Now, the lesson this morning,
the topic deals with the gift of speaking in tongues. I read
through the lesson and studied and thought a lot about it this
week. And I don't know that any of us have to worry about being
taught how to handle the gift of speaking in tongues. I don't
know that any of us have that gift. But I think there's some
things we can learn about speaking in the tongue. I do have in a
language that I do know. As I read through this, I thought,
I wish I could really speak in the power of the Spirit with
the one language I do know. So maybe in these verses we can
learn something about speaking in the language we do know. So
verse 1 here in chapter 14 in 1 Corinthians. Follow after charity,
after love and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may
prophesy. Now, you know, we went through
this chapter 13 last week. And clearly, we learn love is
the best gift of the spirit. But that doesn't mean that we
shouldn't desire other gifts of the spirit, but we should
desire to have these other spiritual gifts, but make love our singular
concern, because if you have love, then whatever other other
gifts that the Lord may give you, you'll be able to use them
right if you have love. Because then you'll be able to
use those gifts for God's glory and the good of his people. See,
we're to desire these different spiritual gifts so that we can
help others, not so we can waste them on ourselves and have people
brag on us. That's what self-love does. Self-love
makes you want to have all these gifts so people can brag on you
and look how impressive you are. True love makes us desire to
have these gifts and abilities so we can use them to help others. Paul says, desire these gifts
that you may prophesy, that you may preach. I don't know a lot about preaching,
but I know this. You can't preach without love.
Not really preach, you can't. It cannot be done. The gift of
the preaching of God's Word is priceless to the church. How
should they hear without a preacher? Now, you can preach doctrine.
You can preach right doctrine without love. But you can't preach
Christ without love. Because he is love. I remember
when Tom Hardy went to be the pastor at Pikeville. Henry was
so excited. He told me he's going to be a
good pastor there. Not because Tom's so diligent
to study, not because he has such a deep understanding of
the word, although he does. Henry said he's going to be a
good pastor because he loves people. You can't preach without
love. Not do it right, you can't. Now,
verse two, he goes on, he says, for he that speaketh in an unknown
tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth
him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries." Now if a
person speaks in a language that's foreign to everyone in the congregation,
well, he's not speaking to the congregation because you can't
understand him. You don't understand a word he's saying. God understands,
but we don't. And this man could be preaching
the best message ever. I mean just to wonderful message,
deep spiritual truths that would bless the hearts of every believer. But we don't receive a blessing
because we don't understand what he's saying. All we hear is just
noise, a jumbled mess. It means nothing to us. And it's hard enough to communicate
spiritual truths in our language, isn't it? It's hard to do that.
And even then, we'll never understand it. unless the Lord gives understanding. He must give life and understanding
because the carnal mind cannot understand and believe and receive
the things of God. And the gift of tongues would
not be useful here. We all speak English. We speak
an Appalachian version of it, but even Stacey from Michigan
can understand it. It's not the Queen's English,
but it's English. Now, the gift of tongues might
be a blessing if you went to Mexico. speak to the people,
or if you went to Africa and wanted to fellowship with the
brethren there, the gift of tongues might be useful there, but not
here, because we all speak the same language. And maybe we need
to learn to speak the language that we do know in love and speak
of Christ. Now, verse 3, Paul says, but
on the other hand, he that prophesieth, preacheth, speaketh unto men,
dedification and exhortation and comfort. See, here's the
reason we preach. To edify and exhort and comfort
God's sheep. And that's done by glorifying
Christ. We preach Christ to edify and
feed the sheep. We preach Christ so we can grow
in knowledge and understanding of Christ. We exhort one another
to walk in faith, to walk in holiness, to walk in obedience,
to walk following our Lord Jesus Christ. We comfort one another
with Christ, with what He's done for us, with who He is. We comfort
each other with the Word of God, which is Christ. We comfort one
another with the precious promises of God's Word, which are all
found in our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when we preach, we're
not just up here spouting doctrine. We're preaching to the hearts
of people, to people. And that blessing can't be received
if you don't understand what that preacher is saying. This,
you know, as I read through this, I thought about the Catholics
and John Gill had a lot to say about that. Well, they conduct
either all or part, a large part of their service in Latin, a
dead language that nobody can understand. And the only reason
it sounds so holy and looks so holy is they got that big outfit
on, they got smoke and stuff, and they're speaking in this
language. And you think, boy, that must be holy. Just look
at it. And for all we know, they're quoting Dr. Seuss. I mean, it
sounds like a rhythmical, rhyming chant, doesn't it? And, you know,
they're probably not quoting Dr. Seuss, but it kind of sounds
like it. But I guarantee you this, there's no real blessing
going on there because the people don't understand. They're not
being edified. They're not being exhorted. They're
not being comforted because they don't understand what's being
said. You know, they might read the
