The Corinthian church was a mess.  We’ve got over here all kinds of sexual sin going over here.  We’ve got all of these people that are living by their consciences, and people are being offended, and they’re taking liberties, and how do we deal with these folks?  Amen?  Then you have everybody talking in tongues.  Yeah, the pastor has resigned.  Aren’t you glad Jesus is the head of the church?  And the Lord’s speaking by the Holy Ghost into the apostle’s life, begins to bring order to this place.  And we start seeing order.  We start seeing people put out of the church.  “Oh, well, then, you’re not a loving people.”  God chastens those that He loves; amen?  Romans 16, we see that you mark.  Chapter 5 in Corinthians, you don’t eat with such a one.  Chapter 7, if the unbelieving party wants to depart, let them depart.  So, Paul’s putting this thing in order.  They want to come in here and cause grief, and they don’t believe what you believe.  If the unbelieving party wants to go, let them go.  I won’t get off on that marriage now.  We know these are two pagans that were married.  One of them gets saved.  The other guy says, “No, this isn’t coming in our house.  You’re not going to live and follow that Jesus in my home.”  Say, “Fine.  You go serve your god.  I’m going to serve Mine.”  Amen?

Let the unbeliever depart.  The believer is admonished to take the children to themselves because the children are sanctified through that oversight.  Courts have decided differently.  We’re living in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, but we do not conform to culture, to our society.  Our culture and society today have spoken and said, “If you’re going to be a church that’s going to be effective and reach the masses of your city, then you can’t preach against sin.  You sure can’t preach against homosexuality.  You can’t preach against all of this transgender stuff.”  It’s insane.  This stuff’s insanity, and they’re wanting to cram it down our throats and tell us we’ve got to accept that.  “Uh, no.  No, I don’t.”  And you might say, “That’s right.  We’re Americans.”  We’re Christians.  Amen?  Who cares how America goes?  We have a kingdom that we’re citizens of—and it’s righteousness, it’s peace, and it’s joy in the Holy Ghost, hallelujah.

So, this church is being set in order, and Paul now comes.  He’s dealt with the divisiveness that was in the church.  He’s dealt with the sexual sin that was in the church.  He’s dealt with being unequally yoked which was in the church and leaven remaining in our midst, and now he comes and says, “I have to deal with these gifts.”  This, that you guys are boasting in; this, that you think makes you so spiritual.  “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant” (1 Corinthians 12:1).  That word “gifts” is not in the original.  It basically—and I don’t want to get off on this, it’s a study in and of itself, those first few verses of Chapter 12—but he just basically is saying, “Concerning spirituals.”  And he’s talking basically—he’s using that generic term because he’s talking about everything that has to do with life in the Spirit realm, not just the gifts.  He’s going to speak to other than the gifts of the Spirit that are going to be itemized there in that twelfth chapter.  “I want you to—I’m going to talk to you about living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, to where you’re not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, you’re not being governed by carnal mindedness, by worldly thinking.”  Then he goes on and says, “I’m going to deal with that spiritual life in just a moment, but I want to speak specifically now to these gifts.”  And he goes on into Chapter 14 and begins to deal with specific gifts here and how they operate in the church.