Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Now the Holy Spirit has been
moving Paul to set things in order in the Corinthian church
and for us. And He has told us how the men
were to use the gifts that God had given them to preach the
gospel clearly, understandably, within the church service when
they gathered together in one place. And now he's going to
tell us that everything that he had spoken there about the
men speaking in the church does not apply to the women. He says in verse 34, let your
women keep silence in the churches. Incidentally, you see the word
churches is in plural The church at Corinth were many churches
at Corinth. There was not just one church
there. That's where some get confused, I think, with the plurality
of elders. They think it's just one church.
There was different churches there. So there was different
preachers there. But he's saying here, let your
women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto
them to speak. but they are commanded to be
under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn
anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a
shame for women to speak in the church." Now, I have seen cases
where people took this to an extreme and which was not meant
here. Of course, the women are permitted
to sing in the church. When you ladies are keeping a
nursery back there, you're permitted to speak to the children and
permitted to teach them to pay attention and follow along in
their Bibles. The whole purpose is to train
them up for when they come out into the auditorium. They'll
be quiet, pay attention, follow along. And women can speak after
the services, you know, when we're talking and visiting That's
fine for a woman to speak. Occasionally even I'll ask from
the pulpit. I'll ask, you know, something
about the food or something we've got planned and it's okay for
a woman to answer in that case. What he's talking about here,
where a woman's not forbidden, where a woman is forbidden in
the public worship service, women are not to preach the gospel. Women are not to read the scripture.
Women are not to lead in prayer. That's what he's speaking here
when he talks about a woman not speaking. He's been talking to
those who preach, who prophesy, who preach the gospel. And he
says those are to be men, it's not to be the women. Women are,
you know, when we have visitors come in, Women shouldn't buttonhole
those visitors and start questioning them on doctrine and, you know,
be confrontational or overbearing. Greet them and be kind to them,
but don't, you know, that's just not the thing to do. But that's
primarily. Then he says there, women are
not to usurp authority over the man. A man's to preach, he's
to be in the authority, he's to lead, he's to make decisions
in the church, and women are to be under obedience to the
man. And then he says there, if women
have questions, they're to ask their husbands at home. Ask their
husbands at home. Sometimes a husband may not have
the answer, and it's fine for a woman to ask her pastor about
a question she has. But first, he says, she's to
ask her husband at home. But she's not to disrupt the
service or anything like that with questions. Now these are
the ways in which he's saying it is a shame for women to speak
in the church. Preaching and trying to usurp
authority over the man. Now what I want to show you tonight
is under the new covenant of grace We're under grace. The believers are under grace
and under the new covenant of grace. Believing men and women
are governed by spiritual principles. Spiritual principles which glorify
Christ and His relationship to His church. That's what we're
seeing here. This is coming from a spiritual
principle that gives Christ the glory as in his relationship
with his church. Now the first thing I want you
to notice here is the reason for this exhortation is the word
of the Lord. He says there in verse 34, they're
commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. Now, you know that the word law
in scripture does not always refer to the law given at Mount
Sinai. Sometimes it does, but it doesn't
always. In this chapter before, he said,
As thus saith the law, it's written, I'll speak to you with men of
other tongues. That came out of Isaiah. There,
the word law referred to the prophets. Here, the word law
refers to the first five books of Moses, written by Moses. When
you put them all together, you have the law and the prophets.
In the New Testament, it'll just say the law. It's not necessarily
talking about the law of Mount Sinai. Now, Paul does sometimes
quote from the law of Mount Sinai. I'll show you an example. Go
back to 1 Corinthians 9. When he was teaching the Corinthians,
that they should support their preachers financially, he quoted
the law. I want you to see something here.
He's not bringing believers back under the law. That's not what
he was doing. Watch what he did here. 1 Corinthians
9 and verse 9. It's written in the law of Moses. Now there he's talking about
the law given at Mount Sinai. Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth
of the ox that treadeth out the corn. That's written in the law,
in the law given at Sinai. He says then, does God take care
for oxen? Is that why that was written?
