Today we're going to actually introduce chapters 12, 13, and 14 by looking at chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. And these chapters deal with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And so what I want to do today is simply give you an introduction by looking at the first three verses. And this is an introduction foundation for the rest of the teachings that we're going to be looking at as we go through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And so I'll begin at verse 1, read to verse 3, introduce our subject, lay a foundation, and move into verses 1 through 3. And that will actually be the foundation for the time that we come after that to look at the diversities of gifts and all of that, which is to me a very important, important message and series for this time in the history of the church. But beginning at verse 1, going to verse 3, the apostle Paul writes, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.  Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus a cursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now as we begin, let me lay a foundation for you so that we can see a few things and begin to lay, as I said, a context. When we enter into chapter 12, notice how he begins by saying now concerning spiritual gifts. Paul is actually continuing a formula, a formula that relates to answering questions that he'd used already in chapter 7, verse 1, as well as chapter 8, verse 1. He had stated, for example, that, well, I might as well turn you to those and I'll show you, he had stated this in order to lay a foundation to answer the questions. So he had said in chapter 7, verse 1, now concerning the things which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. So they had asked questions related to marriage and all, but he starts his formula of explaining or answering that question by saying now concerning. Then in chapter 8, he answered another one of their questions where he said now concerning things offered to idols. So when you get into chapter 12, verse 1, he's simply using the same formula for answering their questions. And now what he's going to do is he's going to begin to answer their question concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Notice how he says in verse 1, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. Now, if you look at your Bible and look at verse 1, I want you to notice that the word gifts is italicized. That simply means that the word gifts was not in the original Greek language. The literal translation is simply concerning spirituals. But the church has always regarded these spirituals as spiritual gifts. And so he's speaking concerning what are called the spiritual gifts or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are specifically the supernatural gifts bestowed on the church by the Spirit of God. Now in order to develop this, because we're going to look at each one of these gifts individually as we continue on through this chapter and into chapter 14, but in order to get an idea of how we're going to be able to interpret and apply this, we need to remember that the church, the church is not simply a humanly powered organization. The church is not like a fraternal organization, an athletic organization. It is not like a union or any other man-made and man-energized organization. The church is an organization, but it is what is called an organized organism, meaning that the body of Christ is alive. And so though we are organized, we are not simply a man-made organization, but we are a supernaturally gifted group of individuals. We have, in other words, when we receive Christ, received from Him gifts that are supernatural in origin. And so this is a supernaturally empowered organism called the church, and the power that energizes the church comes from God. In this chapter, Paul is going to introduce a variety of spiritual gifts and we're going to see how the Holy Spirit gifts the church, and we're going to look at a short list of the gifts that he has for us in 1 Corinthians. Now I believe it's an important study because I think that this right now is a critical issue. I've discovered, and some of you have too, I'm sure, that many Christians live a lackluster, defeated spiritual life. And I believe that part of the reason is because they have little or no understanding of the power and the gifting of the Spirit of God. Now over the centuries, the church seems to have taken one of two avenues in regards to the Holy Spirit. Either the church has quenched the Holy Spirit, or the church has grieved the Holy Spirit, and Paul has issued warnings concerning both of these sins against the Spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 519, he said, quench not the Spirit. When he said quench not the Spirit, he's saying, do not put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. Or we have, if not quenching it, we certainly have grieved the Holy Spirit's work because he says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Quench not the Spirit and grieve not the Holy Spirit. Either the church is busy quenching the Spirit, or the church very often is busy grieving the Holy Spirit. Now it seems to me that we're usually doing one or the other. We quench the Holy Spirit when we attempt to do spiritual things with fleshly methods. We can quench the Holy Spirit by developing doctrines that eliminate his work in our day. I was having a conversation after one of our services this morning. A brother who's been in our fellowship for many years asked me a question related to the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. He mentioned a certain well-known author whom I have met and spoken to and have known for a long time. He mentioned his writings and all, and I was sharing with him concerning the fact that he's a marvelous, marvelous teacher, one of the finest teachers, but he and I had a conversation on one occasion where he said that he had recently written a book and he said, and you Calvary chapels will agree with about 80% of what I've written. And it was a book related to the working of the Holy Spirit because he's partied to a particular doctrinal persuasion that believes