Jesus Is Lord

In 1741, Jonathan Edwards published a book called The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. This was in the midst of what has become known to history as the First Great Awakening. This was a time of remarkable revival that swept through the American colonies and Britain. Evangelists like George Whitefield traveled about attracting huge crowds, churches became full, and there was this sudden deep interest in religion. Many people were affected in dramatic ways. There was great conviction of sin, much weeping, sometimes even shrieking, and people falling to the ground and fainting, groaning, convulsing, and all sorts of other intense emotional reactions and unusual phenomena. And unsurprisingly, this also became quite controversial. On one side, there were those who opposed the revival and deemed all who promoted or condoned such commotions to be enthusiasts. And on the other side, there were those who labeled such opponents as formalists. And the fact is, there probably were a lot of unconverted ministers and dead churches that were practicing nothing more than an empty form of religion. And there were also some excesses and problems among the advocates of the revival as well. And Jonathan Edwards finds himself in the middle of this. And he was certainly a strong advocate for the revival because he saw in it a mighty work of God. But he also saw a number of dangers. And he saw some of these excesses and problems. And so he winds up writing this book to try to clarify, how do you distinguish a genuine work of the spirit of God? And he's wrestling through questions like, what do you make of these dramatic bodily effects and these emotional reactions? What do you do when people claim to be having ecstatic, rapturous, heavenly visions? And what do you say when extraordinary, strange, or unprecedented things happen? Are these sure signs that the Spirit of God is really at work? Or are they signs that the Spirit of God is not at work? And can something that's on the whole be a true work of the Spirit of God be tainted by certain problems and excesses? How do we think through that? Well, one of the ways I think this is relevant for us today is because we are living in the midst of what will be forever known to history as the charismatic movement. Prior to the 1900s, there were relatively few claims that miraculous and revelatory gifts of the spirit were in regular use in the church, especially if you discount some of the fringe heretical groups. But in the early 1900s, the charismatic movement began, inspired by events like the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. And this movement has become so widespread that today, the estimate is that there are over half a billion people worldwide who are part of it. And fundamental to the theology of this movement is the idea that the gifts of the spirit that many previously thought to have ceased have either continued or returned to the life of the church. This view is called continuationism. The idea that the gifts of the spirit all continue today. And that's over against the view that's called cessationism, which holds that some of the gifts of the spirit following the time of the apostles ceased. And there's some variation among cessationists about which exactly those gifts are. Now, it's important to know that continuationists and members of the charismatic movement are just about as diverse as they are widespread. On one side, there are men like John Piper, Wayne Grudem, and D.A. Carson, whom I greatly respect and have benefited from. And on the other extreme, there are flagrant heretics and false prophets. So it pushes us to ask the question, how do we distinguish? How should I discern what's truly of the Spirit of God and what isn't? And then further, I think this naturally pushes us to ask the question, well, are these spiritual gifts for today? I mean, should we be speaking in tongues as a regular part of the life of the church? Should we be expecting prophets to arise among us? Should we expect frequent Miraculous healings like we see in the Book of Acts. And if we're not seeing those things, is there something wrong? Is that an indication that the Spirit of God is not truly with us? Or maybe an indication that we're not sort of being faithful to seek those gifts like we ought? Well, this issue really comes to the fore as we begin working through 1 Corinthians 12-14 today. As we saw a few weeks ago back in chapter 11, Paul begins addressing some matters pertaining to the gathered assembly of the church. And there he talks about the issue of head coverings and then the Lord's Supper. And now beginning in chapter 12, he turns to the third of these issues, which is that of spiritual gifts. And one of the things that stands out right away is the list of gifts that Paul provides. If you look ahead to verses eight through 10. And in that list he lists a number of gifts that I think many of us typically don't see. He says, for to one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. There's probably some things in there that many of us aren't sure we've ever seen practiced in the church today. So what do we do with that? Well, one of the reasons we're only looking at three verses today is to afford a little bit of extra time to address that question. Do these gifts continue? And my goal today is not so much to convince you of my particular view, so much as it is to try to provide some foundations to help us think about this issue well. And also to lay some background that as we continue to work through these chapters, we can refer to. And at the same time, I want us this morning to hear loud and clear the message of these first three verses. Because I think here in verses one through three, Paul is actually setting up this whole discussion of the gifts by providing us with a criterion for distinguishing a genuine