Reading in Acts chapter 13 verses
14 through maybe verse 23. And then we'll start working
through our outline, see what we can do. Verse 14 of Acts chapter
13. But when they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the
law and the prophets, The rulers of the synagogue sent unto them,
saying, Ye men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation
for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up and, beckoning
with his hand, said, Men of Israel and you that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as
strangers in the land of Egypt and with an high arm brought
he them out of it. And about the time of forty years
suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their
land to them by lot. And afterwards he gave unto them
judges for the space of four hundred and fifty years until
Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a
king, And God gave unto them Saul, the son of Kish, a man
of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years. And when he
had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king,
to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David,
the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill
all my will. Of this man's seed hath God,
according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. When John had first preached
before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people
of Israel, and as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think
ye that I am? I am not he. But behold, there
comes one after me whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to
loose. We'll stop right there. Again,
the title of this particular consideration is A Door Open
to Speak. And that's taken from verse 16,
where we read, then Paul stood up, and it's prompted by verse
14, where we notice that after the reading of the Law and the
Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, ye men
and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people,
say on. So as we work through our first
PowerPoint, The first thing I want to call your attention to is
a fundamental maxim, is the structure and work of what takes place
in the Jewish synagogue. You'll notice in the Jewish synagogue,
we would call that the context, the historical context. Our topology
is a theological construct for it, our term for it. The place
where this event is occurring is in the synagogue. Now, that's
worth marking because a couple of rules come into mind. One
is prophetic, and that's this, that the Lord Jesus, when he
gave his disciples commandment to go into all the world with
the gospel, the first place that they were to go to was where?
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then the other most parts of
the world, correct? So what we have actually taking place now
is basically a law and you've heard me state this before one
of the maxims of the Apostle Paul is this to the What Jew
what first to the Jew? First that's a fundamental rule. That's an axiom. That was an
ethic It was a custom of the apostle to make sure they hunted
down every Jewish synagogue, every gathering of the Jewish
people as a first priority to bring the gospel to them. You're
going to see this in the latter part of chapter 13, where Paul
said the gospel was to be preached to you first. It was a priority
that the gospel be brought to them. And so Paul is following
a mandate given to him by Christ. And as they made their way to
Pisidia, and we saw that as we looked at Paul's first missionary
journey. He's up there near Asia Minor now. They stop in a synagogue. This is the latter part of verse
14. And on the Sabbath day, they sat down to worship. And what
we'll read in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, verse 16 through
28. I don't want you to go there.
One of the things Jesus talked about was, when I send you out
to preach the gospel, They're gonna be people who do not accept
our message. And they will primarily be the
folks who are Jews, and they will be primarily those who are
the leaders in the synagogue. So for instance, if you go in
your Bibles to Matthew chapter 10, I want you to mark something.
This is gonna begin to formulate some of your understanding of
eschatology too. We're gonna make a foundation
for that. Even though that's not the primary topic, it will
inform your eschatology. Because the Lord Jesus was speaking
to his disciples when he talked about the tribulation and the
tribulation that he was speaking about Would be specifically geared
toward them. So he says in verse 16 of Matthew
chapter 10 these words Behold I send you forth as sheep in
the midst of what? All right, so that too advises
us about the nature of the gospel ministry And this is so critical
for believers to understand that when you become a child of the
living God, you now are actually, you are walking in an open state
of allegiance to Christ. That open state of allegiance
to Christ then must bear the marks of his sheep. You and I
who are true believers are sheep of Christ. Is that true? Jesus
made it very plain my sheep what hear my voice and they follow
me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish
one of the evidence is that you are a true Christian is you actually
follow Jesus and if you follow him you are a sheep now with
that metaphor or analogy of a sheep you know then that sheep are
very vulnerable in a world full of predators all right That's
a disposition of a calling for the believer that we don't always
take very serious, but it's true. Christ expects his believers
to act like sheep. Now at the highest level of sheep
attributes to which he is calling us to act or behave or conduct
ourselves is the attribute of radical and intentional dependence
upon the shepherd. At the highest level of the attribute
of a sheep, He is calling you and me to a radical, intentional
dependence upon Christ. You guys got that? One thing
that clearly exudes from the relationship between the sheep
and the shepherd is that the sheep are lost without their
shepherd. That the sheep are completely
vulnerable without their shepherd. That the sheep really only have
a sense of comfort, a sense of calm, a sense of rest and confidence
when they are near their shepherd. So I don't want you to lose the
analogy as we lay the foundation of the mission, because the book
of Acts is about missions. It's about going into all the
world with the gospel, but the New Testament language is clear
as to who's going and how they are going. I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves. So now we have the sheep who
are vulnerable creatures, and we have now the wolves who are
predators, are they not? How many of you guys have ever
had at least an exposure of the life and behavior pattern of
those predators called wolves? I mean, even if you saw it in
a movie, read it in a book, very important that you do so. You
can learn a lot about wolves. I mean, a whole lot. Wolves are
tenacious. Wolves are strategic. Wolves
persevere. Wolves are intentional, calculated. They are massively intelligent
when it comes to hunting their prey. And so the metaphor or
the analogy that Christ is painting when he says, I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves, if we grasp the analogy, it would
necessitate us having a kind of faith in Christ that says,
if I'm going to be able to do what you're calling me to do,
this matter of missionary work and I'm called to be a sheep
in the midst of wolves my faith has to be vitally connected to
you because you're actually actually asking me to be consumed by my
enemies right you're asking me to be so vulnerable in a world
of hostile Antipathetic antithetical mindsets and worldviews and ideologies
and people who would destroy anything that has allegiance
to God You're asking me to be vulnerable to destruction If
I'm gonna move out in obedience to the gospel in that way I have
to believe that you will protect me in that process. Is that true?
I just want to drive that home because this is really what true
missionary work is all about. Whenever you read the Lord's
eschatological apocalyptic language, how he talks about in the last
days, these things will occur. You can always attach it to the
book of Revelation, because in the book of Revelation, what
you have is the bloody destructive spiritual warfare that leads
to the death of God's people over and over and over and over
again for the cause of Christ. We are like, as Paul says in
Romans chapter eight, sheep led to the slaughter every day. So there is an aspect of our
walk of faith that has to be grasped around the idea of giving
up our life. If the analogy of the sheep holds
true for the believer and the shepherd is pushing his sheep
out into the wilderness, into the world to make their journey
and excursion to the promised land and out there he has told
us there will be wolves. That analogy must come home to
us in terms of our dependence upon Christ, our need to have
the kind of wit and trust in the nearness of our shepherd,
the protection of our shepherd, the care and concern of our shepherd. Which brings us to line number
two. Be ye therefore what? Wise as serpents and what? Harmless
as does. Okay. So now you guys automatically
see a paradox, don't you? You see a paradox because on
the one hand, you and I are called upon to be what sheep we are
called upon to be sheep, but also we are called upon to be
something that is contrary to real sheep. And that is wise.
Now what God will often do is conflate metaphors. and metaphors
that are incongruent in nature. He will do that. He will talk
about a wise sheep. Well, that's a paradox or an
oxymoron on a natural level, but not on a spiritual level.
So you and I are called to be sheep, but we're called to be
what kind of sheep? Wise sheep. And he says, you are to be wise
as serpents. Now let's continue with our zoomorphisms. Cause that's what we're dealing
with, right? Zoomorphisms. You guys know what the word zoomorphism
is? It's the metaphor by which God
uses animals to liken unto human beings in terms of attributes
and characteristics that animals have. You and I are not sheep
literally, but we are using zoomorphisms as an example of how we are to
be like sheep. Zoomorphisms are used in the
scripture concerning God. God is like a lion, the lion
of the tribe of Judah. God is like an eagle. He is the
mother eagle who swiftly comes down to protect her little young.
