1 Corinthians chapter 14. Verse
33. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches
of the saints. I've entitled this message confusion
or peace. The public worship services at
the church of Corinth were a mess. Now this was a true gospel church,
but they were a mess. Look what he says in verse 40.
of this same chapter. He says, let all things be done
decently and in order. And the fact of the matter is
that they were not being done decently nor in order. They had
people standing up and speaking in foreign languages. Everybody
was speaking at the same time. They even had people praying
in foreign languages and praying at the same time. They had women
speaking out in the services. And when Paul says God is not
the author of confusion, the word means literally he's not
the author of instability. He's not the author of anarchy. And that's the way their services
were. You wouldn't have enjoyed being
there. And Paul is rebuking them throughout the whole book, really. Now, these people did have these
supernatural gifts that they were using. They really could
speak in tongues. They could speak in other languages. They did have people who could
actually get up and say, thus saith the Lord. And it was really
the Lord saying it. There were people who had the
gift of prophecy. You see, they didn't yet have
the New Testament the way you and I have it. And these gifts
were actually being practiced. But through extreme immaturity,
they were abusing them. What it comes down to is they
were a bunch of show-offs. They were trying to show off
their gifts. Look in 1 Corinthians 3. This
is what was behind all of this. Paul says, and I, brethren, could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with
meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither now
are you able. For you are yet carnal." You act just like unbelievers. You look like unbelievers, the
way you're conducting yourself. the way your worship services
are being conducted. He said, you're carnal, you're
utterly fleshly. This is not spiritual. God's
not envious. He says, for whereas there's
among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal
and walk as men? You're acting like unbelievers
because you're filled with envy, strife and divisions. Now you
think of those three words he uses to describe the Corinthian
church. He said, you're envious. You're
envious. That's that feeling of uneasiness
at the sight of somebody else's prosperity. You envy them. You're not happy about it. You're
thinking it ought to be me. You're jealous. Jealous of what
they had. It's the opposite of love. He
said there's strife. There's rivalry. There's competition.
There's one trying to get one up on the other. One trying to
jump over the other. There are divisions. There are
people in the church separating from one another. Now, that's
what was behind all this confusion and this indecency and this anarchy
is what it was. He says God's not the author
of anarchy. He's not the author of confusion.
He's the author of peace. Now, look back in verse 26, 1
Corinthians 14. We'll pick up there. Now, how is it then, brethren?
When you come together, and that's what a church does, we come and
assemble together to worship our Lord together. He says, every
one of you hath a Psalm, hath a doctrine. hath a tongue, hath
a revelation, hath an interpretation." They did have these things, but
he said, let all things be done into edifying for building up,
not for showing off, but for the building up of the church,
for the blessing of the church. Make sure everything's done into
edification. Verse 27, if any man speak in an unknown tongue,
let it be by two or at the most by three. And that, by course,
in order, and let one interpret. If somebody stands up speaking
in a foreign language, let no more than two or three people
do it. No more than that. And make sure you do it in order,
and don't do it at all unless there's an interpreter. There's
nothing to somebody getting up and speaking in another language.
If you don't have an interpreter, stay silent, don't speak up.
He says verse 28, but if there be no interpreter, let him keep
silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to God. Verse 29, let the prophet speak
two or three and let the other judge. There were prophets at
that time. And remember the New Testament had not yet been written
and somebody could stand up and say, thus sayeth the Lord and
the Lord said it. It would actually be God speaking
through these people, thus saith the Lord. And he says, well,
if you have prophets, let that be by two or three also. You
don't need to hear more than two or three of them. I'm thankful
for one preacher, aren't you? How would you like to listen
to two or three sermons? Sometimes he says, I'd love it.
