All right, 1 Corinthians 14.
In this chapter, Paul is dealing with preaching, specifically in tongues, other
languages, and how the gospel should be declared when people
come together, especially in other languages, the order of
the service. That's what he's dealing with. There needs to be an order in
our worship. There needs to be a clear interpretation,
either in the language we speak in or if somebody comes in with
another language, there needs to be a clear interpretation. A clear understanding of this
declaration every time the gospel is preached. In verse 6, last
week we saw in verse 6, he said, now brethren if I come unto 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? And then in verse 19 he said,
yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding
that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand
words in an unknown tongue. What he's saying is this, when
men and women come to hear the gospel preached, that's why we're
here, we haven't come to have a bunch of hoopla and all that
kind of stuff. We've come here to hear the gospel preached.
And when men and women come to hear this gospel preached, if
they do not receive a clear understanding of the fact that God is holy,
and man is sinful, and God must punish sin. But there is a city of refuge. There is a place we can run to. There is one who shed his blood
to cover us in it, and his name is Jesus Christ. And if we are
covered in his blood, His blood will witness to God Almighty
that our sins have been punished and paid for. That's what the
blood of Christ tells God Almighty. That sinner's sins have been
punished and paid for. And the wrath of God in that
will pass us by. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Paul said if any man or woman
comes to hear this gospel preached and they do not clearly hear
and understand that, their worship is in vain. It's in vain. And they're not profited one
bit. You can go to church and go to church and go to church
and it means nothing. It means nothing. It's pointless.
It's useless. Go to the races. If you don't
hear how God justifies a sinner, do something else. It is useless. So now he's going to continue
with how everything in the worship service ought to be conducted. For the sake of true edifying,
he says, the order of our worship. And this is the instruction that
he's given us, okay? Verse 20 is where we pick up
this week. Be not children in understanding,
how be it in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
I heard a man give a wonderful illustration on that verse. He
said kids get so excited at Christmas because of the gifts they're
going to receive. That's why. Not because of the
gifts that others are going to receive, And not because of the
gifts that they're going to give. And not because of love. And
not because of the fact that families are reunited again.
It's because of the gifts they are going to receive. That's
why they get excited. And what he's saying right here
is, don't be enamored with the gifts. Don't be focused on the
gifts. Verse 20, brethren, be not children
in understanding. How be it in malice be you children. Malice means badness, depravity,
naughtiness, wickedness. Two kids are fighting and scuffling
and pulling on something and you go up to them and you say,
stop. Tell him you're sorry. Sorry.
Tell him you're sorry. Sorry. Give him a hug. Give him
a hug. All right, go play. And there they go. He's saying
don't hold on to malice, don't hold on to all that stuff, let
it go. Just forgive and let it go. Verse 20, brethren, be not
children in understanding, how be it in malice be ye children,
but in understanding be men. In the law it is written with
men of other tongues and other lips, will I speak unto this
people? And yet for all that will they
not hear me saith the Lord. Don't be enamored with the gifts
and with the miracles because they've never saved anybody. Gifts and miracles have never
saved anybody. There's an account in Luke 16
of a rich man and a beggar who was named Lazarus. And the rich
man wouldn't even give the beggar the crumbs that fell on his table,
wouldn't even sweep the crumbs down to him. And the beggar died
and he went to heaven and the rich man died and he went to
hell. And the rich man cried to God and he said, could I just
have a drop of water put on my tongue? And God said, no, there's
a great gulf fixed between us and it's impossible. And he said,
well, then would you just send that beggar Lazarus back to my
five brothers to tell them the truth that they do not want to
come to this place. And God said, no, they have Moses
and the prophets. And the rich man said, if somebody
rose from the dead, they would believe it. And God said, if
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. It won't do them a bit of good.
Miracles and signs and gifts cannot save anybody. They just can't save anybody.
Salvation only comes to sinners. through God's Spirit, revealing
God's Word. All of a sudden, one day, sinners
see God's Word. This book, until God reveals
it, it is so closed. It's so confusing. Nobody understands
it. It's just something that ought
to be put up here, and yeah, I mean, you know, that's kind
of our thing, but I have no idea what it says. But one day, God's
Holy Spirit comes to a sinner, and He opens the book. And he
gives that sinner eyes to see it. We're about to hear about
that. And all of a sudden they understand what God has written. They believe it. They love it.
They bow to it. And that's salvation. God's spirit
opening God's word to a sinner. So Paul said this must be declared
plainly. Every word of it. We don't skip
words. Every word must be declared plainly. Now verse 22 says, Wherefore
tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them
that believe not. But prophesying or preaching
serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. The gifts and the miracles that
God gave, he did give his apostles and some men great abilities.
