Spiritual gifts, we're going to look primarily at four passages tonight, two of them in First Corinthians twelve, the third in Romans twelve, and the fourth in Ephesians four. We could have looked at First Peter four, but Peter only gives a passing reference and mentions two: speaking as the oracles and serving as God gives help. So we'll look at the four. first of all, in First Corinthians chapter twelve, verse four, please. Speaking of the activity of the Godhead, in relation to the assembly, he says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of administration, but the same Lord. Will you take note, please, that the word differences in verse five is the same word, really, as diversities in four and six. Verse six, and there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Now, verses seven to eleven, the gifts of the Spirit. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. 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 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, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. Now that's the first section that we're looking at tonight. We'll just commence there. Now, when we speak of spiritual gifts, you mustn't jump to the conclusion that all spiritual gifts are public gifts, and that they all necessarily need communication. We'll find tonight that spiritual gifts cover a wide area, and we shall also notice on the way through that there are permanent gifts and temporary gifts. Some gifts were given for the time that was then present and past. In, uh, First Corinthians twelve, in this first one, there are nine gifts. There are only seven in Romans, and when you come to Ephesians four, there's only four uh or five if you wish. But you'll notice that the list is coming down all the time. Now, let me say too, and add to what I said about gifts being public, spiritual gifts. Now, as you look around you today in the religious world, the officiating clergyman is a common figure, but he's unknown in the New Testament. Categorically, we do not believe in clerisy. We do not believe in ordained clergymen nor paid pastors. We do not believe that it's the mind of God that a man should contract himself for so much money, for so much spiritual service. That is foreign to the Word of God. The Word of God talks about that as being filthy looker. It's a terrible thing for any person, no matter how godly, to contract to do so much spiritual work or so much service. It's a horrible thing to reduce this to a common thing. When such men are expected to give freely their time and their energy. How servants are supported is not this, this idea that you see in clerisy. A man will give himself freely, give him freely of his time. It's a sacred function and work for God, and every true servant looks to the God that called him to sustain him. Now, I should say this too. As we go through tonight, we shall see that all these gifts are given by God. You can't attain to it. You can't be educated for it unless by God. You're, none of these men are ordained or appointed. They are not consecrated or elevated in any way. They receive nothing at all for what they do. Are you clear in all this? So that, when we come to this, we'll see that the person is chosen by God and molded by God. And no, no, no school, no college, no university, no Bible ceremony or Bible schools or Bible colleges can educate you for this. Only God can produce and give to you the spirituality needed and the gift to function just where you are. Now, we shall be dealing with First Corinthians twelve here from verses four to eleven and later on from verse twenty eight to the end. By Thursday night, if the Lord will, we shall be dealing with the passage in between about the body of Christ. So in these two meetings, you should have quite a clear exposition of First Corinthians twelve. Now, you will note in verses one to three that the subject is the lordship of Christ. It's quite an interesting passage. He says in verse one, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant, and you'll notice the word gifts is in italics. Now, in ordinary writings, when the, the writer puts the thing in italics, he wants to draw attention to what he's saying. But when you come to your version, you'll find that the words in italics means that there's no word there. So here the translators have put in the word gifts that's not in the original. Now, why should they put in the word, and why should they put it in the plural? Now, the reason for that is this, that the word spiritual is in the plural. But you couldn't say now concerning spirituals. So you would read it now concerning spiritual gifts, now concerning spiritual manifestations. I would not want you to be ignorant, he says. Now look at verse two. Now he says, you were once Gentiles, idolaters, carried away by these dumb idols. Verse three, wherefore I give you to understand. Now these people were having a problem. Their problem was this, having been under the control of evil spirits and idolatry, they had a problem as to whether the Holy Spirit would be speaking to them, or was it something that they had experienced before? Now here's the test. The test of all ministry. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God saith, curse on Jesus. Again, no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. Now, these are watchwords. You see, you would get a meeting in the old days, and suddenly maybe a Jew or an opponent of Christ would rise in the meeting, and he would say, anathema Jesus, curse on Jesus. Well, Paul says, obviously that man's not speaking by the Spirit of God. But maybe somebody in response to that would rise to their feet and say, Jesus is Lord. Now, what Paul basically is saying is this. You'll know true ministry when the Holy Spirit is speaking, when he magnifies Christ. True ministry will give Christ his place as Lord. It will never detract from Christ in any way at all. That's a, that's a good test. For there are not lots around today, and they're not too clear about the person of Christ, and they're saying all sorts of derogatory things. These things don't come from the Spirit of God. Now, come now to verses four, please, will you? Verses four to six. Now he's talking about the activity of the Godhead in the gathering. Now listen to this. Now he says, verse four, there are different forms of gifts, but the same spirit controls them. Verse five, there are different forms of service, but the same Lord controls them. Verse six, there are different forms of workings or energies, but the same God worketh in them all. That is, here you have the Godhead controlling everything. Whatever the gift may be that operates, whatever service you take up, whatever energy is expressed in it, the Father, Son, and Spirit are controlling it all. Now, this will lift your ideas, but it's a great thing to be in an assembly. Great thing to watch the operation and to recognize that this is not human control nor man-made. That it's an evidence that the Godhead dwells amongst us by the different gifts operating, by the different forms of service being carried out, and by the, the, the energy that is accomplishing it all. It's a sense of the presence of the Godhead. That's good. Now, come now, please, to verses seven to eleven. He's going to indicate certain gifts. Most of these gifts of God. You see, there were lots of gifts given, and they had in view the time that was then present, and once the scriptures were completed, they were no longer needed. Now that will keep recurring as I speak to you throughout the evening, and I'll, if I have time tonight, I'll explain it from First Corinthians thirteen. But at the moment, look now at verse seven. Now he says, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone to profit all. That means this. Whatever way the Spirit manifests himself through you in the assembly is to profit everybody. Now that's clear. If the Spirit speaks or does anything, it's because it's for the profit of all. Now, all this idea shows you this, there's no such thing as any person moving on their own. Time and again in your Bible, it is indicated to you that spiritual growth and maturity depends on fellowship with each other. Neither you nor I have sufficient in ourselves to go on. We need the balance of gift and the balance of fellowship in other Christians in order to become mature Christians in every way. So don't deprive yourself of the fellowship of saints, please. Because this whole i- even in the body idea in First Corinthians twelve, just as your body needs all the members, so an assembly needs all the members in that way. So the whole idea, the test is this, will it profit you? If you leave from, if you leave these meetings without being educated and helped and profited, then it's not been of the Spirit of God. That's the challenge of the thing. Now, notice now, please, he begins. That's one. To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. Now, let me give you a basic idea here. When you come to New Testament assemblies and read about them in your New Testament, remember this, they had no New Testament. They had no New Testament to guide them, so that God had to give gifts in order to meet the need that as it arose. We'll see later, it was particularly, eh, vested in the man who was called the prophet. When a situation arose, they couldn't turn to the New Testament and say, this is how we'll deal with it. So God raised up the gift of a prophet, that he would speak by direct revelation from God, and he would give the mind of God for the time that was then present. These men don't exist today. When I come to you, I don't come as a prophet. I merely come to you as one who would explain to you the word of God. Now, but notice here, there's a word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. A situation would arise, and they would say, what would we do? And a brother would rise with the word of knowledge. Now, this is not knowledge learned at school. This is not knowledge that has taken years to, to accumulate. This is a man speaking directly from God, and he says, this is what you'll do. And another man would arise with a word of wisdom, and he would say, now listen, our brother has given us knowledge for the situation. God has given me a word of wisdom to know how to apply the knowledge. See the idea? So the situation was covered by both these gifts. Come now, please, will you, to verse nine. To another, faith by the same spirit. Now notice, please, this is a gift. Now this is not the gift of faith in salvation. And this is not the gift of faith that you exercise every day. This was given for a particular situation. And if you drop your eye now, please, you'll notice at the close of verse nine and the opening of verse ten, he's talking about gifts of healing and working of miracles. So the faith here seems to be connected to performing miracles and healing. Now, of course, that would tie up with what the Lord taught the disciples. Do you remember when they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and here's a boy possessed with a demon? And the