Transcript

A policeman looked up to see a woman racing down the center of the road at 100 m.p.h. He pulled her over and said, “Hey, lady, would you mind telling me why you’re going so fast down the middle of the road?”

She replied, “Oh, it’s okay, Officer. I have a special license that allows me to drive like that.” “Oh, yeah?” Let’s see it.” The cop looked at the license and then concluded, “Ma’am, there’s nothing special about this. It’s just a temporary license.”

“Look at the very bottom, though,” the woman insisted. “See? It says ‘Tear along the dotted line.’”

At the beginning of the age of grace, there were temporary gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the Body of Christ to establish it and assist in its growth. But there were also gifts given to Israel that have been temporarily set aside and there are permanent gifts given to the Church that remain until the Rapture. We’ll break down the different categories of gifts in this episode of Transformed by Grace.

Mark 16:15-18: “And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

To better understand the sign gifts, it is helpful to categorize them.

It’s important to differentiate between 3 categories with the gifts: (1) the set aside sign gifts of Israel’s great commission and Pentecost, (2) the temporary sign gifts of the early Church at the beginning of the dispensation of grace, and (3) the permanent spiritual gifts for the Body of Christ until the Rapture.

First, we learn about the set aside sign gifts of Israel’s great commission and Pentecost in Mark 16. There we read of our Lord’s parting words and commission to His twelve apostles. He taught them to go into all the world and preach the gospel of the kingdom, teaching them that “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

Then the Lord told His apostles, “And these SIGNS shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18).

A short time later we begin seeing the fulfillment of the Lords’ words at Pentecost, when by the Spirit people spoke in “NEW TONGUES”: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (2:4).

In accordance with the Spirit being poured out at that time, Peter at Pentecost talked about the ability of people to PROPHESY, to see visions and dream dreams, and that there would be wonders in heaven above, and SIGNS in the earth beneath (Acts 2:17-19).

Those saved at Pentecost had all things common, and I believe this was also a supernatural sign gift. Acts 2:44 says, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common.”

In Acts 3, in the Temple, at the Beautiful Gate, Peter laid hands on a lame man and HEALED him. He told this man, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength” (Acts 3:6-7).

In Acts 5, we observe how Peter had the gift of KNOWLEDGE with Ananias and Sapphira in knowing by the Holy Spirit that they had kept part of the money back from the sale of a possession instead of giving it all to the kingdom church.

In Acts, we learn how Stephen was full of the gift of FAITH (6:8), and had the gift of WISDOM (Acts 6:10), which was how he gave such a powerful and convicting message before the Jewish leaders in Acts 7.

All these supernatural gifts were given to the nation of Israel. They are all things that were carried out during the times of the Gospels and early Acts, and they will again be carried out after the Rapture during the Tribulation.

These were all given, according to prophecy, as an experiential taste of the kingdom to come on the earth.

The writer of Hebrews refers to the days of Pentecost and the beginning of the unfolding of Israel’s last days, when he wrote, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come” (6:4-5).

“The world to come” is the coming kingdom on earth. Those saved at Pentecost were tasting of the powers of that world to come in the kingdom by these miraculous sign gifts.

They tasted of the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good Word of God, experiencing a taste of the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures regarding Israel’s last days.

Here is a list of the Great Commission/Pentecostal supernatural gifts given to Israel in their spreading of the gospel of the kingdom:

Casting out demons (Luke 10:17; Acts 8:7). Speaking with new tongues (Acts 2:4-6).

Taking up serpents and treading on serpents without hurt (Isa. 11:8-9; Luke 10:19). Drinking any deadly thing without hurt (Mark 16:18).

Laying hands on the sick and healing (Acts 3:6-8; 8:7). Prophesying (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:16-18; 21:9). Seeing visions and dreaming dreams (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:16-18).

Having all things common (Acts 2:44). Supernatural knowledge (Acts 5:3). Supernatural faith (Acts 6:8). Supernatural wisdom (Acts 6:10).

The Lord confirmed the prophetic Word and the gospel of the kingdom with signs.

These sign gifts were given to the nation also to assist them with God’s help in carrying out the great commission and taking the gospel of the kingdom to the whole world.

These things helped them spread the gospel of the kingdom, and the dangers they might’ve faced at that time, with serpents, demons, drinking something harmful.

The gift of tongues was to help them as they carried the kingdom gospel to the uttermost parts of the world, and traveled to different areas with its different tongues and languages.

Knowledge, faith, and wisdom, gave them the ability to be bold in going to difficult places and share the truth with insight and pronounced understanding.

These gifts for Israel in carrying out her great commission were temporarily suspended when the Lord set Israel aside in unbelief and turned to the Gentiles, the nations.

God then ushered in an age of grace through Paul, which will conclude with the Rapture of the Church.

After the Rapture, these gifts for Israel will be reinstituted. And in the future Tribulation period when these supernatural gifts are once again in force, they will help them navigate the horrific time of Daniel’s 70th week.

