Classic Christianity – Gifts For The Church – Part 1 – 7-14-26
~ Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, you were led even as to mute idols, being led astray. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed,” and no one is able to say, “Jesus is Lord,” except in the Holy Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, and the same Lord; and there are varieties of workings, but the same God who is working all things in all. 1 Corinthians 12:1-6
— God wants us to know exactly what our spiritual gifts are and what they are for. They are not for ourselves, but they are gifts for others. That is eye opening when you understand the Truth of this. We are gifts to each other in the body of Christ. We are to be available to be used by God, with our spiritual gifts at His disposal to be used by Him when He wants to use us. We thus are a vessel of God Himself. He instructs us and trains us in what He wants us to say, and when to say it. So focus on Him, and learn to listen to the Holy Spirit who lives in you if you are in Christ Jesus. Once you start paying attention to Him, everything changes.
And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. Luke 18:18,19
Jesus is God in flesh: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
~ Bob George discusses the concept of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, emphasizing their proper use and the importance of understanding them. He highlights the sinful nature of Corinth and the need for discipleship. Bob explains that spiritual gifts are given by God for the edification of the body of Christ, not for personal gain. He differentiates between spiritual gifts, service, and works, all of which serve the common good. Bob stresses that spiritual birth occurs at a specific point in time, marking the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the individual’s placement into the body of Christ. He refutes the notion of a second blessing and underscores the unity and interdependence of all parts of the body of Christ.
“Now he’s saying there are different kinds of gifts. As you all know, the Spirit of God comes to live within us at the time of our spiritual birth, that is Christ in you, indwelt by the living Christ. Now God is given gifts to individuals to serve in the body of Christ. the The true Church of Jesus Christ is not this one. Or some other so-called church. His church are born again believers all over the world. Now, as you have born again believers, and if you’re in a church fortunate enough to teaching what salvation is, then you’ve got a room full of born again believers. That’s called the body of Christ, and to that body he has given certain gifts for the purpose of edifying the body. In other words, a gift from God is not to sit and edify ourselves. It is for the purpose of serving the body, of making our gifts available to the body of Christ, and so he said, “There’s different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, and there are different kinds of working, but the same God who works all of them and all men. So what you have there is you have the service, the different kinds of service, which is a function, and that function is carrying out the assignment that God has given to us. Now, remember what the assignment was that God gave us to: is to go into the world and do what? Make disciples. The emphasis is not on go; the emphasis is on making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, identifying them with the one Triune God, and teaching them to observe the things that I’ve passed on to you. In other words, to love one another. That’s what He passed on to us. Then you have the gifts. What is that? That’s the ability that God gives you and me to carry out the different functions that God deemed are necessary to build up the body of Christ, and then the works; those are the different assignments that He gives to us. So they’re all different, and we don’t all have the same function.” ~ Bob George
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Bob George 0:29
Let’s all turn to the 12th chapter of First Corinthians. Last week, if you remember, we didn’t get to our lesson because we were over in Romans dealing with the introduction to this, which is basically talking about the fact that God has given us gifts, given us certain things to use in the body of Christ, and so as chapter 12 starts off, and we won’t need to look up to the screen for just a little while, but in chapter 12, he’s saying, “I’m going to deal now with spiritual gifts. Why is he dealing with this? Well, because of the abuse of it in Corinth, which was probably the most sinful city that ever was on the face of the earth, the gospel went into Corinth, a place where there was open prostitution. There was temple prostitution. Gals used to walk around with a sign on the back of their heels saying “Follow me.” There was all kinds of drunkenness that you could imagine taking place. It was one neat place to be. No, I’m kidding. It was a very, very sinful city. And so again, you go in there with the gospel, and it takes a lot of discipleship, doesn’t it? And it takes a lot of time for people to come to understand the truth of the Word of God. And of course, that’s what this Word of God is, guys. It’s a discipline. It’s a discipleship, or to discipline our minds to teach us what truth is. Because if you’ve never had truth, you don’t know what it is. And so in regard to the spiritual gifts that are given by God to His body, the Apostle Paul wants to remind us and teach us how we should view these and what should our attitude be toward these gifts.
