We are looking in the 14th chapter
of I Corinthians, beginning in reading here in verse 12. It
says, Even so, ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual
gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore, let him that speaketh
in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray
in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding
is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray
with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the spirit, and 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 he understandeth not what
thou sayest? For thou varily givest thanks
well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God I speak with tongues
more than ye ought. 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. Brethren,
be not children in understanding, howbeit 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. Wherefore tongues are for a sign,
not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. But
prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them
which believe. If therefore the whole church
be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and
there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, Will
they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there
come in one that believeth not, or one 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. How is it then,
brethren, when ye come together, every one of you, at the psalm?
Hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, 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 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 prophet 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. 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 Lord. 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 the prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let
all things be done decently and in order." Now, I think that
Paul sums up the whole issue in that last verse, let all things
be done decently and in order. because that's what we're called
unto is decency and order as we gather together as God's people. We're not trying to prove a point
or trying to impress somebody or trying to gain a following,
but what we're seeking to do is build up the brethren in the
most holy faith. And the only means whereby that's
going to be done is in an orderly fashion. As he says there, if
everybody is just in a big noise, a cacophony of sounds and people
running around and doing all sorts of things and somebody
comes in there and they look at that and they say, what in
the world is going on here? How is that going to be edifying
to the people of God? And Paul says it is not. He says,
if you don't agree with me, it's because you're ignorant. Now
that's what he said, is it not, at the end of the thing? He said,
if what I have written to you is not the truth, if you don't
receive it, then the problem you've got is you don't understand
what the truth is. Now Paul is speaking as an apostle,
so what he's saying is the absolute truth, whether you agree with
it or not. And a lot of people don't agree with what he said.
I mean, they want to take part of it, But they don't want to
take the whole thing. So you've got to take the whole
thing as he says it and understand what it is that his purpose is. Paul's purpose was never to gain
a following, but it was to declare the truth of God as it was, let
the chips fall where they may, and if you believe that you did,
if you didn't, you didn't. But one thing that he never wavered
from was that Christ was to be the center of everything that
we say and do. It was the center of everything
he did. He didn't come, you know, trying
to appease people or do things on the one hand or tell one people
one doctrine and one people another. He said the same thing to everybody.
And so he says here, Even so, ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous
of spiritual gifts." Now, he's not in any way berating them
for being zealous of spiritual gifts. We should be desirous
of having everything that God is pleased to give to us. That's
a good thing. I mean, if a man desires fellowship
with God, and the blessing of God, that's a good thing. That's
a beneficial thing. He needs indeed, as the Spirit
works in us, that's going to be an evident thing. He says,
for as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, if you take
the same zeal, he says, that causes you to desire spiritual
gifts, by that same token, desire that you might excel to the edifying
of the brethren. The same zeal you have to have
the gift ought to be the same zeal that you have to benefit
the brethren by whatever gift the Lord may give you. Wherefore,
let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he might interpret. Now why would he say to a man,
if you are going to speak in an unknown tongue, pray that
you might interpret? He goes on to say, because it's
not going to do anybody any good if it's not interpreted. If you
get up and babble away, who's to say? I'm not going to say
that the Lord didn't cause a man to do that. I'm going to say
he's out of order in the meeting if he does it, and he then doesn't
say what he was saying because it's useless. It's of no value. according to what he says here.
Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that
he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue,
my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. Now that doesn't
mean that prayer in the spirit as he speaks of it here as describing
praying in an unknown tongue is a bad thing. Or it is a thing
that is not to be frowned upon. He's not saying that. What he's
saying here is that it is not beneficial as that which we understand
in the meeting of the saints of God. For if I pray in an unknown
tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful."
And so it's necessary when we come together that our understanding
be enhanced. And that's the purpose of coming
together. What is it then? Or what am I
going to do? He says this, I will pray with
the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also. One doesn't
have to rule out the other. You see, a person doesn't have
to pray unintelligibly or does not have to worship in an open
way unintelligibly for it to be from God. He says, I want
to do that with my understanding as well as my spirit. And I will sing with the spirit
and I will sing with the understanding also. Those are not mutually
exclusive. Because a man speaks plainly
does not mean he is not speaking in the Spirit of God. In other
words, a man does not have to babble in order to be whole.