work of the Spirit of God. And that criterion is this, the Spirit of God always works to build up the church in the truth that Jesus is Lord. The Spirit of God always works to build up the church in the truth that Jesus is Lord. That's the central message. And I think if we understand that well, it will actually help us to think better about the continuationism versus cessationism debate, regardless of whether we agree about every detail. So, let's begin working our way through these verses. And there are three things I think Paul wants us to understand. And the first is this. We should be informed about spiritual gifts. We should be informed about spiritual gifts. Look with me at verse one. Paul says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. So Paul doesn't want the Corinthians and he doesn't want us to be ignorant when it comes to spiritual gifts. This is not something that's just all about experience and following our feelings. It's something just like every other part of the Christian life in which we need to use our brains. We need to strive to be informed and we need to strive to understand everything that God's word says about it. And I think it's important for us to hear that because this can be an issue that some of us might be tempted to just avoid. It can feel controversial. It can seem very confusing. It can be very sensitive because it's very connected to our personal experiences. And it's one that can be really hard because there's Christians that we know and love and we just don't fully agree on some of these things. But I think what Paul says here should really challenge us to strive to understand everything that scripture does say about them. We should strive to understand the purpose of spiritual gifts. We should try to understand how we can use our spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. And as much as possible, I think we should strive to understand what the gifts are and how they should be defined. This doesn't mean that all our questions will be answered, but it does mean that we could probably all be more informed than we are. And of course, as we work through this passage, we'll learn a lot more about the specifics of all that Paul wants to inform the Corinthians about. But for now, I just want to briefly mention two of the gifts about which I think we should strive to be informed if we're going to think well about the continuationist cessationist debate. And those are the gifts of tongues and prophecy. And so first of all, when it comes to the gift of tongues, I think really the key question is this, must it be a real human language or does the gift of tongues also include other forms of ecstatic speech? And my conviction is that tongues is a real human language. We'll continue to look at that as we work our way through, but for now I just want to mention two reasons why I think that's the case. First, we should note that the Greek word for tongues is a word that means languages. So the word itself implies that it's not just sounds you make with your tongue, but it is a language. Second, Acts 2 gives us a pretty clear picture of what this gift was all about. Of course, in Acts 2, it's the day of Pentecost, and Jesus' disciples are there gathered, and this is the outpouring of the Spirit, and they begin speaking in tongues. And it just so happens that it's in Jerusalem, and there's all these other people gathered there for the feast from other places that speak different languages, and to their surprise, they hear these Galileans speaking the words of God in their own native language. And so they're shocked and they come and then Peter stands up and he preaches the first Christian sermon and over 3,000 believe and the Christian church is born. But crucial to understanding the significance of all that is that this was really a reversal of Babel. You remember back in Genesis 11 when God initially confused the languages of the earth so that all the people would be scattered. Well now, through this gift of tongues, there's a reversal of the confusion of languages, which symbolizes this glorious unity and multi-ethnicity within the church, as Christ is now uniting us back together. And so that's why I think tongues is a real human language. And therefore, if we're gonna argue evidentially that tongues continues, I think we need to do so by that standard. Now, a second important gift to try to define is prophecy. And with prophecy, the key question is this. Is prophecy saying, thus says the Lord, or is it somehow something less than that? A number of continuationists today, like Wayne Grudem and John Piper, believe that New Testament prophecy is fallible, because the prophet may inaccurately interpret or relay whatever revelation God has given them. So according to their definition, you can be a true prophet and yet sometimes get it wrong. But I disagree with that definition. I think we see very clearly in the Old Testament that prophecy is, thus says the Lord, that the prophet is claiming to be a spokesman for God himself. And that's why in Deuteronomy 18, for example, it says that any prophet who gets it wrong is to be put to death. He is a false prophet. And then when we come to the New Testament, I think prophecy is the same thing. I don't have time to give a thorough defense of that now. I actually plan to send out an article in the weekly, so if you wanna research this more, you can read that. But for now, let me just point out one example. In Acts chapter 21, verse 11, the prophet Agabus has a prophecy for Paul. And listen to how he introduces his prophecy. Thus says the Holy Spirit. It's the Old Testament formula, thus says the Lord, just now in New Testament language. Thus says the Holy Spirit. So I don't think we should say that New Testament prophecy is different than Old Testament prophecy. I think a prophet is speaking the very word