{"id":18482,"date":"2018-05-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-023-spiritual-gifts-3\/"},"modified":"2018-05-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T05:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-023-spiritual-gifts-3","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-023-spiritual-gifts-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 023: Spiritual Gifts 3"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[94],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18482","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-ephesians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 023: Spiritual Gifts 3","sermon_date":"20180513","sermon_month":"5","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5764,"sermon_slides":5763,"sermon_mp3":5766,"sermon_id":"5131810302110","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":94,"chapter_and_verse":"2:20","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 23\n\n5-13-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 23\n\nI pray, Father, for the leading and the illumination of Your Spirit that we might give attention to eternal things today and You might grow us in areas where we need to be grown.\u00a0 And we thank You, Lord, for this special day when we commemorate motherhood and mothers.\u00a0 I ask that they would feel honored today and also the 70th<\/sup> birthday of Israel which is tomorrow.\u00a0 I pray that that would be foremost on our thinking as we look into Your Word, both in Sunday School and in the Bible study that follows in the main service.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nEveryone should be receiving a couple of things, number one, a handout and number two a little booklet called Gifts of the Holy Spirit<\/em>, by Steven Waterhouse.\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles if we could to the Book of Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 20.\u00a0 As you know we are continuing to deal with ecclesiology which is the doctrine or the study of the church and we\u2019ve looked at many, many subjects related to the church.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve been spending a lot of time on its purpose or purposes; why does the local church exist.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve seen that one of the things that the local church exists for is edification of the saints through the teaching of the Word of God which makes a promise that promises to equip us for every good work.\u00a0 And so as the Word of God is being taught by those called to do it within a local assembly the believers are being basically prepared, if you will, for their ministries.\n\nAnd the reason your ministry is important is because the local church will either rise or fall depending on whether we pursue God\u2019s design for the local church or not.\u00a0 And His design for the local church is that you have many, many people exercising their spiritual gifts in harmony with one another.\u00a0 So the ministry of a local church should be preparing you for the ministry that He has for you within that context, which is serving the Lord based primarily on the spiritual gifts that God has given you.\u00a0 So normally you handle the subject of spiritual gifts under pneumatology, which is the doctrine of the Spirit and so we\u2019ve sort of chosen to include it here in Ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church since the gifts of the Holy Spirit are there to serve Christ within His church.\n\nSo as we\u2019re kind of looking at spiritual gifts we\u2019re basically trying to ask and answer four questions.\u00a0 Number 1, what are some general observations about spiritual gifts?\u00a0 So the last two lessons that we have gone through we\u2019ve looked at, I think, nineteen basic observations about spiritual gifts.\n\nAnd now we move into Number 2 probably the most controversial part of this study on spiritual gifts, which is trying to ask and answer the question, are all the spiritual gifts for today?\u00a0 There can\u2019t be a question that divides Christians more than this one.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve sort of been struggling, really all week, on how to present this and so finally late last night I decided to go with this outline which I\u2019ll be explaining to you a little bit more as we go this morning.\n\nBut before we get to that I want to just make some preliminary comments about this issue of are all the spiritual gifts for today?\u00a0\u00a0 If\u00a0 you memorized this pneumonic device, 12, 12, 4, 4, it stands for Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 4, Ephesians 4.\u00a0 12, 12, 4, 4!\u00a0\u00a0 And if you were to go home today and read those four chapters you would basically be reading all of the relevant sections of the Scripture in the New Testament which lists the spiritual gifts.\u00a0 And as you\u2019re going to read that list there\u2019s going to be a big elephant in the room; there are about, by my count, twenty-two gifts mentioned.\n\nAnd as you\u2019re reading you\u2019re going to come across six gifts and you\u2019re going to be asking yourself well, how come these aren\u2019t being practiced at Sugar Land Bible Church regularly?\u00a0 And these are all what I would call the disputed gifts, disputed in the sense that there is a very lively discussion concerning whether these gifts are in operation today or not.\u00a0 They are: the gift of apostle, prophet, worker of miracles, tongues, now tongues (I\u2019ll be making this point) tongues is a terrible translation, it doesn\u2019t say tongues, what it says is language and it come from the word glossalia<\/em>, if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, where we get the word glossary.\u00a0 And dialect<\/em>\u014d<\/em> where we get the word dialect.\u00a0 But the King James sort of set the trend for this and translated that word as \u201ctongues\u201d because in the days of King James that\u2019s what tongues meant in that language.\n\nSo you\u2019ll see the gift of tongues, then you\u2019ll see another gift called the interpretation of tongues and then you\u2019ll see an actual gift called the gift of healing.\u00a0 And as you\u2019re walking with the Lord\u00a0 you\u2019re eventually going to hit this controversy because the Christian church is very divided on this.\u00a0 A group of people that I would call the continuationists, another name for them is charismatics, another name for them is Pentecostals, their basic view on it is every single gift that you see in the New Testament, including these six gifts that I just went over very briefly or just listed at least, those gifts are alive and well in the church, just like any other spiritual gift.