We're going to read God's Word this morning as we find it in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're going to read the first 11 verses, and our focus this morning are verses 1 to 3, the opening three verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12, beginning at verse 1, let us listen now to this word the Lord speaks to us. Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagan, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed. And no one can say, Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one, there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom. To another, the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same Spirit. To another, gifts of healing by that one Spirit. to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to, still another, the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he gives them to each one just as he determines. And then our text, let me read that again, verses 1 to 3. Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagan, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore, I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. May the Lord bless this reading and our hearing of his word this morning. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you may perhaps know, this chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, begins or commences what might be called a little sermon by the Apostle Paul addressed to the church in Corinth on the subject of the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and the nature of the Spirit's presence and working among the people of God. And the reason the Apostle Paul addresses this matter of, as he puts it now, about the things of the Spirit, literally, it could better be rendered than now about spiritual gifts, brothers, now about the things that pertain to the Spirit, brothers, is that there were in Corinth some in the congregation who thought of themselves as models or exemplars of what it means to be a Spirit-filled Christian. And they thought the evidence that they enjoyed a special measure of the Spirit's working to be that they were people who prophesied, who spoke the Word of God by the Spirit, and who also prophesied in the form of speaking in tongues that required interpretation. They thought of themselves by virtue of the gifts that they exercised in the church as being on a higher plane of Christian spirituality. They thought of themselves as the norm of what it means to be genuinely a man or a woman, a boy or a girl who is empowered and indwelt of the Holy Spirit. And so the Apostle Paul, at the outset of this section that runs really right through chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, begins in the verses that are before us, and we're going to avoid this morning, we haven't the time to go into some of the matters of controversy in the church in Corinth, But he begins in verses 1 to 3 with what I'm calling the identification of the tell-tale mark of the Spirit's presence in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when I use the language, the telltale mark, that's something that signals the presence of someone, in this case, the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the church. You could put it in the form of the question, not only how do we know whether Christ's Spirit indwelt the Corinthians, How do we know whether the Spirit of Christ indwells this congregation, the Escondido United Reformed Church, and I as a member of this congregation? Now that idea of a telltale presence, let me just use, if I might, something of a trite illustration of what I have in mind there. I say somewhat kiddingly to my wife of late, now that we're grandparents, the sermon illustrations run to the grandchildren. One of the interesting things about the grandchildren is, even if I'm not home, but I come home after a day at work, I can tell that they've been there. You know what I mean. There we have juicy fingerprints on the glass, and we have stuff strewn about throughout the house. All sorts of telltale marks that the grandchildren, unhappily I wasn't there, have been at our home. Now this is the point that the Apostle Paul wishes to address. How do we know? What is the sign? What is the evidence that the Spirit of Christ is among you, Corinthians? And in this introductory section of his sermon, he's going to offer a rather indirect but unmistakable rebuke to the church in Corinth, much like the Church of Jesus Christ in our day for having a wrong sense of priorities regarding the work and the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's rather remarkable that in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ today, many of the same errors, many of the same misconceptions of how one can identify the presence of Christ's Spirit in the midst of God's people, The same sort of exaggerated and improper emphasis upon certain gifts that are said to be signal markers of the Spirit's presence are often found in the church today, even as was true in the Corinthian church. Now having said that, let's look together at what the Apostle says is the telltale mark of the Spirit's presence. And notice that he begins with the negative. what ought not to be regarded as a token or a sign that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of God's people, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we're going to notice, secondly, at the end of verse 3, what is positively the principle, the one great telltale mark, that the Spirit of Christ is in the midst of his people. We begin with the negative. Now as he begins about spiritual things or the things that pertain to the Holy Spirit, and incidentally congregation, that language now about, He uses that language in chapter 7 at the first verse and also in chapter 8 at the first verse because it's a marker that there was a problem in Corinth to which he's now going to address himself. I've heard it. It's been reported that you Corinthians have some problems and divisions as it relates to the matter of the work of the Holy Spirit. And so about that, brothers, I wish now to speak. So pay careful attention, says the Apostle Paul. I'm going to address now the problem in Corinth regarding the work of the Holy Spirit. I do not want you to be ignorant. I want you to be informed. I want you to have a right understanding and apprehension of the nature of the Spirit's presence in your