Or saith he altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt,
this is written. That he that ploweth should plow
in hope, and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of
his hope. In other words, a man that does
a service for someone should be compensated for his service.
But now, if the Holy Spirit was bringing believers back under
the law, that would have been the place to do it right there.
Because we're talking about a man's livelihood here. But that's not
what the Spirit of God moved Paul to do. Look down at verse
12, 1 Corinthians 9, 12. He said, nevertheless, we have
not used this power We've not used this, but we suffer all
things. We long suffering even though
they weren't supporting their preachers. He said, we suffered
with that. He wasn't bringing them back and saying, you've
got to keep this law. He said, we suffer all things
lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. That's a proper use
of the law. He used the law to show to reveal
that what they were doing was sinful. But then he turned around
and showed believers what it is to be under grace rather than
law. To walk by faith, trusting Christ
to provide and loving your brethren and trusting Christ to bless
them and mature them through the gospel. And he said, we did
this so that we did not hinder the gospel. That's why we have
to do everything. We don't want to hinder the gospel.
We use the law to reveal sin, but we preach the gospel and
we walk by faith and love, or else we'll hinder the gospel.
One of the old preachers, I can't remember who it was now, but
he said, I preach the law so much, I didn't have a moral man
in my whole community. The law will, when you set something
up that's forbidden, It just makes a sinner want to have that
which is forbidden. If you preach grace, you preach
Christ's word, and God will work the work in the heart of His
people and make them follow Him. So there are times when the law
refers to Mount Sinai, and Paul uses it, but he's using it to
support what he's preaching concerning grace and faith and love. Not bringing sinners back under
the law, but now the word law in our text refers to the first
five books of the Bible written by Moses that God used Moses
to write. Now let's go, let's look at it
here. He says, they are commanded to
be under obedience as also saith the law. We saw this Sunday.
Go back now to Genesis 3 verse 16. This is what he's speaking
about. Some of what I'm going to say here will be repetitive
but that's needful and you're going to going to be benefited
from, and I pray regardless, even if it is repetitive, but
it's so needful and it's so important. Genesis 3.16, unto the woman
he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall
be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Now,
this is an unchanging spiritual principle that's only understood
spiritually. This will only be truly understood
and embraced when God teaches a sinner in the heart by the
Spirit of God. This is a spiritual principle.
Now, it's patterned after the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. He's the pattern for everything. All our relationships that scripture
deals with in life are patterned after Christ and His relationship
to His people. And that's what God was doing
here. As I showed you Sunday, spiritually Christ is the husband. He's the husband. And the woman
is His elect. It's God's elect people. Chosen
by grace, given to Christ, that make up his bride. That's the
woman. So when he says here to the woman,
thy desire is to be to your husband, that's patterned after the church's
desire being toward Christ, our husband. That's who it's patterned
after. Now only, when I say the church,
I'm talking about the regenerated church. I'm talking about those
God's given a heart to hear the gospel and understand. We, our
desire, our subjection is to Christ. We follow Christ. We obey Christ. And this subjection,
it includes faith toward Christ, love towards Christ, and holiness
in Christ. Now go to 1 Timothy 2.11. I want
you to see this again. 1 Timothy 2.11. This is why a
woman is to be silent in the church and why she is to be in
subjection to the man. 1 Timothy 2, 11. Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. You
see, there we see he's talking about teaching, preaching. She's
to be in silence. She's not to usurp authority
over the man. Why not? For Adam was first formed,
then Eve. Woman is the glory of the man.
That's what we saw earlier in 1 Corinthians. Adam was created
first, then the woman. And this is spiritually, you
look at Christ now. What did God do? He chose Christ,
His Son, to be the head and husband of His bride. He chose Him first
and set Him up from everlasting to be the husband of His church. And then He chose His woman,
chose the bride in Christ. He said, Behold mine elect whom
I have chosen. Christ is the first elect of
God. And then He chose the woman in
Christ. So when He came forth and He
created man and woman, He didn't create the woman first, He created
the man first. And then out of the man, He made
the woman. Put Adam into that deep sleep
and took a real bite of Adam and from him, He made woman. Picture Christ going to the cross,
laying down his life on the cross so that out of his wounded side,
he saved his bride. And he says here another reason,
and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was
in the transgression. In the garden, Adam did what
he did with his eyes wide open. It was Eve who was deceived.
