Another Response to John Mcarthur

We are actually not gonna be quite in Matthew this week. A lot of interesting things happened. As you know, I gave a message three weeks ago about the strange fire conference and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as a result, we've had about 10,000 views in the last three weeks, which means a lot of emails, positive, negative, a lot of feedback, a lot of comments. God's getting the message out there. But a lot of questions came up as far as, okay, what are the gifts? Shane, you talk about the gifts being available.

Well, what are they? How does that look? And actually, this was part two of that message, but I ran out of time. I'm only given an hour here, and I don't think you wanna stay here much longer than that. So this is really part two, but it took me a few weeks to kind of get into that mode and kind of research things and look at things.

And I'm gonna kind of springboard off of Matthew 7. I mean, that's where we're gonna be in the weeks to come on judging one of the favorite verses that the media likes to use, judge not that you will not be judged. So you Christians need to shut your mouth about everything. Doesn't the Bible say judge not? Well, let's put it in context, and we will do that in the next few weeks.

But then as we're going through Matthew 7, we get to this part where Jesus says, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks will find, will find something. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if you have a son, ask for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him? Now, it's interesting, Luke, if you cross-reference Luke, that's why they're called the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

They're similar, synoptic. Luke says, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? And now, I'm gonna go topical here on the gifts, because contextually, this isn't necessarily talking about the gifts of the Spirit. That's found in 1 Corinthians, it's found in Ephesians, it's found in other places of the Bible.

But I wanna talk about this, because I talked about it three weeks ago, on that strange fire conference, and the power of the Holy Spirit. And what I wanna do tonight is seeking clarity, not confusion. So when I talk about the gifts of the Spirit, what we want to do tonight is seek clarity, not confusion.

And let me say up front that any time you speak out of God's Word, and you come up with opinions, presuppositions, you've gotta be careful. Because I look at this as like, okay, what does God's Word say? Because I'm going to try to assimilate truth, and try to deliver that message. So I don't just come up here, you know, half-heartedly, and say, well, let's think, and here's what I think.

We've gotta, I mean, I take this seriously, and so should all of us. What does God's Word say? And the problem is, on one side of the camp, like we talked about a few weeks ago, is you have the side that says, the gifts of the Spirit, this power of the Spirit, this anointing, this unction, has ceased. Cessation, C-E-S-S, and it goes like that.

It's not sensation, S-E-N, it's cessation, it's over. And then we have this other side who says, no, the gifts, the power, that anointing, that unction of the Spirit is still valid today. But with this side, you see a very weird, I don't know, byproduct of that happening, a fringe element.

And that's what a lot of this group, they come against that, you know, if it's odd, it's God, anything weird. You can do anything weird on TV and say, the Holy Spirit's moving, brother. No, he's not, weirdness is moving.

And you need to be careful. Because the Holy Spirit is not a Holy Spirit of hysteria. It's not an accident of language that he's called the Holy Spirit.

The part of the triune nature of God, God is Father, Son, and Spirit. How that works, greater minds than mine have wrestled with this for years, but we know the Bible clearly teaches, because you can grieve the Spirit, you can quench the Spirit, the Spirit leads, the Spirit draws. Jesus actually said, nobody even comes to me unless the Father draws him through that Spirit.

The Spirit can anoint, the Spirit empowers, the Spirit is vitally important. So my concern is this side, let's ignore it, let's not talk about any of that stuff, and you can miss that powerful aspect of the Holy Spirit. This side, the circus environment, anything goes, there's no character.

There's nothing to support that. I think God is a God of discernment, God of order. However, when God moves in our lives, sometimes that's not pretty, and it doesn't look just like we thought it would look.

So with that said, I don't have perfect theology. You realize that, right? I hope you realize that. I'm being honest, I don't have perfect theology.

And let me be honest with you, no pastor has perfect theology. Because they go back and forth. So this side is arguing with themselves on infant baptism, and baptism, dispensationalism, pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, no-trib, the wrath of God, we avoid it, amillennial, the millennial kingdom has already came, no, it's coming later, post-millennial, pre-millennial.

And I'm not really looking forward to Matthew 28, because I'm going to have to unpack all the stuff that is very confusing. So there's all these different things, and this side's arguing about church government, the gifts of the Spirit, all these different things, and somebody teaches this, is the rapture gonna happen? No, it's not gonna happen. So he says, yeah, it's gonna happen.

Well, who's right? We've got all these different ideas, and that's why Augustine said, and I believe it was the third or fourth century, that we must have unity in the essentials, but love and understanding in the non-essentials, things that are not essential to salvation. Now, I made a quote last week from D. Martin Lloyd-Jones. If you want to read anything on this topic, he's a good one to look to, but I believe, actually, he was an all-millennial, meaning that the millennial kingdom is not going to come.

It was more just metaphor and all these different things, but that's what a lot of the reformers believed, the Reformation back, starting in the 13th, Whitecliffe and Huss, and a lot of the men bringing the Bible to us. So you've seen theology change, but he made a statement that really struck out to me many years ago. He said, living children need rules.

Dead children don't. And he put that in context of 1 Corinthians, this church, living, vibrant children of God need rules. They need restraints.

So Paul would say, do this, don't do this. This is how this is supposed to operate. So that's really what we want to talk about here is what is going on with the gifts of the Spirit.

And we talked about last week, or three weeks ago, all gifts, the gifts of the Spirit were good. We can all agree on that, right? Anybody that reads the New Testament can agree that the gifts were good. Even somebody who doesn't believe that the gifts are valid today would believe, or should say, yeah, the gifts were good back then.

