Let's go to Romans chapter 12 this morning. Romans chapter 12. And we'll begin reading with verse one. Romans chapter 12 beginning verse one going down this morning. to verse eight. He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry. Let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth Let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. For our Sunday School Bible study hour here, I want to continue with our thoughts on the subject of the gifts of the Spirit. Today, last time we kind of looked at some temporary gifts that were going on during the New Testament era, early church times. Today I want to look at the question, are there gifts of the Spirit today? Are there gifts of the Spirit today? And right away, I would say that there are a lot of differing opinions on this subject, depending on who you speak to and what camp you're around. There are folks in this world who are so busy looking for the exciting, what I would say seem to be the more exciting looking gifts, the shinier things in the New Testament, the things that we read of like what happened in Acts chapter 2 where the early church began speaking in tongues there, and we find that that was languages. We find, as we mentioned before, those were languages that these men were born with, the people who heard them. Now the ones speaking, they were speaking languages that they'd never learned, they'd never been taught. But those things were exciting and some individuals are out looking for a sign or some excitement going on in their circle or in their life. As we said before, there's some There's some key passages that indicate that this is temporary. Gifts of the spirit that we were talking about there with the gifts of tongue, prophecy, and others. And even when we examine the modern tongues movement, and just using that one as an example, we find that it is lacking. In Acts chapter two, for instance, just as a refresher and a reminder, but I would encourage those who are listening to this sermon to go back and look at and listen to the previous message on this. But in Acts chapter two and verse four, five and six, it says, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. So the men heard in their own language. That's what these tongues were. And in fact, as you get into verses nine, 10, 11, there's places that are named all across the Roman Empire. And I don't believe that I've shared it. If I have, you can forgive me for repeating myself, but I've got a really neat map that shows where these places were in the Roman Empire. And so it would be like modern day if we had a gathering, a big gathering of people from other places, you know, across, across North America, some people from Brazil, some people from Mexico, some people from Cuba, some people from New York, some people from different parts of the United States. They didn't know English like we know it. than if the Holy Spirit were to give us the gift like what they had then, we wouldn't be speaking in some sort of gibberish. We'd be speaking in Portuguese for the Brazilians, Spanish for the Mexicans, whatever it is that they speak up in New York, I don't know, Boston, those fellas, they speak some strange English. They don't speak proper English like y'all do down here in Georgia. But you know, you get the idea, right? It's not gibberish. It's actual languages. But as we saw before, the Bible is clear that these gifts ceased. And so in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, 2 Corinthians chapter 13. I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 13. My notes even say 1 Corinthians and I was saying 2 Corinthians. I don't even know why I can't read this morning. But in 1 Corinthians 13, verses eight and nine, through 10, he says, charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but then that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. So we find that when the scriptures were not completed, these gifts were needed, but now that we have the entirety of the word of God, we have no need for these things they've been done away with. But one thing has lasted. One thing has lasted throughout all this time, and that is charity. Because whatever gift you have, chapter 13 and verse one, Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. One thing that has lasted throughout all of the history of the Lord's churches, and that is the need for charity, for love. Whatever gift you've got, whatever age we're talking about, whether it's the New Testament age or now, without love, without charity, without the love that we need. He says, if I have all these gifts, I'm become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Nothing, in verse two, without charity. Without charity. There are, there were, in those days just like there are some in our day who have maybe either a real or a perceived gift. Okay, you get where I'm going? They have a real or perceived gift and they lack the love of Christ. They lack charity And you look at chapter 13 and you read about it, and you know, he could have said, you need to do all this with love, and been done with it, but he couldn't just do that because we, who we are, who the Corinthians were, we've got to understand, what is love? Charity suffereth long, he says in verse four, is kind. Charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. that doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. These are characteristics of true love. Charity never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, he says. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. But charity, charity will stick around. In fact, verse 13, he says, now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. Again, going back to the beginning there, Without charity, nothing, nothing. Whether you've got the gift of, whether you're at the church at Corinth, and you think you've got the gift of tongues or prophecy, and you have not charity, it doesn't matter, you're nothing. And whether we're here in this day and you've got a gift, and all you're doing is making a name for yourself, trying to push yourself up or put others down, nothing, nothing. And so we must keep this in mind as we think about this. and consider it. What a waste it is for a man or a woman to have a great gift that they've been given and then for pride or whatever to come in and really for that gift to be wasted away. You see, there's some folks who may not use their gift or may not want to do anything with their gift, but then there's other folks who do something with it, but for the wrong reasons. And that was a lot of what was going on in the church at Corinth. And so we have these lessons that we can keep in mind and learn as we come along. The Church of Corinth, of course, the Church of Jerusalem, those churches that we read about in the New Testament, they had some things that were going on in their times that we can look at and examine, but as we said last week, one of the key things that happened, one of the key differences from then to now is We have in our hands, in our laps this morning, the completed Word of God. He said there, verse 10, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Some commentators say he's talking about the coming of Christ. I don't believe that. He uses the word that instead of he. which is the way that he would have worded it if he's talking about Christ. He's talking about the completed word of God. The early churches, they needed signs to authenticate the truth of the revelations they were receiving. In Hebrews chapter two, Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 through 4. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have learned, which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Think of it this way. In the Old Testament, God had a house. God had a place to meet with the people. The tabernacle, the temple, the glory of God we find in the Old Testament was found there. Call it the Shekinah glory. And now all of a sudden, after 400 years of silence, no revelation, the Old Testament had been written. There was no nothing, no prophets, no prophecy. And now all of a sudden, things start happening. Jesus comes. The Judaizers, the religious Jews, They were concerned, deeply concerned. Have you come to destroy the law? Jesus told them, said, I've not come to destroy the law or the prophets, I've come to fulfill. But as you read through that, some things start happening in the New Testament. Jesus is preaching and teaching And John the Baptist is baptized in there, and all of these things are going on. This is all new. Then Jesus dies on the cross. He's buried. He rose again. Many are witness to the resurrected Savior. and then he ascended up into heaven. But before he left, over in Acts chapter one, in Acts chapter one, verse four, Well, let's start with verse one. I love this right here. The way that Luke begins this book of Acts, I love it. He says, the former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. till the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. So in other words, this is volume two of Luke's works that he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the gospel of Luke being volume one. This is volume two. Verse three, to whom also he showed himself alive. I've got that underlined. He showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. Well, I've got that underlined too. Many infallible proofs. That's proofs that can't be denied. There's no denying that the Lord was raised from the dead. You've got many, many accounts, eyewitness accounts, that we read of here. Being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Verse four, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you've heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. when they therefore were come together. They asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. So check this out, here's the, Here's his church, okay? Because the church existed before Pentecost. And he tells them to wait. They said, well, hold on, we got a question for you. Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Some people find fault with these guys, but listen, they're no different than us. What would happen if this were to, if this would happen right now here in America? Lord, will Thou at this time restore the Declaration of Independence? Are you going to do something with Biden? The difference between us and Israel is there's some promises. unconditional promises that are left to be fulfilled for Israel, not so much for us. But look what he says here in verse 8, he says, but ye shall receive power. He told him, he said, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father put in his power. I almost imagine him getting there. Getting the calendar out, saying, hey, when is it that this is going to happen? I want to mark this down. We're excited for it. And understandably so. Nobody wants to be ruled by a tyrant. The Jews didn't want the Roman Empire any more than we would have wanted them. He says, not for you to know the times or the seasons. The father's put that in his own power, but he said, ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. What he's talking about, and as we kind of look at this time period, and the things that happened on the day of Pentecost. He's talking about authentication. This great authentication that had to happen. And if you want to think of it this way, the Jews, they were still stuck in their Old Testament ways of worship. Understandably so. They were raised that way. It was their tradition, the things that they'd been taught from the Holy Scriptures. What they missed was that those things weren't permanent. You see, they were signs, pictures, and foreshadowing of the coming Christ. And all that would eventually be done away with. the bloody religion of Judaism, the