Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: God wants to move. God wants to bring his Holy Spirit into the church. God wants to baptize, God wants to prophesy, God wants to speak, God wants to do so many incredible things decently and in order as the scriptures speak. But the problem is that the Holy Spirit has been grieved by sin in the church.

Narrator (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today as Raul leads us in a study of what it means to be a spirit-filled follower of the Lord, we'll get a challenge to prioritize holiness. We'll see that the Holy Spirit has equipped us with spiritual gifts according to his sovereign will. But if we've allowed sinful habits to creep into our lives, we are actually working against what he wants to accomplish. Today's lesson is part two of our study of spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, here's Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: I don't know why, but there's always a sense in churches that they're afraid of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Many times, many people, because of the different experiences that they have encountered in their own personal lives, some say that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for today, and then others say that the gifts are for today. So what is the real truth concerning the gifts?

Well, Paul the Apostle ran into a problem in the church of Corinth. Let me just give you a little bit of history because the church of Corinth was a tremendous church. It was made up of Gentiles. In the city of Corinth, there were a lot of pagans. So to be a Christian in the city of Corinth was very tough. It would be like living in Hollywood and trying to be a believer.

Let me give you the instance here in the fifth chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. There was a brother in the faith that was going to church in the city of Corinth that actually was living together in immorality or sexual sin with his mother-in-law. Somehow, as he was in the church, the pastor and the pastors and the elders and the deacons of the church had not taken a step of discipline to confront the problem and the individual in the church. They were afraid.

So when Paul heard about it, because Paul wasn't in Corinth, Paul already was gone, Paul heard what was going on in the church and they were having their services and the Bible was being taught and people were coming to church, but yet at the same time there were people living in sexual sin. Paul wrote a letter. He tells the Corinthians, "I've heard it is reported in chapter five verse one that there is sexual immorality among you, such sexual immorality that is not even named among the heathens, that a man has his father's wife." He says that's ridiculous and no one is doing anything about it.

Listen very carefully what he says. Verse two. He says, "Are you not puffed up and have not rather mourned?" That is, you're really puffed up, you're proud of it. Instead of being proud, you should be repentant. You should repent, but you're not doing that. "That he who has done such a deed might be taken away from among you." Notice that, a lack of mourning. Verse three. "For I indeed as absent in the body but present in the spirit have already judged as though I were present him who has so done this deed." Paul says, "I don't have to get on a boat and come over there and set the discipline concerning this person. I already know what should be done and I'm telling you exactly what you should do."

Verse four. "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit with power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." Wow. Paul, don't you think you're too harsh? What do you mean, Paul? This is what Paul is saying. Paul says if there is someone that is not repentant...

Let's say if we do Matthew 18, which means what? If you know someone that is living a life of sin and doesn't want to repent, and you know about it and you confront that person, he says, "It's none of your business, man. Mind your own business, leave me alone." Then my responsibility as in the body of Christ, as a member of the body of Christ which Paul talks about in the first book of Corinthians chapter 12, is to go to the elders of the church and to get one or two more people to make it three witnesses and come and confront that person.

If he still does not want to repent, then the Bible says I am to take it to the elders of the church and then the elders of the church are to excommunicate that person from the church. Not because we don't like him, but we turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that at the end there may be repentance and his spirit will be saved. Otherwise, if we put up with sin, we're actually allowing leaven to come into the church and leaven infects other people and we're compromising. We're never supposed to compromise in the body of Christ concerning sin.

Watch what he says. This is Paul. "Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" See, he says if you allow a little bit of sin and compromise in the church, the whole church will become polluted. If the church is polluted, then how can God move? Think about that.

Do you see what I'm getting to? The problem in the church today, there is too much sin, too much leaven. God wants to move. God wants to bring his Holy Spirit into the church. God wants to baptize, God wants to prophesy, God wants to speak, God wants to do so many incredible things decently and in order as the scriptures speak. But the problem is that the Holy Spirit has been grieved by sin in the church. And so the Holy Spirit cannot fully express himself in the body of Christ unless the body of Christ comes to repentance. That's pretty amazing.

Because watch what Paul says. This is pretty amazing again. He speaks about leaven. Now verse nine. "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with a sexually immoral person." Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world. Notice that Paul makes it very clear that he's not talking about those people that you go to school with and those people that you work with and those people in your neighborhood that are not believers. He's not talking about non-believers being sexually active. He's talking about Christians in the church.

He's talking about believers. Those that have received Christ. Watch what he says. He says also, verse 10, "Yet certainly I did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world or with the covetous or the extortioner or the idolater, since then you would need to go out of the world." Then you would say, "Wow, man, I can't have fellowship with anybody because we are in this world, we're not of the world, but we have to work with non-believers." The problem that I see today in the church is that the reason that so many Gentiles or heathens are being kept away from salvation and coming to the grace of God is because of all the hypocrisy in the church. That's a problem, and that's a major problem.