And the gifts that he gave prove to unbelievers this is the word
of God. The things that Paul wrote, Paul
raised somebody from the dead. They would lay people in the
streets and the shadow of Peter would heal them. The things that
Peter wrote are the words of God. But believers don't need
signs and wonders for this to be proven to them this is God's
Word. All they need is the preaching of God's Word. When they hear
it, God's Spirit says, that's my Word. And believers say, that's
God's Word. That's all they need. Verse 23,
if therefore the whole church be come together into one place
and all speak with tongues or languages, and there come in
those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that you are
mad?" Now I'm going to explain that just a little bit more in
a verse here in just a minute, okay? But what he's saying is
if visitors come into your assembly who are unlearned and unbelievers,
And everybody's speaking in a different language at the same time. They're
going to think you're crazy, and they'd be right. All right,
verse 24. But if all prophesy or preach,
and there come in one that believeth not or is unlearned, he is convinced
of all, he is judged of all, 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." What he's going
to say is, those people are preaching the truth. If a man or woman comes in, And
God all of a sudden opens his eyes to the preaching of the
word. It is the only thing that God will use to make a man or
a woman fall to his knees all the way down to his face and
say, I'm a sinner, God be merciful to me. And then go out and tell
people, I've heard the truth for the first time in my life.
Somebody finally told me and I know it's the truth. Verse
26 says, how is it then, brethren, when you come together, every
one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath
a revelation, hath an interpretation, let all things be done unto Edifine. When God's church gathers for
worship, one might come prepared to sing. It happens all the time. And one might come prepared to
read scripture. Happens all the time. I'll call
one of you men and say, would you mind reading scripture for
us? And you come prepared to read scripture. One might come
prepared to bring a message from God to his people, ready for
it. One might come prepared to preach
to those who speak another language. Men go down to Mexico knowing,
I'm about to preach to people who do not even speak my language.
One will come prepared to interpret. But everything needs to be done
in order for the purpose of edifying. That word edifying means confirmation
that builds up. Verse 27, if any man speak in
an unknown tongue, an unknown language, let it be by two or
at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. What he's saying is if there's
going to be multiple speakers, limit them to two. At the most,
three. And I tell you, in Mexico, when
one of the pastors goes down there and he's preaching, Brother
Cody's going to be standing right next to him. And that's two standing
up there. They don't have 19 men up there.
They got two. And then on one occasion, and
I told you about that time Brother Darwin Pruitt said he was down
there preaching. And brother Walter was interpreting
for him into Spanish. And then another man was interpreting
into Mayan because there were some Spanish people there and
some Mayan Indians there. Three men stood up. But Paul
said, whenever this takes place, have two men stand up at the
most, three. Otherwise, it's just going to
be utter confusion. And if it's an unknown tongue,
make sure you have an interpreter. That's what he's saying. This
is why we don't, really arrogantly, it's just arrogance is all it
is. This is why we don't have all day preaching and all night
preaching. You ever heard of religious places
having 24 hour preaching? You ever heard of that? I have.
We're gonna have a 24 hour, back to back, every hour on the hour,
we're gonna schedule 24 men to come preach to us. It's not edifying
to the soul. All it does is pump up the flesh.
That's all it does. It's just a bunch of arrogant
men standing up there one after the next putting people to sleep
and their souls are not being edified by it. It's worthless.
And the flesh is weak, the spirit is willing, but I'd love to be
able to sit for 24 hours and hear 24 men back to back, but
I just cannot do it. You can't retain it. So Paul
says right here, limit it, put a limit on it. All right, verse
28, but if there be no interpreter, Let him keep silence in the church
and let him speak to himself and to God. That's pretty clear,
isn't it? If a man is a true preacher of the gospel from Russia
and he comes through here and he does not bring an interpreter
with him, we're not going to ask him to stand up and speak.