God is like an ox, the ox that treads out the corn. Am I making
some sense? And so zoomorphisms are attributes
of animals that are conferred upon human beings. And generally
they are, with regards to the people of God, positive attributes. that are conferred upon the people
of God to operate in. We will also see zoomorphisms
when it comes to negative attributes that are conferred upon the wicked
when it comes to how they are. The book of Revelation is filled
with beast analogies, are they not? The wild, voracious beast
that destroys the flock represent the ungodly. As David said in
the Psalms, man is like the beast that perishes. And so those analogies
give us an object lesson to discover how we are to behave. Why would
God tell you and me as sheep to be wise as serpents and not
wise as, let's say, dolphins? And dolphins are pretty wise.
If you know anything about the intelligence level of dolphins,
they are massively intelligent. I mean, you know, the secularists,
the atheists, The scientist, the naturalist, really wants
to make the dolphin as almost as intelligent as mankind. Because
there are levels of intelligence in dolphins that are remarkable
to us. Why didn't Jesus say, I want
you to be as wise as, you know, the donkey? Not the donkey, the
dolphin. Although I might be able to make
an argument that the donkey is wise too. But he said serpents. So I have
to pause now because I believe every word of God is pure and
tried in the furnace of fire seven times and that every Analogy
every metaphor every concept is rich with meaning if I slow
down and think it through what makes the serpent wise His inability
to defend himself when caught in the wrong way What makes the
serpent wise is he does not have hands and feet with which to
manipulate himself in order to protect himself. What makes the
serpent wise is that the only place of protection for him is
the very mouth he must use to feed himself. Are you guys following
me? And for the serpent to survive,
he has to be thinking constantly how to position himself so that
he is not vulnerable to the higher predators. And what the believer,
there you go, college cats do that. And what the believer must
do is be able to operate with the same fundamental principle.
That the strength of the believer is not rooted in his ability
to throw down, have hands like we did in the streets. The strength
of the believer is for him to walk in such a way that his position
is such that he is not so vulnerable to the enemy that it renders
a fatal blow. Am I making some sense? You are,
because the serpent and the sheep are almost just alike in terms
of their physical anatomy, not having any natural defenses for
them. Obviously, the serpent, as a
rule, has poison, but not all of them. Obviously, the serpent
has teeth, but not all of them. Not teeth to harm someone. There
are many snakes that you can handle real easy if you get a
hold of them. Am I making some sense? So we're
not to assume that this serpent is a poisonous serpent that has
a vigorous bite. It could be any kind of snake.
And then he says to be as what? Harmless as dogs. So the sending
forth of the ministers of the gospel, the sending forth of
the people of God into the world are to be people of such character
that they are utterly dependent upon Jesus. You are not functioning
in the world out of your own human wisdom. You cannot be successful
in the cause of winning people to Christ if you are operating
out of your own strength. The Bible is clear, by strength
shall no man prevail. That God takes no pleasure in
the legs of the man. That the Bible says in the book
of Zechariah chapter four, verse six, is not by power nor by might,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord. So the advancement and success
of any person of faith is going to be the success and advancement
of first and foremost obedience to Christ, that is utter dependence
upon him, and a very clear need to know that I, within the confines
of my own abilities, are very limited. That spiritually speaking,
I have no arms to fight. Spiritually speaking, I don't
have the body that's necessarily agile to get away from my adversary.
If I'm a sheep and I am confronted by a wolf, all I'm going to do
is cry out, Master, because that's all I got, right? That's all
I got, right? And that's all he wants you to
have. when he has led you to a place where your job is to
proclaim the gospel and you're proclaiming it in the midst of
avarice wolves. He needs you to understand you
can't get through that assignment without him. You cannot do it. You will be swallowed up of your
adversary if you mix mingle metaphors at the wrong time. If you think
you are a lion when it's time to be a sheep, well, God will
show you. No, you were a sheep that time
you messed up on other occasions. The righteous are as bold as
a lion, but not when he's sending you forth. And the reason why
is when he's calling us to be like sheep with the acumen of
serpents and the sensitivity of doves, you guys got that when
he's calling us to be like sheep with the acumen of serpents and
the sensitivity of doves, harmless as doves, he's telling us that
our job is not to get into wrestling matches, rhetorical arguments,
unnecessary debates and conflicts, that we're not known to be ruffians
and people that are starting trouble and engaging in fights
with people as Christians. He is not calling the Christian
to be the one starting fires. Maybe we put them out, but our
job is not to start them. Our job is not to ruffle feathers
intentionally and get people mad and create a context where
it's a scene. That's not the job of the child
of God in his missionary duties. Saints, am I making some sense?
So this ethic is critical because I think what Christ would have
his disciples to know is advancement into the hearts of men. with
the truth of the gospel is going to require complete dependence
upon the presence of the spirit of God, giving you a way into
the hearts of men by his word, not by your slick methodology
or by your cool style or by the fact that you have some unique
personal gift that's connected to you. Many of us have discovered
that personal gifts don't accomplish the will of God when it comes
to people being saved. Some of you might have the gift
of gab, particularly most of us who are given to speaking
publicly do. And what we know is that the
very gift of gab that you have will more times than not get
you in trouble when you trust in your gift of gab. I'm telling
you the truth. So without having a clear understanding
of our calling to be sheep, sensitive to the need for the master to
be right up on us when we're doing our job. And therefore
as wise as serpents aware that I need to be in a position where
the situation does not turn back on me if I can help it. And as
harmless as doves, meaning that I don't want to give off any
appearance of danger that somehow I'm going to hurt somebody or
create a ruckus or cause people to stumble because of my braggadocious
bold presentation. No one fears a dove. No one fears a lamb. No one sees a serpent. You got that? So in your outline,
going back to our PowerPoint, so we can work through this,
in the Jewish synagogue, the basic fundamental rule was to
the Jew first, and this is what Paul is doing. And then what
we have in our text, going back to Acts chapter 13, where it
tells us in verse, 14 and 15 when they departed from Pergus
they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day in your outline I have point B a gospel presentation
set forth this is Acts 13 all the way through verse 38 but
let me read verses 14 and 15 and call your attention to something
that's unique here this will be verses 15 and 16 it says they
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and they sat down
That means they entered into the synagogue and became part
of the worship service. In that sense, what you and I
are doing is synagogal right now, okay? In that sense. So for those of you who are,
you know, grammar buffs, the word synagogue means the gathering
of the people. Gage is people, syn means to
gather. Like we use the term demagogue
or other types of gaga, meaning the gathering of the people.
Synagogue means the gathering or assembly of the people. And
what that means is that you and I have synagogued. We're synagoguing
right now. We have gathered together. And
according to the custom of Acts chapter 13, 14, we are sitting
down, are we not? At least you are. And so right
now, visually, here's what I want you to grasp. The Apostle Paul
and Barnabas, along with Mark, have entered into the synagogue,
and they have sat down and submitted themselves to the form and structure
of the worship. In that sense, what they were
doing then is exactly what we do in our worship services today.
Is that true? I just want you to see the then-now parallelisms
before we call our attention to the distinctives. So in verse
14, it says, And after the reading of the what? Law. I'm sorry,
verse 15. And after the reading of the
law and the what? The rulers of the synagogue sent
to them. Now let's stop right there. Here's
another then now parallelism. In the Jewish synagogue, worship
was not properly executed without the reading of the law. Now I
actually thank God for that because this actually would segue into
a reflection and contemplation of why we do what we do in the
church. I want to briefly talk about
that. Why we do what we do in the church. Now, some of us Christians
are very undisciplined. We grew up in cultures where
we didn't have a whole lot explained to us as to why we do what we
do. We had customs and traditions and practices and we did them.
