Alright, we’re picking up in verse 5 now, and here the apostle Paul is, often using hypothetical suggestions and situations, often using his own sarcasm as he does frequently in this book, trying to correct the excessive use of tongues and the counterfeiting of tongues in the church at Corinth.

Look what he says beginning in verse 5, we’re still under the first major heading of general information. Alright, verse 5. “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues”. Now, Paul is not being serious here, of course, because he said in chapter 12 at the last part, “all do not have the gift of tongues. All are not prophets, all do not have miracles, all do not have healings”. He’s just throwing out a hypothetical thing to make his point, what he’s saying is, and remember, he’s using here the plural tongues.

I believe John MacArthur is right, in the early part of chapter 14, when you see the plural word “tongues”, he’s referring to the genuine gift of tongues that God gave the early church. And early, in the early parts of chapter 14, when he uses the singular word “tongue” he’s referring to the ecstatic gibberish or the counterfeit gift of tongues. Alright. So here we have the plural and I believe he’s saying, I wish all of you had this genuine gift of the holy spirit to speak in another intelligible language other than the one you know. For instance he’s saying, if that was God’s will, if somehow God wanted every one of you to have it, since every one of you seem to want it, hallelujah, if that’s God’s will, I’m for it. See, he’s just throwing out something to prove his point, he’s not giving an emphatic doctrine or teaching there.

But then he continues like he has already several times, “but even more that you would prophecy”. Once again, Paul is saying, why say a bunch of things nobody understands, spiritual gifts are for the other folks anyway, if your spiritual gift is never for you, its better that you have the gift of prophecy functioning in your church so clear instructions, exhortations, reproofs, rebukes and teachings can be learned by all. And then he continues “and greater is the one who prophecies then the one who speaks in tongues”. And immediately in the church at Corinth some balloons were burst and some people were deflated. Because they had so exalted the superiority of tongues. And Paul not throwing the thing out, brings it way on down and says, it just doesn’t measure up with prophecy, but notice how he continues it “unless he interprets so that the church may receive edifying”.In other words, if in any church setting, when Christians are with other believers, if you going to use this genuine gift of tongues, if you really have the genuine gift, you’re not one of the counterfeiters that give the genuine gift of tongues, make sure there is someone gifted to interpret and give the teaching because its useless if no one is taught and instructed. Its not to be used in the church if no one’s going to be edified by it.

Now notice very six. He drives his point home, and even stronger. “But now brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues”, plural tongues again, referring to the genuine gift of speaking an intelligible language that someone could understand or at least interpret. “What shall I profit you. Unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching”. Paul says even I who hold the highest office in the church, the highest office that’s ever existed in the church is the office of Apostle. And Paul says, even if I come with the genuine gift and it can’t be interpreted so that there’s a teaching, or at least some wisdom gained, or some knowledge or some instruction, its worthless.

How strongly he makes the point that this thing they were calling the gift of tongues, going into this ecstatic gibberish that is totally unidentified, non understandable language was not profitable in anyway shape or fashion, for the Corinthians and for the Corinthian church.

Now we come to the second major point and I call this the graphic illustrations. He’s given general information now he wants to use some real strong graphic illustrations to prove his point. Now the first illustration he’s going to use is musical instruments. I may want you guys to help me back here by the way, so be close, Pam you and Helen and Janet, ya’ll be close, and drums back there, I want ya’ll to be ready in a minute and i want you to illustrate for me. We’re going to be very graphic in our illustration.

Alright, now look what he says here, in verses 7. Now, when he begins to use musical instruments as an illustration this was a very wise on Paul’s part, he pulled something out of the Corinthian culture. They had an amphitheater that held 20,000 people where they had great concerts. They knew what music was. They, the Greeks esteemed themselves about how cultured and refined and dignified they were. So he begins in verse 7, “even lifeless things”, he’s referring to music instruments. That phrase lifeless things means things about a soul. I think there’s a subtle reproof there for the Corinthians, he’s saying, even things without a soul, understand that you’ve got to have a harmony of purpose and meeting to the noise you make or, its useless. “Even lifeless things either flute or harp in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp”.