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why they\u2019re called continuationists.\u00a0 And anything you basically see in the Book of Acts \u00a0continues on into 2,000 years of church history into the 21st<\/sup> century.\n\nNow there\u2019s another group of people called cessationists and I really don\u2019t like that word, cessationists, because it kind of gives you the title that well, you don\u2019t believe in any spiritual gifts because cessationist means to cease. \u00a0So I prefer the title selective cessationists.\u00a0 But there\u2019s another group of people that basically believe that yes, most of the gifts that you read about in the New Testament are in operation today but those six gifts (that I just mentioned) passed away in the first century.\u00a0 That\u2019s really the discussion: continuationists\u2014every gift that you see in the New Testament is in operation today.\u00a0 Then you have what is called selective cessationists where we\u2019re trying to argue that six of the twenty-two gifts have passed.\u00a0 So those are basically the two camps.\n\nAnd one of the things you need to know is where Sugar Land Bible Church is on this terrain.\u00a0 And so before I give you the reasoning as to why I just want to announce where we are as a church on this particular issue.\u00a0 We would be in that latter camp, selective cessationists camp.\u00a0 So when you read our position statements and our constitution, and hopefully you have a chance to read that, if you want to join the church we ask that you have read these, and this is what you\u2019ll run into, it says: \u201cAlthough agreement with the POSITION STATEMENTS\u201d and we have seven position statements, \u201cis not required for membership, they are taught in this church. The POSITION STATEMENTS are not meant to prohibit honest and healthy discussions concerning what the Bible teaches about these issues; however, we believe that such discussions must be conducted under the guiding principle that believers are to strive to maintain unity.\u201d\n\nSo what you\u2019re going to discover in our Constitution is we have what are called Statements of Faith; there\u2019s twelve of those.\u00a0 And those are very sort of generic concepts that all Christians believe in, things like the virgin birth, Trinity, the inerrancy of the Bible, those kinds of issues.\u00a0 And the only thing we ask if you want to join our church is that you agree with those twelve statements of faith.\n\nNow having said that there\u2019s another section of the Constitution which talks out our position statements and these are basically teaching positions where we take a stand on areas that are controversial in the body of Christ, things like dispensationalism and things of that nature.\u00a0 And in one of our position statements, and I\u2019ll read it to you in just a second, we do take a stand on this issue of the perpetuity of all of the gifts of the Spirit.\u00a0 To join the church\u00a0 you don\u2019t have to agree with our view on it, okay, you just have to agree with the twelve statements of faith.\u00a0 But you have to also understand that when this church teaches it will teach from the angle of the seven position statements, including cessationism.\n\nSo it would be sort of crazy for us to make everybody agree with seven areas that are controversial because the purpose of a local church is to help people grow, one of the purposes anyway, in their knowledge.\u00a0 We can\u2019t expect people walking in to have everything correctly ironed out.\u00a0 The purpose of a church is to bring folks to maturity in the area of knowledge.\u00a0 So you don\u2019t have to agree with the seven position statement to be a member here but you do have to understand that when we teach we teach from the angle of the seven position statements.\u00a0 Does that make sense?\n\nSo we have SLBC position statement Number 7, and it\u2019s entitled \u201cTEMPORARY SPIRITUAL GIFTS \u201c and this is what is says, this has been part of this church since it was founded around 1983.\u00a0 \u201cThis church teaches that the miraculous sign gifts, including the gift of tongues, (always the ability to speak in a previously unlearned, known language) along with the gift of healings were temporal gifts, given by the Holy Spirit solely to authenticate both the apostles and their message before the close of the canon of Scripture (1\u00a0Cor. 13:8-10).\u00a0\u00a0We do not believe that these are active as gifts today.\u201d\u00a0 Now watch this very carefully.\u00a0 \u201cHowever, we affirm that God is sovereign and may heal and\/or give someone the ability to speak in a tongue (foreign language) today.\u201d\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice this, we believe God heals today; we believe that God intervenes in the affairs of men today.\u00a0 If we didn\u2019t believe that why in the world would we pray for people to get well.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a big difference between healing and healers.\u00a0 We believe that healers, people with a gift of healing, is a gift that has already passed so when God does heal today, and I believe that He does, He does it directly Himself rather than working through someone that supposedly has a spiritual gift of healing.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not just going to read this to you, I\u2019m going to explain to you biblically why we believe that this is the case.\u00a0 \u201cWe also believe that the majority of what is termed \u2018miraculous\u2019 within the contemporary charismatic movement is something other than the Biblical gifts of tongues or healing.\u201d\n\nSo I\u2019m going to be showing you from the Bible that assuming all of these gifts are for today, let\u2019s just pretend they are, part of this study will deal with that, there have to be certain rules that are followed.\u00a0 So even if you are a continuationists and you can still believe that and be a member of Sugar Land Bible Church, (as I\u2019ve tried to explain) even if all of that is true Paul lays out certain rules for those gifts to be practiced.\u00a0 And largely within the charismatic movement today, not in every case but in many cases, those rules are neglected.\n\nThat\u2019s the belief system of this church; I think it\u2019s sort of important if you come here, you attend here, you support this church with your attendance and your finances you have to understand where the church is coming from.\u00a0 We\u2019re not a hide the ball kind of church.\u00a0 Have you guys noticed that?\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019ll just come out and tell you what we think about things.