word. This is God's word, but if you don't understand, if they're
reading it in Latin, that's not going to bless your heart. You
have to understand what's being said. Now, verse four, Paul says,
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but
he that prophesieth edifieth the church. You know, there are
times a person can truly speak in tongues. I don't know if the
Lord gives that gift necessarily today. I suppose he could. But
I know at this time he did. A person could speak in tongues,
languages they did not learn. Sometimes they didn't even maybe
understand what they were saying, or maybe they did. But they'd
get a blessing through that, but no one else would because
they didn't understand what was being said. But if a man preaches
the gospel in a language we can all understand, then everyone
can receive a blessing. Now, the gospel is a mystery. And no one can understand it
unless God gives light. And we understand that, but we
should still make the message as plain as we can, as simple
as we can, to make sure people understand exactly what we're
saying. I want you to come away from
this lesson understanding exactly what I mean. People might not
believe it, but you better understand exactly what I'm saying. If you
don't, that's my fault. to understand exactly what I'm
saying, God's going to give you faith to believe it. And here's
the best illustration I could think of. God's own Son. God became a man. And when He
became a man, He spoke our language. He didn't speak a heavenly language
that we could never understand. He could have impressed people
with things. Paul saw it. and heard it, he
said, it's not lawful. It's not possible for me to put
in human language what I saw. Think what our Lord could have
done. He could have spoken a language we never would have understood.
And I promise you it would have been impressive. But if he had
done that, we never would have heard the gracious words that
proceeded from his mouth. We never would have heard grace
drip from his lips. And we heard it and we believe
it and we love it because he spoke in our language. And not
only did he come speak in our language, he spoke on our level. One, two, at most three syllable
words, he spoke in parables so we'd understand. Talked to us
where we were. And the lesson to us is don't
try to impress people with your ability to speak and how, you
know, you can use two dollar words and things, whether it's
in one language or many languages. When we preach, this is the thing
people are to come away with. to be impressed with Christ,
to be impressed with the message, not with the preacher, not with
the servant. Now verse five, Paul says, I would that you all
speak with tongues, but rather that you prophesied so you could
preach. For greater is he that prophesied that he that speaketh
with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying.
Paul says, I wish y'all could speak in tongues. Apparently
there were a good number of people here in Corinth who could speak
in tongues legitimately. Others couldn't, and that's why
they felt inferior. And Paul said, I wish all of
you could speak in tongues. Not so someone wouldn't feel
inferior, so they could preach, so the gospel could be preached
more places to everyone. The business of the church is
preaching. It's not all these other gifts.
It's not, you know, everything else people get caught up in.
The business of the church is preaching. And in our day, preaching
is relegated to the sidelines so people can be busy doing a
thousand other activities. But the business of the church
is preaching. That's why Paul said, I wish
all of you could preach because greater is he that preaches.
than he that speaks in this unknown tongue that has this wonderful
miracle he can perform. Why? Because it's pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to edify and exhort
and comfort God's people. We're going to be exhorted and
comforted and instructed through preaching. That's the way God's
ordained it. And you can't be fed by someone
speaking in an unknown language. You have to understand what they're
saying. That's why you need an interpreter.
Now, if there's an interpreter, then you can be blessed because
you can understand what he's saying. But you're not blessed
because this miracle happened and the fellow can speak in tongues.
You're only blessed because there's an interpreter that can tell
you what he's saying. And if he's speaking in an unknown
tongue of Christ and you have an interpreter telling you what
he's saying, Then you can be blessed. No matter what language
he's preaching in to the church, the blessing is Christ, not the
miracle. See what he's saying there? Now,
verse six. Now, brethren, if I come unto
you speaking with tongues, what shall it profit you? Except I
shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or
by prophesying or by doctrine. Now I'm sure Paul, and you'll
see this in a minute, I know, he could speak in more language
than all of them. I mean, he had more gifts of the Spirit
than all these folks. And he could have come speaking
to them in many different languages. But what good would it have done
them if they couldn't understand what he's saying? Because where
do we get the blessing? Is it hearing a miracle? Someone
speak in a tongue that they never learned? Or is it hearing a revelation
of Christ? Is it seeing someone being able
to speak in an unknown language? Or is it having a revelation
of the mysteries of the Scripture? Oh, I see what that's saying.
That's where the blessing is. Does a blessing come from someone
speaking in an unknown language or having a revelation of the
love of God and the grace of God that's found in the Lord
Jesus Christ? What blesses us? Is it hearing
someone speak in an unknown language? or leaving here having gained
a knowledge, a greater knowledge of Christ. What blesses you? Is it hearing tongues and seeing
a miracle? Or is it hearing the preaching
of Christ? Who He is? What He did? Why He did it? And
where He is now? What blesses you? Hearing tongues?
