Order Under Divine Authority

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Take out your Bibles with me and turn to the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
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With our Bibles open, we are going to read 1 Corinthians 14, verses 36-40 under the subject, Order under Divine Authority.
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The Apostle Paul writes these words, Or was it from you that the Word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
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If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.
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So my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order.
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Father in heaven, as we open the Word of God together, and we go and seek to mine the gold within it, I pray, Lord, that first and foremost, that you would keep me from error, that you would anoint the preaching with the power of the Holy Spirit, that he would go out, that the preaching would be mixed with faith, and Lord, that you would bring your people to a better understanding of your authority in their lives.
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And Lord, God, also, that if there are those here who are still living in rebellion, maybe their rebellion is a quiet rebellion.
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Maybe it's even a false profession that's a masqueraded rebellion.
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Or Lord, maybe they just have yet to realize the need to bow the knee to Christ.
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Lord, that today might be the day that they see the authority of Christ put on display.
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As 2,000 years ago, he went into the city on the back of a donkey, and he was proclaimed as he who comes in the name of the Lord, he who is the Lord.
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He is the descendant of David.
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He is our king.
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Lord, may we bow the knee to King Jesus today.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Please be seated.
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Well, good morning already.
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It's been a wonderful time of worship, and I enjoy this time of year celebrating Palm Sunday, looking forward to the rest of this holy week.
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And in just a few weeks, our family is going to experience a major change.
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We're going to watch as our son boards a plane and begins his journey into the United States Air Force.
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He's going to move from the relative comfort of his childhood home to a much different atmosphere surrounded by people he's never met.
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He's going to move from the presence of mom's comforting embrace, the savory enjoyment of grandma's vegetable soup, and the freedom to come and go as he pleases.
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All that will be gone.
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He's going to move from being under the immediate authority of his parents to being under the immediate authority of his commanding officer.
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And it's going to be a new authority that will become evident very quickly, especially if he fails to recognize it.
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God has established spheres of authority in the world, and all of those spheres of authority have purpose.
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There's authority in the home.
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God has established the home with a certain type of authority.
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It's the smallest social structure in the world, the home.
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And yet there's an order that the home has been given.
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God has given authority in the workplace to the owner, the operator of the business has authority over how he functions.
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God has given authority to the government to establish laws, to punish evil, and to reward those who do good.
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There is also authority in the church.
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The Word of God governs the church as it's taught, as it's preached, as it's interpreted and applied by the elders.
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This is how the authority in the church operates.
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And of course, the highest authority in every sphere is that of God.
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He exercises sovereign authority over the entire universe.
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As R.C.
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Sproul has said, there is not one rogue molecule in the entire universe that is outside of the authority of Almighty God.
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In fact, I don't know if you saw this past week the picture of the black hole.
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It looked like a lens cap got left on the camera to me.
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I couldn't tell anything.
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It just looked like a big blob.
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But it's supposed to be the most dramatic picture of anything in our universe that's ever been pictured.
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It's a picture of what they believe to be a black hole.
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Millions and billions and trillions of light years in its width and so big that it's larger than our universe by many times.
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And yet, God is sovereign even over that.
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There is nothing in this universe that God is outside of.
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There's no rogue molecule that's not under His command.
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God is sovereign.
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The Bible talks about authority.
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God's authority.
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Christ's authority.
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In fact, I want to remind you, and maybe some of you don't remember this narrative from the Gospel of Luke.
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But if you want to turn very quickly, and this is still my introduction, but I just want to just remind you of something that's very important.
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In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus had an event happen where there was a man who was a centurion.
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A centurion was a man who had a hundred soldiers under him.
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That's what the cent means, a hundred.
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And so he had a hundred soldiers under his authority.
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And this man had a servant who was sick.
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And in Luke chapter 7 in verse 1, it says, And I say to one, go, and he goes.
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And to another, come, and he comes.
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And to my servant, do this, and he doesn't.
