Construction Zone - [1 Corinthians 14:1ff]

I was in California for a few weeks over the summer and you think a lot about life and ministry and I thought,

you know what, we need to be more intentional about church growth at Bethlehem Bible Church.

You really need to be into church growth.

Now you're looking at me like, uh oh, what's next?

That is, growing you, the body of Christ.

I'm against church growth that says, let's have gimmicks and programs and do all kinds of other things just to get people

in the door.

But I'm very for, I'm very much supporting the idea that those whom

the Father has given to the Son and the Son dies for and the Spirit regenerates, I want them to grow.

I want you to be maturing.

I want you to be strengthened.

I want you to be conformed to the image of Christ.

I want you to grow.

Church growth is good if we mean the saints growing.

So I'd like you to turn your Bibles to the church growth chapter.

Out of all the books in the Bible, this is the number one church growth chapter, 1 Corinthians

14.

What do you mean 1 Corinthians 14?

Everything in this chapter revolves around this theme.

God wants His church to be edified.

The building up of the church, the construction of the church, the Father has chosen

the elect He sent His Son to go die for them.

The Spirit of God has regenerated them and is now in the process of conforming them more and more

to the image of Christ.

And He wants the church to grow.

Oh yes, numbers will come.

That's the Lord's business.

Here the Lord's business is, let's make sure that the local church is focused on growth,

edification of the individuals and corporately growing and maturing.

I say it all the time.

If you're a brand new Christian and you're not very mature, that's fine.

But if you're an older Christian and you're not very mature, it's time to say, who am I in Christ?

What God has done and I have one life to live.

I should want to honor Him, not to save myself, not to keep myself saved, but because I

am saved, I should want to honor Him.

One flashback to think about who I was without Christ and where I would have been for all eternity

should motivate me enough to think of His great mercy and grace and love for me.

I should live a life in light of what He's done.

And so Paul talks to these Corinthians and they're very selfish.

They're very, well, it's all about us.

You know what the Corinthians were like?

They were like modern churches today who say, worship is all about me.

I don't like this song.

I don't like that.

The sermon was too long.

I didn't like this scripture reading.

I didn't like this, that or the other.

That's our culture today when worship has nothing to do with us primarily.

Oh, secondarily, we are the ones that worship God, but I don't even think worship is about us and God.

I think it's all about who God is.

Even salvation, God's glory is primary in our salvation and I'm glad we get it.

It's ancillary, it's secondary.

And the Corinthians were like, it's all about us.

We can have it our way.

We just order things the way we want it and this is what we like.

And Paul is going to say in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, it's about the body.

It's about growth.

It's about edification of the whole so we grow in our practice to more match

our position in Christ Jesus.

And so this is the growth chapter.

You say, I thought it was the tongues chapter.

Well, it's the tongues and growth chapter combined.

And Paul is going to say, basically, speaking in tongues that's

not interpreted doesn't cause anyone to grow because we have no idea what these people are saying.

Edification and intelligibility are the end goals for the glory of God's word proclaimed.

So here's what we're going to do.

Since I've been gone for a while and 1 Corinthians 12 was many moons ago, let me give you seven quick

foundational reminders before we get into 1 Corinthians that will help you understand 1

Corinthians 14.

1 Corinthians 14 is full of potholes and hermeneutical landmines and you have to kind of

tippy toe through.

But if you've got chapter 12 and 13 down and you have these foundational truths down, you'll just read through it and you'll go, I get

it.

You can go home tonight and read through the first 19 verses of 1 Corinthians 14 and you go, I think I've got

it.

I think I got that.

So let me give you seven quick reminders for foundationally viewing 1

Corinthians 14 and have a good understanding.

Number one, spiritual gifts are sovereignly given.

Go back to chapter 12, please, of the same epistle, verse 11, 1 Corinthians 12, 11, in

eternity past, God knew and had decreed which spiritual gifts you would be given and that salvation and

in time he granted them to you by his sovereign free will.

All these are empowered by one and the same spirit, 1 Corinthians 12, 11, who apportions

to each one individually as he, not the each one, but he,

God himself.

At salvation, God gives you spiritual gifts.

Every Christian gets at least one.

The implication here is the deduction is you can't pray for other spiritual gifts.

I really wish I had the gift of teaching.

I have to pray for that.

No, at salvation, eternally decreed God, the spirit grants you certain spiritual gifts.

Foundational truth number two, God does not give every gift to every person.

