WWUTT 1608 A Stranger Will Think You’re Crazy (1 Corinthians 14:21-25)

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The Apostle Paul said that it was by men of strange tongues that the

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Israelites were judged. If we speak foreign tongues that people don't understand then it becomes a judgment to unbelievers.

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They need to hear the truth when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and greetings, friends. We continue our study of 1

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Corinthians 14, where the Apostle Paul has been confronting the church about their misuse of spiritual gifts, especially that gift of speaking in tongues.

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We're going to pick up reading in verse 21 here today. Well, to keep things in context, let me start in verse 18 and we'll go to verse 25.

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This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth.

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I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. However, in the church

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I desire to speak five words with my mind, so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

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Brothers do not be children in your thinking, rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

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In the law it is written, by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers,

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I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me, says the

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Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers.

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But prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe.

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Therefore, if the whole church assembles together, and all speak in tongues, and uninformed men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

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But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed man enters, he is convicted by all.

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He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so he will fall on his face and worship

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God, declaring that surely God is among you.

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So we come back to verse 20 here, where Paul again says, brothers do not be children in your thinking, rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

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And as I had finished this up yesterday, this is Paul saying that be inexperienced in evil, but be plenty experienced in that which the church is called to, to love one another.

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That is the highest way. That is the more excellent way, as Paul said in 1

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Corinthians 12, 31. And then at the start of this very chapter, 14, 1, he says, pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

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Overall, we must pursue love. Should you desire the spiritual gifts? Yes, you should.

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And which one is the most beneficial for the church? Prophecy. That's according to 1

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Corinthians 14, 1, and as Paul has stated that later on through this chapter as well, the prophesying becomes the most important because it is the actual declaration of the word of God.

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It is by that word, we come into submission unto God. We obey God. We grow in sanctification.

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We love one another. You see that very instruction, love one another. That's a prophesying of the word of God, an instruction that we have been given that we must obey.

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Paul had said that prophesying was for edification and exhortation and encouragement.

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That was in verse three. It's for edification. It feeds the body that we may grow. We may mature.

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Paul had called the church to that kind of maturity before. That was in chapter three. I could not address you as spiritual people, but I had to address you as though you were still in the flesh.

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You are babes. You're infants still in Christ. And so they need to be edified by the good spiritual milk and then grow up into the meat and potatoes.

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You have that kind of rebuke that comes to the book of Hebrews as well. By now, you should all be teachers, but instead you have to be filled with milk.

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We got to go back to milk. We got to go back to the basic things because you're not ready for the tougher stuff that you should be in by now with how we should be maturing in God.

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So this was especially the case in the church in Corinth. They should have been so much further along than they were, but they have chased after their own self -interest rather than desiring the building up of the church.

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If we are prophesying, if we're speaking the word of God and the way we do that today is by his word, by the

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Bible, not new revelation, but this revelation in scripture that has been given to us.

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So when we proclaim the word of God to his people, it leads to edification. It results in edification, which is feeding the body.

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You have exhortation, which is telling them to do something, right? There's legs to this.

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There's an action involved. It changes your life. So you're not only here, but you do what it says.

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And then there's encouragement that we might be built up in this most holy faith, knowing that Jesus Christ is here with us now.

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He is working all things out to his glory and he is coming again. There is nothing that is happening that is outside of God's control.

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He is seated on his throne and we are his people. So we understand that importance of prophecy there again, since that comes up here at the end of chapter 14.

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So in verse 21, we have in the law, it is written by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers,

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I will speak to this people. Even so, they will not listen to me, says the

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Lord. Now that comes from Isaiah 28 and it's kind of piecing together some different sections of Isaiah 28.

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It's not exclusively one verse. So let me read you here from Isaiah 28, starting in verse nine, whom would he instruct in knowledge and whom would he talking about God provide understanding about the report?

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Those just weaned from milk, those just taken from the breast. So that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

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Yeah. So right at the end of verse 20, Paul says, be infants in evil, but in your thinking, be mature.

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And what's the rebuke been for the church in Corinth? Well, they've been infants in a lot of things. They're not strong men of God.

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They are still weak in their faith and needing to be built up with the milk of the word. We got to go back to basic stuff again.

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So here the Lord is even asking of Israel, whom would he provide understanding?

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Those who are, who have just been weaned from milk, those who are just taken from the breast for he says, order on order, line on line, a little here, a little there.

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Indeed, he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.

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He who said to them, here is rest, give rest to the weary and here is repose, but they would not listen.

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So the word of Yahweh to them will be like order on order, line on line, a little here, a little there, that they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.

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That's verses nine through 13. So mainly it's 11 and 12 we see that's being quoted in first Corinthians 14.

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Indeed, he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue. He who said to them, here is rest, give rest to the weary and here is repose, but they would not listen.

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Now listen to it in first Corinthians 14 21 by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers,

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I will speak to this people and even so they will not listen. So it's kind of picked apart a little bit, but it's, it's, uh,

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Isaiah 28, 11 and 12. That's being put here. Now what Paul is quoting is from the septuagint or the septuagint.

