Transcript

1 Corinthians, chapter 14, as we continue our study, verse by verse, chapter by chapter through this wonderful New testament epistle.

We have a sure word of prophecy. I don’t have to go scatting around, running around, chasing around, lusting around, for somebody to give me some kind of word, I’ve got a whole book full of it. I’ve got a sure word. One thing we stood on since our Puritan forefathers marked out that statement after the reformation is, we hold unflinchingly, unapologetically, and forever to the absolute authority and full sufficiency of scripture. Everything is judged by, measured by scripture. Its sufficient for everything. Baptists have long held to that, I’m afraid that in the contemporary culture that we’re in, we talk about the authority of scripture, but we act very little on the sufficiency of scripture. Scared to death we’re going to offend somebody, run somebody off. Listen folks, if standing on the word runs somebody off, they need to be ran off. We’ve also found standing on the word draws a whole lot of folks. Isn’t it something. Then Jesus builds the church and you get your stinking self out of it. I love it that way, we don’t need Jeff building the church, the choir building the church, our program building the church, we want Jesus building the church.

Well, that’s not even my sermon, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and let’s look at this thing as we are, knee deep, waist deep, maybe shoulder deep into a series here that we’re calling Tongue Tangled. Tongue tangled, untangling the confusion over the gift of tongues.

Now as you get to chapter 14, Paul has been thoroughly addressing spiritual gifts, particularly the outward verbal gifts, the sign gifts, because they were a particular problem in the church at Corinth. The Corinthian church in their fleshliness and immaturity had made a huge mess. Out of good legitimate spiritual gifts. And Paul spends a lot of time straightening out the mess. As you come to 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, its very important to keep something in mind. Paul is not giving you guidelines for the use of gifts near as much as he’s straightening out a mess. You know there is a difference there. You come to my house when we’re putting something together, and I’m notorious for leaving the instructions aside and doing the best I can. There have been times when somebody had to come straighten the mess out. And when they straighten out the mess I made by not following the instructions, they would say, well do this, and do that, do this and do that, they are not necessarily giving me a guidelines for the way to really construct the object, they are giving me guidelines for straightening out the mess I’ve made.

So you need to keep that in the back of your thinking as you study this, Paul is straightening out a huge problem. There were people who were misusing legitimate gifts of the spirit and then many in the church were counterfeiting many of the gifts, chief among them tongues. For whatever reason, tongues has notoriously been a gift that people who are really fleshly and want attention and want the acclaim of being spiritual when they’re really not, they go for the gift of tongues, perhaps because it is so visible and one of the easiest to counterfeit. That was clearly happening in the church at Corinth, we don’t even have to wonder about that, there’s been abundant evidence for that.

When we get to chapter 14, the thing that Paul is really wanting to point out is the superiority and the need for the exercise of the gift of prophecy in the church. Clear, understandable teaching from God to the church to edify the body. But as he does that, in chapter 14, he finds himself dealing extensively with this gift of tongues. Because after all, that was the gift they put above all the others, even above prophecy and he has to work on this and get it straightened out.

Now, last time we’ve already seen verses 1-20, we’ve already looked at that in chapter 14, and let me review briefly where Paul has taken us as he comes into chapter 14, and we’ll begin this sub-series entitled Tongue tangled, untangling the confusion over the gift of tongues.

First of all, in verses 1-6, Paul gave some general information. He just laid out some general insights and points concerning the gift of tongues and concerning the superiority of the gift of prophecy and we began seeing once again in chapter 14 Paul makes the same exhortation, uses different words, but the same exhortation over and over and over again. And that is that your spiritual gift is not for you, your spiritual gift is not for self edification, your gift was given to you for the body’s edification. For your brother and sister in Christ benefit, not yours. And he repeats that over and over and over again. So he’s given some general information.

Now when we come to verses 7-11, he gives some graphic illustrations. And they are quite graphic. As we begin we see in verse 7 he gave the graphic illustration of musical instruments. You remember last week to illustrate what Paul was talking about we had all these folks in the orchestra, just to pick out a note, just anyone they wanted, and when I counted to three, they all played that note. And it was, it was awful. Its just racket, it was noise, and that’s exactly the illustration Paul uses. His point is this. When you stand up in the congregation and you speak in the genuine gift of an unknown language, and there’s not an interpreter, or you do your counterfeit thing that was happening so often in that church and you have this ecstatic gibberish that no one can understand, he said, either way, you’re as, as useful to the body as what the orchestra did last Sunday. Its just a racket, doesn’t help anybody, it really doesn’t edify you, it doesn’t edify the body, doesn’t please God, so he’s really driving a point home.

