Watch Where You’re Going!Watch Where You’re Going!1 Cor 12:1-3

Watch Where You’re Going!

• Apparently some folks claimed to have spiritual gifts.

Watch Where You’re Going!

• Apparently some folks claimed to have spiritual gifts.

• “I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit’” (v. 3, ESV).

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions?

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions? They were so secret we know little about them.

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions? They were so secret we know little about them.

• Paul’s prior persecution of Christians?

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions? They were so secret we know little about them.

• Paul’s prior persecution of Christians? But, Paul speaks of pagan idols.

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions? They were so secret we know little about them.

• Paul’s prior persecution of Christians? But, Paul speaks of pagan idols.

• Likely, pagan temples.

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions? They were so secret we know little about them.

• Paul’s prior persecution of Christians? But, Paul speaks of pagan idols.

• Likely, pagan temples.– Paul mentions the Corinthians

could be led astray by such.

Where Was This Taking Place?

• So-called mystery religions? They were so secret we know little about them.

• Paul’s prior persecution of Christians? But, Paul speaks of pagan idols.

• Likely, pagan temples.– Paul mentions the Corinthians

could be led astray by such.– He doesn’t want them to be led

astray by them now!

Purpose of Text

• Paul writes to warn about the dangers of false doctrine.

Purpose of Text

• Paul writes to warn about the dangers of false doctrine.

• We need to learn the same lesson!

Watch Where You’re Going!

• STUPIDITY.• STEERING.• SIGNS.

STUPIDITY

• “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed” (v. 1, ESV).

“Superiority” of Tongue Speaking

• In most of this chapter, Paul talks about a body where each part is indispensable.

“Superiority” of Tongue Speaking

• In most of this chapter, Paul talks about a body where each part is indispensable.

• “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away” (13:8, ESV).

“Superiority” of Tongue Speaking• “Now, brothers, if I come to you

speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? . . . If I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church” (14:6-12, ESV).

DO WE SOMETIMES THINK WE DO WE SOMETIMES THINK WE KNOW EVERYTHING?KNOW EVERYTHING?

The Pagans Did!

• “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rm 1:22-23, ESV).

The Danger of Ignorance

• “Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, [the Jews] did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rm 10:3, ESV).

The Danger of Ignorance

• “Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, [the Jews] did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rm 10:3, ESV).

• “. . . futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding . . . because of the ignorance that is in them” (Eph 4:17-18, ESV).

What Does This Have to Do with the Text?

• Before their conversion, the Corinthians had been led astray through ignorance.

What Does This Have to Do with the Text?

• Before their conversion, the Corinthians had been led astray through ignorance.

• It’s likely they were about to be led astray again.

What Does This Have to Do with the Text?

• Before their conversion, the Corinthians had been led astray through ignorance.

• It’s likely they were about to be led astray again.

• Perhaps they really did believe that Jesus is cursed because of the false tongue-speaking.

Be Careful with Preachers!

• “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11, ESV).

Be Careful with Preachers!

• “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11, ESV).

• If the Bereans checked an INSPIRED man’s words, how much more so we check the words of UNINSPIRED men!

Steering

• “You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led” (v. 2, ESV).

These Idols were Mute

• That’s an interesting point Paul makes.

These Idols were Mute

• That’s an interesting point Paul makes.

• “Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak” (Jer 10:5, ESV).

These Idols were Mute

• That’s an interesting point Paul makes.

• “Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak” (Jer 10:5, ESV).

• Paul seems to be saying, “The so-called prophet speaks, but the speech isn’t coming from the idol—it can’t talk.”

People Can Be Swayed with Their Eyes

• “It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on the earth” (Rv 13:13-14, ESV).

People Can Be Swayed with Their Eyes

• “It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on the earth” (Rv 13:13-14, ESV).

• How many people have been duped by so-called miracles?

People Can Be Swayed with Good Oratory

• “From among your own selves will arise men SPEAKING TWISTED THINGS, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30, ESV).

People Can Be Swayed with Good Oratory

• “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves TEACHERS TO SUIT THEIR OWN PASSIONS, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tm 4:3-4, ESV).

WHERE ARE WE BEING LED?WHERE ARE WE BEING LED?

SIGNS

• “I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (v 3, ESV).

SIGNS

• “I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (v 3, ESV).

• Notice the “therefore” in v 3.

Sign for Non-Inspiration

• “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’”

Sign for Non-Inspiration

• “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’”

• Quite unlikely someone in a Christian assembly said that Jesus is accursed.

Attempts to Stop Christianity

• “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him” (Acts 13:45, ESV).

Attempts to Stop Christianity• “About that time there arose no little

disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, ‘Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship’” (Acts 19:23-27, ESV).

Accursed

• Basically means “eternally condemned.”

Accursed

• Basically means “eternally condemned.”

• “I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rm 9:3, ESV).

Accursed

• Basically means “eternally condemned.”

• “I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rm 9:3, ESV).

• No one can speak what’s false about Jesus by inspiration.

Sign for Inspiration

• “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

Sign for Inspiration

• “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

• Doesn’t mean one must be inspired to utter those words.

Sign for Inspiration

• “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

• Doesn’t mean one must be inspired to utter those words.

• Point: Providing marks whereby the Corinthians could know what tongue speakers were and were not inspired!

We Need Inspiration to Know that Jesus Is Lord

• Would we know that he is Lord without the inspired words of Scripture?

We Need Inspiration to Know that Jesus Is Lord

• Would we know that he is Lord without the inspired words of Scripture?

• Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:17, ESV).

We Need Inspiration to Know that Jesus Is Lord

• Would we know that he is Lord without the inspired words of Scripture?

• Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:17, ESV). – Not by inspiration.

We Need Inspiration to Know that Jesus Is Lord

• Would we know that he is Lord without the inspired words of Scripture?

• Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 16:17, ESV). – Not by inspiration.– By the signs the Father did

through Jesus.

DO WE CHECK WHAT WE HEAR?DO WE CHECK WHAT WE HEAR?