I invite you tonight to turn to 1 Corinthians 14. We conclude after this, sometime this section beginning at chapter 12 through 14 on gifts. And tonight we'll consider verses 20 through 40 to the end of the chapter. And then next time we're on the resurrection, the pastor on the resurrection. And shortly we will conclude our study in this book. So tonight, 1 Corinthians 14, beginning at verse 20. This is the word of the Lord. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written by people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people. And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign, not for unbelievers, but for believers. If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he's called to an account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you what then brothers when you come together each one has a hymn a lesson a revelation a tongue or an interpretation let all things be done for building up if any speak in a tongue let there be only two or at most three and each in turn and let someone interpret but if there is no one to interpret let each one of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and be encouraged. And the spirit of the prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not the God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints. The women should keep silent in the churches. They're not permitted to speak but should be in submission as the law also says. If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home for it's shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or was it from you that the Word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. I always thought that if I had the opportunity to sit down with the Apostle Paul and ask him all the questions that I wanted to ask, You know, all of the confusion on matters of worship and practice would just go right away, right? We could just get it all solved right then and there. If we just brought Paul back for an hour, you know, get it all answered. Why have there been so many different views, so many different practices on certain things? if we could just sit down and ask paul about worship the regular principle of worship if we could make everything uniform we could get it all just right down perfect it would all be black and white for us and we'd have no more problems right so i was thinking about this i realized well that's impossible because not even the first century with paul there got it this church was just as much of a mess as the churches are in 2015 and paul was there paul's writing to them paul's commanding them as an apostle it was because everyone as we looked at in this book seemed to have competing agendas of what they thought the church should be how do you move forward in situations like that i mean real really one person believes this one person believes that what is to regulate us and what if both are biblical convictions what if in the history of church there have been biblical convictions on certain points and how do we handle that does the tradition itself decide what do we do I was interested to learn that for all the ways that we quote Calvin Knox was being rather obnoxious in his convictions and Calvin wrote a scathing letter telling him to knock it off it's fascinating to me that we really should all be after the good of the body we really should let this principle we've been taught deny yourself dominate us you must follow that rule for the greater good of the body and i believe paul's teaching us that tonight i believe he's given us the intention of the commands that's where paul ultimately takes us with the plethora of these problems this massive problems that corinth the church in corinth face and tonight we have a great way in which the the apostle corrected the problems He's been working toward this. He said that we should learn to think less of ourselves and our understandings, deny ourselves, and be willing to put the interests of others, even on conviction areas, in lesser matters, even before our own. He taught us that the principle of love should control us and direct our thoughts and actions and that we should check our motives in that. Here tonight, we're led to the ultimate source of authority in which Paul commands us. It's God's word. It's God's word. That's where that ended, didn't it? After that long run, it ended on saying, if any of you think you're spiritual, if any of you really think you've understood something, then you should acknowledge that the things which I write here are the commandments of the Lord. He hit them hard at the end of this. And that is his great conclusion to the great problem in Corinth. God's word commands us, but why? Why is he commanding us on these particular issues? Are the commands just without reason? In worship, he commands us. This is a section on worship. But the goal of the commandments are provided here. That is so important for us. It's not just to command us. It's not just to bring us into conformity. It has all of the commands have the goal of the edification of God's people and the glory of His name. If we forget that, we might end up just fighting for commands only because they were commanded and never understand the intention of them. And then we're no better than Pharisees. What's the intention of the commands? If we're truly spiritual people and we understand the intention of the commands, that will then help us in the application of our convictions. We're concluding a study tonight on the tongues issue. And essentially God is saying, my goal for you is that when you come together in worship, here's the great goal, it's for your understandings to be opened up. This is what he's telling us