But our minds were not cultivated with a knowledge as to why it
was done. And because our minds were not
cultivated with a knowledge as to why it was done, we practiced
it in a kind of rote form without any conviction as to the why. Am I making some sense? Now,
the problem with that is it's mere form without substance.
In other words, this is the way we always did it, won't work
in the day when you have to give an answer as to why you do a
thing. And it also won't work in the day when as you grow in
your physiology and chronologically from young children who are generally
as a rule compliant to their parents and submissive to their
parents' lifestyle, the culture that's in the home. And so if
the parents went to church, the children went to church. If the
parents sat all morning in the pews, the children sat all morning
in the pews. Whatever the culture was, the
children were submitted to it. If you and I don't instruct our
children as to why we do what we do, they will not be well
prepared to give an answer to people as to why we do it. And then if they start hearing
arguments to the difference. If they hear opposing arguments,
well, you know, you don't have to go to church to worship God.
You don't have to go through the formal structural organized
system to worship God. You can worship God any kind
of way you want to. And once they start hearing that,
because of the fundamental and natural seeds of rebellion that's
intrinsic to our nature, they're going to be aroused to want to
oppose the traditions that for them have no meaning other than
rote form that they've been doing all their life. Do you see my
point? Right. And so at a certain point,
even though they may not come to mom and daddy, if mom and
daddy are the kind of people that just says, you know, hey,
just do what we do. Don't ask me. Just do what we
do. And we've had cultures in the past where our parents basically
exercise what I call rank of authority and simply told you
what to do, but didn't explain to you why you did it. Now, generally
when they pull rank on you, and this is true of anyone, when
a person pulls rank on you, it probably means they don't even
know why they doing it. But don't ask me because I don't
want to have to try to explain to you what I'm doing. Just listen
to me. Now that's what we would call
authoritative abuse. It's an abuse of our authority
over our children when they're simply inquiring to the substance
of our practice so that they can be better knowledgeable as
to how they should maintain a conviction of the same thing. They're part
of the family. They're going to do what the family does, but
they actually, after a certain time, want to know why we're
doing it. Am I making some sense? Right, this is very good and
very important. And so parents have to understand that when
you have children, you can tell them what to do without their
actually remonstrating against that by raising questions only
so long. Because when they reach the level
of inquiry and have the ability to just interact with you on
levels of questions and answers, you got to start giving them
answers. And if you realize you're too dumb, you better start getting
smart. Cause what we'll do is cover
up our ignorance by our authority and simply say, you asked too
many questions. Now it would be great if our
children were about a hundred feet away and could say, but
you're supposed to be able to answer these questions. You're
the parents. I'm the children. You notice I put them a hundred
feet away. Cause in my day, growing up, you talk like that. Shoes
got the fly. My mother's shoes used to go
around corners and still get me. I would go around the corner,
the shoe would, it would hurl around the corner, still hit
me upside the head. I used to say, how did she do
that? That was an abuse of authority.
She should have told me why we did what we did. Because once
you give your children over to other teaching authorities where
they are learning other didactic principles, They're going to
develop for themselves a thesis over against your theses because
they are breaking the umbilical cord between you and them for
their own autonomy. And they don't mind being different
from you when they become an adult to affirm their own autonomy. I don't mind our kids having
their own autonomy. You ought not to either, but
we really want them to take from us those good things that we
learned. And so we should have been taught earlier on to teach
our children. This is the reason we go to church.
This is the reason why we sit down. And so the text says, after
the reading of the law and of the prophets, and before I mark
that, I do want to say that they sat down and that's why we sit
down in church. That's why we have pews, our benches, our chairs,
as we do. We sit down because there's a
posture of humility. Sitting down as a posture of
humility, particularly when you're being taught. Sitting down as
a posture of humility, particularly when you are being taught. Watch,
sit down. It has inherent in that imperative,
the demand that you humble yourselves to be taught. So sitting down
is what we do when we're being taught. And to mark this, this
is another virtue of the Old Testament synagogue, after the
reading of the law and the prophets. Now, do you know that our Protestant
churches, I won't always say the Catholic church, but our
Protestant churches followed a model that the center of worship
Corresponded to and was affected by the reading of scripture In
other words when you came to church you expected to open the
book and have the scriptures read to you See how far away
we've gotten from that principle. So I'm leading to this proposition
on purpose in our present day many of our evangelical churches
Narrate read the bible and the gathering of the assembly So
people come to church and never ever get acquainted with their
Bible. Never get acquainted with their Bible. And today, and some
of y'all might get bit by this as well, you know, it's just
a tax. And today people are comfortable
with coming to church without their Bible. This is how far
we have been removed from the foundation of truth, which is
the word of God. There was a time when it was
unheard of that you saw a Christian walking to church without a Bible. Everyone knew that you go to
church to have the book opened and read to you and then explained. This is Nehemiah chapter eight,
the arc paradigm for Protestant worship. And he stood upon a
pulpit of wood. And when he opened the book,
all the people stood up. And he read out of the book the
law of God. And they gave the sense thereof
and the interpretation to all the people. This is what we call
the model for expository preaching and teaching, which is what we
do in solid evangelical reformed churches. It's the model of expository
preaching and teaching. What this means is we all expect
only to hear from God through his word. I do not expect to
hear from God if we don't have a Bible in the church. I do not
expect to hear from God if everybody comes in knowing that we're getting
ready to kind of get about the emotionalism of music and dance
and singing. All of that has a relevant point.
I'll be teaching in our Wednesday daytime Bible class, the book
of Psalms. and show the rich necessity of
understanding the aesthetic of music in the process of worshiping
God and revelation of God. But music must never, never usurp
the reading of Scripture, the explanation of Scripture, and
the preaching of Scripture as the primary mechanism by which
God talks to you. Anytime you go into a church
and the scriptures are not open you have my permission to get
right on up walk out and leave Because God's not in that assembly
I Guarantee you that where the church has abandoned the centrality
of scripture. They have abandoned God God is
not in the church That does not understand that the foundation
and pillar of which the church is is for the truth of God's
Word. I Moreover, the ministry that does not understand that
transformation of the mind only occurs where the truth is
propounded. The ministry that does not understand
that transformation of the mind, which brings us into a likeness
of Christ, which brings us into a knowledge of God only comes
through the proclamation and exposition of the scriptures. Nothing transforms apart from
the preaching and teaching of the word. I want you to mark
another thing that's going on here, which is profound. And
after the reading of the law, that is the Torah, and of the
prophets, that is the Nevi'im, watch this now. That's a long
time reading. Do you understand that? That's
a long time reading. Suppose he read the book of Genesis. Genesis has 50 chapters. And
then let's read a prophetic book. And then maybe one of the minor
prophets, you're reading scripture for an hour or two, even before
the preaching takes place. Now watch this. Can you imagine
the revival that would take place in our churches? If men and women
knew they came to church, opened in prayer saying one or two hymns
and immediately had to endure the reading of scripture without
commentary. And just to just hear from God
as the scriptures are read and the soul now is being filtered
through the vocality of God's word. where you are hearing again
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and
the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the
face of the deep and on and on and on and on and on chapter
2 chapter 3 chapter 4 first of all most many of the people in
the church would be dead by the time we got to chapter 50 They
would be drowned in the truth because the mind has not been
stretched enough to capacitate that much confrontation with
biblical truth, which means you and I are in trouble in our culture
because we cannot endure the word for an hour of straight
reading. Again, this is what I'm looking
forward to in our Wednesday class because I've been immersed in
the book of Psalms and the Psalms really is all about God exalting
his word through Christ by his people. The whole of the Psalms,
God exalting his word through Christ by his people. That the
Psalmist is delighting in God and talking about God and boasting
in God and worshiping God because of his word. And by necessary
application, the only way you and I can go deep with God is
to go deep in his word. The man or woman that's not deep
in God's word is not deeply God. You are shallow, you are pretending,
you are not close to God. Am I making some sense? So what we see in this text is
that these people were committed to the revelation of God. And because they sustained a
tradition that honor God by the reading of scripture, the reading
of scripture, the reading of the law and the prophets, the
reading of scripture. Guess what God did? He blessed
that by bringing a gospel preacher who now can take the scriptures
and by the spirit of God, open them up and help those people
see Christ since they don't need the scriptures to be taught to
them in first principle form. They are used to the word of
God. They simply need the key to the scriptures, the true subject
of the scriptures. the source and meaning of the
scriptures. And this is what Paul is about to do. He's about
to do for his Jewish constituency and the Gentiles that are there,
a sort of semi, what we call bibliology, or sorry, biblical
theology. He's getting ready to do the
history of Abraham all the way to Jesus. The history of Abraham
all the way to Jesus. Now, if you don't know your Bible,
you're gonna get lost. But he's assuming that they know
their Bible because he saw the form of their worship. That they
were zealous to the reading of scripture and that they were
not cutting wood, sawing wood by the time some of the minister
says, brethren, would you exhort us? What do I mean by cutting
wood? Slobbing out of the side of your
mouth because you're asleep. This is one of the ways you can
tell whether you are near to God are far from God when your
soul no longer has an interest in the preaching and teaching
of the word at length. Something happened to me, I'm
gonna continue here in a second, something happened to me about,
this might have been about 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago.
