 Are you smart Christians? Listen, I wanted to do this real briefly been real tiring today just to the live and But I want to cover something that's kind of being talked about a lot and that is this whole issue of Spiritual gifts and whether or not they have ceased You get a lot of pushback Mainly because you'll see people out there who are just Doing some things and that's just that hasn't seen the line with with scriptures I've seen the jive right with scriptures So surely there's got to be a way to know for a fact if what's happening Some of these shenanigans that we've seen if that stuff is legitimate or not some of these spiritual gifts such as tongues the gift of healing Prophecy or the gifts that are not so open so apparent, right? The gift of health and administration You don't see people trying to abuse those gifts to you You don't see people abusing a gift of being generous You don't really see that But you do see people abusing or possibly abusing or taking advantage or maybe even lying on these gifts of Tongues or gifts of healing that we talked about what tongues are make no mistake about it tongues Biblically speaking are a language. It's not some ecstatic Unknown Language that no one knows. That's just not what the Bible even contemplates. It is a language Used to bring about people who don't know the language that you speak. It's a language It's a known earthly language That unbeliever doesn't know that a believer will know to bring them the gospel so What I wanted to do was kind of look at some issues some things in the Bible to kind of talk up to kind of Share some light on why you have this whole issue this whole debate as to whether Certain gifts have ceased or not So what I want to do you all forget me for the setup, but I still have the setup for the live And so this this screen here is still in the way But I do want to use it and I want to go to a couple of passages and see why you've got the Sensation this and these continuationist which one is accurate which one is true which one is not so let's just go real quick to to first Corinthians 13 so Hmm First Corinthians 13 if we get to the verse 8 it says that love never ends as for prophecies They will pass away as for tongues. They will cease as for knowledge It will pass away For we know in part and we prophesy in part verse 10 But when the perfect comes the partial will pass away So the question is going to be When looking at this When the perfect comes The things that we know in part the partial it will pass away The question is going to be what is the perfect that comes? You've got the different debates as to is that the close of the canon? Is it Christ's return? And I'm just gonna be honest if anyone tells you that they know Without beyond the shadow of doubt what that is they're making up. They don't We don't sometimes the Bible tells us some things and doesn't give us all the information that we need God has decided not to make it as clear as we would like it, which is fine I think in the end I'm gonna shock some people when I say this It might not be that big of a deal when trying to figure out which side is accurate Some of the arguments that the uh people in the in the cessation camp would hold to that kind of bolsters their point is That gifts like these sign gifts these miracle gifts or what are called the apostolic gifts Though the Bible and call them those but you can see why because these particular gifts are Visible they are these apparent and outward sign gifts the reason why there's a there's a Hesitancy to believe that they're they're still in place because what they were typically used for usually you would see these kind of gifts a company Someone who is trying to show or to prove to unbelievers that these are or or what's being preached or what's happening is a legitimate Issue from God. It's something that that is certainly from God. You see the New Old Testament when Prophets or let's say Moses to verify that his message is from God There were some signs that accompany that you see what other prophets will you see would get in you see all these different People who are speaking on behalf of God who are given a revelation of God There be these in often cases these accompanying signs these accompanying gifts, right? Same thing when it comes to the founding of the church, you'll see these signs accompanying The word of God to give validity to people who may not otherwise Believe that it's of God when Jesus came. What did you see a company? What did you see accompanying Jesus? You saw obviously some signs some miracles some things that people had no no choice But to say this is definitely of God, right? And so at the founding of the church, how would anyone someone who's not ready to believe? How would they know for a fact that this is of God? Well, there were these accompanying signs like on the day of Pentecost You've got these men speaking these languages to all these different people who are from different parts Who understood it heard the gospel and became believers you would see these apostles these signs and wonders Following them, which is also another reason why we know for a fact that there are no more apostles today And if there are where your signs and miracles that should come and you like they did others But without getting on that again, and so When we look at some of these gifts, we don't see these gifts happening Further on as we go into the epistles into the end of the Bible Chronalids me they seem to stop at a certain point Why is that for example tongues? We don't see after 1st Corinthians the issue or the gift of Languages being mentioned. We don't see the early church fathers talking about Look tongues or languages Now does that mean that because the early church fathers don't talk about it and they don't recognize they don't have any experience They haven't experienced it or they don't see it Does that mean that the gift that by itself is good enough to say that the gift is no longer in use? No, but it does let us know that these were the disciples of the apostles and they themselves don't see this as a Matter of fact in their writings, they have they written that they don't think that these gifts are around and that these gifts were only used for the to give a little to give validity to the founding of the church and so Have they ceased are they still in continuation do we need them? That part could probably be debated as to whether we still need them I personally don't think that we need those gifts to know that the word of God is true and accurate I believe we've got enough as a matter of fact truth We told even with all those gifts if they were still in play eat just like then Everyone is not going to believe just because they saw these miracles They didn't all didn't believe when Jesus was as a matter of fact Some of the same people who saw the