Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Paul here is bringing it up to the Corinthians that at one time they were idolaters and enslaved to idolatry. Literally what they were doing, they were worshipping demons. But when they came to Christ, the light was turned on and now those idols they worshipped, they're supposed to get rid of them and burn them and get rid of them completely and fully. It's very important.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today's study takes us once again to 1 Corinthians, and we're glad to have you with you. God gives each of us different spiritual gifts and a unique calling, but with Christ as our leader, we can all serve the Lord together.

Stay with us to consider how much more you can accomplish for God's kingdom when you work in cooperation with others. Today's study is titled Unity in the Church. Here's Raul Ries in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

Raul Ries: It's amazing how the book of Corinthians shares so much light concerning people within the church. One of the great problems that Paul writes about is this unity within the church, the divisions that they had, and the misuse of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Remember when we started the first letter in chapter one, he talked about divisions. Then in chapter two, he talked about the natural man, then the actual spiritual man, and the carnal man. Then he goes on to talk about the lawsuits that were going on among Christians where Paul says, instead of going to court, why don't you guys settle your issues outside of court so that the gospel is not shamed?

I think that's something that within the church, we have to learn that God is in full control and that the church needs to be united but not divided. Yet there's a lot of churches that are totally divided when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet Paul here is going to be sharing some pretty heavy things with us this evening.

Now what he's going to do, he's going to be dealing with the proper use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The church had a real problem in Corinth concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the reason for that, there was an abuse of them. Remember that Paul says that these people in Corinth were very carnal people. They were dividers of the flock of God.

Paul writes now and he says, okay, let's deal with this issue concerning the Holy Spirit, who he is and what he intends to do within the life of each believer. So he begins now in chapter 12, verse one. Now we see first of all how we confess the same Jesus, not a different Jesus, but the same one. He says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren.

First of all, the word "gifts" is not found in the original language of Greek. Literally, it should be reading this way: now concerning spirituals, not gifts. He'll use that later on. What's incredible here, he's going to be teaching concerning these spirituals to the Corinthian church. He says, and I don't want you to be ignorant of what I'm going to teach you.

The problem with the Corinthian church is they were very ignorant when it came to the things of the Holy Spirit. I think that today, people are still ignorant concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I can remember when I first got saved. I got saved, went to Costa Mesa with Chuck, and because I was being taught the word of God, when I would go to different churches to visit, I would see this order in the church, especially concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

While the pastor was teaching, someone would get up and start prophesying or speaking in tongues. Then they'd start shouting and yelling and then come back down. To me as a new believer, I thought it was chaotic. I thought, where is the order in the church? And I was just a new believer.

As I began to read the Bible and study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, when I got into the New Testament, I got to the book of Corinthians, it answered a lot of my questions that I had. I don't know how many of you have ever studied the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It's incredible that Paul the Apostle in all of his letters, for example, in the book of Romans, chapter 12, what he does there is he speaks to us in verses six through eight. He speaks to us about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What he does there, he gives us seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In the book of Ephesians chapter four, 11 to 12, he once again gives us five more gifts of the Holy Spirit. Then in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, which we'll see today, he's going to give us another set of gifts, nine of them, that total 21 gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us. You think how God blesses people and the way he wants to move in your life and my life.

The problem with believers is they were always coveting somebody else's gift. They're not content with what God's given to us. That's a real problem. That's an issue in the church. You have these people that are contentious, and the reason for that is because they're desiring something that God hasn't given to you.

You've got to be content with what God has given to you. He knows what you can handle and what you cannot handle, especially in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because people get puffed up. Then people get weird. I've seen so many people weird with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They get this mentality that they're more spiritual than other people. More spiritual.

People will know if the spirit of God's upon you. You don't have to tell them. You don't have to tell anybody. It's really important because Satan will use that to knock you down. I think of how many people back in the Jesus People movement, churches that were actually abusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit by misinforming their congregations.

They would think that they were more spiritual than other people. Then you have the churches like the ones that are dispensationalists. Dispensationalists, they don't believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today. They say they stopped and ceased with the apostles. Then you have the Pentecostals, the super spiritual emotional people that really do everything out of order because it's all emotionalism.

Then you have the dispensationalists and then the Pentecostals over here. Then right in the middle, we believe Calvary Chapel's right in the middle. Not because we're better, no, because we study God's word and there has to be the balance. We believe in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What we don't believe is the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit while the teaching is going on.

That is speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, all these things. There's a time and there's a place for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Calvary Chapel, when I was going to Costa Mesa many years ago, after the service they would have these afterglow services for anybody that wanted to be baptized, anybody that wanted to be healed.

They would have in the fellowship hall the elders that were qualified with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come and not only to sit down and share with us, but also to share and to lay hands on people that wanted to get baptized by the Holy Spirit. It was so cool because everything was done decently and in order.