father comes to the Lord and he says, Lord, can you not help me? Can you not do something for my boy? I asked your disciples and they couldn't do anything. So the Lord steps in, and he casts out the demon from the boy, and the boy becomes normal. So the disciples come to the Lord and they say, Lord, why couldn't we do it? Very simply, he says, because of unbelief, you hadn't faith for it. So these gifts were an evidence of faith. It's linked here with miracles and healings. Now stop for a minute. It may be that you might be prepared to accept that the likes of George Müller had a particular special faith. When in, when in godless Bristol, he decided a long time ago to open his orphan- orphanages, but he had no money. Why, that sounds strange to us, doesn't it? We don't need money to trust God. But he'll trust God for the money. And for year after year, he fed his orphans. And it became a standing witness to the power of God in Bristol and still in Britain. Faith, gift of faith. Now look again. He says, gifts of healing by the same spirit. Now, so in those early days, you had a brother who had the gift of healing. And, just as the disciples and others did, they were called in, and they exercised their gift. This is interesting. And yet, as you read through your New Testament and go on, you find instances where it's not exercised. For instance, Paul had a thorn in the flesh, I take it to be physical. No man with the gift of healing ever healed it. Timothy had a weak stomach most of his life, and that never was healed. Interesting. Do you remember too, Epaphroditus with Paul in Rome was sick nigh unto death? Do you remember second Timothy four, Trophimus have I left at my leedom sick? And James five, in a different connection. When the man took ill because of sin, are you listening to me? And laid on his back, and he recognized that he had sinned, he called for the elders of the church, a body of men who were not given the gift of healing. And he confessed his sin, and he was healed. That's a, that's not a, a general situation, that's a particular situation, but it's not in my province tonight to talk about it. So, you see, in the days of the Lord and in the book of the Acts and for a long time later, this gift of healing operated. Now look now at verse ten. but he says another the working of miracles. Now you see he's this, he's now discriminating between healings and miracles. All healings are miracles, but all miracles are not healing. Isn't that right? When the Lord turned the, turned the water into wine, it wasn't a miric- it wasn't a healing. When he stilled the storm, when he fed the five thousand, these were miracles, but nothing at all to do with healing. Get the idea? Now, just a minute. While, while it's not the normal thing today to have healings and miracles, that doesn't mean that God doesn't heal or that he doesn't perform miracles. God can do that. He wouldn't be God if he couldn't. And you can't box him in, for he'll break out. And whenever anyone ever comes to you, and there have been those who have had what was considered to be terminal diseases, and when they went back on another time to get X-rayed, there was no sign of it. Now, don't you, don't you be skeptical. God can heal. God can do miracles. We need to put our faith in God in a very real way in these things. Read on now, will you? To another discerning of spirits, that we were talking about that in verse three. There was a gift given to discern whether a person speaking was speaking by the Spirit of God or not. To another, diverse kinds of tongues, that was speaking languages, and to another, the interpretation of tongues, that was a gift too. So that the man that interpreted wasn't a linguist. If he could do it naturally, it wasn't a gift. Now I- I'll deal, excuse me, I'll deal later on, just a moment or two, at the end of the chapter with the gift of tongues. Just give me time. So, now look at verse eleven. Now he says, all these gifts worketh that one and the selfsame spirit. In First Corinthians here, the Spirit gives and operates the gifts. In, eh, Romans chapter twelve, it's God that's behind the gifts. In Ephesians four, it's the risen Lord that's behind the gifts. So you can see the whole operation of the Godhead in relation to gifts. This is wonderful. Outside human spheres altogether. This realm where God operates. Now, verse eleven: all these work as that one in the selfsame spirit, dividing to each one severally as he will. Stop. Stop. Verse eleven gives three activities of the Spirit of God. The will of the Spirit at the end, the administration of the Spirit dividing severally, the working or energy of the Spirit at the beginning of the verse. So all these gifts were an evidence of the will of the Spirit, as it, as in his will he administered the gifts out to each person, and then gave the energy for the whole thing to operate. Oh, don't you think, don't you think then, that there's an increasing need to become sensitive to the indwelling Spirit as the power to control things. Now, enough. That's that section. Now turn now to cha- to verse twenty eight, will you? Now, I said there were four sections, so there is, but this section gives you two lists of gifts. Isn't that right? Verse twenty eight gives a list, and then he starts to ask questions, and he gives another list, and they're not exactly the same. You'll find that now. All these lists of gifts are not complete. And by the time that you put them all down and put, bring them all together, there possibly was somewhere around at least, at least