Secondly, the second graphic illustration he uses is barbarianism. Now the Greeks coined the word that we get our English word barbarian from. And the reason they coined this word, because they wanted to, to have a word that described how superior they were to the other peoples of the world. So if you were a non-Greek and you did not speak the Greek language you were a barbarian. You were below them, you didn’t even speak the Greek language. And so Paul says when you stand up in church and you exercise the legitimate gift of speaking in a language you don’t understand, the miraculous gift, but there’s not an interpreter, or you do your counterfeiting, either way, you’re just a barbarian to everybody. Nobody understands you. So he uses a very demeaning term to drive the point home, this is not the proper way to exercise tongues in the congregation.

Now let me say this at this point once again, I firmly believe tongues is not normative practice for the church today, because we have completed canon of scripture. I cannot reconcile in my mind how a person can say I have a direct authoritative word from God whether you call it a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, a word of teaching, a word in an unknown language, tongues with an interpreter, or a word of prophecy if you tell me that’s direct, authoritative and from God, then scripture’s incomplete. Then we need to go to the back of our Bibles, take out some pages and say let’s add to it, cause this is God’s instruction. Either it is or it isn’t. If its from God folks, its authoritative. Its binding. And so I do not believe once God finished the canon of scripture and I’ve got a long sermon entitled Why are the sign gifts of the spirit not normative for the church today. If you want to understand why we believe that, there’s thorough biblical foundation for that position, just get that tape and we’d love for you to have that, and maybe that will help understand our position on that.

But nevertheless, it was a functioning gift, it was normative for the early church. When the church was being established before the New Testament was completed and God closed his direct authoritative revelation which was coined as sacred scripture. It was used then. But it was also being greatly misused and abused even in that age as we’ve seen as Paul covers these issues.

Now we’ve come to the third major point. He gave some general instructions, number one, he gave some graphic illustrations, and now lastly he’s giving some governing instructions. He says, I want to get more practical, I want to get down to where the rubber meets the road, let’s give some governing instructions about this use of gifts of the Spirit in the worship service. Now we have already looked at verses 12-19. And we pick up this morning with new material beginning in verse 20.

Now when we begin in verse 20, we’re going to go all the way through verse 40, although we will not cover all of it this morning. What we’re going to see is Paul emphasizes two major things. Number one, he’s going to say this. He’s giving an exhortation to maturity in their understanding of spiritual gifts. An exhortation to maturity in their understanding concerning spiritual gifts. He’s saying, grow up. Be mature, don’t be children the way you view spiritual gifts. Then secondly he’s going to give an exhortation to the management of spiritual gifts in the congregational worship services. He’s going to get real practical and say here’s how you manage these gifts as they function in the service.

Alright, let’s begin with our first sub-point, we’re still under governing instructions and we pick up in verse 20 with the first verse that covers the exhortation to maturity concerning their understanding of spiritual gifts. Let’s look at verse 20 there: “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature.” Now Godet paraphrased this verse in this way. Here’s what Godet says Paul’s really saying in verse 20. If you want to act like children, i.e. Paul is saying you are very childish in the way your using spiritual gifts. So Paul picks up on that and says, if you want to act like children, well and good. Provided it be in the area of malice. But as to understanding advance more and more toward full maturity.

Now, now you’re being childish he’s saying, but be childish when it comes to evil things. We’ll talk about exactly what that means in just a moment. But when it comes to things like the edification of the church and understanding how the church matures and grows, and how God wants to bless in the church, don’t be children and be immature in your thinking. Grow up.