Well, I don't know how, don't know if I would. One's about
enough for me, two sometimes, but he said two or three at the
most. Verse 30, if anything be revealed
to another that saith by, let the first hold his peace, don't
interrupt him for you all may prophesy one by one that all
may learn and all may be comforted. That's not talking about every
member of the church. It's talking about everybody
had the gift of prophecy. You may all prophesy one by one that
all may learn and all may be comforted. Verse 32, and the
spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. If they say
anything contrary to what Isaiah said, or to what Jeremiah said,
or what any of the prophets said, it's not of God. You see, the
spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. They're subject
to the Old Testament Scriptures. And if what they're saying doesn't
line up with the message of the Old Testament Scriptures, it's
not of God. The spirits of the prophets are
always subject to the prophets. To the law and testimony, if
they speak not according to My Word, God said, it's because
there's no light in them. Verse 33, For God is not the
author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints.
We're going to come back to that in just a moment, but let's go
on reading. Let your women keep silence in the churches. For
it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they're commanded
to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they'll
learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it's
a shame for a woman to speak in the church. Now, many think
this is a cultural command that has no relevance today. Well, that's just wrong. That's
just wrong. Women are not to speak in the
church. They're not permitted to speak
in the assembly of the saints. And that was also true in the
Old Testament law. It's always been that way. And
if they'll learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home.
He says, it's a shame for a woman to speak. Now, if God's word
says this, that's enough for me. And it's enough for you ladies,
too. I know it is. You bow to God's
Word, just like submitting to your husbands. If God says to
submit to your husbands, you do it because God says to do
it. You do it because you want to, because you want to obey
God. But you know what I thought about this when I thought about
women keeping silence in the churches, and they're not called
to preach, they're not called to say things. Isn't this the
way a believer is with the Lord Himself? He doesn't need Our thoughts
on things, does he? What are we before the Lord?
We're silent. We're silent. Whatever he says
is right, and we really believe that, and we're silent. We don't
object to it. Whatever God says is right, we
keep our mouths shut before him. That's a thing of submission
to Him. And what the woman represents is the relationship between Christ
and His Church. He's the husband. We're the bride. We're the woman. And we have nothing to contribute
in that sense, do we? We have nothing to contribute.
We hear what He says. Be still, the Scripture says.
Be still and know that I am the Lord. I'm so comfortable with
that. I don't have any contribution
to make. I'm just thankful He lets me hear His Word. Be still
and know that I am the Lord. So this thing of women not speaking
in the church, somebody says, well, what if you, what, what,
what, what, you know, there's all kinds of things we can ask.
I realize that. I realize that. And I, you know, I think about
the things that the Lord puts on women. It'd be hard to be
a woman. I mean, I admire a woman who bows to what God says, because
I'd have a hard time. I'd say, well, he's speaking.
I know more than he does. Let me say something. You know,
I mean, that would be our natural way of thinking. But what this
is really about is submission, submission to God's Word. Whatever
he says is right. What we don't understand, we
ask our husband, the Lord Jesus, to make known to us. You know,
there's many things I don't understand. A whole lot more than I realize. Lord, show me what this means. Teach me. Don't you ask the Lord
to be your teacher. I want the Lord to teach me His
gospel. He says in verse 34, let your
women keep silence in the churches, for it's not permitted unto them
to speak, but they're 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's a shame for a
woman to speak in the church. What? Now they were speaking
in the church, and Paul's using some biting sarcasm in verse
36. He says, what? Came the word
of God out from you? Or came it unto you only? You're
doing all these things differently from the other churches. Do you
have some light that they don't have? That's what he's saying.
Does the rule of faith come from you? Has God given you permission
to do things that he forbids other churches to do? You see,
they had all this stuff going on and he said, this is not the
way the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ operate. And the
Corinthians were very arrogant in acting this way. Now he says
in verse 37, 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. If anybody has these gifts, let
him prove it by acknowledging that what I'm saying is coming
from God. That's to be acknowledged. Verse
38, but if any man be ignorant, Let him be ignorant. That is,
if any man be ignorant and refuses to acknowledge the divine authority
of my instructions, let him be ignorant. I'm not going to try
and convince him or waste my time disputing the point. What
I'm saying, Paul says, is clearly and obviously true. You know,
the truth is like that. When you hear the truth, you
know it's the truth, don't you? You just know it's the truth. The
truth recommends itself as being true. And it's a waste of time
to try to dispute with somebody who disagrees. Those who reject
this are to be left alone. Further disputation could do
no good at all. So if any man be ignorant, let
him remain ignorant. Don't try fighting with him.
