Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 42 from your hardbacked hymnal. Hymn number
42, All Hail the Power. Let's all stand together, please.
? All hail the power of Jesus'
name ? Let angels prostrate fall ? Bring forth a royal diadem
? And crown him Lord of all ? Bring forth a royal diadem ? And crown
him Lord of all ? Ye chosen seed of Israel's race ? Ye ransomed
from the fall ? Hail him who saves you by his grace ? And
crown him Lord of all Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and
crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe,
on this terrestrial ball. To him all majesty ascribe, and
crown him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe, and
crown him Lord of all. ? Lord of all ? Oh that with
yonder sacred throng ? We at his feet may fall ? We'll join
the everlasting song ? And crown him Lord of all We'll join the
everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. Please be seated. Good morning. Did y'all miss
that hour of sleep last night? I sure did. we're going to continue our study
in first corinthians if you would like to turn with me there uh... chapter fourteen first corinthians
chapter fourteen good to have ryan's mom and dad
brad and pam uh... down from cross for with us ledger
here Most of you all, or many of you,
know Scott and Christine McMinn. They meet with a small group
in San Jose, California and watch our services every Sunday and
every Wednesday. And there's a brother in that
church whose name is Dominic. And he's 52 years old. He had
a stroke this week. And he has some paralysis as
a result of it. He's in rehab. He has five children. And I assured him yesterday that
we would remember him in prayer. So Dominic in San Jose. And also Dennis Fitzton is preaching
over in Sarasota this morning. They're having services this
morning so we won't be going over there tonight and want us
to pray for the church in Sarasota. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful that once again you've blessed us with
the opportunity to come here and to meet together, to have
the hope of your presence. to have the revelation of your
gospel given to us by your word. Lord, we pray that your Holy
Spirit now would give understanding to our hearts and give us faith
and light in the eyes and cause us, Lord, to look to Christ and
to rest all our hopes in his glorious person and in his finished
work. We do pray for our brother Dominic,
and we ask, Lord, that you would Comfort his heart. We pray that
you would be pleased to put your hand of healing on him and recover
his paralysis. And Lord, that this will be a
time of great blessings for him and his family and for the church
or the group in San Jose. We pray for Dennis and ask Lord
that even now as he speaks that you would bless your word. We pray that you would bless
the church there in Sarasota and that you would provide for
them a pastor and provide for them, Lord, your mercy and your
grace. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. There's a couple of words in
this chapter that need to be defined before we can understand
what's being said. And so, if you'll have your Bibles
open with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, The Lord begins in verse 1 by
saying, follow after charity, and we saw from chapter 13 that
charity is love, and that God is love, and hearing is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son
as a propitiation for our sins. We're to follow after Christ.
Follow after Christ. Look to Him as the ultimate expression
of love. And desire spiritual, notice
the word gifts is in italics, desire the things that are spiritual. Ask the Lord to enlighten the
eyes of your understanding. Man looks at the outward appearance,
God looks at the heart. Lord, I want to see the heart
of God. I want to see the things that
the natural man can't see. Lord, I pray that you would enable
me to understand the spiritual truth of things because The world
can only be understood in light of that which is spiritual. And
so, Lord, I pray that You would cause me to see the spiritual
condition that I'm in as a sinner. I pray that You would enable
me to see the spiritual truth of who Christ is and what He's
done to save sinners. I need to see the spiritual. So follow after love, follow
after Christ, desire those things which are spiritual, but rather
that you may prophesy. Now the word prophecy is used
to describe preaching. It is not foretelling some future
event. We don't do that. We don't try
to figure out what's going to happen tomorrow. We don't know
what the Lord is going to do tomorrow. We're not interested in pretending
to know. We walk by faith. We trust Him. We know who holds tomorrow. and
we know that whatever happens tomorrow will be according to
his good purpose and his will and it'll be for his glory and
it'll be for our salvation so we don't get caught up in trying
to prophesy future events this word prophecy is used to describe
preaching it is not the foretelling of future events it's the fourth
telling of past events It's declaring the message of the gospel. And
not only are we to desire gifts to be able to declare the gospel,