\u00a0 So with those preliminary thoughts in mind we\u2019re now moving in a section of our study on Ecclesiology dealing with what I would call the case, not for cessationism, the case for selective cessationism, the case for the belief that six of the twenty-two gifts passed in the first century.\u00a0 And so the outline is going to precede as follows:\u00a0 I\u2019m going to try to explain to you that there are\u2026 when you take those twenty-two gifts, spiritual gifts that Paul talks about, you can put them into four categories.\u00a0 The first are foundational gifts (I\u2019ll be explaining those today) that God used to lay the foundation for the early church.\u00a0 Another category is the confirmatory gifts, there are specific gifts that the Holy Spirit used to confirm the inauguration, particularly of God doing something brand new, like giving the Law to Israel, starting the church, etc. You can also fit some of those gifts into revelatory gifts, direct communication.\u00a0 And then finally there are the edificatory gifts.\n\nThe position of Sugar Land Bible Church, at least in terms of its teaching, is the foundational gifts, the confirmatory gifts, the revelatory gifts have passed in the first century.\u00a0 Once the canon of Scripture was closed those gifts ceased.\u00a0 But sixteen of the twenty-two gifts continue on because the church never outgrows its need for edification.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll be sort of unpacking that.\n\nAnd then I\u2019ll also be trying to explain what church history reveals about this.\u00a0 I think this is a case that can be made not only from the Bible but you can actually see it in the writings of the early Church Fathers so I\u2019ll be showing that to you.\u00a0 And then I\u2019ll be putting on another hat and saying well, let\u2019s pretend that all of these gifts are for today; if they are for today then the Apostle Paul is very clear here at laying out some certain rules that have to be practiced for these gifts to be used authentically and legitimately.\u00a0 So we\u2019ll be going through those rules.\u00a0 And then number five, I\u2019ll be trying to ask and answer this question: if the source of many of the things that we see in the charismatic movement today are not the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit can\u2019t contradict God\u2019s Word, then what is the source of the charismatic movement?\u00a0 I mean, where are these things emanating from?\u00a0 So we\u2019ll briefly be explaining that issue. \u00a0And then finally we\u2019ll be looking at an explanation of the charismatic movement\u2019s popularity.\u00a0 In other words, if thing is sort of off base biblically why is it so popular; why is it that almost every preacher and teacher that you turn on (on so-called Christian television) is of the charismatic persuasion? So I\u2019ll be getting into that issue a little bit as well.\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of the direction that we\u2019re going in here.\n\nAnd I want to say this also, that there is no verse in the Bible that\u2019s ironclad on this.\u00a0 There\u2019s no verse where God said \u201cthus saith the Lord, six of the twenty-two gifts ceased in the first century.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a case that can be put together as you compare Scripture with Scripture.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll also say this, there is no clear cut verse on the Trinity in the Bible. Did you know that?\u00a0 There\u2019s no verse you can point to that says \u201cthus saith the Lord, God is one but He\u2019s expressed Himself in three personages.\u201d\u00a0 You have to compare Scripture with Scripture to put together the doctrine of the Trinity; you have to compare Scripture with Scripture to put together the doctrine of the pretribulational rapture.\u00a0 You have to compare Scripture with Scripture to put together any doctrine in the Bible, including this doctrine, the doctrine of cessationism.\n\nBut many people look at us and they say well, you guys are just very arbitrary.\u00a0 In fact, when I was in the Dallas area, at Dallas Seminary, I was there in Barnes and Noble and a guy found out that I was a student at Dallas Seminary; Dallas Seminary historically has taken a position on cessationism the way we take it here, and I\u2019m just minding my own business drinking my coffee and he just starts up on me saying well you guys just go through the Bible and you don\u2019t like this gift so you cross it off and you don\u2019t like that gift so you cross it off and you don\u2019t like that gift so you cross it off but you like this gift over here so you keep it.\u00a0 And so his view was sort of Dallas Seminary was just sort of going through the\u00a0 Bible saying we like this one and don\u2019t like that one and they think we\u2019re very arbitrary about that.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going to try to communicate that that\u2019s not at all what we\u2019re doing here.\u00a0 We believe that there\u2019s biblical basis and historical precedent for the doctrine of selective cessationism.\n\nAnd let me say something else about this; this is a topic that I frankly have never dealt with at this church, partly because when I came here I would have offended probably 25% of the audience.\u00a0 But most of the people that have been offended by me have left already so I\u2019m kind of safe not to talk about this.\u00a0 And it\u2019s really an issue that I really don\u2019t like to talk about.\u00a0 The reason I really don\u2019t like talking about it is because the moment you start dealing with this you take the body of Christ and you almost divide it in half, because half of Christianity believes one way; half of Christianity believes another way.\u00a0 And I believe this\u2014at the end of the day that what unites both camps is greater than what divides.\u00a0 Both camps believe in the virgin birth, the Trinity, the deity of Christ and all of the basic core doctrines but there\u2019s a division on this issue.\n\nAnd so I will call this issue a secondary issue.\u00a0 If you have friends and family members that don\u2019t think the way this church thinks on this issue it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not Christians.\u00a0 But having said that, although it\u2019s a secondary issue it\u2019s an important issue.\u00a0 It\u2019s important because the way you think about it influences how you think on so many other issues as well.\u00a0 So I\u2019ve, through my life I think gone through the full spectrum on this.\u00a0 The guy that brought me to Christ was a gentleman that believed in the perpetuity of spiritual gifts.