Now let’s think for a moment. When he says do not be children in your thinking, how do children think. What is characteristic of the way a child thinks. Now, I am an expert on this. I have three. And I was one myself. And I think we would all agree that children chiefly respond to what feels good to them, not necessarily to what is good for them. Isn’t that characteristic of a child. They function in the emotional realm substantially, I mean, they really with sincerity and the best motives, they’ll make conclusions and decisions if you allow them, based on what feels good to them, not necessarily what is good for them, that’s why God gives us parents. And that involves the rod sometimes. As a matter of fact, you leave a child to himself or herself, concerning what he or she is going to eat, and they will eat candy and junk food all the time. At least mine would. That feels good to them, looks good, sounds good to them, but it isn’t good for them. If you leave a child to him or herself and to make the decision about whether or not they’ll go to school, why they’d miss school just about all the time. Sounds good to me. That’s the way they feel about it.

Now, now you know some, some Southern Baptists are beginning to follow this modern church growth movement and they are canceling Sunday night services. They are saying baby boomers and busters won’t go to church on Sunday night, hogwash and slop, a thousand times over. I like what Bob Pitman said, he said, if you let Baptists vote on it, bless God, they’ll never come back. I mean, that’s the why you got shepherds and the word of God, we don’t function as mature Christians on the way we feel about things. Now how many of you have come to church who didn’t feel like it and God ministered to you. God taught you, as a matter of fact, some of you got saved. And you came when you didn’t feel like it. That’s the way a child does as the pattern of his life. You let a child decide what they’re going to do concerning obedience to parents and they’ll generally be disobedient all the time.

Now summarizing these and other characteristics of the way children respond out of their emotions, and what do you get. You get a me first mentality. Its common, its normal for a child to think of me first, what do I want, what feels good to me. A child has to be taught to selflessly love others. That is simply not natural. What’s Paul’s point. Paul’s point is you folks at Corinth, when you get into your spiritual gifts, you’re functioning like a bunch of children. You’re functioning like babies, you’re in the emotional realm, you’re basing your decisions on emotions, what, what stirs you, what you feel like is right, instead of what is truly right according to the teachings of God’s truth. Don’t be children any more.

Now he goes on and we see Paul’s sarcasm, as we have seen over and over, particularly in chapter 14, when he says, “yet in evil be babes.” He says, you want to act childish about something, why don’t you get more childish in the area of evil things. Now you see the church at Corinth was advanced in sin. They understood evil things. I mean, you name the sin, they were involved in it, everything you can imagine. Party spirit, divisive, strife, jealousy, anger, malice, drunkenness at the Lord’s table, rampant sexual immorality, it was there. Isn’t that amazing, the church that according to New Testament scripture showed the greatest outward sign of spiritual gifting, also had the deepest sin problems. That’s something to think on. Jesus said a foolish and adulterous generation seeks after signs and wonders.

But anyway, they, Paul says, you want to be immature, why don’t you be immature in tasting evil things, sin of this world. You see, Paul is saying, it is intelligent to remain ignorant in what is evil. Now the spirit of our age says hey, there’s no absolutes, nothing is always absolutely right, and nothing is absolutely wrong. As a matter of fact, every person needs to go out there, they, they would say you need to train your children to go out into the world and just taste and experiment and toy with and play with this and that, this and that, and find out for themselves what’s good, bad, right and wrong, because there are no absolutes. And that’s destroyed a whole generation of people. Because see what that does, is it rejects at least three essential truths.

Number one, it rejects the truth of the fallenness of man. Man has a fallen sin nature. If you take man with a fallen sin nature and get him to experiment with sin, his sin nature will become attached and addicted and develop a stronghold of that sin, and pretty soon the sin runs him and ruins him, instead of him controlling it. Satan knows that. That’s why satan is behind that humanistic philosophy of no absolutes. He knows if I can get man with his fallen nature, his lust for evil, to toy with and be exposed to evil, he’ll corrupt and destroy himself. So it ignores the truth of the fallenness of man.

Secondly it ignores the truth of the goodness of God. The goodness of God. Cause you see friend, God is not some cosmic killjoy up in heaven. He didn’t want to rob you of something you’re suppose to have. God designed you and created you to function in a certain way. And so therefore when he says thou shalt not, he’s saying don’t pour water into the engine of your soul. You’ll corrupt it, you’ll pollute it, you’ll destroy it, you’ll hurt it, I can’t go back and erase the way I designed you to function. Thou shalt not is simply God saying don’t hurt yourself, I love you. When God says thou shalt, he’s saying, help yourself. I made this for your pleasure and your enjoyment.