miracles and experienced miracles of Jesus were some of the same people who turned on him and yell crucified crucified crucified so Seeing the gifts aren't necessary. It just kind of it's something that it's gonna stand in judgment against you When you sit and say or when you are brought before the Lord and you brought before judgment Well, wait a second you had these gifts and you stood in belief and so you have the word and you still won't believe Like Jesus said if if if someone were to come back from hell To tell their family members that hey, this is real. He said that they still wouldn't believe so Do I think that the gifts are Necessarily have they ceased or they still continuing? Well, I think something that Paul says Might almost I don't say total but may almost make this a moot point looking at Romans let's get there to Romans Romans 12 We move this out of the way. Let's look at what he says in verse 3. He says for grace Given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly Than he ought to well why that's important is for a good reason. It's important because remember People if you've got these gifts, it's gonna be easy for you to think that you're something special Right, you can you can become bolster. You can become proud. You can feel like you're the man So it's no coincidence that people who claim they have these gifts They present themselves as somebody special and people view them as somebody special Not to know that not to say that they really have these gifts or not but if someone thinks that this person has the gift of healing or the gift of tongues or prophecy If you think this person has that you're gonna look at him as a special person, right and so Going back to the passage. He says for as I'm sorry But to think with sober judgment not to think more highly of yourself you ought to But to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned Here it is verse 4 for as in one body We have many members and the members do not all have the same function. So we Though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Here it is six Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them if prophecy Then what does he say in proportion to our faith if service? In our serving the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhausts in exhortation The one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with zeal the one who does acts of mercy with Cheerfulness, so what is it? What is he saying? Why why is that important? Why does it may all almost make this a move point? Well, I Remember speaking to some people who said that hey this guy over here says that he has a gift of healing Do you think that's true? Well, I said Let's say he does or he doesn't if he does have the gift. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Let's compel him to go over to the hospital to heal some people So as Paul says if you've got these gifts going back here, he says again To the person who says he has these different gifts if prophecy well, then guess what prophesy When Mohammed goes to these Jews and he's trying to tell them That he is a prophet the Jews said, okay, we don't think you over if you profit prophesy tell us something So if a person says they have the gift of healing fine, okay, let's see him. I Don't think you had the gift of healing. I could be wrong I could have misunderstood everything that I thought about the Bible or I could have misunderstood this whole issue of gifts Ceasing or not On the chance that I may have been wrong about this gift of healing that you say you have well fine If you have the gift of healing then heal if you have the gift of prophecy Then prophesy now if you mess up if you are an error if you've lied We are going to hold you accountable and we're gonna mark you and we're gonna call you out We're gonna let everyone know that you are not who you say you are because what's happened is you've got all these folks who are abusing or Lying really about having the gift of healing the gift of languages All the the gift of prophecy all these different outward gifts Well, let's verify them because those who had those gifts who the spirit empowered in those particular gifts. We see them Paul didn't go around talking talking about how much he was endowed with the gift of healing or prophecy He just did it and so he says if you got that gift then do it whatever you've been given by the Lord Because again, he says in 1 Corinthians 12 7 that all of these spiritual gifts They're given for the benefit of the body not for yourself So if you got to get the healing don't just waste it on healing yourself If you've got that kind of gift heal some people right in that what love would tell you to do But if you don't then you make it that may be the key indicator that you are a fraud So if a person says that he has a gift of languages well then fine Go to one of these countries where there is no they haven't translated the Bible told it or they need more translators Go to one of those countries and let the gift of tongues the gift of languages Flow through you and speak to them in their language so they can get the gospel Why don't you allow yourself to be used if you've got the gift of prophecy? And I don't mean the gift of foretelling me foretelling you say or these prophets will say that they have the gift of Foretelling telling the future will find tell us the future Tell us not like some of these prophets who prophesied about Trump winning and then he didn't of course Here's what's funny I believe if Trump were to come back and were to run for office again and to beat Biden You know if they're gonna say right they're gonna say well That was a prophecy that had a long that he was gonna be put back in office And with some of these people there's just no winning with him but tell him hey prophesy Give me something and let's let's see and if not we are going to we're going to ostracize you We hold God's word in high value. And so if you lie about it We've got to call you out on that. And so if you're a prophet, which means you have this high standard You should it shouldn't bother you anyway. So if you've been given these gifts Utilize it but again, there's this pushback to say that people who Have lied about these gifts the natural tendency is to push all the way and say there is no possibility whatsoever Well, which side is right? I say I lean more towards certain gifts having ceased But I'm open to being wrong and if I am wrong, I'll simply say what Paul said if you've got these gifts Then use them. Let us see Let the love of Christ the spirit flow through you and let's take you to the hospitals Let's let's get covered under control. Let's get cancer under control. You have this gift. So Whatever the gift you have use it if you believe that these gifts have not ceased Then make them evident to those who believe they have amen