Expounds on the spiritual gifts given by the Trinity to the body of Christ, drawing from 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. It categorizes and lists various gifts, emphasizing their divine origin and purpose, and contrasts them with the fruit of the Spirit. The message highlights that while the Spirit gives abilities, Christ provides the channels, and the Father ensures the results, ultimately pointing to salvation by grace through faith as the most crucial aspect, not the exercise of specific gifts.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.49 → restored 4.05
a subject. And there are only twenty-six verses really dealing with the subject of Scripture just in three books. In Romans chapter twelve and in Ephesians chapter four and in First Corinthians chapter twelve. So that's not very difficult. And I'll read the one in Corinthians and then we'll go to the one in Romans and also to the one in Ephesians. So you'll have them all. The one in First Corinthians twelve. And verse four. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. And there are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord.
There were differences there in diversities of the same than the original. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worships all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. And then he goes on and enumerates things, some of the gifts and things, and the relatives of the body will be taken up next Lord Day, Lord Winnie. Now notice over in Romans chapter twelve. Romans chapter twelve. And verse three. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one body, and all members are not the same of us, so we be many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having been just differing, according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveeth let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleeth with diligence, He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
Now as you notice, as we read, there are seven gifts in that passage. Now notice over in Ephesians. Ephesians verse eleven. And he that is Christ gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers. So you have five gifts in that passage. Now going back to Corinthians, I didn't read the gifts, but I'm going to do it now as you read in verse eight. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit.
to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirit, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. Now there you have nine in that one passage. But then he goes over another list down in verse eight. Twenty-eight rather. Verse twenty-eight. And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondary prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracle, then gifts of healing, help governments, drivers, diversities of tongues.
And then you go down again, and he brings over the list again, changing it somewhat. Verse twenty-nine. Are all apostles at all prophets? out all teachers, are all workers of miracles, have all the gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do all interpret? So there you have about twenty-six gifts, or twenty gifts of invention in those verses. And it's very remarkable, and this is something that's worth the study in itself, that in Corinthians, The Corinthians is the only one that speaks of those gifts that are looked upon today as, more or less, signs or miraculous supernatural gifts, such as healing, tongues, and miracles.
We want to spend the whole message on miracles. The whole message on the tongues, maybe two or three, and also a message or two upon the healing cult. And so these are what they call the supernatural gifts. that so many people get caught up on. They want something that's exciting, and all this more or less has to do with the body, that which is emotional, sound, healing, miracles. And with a time, I hope, one of these meetings to point out how those different supernatural gifts more or less faded out about twenty-five or thirty years after Pentecost.
Now, we'll prove that next Sunday. Because whether there should be tongues, they shall see. And why is it you find so many miracles performed in the gospel? And then in the Acts, in the opening chapter, you find more miracles and from healing and tongues. But toward the end of that, you hardly find anything there about healing or tongues or miracles. And during the period of the Acts, that transitory period between Judaism and Christianity, there was a phasing out of the miraculous. Why? Because toward that time, they were getting the New Testament.
They were getting the Bible so they could read it. And they depended a lot upon these signs before they had the Bible as an evidence that this message, this movement was from God. But once they got the Bible and they had it to read, They lean less upon the emotional and lean more upon the spiritual, God's precious word. And after all, that's what we've got to get down to. And you'll find a lot of this supernatural stuff that's going on so-called. These sensational things, they have to do with the emotion. People getting excited, getting worked up. Now, God doesn't want us to go by emotion.
And if you can say something out of the Bible in black and white that will nail some of these things on the head, I don't care what kind of emotions they can do, they can take all kinds of somersaults they like, it's not going to impress me as long as I've got the Bible. God wants us to rest upon his word, his word only. Never mind about the emotion. If our salvation depended upon our emotions, we'd be lost more time than we're saved. Because a lot of people get up feeling bad if they're sick, their emotions are disturbed. But to the born-again Christian, those emotions go to effect in one way, his salvation.
