"Concerning Spiritual Gifts" (I Corinthians 12:1-11)

"Concerning Spiritual Gifts" from I Corinthians 12:1-11 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on August 2, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Take your Bibles with me. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We continue to make our way through this book. And now Paul, in some ways, when we come to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, is turning a corner in a way. Now he's still going to be dealing with things. Remember, this church at Corinth had a lot of issues that need to be dealt with. And Paul is trying to help them. He's coming through, dealing with them systematically, but he's going to begin in chapter 12 here, speaking of spiritual gifts. And really, chapter 12 speaks of the endowment of the gifts that they are given to believers in the church. And then we're going to see in chapter 13, which we'll come to shortly, we're going to find the empowerment of these gifts or the energy of these gifts. We find that that's charity, that's love, that comes from the Lord. And then in chapter 14, we find the exercise of those gifts. But here in chapter 12, let's begin reading. In verse number one, the Bible says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning the spirits, to another, diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh at one and the selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. Now, if you'll mark this phrase with me in verse number one concerning spiritual gifts, and we'll take that for the theme of the Bible message this morning, concerning spiritual gifts. Paul is going to deal with this in the church at Corinth. And this is a little bit of a lengthy chapter. We'll take at least two different messages to cover all of chapter 12 because there's a lot being dealt with here. But Paul is trying to set some things in order because he doesn't want the people in Corinth, this church of Corinth, just feel like Paul's getting on to us about everything. We can't do anything right. He is going to tell them, you've been given spiritual gifts. You've been given a place of service within your local body, and I want you to be engaged there. That's really what Paul is trying to get at. You are a part of this church. You have a place in this church. Now we're going to get into more of that when we get beyond verse number 12. He talks about it as being the body, and there are many parts of the body. Some are the ears, some are the nose, some are the hands, some are the feet, all different and yet all necessary, right? You have a place here, and you should be engaged here and you should be serving here. And he's going to give some very key things. Now, as we think about spiritual gift, if you want a very simple definition, I think it's just a God-given ability for service. A God-given ability for service. A spiritual gift is to be used in the church. You may have some talent. A talent is something that may be used outside the church. I think we also find that talent or raw talent or raw ability can come from a parent or can come from a family gene. But God-given spiritual gifts come from the Lord, and they're to be used within the church. I think often when I see, and we'll take some time to look at some of these gifts, and there are multiple lists of spiritual gifts given through the New Testament. But whenever I see someone and they're on maybe some television show or they make some kind of YouTube video or something, and they're, you know, they're out doing something extraordinary, I think God has given this person some incredible ability. And if they turned that and used it for God Himself, it would be amazing what God could do with them. I was watching recently something on, this is kind of random, but the escape from Alcatraz. There were 14 different escapes from Alcatraz in the 29 years that Alcatraz was a federal prison. But only one of them, the two England brothers and Frank Morris, got away with it and never found their bodies. In fact, for many years they thought they had just uh they had just died out in the San Francisco Bay and they never found the bodies, but uh DNA evidence found later that they had uh escaped and they had gotten away and they actually started a new life in South America. If you didn't know that, sorry I just popped the bubble, okay? But what are you saying, what are you saying, Pastor? I'm saying they spent months planning their escape from Alcatraz. I mean, it took the mind and understanding and understanding the currents and the tides and building a raft out of life jackets. And I thought, God has given these people such a mind. Can you imagine if it was given to the work of the Lord? What could be done and what could be accomplished? And here we find Paul is saying, God has something very special for you. In his church, and this is how you're to be engaged. Would you make note of some of these things? Would you write these down with me? And let's take some notes here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Write this down. First of all, number one, spiritual gifts are available to every believer. Spiritual gifts are available to every believer. I believe, and we'll find from the Bible, that every believer gets at least one spiritual gift. I think some may get multiple ones, but I think everyone gets at least one. Look at verse number one. He says, Now, concerning spiritual gifts. Now, for 11 chapters, Paul has dealt with a disobedient church. And now he's going to tell them that they have a spiritual gift for service. Because here's what he says. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, and then he says, brethren. Now, when he uses the word brethren, he's speaking of those who are brothers and sisters in Christ. Who's he talking to? Saved people. Only saved people have spiritual gifts. This is something that is gifted by the Holy Spirit to people to use within the church. And then he says, in verse number one, I would not have you ignorant. He says, I want you to know about this. Now, there are some people, I know many churches, they'll give a spiritual gifts test. I'm not going to give you a spiritual gifts test while we're here. I know some people are very adamant about it. I think we have to be careful with that. Sometimes a spiritual gifts test becomes something we hide behind. We take a spiritual gifts test and say, oh, well, I'm gifted in this area, and so therefore I don't have to do, you know, all these other things I don't want to do. I'm not saying that. We don't hide behind a spiritual gifts test. But I think it can show us where we have a certain proclivity or we have a certain prominence in something that we can do. But the point that Paul is making here is, I want you to know. Look what he says going down in verse number two. He says, Ye know that ye were Gentiles. Now, I've made special note of that because he's speaking of the past. He's saying, There's something you were. By the way, we can all think about what we were before Jesus Christ. And I'm thankful we're not there anymore. Here's the point Paul is making. That's what you were. So don't live in the past. You don't have to go back to the past. You don't have to dwell in the past. He says, you were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led. He says, you were carried away, you were led away by what? By dumb idols. Now, this is speaking of those idols that can't speak, is what he's saying. Now they are dumb, but they're dumb in that they don't speak. And he says, you were carried away, you were led away. Look, before we knew the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, there was a way in which the world taught us to live, and a way in which the world told us to live. And you know what? We just got in the stream of it and it just carried us along. And he says, No more. No more do you have to live the way the world is telling you you have to live. No more do you have to dress the way the world tells you to dress. No more do you have to listen to all the things the world tells you to listen to. No more do you have to go to all the places the world tells you you have to go to. No more. Ye were led away. You were carried away. Now you're a part of the church. Now you're brethren. Now something is different. And here's what he says. Don't just be a part of it. Don't just be a knot on a log. There is service and there is engagement for you in the church of Corinth. And so, spiritual gifts given to every believer. Would you actually skip down with me to verse 11? He says this. But all these worketh at one and the same selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. Now he's speaking here of the Holy Spirit in verse number 11. And he says, the Holy Spirit divides up to every man severally as he will. You know what that means? I think it means that one person doesn't have all the gifts. He divides the gifts up within a church. And also we find here that it is by the providential will of God Himself. You've been given the gift you've been given, because that's the gift God wanted you to have. You've been made the way you were made. You were put together the way you were put together. So that you could function within the body, and so you could be exactly who God wanted you to be and do exactly what God wanted you to do. You may say, I don't know, I kind of have, I don't know how this can be used. I don't know, I don't know what this gift is for. I don't know. God put it there for some reason. God made you the way he made you for a particular cause, and so spiritual gifts are for every believer. Actually, we find Peter says it this way in 1 Peter chapter 4, if you'll make note of this, he says in 1 Peter 4 and verse 10, he says, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards are the manifold grace of God. Now he says a lot in 1 Peter 4:10. He says, Every man hath received the gift. I think that's another indication that everyone receives a spiritual gift. And he says, even so minister the same one to another. What does that show us? It shows us the spiritual gift is to help others in the body of Christ and not just to advance ourselves. Too often we find there are people that have been given a gift and they expend it on their own, their own selves. They expend it on their own advancement. And yet he says it's actually to be used on one another. And then he says, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Here's the question we have to ask: the gift that God's given to us, are we stewarding it? Are we using it properly? God has entrusted us with this spiritual gift. Are we properly using it? Are we properly putting it to use? So, number one, we find here spiritual gifts available to every believer. Would you make note of a second thing we find? Spiritual gifts are controlled by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts are controlled by the Holy Spirit. Now, when we come to spiritual gifts, in