\u00a0 I mean, I wouldn\u2019t even be saved without the influence of a charismatic or Pentecostal in my life from the human point of view.\n\nAnd this is an issue that goes right down the middle of my family because my cousin, who was saved just a tad before I was, became very strong in the area of charismatic theology.\u00a0 He and his father, my uncle, are that way today.\u00a0 And having sort of experimented with it I\u2019ve sort of moved in the direction of selective cessationism.\u00a0 So it\u2019s been an issue I\u2019ve been thinking about, talking about, dialoguing about, probably since around 1983.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of an awkward issue for me to talk about because I, as a prophecy teacher, am invited into a lot of charismatic Pentecostal churches.\u00a0 Now the churches that I go to, they don\u2019t make an issue out of it and I don\u2019t make an issue out of it.\u00a0 And there are many, many things I could talk about that we agree on that edify people across the board and so that\u2019s really another reason why I\u2019ve sort of not aggressively dealt with it, just because of friends and family and the person that led me to Christ.\n\nBut having said all that it\u2019s still an important issue to wrestle with; it\u2019s still an important issue to think through.\u00a0 So it is a secondary issue but of all of the secondary issues out there this would probably be one of the top most important secondary issues.\u00a0 I have read, since 1983, a lot of different books on this.\u00a0 Some of them are very hot and heated and are more adept at rock throwing than they are educating.\u00a0 Not I hope you hear my heart as I get into this subject.\u00a0 My heart in this is not to be polemical, and it is not to throw rocks at anybody.\u00a0 If you\u2019re kind of looking for a study where \u201call right, give it to \u2018em pastor,\u201d that\u2019s not at all what I\u2019m trying to do.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to deal with an issue that is important but at the same time it\u2019s a secondary issue.\n\nSo this is not going to be a polemical attack and I\u2019ll go ahead and bring up the name, one of the problems I had with the late John MacArthur, who I agree with on this particular point, I don\u2019t agree with John MacArthur on the doctrine of soteriology, we\u2019ve got big differences between us, but I agree with him here.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve sort of felt, having read his book, Charismatic Chaos<\/em>, many, many years ago, and then most recently he had a conference called the Strange Fire Conference, I feel that sometime polemics and overheated rhetoric makes the fissure or the division in the body of Christ worse than it needs to be.\u00a0 So this is not going to be a bomb throwing type of thing; it\u2019s just going to be a basic study and why Sugar Land Bible Church thinks the way it does on this particular issue.\n\nAnd I\u2019ve read several books on it but one of the most helpful books I have ever read is the book by Steven Waterhouse called Not By Bread Alone<\/em>.\u00a0 And we put that out frequently, we actually put some out on the table which you can pick up on your way out.\u00a0 He deals with every area of systematic theology based on the Scripture and in the process he deals with gifts of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And fortunately what he did is he took the information on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is part of his big Not By Bread Alone<\/em> book and he put it into a smaller book which only spans 52-53 pages.\u00a0 So did you all get a copy of that?\u00a0 I\u2019m going to be drawing from this particular book as we go through because I really have a lot of respect for Steven Waterhouse and his ministry and how he argues things from the Scripture and the Scripture alone.\n\nNow when I say that we\u2019ve got an online audience, praise God for that, and they\u2019re all going to e-mail me and say where can we get this.\u00a0 It\u2019s very easy, you just go to his website, Westcliff\u00a0 Press, and he\u2019s got all of these booklets, including Not By Bread Alone<\/em> and including this little pamphlet, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit<\/em> downloadable.\u00a0 So this book is easily accessible, just go to his website.\u00a0 [http:\/\/www.webtheology.com\/]\n\nSo having said all that is there really a case for selective cessationism in the Word of God?\u00a0 We think that there is.\u00a0 Now next week, and this study, I don\u2019t know how long this is going to last, I mean, my Daniel study has lasted sixty-two sermons, I don\u2019t think this will take that long, we\u2019re just going to try to cover this outline as part of ecclesiology but I will warn you that next week we\u2019re not going to be here.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re going to be here we\u2019re just not having class because we\u2019re having a church wide membership meeting, congregational meeting next week, May 20th<\/sup>.\n\nSo having said all that let\u2019s take a look here, having made some preliminary thoughts let\u2019s look at these gifts of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 You can take the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all twenty-two of them, and you can organize them into four categories: foundational gifts, confirmatory gifts, revelatory gifts and edificatory gifts.\u00a0 Again, the continuationists will say that all of those gifts are alive and well in the church today.\u00a0 The selective sensationalist is going to say no, some of those gifts, six of them\u00a0 are either foundational, confirmatory or revelatory and consequently passed out of existence when the New Testament canon of Scripture was closed when John penned the last book of the Bible called The Book of Revelation.\n\nSo let\u2019s go ahead and start with the foundational gifts.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I had you open up to Ephesians 2:20.\u00a0\u00a0 And when we talk about the foundational gifts we\u2019re talking about two of them: number one, the gift of apostle, number two, the gift of prophet.\u00a0 It\u2019s our conviction that those two gifts are not in existence today because those two gifts are part of the foundation of the church.\n\nSo notice, if you will, Ephesians 2:20, notice what it says of the church, \u201chaving been built on the\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cfoundation of the\u201d what? \u201capostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,\u201d the corner stone is the most important stone that goes in first and in Paul\u2019s metaphor of the church, analyzing the church to the temple, and all other stones are gauged by how they align with the cornerstone, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So the cornerstone goes in first and then come the foundational stones of apostles and prophets.