of God. And therefore there's no way to say that prophecy is less authoritative than scripture. Because all of God's word is equally authoritative because it's all supremely authoritative. It is the word of God himself. Now, you may have advice for someone. You may feel like God is leading you to share something with someone. I just don't think you should call that prophecy unless you're prepared to say, thus says the Holy Spirit. And also prepare to consider the consequences if you're wrong. So I mentioned that just about how should we define tongues in prophecy, not primarily now to try to persuade you of my convictions about that if you differ, but mainly just to try to orient some of you to the debate and also to illustrate how the way that we define these gifts really plays a very significant role in the conversation. And at the end of the day, regardless of whether or not we perfectly agree, I think we all need to strive to hear this charge, to be as informed as we can. We want to be informed about spiritual gifts. That will help protect us from false teaching. It will help us to describe our experiences in more biblical language. It will help us to better understand how and why we differ with one another if and when we do. It should also help us to be more charitable in some cases. Because mutual understanding can actually build respect even if we do disagree. And most importantly, it should help us to learn to use whatever gifts we do have in a way that's for God's glory and builds up his church. Okay, so first, we should be informed about spiritual gifts. But second, the second thing Paul wants us to understand here, number two, We need to be aware that our experiences don't lead us to mute idols instead of the speaking God. We need to be aware that our experiences don't lead us to mute idols instead of the speaking God. Look with me at verse two. Paul says, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols. However, you were led. Here Paul's reminding the Corinthians of their former lives and their former devotion to idols. And he's reminding them that they all had past experiences that led them into it. Maybe it was a transcendent spiritual high. Maybe it was some stunning miracle or sign. Maybe it was some captivatingly persuasive argument. Maybe it was a particularly charismatic leader or some other ecstatic experience. But whatever the case, Paul says, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. So whether that was by the lying signs and wonders of the magicians of Egypt, or by the winsomeness of a prophet that says, peace, peace, when there is no peace, Paul's point is that the power, the mere power of the experience doesn't really matter. The question is, who is that experience leading you to worship? A mute idol or the living God? And I think Paul emphasizes this point because the Corinthians seem very taken with the miraculous gifts themselves, especially tongues. As you read along, we find that they're using this gift of tongues even without an interpreter. And so no one can even understand what they're saying. And Paul's point here is that the miracle itself without intelligible communication is useless. If miracles stand alone, they can lead you just as easily to a mute idol as to the speaking God. But the wonderful difference Paul wants to emphasize here between idols and between God himself is that we serve a God who speaks. We serve a God who communicates through his word. As a back at 2 19 says, woe to him who says to a wooden thing awake to a silent stone arise. Can this teach? Behold is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it at all. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Or think of Elijah. on Mount Carmel, when the 400 prophets of Baal leapt around the altar, shrieking all day long, crying out to Baal to answer them. And it says, but there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. Baal is a mute idol. But then Elijah prays, and he prays, answer me, oh Lord, answer me, and let all the people know that I have done all these things at your word. and then God answers him by fire. You see, a general principle here is that God always intends for his miracles to point us to his word. He doesn't just do miracles to stand alone and be self-interpreting. He performs mighty signs to point us to himself so that we might know that he is the God who reveals himself, not just through vague power, but through his word. Just think of Jesus when he multiplied loaves of bread. He didn't just want people to be amazed by the miracle and come to enjoy a good meal. He wanted them to understand who he was, that he is the true bread who comes down from heaven to give his life for the life of the world. Or when God brings Israel out of Egypt by signs and wonders and mighty acts, it's not just so they can be impressed and then go free. is so that they might know him as the Lord and that they might become his people and they might receive his word. You see, God's miracles and his word always go together. And we see that especially when it comes to God giving new revelation. Interestingly, if you were to make a timeline of biblical history and just put a little dash everywhere that you see a miracle, You might be surprised to find that there are these long sections of time sometimes where there's no recorded miracles at all. And then there's other periods where we see these concentrations of many miracles. And the three greatest concentrations are the days of Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus and the apostles. And it seems that in God's wisdom, he has chosen to accompany the giving of the law the age of the prophets, and the writing of the New Testament with these special outpourings of miracles. And I think we see in that that one important function of miracles is the authentication of new spoken revelation from God. So for example, when God sends Moses to Israel, he doesn't just expect everyone in Israel to just take Moses' word for it. I mean, he gives Moses signs and he does great miracles through the hand of Moses to exalt him and authenticate him as his spokesman. God wanted to make it very clear and public and obvious that Moses spoke for him. And so when Moses writes the Torah, the foundation of the whole Bible, there is no question that this is the word of God. And similarly, when we come to the New Testament, We see the very same thing with the authentication of the apostles. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul says, speaking of himself, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. Listen also to what Hebrews 2, verses 3 and 4 says. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, that is Jesus himself, and it was attested to us by those who heard, especially the apostles, and then listen to this, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. So what it's saying is that God bore witness to the apostolic message of salvation in Christ by doing great signs and wonders and miracles. And therefore I think it should make sense to us that of course there would be this great super abundance of miracles in times like the book of Acts. That God would do extraordinary miracles by the hands of the apostles and even enable them to give miraculous gifts to others by the laying on of hands. This was to authenticate the truth of the message they were revealing. But it also would make sense that perhaps the abundance of miracles would not necessarily continue after that new revelation had been given. As Hebrews chapter two verse four says, at least some of the gifts of the spirit had this bearing witness or sign function. They existed to authenticate the apostolic office and the new revelation of the New Testament. And so it shouldn't surprise us if in God's providence, some of these gifts might fade. At least part of their purpose had come to an end. Now to be clear, this isn't a logical argument for the necessity of any of the gift ceasing. You know, God can certainly have other purposes for granting miraculous gifts. But the point I want to stress here is that we shouldn't just assume that the miracles in the book of Acts are intended to set the ongoing expectation for what the life of the church is always supposed to look like. You know, we shouldn't think, okay, I read Acts and if I'm not seeing miracles like that, maybe God's not really with us. Maybe the spirit has departed. Maybe the Mormons are right, and the fact that we don't see miracles like that is evidence that the whole church has just gone so far astray, that God has left us. Or maybe I can't trust the Bible, because I read the Bible, and I think the Bible is telling me that I should see these things all the time, and I'm not seeing them, so maybe I can't trust the Bible itself. No, what I would suggest to you is that the abundance of miracles in the New Testament aren't there to set the expectation for what all of church history is just necessarily supposed to look like. They're there to confirm the certainty of this word itself. They're there so that we can know with confidence that our God has spoken and this is his word. And he has authenticated the very men who recorded these words in scripture. In fact, as we listen to what the God of Scripture actually tells us, he tells us that he's not merely a God who intervenes every once in a while when he does some miracles. He tells us that no, he is the true and living God who sovereignly and providentially upholds all things by the word of his power. He is the God who constantly, actively is working all things together according to the counsel of His will. So you see, God is no more active when He causes the waters of the Red Sea to part, to be a wall on either side so Israel can walk through on dry ground. He's no more active in doing that than He is right now when He causes the waters of the sea to find their level by gravity. You see, a miracle isn't God suddenly becoming more involved or more in control than he was before. It's just an extraordinary and unusual act of his providence. It's just God's way of reminding us that he's really the God who's in control all along. And you see, seeing miracles, therefore, isn't really the way to have great faith. I think miracles are really more of an accommodation to how feeble and weak our faith often is. And I thank God for miracles because I sometimes feel like I need them. But I hope and pray that we will strive to grow into Christians who can see the hand of God every bit as clearly in the story of Esther, where God's not even mentioned, as in the story of the Exodus. I hope and pray that we will be Christians who can see the hand of God. Everybody is clearly in the life of Ruth as in the life of Elijah. And I hope and pray that whether God heals your cancer by miraculous means that mystify the doctors, or whether he heals it through an ordinary course of chemo, that you will give him all the equal credit and praise that he deserves. You see, our God is no mute idol. He is the God who speaks. He is the God who tells us that he is in control of all things. He is a God who has told us who he is and what he's doing in the world. And therefore, it doesn't ultimately matter how miraculous or how powerful any given experience is. What matters is whether our every experience will lead us to greater trust in the word of the living God or else lead us astray after some mute idol. And if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I wonder if you ever consider what exactly are you being led to? As you look at all the experiences, all the voices, all the things in your life, who or what are they ultimately leading you to live for? Because someone or something is your God. There is something ultimate at the end of