Look at chapter 12, verse 29, please.

You don't have every gift that's ever been ordained.

Neither do I and neither did the Corinthians.

Are all apostles?

Are all prophets?

There's a way in Greek to expect a no for the answer, right?

We do this in English as well.

You don't expect the Celtics to be better than the Lakers this year, do you?

Are all teachers?

Do all work miracles?

Do all possess gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

The answer is no, you don't get all the gifts.

So one, God sovereignly chooses the gifts that he gives you and or gift.

Number two, you don't get every gift, which is going to help us because they were thinking to be

super spiritual.

You have to speak in tongues, just like people today.

Some people, United Pentecostal Church, you have to speak in tongues in order to be saved.

Some people think to have the baptism of the spirit, you have to speak in tongues.

Some people think to be godly, you have to speak in tongues.

Some people think to put away sins, you have to speak in tongues.

Some people forget that the fruit of the spirit is not tongues, but it's love and joy,

peace, etc.

It is a mistake to assume speaking in tongues is synonymous with the baptism of the spirit and or being

filled with the spirit.

Because some people don't even have this gift of speaking in tongues.

Even back in those days.

Foundational reminder number three that will help us interpret 1 Corinthians 14.

The biblical definition of speaking in tongues is that someone be granted by God

the ability to speak a language he never learned.

Speaking in tongues, tongues means language.

This is not gibberish, this is not repeating something, this is not ecstatic speech.

Continuation as D .A. Carson said, the evidence favors the view that Paul thought the gift of tongues was the gift of real

languages.

That is languages that were cognitive.

It is not a spiritual gift given to you at salvation nor the Corinthians back in those days, the gift to babble

and to repeat things and to have some pagan utterance.

The word tongue means language when not used of the slab of mucus in our mouths.

Revelation 5, they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were

slain and did purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe and

tongue, language, people, and nation.

This is a language that you've never learned that God granted to you.

That is impressive.

It's not impressive if someone says I have my own private prayer language, that's not impressive when you just make those sounds.

Biblical tongues is not gibberish and you can look at all kinds of pagans who think that it's spiritual to

just say gibberish type of things.

Eskimos, mystery religions in the Greco -Roman world, Quakers, Tibetan monks, people in the occult.

The biblical gift of speaking in tongues was God gave you a language you did not learn.

Impressive.

Number four, foundational truth.

We're almost done with some introduction but it will help you believe me for 1 Corinthians 14.

Biblical tongues are not being spoken today.

Biblical tongues are not being spoken today.

I read a linguistic study from William Samarin and he said over a period of five years,

I have taken part in meetings in Italy, Holland, Jamaica, Canada, and the United States.

I have observed old -fashioned Pentecostals and Neo -Pentecostals.

I have been in small meetings at private homes as well as in mammoth public meetings.

I have seen such a different cultural settings as found from Puerto Ricans of the Bronx to the snake handlers of the

Appalachians and the Russians in Los Angeles.

Tongues is indeed like language in some ways, gibberish, but this is only because the speaker

unconsciously wants it to be like language.

Yet in spite of superficial similarities, gibberish is fundamentally not

language.

So today you will not meet a person who says, I can speak a language that I've never learned.

One of the reasons is it leads me to truth number five, what were the sign gifts and do they

exist today?

Sign gifts pointed to the messenger, he's from God, and the message,

it's from God.

You had service gifts to help the body, speaking gifts to teach the body, and sign gifts to say we don't have the Bible, how

do I know if that guy's teaching truth?

I can't say chapter and verse, that matches up.

So they would do things like have the gift of miracles, have the gift of healing, they could

speak a language they'd never learned, and then I would say, well, that seems to be from God to authenticate the

message and the messenger.

When you study the New Testament, what comes through your mind right away?

All right, here's a sword drill.

How many books of the Bible?

How many books of the New Testament?

How many Gospels?

How many books of Revelation?

How many New Testament epistles?

Faster, come on.

New Testament epistles, 21.

How many talk about tongues?

One in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, and in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians.

And when you look at miracles and signs and wonders, what will you see?

Oh, they're just always happening all the time.

If they happened all the time, they wouldn't be called miracles, they'd be called regulars, as one man

said.

What you see is these pockets of miracles, Moses, Joshua, Scriptures being revealed,

Elijah and Elisha, the prophets, and Jesus and the apostles, to confirm and

authenticate the message.