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When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.
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And turning to the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.
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And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
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Notice the centurion here, Roman soldier, is commended for his faith.
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But what is it about his faith that caused the commendation of the Lord Jesus Christ? He understood the authority of Christ.
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He knew that Jesus need but say the word and the disease would depart.
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He confessed what few would then and what few do today, the absolute sovereign authority of Jesus.
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He said, I know what authority is.
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I have men under me, and I have men over me, and I know what authority is, and you have it.
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You have authority.
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There is a sense in which understanding authority is necessary to understanding our faith.
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Let me say that again.
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There is a sense in which understanding authority is necessary to understanding our faith.
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So I ask you this question, church, as a lead into today's text, as a lead in today's message, do we understand the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives? Do we yield to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives? Do we give way to the commands of the Savior, which come through his word? And do we see that submission in the way that we live, in the way that we behave, and in the way that we worship? Are we a people submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ? That's the question that we're going to examine today, because that's the problem Paul had with the Corinthians.
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Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 14 now, and let's begin to look at this text, because in 1 Corinthians 14, you'll remember from verses 26 to 40, Paul's been dealing with the subject of worship.
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He's dealt with the issue, or rather the subject of the assembly, the assembled congregation.
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In verses 26 to 33, he dealt with worship.
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He said, when you're worshiping, things ought to be done in order.
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People ought not be talking over other people.
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People ought to bring their gifts and use their gifts.
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But when this person's speaking, this person should be quiet.
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If this person is speaking in tongues, this person should have an interpreter.
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He gave a list of all these things to demonstrate that worship is to be done orderly.
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And then he talked about the role of men and women, and he talked about the order regarding men and women.
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And so we've looked at that.
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We've looked at the order of worship.
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We've looked at the order of responsibility regarding gender.
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And now for the last four verses, we're going to look at the order regarding authority, because that's what these last few verses is about.
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It's about authority.
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It's about submission.
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It's about understanding that if we're going to have order, we got to be ordered under authority.
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We don't get to set the order.
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We don't get to set what we want.
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We are to submit to what He wants.
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That's the point.
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We are not God.
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We are not the sovereign.
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We are submitted to the sovereign.
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We are the subjects.
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He is the object.
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So the way I've outlined this, I don't have three good points for you today.
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I'm sorry I don't have three alliterated, they all start with P or anything like that.
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But I did outline it best I could, and this is the way I've got it outlined.
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I've got it down to two rhetorical questions, three emphatic statements, and one summarizing imperative.
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So that's how we're going to look at this.
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We're going to begin by looking at the two rhetorical questions.
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Look with me in Two rhetorical questions.
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Paul says in verse 36, That's two rhetorical questions.
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Two rhetorical questions, and the connection between this and what came before it may seem a little odd, because right before this, he talks about men and women, and he talks about the relationship of men and women in the church, and he talks about the fact that women ought not to speak with authority and prophesy in the church and those things, that role is to be maintained by men, and that's what is said right before this.
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So then he says, Or was it to you that the word of God came? Understand that these rhetorical questions are not just connected to the few verses before.
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These two rhetorical questions are actually connected with the entire scope of the argument.
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Paul is bringing the conclusion now, and he's bringing the conclusion to everything, not just the immediate context, but the whole context that came before.
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Paul is drawing this entire section to a close.
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What's this whole section been about? Order and submission.
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And so he says, Has the word of God only come to you, or did it even come to you first? You see, the Corinthians had demonstrated the capacity for disorder.
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We've seen disorder in the Corinthian church ever since chapter one, but particularly in the assembly since chapter 11.
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They're disordered regarding men and women.
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They're disordered regarding how they had the Lord's Supper.
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They're disordered regarding how they operated in the spiritual gifts.
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They're disordered regarding how they showed love.
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They're disordered in every way.
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And Paul's been dealing with the assembly here, and he's bringing his thought to a crescendo, and he culminates in two questions.