the line. Maybe it's your career. Maybe it's your family. Maybe it's money. Maybe it's just having fun and enjoying life. But at the end of the line, there's something that's ultimate and that your life is all really about. So what is it? And is it really a God worth living for? Or else when all these sort of things that surround it and all the glitter is wiped away, Will you find nothing but a mute idol behind it all? I challenge you to consider that this morning. Paul wants us to understand that, number one, we need to be informed about spiritual gifts, and number two, we need to beware that our experiences don't lead us to mute idols instead of the God who speaks. Now thirdly, Paul wants us to understand that the Spirit of God always works to build up the church in the truth that Jesus is Lord. The Spirit of God always works to build up the church in the truth that Jesus is Lord. Look with me at verse three. Paul says, therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is accursed, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. Now, I think it's unlikely that anyone in the Corinthian church was actually uttering blasphemous curses upon Jesus in public worship. If that were happening, I think Paul would have a lot more to say about it. Also, when Paul says here that no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit, I don't think he means merely repeating the words. Because in Matthew 7, for example, Jesus says that many people will say to him on the last day, Lord, Lord, but he will reject them because their lives did not reflect that profession. So I think what Paul means here is actually the same thing that he says in Romans 10 9, where he writes, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. All right, so what he's saying is that it's only by the Spirit of God that we can confess with our mouth from the heart that Jesus is Lord. And that is, of course, the fundamental confession of the Christian faith. That is the truth that the church is built upon. And Paul's whole point here is that the way you can discern a genuine work of the Spirit is by the fruit of that confession. That's why he sets up this contrast between cursing Jesus and confessing his Lordship. He's saying there are demonic spirits who curse Christ and lead people to worship mute idols. And then there's the Holy Spirit who exalts Christ and leads people to worship the living God. And at the end of the day, the fruit of any genuine work of the Spirit of God will be God's people being built up in God's truth that Jesus is Lord. So we won't be speaking in tongues with no interpreter in the public service like the Corinthians were doing. because that's unintelligible to the church. And no one can tell, are you blessing Jesus or cursing him? We don't know. We won't be using our spiritual gifts under our own lordship for our own glory. But we will be using the spiritual gifts Jesus gives us under his lordship for his glory. And notice also that this means that the work of the spirit isn't even primarily to draw attention to the spirit himself. is to build up the church in the confession that Jesus is Lord. As Jesus said, the Spirit will come and he will glorify me. The Spirit is like a spotlight on Jesus, building up the church in faith in Christ and in submission to his Lordship. And just consider with me for a moment the glory of this confession, that Jesus is Lord. In the Old Testament, God reveals his name to Moses. And he says, this is my name, I am who I am. And as many have said, that's a name that conceals as much as it reveals. And at least part of the reason for this enigmatic name is because there's simply no one to whom God can point and say, I am like this, I am like that. He's the holy God. who can only be known or defined in terms of himself. And while there's progressive revelation throughout the Old Testament and God raises up prophet after prophet to testify to his character and his plans and his purposes, he still remains the invisible God. He still remains the God who dwells in the cloud and in the thick darkness. But oh friends, all that changes when we turn to the New Testament. All that changes when the word of God himself becomes flesh and dwells among us. And then for the first time, God the Father looks down and says, behold, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to him. Just listen to how the author of Hebrews puts it. He says, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. And friends, what is this excellent name? What is this name which is above every name? What is this name of which Peter can say there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved? What Philippians 2 tells us. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Oh, friends, we call on the name of Jesus Because it is in Jesus Christ that God has revealed his name and his glory and his character most clearly of all. It is in Jesus that we see the visible image of the invisible God. And it is in the face of Jesus Christ that we behold the glory of the Lord and are transformed into his same image from one degree of glory to another. Oh, friends, it is in Jesus. That we see our sin atoned for. That we see our God dying for us in love for his people. That we see Jesus rising victoriously from the grave because he has conquered death itself so that we might be saved and raised up in him for newness of life. And friends, what Paul wants us to understand here is that it is the great and glorious work of the Spirit of God to enable us and to empower us to see that. That is what the Spirit is all about. About helping us to be able to confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see, the Spirit doesn't come along to work so that we can be gifted and sort of move on from Christ. He doesn't gift the church so that we can just focus on the miracles instead. No, the very climactic