B .B. Warfield said something that I really liked.

There is an inseparable connection of miracles with Revelation as its mark, our credential.

Miracles do not appear on the pages of Scripture, listen, vaguely here,

there and everywhere, indifferently without a signable reason.

They belong to Revelation periods and appear only when God is speaking to His people

through accredited messengers.

And so what has happened now?

Now we do have the complete canon, Scripture is sufficient, it is not deficient,

and now to know if I'm preaching the Bible, you only need the Bible.

If I'm speaking for God, you only need the Revelation that's included, so why do we have sign gifts to point to something when we've

already arrived to the completion of the canon?

God today says to churches, appoint elders in every city.

Why?

I wish they could only appointed an apostle in West Boylston, we'd have a lot fewer problems.

But apostles have ceased as the foundation of the church has been laid, we're now to a point where

apostles and prophets don't exist anymore, so God says appoint elders in every city.

Number six, two more.

1 Corinthians 14 discourages more than encourages the use of tongues.

J. Vernon McGee, remember J. Vernon McGee?

I remember where I was practically when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, and I remember where I

was when I realized J. Vernon McGee had been dead in the presence of God for years, yet dead he still speaks on the radio.

That guy's dead?

He said, to sum up the chapter, Paul said to the Corinthians, cool it.

Henry Chadwick, the British historian, said basically Paul is trying to throw water on top of

their experience because it's turning into being selfish.

So people say, look it, this is why I think speaking in tongues is for today.

This is actually going to be something that's going to temper that, and we'll see that in just a minute.

And my last foundational truth, what is prophecy today?

Look back at 1 Corinthians 12 .10 please.

I believe prophecy was a sign gift.

I believe that when you see there in 1 Corinthians 12 .10 and to another prophecy, it's in the context of

sign gifts.

It is a flawless, authoritative revelation from God.

It is inspired speech that we no longer need today.

Oh, we might say somebody sounds prophetic, and that's foretelling the truth,

but the gift of prophecy has ceased.

Now we don't say listen to the prophets, we say listen to the Bible.

Okay, now let's go to 1 Corinthians 14.

We're going to go through 1 -19 today.

I didn't know how far I was going to get in first service, but that's how far we got there, so 1 -19.

The theme of the chapter is tongues that aren't

interpreted don't help build up because you can't understand them.

So go for things that build up the church that you can understand.

Paul is going to say, listen, speaking in tongues without an interpreter, you don't know what's going on,

run from that because you've got to build up Christ's church with real words that

people can understand.

This is a great sermon for people who are wandering around in all the ooze of

feelings and I'm going to grow in my Christian faith by emotion only and by emotion primary.

This is all about your mind.

You cannot grow without engaging your mind.

I think I'm going to have a radio show called that, Engaging Your Mind.

Do we have one, Engaging Your Mind?

Engaging Your World?

Oh, that was defunct.

It's gone.

But to engage your mind and don't let the world conform your mind and love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, and mind and strength.

Your mind has to be connected to information you can understand and if someone is speaking a different language, you can

understand them.

So there are basically three desires that Paul is going to lay out for

Corinth that I'm going to give you.

Three desires that you need to pursue when you think about BBC and her growth and

your growth.

Desire number one found in the first five verses that you should desire as a congregation spiritual gifts that build up

the body.

You as a corporate body should desire things that build up the body.

That's what you want.

You want other people, and of course you too, to be built up in the faith.

Now let's just take a quick survey of the theme building up in 1 Corinthians before I

look at chapter 1 to 5 any closer.

Look at verse 3 for a minute of 1 Corinthians 14.

See this important refrain from Paul.

On the other hand, 1 Corinthians 14, 3, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their up -building and

encouragement and consolation.

The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

Now I want all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.

The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so that the church may be

built up.

Verse 12 please.

See the refrain continues.

So with yourselves, since you are eager for the manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in

building up the church.

Verse 17.

The court is struck again, for you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not

being built up.

Verse 26.

What then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an

interpretation?

Let all things be done for building up.

Even 1 Corinthians 12, verse 7.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1 Corinthians 8 .1.

Love, any guesses, builds up.

So if you go back to chapter 14, verse 1, you're going to see what Paul ends up saying here that's right on this

theme.

Things that build up.

And here he says in verse 1, pretty much a summary of Paul's position that explains the

next 25 verses.

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may

prophesy.

Okay, so pursue love.

That one seems easy enough.