And it's almost like they're saying, oh, poor Paul, that poor emotional guy, yeah, gifts were valid, but we really got it down now. We don't need any of that. We see better than Paul.

And we talked about that scripture, chapter 13 in 1 Corinthians, love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will fail. Where there are tongues, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part will be done away with. So everything, whether they say it or not, to me, everything hinges on this scripture. If this scripture is saying that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased, then this side is right.

If this scripture is saying no, he's talking about something else, then they are valid for today. And that's really what the argument is over this issue. And as I said before, if this means that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased because now we have this, that which is perfect comes is this, then now we see better than Paul.

Now we see better than Peter because Paul goes on to say, now, in Paul's day, we see through a glass dimly. We see through a mirror darkly. We can't really see things, but when that which is perfect comes, then we can see we're known even as we known.

And even the great John Calvin, the reformer John Calvin said that this scripture has to do when we are perfected in our perfective state. So obviously when we're side by side with Christ, you don't need prophecy, you don't need tongues, you don't need all these things, but love will never fail. So that's really what this has to do.

When that which is perfect comes, one thing that theology students like to do is it's called the law of first mention. When was this term first mentioned? Internal consistency throughout scripture. Well, that word perfect, teleos in the Greek is the same word that Jesus used when they said, hey, Herod's looking for you.

And Jesus said, go tell Herod that fox that I raise the dead and I cure the sick and on the third day, I will be teleos. I will be perfected. So if we look at that word consistently, it is a perfect state.

It's not the completion, the canonization of scripture. So that's what people would say. Now that we have the Bible, let me just wrap all this up in one sentence.

Can you say it in a sentence? Yes. Now that we have the Bible, we don't need the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That's why some refer to them as revetory gifts.

R-E-V-E-L-A-T-O-R-Y, revetory. They reveal the tongues, the prophecy, the words of wisdom, all the gifts of the Spirit. They were used to reveal until the word of God came.

But now, we don't need them. So that's where I find myself tonight, in this topic. Now, the hard part for me to believe is, well, let's just, let me go through this in order before I jump ahead.

But a lot of what they were saying is on both sides of the camp, what I see is there's moral failure. And they're saying, well, there's a lot of moral failure in this hyper-Pentecostal charismatic camp. But I see where I live just as much on the other side, because it has nothing to do with this topic.

It has to do with character and following Christ wholeheartedly and putting sin, besetting sin beside us. And I see people on this side having failure, and I see people on this side. We see it any time you turn on the news.

However, in the TV, in all these guys that we've heard of, you see this way more often on television, because that is the hyper-Pentecostal charismatic side. You'll see that. Those guys, you know, and I'm not gonna name names tonight.

Most of you know who I'm talking about. If you don't, well, then too bad. I'm not gonna mention it.

And one of the things that this group is fired up about, and this whole thing is on the baptism of the Spirit. Have you heard that word? I talked about this three years ago, and probably a good idea to do it again now. But the baptism of the Spirit, if you look at it theologically, and I could spend the whole sermon right here, we are all baptized into the body of Christ.

That we're baptized in the body of Christ. The word baptism, baptismo, overwhelmed in the Greek. We're embodied, we're part of the body of Christ.

We're baptized into the body of Christ. However, this side will use it as, you know, you need the baptism of the Spirit. You need to be, you know, filled with the Spirit.

You need all, they'll use all these different terms, but my point is, baptism of the Holy Spirit is a one-time thing where God brings us into the body of Christ. However, there are different fillings, subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And sometimes we can use that term as baptism of the Holy Spirit.

You need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So to me, I don't, this isn't a hill to die on. It's just a way to word certain words.

And I know what people are saying. But really what it falls upon with the Holy Spirit is three things that the Bible talks about. There are three prepositions.

Para, paracletus, the Holy Spirit coming alongside of us. And then in us, indwelling us as believers, E-N. And then here's the one that we get in trouble with, epi, E-P-I, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.

That's the one that this, I believe that this whole argument is resting upon. Acts 1.8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you'll be witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Power, not weirdness. Power, not hysteria. Power, power to what? Power to witness.

Power to proclaim the truth of God's word. So that's my argument to both camps. When was the last time you witnessed? You can have correct theology and never win a soul to Christ, never preach a gospel.

Or you can jump all up and down and get excited at church and boy, and all this emotionalism, you never witness. The power of the Holy Spirit is a witnessing spirit. I have to witness everywhere I go.

I try to draw the conversation back to Christ, back to church, no matter where I'm at, the car wash, the cleaners, the store, back to Christ, you go to church. No, why not, what's going on? Back to Christ, why? Because it's a witness of the Holy Spirit and dude with power to witness. That's the main role of the Spirit's power, to come upon a person and they witness, they proclaim the truth of God's word.

So it's not a lot of weirdness and it's not a lot of depth theology, cemetery where there's no witnessing. And I've talked to people in this camp, when is the last time you witnessed to Christ? Can you remember? No. So do you really have that witness of the Holy Spirit? Because to me, the epi makes all the difference and that's the preposition, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

And remember when Jesus was led in the wilderness, be tempted by the devil? The Bible makes an interesting statement. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. He goes from obscurity, 30 years to notoriety.

The most popular man in town with one thing the Bible alludes to. And he returned in the power of the Spirit. So Jesus received this endowment of power.