I was confronted with a pattern of religious practice that dominates
our church right now. Ministers would say to me when
they would ask me, You know, what is the nature and character
of your church? What's the protocol? What's the practice of your church
at grace? And I would tell them, you know, we sing hymns and we
pray and read scripture and I preach. And they said, well, you don't
do more than that. Cause they were wondering why we were growing.
You know, they thought we had it going on, you know, big old
band and a bunch of go-go girls up on the stage. Bells and whistles. I mean, cause
churches have all that stuff, right? flashlights, strobe lights,
strobing all through the place. You know, everybody jamming,
you know, jamming. We just, we just having a good
time, you know, in church. No, we just read scripture. We
pray, sing some hymns with just the piano, just the piano. We didn't even have a keyboard.
Didn't have the ham and three. Just a, just a piano, straight
piano. And they were wondering what it is. And then when I told
them this, And I preach minimum of an hour every Sunday to my
congregation. Most times an hour and 15 minutes. Some days an hour and a half.
And they fell over their seats when they heard that. Ministers
would say, it's against the law. Don't you know that Jesse? It's
against the law to preach longer than 40 minutes. To preach longer
than 40 minutes. And that spirit started seeping
into the church. And a few notable men came to
me saying, pastor, you know, I mean, you know, after 40 minutes,
my kids get fidgety and they get edgy and all that. Would
you please cut it down? Here's what I told them. And
I want you to get this. I said, if I cut my preaching
down to 45 minutes, I will train my people to hate Spirit aided
preaching. So I'm going to say that again. If I cut my sermons down to 45
minutes, I will train my people to hate the presence of God in
the preaching of the word to hate it. They will be looking
at their watches at 30 minutes, expecting that plane to land
in another 10 minutes because they've already left the building.
Am I making some sense? And when I shared that with that
individual, he took his family and left. And he was a strategic
person in the church, and I had to tell his brother, I said to
his brother, listen, it's become evident to me why our churches
are apostate, why they are spiritually dead. why they are spiritually
a feat, why they cannot endure sound doctrine, why they must
heap to themselves teachers with itching ears, why they are given
over to entertainment because we have slowly pinched off the
word. And we have stopped training
them to be mentally strong, to do the long distance race, to
run the long distance race on Sunday of being under the preaching
for at least one hour. when we can sit in front of that
TV for five hours straight. For five hours straight. And
I said, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. They can get
up and leave if we play too many songs. You know, in some churches,
they sang 20 songs before you get 20 minutes of preaching.
That's true. I think I went to one one time over the last 25
years. One time I said, Lord, I'm not
coming back to this place. I like singing, but I don't like
singing that much. I don't need to sing 20 songs
to get pumped up for the Lord. I don't. I don't. And so we're marking that, and
this is the reason why we're so carnal today. This is the
reason why we're so fleshly today, because the word of God does
not abide in us richly in all wisdom and in all prudence. It
doesn't abide in us deeply. So, you know, I marked how the
apostasy has subtly gripped the evangelical church. And I said,
I'm not going to have a church where people cannot endure the
word for an hour and a half. I'm not going to have it. I'll
shut the doors before I preach to people who looking at their
watch 30 minutes after I start. Cause I know you got a problem,
not God. As long as now see if I wasn't
saying anything, throw me out the church. If I didn't have
the anointing of the spirit of God, shut me down quickly. But if God is actually speaking
through me, you better listen as long as God is talking. Now
watch this. Now watch this. I've got good
argument for my theses. When churches were healthy, hundreds
of years ago, before there were all of these distractions that
kept people preoccupied with vanity, the thing to which they
were committed was the Word of God. before the world was immersed
in television, internet, Facebook, Twitter, and all of these different
sensory perceptors that are just draining you of any kind of virtue
for fixing your mind on eternal verities, people spent a long
time in the Word. They would be in the Word in
church. And then after the church, they were talking about the Word.
particularly on Sunday. It was a rule in our faith community,
which I grew up in after, uh, first service. Cause we always
had two services after first service, we'd go home for lunch,
take a nap. And we wasn't talking about football and basketball
and baseball and all that. We were talking about the sermon
or how to serve God in some evangelical way that day. In other words,
we understood Sunday to be completely devoted to Christ. so that it
was set apart in our souls, so that we would go home, eat, take
a nap, do something evangelical, or just enjoy each other, and
then come back for the evening worship, refreshed to hear the
word of God again. By the time we looked up, our
day was over with, we're going to bed to deal with the next
six days. That's all going today. That's
all going today. And so what we are looking at
in our text is the reading of the law and the prophets, the
rulers of the synagogue, then having finished that portion
of the service, did something that is marked by the precepts that Paul gives
in 1 Corinthians 14, but it's not practiced by us today. And
I'm thankful that it's not, and I'll tell you the reason why.
When you look at this last line, it says, after they had done
the reading of scripture, this is what we would call liturgy,
They said you men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation
for the people say on do you guys see that? So what you have
in that form form of worship Is a worship where after the
minister has saw to it that the congregation has been ministered
to by the straight reading of the word And maybe a few hymns
because they sung hymns, too um as we do in our church, and
there's good reason for it. You'll get taught that if you
are part of our Wednesday class, why we sing hymns and why hymns
are biblical from the Psalms and Psalter. After that, there
was a free expression of worship to be set forth by men in the
congregation. Did you guys hear what I just
said? Any man in the congregation of the Jewish synagogue was free
to rise up and to share a word with the congregation. Now this
is 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Remember that? Let me show you
what it says. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 where Paul is correcting the error
of confusion among the Corinthians because they have exalted a gift
that is not to be exalted and that was the gift of speaking
in tongues, they made it sort of the centerpiece to their identity
rather than recognizing that the centerpiece should have remained
the proclamation of the word. This is why Paul said, I'd rather
that you prophesy than to speak in tongues. Verse three, verse
three of chapter 14. But he that prophesied speaketh
unto men to edification and to exhortation. He that speaks in
a tongue, not unknown, edifieth himself. But he that prophesied
does what? Edifies the church. So when the
church comes together, edification can only come through proclamation. It cannot come through a private
tongue that people are uttering, which is a personal thing. At
that point, you are creating a confusion in the church. Am
I making some sense? The apostle Paul and what we
call the CEO of chapter 14, clarity, edification and order, gives
us an insight as to how the congregation functioned. Look at verse 23.