And Paul applies this to the church in 2 Corinthians. You
just hold there. Let me read this to you. I've
quoted it a bunch. He said, I fear. He said, I'm
jealous over you with a godly jealousy. I've espoused you to
one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent begot Eve through
his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. You see, that's what Paul's fear
was. So he applied this exhortation which was just to the woman here
in 1 Timothy, he applied it to the whole church too. And we're
looking at this spiritually. This is patterned after Christ
and the church. Adam was not deceived. That shows
us what Adam did. When he saw Eve had transgressed,
Adam plunged himself into sin, because he loved his bride. That's
a picture of Christ. Christ saw his bride fallen in
sin, and out of love for his bride, he plunged himself into
sin to be the substitute to save his bride from our sin. What
Adam did was in disobedience. What Christ did was in obedience.
But you see the picture there. But he says here, the woman was
deceived. She was deceived. Satan beguiled
her and tricked her. That's why God ordained the woman
should not be the head of the home, nor should she be usurping
authority over the man in the church, nor should she be preaching.
She was tricked, more easily tricked, beguiled. Now watch. Notwithstanding, now he's quoting
exactly from Genesis 3.15, but he's just saying it. in his own
words, but this is from Genesis 3.15. Notwithstanding, she shall
be saved in childbearing if they continue. Now here's the woman's
desire toward her husband, and this is patterned after the church's
desire toward Christ. She shall be saved if they continue
in faith toward Christ, in charity towards Christ, and in holiness
towards Christ with sober-mindedness set only on Christ. That's why
he's saying here the woman is to be in silence. Paul's teaching
the Corinthians. And He's teaching us the only
way that Christ is going to bear children through His church,
the woman. This is the only way. Now, Sunday
we looked at that woman from the time from the garden up to
when Christ came into the earth. And we saw how she was saved
by looking to her husband, trusting her husband. Now that Christ
has come, the only way you and I are going to bear children,
spiritual children, Regenerated by the Holy Spirit, given faith
to believe on Christ. The only way we're going to be
used as the bride, as the woman, to bring forth children, is if
we preach Christ in understandable language, clearly. That's what
Paul's dealing with in our text. Now to do that, you know what
we're going to have to do as the woman? We're going to have
to be in subjection to Christ. Under obedience to Christ. We're
going to have to conduct our services decently and in order. That's what Paul's teaching.
In faith, in love, in holiness toward Christ. And we're going
to have to, the man's going to have to be in authority and the
woman in subjection. So that, you think about this
now, as a church, we come together. And when the gospel is going
forth, not only are we glorifying Christ by preaching His word
and His gospel clearly and understandably, but by the man being in authority
and the woman being in subjection, we also glorify Christ indeed. We show a picture of Christ and
His bride. We preach it and we show it. at the same time, by the way
we conduct the services. Both, word and deed, glorify
Christ. Now, you take self-made religion,
and I'm talking about free will works religion. You think about
how upside down they have it. And this was us, when you're
dead in sin, you got it upside down. God has to come and turn
things right side up. But you think about this. The
sinner, like an unruly woman, the sinner preaches his own word. They stand up, preach their own
word. Rather than being silent to speak their word and just
preaching and hearing Christ's word. That's like a woman speaking
her word rather than the husband. And then the sinner usurps authority
over Christ. The sinner is made to believe
he's got more power than Christ does. They say, Christ has done
all he can do, now won't you let him save you? That's putting
the woman over the husband. That's saying she has more authority
over the man. Or they'll say, he's got no hands
but your hands and no feet but your feet. That's God's description
of an idol. They have to carry him where
he goes because he has no hands, he has no feet, they have to
do everything for him. That might be the idols worshippers God,
that's not our God. Our husband is all powerful,
he's in authority and we're in subjection to him. And then the
sinner usurps authority, the woman usurps authority over the
house by ruling the children rather than trusting Christ to
rule his children. They give all kinds of man-made
commands and all kinds of requirements and all these things to try to
yoke the children and whip the children with the law rather
than trusting, preaching his word and trusting Christ the
husband to govern his house. And therefore, it's an unruly
house. And there's a lot of confusion
and a lot of strife and nobody's edified by it. That's what Paul
is teaching us in our text. All this word he's been speaking