Now I want ya’ll to get on your instruments right quick, everybody get there, alright, every going to get, now here’s where, now I don’t know anything about music. My wife knows it well, but I don’t know anything about music. Now what I’m going to ask you to do when I say one, two, three, now if you don’t do it well, you get to do a solo. Alright, when I say one, two, three, I want you to do some note. Now listen, I, don’t go to the obvious note everybody would probably go to. Just take the whole, whatever a note is, look at all of them and just pick one out somewhere. Alright. That’s what I want you, just pick one out and just hit it, when I say go. Can ya’ll do that? Try to stay away from the obvious, because we’re trying to prove Paul’s point. Alright, you ready? One, two, three, go. (discordant noise of several instruments).

That’s exactly the point Paul’s making. He’s saying, if you come into your worship service, you stand up and you say, the Holy Spirit has inspired me to do this, and you start with this ecstatic gibberish, that’s not an intelligible language, and can’t even be interpreted by anybody inside the body, that’s what its worth. Isn’t that a strong graphic illustration. Now how, if they did that, how long would it take them to do that continuously before you’d get up and leave? Not very long. Paul’s point is a point well taken.

His point is that trained discipline musicians produce orderly rhythms, structure and harmony, and other orderly qualities so that the group of notes produce music and not noise. When this happens music has meaning and purpose.

You’ve heard a great orchestra and as they’ve played they could, the conductor could lead them in such a way where their music evoked feelings of sadness. A little bit later, feelings of joy. They could just take you up and down the feelings of fear. That’s because they have orderly systems and, and purposes to the notes they play, when they play them and how they play them. And that’s what Paul is saying, why are you guys in the church at Corinth so enamored with just gibbering noise saying that that’s the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t help anybody, its just racket. It doesn’t minister.

Look at verse 8. He continues with an illustration from the world of music. “For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle”. Obvious interpretation there.

Look at verse 9. “So also you, unless you utter by the tongues speaks that is clear how will, how will it be known what is spoken. For you will be speaking into the air”. What a graphic illustration that is. He, his point is, when you do this, and you’re saying something comes up in you and inspires you to make these noises vocally with your vocal chords, we’re going to cover this more thoroughly in a moment, your brain disengaged for the moment, you’re just functioning out of your spirit, and your emotion and making this noise with your mouth, he said, all you’re doing is moving air. That’s exactly what he means there when he says there in verse nine, for you will be speaking into the air. You may move air, but you move nothing else for any good.

Alright, now look, and not only does he use musical instruments as one of his graphic illustrations, secondly he uses barbarians. As one of his graphic illustrations. Look at verse 10, we see this in verses 10 and 11, we begin with verse 10. “There are perhaps a great many kinds of languages in the world and no kind is without meaning”. There’s lots of languages he says, all of them have meaning to the people who understand that language. Now verse 11. “If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be to the one who speaks a barbarian and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me”. Now the Greeks coined this word “barbarian”, because they looked down with disdain on anyone who did not speak the Greek language. If you didn’t speak the Greek language, you were not Greek in your background, you were barbarian, you were sort of shut out and they looked down on you with disdain. So Paul uses another illustration out of their culture to drive home how useless and worthless this ecstatic gibberish that no one could understand and could not edify anyone.

Now let’s go to our third major point. Paul’s given some general information about the gift of tongues, particularly its misuses and its counterfeiting, and then the superiority of prophecy, then he gave some graphic illustrations from the world of music and from this thing of barbarianism that the Greeks coined. Now thirdly he gives some governing instructions. In verses 12-19 he gives some instructions to govern something of what they should be doing in this area of spiritual gifts, particularly the gifts of tongues and prophecy. Now I’m not saying this is an exhaustive governing, but some governing instructions. Now, when you look at verses 12-13, here’s what Paul is going to say, let me summarize it first, and then we’re going to look at it. Paul is going to say, if you use the genuine spiritual gifts of tongues, it must edify the church. It must edify the church. That is its got to be interpreted so that there’s clear understandable instruction and teaching, therefore it must also involve the mind. In order for you to take any truth of God and properly use it to edify, build up, bless others you’re going to have to engage your mind.