twenty different gifts operating. Now, come now, please, verse twenty eight: God hath set some. See that? In the assembly. First, apostles. Now, notice now, please, now you'll get the same thing in Ephesians four. Here and in Ephesians four, the person is the gift. It's not the, it's not the gift that was given to him, that's in him, but the man becomes the gift in himself. And you'll find that in Ephesians four. In fact, an amazing thing about these lists of gifts that they they'll duplicate certain gifts, yet there's one gift that's only mentioned once, and I would reckon it's one of the most important gifts. But the fact that it's only mentioned once, the law of single mention, doesn't just mean that it's unimportant. Oh no, it stands out. That's the gift of evangelism. In the list of gifts, it's only mentioned in Ephesians four. It'll be mentioned in Philippians in, but of Philip in Acts eight, uh of Timothy in second Timothy four. There it is. Now, so now you've got here first apostles, secondly prophets. Now, let me deal with these. The apostles and prophets were there at the very foundation, at the very beginning. You remember in Ephesians chapter two, as Paul teaches them certain things, he says this. Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. What does that mean? Well, it means that the church began and was built up through the ministry of the apostles and prophets. When you get the expression apostles and prophets in that order, the prophets are New Testament prophets. So here were the apostles and prophets right away. So if they're at the foundation, they're not in the twentieth story. Now, it's necessary that you notice this carefully. There are no apostles and prophets today. You see, the charismatic movement contend that there is. They say that they've got their own apostles and prophets speaking today. Now, in dealing with that, when I wrote First Corinthians, I drew attention because I had to read a lot of charismatic literature to try to understand what it was all about. And one of them writing talks like this. He talks about the Old Testament prophets coming forward and saying, thus saith the Lord. Talks about the Lord saying, but I say unto you. And he says, for a long time we thought that this, that that had all passed and gone, but he said it's different now. Since we can go to along to our gatherings and Tom or Mary will get to their feet. Oh yes, this is what he says. Tom and Mary will get to their feet, and they will give us a thus saith the Lord, and they'll use the personal pronoun, I say unto you. In other words, they're adding to the word of God. They're putting themselves on the same status as Paul and Jeremiah, Isaiah, Peter, James, and John. If apostles and prophets are still with us, the Bible's still being written. But the Bible's not being written. That, that, that rules out the Mormons with their added revelation of, of Joe Smith that s- that saw a vision of angels and found certain documents. It's adding to the word of God. So, there are no apostles, and now a prophet, as I told you, was a man who stood up and spoke directly from God. We don't do that. I know the brethren will talk about a prophetic word, you know, meaning that the word, the word met the need at the time. Well, I can agree with that, as long as they're all quite clear that it's no fresh revelation from God. So no apostles, no prophets, teachers. Now you'll find this recurring, apostles, prophets, and teachers in Ephesians four. So if I say what I've got to say it to you now, I won't have a great deal to say when I come to Ephesians four because I'm expounding these things. So you've got it now. Only twelve official apostles, the twelve and Paul. These were the men that laid the foundation of everything. Prophets, giving the mind of God to meet the time when there was no New Testament. Teachers, that is, those who would instruct. In fact, second Peter two verse one says that teachers would succeed prophets. So today we've got teachers who will bring us to the word of God and will instruct us about it. Now that's a great thing. To have men who can take up the word of God and explain it to you. And as you listen to them, you are being educated from the scriptures. Now remember, the man's only the medium. It's no glory to him. What he's expressing to you is what God gave him. It's a sacred business. And it's a business that a man's happy in. Paul says, woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. That's true of every gift. A man's only happy when he's exercising it. That's right. I'm as happy tonight as ever I was. In teaching the word of God. It, it becomes part of you. And we'll come, when we come to Ephesians, that's the idea as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor, teacher. The person is the gift because God's using him. Now, let's, let's come on now quickly now, please, shall we? He goes down now, teachers. After that, miracles and gifts of healing. We've looked at that. Now, here's one, helps. Imagine that appearing in the list of apostles and prophets, helps. Here's something that we can all do, surely. But there are some people who are particularly, aren't they? It's a gift here. People who will come alongside to help. They make it their business in life. They're not particularly bothered about preaching because they realize that's not their gift, or teaching, but they'll come along to help. They'll go out of their way to come alongside you, and what they've got, you'll get. That's a great thing. Great thing to be able to go into