\u00a0 Now this is just a basic issue in the area of construction; exactly how many times to you lay a foundation?\u00a0 Well of course you would lay a foundation one time.\u00a0 So these are foundational gifts that God strategically used to get the church off the ground and as that happened those gifts became unnecessary because the foundation was already laid two thousand\u00a0 years ago.\u00a0 I mean, what exactly has God been doing for the last two thousand years?\u00a0 He\u2019s been\u2026 not relaying the foundation, that\u2019s already been laid, He\u2019s been putting in the bricks of the structure.\n\nI believe that God today is not laying the foundation again, He\u2019s putting on the roof of the church.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s how close we are to the completion of the body of Christ and the ensuing and subsequent rapture of the church.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice right out of the gate there that Paul takes two gifts, apostles and prophets, and He describes them as foundational gifts.\n\nSo let\u2019s focus, first of all on apostles.\u00a0 Your understanding of an apostle is sort of \u00a0a linchpin that moves you in the direction of selective cessationism.\u00a0 If there are no apostles today, and since the apostles wrote the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, that is going to influence the way you think about an open canon, ongoing revelation.\u00a0 And it\u2019s also going to influence how you think about certain gifts that maybe I\u2019ll get to today, maybe I won\u2019t, called sign gifts.\u00a0 So what you think about the issue of apostles, are apostles here today or are they not here today, that\u2019s sort of going to be the initial direction you take theologically, either as a continuationists or as a selective cessationist.\n\nSo what do we mean by an apostle?\u00a0 There are many, many people today that will claim to be apostles but you see, when you go back to the Book of Acts, and you can turn there if\u00a0 you\u2019d like, chapter 1, verses 21-25, written during a time when the church, which hadn\u2019t even experienced the Holy Spirit yet the way they would experience it on the day of Pentecost, were trying to search for a replacement of Judas, one of the twelve who had just committed suicide as you know, and they\u2019re trying to figure out who\u2019s going to take Judas\u2019 place.\u00a0 They finally settled on a guy named Matthias, and in the process of this deliberation they tell you exactly what an apostle is.\n\nNotice Acts 1:21-25.\u00a0 It says, \u201cTherefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us\u2014[22] beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us\u2014one of these must<\/em> become a witness with us of His\u201d what? \u201cresurrection.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the standard.\u00a0 If you wanted to be an apostle, you want to be part of one of the twelve here\u2019s the lipid test; you had to have been with us from the beginning, beginning with the baptism of John the Baptist all the way back in early gospels and you had to have been with us for three years.\u00a0 You had to have been an actual recipient of the ministry of Jesus Christ, an actual eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And you had to have been a witness of His resurrection from the dead.\u00a0 And if that hasn\u2019t happened in a person\u2019s life how in the world could they be an apostle, as this standard is laid out here.\n\nSo with that standard in mind, verse 23, \u201cSo they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. [24] And they prayed and said, \u2018You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen [25] to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.\u00a0 [26] And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.\u201d\u2019\n\nNow there is a teaching in the Book of Acts which says these guys made a mistake.\u00a0 I mean, because after all, they\u2019re casting lots and you can\u2019t gamble as a believer, right?\u00a0 And number two, the Holy Spirit hadn\u2019t been given yet, at least the way it would be given in Acts 2.\u00a0 And number three, we never hear about this guy, Matthias, again.\u00a0 So a lot of Bible teachers will tell you the church made a big error here.\u00a0 Let me ask you a question: does it ever say here that they made a mistake?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s just theory that people speculate about; there\u2019s nothing here in the text that indicates they made an error.\u00a0 And in the process of selection they have explained to us exactly who an apostle is.\u00a0 You had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, be an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus Christ, and you had to have been with us since the John the Baptist days three years earlier.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t fit that category then you\u2019re not an apostle.\n\nNow the last time I checked all these folks are dead.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 I mean, the question I ask people when they tell me they\u2019re an apostle is I say you look really good for your age.\u00a0 [laughter]\u00a0 I mean, you must have some kind of diet and exercise tip I\u2019d like to know about because you ought to be about two thousand years old.\u00a0 My point is simply this: the Bible, not me, it doesn\u2019t matter what I think, the Bible has a technical definition for an apostle.\u00a0 If you go over to 1 Corinthians 9:1 you run into this guy named Paul and I\u2019ll be explaining his inclusion in all of this in just a minute, because he was the apostle untimely born.\u00a0 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:1, \u201cAm I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?\u201d\u00a0 So Paul again lays out the criteria for an apostle, having seen or been an eyewitness to Jesus Christ.\n\nNow those of you that are good Bible students are automatically saying well wait a minute, Paul wasn\u2019t converted until Acts 9 so Paul himself would have flunked the test, wouldn\u2019t he, of Acts 1:21-25?\u00a0 So why does Paul get to be an apostle yet he flunks this test?\u00a0 Well, he gives you the answer in 1 Corinthians 15:8-9, he says, \u201cand last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. [9] For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.