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That's the Greek translation of the old Testament. So that's why the text would look a little bit different in the new than from the old.

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It's not exactly word for word because what we read in the old Testament is translated from Hebrew.

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What we read in the new Testament that's quoting the old Testament is translated from the

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Greek version of the old Testament, the septuagint. So anyway, that's, that's why whenever you'll see old

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Testament references in the new, they don't quite sound like what I've got in the old Testament is because we want to see the original language.

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So we are translating into English from Hebrew, the oldest manuscripts in the original language that they were written.

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Whereas at the time that Paul was writing, the old Testament that they had was in Greek, you know,

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Greeks couldn't read Hebrew. So you had the Greek old Testament and Paul would quote from that.

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That's, that's why you have it phrased this way. But what are we talking about here? What are we looking at in Isaiah 28?

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So God had sent prophets to the Israelites and they would not listen to those prophets.

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They continued in a drunken stupor instead. They continued to rebel against God and they worship the false gods.

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So God was going to give them new taskmasters since they wouldn't listen to prophets of the Lord. He was going to give them over to the

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Assyrians and the Assyrians would become their taskmasters, put them to work and they would not be able to understand what it was that the

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Assyrians were saying. So they would be spoken to in a foreign tongue. Verse 11 again, indeed, he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.

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You wouldn't listen to me through the prophets. Okay, I'm going to send somebody else to you instead. Your judges, those who are going to bring judgment upon Israel because they did not listen to God.

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So as Paul is talking about this here in first Corinthians 1421, he's drawing the church's attention to the fact that God has used tongues for his people before.

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And what was the purpose of the tongues? It was in judgment. It was judgment that had come upon a people because they would not listen to God.

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So here comes somebody speaking foreign tongues to us and we don't understand what it is that they're saying. Yeah, God is speaking to us, but we don't get it.

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So Paul is saying in the law, it is written by men of strange tongues. Now he says law, but he's meaning

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Old Testament. This is of course the prophets. It's not the Pentateuch. It's not Genesis through Deuteronomy or reading from Isaiah here, but it's still

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Paul using this word is kind of an all encompassing word in reference to the Old Testament. So in the law, it is written by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers,

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I will speak to this people and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord. So then here's the point

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Paul's making with that, with that reference, verse 22. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers.

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But prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe, because who understands prophecy?

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It is only those who have the spirit of God. That is a sign to us from God. It is, it is the word of God to us when we hear the proclamation of that word that was given to his prophets and his apostles.

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And how do we understand that word? We've been given the Holy Spirit of God that we may discern spiritual things.

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Remember, that was the argument that Paul made back in first Corinthians chapter two, the naturally minded man cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually discern.

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We have the mind of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit within us that we may understand spiritual things.

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And so it is only through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God that we may know God and his word.

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Those who don't have the Holy Spirit can't understand this stuff. Paul had said back in first Corinthians one 18 for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

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But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Those who are perishing cannot understand the word of the cross, but to us, to whom it has been granted salvation.

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That message of the cross is such a beautiful word that we would see the son of man crucified in our place, taking the wrath of God and whoever believes in him, we receive his righteousness.

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Our sins imputed to him as he pays the price for them with his death on the cross. His righteousness imputed to us that we may live in the righteousness of Christ, no longer in the sins that we were once stumbling in, but we desire

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Christ and his righteousness. And so in this way, the message of the cross is powerful to us.

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It is a sign from God that he loves us and that he is working through us for our good and ultimately to his glory.

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So therefore prophecy is a sign not to unbelievers. They don't even understand what it means. Prophecy is a sign to those who believe tongues is a sign to unbelievers.

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Who was it that saw the tongues and was marveled by the speaking in tongues in Jerusalem at Pentecost in Acts chapter two.

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They were all unbelievers. Only the apostles to whom the gift of tongues had been given, they knew.

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And as they come into Pentecost and they are preaching there in Jerusalem, the people are kind of beside themselves.

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They're like, what is going on here? And how is it that these Galileans are speaking all these foreign languages?

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They're not that educated. How could they possibly know these languages? Some were saying, well, they're drunk.

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And then, you know, Peter speaks up and says, that's not even the third hour of the day. How is it that that we could be drunk?

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There's not been time for us to be able to be drinking this long now to get drunk. And there were others that understood that, hey, we can get what they're saying.

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I understand this in my language. I don't understand this in all these other languages. But the gospel was being proclaimed in foreign tongues so that the people that were there and all the foreign languages that were represented there would understand the declaration of the gospel because of this gift of the

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Holy Spirit that had been given to them. So tongues become a sign for unbelievers. They can tell something miraculous is happening here.

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God is speaking. And then only those whose hearts had been regenerated to understand what was being said and to believe it.

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Only they saw the power in the prophecy, in what was being prophesied. The tongues themselves, that miracle was a sign that God was speaking.

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But then to understand the speaking was only for those who would inherit salvation.

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Verse 23, still back to 1 Corinthians 14 again. Verse 23. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues.