Now let’s show how he ties all this together beginning in verse 12. “So also use since you are zealous of spiritual gifts”. Now that’s another reproof and another rebuke, he’s already point out in 13, chapter 13, you shouldn’t be seeking gifts, that’s not the goal, you seek agape love. You seek to live out love, not practice a gift. And then he says the top of verse verse 1 of chapter 14, “pursue love”, talked about love in chapter 13, first part of chapter 14, he says, now pursue it, that means to chase after it. So immediately when he says, but you are zealous for spiritual gifts, that’s sort of reproof by itself. That shows they are off target, that shows their immaturity spiritually speaking. But he says, let’s take you where you are and let’s go from there. “Since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church”. The word “seek” there is in the present tense. It means a habitual seeking. It means as you live your life as a child of God, as a member of a local church, keep seeking to use the spiritual gifts God’s given you, not for your thrill, not for your blessing, not to encourage you, but to edify the body of Christ.

Brother Jeff, how can I do that in a simple way? Through our small group ministries. You get in there with a small group of men or a small group of ladies and you find out what are the needs, who needs to grow spiritually and in what ways, who needs help, who needs love, who needs encouragement, who needs correction, who needs discipline, and how can, with my spiritual gifts can I get in on this ministry that we’re to be performing together. “Seek”, present tense, keep on seeking how you might do this. And we have a church structure that enables every lay person to get in on it. You will not be able to stand at the judgement seat of Christ and say I did not use my gifts in ministering to others, in blessing others, in equipping others and helping others in my church, because my church was not structured to enable me to do that. That’s true a lot of places, its not true here. Its there if you want it. Its there if you’ll just walk out there and take it and work to get involved in your small group.

And by the way, in verse 12 he repeats it, boy you talk about redundancy. But its a proper redundancy, look at verse 12, the last part, “seek to abound” for what? The “edification of the church”. That is, in this once chapter, the sixth time Paul has said, gifts are for the church, not for you. Baby Christians, immature Christians, or back slidden Christians, view the gifts for them. It blesses me, it encouraged me. Paul says, six times, one chapter, its for the church. That’s the way agape, the true love of the Holy Spirit, shed abroad in your heart, would lead you to demonstrate that gift or work out that gift any way.

Now look at verse 13, I believe we see again Paul’s sarcasm, and it has a reproof or a rebuke with it, in verse 13, “therefore let the one who speaks in a tongue”, that’s singular. I believe that means he’s referring to the counterfeit gibberish, not the true gift of speaking in another language. “Therefore, if one speaks in a tongue, pray that he may interpret”. Paul’s being sarcastic, what is he saying. Here’s three things he’s accomplishing in this verse 13 with this sarcasm. Number one he knows this will eliminate the use of the gift, or this so called gift they thought they had. It was actually, I think he’s referring to the counterfeiting of the gift, but it would eliminate the gift for self edification.

In other words, if they have to pray that they’d interpret so that they can teach others what God told them, then it immediately gets them out of the mode of thinking what did it do for me. I’m suppose to find out what it does, does for the body. How can I help the body with this. So it begins to eliminate the use of gifts for self edification.

Number second, this would expose the counterfeits due to their revelations being scrutinized. So as they had to interpret, somebody jumps up in the church, he’s in the flesh, he starts this gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, gibberish, saying, God’s on me, I can’t help it, and all of a sudden, the leader of the church says, wait a minute, hold on, interpret what God just told you so the rest of us can be edified.

And then when you pen them down like that and they’ve got to constantly share with the church, here’s what God’s saying, the spiritual people of the church will begin discerning that’s not real. That’s not real. So he would slowly give these guys rope and they would eventually hang themselves, those counterfeiters in the church.

The third thing I believe this sarcastic rebuke would accomplish is that it would verify the genuine gift of tongues. There was a genuine gift of tongues, it was a supernatural ability to speak in a language you didn’t understand, and there also was the supernatural ability to interpret that so the body would be edified and that would become very clear who the true people with the true gift of tongues really were in the church.

So Paul again uses his sarcasm, if you were not here this morning, I’ve pointed out the many times already in this book he’s using, used his own personality, his sarcasm to bring about a strong point. Now look at verse 14. Paul is again using a hypothetical and sarcastic tone, he says in verse 14, “for if I pray in a tongue”, he’s saying, hypothetically, let’s say I do this. Now is tongue singular or pure, or plural. Well, in verse 14, its singular. That’s the ecstatic gibberish, not the genuine gift. “For if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays”. It doesn’t say the holy spirit, he said my spirit. Very significant “but my mind is unfruitful”.