\u201d\u00a0 Notice what Paul says, he says my apostleship is the least of those twelve.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because I didn\u2019t meet the test of Acts 1; I was born out of due season, I was born in an untimely way.\u00a0 Now what is he talking about?\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about the fact that he was a persecutor of the church.\u00a0 When you study Acts 9 what you\u2019ll see is he received a direct revelation from Jesus Christ and so he is inducted into the apostleship on that basis and the commissioning the Lord gave him.\u00a0 But Paul says while I am \u201cuntimely born\u201d and \u201cthe least of the apostles,\u201d you know what, I at least meet the test of having seen Jesus Christ because I saw Him in a vision.\n\nNow I know what you\u2019re thinking, you\u2019re thinking well, if Paul saw him in a vision then Joe Schmoo down the street can see him in a vision and Joe Schmoo down the street could be an apostle just like Paul.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 Wrong!\u00a0 Because look at what it says, and what? \u00a0\u201clast of all,\u201d see that phrase, last of all.\u00a0 Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15 is explaining the resurrected Christ and his eyewitness testimony, and all the people that Jesus appeared to as an eye-witness.\u00a0 Paul says \u201cI am the least\u201d because I am \u201cuntimely born,\u201d and he makes a very interesting statement, he says, \u201cand last of all.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m the last one; \u201cHe appeared to me.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. [9] For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, you have the twelve selected with Matthias and then you have Paul added, untimely born, through direct divine revelation and Paul says I was the last one.\n\nSo consequently in the technical sense of the word since that happened there never has been, \u201clast of all\u201d he says, another apostle added to the group.\u00a0 So what you have is a technical definition of an apostle and Paul\u2019s explanation as to how he got included in that group in 1 Corinthians 15:8-9.\u00a0 And what\u2019s happening today is people are throwing around this word \u201capostle\u201d very loosey-goosey.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like what they\u2019re doing with the kingdom, they just toss that word around and what you\u2019re not getting in most local churches is careful Bible study, explaining what those words actually mean.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do here with apostle, I\u2019m trying to give you a careful precise Bible study explaining to you and us exactly what that means and why an apostle was a foundational gift that God used to lay the foundation of the church.\u00a0 You only lay the foundation one time so therefore the way I\u2019m describing apostle, the way the Scripture is describing apostle, you can\u2019t have apostles today.\u00a0 It\u2019s an impossibility.\n\nNow if you will agree with me on that you also have to acknowledge that other gifts connected to apostleship also ceased because Paul, in Ephesians 2:20, in the area of foundational gifts says that the church was not just built on the foundation of the apostles but on the\u201d what\u2019s the next word, starts with a P, got it underlined, \u201cprophets.\u201d\u00a0 Your view on apostleship controls your view of the canon.\u00a0 What\u2019s the canon?\u00a0 It\u2019s not that thing you shoot cannon balls out of at your opponent, the canon means the reed, or the measuring rod to determine what books of the New Testament should be included and which ones should not be included.\n\nThe apostles, as prophets receiving direct revelation from God wrote the 27 books of the New Testament.\u00a0 In fact, I would challenge you sometime to just open your table of contents, which lists the 27 books of the New Testament and what you\u2019ll discover is every single one of them was written by an apostle OR in the case of Luke, Mark, James and Jude, the half-brothers of Jesus, it was written by someone closely affiliated with an apostle.\u00a0 So either in the New Testament, the twenty-seven books, the book was written by an apostle or it was written by someone so closely affiliated with an apostle that the apostle could have either accepted or rejected that writing as authentic.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo if apostle was a foundational gift that was one time given to the church, and I think it was for reasons that I\u2019ve tried to explain, then the gift of prophet, receiving direct revelation from God of such a level that you might as well write Revelation chapter 23\u2026 that ceased as well because God attached the standard for the canon of Scripture to the apostles.\u00a0 To get a book included in the New Testament canon it had to have been written by an apostle or someone closely affiliated with an apostle.\u00a0 Well, the apostles are all dead, they\u2019ve been dead for two thousand\u00a0 years so therefore the gift of prophecy, which was used to write the New Testament, that gift has ceased as well.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the Apostle Paul connects or puts together as the foundation of the church, not just the apostles but the prophets.\u00a0 Many of the apostles themselves were prophets, they received direct revelation from God and wrote the New Testament or they were in a position to sign off on (to use modern vernacular) books that should be included as well.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how we got our New Testament canon.\n\nThere was a test for the New Testament canon called apostolicity.\u00a0 There\u2019s three tests really. Apostolicity was it written by an apostle or someone connected to an apostle.\u00a0 Number two is orthodoxy, it had to have been something that didn\u2019t contradict, like many pagan books floating around at that time, other divine revelation, because God can\u2019t say something on Monday and say something different on Tuesday.\u00a0 So a lot of books are rejected from the canon on that basis.\u00a0 And number three, catholicity\u2026 now some of you are very nervous when I say catholicity because you\u2019re thinking of the Catholic Church but I\u2019m not talking here about the Catholic Church.\u00a0 Catholicity means universal; the book was something that was embraced by all the churches back at the time of writing.\n\nSo unless the standard of apostolicity orthodoxy or catholicity is satisfied you can\u2019t have a book included in the New Testament canon.