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Remember, Paul said previously, I pray that all of you would be able to speak in tongues. Verse five.

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I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. Speaking in tongues is a great thing.

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You know that the Holy Spirit is giving you something for a purpose if you're speaking in tongues.

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So he wishes that they would all speak in tongues. But he says, if the whole church were to speak in tongues, if the whole church assembles together and everybody speaks in tongues, everybody speaks in foreign languages, it doesn't matter if it's glossolalia, you know, that gibberish, blah, blah, blah, you know, yada, yada, yada, stuff, whatever.

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Bata, bata, bata. That was, that actually was a word that the pagans would repeat over and over and over again. And if we repeat this, your mind kind of goes into a trance and then maybe you have some kind of a spiritual experience anyway.

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But whether it's it's nonsense gibberish or whether you're actually speaking a foreign language, if everybody assembles together and speaks in tongues and then uninformed men or unbelievers enter, they don't know what you're doing, nor have they even heard the gospel or believed in it.

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They come in and they see you acting in this way. They can't understand a word that is being said. Will they not say that you are all out of your mind?

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You'll just look crazy to them. They're not going to be convinced by this, nor do they even know what they're supposed to believe because nobody is speaking a single word of sense to them.

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Verse 24, but if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an uninformed man enters, he is convicted by all.

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He is called to account by all. If everybody were to prophesy, if everybody were speaking the word of God, then they're going to hear the truth, right?

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They're going to hear about their sin and their need for a savior. And they listen to that.

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They hear from the law of God, how they've transgressed that law and what they deserve for breaking

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God's law is death. They deserve to go to hell for that. But then they hear the message of the savior who came and died for us so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

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And when they hear about that, they will be convicted of heart. They will say, I need to be saved. Good sirs, what must

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I do to be saved is the question of the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16. And Paul and Silas respond to him, believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. So somebody comes into the church and says that very thing.

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I have heard about my sin. I have heard that I need a savior, the Holy Spirit working on his heart that he may know.

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And he says, how do I get saved? I've heard now the message of the gospel, Jesus Christ who died on a cross for my sins, who rose again from the grave, who is ascended into heaven is seated at the right hand of God interceding for all who believe in him.

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He is our mediator. Now our fellowship with God is through faith in Jesus Christ. And he's coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

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But I know that by faith in Jesus, I will not perish with the wicked. I will be saved and I will have everlasting life.

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If all prophesy this message and an unbeliever comes in, he enters, he hears this message.

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He's convicted by all. He is called to account by all the secrets of his heart are disclosed.

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And so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that surely

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God is among you. And how did he come to find that God is among them?

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Because they were speaking in tongues and nonsense? Nope, that's not how they knew. See, that would be to an unbeliever, that would be the same as the

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Assyrians coming in and conquering the Israelites. Because the Assyrians come in in judgment and they're speaking foreign tongues and the

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Israelites can't understand what they say. And then they're taken captive and they continue in judgment as the

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Assyrians become their taskmasters and put them to work and they have to listen to orders being barked at them in foreign tongues.

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They don't know what's going on. This is the judgment that has come upon them. So when everybody is speaking in tongues, it would be the same for an unbeliever.

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It becomes judgment. They don't get to hear the truth. They're just hearing a gibberish in a foreign language.

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And I don't even know what it is that I've done or what it is that I'm supposed to believe. And then the judgment of God comes upon them because they haven't heard the truth to repent and therefore so believe it.

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That's how the reference to the Assyrians now comes back around and becomes a judgment even to unbelievers.

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It becomes a sign in that way to unbelievers. But let the gift of prophecy abound in a church.

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Let the proclamation of the word of God go out with clarity so that God's people can be edified and built up, as Paul has made that argument here in 1

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Corinthians 14, that the church would be edified, that it would be built up, that it would be for the benefit of the whole church, the edification of the church, verse 12.

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And then also, it would call unbelievers to account that they would be convicted in their sin, that they would see the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the secrets of their hearts are disclosed, and they will fall on their face and worship

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God declaring, surely God is among you. There's another

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Old Testament reference. So you have the Old Testament reference back in verse 21 of the speaking in tongues or the people of a foreign tongue that come in judgment against you.

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And then you have the reference in the Old Testament, another Old Testament reference in verse 25 of saying, no, surely

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God is among you. They were not left to judgment, but rather given the message of deliverance and knowing the presence of God because the spirit of God has entered them and filled them up by the hearing of the gospel.

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Amen. Okay. So that's as far as we're getting in chapter 14. We're not quite finished with it yet.

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We've got another, at least a couple of days here. It might take us two days to finish up verses 26 through 40, and we'll resume our study of first Corinthians 14 next week.

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Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us an understanding of these words.

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You have given us your Holy Spirit that we may hear these things and we see the power of God and what it is that we read.

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So may we proclaim God's power to an unbelieving people, that they might hear the truth, be convicted of their sin and turn to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live. And we speak words of sense to the people of God that we may be an encouragement to one another, edifying, exhorting, and building one another up.

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In this most holy faith, it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.