If therefore the whole church become together in one place.
This is called the synagogue. It was a church at that time.
Our assembly is the other better word. And all speak with tongues
and there come in one that's unlearned or an unbeliever. Will
they not say you are mad? The answer quickly is yes. Look
at verse 24. But if all prophesy and there
come in one that believe it's not, or one unlearned, he is
convinced of all, he is just of all. See verse 24? The only
thing that you don't have in verse 24 that's essential to
insert is the structure and order of all prophesying. Meaning,
not everyone is prophesying all at once. Even if they were all
speaking in the same language, if you had 10 people standing
up prophesying, that would still be confusing, wouldn't it? But
what Paul is talking about is a brother with a word who shares
it, and then another brother with a word who shares it, and
then another brother with a word who shares it. Are you guys hearing
me? So now let's deal with what we call extremes. Let's say,
for instance, this became a normative practice in the church where
a brother would rise up over in the west wing, a brother would
rise up in the east wing, north wing, south wing, and say something.
Generally, your synagogues were small enough to hold about 50
people, synagogues. Your ecclesia, your churches
could hold anywhere from 50 people to 100 people. They generally
were not massively large, but some of them did get larger.
Um, in, in those congregations that were massively larger, you
may have had a few more men speaking, but what Paul did in first Corinthians
14 was restrict the freedom to prophesy to three. Watch what
the text says. But if all prophesied verse 24,
and there come in one that believe it not, or one unlearned, he
is convinced of all. And he is what judged of all.
and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. So falling
down on his face, he will worship God and report that what? God
is in you of a truth. Now watch what happened. Prophecy,
which is declaring the word of God, expository preaching, impacted
his soul and brought him to a knowledge that God was present. It brought
about a conversion in his soul. But now mark this. He says in
verse 26, how is it then brethren, when you come together, every
one of you have the song. hath a doctrine, hath a tongue,
hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. He said, put the brakes on that
craziness. Let all things be done unto what
edification. That is the edification of the
church. Watch what he says. If any men speak in a tongue,
let it be by two are by the most what three and that by what that's
called order. Paul is extracting that from
the old temple worship in the temple. They did their ministries
by course, two by two monthly, they would do their ministries
by course. So they weren't haphazard in their services. Each tribe,
I mean, each family in the Levitical tribe and in the tribe of Aaron
would know their courses throughout the course of the year when it
was their turn to minister. They didn't just minister when
they wanted to. It was all done in order. Am I making some sense?
it was all done in order. And so when it says, and they
are to speak limited to, to are at the most what? So right now
he's constraining excessive prophesying just because there are no definitive
rules. Now see, this gives us insight
into the work of the Holy Ghost. So I'm gonna share with you the
work of the Holy Ghost. The work of the Holy Ghost is to create
and produce in the life of the Christian order. and structure
and boundaries and temperance order and structure and boundaries
and temperance. Because when the flesh takes over, which will
occur anywhere that the word of God, which is the objective
truth of God is not clearly laid out in terms of its prescriptions
and its descriptions and the rules enforced, you will have
20 people wanting to prophesy. And if you don't make a very
clear delineation between the ruling leaders in the church
and those who are not qualified to rule your men, your women,
and your children will want to prophesy in the congregation. Am I making some sense? So I
saw many of our Baptist churches lose their mind over the last
century because they broke through the boundaries of restraint and
order and temperance. and started capitulating on the
clear and explicit rules for who is biblically qualified to
pastor, preach and be ministers. They opened the door to women
preachers, but they also by necessity opened the door for children
preaching because the same absence of authority by which they allow
women to preach was necessary for the children to be able to
get in the pulpit. Here is the argument that they gave, which
is a flawed argument of which I better not hear one believer
that comes to grace ever use the law. I can do whatever he
want to do. Did you hear what I just said?
See, so when you depict God as being a violator of his own word,
you make him lawless and he's just like the devil. Now, are
you hearing me? When you say, well see, now God
can do whatever he wants to, you are basically committing
anarchy against his authority, which he gave to you by which
the church is governed. Am I making some sense to you
guys? See, it always lies upon what authority is governing your
life. Where the word of God is not there and the spirit of God
is not there to give proper interpretation, you will have a church that is
shallow in its knowledge of Christ given over to excesses, extremes,
and chaos will be a basic virtue. Let me say that again. You will
have a church that's shallow in this experiential knowledge
of Christ. It'll be given over to extremes and chaos will be
the virtue. In other words, they will actually
call chaos the moving of the spirit. Am I making some sense? Well, whatever way the Holy Ghost
want to move, we're going to just let it move. Well, no, the
Holy ghost, he already told you how he gonna move. He first gave
you a word and that's how he moves. And this is how you interpret
his presence through his word. So here we see what Paul says
in verse 28, if there's going to be a speaking in tongues,
not gibberish, a tongue, let there be an interpreter or let
him keep silent in the church. Is that what it said? Ladies
and gentlemen, do you hear the rules? If you think you have
the gift of tongues, whatever tongue that may be, we won't
argue that now. Assume you have the gift of tongues. I better
never ever hear you say it publicly in the church. Because you are
a violator of God's law if you do. Am I making some sense? And
if I have the gift of tongues, I better not start that stuff
in the pulpit. As it were, being so moved by
the Holy Ghost, I can't help but speak in tongues. And all
I'm doing is being fleshly, and I'm teaching you to sin against
God when I do it. Because if I don't give a tongue and then
give the interpretation of the tongue, I'm teaching you to sin
against God. And I'm also teaching you to
embrace ignorance. Because if I give a tongue, no
matter what that tongue is, and don't give an interpretation,
I'm telling you to be jazzed by something you don't know.
Am I making some sense? Right. And so Paul is reigning
the church at Corinth in because it had gotten off the tracks.
and lost its mind. Here's the rule, verse 28 and
29 through 31, 28 through 31. But if there be no interpreter,
let him keep silent in the church and let him speak to himself
and to God. I love that. Go talk to God. You wanna talk
in tongues? Talk in tongues, all you want
to. You and God. So let me pause there for a second.
I got something else to say about that. This is really interesting.
Because now watch this. There were legitimately gifts
of speaking in tongues in the first century. We don't argue
that. Biblical revelation was continually expanding and going
deeper and deeper until we codified the scriptures. So we were open
to the gift of tongues. But here's what the apostle said,
who himself spoke in more tongues than them all. Not that he babbled
all day long, but that he had several different tongue gifts.
It's in what we call the plural form. You guys understand that?
He spoke in many tongues, many different languages. He says, first get used to communing
with God, developing your relationship with God, strengthening your
walk with God, go deep with God, commune with God. He gave you
the gift to commune with Him. He wants fellowship with you.
He doesn't want you taking His gift and going about boasting
to everybody about your gift. He gave you the gift to get closer
to Him. Closer to Him. You guys got that?
Closer to Him. This is remarkable because the reason why He gave
you the Bible that's in your hand is for you to get closer
to Him. He didn't give you your Bible first so that you can go
around telling people about the Bible. He gave you your Bible first
so that you can commune with Him, go deep with God. Meditate
on his precepts. Rejoice in his statutes. Reflect
upon his word. Cogitate deeply upon his statutes. Meditate, meditate, meditate,
meditate. Go deep with God. Talk to God.