It's an imperative.

Keep on pursuing love.

Chapter 13, the love chapter.

Remember, love chapters in the middle of 12 and 14 that are all talking about spiritual gifts.

Use your spiritual gifts with love, thinking about other people, more importantly than you, for their spiritual good.

Pursue love.

That one's fine.

A loveless church at Corinth pretty much was the root of all their problems.

And earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

What do you mean?

Your mind should be thinking this.

Mike just read those verses in 1 Corinthians 12.

You get your gift at salvation sovereignly.

Now you're telling me I ought to pursue those things.

Now let's not think like individualistic Americans.

Let's think like Easterners 2 ,000 years ago.

The plural language is, you all Corinthians ought to desire as a church gifts

that build up.

You ought to desire spiritual gifts.

Can I say to you as a church member, I could say, Pastor Steve, he has the gift of teaching, but he can't pray for

any other gift to get because that's what he got.

For Steve it was one and done.

No, he has probably more gifts than that.

He can't pray for any more.

But could I say to the congregation with Steve sitting here, you all ought to desire spiritual gifts.

Don't you want the spiritual gifts among you being used?

Don't you want teachers to teach and servers to serve?

And so Paul says, I'm not negatively saying spiritual gifts are bad.

He's saying I want you to desire them, but the right ones that use your mind.

So Bethlehem Bible Church, desire spiritual gifts.

It means you want them to be used in the congregation.

It does not mean I don't have tongues, God could you give me tongues.

It can't mean that.

He's just got done saying before they're sovereignly given.

Collectively and faithfully as a congregation, you, plural, emphasizing the desire of

the entire church body.

Context, you're so focused on tongues.

There are other things that you should be focused on.

You think tongues is the sine qua non of a great Christian.

Sound familiar?

Tongues are the thing that if you have, you've got it.

And if you don't, you're a have not.

Paul says, I want you to have spiritual gifts, exercise them in the church, especially getting

direct revelation from God through the gift of prophecy.

Tongues are inferior when they are not interpreted.

Now he moves to verses two and following, goes to great lengths to say tongues are

inferior.

When they're not interpreted, they're inferior.

Verse two, for one who speaks in a tongue language, he's never learned.

There's no interpreter speaks not to men, but to God.

I speak a language that you don't know.

I don't know, but I still speak it because it's a gift from God.

Speaking in tongues, there's no interpretation.

You don't speak that language.

You have no idea what I'm saying.

God knows what I'm saying, but you don't know for look at the text.

No one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit.

The refrain, the gong is edification through intelligibility.

And if somebody's speaking a language that they never learned, there needs to be an interpreter.

And it seems like what we can infer from this is there were a lot of people who thought they could speak in tongues.

Maybe some with babble, some with the real gift of tongues, but the interpreters, there weren't enough to go around.

That makes me think that if God would give a local church gifted people with tongues, there'd be enough people to interpret.

So plenty of people must have been saying, this is my own made up language.

There has to be an interpreter or you can't understand.

At Pentecost, interpretation was built in, but now interpretation is a gift that needs to be used to interpret.

Verse 3, on the other hand, the one who prophesies,

speaking forth direct revelation from God, speaks to the people.

For their up -building, why?

They can understand.

And encouragement.

And consolation.

It's a rare word, never used anyplace else, but right there.

And their consolation.

Edification is the gold standard through understandable language.

Verse 4, one who speaks in a tongue, builds himself up.

You don't have an interpreter?

I'm going to speak in a language that I've never learned?

Look at me.

As I say all the time, it's a flashback to high school football, I guess.

I've got spirit.

Yes, I do.

I've got spirit.

How about you?

I've got tongues.

Yes, I do.

And I feel like I'm built up because I'm superior.

But the one who prophesies, builds up the church.

Of course, through this chapter, you're going to feel the dripping sarcasm come out at times,

as Paul, of course in love, lays the wood to their selfish thinking, that needed more

love from 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

You need interpretation or you can't understand it.

Now look at verse 5.

You've heard me say tongues with interpretation plenty, even though the text didn't directly say it.

Here it says it and it's everywhere you go.

The key is interpretation.

Otherwise, you can't understand.

Now, I want you all to speak in tongues.

And he is using what Dr. Thomas calls a hyperbolic concession.

Just a figure of speech.

He's not against speaking in a language you've never learned because it's a gift from God.

But he's using it as a comparison.

But even more to prophesy.