They're born again by the Word of God which lives and abides forever. So our faith rests not upon our emotions, but upon the living Word of God. So it's rather than... remarkable to point out that all these gifts mentioned in Romans and in Ephesians, no mention made of tongues at all. Not at all. All they're found is in First Corinthians. And that, to me, is very significant. And there are twenty other epistles other than First Corinthians. There are twenty-one epistles in the New Testament. Three were written by John and two by Peter, one by Jude, and the other one by James.
And here is Paul. He's writing fourteen epistles, one first Corinthians. And here's where he brings in the tongue. And what a mess they will do. And there's no mention of tongues in all of Paul's other thirteen epistles. He takes up Christian behavior. He takes up Christian living. He takes up spirituality and godliness. and came to this kind and all other doctors. He makes no reference, whatever, to the supernatural gift, to the tongue. Why? Because there was such a mess being formed. They got a way off the track. And that's why he writes in this article, trying to straighten out this mess.
And we have more to say when we get into chapter four, she's taking up in detail just exactly what they were doing in that church and their behavior. and it certainly was displeasing and dishonoring on for the law. Now we pointed out the nine gifts in by the Spirit, that is, in verses eight through to verse ten. By the way, it's very interesting that they can be broken down into three little groups according to the Greek word, Peter the author. I'm not a Greek scholar, but you pick out a word now and again by the healthiest importance, or as Greek concordance, and you'll find out how that one word can change the meaning of the verse, dividing it up.
And so according to that Greek word used twice in this verse, it gets, it puts the first two miracles together. I'm just going to show it to you in verse eight of first Corinthians. It says, For the one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit. Then that word comes in. So you can link those two together, wisdom and knowledge, and they fit together. Now the next five, the second group, to another, faith, by the same Spirit, and healing, and miracles, and prophecy, and dishearning of Spirit. Those five go together.
Well, they fit together. In other words, create this person. These are faith movements. And then the last two go together, diverse kinds of tongues and interpretation of tongues. Well, those two sets together. People speaking in tongues and someone interpreting what that person says. So that's how this one word divides that first up into three little groups. The first two, then five, and then two. And you have the nine just in that first group. It's remarkable how the Word of God decides these things up. Now, is Paul writing to Corinth? And this is another thing that's very significant. I think it was AD fifty-nine when Paul, and some say fifty-seven, when Paul wrote the epistle to Corinth.
A year later, he wrote the books of Romans. And four years later, he wrote the books of Ephesians. And therefore, after First Corinthians, Paul has nothing more to say about this business of some. Now I can't for the night of me see how much emphasis is put upon the tongue business and to show you something else where it's admitted. The order in which they are given, the most important at the top, and they go down in degrees. I want to show you what I mean. In that same verse, verse eight.
He's spoken of the gifts of wisdom, the gifts of knowledge, and then the next gifts, to another the gifts of healing, by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, and another the interpretation of those tongues. Where are the tongues at the bottom, the least important? And you'll see something else that brings that out down in verse twenty-eight. And God has set some in the church first apostles, second prophets, thirdly teachers.
After that miracles, healing, help, governance, government, and what's the last one? No. Well, isn't that significant? The most important gifts are at the top. And that's to be accepted. And the least important at the bottom. The first two foundation gifts, apostles and prophets. What would you do without apostles and prophets? In fact, there are about five gifts, I think, that are way ahead of all the others. The apostles and prophets are there in the foundation. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Then evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
There are the five most important gifts. Because the evangelist gets the soul, the pastor's pastor them, and the teacher's teacher. Well, where would the tongue come in if you didn't have the soul? Say, if you didn't have the sister. The Spirit of God is not going to lose either a sinner to give tongue. Give him the gift of tongue to a sinner. No, it's the Christians that claim they get the gifts of tongues, you see. Well, you couldn't have any Christians if you didn't have the evangelist, the pastors, the teachers, the apostles, and the prophets. So those five gifts are the most important. You couldn't have a church of any kind if you didn't have those five gifts.