It wouldn't do anybody any good. Verse 29, let the prophet speak
two or three and let the other judge. Judge means weigh, discern. So ask two or three men to stand
up and let everybody else sit and listen and weigh and discern
what's being said. 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 all may
be comforted." Sometimes I'll ask one of the men to bring the
Bible study and I'll bring the morning message. I do it when
I go on vacation for sure. When I came back from vacation
last year, one of the men brought the Bible study, I brought the
morning message, and then one of the other men brought the
evening message. All right? We have two pulpits here. Funny,
this little bitty room needs two pulpits. I just like this
one. This is a podium. And we've got this podium, we
have this pulpit right here. Now if I ask Brother Luke to
prepare a Bible study, and I'm going to bring the morning message,
this verse is telling all of us, I am not to step up into
this podium And Brother Luke is not to step up into this pulpit
and both of us start preaching the message that God has revealed
to us. Doesn't this sound silly? It's
amazing what men will come up with. It's amazing. Doesn't this sound absolutely
ridiculous? It is ridiculous what men will
come up with. They'll all get up there and,
you know, talk and say one's trying to be louder than the
other one and longer than the other one. That's the flesh.
It's not of God. It's just the flesh. But there's
no telling what men will do, so God clearly spells it out
for us. One by one, take turns. Okay, if he's doing the Bible
study, I am to sit down and judge, listen, weigh, discern. And then
when he's done, he is to sit down and I'm to stand up and
he's to listen. And this is how we conduct our
worship service. Verse 32 says, and the spirits
of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not
the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches
of the saints." Every church that is truly filled with God's
saints and God's Spirit is not a place of confusion. God is
not the author of confusion. Now we just said up in verse
26, one man will come and pray And there are some men that have
been so gifted to pray. I feel like I just repeat this,
I feel like vain repetition. I love asking you men to pray
because I just, I love hearing it. And one man will come ready
to read, and there are some men who are so gifted to read the
word of God. And one man will come to preach, and one man will
come, or woman will come to sing, and all these things will make
up a worship service. But we don't come into God's
worship service with our gifts and just use them all at the
same time. Now, that's what the charismatic
movement is doing. Bless their hearts. Lord, reveal
your word to them. That's what the charismatic movement
is doing. The preacher is up there with
his handkerchief preaching. And while he's preaching, the
organ player is banging on his organ. While he's preaching. And the choir is singing. And
this guy is hitting his tambourine. And this guy is going... And
this guy thinks he can heal people, so he's literally hitting people
on the heads. And it's not of God. It is not
of God, it's of the devil. God is not the author of confusion. Verse 33, God is not the author
of confusion but of peace as in all churches of the saints. The worship that God has ordained
is orderly and it's reverent. It is reverent and we're about
to see him use the word decent. Verse 34 says, 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 and as
also saith the law. God's people do not take offense
to anything that God has to say. They really don't. The flesh
is offended but when God sends his spirit and opens his eyes
and his ears he says, you know what, this is right. Whatever
God has to say let God be true. And we know that nothing about
the word of God is male chauvinist. Every single thing that God has
written is an illustration of Jesus Christ and his bride. Every single thing in here points
us to Christ. And as a picture of Christ be
in our head and we hear Christ's word and we hear the declaration
from him, as an illustration of that, he said, ladies, you're
not permitted to teach in the worship services. And believing
women don't have a problem with that. And we men don't use it
to go around putting our thumbs on all the women saying, now
you're not allowed to do this. Let me tell you something. I
would be thrilled to sit down and let any of you other men
stand up here and do this. At the conference, I was so glad
to just sit down. Two services, back to back, I
got to walk in and sit down. And that was it. And I heard
preaching and my heart rejoiced. And it came up out of my eyes
a little bit and I got up and left. And it was amazing. I don't need to do this. Necessities
laid on me, I've been called of God to do this, but women who have a true love for
Christ and they bow the knee to him, they're not offended
by this. You ladies don't want to stand up, you don't want to
preach, do you? We live in a day when women like
Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen's wife and these different women,
they are bound and determined to directly rebel against God's
word. I didn't say it. I'm not trying
to put anybody down. I'm not trying to oppress. You know, people say, don't shoot
the messenger. But they're bound and determined
to directly rebel against the Word of God and incite a rebellion
against the Word of God. And they tell people, God has
changed, when He hasn't. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. And God's Holy Spirit reveals
that to his people and they don't have a heart to rebel against
his word. They do not. Now, I'm not saying they never
do it. Sad to say we do it all the time,
but when we do it, he convicts us. We come into this worship
service and we see it all over again. And the first thing that
happens is we go, oh man. And he convicts us and we don't
have a heart to rebel against his word. We don't even want
to push the envelope. Now I want to say this in conjunction
with what he's talking about right here. Let's all ask the
Lord. Let's all ask the Lord to give
us a heart and an attitude and a way of life that does not push
the envelope. Let's ask the Lord to give us
that. Let's not live on the edge. Let's not do it. How far can
we go? Still be in agreement with the
Word of God, but bump the line of the rebellion of this world.