that the Lord does not gift the church in our present day the way that the church was gifted in its birth. And so he believes that the gift of tongues is the ability to learn foreign languages. He believes that the gift of knowledge is the ability to go to school and to receive advanced degrees. That prophecy is simply the preaching of the word of God and things of that nature. And so what he has done is he has naturalized the gifts of the Spirit to make them into gifts that anybody could really have because there are quite a number of people who are able to learn foreign languages or to obtain advanced degrees. When we look at those gifts, we're going to see that those are supernatural gifts and not gifts that you just obtain through effort or through life's experience. But the church has developed doctrines that basically quench the Holy Spirit. Much of what comes into today's theology as it relates to the working and gifting of the Holy Spirit comes from the writings of a writer by the name of Bebe Warfield. And some of you perhaps are familiar with his writings. He wrote in the 1800s and he basically said that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the death of the last apostle. And in essence was saying that the gifts of the Spirit were besowed by the lane on the hands of apostles. And when the final apostle died, that there is no longer anything that is really close to being what is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit and there's no need for the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our day. The problem with that, and there are many problems with that, but one of the problems with that is that they're failing to remember that the apostles were not the ones who baptized with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said, there's one who comes after me. He said, I'm not worthy even to untie or carry his shoes.  So the Holy Spirit baptizer is not the apostle. The Holy Spirit baptizer is Jesus Christ. And Jesus still pours out his Spirit on the church. But there are doctrines that are built on a belief that no longer does the Holy Spirit work in such a way. And so we can quench the Spirit by developing doctrines that eliminate his work in our day. We can quench the Spirit by trusting our own preparation and experience. When you have a seminary degree, which I think is a wonderful thing to have, I certainly don't knock those who have become well educated. But when you have one, one of the dangers is that you can begin to rely on all the things that you've been taught by your professors and the experience that you gain through your personal endeavors and your personal building of the church and learning through your personal experiences and all. And on one occasion, many years ago now, I was speaking to my pastor, Chuck Smith, and I asked him concerning going to seminary, and I asked him, how do you feel about that? Because I know Chuck has received his degree and all, and I just wanted to hear his point, and he said, there's nothing wrong with it. He says, the one thing that concerns me, though, is when the Calvary guys get their degrees, he said, there's a tendency on the part of the seminaries that handed them their diploma to begin to take credit for the work that was done in the ministry of that individual, and they begin to basically take the glory that really belongs to God. And in some ways, that does happen. That person has got a huge church and he's making a huge impact, and before you know it, seminaries want to associate with him and say that we are the ones who are responsible because we trained him in his theology and we prepared him for his ministry. And so sometimes when somebody gets a degree and again, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a degree that can be very helpful. But sometimes when we receive our degrees, we can begin to think that we have become the individuals who, through our experience, were able to produce a wonderful work, a powerful, spirit-led church. Many years ago now, when our church was just a few months old, it was less than a year old, I went to visit one of my former college professors, Dr. Moore. And he was a very special professor to me and I sat under him when I was at Biola. And so he knew that I had planted a church. I had actually asked him to perform the wedding for Marie and me. I loved him that much. He was unable to do it, it wasn't licensed at that time, but that's how much I loved him. And so I went to see him and I said, I'd like to talk to you and share with you because the Lord has given me opportunity to plant a church. And so he was still a professor at Biola at that time. And so he said, why don't you come and have lunch? So I did. And I remember showing up at Biola's campus and we went into the cafeteria and we sat down and we began to pray to share over a meal. And I had been reading books in the churches about a little bit less than a year old at that time. And he said to me, he said, David, he goes, the church is growing. Can you tell me why? You know, what's going on? And it's one of those, you know, friendly kind of conversations. Well, I had read five books, you know, on church growth methodology. And he was a church growth specialist. And so I began to answer, well, you know, and there were seven or there were eight principles that I began to answer because I knew the principles and I kind of figured he wanted to hear that as an answer. I'll never forget this. I started to answer when he said, oh, just a minute. He goes, I have to go get something else. I forgot it. I'll be right back and then you can tell me. When he got up and walked away, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and he said, you better not take the glory or I'll take my hand off of you. I'll never forget that.  