Today we find ourselves in Romans 12. We have been studying Romans now for several months, and we have had 11 chapters of doctrine. Some of it was pretty heavy doctrine. But doctrine is so very essential as the foundation for building a Christian life, as well as a truly Christian church. Doctrine defined very simply, is Christian truth. It’s not negotiable. And it is foundational. You cannot build a Christian life, or the church of God without a foundation of correct doctrine.
I was trying to counsel someone not too long ago that was under spiritual attack, and it was so severe that they were actually fearful that they might die. And I was glad to be able to tell them that according to the scripture, Satan was unable to even so much as touch a hair on their head. He was not able to harm them without express permission from God. But what I told them Satan could do, is deceive them. He is described in the Bible as the father of lies. And he comes to deceive, and destroy, but his power to destroy lies only in his power to deceive.
And the same is true in the church. Satan’s goal is to destroy the church, but he cannot touch it. Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The best weapon, in fact the only weapon that Satan really has in his arsenal against the church is deceit. And he uses it mightily. A good example is the thousands of churches and religions throughout the world. And Satan would love to deceive people into thinking that all roads lead to God. But doctrine tells us, the truth of God as given by Jesus Christ, in Matt. 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
The Bible tells us very plainly that Satan will deceive many. So therefore it is essential that we know doctrine. And once the doctrine is understood and accepted then we can build with practical application upon that doctrine, whether you are building a Christian life, or the church. But if you don’t have the right foundation, then you may find that at the day of reckoning, you built upon a foundation other than the foundation which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and all your works amount to nothing.
Jesus said at that day, there would be many, many people that would say, Lord, didn’t we prophecy in your name? Didn’t we do many miracles and works in your name? And Jesus said He will answer them, “Depart from Me I never knew you.”
So it behooves us to come to this chapter today recognizing that only by the 11 chapters of doctrine which have preceded this passage are we able to begin this section of practical application. Only by having the right foundation, can we begin to build our lives and the church of Christ as Paul lays it out for us in this chapter as he begins to tell us about how to live the Christian life and the life of the church.
Now I don’t have the time this morning to review all 11 chapters of doctrine we have covered so far, but what I must say is that the prerequisite for entering this chapter is that you must have been transformed from dead stones to living stones. You must have been transformed from being dead in your trespasses and sins to being made alive by the Spirit of Christ. You must have been transformed from being a natural, earthly being into a spiritual being. And this is something that man cannot do through his own efforts or merits, but only through the grace of God. Through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, God graciously credits us with righteousness, and being made holy, then the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, so that we are born again of the Spirit into new life. We become living stones.
As Peter says in 1Peter 2:3, “in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
You see that? Through salvation we become living stones, which God has selected to build a spiritual house, which is the church, for the purpose of offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Then, and only then, once we are made spiritual stones, part of the body of Christ, can we offer up spiritual sacrifices according to Peter.
Now at this point Satan will usually try to deceive us one of two ways. Either he will try to convince you that you can skip the first step of being born again, being made a living, spiritual stone, or he will attempt to deceive you with the wrong application of these practical applications which follow. If he can deceive you into thinking that you can do God pleasing things in your naturally dead state, then he is successful in destroying you spiritually. And if he can deceive you into thinking that the next phase of spiritual application is all meant to be about self fulfillment, then he is successful in destroying your effectiveness in the church and in your Christian life as well. Because what we’re going to find out here folks, is that God has designed the body of Christ, the church, to be his hands and feet, serving one another, the body, and not to be self serving. And as we look today at this passage which is about spiritual gifts, a lot of times this is presented as a self serving kind of thing which God has given us so that we can further our own ends, rather than as God has designed them, and that is to serve the needs of the church.
So then as Paul begins chapter 12 he attempts to head off this sort of me first mentality that is part of our old nature. See, the Christian life is totally different than the way life was before. In the new life our wisdom from God. Our strength is from God. Our power is from God. And of course, our life is from God. But it’s important for us to exercise what God has supplied and turn away from our old natural wisdom and strength and not fall back into our old patterns of thinking.