Now you know, what I've talked about before, when he came to the, I would have loved to see this, comes to the pulpit, if you can say that. I don't think it was a pulpit back then. But he's gonna read the scroll and Christ walks up, takes the scroll and says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel, to heal the sick, to bring the captives free.

And that's why there's an argument here because was Jesus not saved before this endowment of power? Of course he was. He doesn't need to be saved, he is God. But why was there a second something? For 30 years and then he's tempted, comes out of the desert, the Bible makes it clear and Jesus being filled with the Spirit and Jesus returning in the power of the Spirit.

Does that make sense? If Jesus needed that, surely, surely we need that same endowment of power. And here's the question, you have all of the Holy Spirit, but does he have all of you? Let that sink in for a minute. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you have all of the Holy Spirit, but does he have all of you? Many times the answer's no.

That's why people don't experience this endowment of power. That's why the Bible, people refer to it as anointing, as unction, as the filling, as the baptism. Whatever you wanna call it, do you have it? Has the Holy Spirit so radically changed your life that it's made such a radical difference that you know it? You witness everywhere you go, you know that, I'm not talking about perfectly, of course, but I'm talking about, is everything okay, Mike? Good? Oh, well, we're talking about the Holy Spirit.

I think it's the heater that's kicked on, but that's all right. Anyway, if you look at your bulletin, you gotta be prepared for distractions no matter where you go. I wanna bring something to your attention.

On this issue of you have all the Holy Spirit, but does he have all of you, if you recognize names like John Bunyan, Andrew Murray, Amy Carmichael, Oswald Chambers, Hudson Taylor, D.L. Moody, A.W. Tozer, do these sound familiar? Any of you listen to Adrian Rogers back when he was living, part of the Southern Baptist Convention? Powerful preacher. That guy, I'd love to listen to him every single week. Well, in all of these cases, these men or these women were Christians doing ministry in their flesh until this endowment of power.

Sometimes weeks, months, years later, something happened, radically changed their life. We would never have known who they are had not this experience happened. So I don't think this should be something we're afraid of.

This should be something that we want to embrace. And I could read D.L. Moody's biography right now. If I had it when it said he was doing ministry in the flesh.

He was trying to build a big church. He was trying to get his name out there. He's building ministry in the flesh.

And when God radically changed his life, he repented of that, he fully surrendered everything. Then he was filled mightily with this endowment of power from the Holy Spirit. He's preaching like a weak man a week before, and now he's preaching the boldness of Christ the next week.

What happened? The endowment of the Spirit, the epi, this powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit. I don't think that's a bad thing. That's a good thing.

And we talked about also emotionalism. You know, everybody's just getting emotional, and this side, you know, you just gotta sit and suit and tie and just read your hymnals and sit down, no emotions at all. On this side, a lot of emotions.

What's going on here? Well, I just started researching some of the underground videos from the underground church in China. Guess what? They're not just sitting there bored. They're worshiping God, weeping.

Tears are falling down their face. Groups of hundreds just worshiping God. You're gonna tell me that they're emotional false converts when they could be in prison when they leave there? No, I don't think so.

I'm not buying that argument. Those people are truly worshiping God. So you might wanna get your emotions in check and see if you haven't become a hard, rigid Pharisee.

Because emotions can be a byproduct of a Spirit-filled life. If God radically changes your life, you're witnessing to people, you're seeing Him move in your own life, you're experiencing tremendous peace and joy and contentment. Oh my God, I need more of you.

Fill me with your Spirit. And how can that be a bad thing? That's not. That's the enduement of the Spirit.

That's a fully surrendered life who is given over control of their life, the control of their vessel, to God. And they're filled with the Spirit of God. Many times we walk around bitter and angry and upset in this because we're full of ourselves.

We're quenching and we're grieving the Spirit of God. That's why besetting sin is so dangerous. Whatever it is, addiction, or you fill in the blank, that besetting sin kinks that hose, kinks that water hose, you know, the Holy Spirit can't flow out of the life because you're being quenched and grieved.

So that was kind of the platform of where I wanted to go with this. And I put on your cover a quote there, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, we should not interpret Scripture in the light of our experiences, but rather we should interpret our experiences in the penetrating light of Scripture. Did you catch that? Many people, and that's one of my concerns with this side, is they'll interpret Scripture based on their experiences.

Where Scripture says no, you interpret your experiences based on Scripture. Is it right? Is it in God's Word? Is it truth? This is the anchor. We love this.

We preach this. We live by this. It's the anchor that holds us.

And that's what we see happening as well. Many mock the deeper life, and that's what I was upset with with this group, is they mock the deeper life. Extended times of prayer and worship to them are fanatical, when to me it's biblical.

So you're gonna mock a person, and I remember they wrote off A.W. Tozer and E.M. Bounds as mystics, and oh, they're way out there. Well, it's probably because they have a deep prayer life that somebody doesn't have, and so they can't relate to that. And that's the sad thing.

Let me get this straight. You're gonna poke fun at people who spend hours in prayer seeking God, experiencing the travail of the soul, people like E.M. Bounds and A.W. Tozer, who they're considered mystics and written off. They're just seeking the heart of the Father.

What happens is there's very little humility and brokenness. What there is is a lot of bragging and boasting and putting down and fighting and bickering between these two camps. And the whole thing really boils down to this.

We just want more of God. Call it fanatical. Call it extreme.

Call it a holy roller. Whatever you wanna call it. Call it charismatic Pentecost.

Put whatever label you want in. I just want more of God. That's biblical.

