In the video, a listener shares her realization that she needs to be more involved in her husband's efforts to evangelize his family. She was inspired by a radio sermon that emphasized the importance of saving souls over material possessions. Another listener shares how reading a banned book about James Hudson Taylor ignited a desire to be a true Christian and fulfill the responsibility of spreading the word of God. The video also mentions a sermon by J. Vernon McGee on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which will be aired in two parts.

It's been said that the history of Christian doctrine is a history of heresies. Throughout the centuries of Christianity, particularly those at the beginning of the Church's formation, there have been people who have challenged the truths of the Bible. One of the earliest problems came in the 3rd and 4th century when Arius challenged the Deity of Christ and the Trinity. He was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Today, for the most part, the major Christian doctrines have been hammered out and established for all generations. However, in recent Church history, there has been debate about the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. For the most part, this debate is centered around the issue of the gifts of the Spirit. Are they active today? How are they received? What gifts do I have? Well, these are just some of the questions that have come up in the discussion. Well, Dr. J. Vernon McGee is going to deal with some of those questions and clear up some of the controversies that surround this issue in his sermon, Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, because of the depth of Dr. McGee's teaching and the length of this particular message, you'll be hearing Part 1 of a two-part series on this issue. We'll be airing Part 2 next week at this time. Dr. McGee first gave this sermon shortly after he retired from his 21-year pastorate at the historic Church of the Open Door in downtown Los Angeles. Now, before we get to our sermon, let's hear from some of our listeners. Our first letter comes to us from a listener to our Korean broadcast who writes, My husband and I record the Through the Bible program on a cassette tape so we can listen to it later. It is aired during our church's early morning prayer time. I am writing this letter because I realized something as I listened to your program. My husband comes from a very large family of 14 men and 12 women, including cousins. However, only 6 are Christians. So my husband is diligently trying to evangelize his family. I have watched him witness to his family members and was not involved myself because of his effort. One day I heard from a radio sermon that one's effort to save the parent's soul is better for the parents than spending lots of money to take good care of them. As I heard the radio pastor's sermon, which led me to the understanding of real love and respect toward my parents, I repented of my indifference. I resolved in my mind to work harder at witnessing so my parents-in-law will also be saved. I learned the verse by heart from the Word that if I spread the seeds with no fear or concern, God will reap it. Now here's a listener, this one listens to our Mandarin broadcast, who's been inspired by the reading of a forbidden book. He says, Due to the nature of my job and other reasons I cannot always listen to your programs on time. From your sermons that I have heard, I know that you are a real Christian with an abundant spiritual life. I have received a lot of strength from your speeches and have benefited from them. I read a very good book that is banned by the Chinese government called Biography of James Hudson Taylor. Once I started reading this book, I was surprised that I wanted to finish reading it rather than eat. After I read it through my heart could not calm down for a long time. I decided to be a real Christian like Mr. Taylor. I also believe that God manifested His own will through this book. It is written, Go you therefore and teach all nations. This is the responsibility of every Christian. Due to my limitations, it is impossible for me to preach to all nations, but I can serve the Lord here as much as possible. I deeply believe that if I can carry out the Lord's ministry wholeheartedly, then God will give me more tasks to do. Next we have a letter, this one's from a Turkish broadcast listener who writes, The endless grace of God and the peace of the Lord be with you. For all your efforts I wish you success from Christ. Right now I am in prison, but I believe in Jesus Christ. Three years ago I came to faith, also my wife and two children. We were baptized and we changed our religious affiliation from Islam to Christianity. We took a step toward a new life. However, before I came to faith, I did something illegal and therefore I now have to serve my sentence. Five or six days ago, during a volleyball game in prison, I spoke to somebody about the faith. The other prisoners who overheard us also took part in the conversation. One of them was released from prison two days later. He gave me his radio. One evening I turned on the radio looking for a new station. Suddenly I heard someone speaking about Jesus in the Turkish language. I couldn't believe my ears and I cannot express my joy in words. With three friends, I now listen regularly. Finally, here is a listener to our Polish broadcast who writes, Before I came to know Jesus, my life was horrible, full of sin, stealing, cursing and blasphemy. I was a Satanist. I wore pentagrams and was possessed by demonic forces, dealt with magic and was on heavy drugs. I was doing what Satan told me to do. I rejected my family and even robbed my own brother. I was in prison twice and each time after I was released, I got into the same things. I lost all hope for and possibility of change and thought of suicide. At that time, a