Well, that is from the Lord. If you go in some places, that
is the sign that somebody is speaking from the Lord when you
start saying things that you cannot understand. Well, Paul
says that is not any good. He said, it may be the Lord might
move you to do that. But what good is it? It's not
of any use. And so when the church accepts
a man to interpret what he's saying, it's not to be carried
on. And so he said, as he says, you
know, that if there's no interpreter present, If I, you know, maybe
there is somebody who is an interpreter and they know exactly what you're
saying. I think he's more speaking about here about a language that
can be known and somebody could say it, you know, set it forth. You know, we can get into all
kinds of details about this, but the essence of what he's
saying here is that the gift of tongues among the saints of
God is a useless gift for the edification of the brethren unless
it is known what is being said. Just babbling is not any use
to the people of God in the gathering together of the saints of God.
Now, so let's press on. 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 he understandeth not what
thou sayest?" Now, some have brought this forth that they
believe what Paul is speaking about here was some rising to
speak, to read the Scriptures in the Hebrew tongue among those
that didn't know Hebrew. And so he's saying, don't be
doing that. Now, there could be an application. I don't think that's what he's
talking about here. But it would be the same thing
if I got up and I read the Greek to you. Now, is there anybody
in here that knows Greek? No, I don't think any of us do,
at least not fluently so that we could know what was being
said. So what? If I stood up and I
said that, unless we were all Greek scholars, it wouldn't do
us any good. And so that's what he says. The
unlearned would say, how can he say amen at thy giving of
thanks when he don't even know what you gave thanks? Seeing
that he understandeth not what thou sayest, for thou barely
give his thanks well. You may do so in another language. You may do so in an unknown tongue. But if nobody knows what you
said, it's because the other is not edified. He says, I think,
my God, I speak with tongues more than you ought. Now, again,
Paul is not saying that the speaking with tongues is a thing that
doesn't exist. Or that doesn't have some benefit,
but it is a personal benefit, whatever it is, and he says,
I do it more than any of you do. Now some have said that perhaps
Paul was being sarcastic. And maybe he was. Maybe he said,
you know, I do it more than any of you. You all do all this stuff,
but he says you're not doing anything. So I don't know about
that. But I do believe that we're in
at least the proper context of what he's saying here. But he
says, I do it more than all of you, but he said in the church,
that is in the assembly, in the gathering together of God's people,
I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice
I might teach others than ten thousand words in an unknown
tongue. In other words, I'd rather stand
up and say five words that were edifying to the people that heard
me than I had to speak a thousand words that they didn't understand
because it would be of no use. Brethren, be not children in
understanding. Don't be children. He says, when
I was a child, I thought as a child. Now, he says, in malice, we ought
to be childlike as far as forgiving one another and loving one another.
We ought to have a childlike disposition. But he said, in
understanding, be men. Grow up. Don't be childish in
how you approach these things. Now this is a very interesting
couple of verses here, and I think go a long ways to helping you
understand some things that perhaps are glossed over. In the law
it is written with men of other tongues. Now in the original,
the men of, that's In italics, that's not in the
original manuscript, so it actually says, with other tongues. It
doesn't say with men of other tongues. It says, with other
tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people. Now listen
to what he says here. And yet for all that, will they
not hear me, saith the Lord. Let me read that again. He said,
with other... tongues I will speak, but they
will not hear it." And then listen to what he says here, "...wherefore
tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them
that believe not." Because he said he was going to give the
tongues so that they would hear and not believe. So he says the
tongues are given not to those that believe. I mean, the purpose
of the giving of the tongues is not for them that believe,
but it's for them that believe not. Because hearing, he said,
they wouldn't believe. Now we know that on the day of
Pentecost there were thousands. We don't know how many Jews were
gathered on the day of Pentecost, but a relative handful of them
heard the gospel and believed it. Three thousand out of every
how many was there, which was a minute number compared to the
number that were there. What did they do? They heard
and they believed. But the vast multitudes, this
was a sign that was given, but they didn't hear. It was like
the hardening of their heart. And so he says here are signs
not for those that believe. but for those that believe not,
but not for them which believe. If therefore the whole church
be come together into one place and all speak with tongues, and
there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will
they not say that ye are mad? Now on the day of Pentecost,
Those that were believers, they didn't think that this was madness,
did they? They said, we won't hear more. Why? Because they
heard the gospel in their own ear. You see, the Word, the Lord,
caused them to hear the truth. He didn't cause them to hear
babbling. Now what those that didn't believe heard was what?