Commune with God on your own bid with your own heart about
the word of God. Have God to open the word to
you. This is what the word of God is given for first. It's for you and God. Am I making
some sense? Right. So our prosperity doesn't
come until we go deep first in God's word in order that we might
have continued communion with God first. But people learn the
Bible so they can quickly go tell other people about the Bible.
That's like dispersing your waters abroad. Remember what the proverb
says about drink water out of your own sisters It's a metaphor
for the husband being pleased with his own wife ain't no doubt
about that We learned that in marriage class didn't we but
it's a greater metaphor of the church in Christ that Christ
will only drink from his own bride and his own bride ought
to only drink from her own husband and and that the twain ought
to enjoy themselves in deep pleasure so that the prospering can be
evident by all that this man has a close relationship with
his wife and this woman has a close relationship with her husband
and everything else is a byproduct of her walk with God. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. You want to prosper
in the kingdom? Walk close with God. You want
to prosper in your walk with God? Take his word seriously.
So now watch, but if there be no interpreter, let him keep
silent in the church and let him speak to himself and to God,
verse 29, let the prophets speak to or what? That's it, that's
all. So when you confine the prophets
to two or three, you know what you minimize? Error. You know
what else you minimize? Pride. which means you minimize
the opportunity of the flesh. Let me explain that just in case
you didn't get it. Ooh, I can't wait to go to church on Sunday
because the pastor just let anybody, whoever wants to stand up and
speak this Sunday, I'm going to speak. So I got to find a
word to say to the people. So you laboring to speak instead
of laboring to know, are you hearing me? You're laboring to
speak. You can't wait to tell somebody
because you want people to tell you the lord didn't call you
in the ministry child We know the lord has called you in the
ministry by the way you talk Are you hearing me? That's a
real problem Because the priorities are upside down And what those
churches have done is basically catered to a fleshly drive for
a horizontal attention instead of a vertical attention I'm making
some sense. Am I making some sense? And so
this is where Paul said, let the prophets speak two or three
and let the others do what? This is amazing. This is amazing.
I didn't even know I was going to go this way, but this is important.
This is amazing. Cause see, do you understand
how privileged you are to be able to take a position of judging? See, if you're not talking, you
get to judge. But if you're running off at
the mouth, guess what? You're being judged both by man
and God. See, like right now, if I let
one of you stand up and start talking, if you talk more than
five minutes in all likelihood, you're going to be judged. Do
you know why? Because you're not prepared to
talk for God for more than five minutes when you don't prepare
to talk for God. for more than five minutes. To
be spontaneous and stand up and just run off at the mouth or
just expostulate, if you will, is gonna set you up to violate
the principle of Proverbs. If you know the Proverbs, in
the multitude of words, they're lack of not seeing. Jesus said,
let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, because anything
else becomes of evil. The Proverbs says, let your words
be few. And James said, it is better to be quick to hear and
slow to speak. See now when these rules control
your life, you won't be in danger of saying something that you
should not have said, which goes on in a lot of churches. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? The man that's wise, the woman
that's wise, is the person who knows that it is better to be
a judge. Where I am exercising my spiritual
senses of discerning whether or not what I am hearing is the
truth. So as to determine whether my
soul is safe in the presence of this assembly or not. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? I wanna grow in discernment more
than I wanna grow in the ability to articulate biblical concepts. You guys are understanding what
I'm saying. And the proverb says it like
this. A wise man holdeth his tongue. A prudent man disperses
knowledge aright. Watch this. He takes his time
and deliberately communicates decently in an order, in a fashion
that's appropriate to the need, but a fool utter it all his mind. He just opens his mouth and it
all comes out. Now, before he did that, we just
thought. But as soon as he opened his
mouth, we knew. Am I making some sense? We knew.
So yeah, we know now. We know now. I know that I don't
have to pay that man any attention. I know because he talked way
too long that he doesn't know the Word of God. The Word of
God does not abide in him richly. The Word of God is not wherewithal
fitted in his lips. He does not meditate upon God's
precepts. The Word of God is not richly
abiding in him so that what comes out of his mouth amounts to the
wisdom of scripture. I can tell by the way he talks,
he doesn't go deep with God. He's exposed himself, has he
not? And so, Paul regulates this confusion and we are told in
verse 30 if anything be revealed to another that sits by let him
first hold his peace verse 31 for you all may prophesy one
by what but we've already established the number haven't we haven't
we already established a number how many at the most it doesn't
have to be three every Sunday and maybe just one Watch this
now, if we have a fear of God, a reverence for God, a respect
for God's word, a desire not to err in talking in the behalf
of God, it probably be better that only one person speaks on
Sunday. So that the whole congregation
is not going to watch this, if a man stands up over there and
waxes eloquent for five minutes and talks about God and we go,
man, that was good. And then another fellow stands
up over here and waxes eloquent and talk about God. And we go,
man, that was good. But what the man said the second
time, the second spokesman contradicted what the first spokesman said.
We are in trouble. Because they both can't be right.
The Holy Ghost couldn't be speaking to this fellow over here and
this fellow over here, and they'd be contradicting themselves.
Am I making some sense? At that point, guess what we have now
experienced? Confusion. and also distraction. Because we are now having to
reason with whether or not this person spoke the truth versus
that person. And that becomes a waste of time
in the order of the church when what we're supposed to do is
come in, worship God succinctly in a cohesion and a clarity that
progresses through the worship service so that we end on a note
of understanding that we've heard from God. This is why Protestant
churches have reduced it down to the minister of the word. One man speaking to the congregation
and the assembly. Now, when you disperse, you guys
can all encourage one another in the faith. You guys understand
that? You can do that, but not when we all come together. It'd
be better to just hear one God anointed man who's full of the
Spirit and full of the Word. And then we judge whether or
not what he said is the truth. And if God met us in the preaching,
we go home happy that day. Am I making some sense? All right. So then let's move on from this. Oh, let me read this last one.
I have to do this. If anything be revealed by another that says
by let him hold his peace first verse 31 I need to close here
verse 31 and 32 For you may all prophesy one by one that all
may what? See church should be a learning
experience and all may be what that means edified Not emotionally
comforted Comforted in the sense that God spoke to us. Remember
sheep need to know that the master is near. I And when the word
of God is powerfully and clearly set forth, we see the presence
of our shepherd, don't we? And we receive comfort that is
strength because he is near in the preaching. And we will never,
ever say, I couldn't help myself. Look at verse 32. Do you see?
And the spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophet. You
guys see that? and the spirits of the prophet
are what? Subject to the prophet. You know
what that mean? Never ever say you can't help yourself. You
can't help yourself. Watch it. You can stop when it's
time to stop. You can refrain when it's time
to refrain. You don't have to just get up
and say something. I couldn't help it. That wasn't the Holy
Ghost. That was a devil, maybe. Or your own fickle flesh. But
it wasn't the Holy Ghost. Even in our context, go back
to our text. I'm going to open the floor for questions after
I give this observation. Go back to our content, show
you something there. One more thing about the order and structure
of worship in the synagogues in that day, by which the gospel
was free to go forth, because we're going to hear the gospel
as Paul unpacks biblical theology, starting with Abraham all the
way up to Jesus over the next couple of weeks, going to hear
the gospel. But the gospel had access, entrance into that congregation
because of the order, didn't it? Because of the order and
the structure. Access to the gospel was possible. I'm back at Acts chapter 13,
and here's what it says. And after the reading of the
law, verse 15, Acts 13, 15, and the prophets and the rulers of
the synagogue sent to them saying, you men and brethren, if you
have any word of exhortation to the people, say on, this is
where I get the title of our outline, a door open to what? That's right. In other words,
Paul and Barnabas didn't have the right to just barge into
that worship service and say, I got a word from the Lord. No. If God was with them, would not
God open the door for his servants to speak? Is the same God that
put the word in them capable of putting the desire in the
hearts of that congregation to hear from that man. Watch this,
and this is a rule for you brothers who say you're called to, because
I hear it all the time. I think I'm called to preach.