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Was it from you the word of God came, and are you the only ones it has reached? There's a parallel there.
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Do you think the word of God came from you, and do you think the word of God came only to you? Hear that again.
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Do you think the word of God came from you, or do you think the word of God came only to you? If you're having trouble with this, here's a modern way of saying what Paul is saying.
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Who do you think you are? Is that easy enough? Ronald Trail, in his exegetical summary of this particular text, said this.
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He said, what Paul is really asking is, do you think you're the mother church? Do you think that you are the end all, be all of God's business in the world? Are you holy mother church? The answer, of course, is no, you're not.
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You see, the Corinthians had set themselves up as the authority regarding the word of God, and their behavior made that clear.
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They were going to do things as they pleased.
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They were not going to bow down to any pressure.
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They were not going to conform to any standards, and as Charles Hodge says, they acted as though they were entitled to independence.
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They acted as though they were entitled to independence.
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I'm going to do it my way.
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You ever heard that song? I did it my way.
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I tell you what, I've done a few funerals where people wanted that sung at their funeral, and I thought, what an amazing thing.
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You want my way sung at your funeral? I did it my way.
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I hope not.
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By the way, if you're really hoping for that to be at your funeral, maybe I cut you off at the knees right then, but let me tell you, it's not what we should have, our desire for our life to be about my way, because you're not the authority, and that's what Paul's saying.
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You're not the mother church.
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The word of God didn't come to you first, and it didn't come to you only, and it certainly didn't come from you.
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You are one of many churches in the world, Corinth.
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You are one of many churches that I've ministered to.
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You don't get to set the agenda.
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God sets the agenda.
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You see, by establishing themselves as the authority, the Corinthian church demonstrated their rebellion to true authority.
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It's like this.
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One of my professors used to say, Dr.
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Powers, he used to talk about, he said, there's a throne in your heart, and only one person gets to sit on it.
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It's either going to be the Lord Jesus Christ, or it's going to be you, but just know that when you sit on it, you've got to ask Him to step off to the side.
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Now, I know that's a silly little analogy.
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Certainly, we can't physically tell the Lord Jesus to come down off of His throne, but you understand the picture.
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When I put myself on the throne, somebody's got to come off, because only one person gets to sit at a time, and that's the problem with the Corinthians.
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They're not verbalizing their rebellion.
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They're demonstrating their rebellion.
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It's not in what they're saying, it's what they're doing.
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And this is a good reminder to us that sometimes our rebellious hearts are not verbalized, but they're manifested in our actions.
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We may say we're willing to submit, but our behavior proves us wrong.
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The Corinthians proved they had a rebellious attitude.
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And Paul says, are you the mother church? No.
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And after this, he gives us three emphatic statements, almost like three shotgun.
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Bang, bang, bang.
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Three statements, he says, and I want you to understand all three of these, because each one of these is building on that question, the question of did the Word of God come to you only, or did it come from you? The answer is no.
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Here's what you need to understand.
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Three emphatic statements.
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Number one is verse 37.
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If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
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Stop right there and just think about that for a second.
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Paul is speaking to two types of people in the church.
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One, if you think you're a prophet.
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Two, if you think you are, the word is pneumatikos.
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It literally means a person who is gifted spiritually or a spiritual person.
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So he's speaking to these people and he says, if anyone thinks himself, if anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or if he thinks himself to be spiritual.
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And by the way, just by putting that little phrase, if anyone thinks, he's saying not everybody who thinks is.
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Oh, come on, that could have got a little amen.
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Not everybody who thinks they're a prophet are a prophet.
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Not everyone who thinks they're spiritual are spiritual.
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But he gives them a test.
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He says, if you think you're a prophet or you think you're spiritual, here's the test.
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If you think you're a prophet, you will know that what I'm saying is from God.
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If you think you're spiritual, what you will know is that what I'm writing is a command of the Lord.