The others, and what about the healing? Well, the old body comes in there. I want to deal with something that's eternal. If they heal the body today, that body is going to die like I told a man the other day talking to me about the healing day. Well, I said, you fellows heal everyone but the last sickness. The undertakings of the living. Even the Lord, he raised Lazarus from the dead. But Lazarus died. He raised a little girl from the dead. He died later. Raised a young man from the dead. He died later. And so if you're dealing with the body, you're dealing with something of temperance. You may get them over a little hunk, you may live a little better a few more days, but the body's going to die.
You may perform miracles that they're good to look at while you're in the body, won't be any look at them. They're miracles like you see on earth after you're gone. And so God is in the spirit of the ring. That which is eternal. I'd far sooner point a soul to Christ. I know that soul is going to hobble on the way to heaven for the rest of his life with a sick, ill boss. He's going to get a new one when Jesus comes. And to go around trying to get people well, heal their bodies just for a few more days, a few more weeks, a few more months. That, to me, is waste of time. I think the main thing for a man to do is don't anything about God's salvation.
It's just the gospel out to many women. see many women saved. That primary, the body is secondary. Why keep a jewel box with no jewels in it? It's a jewel that makes the box with some value. What's the body without a saved soul in it? Just a piece of corrupt play. So the Bible makes it very plain where priorities belong. And so he take these lists and he goes down them. And the most important are at the top and the least important are at the bottom. And yet today there are people that are more sold on these things that God puts at the bottom than they are on the God puts at the top.
And it's very significant that as you see these things, how God-line things are. And if you go according to the scriptures, we won't go astray. I believe this, the Paul said, and you may take up this more, of course, the real Lord went in chapter four, he said, case that I speak with tongues more than they are. And by the way, that word is not plural. I speak with the tongue more than they are. This has been going over my mind. I haven't read it. I haven't heard anyone else say it. I'm going to call Brother McKay one of these days. I put a lot of confidence in his knowledge of the words. I thought it was this way. How could Paul speak in tongues more than they are?
Well, I believe There's a point here. Paul was a pioneer. He was constantly on the road preaching the gospel, free missionary journeys to the all around Asia. He was constantly meeting people in those days of another town. And I don't doubt many a time. God gave him the town that that that people took. It was their dialect. And God should have given Paul that gift, the gift and the gospel in their town. That's what happened on the day of Pentecost, seventeen different nationalities. And there were some of the apostles, and the Spirit of God led the apostles to speak those seventeen languages.
And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that was the Apostle Paul had in mind. He went to so many places, first with the gospel, first with the gospel. And he was able, God gave him the gift of speech, the tongue to give that people, the gospel. These things to me are very interesting, and I trust they are the keys. Now you'll notice is the gifts. The Spirit of God gives the nine gifts to Corinth. I want to point that out to you. Verse eight. Four to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.
You'll notice how many times the Spirit mentions it. The Spirit is given these gifts. But what about some of the other gifts? Look down in Ephesians, chapter eleven, it goes to that place. And he gave some apostles. Now who's given me? This morning you were speaking upon the great parentheses. Here the apostle Paul was speaking about how the Lord Jesus led captivity, captives and gave gifts unto men. And then he breaks into a parenthesis, two verses that are in bracket. If we pointed out this morning, and I'll read it now, Paul says wherefore, he says in verse eight of the season four, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
Now if you had skipped from there to verse eleven, you would know any difference in it, right in the same theme. And he gave some apostles, some prophets, and so on. But he thought, after verse eight, talking about the Lord Jesus ascending on high and giving gifts to men. And what does he bring in? He brings in, he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some people. Before the Lord Jesus Christ could give many women gifts, he had to go to the swamp.
He had to pay the price for man's salvation. And it struck me this morning after I went home thinking about this. We're dealing with the spirit world. And the whole human race affected by sin and Satan. the God of this age, lining the minds of them that may not let the life of the glorious prophecy shine unto them, and they should be saved. And so the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, so men and women should be saved. And after he did the work, he went back to heaven, he led captivity, captives, and he gave this unto men, for what purpose?
