1 Corinthians chapter 14. We'll begin with verse 13. Now, last week we looked at the
gift of tongues. That's what this chapter is dealing
with. The gift of God to men to be
able to speak in foreign languages. And in this time when the gospel
age is just beginning, The Word of God is beginning to be complete. These men were yet writing Scriptures.
God gave the gift of tongues to them supernaturally. He gave
it to them in an instant. And you can read about it over
in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost when that day was
fully come. The Spirit of God descended.
and came upon them with cloven tongues. And every man who was
gathered there of all those nations heard the gospel preached in
their own language. And confusion of language is
something God brought to pass in the midst of the building
of the Tower of Babel. You can go back into the Old
Testament and you can read about the building of the Tower of
Babel. It wasn't because men and women
might actually accomplish their goal and make some physical access
into heaven, but the idea that they could do it. The doctrine
that they could do it. This is what was going on with
men. And God confused the languages. And so after that time, all false
religion become identified in the scripture with Babylon. And then in Revelation 17, verse
5, it says, and upon her forehead was written a name, Mystery Babylon
the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
And she was drunken with the blood of saints and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered,
with great admiration. He saw her and wondered. And all men could be lured in
by her, by her beguiling speech and appealing ways. And so God
sent a confusion of language to prevent such a thing from
actually coming to pass. But God has chosen a people.
He's chosen a people out of every nation, people, tribe under heaven. And He will, and even now is,
calling out His elect. And this calling out is by the
means which God has ordained, which is the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Our Lord gave the great commission
to His apostles. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel. Preach it to every creature. I think that terminology that
he used there referred to the Gentiles, which the Jews just
counted as beasts. He said, you go preach to every
creature, and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be damned. This is the means
whereby God calls out His elect. This Gospel is to be heard and
understood by those who hear it. I can't make men agree with
me, but I'm commanded of God to make them understand what
I'm saying, to use plain speech and plain terminology. I can't
make men agree with it. I can't make men bow to it. And
we can't make them hope in it. But we're commanded that they
be able to understand what we're saying. Listen to this terminology
Paul uses. He said necessity. is laid upon me. Necessity is
laid upon me. This is not an option. This is
not one among many things that God uses. He said, necessity
is laid upon me. And the man who understands that,
he'll sacrifice everything for the preaching of the gospel.
And Paul did. He went everywhere. He suffered
all manner of attacks and all manner of troubles and opposition
because he knew the necessity of the preaching of the gospel.
He said, necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I
preach not the gospel. And to make this gospel understood
in these other lands, I must be able to speak in their tongues. But to have the gift of tongues
and abuse it, to speak another language in worship or prayer
or singing of hymns, and it's a language that you couldn't
understand. In other words, if I got up here this morning and
I started teaching in French, there are very few in here, if
any, that would understand anything I was saying. You might be impressed
that I can speak, that I'm bilingual, but it won't do you a bit of
good because you can't understand anything I'm saying. That's abusing
the gift. And to have this gift and abuse
it to speak another language in worship or prayer or the singing
of hymns is contrary to God's purpose in the giving of the
gift. Worship is not some emotional feeling brought on by music or
visual aids or other things like religious pageantry and altar
boys and lighting candles and children's choirs and on and
on and on the list goes. Worship comes by way of understanding. You can't worship God apart from
the understanding. It's not just the singing of
hymns. but it's understanding what you're
saying. And Paul gets into that in this
chapter. It comes by edification, and
anything that is otherwise is not conducive to true worship.
We are the circumcision, Paul said, which worship God in the
Spirit. That's not He's not talking there about
the Spirit of God, although he's incorporating in that, but that's
a little S on that word Spirit. And what it has to do with is
the revelation and teaching of the Spirit, the ministry of the
Spirit. We worship God with the understanding. We worship God
in that revelation of Christ which the Spirit has given to
us. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. True circumcision is having the
heart laid open by the spirit, convinced of sin, convinced of
righteousness, of Christ's righteousness, which is the righteousness of
God, and convinced of judgment, that is judgment satisfied, judgment
executed, and judgment passed. True circumcision is the renouncing
of our own righteousness. We have no confidence, Paul said,
in the flesh. True circumcision is of the heart
and not of the flesh. It's a broken and contrite heart,
a heart not of stone, a heart of tenderness, easy to be touched. And we draw nigh to God with
the heart, not with the feet. And true circumcision is to rejoice
in our completeness in Christ, having no confidence in any fleshly
thing. And this kind of worship comes
by way of hearing and understanding, by teaching and by knowledge.
Now look here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 13. Wherefore, let him that speaketh
in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret, that is, that
his prayer can be interpreted. For if I pray in an unknown tongue,
my spirit prayeth, but my understanding's unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit,
that is, the convictions of it, the ministry of it, the revelation
of it, the joy that it brings. And I will pray with the understanding
also. I will sing with the spirit.