Therefore, Paul makes it clear that in light of what God has done in us, we lay down our old nature, we lay aside our pride and we exercise that spiritual reality that is from faith. We have to be careful that we don’t fall back into the same old patterns of thinking, and working and striving as we were used to doing in the flesh. But recognize that God has through His grace given us gifts by which we might live the life that He wants us to live. The problem is that when we start talking about spiritual gifts we sometimes get confused and start thinking of our natural talents.
According to our natural birth we are born with natural talents and abilities. And through spiritual birth: we are born again with spiritual talents and abilities. And we need to recognize that they are sometimes diametrically opposed. I’ve been in churches where they gave out a handout at the end of the service which you were supposed to fill out so that you could determine your spiritual gifts. And all the questions in the survey were all about your natural inclinations. What do you like to do? What are you good at? And then they tried to tell you that the results of your natural tendencies were somehow now your spiritual gifts. What a load of horse dung. They either forgot their doctrine, or more likely, they never knew it to begin with. Our natural inclinations are our problem, not our solution.
Listen to Romans 8: “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” So how can that which came from the flesh, the body of death, now be considered a gift from God? It can’t. God gives life to your dead bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. He provides the gifts, and the gifts that He gives are not necessarily based on our natural talents.
This is so misunderstood in the church today. We love to use our lack of talent as an excuse that God has not gifted us for a particular ministry in the church. “Oh, I can’t carry a tune, so therefore (thank goodness!) I don’t have to help with the singing.” Listen, the gifts of God are given to those that are saved to equip them to do what God has asked them to do. To start with, you can’t be righteous without the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so goes the rest of the Christian life as well. If you are naturally a good singer, and you like to sing in public, then that isn’t a spiritual gift. It’s a natural gift. You should still give it to God and use it for God’s glory. But if you can’t sing a lick, and you by faith in the grace of God, sing your heart out to the Lord, then that is a spiritual gift. And by exercising that gift, that is practicing that gift, you’re going to find that God will use it for His glory and not your own. And that is the difference between natural talents and spiritual gifts. Don’t get them confused. And don’t be deceived into thinking that spiritual gifts are related to physical gifts.
Naturally in our bodies we are selfish creatures. Pride is a natural characteristic and selfishness is his twin brother. And we all have them in spades. But in our new birth, vs. 4 says, we are born into part of another body; the body of Christ. We are not to be selfish any more. But the life we live now we live for the glory of God.
So the first thing Paul tells us in verse 1 is to lay that prideful, selfish body down on the altar as a living sacrifice to Christ. He says that is your reasonable service. It’s reasonable because we’ve learned that our flesh profits nothing in God’s kingdom. We need to lay it down. And secondly Paul tells us in verse 2 that we need to change our way of thinking, we need to stop thinking according to human wisdom and learn how to discern spiritually the will of God. And thirdly, he tells us in verse 3 that we need to divest ourselves of pride, not thinking highly of ourselves, but realize that it is only by God’s grace that we are even saved and chosen of God. And then fourthly, Paul tells us in verse 4 that all of us are just one of many parts of the same body, we all belong together, and we all exist for the good of one another.
And then fifthly, Paul tells us that each part of the body has been given gifts from God so that we might be able to perform the function of the body we are designed to do. I mean, this is pretty practical stuff. God gives us the life to be a part of His body, and so He gives us the power to live that life as He has designed us to live.
I heard one preacher say it this way: Spiritual gifts are not found in a toy box, but a tool box. God gives us gifts not for our own personal pleasure or self fulfillment, or to make ourselves look spiritual, but so that we might minister to others. And Paul lists 7 gifts here. And there is a lot of discussion over these gifts. There are other lists in other books like Ephesians, and 1 Peter, and particularly in 1 Corinthians. And so much has been made of certain gifts. There are some that want to teach that everyone is supposed to have the same gifts. And of course, that was the problem with the Corinthian church. They all were trying to claim what Paul described as the showy gifts. And unfortunately, today the church is still struggling in this area.
If I put a notice in the newspaper that we were going to have a conference down at the Holiday Inn next week that would teach you how to have some so called spiritual gift that produces a special goose pimple experience, there would be a line getting in there. But I guarantee you that if I advertised a conference on how to employ the spiritual gift of giving, or serving, I couldn’t pay people to come. It’s human nature to covet showy, self serving things. And that’s the problem. We too often let human nature direct our thinking when it comes to this matter of spiritual gifts.