homes to help people. This will come up later on too. But you see, there are people that cross your path, aren't there? And you feel that they're interested in you. And you feel that they want to help you. They're helps. They'll do that sort of thing. They feel it. They feel it's there. And eh, well, I've known them. I've known them in Kilmarnock. I've known them that if you weren't too handy and you were decorating the room, they'd come along and decorate it for you. Now, I'm not asking you to come up to Reading Avenue, please, you know. And eh, that's right. Or if you wanted the garden done. You know, if it's electrical or something, isn't that right? You see... But what's the idea behind this is here, that a man feels an urge to do it. That's the thing. He feels it's his business in life. I've heard them saying to me, Jack, we can't do what you do, but this is what we think that God is, God has gifted us to do, and that's a good. Reminds us it's important. Every gift's important. Because it's public doesn't mean to say it's more important. They're all important in their own sphere. Now read on. Governments. Now we'll be dealing with this tomorrow night. The word here, the word here is the word for steering a ship. That's what elders are for. They're there to steer the assembly ship, to endeavor to save it from rocks and quicksands, guide it in the storm, for it is to be guided in the storm as well as in the calm, or in the calm as well as in the storm. So we'll be dealing with that tomorrow night. Diversity, differences of tongues. Now notice twenty nine and thirty. Now He begins to ask questions. The answer's no in them all. He doesn't cover all the gifts he's mentioned. He says, are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Are all workers of miracles? No. Have all the gift of healing? No. Do all speak with tongues? Do all int- no. Do all interpret? No. Then pray that the best gifts might be amongst us. Now, let me talk to you for a moment now, please, about tongues. If you were meeting some of the Pentecostal and Charismatic friends, and you listen to them, with great enthusiasm, they would talk to you about the gift of tongues, and they would, eh, they would, eh, tell you that this gives a great sensation, it lifts them in every way, and eh, they go on talking that much about it that you would begi- you begin to think, well now, this must be all over the New Testament. It's funny our brethren are never talking about it, and it's funny nobody here was in for it. I don't know whether you've met them or not. And eh... Well now, let me put it before you. There was room for it in that day. I'll show in a moment or two the g- the tongues have ceased. But in that day, there were miraculous things going on, like miracles and healings and a man speaking the language he never knew and didn't understand. But, to show you, to show you that they thought it was the greatest, but it was one of the least of gifts. In fact, in all the lists, the tongues are at the foot of the list, but they, the Corinthians put them at the top, and so did the, so do the charismatics, put it at the top. In fact, in First Corinthians fourteen, Paul takes a whole chapter nearly to show you that prophesying ministry in that day was far beyond tongues in any way at all. But tell me, how common is it in your New Testament? How often does it occur? Is it, is it a common thing that you're running against all the time, like baptism? Well, now, I'll start now, and I'll go through the New Testament with you. It is only mentioned once in the four gospels, in Mark sixteen. In the Acts of the Apostles, which gives around thirty years history of the assembly, the church, it's only mentioned three times. Acts 2, Acts 10, and Acts 19. Now we come to the epistles. That is the epistles, we- we've come through the Gospels to the Acts, now the epistles from Romans to Jude. twenty one epistles. Is that right? It's only mentioned in one epistle out of twenty one, First Corinthians. And in First Corinthians, it's only mentioned in three chapters out of sixteen in the book. Interesting, isn't it? Now, well, now twenty one chapters only in one, what, in twenty one epistles, only one epistle mentions that that's right. Only three chapters out of a many chapters, Twenty one epistles. Well, I'll go through them. You can try and count if you like. From Romans to Jude, sixteen chapters in Romans, sixteen chapters in First Corinthians, thirteen chapters in Second Corinthians, six in Galatians, six in Ephesians, four in Philippians, four in Colossians, five in first Thessalonians, three in second Thessalonians, six in one Timothy, four in second Timothy, three in Titus, one in Philemon, thirteen in Hebrews, five in James, five in first Peter, three in second Peter, uh five in first John, one in second John, one in third John, and one in Jude. One hundred did you count them? One hundred and twenty one chapters, and mention is only made in three. Well, what about the book of the Revelation? Well, now, the risen Lord addresses seven assemblies in Revelation chapters two and three, and John is writing at nearly, what shall I say, reading anything from forty, fifty years after Paul. He's writing away, possibly away about AD ninety. Now, I reckon Paul went home in maybe about AD sixty seven. But he's writing there now, maybe coming up thirty years later. The risen Lord's writing to John, and he's giving him messages for seven assemblies, and in not one of these seven assemblies is the t- the gift of tongues mentioned. That's at the end of the first. So the thing had gone out, never mind what history says. The Bible gives it no countenance. And the longer you go on in your New Testament, it fades out completely. First Corinthians fourteen is the last mention. Enough, enough. Turn, please, just over to First Corinthians thirteen for a moment, will you? You all know that, of course, it's the great exposition on love, isn't it? Verse four onward, love suffereth long and is kind, it envieth not, wanteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. Now we're coming to the passage. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Now, in these latter verses, he's talking about divine revelation, the revelation of divine truth. Now, when it comes to love, he says love never fails. Now, please, let me point out here now in relation to certain words, because it's necessary that you understand this. In verse eight, your version gives two words rendered faileth. Charity or love never faileth, but where there be prophecies, they shall fail. Now, these are two different words, but they've rendered it the same. Let me say again now too, that the word prophecies, they shall fail, and the close of the verse, knowledge, it shall vanish away. Failing and vanishing away are the same word. Now, let me go through it now. Love never faileth. But listen, he says, where there are prophecies, they shall be done away. Where there are tongues, they shall cease. Where there's there is knowledge, it shall be done away. So he's talking now about three gifts, Two of them are done away, and one of them, tongues cease. When you come to verse nine, he reduces it to two gifts, not three. 3 in verse 8, 2 in verse 9. What are the two? The two that were mentioned in verse eight. We know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, the in part is done away. Now, let me come again. I say, love never faileth. Where there be prophecies, they shall be done away. Where there is knowledge, it's done away. And in between a blanket statement, tongues shall cease. No more said. As far as Paul's concerned, they're they're ceasing, and that's that. But he says, he says of prophecies, they shall be done away. Knowledge shall be done away. God will do that by an action of his own. Now watch. He now takes up knowledge and prophecy. Now he says, now I've told, now remember this knowledge is intuitive knowledge given by God. It's not what you learn. Otherwise it wouldn't be done away with. So he says, listen, that knowledge that is given intuitively to you by the, the prophet, that's going to be done away with. Prophecy done away, knowledge done away, for our knowledge is in path only. Isn't that right? And we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. Now, please, this is logical. Now listen carefully. The perfect must be operating in the same sphere as the in part. If these two gifts are, are operating at the moment, but they're not permanent, whenever the perfect or the permanent thing comes, the in part thing is done away. Now, the prophecy, the prophesying, and the knowledge divinely given wasn't permanent. It was truth given for the time then present. Isn't that right? So when that which is perfect operating in the same sphere, divine revelation, when that which is perfect has come as the scriptures. When the scriptures were completed, prophecy and intuitive knowledge given for the time then present was done away. Now, Now. I'm explaining things to you contextual, and the important thing is to see that the perfect is the culmination of the in part and the ending of it. These things are done away when the completed scriptures are there before us now. You've nobody that rises and speaks by direct revelation from God. You've no one that get rises up and gives a word of knowledge right from God. Not at all. Anyone that rises uses their Bible. Why? Because the perfect scriptures are here. You see, the problem with our charismatic friends is that they say that which is perfect is heaven. Then the in- then again, dear old. You don't- they say tongues and everything will cease it- will cease when the Lord comes. They don't need to tell us that, we know that. Nothing miraculous about that, when we all get to heaven. What he's talking about here is that the perfect is present when that which is completed is come. So we have the completed scripture here. Remember, the subject of the closing half of First Corinthians thirteen is divine revelation. It's not the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord is never mentioned. Now, having said that now, we must move on, please, to Romans chapter twelve. I'm giving you in the order. Historically, Romans came, the, the epistle came behind First and First Corinthians. Romans chapter twelve. Now, I spent quite a long time in that. God knows just how prophetic the ministry might be. There's no saying what you'll meet just where you are. All sorts of things are coming in. We saw that on Monday night, women allowed in un- in uncovered, women allowed to take part, and we saw that it was all contrary to the word of God. And we showed the the position and status of women. And, uh, they'll always too, in certain places, this going back, the charismatic thing is penetrated. You know, in my young days, these older brethren will tell you the same. In my young days, if somebody in the assemblies began to accept Pentecostal teaching, as it was then, at least about them, they were honest folks. They left the meeting and went to a Pentecostal meeting. But not now. Pentecostal folks and charismatic