 Have spiritual gifts ceased or have they continued? Hey smart Christians, welcome back. One question that goes back and forth is this issue of spiritual gifts and whether they have ceased or whether they are continuing. Meaning, and we say gifts, we're speaking specifically of the more outwardly manifested gift, the sign gift so to speak or what someone called the apostolic gifts, have they ceased gifts like tongues, gifts like the laying on them hands and healing people and things like that. The gifts of prophecy have these gifts ceased and if you believe that you would be called a cessationist or have they continued, if you believe so you would be called obviously a continuationist. So let's go and look at the passages and then we will determine from the passages if they have ceased if they have not or if maybe there's some other way that we ought to be looking at these gifts. So let's go there. Particularly, we tend to look at 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verses 8. 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 prophesying part but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away therein lies the issue one what does it mean by they will pass away or they will cease and then also this other part that's in here it says verse 10, but when the perfect comes the partial pass away well in truth that part can be a little bit difficult to understand you won't get a consensus as to what the perfect is is a perfect the close of the Canon is it is it Jesus's return What is meant by that but before we get to that? Let's just look and see because it might not be honestly as Important or consequential to this as we might think let's go and look at this and see if we can see something here It says love never ends well Obviously the love that we have either for each other or for God that won't end But as for prophecies they will pass away well the question's got to be then what is meant by Prophecies this word here this Greek word here that we'll get the word prophecy is from the word profite or in this case Profite I which is a noun. It's a plural noun. So obviously these prophecies. Well, what does that mean? The word for profite or in this case profite I Means to utter to inform to announce to give a revelation now Prophecy can have two types of meaning it can be a foretelling prophecy or a Fourth-telling prophecy either way. It's giving a revelation of God a foretelling revelation would be what God is Going to do either in the near future or in the distant future But it's from God Him revealing to us and it doesn't specifically say how the prophecy will come about or how you learn of it Is it that if I inform someone of what God is going to do because I read his word Is that a prophecy? Well, it fits the definition now obviously we're thinking of because it's a spiritual gift We're thinking of a supernatural Understanding that the prophecy was given to that person directly by God And then the fourth-telling prophecy could be just someone who is also able to Inform or to utter or give a revelation of what God has said or is doing right now Now it's also important to understand that how God used prophets in the founding of the church And so if we go to first Corinthians chapter 12 go back a little bit further in chapter 12 verse 20 It says and God has appointed in the church first Apostles second prophets third teachers then miracles then gifts and so forth. So the issue is what are these prophets? Well, but we're not talking about Old Testament prophets like Isaiah Jeremiah because chronologically they came before and Besides we're speaking about the foundation of the church the prophets of old were not a part of this church The foundation is laid by the apostles of whom Jesus is the chief cornerstone and then we've got Given to the church to the body are these prophets? Well, why is that important to know and who they are and what they did? Well, what did they not have at the founding of the church? They did not have a closed canon they didn't have the Bible like we have they could not go to the Local Christian bookstore to buy a Bible. They could not order one and so how would the people know what the word of God is? How would people know what God has stated? well God has also given these prophets the people that would go to these different locales and Would inform and tell the people which is what the word means to tell the people about God to give a revelation of God and it would be in line And so you've got the apostles that are out sharing the gospel that are apostles to this Jewish community that Jewish community that Samaritan community or this Gentile community such as Paul or Barnabas would do and so then after that you would need someone After the founding of these churches or planning these churches You would need someone to share with them to teach them what God has given a revelation of God And so that's the term that's meant by a prophet So then you have that then after that you're gonna have these people are as the scriptures say Third teachers and then miracles the teacher would be the the pastors that would come along later so a Prophet or someone that gives these prophecies That's what they would do to give a revelation of the Lord so now let's go back to First Corinthians 13 and let's finish reading so it says as for prophecies or prophets The other people that would give these prophecies they will cease or they will pass away at some point in time Well, that makes sense at some point in time There will be no need to give a revelation of God from a human being to another human being because at some point in time God will be the one given the revelation directly Then it says as for tongues what our tongues and this is where I've had this conversation with people who believe in Sensationism now. I'm not a set a cessationist. I am not a continuationist. I have stated personally I am a skeptic with the Bible. In other words, if someone says they have this particular gift, okay I've got the Bible to to confirm if what you're saying or what you're doing is actually true The reason why I say that is when look at what tongues are tongues are not this Ecstatic almost babbling or gibberish. That's not what it is tongues in the Bible are an actual language So if a person had the gift of tongues today that person would go and be speaking in an actual language They would be an English-speaking person going to speak to someone in German or to someone in French or someone in Mandarin To magnify Christ because again the purpose of tongues is to magnify Jesus What did Jesus say would happen to them when the Spirit comes in them? They would testify of him the Holy Spirit would testify of Jesus He says that in John and he says that in Acts chapter 1 And that's exactly what we see the Spirit comes in them and they start magnifying given the gospel magnifying Christ To people who speak a different language and they in turn come to Christ And so the whole point of that catch this the whole point of them speaking in these languages is also to give a prophecy is also to prophesy to inform not a foretelling prophecy not Speaking in these languages to tell what God is going to do But in this case speaking these languages to tell what God has done the goodness and greatness of Jesus and so at some point in time The need for this gift to speak in these languages That will cease as for knowledge. It will pass away Well, if knowledge is a spiritual gift would we say it's passed away? Well, no, it has not now I'll say this and this might be where I might depart from my cessation friends This passage probably is not enough to say when something is going to pass