I want to know him in the power of his resurrection. I wanna know him in the fellowship of his suffering. I want the good gifts from the Holy Spirit.

Lord, whatever you wanna give me, Lord, I wanna receive that. Not fanaticism, power. Not weirdness, power.

Not out there, power to witness, power to live the Christian life. That's what this enduement of power is on, is about, really. And that's what, you remember I quoted last week, Joel, as well, two weeks ago, three weeks ago.

You had to get him confused. And it shall come to pass in those days that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your young men see visions. Your old men see dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit on those people in those days.

And of course, this side says, no, you can't, dreams and visions and all this. Now, of course, we need to be careful. But if I hear of another Muslim coming to faith through a dream, I'm gonna write somebody over here and say, uh-uh, hello, wake up.

God's reaching people. God can't do that. Now, what happens, though, is then you gotta decide, everybody has a dream and a vision every week, every month.

What are the prophets saying? What are the dreams saying? Tell me, no, no, God doesn't work like that. God doesn't work like that. He gives in measure when you need it.

We shouldn't seek these things. We seek Christ. We seek the gift giver, not the gifts.

Now, let's roll right into what I wanna talk about. I know this is a long introduction, but let's talk about here the gifts of the Holy Spirit. One thing I wanna say on this topic, and it's vitally important, this really changed the way I looked at things, was when you look at the book of Acts, when you see a lot of the miracles, do you realize that the book of Acts was written over 30 to 35 years? I mean, I can read it in one sitting.

I think they're seeing miracles every single day. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But it's a journey of 35 years.

There's some periods in there where there wasn't anything miraculous done in years, one or two or three years. So sometimes we have this view of all this miraculous happening all the time when this is a long, I mean, 35 years is a long period. Many of you haven't even seen 35 years in your life.

And that's what the book of Acts was written over 35 years, and I also think, I think it was between 30 and 35, there's obviously some debate with the exact timing, but I think that a misunderstanding of the gifts and faith may have contributed to some of the abuses we see. And what I mean by that, this side would say the gifts of the Spirit or faith or whatever you wanna call it, it's almost like I'm in charge. I have gifts, I have faith, I'm in charge.

I'll tell God to do this. And God says, no. No, I will give you gifts.

Based on your faith, I will give you gifts. I'm a good gift giver, but I'm not gonna heal whoever you want. I'm not gonna do whatever you want.

So I think if we look at, okay, it's a gift. God's giving us the gift, and we're operating in that. It's much different than being able to just walk around, because for the gift of healing, what that, if that looked like, why can't somebody just walk in Antelope Valley Hospital and clear the place out? If we could just turn it on.

So let's talk about that for a minute. Jesus was the embodiment of the Godhead. He knew God's perfect will.

And a lot of times I've heard that you compare, we can't compare ourselves with Jesus. He knew the perfect will of God. The Bible says that he was, that the Trinity was manifesting itself into him.

He was the embodiment. I think it's something like, I'd have to find it, she'll look through that first. But where he, in him, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.

So in Christ, all of God's attributes dwelled. He was in perfect harmony with the Father, seeking the Father, walking according to God's will, not living in sin. So to compare him with us, you can't do that, because he knew the perfect will of the Father.

He passed by entire cities without healing, at the pool of Bethesda. Why did he heal just one person? I have a pretty good idea, there was many people around there. Was there not? But then we also read, and everyone that came to him was healed.

So you put all of that in context, and then you say, I'm not sure how this works exactly. I mean, that's what we, when it comes to us, we're like, okay, how does this work? So let me talk about the controversial topic right now. 1 Corinthians 12, now concerning spiritual gifts, Paul's writing to the church in Corinth.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. Interesting choice of words, Paul. You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.

Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a curse, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now, Cadenzas, this, he's basically coming against double speaking and dual agency. You know, those in real estate know what dual agency is, right? You can represent both parties, the buyer, the seller, not in this case.

You cannot represent Satan and Christ. It's not possible. You cannot be at home worshiping Christ and then worshiping Satan.

It doesn't, it won't flow from the same vessel. It's impossible because people worshiping Satan hate this place. They don't wanna worship God.

They hate worshiping the one true living God. So whatever was happening there, Paul is clarifying, listen, I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't want you to be ignorant.

You cannot call Jesus a curse and at the same time worship him. You can't say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So obviously something is going on there that people are, there's some confusion there so he's bringing it back in order.

Listen, if Christ is being glorified, Christ is being exalted, men are being better husbands, women better wives, and kids are just in the family, you know, you're changing and God's drawing you and there's fruit there, the fruit of the Spirit. That's not a bad thing. And then he goes on to say, there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit.

There are differences of ministries but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities but it is the same God who works all in all. Now, to me, this would get rid of much of the judgmentalism in the church.

But why aren't you more like such and such? Well, especially in politics, right? We give Tony Perkins or Dobson or Jay Sekulow, all these groups, saying pastors need to be more involved in politics, okay. And then you got pastors saying, no, no, we need to stay out of that. Well, recognize your diverse gift.

God has called you, called us to certain areas of our life. Different giftings, different ministries. Pursue those and be thankful for what God has called the other person to.

Thank God for those people who do this and thank God for the people who do that. So this would, I think, alleviate a lot of the judgmentalism because we say, well, mission, people on the missions field, why isn't everybody on the mission field? Why doesn't everybody have this wonderful passion for missions like I do? Well, different gifting. I look out over the El Valley and I say, that's one big mission field.

