Transcript

Tongue Tangled: Untangling the Confusion over the Gift of Tongues

Well, let’s turn together to I Corinthians chapter 14, and as we return to this study, let me remind you that our series is 1 Corinthians. And we are presently in a series within that series entitled Understanding Spiritual Gifts. Now I have a series within that series entitled Tongue Tangled.  Untangling the confusion over the gift of tongues.Tongue tangled, and the subtitle, Untangled the confusion over the gift of tongues. 

Now before we get started in looking at the text expositionally there are six introductory premises. Six, if you will, foundation stones that you must understand if you’re going to understand chapter 14. Let me remind you again that this was a letter. It was a letter written by God’s apostle, the apostle Paul, to the church at Corinth. And it flows like a letter. One verse flows in context with the verses before it, and preach the first, verses that will follow it also are in context with that present verse. One chapter leads to the next chapter.  You don’t have totally disorganize it segments, where you can say, well, he was way off over here on this emphasis, then he turned way over there. No, the, the holy spirit expects us to understand that when God inspired scripture he used men with their cultural backgrounds, their personalities involved, their style of writings involved, all the influences of their life are involved. And all that is a part of the scripture. 

Now if you and I were writing scripture, we would have made it very sterile. We’ve taken out all cultural nuances, all kinds of personality or style influences, we’d say, no, this is God’s word, its got to be just real sterile and maybe generic. But you see, God’s bigger than us.  He can take a writer of his day and let him bring in his own personality, his own style, his own cultural, or geographical influences, and all those settings and yet still pen his exact perfect inerrant word. That’s the glory of the scripture. As a matter of fact, for many years, the scholars used to believe that the Greek of the New Testament was some high lofty level of the Greek language that wasn’t common to the every day man. Then they begin to do a lot of archaeological digs. And as they did these archaeological digs of ancient Greece and Rome and all these other places, they found literally thousands of ancient manuscripts of the New Testament. And many, many, many other just secular documents of this day, you know what they found out. The Bible is written in everyday common street language Greek. The same language you would have used at the butcher shop or at the shoe store or anywhere else. So we’re just amazed at God’s greatness to do that.  And isn’t it just like God to use the common language of everyday man when he originally penned his scripture. 

So that’s just a thought as we come now to this six introductory premises or foundation stones to understand this chapter 14. Here’s the first one. Number one, chapter 13 must be understood if you’re going to understand chapter 14. Alright. Now, that’s very significant. 

What did Paul cover in chapter 13. He covered the only true proper motivation for exercising any gift of the spirit. And what was that true proper motivation, the agape love that only the holy spirit can manifest through your life.  Now we’re not talking about brotherly love, we’re not talking about an emotional feeling based love, we’re not talking about sexual love, those were God given and all of God, but there’s a deeper, greater, higher love that only a Christian possesses because its only produced by the holy spirit. You can’t produce it, you can’t work it up, you can’t train it up, you get out of the way and let it flow through you. Its called agape. That was the Greek word. It means God type love, a God demonstrated or defined love. 

So in chapter 13, what the apostle Paul says is, you guys are so enamored with who can speak in tongues, who has the sign, who has the wonder, who has this gift, who has that gift, and he says, you can do the most incredibly awe inspiring things with your gifts but if the motivation and the driving force behind using that gift was not selfless agape love, it is absolutely worthless. 

Now I believe the point he’s point out is this. Satan loves to come into a true church and counterfeit what God’s doing. Listen, he clothes himself as what, an angel of light.  Now we’d like to think he comes in with horns and a red suit, it would be easy then, wouldn’t it. That’s what the world would love for us to think. No he comes in as the super spiritual gifted guy. You never — this has been pointed out thoroughly by the biblical text —  you never measure spiritual maturity by your gifts or experiences. With spiritual gifts. You always measure it by whether or not you are producing spiritual fruit. Not the experience, not the gift, he makes.

Look at verses 1-3, we’ll not learn it there, but you just glance over it while I’m talking. Notice the incredible things.  He said, you can even go to the point to where you give of your life 100 percent of your life every day, all day long, to where you give 100 percent of all you have, to help the less fortunate. And even at the end of that, let your body be martyred at the stake for some cause. But if the driving motivation of your life wasn’t the true holy spirit produced agape love, it was worthless. 