\u00a0 And so since all of the apostles who wrote these books or authenticated these books had died there haven\u2019t been New Testament books written since that period of time.\u00a0 You with me on that?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why with the gift of apostle going out of existence simultaneously also causes to go out of existence the gift of prophets, that I\u2019m defining here as people that receive revelation on equal par with divine Scripture.\u00a0 Because when someone says I had a revelation from God, I\u2019m always curious what am I going to do with that, I mean, should I add it to Revelation 22, I mean what exactly are you talking about?\n\nNow in my life I\u2019ve experienced yearnings, promptings, direction from God, open doors, closed doors, ministry opportunities, I\u2019ve experienced the same walk with God that you have.\u00a0 But let me tell you something, I do not put that on the same level as a New Testament book.\u00a0 The things that I\u2019ve experienced can be interpreted lots of different ways; they\u2019re very subjective and in no way, shape or form does that rise to what I\u2019m talking about here, part of canonical material.\u00a0 So the doctrine of revelation has ceased.\u00a0 What is revelation?\u00a0 Revelation is receiving something from God that\u2019s on equal level with the New Testament.\u00a0 There is no such thing!\n\nThe doctrine of inspiration has ceased. What is inspiration?\u00a0 It\u2019s the ability as 2 Peter 1:20-21 talks about it, 2 Timothy 3:16 talks about it, should be carried along by God in such a way that the receiver of the revelation is able to record it.\u00a0 Revelation is the reception, inspiration is the actual recording of it.\u00a0 \u00a0[1 Peter 1:20-21, \u201cFor He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you [21] who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.\u201d\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:16, \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;\u201d]\n\nAnd we believe that there are no errors in the recording process in the original manuscripts. When those manuscripts were completed there was not a single error in those manuscripts.\u00a0 You say well where are the original manuscripts.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have them.\u00a0 You say well, that\u2019s convenient.\u00a0 Think about if God allowed us to keep those.\u00a0 Don\u2019t people worship everything and anything?\u00a0 They find a splinter on the cross in Mexico, they think, and they start worshipping it and crowds gather around.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s a logical reason why God did not allow us to keep the original manuscripts.\n\nAnd think about this, if you damaged one of the original manuscripts and that\u2019s the only one you got, you just set back the whole cause of Christianity, didn\u2019t you.\u00a0 So God in His sovereignty did not allow us to retain the original manuscripts.\u00a0 You say well what do we have?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got copies of them.\u00a0 You say is that all?\u00a0 Oh, let me tell you something, we come out so far ahead on this when you compare it to other works of antiquity that are readily accepted today, Thucydides,\u00a0 Homer, you name it.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have original manuscripts either.\u00a0 What do they have?\u00a0 They have copies of the original manuscripts. And because Christianity has always been a missional faith we have more copies of the original manuscripts than any other work of antiquity, and time of writing between the original and the first copy is so short compared to any other work of antiquity.\n\nSo if you want to throw out the Bible because we don\u2019t have the original manuscripts you\u2019ve got to throw out ancient literature is what you\u2019ve got to do and no one wants to do that.\u00a0 Look how many professors would have their classes cancelled if you throw out Thucydides, you can\u2019t throw that out.\u00a0 So don\u2019t let the fact that we don\u2019t have the original manuscripts bother you.\u00a0 That is the sovereignty and providence of God, AND the copies that we do have, you know what?\u00a0 They all agree with each other, about 99% of the time.\u00a0 You say well what about the 1%?\u00a0 That 1% is interesting but it never covers a major issue of doctrine.\u00a0 So some people believe the earlier manuscripts are better, The New American Standard Bible.\u00a0 Other people say the majority of manuscripts are better, when there\u2019s a potential conflict, the King James does that.\n\nBut we don\u2019t have the original manuscripts.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have divine revelation today.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have divine inspiration today. \u00a0Well then what do we have?\u00a0 What are you going leave us pastor?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know I was the one making the rules.\u00a0 It\u2019s God that makes the rules.\u00a0 We have illumination today where the Spirit of God is at work helping us to understand what the Holy Spirit has revealed in His Word.\u00a0 And you say well if it\u2019s that simple why don\u2019t all Christians agree on everything?\u00a0 The reason for that is the Holy Spirit\u2019s illuminating ministry works through the rules of language. When God decided to codify His Word in linguistic form automatically certain rules of grammar took over.\u00a0 So to understand God you have to understand the laws of language, like context.\u00a0 And a lot of people claim some understanding from God but it\u2019s not based on the rules of language, grammar or context.\u00a0 So part of the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit is becoming adept at the laws of language so that you can understand the revelation of God which He decided to reveal in plain language.\u00a0 So therefore the canon of Scripture is shut.\u00a0 The gift of prophecy where somebody has some kind of revelation on equal par with the New Testament, that has stopped as well, because the gift of apostle has stopped, because the Bible has a technical definition of apostleship.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Paul, in Ephesians 2:20 talks about apostles and prophets as the foundation of the early church, as the foundation of the church and we know from construction that you lay a foundation one time.\n\nWhat I\u2019ve tried to explain to you is why two of those gifts are not in existence today.