And it says here, Christ is Egypt, the Spirit gave these things, the first part of the lesson. In Ephesus, he doesn't write this. How is he going to reach these people in the realm of Satan? He's got to have messages to preach the gospel that will deliver those people in the realm and kingdom of darkness. The message is the gospel. He's got to have messages. He's got to have channels. He's got to have instruments. That's why he gave gifts unto men. Men gifted and qualified to spread the gospel the day might deliver sinners out to the kingdom of Satan, into the kingdom of God to yourself.
And so the Lord Jesus is the one who gives these gifts to any people. But then what about those gifts over in Romans? Notice in Romans that you're still there. Romans at the end of chapter or verse three of Romans five. God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now God's giving these things. And verse six, what are the gifts that God gives? Having then given different, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy that I'll prophesy according to the proportion of faith. on ministry, let us wait on our ministry, for he that teaches on teaching, for he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleeth with diligence, and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
So the Spirit gives us one set of gifts, nine, in first Corinthians eight and nine, and ten. The Lord Jesus gives those five in Ephesians. Evangelists, pastors, teachers, and so on. Now God is doing something in this. God is giving these gifts, and the grace and the faith to exercise them in Romans. Now we pointed it right out. God had dealt to every man. Don't you see the Trinity? Well, we pointed it out this morning. How wonderful the Trinity is. In fact, you have it right in your chapter. If you're at first Corinthians twelve, notice verse four.
Now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. Now, we're pointing that out in those Corinthians twelve, eight, nine, and ten. And there are diversities of administration but the same law, says the Lord Jesus. And there are diversities of operations but the same job, which works us all in all. There you have the permitting gift. The spirit is giving gifts. The Lord Jesus gives gifts, and God the Father gives gifts. All this to me is marvelous. They talk about men writing the Bible. How are you going to just come up with a brain that should work out things like God works in us?
How God deals with these matters. How wonderful to see the Trinity in operation relative to Jesus. The Lord gave the Spirit gives nine. And the Lord gives five and God gives seven. You know it's remarkable when you think, and I want to say this. There's a difference between spiritual gifts and spiritual graces. Now there's a verse a lot of people love and I love it too. And I'm going to read it to you. It's over in Galatians chapter five and twenty-two and twenty-three. You'll know it soon as I begin reading. But the fruit of the Spirit is love.
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, again such that there is no law. Now there are nine things, but there are not nine things. There are nine graces of the Spirit. If you have one, you have them all. Just like nine big graces hanging on one steady. And you know, gift is hardly necessary here. This person could be ill on his or her back without moving their hands, without moving their feet. Their body incapacity. Yet that sick person can bear all nine of these two.
Isn't that right? Have you not seen many a sick soul? I have. But the fruit of the Spirit is love. I've seen some very lovable souls. this. Joy, they have a joy. They have a peace. Long-suffering, I'll tell you they know how to suffer long. Gentleness, they're so gentle. Goodness, faith, meek. Temperance, self-suffering. Talking about this, that has to do with action. Executing something God-given you. But here are the graces of this church. A person in whom the spirit is so dwelling. that the greatness of the spirit are being manifested.
I think I mentioned one time before, going to visit a person in June for a horse, Carolina, I hadn't been long enough. And I was asked if I'd go by to see this person. They said, Brother Wilson, he won't meet anybody like him. The man in town, the undertaker, he goes by with his ambulance every Sunday afternoon and takes her for a ride. They have to carry her in. And he just looks as he must be can. She is what she can in her position. And she's a marvelous girl. So I did. I went into the field. Her body was just turning practically into a stone. The fingernails were all gone.
They had them taken us. She had been there twenty-five years. She couldn't move her head. She couldn't speak for only for her feet. and she could only see one spot on the wall about a square yard. No, that's not. I was so touched in visiting that woman that wasn't a case of me cheering her. She cheered me. I went and got a text for all things work together for good that them love God, to them who are called according to her purpose. I said to the sister, she waited on this movie. I said, will you get this text frame and have it put right there where she can see it all the time?