folks come in and they want to penetrate what's there. So you get the charismatic movement in the Roman Catholic Church. That might surprise you, and that's true. Now, if that thing was of God, it would purify people and separate them from idolatry and all the images and the worship of Mary. Oh no. They'll tell you they enjoy the confessional better than ever, and they enjoy the mass better than ever. So it's, the whole thing's not a pure movement. It's penetrated Baptist. It's penetrated... Church of Scotland, etc. It's penetrated them all. And they start there, and what they want to do is to change the character of the thing that's there. And it's been known to penetrate assemblies. Oh yes. Well, you beware of all this body movement, all this clapping, this joining of hands. Well, it's all part of the system. The spirit feeling, working its way through each of us. Now, let me come now to Romans twelve, please. And, uh, he says in verse six, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. See that now? Gift differing according to the graces given to gifts. You get the same idea in Ephesians four, Grace given to gift. Now, this is interesting. You see, maybe I should point out that there's a difference between gift and ability. Now, these things are confused in think people's thinking today. They tell you that gift is ability, and ability is gift. That's not true. Not a bit of truth in it. Gift is not ability, and ability is not gift. In the parable of the talents, it says he gave to every man according to his several abilities. Gift is given to ability. Gift is superimposed. Gift has nothing at all to do with you naturally. That's right. And yet you take that... excuse the personal reference, please, and hope you don't take the wrong thing out of it. Way back in my very earliest days, I remember an older brother took me along. The idea in those early days, the older brother took you along to give your testimony at night. After I'd been out of free time, he said, what about giving a word in the afternoon? The ministry meeting for about quarter of an hour, twenty minutes, Jack, you see? And I said, all right. And eh, when the meeting was over, we're walking down the road, and we were, as we walked down, we overtook a company, maybe five or six of the believers walking down the road, and they said, we're just discussing you. They said to me, oh, I said, that's right. We're discussing what your employment is, and they came to the conclusion after listening, listening to you today that you're a teacher. Well, I said, oh well now, you've come to the wrong conclusion altogether. I'm not a teacher at all. I didn't think much of it. You see, you begin to look back. You begin to realize, you begin to realize that gift is given by God. I left school when I was fourteen. If I be anything tonight, Brown, it's what God is being. If I have any gift to teach, it's what's God's given me. But I never attended any colleges or universities or night schools. Those early days, things were poor. You could go out and get work as soon as you could. That, by the way, if you want to forget it. Come now, please, will you? Grace is given to that, to ability, so that when God chooses a person, now whoever you may be, now listen to me, whoever you may be, when God's going to give you a gift, he takes account of you, of your personality, of your capacity, of your mental capabilities. Some, some of our mental capabilities lay latent for a long time, isn't that right? Maybe you learned more after you left school than you did before, while you were there. But God would give you that. God would give. He would take, he would take you up as you are, and that bit, and when he gives the gift, the Spirit of God consecrates the ability, and the gift will flow through, and God will use the man. God will use the man. So here it is. So again, he's coming over things. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, that is, give the message that God gives you and don't try to add to it or anything like that. Or serving, let us serve. Teaching, let us teach. If you are an exhorter, now these are all necessary, please don't despise them. Your brother will come along and he'll read scriptures, he'll connect a few scriptures together, he'll exhort you, he'll inspire you, he'll encourage you. That's a great thing. Look again, he that giveth with, with simplicity. Now, the word, the word could mean simplicity, it could mean liberality. It's one of these words that carries a, a dual meaning. So, he's talking about the ability to give. And you give, you give, if you've got it to give, you give liberally. You give with a, a simple kindness. Because God's laid it on your heart to give. You see, we live to ourselves, don't we? The Bible says a man works for two reasons, to provide for his own and to have to give to him that needeth. Acts twenty records a saying of Christ that's not recorded in the Gospels, it's more blessed to give than to receive. Paul says, look, I worked with my own hands to sustain himself and the others. Giving. He that ruleth with diligence tomorrow night, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Anna. Here's someone that has a, has a touch of mercy about him. You know, it's something like the Good Samaritan. Uh, you can understand this now more than ever. I used to wonder why the priest went by on the other side in the Levi. I can understand now. Nobody wants to get involved. You would hear about the man, the two men down in in Cardiff, and the crowd of youngsters were destroying the bollards