Now he brings about this point. When you have this gibberish going on, that you believe and I believe many of them sincerely thought it was God, they just misunderstood. And you believe its the Holy Spirit, Paul is saying, not only does not not edify the church at all, it doesn’t even truly edify you. That’s why he uses the word at the end, “unfruitful”, produces nothing of good. No fruit. In other words, Paul is saying, your emotions are stirred, you’re doing something through your vocal chords, but your mind is bypassed and your mind therefore is not edified and God is concerned with edifying the totality of man. Not just the emotional realm of man. Now I want to talk about this for just a minute. Your mind is your control center. The mind is the control center of the Christian. How are you going to get your feet to walk out biblical truth Monday through Saturday. How you going to get your hands to live out biblical truth Monday through Saturday. How are you going to get, get your eyes to be used to live out biblical truth Monday through Saturday. And the rest of the totality of your physical being. You’ve got to engage your mind. Your mind has got to be influenced and illumined by the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture. So Paul is going to point out very strongly here don’t leave your mind out of the process of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life. Any time you do, you’re missing something. Any time you kicking your mind out of gear, and you’re just getting carried away with the emotional rush, of what you believe is the Spirit, you’re proclaiming all this gibberish stuff in the congregation, Paul says, its not edifying the church and its not really edifying you, no matter how “blessed” you feel.

Folks, a lot of things can feel uplifting and wonderful and it not be the Holy Spirit, even though it happens in church. And even though Jesus name is smeared all over it. Got to understand that. Let’s talk about this desire of the Holy Spirit to transform the mind and influence the mind. Why don’t you keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 14 and turn to Romans chapter 12. Turn back just a few pages to the left to Romans chapter 12. And let’s look at verse 2. Paul says to the church at Rome, “and do not be conformed to this world”. God is much more interested in the way you walk out your daily life then whatever kind of experience you have on Sunday. And if your experience on church, in church on Sunday aren’t helping you to live out more true Christianity Monday through Saturday, what you had on Sunday wasn’t real. May have felt real, may have been wonderful, may have been glorious, but it wasn’t God. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed”, that’s a present, passive imperative, that means it is a command and it ought to be continually going. I command you, to continually be transformed by the what? “Renewing of your mind”. He said, when God the Holy Spirit is really working in you, I want you to continue to bring the Holy Spirit’s truth as he takes the word of God up into your mind, and continue to change your mind.

You see, your mind, when you were saved, was thoroughly programmed by the world. Are you listening to me. When you get saved you begin the process of reprogramming your mind, now your spirit is reborn. But your mind has to be reprogrammed over time. And them some of us, as walking, living Christians get over in the world and get more worldly programming back in, and then you get, need to get in the word again, get under the word’s preaching again, get more good programming back in. Continually be transformed in your mind. Don’t kick your mind out of gear and just say this thing, this rush of feeling comes, I’ve just got to let it loose with my tongue. No, Paul says, stop it when it gets about right here, and check it out with the brain. See if its truth from the word of God that can edify others. If not, stop it. You are going to see this very strongly as we continue in verse 20 through the last of the chapter, where he says “the spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets”. None of this, well, it was God on me and I couldn’t help it. If God’s on you, what is the fruit of the Spirit? Self control. If its the Spirit you can control it and you need to be in control.

Now let’s go a little bit further here to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 23. We won’t look at the context in any measure here, but just look at what he says, Ephesians 4:23, “and that you be renewed” in your emotional being, certainly, but what? “In the spirit of your mind”. Your mind. And then Colossians 3:10. “And having put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge”, a true knowledge. In other words, God wants your mind involved in this thing. God doesn’t want you, when the Holy Spirit works on you, to kick the mind out of gear, let the emotions rush up through your tongue, and have some experience.

That is not the way the Holy Spirit works. Over and over Paul says, the reason why the Holy Spirit is working in you and influencing you is so the totality of your being chiefly your mind, the control center of your life, is influenced by biblical truth.

Now someone may come to me and say pastor, I want you to know something, I’m praying regularly for you. And I’ll say, I may say, well, what are you praying? And they may respond and say, “pastor, I want you to know that God’s given me a prayer language”, and that’s fine, if you think that’s God, I’m not here to condemn you for that. “But God’s given me a prayer language, and I just yearn for you with utterances more deeper than vocabulary, it just comes out of my mouth, its just a prayer language”.