Watch what else he says. Verse 11. "But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother." I want you to underline that, very important scripture. Paul is not forbidding you and I to hang out with non-believers, but he is forbidding us to hang out with believers that are living lives of sin without repentance. That's what he says. If you know of a brother or a sister that is living a life activated in sin today, Paul says what? Break fellowship with him. Otherwise, if you don't break fellowship with him, what are you doing? You're in communion with him. You're saying it's okay to be with him when it's not okay.

He goes a step further. Watch what he says. "But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. No, don't even eat lunch with such a person." Wow. Why? Because eating in that culture made you one with that person. See? You're not even supposed to have lunch with them. You're supposed to totally separate yourself from them and turn them over to Satan so that Satan will not only beat them up, but he'll beat them up to bring them to conviction and to repentance. Otherwise, how are they going to come to know the Lord if you compromise your position by accepting their fellowship?

Then watch this. Verse 12. "For what have I to do with judging those who are outside of the church? Don't you judge those who are inside? But those who are outside, God judges." Don't worry about the non-believer, God will take care of them. He says, "What I am talking about is judging those that are in the church, those that are supposed to be the pillars of the church, those that are the ones that are supposed to be bringing people to the light, but yet they're full of darkness. But those who are outside God judges, therefore put away from yourself that evil person." Notice that. Put away that evil person, excommunication from the church. Not that we hate that person, but we hate their sin. That's the problem. We hate their sin and we will not put up with sin. Otherwise, if we allow every drunkard person to come in here that is a believer, and child molester, and homosexual, and liar, and covetous, and all these things that Paul talks about, what's going to happen? A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. We will kill the move of the spirit of God.

Narrator (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. We'd like to remind you briefly that we're here to help you grow in your faith and glorify God as you live out your spiritual giftings. For resources, visit somebodylovesyou.com and check out the Somebody Loves You worldwide YouTube channel. Now here's Raul Ries once again with more of today's study.

Raul Ries: So now that Paul establishes the problems in Corinth, then in chapter 12, turn to it, there in verse 12. He says now he's going to say, now that you know the problems and how God really wants to move and God desires unity within the body of Christ, he says now I want you to understand one thing, that every believer is a member of the body of Christ which God has given to each one of us a definite ministry in the body of Christ. I like that.

What do you mean, Raul? Well, he means that every one of us here is the body of Christ. God not only has given you gifts and talents, but he has a particular ministry where he wants to use your life to bring glory and honor to himself. Watch what he says. Verse 12. "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." So the body of Christ, he's talking about those that have been born again of the Holy Spirit, it's not just Calvary Chapel, but the Presbyterians and the Methodists and the Baptists. And there are even Catholics that are born again Christians. So anyone that has been born again through the Holy Spirit's power and has come to repentance, he or she becomes a member of the body of Jesus Christ.

So the body of Jesus Christ is huge in the world, you see? But the head is Christ and the head controls the whole body of Christ. Then he says that in the body of Christ, not everyone is an eye or a hand or a foot or a toe, but God has placed you in the body as he wills, not as you will. You see, we would like to choose, "Well Lord, you know, I like kind of that gift. Can I have that?" You can ask, but he might not give it to you. Or you may start coveting somebody else's gift because you see the charisma and you see what they're doing and you say, "Man, I want that" and be like Simon, Simonine, and you start actually coveting the gift that that person has. Instead of a blessing, you might get a cursing. You have to be satisfied where God has placed you in the body of Jesus Christ.

And be part of that body. I mean, nobody wants to be a toe and be in darkness 24 hours a day and be stinky. But God might place you there. Watch what he says. Verse 13. "For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek or Gentile, whether slave or free, we have all been made to drink into one spirit." So we're all one. Believers in Baptist, Methodist, we're all, if we're born again of the Holy Spirit, we are one brothers in the Lord and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 14. Notice now the diversity of the gifts. "For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, 'Because I'm not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore of the body?" Mean just because you're a foot and you want to be a hand, I mean do you just cut off the foot and become a hand? No way. The foot is just as important as the hand. We need the hand as we need the foot. Watch what he says. "And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body?" Of course not.

But now, here it is, "But now God has set the members each one of them in the body just as he pleased." I want you to underline it and put a star next to it. Next time you want to be used by God and you're actually seeking for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and you're asking God to use you in the body of Jesus Christ, memorize that verse so you can be satisfied where God places you. You don't place yourself, the Lord places you where you're needed. Where you're needed in the body of Christ. I love that. Not everyone's an evangelist, not everyone can teach, not everyone can be a prophet. You see? There are different gifts. Then he says this.

Again, he's moving forward, verse 19. "And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, but yet there is one body." Even though there's a lot of hands and feet and nose and ears and eyes, yet there is one head, but there's one body. You see? Not two bodies, one body. Christianity. That's it. Born again people of God. They're the body of Jesus Christ, not the name of the church. Watch what else. Verse 21. Now the members promoted unity. "And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you.' Get out of here." "Nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" Can you imagine trying to walk around without a head? No possible way.

No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. So you might have people in the body that are real strong, but then you have those people that are weaklings. And how in the world do the strong people say, "Get out of my way, weakling"? No. The strong are to do what? To help the weak along. That's love, you see. I'm not out for myself, but I'm out to enhance the kingdom of God by working together in harmony and unity together. Watch this. Verse 23. "And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable..." You see, whenever we used to play baseball and we used to make choose teams, who do we choose? I know who I chose, the best guys. I want to win.