So when people say there are no absolutes, we shouldn’t pay attention to this old biblical concept of right and wrong, they are ignoring the goodness of God. Thirdly they are rejecting the judgement of God. If you do what you want to, the way you want to and when you want to, there is a God of holiness. That God of holiness cannot erase the fact that he’s holiness, holy. And out of his holiness he is established moral absolutes, and when you violate moral absolutes, a component of his holiness is justness. And out of justness he must judge sin. He’s a God of holiness and justness.

We’re getting off on a side point here, Paul is simply saying to the church at Corinth, you guys like that, like children, why don’t you act more like children when it comes to evil things, be innocent. Untouched by, no exposure, no experience with evil. I exhort you as a church, listen to your pastor this morning, there are things in this world that from A to Z start to finish are evil. Don’t touch them, don’t toy with them, don’t play with them, they’ll have you when you least know it and destroy you. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. You just take a little sip and now you’re addicted to the drug called alcohol. You just thought you would flirt a little bit, now you’ve ruined your children, destroyed your marriage, with the sin of adultery. On and on and on and on we could go. Paul says of the immature childish church at Corinth, you want to act like children, why don’t’ you be children when it comes to evil stuff. Be innocent like a child is innocent in those areas.

Well, let’s continue in verse 21 and this is a strong exhortation. Strap in and buckle in, alright. Verse 21. He said: “In the Law” that’s the Old Testament generally speaking “In the Law it is written, by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me” Now you go up to verse 19 and Paul’s talking about the spiritual gift of tongues or the misuse of tongues, and then you follow in verse 22 and he’s talking about tongues again. So what he’s doing, Paul’s doing this, he’s going back to the Old Testament to establish a foundational truth concerning what God is doing when he exposes a people to an unknown language. Paul says, I want you to have a foundational understanding of what God is doing when you have an unknown language in your midst. I’m not saying this covers the whole gambit of what God does with unknown language, but Paul is trying to drive home a point to people who are misusing the legitimate gift of tongues and counterfeiting the gift of tongues.

He says, do you remember back in Isaiah 28:11. Where God said, “by men of strange tongues and by lips of strangers I’ll speak to these people, even so they will not listen to me says the Lord”. Here, here’s the context. Isaiah was God’s prophet. And Isaiah was prophesying to the people of Israel regularly. And when Isaiah would prophecy he was giving clear simple, understandable rebukes and reproofs to the people. And they resented him for it. They rejected him for it. They ridiculed him for it, and they didn’t honor the clear understandable, simple, prophetic word of the prophet. And here’s what God said. Alright, you don’t want a clear understandable simple word. Fine. I’ll speak to you in an unknown language. The language of mighty Assyria.

History records that not long after Isaiah gave this prophecy, Assyria came marching right through Israel. God said you can listen to clear understandable words, or I’ll give you an unknown language which is not a sign of my blessing, when you hear the unknown language its a sign of your unbelief and my coming judgement. Whew, don’t you know that shook up those in the church at Corinth who wanted to counterfeit tongue and say, ain’t I spiritual, watch how I can jabber. Paul said, do you not understand something. In God’s working in past times, the evidence of an unknown language is more of a statement of unbelief and the judgement of God more than the blessings of God. You sure you want to keep clamoring after this in the flesh. Or do you want to get back in biblical balance with the way you practice this biblical, biblical true gift of tongues.

When the Assyrians came in speaking that unknown language that was God’s statement, he said, you wouldn’t listen to my clear teachings of my prophets, so I’ll give you one you can’t understand, but you’ll understand this. Its a sign judgement’s come. So the sign of tongues to Israel of Old did not confirm their belief, but it consummated their unbelief. Now look at verse 22. Paul makes it clear. “So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe” the legitimate gift of unknown languages in the early church was never intended for the congregation, not the believers, but to unbelievers; but “prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.” Now here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, when you receive the gift of unknown languages, God is making a statement to those who are already consummated, confirmed in unbelief.

That’s exact what happened on the day of Pentecost. What did Israel do with the chief prophet of all, the head prophet of all the prophets, Jesus? What did they do to that prophet. Jesus came clinking, speaking clear understandable, straightforward language, and what did Israel do? Reject him. They fell into unbelief and rejected him. So what happened on Pentecost. Those few, not the nation of Israel, but those few Jews who did believe stood up on Pentecost, with the legitimate miraculous power of God spoke in a language they did not understand, God used that in that setting to evangelize, but God says, even as much as that or more, I was making a statement to Israel, you’ve rejected in unbelief my final prophet, Jesus my Son.