Different calling, different gifting. So Paul's saying, listen, there's different gifts, but the same spirit. There's different ministries, same spirit.

Different activities, same spirit. And then he goes on to verse seven. But the manifestation of the spirit, that's not a bad word, manifestation just means revealing.

The spirit is revealing himself this way, to each one, or actually he's revealing himself for the profit of all. Here's the thing we don't remember on the gifts of the spirit. It's for the profit of people.

It's to help people, not to show off, not to get weird, not to get crazy, not to do somersaults, not to just, you know, out there. It's for the profit of all. For one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same spirit.

Now let's talk about that for a minute. For one is given the word of wisdom. Word of wisdom is a wise decision.

There's a wise decision that you need, or word of knowledge, knowledge about something that you need to know. Now actually, I'm going to give an example from what I heard at, from this side, this camp, MacArthur, John MacArthur, and a lot of that strange fire stuff I talked about. I was actually at their Shepherds Conference about two or three years ago, and they had one of the faculty, they played a video from one of the faculty, believe he was from China, the persecuted China, and on the video, he said he was prompted by the spirit to get on his bike and ride a different direction and avoid that persecution, get out of China.

Now I'm not knowing, I couldn't research this exactly, so I'm not, you know, exactly sure on these details. I remember that clear as day, because I wanted to yell and stand up and say, yes, exactly, exactly, why are you putting that down? Why are you saying this side can't do that, but oh, oh, how'd that slip in our video, whoops. That's all we're saying, that the spirit can prompt, he can lead, he can direct.

And this word of wisdom, what this looks like, is if somebody, and these aren't weird things, this is, the Bible is all we need for life and godliness, we're clear on that. But sometimes, we need a little direction. Like I told you when I was praying for this church, Lord, should I do this church, I don't, chapter verse three, yes, start Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster on Saturday nights.

It's not there, it's nowhere to be found. The principles to live by are there, to walk according to godliness, to seek him. Lord, I feel you're doing this, but I can't, this is too big, I need confirmation.

And then within that week, my wife, I remember, at least a half dozen people came up and said, have you ever considered being a pastor? I'm like, why would you ask that? Boom, boom, boom, time, the word, kind of bringing some insight there to confirm. Or the word of wisdom here, I've seen this, wise decisions, it's where somebody would say, listen, I don't know what's going on in your heart, this has been, God's been working in my heart, and I've just been meaning to speak with you, and I don't want to do this, and I don't know how this is gonna unfold, but have you been cheating on your spouse, and the person breaks down, and yes, the restoration takes place, and wholeness takes place, but it was because, see, it's not in here. First Galatians 3.7, it's not in there.

So my point is, we love the word, we look to the word, but sometimes, God will use something to confirm what's going on in your heart. Word of wisdom, somebody will give you something that is wise, or word of knowledge, they'll tell you something that maybe you didn't know. Now, we don't live off those things and walk around, we just say, Lord, here I am, use me, and if somebody gives you something, you line it up with scripture.

We live off this, this is our life, this is what we look to. However, if God uses these gifts of wisdom or the gift of knowledge, through the same spirit, we shouldn't be afraid of these things. And this is also, you'll hear on the Billy Graham, I think it's one of the testimonies, there was this girl, she was gonna commit suicide, and her grandma kept trying to get her to church, trying to get her to church, and she finally said, okay, as soon as this is over, I'm done with it, I'm committing suicide, she went there, she hated the pastor, I'm sure she'd hate me, what things were saying, and she was just so upset, and as she was leaving, somebody came up to her and challenged her in this area, God loves you, don't do this, and just brought her to tears, she couldn't believe that this was happening, why, why? Probably because the pastor was in Leviticus, just there as bored as a doornail, he hasn't spent any time in the prayer closet, she's dying, it's on the vine, she's not getting anything, somebody, God brings somebody to give her a word of wisdom to pull her out of that darkness, that's how it works, folks.

So to say the devil prompted him to do that, I have a hard time with that, because the Satan cannot be divided against himself. He would be telling that girl not to go to church. He wouldn't be bringing somebody into her life to say this.

Now of course what happens, everybody wants to be a prophet and everybody has a word, everybody wants notoriety and recognition, so that's the bad side to this, is we've got unrestrained people, not here, but other places, hyper-Pentecostal, hyper-Charismatic, they've got a word for everybody every week, and people come to church, you got a word for me, you got a word, God doesn't work like that, Abraham went 10 years on one word, people go 10 years, 15, their destiny decisions, their directions, especially I told you a few weeks ago, same thing with planning this church, I was struggling, my wife remembers, actually getting into the ministry, not even planning this church, 10, 12 years ago, what God was putting on my heart to preach, I'm like, this is gonna come across, wow, this is gonna not be good, Lord, this better be you, I feel like people are gonna think this is prideful and this is arrogant, and we talked about this, and then some guy just called it out to me, said, listen, what God is doing to you is not pride, it's not arrogance, it's boldness, and you've gotta come out of that shell, and he started, I'm like, okay, that's the devil? What? I still live off that, because when times get difficult, yes, you're calling me to that, you're calling me to that, I live off this daily, but I also go, remember what, God, you did in my life, you spoke where nobody else could speak, I knew that was you speaking to me, I left there saying yes, now I'm called to the ministry, I know, I confirm it with this, I confirm it in my heart, and other people confirm it, see how that works for the prophet of all, these things aren't bad, but the enemy likes to come in and abuse them and do this, and everybody has a word, and everybody has this, and people walk around as if, I gotta hear something, I gotta hear something, and that's not healthy, you don't need to hear something all the time, except the still, small voice of God's Spirit as you're studying the word and praying and seeking him. So we have to be careful in that area, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, a word of wisdom will help a person make a wise decision, a word of knowledge is revealing something that's not known. Oh, and another guy who caught some heat on this whole thing was Mark Driscoll, and again, I don't support these guys, I don't know them very well, but he's had images of people in his congregation that he knows were molested, or that they've been having an affair, and he will ask them, and so people make fun of him because they say, oh, God's giving him pornographic images, you don't get pornographic images, you just have this sensing that there's something not right, you sense that this person is in an affair, and you can see them at dinner or whatever, and you're seeing God's working, and then you go and confront them with that truth, and then repentance takes place.