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See, if you think this, you're going to know this.
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And if you don't know this, if you think this, you're wrong.
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If you think that you're a prophet and you don't know that what I'm writing is from the Lord, know this, the Holy Spirit don't talk out of both sides of his mouth.
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And if the Holy Spirit's talking to your heart and he's not telling you to listen to what I'm saying, know that you're not listening to the Holy Spirit.
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There might be a spirit in there, but it might not be holy.
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There might be something you're hearing, but it might not be from God.
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So if you think you're a prophet, you should know that what I'm writing is from God.
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And think about the tremendous claim that Paul is making.
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That is a tremendous statement.
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Because here's, I thought about this, this week, I even wrote in my notes, I said, were it not the truth, this would be the height of pride.
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Were it not true, this would be boastful.
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If Paul says everything, if what I'm writing is a command of the Lord, if that weren't true, this would be outrageously arrogant.
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Because he's saying he's writing with the authority of God himself.
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You know, oftentimes, we talk about inspiration of Scripture.
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The doctrine of inspiration says that the Scripture comes from God, through the hands of men, but from the Holy Spirit of God.
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The Scriptures are given by God.
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We can say under inspiration.
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The word that we use that is 2 Timothy 3, 16.
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All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be equipped for everything, every good work.
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Right? We were familiar with that text.
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And there's another passage over in 2 Peter, which talks about the fact that no prophecy of Scripture ever came by anyone's own interpretation, but holy men of God wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
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And so that tells us that the Scripture, not only is inspired by God, but the men were used to write it, were being carried along by God.
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And if I were teaching on inspiration this morning, I would tell you those two passages, but I would also point right here.
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Because this passage tells us that Paul knew that what he was writing was the command of the Lord.
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Interestingly enough, I think people wonder that.
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I think people wonder sometimes, did Paul know he was writing Scripture? I think here he did.
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I think here he clearly does.
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Because he says, do you know this? That what I am writing is the command of the Lord.
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It is made with God's authority.
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Let me tell you this.
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I don't have any authority here.
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The elders don't have any authority here outside of the Word of God.
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Men in your home, your authority begins with the Word of God.
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Bosses, managers, people that have people under you, you have a responsibility to God as to how you manage them.
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All authority begins here because this is the Word of God.
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It carries the commands of God.
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Just think about that.
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That's the first emphatic statement.
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If anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge, he should know that the things I'm writing are a command of the Lord.
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That's the first statement.
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The second statement is verse 38.
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If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.
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See, this is the denial.
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First we look for the affirmative.
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Now we have the denial.
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Okay.
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If you're a prophet, if you're spiritual, you should affirm these things.
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But if you do not, you're not to be recognized.
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Now the King James says this a little differently.
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The King James says, if any man be ignorant, let him remain ignorant.
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Actually, it says, let him be ignorant.
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If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
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The word there, agnoe, is where we get the word agnostic.
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Agnoe means to be without knowledge.
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It is the word for ignorant.
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So the King James, I think, is translating a literal word here.
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If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
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But my issue with the way that the King James translates it is I think it adds too much passivity to what Paul is saying.
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As if to say, well, if you're ignorant, stay ignorant.
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That's not what Paul's saying.
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Paul is saying that if his apostolic writing is not obeyed, then that person is to not be recognized.
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In fact, in the Greek, it's in the indicative.
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What does that mean? It means it makes a statement of something that is.
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If a man does not recognize my words, he is not to be recognized.
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Or he is not recognized.
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That's the indicative.
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But actually, later manuscripts, and this is an interesting just historical thing, later manuscripts, it actually is changed to the imperative.
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And it's kind of hard sometimes to know which one was actually the original in this regard.
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But the imperative would read like this.
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If they don't recognize me, don't recognize them.
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Now, I'm not going to argue whether or not it should be in the indicative or should be in the imperative.
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But I'll tell you this, I think that's Paul's point.