So now that you hear these men after the Holy Spirit has come on them as recorded in Acts 2, you will know this is a sign, you are confirmed in your unbelief, judgement is coming. Rejected the prophet of God. Who came with clear words. So I’ll give you words you don’t understand. What happens just a few years later, AD 70, Titus of Rome and the Roman legions marched straight through Jerusalem, one million Jews were slaughtered, thousands were taken into slavery, the temple was desecrated and destroyed, and the city was burned to the ground, they said not one blade of grass was left standing in Jerusalem. Literally was a sign of coming judgement and unbelief.

Why would Paul bring this out. Why would Paul lay this out like this at this point in time and this church at, this, this setting in the city of Corinth. I believe Paul is saying this. If you Corinthians continue to clamor for unknown languages, do you not understand this can be the confirmation that you’re drifting into unbelief and toward the judgement of God. In other words, tongues is not a sign of your belief and your maturity, and that you are under the blessing of God, tongues is more literally the sign that you’re in unbelief and coming into the judgement of God. And Paul reading between the lines seems to say, you still want to clamor for this gift. Still want to be known as a church where tongues is talked all the time. When you understand this truth.

Let’s summarize what Paul is saying here in these two verses. I believe his point is this. When people believe the Lord, listen to me, when people trust the Lord, people are maturing and are mature in the Lord, God gives clear understandable prophecy in their own languages. Why he wants to build them, he wants, they’ve got something. They started right, he’s going to give them everything he can to edify, build them, bless them, mature them. Well, but when people are in unbelief he veiled the truth. He gives them what they cannot understand and that is proven Old Testament through the New Testament, even in the ministry of Jesus, the Lord Jesus said at times, “I’m not going to speak to them any more in clear words. They’ve been in unbelief too long, I’ll give them words they can’t understand”.

I don’t’ know where you are in your belief about tongues and understanding, if you can come up with a contextual exegesis that better explains those verses then what I’ve given you, I want you to show me. I believe its as clear and contextually solid as you can possibly get. Now was there a legitimate gift of unknown languages. Yes. But Corinth knew almost nothing about it, even though they claimed to practice it all the time. That’s what Paul’s doing, trying to straighten them out. Now look at verses 23-25. He says: “If therefore if the whole church assembles together” He’s giving a hypothetical here, “and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?” He said, this thing isn’t even helpful in the area of evangelism.

If you come in and you’re speaking in unknown language, there’s not one there to interpret it, or you’re giving this counterfeit gibberish, that’s not a language of anybody, and lost people come in like one of the old authors said, they’ll just think you are a congregation of lunatics. Its not the way God wants you to appear to the world. I wondered after reading that verse and seeing some of the things I’ve seen on TV called the moving of God, where for the substantial majority of the service, it was just racket, and gibbering and screaming and going on, and don’t misunderstand me, I like emotions, I like it when we hoop and holler and say amen, but that’s not the foundation. That’s the meringue on the top. I wonder what a lost person does when they turn on one of those broadcasts and that goes on for 30 minutes.

I wonder if they do what Paul said they would do, I wonder if they say, this is a bunch of lunatics. But look at what he says further. Now once again he’s constantly trying to show the importance of clear prophetic teaching. Verse 24: “But if all prophesy”, that’s clear understandable word in the language they understand, “and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all;” verse 25, and “the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.” God has not intended for signs, wonders, miracles and amusements to save lost souls, its is the clear straightforward, simple, understandable preaching of Christ and him crucified. That will save the soul. God has intended that our minds be alert and comprehend the truth of the gospel, and through that agency of the truth of the word of God, penetrating the mind and converting the soul, a man is saved. And Paul said, if you’ll clearly give them the gospel, grow up, be mature, give them clear understandable words, then you’ll start seeing them come under conviction and getting gloriously saved, and praise God for saving them.

Paul says, grow up. Grow up church at Corinth. Quit chasing amusements and wonders, be more mature. Long for, clear instruction of God’s truth. Not some sensational event. That may or may not be God’s leading, and certainly should not be displayed in the congregational setting.