It's not like you see pornographic images up in your mind, so that's how they easily write it off, oh, yes, he would, he would put something in your heart, so you go and confront the person to repent or to change, or to build them up, that's the whole point of these things, because a prophetic word or an utterance goes and it directly pierces the heart, or it encourages, or it builds up, that's the whole point, it's drawing them closer to Christ through repentance, or restoration, or encouragement. So I don't see how these things can be bad, I see how they can be abused. Verse nine, to another the faith by the same Spirit, so faith is a gift, somehow there's this great faith that God can give people, do you ever hear said, I know that I know that I know, and you just know that God is gonna move, you've got this great faith that he has given you, it doesn't matter, come hell or high water, I had it with this church.

I want people saying, you can't start on Saturday, and you can't do this, you can't, I just know, I know God's given me the faith to know, he's done it, it's gonna happen. And it's that faith that you, this grift of faith, to another he gives the gift, the gifts of, actually an S on this one, to another the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles. Now, just to be open and honest with you, I don't quite know how this works.

I don't know, I've seen abuses, I've seen many things not right, but one thing I have found is this type of excuse that all these things have ceased, that doesn't fly on the mission field. I've talked to a lot of missionaries where you've seen little children raised from the dead, you've seen witch doctors die two days later, you've seen people be healed, you've seen, why? Why is that? And not here. I have my, you know, kind of guesses.

One thing I know is that many times you'll look in the Scripture, God confirmed his word, and these things followed, signs and wonders. So you have the Jewish people 2,000 years ago, how do they know this guy is Paul, John the Baptist, how do they know there's any validity to what he's saying? We've got all these other, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, all these other groups have infiltrated, and how do we know this is the one true living God? Well, how do they know in the Old Testament? You remember Elisha up on the mountain? He was telling all the prophets of Baal to dance and cut yourself, maybe your God's sleeping, maybe he's sleeping, wake him up, wake him up. And Elisha just said, let the God who answers by fire, let him be God.

And the whole altar there was consumed by God's fire. Let God be God, let him answer by fire. The rain came down, the floods came up, the ground shook, everything, God would confirm that he was with his people.

Moses, boom, Red Sea, all these things, confirming, confirming that he is the one true living God. That was one of the signs of miracles and things in the Old Testament, was to show that God was really who he said he was. And then we get into the New Testament, same thing.

And signs and wonders followed them. Why? To prove, to authenticate that this is the one true gospel. So now in America, we have the Bible on tape, the Bible on CD, we have everything, everybody, there's really no, and this is, again, this is an idleman paraphrase, there's really no desperate need for God.

We're not seeing those mighty moves of God. And I just talked to a retired fire captain a couple weeks ago, when he was on the mission field, and he said there's a spiritual power on both sides. He remembered a little boy came and was teasing a witch doctor, and the witch doctor said, listen, he needs to say he's sorry, or I'm gonna do something very bad.

And the mom said, no, he's not saying he's sorry, and two days later, that little kid died. And he saw it, he saw it firsthand, he goes, I know there's a spiritual power. But he's also seen where Christians are witnessing, and they'll say, and the witch doctor, and all these hexes, and they're putting, I mean, we don't know what real darkness is.

When you go into some of these countries, you just feel the spiritual oppression, the occult, and the witches, and all these things, and you just walk around. But they're bringing the gospel, people, he said, this gift-ceasing, we're not flying the mission field. You're seeing people radically change, you're seeing demonic oppression being lifted.

He's, events where they were told, witch doctor, themselves, listen, you're gonna die. And within a day, the guy's dead, they're taking him away. The signs and wonders accompanying the powerful gospel.

So are all these people lying? That's what we have to, we have to come up with that. We have to say, they're lying, they're full of it. Come on, that doesn't happen anymore.

Why not? It's the same God today, yesterday, and forevermore. Granted, I do see the issue there, because when we think of gift of healing, you know, we have this impression of Benny Hinn blowing on people, and boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, there they go, they're all healed, as if he's God, walking around. And some of these guys think they're God.

They just, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We've had people come to this church who have left working with him, and again, I'm being careful here, you know, I don't wanna, you know, tarnish and all this, but have said that, you know, there's a lot of questionable things that happen. That people aren't healed in those cases.

Some are, some aren't. I don't, you know, I'm just saying, I don't know, we have to be careful. But I don't think that's what it looked like.

I don't think Paul would sit in the audience and, good job, yeah, that's exactly. No, what it is, it's a humble, broken vessel, saying, Lord, how do you wanna use me? Walking down the street, Peter, Paul, whoever it was, seeing the guy had faith to be healed. Silver and gold, have I none, but by the name of Christ, get up and raise yourself up, get up.