The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues.

Why?

Because you can't understand him unless someone interprets.

Unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up.

What is that guy saying?

I have no idea what he's saying.

Paul's not wishing the impossible, but he's emphasizing something.

Edification is the key.

By the way, congregation, what does this do to private prayer language where you're just mumbling and jumbling?

First desire is we, as a congregation, should want spiritual gifts in our congregation that build up.

Second of all, found in verses 6 to 19, we should desire as a congregation spiritual gifts that are

intelligible.

And look at all these supporting analogies.

This is Paul at his best.

This is really just a neat way to write.

Look what he says.

Now brothers, verse 6.

If I come to you speaking in tongues, look at the edification language, even though it doesn't use the word edification or upbuild.

How will I benefit you?

See, that's what you're after.

Doesn't love do that?

I want what's best for you.

How will that benefit you unless I bring some revelation, or knowledge, or prophecy, or teaching?

He says, logically, now I'm going to talk about this.

You can't understand what I say.

You're not going to be edified or built up.

Tongues without interpretation is not going to help anyone.

Let's think about language in general.

How about musical instruments?

Hearers must benefit.

Verse 7.

Even if a lifeless instrument, or excuse me, if even lifeless instruments, such as the flute, or the

harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is

played?

If you have a bunch of cacophonous notes all just jammed in there together, no

syncopation, and no melody.

Charlie gave me a little note here.

These are some musical terms.

Melodious versus cacophonous.

Harmonious versus dissonant.

Lyrical versus noisy.

If you have music that's noisy, dissident, and cacophonous, it doesn't communicate anything

to me except it's an eight -year -old trying to learn how to play the tuba.

That's basically me taking home the tuba to tell Mom, I'm playing the tuba now for the band.

I was older than eight.

I think I was probably 13 or something.

Carried that thing all the way home, and then Mom and Dad sit down.

I'm going to play this.

Didn't go over so well.

They look like you're looking right now.

They had a big amphitheater there at Corinth that would seat 20 ,000 people for a musical concert.

So I like it when I go to my kids' concerts at school, and then they all are trying to tune their instruments.

The leader gets up, and this is a band with clarinets and oboes and other things and

saxophones.

And then they all, there's the piano that hits the key, and then they're all supposed to do the same chord, and it

just sounds like, it actually sounds like a very sick elephant in like this fourth grade

class.

It's not communicating anything to me.

It's turning my stomach, but it doesn't communicate.

And Paul says, instruments communicate.

That's what they're supposed to do.

Verse 8, and if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will be ready for battle?

Think of bugles today and pretty much bugles back in those days.

The bell, the mouthpiece, no valves, and so you're out in the war

zone.

They had no communication devices, and so they had a bugler, and he could say

retreat, fall back, regroup, celebrate, we won.

But if he doesn't make distinct sounds, you don't know if it's taps or reveille.

You have no idea.

Some kind of trumpet playing things.

The war scrolls in ancient documents said bugle calls could signal, muster, alarm,

ambush, pursuit, reassembly, enlistment, encampment, battle formation, funeral, retreat, and

homecoming.

But if it's just a bunch of blah, blah, blah, it doesn't make any sense.

Speech communicates.

Verse 9, so with yourselves.

See how he ties it back in?

If with y 'all's tongue, if with ye and

your tongue, you utter speech.

Now when you see the word tongue, it's used for your tongue in your mouth.

Instruments make sounds.

Your tongue, how do you use your tongue?

If with your tongue, you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?

For you are speaking into the air with your tongue

emphatically.

When you use that organ in your mouth, and it's just la, la, la, la, ba, ba, ba, I don't know what you're talking about.

It doesn't communicate anything.

Even normal human languages are supposed to communicate.

They're not helpful.

They're not useful.

Verse 10, there are doubtless many different languages in the world.

I read this week up to 5 ,000, depending on how you count dialects.

Many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning.

Even dogs communicate differently with a certain kind of bark, and donkeys with a certain kind of bray,

horses with a certain kind of neighing, speech without meaning, Archibald Robertson said, is a

contradiction in terms.

Language is supposed to communicate.

You've got the gift of languages.

Aren't you supposed to communicate?

There's no interpreter.

Nobody knows what you're saying.

How about this?

Verse 11, But if I do not know the meaning of language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to

me.

The purpose of language is to communicate.

Not saying, I've got tongues and you don't.

I've got languages and you don't.