One of the things that we don't have today is order in the church. What happens if there's somebody in the congregation that is not a Christian and we don't have order in our fellowship, we don't have order in our teaching? He will say, man, these people are crazy, and they'll get turned off to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So there has to be order in the church. Paul sets order when it comes to the Corinthian church and says, you guys, this is the problem. Let's solve the problem. This is the correct way to do it according to the word of God. The problem comes when we step out of the word of God and you try to do your own thing.

That's why it's important for me that when I read the scriptures that I kind of go to the Old, go to the New, and make sure that we have the theme that is given to us so that we don't get out of balance when it comes especially to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So Paul is telling us here that he's going to be speaking about the spirituals because there's an ignorance in the city and in the church of Corinth.

Notice what he says also, verse two. He says, you know that you were Gentiles or heathens, carried away to these dumb idols or demons, however you were led. So he brings up the point that a lot of the Corinthians came out of what? Of heathenism. They were worshipping other gods. They were worshipping demons.

Then they came to that place to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. They became born again of the Holy Spirit. When you become born again of the Holy Spirit, you're not supposed to be back where you came from. This is why a lot of times when new believers get saved, they've been on drugs, whatever, I always ask them this: have you really got rid of everything in your room and in your house that deals with demonology or Satan?

The posters, whatever it may be that you have. Because if you don't get rid of the stuff within your bedroom or within your house, guess what's going to happen? You're going to have harassment from Satan. He's going to harass you. A lot of people get harassed. But once you clean out your house from anything that has to do with idolatry or witchcraft or whatever it is, then what you do is you go and you pray for each one of the rooms in the name of Jesus.

And that's nothing weird. Whenever we go to a house and there's somebody that has been demon-possessed, what we'll do is we'll anoint the house with oil and we'll pray over the house and over the people for Satan never to rule there again. Remember, Satan is the one that is a liar and the one that brings fear to people.

As believers, what does he say? The light is greater than the darkness. When you go into a room and it's dark, all you have to do in order for the darkness to go away is go to the switch and turn on the light, and that darkness is gone. The problem with people is that people want to get saved and continue with their dirty music, continue to be on their computers and go to websites that are not edifying, and read books that are not edifying.

What you're doing is you're trying to walk one side of the road and another side of the road. You want to be in the world and you want to be in Christ. But what happens, you end up getting split and you can't do that. You're either on one side or the other side. Make up your mind.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for biblical resources to help you establish God-glorifying habits in your life. You can also join Raul every Tuesday morning for straight talk on the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel. Now back to more with Raul Ries in our study, Unity in the Church.

Raul Ries: And the bottom line is if you really want the Holy Spirit to baptize you and to empower you with power, then there can be no leaven in your life. No leaven. You've got to get rid of all the leaven. Remember Paul said a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And that's why it's really important for me not only as a pastor-teacher and an evangelist to be able to see when people come and talk to me. I don't baby people. I just tell them what the scripture says.

A lot of times they'll go to another counselor, you know why? Because they didn't like what I said to them. They're looking for an answer for themselves that pleases them, bottom line. They don't want to change. They want somebody to come to that place of agreement with them. But when it comes to the real gospel of Jesus Christ, we cannot agree with unrighteousness or darkness because we're children of the light.

Paul here is bringing it up to the Corinthians that at one time they were idolaters and enslaved to idolatry. Literally what they were doing, they were worshipping demons. But when they came to Christ, the light was turned on and now those idols they worshipped, they're supposed to get rid of them and burn them and get rid of them completely and fully. It's very important.

But see, a lot of times people want to be Christians, but at the same time they want to keep their idols. You can't do that. Think of all the people within the church that were in bondage to what? To drugs. And you come out of the world but you say, well, you know what, I'm never going to go back to drugs. And all of a sudden Satan comes along and you start backsliding and you go for a little bit, a little more.

Pretty soon you find yourself back on drugs, but this time it's worse. Because the Bible says it's like the what? It's like the pig going back to its mire. You wash him down, you put him in your bathtub, you pour perfume on him, and then you release him and he goes where? Right back to the mud because he's a pig.

Think of how many people within the church, like the dog going back to his own vomit and the pig going back to his old dirty hole. It's very important, man, that holiness unto the Lord. God desires holiness. And if you want to be baptized with power, you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit in your life. You need it.

The Holy Spirit is with you, in you, and upon you, the Bible says. And what's really cool is he's with you when he's convicting you, bringing you to Christ. When you come to Christ, he comes into you. Then as I come to Christ, I begin to read. I ask him to give me power every day so the Holy Spirit upon me, and he what? He empowers me to be able to overcome sin and to stand for righteousness, a hunger and a thirst to know God's truth and not to compromise.

Yet think of how many people compromise in the church. Little leaven leavens the whole lump, the Bible says. You listen to worldly music, you do whatever you want. If you had a problem with worldly music in the world and you're still listening to it, no wonder you're being oppressed. No wonder your mind's messed up. You've got to get rid of all the leaven. Plus your children will get contaminated if you're married and have children.