Or sound doctrine? If you're one of God's sheep,
I know the answer. And this is what Henry said in
his outline. Men cannot believe what they do not hear. That's
why it's the business of the church to preach, so men can
hear of Christ. And we'll leave it to God to
give them to faith, but it's our business to preach so they
can hear. Now, verse 7, Paul says, for
even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp,
and except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be
known what is piped or harped? Now, suppose you could speak
in tongues. Is that really all that impressive?
Because all that is, speaking in tongues, is sound coming through
your windpipe. That's all it is. God made that
sound come through your windpipe. Well, not a heart, but a trumpet
or a pipe does that. Sound blown through the pipe.
That's all it is. And it's dead. It's just a musical
instrument. And the only way you can enjoy
hearing a musical instrument is if the notes are played in
the right order. They've got to be in the right
order so that you can sing along, so you can be blessed by the
singing of the hymns. You can't do it if the notes
aren't played in the right order. I don't know how many keys are
over there on that piano. There's a lot. It looks like
a mystery to me. Eighty-eight. Eighty-eight keys
on that thing. I can strike every one of them. There's not a key on that piano
Mike can strike, I can't strike. I can hit every one of them.
But you wouldn't be blessed if I was hitting them. If I was
banging on them, that's what it would be, be banging on them.
Because I can't play them in order. You can sing along. I
can strike a note. Mike can play the piano. See
the difference? And maybe a man can make an impressive
sound in the pulpit. He can look impressive. He can
look religious. He can sound and hit some keys
of the gospel. It's a whole lot different than
preaching the gospel. It's the exact same difference
between striking a key and playing the piano. Big difference. And
if the message is not preached clearly, I'm telling you, it's
a disaster waiting to happen. Look at verse eight. For if the
trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to
the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words
easy to be understood. How shall it be known what is
spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. Now, in this day, armies
were directed by the sounds of trumpets. And the soldiers learned
what those different sounds meant. You know, one sound meant retreat,
one sound meant charge, one sound meant stand still or go to the
left or right or whatever. And they learned the sounds and
they learned, you know, from those sounds what the army is
supposed to do. Well, if the sound of the trumpet
is unclear, How is a soldier supposed to know what to do?
If it's a mixture of notes, if it's a mixture of the sound of
their treatment, a mixture of the sound of the charge, how
is he supposed to know what to do? And if he doesn't know what
to do, there's confusion in the battle and the army's just going
to be there confusing. They could be wiped out. I'm
guaranteeing they can't win the battle if the note's not clear. It's a disaster. And the same
thing happens with the preaching of the gospel. If the note is
not run clear as a bell, with words easy to be understood,
how's anyone going to know what to believe? If the note's not
run clearly, how are sinners going to know that there's salvation
for the worst wretch found in the Lord Jesus Christ? How will
they know? How will people know that our sins are cleansed in
the blood of Christ if the note is not run clearly? If the note's
not sounded clearly, how are people going to know there's
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared? If the note
is not run clearly, how will people know the wisdom of God,
the holiness of God, the love of God? How will people know
about the total depravity of man? How will we know we're totally
depraved unless the note's run clearly? It won't happen. And an uncertain sound will cause
people to halt between two opinions. Maybe without even knowing it,
they'll mix grace and worse. If the sound's not clear, if
the sound's not clear, the edge will be taken off. If the sound's
not clear, how will we know to live a life of obedience to Christ?
Just like the soldier, how can you be a good soldier of Christ
if the message from the general is unclear? It has to come in
words easy to be understood. Now verse 10, now there are,
it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them
is without signification. Therefore, if I know not the
meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian,
and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. There are
many different languages in the world. That's what happened after
the Tower of Babel. You know, before they started building
that tower, there was just one language. And they started building
that tower. They're going to go into heaven
and see God. Well, God sent different languages. Why? To cause confusion. So they couldn't communicate
and couldn't work. And there's so much confusion
that work stopped. Well, if you did have this gift
of speaking in tongues, be mighty careful how you use it, because
I promise you this, God didn't give it to cause confusion. He
gave this gift to clear up that confusion, didn't he? Well, if
you've got the gift of tongues and you want to use that gift
to someone that doesn't understand the language, all you're doing
is causing confusion. The gospel is not meant to be
preached in a confusing way, but in simple terms. God gave
this gift to the early church so the gospel could be preached
to the whole world, not just in Hebrew to the Jews. He gave
this gift of different languages to the Jews so they could preach
the gospel to people in their own language, to the Gentiles.