here. Sure, it's the glory of his name, the magnification of Christ, but how will that take place without understandings being opened up? Understandings have to be opened up. And members in the body are given to be of a benefit so that that occurs. Our gifts should be promoting understandings being opened up. And when we're controlled by love, our worship has the goal that we so understand his gospel love to the end that the whole body of Christ would be edified and that when unbelievers come in, they see that. they want that if we've learned that well we as the eurc have learned the will of god for our place in his kingdom and worship i hope you see how important this section is tonight paul concludes with what i boiled it down i think are about two major thoughts here here it is confusion's not from god but when we come to worship things should be orderly with the goal of promoting edification and understanding confusion is not from god and when we come to worship things should be orderly to promote edification and understanding in verses 20 through 25 he makes a single great point that confusion is nothing to trifle with god hates it it's a sign of displeasure in his part it's not a blessing and he essentially raises the issue that the way they were using tongues the way they were practicing tongues they hadn't considered in history something that meant that they are tampering with judgment everyone look at verse 20 brothers do not be children in your thinking be infants and evil but in your thinking be mature listen to brothers you have become really mature in sin is what you've done and in your understanding you're just a bunch of babies but it should be reversed that's his point now remember what he said last time tongue speaking had become so abused confusion was the result and he said if you speak in a tongue remember a known language without an interpreter it's like you're speaking gibberish you're crazy to people that doesn't profit somebody that's not the intention of the gift a tongue has to be if it's used interpreted Think of the purpose of tongues. Paul has already said it's not a corner thing for you and God. Gift that God gives in tongue speaking, it's a gift. He's already laid the foundation in saying all gifts are not for you, but for the edification of the body. Tongues were needed because the gospel was going out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And tongues were needed because the apostles didn't speak all those languages. So the Spirit would come upon them and he would give them a foreign tongue. They'd be able to speak it and it would be used for certain people. Not all may have understood that language. So to make it very clear for everyone, interpreters were needed. But what good is the use of that gift if you are off by yourselves doing that or if you're speaking something that nobody understands? Paul says, you may be speaking to God, but you're not helping out people. What profit is that? There's no profit in that. That's not what a gift does. It should promote understanding. And therefore, he said last time, prophecy is better. Prophecy is better. Remember, they didn't have the canon at that time. So that gift of prophecy was the clear revealing and explaining in fulfillment of Jesus Christ's work from the Old Testament. And today we have that as we open the word and exposit the word of God. That's called preaching. But the point is, it was the clear revealing of truth, the clear making known of truth, so that you say, wow, I get it, I get it. I understand it. Whoa, that's exciting. I never got that before. It's the goal. Paul writes home now, drives home the point on confusion. In verse 21, he says, in the law it's written, By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Paul does, what he does here is loosely cite Isaiah 28. And while that's interesting, I want you to listen to the whole context of that just for a minute. Listen to this. To whom will he teach knowledge? And to whom will he explain the message? Big question. Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast, for it is precept upon precept, a precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, for here it is, by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people to whom he has said, this is the rest, give rest to the weary and this is the repose, yet they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go and fall backward and be broken, be snared and taken. Whoa, what in the world is that? I'll tell you what it was. Years God had spoken His Word clearly to Israel. They didn't listen. They didn't listen. And God said, listen, if you don't listen, I'm going to send to rise up another nation that's going to come and carry you all away. And He did that. He said, remember what happened? When the Assyrians came, they came and they hauled off Israel. They hauled them away and they spoke to them in a tongue they didn't understand. And that means then that tongues became judgment to them. They didn't understand. The judgment was no understanding. It was cut off. So, what that means is that in history, when tongues of different languages were not understood, Paul says, it's a sign of judgment. You don't want to introduce confusion into the church. That has been evidenced of God's displeasure throughout history. You don't want to tamper with confusion. You don't want to bring in confusion. All confusion that the church in Corinth was diffusing was a bad sign of God's disfavor and God's now showing favor by putting a stop to it. I can't emphasize that point enough. Do we think in these terms that one of the greatest blessings of the ministry is when people are excited about understanding