but we're to desire the spiritual ability to hear the gospel. And so whatever end we're on,
whether we're speaking or whether we're hearing, it's a work of
the Spirit to be able to declare the Gospel. It's a work of the
Spirit to be able to hear the Gospel. And so the Lord begins
this whole passage by telling us that the primary thing is
the preaching of the gospel. And the only way you're going
to be able to do it is by the power of the Spirit of God. And
the only way you'll be able to hear it is by the power of the
Spirit of God. And so, this is the means by
which all spiritual truth is understood. uh... preaching of the gospel god uses
the foolishness of preaching uh... that which the world calls
foolish we understand is the means by which the lord reveals
those things which are spiritual and uh... and so he says uh... out of all the spiritual gifts
uh... desire to be able to speak and
hear the preaching of the gospel. Now, notice in the next verse
that the word unknown is in italics. It's okay that it be there in
that he's talking about a language. The word tongues is never used
to describe some sort of ecstatic utterance or some sort of heavenly
language. The word tongues is used always
in the Bible to describe a known language. Now there are many,
many languages in the world. And so, just like in Acts chapter
2, when the apostles stood up on the day of Pentecost and they
preached the gospel in many languages, and the people were amazed that
they heard the message of Christ, the preaching of the gospel,
in their own tongue, in their own language. uh... the lord
gave to the early church uh... gift enabling them to communicate
the gospel in languages that they did not know and so there
were members of the church who could speak a language that uh... wasn't the common language of
the people in that church uh... there were also people who uh... were following that there were
jews in this gentile in this in this church at corinth who
were following the example of the rabbis who would stand at
and pray in the hebrew tongue or read scripture in the Hebrew
tongue. That was pretty much a dead language
in the first century. Only the scholars knew it and
used it. And so there were some Jewish
men in the church who wanted to... Why would someone stand
up in a congregation and speak in a language that was unknown
to that congregation. That's why the word unknown is
there. It's not an unknown language. People who pretend to be speaking
some sort of heavenly language, people who speak gibberish, believing
that God has given them some sort of miraculous gift, are
liars. They're just liars. That's all
there is to it. There's no other way to put it.
Either that or they are under the control of an evil spirit. those things are not taught in
scripture they weren't practiced in the first century they're
not of god and this gift of being able to speak other languages
is no longer necessary uh... we have the scriptures and uh... the lord uses that uh... to communicate
the gospel uh... to to man remember the people
who heard the gospel preached in Acts chapter 2 it got their
attention they were amazed how is it that these men from Galilee
are able to speak to us in our dialect in languages that we
can understand languages they said that scripture says that
they were born under their first language and uh... so it and
then what did what did Peter stand up and say remember they
said they said these men are drunk and peter said no they're
not drunk is just the third hour of the day is nine o'clock in
the morning uh... but this is the fulfillment of
the prophecy of joel where joel said the day will come while
i will put my spirit upon men and they will prophesy and uh... and and uh... bring the gospel
in uh... in a in a in the tongue that
that that the men know so uh... this was the fulfillment of that
of that prophecy in joel and uh... and what happened at the
end of that well three thousand men were saved weren't they uh... the lord added to the church
a great number of believers uh... these jews who were who were
convicted by the manifestation of the spirit of god and enabling
these apostles to preach the gospel in their language uh... and enabling them to hear it
So this gift is still going on now some years later in the church
at Corinth. And so my question is, why would
someone stand up and speak in a language that wasn't known
by that congregation? They were showing off. That's
all they were doing. They were just showing off. They
were promoting themselves. They were saying, hey, look how
spiritual I am. Look at the gifts that I have. They were calling attention to
themselves. And that was happening in the
church. And so the Lord rebukes them for that. the same thing happens today
in uh... in in jewish uh... synagogues uh... rabbis get up
and they preach in hebrew they speak in hebrew they pray in
hebrew nobody knows what they're saying uh... i can remember as
a boy uh... nineteen sixty five was when
uh... the catholic church stopped doing the mass in latin well
prior to that i was an altar boy I memorized the mass in Latin. Didn't have a clue what I was
saying. But I was, you know, and nobody else knew. So why,
you see, this thing goes on today. And people do it in churches.