fellow prisoner, who had been a believer for a few years, began to tell me about Jesus Christ and confirmed his words by the scripture. I just laughed. Later, however, I could see how different he was from the others. His kindness and warmth were things I had never experienced before. I finally accepted his invitation to a meeting. Their prayers and care for me and their love had a strong effect on me. At one meeting, moved to tears, I prayed to God for forgiveness of my sins against Him and asked Jesus into my heart and life. Since that time, Jesus is my Lord and He is changing me day by day. Now I am a happy person, praising the Lord for His deliverance from evil. Jesus has become my greatest treasure. Now let's turn to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Spirit who reveals to us the things of Jesus. May our knowledge of our Lord and Savior be made full by the presence of your Spirit in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now he speaks in chapter 12 of the endowment of the gifts. And then in verse 1, here, this is the subject that he's going to discuss, which is spiritualities. But not just gifts, by the way, because he's going to talk about the resurrection. And that's one of the spiritualities also. Now he mentions the former state of these Corinthians before they were converted. He says, ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Paul had no use for idols. He condemns them every opportunity he gets. Now he says to them, you were Gentiles. The church in Corinth was largely a Gentile church and they'd been carried away before with dumb idols. And what they were doing, really, was they were fanatical. Idolatry has always led to fanaticism and a great display of emotionalism. In India, they run across the hot coal. They lie down on a board filled with spikes. That's idolatry today. That's religion. That's heathen religion. And it always leads to an emotional demonstration that is always next door to fanaticism. Now Paul says, you were emotional before. Now he says, you're becoming emotional as Christian. And that's what you ought not to become. And they'd gone off in these exotic gifts. They were manifesting them and emphasizing them. I have here a book. This book is rather expensive. It'll cost you $9. But if you're interested in pursuing the subject of this matter of Pentecostalism, it's the book of Dr. J. Frederick Bruner on the theology of the Holy Spirit. He's made a study of it. I have a notion that's the way he got his Ph.D. degree was on that. He quotes so many of the German theologians on this. And let me use one of his quotations here from Schrenning, the great German theologian. He says, there is no doubt at all that Paul intends to say here, the truly spiritual is not marked by a being swept away. That was precisely the characteristic of your previous fanatical religion. Paul says, you at one time carried away by dumb idols. Now he says, you're going after this emotionalism today and the fanaticism again. Now he makes this statement, wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus a curse. And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. Now I'm sure we understand that Paul is not saying that you can't just mouth a few words and say that Jesus is the Lord. You can do that. In fact, the Lord Jesus said, there'll be those in that day that are going to say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out demons in your name and do many wonderful things? And I'll say to you, I didn't even know you. May I say to you, you can say Jesus is Lord. Anybody can say that. I remember someone came to me several years ago when Dr. Fosdick was on the radio. You know, he's the big liberal at Riverside Church in New York. And this part says, oh, Dr. McGee, he must be a Christian. He said, Jesus is Lord today. Well, sure, he says it. Anybody can say it. Any drunkard say it. You give him $5. He's not talking about the verbiage here. He's talking about the content. And it means unless the Spirit of God makes him Lord to you, you can't do anything in the world but mouth it. That is the thing he's saying. But the important thing is here that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus a curse. Now, how do you call Jesus a curse? Well, may I say this, that when you come to me and you say to me, Brother McGee, I've heard you say that you were saved when you were a young man. Now, you didn't get everything at that time. What you need today is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and you need the gift to be able to speak in tongues, and you just didn't get it all when you came to Christ. When you say that, you say Jesus is a curse. That's what you're saying. You're saying I didn't get everything from Christ and that he doesn't. When he saves me, he doesn't give me, and I'm not blessed with all spiritual blessings when I come to him. And that's the reason a great many of these people don't get excited when someone gets saved. They get excited when they can come up and say, now, Brother, what you need is something extra. You need the baptism of the Spirit. You didn't get anything. My friend, that is what Paul said in Galatians. He says, if any man comes to you preaching any other gospel, let him be a what? A curse. That's when you make Jesus a curse, when you add something to faith in Christ. Now he's going to speak here in 4 through 11. He mentions the provision that God has made for the unity of the church, and that unity of the church, because there were divisions in Corinth. Now, if they had understood the spiritualities, there would not be a division in the church. And let's just be very frank today. I'm not a pastor. I'm not responsible to seat any board, so I can say anything I want to say. I believe that the thing that causes divisions in churches today is the lack of spirituality. And if they knew about spiritual things, it