the Scriptures, that that's a sign of God's favor? I'll never forget reading years ago R.L. Dabney's little book called Evangelical Eloquence. I think it was earlier titled Sacred Rhetoric. And what stood out in that little book was something that he said, and I always took it with me in the ministry. He said, don't worry about doing something other than what the text that is in front of you. In other words, you preach that text that is in front of you. Pastors come to texts and then they get nervous that this text is too hard, and so they have to fill her. They use filler. They preach everything else other than the text. That's the great sin of our day. We don't preach the text. And Dabney said, you preach that text because God's put a hunger in His people's hearts for it. You just preach that text. And so that when it is plainly and clearly taught, even if it's ox-goring, right? Even if it's the stuff in Leviticus, He has put a hunger in His people's hearts and they want to understand God's Word. They want to know what it means. Don't you enter in confusion by not explaining the text. I just ran with that. I thought, that's it. That's it. That's how the congregation grows. That's how a congregation lives. That's the bread God gives. It's a sad state of affairs when the message is not understood. When it's not clear. When it's not plain. when it's not hitting the heart and people remain in darkness and they don't grow. That is terrible. I was reading an article last week that maybe Christianity in America is dying because it's boring everyone to death. Not what you think though. The convenience, he says, the easy atmosphere, the no content, the borrowing of all the world's methods, the effeminate pastor with his stories. The author said, I turned around as I sat in a worship service and I looked around and no one was even listening. No one was absorbing. Nobody was taking in. Makes sense. No engagement with God's word. Everything's lost. We have nothing else to offer. God's after your minds. Did you know that? He wants your minds. And He wants to grow the minds. and confusion is a sign of judgment that's his point with tongues why do tongues exist well if you understand why tongues exist verse 22 tongues are for a sign sign for what well he says why they ever existed they're a sign not for you get that not for you again they were designed to be a benefit to who those who've never heard prophesying is for you it's for your edification which is god's goal for you but tongues was for a people to hear the gospel for the first time in their own language but then they would move on to the prophecy so paul presents the scenario here and this is what I, I love this about this text. This is one of my favorite sermons in 1 Corinthians. I mean that, of all the sermons. I want you all to look carefully at what he says here. Verse 23, you all have gathered. Let's imagine this scenario, says Paul. And you all simultaneously start speaking in tongues. And lo and behold, an unbeliever walks in. What do you think he's going to say? You guys are a bunch of crazies. But if you all prophesy and someone without understanding comes in or an unbeliever comes in, the goal of that conviction is about the truth, isn't it? That he understands the truth. Then what might happen? He might get convicted. And here's the great fruit. The secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face he will worship god and declare god is really among you that is a wonderful verse talk about the means being the mission talk about the means of grace is the mission of the church don't you love it notice how the apostle just prioritized the ministry he's so balanced he never lost sight of the goal why are we doing this well he's presented to us two real goals here number one is the edification of the body isn't and the second one is a witness to those who don't believe don't forget that i can't help but see here that the church in corinth was so inwardly focused it was so all about them all about their divisions their fightings their discord their sectarian behavior they lost the entire goal of what they were doing. The entire purpose of Christian ministry was what? To edify and to reach. Notice how this burdened Paul. Paul said earlier, I've become all things to all men. Why? That I might win the more. I have a goal with my life. I'm about winning people. I want people to come in. Oh, they may not understand much. Some won't even believe. But I want them to come. Do you want that? Does it show? And you see, if they do something in their practices, not the core of what we confess, Would you be willing to come alongside them? Maybe deny yourself. Maybe even your own conscience. To help them. Would we care about that? I remember when I was in seminary, I needed Highwell Jones. Let me tell you why I needed Highwell Jones. Highwell Jones, one day in class, he was so good at restraining students in a very wise way. Students need to be restrained. I was the one who needed to be restrained. We become so idealistic. And we idolize men. And we get in a tower. And we bash everyone who's not reformed. We were good at that. I remember Harold Jones saying, don't be too hard on all those evangelicals. Don't be too hard on all those other churchgoers who aren't reformed. who don't understand much. We've all been there. That seems so simple, but it always stuck with me. We all were there. If you fight them, if you treat them like that, and we're jerks to them, how do you think you're going to win them? That's what Paul would say. I know Paul would say that. Because he just said it right there. I needed to hear that. Paul gives two categories of people. Did you catch it? The