Old Testament sacrifices, all that would eventually be done away with when Jesus came and finished the work on the cross, and he did. And now as we look at this, we see the Shekinah glory. The Holy Spirit moving, in a sense, putting his stamp of approval, if you will, empowering this thing called the church that Jesus started during his earthly ministry. It is a sad mistake. when some very learned men and commentators read Acts chapter two and they talk of the founding of the church, the beginning of the church. There was no beginning or founding going on there, but there was exactly, as Jesus put it, the fulfillment of the promise that had been given. And we read this, indicators of this time. In the New Testament, we think of this as the days of authentication. It was no mistake that it was on the day of Pentecost that this happened. The Jews had come from all over the known world back up to Jerusalem for this day. They had gone from all over the Holy Land, or from all over the Roman Empire, rather, back to the Holy Land. Why were they scattered? Go back into the Old Testament, you'll find that they were scattered. Different times, different places. But the one thing about the Jews is they held on to their identity. What was it that held them all together? It was their belief in the Old Testament scriptures. They had an attachment back to Jerusalem. So they went there. They went there. So they were there at that time and place. Some of these folks had never, they weren't born in Israel. They'd been born in other places, but they were Jewish. As a side note, I mean, you get in there and you look at the map and see where all these places were from, where all these places were on the map. They had just come into town for this thing. Then we see the Holy Spirit working. And a whole bunch of them were baptized. And guess what? Not all of them. lived in that place. Many of them lived in other places and presumably went back home. There were members of the Church of Jerusalem. Some of them may have moved back to Jerusalem, but others may have stayed where they were carrying the gospel out further into some regions beyond. Because isn't that the pattern he said would happen? He said, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Well, how in the world is that gonna happen? We're a small church. We can't do that sort of thing. And on and on they go. And thinking it, maybe they didn't say it, And our great God, our sovereign God says, I've got this and you're going to see. The world will come to you. And then they will go out. Over in Acts chapter. Sorry, Mark chapter 16. in Mark chapter 16 and verses 15 through 18. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Verse 19 says, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. They went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. This was the time of authentication, the time of confirmation. Are you and I. Supposed to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature Absolutely, Matthew 28 and other passages tell us that that is true Had a hard shell one time tell me that that's not true because of Mark chapter 16 and he read Verses 15 through 18. He said he said have you taken up serpents and have you done have you drunk? Poison and all this sort of Nonsense. But see, he doesn't understand that there were some signs that were going on in those New Testament times that are applicable today. And some folks look at this and they say, well, those are exciting times. And they begin to look for those sorts of signs. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord's Church, the New Testament Church, known today as the Baptist Church, was given credentials in those days. Those days of authentication. Those days are over. It would be an insult for us, looking back over 2,000 years of church history, to say that we demand in our day to be accredited again. You see, the accreditation is over. We've got the record here. In the period of time, so check this out, in the period of time from the last record of those temporary gifts being given We have no record of them in any kind of church history. Now I know, I know some people will point back to like 300, 400 AD and give examples of when Catholicism and they began to see visions of Mary. I mean, they did some crazy things in those days. They'd see visions of Mary on a pizza box. and then declared the pizza box to be holy because Mary was seen there. And I mean, even today, their shrine's set up because of some vision that they saw. But those things aren't scriptural. And you say, well, how do you know that those things weren't right? Like I was saying before, we have the completed word of God. The Holy Spirit is not gonna lead you anywhere to anything contrary to his word. And we're not supposed to worship Mary. The modern tongues movement didn't even start until the 1900s. If these things were intended to be permanent, number one, we would read it in the scriptures and we don't. We're told the opposite, that they were temporary. And then number two, we're told that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. The church did not lie dormant for almost 2,000 years until being picked up again in 1900. It's existed. It's existed all the way through to now. And so we must look at these things and examine them. Praise God. We get into passages where Paul was bit by a poisonous snake and he survived. Peter and those guys were able to heal, and we read of them speaking in tongues, and we thank God for that. We see how the Spirit of God was moving. We thank God for it, but we must understand also that the Holy Spirit is still working in His churches, and there are gifts. And that was kind of the introduction and a recap a little bit. And so, Lord willing, next time, we'll get into looking at and examining some of those things, some of those gifts, and what the scripture has to say about them.