Don't try to convince him. He's just willfully ignorant.
Wherefore, brethren, verse 39, covet to prophesy, covet to preach
the gospel clearly, and forbid not to speak with tongues, preaching
the gospel in other languages to other people. Let all things
be done decently and in order, not disorganized and unstable,
but in an orderly and well-arranged way. You see, God is a God of
order. And that had not been what was
going on in the Corinthian church. There was anarchy and confusion. Now let's go back to this verse
33. For God is not the author of
confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints. Now, what is the confusion being
spoken of? God's not the author of confusion.
Well, the word means literally instability. Anarchy. It's a state of disorder. It's a state of disturbance.
It's translated usually in the King James, tumult. Tumult. Like a row, a fight going on. My marginal reference calls it
unquietness. Unquietness. God's not the author
of that. Would you turn with me for a
moment to James chapter three? I preached on this a couple of
months ago. James chapter 3 verse 13. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Well, let him show out of a good
conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter
envy, and strife in your hearts. Glory not. Lie not against the
truth. This wisdom descended not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion. That's the word. There is confusion
and every evil work. And that's precisely what was
going on in the Church of Corinth. Envy, strife, division, Consequently,
there was confusion, there was anarchy, and Paul tells us that
God is not the author of confusion, but he is the author of peace. Peace finds its origin in God. Now, I'm interested in having
peace, aren't you? Peace is a feeling. And it's a good feeling. It's
a feeling I love to have. As a matter of fact, there isn't
anything more peaceful than feeling peaceful, is there? It's a great
feeling. And I want this feeling. Peace
is a feeling. And what a feeling it is. Peace. Now, seven times in the New Testament,
God is called the God of peace. Seven times. Seven being the
number of perfection and completion. God is the God of peace. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity,
is called the Prince of Peace. And God the Holy Spirit is represented
in the Scripture as a dove. A peaceful dove. God is the God of peace. And this is wonderful to think
about. He's not worried. He's not stressful. He sets in
regal splendor, undisturbed by opposition. That's a wonderful
thing to think about, isn't it? Even his anger and his wrath
is a peaceful anger, and it's a peaceful wrath. He doesn't
get red-faced and throw a temper tantrum the way we think of anger
and fury. You know, we get mad and we raise
our voice and our veins start popping out of our neck. God's
never been that way. Even his anger and his wrath
and his fury are peaceful. He's utterly just. It's with
regard to justice and righteousness. You and I, we're not like that.
We get crossed and we get mad, but God's anger and His wrath
and His fury is with regard to justice, perfect justice and
righteousness. God is the God of peace. He has nothing to worry about. He has no enemies that can overcome
Him. There are no circumstances that
he does not control. It's not just that he has the
right to control him, he does control him. Everything that
happens, he's the first cause behind. You know, the scripture
says, the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath thou shalt restrain. It's peaceful to think about
the peace of God. God is the God of peace. Oh,
the peace of God that passes all understanding. shall keep
your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus." Now, what is peace? Well,
I've already said it's a feeling, but peace more than anything
else is a harmonious relationship. No strain. No strain. No fighting. No contention. No anger. There's nothing to
be angry about. Peace. Peace. Turn to Colossians
chapter 1. We're going to look at several
scriptures regarding peace. Verse 20. And having made peace. Now this just strikes out that
question religious folks ask other folks. They say, have you
made your peace with God? No, I haven't. No, I haven't. Nor do I expect to. He made my
peace with God. Utterly and completely. having
made peace. And I love the strength of that
language. Peace has already been made. It's already been made. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself.