And I smiled at him and I said, I don't know. I haven't got a clue why the church is growing. I said, it's just one of those things that God does to get all the glory. Man, I am not going to touch the glory. I am the Lord. That is my name, my glory. I will give to no one else neither my praise to graven images. And so Lord said, you better not touch the glory center. I'll take your hands off. I'll never forget that. And so we have to be careful that we do not take the glory for the work that is being done. And unfortunately, one of the ways you quench the Holy Spirit is by trusting in your own preparation and your own experience. We can also quench the Holy Spirit by trusting in techniques to get people into the doors of our churches. The techniques. Now, when you look at the life of John the Baptist, there are certain things you can see in Luke chapter 1 concerning him. He had godly parents. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. A variety of things that you can see concerning him that were qualities in this man's life. And yet, he was one who was out in a wilderness. John the Baptist was out in the wilderness doing ministry. And the Bible says to us that the people were coming to him. So, all of these people are arriving. So many that even when Jesus himself went to John to be baptized, John's, rather Jesus' disciples, and rather John's disciples got upset. Because Jesus' ministry was taken off and John's ministry was now receding. And so his disciples say to him, they say to John, he's the one whom you baptized, the one that you gave testimony to. He's now doing a greater work than you. And that's when John says, he must increase, but I must decrease. What made his ministry powerful out there in the wilderness was the knowledge that it centers on who Jesus Christ is. And unless we understand that, unless we understand that any ministry success that we might see and always be because the hand of God is upon that ministry, then we're going to start taking once again the glory for that work. He must increase so we can quench him by trusting techniques to get people into the doors of our churches. That's something that I want to be very sensitive to. We're going to have, as you know, a concert next week. It's not just so that the church can get together and party. It's so that we can glorify Jesus Christ. We do these things. And that's why I have certain guest speakers come in. And that's why I do what I want. It's not so that we can fill the place up with bodies. It's so that we can fill those bodies up with the spirit. And that's what we want to do, you see? And so we have to be careful about that. And so we can sometimes design church services to make Jesus acceptable to the sinner. We don't want to speak concerning anything that might bring conviction because, after all, they may not come back again. So we have to be aware of that. We want the world to come to us sometimes so we encourage comfort at the expense of conviction. But Oswald Chambers once said we must never confuse our desire for people to accept the gospel with creating a gospel that is acceptable to people. And so we need to preach the word of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we must not focus on making goats more comfortable in church. They need to hear the truth because it's a truth that sets them free. Now, if we're not busy quenching the Holy Spirit, well, we can often be guilty of grieving the Holy Spirit. And that occurs through the excesses that are often attributed to the working of the Holy Spirit. And in some places, experience becomes the rule of thumb. It wasn't that long ago, and I'm certain that you still see these kinds of things in some places, but it wasn't that long ago that people would go to church and somebody would say that under the influence of the Holy Spirit they would begin to bark like a dog. Did any of you remember that? It wasn't that long ago. Raise your hand if you know what I mean. Yeah, okay, a lot of you don't know. There were experiences going on in churches not that long ago where the people were showing up and they were rolling on the carpets. They were doing things in excess. They were running around the church during the services, saying the Holy Spirit was on them, making them do that. They had a laughing fit where they would fall and convulse on the ground, roll around. Those are the kinds of things that were the works of the flesh. And I often found those interesting and sometimes tried to find some humor in it. I thought to myself, wait a minute, what if the husband barks and the wife meows? It's interesting. When the flesh gets in the way, remember always this. It's a very simple thing. Jesus had the fullness of the Spirit and he is the most normal human being who ever lived. When he spoke, he didn't start to suddenly quiver, shake, sweat, grab a handkerchief, roll, bark, meow. He didn't do any of that. Keep that in mind because these excesses were attributed to the working of the Holy Spirit. Those are called excesses of the flesh. It's the flesh wanting dominance because the Holy Spirit has come not to bring glory to himself but to reveal Jesus who reveals God to you. And that's the sequence. The Holy Spirit brings conviction to bring you to Jesus who presents you to the Father. So the Holy Spirit will work in such a way as to bring glory to you. And people will say Calvary Chappels quenched the Holy Spirit. I just had somebody tell me that this week. Calvary Chappels quenched the Holy Spirit. And I said, really? Because we don't allow people to just get up and run around the church service because the Spirit's on them. I've had people do that before. I've watched them as they start edging out into the aisle with their tambourines. And I have a nusher standing there edging them back in. Oh, you're quenching the Spirit. Well, maybe I am. Maybe I'm just so carnal that when I'm worshiping Jesus and somebody's standing in front of me and they're moving around. Maybe I'm so carnal that I can't notice that person and I can't see Jesus anymore. That's one of the reasons why if we stand, we all stand. If we're seated, we're all seated. Because that way it's called decently and in order. That way nobody's being distracted by somebody else. And I have discovered the flesh being what it is that sometimes people do enjoy that attention that they receive as they stand there doing the holy, you know, in my perspective, we need to make sure that the one who gets the glory is the one who deserves it. And so in the access of the flesh, what happens is the Spirit is actually