They stand up and they pretend to be filled with the Spirit
and they speak in some foreign language. And it's all for the
purpose of impressing men, promoting yourself, uh... acting spiritual
uh... i've got an insight to god that
you don't have and the whole purpose of this chapter is to
stress the importance of making the preaching of the gospel simple
and clear i was talking to a man recently a preacher seminary
train preacher and uh... he said to me he said uh... He
said, well, most of the people in my church are semi-Pelagian.
And I bet there's not three people in this congregation that could
tell me what semi-Pelagianism is. And that's to your credit. That's to your credit. You see,
he thought he was impressing me, but it wasn't impressing
me at all. He was revealing himself. I'll bet there's not three people
in this congregation that can't tell me what the error and evil
of free will is. That's what semi-Pelagianism
is. It's just free will. So why would a preacher want
to say semi-Pelagianism rather than just saying what it is?
Free will. You see, people love Speaking
in tongues, don't they? They love speaking in an unknown
language to impress other men. It happens on every level. And
the whole point of this chapter is don't do that. Make the gospel
clear. Don't speak in code. Don't speak
in politically correct language that really has no meaning. Be
simple, be to the point, be biblical, and make it as clear as you possibly
can for the youngest child to be able to understand. And that's going to be offensive
to a lot of folks. And I was thinking about why
are so many people offended by our current president? you know because he doesn't he
doesn't mince words he you know he he speaks his mind doesn't
he speaks he speaks simply maybe that's a bad example but I'm
just saying that this this man be people want to hear vague
general politically correct language why why do they want people want
to hear that so that they can put their own
spin and interpretation on what's being said. See, if you speak
to me in cloudy words and vague language, then I can interpret
it for myself. But if you make it simple and
clear and down to earth and unambiguous, then I lose control. and and men are offended by that
that's exactly what the Lord's telling us here now let's read
the chapter he that speaketh in an unknown tongue unknown
to that congregation speaketh not unto men but unto God and
no man understandeth him how be it in the spirit he speaketh
mysteries he may be speaking the truth about the gospel but it's not benefiting anybody
It's not anyone's profit. But He that prophesieth, or preacheth,
speaketh unto men to edification, to exhortation, and to comfort. That's why we preach. We preach
to encourage. We preach to teach. We preach
to comfort men. We let men know that their warfare
is accomplished. that sin has been put away, that
God is satisfied, the law has been fulfilled. And that's the
message that comforts sinners. That's the message that encourages
them. That's the message that instructs
them and teaches them the truth. He that speaketh in an unknown
tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth
the church. You see, these people were promoting themselves. They
were wanting everybody in the church to know how spiritual
and how gifted they were and how intelligent they were. People
still do it, don't they? They still do it. Preachers are the worst. Preachers
are like doctors and lawyers. They've got their own language.
It's job security. If I can speak a language that
you can understand, then you're dependent upon me to be able
to interpret it. Isn't that true, Adam? You guys
can make things a lot more simpler than you do, don't you? But you
need clients to come to you. Exactly. There's no difference. It's no difference. It's just
job security. Verse 5, I would that you all
speak with tongues, that you all knew the Hebrew language,
that would be a good thing. The Old Testament scriptures
were written originally in Hebrew. But rather that you prophesy,
preach and understand preaching. This prophesying goes both ways. And then he that speaketh with
tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying.