By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body
of His flesh through death. Reconciliation has already taken
place. And here's what he did by his
death, and here's our peace, to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Now, do you hear that? This describes
every believer. Because of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are holy. You are unblameable. There's
nothing to blame you for. you are unreprovable there's
nothing to reprove you for now if god says i'm holy i'm holy
if he says i'm unblameable i am unblameable he says things as
they really are now that is peace if this is true and it is it
is what do i have to worry about What do I have to be stressed
about? What do I, peace? Look in Romans
chapter four. Romans chapter four, verse 25. who was delivered for our offenses. That's why he was died. Our offenses,
our sin. He was delivered for our offenses
and he was raised again for our justification. Now, if I'm justified,
that means I'm not guilty. Justification means not. And when I think in my own experience,
I feel guilty all the time about something. I really do. Guilt's
a powerful motivator, isn't it? I mean, I wish it wasn't that
way, but it is with me. It shouldn't be. But this passage
of scripture tells me that he was raised again for my justification.
That means I don't have anything to feel guilty about. Not guilty
is God's sentence regarding me. Not guilty. Never did anything.
Perfect in my sight. Verse 1 of chapter 5, Therefore,
being justified, literally, having been justified, He was delivered
for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification.
When He was raised from the dead, I was justified. Having been
justified, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's at peace with me. And I'm
at peace with him. Turn to Romans 14. Verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink. It's not what you eat and what
you don't eat. It's not dos and don'ts. It's
not rules and regulations. It's not ceremonies. The kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. Now, who's righteousness? That's Christ's righteousness. Now, what do I get from knowing
that Christ is my righteousness before God? Peace. Peace, there's nothing to be
afraid of. If His righteousness is my righteousness, and if He
is, oh, what peace. And what happens after that?
Joy. This makes me joyful. I'm so
happy it's this way. I feel peace. He's my righteousness
before God. I lack nothing. All that God
requires, I really do have. I do. Oh, what peace I get. How
happy I am about that. What joy there is in that. Let's go on reading. Romans 14. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ." He believes God. He has the peace
that comes from Christ's righteousness. He has the joy that comes from
believing. We read in Romans 15, 13 of the
joy and peace of believing. You believe the gospel. Now you
listen to me real carefully. If you believe the gospel, you
have joy. And if you don't have joy at
that time, you're not believing. If you really believe the gospel,
you have joy and you have peace. The peace that passes all understanding.
Now, here's what we do. We start thinking, I need to
have joy and I need to have peace. Oh, I need to feel joy. I need
to feel peace. Or I'm in trouble. I need to work. Don't try working
it up. It's a waste of time and it's an exercise in futility.
And that's what our problem is. We try to work up something.
No. Believe He's all, and you will have joy, and you will have
peace. As soon as you start trying to have joy and peace, you'll
lose it every bit, and you'll be miserable. I know that, but
oh, the joy and peace of believing. Look what he says in verse 18. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore
follow or pursue after the things which make for peace, and things
wherewith one may edify another. Now, the Lord actually gives
his children a sense of this peace. Turn to John 14. John chapter 14. Verse 27. The Lord says peace. I leave with you. My peace I
give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. You know,
the world's got a kind of peace, but it's no good. He says, My
peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. I'm giving you my peace. Now,
you remember where else he said that? Let not your heart be troubled.
And this is connected with this thing of the peace of God that
passes all understanding. Look in chapter 14, verse 1.
