spirituality, persons, envy. Now the masculine is found in one place here. You'll find it over in chapter three, or first unit is in verse one, but I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual.
Now we're talking to persons. There's an affluent one. Spiritual persons. You'll find that in Galatians six and one. What a blessing spiritual persons are. Be with God's spirit. How wonderful and what a blessing spiritual person are. But then in the second chapter previous to that in First Corinthians two-thirds, he's referring to things. He says here, comparing spiritual things, there's a new agenda, concerning spiritual things with spiritual. So this word can be used.
either in the masculine or the neutral. And the proper way to read this verse is now concerning spirituality. Spirituality. And I think that's a good way to look at it. Spirituality. And with this word from the statutes. Now here are some other things with that word. Spirituality. sick over in first Ephesians chapter one, and I'm going to read it to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
Now that's the new Lutheran. There's no man or woman involved there, male and female, but spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So we as Christians in our subject this morning is a cluster of spiritual blessings or spirituality. And herein Ephesians one says, he's talking about spiritual blessings. You know, when you think of Israel, Israel's blessings were earthly. Israel's blessings as a nation, God selected that nation, and...
Their blessings are earthly, but today in the church, our blessings are heavenly. He tells you that right in that verse. Ephesians one, three, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings or spirituality in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Our is our spiritual message. But in Israel's case, Israel had earth with us. And we read about our spiritual inheritance. Israel's inheritance is the land of Canaan.
That's all the Jewish nation is in today. They're not interested in the gospel. They're not interested in these spiritualities that we're enjoying in the New Testament because they don't believe in the New Testament. Israel's confirmed and desire today is the land of Palestine. That's it. That's their inheritance. It was their inheritance in the past, and it will be their inheritance in the future when they get back there in the millennia. But in the meantime, in this process, we have a spiritual inheritance. And I'm going to prove that to you, over in First Peter, one, four, and five.
talking to the church to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that paid us not away reserved in heaven for you. That wasn't just a written scripture. It was written to Christians today. A wonderful inheritance, an incorruptible inheritance. It's undefiled and it paid us not away. It's reserved in heaven for you, and the next verse says, Who are kept by the power of God whose faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time?
Our true inheritance is ahead. It's in store for us. It will be revealed in the last time. Another lovely text the Lord Jesus gives in Matthew six and twenty. lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moths nor ruts are corrupt, and where seas do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be all corrupt. And so the Christian treasure, the Christian's inheritance, is in heaven, not here on earth. Because you're in Colossians three, one, Set your affections on things above and not on things on your own.
Oh, now, you say, Brother Wilson, we've got to eat. We've got to drink. We've got to work. We've got to live here. We sure have. And I'm enjoying it. But I'm enjoying it because I know my inheritance is in the future. My best is yet to come. A lot of people, the reason they can't enjoy this life, because they're not ready for the next. They're afraid of death for death in the Lord. So the sinner has to do any enjoyment. After that, the judgment of he's not paid. But when you know your inheritance is in store, waiting for you, if certain, and you'll have it to enjoy for all eternity, you can enjoy things of this life.
I can lay my head on the pillow knowing if I died during the night. I'm going to be with the Lord. Then I'll start enjoying my inheritance. Interruptible, undefined. See, there's not a way. Something that's permanent. It's a train, Colonel. Be thorough. These are some of the pituitualities. Paul is bringing before us. And there's another one in that same verse of you to read down. in that chapter of Ephesians one, three. Verse seven, we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin.
And so we have a wonderful inheritance in Christ. And here is another one of those spiritualities, those spiritual blessings. We have redemption. We have it. Love was going to have it. We have it. We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Isn't that a blessing? To know all your sins forgiven. And that's what the Bible tells us. And the fact I'll never perish. Isn't that a wonderful word? I'll never perish. I'm going to die. I'm healed.