away because it the Bible does not differentiate between some of these quote sign gifts and Regular gifts he brings these up because we don't believe that knowledge again It's put on the screen that knowledge has passed away and knowledge here is linked with tongues Knowledge here is linked with prophecy. And so it might be I think a bit of Reading into our own conclusion or a desire conclusion to say that tongues and prophecy Has gone away, but knowledge has not since they're linked together Paul links these together And so we know that knowledge is still here We're still trying to gain even more knowledge and by the spirit We can do so and so I don't see that now I understand the point of believing they may have passed away because we have an abuse of it We have people who are claiming to be prophets claiming to be apostles claiming to be all these different things having to get the prophecy Having the gift of tongues and these tongues don't line up having the gift of healing all these different gifts if they say they've been given Well, they don't line up with scriptures And so there is a tendency to over correct from the abuse to saying no We don't have them at all and this is the passage that we point to and if there's some sort of dispute Is there another passage that we can point to to so and see that these gifts have gone away? Well, there is not Unfortunately for some there is no other passage that you can really turn to to demonstrate what that these gifts have passed away It just says that they will win that wish the perfect gets home Which is the close of can well when the close of the can and happen if that's what's referring to I don't think that's what it's referring to but when the close of the can and happen According to verse 10 if that's what the perfect is that will come Then then the partial will pass away. Well, if the close of the can is what we were looking for it. That's the perfect The problem is when it did happen people still did not have the word of God by and large people just did not have even though It was finished You could go to one locale to one church and they may not have all of the books of the Bible They may have one copy of let's say The letter from Mark or someone may have a letter from Paul or someone may have a letter from John But that's it. You didn't have a place where they had all of the books contained in one place And so if when the perfect came these gifts stop Well, then you would have people who would be there in these different locales Not having a complete word and not having a full understanding And so then the person who would be there for let's say as a prophet or prophecy Then how would that by the way the last writing of the book was that was John? And so does that mean that whatever John would be able to still impart would that? Gifting would be gone after his last writing Well, I don't know and so the point is this is not enough to say just this passage here in 1st Corinthians 13 Is it enough to say that those particular gifts have ceased now? Am I saying that I am because I'm saying that I'm not a cessationist and I'm not saying that I'm a continuationist I don't know it's possible that that they're right that these gifts have ceased It's possible that they have not So how do I draw the line where where I'm where am I standing because I said that I am a skeptic with the Bible Well, here's why where I stand. Let's turn to Romans chapter 12 and let's see what of all people Paul has to say He says for the grip for by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think But to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned and here it is For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function And we see this same terminology brought up in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 Speak about spiritual gifts as it relates to the body. Let's continue verse 5 So we though many are one body in Christ and Individually members of one another but what he says having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us He says let us use them if prophecy and proportion to our faith if serving in Our serving the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation The one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with zeal the one who does act with mercy with cheerfulness Do you know what Paul just gave us? He gave us a way to determine if what a person says that they have use that particular gift And we've got a blueprint a guide to see if what you're doing is correct So in other words if you are a prophet then prophesy If that's what the giving that God has given you will then prophesy But we are going to use the scriptures to hold you accountable You cannot give something and say that it is from God and it does not line it does not line up with the spirit of God Through his word and so I don't think that we necessarily have to overcompensate when someone has abused these gifts And that's what we see oftentimes I Have not seen I have not seen the gift of tongues like it is in the book in this Bible I've never seen I've seen people say that and I've heard accounts where someone was said that this person spoke Russian or another language and a person in that language heard it Well, if that's the case if someone came and spoke to them Russian and gave them the gospel or magnified Christ in their language and the Russian person who did not speak English or what have you Understood it with an amen. That's what tongues is and so I could not say that they're wrong because I wasn't there What I'm saying is I have never heard it. I've never seen it done. I've seen this kind of tongues But I've never seen the kind of tongues that the Bible is speaking of and so Paul does say do not forbid tongues We're also told not to despise prophecy, but that is the uttering the informing of revelation from God and so we won't despise that it has to be true Prophecy it has to be a prophecy from the scriptures not not the vague prophecies that the Lord told me that Your you have a backache somebody out there is having a hard time someone the Lord has told me that He wants to bless you financially Not those sort of abstract vague Undefinable prophecies know the foretelling prophecies specifically is the one that we see that we seem to be abusing They are specific the people and the folks that is for is named We know who it's going to benefit who is going to affect May they give the exact date and time But we can determine if or when this prophecy has come to come to pass if it lines up And it's always going to line up with scriptures and I'm they do not Prophecies to encourage people we don't see the Lord saying the Lord wants you to be happy and then call that a prophecy No, that's not how that works. And so my point is guys We do have the scriptures so that if someone says they have a gift within Paul like Paul says well then if you Got it use it and if you use it you say you got it Then we are bound dutifully to judge what you're saying what you're doing According to the scripture because we're told that false prophets will sneak in But we are to be on alert and we're also to basically guard the flock or the flock what people know And the only way to do so is to check the prophets or the people with these gifts and to try it What they're doing compare them with the scriptures And so we don't have to worry about if a person is If we are a cessationist if we are continuations what we are is a believer We've got the Bible and so we will check everything out like Bereans We will investigate it with the Bible if it turns out to be biblical with an amen If not, well, then we'll also call it out too. Amen