I’m telling you, there are a lot of people in the names of religions, philosophies, and even in the name of Christianity, giving themselves completely but its all in the flesh, it was not motivated by agape, and God says it counts for zero for eternity.  You listen to me, you can give everything you have to the poor, you can sacrifice yourself to the nth degree out, out of some cause, but if your philosophy is, this is somehow going to help me when I get to heaven, this is somehow going to help me get there, this is some go, how going to be to my benefit later on in the afterlife, that is flesh, it wasn’t agape, and you’ll go straight to hell without Jesus Christ. 

My friends, works and merit does means nothing to God when it comes form flesh, Paul says, no good thing is in my flesh.  You can discipline the flesh, do all kinds of wonderful things to the outward eye, but if the motivation from the heart was not the agape love, only the holy spirit can put in a man’s heart, then Paul says its worthless. 

So here’s what Paul is doing.Paul knows these Corinthians are in excess when it comes to gift, especially the outward awe inspiring gifts, and particularly the gift of tongues.And he also knows that there’s a lot of counterfeiting in the gifts.Now I found some of my good friends in charismatic churches who theologically differ with me tell me brother Jeff, we have the awfullest problem with counterfeiting you ever seen.There is so much phoniness.Even though they believe those gifts are still normative for the church — I do not — nevertheless, they will say, it, its a mess.

There’s so much counterfeiting going on. Had two leaders in charismatic churches share that with me recently. And I want to say this at this point. I’m not here to demean or put down or be critical of anybody who has a different opinion. And by the way, when Baptists are out of lien with the text, I’m pretty honest about it, amen. And when our charismatic brothers and sisters are out of line with the text, I’m going to be honest about that too. 

Alright, so here we have Paul knowing there are excesses in the church at Corinth, they, they, they’re counterfeiting the gifts and Paul is saying, if I can just get them back to agape love, the gift problem will take care of itself.  If they’ll get out of the flesh, they’ll quit trying to use the gifts for self exaltation.  They’ll quit counterfeiting the gifts for self exaltation, if their only motivation is agape love and agape love is always forget me, what’s best for the other people in the church.  Forget what edifies me, forget what blesses me, what helps the church.  That’s what agape love does with spiritual gifts. 

See, you’ve got to understand the foundation of chapter 13 on agape to understand chapter 14. Number two, the second foundational premise. This chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, is not really a guideline for the use of the genuine gift of tongues. Its not really a guideline.  Its been used that way, but that’s really not what it is.  Its not really a guideline for the use of the genuine gift of tongues, it is more a correction and a rebuke of the excessive use of tongues or the counterfeiting of the use of tongues.

Alright. So its not really a manual, so I’ve heard people say, well, if you really want a manual, go to 1 Corinthians 14. There are some instructions there and guidelines there, but that’s not really where Paul is coming from. He’s really trying to correct problem, not give guidelines for practice. You know why? Because if they are walking in a God lay, agape, the practice sort of takes care of itself anyway. You’re not going to practice some gift, gift, in agape if you in any way, shape or fashion think it might hurt the body of Christ. If you in any way, shape or fashion think its exalting self and not helping my brother in Christ first. See agape takes care of all kind of abuses and excesses. 

Number three, the third foundational premise, what is the genuine gift of tongues. There is a genuine gift of tongues, it was given to the early church specifically. What is this genuine gifts of tongues. Well, I want you to turn with to, with me to Acts chapter 2.  And let me lay out this, this premise as we come into Acts chapter 2.  Any time you have an unclear word or verse of scripture, try to find out if there are clear words or verses about that item or subject matter.  Then go to the clear verses of scripture and interpret the unclear by the clear. If you don’t interpret biblical text that way, you going to always e in a mess. 