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you see, the process of explanation that I\u2019ve given is a lot more complicated than the mischaracterization that\u2019s aimed at us, saying well, you just go through the Bible and you cross out this one because you don\u2019t like it and you cross out that one because you don\u2019t like it, but you keep this one because you do like it, which is what the gentleman at Barnes and Noble was ranting at me about when I\u2019m trying to enjoy my morning coffee.\u00a0 So why don\u2019t we have apostles and prophets?\u00a0 Because those are foundational gifts that have passed; you lay a foundation one time.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t have an apostle you can\u2019t have a prophet, not in the sense of having some revelation on equal par with the Scripture.\n\nNow there\u2019s a second group of gifts called the confirmatory gifts.\u00a0 What exactly are we talking about with the confirmatory gifts?\u00a0 Those gifts would be as follows.\u00a0 Workers of miracles, tongues (which is better translated languages) and gifts of healing.\u00a0 You say well you don\u2019t believe God heals today?\u00a0 I do believe He heals today but there\u2019s a big difference between healers and divine healing.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\u00a0 And so this next category are three gifts that aren\u2019t foundational gifts but they are what you call confirmatory gifts.\n\nAnd let me just throw this chart at you because I\u2019m running out of time here, I\u2019ve got a couple of minutes and we\u2019ll pick this up the next time I\u2019m with you.\u00a0 But a lot of people have this view of the Bible that it\u2019s miracles from beginning to end; every time you open the Bible there\u2019s a miracle happening and so miracles certainly are highlighted very aggressively in the Bible.\u00a0 Redemptive history has been going on since the days of Adam and Eve right up to the present.\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s a big chunk of time.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way the Bible can record every little historical happenstance that happened during that time so it highlights the very special times.\u00a0 And the very special times are when God performs a miracle.\n\nSo people think that when they open the pages of the Bible they\u2019re seeing miracles quite frequently, they have this idea that miracles have just flown in an uninterrupted form since the beginning and that is not true. Miracles in the Bible have a tendency to cluster around certain eras, particularly when God is doing something brand new, i.e. starting a new dispensation, i.e. starting new house rules.\u00a0 So miracles will cluster around six eras in the Bible.\n\nNumber one, the time of Moses, you see a lot of miracles there because that\u2019s when the Law was delivered from Mount Sinai to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Number two, you\u2019re going to see a lot of miracles around the Joshua era because that\u2019s when the nation of Israel went into the promised land and conquered the land.\u00a0 And then miracles sort of stopped for a while, you don\u2019t see a lot of them.\u00a0 And they start to flare up again in great proportions during the days of Elijah and Elisha.\u00a0 And why is that?\u00a0 Because God is doing something brand new, He\u2019s raising up the office of prophet.\u00a0 What\u2019s the function of a prophet?\u00a0 To correct wayward kings.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got kings now but some of these kings are going astray, in fact, most of them.\u00a0 So we need to raise up a prophet to correct the king and how in the world would the king ever understand that the prophet is of God unless his ministry is accompanied by signs and wonders.\n\nThen you have a lot of silence in the Bible about miracles when you look at this time period historically.\u00a0 Then miracles really start to show up with Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Now why is that?\u00a0 Because He\u2019s offering the kingdom to Israel on a silver platter.\u00a0 And how in the world are they to know that this kingdom offer is legitimate.\u00a0 So the ministry of Christ is accompanied by signs and wonders.\u00a0 And then that offer is rejected and the next place in the Bible where you see miracles and signs and wonders in great proportion is in the Book of Acts, because what is happening in the Book of Acts?\u00a0 God is raising up the church.\n\nAnd then the next place in the Bible where you see a ton of miracles is in the Book of Revelation which deals with a time period when God is doing something new.\u00a0 What is He doing?\u00a0 He is evicting Satan and He\u2019s setting up His kingdom.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So this is the cluster that you see in the Bible.\u00a0 When you study the Bible in a historical linear sense it\u2019s not unbroken miracles from beginning to end; miracles are there to signify when God is doing something new.\u00a0 And see, that is part of the selective cessationists perspective because we have been in the same dispensation for 2,000 years.\u00a0 We\u2019re not in the foundational stage any more.\n\nSo there ought to have been miracles at the beginning, when God is setting up something new but a gentle petering out of sign miracles as the age progressed; that would not be abnormal because as you study the Bible you see miracles petering out in other eras as well after God did something brand new.\n\nSo I\u2019ll be showing you next time how even Paul\u2019s miracles\u2026 I mean, Paul is the guy that would raise people from the dead, Acts 20.\u00a0 You get to the end of his ministry and he\u2019s leaving people sick, Trophimus I left sick in Miletus and others.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s a gradual petering out of certain sign gifts signifying the inauguration of something new.\n\nSo anyway, I\u2019ll be showing you that three of those gifts are not foundational gifts, they are sign gifts and those are not in existence today either, as we try to explain the cessationist viewpoint.\u00a0 I realize that I\u2019ve probably provoked more questions than answered but hang with me on this, be patient, if you have a different understanding that\u2019s okay but just sort of hear us out as we move through this so that we can have a clear\u00a0 understanding of what the Bible teaches on this subject and why Sugar Land Bible Church takes the position that it does.\n\nLet me pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for today, grateful for Your ministry of illumination and I ask that You\u2019ll be with us as we touch on a secondary issue but an important issue in Your church.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. \u00a0We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t