unbeliever and the uninformed. Do we get a lot of sheer unbelievers walking in? It's a post-Christian culture. Most people who walk in today, they've had some contact with Christianity. Most who walk into the Escondido URC are going to say they believe. What category then would they fall under? The uninformed. Those who have little knowledge. Those today who we typically separate from. The uninformed need it just as much. Did you know that? The uninformed need it as much as the unbelievers. And yet I fear we have nothing to do with the uninformed because they're not as informed as us. That is Paul's spirit here. That is Paul's drive here. we have to be patient with them paul wanted them to come and members would care not so much about just their correctness but about helping them to understand its work its effort it takes time you have to invest your life with people and today it's not done over the internet it's done face-to-face. You've got to build that. And here, the design of the ministry is so clear. Paul's intention, Paul's direct, Paul's effective, Paul is promoting understanding that these people, when they walk in, would see what? Great love for one another, but here's what I love. Here's how they're one. Here's how they're one. When they see love, yes. When they see sacrifice, yes but did you notice what he said when they sit there and the message is so clear and so penetrating and it got to the heart they say god got into my heart that's good preaching that's good preaching what do i mean notice he says it if all prophesy and an unbeliever, verse 24, or outsider enters and he's convicted by all, he's called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. I mean, that is just beautiful. Preaching should have that kind of effect. Preaching should have the kind of effect, and we should pray for this, that it gets into people's hearts and it's preached so effectively it bears witness in their consciences. It gets inside and it gets to the conscience and the person says, good grief, this man's preaching at me. That's God. The only conclusion is, how did he know that about my life? That should be the effect. And when he has that experience, he falls down on his face and he says, God's in this place and he worships him. That's a pretty good evangelistic plan, isn't it? I know God's in this place. The ministry should be having that effect. Which, if it's not, something's wrong. To which I say, when it's not clear or effective, you're not going to see that kind of conviction in your lives or in those who come in. Do you pray for that? When you come on Sundays, do you pray for that? that in your heart you said, Pastor Gordon really nailed me today. Boy, he got into my heart. And he drove me to Christ. Do you pray that for the person coming in who's sitting next to you? I have to say, we may not have the problem of speaking in tongues, but we can be so theory-driven. We can make this such an academic exercise that it's almost as if we're speaking in another tongue. We've gotten nowhere into people. We need a generation of preacher who preaches to the conscience. Thomas Watson used to say that. He used to say all the time, that preaching is to be desired that shows men's their hearts. We can be like Corinth and it's not done in love and our ministry is like a code world for the super elite that nobody can get in. And that was similar to the Sanhedrin who did nothing but sit around and argue about how to keep the law all day long. And no one could get into the club because they were legally driven. They were not gospel-driven. Paul says there's a goal. It's understanding. It's edification and witness. So now he closes this by telling you what worship should look like. Here you get it. He draws out the great conclusion our worship should be orderly. And it should have the goal of promoting that understanding. To promote understanding. That's the great principle of worship. That's what we should be after. Reverent worship that promotes understanding. Look at verse 26. What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. we get a good sense of early first century worship right here remember in the apostolic age revelation gifts were still in practice so he describes worship this way notice this each one of you has a hymn the word could mean psalm could mean song of praise I believe in light of the fact that the whole thing is talking about each one individually bringing something and they came with a revelation. They wrote their songs and they brought them in. So I'm not so far off. That's Kim Ritterbogger's position. And he even says it was probably with musical accompaniment. I don't know. They brought a song and they composed it. Each one would bring one. Singing was evidently something practiced in the early church. And each one would come in with a teaching or a lesson. Remember, there's no New Testament. They didn't have this to exposit at that point, which is a fair point. They didn't have this yet. This is something bringing to bear the Old Testament and these gifts were being used in that way. And then you would have the tongue and they would speak in the tongue and it would need to be interpreted. But Paul's goal here is the tongues. Notice that. When that gift is used, there should be no more than two or three who speak. and in that it is not to be a collective voice of gibberish all at once no no no no no each in his own turn remember we looked at this gift we believe died with the apostles still in practice in Corinth so he says if there's no interpreter no one should even do it stop it he has to keep silent in the church pretty clear when it comes to prophecy let let it be the same or or two or