Here in Acts chapter 2 we understand very clearly what the genuine gift of tongues is. And that is that it was an intelligible language. It was not a language the speaker himself may have understood, but it was an identifiable, clear intelligible language of the day. It was not an ecstatic gibberish. It was an intelligible language, only spirit supernaturally enabled that person to communicate.  Now look at Acts chapter 2, verse 4, the holy spirit falls on them at the day of Pentecost and notice what it says, verse 4. “And they were all filled with the holy spirit and to, began to speak with other tongues.” The word tongues there is a word there that commonly in the koine Greek would be translated languages. In the street if you used that word and 2000 years ago in ancient Palestine, and you used that glossolalia (gk) word, they would just think the word languages. 

Alright, now the pagan temples of ancient Greece though had a practice. And it was very common for men to go into pagan temples of ancient Greece, get drunk, dance around and work themselves into a semi-conscious state and in this frenzy, this drunkenness, this dancing often, they would, exhibit and an ecstatic gibberish, verbally, there was no intelligible language at all, and that also they called a language. Now they didn’t mean it was an intelligible language, that’s just a word they attached to it. So it was used, both ways, for an ecstatic gibberish, but also for intelligible languages. But chiefly in the New Testament and I think we’re going to see this clearly, its used to describe intelligible languages of that day. 

For example, why would verse 4 say they began to speak with “other tongues”. What it means is they have their language, their tongue, and also they were given another language to speak.  Not an ecstatic gibberish that no one knows, but a language that is understandable to at least some of the people of the day.

Now continue in verse 4.  He says, as the spirit was giving them utterance. Now the Greek word here for utterance only appears three times in the New Testament. So we’re wondering what does it mean here.  Well, the other two times where it is used, in Acts 2:14 and Acts 26:25, it clearly means an intelligible language of the day.So those two clear verses give us insight on this unclear verse.

So already other tongues would imply another language, an intelligible language, the word utterance is used, the only other times its used in the New Testament means an intelligible language, and then look down at verse 6, you get a further clarification, “and when this sound occurred”. I believe that’s the sound of the mighty rushing wind, “the multitude came together and were bewildered because they were each one hearing them in his own language”. His own language. Or you could say dialect there. So that’s a real clear clarification.  You have people in Pentecost from all over the world, and when these men were inspired by the holy spirit, they began speaking these other languages.

Verse 8 clarifies further.They comment, “how is it that we each hear them in our own language.To which we were born”.  And then they began nine and ten to list all the different places and all the different languages, now look at verse 11.  “Cretins and Arabs and we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God”.  So very clearly, at least Acts chapter 2 gives us a very clear word on what this tongue was.  It was the ability the holy spirit gave a person to speak an intelligible language of the day, although its not the language or the native tongue of the person actually doing it.  It was a supernatural miracle.  No doubt about that. 

Then I’ll just refer to these other ones, in Acts chapter ten you have the, the next occurrence of speaking in tongues were Cornelius, a Gentile, the holy spirit comes, does a work in his heart, and then he speaks also in what the Bible calls tongues is the exact same Greek word that is used in Acts chapter 2, where it means another language, an intelligible language of the day.

As a matter of fact, Peter, Acts 10:46 tells us, understood what they were saying, and then, in Acts 11:15 and in Acts 15:8, Peter says, to a group of people that what happened to Cornelius was the same thing that happened to us back at Pentecost. So he says very strongly, if you saw what happened to us, we spoke in intelligible languages of the day, then Cornelius also spoke in language he didn’t know but it was an intelligible language of his day.  Why else would he say the same thing happened to Cornelius that happened to us.

And then you go to Acts chapter 19 and once again as these people in Acts chapter 19 speak in what the Bible uses, or translators use the word tongues, the exact same Greek word for intelligible language that’s used in Acts 10 and used in Acts chapter 2.

So I am convinced that the biblical gift, the genuine gifts of tongues is when the holy spirit enabled a person to speak a language, an intelligible language that was not their language, but it was an understandable language of the day to somebody. It was a language that perhaps if a linguist would sit down and listen to it, they may not understand it, but they would notice that as organization and as meaning, has structure, has communication, in it.  Not just ecstatic gibberish.

Now three things that these three experiences have in common. Number one, in all three cases, Acts 2, Acts 10, Acts 19, this experience was unsought and unexpected. There wasn’t a seminar or a course or an encouragement, they didn’t see somebody else do it, they wasn’t looking for it, wasn’t expecting it, it just happened. And when folks get to artificially promoting and pushing an experience that they think is like the experience of the book of Acts, that’s when I think you run into all types of counterfeit excesses out of very genuine people. Unsought and unexpected. 