wouldn't cause division. Now, Paul is saying now, now concerning these spiritualities, now he says, I want to tell you about them. And the first unifying force is the Trinity. And notice, and the Trinity works in harmony in the distribution of gifts. Now notice this, very hurriedly, now there are diversities, are distributions of gifts. And this is the first time the word gifts is used, and it's charismaton. And they are calling today this tongues movement the charismatic movement. It's not that. The word for tongues is glossoleon. If you want to call it the glossoleon movement, I'll buy it, but I won't buy it if you call it charismatic for the simple reason, charismatic means all the gifts. And tongues just happens to be one, and I think there are really not only hundreds, but thousands of gifts that can be used in the church. Now, will you notice, first of all, now there are not diversities, but distributions of gifts, but the same spirit. Now, do you notice that one spirit distributes the gifts? The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts. Now, second, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord Jesus, he administers. The Holy Spirit distributes them. And they're working in harmony. It's the same spirit, the same Lord, but many distributions and many administrations. Now, will you notice, God the Father, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, God the Father, which worketh all in all, and the word there's energy. We got our word energy from this Greek word. He energizes or gives power to exercise the gift. And if God has given you a gift, he'll give you power to exercise that gift, if it is to be used properly, of course. Now, the Trinity working together for what? For unity. You have sameness in getting diversity, in distributing many gifts. Now, that's not all. And this verse 7 is, to me, one of the most important verses of all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. There are three things here. You have the definition of what a gift is. Every believer has a gift, and you have the exercise of the gift. Now, will you follow me very closely here? This is very important. What is a gift? Well, a gift is defined for us here, but the manifestation of the Spirit. That's what a gift is. A gift is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which means it's supernatural. And again, I want to come back to this. It is not necessarily the use of a natural gift. That is, the ability to sing, or the ability to speak, or the ability to teach. It's not that. Now, I want to insist again that I believe the Spirit of God will use the natural gift, but it has to be the Spirit of God using that gift, my friend. And that's so important today, because you see, we've got too many people with natural gifts, and they say, well, I want to use this for the Lord. And you've got the singers that are not dedicated to God. You've got preachers not dedicated to God. And they're saying words and singing words, but nobody's being helped. Nobody's being built up. Why? Because it must be exercised in the power of the Spirit. A gift is a manifestation of the Spirit. Now, second thing, it's given to every man. Anthropos, generic term. Every Christian man, man or woman, male or female, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, bond or free. If he's a believer, every believer is given a gift. That is one thing I wish I had emphasized more in my ministry, is the fact that every believer has a gift. I don't care who you are. You've been put in the body of believers, and you've been put in to exercise a gift. Now, let me go on. It's given to every man to do what? To profit with all. Oh, hear me carefully. No gift, as we shall see in chapter 13 and 14, is ever to be exercised for one's own personal benefit. That's not the purpose of it. It's used for the profit of the church. A gift is not a gift from God unless it's being used to build up the body of believers. And Paul is talking about the Corinthian church, and I think the local church is the thing he has in mind, as well as the total body of believers, because the total body of believers ought to be made up of the members of local churches. Now, will you notice? That's so important, these three things. A gift is a manifestation of the Spirit. Every believer has a gift, and it's given to build up the body of believers. Let me just turn over to verse 25. "...that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another." You see, the gift is to be exercised for the care and what? To keep from there being a division in the church. And if every member was exercising the gift, there'd be no division in the church. Now, will you note? Now he's going to speak on another phase of the unifying work of the Holy Spirit, and he's going to pick out just a few of the gifts. And the gifts he picks out are the ones that the Corinthians had gone off on a tangent on. They really were hipped on several gifts, by the way, tongues in particular. And he uses those to show that the purpose of those gifts were to benefit the body of believers. And that regardless of what gift it will be, the Holy Spirit was the one using it in the body of believers. Now let's look at this for just a moment. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, and that is the ability to study the Word of God and to get out of it the truth that's in the Word of God. I had a professor in seminary. He had an impediment of speech. And a lot of us fellows, we'd imitate him, you know, when we got into the dormitory. And I think we were wrong, but you know, we sort of ridiculed him. But he was the most brilliant man I think I've ever met. And when I had trouble with the passage of scripture, I didn't want the other fellows to know it, I'd wait at night and go at his home. And I'd say, Doctor, I said, I'm having trouble at this passage of scripture. And he'd say to me, Mr. McGee, come in and sit down. And I'd come in and sit down and he'd get his Bible. And you know, it was marvelous what that man could find in the Word of God. And I'd say, well, I'd go back to the dorm and I'd say, why in the world didn't I see that? It was right there, just plain as a nose on your face, and I couldn't see it. This man had a gift of wisdom. There's certain folk that have that. And then there's the gift of knowledge. And I think that's the application of it, to be able to communicate the Word of God. And these are gifts. You see that on the spectacular side, these are the exciting gifts. He doesn't mention several of the gifts shared that he mentions later on that you don't see people getting exciting about today, but they are wonderful gifts, by the way. Do you notice? Gift of wisdom, gift of knowledge, but what? The same Spirit. See, regardless, the Spirit of God doesn't have to give everybody the gift of tongues. If it did, it'd be a monstrosity. Any church would be, if everybody was speaking in tongues. But when he gives this party a certain gift, somebody over here, an altogether different gift, they're to work together because it's the same Spirit that's giving. You see, it's done for unity. Now, will you notice, he goes on here and he says, to another faith by the same Spirit. Now, here again, you have a diversity in unity. And what is the gift of faith? Well, it's the gift to believe God. I'm confident I don't have that. My background is part Scottish and the other part is German. That's an awful combination for pessimism. Man, you're pessimistic. And I find that it's very difficult for me to believe certain things. But every church I've ever served, God's always put some dear little person in there and sometimes several. And I've never forgotten that one time when I first started in the ministry and how discouraged I got. And this dear little man came up and put his arm around me and he said, Vernon, don't worry. This is going to work out. I prayed about it and God has shown me it's going to work out. And you know, it worked out. And every time he told me it was going to work out, it worked out. That was his gift. He had a gift of faith. And then we have something else. To another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. Now, back in the Corinthian church, there were those that were apostles and those that were giving out the word of God at that time that had the gifts of healing. Paul had the gift. He had all the gifts. He had the gift of healing. He had the gift of tongues. He had the gift of raising from the dead, by the way. You don't see that around much today either. And he had all of these gifts. And he exercised all of these gifts, by the way. And so here, to another, the gifts of healing. But the point he's making here is, regardless of whether these are exciting gifts, it's the same Spirit that's giving the gifts. Unity, you see. Now, will you notice he's still not through? To another, the working of miracles. Paul worked miracles. You remember he told the Galatians. He said, you foolish Galatians, you're listening to the Judaizers. They're putting you under the law. Now, did you receive the Spirit through the law or through faith in Christ? And the one who came and spoke to you, the one that performed miracles, did he do it by law or by faith? And Paul happened to have been the missionary there, and he did it by faith, you see. He had the gift. And you don't need it today. We have the Word of God today. John said before he stopped writing, probably the last thing written were the epistles of John. He said, if any come to you not having this doctrine, receive him not. The test is not miracles today. The test just happens to be the Word of God. Now, will you notice as we move on here, to another, the working of miracles, to another, prophecy. And I think that means preaching, giving out the Word of God. To another, discerning of spirits. To another, not divers, that's in italics, kinds of tongues. And I'm not going into detail on that. To another, the interpretation of tongues. Now, these are the gifts. But you see, but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man, and that's every man business again, every believer has been given a gift by the Spirit of God. Every man severally as he will. Now, I want to say this, because this is for the unity of the church. And this is important to see. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in this matter of giving gifts. You see, here are these nice, exciting gifts that he's mentioned. These are the ones the Corinthians were interested in. A little later on, he's going to talk to them about the ones that are teachers, and the help, and governments, and diversities of tongues, and giving. He'll use that in the 13th chapter. These are gifts, you see. A giving is a gift. But these Corinthians, they weren't interested in those gifts, just like a lot of people today are not interested in the gift of help and the gift of giving, for instance. They're not very much interested in that. But they are interested in tongues, the exciting thing. Now, Paul is saying this, the Holy Spirit is sovereign. You don't come and choose the gift that you want. You see, this is not spiritual smorgasbord, that you come to the counter and you say, oh, I want that gift, or I want this gift, or I want, that's not the way it's done. You see, you wouldn't have unity if we did it that way in the church. Well, chances are, we'd all have the same gift. And that would mean we'd all be the same member in the body of Christ, and he's going to discuss that now in just a moment, this matter of liking the church to the body of believers, and that we are members in particular in this body. But it's one body, but many members. But the Holy Spirit is sovereign in this matter of gift. I do not think that you can pick your gift. The Spirit of God is