midst. And now notice what he does in verse 2. He reminds them of what had been characteristic of their experience within paganism when they had joined in the temple worship of the gods of the Romans in the ancient Greek world. And he's going to draw a subtle contrast between what had been characteristic of their worship prior to their Christian conversion and what is now true of them as members of Christ. You know that when you were pagans, remember how it was before you became Christians by the work of the Spirit of Christ and by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Now that language, somehow or other, that is, you know not how, it can't be explained. It was mysterious and extraordinary. Somehow or other, you were influenced, you were led astray to the service of mute idols. It's translated these words in the New English Bible, I think, rather well, which says, you were seized by some power which drove you unwittingly, unthinkingly, to those dumb, that is, without voice or speech, they were mute, and dead idols. Now, what the Apostle Paul is calling to the attention of the Corinthian church is something that we probably are not fully aware of, and that is that within the pagan worship of the ancient Greeks and Romans in the day of the writing of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, they were, as Paul says in Acts 17, generally speaking, a very religious lot. They hadn't experienced the kind of secularism that we know in our day where people pretend to be godless and pretend to have no interest in the things of God and what it means to worship and serve God, whomever He is. These were very religious people. You were very religious, says the Apostle Paul. But your religion was ecstatic. That is to say, literally, you were out of your bodies, in a manner of speaking, out of your minds. Your religious was characteristically an ecstatic form of religion. If you know anything about the ancient worship practices of the Greek and the Roman world of Paul's day, you know that sometimes it would take on all sorts of very strange and exotic and highly emotional and ecstatic forms of expression. As a matter of fact, the Apostle tells us in verse 3, about which more in a moment, that it also included speaking and making utterances of various kinds. Commentators tell us that in the ecstatic worship of the ancient Greco-Roman world, speaking in tongues was a commonplace. And it was thought to be, because one speaks a language otherwise unknown, to be a kind of signal marker of the genuineness of the worship. In other words, the Apostle Paul reminds them that whereas once as pagans, they in their worship practice had engaged in all kinds of strange and exotic and frenetic and esoteric and all sorts of ecstatic speaking in strange languages and the like, this is not characteristic of what happens when the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, dwells in the midst of His people. As we shall also see a little more in just a moment, congregation. But let me just pause there for a moment and ask this question. You may think some of this is rather strange and far removed from where we find ourselves in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ now in the early 21st century. But how often do we not find people who have the idea that also Christian spirituality or the reality of the presence and the work of the Spirit of Christ in His people is most prominent and most likely signaled when people engage in all kinds of strange and rather out of the ordinary, overly emotional and ecstatic forms of Christian experience. Now, I recognize it's a bit of an exaggeration or it's sort of on the fringe even of some of the movements in the church in our day, but you may have heard over the years of something called the Toronto Blessing. That's just a sort of dramatic illustration of the point where people will literally signal the presence and working of the Holy Spirit not only by speaking in tongues, but barking like dogs or falling upon the ground and engaging in spirit, as they say, authored hysterical laughter and all kinds of other very strange and out-of-the-ordinary sorts of religious utterance and religious worship. And they'll look at a congregation or a church that offers to God an ordered, a biblically instructed and informed pattern of worship. And they'll say, where is there a presence or an evidence in your midst? No one seems to be rolling in the aisles. It doesn't seem to be the kind of histrionic or hysterical or exaggerated form. A little northern European in the orderliness with which the worship is prosecuted. And then they'll use an unkind word like dead orthodoxy, word-centered worship. No ecstatic utterances. no dramatics it's very interesting that the apostle Paul when he begins to speak to the church in Corinth that was troubled over the issue of the work and presence of the Holy Spirit he reminds them that ecstasy and being influenced by a power unknown and unknowable and experiencing all kinds of patterns of worship that involved ecstatic utterance and the like, that was characteristic not of your experience in Christ by the Spirit, but of your pagan past. It's very striking in verse 3, he says, Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed. And you might ask yourself the question, well, how in the world would the Apostle use the example of someone claiming, speaking by the Spirit, to utter the words, let Christ, let Jesus be cursed. That's unimaginable. Commentators suggest that Paul may well be alluding to something that had happened. in the midst of some of the very spiritually gifted Corinthians, in the midst of their manifestation of the Spirit's working, someone had uttered the words, Jesus be cursed. And the Apostle Paul says, that does not conform, is not an expression, obviously, an evidence that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is in your midst. But now you may ask me, congregation, well, what then is? How does the Apostle, you might say, when he introduces his mini-sermon on the subject of the Spirit and the spiritual gifts that are granted by Christ's Spirit to the church, how does he identify what is the tell-tale mark of the Holy Spirit's presence? Positively, he gives the answer in these words at the end of verse 3. In verse 3 we read, Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed. And no one, notice this, says the Apostle, can