I think I'm called to preach. You might be called to preach, but
if you're called to preach, you're going to follow some rules. You're
going to learn some things. You're going to learn how to be quiet first,
because you're not called to speak if you're not first called
to sit and listen and learn. And then you're called to speak
when God opens the door. How do I know I'm being called
to preach, pastor? Cuz someone calls you that's
how you know, I love that I'm gonna say that one more time.
You're not called to preach if no one calls you You don't call
yourself I Think I'm calling priest. I'm
gonna go knocking on doors. No, you better not be under my teaching
and go knocking on doors Do you hear me I can go a long ways
in expounding and explaining both in the old and the new,
how the preparation of the heart of man and the answer of the
tongue, both of them are from the Lord. How that the Lord qualifies
you and then sends you to those who are asking for you to explain
the scriptures. I can show you that. And that's
how it's done. No minister goes around with
his own calling cards, knocking on door, kicking doors in, giving
you his banners, giving you his flies, giving you his number,
giving you his webpage, giving you his website. Those are all
charlatans. They're all crooks. Are you guys
hearing me? All crooks. Every one of them,
every one of them. If God's going to use you as
a minister, you're going to sit under sound teaching and preaching
and you will wait your turn. and you're gonna be proven first
among the brethren whether or not you even have the gift of
exposition and preaching and teaching. Can I say one more
thing about that? And then you will be sent. Remember the opening of the chapter?
And the Holy Ghost said, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for
the work were unto I have called them. We are not surprised that
everywhere they went, doors opened for them to preach because the
Holy Ghost went before them to prepare the hearts. We saw that
dynamically manifested in our last class with Sergius Paulus,
did we not? They called for Saul and Barnabas. Here in our text, they are calling
for these men. They, the leaders of the church
came and hunted Paul and Barnabas down. Would you speak to us? Is there anything that's in you
of which you would exhort the congregation? Guys, can you see
that? Can you see that? Can you see how the Spirit moves
and opens the door? See, they would have sat there, they would
have went through service, and they would have went home if
the Spirit of God didn't move. Just as I've done for many, many
years, go sit, go home, go sit, go home. The goal of the aspiring
student to preach the word is to simply sit and learn and go
as deep as he can with God and wait for his turn. I'll call your attention to verse
16, and then we'll open the floor for questions for a minute. After they said, men and brethren,
if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then
Paul stood up. Do you see that? So call your
attention to another then now paradigm. As a rule in Jewish
synagogues, they did it one or two ways. Certain portions of
the Jewish culture, certain regions, the teacher would sit down and
teach as frequently Jesus did. I'll show you this next week.
When he went into the synagogue, he sat down to teach. When he
spoke to the multitude, he sat and taught. What was the posture
of Jesus when he gave that magnanimous Magna Carta called the Sermon
on the Mount? What was his posture? He was
seated. Are you guys hearing me? Because when the teacher
is seating, he's in the bima now. He's in a place of the basalia,
the authority to now proclaim the word of God. He's in the
seat of authority. ready to proclaim. But Paul is
doing what? Standing. Why? Because there
were cultures, as they were moving more towards the Gentile land,
where the Jews stood up to speak. And that's why we as Gentiles
stand up when we speak. Are you guys hearing me? So this
is why we have that pattern. Then Paul stood up, now watch
this, and beckoning with his hand said, so what is he doing? He's beckoning. Why is he beckoning? Because at this point, the synagogue
is kind of loose in a way where people are talking to one another
and just having loose conversations like we do. In between services,
we'll have a Sunday school, then we'll have a break, and then
worship will start. And so we have to kind of get everybody
settled down. This is what's happening. Remember the ministers
had to go find Paul and Barnabas and ask them, would you exhort
us? So the Holy Ghost led these ministers to Paul and Barnabas,
and now Paul and Barnabas raised their hands to beckon everyone
to pay attention. Now we are about to hear the
word of God expounded. Does that make some sense, ladies
and gentlemen? All right, questions. Anybody got any questions for
the night? Are we question-oriented people? Okay, take the microphone
and put it on green and go ahead on to speak. We'll just talk
for a few minutes. Make sure if you guys got some questions,
let's do this. This is summertime, so we'll get into questions.
Put it to your mouth. It's not your job to correct.
I love this question. So let me help you guys. I bet
not find any of the young men in my church going into anybody
else's church, standing up, correcting the preacher. I bet not find
you doing that. You have no biblical authority
for that. You have no biblical grounds to call that man out
publicly or that woman. Are you guys hearing me? No.
If you think you have the commission from God to correct him, You
go to him privately. You guys understand that? Otherwise,
I'm afraid you're being driven by a megalomaniac spirit, wanting
to call attention to yourself like you're some John the Baptist
or something. And I'm not teaching John the Baptist in this church.
Sorry, ain't but one John the Baptist. The rest of us are disciples
of Christ. So that's the protocol. Any other
questions? You can pass the mic. We can
do some trade off right here. I won't have you guys do that. You guys
better get your questions ready. So put it to your mouth, Carlos.
Oh, you can run. Your question was way too complex
for me. Yeah, so starting back at verse
27. If any man speak in a tongue, let it be by two or at the most
three and by course, that's an order, and let one what? Interpret. Right, so the simple meaning
of that is this. that each individual that speaks a tongue has to be
subject to the interpretation of that tongue that he utters
because ostensibly he's speaking by the Spirit of God. But if
he is speaking by the Spirit of God, according to this rule,
that tongue has to be interpreted so that the congregation can
be edified. Otherwise, the Holy Ghost now is operating illegally. Remember what we learned? It
is better to prophesy than to speak in tongues in the church
because in speaking in tongues, you are edifying yourself. In
prophesying, you are edifying the church. But if you speak
in a tongue in church, it better be interpreted so we can all
judge it and be edified by it, right? Now, the only challenge
that scholars have with the phraseology of verse 27 is whether or not
the man himself who is speaking in a tongue is authorized to
interpret it himself. In other words, back in chapter
13, it spoke about the gift of tongues, and then it spoke about
the gift of interpretation of tongues. So we would reason,
after all of the many years of churches alleging to have the
gift of tongues, that it would probably be the wiser part to
see this text as teaching that one person speaks in a tongue
and another person interprets what they say versus the individual
who's speaking in their tongue, interpreting it for himself.
Because if he's lying in his tongue, he's going to be lying
in English. Follow the logic. But if we have
an individual who is over here, who doesn't have any skin in
the game, then being moved by the same Holy Ghost to actually
give interpretation to the tongue, then we have a viable out of
the mouth of two or three witnesses to establish that tongue. Am I making some sense? Now,
it's not impossible for this fool over here to babble and
this fool over here to be in cahoots with him. But at least
with two, you minimize that possibility. See, we are doing two things,
regulating the abuse and also looking for authenticity. Does
that follow? Okay, so I didn't know about
what you were talking about. I still didn't get that. Right.
So for instance, yeah, because now you're getting into translation
work. And that's like kind of a whole different category than
there, because right there, that wasn't about translation work. That was about interpreting the
tongue. So interpretation and translation, two different things. I would never defend the King
James with that text. That would be wrong. That would
be wrong. So for those of us who are responsible
exegetes, we would know that the King James is a good translation
And for many of us, it's preferable, but for many different reasons
when it comes to the world of translation, for many different
reasons, but we would not hold to a King James only position
as if the authorized version version itself was a superior
version through and through. There are many places in which
the King James could have done a better job and only logically.
