Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians,
where Paul is speaking to the Corinthians concerning their
behavior when they come together as brethren in the assembly.
And they come to meet together with one another And, you know, that's a thing
that because of the flesh and the weakness of the flesh, that is
often considered by the flesh to be an insignificant thing,
that it is You know, it's unfortunate that, by and large, the meeting of the church in the
minds of most people is just a thing like going to a club
meeting or some appointment that you have or just sort of a thing
that you do. And of course, especially on
certain days, I mean like today, you know, by and large, I think
this is the day, this and Christmas are the days when church attendance,
per se, is at its height. And the reason for that is because
people think that they're going to, that they want to identify
with these things They don't want to just cast them completely
off, but yet they don't want to be bothered with them too
much, you know, in their everyday life. In other words, it's not
that they just don't think there's anything to any of this. It's
just that they don't want to be bothered with it. You know,
they want to just go on and live their life as they want to. then they've got a place for
God. And a lot of people, they feel real good about themselves
because, you know, they give God some praise. I mean, they've
got a place for God. They're not just pure heathens
where they just go out and just, you know, don't think anything. I mean, you know, they get all I want to tell you Happy Easter
and all that stuff, you know. And I'm not opposed to that. I come across that way, I guess.
But it's humorous to me more than anything else. I don't know
if humorous is a good word. It's sad, you know, that it's
that way. But people, you know, religion
is a powerful force and people like to be religious. And they
like for you to know they're religious. They don't want you
to think they're not religious. Now, they don't want you to think
that religion, they don't want you to get overwhelmed by it.
They want you to know they can take it or leave it, but they
are not just irreligious. People like to be religious.
People like to be identified with certain things. And if you
ask most people in this country, even now in the in the age in
which we live, if they were a Christian, they would probably say, yeah. Then they'd turn around and say,
but I'm not a very good Christian. Now tell me, I never figured
that out, what a good Christian was. You know, I never knew there
was but one kind. And of course, a Christian, that
word, of course the disciples of Christ were called Christians
first at Antioch, according to what Scripture says, which simply
means the disciples of Christ, the followers of Christ. Now,
you can't be a good or a bad follower of Christ. You are either
a follower of Christ or you are not, because there are no degrees
of it. You know, either a man is desirous
of walking with Christ or he's not. There's no in-between. It's just that way. And that's
what the Lord, you know, He's come to call His people. Well,
the purpose of the gathering of the saints of God is that
we who would desire to be followers of Christ might be strengthened
by the interaction of one another. The church is not primarily a
place, it's not designed in the Scripture as a place where we
come together and listen to somebody preach. Now that might occur,
and that is beneficial to the church, but the church gathering
is not for preaching. The church gathering is for the
benefit of God's people. Now God's people are benefited
by preaching if it's sound preaching, if it's true preaching. If it's
preaching that is led by the Spirit of God, then those things
are beneficial and they ought to be done. We wouldn't want
to be against that. But that's not the purpose that
we're getting. I've heard people talk about
going assembling and they say, well, we're going to preaching.
We went off to preaching. Well, you know, that's a poor
view of what coming together with the saints of God is. If
that's all it is, then you can turn the TV or radio on and get
that. But see, that's not what... Well,
let me back up. You can get something called
that. You're not going to get much if you turn it on and listen
to it on the radio and TV, but you might get a morsel here or
there. But the gathering of the saints of
God is for the mutual benefit of the brethren. We are to be
building one another up in the most holy faith. My concern with
coming here is not what am I going to get out of it. You know, most
people would tell you, well, I don't go to church because
I just don't get anything out of it. Well, you went for the
wrong reason. Because you're not supposed to
be coming because of what you're going to get out of it. Your
mindset should be, how can I benefit the brethren by coming together? Because see, when we absent ourselves
from the gathering of the saints, we certainly are not helping
ourselves by doing that, but we are certainly not helping
the saints of God, are we? So we benefit one another as
we come together. And that's what Paul is saying.
That's why that he got on to them about the matter of partaking
the Lord's Supper in a selfish manner, because that wasn't for
the benefit of the body, and so it was not a useful thing.