say no one not one member of the church in Corinth not one member of the Escondido United Reformed Church no one in this place no one, no not one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit that says the apostle if you want to know whether the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is among you and is at work in you, are you a congregation, are you a member of Christ's body who by the Spirit, through the word of the Gospel, has been brought to confess with the heart and by the mouth that simple Christian testimony and confession Jesus is Lord because it's the nature of the Spirit's work to bring us to Christ to show us the glory of Christ to give to us the confession that springs from our hearts that finds its place upon our lips concerning who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you may say to me this morning, congregation, well, that's rather simple. Maybe that's too simple. But you understand what that simple confession, born of the Spirit's working through the Word, Jesus is Lord, entails. Let me just suggest to you very quickly this morning that if you say Jesus is Lord by the Spirit, as a tell-tale mark that the Spirit of Christ is in our midst and in your life at work by the Word, you're saying at least three things. You're saying, firstly, something about the identity of His person. The word Lord, as it relates and is used in the New Testament regarding Jesus Christ, is not simply a term of respect like our ma'am or our sir or Mr. President as a term of respect or of deference. It is that, but it goes beyond that. It's really the New Testament term that in many ways is equivalent to the Old Testament covenant name for God. So that if you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord by the Spirit, you're saying that to me, to us, to our congregation, he's not simply a prophet. He's not simply a wise teacher. He's not simply someone who performed extraordinary miracles. He's not simply a rather important person, so far as I am concerned. No, you're saying he's nothing less than the eternal Son of God, co-equal and consubstantial with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. He is the eternal Son of God who in the fullness of time became man in order to obtain our salvation. And where you find a church, where you find a person who by the Spirit confesses that Jesus is Lord, you find someone who says nothing less concerning the Lord Jesus Christ than that he is God to us and to me. And when I say that, people will not laugh in my face because my life and my conduct bears it not witness, but proves it not to be so. But the second thing regarding that confession, Jesus is Lord, is not simply regarding his person, that he's the eternal Son of God. Equal with the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, in triune communion. But he's also the one as Lord, if you look at the Heidelberg Catechism's treatment of the idea of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who came into this world, assumed our flesh and blood, and by his saving work made sacrifice for our sin, In order that we might become purchased with His precious, priceless blood. His prized possession. So that I belong to Him, body and soul, whether in life or in death. I am not my own, from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. No part of who I am. Not one vestige, not one remainder of my person is not owned. The blood-bought property, the peculiar possession, owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. If I say by the Spirit, Jesus is Lord, I'm not only saying that He is God, the Son of God, But he's the one who, as my redeemer, purchased, obtained my salvation at the great price of his own blood. And that brings me then to the third thing that follows fast upon the first two and is inherent within them. then the claim that he makes on my life is totalitarian. He leaves not one shred of who I am and what I am called to be unembraced by his lordly claim upon me. I can't say, well, I'll give him an hour on the Lord's day and then for the rest, I'll keep that for myself. I'll give him my mind, perhaps, but not my heart. Certainly not my pocketbook. And not my children. Whatever you are, whomever you are, as you sit there this morning, congregation, when you are indwelt, And that's true of churches too, congregations. If we say in this place, Jesus is our Lord, is there evidence that we do things in this church not according to Pastor Voss' wishes or whomever's wishes, but according to the wishes of the great King, our Lord Jesus Christ? Whose we are and to whom we belong. We're serious about that. We're not just giving lip service when we confess by the Spirit that Jesus is Lord. And so you do whatever it takes, congregation, in terms of your own person and your own life. And under the searching light of this text, ask yourself the question, Is that telltale mark of the Spirit's gracious presence among us in evidence in this place? Also, as we are at the threshold of this year of our Lord, notice that, year of our Lord, 2009. Am I prepared to give my heart, promptly and sincerely, Our congregation, my children, all that I am and all that I have. Because by the Spirit I confess Jesus is Lord. And I understand none of us does that with perfection. We all do it falteringly. We all do it sometimes limping between two opinions. That's true. And yet God is gracious, God is merciful, and by His Spirit works more and more to show that we are a people indwelt of His Spirit because among us the confession rings true. Jesus is our Lord. May God grant, congregation, that in this place that mark of the Spirit's presence might be eloquent for all to bear it witness Amen Our Father in Heaven we acknowledge Father that we are often as it relates to the person and work of the Holy Spirit we are often confused we are often misled we often experience in the church today the kind of confusion that existed in the Corinthian church in terms of what is characteristic of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. May we know that it isn't ecstatic utterance. It isn't out of the ordinary or witless activity. But it's where you find a people, a member of the Lord Jesus who knowingly and soberly confesses what it is that Jesus is Lord, there we may be confident that the Spirit of Christ is in this place. Granted, we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.