And that's what happened. I'm going to see that. But she was producing all these nine things. The fruit of the Spirit. To think the Spirit of God was expressing itself to a human body. Suffering. That's it. You didn't see any sound on her face. Smiles as much as she did. That's God being glory-sized in a human body. And as Paul says, he desired to glorify the Lord in light or in death. Now that's the fruit of the Holy Spirit through a gilded box.
But she shouldn't get up there and give her a try. She shouldn't go and engage in service. She wasn't able. She wasn't gifted. And God didn't give her a gift. She wasn't able to need it. But the Spirit was glorifying God through that suffering soul. So don't get these graces of the Spirit mixed with the gifts of the Spirit. So it's the gifts of the Spirit that we're dealing with now. Well, the gifts are ability, freely given. And as we pointed out this morning, the Spirit of God is not going to give a gift to a man who is not a Christian or a woman either.
The Spirit of God gives a gift only to a member of the body of Christ, one who is saved by the sovereign grace of God. I heard something the other day, I was talking to Brother McCartney, and he spoke about a young man. The brethren had been going to the jails up there, and one of their jail services, one of the prisoners, professed to get saved. Well, there was such a scene in there. But the serf gave permission for him to get out on Sundays and go to the service of the chapel. And he got up, but he gave a wonderful testimony. So much so that other churches in the town asked him to give the testimony of their church.
And he gave the testimony of a number of churches. And the day came when he got out. His time was up. So in such shortening, when he got out, he gave up the whole church. He wasn't even saved. That wasn't a spiritual gift, he had. That was just natural ability without the aid of the Holy Spirit at all. I think I did mention this one time in his drawing some near forty years ago when they used to carry out the death penalty.
Mr. the family of children of Mataua, California, was down in Raleigh, and he said to me one day, he said, would you like to see an electricity, an electricity? I said, yes. Well, he said, we'll go over to the penitentiary. He went over and saw Warden Honeycup. He took it into his office, and he then was the electricity that morning in a matter of about an hour. And I warned our son, Sister, I said, Warden, What do you think about these people that you read about in the literature right then to let's see some quite thinking on how they made professions that said they were ready to meet their nation and all this?
Well, he said, you men and ministers, and I don't want to discourage this. But he said, it's a very disappointing story. And he told us how many elected citizens he had written and it was quite a number. He said, I've had those men make a professional in the front minister. And he says, you never saw the decree. They were singing hymns. They asked for a Bible. They were reading the Bible all the time. They were testifying to the other prisoners, telling them they were ready to go, singing hymns, praying, and reading their Bible. Oh, yes. He says, right at the end, they were deferred from...
Yes? In the electric chair to life in prison, the conversation in the center of the church. Now, he says, these gentlemen won't like this. He says, those men were some of the most lost men he's got in the penitentiary and they must be electric chair. Showing how far a person can go with what is a natural qualification, it will have not the gift of the church. The Spirit of God will only give his gift to a born-again Christian. And as far as I can leave in the words, it depends on whether that man has been by the grace of God and by the laws of nature given the physical equipment that the Spirit of God can take hold of and give to the glory.
Now that's what we have here in these passages. The Spirit of God laying hold of a person that has just what God wants for that day and age and for that line of ministry and giving him a gift to you he certainly has for a certain time. And so the Spirit gives a gift. The Lord Jesus has something to do with that. And God the Father has something to do with it. This is the lesson we learn from the gift. might say in reference to these gifts and abilities, and then the next thing you have in verse five, you have administration, or it simply means action, service, or that which is done, accomplishment.
You see in verse eight, Matthew eight, nine says something about this, for I am a man under authority having soldiers unto me, and I say unto this man, go, and he goes, and to another come, and he cometh, and to my servant, do this and do that. In other words, it's action. carrying out orders. That's what was meant by the administration. And the operation in verse six, or the achievement, here are three things. And one has a spirit drop in, the other is the Lord, and the other is God the Father. Here's the premise relative to these things, the gift, and also the activities of that gift, the service rendered, and the achievement at all.