It's to say, let's communicate.

In this particular case, communicating God's Word.

So what's the application?

He says to the church of Corinth, So with yourselves, verse 12,

Since you are eager for the manifestations of the Spirit, that's an understatement, strive to excel in the building up

of the church, our building up the church.

It's all about the church being built up.

Put your energy there.

Don't put your energy saying, you know what, I don't have tongues, so I think I'm going to try to get it.

If I just say, I'm going to make it happen.

Hey, you're after spiritual gifts, there's nothing wrong with that, but put it in the right direction.

Otherwise, it's just selfishness.

The opposite of edification is self -glory.

The opposite of love is selfishness.

And think about even other people who look at this.

Verse 13, Therefore, what happens if people speak in tongues

without interpreters?

Like at Corinth, Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

You need somebody to interpret what you're saying.

Why?

Verse 14, For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

Okay, if I'm speaking a language I've never learned, and it's not interpreted, the

people that I'm talking to don't get any good out of it.

And I don't get any good out of it either, because it's a language I've never learned.

I've never learned this language.

I don't know this language.

I'm talking this language.

I don't even know what I'm saying.

The audience does not benefit, and you, the speaker, don't even benefit.

Look, it's all back to the mind.

But my mind is unfruitful.

He doesn't even know the language.

So what's Paul's conclusion?

Prophecy is to be preferred because you can understand it.

What am I to do?

I said to the first service congregation, say that to your kids, don't you?

You go in and the whole room is a complete disaster, a buzzsaw.

You look at the kids and you say, what am I to do?

Paul says, what am I to do?

For him, though, it's more, what am I to do?

I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also, and I will sing praise with my spirit,

and I will sing with my mind also.

That's what I'm going to do.

And you watch me.

I'm the one that God used to plant the church and to preach the gospel.

You got saved through that.

That's what I'm going to do.

Do as I do.

Don't do as you people say.

Edification cannot exist with an emptied mind.

Otherwise, you're going to get alienation.

Verse 16, If you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your

thanksgiving when he does not know what you're saying?

Okay, an outsider comes along, believer or unbeliever, and he sees you and listens to you speak in tongues, but

he doesn't know the language.

There's no interpreter.

And he would like to just be like Bruce Binney at our church, saying amen once in a while.

You know, good thing we have Brother Bruce around here.

Otherwise, it would just be this dead church when it comes to preaching.

Mark Schaefer does give me some love once in a while.

But if I'm up here talking, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, when does Bruce Binney say amen?

Because amen means I solemnly affirm that.

But I solemnly affirm what?

That you're playing Reveille and I'm thinking taps.

I mean, I have no idea what you're doing.

Are you braying like a donkey or what?

I mean, I'm waiting to go amen, except I can't say amen because it's just back to

la, la stuff and this gibberish and static speech.

I remember once I preached in South Central Los Angeles, and I was preaching, and every

so often I'd hear them say, preach it, chief.

I like that name.

I was thinking about that too, B .B. Warfield, all the great theologians, D .G. Hart, they don't go by their first two names,

it's all their initials.

So, M .L. Abendroth?

Nah, won't work.

How can you say amen when you don't know how to affirm something?

I truly believe it, maybe so, barely, barely.

La, la, la, you can't do it.

Of course there's sarcasm laced through all here.

For you, verse 17, may be giving thanks well enough.

You may be thinking, I'm talking a language I've never learned.

God, you're the greatest.

I didn't even have to learn how to parse.

I didn't even learn what a pluperfect is, and I'm saying all these things.

I know it's a language, but you don't even know what it says.

You might be thanking God in your heart, but the other person isn't being built up.

Worship is all about knowledge and mind, and the other person, not you.

Never say to yourself, well, I didn't really like the worship today.

Say to yourself, was I a good worshiper today by the grace of God?

I didn't really like that song.

On my mean days, on my California days, I'd say, well, what do you mean by that?

On my New England days, I'd say, I never ask you.

Some people in California will say, you know, oh, we'd love to have a church out here, would you love to come?

I said, I'd get blown out of California in about four weeks.

I'm a tough -nosed guy, transplanted in New England, and that's why I'm here, is because

I'm a mean New Englander.

La, la, la, la, la, you wouldn't know when to say amen.

We pick worship songs that are about God, because it's not about us and God, it's not about us, it's about

God.

Well, what did you think of the service today?

Then you should really be saying, was I an active listener, an active giver, an active praiser unto God?