Number two, they were all group experiences. They all experienced them in a group setting, the whole group experiences things at the same time, totally unexpected, and totally unsought, and from the best word study that I think can be done, the word for tongues there means an intelligible languages. They spoke in a language that was known at least to someone of that day. 

Alright, that’s the third premise introductory premise before we get to the exposition of chapter 14. Now, number four, the fourth foundational premise. This chapter is really about the superiority of the gift of prophecy. This chapter is really about the superiority of the gift of prophecy. As a matter of fact, I”m convinced that if Paul was writing to another church, maybe the Galatian churches, or the church at Ephesus, churches that were more mature, the church at Philippi.  He probably wouldn’t even mention those. By the way, you’ll find that tongues isn’t mentioned in a lot of those other epistles.  Because it wasn’t a problem.  He really wants to get them to the gift of prophecy, the proclaiming and teaching and clear understandable language, the truth of God’s word.  That’s where he wants to get them, but he has to deal a lot with tongues, because that’s what they’re involved in. He’s trying to wean them off a much lesser gift and get them onto the greater gift of prophecy. So its not truly centered on the gift of tongues, he just has to deal with tongues because that’s the gift they were tangled up in. He’s really wanting to emphasize the gift of prophecy. 

Now, number five.  You’ll notice as we go through the text, that Paul instructs the church at Corinth as one would instruct a little child.  Instructs the church as one would instruct a little child. Here’s what I mean. He seems to emphasize and encourage the proper viewpoint and the proper behavior while often not even dealing with the improper behavior. Believing that in time they would mature in the improper behavior would sort of go away. If he just kept prompting and encouraging the right behavior. We see that he’ll do that a lot as he teaches through chapter 14.

Now, its much similar to what we do with a small child. I have small children and now for eight years we have been teaching our children how to eat with spoons and forks at the table. Now not the same child for eight years, but at least a child has been in that learning process. And you know a child is a child and at certain ages when they’re really small you don’t get upset if peas are stuck in the ear and mashed potatoes go up their nose, and just kind of, they just kind of share their food with their entire body.  But you do gradually begin to pick up the spoon and the fork and put it in their hand and kind of make the motion with them and let them copy you. You don’t just seriously reprimand a small child about the wrong behavior, you keep pointing out the right behavior, knowing that in time the wrong behavior will fall off and the right behavior will become established. I believe that’s what Paul does as he’s dealing with the immature baby Christians at Corinth as they’ve gone into these great excesses and counterfeiting of the gift of tongues, he doesn’t just totally slash them about that, but he begins to exalt prophecy hoping that they will get off the excesses in the area of tongues as they grow and mature. 

Number six, a sixth foundational premise. You have to understand that the church at Corinth had no pastor overseer. The word for pastor is best translated elder or bishop, it means overseer, ruler, one whose in charge of the congregation. You see, Titus was appointed by Paul to appoint elders in the churches, but this happened a long time after this letter was written. So things that got out of line, there was nobody in charge really to set things straight, so things got in big messes.  And, a good overseer would have saw this excess and saw this out of balance, and he would have nipped some of this in the bud, I’m convinced.  Because I”m an overseer and I understand that very very well.But since Paul is not there he as the apostle functions as their overseer, but he’s not there literally and physically so things get in a mess in a hurry.

So when you read a lot of these instructions as the apostle instructs the church. You have to filter it through the understanding that they had no elder appointed as yet. Other epistles like 1 Timothy and Titus give us better understanding of how the pastor overseer should have handled those kind of situations, I’m convinced if they had a good overseer these things wouldn’t have gotten out of hand at all. 

Alright, let’s go to our text now, tongue tangled, untangling the confusion over the gift of tongues, and I want to point out three main areas and we’ll get  most of the way through the first main area of the text and then complete it tonight the Lord willing.