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If they don't recognize him, don't recognize them.
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And whether you say that by saying, if they don't recognize me, they are not recognized, that would be in the indicative.
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Or if they don't recognize me, do not recognize them, that would be in the imperative.
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However you say it, it's saying essentially the same thing.
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And that is this.
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If they don't recognize Paul, don't recognize them.
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But here's the question.
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And this kind of came into my mind as I was studying the text, preparing my message.
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I have questions too.
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And so I often chase those questions down and try to examine what's being said here.
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I want to know what Paul means when he says, don't recognize them.
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Because is he saying don't recognize them as a prophet? Sure.
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Is he saying don't recognize them as spiritual? Yes, I would say so.
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But I think he could also be saying don't even recognize them as a brother.
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You say, now what do you mean by that pastor? Well, let me ask you this.
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If a person was in this church and they were denying that the Apostle Paul was authoritatively writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would we say that person's a brother? No.
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Now we might say they might be an ignorant brother or an immature brother.
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And they need to be taught and instructed and carried along.
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Yes.
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But that's not this person.
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This person's the obstinate person.
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Like the man who sat on my couch and said, Keith, I don't believe the whole Bible's true.
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I said, you're in the wrong church.
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If you don't believe the Bible is true, throw a stick, you will hit 15 churches that all believe the Bible's not true.
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Go there.
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But if you're here, we are submitted to the authority of the Scripture.
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This is a place governed by the Word of God, not by Paul as Paul, but as Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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Not as John as John, but as John wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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And we go down the list.
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Isaiah, Jeremiah, all of those men did not give their own interpretations of God, but they gave what God said.
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God breathed Scripture.
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That's what we submit to.
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And I would question anyone who claims to be filled with the Spirit, who doesn't hear the Spirit speak when they read the Apostle Paul.
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I would question anybody who says, I'm filled with the Spirit, but when I read Paul, I don't hear the Spirit.
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If anyone cannot recognize the authority of the Apostle Paul, either you lack maturity or you lack the Spirit.
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That means you're not saved.
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So I think that this is serious, serious business.
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So Paul asks or says, if anyone does not recognize this, he's not to be recognized.
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Certainly not as a prophet.
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Certainly not as a spiritual person, but maybe not even as a brother.
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Third emphatic statement, verse 39.
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So my brothers earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
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Paul includes this statement because this is actually bringing together the argument that he began at the beginning of chapter 14, because the whole thing has been prophecy and speaking in tongues.
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And he wants to make sure he hasn't been misunderstood because he is not forbidding spiritual gifts to be used in the church.
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In fact, he's encouraging the church to use spiritual gifts.
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A church which does not operate in the giftedness of the Holy Spirit will be unfruitful in ministry.
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But now I know what you're thinking.
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And again, I try to imagine your questions before you ask, because I pretend I'm you and I'm sitting there and I'm hearing me say these things.
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What question would come into your mind? And the question a lot of people would say, well, a church like ours doesn't actively have people speaking in tongues.
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So are we disobeying Paul here? Because he said, don't forbid speaking in tongues.
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And yet we don't actively participate in that.
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Well, let me address that now.
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Because last week I said something that some of you may, I saw some like, I said, we've had people come in here who wanted to stand up and prophesy and we told them no.
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I've had people, I've had a woman come in here with her husband.
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She came in during Sunday school.
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I have a word from the Lord.
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It's for your congregation.
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I said, you're not going to speak unless you speak to me first.
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You're not going to come in and just say anything out of your mind.
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You're not going to do that.
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And they ended up leaving, leaving in frustration and anger, but we just didn't allow it.
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And you said, well, pastor, are we ignoring this text? No, for three reasons.
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I'll give you the three reasons very simply.
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Number one, we believe that both scripture and history demonstrate a difference between how certain gifts operated in the early church and how they operated today.
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If nothing else, certainly how widespread the operation.