and everything, and one of the men protested to them, and they kicked him his ass. See, most folks wouldn't get involved in that, so just keep away from it. Here's the man on the Jericho Road. And this Samaritan sees him, and he gets down beside him. Might need a lot of courage. After all, the same boys that did it to this man might be behind the boulder here to him. Down he got at the side. And he saw what was wrong with the man. He took out, he took out his oil and his wine and his bandages. Oh, they were all his. He had the wherewithal to do it. He got them up onto the, the donkey, and away they went down to the inn, and he put down the money for the inn to meet it all. He had mercy. Good to come alongside folks and feel for them. Don't, don't, don't get, don't get bound up and insulated, please. But he says, if you're going to do acts of mercy, do it with cheerfulness. We mean the folks that are down and in distress, they're being cheered up. Isn't that right? They're needing a bit of encouragement and help. When you get to see them, put a smile on your face. Try to bring a wee bit of sunshine into the difficult situation. It's good when people are interested in you, isn't it? They don't walk past you. You feel there's a brotherliness about it, sisterliness. He that showeth mercy. God knows we need it, cheerfulness. Finally, please, Ephesians four. Now we've covered most of the ground in this. Ephesians four, please, at verse 8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now, verses nine and ten are in brackets, is that right? That's explaining what's said there, so we'll jump from verse eight to verse eleven. Verse eight, he gave gifts unto men. Verse eleven, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ, and so on. Now, here we come now to this list. This is the last of the list. Written during Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, Acts twenty eight. And s- and here, let us look at it now, please, will you? Verse eleven. He gave some, again, it's the person, apostle, who dealt with them, prophets, we gave some evangelists. This is the only mention of, of the word among the list of books. Strange, that, isn't it? It's not right to be envious. It's not right to be jealous. And we must accept the ordering of God. You know, I'd love to have been an evangelist. That's right. I love preaching the gospel. God has decreed otherwise. In his mercy, in his mercy, we've led many souls to Christ. Oh, by the way, Becky McNab's little granddaughter was safe and came home Sunday. It's a wonderful thing to sit down, not only to preach, but to sit beside folks, speak to them, see the light dawning, bring them to bed by the spirit. I would reckon, you know, evangelist would be not only a preacher, a conversationalist, able to come alongside people in their home, able to make people feel at ease with them, able just to use the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, just the right word at the right time for the particular person. That's a good thing. Finally, I need to watch, we ran out of tape last night. Um... Now, finally, pastors and teachers. Some think that the word some includes that pastors and teachers are the same gift, some think they're different. This would much be sure if you bring them together. Now, the word pastor is the word shepherd. Have you got that? It's a word. It's not a title for a man. Pastor so and so. That never was intended. It's a gift given, not an adjective in front of your name. Thank you. The idea here, as he talks about it, shepherd and teacher, is that the teacher teaches with a shepherd heart. He teaches because he cares for you. He may, he may never, he may never have met you before, but you get the sense as he talks to you that he cares for you. That would be right. He cares for you because you belong to Christ, and he loves you because Christ loves you, and he recognizes that you're in the sacred fellowship, and he will, he will get through to you because he's got a shepherd heart and he wants the best for you. Don't take offense when a, when someone with a shepherd heart would seek to teach you the word of God. And notice what it says. All these gifts are for, verse twelve, for the equipping of the saints. Well, that's good. It's to help you. What for? It's for the equipping of s- the saints unto the work of service. It's to help you to serve better. It's to help you, it's to help you to live with each other. It's to edify the body of Christ. That's good. And if you go down to verse fourteen, it has in view the fact that it will establish you in the faith, that you will henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. That's it. From under teaching. Learn these fundamental things early in life, and all, all the, all the, the, the winds of doctrine that are blowing around will never touch you because you were taught right at the beginning. Got the fundamentals into your soul. None of these things move you now. It's for equipping the saints to serve God better and to build up and edify and strengthen the whole body of Christ. So may the Lord bless us all. Our Father, for any help given, we give thee thanks. O God, just take what is all of thyself, and grant that each of us might receive with meekness the implanted word that is able to save our lives. Grant that all of us, O God, may have got something tonight. Leave this place desiring to exercise what gift we may possess, and to exercise it that everybody might be benefited. We look around tonight, O God, into the faces of men that have helped us.