Then he says in verse 18, Paul says, he doesn't say there's no such thing as

tongues back then.

He's been to a lot of churches before, and it's a true gift.

They're just misusing it, and Paul knows to have an interpreter.

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.

Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind.

You're not going to have an interpreter in order to instruct others than 10 ,000 words in a language that no one can be

edified by because it's unintelligible.

All right, so think about us for a second.

All right, it's easy to say to yourself, Corinth, in a transitional time of the

church when sign gifts were around, focused on uninterpreted tongues as a sign of spirituality,

and they should have been thinking about prophecy, men saying, thus saith the Lord.

So what about us today?

What do you need in your life that God uses, empowered by the Spirit's grace, to make you built up?

What is the only thing that builds you up in the faith and conforms you to the image of Christ?

If you'd like to grow and mature in Christ Jesus, what do you need more of?

Show me a person who doesn't study the Bible and memorize the Bible and is consumed by wanting to

understand the Bible, and I'll show you a person who is not grown up.

People say, well, I want to just have the zap.

No wonder people come to the front of churches and get zapped.

I like their motive, I'd like to be more holy, but there's no bypassing for being edified through

not tongues today with interpreters, not prophecy, but through what?

The Word of God preached.

I thank God that Bethlehem Bible Church desires spiritual gifts of teaching because you want the Word

preached to you.

If I didn't preach the Word, I would be gone.

You should have seen your faces when I said, I'm now into church growth stuff.

You're thinking, this is the one and done.

In California, you'd say, well, I'd better talk to him and see what he means and feels by that.

But for you, you're like, he's one and shepherd's crook.

Shepherd crooks edify with intelligible speech.

Did you know that?

So, as you look at this, the lesson we can learn, because we want to honor the Lord for all that He's done

for us, and free salvation, full forgiveness.

We've been justified and redeemed, and we're being sanctified.

We have this great God, and we owe everything to Him.

We're a great debtor of His grace.

Let's turn to 1 Peter 2, and let me just remind you that if you'd like to grow, the way you can

understand spiritual growth the best is just to say, God, take Your Word,

plant it deep in my heart, and change me.

If you'd like to say no to sin more often, yes to righteousness.

More to, I'd like to love my wife better.

I'd like to submit to my husband better.

I'd like to be a harder worker at work.

I'd like to complain less.

I'd like to praise more.

I'd like to have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.

I'd like it to be more about who He is than just kind of doctrinal facts.

I'd like to love my enemies better.

It is directly related to the Word of God in your life.

Directly.

This is what strengthens, edifies, builds up.

This is for your benefit.

Take a look at 1 Peter 2.

You know the verse.

Like newborn infants, long.

Verse 10 verses of 1 Peter 2.

This is the imperative.

It is the only imperative.

Long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into

salvation.

I went to Perdip and Sunitas two nights ago.

They've got that little baby Sandy.

Have you met Sandy before?

Sandy and I were playing and I just thought, Oh, I shouldn't have stopped with four kids.

I should have just kept going.

The more unregenerate kids in the house, the merrier it is.

What shall I say to you?

And I have this pride thing.

You know about that.

Specifically, when I hold a baby and they start to cry, you will never see me just go.

You can always tell it's an inexperienced guy or dad or something.

The baby starts to cry.

I guess, you know, help, SOS, even smoke

signals communicate.

Please, somebody take this kid from me.

Why is it the guys like hold them extra far out?

Here, here you go.

But what I try to do is I think, you know what, when I get that little baby and they start crying, I'm going to try to get that baby to stop crying.

So there's all kinds of things you can do.

Sometimes you just blow in their face.

It stops.

Not too long, but it stops.

Distraction, you know, and sometimes I'll go, Oh, you know, look at that light and kind of talk that way.

That distracts them a little bit.

Sometimes I'll hold them and just gently go like this because

every time you do that, then they feel like, Oh, my equilibrium is about to fall and, you know, fall to the ground.

I better keep my eyes awake.

And then, you know, they're distracted.

But when that kid wants food, nothing is going to make that

kid stop crying.

So I took my finger, I took a shower before I went over there, and I took my finger.

Every kid needs some dirt.

Why is it the sickest people I know are the people with all like bleach and antibacterial, you need some dirt for your

kids.

So I thought, you know, here's a baby's going to cry, and so I put my knuckle in the kid's mouth.