First of all, in verses 1-6, Paul gives what I”m simply calling some general information.Some general information concerning the greatness of prophecy and concerning their misuse and counterfeiting of the gifts of tongues.Now we’re not saying that every single person misused tongues, we’re not saying every single person counterfeited tongues, there were certainly the proper gifts of tongues being expressed in the early church at Corinth, but it was a very prominent problem that they had.

Alright, under general information let’s begin in verse 1, very important, what he says here in these two first words. Verse 1, chapter 14, “pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophecy”. Now what was chapter 13 about. Agape love.  So he kicks off in chapter 14 and says, pursue love. You know what that literally means, it means to chase after agape.  Now let that sink in, chase after agape.  He is implying do not chase gifts, do not chase experiences, do not chase ministries, chase agape. You know why you  have to chase agape. Cause every day you need a new agape-izing in your life.  Every day when you wake up and every day when I wake up, Jeff Noblit’s back in control and I say oh Lord help me.  Self serving, self edifying, self pleasing Jeff, back on the throne, have to get in my quiet time, get in the word of God, let the word of God and the holy spirit do his cutting, stripping work, get me back out of the way and get me flowing in the flow of true agape, that only the holy spirit manifests.  And that true agape love is selfless and is concerned principally and you could even say totally with the concerns of the other members of the church body, not self. 

So Paul says before I get into prophecy, before I get into tongues, make sure the pattern of your life is to pursue that, pursue that reality of agape flowing in you and through you, as the pattern of your daily life.  If that’s not settled, tongues are going to be out of whack.  Prophecy is going to be out of whack, or whatever other gift you have is going to be out of whack.So there’s a lot in those two words pursue love.

Alright, you get that down, then you’re ready for the next phrase. “Yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophecy”. Now he says, when you’re pursuing love, you’re walking in the flow of selfless agape, then you’re ready to use your gifts subserviently to agape to bless and minister to your fellow church members. The gifts is a tool that agape uses for you to bless and minister to others.And we’ve seen that over and over and over in the text, gifts were never given for self edification.

Doesn’t mean you’re not blessed some when you exercise your gift, but how in the world, what would it profit me at all if I was to study the way I’ve studied this week and to pray over this thing and get in a room and preach to myself in a mirror. Absurd. Every gifting of the spirit is for the body. The fulfillment I get is pouring it out to you. And I’ll be honest with you, when I preach all day long and I’ve studied and gotten away with God, and I’ve gotten out of the world and my heart is full, and I’m full of the scriptural text, on Sunday night and Monday morning, I’m washed out.  Its not always a good feeling.I’m wiped out emotionally, I’m wiped out physically, I’m not trying to tell you my sob story, but I’m telling you, I’m not in it for self edification, a self blessing.When I need a little separation, a little recreation, I just go get on my four wheeler and I go down at my deer camp.If its brown its down.Just looking for one.Now that’s the way I get away and just relax and kind of get restored up.But when you use your gift it may wipe you out.Are you hearing me.So pursue love, then use your gift as the tool to help others.

Now, for the church at Corinth he adds the last phrase of verse 1, “but especially that you may prophecy”.He’s not saying every single solitary church, person in the church should try to get the gift of prophecy.What he’s saying, the church collectively should exalt and look up to and put on the highest level the gift of prophecy.Because when someone prophecies, literally if you take the word prophecy it just means truth telling.Truth telling.

Before the, the biblical canon was complete, some truth telling involved direct, divine revelation. I am convinced that’s no longer the case. I am convinced God is no longer giving divine direct revelation.  Now you may talk about the leadership of the spirit, impressions of the spirit, but God is not giving divine direct revelation that is to be verbalized to the church.  if that is true, then we must go to the back of our Bibles, stick in some new white pages and the next time somebody gets a divine direct revelation say hang on there, we’d better write this down, we’re starting a new book of the Bible.The question is, is God still revealing scripture.If he’s not, then you need to call whatever the holy spirit’s doing in you something other than divine revelation.Cause that’s not what it is.