If you're going to declare some Old Testament Hebrew passage,
or if you're going to speak with a gift that God's given you,
interpret it in a language that's simple and clear enough for those
people that are listening to you to be able to understand
what you're saying. Now, brethren, If I come to you
speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except I shall speak
to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying,
or by doctrine?" The tongue, even if I preach
proper doctrine, if I'm speaking to you in a language that you
don't understand, it's of no profit to you. Verse 7, and even things without
life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction
in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
He's talking about music. Music has to have notes in order,
otherwise it's just noise. It's annoying noise, isn't it? For if the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? If the trumpeter declares a message
of victory rather than a message of warning, then everybody's
going to be confused. So likewise, except you utter
by the tongue words easy to be understood. Now that's the key
passage in this whole chapter. So many abuses from this chapter
of Scripture. in religion, and the Lord has
given it so clearly to us. Preach with simple words, words
that men can understand. How shall it be known what is
spoken? For you shall speak into the air. You might as well go
out there and just be talking in the air. There are, it may
be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is
without signification. Now he's talking about languages.
He said there's lots of different languages in the world, and they're
all significant to the people who speak that language. Therefore, if I know not the
meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian,
and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so you, for as much as you
are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the
edifying of the church. Well, one thing we've seen in
this study of Corinthians is that there was a lot of competition
among the believers in Corinth, wasn't there? And it was just
evil. It was wrong. It was sinful.
It was not edified. It was not glorified to the Lord. Verse 13, wherefore, let him
that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. If
you have a message from God and it's given to you in a language
that the people don't know, don't give it in that language. Give
it in the language that people know. for if i pray in an unknown
tongue my spirit prayer but my understanding is unfruitful people
have taken that and say well you know i'm just i'm praying
to god in a heavenly language and they get caught up in some
sort of ecstatic uh... gibberish and they say well i
don't know i don't know what i'm saying but the holy spirit
gave it to me that's not what he's saying he's he's saying
if you pray in a language that people don't understand, then
your prayers are unfruitful to the congregation. You may understand
what you're saying, but if you offer a public prayer in a language
that no one understands, it's of no profit to anyone in the
congregation. What is it then? I will pray
in the Spirit, I will pray with the understanding also, I will
sing with the Spirit, I will sing with the understanding also. Else, when thou shalt bless with
the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned
say, Amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing that he understandeth
not what thou sayest? Isn't that so clear, isn't it? If you pray
in a Hebrew tongue, And nobody in Corinth knew Hebrew, except
for a few maybe of the Jewish rabbis. Nobody can say amen to what you
just said. For thou verily giveth thanks
well, but the other is not edified. The purpose of public worship
is for the edification of the church. It's for the salvation
of sinners. It's for our comfort. Yet in the church I had rather
speak five words with my understanding than by my voice I might teach
others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in
understanding. Now, we're back to the very first
verse of this chapter where the Lord says, seek those things
which are spiritual, but rather that you prophesy. Now, so far
God hasn't called anybody else in this congregation to preach
like I'm preaching. But you have the burden of responsibility
to understand what's being preached, don't you? And so, be not children
in understanding. Ask the Lord to give you understanding.
Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
I like that. That's hard to do, isn't it?
In malice be as children. How sweet ignorance is when it comes to
the things of this world. How sweet naivety is when it
comes to the things of this world with small children. And how
adversely affected we are by having been exposed to many of
those things that children don't know what's going on. And the
Lord's saying, you know what? The less you know about what's
going on, the better off you're going to be. Be like a child
when it comes to the evil of this world, but be like men when
it comes to understanding the gospel. In the law it is written, verse
21, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto
this people, yet for all that will they will not hear me, saith
the Lord. So in Isaiah chapter 28, we saw
that already when we studied Isaiah 28, that the Lord said
I'm gonna bring the gospel to the world in a language that
the Jews don't speak. And verse 22 wherefore tongues
are for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe
not for prophesying service not them to believe not but for them
which believe say that this this gift of tongues
is only to authenticate the the message to the unbeliever so
that they'll like like in acts chapter two it'll get their attention
uh... unless the gospels preach no
one's gonna be saved and the only one that's really gonna
be able to hear the gospel are the believers Lord's gonna have
to to give someone faith before they can hear if therefore the whole church
become together into one place and all speak with tongs and
they're coming in those that are unlearned or unbelievers
will they not say that you're mad I could just imagine the confusion
that the services in Corinth had. You know, people would say,
I got a message from God. And they would speak in an unknown
tongue. And another one would get up and say, I've got another
message from God. And that's exactly what the Lord
is saying. Don't do that. People come in,
they'll think that you're crazy. And there's some places you can
go to right now. you you come at you won't stay
that long you'll scare you I'm talking about religious places
the people acting crazy they're doing exactly what the Lord forbid
not be done in this chapter and they will use this chapter scripture
to defend what they're doing that amazing Verse 24, but if all prophesy
and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned, he is convinced
of all and he is judged of all. The spiritual man is judged of
no man, but the unbeliever, when he hears the gospel being preached,
the only hope of him being convicted for his sins and being brought
to faith in Christ is through the preaching of the gospel. And thus are the secrets of his
heart made manifest. And so falling down on his face,
he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. You know what unbeliever thinks?