about the men preaching clearly and understandably. And the women
being in subjection to the man. He's showing here, this is how
God, Christ's house is ruled. This is how Christ governs. This
is how His bride is in subjection to Him. And this is how we'll
be edifying. This is how we'll bear children
by Him. And when he says there in Genesis
3, and the husband shall rule over thee. Now an unregenerate
husband hears that, and an unregenerate man loves a text like that. Oh
woman, you better do what I'm telling you to do. Abraham's
wife called him Lord. That's not what he's talking
about. That's not the spirit we're talking about here. When
He says, the husband shall rule over thee, we're talking about
Christ. We're talking about Christ is
going to provide for her, protect her, and save her. That's what
we're talking about. Look at Ephesians 5.22. I just want you to see why. I
want you to see the spiritual principle from which this is
taken, why we are governed the way we are governed in the church.
Ephesians 5.22, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands
as unto the Lord, as submitting to Christ the Lord, for the husband
is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church. Christ is the Savior of the body. That's what it means when God
said the wife was to have her desire toward her husband and
the husband was to rule over her. The pattern from which that's
taken. Sinners corrupt that picture. But the pattern is perfect. And
the pattern is Christ is the husband and Christ is the Savior. That's how he rules over his
bride. He saves her. He saves her. He does everything
necessary to save her. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands? Love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's how the
husband, Christ the husband, rules over his bride. He loved
her, her only, and he gave himself for her, in her room instead,
in the place, he took her place on Calvary's cross to save her
from her sins, to make her righteous and justifier. before God. He did it. Now watch this. In
our text, we're talking about the Word, the preaching of the
Word, and why it's so important to preach the Word and to preach
Christ's Word and not our Word. Now watch what he says. He did
it that He might sanctify, He might sanctify, and that He might
cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. As the Gospels
preached, So Paul said the Holy Spirit washes us in regeneration. And as this gospel is preached,
continually he purges the conscience and he washes you from any kind
of defilement so that you can follow him and look to him and
not go after vain works. He does this through the Word.
This is why the Word is so important to be preached clearly. "...that
he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be
holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. That's how He rules her. That's
how Christ the husband rules the church, His bride. He cherishes
her and He nourishes her. For we are members of His body,
of His flesh, and of His bones. This is the reason. This is what
the pattern is for which a man shall leave his father and mother
and shall be joined to his wife and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. Christ is one with His people. They're His body,
just like the members of your body or make up your body. And Christ's body will be complete. He will have every member that
makes up His body to be called into His body and given faith
to rest in Him because each member is His body, makes up a part
of His body. and he loves his body, and he
nourishes his body, and he cherishes his body. This is what we're
talking about when we talk about his rule over the bride. This is the pattern for husbands
and the pattern for wives. He says, there's the end. Nevertheless,
let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. So that's the reason
Paul gives this statement. This is why he tells us this
in the scripture. An unregenerate woman will hear
that and she'll hate that word. She'll hate it. She'll say, there's
no way a man's going to be over me in authority and I'm going
to be in obedience to the man. But the believing woman, the
woman who sees Christ and the relationship to the church, she
hears that and says, I'm so thankful that's how it is. Because I see
what my Redeemer has done, my husband, my Savior. He nourishes
me, He cherishes me, He's provided for me. And the man sees it,
and he won't try to run roughshod over the woman. He sees what
Christ has done for him. And that's how he wants to love
his bride. So this is the reason. Now, go back to our text. So
secondly, He's showing us here we follow Christ's word and we
bay our husband by his grace because we owe all to him. Now,
because of this being the truth, he gives a strong word of rebuke
here in verse 36. He says what? Came the word of
God out from you? Did the word of God originate
with you? Or came it unto you only? Did the word of God originate
with you or did it come from God to you? That's what he's
saying. Now, if any man think himself
to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ word we're talking about. Our husband.