Now let’s go to the second major point under our third major heading. The second exhortation is the exhortation to management of spiritual gifts. He’s telling them, there, these are legitimate gifts for the early church, they are to be functioning and practicing, but he said, I’m going to give you some strict management guidelines for as you exercise these gifts. Let me begin in verse 26: “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” I believe here’s Paul’s point. He’s saying, just the time when you begin to assemble for your congregational service, the time when every member should be, listen, should be in the flow of selfless agape love that is only produced by the Holy Spirit in your heart. When that ought to be resonating in your heart, and you ought to be focusing on Jesus in that selfless agape love, at the time when that should be happening, everyone of you is thinking about yourself. He said, at that point in time, one of you is thinking, I’ve got a hymn, another one’s thinking, well, now I’ve got more than that. He said, I’ve got a song, another one said, well, I’ve got a tongue, well, I’ve got a revelation. I mean, I’ve got a teaching, I’ve got a revelation, well, I’ve got a tongue, well, I can interpret. He said, you’re just starting with your heart attitude wrong, of what can you do to make you look important in the service, instead of what is needed for edification which is again his redundant exhortation, last phrase, verse 26, “let all things be done for edification.”

Listen to me folks. You do not have a right to exercise your gift. You have a responsibility to exercise it. It may be that you have a gift that can be used, but it may not be used this week or this month, or next month. Then the next month we may wear you slap out with it. Amen. That’s alright. That’s why God gives the church overseers, to follow the book. Because if I just turn ya’ll lose and said, Jim, use your gift of mercy and giving and Tom use your gift of teaching, and Bill use your gift of teaching and preaching, and just have at it, you feel impressed, go for it. We’d have total chaos. Good men, love God, spiritually gifted, but chaos. But there are seasons and times as the church follows the guidelines of scripture, you use what you’re suppose to use when you’re suppose to use it, and in the way you’re suppose to use it.

As a matter of fact, he continues with this very practical exhortation to managing the service and the exercise of gifts in verse 27, look at it: “If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one must interpret.” Now I, I feel very confident from all of Paul’s teachings that they had a whole lot more than two or three that wanted to speak in tongues during the worship service. And Paul said, well, I’m just going to tel you what you do, you don’t let but two or three do it. And I, he says, the only office, there should only be one interpret in the congregation. One person that’s proved himself to have that miraculous gift to interpret that unknown language so the church can be edified. Let’s manage this thing and not let it get out of control, Paul is saying.

Verse 28: “but if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God.” If you really belief, you had this revelation in an unknown language, and you’re just burning to share it, if there’s not an interpreter, don’t share a word. Go home and pour it out to God, if that’s what you must do, but don’t’ share it in the congregation if there’s not an interpreter. And then verse 29. Now he gets to prophecy again: “And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.” Even in this greatest, the gift of prophecy, there was counterfeiting, and so he said, there are people with the gift of discernment in the church, when a guy gets up and gives a clear word of prophecy, the men with the gift of discernment need to analyze it and judge it to see if its real.

Brother Jeff, what would you do if somebody said they had a divine direct revelation and a word, they called it a word of knowledge, a word of teaching, an unknown language, or a gift of prophecy. I’d say, you just hold that, and I’ll get the elders together and we’ll listen to it and then we’ll pass judgement. And as the overseer of the church I’d decide whether or not the church needed to hear that or not. We do that already. There are a lot of people who come to me and say, brother Jeff, I just feel I have something to share with the church. I’ll say what is it. And depending on what it is, I say you may share that or you may not. That’s just something that the guy whose the overseer of the church has to have the discernment about.

And there are some folks who want to share some things that would be inappropriate. They’re sincere sometimes, their motives are pure, but it just isn’t, wouldn’t fit and be proper at some times. And I would do that with anybody, whether you said it was a divine direct revelation or just an impression of the Spirit, then you would bring it to the elders and let them pass judgement as to whether or not it should be shared with the church. Now, as a matter of fact, if somebody, listen, if somebody thinks they have a message for the church, number one, I think if God’s got a message for the church he will give that to the person called to oversee and teach the church. That just makes sense.

