“We must not judge the Bible by our experience. We must judge our experience by the Bible.”
The proper order of Bible study and application of scripture is:
1. Fact (Bible truth = doctrine) — 2 Timothy 2:15-16, 3:16
2. Faith = belief = trust — Romans 5:1-5, 10:17
3. Feelings / emotions / experiences — 2 Corinthians 5:7
As we begin this 3 chapter study concerning spiritual gifts, it is imperative that we lay a firm biblical foundation, in order to rightly divide the word of truth. Many of you were introduced to a vital principle of Bible study — Remember the law of first mention. The law of first mention may be said to be the principle that requires one to go to that portion of the Scriptures where a doctrine is mentioned for the first time and to study the first occurrence of the same in order to get the fundamental inherent meaning of that doctrine.
Understanding spiritual gifts requires us to understand this law of Bible study. Otherwise, you could get into some difficult doctrinal areas. Bad doctrine always follows misapplication of scripture. Laying the foundation sure of a right understanding of God’s Word, will alleviate issues that some portions of Christianity struggle with.
Today, our goal was to allow the Word to explain the purpose of the sign gifts, before we begin our adventure into chapters 12, 13, and 14.
1 Corinthians 1:22: For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
1 Corinthians 14:22: Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.
God told Moses in Exodus 4:1-8 that the nation of Israel would believe the signs that God would reveal to them through Moses. “And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.”
Jesus performed all of his miracles in Matthew 8-11 to reveal that he was the Messiah they had been looking for. He let’s them know that, because they had rejected his previous miracles, he let them know plainly, in Matthew 12:38-40, Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Establishing the purpose of the sign gifts in the Dispensation of Grace (to reveal God’s grace to the Jews of the first century) helps shed light on the scriptures we will be examining in the weeks ahead. Next Sunday we will walk through the historical record in Acts, and get started in chapter 12.