That was what he got on to them about, about saying, well, I'm
of Paul and I'm of Apollos and I'm this and I'm that. He said
all these divisions are not beneficial to the saints of God. We're supposed
to be building one another up. And so this whole 14th chapter,
as he's discussing with them the matter of spiritual gifts,
he's pointing out very plainly and clearly and reiterating over
and over and over again that whatever spiritual gift might
be given to the people of God is given for the benefit of the
brethren. And if those things that we do
when we come together as brethren don't benefit one another, then
they ought not to be done. Not saying whether or not they
may be beneficial to the individual as a person, you know, in their
personal walk, but when we come together, He gives instruction
as to how these things ought to be carried out. 26, about where we left off last
week. He says, How is it then, brethren, when ye come together,
every one of you, hath a psalm, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation? Let all things be done unto Ediphi. If any man speak in an unknown
tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that
by course, and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter,
let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself
and to God. Let the prophets speak, two or
three, and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another
that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all
prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted
or encouraged. 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. 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. What? Came the Word of God out
from you, or came it unto you only? If any man think himself
to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren,
covet to prophesy, forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all
things be done decently and in order." He said a lot in that passage. He said a lot that would be totally
rejected by modern society in which we live. Nothing he said
here is politically correct. You talk about getting on the
wrong side of just about everybody, he did there in that passage. He got on the wrong side of the
religious zealots. He got on the wrong side of the
feminists and those that would overturn the natural order that
God has set forth. And he basically said, if you
don't agree with me, it's because you are totally ignorant of spiritual
things. Now, he said, you don't have
to. He said, if you want to be ignorant,
be ignorant. But he said, you are ignorant of spiritual things,
not just simply, this is not my advice. Now, I've heard people
say, And Paul was a chauvinist. That was just Paul. He was just against women when he says the things that
he does here towards the end of the passage. And that's not
at all it. is setting forth the fact that
all things should be done decently and in order. God made an order,
didn't He? I mean, He made the order from
the beginning. Now, whether we like it or not,
I mean, our society is at peril right now because we have rejected,
as a society, the order that God has placed in the earth.
Now, if you don't believe that, just look around you. And look
at the things that people promote in this day and age that are
just supposedly okay, that are just contrary to what the Word
of God says. Now, if the Word of God doesn't
mean anything, well, it's okay. I mean, if man just put on earth
to make up stuff and do whatever he wants to do, then we'll all
pretty much be wearing the same thing and be one thing one day
and one thing the next. But God made an order, and He
sent forth in the earth, and man at his peril disregards that. And we can see it. And you know,
when you look at the sexual orientation thing, I don't even know how
I got off on all this because that isn't even what this is
about, but when you look at that one matter right there, it is
evidence of the judgment of God that is upon the society in which
we live. Because it says when men didn't
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind and turned them over to work those things which were
unseemly. Now what is our society doing
but working those things that are unseemly? And those things
are not the cause of God's judgment. You'll hear a lot of people say,
oh buddy, look at all this, the homosexuality and all of this
stuff, and this is why God's judgment. is going to come on
the United States. If we don't get this cleaned
up, we've got to get it cleaned up. Well, brother, you're not
going to clean it up because it is a sign of the judgment
of God. Now, as a society, we see these
things and they are set forth, and the concept of marriage has
been thrown out the window. In a couple of generations, it's
just obliterated. And most people don't even think
about getting married today. I mean, they just think about,
well, we'll just go live with whoever we're going to live with,
and then if we decide we don't like them, we'll go live with
another one. And it's just fine. I mean, nobody
knows, well, they probably know who their mamas and daddies are,
but they don't know much about it. It's just a mess. Now, you
know, we don't, To point that out is not being judgmental.
It's just pointing out the fact that we as a society have departed
from the ways of God. And Paul's pointing out to these
Corinthians that there is a way which is right in the church
when we come together. There are things that are proper
and they must be adhered to or else you're going to have confusion.