Number two, if you have one, you’re content to let somebody else verbalize that, because agape love and the whole chapter of 13 was about agape love, agape love doesn’t want any self credit, self glory, or attention. You’d be well pleased to share that in a private setting, and let the other share it through the church, if that’s what God wanted shared. Cause you, you don’t want the glory, you want the truth explained. I do not believe that’s normative or the pattern for the church. Its been amazing as I’ve shared with some of my dear friends who are members of charismatic churches, and they have told me, brother Jeff, we are having serious problems with excesses and counterfeiting, its so burdening us, its so consuming us.

As a matter of fact, one of the men whose family is responsible for a lot of the initiative of, of some of the more successful charismatic churches told me, he said, brother Jeff, I tell you what, in a church like yours, which has a 17 year, 20 year history of strong expository preaching, it would be a very rare thing if God gave anybody a word to share with the church because you’re getting so much of the truth. Now that’s what someone said who believes differently than I believe, that these things are normative for the church today, but nevertheless, he says, in your church I would rarely expect it to ever happen. As far as I know its never happened, that anybody has ever even offered to do this.

Alright, let’s continue on. He continues in a very practical way in verse 27, and I’m circling the field and we’re going to finish tonight in just a moment. I’m sorry, down to verse 30: “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.” Someone’s giving their revelation and another one says I have another word, the first one should be quiet first, then the other one should go. In other words, just manage this thing and let’s keep the chaos out. Verse 31: “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.” Now, they didn’t have pastors at this time. Titus appointed pastors or overseers in the church later on. And so without a pastor, Paul the Apostle was overseeing the church, from long distance.

And so God was using various and sundry members to teach and instruct and lead, and he says, when it comes to tongues, let’s make two or three at the most. but notice what he says about prophecy, verse 31, you can all prophecy, but let’s just do it one by one and in order, because we know as he’s taught us over and over, prophecy edifies and builds up the church. Now look at verse 32: “and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.” Evidently some of the believers in Corinth said, man, the holy spirit comes upon me, I can’t help it, I have to speak in this language, I have to give this word of knowledge, I have to have this experience, it just happens, I can’t control it. Paul says, wrong. The spirits of the prophet are subject to the prophet. It is not in the line of order, and structure of the worship service. If it does not fit with edification of the church, and give meaning to the total balance of how the service ought to go, you ought to not say it. He continues on there, verse 33: “for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” Now when he says all the churches of the saints, he’s saying, I’m not just giving you guys some special instruction and the others don’t have to do it, this is the way all God’s churches should function, all the churches are saints.

If God gives you think a revelation, a message, and insights to the church, you keep it under control, you share at the right place, with the right people who are overseeing the church. And you can control it, because the Spirit of the prophet is subject to prophets. Now, one of the reason why he said this, they were used to pagan worship. Now out there in their pagan temples, I would say the overwhelming majority of the people came out of pagan worship. And when they go in their pagan worship, they thought communion with God was being out of control. They’d get drunk, they would dance, they’d have what the ancient historians called ecstasy, and in this ecstatic emotional based experience, they would talk in gibberish, and many of them would pass out, and you’d ask them later, what did you do. And they’d said: “I was communing with God, he was all over me.” Out of control the whole time. Paul said, that is typical of the demonic spirits of heathenism, but that is not typical of the holy spirit’s work and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you remember when we started in chapter 12, Paul gave a strong exhortation and said, one of the ways you can check out a genuine spiritual gift is, it does not function like the way the spirit functioned out in the pagan temples. You go out in the pagan temples of Corinth and see how it works out there. If you go in the church, it looks a lot like it, something’s wrong. Something’s wrong.

So he says, that’s, that’s a different spirit that causes this total out of control thing. One of the fruit of the Spirit is what? Self control. When the spirit is on you, you’ve got more control then you’ve ever had. Now that don’t mean that there aren’t some special unique times when you just have to weep before God on the floor or whatever. But the overwhelming majority of times, that’s a private experience because it would cause confusion and distraction to lost people and others in a worship service. Now I’m not, I’m not here to say I would hinder that, we’d have to discern it. If you had an experience in here and I thought it was hindering what God was doing, I’d ask you to dismiss yourself.

Now we’ve had a lot of the emotional displays here and excitement, and I think its been good, proper and, and of the Lord. But there’s sometimes when it can be a hindrance even if its real, and it ought to be kept under control and expressed at another time in another way.