pinnacle of the Spirit's work and the reason he gifts us is so that we may exalt Christ and so that the church may be built up together in the truth that Jesus is Lord. In fact, this climactic finality of God's revelation in Christ is so great. that after the Spirit inspired the perfect record of the proclamation and the explanation of Christ's work in the 27 books of the New Testament, the Spirit's great work of inspiring Scripture came to an end. I mean, this is why the canon of Scripture is closed. This is why we are not waiting for some 67th book of the Bible to be written. Because we understand that God's revelation in Christ in the New Testament is the final climactic word. And there's nothing more that is to be added to that lest it distract us from it. As we saw in Hebrews 1, there are those past days when God spoke at various times and in various ways by the prophets. And there are now these last days when God has spoken to us by his son. This is the final word. This is why Jude says we are to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. This is why Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 20, that the church is being built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Right, so Christ is that perfect cornerstone and it is aligned with him in perfect alignment that the apostles and prophets are laying that perfect foundation of God's word. And now that that foundation has been laid, It is on that finished foundation that the church is being built up. And what all this means is that it actually makes perfect sense that the spirit would initially in the very birth and infancy of the church be gifting the church with revelatory gifts to provide new revelation. But then after that revelation is given, his focus would shift to gifting the church for being built up in the revelation that's come. This is why we insist that the gift of preaching and teaching would continue, so that we can continue to be built up on the foundation of God's Word. This is why the gift of apostleship ceases. The apostles served a temporary foundational role. They were given unique authority to establish the church, and some were gifted by the Spirit to actually write new revelation that became part of Scripture, But in God's wisdom, that office was never intended to continue. This is also why I'm inclined to think that the gift and office of prophet has ceased as well. Paul says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And in the context there, Paul hasn't viewed the New Testament prophets. So I think that their foundational role is parallel. And this is why some infer that the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues may have ceased, because Paul seems to equate interpreted tongues with prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 5. But at the end of the day, regardless of what specific conclusions you reach about these things, I hope we can all agree on two things. First, if you look down at verse 11, Notice that it says that the spirit apportions gifts to each one individually as he wills. So whatever gifts you have, you have according to the sovereign wisdom of the spirit of God. And what matters most is not what other gifts someone else might hypothetically possess, but what gifts God has actually given you and how you can use them for the upbuilding of the church. And then second, I hope we can agree that whatever gifts we have, we have been given them for the purpose of building up the church in the truth that Jesus is Lord. That's what the work of the Spirit is all about. That's what he's given you whatever gifts you have for, and so that we might be built up in this truth of who Jesus is. Now we began with the question, how do I discern a genuine work of the Spirit of God? And I think we find here a clear answer to that. Paul's saying, there are many ways to be led astray to mute idols, but it is only by the Spirit of God that we can say Jesus is Lord. And the great test and criterion for a genuine work of the Spirit of God is this, he always builds up the church in the truth that Jesus is Lord. Now, Jonathan Edwards, in his work on this question, He focuses on a different passage of Scripture, 1 John 4, and he discerns five things, five marks that help us distinguish a genuine work of the Spirit. Let me tell you what they are. Number one, Jesus is exalted. Number two, the chains of sin are broken. Number three, the Scriptures are trusted. Number four, sound doctrine is established. And number five, love for God and man increases. And friends, I could scarcely give you a better list of things to exemplify what it looks like when the church is being built up in the truth that Jesus is Lord. So in whatever experiences you face, as you wrestle with discerning the work of the Spirit in your life, ask yourself, is this leading me? Is this leading my church? Is this leading the lost to recognize Jesus for who he is? Is this helping me to see my sin and hate it? Is this lifting me to a greater awareness of the grace of Jesus Christ? And do I love him more because of it? Is this showing me more of Jesus's glory and humbling me to want to bring him glory with my life? And is this bringing me to a place of greater submission to Jesus as the Lord of my life? These are the questions we should ask, because that's what the true work of the Spirit is all about. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Father, how good it is to be able to confess together this morning That Jesus is Lord. Oh, God, we thank you for the gift of your spirit. We thank you for the way that your spirit gifts us. That we might work together in in building up the church in that confession. No, God, we pray that you would lead us more and more to treasure Christ, to look to him, to love him. And to serve him faithfully as our Lord and Savior. It's in his name we pray, amen.