Our head. And he says, but if any man be
ignorant, he wants to fight and argue and and reject this Word,
he said, let him be ignorant. Now, Christ is not only the husband.
He is not only the husband in full authority over his bride. His church... Christ is the Word. He is the Word. And He is the
one who sends His Word and blesses His Word and causes us to understand
and hear and be saved by that Word. Nothing is original with
us. He said here, Did the Word of
God come out from you? Nothing is original with us except
sin. You and I can lay claim to that.
Sin. All that's ever come out of us
is sin and death by sin. So, let us be thankful the Word
didn't come out of us. It came from God. And Christ
is that Word. Go over to John chapter 1. Christ is the Word. Look at John
1.1. In the beginning... You know
in Genesis 1, it says, in the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth? Well, this is before that. This
is before that. In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. When there was nothing else,
there was Christ, the Son of God, who is the Word, and He
was with God. He is God, He was with God. And then, verse 3, is where we
come to Genesis 1. All things were made by Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. You know
how He made it? He said, that's how He made it. He said, He spoke the Word. The Word spoke the Word, let
there be light. That's how He made the heavens
and the earth and everything that's made. He spoke it. The
Word is very important. Christ is the Word and everything
was made by His Word. And He says, in Him was life
and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in
darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. And then he says, that's
us, Brent. You see, nothing originated with
us. We're darkness. We didn't comprehend anything.
But watch this. There was a man sent from God. Who sent him? The Word sent him. The Word was
God. The Word is God. He sent this
man. A man sent from God. Not a woman. A man sent from God. Whose name was John. What did
He come for? The same came for a witness to
bear witness of that light. He came to preach the Word. The
Word sent a man to preach the Word, to bear witness of the
Word, of the light, that all might believe, all through Him
might believe. And He was not that light, but
He was sent to bear witness of that light. This goes hand in
hand with why Paul said, did the Word come out of you or did
it come unto you only? The Word came to us. Christ the
Word. He made the world. He sent a
man. And He sent His Word. Otherwise, we wouldn't have heard
or known anything about Him. Watch this. He came to bear witness
of that light. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that comes into the world. He was in the
world. And the world was made by Him.
And the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. Talking about Christ. But as
many as received Him. Now how do we hear the Word?
How do we believe the Word? How do we understand it and believe
it? As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. of God. That's that Word coming
to us and washing us and making us to be born anew. And the Word
was made flesh and it dwelt among us and we beheld His glory as
the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and
truth. And look at verse 16. And of
His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is the bosom of the Father, He
hath declared Him. Do you see? I'm trying to connect
this because The whole passage we've been dealing with in 1
Corinthians is about preaching. It's about preaching clearly.
And it's about preaching Christ only. Not speaking in a language
people can't understand. Not everybody speaking at once
in confusion and all that stuff. Orderly, decent services with
plain preaching. Because, and with the woman being
silent, being in subjection to the host, to the man, a picture
of us all being in subjection to Christ. And then he says,
did this Word come from you or did it come to you? This Word
is Christ. We're talking about Christ the
Word. And without Christ the Word, we wouldn't have the Word
of God. The whole Word of God is about Christ. It's about God
choosing a people in Christ. It's about Christ redeeming that
people. It's about Him sending the Holy Spirit, regenerating
us and causing us to lay hold of Christ and rest all in Him.
It's about Christ getting all the glory because that's the
will of the Father. We wouldn't have the Word if Christ hadn't
come and fulfilled all the prophets and the law and the prophets.