three notice this uh prophecy is subject here to judgment meaning no one can just say anything that comes to his mind that's really important too there's an accountability structure to this there's there's elder oversight to this that there's authority to this but it has oversight it needs to be judged no one can just willy-nilly say whatever comes to their mind when they get up and speak has to be faithful to the revelation of god whatever spirit you're receiving has to be he noticed here subject to the prophets gift of discernment chapter 12 is necessary provides instruction about women women are to keep silent in worship services again in the mystery cult prophetesses were out of control it probably gets to a lot to the letting down of the hair and the problem in chapter 11 paul appeals to the law paul says god had never ordained it from the beginning and this is that creation god never ordained it from the beginning for a woman to have this kind of leadership in the church over a man if they want to learn something they should do it at home that's how the design is but when you come to corporate worship it is not right for a woman to exercise and ever be a pastor or a speaker presenting the word of god in worship that is flatly against god's creation law notice it's not just cultural creation he goes back to let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness i don't permit a woman first timothy to teach or exercise authority over a man she has to be quiet for Adam was formed first, then Eve. There's creation. Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived. But here's the great goal tonight. Verse 31, notice this. One by one goal that all may be encouraged and learn. See? Learn. For God, big verse, is not the God of confusion. but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. You see the issue? Everything should be done in good order for this goal of understanding. Now this supports everything we've built to tonight, that all the practices of their music, of their songs, of their tongues, of their prophecy, of this gibberish mess, that there was no order, all of it was being borrowed from the culture and the mystery cults. And Paul's regulating this. Paul says it reaches all the way to the music. It reaches all the way to the way that truth is being conveyed. And you're not forgetting God has a government to this. That's why government's so important. God loves order, you guys, he says. He knew people didn't like this. He knew somebody would come back and say, oh, Paul, you're number one a chauvinist. Or you're just beating the culture. Or you're a fundamentalist. Or you're this or you're that. And he concludes this section by saying this, did you guys write the Word of God? Did it come from you? Has it only come to you? No, it's gone to other people, hasn't it? If you're spiritual, if you're spiritual, you should acknowledge that these things are the commandments of the Lord. If you don't want to do that and you want to remain ignorant, then you can remain ignorant and you shouldn't be recognized in the church. But anyone who is spiritual should acknowledge these are God's commandments. Paul concludes by saying, so what should you desire? You should desire the clear revelation of God's word, prophecy, which shows today its form in preaching. But it all needs to be done decently and in good order. What was God's intention? Well, his intention was, dear Christians, that you be built up. I mean, think about how good God is. He wants you built up. And it's sad when a church can get in the way of that project, That great project of making the gospel clear so that people become saved by sad, foolish divisions like this. Or just about the correctness of practices. We can forget the entire goal of this. His laws are meant to be a blessing to us and as we walk in them, you see the intention. He's saving in the church. He's saving through the means of grace. as the gospel's going out to the ends of the earth. We should praise him that he cares to do this. And we should praise him and ask every time we come to worship that our understandings would be open, that we would know him and the one whom he has sent, that we would love his word and grow in grace and in truth. May our worship always be careful to honor his great desire to make his name known. to the nations. And may the Escondido URC share in that great purpose with clarity, conviction, passion, and understanding. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, so grateful that You, Lord, teach us and in many ways lay forth Your own desire and heart here that understanding be promoted and that if there were somebody to come in here to have us think a lot about how we're embracing them, helping them. That the uninformed would become informed. And that we would never be a stumbling block to them. But that as the Apostle was inspired to say that he became all things to all men in order that he might win the more that we might share that same spirit, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow You as we witness of the wonderful works and ways that You've made known to us in Your Gospel. May our church here at the Escondido URC, which is Your church, may it be faithful to the intention and design that You gave it. Thank You for working so powerfully to teach us in these chapters over these months. May they set deeply in our hearts and may our ways be reformed. And may we always be thinking a lot about the greater good of the body, the edification of the body, that your saints may be built up, that you would be glorified and that people would understand your amazing love in Christ Jesus. In whose name we pray together tonight. Amen.