You and me. And the sounds of a different
language means something very precise to someone who understands
that language. But if we haven't been taught
that language, it's just gibberish to us. It's just grunts or something. And God gave the gift of tongues
to eliminate that problem so the gospel could be preached.
And that's what he's telling her. Don't misuse this gift.
God didn't get it to cause confusion, but to eliminate confusion. Now,
verse 12. Even so ye, for as much as ye
are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the
edifying of the church. Now, these folks we know from
our studies so far, they were zealous to have these spiritual
gifts. They desired them. And there's nothing wrong with
being zealous of spiritual gifts and zealous of the things that
we would do, you know, in the church. As long as you desire
these things to edify others. to comfort others, to be a help
to others. Don't desire these things to
waste them on yourself. They're given to help others,
to edify others. And verse 13, wherefore, let
him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
Now evidently, there were times a person, maybe not all the time,
but just in a specific time, the Spirit would come upon him
and he could speak a language. an unknown language, a language
he'd never learned. And even he didn't know what
he was saying. But there'd be someone else in the congregation.
They couldn't speak that language, but he could understand it. He
can interpret it into a language everyone else could understand.
Well, Paul says you need an interpreter. If you have that gift, pray that
you have an interpreter. You know, It'd be useless for
me. I've always wanted to go out
to Mexico, meet the brethren there. I just always wanted to
do that. But that'd be useless for me to trot on down there
and go out in some Pueblo somewhere and start trying to preach to
the folks, even if they were believers. Because if Walter
Cody went with me, they'd think I was a fool. They wouldn't understand
the first thing I said. So look at verse 27. Here's what
you do if you don't have an interpreter. If any man speak in an unknown
tongue, let it be by two or at the most by three, and that by
course, one after the other, 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, because otherwise
it's confusion and God's church is not confusing. It's orderly. Now, verse 14, Paul says, 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 understanding also. And
I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the understanding
also. Now, if a person could come and pray in a language no
one understands, the Spirit really could be on that man and he could
honestly be praying. But that public prayer will not
bear any fruit unless no one understands. And if that's the
case, Paul says, pray privately. God will still understand. You
know, when we pray in our own language, we don't say it right. And we just, oh, it's just childish
talk to our father. But he understands and he will
in this language, too. But in public prayer, when you
pray publicly, Play with the Holy Spirit in a language people
can understand, so everyone can be led before the throne of God
to be prepared to worship. And the same with singing. Sing
together with one voice, so everyone can understand and be blessed.
You know, these hymns that we sing. Why didn't you come up
here? You know, pick it out. OK, we'll
sing this song. No, he works and looks and finds
hymns that are honoring the Christ that will bless us. See, that's
the thing. Singing of the church is given
so we can worship together. It helps our worship. Now, verse
16, Paul says 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 verily givest thanks well, but the other is
not edified. See, if I don't pray in a language
everyone can understand, how can those who don't know that
language, who've never learned that language, how can they say
amen to that prayer? How can they join in and be blessed?
You'd be blessed, but nobody else would. And I'm very thankful
the Lord's given the gift of prayer, of public prayer. That's
a gift, I'm telling you. Much less praying in two or three
different languages, just the gift of public prayer in the
language that we all understand is a gift. And you know, you
shouldn't have to be a theologian and you shouldn't have to have
a master's degree to understand a man's prayer and be blessed
by it. The most impressive prayer, public
prayer, blesses the hearts of God's people in its simplicity
because it comes from the heart. It's from the heart, our heart,
to the heart of God. Wayne can lead us in prayer and
just bless our hearts and lead us all before the throne of God
and prepare us to worship this morning. That's a gift of God.
But now look at verse 18 and I'll wrap this up. Paul says,
I thank my God. I speak with tongues more than
you all. Yet in the church, I'd rather speak five words with
my understanding or five words that you could understand. That
by my voice, I might teach others also. than 10,000 words in an
unknown tongue. Now, Paul could have come to
their town and impressed everyone with his ability to speak in
different tongues. You know, if they're going to
be impressed with miracles, Paul could have just impressed them
to death. But he says, I'd rather speak five simple words of Christ. Because this is how the church
is blessed. You're not blessed with tongues
and miracles, you're blessed with preaching. We just go back
to the business of the church's preaching. And Paul said, I'd
rather speak five simple words that glorify Christ and point
men to Christ that we could all understand than 10,000 words
in an unknown language. And I thought of this. We could
speak English and confuse people to death. I'd rather speak five
simple words of Christ, then get up here and preach 10,000
words of a theologian and sound like I know more than John Gill. What in the world did he just
say? Five simple words of Christ will point us to Christ. And
that's a far more infinite value than you being impressed, oh,
how much he studied. Now I've used closer to 10,000
words than 5, but I hope that will be a blessing to you anyway.