Same things apply to that as I just said about prayer. And I will sing with the understanding
also. Brethren, confusion is not conducive
to the worship of God. And a lot of what goes on in
the name of religion is confusion. It's confusion. Singing or praying or preaching
in a language not understood is not conducive to worship.
Lots of religions, Catholics among them, but lots of others. And they get up and they speak
Latin. They speak Latin. Anybody here speak Latin? So
if you sat in the worship service, you wouldn't understand anything
that's going on. Brethren, everything in the worship
of God comes by way of hearing and understanding. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. All right, verse 16. Else when thou shalt bless with
the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned
say Amen? You get up and say all this stuff,
and perhaps you're the only one in there that even knows what
you're saying. You're up there speaking in Latin, or speaking
in French, or speaking in German, or Spanish, or whatever. But
the unlearned are sitting there. He can't hear you. He don't know
what you're saying. He can't say, Amen. And the giving of thanks, saying,
He understandeth not what thou sayest. Verse 17. For thou givest
barely thanks well, but the other is not edified." Those who are
gathered there are not edified. I thank my God I speak with tongues
more than you all. Paul visited and preached in
foreign lands more than anybody else. The gift of tongues made
it possible for him to do this. He said, I am not trying to run
down the gift of God who has given this great and glorious
gift of tongues. I'm not trying to run this gift
down. I'm not trying to devaluate this
gift. I'm simply trying to tell you
what the gift is for. What it's for. Yet in the church,
verse 19, that is, when the saints are gathered together for worship
in the church, I had rather speak five words with the understanding
then by my voice I might teach others also than 10,000 words
in an unknown tongue." Huh? So what if I could speak a tongue?
Wouldn't do you any good, would it? Wouldn't do you any good. Now, if you believe, you know,
in superstition, if you believe in the operation of the Holy
Spirit independent of the gospel, not in conjunction with it, if
you believe that men are converted by warm feelings and supernatural
experiences, if you believe that God uses a multitude of means,
all kinds of things, and does not use the means that He said
that He uses, then you might leave some room for anything
and everything that men say and do in the name of worship. But
if you believe God, you don't. You don't. Verse 20, Brethren,
be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be children,
but in understanding be men. There are situations in which
it's commendable to be like little children. Our Lord told His disciples
who shushed those children away, He said, you don't shush them
children away. You don't forbid them to come
to Me. And He called them up, set them on His lap, and He looked
at them and He said, except you become as one of these little
ones, you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God. It's
commendable to be like little children in circumstances. Little
children are tender-hearted. You have to be careful what you
say to a child. He's tender-hearted. He's not
hard-hearted like you are. He's tender-hearted. You hurt
his feelings. He's quick to forgive. Quick
to forgive. He's willing to be taught. And
he's free from pride and vainglory and without guile and hypocrisy.
He hadn't learned yet to pretend. He just says the truth. You know,
I was looking online the other day and something came to me
about a story I'd heard when I was just a kid. It's about
a king. The king's new suit. And they
made him some clothes. They taught this when I was a
kid. It's one of Aesop's fables. But these shysters came into
town and they told him that they could make him a fine pair of
clothes. And he said, these are not just
your average clothes. He said, these are invisible
to every man who's not worthy to be a member of your kingdom.
And he can't see anything. But all those that are worthy,
they can see it. And so it went on and on. And finally, even the king couldn't
see it, but he acted like he put them on and those shysters
put the clothes on him and everything. He went out parading around town
buck naked. And everybody commented, oh,
what a glorious set of clothes. What a beautiful suit. And they
was on and on describing it. And this little kid was standing
there on the corner with his parents and said, Mama, the king
ain't got no clothes on. They have not learned to pretend
yet. They are no guile in a child. And then everybody else, they
knew this child was without guile, and everybody else said, you
know what? He does not have any clothes on, does he? That is what happens when the
Lord convinces you of sin, too. Those clothes you thought you
had on, they are not clothes at all. Not clothes at all. Be not children in understanding. But be like children when it
comes to these other things. Our Lord said to His disciples,
except you become as one of these little ones, you're not going
to enter in. But in your thinking, in your
judgments, don't be like a child. Act as mature men with understanding. And mostly here, He's talking
about their childish ways of thinking about spiritual gifts,
and especially with this gift of tongues. I've heard some things in my past and have experienced
these things with charismatic religion, and the best way to
describe their pretense of worship is childish and immature and
superstitious. Verse 21, in the law it's written,
with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto
this people. And yet for all that they will
not hear me, saith the Lord." Men are not converted by signs
and wonders, but by the Spirit of God through the gospel. It's
God's purpose to speak to these men because He has a people. He has a people in every tribe,
every Indian tribe, every Group of people that go under the heading
of tribe. God has a people in every tribe. Every kindred. Every tongue. Every people under heaven. And
He's going to communicate with them. He's not going to change
His means. He's just going to gift His messengers to be able
to speak in their language. And He's going to call them the
same way He called you. And they're going to understand what He said. Verse 22. We're for tongues are
for a sign not to them which believe, but to them that believe
not. God accompanied these apostles
and early preachers with these supernatural gifts because His
Word was not yet complete. And it become a sign to them.
