THE KING ’S BUSINESS
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Without doubt, some divisions o f the church o f Christ even today find them selves in need o f just such instruction regarding matters pertaining to the gifts and demonstrations o f the Holy Spirit. The world mocks today as in the days of Paul at the unsound, unsafe, and question able so-called demonstrations o f the Holy Spirit o f God. 1. The Bestowment, Use, and Purpose of Spiritual Gifts (chap. xii). (a ) The One True Test That Anyone is Speaking in and by the Holy Spirit ■ (xii. 1-3; cf, 1 John iv. 1-6). The Scriptures distinctly teach that it is the work o f the Holy Spirit to testify to and reveal Christ to man (John xiv. 26; xv. 26, 27; xvi. 7-15; 1 Corinthians ii. 9- 16; 1 John iv. 1-6; ii. 27; v. 7). Any so- called Christian testimony or demonstra tion o f the Spirit, therefore, that does not acknowledge or glorify Christ is o f error and Satan and not o f truth and o f God. The God whom the heathen Corinthians had been called to worship was not, as their heathen deities, a “ dumb” God. No word o f instruction had come from their dumb idols to enable them to discern truth from error; but the Christian’s God had spoken in His Word and through His inspired Apostles. Any man, therefore, who did not thus acknowledge Christ was led by natural impulse and passion and not by God’s Holy Spirit. Just what about Jesus Christ should be confessed by one .under the influence of the Holy Spirit is well defined by John in his first epistle (ii. 18-24; iv. 1-6, 14, 15; v. 1, 5-8, 20). Let us examine this teach ing: First. The Testing of all Teachers and Doctrine (1 John iv. 1). The believer individually and the Church collectively are under obligation-to test all teachers, not one o f whom is to be received and accepted simply because he is sincere or comes in the name o f Christ (Matthew xxiv. 4, 5). The individual Christian and the Church , are able to thus discern (1 John ii. 21, 27;
1 Corinthians xii. 10; Revelation ii. 2, 14, 15, 20). The point to be decided regarding these teachers is, Are they o f God or o f the devil? Are they Christian or antichristian? Are they controlled by the Spirit o f God or by the spirit o f the world? The ques tion at issue is one o f origin: From whom come they, and from whence does their teaching come? What, or who, is the mov ing spirit o f it and them? Satan is a coun terfeiter o f all that God does. He has his church (Revelation ii. 9), his ministry (2 Corinthians xi. 13-15), his membership (1 John iii. 10), his christ, or better, anti christ (1 John ii. 18-28); he has deliber ately laid his plans to deceive God’s people (Ephesians iv, 14; Romans xvi. 18). Second. The Fundamental Test to be Applied to all Teachers and Teaching-. It Touches the Person and Work o f Christ (1 John iv. 2-6). Orthodoxy in essentials; soundness in the doctrine o f Christ. We cannot be right in the rest unless we think rightly o f Him. Christianity is Christo centric; if We are wrong at the center, we are wrong at the circumference. If we are right at the center, we cannot depart far from that which.'is. sound. The Incarnation (1 John iv. 2, 3; cf. ii. 22). To deny that the babe born o f the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem (Isaiah vii. 14; Micah v. 2 ; Matthew ii. 8] 16) was God manifest in the' flesh; to deny that the historical Jesus o f Nazareth was the anointed Saviour o f the world, is sufficient to brand teacher and teaching as not of God, according to the ' teaching o f this epistle. Was Mary’s Son God manifest in the flesh? yes or no. This is one o f the tests o f orthodoxy. Let us not be afraid of that word “orthodoxy,” for it means “sound doctrine;” we are all interested in that form o f teaching. “Jesus is anathema,” or “Jesus is the Christ,” which? (1 Corin thians xii. 3). There is no dodging the issue. T o hold anything less than that “Jesus is the Christ” is, as the apostle him self says in the literal rendering o f iv. 3, to. “annul,” or “dissolve,” Christ. It is
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