So he starts out now about spiritual gifts, brother. I do not want you to be ignorant. Why doesn’t he want us to be ignorant? Because when you don’t know what something’s for, you use it for anything you want it to. I’ve talked about before, guys. It’s like it talks about on the law. There’s nothing wrong with the law if you use it properly, but God meant the law for the lost, not for the saved. And it’s like a hammer. If a if a manufacturer of a hammer probably had in mind of manufacturing a hammer for the purpose of putting it into a carpenter’s hand and building you a house, on the other hand, you can put that same hammer hammer into the hands of a murderer, and it’ll hit you in the head with it. It’s not the fault of the hammer. It depends on whose hands it’s in. Well, it’s the same thing with spiritual gifts. You can take the gifts that God gave us and use them as He intended them to be used, or you can abuse them the same way that you can abuse the law, or you can abuse anything else that God has given you. And so the only way you’re going to know whether or not you’re using what God has given you as He told us to is if you had the Word of God in your hands to correct us when we’re wrong and to instruct us toward the right paths.
So He said, “I don’t want you to be ignorant about these things. You know that when you were pagans, when you were lost, somehow or another, you were influenced and led astray by mute idols. He’s, he’s very subtly saying, you people are cocky, and I’m going to put you where you belong. Before we get into this subject, I’m going to remind you that at one time in your life, you were chasing mute idols. You were idol worshiping, so if you were capable of being deceived then, you’re capable of being deceived now, and so I want you to get that into your heads-that not that you know it all, but you’re capable of being deceived, and quite frankly, you are. That’s basically what Paul’s saying here. Therefore, I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit says, “God Jesus be cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”
Now he’s saying there are different kinds of gifts. As you all know, the Spirit of God comes to live within us at the time of our spiritual birth, that is Christ in you, indwelt by the living Christ. Now God is given gifts to individuals to serve in the body of Christ. the The true Church of Jesus Christ is not this one. Or some other so-called church. His church are born again believers all over the world. Now, as you have born again believers, and if you’re in a church fortunate enough to teaching what salvation is, then you’ve got a room full of born again believers. That’s called the body of Christ, and to that body he has given certain gifts for the purpose of edifying the body. In other words, a gift from God is not to sit and edify ourselves. It is for the purpose of serving the body, of making our gifts available to the body of Christ, and so he said, “There’s different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, and there are different kinds of working, but the same God who works all of them and all men. So what you have there is you have the service, the different kinds of service, which is a function, and that function is carrying out the assignment that God has given to us. Now, remember what the assignment was that God gave us to: is to go into the world and do what? Make disciples. The emphasis is not on go; the emphasis is on making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, identifying them with the one Triune God, and teaching them to observe the things that I’ve passed on to you. In other words, to love one another. That’s what He passed on to us. Then you have the gifts. What is that? That’s the ability that God gives you and me to carry out the different functions that God deemed are necessary to build up the body of Christ, and then the works; those are the different assignments that He gives to us. So they’re all different, and we don’t all have the same function.
Now, to each one of the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good of the body, everything is given for the common good of the body of Christ. To one, there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom. A message of wisdom. If you’re in Christ Jesus, wisdom already indwells you. He is your wisdom. It is because of Christ Jesus that you are in God because of God that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for you your wisdom. But now you’ve got a message of wisdom, and a message of wisdom is a message that contains the wisdom of God. When you stop to think of the divine wisdom of God in putting together this whole plan of salvation-it is absolutely unreal. We couldn’t have put it together. We’d have confused it, as we do. We’ve even confused it when we know it. There’s a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit to another, faith by the same Spirit to another, gifts of healing by that one Spirit; to another, miraculous powers; to another, prophecy; to another, distinguishing between spirits; to another, speaking in different kinds of languages; and still to another, the interpretation of those languages. Now it says all of these are the work of the one and same Spirit, and He gives them to each one just as He determines. So, if you’re in Christ Jesus, you have a spiritual gift. You say, “Well, I don’t know what it is. Well, you need to learn, because if you learn what that gift is, then you’ll know what God wants you to do in the body for the edification and the building up of the body.
