Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070715.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
VII. Overcoming Sinful Dishonor And Disorder
F. Submitting To God's Sovereign Assigning Of The Spiritual Gifts
(1 Corinthians 12:11-31a; 14:1a, 39)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In the context of the 1 Corinthians passage we are set to study in this sermon, three verses of great significance in today's evangelical circles need to be addressed: they are 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 14:1a, 39 KJV where Paul called believers to "covet earnestly the best gifts", to "desire spiritual gifts" and to "forbid not to speak with tongues."

Richard Quebedeaux's book, The New Charismatics, p. 13-18, claims Charismatic evangelicals have famously used these phrases to teach God wants us to be zealous to gain from Him and not to hinder the gaining of the gift of speaking in tongues.

Right now, the pressure exists for key evangelical groups that once opposed this Charismatic view to shift in their stand (as follows):

(1) The May 24, 2007 USA TODAY article, "Speaking in tongues: Faith's language barrier?" by Kimberly Winston reported that "the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest group of American Protestants," was battling over whether tongues-speaking "adheres to Baptist principles." Thus, the tongues "renewalist" movement has spread far beyond the usual Charismatic wing of evangelicalism and parts of Roman Catholicism to impact even this key Protestant body!

(2) Glenna Whitley's article, "True Believer" in the April, 17, 1988 issue of the secular Dallas Life Magazine told of the departure of Jack Deere from the faculty of the Dallas Theological Seminary to join the "Third Wave" movement. This group holds to "healings, speaking in tongues, casting out demons and other supernatural manifestations"!

(3) In June, 2007, in a statement by its President, Mark Bailey on the institution's web site, Dallas Theological Seminary explained it lets Charismatics into its student body although the seminary and its faculty still hold to their original doctrinal stance that opposes belief that tongues are for today! This is a significant shift from my student days there: in the 1970s, I had to sign the seminary's statement of faith that opposed tongues for today to attend the institution, and I would have been asked to leave if I had changed my view! (Ibid., Whitley)

So, we MUST ask, "If Charismatics hold that 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 14:1a, 39 urge us Christians to desire to gain the gift of tongues, and not to forbid it, and other key evangelical groups are shifting to adopt or relax their stand against this view, WHY do WE FIRMLY hold such gifts are NOT to be SOUGHT from God?"

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "With Charismatics famously claiming Paul urged us in 1 Corinthians 12:31a and 14:1a, 39 to be zealous to gain and not to forbid the tongues speaking' gift, and with key evangelicals pressed to soften their stand against it, why do we firmly not agree with it?!"
  1. Paul's main theme in 1 Corinthians 12:11-30 was that his readers needed HUMBLY to ACCEPT the PARTICULAR GIFT that the Holy Spirit had ALREADY SOVEREINGLY GIVEN EACH ONE:
    1. The 1 Corinthians 12:11-30 discussion is part of Paul's larger address starting at 1 Corinthians 8:1 where he began to counter his readers' "self-indulgent spirit" that "produced selfishness and disunity (12:7, 25; 14:4) . . . ," Bible Knowledge Com., New Testament, p. 532.
    2. In this discussion, Paul urged believers to accept the Holy Spirit's assignment of the gifts and not to misuse them in pride, 12:11-30:
      1. Starting at 1 Corinthians 12:11, Paul noted that God the Holy Spirit distributed the spiritual gifts as He had sovereignly willed.
      2. As these gifts were distributed by God to all as God willed, each was to accept the gift God had assigned to each believer, 12:12-23:
        1. The Body of Christ is composed of each believer as all believers are baptized at salvation by the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 12:12-14.
        2. Thus, due to God's sovereign work involved, no believer can rightly claim he is not part of Christ's body simply since his gift is less than what he sees another Christian has, 1 Cor. 12:15-18!
        3. Similarly, no believer can rightly claim he has no need of some other believer who may have a lesser gift than he has, 12:19-23!
      3. To motivate his readers to stay humble about the greater gifts, Paul declared God gave the greater gifts to believers that lacked so the body would be unified and properly care for each part, 12:24-27.
      4. Further countering his reader's selfish, proud bent, Paul corrected their errant view of what comprised the greater gifts, 1 Cor. 12:28:
        1. From 1 Corinthians 14:1-4 in view of 1 Corinthians 8:1, we know Paul's readers proudly misused the tongues gift.
        2. To counter such pride, he listed the gifts from greater to less, the greater ones being the instructional gifts that ministered truth to the mind such as apostles, prophets, teachers (1 Cor. 12:28 with 14:4, 16) followed by miracles, etc., and lastly tongues! (12:28)
      5. To humble his readers further by showing their gifts were assigned by God, Paul asked rhetorical questions to prove it, 12:29-30:
        1. The questions in 1 Cor. 12:29-30 each use the subjunctive negative particle, may along with the indicative mood for the associated verb, U. B. S. Greek N. T. , 1963 ed., p. 607.
        2. Paul thus expected his readers to say, "No!" to each question, cf. J. Gresham Machan, N. T. Grk. for Beginners, 1966, p. 197.
        3. Thus, no one believer had all the gifts due to God's will!
  2. So, the CONTEXT that INTRODUCED the 1 Corinthians 12:31a with 14:1a, 39 verses used by Charismatics to promote tongues for today shows Paul did NOT INTEND for believers to GAIN a GIFT of TONGUES ; RATHER, he wanted them to DESIRE the HIGHLY GIFTED BELIEVERS to INSTRUCT their MINDS of the TRUTH:
    1. In 1 Corinthians 12:11, Paul stated the gifts were sovereignly given by the Holy Spirit, so no believer is to seek for another gift like tongues!
    2. Also, Paul would not have encouraged his self-centered readers to gain greater gifts for themselves as that could only feed their pride just opposite his thrust in this part of this epistle ( section "I,A-B" above)!
    3. Then, tongues was not a greater gift just opposite how Paul's readers [and Charismatics today!] viewed the gift of tongues! (1 Cor. 12:28)
    4. So, by "zealous" in 1 Corinthians 12:31a with 14:1a, 39, Paul meant his readers were to desire to have those with the greater gifts of giving God's truths in a known language minister in the body (1 Cor inthians 12:31a & 12:28 with 14:4, 16), not personally to gain a post-salvation gift from God like tongues! (Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 534)
    5. [Note: the rhetorical question, "Do all speak with tongues?" at 1 Cor. 12:30 that expects a negative answer coupled with the 1 Cor. 1:2 verse that shows Paul's readers were saved proves one is saved WITHOUT the alleged "speaking in tongues gift" as some today claim!]
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved and gifted by God to serve Him, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:11-13. (2) Then, may we accept the gift that WE and every OTHER believer has been SOVEREINGLY assigned by GOD, and use our gift as a KEY but yet COMPLEMENTARY part of the WHOLE BODY of Christ to minister to edify the rest of Christ's people for His glory!