being grieved by our acting out in the fashion that we do. Now in Acts chapter 2, verses 14 through 16, we read Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said to them, and all of you who dwell at Jerusalem, be this known to you and hearken to my words for these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing that it is but the third hour of the day but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. What he was doing is he was explaining a supernatural event when the day of Pentecost had fully arrived the Holy Spirit rested on the 120 there in the upper room. They were baptized in the Holy Spirit and they poured out of that upper room there in Jerusalem and began to speak in languages that were unlearned, magnifying God. And when they did that the people who were around there at that time seeing this take place began to mock them and say these men are filled with new wine and the reason that the apostle Peter got up and addressed it is because he was saying this is not what you think these men are not drunken as you suppose have an open up. So these people are not drunken but this is that and this is how you deal by the way with supernatural experiences this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel in other words for a spiritual experience there needs to be a scriptural reasoning. So he said this is the fulfillment of what Joel had prophesied concerning your sons and daughters who would prophesy and so he was saying this is the fulfillment of the promise that was made by the father that Jesus spoke about and it was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Now these two extremes generally are enough to keep people from seeking to understand their gifts on one hand some think that I don't really have a gift there are only certain special people in the church who do and on the other hand when you see somebody in excess of the flesh acting things out they say I don't want anything like that at all in my life it's too scary and weird my mom and my dad many years ago were in the city of Ontario driving they were on Euclid and a young woman came running from the a side street out to their car at the light and started banging on my mom's window my mom got startled and she's saying help me, help me, give me a ride get me out of here so my mom and dad thinking that somebody over there my mom opens the door and the little girl the young woman jumps into the back seat and says get me out of here my mom says they drove through the green light and my mom turns and said what happened what's wrong she says I was just in a church right there this is a true story and they were screaming and running around and rolling she said it scared me and then my mom says to me she says Dave I didn't want to tell her that we're one of those we're believers too but see that's what happens she was so scared at what she saw she thought they were mad we're going to see that Paul actually speaks like that later on people are going to think you're mad because the flesh when it acts out what the flesh can act out well some people can think that if you're acting out in the flesh you're going to be crazy one of the things about being enamored with the supernatural is that those who are enamored with the supernatural focus on the gifts rather than the giver and so we need to understand that God wants to pour his spirit into our lives not just so that we can have the gifts of the spirit but so that we might be more like him and minister to people in his power we need to remember James 117 which says every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows we don't want to focus on the gift there have been many people perhaps I have some in this room right now who have focused on the gifts I want this gift I have to have this gift normally the gift that people will focus on is the gift of tongues normally the gift that people will focus on I want to speak in tongues there are some who would teach and we're going to give you a thorough teaching on all of this but there are some who would teach that the gift of tongues is the primary evidence that you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and so there's been a focus on one particular gift I see the gifts differently and I'll show you why as we go through the gifts of the spirit through the next few weeks but the gifts of the spirit are given to you as God desires so it doesn't really matter how much I beg for a certain gift it's up to the Lord to give the gifts as He wills He distributes as He wills I can ask but the Lord will give the gift that He wants me to have and so you'll see that but there are so many times that people want the gifts of the spirit certain gifts what I want to do is receive whatever it is that He has for me well believers need to have a knowledge of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and so Paul says to us in verse 1 concerning spiritual gifts brethren I do not want you to be ignorant anybody here feel flattered by the word ignorant you know how you doing ignorant I that's an insult isn't it I mean I remember let me share something with you I remember I was sharing with somebody one time many years ago a dear friend of mine and they said something and I said that's because you're ignorant well they got mad for some reason oh they did how could you call me ignorant I said no wait a minute stupid no I didn't I'm teasing I'm just getting carried away just the flash forgive me it's not the anointing I said forgive me I didn't intend to insult you do you know what the word ignorant means you don't because you're ignorant no you don't the word ignorant means literally without knowledge that's what it means so all he's saying is I don't want you to be uninstructed I don't want you to be without knowledge it's not an insult at all it's actually an encouragement concerning spirituals I don't want you to be uninstructed is what he's saying so he's not saying I don't want you to walk around like a bunch of intellectual hillbillies I don't want you to walk around and that's not what he's saying what he's saying is I don't want you in this area to be without spiritual understanding and that's the whole point of