It tells you in Ephesians two. It tells you I'm healed. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God until the day of redemption, the redemption of our bodies when we are changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Can you tell me of anything better in the way of blessing? I am an eternal inheritance. I am redeemed. My sins are forgiven. I am sealed by the Holy Spirit. The traveling tag has been put on me. The destination is heaven. And no one can break that seal. And I never, never perish.
Now, if you can't go to sleep on that pillow, there's something wrong with you. This is the inheritance of the fittest. These are some of the spiritual blessings that the Lord has for the future. And then you have spiritual understanding in Colossians one, nine. And I'll just read it hurriedly. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding. Wouldn't that a blessing when you can open your Bible and you know what it means?
A spiritual understanding. In the twenty-fourth of Luke, the Lord Jesus, walking with those two in the amoeas, those, then open ye their minds, their hearts, yet understand them. And when you say, you get to know Christ, the Bible is written by the Holy Spirit of God. He's the author using men as instruments like pens to write. And the Holy Spirit is the author of this book. And when he comes into your heart, he'll explain it to you. How do you expect to understand it if you don't know the author? And so when the Spirit of God comes in, he gives you an understanding. Well, this is a spiritual book and you need your spiritual help to enable you to understand the scriptures.
Then you find there was a spiritual house over in Peter. He said in first Peter two five, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. And holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Here you have a spiritual heart. Referring to an assembly where broad people are gathered. Now in that very chapter also in the first chapter, Christ is referred to as the living stone. And then he talks about the Christians being as living stone.
Isn't that wonderful? The same thing that said about Christ, that said about those who are saved. Living soul. I know a preacher. This is a living soul. When he went to preach, I tell you, I don't think the yellow preacher served me. He didn't brag about I am a living soul. Not only in name, but in nature. In other words, a Christian has been a partaker of the divine nature. Christ is the living stone, the living stone, the definite art of it. And when I'm saved, I'm a living stone king. And the house he's referred to is a church, an assembly that composed of Paul living stone.
And what is their function? It tells you this. He offered up spiritual sacrifices. And you notice that. He offered up spiritual sacrifices. exceptible to God by Jesus Christ. My what spiritual alities and spiritual blessings we have. There's a spiritual transformation through Jesus Christ of being a sinner transformed into a living soul. You're just a chunk of mud without Christ but through the transformation of the Holy Spirit you can become a living soul.
You have the nature of Jesus Christ, and that's what the Bible teaches. And also you have a spiritual position in a spiritual church with a spiritual purpose offered up spiritual sacrifices. Not in the Old Testament for that sacrifice of animals. Now you offer up spiritual sacrifices, accessible to God in Christ Jesus. you can offer up the sacrifice of your body, as you have in chapter twelve in verse one of Romans. Present your body a living sacrifice, wholly unacceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And you have a spiritual privilege to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Isn't that a wonderful thing? In the Old Testament there was just one tribe and one family in that tribe. tries and family of Aaron. Levi and Aaron came out of that tribe and there you have the priesthood. And they were the only ones that could draw an eye to God in the Old Testament and go into the tabernacle. Today all who are saved are priests. We are the kingdom of priests. Every person today who is born again can go into the presence of God and offer up spiritual practices.
If you're not a Christian, you can't do that. And spiritual possibility, all the possibility, the spiritual possibility for revealing to the child of God, he is calling Jesus Lord. Then you come to the spiritual gift. And you have that, as I've already pointed out, where you don't have the italics, you have the word gift. in the original. In other words, God is giving individuals, certain individuals, gifts. And they're all listed in this chapter. There are nine. You need to take a some of them off tonight.
God saving a man, he has the physical equipment, and God gives them the gift to use that physical equipment for his glory and for the benefit of others. as in verses four, five, and six. The Trinity is behind this. Did we not read that in verse five and six, four, five, and six? The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God. We'll be taking that up tonight. The whole Trinity is behind this. Wonderful to think of what God has given us in this way. Then you have a spiritual body, and how wonderful this is over in.