And they would just walk, being used of God in his sovereign control. So it's his gifts. But how does gift of healing, gifts of healing work? I can't really say in America.

You know, that's one of the arguments is, well, see, you don't know, yeah, we don't know exactly. If somebody has this gift of healing, sometimes they know it and they can pray for people, and God will use them to heal different things, not everything, and that's where we get in trouble. That was that faith, you know, the name and claimant and all that is, you should never be sick, you should never be depressed, everybody should be healed.

Well, that's not biblical. I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it's not the right Bible, because you're pulling out scriptures here and there. So that's how that would look.

It's somebody being, God says, I'm going to use you to show others my glory. That's what he says. I'm gonna use you to show others my glory.

And then we move into the next verse. To another, he gives the gift of prophecy. To another, the discerning of spirits.

Now, Wayne Grudem, who wrote a great book on systematic theology, said this about prophecy. Prophecy involves not authoritative Bible teaching and not speaking words of God which are equal to scripture, but rather reporting something which God spontaneously brings to your mind. And he's done that before with me.

I've been talking with somebody, I'm like, hey, have you? God brings it to mind, it hits right to that situation. He works in that way. And again, we don't look at these things as weird or out there.

God's using us human, fragile vessels. He uses us in this way to speak into people's lives. Now, what about this discerning of spirits? Well, we know discern means to perceive or to recognize as being different or distinct.

So something about this gift says, if you see somebody or they know, they just don't have a right feeling. It's a discerning there. It's a discerning of what's going.

They have this discernment about them. God's been giving them the gift. And that's why I think that it's good to have these kind of operating in the entire church.

You have people that have discernment. They can see, watch out for that guy, watch out for that lady. There's this discernment there, knowing that it's not the same spirit.

It's a different spirit coming into trying to manipulate and work and ruin the things of God. And now, finally, they get into the last one. To another, different kinds of tongues.

To another, their interpretation of tongues, but one and the same spirit work all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. Now, we don't have a lot of time. I wish we did, but we see this issue of tongues and worshiping, and at this sound, Acts 2, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language the mighty works of God.

So what we read in Acts 2, we see this tongues of fire. These people are praising God. They're worshiping God in an unknown language to them.

That's what this is. It's wonderful in the New Testament. Everybody loves it in the New Testament, right? It's wonderful.

Paul would say, I speak in tongues more than you all. Paul would say that. And sometimes I think people think, oh, that poor Paul.

Poor guy, he was so trapped in this emotionalism. No, it was good in the New Testament, but now it's bad today. See how that just doesn't jive.

Edification, Paul said, now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. For one who speaks in tongues speaks not to men, but to God. What about 1 Corinthians 14? If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or believers enter in, they will think that you were out of your mind.

So none of these apply today? I mean, none of this applies? We should just throw all this out? The early church needed, we need it. This is what people would look to. In my name, Jesus said, they will cast out demons.

They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Jesus said that, so it's not applicable today. But then the snake handler guys, they do their new reality show, right? Snake Salvation. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard about it.

And that's taking this verse way out of context. We're not supposed to tempt God and do these things. God's saying if, as a follower of Christ, a spirit-filled believer, if you come into dangerous situations, I will guide you.

I will lead you. I will protect you. You will speak with new tongues.

You will raise, you will pray with people. You'll see healings as a byproduct of the spirit-filled life. My concern is that in the church in America, there's not a lot of spirit-filled believers.

Just to be, just the truth. We have a lot of carnality and lukewarmness, or we have a lot of Phariseeism, pride and arrogance. So many people are not operating in the power of the spirit, so they know nothing about this.

And let me make a statement that's gonna be offensive, and I hope it's not. Many are scared of what they have never experienced. They are hurt and they are offended because they have never experienced more of God.

They think this is super spiritual, and they've never experienced it, so they have to put it down. That's what happens. Think about it.

If they've never experienced this, pride gets in the way and says, I'm just as spiritual as you. Well, so it must not happen. God must not do that anymore.

No, no, that's not true. Now, let me say this up front as well, as we close. I'm not trying to win an argument with this group, that group, any group.

I'm not trying to win an argument. I just want more of God. I just wanna be consistent with what the Scriptures say.

And I look back over my life, which I've talked about before, my testimony. When he took a drunk guy with a life falling apart, filled him with this spirit, this epi, this induminous spirit, I felt the spirit. I couldn't stop weeping.

I was just so much joy in the midst of turmoil, weeping, praising God. The word of God became alive and active. I couldn't stop reading.

I couldn't put it down. I had to preach. I had to get off all the music that was pulling me down from M&M to country to you name it.

You know, everything was just making me go back. I just hate this stuff. I need to worship.

There's some good country. I'm not saying there's not. But I'm saying I just had to worship him in this transformed life.

So when I read the Bible, I say yes, his word is in my belly like a burning fire. When Jesus said, he who believes on me as the Scriptures say out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. John the Baptist says when he comes, he's gonna baptize you with the spirit and with fire.

I can say yes, I've experienced these things. This has radically changed my life. Not weirdness, power.

Not weirdness, anointing. Not weirdness, unction. Unction to witness.

Unction to live for Christ. Unction to maybe die for Christ someday. Unction to go against the culture.

That's the spirit-filled life. And there's an empty, broken vessel saying, Lord, use me. You might see the gifts in operation.

Somehow you don't seek the gifts. I'm not seeking the gifts. I'm seeking the gift giver.