So, because we're 400 years removed from that work. And because language
is a living dynamic language, language modifies and morphs.
We're dealing with that in our Greek class. And obviously, we're
also dealing with it in Hebrew. Because language modifies and
morphs, the way you speak English today is not the way they spoke
English in the 16th, 17th century. So we have to be very clear about
rules of grammar. So you want to be careful not
to fall into the fallacy of that kind of argument. It's not good.
You answered my question. Good. It's an appropriate use
of it. Got it. Anybody else before we shut it
down? Any other questions? OK, way over here. I need a runner.
OK, so Carlos, you can run. No, you. Oh, you. He said, Carlos,
let you run. Raise your hand up. Raise your
hand up over there. We'll do these last two, and
then we go home. Remember now, I do this from time to time.
I've done it years now. During the summer months, I take
the Q&A. If you have questions, bring them up. Don't be afraid.
You can't learn, in some cases, if you don't open your mouth
and ask the question. So I heard this scripture wrote Yeah, that's
an abuse. That's an abuse of the tax. So
let me let me reiterate what my sister is saying. And when the apostle Paul described
for us the ethic by which we seek to reach people with the
gospel, he tells us in verse 22 to the week I became as weak
that I might gain the week. I am made all things to all men
that I might by all means save some. But see, What he is saying
is that he is willing to morph in his character, not change
his gospel. So let me say something about
that briefly. Evangelism is a tool for proclamation. Okay? Evangelism is a tool for
proclamation. It's a mindset and a methodology
which is designed to get you near people so that you can exercise
the proclamation of the word, the Kerygma or Caruso. So evangelism
is a mindset that says, if these people are rude, brutish barbarians,
I've got to get down to their level in order to communicate
the gospel in a fashion that reaches them where they are. This is the salt light metaphor. I taught our ladies this in one
of our last Wednesday night theology classes. I'm going to share it
with you now. We'll take one more question in close. Jesus
told us in Matthew chapter 5 to be the what of the earth? The
salt of the earth. And to be what of the world?
Light. Now, the difference between salt and light is that light
is designed to impact by virtue of revelation. So what light
does is penetrate the darkness and give illumination to that
which is not seen. That's why light is a metaphor
for knowledge. For God has caused the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God to shine in our hearts,
right? So the light penetrates the darkness and brings clarity
to that which was prior not seen. With salt, the metaphor is designed
to influence. Impact and influence. What do
I mean by that? Salt maintains its character
while losing its form. The goal of salt is to lose its
form while maintaining its character in order to influence its object. Are you guys following me? Now
watch this. Now this is important because we see the error of this
in the book of Acts where the Jews were not willing to lose
their form in order to reach Gentiles with the gospel. They
wanted to maintain their Judaism and make Gentiles to be Jews.
And Paul says, you're going to cancel the gospel out when you
do that. You know what he said? If you tell these fellows they
got to be circumcised and keep Sabbath days and go through all
the externalism of Judaism, you're going to kill the gospel. That
was because they were not willing to be salt. Now, when you see
salt in its original form before it makes impact with meat or
other foods, it's a white powder, isn't it? We see its form, don't
we? But as soon as you take that salt and sprinkle it on its object,
what does it do? It becomes one with its object.
It loses its form in order to make its impact. That's good. Just in case you didn't get it.
That's good. So when you see a true evangelist
kicking it with a brother in a certain form, don't think he
lost his substance. Simply because he's actually
identifying with the people to whom he's ministry when he opens
his mouth It's still gonna be salty Did you get that still
gonna be salty It's still going to be the word of God, the gospel
of Christ. You are a hell bound sinner.
The only remedy for sin is the death, burial and resurrection
of Christ. And God is the only savior of sinners. You're going
to hear the message of redemption, though he may come in a form
consistent with that object that he's seeking to reach. Last question. Last question. Yeah, yeah. Here's how we'll deal with this. Chapter 13 is using hyperbole
to argue motive. It's not dealing with right now
the argument of what tongues is. 1 Corinthians 13 is dealing
with the issue of motive. The whole thing is talking about
love and love in its descriptive. what love looks like. It's not
really dealing with, it's making an assumption about the people
already knowing what tongues are about, okay? So, and we already
talked about that with them in chapter 12. Chapter 12 lays out
the gifts of the spirit, laying out tongues. When you look at
verse one of chapter 12, or chapter 13, and it says, if I have the
gift of the tongues of men or the tongues of angels, he's simply
saying, If I was as eloquent as even the angelic beings who
are not bound by fleshly bodies like ours, because both are messengers. Angels are messengers, are they
not? Men are messengers. And so Paul is still dealing
with the transmission of words. But you and I have to ask the
question, what does it sound like to talk like an angel? What
does that sound like? You have never had anything in
the scriptures that treated the doctrine of angel tongues. That's
what I'm saying. When people take that word and
blow it up and try to associate angelic tongues with speaking
in tongues, that is an unlawful connection between that hyperbolic
statement that's really simply saying even angels are authorized
to have a proper ethic. when it comes to their service
to the Lord God and the messengers of God as well, that we are to
all do all things in love, that love has to be the basic ethic
of what we do. Or even if we are as eloquent
as angels, eloquent as the greatest speakers, eloquent as people
who are free from the carnality and weakness of the physical
flesh. And we can mesmerize, mesmerize people with our words.
If our hearts are not filled with love, Then it's nothing
but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. You guys are understanding
that logic, right? So here's this doesn't satisfy you because
what a lot of our churches do who want to justify speaking
in tongues And speaking in that particular kind of tongues where
we say that it's just not biblical is they will reach for anything
and argue Well is angelic. That's why you can't understand
it and what we would say is that Before you accept that as your
argument, you have to demonstrate that in the scriptures as a descriptive. Where are angels speaking by
which you and I can call it a unique tongue of which men then can
adopt as speaking in tongues? Every time you ever heard an
angel speak in the scriptures, are you ready? They spoke in
the languages of men. And if you heard the heavens
speak where you and I didn't understand it, that was a heavenly
dimension that was not excluded to or exclusive to angelic beings. Obviously God has himself the
ability to communicate far transcending our ears capacity to comprehend
it. But all that is is a matter of
translation. God talking in his own what we would call genre,
whatever that may be, is no different than you hearing a foreign tongue
that you cannot understand. It is no different. Are you guys
following the logic? If it's uninterpreted, it's uninterpreted. You can say, man, that was angelic.
Or you can say, man, that was barbaric. Because a barbaric
sound and an angelic sound amounts to the same thing. an uninterpreted
sound. I'll stop here, but in your world
of tongues, one of the other reasons for which I completely
abandoned any notion of accepting it as a plausible practice in
the church today is because of the myriad different expressions
in the different cultures in which it takes place. Are you guys understanding me?
So you go to the East Coast or you go to the South and the manifestation
of tongues in the South is radically different than the manifestation
of the tongues in the East Coast or the West Coast. When you go
to Africa, West Africa is different than North Africa. In other words,
it seems like if these people are speaking in a tongue given
to them from God, why is it confined to sort of a regional genre? So you go to Louisiana, and they
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, Man, if you're gonna speak in
tongues and not interpret, keep it to yourself. Father, we thank
you for this time. Thank you for this word. As we
go our way, give us traveling mercies. We love you and adore you for
the fact that you have spoken to us clearly through your word.
We don't have to labor to know what you said. You spoke very
clearly when you said, thus saith the Lord, from Genesis to Revelation.
We are sure that by taking heed to your word and hiding it in
our heart, We might not sit against you by trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ as our only hope for glory. As we go our way, give us safe
travelings, prepare our hearts to worship you on Sunday. We
pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you guys.