I think the Spirit more or less gives me an abling. In fact, he does. How can you dwell in for God that mortifies God or benefits men without the Spirit's enablement? Well, this is a spiritual gift. That's why it's not necessary if a man wants to get the mind of God and know what the Bible teaches. He doesn't have to go through a Bible school. Sometimes it's excellent. It enlarges your mind. It increases your vocabulary. But the more a person learns of the Bible, depending wholly and solely upon the Holy Spirit, I think the more solid his teaching will be, and possibly more people.
And so you have the ability given by the Holy Spirit. Think of our case over in Acts verse thirteen. I'm going to read it. Now they're aware in the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers of Barnabas, Simeon, that was called Niger and Lucius of Thorene and the name which had been brought up with Herod the Peteroth and Saul. As they ministered these five then to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the works were unto us called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them forth.
So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. He passed it under Seleucia, and from thence they sailed back. Here you have the enabling of the Holy Spirit of God. It's man, and he has those abilities that the Spirit of God takes hold of, and he's used. And also you have another one in connection with the channel, and this has to do with the Lord. The Spirit has to do... with the man's enabling, his ability, and then God takes care of the charnel. You'll notice that in Acts eighteen, nine and ten. Then speak the Lord to Paul in the night by vision. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy feet, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on me to hurt thee, for I have much deeper in this place.
Here is the Lord's protection of the charnel, that the service God is used. I think that's nice, isn't it? But then what about the result? God has to do with the result. In chapter three, the first Corinthians, first seven, he took this up. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that wasps us, but God who gives the entry. So the Spirit gives the gift, the ability, the own. Then you have the Lord Jesus on his part, In connection with this gift is the channel, so catching, looking after that channel, he told Paul when Paul would be persecuted.
And then God the Father has to do with the result, the interest. Regardless of the man's ability of gift, it's God who gives the interest. And that's what God is interested in, the interest. And I think accomplishment is one of the best evidences of a man's gift and his ability. Paul could say when he was challenged, he said, you are my official. You are my commendation. If you want an evidence whether I was called of God or gifted of God, look at yourself under the preaching of the gospel you were saved and the church was established.
That's the best commendation any man could ever ask for. Now I'm going to close. Number four, I do. I want you to notice those seven questions in verse twenty-nine and thirty. Seven negative questions, which is the fourth in the Greek word. I want you to note that we quote them. Verse twenty-nine. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Are all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? The answer is no, but these negative questions demand a negative answer. All God's people are not apostles, only a few.
All God's people are not prophets, only a few by comparison with all the children of God. Are all teachers? No. Are all workers of miracles? No. Have all the gifts of healing? No. Do all speak in tongues? No. Do all in purpose? No. Any sane person has to admit that all God's people don't have all these gifts. Many claim to be apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, healers, speakers in tongues, interpreters of tongues, but are fake. There are a whole lot of them that way. In the age of the church, there have been a few who are genuine. Now notice verse thirteen of chapter twelve, and I want you to get this.
There are two alls in this verse, but by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. What does this mean? God's people since Pentecost have been baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, all of them. Every born-again person has been put into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit at conversion, and will be in heaven whether they were apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, talkers in tongues or interpreters of tongues or not.
Now you read that verse. Verse thirteen of chapter twelve, all God's people have been baptized into the body of Christ. None of those gifts, the medicine will save you. Christ and Christ alone will save you. Not what you are or what you do will save you. That's what the Word of God tells you over in Ephesians. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that none of yourselves, it is the gifts of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Many boast today about being able to exercise these gifts, but it is a vain boast and empty boast. I like that good old hymn that we so often sing.
Not have I gotten but what I received. Grace hath bestowed it, since I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abate. I'm only a sinner. Save by grace. Once I was foolish and sin ruled my heart, causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus has found me happy in my case. I now am a sinner. Save by grace. Tears unadailing, no merit had I, mercy had saved me, or else I must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's face, but now I'm a sinner, saved by grace.
Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows, loving his Savior, to tell what he knows. Once more to tell it, would I embrace? I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. I wonder if you are.