We wouldn't have the Word sent to us if He hadn't sent a man
to bear witness of the Word, given that man a heart to bear
witness of the Word and teach us the Word. And we wouldn't
have understood the Word if He hadn't given us an understanding
and a heart to believe Him and trust Him. And we wouldn't continue
in the Word if He didn't preserve us by continually keeping us
in the Word and saving us by the Word. Do you see how important
the clear, true preaching of Christ is? Saba-laba-laba, dabba-dabba,
dabba-dabba-dabba-laba, shum-shum, dugga-dab, blah-blah-blah. Does
that benefit you? That don't benefit you. But if
I preach this clearly, that's what God sends, that's what He
blesses, and that's how He saves. And that's why He's teaching
us here. This is of paramount importance to us. This is why
the woman's not to be usurping authority over the man. This
is why the man's to be in authority. This is why everything's to be
decent, in order. And then he says this, now, if
somebody hears what we're declaring here, what he's declaring in
this passage, and a man still He hears this and he thinks he's
a wise man. If he's truly wise, Paul said,
then let him acknowledge that what I'm saying is the commandment
of Christ Jesus the Lord. This is the commandment of our
Lord. Now believers will hear that. And if a believer thinks
he's wise, God will bless this word to his heart and he'll make
him see you're not the wise one, Christ is the wise one. And the
way he says do it is the way to do it. And He'll make that
sinner come into subjection and bow and say, yes, Lord, I repent
from that error, I repent from all that confusion and that non-edifying
junk I was in, and I trust You, Lord. That's what God will do
in the heart of those that are in. But He says now, if a man
hears this and he still rejects it, and he says, he's more wise
and he's going to go on in whatever he's going on in, and he says,
If a man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. You know, God said this a lot
in His Word. He said over in Hosea 4, He said,
Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. Just leave him alone. Christ, when He walked this earth,
He spoke in His Sermon on the Mount, He said, Give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again
and wring you. He was preaching another time
and He said, you know, the Pharisees, the Pharisees always want to
add, this is Pharisees then and Pharisees now, They always add
to God's Word. It's not enough that they bring,
in error, bring sinners back under the yoke of the law, but
they add their own law and their own rules and regulations. And
the Pharisees had done that in Christ's day. They said, unless
you wash your hands, you're going to be defiled if you eat with
unwashing hands. And Christ told them, it's not
what goes into a man that defiles a man. Things are not where sin is. Sin's not in things. It's what
comes out of the heart of a man that defiles. Man uses things
to work our sin. Sin's not in the things. Sin's in us. And that's what
he declared. And after he declared that, his
apostles came to him and they said, Do you know that what you
said offended the Pharisees? And you know what Christ did?
He said, Well, we better run after them and try to appease
them and get them back in and satisfy them so we don't offend
them. No. He said, Every plant that my
heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Leave them
alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall in the ditch. Leave them alone. Leave them
alone. He said in Revelation, He that's
unjust, let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. And he that's holy, let him be
holy still. Now I understand brethren, our desire, we don't
want to, we want to see people saved. You don't want to see
a sinner perish in their sins. I understand that. And there's
sometimes you've gone through a long, you know, before God
saved you, you had all this time spent with your family, with
your friends, maybe you were in a church, And now that God
saved you, you see these things as being wrong and you try to
talk to your family about it. You try to tell your loved ones
and your friends and you try to tell your old church members
about it. And they just reject it. But it's not enough if they
just reject it. They end up calling you names.
They call you in a cult. They call you being against the
law. They call you everything in the
book. Well, after two or three times, and that's being generous,
but after you've talked to them and they keep doing that, God
says, leave them alone. Leave them alone. That's the
worst place a person can be. You that are sitting here that
don't know Christ, just be thankful God has not left you alone. At
least He has you under the sound of the gospel. He may do something
for you yet. But when God makes it so that
you end up being swallowed up in this world and not under the
gospel anymore, that's a terrible thing. That's a terrible thing.