Sandy's like, Oh, this is pretty good.

Big white guy's knuckle, and she's like, Oh, this is nice.

Rubbing it around, she starts really going, thinking, This is amazing.

Got the touch.

I don't think my dad meant give him a knuckle sandwich with that, but that was something different.

And I thought, It's working.

But all of a sudden, she had to have food.

She had to do it.

Nothing you could give them.

You can give them binkies, you can give them, how many weeks in a row do you mention a binkie from the pulpit?

But you give them knuckles, anything you give them, it has to be the Word.

Friends, you know this, so let me tell you again.

The way you grow in sanctification and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is through

the Bible alone.

Scriptures are not deficient, they're sufficient.

Everything you need to know is right here, so quit trying to get slain in the Spirit, hearing a voice from God.

Read the Bible so that you may grow with respect to salvation.

It's the preached Word.

And so you say, it's the red Word.

You say, Well, why do they have, you know, just 10 minutes of singing and 50 minutes of preaching at the service?

This is the answer.

Why do they have IBS?

This is the answer.

Why is Carl Truman coming?

That's the answer.

Why a radio show?

That's the answer.

Why do we teach them about the Bible in VBS, Awana, Junior Church, Senior Church, Home

Bible Studies?

That's the answer, so that you may grow.

You say, Well, I've just been not really, really reading my Bible much.

You know, it's always amazing to me, I'll meet people from our church and I'll go, Some are memorizing the book of

Romans.

And do you know what I know about those people's lives who are memorizing the book of Romans?

They have all kinds of trouble, but their heart is stayed on Christ Jesus.

There's a firm foundation because their mind thinks like the Bible.

God big, me small.

God can be trusted.

I walk by sight.

No, no, start walking by faith.

And then show me someone who, I hate to say it, but we have these people at our church too.

I hope you're not one of them, that you won't pick up your Bible until next Sunday morning.

Now, that doesn't mean you lose your salvation, but that means spiritually you're in

Junior Church.

So why don't you just change today?

Why don't you say, God, stir up in my heart a new desire for the word that I might long for it and

crave it, and that whether it convicts me or comforts me, I want to desire God's

word.

Kim and the kids get home, and kids tomorrow and Kim and a couple days after that.

I can't wait to see him.

I'm longing.

I'm desiring.

That's what we're supposed to have.

And you go, you know what?

I'm just on empty.

God, grant me these things.

God, grant me to be like Job.

I have not departed from the command of his lips.

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

God, grant me to be like the psalmist.

How sweet are thy words to my taste, yet sweeter than honey to my mouth.

God, would you give me the heart of Jeremiah?

You saved me.

You give me everything else.

Would you please?

I'm struggling.

Give me the heart like Jeremiah.

Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became a joy and the delight of

my heart.

David Livingston started his trek across Africa with 73 books of all different kinds.

Three backpacks weighing 180 pounds.

He's a man after my own heart.

Bring the books.

After the party had gone 300 miles in Africa, Livingston was obliged to throw away some of the books because of the fatigue of those

carrying his baggage.

The porters couldn't carry them all.

He continued on his journey.

His library grew less and less until he had but one book left.

The purpose -driven life.

No, wait.

His Bible.

When babies desire that pure milk of the Word, just do a quick study someday on milk, and it's just

not something that gives you nutrition.

It's a sign, an illustration in the Bible of abundance.

I shall delight in thy statues.

I shall not forget thy Word.

Father in heaven, would you help us?

We are weak and frail and feeble people.

Would you help us to study the Word regularly, earnestly, carefully?

Help us to love your commandments, to love your precepts, to love your law.

Help us to delight in your Word like a baby delights in the pure milk

of her mother.

And Father, for those at Bethlehem Bible Church, and of which there are many who do study, I pray that you'd encourage them in their study.

Help them to strive for excellence in their study.

For those who are having a hard time studying, Father, I pray that you would be

gentle as you use hardships in their life to realign their minds with

repentance.

But Father, I pray that you'd just grant them what none of us deserve, and that is just grace

upon grace when it comes to studying the Bible.

Father, thank you that when we study your Word, we see your Son, Christ Jesus, everywhere from Genesis

through Revelation, and we see him in the Messianic Psalms, and we see him in the Gospels, we see him proclaimed in the

Epistles.

Father, may Bethlehem Bible Church be a church that is growing, that you would give us real and true

spiritual growth for your sake.

In Jesus' name, amen.