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As in the early church, these things were being used to demonstrate that God's scripture is being written, being used to demonstrate the going out of the gift to all men, that the gospel was going to all languages.
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There was a purpose for it in the first century.
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Number two, many of those who claim to have these gifts today are operating in direct rebellion to the clear guidelines of scripture.
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So first of all, if somebody just came in and started speaking out of turn, we're going to tell them to be quiet because that's what Paul would do.
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Paul says if somebody just begins talking and there's no interpreter, you tell them to be quiet, speak to themselves and to God, but not publicly.
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So there are guidelines that the scripture gives us that if the person were to try to disobey those guidelines, I can simply say, you're not speaking for God here, you're speaking for yourself.
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But the third thing, and here this church, and this could get me flogged from both sides.
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I got to be careful what I'm about to say.
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I see the elders ears perk up.
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If a person had the miraculous ability to speak in a language they never learned and someone else had the miraculous ability to interpret it without having studied the language and it was a legitimate miracle, then we would have no reason not to accept it and rejoice over it.
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If God gave you the ability to speak in Chinese so that you could speak to the Chinese people or even to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit had used you and someone else could interpret that without having studied the language, I would have no issue with that.
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But that doesn't mean that we're going to have a free for all.
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I want to ask you a question.
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What do Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science, and Jonestown all have in common? Every one of them began with someone standing up and saying, God told me this.
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Every one of those movements had somebody who said, God spoke to me, an angel spoke to me, a spirit spoke to me.
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And you know what John tells us to do in 1 John chapter 4 verse 1? Test the spirits to see if they are of God.
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Which means that we do not allow free for alls.
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We do not allow the nonsense of so many places.
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And Paul is not saying in this passage that we are to abandon discernment.
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What he is saying is that we should seek and desire the spiritual gifts.
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We should not forbid them.
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We should hope for them.
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But he's already given us several passages before this that tell us ultimately there is a way God gives gifts.
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And it's not in chaos.
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If your spiritual gift can only be manifest in chaos, then it's not from God.
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Let me say that again.
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If your spiritual gift can only be manifest in chaos, then it's not from God.
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Because God is a God of order, not a God of chaos.
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And that leads us to one summarizing imperative.
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This is verse 40.
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One summarizing imperative.
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But all things, how many things? All.
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Okay, just making sure we understand.
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All things should be done decently and in order.
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This is the conclusion, not of these verses, but of four chapters.
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11, 12, 13, and 14 are all finding their culmination in verse 40.
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All things should be done decently and in order.
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That word decently is an adverb.
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Describes an action.
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It means proper, pleasing, fitting, becoming, or seemly.
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So if what you're doing isn't proper, pleasing, fitting, becoming, or seemly, don't do it.
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But the next phrase, in order, kata taxon.
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Kata means according to.
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Taxon means a sequence or an arrangement.
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All things are to be done decently and orderly.
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And I want to again quote Charles Hodge and his commentary on this passage.
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He says, all things are to be done decently and orderly, not tumultuously, as in a mob, but as in a well-ordered army where everyone keeps his place and everyone acts at the proper time and everyone acts in the proper way.
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Now that doesn't mean that we are stoic, wooden statues.
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Paul's not saying we can't have emotions.
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We should.
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He's not saying that our services shouldn't have life.
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They should.
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And he's not advocating dead liturgy.
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Heaven forbid we simply come in and repeat over and over phrases and statements that have no meaning.
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But he is calling us to understand that when we assemble, we are a people under authority.
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Our worship should be concerned first and foremost, what does God command? He is the commander in chief.
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He is the one who has stated what He wants.
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And our desire should not be about me.
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It should be about Thee.
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Not about what I want, but about what thus saith the Lord.
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I want to draw to a close with an illustration, a story.
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And I want to ask you to please pay attention to the story because at the end I'm going to ask a question and I need you to really hear the question at the end because it brings everything together.