First Corinthians, forty-four. He says here, it is stone, a natural body, it is raised, a spiritual body. There is a natural body. You have that this morning. And it is a spiritual body. A body like unto the Lord Jesus Christ, sinless, painless, painless, whatever. And every born-again Christian is going to have a body like unto his, a spiritual body. These are the crux of spiritual things, and all yours, free. Spiritual blessings, spiritualities, mind of wonderful antipathy, a body without sin, a sickness, a justice, a death.
These old bodies we got that grown from praying, from... and you're but running out of sea very few miles left oh but how wonderful to know that one of these days when the Lord comes where I close my eyes and get a body like you and I know that isn't that a blessing going back in conclusion to that wonderful text in Ephesians one seven in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sin, according to the visions of his will.
A young man had a rich uncle. He didn't want to say that he had scraped his uncle to die. They might get his portion. But nevertheless, his uncle did die. And when the will was read, he was... disappointed and disgusted. Well, this is what it said in the will. To my nephew I have left a copy of God's precious word which I trust he will use daily and find within its pages real precious. Well, he was sick. So disgusted and disappointed, and his care of his uncle's will.
He went home, and he found an old trunk up in the attic, and he threw the thing in there. Two years passed, and he was in deep trouble, and in a distress, and he thought of that fight, and he went and got it, and he opened it, and in the tree, in a lot of the pages, he found... thousands and thousands of dollars. He found the true riches. Oh, that he opened that Bible when he got. Friend, he not only found riches, whisper of riches in the book, he found riches far greater than material if he found Christ.
Isn't this wonderful? He turns you in that lovely book. who have redemption to his blood, even the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace." There was a case where Victor's missionary's name was related, and in terms of an incident, all of a lady missionary, and she used to visit a lot of homes or tents in nomadic nomadic Jews. And settlement had developed there, a tent encampment of these nomads.
And so Jesus finally was going to visit. She went into this tent and she found a mother, Lisa. And Lisa was, on the map on the floor, was her son dying with TV. She asked the mother, can I speak to your son? He lost. So this missionary got down beside the sun, he kneeled down, sitting right on the floor, paved, hollowed, deep, dry as her clothes, and she gave him the story of the Lord Jesus, emphasizing his suffering, his death, his resurrection.
And when she got through, there seemed to be a little interest. He opened his eyes. So she went back the next day, and the same thing. And once again she spoke the restructuring of sight. She spoke of the crucifixion, the soaring crown brow with spikes in his hand and his feet that slip on his beard, where they shattered his face. in the pocket of blood with his sword ahead, and she pictured the sufferings of Christ all for us.
She said before the end of that conversation, she saw her light shine. The boy smiled. That's all. It was a change. The next day she went back. Well, I've covered the sufferings of Christ. I'll talk about the boyhood of the Lord Jesus and his birth. And she hadn't gone far, and the boy said, Not that, not that. Tell me about the cross and the forgiveness of sin. So she got back to the cross and again, seeking his blood, the forgiveness of sin.
The next day she went back and she saw the mother weeping bitterly. The reason? The boy had died. But the woman, the mother, told the missionary, he said, when I knew he was going to die, I called the Muhammadun priest. And he came and he began reading the calling. Thereby. But he said, he hadn't gone far leaving the forum when my son says, God, not that, tell me about the blood and the cross and the forgiveness of sins.
And he died. Friend, what you need this morning is the cross, the precious blood of Christ. And that they did, they did. This is the Holy Spirit. Have you done it? Not it, but him. Do you have Christ? Here is a cross with a spiritual blessing. It is gone over. Oh, how wonderful they are. And they can all be yours. Not by turning over a new leaf or going to live several or joining the church, but as a foolish sinner. coming to the founts of every blessing, the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are spirituality that God wants you to enjoy this morning and to the rest of your life and then towards a happy eternity when the blessings will be so many. You won't be able to enumerate them, but you'll praise God for them. Will you receive Christ this morning? I trust you will, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can enter thy presence. We thank thee for thy precious words. We thank thee for what thou hast given us.
All that is telling us about thy son and what he did for us is the cross.