With the pestilences of the Tribulation, they will heal the sick. When they are driven around the world by the Anti-Christ’s persecution, the gift of speaking in tongues will help them communicate. Demonic activity and possession will again be open and rampant and they will be enabled with the miraculous gift to cast out demons.

The supernatural gifts of knowledge, faith, and wisdom will help guide them through this dangerous and deadly time.

In the past, these miraculous signs gave power to the truth of the gospel of the kingdom.
And as they were done in the name of Christ and in His power, it confirmed that Jesus Christ was Israel’s Messiah and the Son of God (Acts 2:22; 4:10).

This will take place after the Rapture too. With false Christs, and the Anti-Christ in the world in that day, they will need to trust the NAME of the true Christ in order to be saved.

These miraculous sign gifts were given to cause Israel to repent and accept the Lord as their Messiah.

The supernatural sign gifts of early Acts were given to confirm God’s great salvation message of the gospel of the kingdom.

As Hebrews 2:3-4 states: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will?”

These supernatural gifts of the great commission and Pentecost continued as the Lord was still working with the nation of Israel. Though these gifts continued for a time, they, like God’s program with Israel, gradually faded away.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11: “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

“To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

“But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.”

Following the stoning of Stephen, God raised up the Apostle Paul, and began something new and different. God ushered in a new, never-before-revealed dispensation of grace, and a new church within this dispensation: the Church the Body of Christ.

With the setting aside of Israel, God turned to the Gentiles, began the Body of Christ with Paul, and Christ gave temporary miraculous sign gifts to the early church.

He did this for 4 reasons. The FIRST reason was to provoke Israel to jealousy and prove that God had temporarily set Israel aside in unbelief and turned to the Gentiles.

Romans 11:11: “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

These miraculous gifts were for the purpose of showing that God’s plan had changed, that God had turned to the nations, that salvation had come to the Gentiles.

By provoking them to jealousy, this was for the purpose of drawing the Jews to faith in Christ alone through the gospel of the grace of God.

Thus, they were actually miraculous sign gifts of love and grace toward Israel. “The Jews require a sign,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:22.

Seeing Gentiles saved apart from the law, by faith alone, then performing sign gifts was new and was to show Israel that something had changed, that God was doing something different among the Gentiles apart from Israel.

And seeing these signs done by the Gentiles was for the purpose that the Jews might seek the truth themselves that they too might believe and trust the gospel of grace for today.

In Romans 10:1, Paul wrote how his heart’s desire and prayer was for Israel to be saved. His heart and desire was this because that is God’s heart and desire.

The sign gifts for the early church were demonstrations of God’s desire for Israel to believe and be saved by grace.

The SECOND reason miraculous sign gifts were given to the early church was to convince the Gentiles, so that they might believe and be saved.

Romans 15:18-19 read, “…to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God…”

With God turning to the Gentiles to have a program with us, God used the miraculous sign gifts to convince the nations of the truth and power of the gospel of grace, so that the Gentiles might believe the truth and be saved.

Thus, they were sign gifts of God’s love and grace to the Gentiles too. In Paul’s ministry, he sought to make the Gentiles obedient to the gospel and to believe, “by word,” or as he proclaimed the gospel of grace and the truth of God’s Word.

And he sought to make the Gentiles obedient to the gospel, “by…DEED,” which he explains as “through mighty signs and wonders.” So the miraculous signs were for the purpose of reaching the Gentiles for Christ at the beginning of the dispensation.

The THIRD reason miraculous sign gifts were given to the early church was to establish God’s new creation of the Church, the Body of Christ. They were given to believers in it, both Jew and Gentile, who are united together as one in Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 reads: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

Demonstrating their oneness in Christ, and all having been made to drink into one Spirit and having the same Holy Spirit, God gave the early church His miraculous gifts, both Jew and Gentile, who performed them by the Spirit.

The gifts demonstrated the truth of the one new man, and they demonstrated the reality and legitimacy of God’s new Church that He had founded and created in Christ.

And the FOURTH reason miraculous sign gifts were given to the early church was to give credibility to Paul’s apostleship.

As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:11-12, “…for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.”

There were false apostles at that time who claimed to be sent of God. The miraculous signs verified a true apostle.

God performed “the signs of an apostle” through Paul as a confirmation to the twelve and the Jewish believers that his ministry was indeed of God. These signs were carried out during Paul’s early ministry, until Israel was officially and finally set aside in Acts 28:28.

The sign gifts were for both Jew and Gentile that they both might recognize the authenticity of Paul’s apostleship.

The reason being, Paul’s apostleship was unique, not in accordance with prophecy. He was called to be an apostle according to the mystery, according to a program, a dispensation and church that had never before been revealed.

The sign gifts Paul performed by the Spirit confirmed God’s calling that Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles.