Babbling. They said, it's a bunch of nuts.
I mean, these people, they're just babbling away. They're drunk. But those that believe, the Scripture
says they heard in their own tongue. And they said, wait,
what is this? Because they desired to hear
it. Will they not say that you're a man? But if all prophesy as
took place on the day of Pentecost, did they not prophesy? But you
see, every man didn't hear it, but those that believed heard
it. But if all prophesy, and there
come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced
of all, he is judged of all. In other words, if there is an
intelligible sound, as those heard every man in his own tongue,
if he hears something he can understand, He can hear. How shall they hear
without what? A preacher. How shall they believe
in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And so all of this ties together
as the Lord is pleased to open men's eyes to see and hear the
truth. But what He causes is not for
them to hear unintelligible sounds, Men don't learn the gospel through
somebody mumbling. They learn the gospel, and we're
speaking as the Lord uses a human as He sends men to preach the
gospel. As He sends forth His Word, they
believe it because they hear something that they understand,
do they not? You know, if you went to Korea
and you didn't speak Korean and a Korean preacher got up and
preached the gospel, you wouldn't know what he said. If somebody
stood up and interpreted what he said, you might say, well,
I believe that. Because you heard something that
you believed. You heard something that was
intelligible to you. But if all prophesy, and there
come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced
of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his
heart made manifest." Now, this is played out on the day of Pentecost
quite plainly, because these brethren, they heard, did they
not? And they said, what must we do? What can we do? And Peter told
them. Now, you see, what happened was
the Lord caused them to hear and it judged the secrets of
their heart and they said, we're sinners and we're in need of
help here. And so, 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. Do
you think the people that believed on the day of Pentecost believed
that Peter was speaking the truth? I believe they did. How did they
know it? Did somebody whisper in their ear? No. God caused
them to hear it. And God caused them to believe
it. Now how do you know when somebody is preaching the truth?
Because the Spirit bears witness. with such things as you know.
I mean, the first time you ever believed that Jesus Christ was
the Son of God, how did you learn that? How did you know it? Nobody
communicated it to you in that sense, but you were taught it
by the Spirit of God. And you believed it. And could
you explain it? No. One minute you didn't believe
it. You just didn't think about it. And the next minute it was
on your mind. You thought about it. You believed
it. You embraced it. And thus are the secrets of his
heart made manifest. Now we're going to stop there
because we don't really have time to go into this next portion
of this. as he says to them, How is it
then, brethren, when ye come together? Now, in a measure,
he is upbraiding them because evidently there was confusion
going on among the Corinthian church. Now, while he upbraids
them, he does not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Because
even though he says, how is it then, brethren, when you come
together, every one of you has a psalm, a doctrine, you know,
a tongue or an interpretation or something. You're all doing
this. He's not telling them that's
necessarily bad. He's saying when you do it and
you do it in a disorderly fashion, then it is of no use. How is
it that when you do this, that you do this? He said, let all
things, be done undefined. And that's really the key, I
think, to understanding Paul's message, is let all things be
done undefined, whatever it is. I mean, that's the deciding factor
in this matter. You know, if one brother is speaking
in a tongue, let it be done to edify. How can speaking in tongues
be done unto edifying? There's only one way if it be
interpreted. Now that's what he said. That's
the only way in which tongues can edify the body of Christ
is that it be interpreted according to the understanding. that we
have as men.