And that's exactly what he's saying. So he says here, How
is it then, brethren, when ye 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 edifying. How is it then, brethren? In a way, he's upbraiding them
because he says you're coming together in a confusing manner. Now, it is not a bad thing, and
he's not saying it is a bad thing, that several individuals had
things they wanted to bring before the assembly. In fact, I believe
he points out this is a good thing. He says here, Let all
things be done and edify." He didn't say, don't do it. See,
it's a good thing for a person to have a psalm. That is a psalm
that the Lord has given them. You know, the psalms, that's
what they are, psalms. So it's a good thing if somebody
has a psalm on their heart and they say to the brethren, you
know, here, this has really been a blessing to me. That's a good
thing. How is it that everyone hath
a psalm, hath a doctrine, a teaching, hath a tongue, that is, a demonstration
of the Spirit of God, hath a revelation, something that the Lord has shown
him in the Word of God, hath an interpretation of those tongues?
Let all things be done to edify. He didn't say, don't do these
things. He just said, let it be done in an edifying fashion.
And he has given them some instruction, did he not, on how that was to
be done in an edifying fashion. So it's not a mystery that he's
sat before here. He's saying, let it be done as
I have told you, but these things are not bad in themselves. If
any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most
by three, and that by course, and let one interpret." He says,
if there is going to be speaking in tongues in the church, then
let it be done in an orderly fashion, and as he said before,
let it be somebody that interprets it. Because if you don't interpret
it, it's of no use. People are not edified by gobbledygook. You know, they're not edified
by that. They're edified by those things they understand. And so
he said, let it be done by course. Don't just everybody get up and
do it all at one time. But he said, let it be done orderly
and let it be done with an interpreter. Now, I might say that what he
points out here is that The concept that we have, by and large, of
teaching and preaching as the one thing that is to be done.
In other words, if a person, a lot of times it comes across
that if a person, and I believe sometimes brethren feel like,
that if they are not going to stand up before the congregation
and take a text and go for fifteen or twenty minutes talking about
it, then they ought not to say anything. But that's not at all
what Paul is talking about here. I believe that a brother may
have five words to say. He ought to say it. The Lord
has shown him something during the week. He ought to say it.
You know, it's not about getting up and preparing a message and
preaching. Everybody is not called to do
that. Everybody doesn't have that gift.
That's fine. The people of God do, however,
have things that the Lord shows them during the week, don't we?
You know, if the Lord showed you things, do you think He just
showed that to you for your sake? You know, you can have somebody
else maybe struggling along with the same ideas and thoughts,
and when you bring that up, You know, somebody says, well, man,
I'm glad you brought that up because I was thinking the exact
same thing. I mean, the Lord is able to work
among His people, and He does do so, and we're not to discourage
that. I think that's probably what
happens a lot of times is that brethren become discouraged from
sharing that because it's not what they think they ought to
do. If there be no interpreter, let
him keep silence in the church. Let him speak to himself and
to God." Very plain. I mean, that doesn't need a lot
of explanation, does it? If there be no interpreter of
a tongue, let him keep silence. Let the prophets speak, two or
three. Now prophecy, by and large, in
the Scripture, is telling the Word of God. That's what prophecy
is. Now, it can be predicting, but
we don't have to predict anything because there's nothing to predict. What the Lord has set forth... Now, in the Old Testament, there
was a lot of prophesying that went on because it was predicting
what was going to happen. But we see what's happened. The
Lord Jesus Christ has come. He's given us the Word of God
that's laid out what He's going to do. So we are given the, I
believe, prophecy in the present age is not about foretelling
future events, but it is about foretelling the truth of God
to the saints of God, and the Lord gives men different abilities
to do that. And so He says, let the prophets
speak, two or three, and let the other judge, that is, those
who are President, let the brethren judge what's being said and what's
the basis upon which we would judge it, whether we like them
or not. No, it's whether or not it's
according to the Word of God. That's how a prophet is to be
judged. If they speak not according to
the Word of God, then there's no truth in them. If anything
be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace."