If you open the door for that, now listen to me, some of our dear charismatic friends, I think they paint themselves in a corner with this. If you say God is indeed giving divine authoritative direct revelation, and we’re to verbalize that to the church then you’ve got to leave room for Joseph Smith and the Mormons. That’s exactly what he claims. He says the word of God is true, but its incomplete, I’ve got some other revelation and he wrote it down and he build a cult on it. And some of the weirdest beliefs you can imagine. Then you’ve got to open the door for the credibility and the acceptance of the Jehovah’s false witnesses, Judge Rutherford and the others who said God gave us new revelation in addition to the bible.  You’ve got open the door for Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy and the Christian science movement. And all these other cults where they can me up with additional authoritative.., you’ve got to open your door for David Koresh and that bunch out at Waco. 

Every single culprit has legitimacy when you say there are God is giving today divine authoritative revelation. You have no critiquing whereby to cut anybody off. And then they’ll say, well, it never contradicts the Bible, it always just compliments or it always fits in biblical teaching. Well, then we just need to study the Bible. If its already there, its already there.  Why did he say to study yourself or to show yourself approved unto God a workman, rightly dividing the word of truth. He told Timothy “reprove, rebuke and exhort”.He said, “in the presence of God and of the Lord Jesus and everybody else he could think of, preach the word”.Stay with the Bible.

Folks, we, we stand here without apology and no debate on the absolute authority and sufficiency of the word of God.Now I’m not saying the holy spirit doesn’t inspire and lead and do things, but do not call it divine authoritative revelation.

So, the word getting all this back to the word prophecy here, in this case there was some divine authoritative revelation, I’m convinced the Bible wasn’t completed.For us today I have something of the gift of prophecy and what I’m suppose to do is take this book and preach that truth.That’s the way I believe that gift is used in today’s dispensation.

So he says there in verse 1, especially that you may prophecy, that’s the best gift that edifies the most people for the most good for the glory of God. And in essence he’s saying, since you love the verbal gifts of the spirit, slack off on tongues and lets get on prophecy a little more.

Alright.  Now go to verse 2. Now something interesting I believe starts happening in verse 2 that I want to point out.  He begins in verse 2 and says, “for one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries”.

Now I want you to jump down to verse 5 for, for contrasting reference. Look at verse 5.  “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues”.  In verse 2 Paul uses the singular tongue, in verse 5 he uses the plural tongues. John McArthur, one of the most able scholars I believe in shoe leather today points out there there’s a great significance here. He says, if you’ll study it thoroughly and i tried to do this, and I can’t be absolutely dogmatic here, but I believe this is what Paul is doing. When he uses the singular word tongue, he’s using that to indicate the unintelligible gibberish, the counterfeit that was being practiced often in the church at Corinth.  When he uses the singular tongue, he’s making reference to the ecstatic gibberish the unintelligent, unintelligible rather language the counterfeit they were using in Corinth.  Very often. And then when he uses the word tongues plural, that refers to intelligible languages of the day, the genuine gift of tongues. I believe there’s real significance there. 

Alright, look at verse 2 again. “But one who speaks in a tongue”, he’s kind of dealing with them, well they are, remember he kind of deals with them as children, he’s done that over and over again, through the epistle. He said, let’s say okay, you’ve got this gift and this gift’s happening in your life, fine, I’m not going to deal with whether or not its true or good or bad right now, you’ve got it, you’re doing it, he said, but if you do that, “you do not speak to men, but to God”. Now when he says the phrase “you do not speak to men”, that ought to cease the whole gift practice right there. Because he’s laid out with extensive thoroughness that your gift is for others. And when you have this ecstatic experience, it may be blessing you, and at least you believe you’re communicating to God, and he said, I’m not going to argue with that at this point, he said, my point is, are you blessing others. Are you ministering to the body. Are you edifying the church. You’re missing agape, he’s saying, you’re missing the purpose.

Now when he says you speak to God, Paul is in no way establishing a doctrinal position here that there is something called a prayer language.Now if you believe in that and you practice that, I’m not here to condemn you, I’m not even here to say you have to quit that, that’s not my purpose or my position, but I am here to tell you as your pastor, there’s very, very little biblical foundation for that.And you’ve got to hear all three or four of my messages to get the whole context to see where I”m coming from, so don’t you draw a judgement in here this morning and go out and draw a line in the sand.Listen to all that we cover as we cover all the text.Cause when he says there in verse 2, does not speak to men but to God, the Greek phrase to God there lacks the definite article.In other words, the God.Its not there. The is not there in the original text.And whenever you find that it is possible to translate that to a god, small g.Not big G, not the God, big G, but to god, a god, small g.