Here's where it says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe in me. Now this is one of the most incredible
verses of scripture. I know most of you have seen
this, but look back up in verse 36 of chapter 13. Simon Peter
said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him,
whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt
follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why can't I follow
thee now? I'll lay down my life for thy sake. And Peter meant
it. He wasn't being a phony, he meant this. Jesus answered
him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till you have denied
me three times. Let not your heart be troubled. Now, how could that be? How could that be? You tell me
I'm going to deny you three times, and then you say, let not your
heart be troubled. How could that be? Well, look
in John chapter 16. I'll answer that question. Verse 29. His disciples said unto him,
Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. As if
he didn't speak plainly before. Now are we sure thou knowest
all things, and needeth not that any man should ask thee? By this we believe thou camest
forth from God." Don't you think the Lord felt a whole lot better
about their affirmation? We can believe you now. We can believe
you now. Jesus answered them, do you now believe? You're talking
big. Do you now believe? Behold, the
hour cometh, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. All these fellows
forsook the Lord. Peter wasn't the only one. Where
were John and Matthew and all those fellows at the cross? They
all left him too. They were scared to death. He
said, behold, the hour cometh, yea, now has come that you shall
be scattered every man to his own and you'll leave me alone,
yet I'm not alone because the Father is with me. Now, these
things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world, you'll have nothing
but trouble, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. In me, our Lord says, in the
Lord Jesus Christ. My peace is utterly and completely
in Him. And that's how He can say, you're
going to deny me three times, let not your heart be troubled,
because my peace is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in who He
is and what He did, period. and what peace we enjoy from
that. Oh, the joy and peace of believing.
Ephesians 2.14 says He is our peace. He is our peace. Now, because of that, I have
peace with God's providence. Right now I do. I don't know
what will happen when I go out the door and somebody cuts me
off or is rude to me, but right now, I'm glad for right now,
right now I have peace with God's providence. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. No matter what it is, it's the
Lord. Whatever he does is right, it's best, and I have peace.
Whatever he does with me, I have peace. I want to say this reverently,
whatever he does, I'm sure okay with it. Because whatever He
does is right. May God give me the grace to
really believe that and really rest in that. I don't want to
be one of these people who bows to His prophethood simply because
I have no choice. Well, nothing I can do about
it. Might as well, you know, just take it, endure it and get
through it. No, I don't want to. No, whatever He does is best. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good.
This is the will of God, whatever it is. This is the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you. Whatever He does is best. Even
the stuff that's painful and difficult, it's best. I believe that right now. May
God give me grace to continue to believe it. I've got peace
with His providence and I have peace with my brethren. You see,
we're not competing. We love one another. And if you're
prospered, you know who else is prospered? I am. If you're blessed, you know who
else is blessed? I am. I joy in your blessing
if I love you. And I tell you what, if you hurt,
you know who else hurts? I hurt. You see, we're brethren. We're one in Christ Jesus. We're
not competing. We're not trying to get up one
over the other. We're brethren. Brethren who love each other.
And I'm at peace with my brethren. Truly, we're of one accord. That's
real. We're of one accord. The will
of God is what we want done. Is that what you want done? Can
you say from your heart, Thy will be done? Well, I can too. We've got the same will, don't
we? Is the glory of Christ what you want more than anything else?
Me too. We're of one accord. That's our
desire together. So we're at peace with each other. And you know, I'm at peace with
unbelieving men, the unbelieving world in this sense. Now let
me understand what I'm saying. I'm at peace with the unbelieving
world that I'm vexed when I'm around. I tell you what, there's
a lot of difficult things about being a preacher, being a pastor. But there are other things about
it that are great perks. One of the things being I don't
have to be around unbelievers the way everybody else does. I'm thankful
for that. I know how difficult it is to
be around unbelievers and so on. It can be so difficult. I like just staying in my study
and reading the Bible. It's a lot easier. What do people get in fights
over? What are they warring over? People get in fights over because
somebody's got something they want and they want to take it. They
want it. They want to get it. That's what the fighting that's
going on in the world is all about. But I can say this, and
mean it, regarding the world, they don't have anything that
I want. And I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
They don't have anything I want, and I got everything they need.
I have Christ. And the Lord gives the world
the world. That's what they want. They can
have it. They can have it. So I'm at peace with unbelievers
in this sense. I'm not trying to take anything
from them. They don't have anything I want. I got all things in Christ
Jesus. And I'm just satisfied with that. I'm at peace. Now God is not the author of
confusion. He's not the author of instability
and anarchy and strife and discord and division. He's the author
of peace. And isn't it wonderful to be
in a peaceful place? A place where the gospel of peace is everything. May God grant
us at all times the joy and peace of believing. God is the God
of peace. He's not the author of confusion,
but He is the author of peace. Let's pray together.