chapter 12 is to give them understanding to be mature he wants to provoke them to maturity in the things of the Lord he wants them to be well instructed in Ephesians in chapter 4 verses 11 through 15 Paul said it like this he said it was he who gave some to be apostles some to be prophets some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming instead speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into him who is the head that is Christ I don't want you to be uninstructed I want you to mature I want you to grow up in Christ he's saying to be mature in the things of the Lord I want you to be fully mature in your understanding and so as he's saying that I don't want you to be ignorant the Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols however you were led and so he says you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols now when he speaks of Gentiles in the Old Testament you have the division of humanity where it's Jew and Gentile so that's basically humanity it doesn't have a lot of hyphenated people groups it's basically Jew it's Gentile if you're not of the people of Israel then you are automatically in the Old Testament you are a Gentile the Gentiles and the Jews when spoken of in the New Testament very often are spoken of in this way the Jews are those who received what are called the oracles or the Word of God they received the priesthood they had the prophets they have a variety of things that were given to them as a nation without that they don't have the priesthood they don't have the prophets they don't have the visions, the miracles and all of those things and so the Scripture will refer to them very often as being without God in the world you see they're separated from God because they don't have a relationship with Him Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 through 13 says it like this therefore remember you are being called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision that done in the body by the hands of men remember that at that time you were separate from Christ excluded from citizenship in Israel foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ so Gentiles were without Christ were without God in the world and that's because God had a special relationship with the nation of Israel in the book of Amos chapter 3 verse 2 God says this he says you only have I known of all the families of the earth in Romans chapter 9 verses 4 and 5 those verses refer to those who are Israelites to whom pertain the adoption and the glory the covenants the giving of the law the service of God the promises whose are the fathers concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed forever amen so Gentiles were foreigners of the promise they were without hope they were without God and as a result and that's what he's speaking about in verse 2 they were carried away to these dumb idols now when you read the word dumb idols it's not the words that we usually say man don't be so dumb I got a story I don't know if I should tell you it it makes me laugh I mean I better not but anyway I'll laugh to myself anyway I'll keep going dumb idols you see it still makes me laugh I wish I could tell you but I won't it's unspeaking when an idol is referred to as a dumb idol it's not like he's saying those dumb idols those dumb Bruins you know he's saying those unspeaking idols that's what he's referring to you were carried away the word carried away means to be let away it was used especially of those who are let off to trial prison or punishment and so often these false gods represented by idols had priests who professed to speak under the influence of the spirit of the God and they would lead people astray they have some show on where some woman claims to be a psychic and she walks around and she has burns incense and she says she's channeling and this and that you know and they say that they're channeling spirits or speaking on the influence of something else and that's kind of what happened oh that's what happened thousands of years ago they're just people who are leading others astray by those kinds of things and so he's saying before you were saved you were pathetic prisoners taken captive by non living idols non living idols dumb idols it's like what it says in Psalm 135 verses 15 through 18 where the psalmist said the idols of the nations are silver and gold made by the hands of men they have mouths but cannot speak eyes but they cannot see they have ears but cannot hear nor is their breath in their mouths and those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them they're dead they have no life they can't help you they're just carved by men's hands Isaiah speaks and says that a man goes out to the woods and he cuts down a tree and with some of the wood he builds himself a fire and he cooks his food on it and the other portion of the tree he carves it into an idol and he places it in a prominent place in the house and he bows down and he worships it and he says you are my God and the point he's making is how ridiculous is this with part of the tree you burn it so that you can eat and the other part of the tree you worship it and he said that is a ridiculous thing well that's exactly what is ridiculous about idolatry and that's what he's saying you were carried away and were prisoners to sin because you didn't have a relationship with God and therefore you created your own God and you became like the God that you created dead because they have no life and so they may have eyes and they may have ears they may have mouths they may have a nose they may have a throat they may have hands and feet but they can't save and he said you were carried away he said and therefore you have been set free and you need to understand that God is the living God verse 3 therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus a cursed no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit as a young believer I had someone speaking to me on one occasion who knew that I am a charismatic charismatic means I believe in the continuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit I believe that God still baptizes you'll see this if you hang around through this study