So rather than approaching this passage in the typical way and giving a long dissertation on the varieties and meanings of all the spiritual gifts out there, and compare Corinthians list with Romans list and so on, I would like to really just get you to change your perspective on the purpose of the gifts today. I want you to see that the gifts were given for the edification of the body, for the good of the church, for the good of the other members and parts of the body, and not for your own edification, and certainly not to be the means or source of pride.
To look at this in the most elementary way possible, number one , I would suggest to you that you consider these lists of spiritual gifts as not conclusive, nor exclusive, but representative. That’s why there is so much overlap in these lists, and yet at the same time, none of them match exactly any of the others. Romans 12 lists seven: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy. Corinthians gives 9. Ephesians gives four. But let’s take these various gifts that God gives and think of them like the alphabet. Our alphabet has 26 characters. And yet we can arrange them in so many different ways that we can create millions of different words. I believe that is a good picture of our gifts. God takes some of this and some of that and perhaps a little of a couple of more things and it says in verse 3 that He measures it out to each of us.
Another illustration is like an artist’s palette. He has some primary colors on his palette. And the artist mixes these colors together in a way to make a unique color. And he can create an almost endless variety of colors from those basic hues. Now I believe that is how God distributes the gifts to us. A little of this and a little of that, more of this and even more of that. So that each of us is uniquely qualified, uniquely gifted to be able to do what God has called us to do.
David speaks of this masterful working of God in Psalm 139:13 “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” What a testimony. For God saw David when he was just a boy, and picked him out from all his brothers, all big handsome, strapping men, each of them looked like a king. And yet God told Samuel, God looks on the inward part, not on the outward appearance of a man. And God said I have picked this little boy to be the king, because he is a man after my own heart.
And then secondly, to consider this in the most elementary fashion possible, God wants you to exercise your gifts for the edification of the body. As you have been given gifts, then exercise them. Perhaps this very general list of gifts that Paul describes here are things that we all have to some degree or another. We may have some of them all. So we are told to exercise them. Make them stronger. Use them. Some of you will find that as you begin to exercise certain gifts there is a limit as to how much you can do in that particular area. But I believe the gifts aren’t like physical, natural gifts. These gifts are supernatural in origin. They don’t come from you, they come from God. Therefore, they are limited only by your faith in God and the opportunities that God gives you to use them.
These aren’t offices but practical means of doing God’s will. Let’s look at them briefly, and I’ll think you will agree that by God’s grace, there is not one gift listed here that you can’t do by the help and power of the Holy Spirit in your life. 1. Prophecy: not fortune telling, not prediction, but forth telling: the explanation of God’s revelation. And His revelation as revealed in His word is available for all of us to dispense. 2. Serving: sensing what needs to be done and doing it. This is so important that Christ Himself became a servant so that we might follow his example. 3. Teaching: imparting information and knowledge. Discipling others. 4. Exhortation: how about encouragement? Think you can do that? 5. Giving. Not just rich people. But having a heart to give like the widow’s mite. Like the good Samaritan. 6. Leadership; being diligent in the course you’re given. Stay the course. You can be a leader by example. It’s not an office. It’s an attitude.
7. Mercy; He who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Mercy is given to people who don’t deserve it. And none of us deserve it, do we? We stand in grace.
I heard about a CEO once that was looking for a top manager to take over an important division. And so he went around the plant dropping little pieces of trash and setting things a little out of order and making a little mess here and there. And then he secretly watched to see who took the time to personally take care of those things. And the guy he found that took care of the little things, the things that didn’t have a bunch of people taking notice of it, the things that took a love and caring about the company and it’s people, this was the guy that he gave the promotion to.
Listen, the showy people doing the showy things have already gotten their reward. 1Cr 12:22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.
Listen, God hasn’t designed the gifts of the church to create chaos. But harmony. The whole body working together effectively. And for that to happen, we need all the members of the body to work, to exercise, to participate as they are designed by God for the glory of the church. Mat 20:26 "It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
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