But if I'm really going to be honest with myself and I want to be a real good Christian, what am I going to do? I'm going to choose those that nobody wants to choose, even if I lose, so what? That's kindness and love. So those people that we think are not necessary in the body of Christ, they're very necessary. We can't live without them. They might not be strong as you are and have all the charisma and all the gifts and talents, but they are needed in the body of Christ. Watch this. Verse 23. "And those members of the body which we think they be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. But our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body, having given greater honor of the part which lacks it."

You see, so whatever there's something lacking, God is the one that takes that person and he brings balance to the body so the body can be balanced with the strength and the weakness. You see, he evens it out. So it's not lopsided, you're not walking around like this, lopsided. You see, it has balance. Verse 25. "That there should be no schisms in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another." You see, we're to unite, we're not to disunitize. You see what I'm saying? We're to come together and work together and love together and let's get our gifts and talents together and let's use them together to bring glory and honor to God so that we can go out and win more people to the Lord. That's what Paul is saying, instead of sitting there murmuring, complaining, and causing divisions. Let's be satisfied what God has done and what he's doing.

And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it, and if one member is honored, then all members rejoice with it. I like that because, let me speak for myself. When I was younger and I used to see people hurt and stuff like that, I said, "Hey, that's their tough luck, tough for them." It wasn't until my back went out that I started having compassion on people. I was doing martial arts and I hurt my back and I got a little pain, I pinched a nerve. I went to the chiropractor and he popped my back and he messed me up more than I was before. I went to the emergency Saturday night and they gave me the shot, I couldn't even walk. So they gave me the shot to relax her and I was totally relaxed and I was in deep pain. They sent me home.

4:00 in the morning on Sunday morning, I had to go to the bathroom. Now, when you got to go to the bathroom, you got to go, right? I couldn't move. I told my wife, "Sharon, I think I'm paralyzed." I was in such pain, man. Well, what happened is I slowly turned and I got on my knees and I could not move. She helped me to get in bed, they had to call the ambulance. Embarrassing. They came up with a flat board and I told the guy, I said, "I am in such pain." So they actually took the board and put it under there and they tied me up. As they were carrying me down the stairs, they almost dropped me.

And I mean, I was in pain. My neighbors were outside, they thought I was dying when I was coming out. I was all messed up and they took me to the hospital. Three days I was in the hospital and they put me on fluids and I was just totally messed up, man. And I couldn't walk, I couldn't do anything. And I thought I wasn't going to walk again. But the Lord taught me through that weakness that I have to respect other people and their pain. So now when you tell me you're sick, I go, "Oh, let me pray for you." I'll even cry with you because I know how it feels now. And so I can understand what Paul is saying. We need each other. We can't do without each other. There has to be that unity, that brotherhood, that oneness with each other.

Narrator (Male): If you're uncertain how the Holy Spirit has equipped you for service, we encourage you to take more time to explore what the Bible says about his gifts. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. To review today's teaching, just call us at 800-634-9165 and request part two of Raul's teaching on spiritual gifts. We'll send you an unedited version for a donation of five dollars or more.

We'd also like to tell you about a seven-part series from Raul on either CD or USB. It's titled Filled, Empowered, and Equipped, and it illuminates the unique role of the Trinity's third member and provides clarity about the many ways your life can be transformed by the spirit's leadership, wisdom, and strength. You'll find that when you fully surrender to his will, he can direct you in paths of righteousness with eternal purpose. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's seven-lesson series, Filled, Empowered, and Equipped. We'll send you the CD set for 20 dollars, or if you prefer the flash drive for just 11 dollars. That's 800-634-9165.

If you choose to order by writing to us, our mailing address is Somebody Loves You Radio, P.O. Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries is completely listener-supported and your partnership is a great blessing. Every gift helps us keep sharing the wonderful truths from God's word. Join us next time as we quiet ourselves once again before the Lord, asking him to strengthen and instruct us through the pages of his word. Now with a final thought, here's Raul once again.

Raul Ries: Then he goes on in verse 27. He says, "And now you are the body of Christ and members individually, and God has appointed these in the church: apostles, second prophets, teachers, miracles." Notice, then "gifts of healings," which means there are different types of healings. I like that. That's why one person cannot just lay hands on people. God gives several as he wills.

Then check this out. "Helps," that is those that help in the body of Christ, taking care of cleaning bathrooms and in the storage room, whatever it may be. There's different gifts. Then "administration," organizing. "Variety of tongues." He says, "Are all apostles?" Of course not. "Are all prophets?" No. "Are all teachers?" No. "Are all workers of miracles?" No. "Do all have the gifts of healings?" No. "Do all speak with tongues?" No. "Do all interpret?" No.

But here it is. "But earnestly desire the best gifts." And what is the best gift? Love. That's right, love. Because without love, you can speak in tongues, you can interpret, you can have teaching, you can have all these gifts, 21 gifts, but if you don't have love, you and I are nothing. Watch this. "But earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way."