Now what I believe that has to do with, if a fellow is preaching
or prophesying, if he is teaching or whatever, and another brother
says, you know, a thought comes into his mind, and in an orderly
fashion he shares that, the first brother should not feel like
that he has been disrespected or something because somebody
shared a thought that their message brought to their mind. See, we
get too caught up in the lecture idea that we can't ask a question
or say something or whatever. Now, that can be disorderly. But that's not what it's designed
to be, and that's not what he's talking about here. But I believe
he's saying, if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let
the first hold his peace. In other words, let the man say
what he wants to say. For ye may all prophesy one by
one, that all may learn. Now what if one fellow is preaching
and another guy gets up and he starts preaching? Together, and
they both going trying to get the crowd. Who's going to be
heard? Nobody. Now, I remember a fellow, Sammy
Harris, he told me one time, but he went to a meeting up in
North Carolina or somewhere, and he said three guys got up
to preach, and all of them preached at the same time. He said the
biggest thing he'd ever seen in his life. He said, you couldn't
tell what? Nobody. I mean, you know, it
was just a mess. That's exactly what Paul's saying here. Isn't
that ridiculous? I mean, what's the point of that
now? Their idea was, well, you know, God, the Spirit, He's going
to teach people and He'll cause them to hear whatever He wants
them to hear. Well, I mean, I guess you couldn't really argue with
that from that standpoint, but that's not how the Lord has designed
for the church to operate, is it? I mean, surely the Lord could
cause you to hear something. If three people got up and preached
and He wanted you to hear something, that wouldn't be an obstacle
to Him. But it's not the thing He's designed to come to pass
and is not beneficial to the people of God. For ye may all
prophesy one by one. Nobody is prevented from it.
You don't have to have certain qualifications prophesy to the
children of God, to set forth the Word of God. You do not have
to have a certain qualification to do that. For ye may all prophesy
one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. 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." Let's think about that for a minute. The spirits
of the prophets are subject to the prophets. Now, there are
several ways in which you can look at this, and I think all
of them are applicable. The spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets. I believe contextually what he
is talking about here is that the message that the prophet
is bringing is subject to the scrutiny of the other prophets
who would be sitting by. So that's just exactly what he
said there earlier. If one brother ought to be revealed
to him, let the first hold his peace and the other say what
he's going to say, because the spirits of the prophets are subject
to the prophets. In other words, they are subject
to the scrutiny of one another. Now, I think another way in which
this is true is that the spirits of the prophets are subject to
the prophets that have spoken the Word of God. And if the thing
that a man speaks is not according to this book, then we don't need
to hear it. The spirit of the prophets is
subject to this. This is not of a private interpretation. If it's contrary to the Word
of God, it can't be right. If three guys get up and preach
at the same time, it can't be right. I mean, not according
to this. It couldn't be. The spirits of
the prophets have got to be subject to this. And then finally, the
third way this could be considered is the spirits of the prophets
are subject to the prophets themselves. In other words, a man, when he
gets up and preaches, he can't stop. In other words, you know,
I've been around some guys, you know, they get in one of these
things on deals, you know, and it's like, oh, you know, the
Lord's just on them and they're just going and they couldn't
be stopped, you know. Well, wait a minute. We're just
people. And the Spirit of God may come
upon us, but that's not how the Lord demonstrates Himself. The
Lord demonstrates Himself in an orderly way. And the Spirit
of a prophet is subject to the prophet. You can stop any time
you get ready. I mean, you can say, oh, I couldn't
help it. Well, you know, there may be an aspect of that which
would be true, but your spirit is subject to you. You are what
you are. So the key to it, and of course
what he leads up into in these last few verses, which we're
not going to talk about today, is this, this is the sum of it,
for God is not the author of confusion. Now, that's the bottom line. God's not the author of confusion.
He's the author of order. Everything God does is according
to order. Now the problem that men have
in religious circles is that they often want to prescribe
what the order is. not according to the Word of
God, but according to their order. Well, this is out of order because
we've always done it this way. It's not by what we've always
done, it's according to what the Word of God says.