that God baptizes with the Holy Spirit empowers with the Holy Spirit they have not ceased with the death of the last apostle they continue to be in the church to this day a lot of people as I said earlier have been turned off by it by the excesses of the flesh that they've seen and they've backed away because they're afraid that they're going to act in an odd fashion the way that they see others and so they don't want anything to do with this and I think that's been one of the schemes of the enemy is to quench the Holy Spirit from working in the body of Christ through the fear of the people because they're afraid that the Spirit's going to make them do something weird and in reality he makes you normal but I've had people say to me in the past well I was listening to somebody speaking an unlearned language and there was somebody in the room who understood that language because it was an actual language and it turns out that that person speaking in that language was God and I've heard that has anybody here in this room ever heard that raise your hand if you have there's one or two of you no that was very common I heard that when I was first saved it was one of the ways to tell people like me don't expect the Lord to give you an unlearned language no don't look in that direction because you may end up cursing God well Paul's answer to that I make known to you that God calls Jesus a cursed so the Holy Spirit is not going to prompt you to say anything of Jesus being worthless and so the point he's making is that a spiritual person will be known by the things that they say and that should be fairly obvious because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak that's why the Psalmist in Psalm 1914 said let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight my strength and my redeemer Ephesians 5 3 & 4 says let there be no sexual immorality impurity or greed among you such sins have no place among God's people obscene stories foolish talk and coarse jokes these are not for you instead let there be thankfulness to God see out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and so when the Holy Spirit is going to be in you you're going to be praising Him that's how you got saved no one calls Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit a genuine believer moved by the Spirit of God will never call Jesus a cursed that word a cursed is interesting let me give you a little insight into that word the word is anathema and all of us believers who've been around for a while have heard that word anathema let them be anathema the word anathema speaks of a cursed but originally it speaks of an offering that resulted from a vow which after being consecrated to a God was hung upon the walls or columns of the temple or put in some other conspicuous place it speaks of something devoted to God without hope of being redeemed and so the point is since it has been given to God it is as good as destroyed and therefore is no longer yours so in this context Jesus being referred to as worthless or doomed to destruction and rejected by God is something you would never say because you serve the living God and you do not consider him worthless so calling Jesus a cursed is saying he's worthless and God's Holy Spirit would never lead you to say that no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit the word Jesus the word Jesus is Lord can only have full meaning when under the Spirit's influence there are times in certain church groups where at a certain age a young person in the church will stand in front of the church perhaps you came from this tradition and at a certain age usually it's 12 or 13 and they'll stand in front of the church on a service where the body of Christ is there and they will stand up and say Jesus is Lord and they say that they're making a confession of faith before the people and are accepted as a member a full member of the church and the reason that they say that Jesus is Lord is because Paul said you can't call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit but once again that is ritualizing something just because somebody says Jesus is Lord doesn't mean that Jesus is their Lord when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin and righteousness and judgment when you confess your sin God forgive me a sinner and come into my life and make me a new creation because I want old things to pass away and all things to become new God I want to become the temple of the Spirit of God and I want you to dwell within me and I know my sin has blocked that and so I confess and I forsake and come into my life by faith I ask you to dwell within me and that's what the Bible refers to as being born again but the way that you're born again is through the conviction of the Holy Spirit it isn't by just standing up in front of a group of people and saying Jesus is Lord it comes when Jesus convicts you of sin righteousness and judgment by his Spirit and you acknowledge your worthlessness without him and your need for salvation and you bow your heart before him and you ask him to forgive you and you receive his gift of salvation fully cognizant that it doesn't come by works of righteousness which you've done but because of his mercy and his grace he saves you and that's how you can now say Jesus is Lord not just some words that you say three words Jesus is Lord and now I can go off and do whatever it is that I want to do and still go to heaven but now Jesus is Lord he by his powerful Spirit is transforming my life in John 644 Jesus said no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit enters into our life Paul does not want us to be ignorant of his gifts and he's about to outline the gifts of the Spirit gifts that we're going to take time to look at sometimes one sometimes two at a time and I'm going to do as good a job as I can do to give you as thorough a teaching as I can and the gifts of the Spirit so that at the end of this portion we can walk out and we can say I understand and this is the gift God has given me and in faith this is how I want to live for Jesus Christ and we will see that as we continue on that was your introduction and we'll look at that next time we come together