Now, in verse 12, we can pick up now on the screen. The body is a unit, and though it’s made up of many parts, I you’re looking at my body, and it’s made up of many parts. And though all of its parts are many, it forms one body. And so it is with Christ. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. Now, guys, that is what is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There’s no manifestations connected with it. It is what happens to every person at the very moment of spiritual birth. Spiritual birth, the day that you came to Christ by faith and were born again of the Spirit, it was not as the Bible says by human passion or plan. You didn’t sit around and figure it out. It wasn’t something given to you by your mom and dad. It was the fact that you have been born physically and at some time in this physical life, even up to this very day, there comes a time when you recognize that you have a need. You have you recognize the fact that you can’t do it. We try. Religion gets involved in this. Say, well, if you can’t do it, just practice more religion. Go try harder. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Get get involved. Tithe. Get involved. Get in activity, and so we get in Christian activity and never know the Lord. But we’re active, but we don’t know the Lord. So there comes a time in our lives when an experience takes place. You were born physically at a point in time in history, weren’t you? If you’re born again, you were also born again in a specific time in history.
I have people who say, “I was born a Christian.” No, you weren’t. Nobody’s born a Christian. You’re born a heathen. You’re born again as a Christian. So no one’s born a Christian. Well, I always grew up in a Christian home. Well, that’s nice, and I’m glad you did. But that does not make you a Christian. And sitting in church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in a hen house makes you a chicken. So we have to realize that if you’re born again, it’s a point in time in history when God has revealed Himself to you and shown you you have a need, and that is especially true when you preach the fullness of the gospel to see that it’s not just our sins that need forgiven, but there’s a reason why we sin, and it’s because He said you’re dead spiritually, that you were born into this world dead spiritually. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you what? Alive with Christ, He forgave all of your sins. So it’s not how bad you are or how good you are, it’s how dead you are, and when you’re dead, you’re dead. Now you can either believe that or you can deny that, and you say, Well, if you don’t believe what God says that you’re dead spiritually, keep trying to make yourself alive. See what happens. Keep going. Keep pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and see what happens, but ultimately there’s going to come a time in the point of time of history on a day in history. This isn’t something that happens by osmosis. No one is made a Christian through osmosis. It isn’t just something that just happened. There’s a day in the time of history, when you made a decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and your Savior, when you recognize the fact that Lord, when you told me that I’m a sinner, I agree with you, I am a sinner, and there’s a result to sin called death, and you say I am spiritually dead, and if you say I’m spiritually dead, I’m spiritually dead. And if you’re dead, that is not our real good condition to be in. And you’re a little stupid if you want to stay that way. When you stop to think about it, you say you’re dead. Do you want to stay dead? You got to be a goon head to want to stay dead if you’re dead, if you recognize and believe what he says that you’re dead, it’s stupid to want to remain that way. That’s why he says somebody says there’s no God’s a fool, because it’s foolish to want to remain dead.