So again the sign gifts at the beginning of the dispensation of Grace were given to the early church for the following four reasons.

1) To provoke Israel to jealousy that they might believe and be saved and prove that God had temporarily set Israel aside in unbelief and turned to the Gentiles.

2) To convince the Gentiles, so that they might believe and be saved.

3) To establish God’s new creation of the Church, the Body of Christ.

4) To give credibility to Paul’s apostleship.

The book of 1 Corinthians was written during the transition period in Acts, during Paul’s stay in Ephesus in Acts 19. Here we read of the temporary miraculous sign gifts for the early church which were given for these 4 reasons.

Here is a list of these temporary early Church miraculous sign gifts as found here in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10,28:

Apostles, Prophets, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gift of faith, the gift of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.

These supernatural gifts were temporary. A time word is given in 1 Corinthians 13 for when they would cease: “when that which is perfect is come,” then they would be done away.

But in 1 Corinthians while they were still operating, Paul gives instruction regarding these gifts, so that Christ was honored by them and the church was a light for Him in them, rather than the way they were using them in their carnality, confusion, and pride.

Ephesians 4:7-8,11-13: “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men…

“And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Now Ephesians is a prison epistle, written AFTER Acts 28 after Israel had officially been set aside, written AFTER Paul had fully received the revelation of the mystery from Christ. And still at this point, Paul still writes that “every one of us” has been given a spiritual gift in the Body of Christ.

Therefore, we conclude that we each have some God-given spiritual ability with which to serve Him, a gift which is to be used for the good of others and for the glory of God.

Paul also qualifies how long these spiritual gifts for the Body of Christ are in effect, when you read verses 11-13.

Spiritual gifts have been given to the Body of Christ “TILL” a certain point in time: “TILL we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

The unity of the faith, the full knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, will take place at the Rapture, and not before. Thus, Christ has given gifts to His church, and there are spiritual gifts in operation UNTIL Christ comes back at the Rapture.

Based on the gifts explained in Paul’s letters, here is a list of what I believe to be these permanent spiritual gifts given to the Body of Christ until the Rapture. They are found in Ephesians 4:11, Romans 12:7-8, and 1 Corinthians 12:28:

Pastors, Evangelists, Teachers, ministry (or service), exhortation (or one who both challenges and encourages, i.e., counseling), giving, ruling, showing mercy, helps, governments and administration.

2 Corinthians 5:7: “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:).”

There were three primary periods in Israel’s history that were characterized by miracles: (1) the days of Moses and Joshua, (2) the days of Elijah and Elisha, (3) and the days of Christ and the apostles.

But right along with that, each one of these periods was characterized by great apostasy and defection from God and the truth on the part of Israel.

After the Rapture of the Church, signs and miracles will take place in great abundance, but again, this will go along with a great departure from God and His truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 says that when the man of sin is revealed, “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Many in that future day will follow the one-world religion of the Anti-Christ. They will not receive the love of the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

The desire of so many today for the sensational, spectacular, emotional experiences of the miraculous sign gifts indicates an unhealthy spiritual condition, not a healthy one.

In Matthew 12, we read of scribes and Pharisees who told the Lord, “Master, we would see a sign from Thee. But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.”

To seek after and to ask for a sign was evidence of unbelief on the part of the scribes and Pharisees. It was not an indication of faith in Christ. And those who seek after the miraculous experiences of the sign gifts under grace are not demonstrating faith in Christ.

From the book of 1 Corinthians, where we learn about the miraculous sign gifts in the early church, we learn earlier that the Corinthians had been washed, sanctified and justified (6:11). We learn how they had been spiritually baptized and placed into the Body (12:13).

We learn that they were temples of the Holy Spirit (6:19), and that they were “saints” (1:2).

Yet Paul wrote them in chapter 3, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (3:1-2).

These were not spiritual, mature, strong believers who exercised these miraculous sign gifts. They were the opposite. They were unspiritual, carnal, weak believers. And they were misusing them because of their spiritual immaturity.

My father, Paul M. Sadler, once wrote: “The possession of these [supernatural sign] gifts had nothing to do with the measure of their faith or performance.

“Surely, the Corinthians were far from being spiritually minded; in fact, many of them were living in carnality. Nevertheless, they were given these miraculous manifestations and in some cases possessed more than one sign gift.”

The supernatural gifts of apostles, prophets, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, the working of miracles, discerning of spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues are not found in the Body of Christ today, as they were in the early part of this dispensation.

This is not because members of the Body of Christ today are somehow less spiritual or less faithful than the Corinthians, but simply because these sign gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 were in operation only during the Acts period. They served their purpose in the establishment of the Body of Christ in the past and have now ceased.

Now, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We walk by faith alone in the written Word of God. The mark of a spiritual, mature believer is one who grows in and applies God’s Word to their heart by faith. That is how the Holy Spirit works to transform our lives by grace.