You can read about that in Hebrews 2, 3, and 4. That man whom God
has sent, He's going to quit with the job he sent him to do.
He sent Walter Groover down to Mexico 50 some years ago. And
that man was able to learn that language and speak that language
as fluently as those who were raised in it. But for prophesying serveth not. It serveth not for them that
believe not. but for them who believe it.
It has nothing to offer the unbeliever. There's nothing offered to the
unbeliever without understanding and without faith. There's nothing
there. Now, here's the gist of that
statement. Inspired preaching and teaching,
that is, interpreting God's will and God's redemptive purpose,
serves to edify only those that believe. They're the only ones
who benefit from it. Unbelievers receive nothing from
the gifts and ministry of God's messengers, nothing. To benefit
from the gospel necessitates a regeneration. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see, he cannot perceive the Kingdom of God. John 3, verse
3. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, that is, the water of the Word and the Spirit
of the living God, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. It is not according to our works,
Paul said, or our will, but according to His mercy He saved us. According to His mercy, He saved
us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. And this washing and renewing
is abundantly shed on the believer through Jesus Christ our Savior. Nothing washes and renews like
a full understanding, a full revelation of Jesus Christ our
Savior. But as glorious as this gospel
is, it has no effect on them that believe not. Paul tells
us over in Hebrews chapter 4 that those rebels who provoked God
into wilderness, who murmured all the way across, who provoked
God into wilderness, heard the gospel the same as we did. But they were not profited by
it, not being mixed in faith in them that heard it. has no
effect upon unbelieving men and women. It does not yield any
cleansing, any renewing, any rejoicing, any peace, or any
spirit of worship. It just goes, it's like water
rolling off a duck's back. You wax your car, get a good
coat of wax on there, and the next time you wash it, spray
it with that water hose, and it just beads up in little beads
and runs off. That's the way the gospel is with those who
believe not. It has no effect. No effect. They're not convicted. Their
heart's not broken. They don't bow down to listen.
They're not enabled, not made meat to receive the inheritance
of the saints and like. In fact, the only benefit they
receive is a warning from God to flee the wrath to come. Verse
23. If, therefore, the whole church
be come together in one place, and all speak with tongues, that
is, all those officiating over the service, and there come in
those that are unlearned or unbelievers, what are they going to say? What's that say there? They're
going to say they're all mad. They're all mad. If all prophesy,
all those conducting the service, if they all prophesy, preach,
and there come in one that believeth not, and one unlearned, he is
convinced of all, and he is judged of all. And thus, see that word
thus underlying that thing? Put about four or five lines
under it, and then put two or three circles around it. And
then when you get home, take a highlighter and highlight it.
Thus. Exactly what he's just described. Thus are the secrets of his heart
made manifest. And so falling down on his face,
he will worship God. And when he goes home, he's going
to report that God is in you of a truth. In you of a truth. How'd that come? Thus. Thus. It comes through preaching and
prophesying. Listen to these. You believe this book is divinely
inspired? You believe this is the Word
of God? Or just a version of it? Just
somebody's opinion of it? What do you believe concerning
the Word of God? Well, listen to the words of
divine inspiration. How shall you call on Him in
whom you have not believed? And how shall you believe in
him of whom you have not heard? And how shall you hear without
a preacher? And how is he going to preach
except he be sent?" And he said, this gospel is preached and yet
some do not believe. But he said, here is the outcome
of the whole thing. You read about it over in Romans
chapter 10. He said, therefore faith cometh by hearing. hearing
by the Word of God. And you say, well, we have the
Word of God. Yes, but Paul already established in Romans chapter
3 that there's none that understand it. And there's none that seeketh
after God. You're not going to call on the
name of the Lord until God sends you a man to tell you who He
is, and why He came, and what He did, and where He is. No chance encounters with God,
no accidental circumstances. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And when a man hears from God
who's promised to accompany his preachers, the secrets of that
man's heart is unlocked. They're unlocked. He sees them
and he believes everybody around him sees them. They may reel to him. His sins
become real. They become real time. The secrets
of his heart is revealed and his heart is broken. His refuge
is torn down and he falls on his face and worships God. And he goes home to his wife
and children and he goes to his workplace and to his friend and
he says, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. He
said, I've never cared much for those people. Never really give anything, any
sort of divine consent to anything that goes on over there. But
I'm going to tell you something. God's in them. And He made Himself
known to me. Preaching is preeminent in the
worship of God's saints because He ordained it to be so. And
even in our prayers and in our hymns, we are to keep this gospel
and our understanding of it at the forefront. To sing heresy
is just as bad as it is to preach it.