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Bob George 14:20
And so you know you get down, and people say, “Well, you you gotta you gotta change your actions. And I remember a _____ _______ crusade that I went to years before I was saved, but I understood _____ ________ to say that you had to go repent of your sins. How many of you ever heard that you got to repent of all your sins before you come to Christ? Well, try that on for size. Try that one on for size. See, have any of you repented of all your sins? Have any of you repented? You’ve repented from all your going to interview your wife. No, we still have sins, don’t we? We’re going to have it until the day we die. And you want to know something? It’s a good thing. If you were perfect, you’d forget Jesus in a New York minute. So the mere fact that God left this sin flesh of ours, He did it for a purpose, because it’s what keeps you dependent upon Him. And so, guys, get it into your head. It’s not how bad you are. This is not an issue of dealing with you’re good, you’re not so good, you’re not so you’re worse and you’re worthless. It’s dealing with your dad, and when you’re dead, you need life. I’ve had people say, “Well, you don’t, Bob. I remember this one guy said, “You know, Bob, I kind of like to have a little cocktail at night. I said, “Jim, God doesn’t want your cocktail. He wants your hands. Forget about the cocktail. Come to Jesus. He’ll take care of the cocktail. He wants your hands, not what’s in it, and we get all of that confusion. You don’t come to Christ in order to shape up. You come to Christ to become a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he’s what? Brand new creation. I came. Why you new? Because you were dead. Now you’re alive. That’s pretty new. Raised from the dead. Now that has to happen in a person, at a point in time in history, where you can say I accepted Jesus. Now you may not remember the exact day. I remember in my case the exact day, but I was 36 years of age when I came to Christ, so it’s pretty pretty evident. But some people in their lives, they say I don’t remember when the day was, but I can tell you approximately when it happened, and so I’m not there to because I don’t remember when I was born physically. Do you? Do any of you remember when you were born physically? I don’t think so, but we do know we have a birth certificate, and the issue is that it’s not the case of God testing your memory, but it’s a case of knowing that there was a time in my life, when I decided to follow Christ, I decided to invite Jesus to come into my heart as my Lord and as my Savior, and thank Him for the taking away of my sins and inviting Him to come into my heart to be my Lord. There was a time I don’t remember the exact date of it, but remember approximately when it happened, if that hadn’t happened, you’re still lost. You can be a church goer. You can be sincere. H____ was sincere. Sincerity doesn’t save anybody. What saves you is when you understand what God said about yourself, and understand what He said was the solution to yourself, and you, as an act of faith, say, “Thank you, Lord, for revealing this to me, and I accept you now as my Lord and my Savior. I thank you that you died to take away my sins, so that I could come alive with eternal life. If that has never occurred, you’re not saved. If you’re not saved, you’ve never received a spiritual gift. And so, if you’re sitting here lost, forget about the gifts. Forget about what we’re going to be talking about. It’s not applicable because you have no ability to receive a spiritual gift until you become a spiritual person. Are we together? Okay.
Now, the body is made up of many parts, and those parts are many. They form one body. We were all baptized at the very moment that the Spirit of God comes to live within you. Now, what does it say? If the Spirit of God does not live in you, you don’t belong to Him. So, if you’re born again, what are you born again of? The Spirit. And so, if the Spirit of God doesn’t indwell you, you don’t belong to Christ. Now that’s Christ in you, your hope of glory. Then the Spirit of God baptizes or places you into His body. That’s how we are called the what? The body of Christ. Now that all happens simultaneous at spiritual birth. At the very moment you accept Him by faith, the Spirit of God comes to live in you, and then immediately places you into His body. That’s why we belong to Christ and we belong to who? One another, and this body that he has created. If you were to look for the body of Christ 2000 years ago, you would have had to have gone over to ______ and look up Jesus of Nazareth, and there you would have found the body of Christ. But Jesus said, “It’s good for you that I’m going away, very hard thing for the apostles to understand at that time. But he said, when I do go away, I’m going to leave here, but I’m going to send my Spirit into you, and you’re going to be my body. So right now, in or 2000 years ago, his body was confined to _____. If you’re to look for the body of Christ, you had to go find Jesus in _____. Now His body is all over the world at the same time. That’s why greater works will He do than I, because His body is now everywhere where a born-again Christian is. So. So when you became a born again believer, you became a part of the body of Christ. You’re a part of the body of Christ, whether you’re a Japanese body, or a Korean body, or a German body, or even a lawyer body. You know, he’s he’s he’s big in miracles. Anybody could become a part. I’m sorry if you’re an attorney. Forgive me, but that is where you become a part of the body of Christ. That happens at spiritual birth. So we were all, not some of us, as some theology teaches. Well, you’re not, you’re not baptized of the Spirit yet, how many have heard that? You may be saved, but you haven’t gotten a blessing yet. I want to tell you something, folks. There’s nothing like that in the Scripture. When you are born again, you’ve been given everything that you need for life and godliness. Quit seeking something else. You’re not going to get it from God. You may get it from Satan, but you’re not going to get it from God. You’ve gotten everything that you need for life and godliness. There’s no second blessing. You get 1000s of blessings for you. And so, when you are born again according to the word of God, we were all baptized by one Spirit into the body of Christ, whether HEBREW or Greek or slave, or free, and we were all given that one Spirit to drink-not two, not one.