fact, we're going to come to spiritual gifts in chapter 12. We're going to talk about charity in 1 Corinthians 13. When we come to chapter 14, the entire chapter, chapter 14, is speaking of spiritual gifts and the use of tongues. And what is key when we look at all these things, we're going to walk our way through all these passages, is the Holy Spirit is at the core of each and every one of them. In fact, 15 times in these first 13 verses in 1 Corinthians 12, the Holy Spirit is mentioned. Now he says in verse 3, would you look with me at verse 3? He says, Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God, that's the Holy Spirit, calleth Jesus accursed. Okay, so he's saying, if you have the Holy Spirit of God in you, if you're born again, and the Holy Spirit is living in you, dwelling in you, the comforter has come, you cannot call Jesus accursed. Which means if you find someone who is calling Jesus accursed, we need to take a look and really see if they truly know the Lord is their Savior. He goes on to say in verse 3 that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit. Now that's not just speaking with the lips, that's a rather a conviction of the soul. You see, it is one thing to say that Jesus is Lord. It is another thing to be truly mastered by Christ. Some people, and we meet them, we, you know, we go out into our city, we pass out gospel tracts, we knock on doors, we speak to people on our campuses, and you know, you can talk to people and they say, I'm a Christian. Now, nothing in their life would give any evidence or show any fruit to the fact that they're truly a child of God. It is mere lip service. But he says here, if you're really going to say Jesus is the Lord, and I think the point Paul is making here is Jesus is Lord of my life. Jesus is truly ruling and reigning, then that is only going to happen as we are under the control of the Holy Ghost of God. That's the only way it's going to happen. He actually makes the point, look further in verse number four. He says, There are diversities of gifts, but the same what? Spirit. He says in verse 5, there are differences of administrations, but the same what? Lord. He says in verse 6, there are diversities of operations, but it is the same what? God, which worketh all in all. Now, hold your place here with me and go to the book of John, please. The book of John. And let's look at John 15. John 15. Because John 15 is the night before Jesus Christ is going to go to the cross. In fact, John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 are all at what we call the Last Supper. And here in this setting, Jesus is teaching his disciples some final instructions before he's going to go to the cross. They're going to watch him die. He's going to go in the grave and he's going to be buried. He's going to rise again three days later. But one of the things he's going to teach them is this teaching of the Holy Ghost, he calls the Comforter. Look at chapter 15, John 15, look at verse number 26, because here's what he says. But when the comforter is come, it's capital C, which means he's speaking of a person. By the way, the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is not a force. The Holy Spirit is not a feeling. It is a person. It is one of the three persons of the Godhead. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. So what is the Holy Spirit doing? The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father, right? Also we find he is the Spirit of truth. So the Holy Spirit only deals in truth. He's not going to deal in lies. And we find that he proceeds from the Father and he shall testify of Jesus Himself. Alright? So here's the point. If we have the Holy Spirit at work and using our spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit in me is not going to work against the Holy Spirit in you. Because it's the same Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit in you is not going to work against the Holy Spirit in me. The point being made is if there is divisiveness in the execution of the gifts, the Holy Spirit's not in that. If there is someone who's saying, I'm utilizing my gift, and it's tearing down the church, well, that's not the Holy Spirit. That's another spirit, but it's not the Holy Spirit. If there's someone who says, I'm exercising my gift, but it is in direct opposition to the clear teaching of the Word of God, then they're not under the control of the Holy Spirit. They're not under the control of the Spirit. They're under control of another spirit. Either their own spirit or they're under the control of an evil spirit. That's how we can gauge whether or not someone is truly under the control of the spirit, because he's making the point here. If you're going to properly utilize the gifts, you've got to truly be in tune with the spirit. Same spirit, verse 4, same Lord, verse 5, same God, verse number 6. Diversities, yes, but all under the control of the Spirit. And here's how he kind of wraps this portion up in verse 6. He says, which worketh all in all. Our gifts are going to work together. Because the Holy Spirit is going to testify of the truth. So the truth is all spiritual gifts are available to every believer, or spiritual gifts are available to every believer, and spiritual gifts are controlled by the Holy Spirit. And would you make note of a third thing that Paul makes clear here? Look at verse number seven. The third thing is that spiritual gifts are for service in the church. Spiritual gifts are for service in the church. Verse 7 says, but the manifestation of the Spirit, there's our reference to the Holy Spirit again. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. Spiritual gifts are the outworking of the Holy Spirit in your life and the Holy Spirit in my life. He says in verse 7, it is the manifestation. Manifestation is to be made known, to be made manifest. And so, if I'm walking with the Spirit, as Paul talks about in the book of Ephesians, the natural outgrowth of that is that I'm going to be properly using the spiritual gift that God has given to me. And if you're walking in the Spirit, as Paul talks about in the book of Ephesians, the natural outgrowth is that you will be utilizing the spiritual gift that God has given to you. He says in verse 7, the manifestation of the Spirit, given to every man, another indication that everyone receives a spiritual gift, to profit with all. To profit. Here's what we have to look at. If a gift is being used and it is unprofitable, or I should say, if we say a gift is being used and it's unprofitable, it's not advancing the church. It's not advancing another believer. It's not edifying the believers. Then we need to step back and we need to say, is this truly the execution of a spiritual gift? Is someone truly using this the way that God has intended to? Because what he's going to do is, he's going to make the point further on, let's read verses number 12. We'll look at this at a later time, but we'll delve into it a later time, but look with it at it right now, verse 12, for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many or one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit, there's our reference to the Holy Spirit again, are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit, verse 14, for the body is not one member, but many. I want you to think about your own body. We've had some people that have had some procedures lately. You've been praying for some people that have been dealing with some things. And when one part of the body is not functioning properly, it affects the whole rest of the body, doesn't it? And so, if there is a part of our body, the body of the City Baptist Church, and it is not functioning properly, it's going to hurt the whole. If it's not under the control of the Holy Spirit, it's going to be detrimental. Now, the key is to come along, and if we can set it in order, let's set it in order. Let's take care of it. Let's get it bandaged up. Let's get it, let's get it the medicine it needs so it can function properly. But it is meant to, as he says in verse 7, to profit with all. Now, what Paul's going to do is he's going to mention in this list nine gifts. Now, we could spend a while talking through these. I'm just going to breeze through them just quickly. But he's going to, there's really six different lists across the New Testament, about 18 different gifts, depending on how you divide them up. He's going to mention nine of them here. And here's what he mentions. Let's just look at them quickly as we think about the use of these in the body. Look at verse number eight. He says, For to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. Now these are pretty close. They are different. The word of wisdom is pertaining to the receiving, knowing, or the presenting of the wisdom of God. Now, this was very key in the New Testament, because think about when Paul is writing the book of 1 Corinthians, the Bible is not complete. They do not have the full revelation of God's word. And so you needed, especially the writers of the New Testament, to receive wisdom from God to know what to pin. And you needed people to understand to know that this was truth. That's also key to the portion of verse number 10 where he talks about, or verse number 9, where he talks about the, I'm sorry, verse number 8, where he speaks of the word of knowledge. If someone was speaking something, you needed someone to know whether or not it was true or not, whose ability to correctly understand the knowledge of God. Now, I believe both these gifts are no longer in action today. Because now we have the completed word of God. I don't need someone to come in and say this is true and this is false, because we have the truth. We have the standard. We can take the word of God, whatever someone says. Look, whatever you hear on Facebook or YouTube or Instagram or whatever else is out there, TikTok. We don't need the gift of knowledge or the gift of wisdom to know whether or not it's true. We have the completed word of God that we can put whatever they say up against this word and it will tell us what is the truth. And if it does not line up with the word of God, the Bible wins out. The YouTuber doesn't win out. The word of God wins out, all right? Look with me at verse number nine. It says, to another faith by the same Spirit. Now, the gift of faith. Now, should every Christian have faith? Yes, if we came to the Lord in salvation, we had to have faith in Him to save. That's true. But there is an exemplary gift of faith, I think, that some are given. It's manifest itself in unusual deeds of trust. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 2, Paul says, Although I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, if I have not charity, I am nothing. I think this is a gift that God gives some people to take extreme acts of trust in Him. No distance was too great? I like being around those kind of people. I think God's given them a gift of faith. I think this is still in action today. He goes on to say, look at verse number nine, to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit. Now, this is the ability to heal diseases. Sadly, many who claim this gift today are a fraud. Many who claim, look, and I won't spend a lot of time on this, but many today that claim to be healers, why don't they go walk through Emory Midtown and empty the place out? You have to come to their meeting and pay their entry fee and get on in front of their camera for you to heal them. Something is fishy about that, I think. Now, is there divine healing today? Absolutely. We prayed for people and they have been divinely healed. I do not believe there are divine healers walking about today. The one divine healer is in heaven, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is carrying out divine healing. I believe that's true. But I don't believe this is in effect today. Now it goes along with the next one. Look at verse 10. The working of miracles. These are supernatural acts, acts of power. All through the Bible, there are eras of miracles. We find that in the time of Moses, all right? Nobody today is throwing down a rod and becoming a snake and eating other snakes, okay? Nobody today is touching water, turning it to blood. That was a time of miracles. It was confirming a message that was coming to Pharaoh. There was a time of miracles in the time of Elijah and Elisha. There was a time of miracles in the New Testament church. Why? These were certain eras where God was revealing truth and he was using those miracles to confirm that revealed truth. We do not find really after the first century that many of these gifts are in action today. That this gift of miracles is not needed because we have the completed Word of God today. We don't need to confirm the truth. The truth's already been given. Look at verse number 10. He also says, to another prophecy. There were those before the word of God was completed that were given the gift of prophecy. God would give them a word and they could speak that word prophetically to the church. Again, we don't need this gift today because now we have the completed word of God. No one is going to come in today and stand and say, God's given me new revelation, I'm going to speak it to you. If they do come in, we're not going to let them speak. But they don't have a new revelation from God in the first place. God's revealed everything we need to know about Him through His Word. Look what He goes on to say in verse 10. Working of miracles, prophecy, to another discerning of spirits. Now imagine you're in the church of Corinth and someone stands and they say, I do have a word of prophecy. I'm speaking under the control of the Spirit, and they begin to say something. They make a statement, they give an utterance. Someone needs to know whether or not that is true or not. Is this a true prophecy? Now that we have the completed Word of God, we have a standard to base it on. We don't need the gift of prophecy today. And then look at these last two. There is the diverse kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Now, is the gift of tongues a real gift? Absolutely. The gift of tongues was given in the New Testament. The interpretation of tongues was given in the New Testament. When we come to 1 Corinthians 14, we're going to take the whole chapter and we're going to look at the gift of tongues. You know why? Because Paul takes a whole chapter to do with the gift of tongues. But the gift of tongues, very simply, we'll delve into this more later, were languages, glossa, they were known languages that people spoke that were previously unlearned to them. We can go back to Acts chapter 2 and look at Pentecost. The apostles go out and as they preach, they're speaking languages that they do not know, but the people that are present there in Jerusalem from the four corners of the earth hear languages that they know that the apostles did not previously know that they spoke. The interpretation of tongues is also key. If someone is going to be speaking tongues, you must have an interpreter present. That would shut down the entire tongues movement today if they just followed these guidelines. There's never an interpreter of tongues. By the way, we don't need an interpreter of tongues today because nobody's going to come in speaking in tongues. These are not in use today. You say, Pastor, we just listed nine spiritual gifts. You're saying only one of them is in use today? Yes. At least in this list. But what is the point? The point is, I don't want you to be led away by people that are going to lead you astray. But the second point is, we'll talk about this more when we get to the next passage, is you have a place within the body. You have something God wants you to do right here. And again, I end with verse number 11, because this is where Paul ends this section. He says, All these worketh that one and the selfsame spirit, the Holy Spirit working in you, the Holy Spirit working in me, to edify the church, to build the church, to carry on the work of the gospel. And he says in verse 11 that one and the selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. The Holy Spirit has given them, the Holy Spirit has provided them, and he's done so in his own providential care. The key is finding what God has put in us, what he's given to us, and using it properly in his church. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.