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There was a man who had an ailing father.
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The father called the man to his bedside, his son, and he told him, he told him, I have a job I want you to do.
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I want you to take a portion of the stocks that we have.
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I want you to sell them and I want you to set the money aside to take care of your mother after I pass.
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Make sure she has money to live on.
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And so the son thought it was a good idea and he did as his father said.
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Later, the father called him again.
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This time he wanted to sell some land, which he owned, and he instructed the son to sell the land and establish a college fund for his grandchildren.
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And again, the son thought it was a good idea.
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And so he did as his father said.
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Finally, a third and last time, the father sent for his son.
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The father had some antiques that he felt would be better liquidated than kept.
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And so he instructed the son sell the antiques.
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But the son was not pleased with his father's command.
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So in an act of defiance, he chose not to do as his father directed.
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Now, for the question.
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In that story, how many times did the son submit to the father? The answer is none.
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You say, but he did what he was supposed to do in two instances.
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If you listen again, he did it because he agreed.
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It is not submission to only do what we agree to.
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The moment a decision came from the father with which he disagreed, he immediately rebelled, demonstrating he was never in submission to the father to begin with.
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He was only in submission to what he thought was right.
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And that's not submission.
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Submission to authority, my friends, is the subject of today.
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And how often are we like this son? Don't listen to the thing outside, listen to me.
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How often are we like this son when it comes to our father in heaven? God makes requirements of us, and they are clearly presented in his word, and we're willing to obey only so long as we agree.
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But the moment God places upon us a command with which we disagree, we go our own way, thereby demonstrating we're really not in submission to him at all.
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Submission to authority begins with the realization that when God says it, that settles it.
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There is no room to negotiate, there is no setting of terms, and there is no haggling at the feet of God.
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So the question becomes, beloved, and hear me through this nonsense, hear this.
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Have we sincerely submitted ourselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ? He said, all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me.
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He is Lord of creation and Lord of our lives.
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He is Lord of the land and the sea.
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He was Lord of the heavens before there was time, and Lord of all lords he will be.
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Will we bow down? Will we listen? Or will we with impudent pride stand against the Lord in the arrogant boastfulness of our own sinful rebellion? I want to say something to you today, and hear me now.
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Today, if you haven't, today is the day to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Do not wait another day.
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You may not have another day.
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You may not have another hour.
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The Bible says now is the time.
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Today is the day of salvation.
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I call you as James called all of us.
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Submit yourselves to God.
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Draw near to God.
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He will draw near to you.
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Cleanse your hands.
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Purify your hearts.
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Be wretched.
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Mourn and weep.
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Let your laughter be turned to mourning.
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Let your joy be turned to gloom.
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Humble yourselves before the Lord.
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And he will exalt you.
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Humble yourselves before the Lord.
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Let us pray.
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Father, such a word is this to us today that everyone here needs to hear.
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Lord, whether it be believers who need to recognize those areas of our life where we need to be broken and submit to you.
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Or Lord, maybe it's those who are here who don't know Christ.
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And more than anything else in the world, Lord, they need to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, to love him with all their hearts, to turn to him in faith.
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And we know, Lord, that's a work of the Holy Spirit of God.
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So, Lord, right now, I pray that you would that you would draw men in.
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I pray that whether it be drawing them in with your loving kindness or breaking their hearts in the fear of the Lord, whatever it needs, Lord, whatever they need, Lord, to to change their heart, Lord, only you can do this miraculous thing.
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Only you can make a man submit.
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Only you can make a man willing.
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Your word tells us, oh, God.
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That they will be made willing in the day of your power.
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Lord, make us willing, Lord, for every person in this room, make us willing.
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For those who have not bowed the knee to Christ, make them willing, Lord, that they would see him as beautiful, as wonderful as as the as the king of kings and lord of lords, Lord, may they bow down and worship you.
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Father, may we submit to you.
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In Christ's name, Amen.