Now, guys, again, if the spirit of God doesn’t live in you, you don’t belong to Him. You tell me how you can be born again then today and receive the spirit tomorrow. Anybody got a way of doing that? There’s no way of doing it because if the Spirit of God doesn’t live in you, you don’t belong to Him. Now that teaching is all over, guys. It’s all over, but I want to tell you it’s false. It’s not true. When you are born again, you are born again of the Spirit. The Spirit at that moment baptizes you into the body of Christ, and you are made a member of His body.
Now, because the body is made up of many parts, if the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, cease to be a part of the body, and if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body, what’s he saying all this for? People saying, “If you don’t have my gift, you’ve had it, and he’s trying to say, “Look, this is a body. There is no gift that’s given to everybody.
If the ears should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body. It would not, for that reason, cease to be part of the body. And if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? And if the body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. So who arranges all this, guys? Who is it that gives the gifts to you? God is because you ask for it, or because you know we’re too dumb to know what gifts you ought to have. So he gives us what he wants to give us, and so we’re all part of one body. Where would the body be as it is. There are many parts, but only one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you, and the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. There are parts of the body that you don’t like to talk about, he said, they’re indispensable. Very important. Don’t have to be a brain scientist. Figure out what he’s talking about. And the parts that we think that are less, that seem to be weaker, are indispensable. And the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty. There are parts that we’re told of our bodies that should be treated with special modesty, while our present presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body.
Now, when you don’t understand this, is there going to be division in the body? First, they’re going to say, “My gift’s bearing your gift. If you don’t have my gift, you’re not saved. Do we hear that in Christendom? Yeah, sure do. Out there trying to teach you the gift, a gift that God gives you. We’re trying to teach it. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, and if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed, first of all, now here again, guys. You have in a scripture that says that God appointed, first of all, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor teachers. Those are not spiritual gifts. The men themselves are the gift to the body. God gives a _____ _______ to the body of Christ. He doesn’t have the gift of evangelism, you know, and that that that’s what enables us to say, “Well, I would go evangelize, but I don’t have the gift. Nobody has a gift. We’re all supposed to evangelize. You don’t need the gift to tell somebody about Jesus. Just need a tongue. So the issue is that’s not a spiritual gift. Evangelism is not a spiritual gift. The evangelist is the gift to the body. The apostles that God called out were the gifts to the body. The prophets that God called out were gifts to the body. Now there’s phony ones, ones that you make up your own apostleship and your own prophet, but the ones God gave were gifts to the body, and then the evangelist was a gift to the body of Christ, and then a pastor teacher that God calls is a gift to the body of Christ. So, if you have a pastor teacher who God sent, then you’ve got a God sent pastor. Otherwise, you’ve got a seminarian, somebody who graduated from seminary and is now pastoring doesn’t matter where God called him or not. That’s irrelevant. I got my degree, and that to me we could talk about that for a long time.
So now it says that you are the body of Christ, and each one of you are part of it. And the church in the church, God has appointed first of all, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then miracles of workers of miracles; those having the gift of healing; those able to help others; those with gifts of administration; those of speaking in different languages. Now he gets down again to say this is not a message to cause division. It’s a message to cause unity, but you’re not going to have unity until you see who gave the gift, and to quit bragging about it.
Announcer 27:11 Thank you so much for tuning into Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith. Be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.