Lesson: We must be HUMBLY CONTENT with the supernatural gift God has ALREADY given us AT SALVATION, and to favor the ministry of the greater gifts that reveal God's truths! Thus, we MUST NOT yield to the belief that one must seek to gain for himself a gift of tongues since that counters God's sovereignty and tends to fuel the sin of selfish pride!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

As a messenger of the Lord, I am obliged to relate another reason why we must stand firm in not seeking other alleged spiritual gifts as presented in Charismatic belief. The reason is Revelation 3:19.

Though that verse was penned by the Apostle John in A. D. 95 or 96, over 1,900 years ago, it prophetically and powerfully critiques the Charismatic Movement's theology, calling believers to repent of it:

Christ's call in that Revelation 3:19 verse to "be zealous" uses the verb elsewhere in the New Testament in a good sense to mean to "strive" or "desire" only at 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 14:1a, 39, the very passages we have shown in this sermon that Charismatics famously use to call others to speak in tongues! (Abbott-Smith, A Man. Greek Lex. of the N. T., p. 195; Arndt & Ging., A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T ., p. 338) Now, the form of "zealous" in Revelation 3:19 is the rare, late one of dzayleuo versus the dzayloo form used in 1 Corinthians, Ibid., Abbott-Smith. Christ at Revelation 3:19 thus alluded directly to the Charismatic claim for its tongues speaking movement to be God's late era movement like the "Third Wave" of which Jack Deere is a part, Ibid., Whitley. Our Lord hence used the word Charismatics use in trying to direct others to speak in tongues as an alleged late movement of God, but He did so in the same way Paul had first actually used it -- to get his readers to heed apostles, prophets or teachers who teach God's truth in understood languages to the mind, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 16! Jesus then countered today's errant Charismatic call to gain the alleged gift of tongues (of experiential babbling) by heeding His own directive in the known language of New Testament Greek that they repent of such errant beliefs and acts lest He rebuke and chasten them!

Thus, if JESUS CHRIST prophetically called evangelical Christians today from the perch of His foreknowledge over 1,900 years ago to REPENT of the Charismatic theology that promotes its experience-based tongues speaking promotions of today, and to repent lest HE rebuke and chasten them for NOT doing so, WE must LOVINGLY but FIRMLY STAND AGAINST Charismatic theology and practices today -- we have no choice before CHRIST!

May we CONTINUE to adhere to the belief that God gives us the spiritual gift HE SOVEREINGLY chose to give us AT SALVATION, to ACCEPT it and our PART in the body in HUMILITY, and SERVE Him as His subjects in THAT capacity!