It's like I said this morning, if you're in the home and you're a mother and father and you have children, it's not how you live in public, it's how you live in secret when nobody can see you. What are your attitudes? What is your life like? Anybody can live really a goody-goody life in front of people. But when you're in the home, when you're with your children, when nobody can see you, what is your life, what is your attitude like?

Can your children bear witness for you and say, my mom and dad, man, they're godly in the home? And it's really important that you'll never have peace until you make peace with Jesus Christ fully and completely. So Paul wants to make sure that we understand that we need to get rid of the idols in our lives. An idol is something that possesses you and controls your life, and you've got to get rid of it.

Look what else he says, verse three. He says, therefore, because of this, what I just told you, I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit of God can call Jesus accursed and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. I love that verse because what he's telling you here, he's bringing you back to this area where there's a lot of people that say, well, I heard somebody say this, say that.

If they really have the spirit of God, they cannot ever curse God. They cannot. The Holy Spirit won't do that. Very important to understand. That's why he says, therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Holy Spirit of God can call Jesus what? Jesus accursed. And it's very important because there are a lot of times people they'll say, well, I heard this person say this or say that. No.

He says, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Who's the Holy Spirit? The one that brings you to conviction and the one that makes you be born again of the Holy Spirit of God. Very beautiful how he says that here. Very important that we understand that. This is the affirmation of the Holy Spirit that God is on the throne and that the spirit of God convicts us of our sins.

It's not you and I convicting each other. The Holy Spirit is the one that tests you first when you're thinking of sinning against God. What does he do? He says, don't do it. And then he gives you the opportunity because we have free will to say, well, should I obey or should I disobey? That's where your will comes in. And of course, Satan on the one side says, oh, don't listen to God, go ahead and do it. You'll enjoy it.

But when you take up the cross of Jesus Christ and you die to yourself, you know what you're going to do? You're going to obey. You're going to obey God. You're going to die to yourself. You're going to die to those desires. And the reason for that is not for myself, but what I want to do is I want to please God in what I do. That's the bottom line when it comes to Christianity.

Yet think of all the people that do not please or obey God's word, but they do whatever they want and then they expect God to bless them and they expect God to do mighty works in their lives when yet Paul says what? You've grieved the Holy Spirit of God. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit of God because the Holy Spirit's a person.

And the word to grieve means to bring pain. To bring pain to the work of the Holy Spirit, to that person of the Holy Spirit. Which means that the Holy Spirit is hurt in what you're doing. Because God loves you and God cares for you. And yet he's giving you that will to make decisions. And the decisions that I make, I want to make sure that I make them according to the word of God. Not according to my philosophy, not according to what I've learned in the world.

But I want to make sure that it pleases the Lord in what I'm going to do, the movie that I watch, the music that I listen to, the things that I do. Why? Because if I'm not doing those things, then the Holy Spirit is going to be grieved and he can't work in me and through my life the way he wants to. And whose fault is it? My fault, because I disobeyed. I didn't obey God's word, and that's why it's really important to understand that.

Look what else he says now in verses four to six now, how we depend on God. Here Paul is showing that while there is a variety of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the church, notice there is a basic need. Look what he says. There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. Unity. Christ is the head and the body of Christ, fingers, toes, nose, ears, mouth, the whole thing.

Every part of my body is needed to operate my body, but who's the leader? The head. I mean, think in the Old Testament times in the book of Judges chapter one. Because they used to have warfare, bows, arrows, they had spears, they had swords, they would ride horses and chariots. And when some king or some army would be captured by the enemy, you know what the first thing they would do when they would take them prisoners? They cut off their right thumbs and their right toes. Do you know why? You can't pull the bow anymore.

You can't pull the bow. You can't hold on to things. And you can't really walk, you lose your balance. The big toe and the right thumb are important in my body. And a lot of times people don't want to be a toe because you're always in darkness and smelly, but yet somebody has to be a toe, right? You've got to be content in the body of Christ wherever God has called you to serve.

Whether a toe or a thumb or a finger or an eye, an ear, whatever it may be. Every part of the body is needed, notice, and the head leading in order for the body to be balanced and to operate fully the way God intended it what? To operate. The problem in the church is that everybody wants to be an eye or everybody wants to be a mouth or everybody wants to be the best part in the body.

Yet in the scripture, when you read right now, he's going to tell you that God gives to people what he sees is best for you. Yet why is it that we're always looking to other people and we're covetous to have their gifts when we're not content with our own gifts that God's given to us? That creates problems in the body of Christ. You have to really be careful.

Guest (Male): Comparing ourselves to others is a natural part of being human, but as we've seen today, when it comes to serving the Lord, we all need to focus solely on obeying his call on our lives. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries.

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