Now I”m not saying that’s absolutely what Paul is saying, but this is the exact same construction, look at Acts chapter 17.When Paul wanted to point to God’s believed to be exist and in the world today, he left out the definite article in Acts 17:23, just like he leaves out the definite article in 1 Corinthians 14:2.Acts 17:23 he says, “for while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god”.That’s the same Greek construction that we have in 1 Corinthians 14:2, leaves out the, the definite article.”What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you”.

Now look at verse 24. “The God who made the world”, that means that’s the true God, not the other god mentioned in verse 23.So it is possible, can’t be dogmatic, it is possible Paul is saying this to this church.I know where you are, right now you’re having these experiences, you’re having this ecstatic gibberish, you believe you’re communing with God as you do that, but Paul could be saying, you’re not helping man at all and actually you’re not even communing with God.You’re communing with something, but its not the God.

Now you can say brother Jeff, I just disagree ahead that interpretation, I’d allow you that.  I would allow that, certainly not condemn you for that, but that’s a very possibly interpretation. Now notice he continues, for no one understands. Here’s his point. If agape love is leading you to exercise your gift, your major emphasis is do they understand, are they getting it, are they being helped, are they being ministered to.That’s the reason you were given the gift, not for you, for them.But in his spirit he speaks mysteries, things no one obviously understands.

Now, why would I discourage you from seeking some sort of ecstatic verbiage in your private prayer time. Here’s why. Let me just give you a couple of thoughts.  There’s no other scripture, that clearly teaches communication with God, with anything other than normal intelligible language.There’s no other scripture in the New Testament that clearly teaches communing with God in any way other than clear intelligible language.

Let me give you a couple of good examples. John 17:17 is our Lord’s high priestly prayer.  This is when God the Son is communicating with God the Father. Now that’s deity to deity.  Now when you’ve got deity to deity, you’d really expect, if there’s something, some sort of heavenly communion, or some sort of higher language communion there, it ought to be expressed in John 17. But what do you find in John 17? Clear, intelligible simple language.  Verbiage between God the Father and God the Son, God the Son, God the Father.

Alright, then you go to Matthew chapter 5. What is Matthew chapter 5, it contains what has been called the Lord’s prayer. Poor title. It is really the disciples prayer. Is it a prayer whereby Jesus is giving an, an example of how his disciples should pray. Actually he’s giving the foundational principles of the whole prayer life. And what does he do in Matthew chapter 5.  Clear, understandable, intelligible verbiage and language.

So, whatever is happening to you in a prayer closet, I”m not here to condemn you. I’m not here to, to exhort you as your pastor, you must stop that, but I’m here to tell you, you have very little scriptural foundation. And you must humble yourself to say every experience I ever have is to be scrutinized, corrected and, and, and adjusted by the clear teaching of scripture. Cause you see, when the Antichrist comes, the Bible teaches, and when he arose and reigns, he will be so powerful and so fantastic, he will deceive the majority. And he’ll come in the name of good. He’ll come in the name of God even. And he’ll deceive the multitudes, because of what he’s enabled to do, the experiences he’s been able to give them and expose them. That’s why we don’t’ trust experience, our emotions can trick us, we trust the word. 

Alright, let’s move on to verse 3 now. Let me, let me, let me say this about verse 2, then I’ll move on. Paul is not, I am convinced, in verse 2, encouraging this counterfeit experience, when he said you’re speaking in tongue, you’re talking to God. I believe what he’s doing is taking them where they are, saying okay, that’s what you’re doing, fine, that’s what you call it, that’s what I’ll call it, and now he’s trying to gradually lead them to the better. Gradually lead them rather to the better. 

Now look at verse 3. “But”, verse 2, you’re doing this experience, you believe you’re communing with God, its, its not helping anybody in the church, but you believe its good for you at least. Verse 3 says, “but the one who prophecies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation”. Here’s his point. The gift of prophecy is the perfect tool of agape. Because the gift of prophecy, every syllable is understandable and everybody can get blessed and encouraged and taught and reproved and corrected and built up. And that’s your goal to help others. Not to edify you, agape doesn’t do that.