At least one that the Lord's got his hand on when he comes
in and he hears what we believe. And he's looking around. all
y'all believe what he's saying? Because if you do, I'm the odd
man out. And you do, don't you? And that's
exactly what the Lord's saying. If one of my lost sheep come
in and they hear you preaching and they see that everybody in
the congregation is in agreement with what's being preached, then
they're convicted? Why don't I believe this? How is it then, brethren, verse
26, that when you come together, every one of you hath a psalm,
a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation with an interpretation, let all
things be done for edifying. If any man speak in an unknown
tongue, let it be by two or the most by three, and that by course,
and let one interpret. This is relevant to that miracle
gift that God gave in the early days of the church that doesn't
exist today. But if there be no interpreter,
the point of it is interpret the message for the edification
of the believers. Speak in a language they can
understand. Speaking a language that's going
to comfort sinners. I mean, I can speak in simple
words, but if I'm preaching the law, I'm speaking in an unknown
tongue to the child of God who needs to hear about grace. And to the unbeliever, we're
speaking in an unknown tongue, aren't we? The message of the
gospel is so foreign to the unbeliever, until God gives him ears to hear
it. And if there be no interpreter,
let him keep silent in the church, and let him speak to himself
and to God. Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let
the others judge. Those who have been called to
preach, let them deliver their message. Let people listen. And two or three messages is
probably about all folks are going to be able to endure in
one service. Verse 30, If anything be revealed
to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For you may all prophesy one
by one that all may learn and that all may be comforted. What are we learning? We're learning
that we're sinners. We're learning that we have no
righteousness. We're learning that Christ fulfilled all righteousness
and satisfied the demands of God's law. We're learning that
He bore in His body our sins and put them away once and for
all. We're learning that He satisfied divine justice and stands as
our advocate before God. We're learning that salvation's
of the Lord. It's a work of grace in the heart. And we're comforted by that.
We're comforted by a message of salvation that leaves us out
of the equation in terms of bringing something to the table in order
to earn favor with God. If you've got to bring something,
there's no comfort in that. No comfort. We'll close with the verse 32
because this is a very important verse and it exposes the error
of those who I was speaking about earlier who abused this passage
of scripture pretending that the Holy Spirit
has fallen on them and they do all sorts of crazy things in
church uh... and and say that it's the Spirit
of God that's making them do it look at this verse it means
it's so simple it's so clear and the spirits of the prophets
are subject to the prophets In other words, no one can stand
up and say, you know, God's... God's got total control of my
body and I'm just... I'm just, you know, doing what
He's... what He's controlling me to do. The Spirit of the Prophet is
subject to the Prophet. Is that... I don't know any other
way to... I mean, that's so simple. It's so clear. For a person to
stand up and say, well, I'm totally out of control. Spirit of God
has complete control over my faculties. That's what this verse
is saying doesn't happen. The spirit of the prophet is
subject to the prophet. He's thought through what he's
saying. Maybe the Lord has revealed something to him. I hope he has. But he's not taking over control
of his faculties and using him like a robot. The spirit of the
prophet is subject to the prophet. Okay? All right, let's take a
break. Okay.