You know, we want to be loving. We want to treat sinners like
we do our sons and daughters that don't believe. You want
to keep trying and keep trying to teach them, you know. But
when a man gets to a point... I have some loved ones that are
so... they hate the gospel so badly. and they speak so wickedly
against God, I don't talk to them about the gospel anymore.
I'm not going to take these pearls and let them trample them and
then turn around and try to destroy me. It's just not going to happen. And God says, don't do it. Leave
them alone. Leave them alone. So lastly now,
he sums it up with God's order here, verse 39. Wherefore brethren,
Covet to prophesy. He's speaking here to preachers,
but this applies to all witnesses. Covet to be able to speak clearly,
understandably concerning Christ. And forbid not to speak with
tongues. You know, we don't have tongues in our day. People are
not speaking languages they never learned by God's grace in our
day. But people... I'm going to go down to Mexico.
And I'm going to stand up and I'm going to preach and Cody's
going to interpret what I'm saying. He's going to be speaking what
to me is a tongue. I'm going to be speaking what
is to those people sitting there a tongue. But it's going to be
interpreted so they can hear it. And it's so good to see it
because their face just lights up just like yours do when you
hear the gospel, you know. And you see that the language
that God uses is not Hebrew or Greek. It's the language of grace
and love and salvation by Christ. That's the language He uses to
break down all barriers with His people and make us one. So
He says don't forbid somebody to speak in a foreign language
so long as it's understandable and the people there are understanding.
Let all things be done decently in an order. Now, He said back
up there at the beginning of this, He said, You remember,
you were carried away to dumb idols, and that's where you'd
have been. But God sent His Word to you,
and God saved you, and He gave you a heart to believe Him and
trust Him. And He's saying to us now, so you now follow after
charity. And desire spiritual gifts, but
desire gifts that will enable you to edify God's people. To speak the gospel clearly,
maybe you need to understand the Word more. You know, somebody
will say, I can't understand the Word because I don't read
it because I don't understand everything in it. You can't eat
every bit of what's in a chicken either. There's a whole lot of
bones in it, but that don't mean you don't eat chicken just because
you can't eat the bones. If there's something you don't
understand, keep reading it. Go to something you do understand,
read that. And God, by His grace, asks Him to give you an understanding
more of what you don't understand. And give you an ability to speak
it to people and to witness to people. And then it may be edifying
some other way. We've got this building and we're
doing things to it and there's some that have this talent and
that talent and the other talent and all that will be used and
needed. But it's edifying to the church. Whatever it is, seek
to edify because He says here, and when we're in our service,
let everything be done decently and in order. Isn't that how
God does everything? He sent Christ into this world
to establish the law so that He could save His people decently
and in order according to divine justice. He wouldn't sweep justice
under the rug. Christ, when He went to that
cross, He presented Himself spotless to God to have the sins of His
people laid on Him to be made sin for His people so that God
would be just to punish Him in our room instead. And then He
did it so that God would be just to impute righteousness to those
that believe because Christ made us righteous. You study the Scriptures. I'm telling you, God does not
impute to make somebody something. No. God imputes what a man is
by a prior act. In other words, He imputed sin
to us because we were made sin by Adam's disobedience. He didn't
impute sin to us to make us sin. We were made sin by Adam's disobedience.
And He didn't impute righteousness to the believer to make us righteous.
He imputed righteousness to us because by one man's obedience
we were made righteous. He's not pretending you're something
you're not. He's imputing to you what you
are because of Christ's obedience. Now, the old timers didn't always
say it that way, but they were wrong. I'm discovering that.
And I mean, they were, I love, some of them very helpful and
edifying, but they didn't speak of imputation like the scripture
speaks of imputation. I'm seeing this more and more
clearly. Imputation in scripture is God imputing to you what you
are by an act that happened before. Sin because of Adam's disobedience. Righteousness because of Christ's
obedience. It's what we really are. And
see, God does everything decently and in order. That's my point.
And He makes His church do everything decently and in order. God helps
us to do things orderly according to God's way. The way God says
it. Because that's what God's going
to bless. Alright.