And if he decides to move through me or move through you to help somebody, that's his prerogative. We get in trouble when we say the gifts of the spirit can be manipulated and fostered, and not fostered, there I'm looking for a different word, can be manipulated and kind of made up and all these things. And God's doing all this weird stuff and the spirit's moving.

Brother, everybody's doing all this crazy stuff, but there's no character. There's no spirit-filled life. They don't witness for Christ or just his mean husband or just his mean wife.

There's no difference. So I wanna say stop it. And this side, I wanna say wake up.

It's okay. It's okay to talk about the anointing of the spirit, the unction of the spirit. May I be quite honest with you? Do you have it? The very thing you're scared of is the very thing you need.

That's what's happening. So this isn't an argument like I wanna win, I'm gonna, guys, guys, we need to be desperate for more of God, more of what he has, not weirdness, look into the Bible, have this be our discerning factor. We filter everything through this.

We don't interpret our feelings, or we don't interpret the Bible by our feelings. We interpret our feelings through the Bible, through the word of God. Looking for discernment.

So when I read about these things in the book of Acts, I read about Paul instructing the church in Corinthians, I read about the Ephesians, somebody gives apostles, prophets, preachers, teachers, and all these things, but now none of that applies. I've experienced it though. No, no, that's the devil.

Books, articles, speaking. God's having me write books when I barely graduated high school because of this enduement of the spirit. No, no, it's not right.

No, no, you're the devil. You're out there, you're charismatic. Well, hmm.

You know what I finally start telling people now? I'm just so glad I don't believe that. And leave it at that. Isn't that true? I'm just glad I don't believe that because God can have all of my life.

He can do whatever He does and wants to do. We don't just walk around and check our brains at the door. If somebody wants to give a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge, guess what's gonna go through the filter of this? And now I'm gonna say, well, let's see if it comes to pass.

True prophet, false prophet. That's stupid. We don't live off these things.

We live for Christ. These things are just supplemental. The church needed them then.

I believe we need them now. What's the difference? Many people, we have this now, but many people don't read it. And we talked about the gift, you know, in Ephesians, he said Christ gave some to be apostles, church planners going out, some prophets, just a prophetic voice to the culture, calling the church back.

Some evangelists, hello, Billy Graham. Some preachers, teachers. That's healthy, that's good.

We're not putting on these anything that the Bible doesn't put. We're not saying there are apostles equal to the apostles then. We're not saying there's prophets now.

They're saying things that are equal to Scripture. They have to sit underneath the Scripture. And that's why I do have some of these concerns with these guys who call themselves prophets, and they come to websites, and doom's coming to America.

It's gonna be an earthquake. No, it's gonna be a tsunami. No, it's gonna be a nuclear attack.

Well, who's right? Who's right? Come on, guys, let's be honest. Because they love the title. They love the applause of men.

They wanna be esteemed. They wanna be up here. I mean, you look at all these self-proclaimed prophets.

Maybe they have the gifting somewhere of seeing things. I don't know. But they're all contradicting each other.

Every one of them. We know that America's on a highway to hell, and she's going to hell in a handbasket. I know that.

I don't need you to tell me that. I got it. I'm trying to turn the shit back.

One of many voices. So we have to be careful, because I, Shane, have you heard what this guy's saying? I don't care what this guy's saying. I wanna know what this guy's saying.

Did you catch that? Because everybody's caught up on, did you get, no, what, I don't wanna know what the prophets are saying. I wanna know what Jesus Christ is saying to you every day in his words. Start there, please.

And most of those people don't. So they're carried away by every wind of doctrine. They're carried away by all this weirdness of all these people.

I'm not taking away from legitimacy. I'm just saying we need to be careful. Because all these prophets have new dreams and new visions every week.

It makes you wonder. Does it not? God's gonna bring a tsunami. California's gonna break off an earthquake.

No, we're gonna nuclear attack from Iran. No, we're gonna get this. No, we're gonna get plagues and pestilence.

Well, who's right? So we have to be very careful in this area. I don't think we should be looking for these things. I think we look to Christ and Christ alone, if he chooses to heal, if he chooses to deliver.

I mean, I just got a text before I came over here. Somebody's been helping us usher. Read it.

My wife has just been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, maybe six months. That's the world we live in. That's the world I live in.

What do you do? Sorry, God doesn't heal anymore. We're gonna be praying. We're gonna be fasting.

We're gonna be doing what James says, take the elders. If somebody's sick among you, do these things. But I'm not gonna get discouraged if God has other plans.

You see how that works? I'm just the vessel. Lord, I'll do what you've called me to do. It's not up to me.

We just have to be faithful and allow God to do what he needs to do. Let me close. Lord, I just pray, Lord, for all of us tonight, Lord, that we would be, no matter where this message goes, Lord, or who gets upset, who gets offended, Lord, that you will speak through my frailty, Lord, my own brokenness.

Lord, I don't know you as well as I want to know you. Lord, I wanna know you in the power of your spirit. Lord, I wanna know you in the fellowship of your suffering.

Lord, to be drawn closer to you. Lord, do the refining work in this church. Lord, in my heart as well.

Lord, we just pray that you begin to open eyes in this area, Lord. Stop the charismatic chaos. Lord, get people, again, seeking you with all their heart, and not all this weirdness, but on the other side, Lord, please awaken the cemetery.

Awaken the people that need to hear this message. Lord, they need to embrace you, embrace the spirit's power, and be open but cautious, Lord, as we seek to find what many of us are looking for. Lord, just a deeper relationship with you.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen, amen.