Well, you know what I’ll say. I’ll say “I appreciate that, I appreciate you praying for me. But you know what would bless me even more. If you came up and said pastor, I’m praying for you. Well, what are you praying? I want you to know I get 1 Timothy chapter 3 out and I pray all the character traits of a man of God for your life. I pull Titus chapter 1 out and pray those character traits for the overseer and elder of the church, I pray those specifically and clearly to God for you. I turn over to 2 Timothy 3:16-4:7, where Paul instructs Timothy “to stand boldly. There will be a day coming when people want their ears tickled and when people will turn away from the preaching of the Bible, and I pray that God would help you stand strong, I clearly ask God to affirm these truths in your life”. I’m going to tell you, that will bless me even more. Now here’s why. How much edifying goes on. Listen to all the edifying that can go on. First of all, they’ve edified the fire out of me, because they’ve given me specific Bible that i need to be reminded of, amen. Secondly they’ve edified themselves during their prayer time. As they’ve prayed those biblical truths, for the man of God in his roll in the church, what happens, they have a better mental understanding of the biblical roll. Amen.

Secondly, as they walk through their daily life, they will probably run into a Baptist and most Baptists have no idea what the biblical roll of a pastor is. And if it comes up they will be able to take all the truth they’ve learned from praying Bible for me, and be able to edify that brother or sister in Christ. So Paul is saying, get your mind involved and look how much more good you can do than just having the experience that comes out of the emotion and the mind’s disengaged.

Now he makes this even stronger. Turn back to our original text, 1 Corinthians 14:15. “What is the outcome then”, so, he’s sort of saying, what am I, in summary what point am I bringing about. Well, he tells you, verse 15 he continues. “I shall pray with the Spirit”. Boy I like it when I go to the prayer closet and there’s something burning in my heart. But I still need to go if there ain’t nothing burning in my heart. Cause my mind’s done learned I don’t go by my feelings. Amen. Better have your mind engaged, you follow your feelings, you’ll be in a mess all he time. You’ll be up, down, all around. We got folks that pop out of our church, pop back in, pop out and join another church. You know why? They are functioning in on emotions.

I wish some daddies and some heads of households would get anchored in Jesus Christ and walk with God and quit this silly nonsense of flopping all over town to different churches. Set your family somewhere where God’s word is preached and God’s word is proclaimed an serve Jesus. Quit teaching your family like you’re an emotional, well, I’m not going to say that. Men of God ought to be men of God.

Well, he says, “I pray with the Spirit”, what else. “I shall pray with the mind also. I shall sing with the Spirit, I shall sing with the mind also”. But the point I”m making is this. Not just what moves and stirs and uplifts, mentally, Pat, whomever needs to know, is it proclaiming the great truths of our God, Jesus said, “a day is coming when men will worship me in spirit and in truth”. Your mind must know the truth. He is the God of truth, not the God of feeling. Now thank God for feelings, amen, I feel pretty good right now. Thank God for that feeling we get when we’re in here, but hey folks, we don’t come back because it felt good last Sunday, we come back because this church is built on truth. Amen.

Now I like feelings, whooo, I like them, but I don’t base my ministry on it. My conviction on it. I’m going to tell you, there are a lot of Sunday mornings I get up, no matter how long I’ve studied and prayed, and I say, God I don’t want to get in that pulpit today. God said, you don’t have a vote in this thing. You can’t stop what you didn’t start. Get in the pulpit. Sometimes those are the greatest ways God ever uses me. And then I’ll leave the pulpit that Sunday and God will say, see, it ain’t you anyway. I say thank you Lord, I’m glad I’m getting in on it. Its not me anyway.

Boy I tell you, Paul said listen, you pray with the spirit, you pray with your mind also. You sing with the spirit, now sometimes when we sing we take a little simple truth, maybe in a chorus or something, and we just exhort one another and praise God with a simple truth. But sometimes we need to go to a mighty fortress our God. Holy, holy, holy where there’s more exhaustive expressions of the truth of God.

And all, listen, all this stuff in Christendom today about the name of Jesus. The name, listen, the name Jesus is just like John, Jack or Joe. Its just a common name. The name of Jesus means the totality of his character. But you know, it would take all day to talk about his character, so you just say the name of Jesus just to represent it all, his whole character. So when we sing we talk about the name of Jesus, also we want to come back and thing about He’s truth, He’s Savior, He’s Redeemer, He’s omniscient, He’s holy, He’s righteous, that’s the name of Jesus. Sing with the spirit, but with truth. Truth.