So he’s saying, prophecy is the best gift. To help the church. Verse 4. “One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. But one who prophecies edifies the church”. Now, I believe Paul is doing something here, particularly here in verse 4 that he very commonly did and that’s this.  He’s speaking hypothetically and sarcastically. Hypothetically and sarcastically. That’s the beauty of the word of God. Men brought their own personality and style into it.

As a matter of fact, to give support for how frequently Paul did this, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians 4:8, here’s the setting. The church at Corinth, though being in the biggest carnal sinful messes you could be in, and still be saved, I mean, they are in the biggest messes, but they thought they were the spiritual elite. They thought they were the kings, they thought boy, you look to us if you want to know who God is and how to live for God. And they even sort of looked down on Paul, some of them. So notice Paul’s sarcasm, and sort of setting them straight. He said, “you are already filled, you’ve already become rich”, that doesn’t just mean financially, it means you’re rich in the things of God. “You’ve become kings without us”, that’s the apostles, and his associate apostles. “And I would indeed that you’d become king so that we might reign with you”. Now that’s sarcasm folks, he’s saying, oh, you guys have already arrived, hallelujah, I hope you have, just let me in on it. I mean, I’m just an apostle by the way, no big deal. You now, sarcasm, he uses it a lot. 

Look at 1 Corinthians 7:40. Now when you get to 1 Corinthians 7:40, Paul has finished his instruction on divorce, remarriage and singleness. And there were some in the church that thought they had a better understanding of God’s will on divorce, remarriage, and singleness than Paul did. And so look what he said sarcastically as he ends. “But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is, and here’s the phrase, and I think that I also have the spirit of God”.Oh, you Corinthians, you think you’ve got the instruction of the spirit, by the way, I am an apostle, I think I might have God’s will for you too.What he means is, you don’t know God’s will, I’m God’s apostle, I do know it, hush and listen to me.

He’s being sarcastic, he does that a lot, in his epistles. And I believe that’s what Paul is doing when we come to verse 4. In a hypothetical sarcastic tone, here’s what he’s saying, let’s read verse 4, 1 Corinthians 14.” One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself”.He, I don’t think he means, that when they have, that’s a singular tongue again, I believe that refers to unintelligible gibberish, I don’t think he really means you are properly edifying yourself, I believe he means that’s what you think you’re doing.That’s what you believe and that’s what you think you’re doing, so fine, believe that for right now.

Then he says,” but one who prophecies edifies the church”. Cause you see, if agape only is concerned with edifying others, he can leave them in their error, thinking they are edifying themself, but, but once they find out they’re edifying themself, that doesn’t line up with agape, they ought to quit it any way. See he didn’t have to deal with the specific, just show them it wasn’t with agape. It wasn’t of agape, this self concerned and this self edification. 

So Paul basically saying, you believe its the spirit that’s doing this, you believe that at least its edifying you, if that’s true, number one, notice that’s not the purpose of spiritual gifts anyway, to edify you. Its always to edify the body, not you. You can see that very clearly in 1 Corinthians 12:7. Very clearly implied in Romans 12. Very clearly explicitly taught in I Peter 4:10. Clearly taught in Ephesians 4:11 and 12. And taught in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 5b and 12, and he repeats it often in this chapter.

So he says, first of all, if you believe it edifies you, you believe its at least helping you, fine, its not helping the church, and that’s a misuse of the gift. And then he goes on to say, and, not only is it misusing the purpose of gifts, secondly it totally is contrary to what agape would do, agape is self less.  So here’s Paul’s point.  He wants to gift them to see, listen now, that their present practice of what they call the gift of tongues violated the, the spirit of agape, and once they saw that it violated agape, in time they would correct the problem themselves. So that he don’t have to go into all the specifics of correcting, just show them if you walk in love, all these excesses and counterfeits will start falling off. 

Well, this is a very practical instructional series, but I believe one that merits out attention, because a few things in professing Christianity I believe are so misused and misunderstood as this thing of the gift of tongues.