the one that will give you the gift. And he's sovereign in this. And this idea today, oh, you must seek the gift of tongues. My friend, that's the thing you're not to do. He divides, as he will, because you don't want a body with all tongues, you see. Now, notice, he goes on. He'll use now this illustration. For as the body is one, we're still talking about the unifying work of the Spirit. Now he's going to use the human body. For as the body is one and hath many members, here you have it again. You have unity in diversity. One body, many members, unity in diversity. In fact, that's the only way you can get a body, is by having many members. And they all have to be different. It'd be tragic if all of them were the same thing, you see. All were doing the same thing. And I think that's one of the tragedies today, is to think that everybody is to just be a rubber stamp of somebody else. The words that he used here are tremendous. He gives dividing to every man, every believer now, severally. That's an interesting Greek word. The Greek word is idios. Maybe you can think of an English word that comes from that. And it means that which is peculiar, that which is a particular thing, that which belongs to you. And the Holy Spirit gives to every man that particular gift so he can do his thing. This is very much up to date, isn't it? He wants us to do our thing in the church. And that's exactly what Paul is saying here. Severally, as he will. Now, for as the body is one, hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are what? One body. So also is Christ. For by one Spirit. Now how do you get into the body of believers? He's going to stop, mention that. And again, we're speaking of the unifying work of the Holy Spirit. For by one Spirit are we all baptized, and that means identified, placed in the body, baptized into one body, one Spirit, one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit of God, when you and I come to Christ, we accept him as Savior. The Holy Spirit regenerates. The Holy Spirit indwells. The Holy Spirit will seal it. And the Holy Spirit baptizes. Nowhere has anybody ever been commanded to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. We're told that's what's happened. That's what he says here, by one Spirit were you baptized, and the chances are these Corinthians didn't know anything about it. There were a great many things they didn't know anything about at all. And he says by one Spirit you've been baptized into one body, whether you be Jews or Gentiles, whether you be bond or free, and you've been made to drink into one Spirit. You have become one in Christ, but each one of you is a different member in the body, and you have a different gift, but you're to function as a body in order to function as one body, you see. Now, he's going to give some ridiculous illustrations here. For the body is not one member, but many. Now, it's one body, but many members. Many members. If the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? Now, let's look at that for a moment. This is, it's ridiculous, but when you put it into the church today, the way the church is functioning today, and that's the real problems today, I think, in the church. You see, I'm retired now. I'm an expert. If you want to meet an expert, get a retired preacher. He can tell you how it's done. And so I'm retired now. But will you notice this? I think the real problem is just right here in these illustrations that he gives. My foot here, what do you think really is the most important part of my body? It's my big toe. You've heard me before, haven't you? Yeah, that's right. When I'm up here preaching, a doctor told me this. He said to me, he says, what do you think is the most important part of your body? I said, my tongue, I guess, my mouth. No, he said, it's your big toe. He said, you couldn't stand up without that big toe. Now, that big toe is pretty important. And I have a notion, there's not a person here that was conscious of my big toe. You didn't know I had a big toe. And the chances are, none of you have ever seen my big toe. By the way, would you like to see it? Because after all, I came here, and suppose when I came, that my big toe had said, now, I could have had trouble with my body. Now, you can see that? If the eyes wanted to stay out there. Now, suppose the big toe had said, now, look, I've been going with you for years, and you get up there and talk, and everybody sees your face, your tongue, your eyes, and your red necktie, but nobody's ever seen me. And I'm the fellow that's holding you up. I'm pretty important. And just to show you how important I am, I'm going to stay home, and I'll see how you make out. Man, I say to you, it'd been bad. I wouldn't have made it if the big toes just hadn't agreed to come along, and they came along. Now, Paul is saying, because the foot is not the head, is it not part of the body? Well, it's pretty important. Those big toes are very important. And just, Paul is saying to these Corinthians, just because you do not have one of the exciting, dramatic, spectacular gifts, does not mean that you're not part of the body, and you do not have a gift, and you're not a function. You are the function in the body. The illustration that I always use is the tabernacle going through the wilderness. The tribe of Levi carried the tabernacle. And I think you'd have seen something more interesting than watching a circus come to town in the old days, when they used to put up the tent, then take it down, you remember, at night, and by morning, they're gone. They had the performance, and they're in the next town, ready to put up the tent again. Well, the tabernacle was put up very much like that. And there was a tent pin on the northwest corner of the tabernacle, and a Levite, he carried that. Now, they were in that wilderness 40 years. Now, if they'd been in that wilderness 39 years, suppose