Well, let’s wrap this thing up. Look at verse 16, and I’ll just comment brief, 1 Corinthians 14:16, “otherwise, if you bless in the Spirit also”, if you’re in the service, you feel moved down deep inside and, and you start doing something, “how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you’re saying”. If you just having some gibberish because you felt moved of the spirit to gibber, nobody in there knows when to say amen. Kind of like two guys standing there saying if he through, I don’t know, is he through, yeah, I think so, amen. Amen. Now you say that’s silly. That’s what Paul’s saying, exactly what he’s saying here. By the way amen is biblical. Amen. It means “so be it”. It came from the Jewish synagogues, when they would get up there and read God’s word or state God’s truth, the synagogue, probably not the ladies, but the men would say amen, so be it. Not only did you proclaim it, we stand on it with you. So be it.

Well, he said, nobody in the church knows how to say amen no more. They are just all in a daze, waiting for you to sit down and quit gibbering. Verse 17. “For you are giving thanks well enough”, I think that’s the gentle way of Paul saying, I think your motives are sincere, you’re purposing to be thankful to God in your spirit, “but the other man’s not edified”. Hey, agape love is the only motivation for spiritual gifts. Agape never looks for self edification, but edification of others. So if you’re thinking about yourself being edified the other man not, you are totally misusing your gift.

And he, he’s redundantly clear through these last three chapters that the gift is for others, never for your blessing, but for others. I pointed out to you this morning, when I use my gift of preaching and teaching and overseeing the church on Sundays, I can’t say that I”m not blessed while I’m up here, but I’m going to tell you, it wrings me out. And let that be my exhortation to you, that when you use your gift, you’re not looking for what it does for you. Did it help the body that Sunday. It may wring you out, some of you. Now I know some of you, you’ve got to go to secular jobs when you leave here, you can’t put the hours in I’m suppose to put in, that’s not what I’m saying. But it may wear you out physically and emotionally to exercise your spiritual gift. Cause its not for you. Its for the body. But somebody else exercised their’s and got worn out doing it and it edified you. Its a reciprocal relationship we have.

Well, let’s go on. Verse 18, “I thank God”, Paul says, “that I speak in tongues, plural”, the genuine gift of tongues, “more than you all”. Paul had to be from southern Jerusalem, he said you all. Now what is Paul saying here. Three things I believe he’s saying in this verse 18. “When he says I speak in tongues more than you all”. First of all, he’s saying, I want you to know I’m not condemning the genuine gift of tongues.

Lest some of you in the church at Corinth think I’m just against tongues, I’m not. The genuine gift, properly used in the early church was proper and profitable. So Paul says, I, I want you to know, I use it, and i have it. And I’m not condemning that genuine gift.

Number two, he’s saying, I am not enviously criticizing a gift I don’t have. You know, I’m sure some of the folks in the church at Corinth, said yeah, he’s just down on it, cause he’s got prophecy and he don’t’ have tongues, he’s just trying to toot his gifts horn. Paul says no, I’ve got it more than you all. I’m not envious that I don’t have it and you have it and I’m trying to put you down.

Number three, the third thing he’s accomplishing in his statement in verse 18, when he says “more than you all”, he’s saying, I’m not a novice. I’m not ignorant in what I”m talking about, I’ve experienced the genuine gift of speaking in an intelligible language other than my native tongue more than any of you in the church at Corinth. So they are sitting there as they evidently often did and wonder should we listen to Paul’s teaching, Paul concludes this section by saying, yeah, you should listen to me, I’ve got more experience than any of you do in this area.

Now, let me say this about the Apostle Paul and this gift of tongues. First of all, God gave the Apostles authority and miraculous abilities that no other group, no other office in the church was every given. They were given signs, wonders and miracles to authenticate both their office and the message they preached, the gospel. So these signs, wonders and miracles accredited them, it accredited Paul as an agent of divine revelation. So People would know, listen to that one, he fills office of God’s Apostle, he has God’s true message.