How far can we go? How can we fit in with the world
and still be okay with God, but fit in with the world? Let's
not live on that edge. Let's just not do it. Let's not
even insinuate rebellion in any way, shape, or form. Whatever
our Lord has to say to us, let's just bow to it. Let's just bow
to it. Verse 34 says, let your women
keep silence in the churches for it's 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, what that means
is if they have a question, let them ask their husbands at home
for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. You ladies
are more mature than us men. Everybody knows that. Girls mature
faster than men. And you ladies are smarter than
us men. I can't even usually confidently
pick out my clothes without saying today, I said, does this tie
go with this? She said, yeah, I think so. So I asked her again, you
sure this tie goes with this? Yes. Before I go stand up in
front of everybody, you really think this tie goes with this?
Yes, okay. All right, so you ladies are
smarter than us. You ladies are more mature than
us. But that's what God has said,
so we all just bow to it and move on. All right, verse 36. To anybody who hears this and
in absolute shock says, what? What? I can't believe what I'm
hearing. Paul says in verse 36, came the
word of God out from you or came it unto you only? Do you decide what God's commands
are? That's what most people think. He's saying do you decide
what God has commanded or do you just hear it and acknowledge
it? Verse 37, he said, if any man
think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, If any man considers
himself to be wise and spiritually mature and past instruction,
you can't teach me anything, I know everything I need to know.
He says, let him acknowledge that the things that I write
unto you are the commandments of the Lord. He's saying if any
man wants to challenge this, he's not challenging me, he's
challenging God. And we can see that, we're just
reading what God has said. Verse 38, but if any man be ignorant,
if any man says, I don't believe this, I'm not going to believe
this. Paul said, let him be ignorant. Let him stay that way. And I'll
tell you something, if God does not intervene, and if God does
not show mercy by sovereignly taking his truth and putting
it there, I will remain ignorant. I will be the one to say, I don't
believe it, and I'm not going to believe it. Thank God, he
says, yes you will. I will, you shall. So, but he's saying right here,
if any man be ignorant, it doesn't change God's word. Let him just
be ignorant. Verse 39, wherefore brethren,
covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let
all things be done decently and in order. That's how he summed
up his instruction for worship. He said, let all things be done
decently and in order. The particular word that God
told him to write really struck me. Not one word in this Bible
is of private interpretation. That's what 2 Peter 1 20 says
or 2 Peter 1 something. Not one word of this, that means
Paul didn't think this up. And John didn't think it up. And Peter, it says, the next
verse says, they were all moved by God's Holy Ghost. Holy men wrote as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost of God. God wrote every word of this.
And this particular word struck me. He said, let all things be
done decently. decently. Here's the thing we
need to understand. We are worshipping God. I mean, we're worshipping. We're not going to church. We're worshipping God. Not one
person in this room needs to be in church. You don't need
to be in church. Well, we need to be in church.
No, you don't. You don't need to be in church. You need to
be in Christ. And we're worshiping God. And
he said, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in
the midst of you. Now, hearing that, the flesh
believes where two or three are gathered together, he is not
in the midst of us. But God said where two or three
are gathered together, I am in the midst of you. Now, what if
God was sitting in on our worship. You know, here we have just a
few people. How many worship services did they have with 13?
God and 12 disciples. How would we conduct ourselves
if we could physically see him sitting here with us? How would
we conduct ourselves? I thought about the fact, what
if God was sitting in that chair right now, watching over things? What would
we do? I tell you what I wouldn't do.
I wouldn't stand up here and say a word. I think I'd put my
hand over my mouth. This is what he said, where two
or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of you. We're worshiping God in the sight
of God. We need to conduct our worship
and we need to conduct ourselves in a very decent way. A very decent way. Our worship
ought to be decent. Our dress ought to be decent. Moderation is the key. We should
never come in here with a tuxedo on and 53 gold chains around
our necks and all the hoopla of, look at me. And I should
never come in here and take something out and just cut it all to pieces
and rip it to shreds and rags and look like a bum off the street
and say, this is what I'm going to worship God in. Let's be decent,
moderate. Our worship needs to be decent,
and our dress just needs to be decent. And our conduct, our
heart, our act needs to be decent. And hearing that while the old
man cries, bondage, bondage, bondage. It's all bondage. May
the new man in here cry, holy, holy, holy. This is all holy. Every bit of it's holy. May we
never forget that. Never. This is holy. What we
are doing right now, in just a moment, every time, is holy. May God teach us that. Okay.
You're dismissed.