that fellow, it's pretty monotonous. And he didn't wear a nice robe, and go in like the high priest and serve. He had to go of a morning when they're ready to march, and in that sand, he knocks it this way, knocks it that way, that way, pulls it up, and finally gets it up, and he starts across the wilderness with it. He said, I'm getting pretty tired of this, and Moses has paid no attention to me at all. He's never complimented me, and looks like they would have given me a pin or something, in recognition of the fact that I've been carrying a pin, and I've been carrying this thing through the wilderness for 39 years, and I'm tired. I think today I'll leave it. I'll just not fool with it. And suppose that night, when they got ready to put up a tabernacle, somebody said, Aaron says, where's the pin? And they call this fellow up. He said, I left it back there. They said, you better get back and get that, or else you'll have to sit here all night holding this tent cord, holding this thing up. That's important. Well, he said, I didn't know it was that important. Well, he said, that's one of the most important things that was taking place here. It's just as important as the work of Aaron the high priest, just as important as anyone, but it's a small gift. Now, Paul is saying that. These members that are uncommon, that don't seem important, they are the most important members of all. And there are many people in our churches today that have these gifts, and I'm going to mention two or three of them now here in a moment, but let's look again here. And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? You know, the eye is a spectacular part of our body, and it's very important. I'd rather lose any member of my body except my eye. I want to keep my eye above everything else. And the eye is wonderful. You talk about spectacular. That's one of the finest cameras. The Kodak Eastman never made a camera like that. It takes 3D pictures in color and develops them just like that, and the automatic just works just like that. Now, the eye is a wonderful thing. Now, suppose that the ear and the other part of the body would say here, like he says here. Now, if the ear shall say, I'm not the eye, I sure would like to be an eye. Suppose my ear said, look, I'd love to be an eye. And suppose the whole body was an eye, and I was just an eye. I'd have come in here like an overgrown basketball, rolling in here, bouncy, you know, all eye. And that's the reason you can't have everybody in the church speaking in tongue, friends, because another thing is that the body's not all tongue either. Now, I have met two or three people that were all tongue, but they are the exception. They're not very many like that. We are to have other gift. Granted that the gift of tongues was for today, I'd have to concede that not everybody in the church would be speaking in tongue. You only need one tongue, by the way. You see how ridiculous Paul makes this. If when you move out of focus, each one is to function. Now, let me drop down and I'm going to pick up another gift here, and then I must move on, by the way. And down at verse 26, and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Now, when you and I do not function as we should today with the gift God has given us for the benefit of others, they're going to suffer. And that's one of the reasons that I think God's work suffers today as it does. There are many people not exercising the gift they should be. Now, will you notice, all the members suffer with it. Our one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. And we ought to rejoice when God is blessing someone else in the Lord's service. Now, listen to it. Now, ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Now, will you notice here, and God hath sent some in the church. First were the apostles, they've disappeared. No one with that gift today. And along with that gift of an apostle goes the sign gift, performing miracles, healing, speaking in tongue. All of that went with them. Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, and after that miracles, then gifts of healing, health. Now, notice, here's a gift, health. Have you ever stopped to think about that? You know, I have met very few people today who want to take a 747 trip by the gift of health. They always want to go off on the tongue. And then giving is also a gift. And I wish somebody would start a movement on that in Southern California. And I wish the next time, instead of getting started on the tongues, they'd get started on this matter of giving and just say, my, let's everybody, instead of speaking in tongues, let them start giving. That would be a marvelous gift, would it not? And a marvelous thing. You see, there are many gifts, and health covers a great many things. As we said at the beginning of this broadcast, this is a two-part series. But as you probably already noted, Dr. McGee has given us quite a bit of information for us to chew on, that is, to meditate upon during this next week. We hope that you'll seriously consider what God's word has to say on this issue by preparing yourself for the conclusion of our series next time. You can do that by spending time reading through 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14. Read them a couple of times, maybe even once a day for the next week. This two-part series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit is available on one cassette tape. It's one tape of a ten-tape album called The Holy Spirit and You. You can get ordering information about the single tape or the entire album when you contact one of our service operators at 1-800-65-BIBLE. That's 1-800-652-4253. They can be reached every Monday through Thursday from 6am to 4pm Pacific Time. Did you know that thousands of people listen to our program every day by way of the internet? 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