Matter of fact, look over to Hebrews chapter 2 right quick, and I want you to see that God says there is a distinct difference in the signs, wonders and miracles given to the Apostles and in the way miracles may or may not happen throughout the entire church age. Hebrews 2:1, the writer of the book of Hebrews is writing to Jewish believers. And here’s what he says to Jewish believers. He says “for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away form it”. Here’s his point. You heard Old Testament truth, you heard Mosaic truth, you heard the prophets of the Old Testament and that was important, he says now, the Messiah has come, God’s very Son, the incarnate God has walked the earth and told us what’s important, you pay more attention to him then you did to anything else. Don’t drift away from that, whatever you do.

Well, why? Look at verse 2. “For if the word spoken through angels”, now there was a Jewish tradition that when God gave the law to Moses he gave it through the angels, and so they would often refer to the word spoken through angels. Not that they verbally spoke it, but they delivered it from God. So the, “for the word spoken through angels proved unalterable in every transgression and disobedience, received a just recompense”. In other words, if God dealt with you firmly, if you dishonored Moses law, how much more firmly is God going to deal with you if you dishonor the teaching of his own Son Jesus. Because he’s come by the way and walked the earth and talked and gave us the truth.

Verse 3. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation”. If you say no to Jesus and his gospel, there is no other way, you’re not going to escape judgement. And listen now, verse 3 continuing, “after he was first spoken through the Lord”. Who was the first one to clearly speak the gospel truth to us. Jesus. The Lord, while he was here. But also he commissioned some key men to back up his preaching with their own preaching that same gospel. Last phrase verse 3, “it was confirmed to us by those who heard”. Who heard what? Who heard the Lord’s teaching. Who heard the Lord’s teaching, the Apostles, you had to have seen the Lord to be an Apostle.

So God is saying, when I sent my Son he proclaimed the gospel truth, the message of salvation. And then he had a few select me who filled the office of Apostle, and they were given that commission, to preach the gospel and establish the church. And because they had a unique, one of a kind, one time type ministry for the church, here’s what I did for them, God says, verse 4. “God also bearing witness with them”, not necessarily with us. “God bearing witness with them”. Who is the them of verse 4. It is the, those who heard of verse 3. The Apostles. Alright, how was God bearing witness, or authenticating, or accrediting that these men are genuine and their message is genuine? “Both by signs, and wonders, and by various miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit according to his own will”. Why didn’t God do it today. The writer of Hebrews says it wasn’t his will. Now he especially gifted those men, so when Paul says, as you come to 1 Corinthians 14:19, I’ve spoken with the genuine miraculous gift of tongues more than any of the rest of you, it was one of those special signs God, he did many other things, but it was one of the special authenticating signs that was given to Apostles that’s not given to the church in general, or to church leaders in general.

Matter of fact, do you know that every miracle recorded in the books of Acts is either performed by an Apostle or someone the apostle laid their hands on and gave them that special enablement to perform those miracles. Now, a great counterfeiting work happens in today’s world when men perhaps in sincerity go back to the apostolic age, read what they did as far as signs, wonders and miracles and try to perform them today. You have counterfeiting that is absolutely hilarious. Hilarious. And even many, many, many in their own denominations and movements will tell you, there’s an incredible amount of phoniness and counterfeiting.

Folks, God may do a miracle, God may do a sign and wonder, but he’s not equipping men to perform them like he equipped the Apostles. That age has ended. Now, look at verse 19. Last verse, of our text. “However”, even though I have this supernatural gift of speaking in intelligible languages, languages other than the one of my native language. “However”, verse 19, “in the church”, in any church setting whatsoever, small group, congregation, whatever, “I desire to speak five words with my mind that I may instruct others also rather then 10,000 words in a tongue”, singular again, gibberish.

Paul said, no matter how deeply I might feel moved of the Spirit, I would be disciplined in any church setting, that I’d rather speak five words clearly that you can understand then ten thousand, the word for ten thousand is the Greek word we get the word myriad from. It actually could mean an unlimited number. He said five clear words are better for church and the church ministry and helping a brother in Christ then 10,000 words in some sort of gibberish that you believe came up from the Holy Spirit, missed your mind and came out through your tongue.

So those are some of the things Paul says in his attempt as he writes to the church at Corinth, purposing to untangle the confusion over the gift of tongues. There is a lot more, and we’ll look at that next Sunday morning, the Lord willing.