Are tongues for today? (Part 3)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendroff. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

The Church at Corinth and the Need for Maturity

Why don't you turn your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians this morning. You'll need a Bible here, 1 Corinthians. We've been in this book maybe three years, and I think we've got about seven messages to go in 1 Corinthians.

Paul has been writing to the church, addressing all kinds of problems that they had. If Thessalonians is a book written to encourage an excelling church, 1 Corinthians is written to correct a carnal church.

And so far in 1 Corinthians, we've dealt with things like unity issues, church discipline. Do we sue other Christians? Sexual purity, divorce and remarriage, Christian liberty issues, and now spiritual gifts.

And Paul calls those, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, not deep doctrines. Don't you think those are kind of deep doctrines? Seems like those are upper echelon issues, a lot of substance. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, those are milk.

This is just introductory stuff for a Christian. We've come a long way in our society, I think, in terms of doctrine. Most people don't even want to study doctrine. There is an old book about 200 years old by William Ramsbottom, and it was called Bible Doctrines Simply Explained.

And they repackaged it, but what they've done is, since those were kind of harder concepts for our modern generation, it's called Bible Doctrines for Children. And so with 1 Corinthians, it's good because Paul challenges us to grow.

I don't mean numbers, I mean in your maturation. Spiritual growth is good for the soul, physical growth, children, if you have a new baby and that baby doesn't grow, there's a problem, so too with spiritual growth.

And so I love Paul's way of doing things. Today in this chapter, it's going to be spicy. It's going to be muy picante, and if you have a Bible in front of you and you try to pay attention, you're going to think, Paul sometimes will encourage brothers.

Paul sometimes in this passage will use sarcasm of all things. Paul talks about edifying use of the biblical gift of speaking in tongues, which before the canon enclosed is a gift of languages that God would give to people even though they never learned the language.

And then Paul also talks about ladies. Is it okay for ladies to preach? Is it okay for women to speak in the church? Sounds kind of spicy doctrine to me. Sounds like it's going to be very exciting. So let's open our Bible specifically to 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

Here's what we do at this church. We just pick a book and begin preaching verse by verse, verse by verse through. Last week we finished chapter 14 verses 1 through 19, and now we'll just pick up where we left off.

And it's right in the middle of chapters 12, 13, and 14, where Paul is talking about spiritual gifts. And remember what is right in the middle of that sandwich of chapter 12 and 14, the love chapter, chapter 13, showing us that the way you use your spiritual gifts of teaching biblical gift of languages or tongues back in the day, whatever gift you have, it's to be done for other people.

It's not for yourself. And so what the Corinthians were doing is they were saying, I can speak in tongues. I can speak in a language I've never learned. And look at me. I must be spiritual. I must be mature.

And Paul is going to say, if you have a gift, it's for other people. That's what love is. I want what your best is. And so Paul is going to give them divine orders on how to regulate worship. And you're going to see very quickly, this is not well.

I'm just led. How do you worship? Well, I just led to do this and I'm led to do that. The spirit of God uses the word and your mind to lead you in worship. And so you're going to be encouraged today from this passage.

And you're going to also say to yourself, I think God is very concerned about my mature worship as I use my heart, soul, mind, and strength to worship his son, Christ Jesus, my substitute, my representative.

The resurrected savior deserves this and Paul demands it of the people. You want to be a carnal church, worship, come what may. You would like to be mature in your thinking and your worship. It is regulated.

Your worship is by the Bible. Easy to see if you go to the Old Testament, Leviticus, Exodus, God is a precise God and he demands precise worship. So if I were to outline 1 Corinthians chapter 14, there's four major segments, two we've already been through, but my outline will reflect the text.

And so Paul really has a desire for the church to grow, mature. And so let me give you four desires that you also should have Bethlehem Bible Church when you think about spiritual gifts. Four desires, desire one we saw last week, and that is you should desire spiritual gifts that build up the body, verses 1 to 5.

And the key review verse is found in verse 5. Look at 1 Corinthians 14, verse 5. 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.

In other words, the quick review is if someone has got the gift of speaking in a language they've never learned, but there's no interpreter, it doesn't build anybody up. It doesn't help anyone. And so Paul says speaking in tongues back in the day before we had the canon of scripture to authenticate the message and the messenger, that's fine if you have an interpreter because a language that's not known doesn't help anyone.

It doesn't edify. It doesn't build up. Desire two we saw last week found in verses 6 through 19 is best summarized if you look at verse 12. Desire number two, desire as a congregation, spiritual gifts that are intelligible.

Speaking in tongues isn't gibberish. It's not a bunch of syllables put together. Look at verse 12. So you yourselves emphatically, since you are eager for the manifestations of the spirit, you really want to be a spirit-led church, use all your energy or strive to excel in the building up of the church.

That is to say, instead of saying, look at me, I have a certain gift, tongues, you should be saying, I'm going to put all that energy that I want for the peacock effect and for the selfish effect to be building up other people.

And we went in great lengths last week to say that if you'd like to be built up here at the church, it is directly related to the word of God, right? Would you like to mature? Would you like to grow? Would you like to say no to sin more often and yes to righteousness, to love your wife more, love your husband more, to love your neighbor more, to love God more?

It is directly related to the word of God. There's no shortcuts for Bible study. There's no shortcuts for maturity. That's why in Colossians 1, Paul says, him we proclaim. The Bible focuses on the risen Savior.

This is a book about him and for him. And if you'd like to grow, you have to have your eyes locked onto him. No slain in the spirit, no zaps, no shortcuts. And this is a hard thing to kind of get through our minds because we go to the grocery stores and we want fast service.

I go to drive-through, I don't really go to fast food too much anymore, but if I do, I want it to be fast food and I want it to be quick. Or if I don't get served within 30 seconds, there's a problem and you can kind of just feel yourself, you know, start to boil with anger that the person in front of you in the checkout line that says 14 items or less has 15 items.

I mean, we want things fast. And Paul is saying to the Corinthians, the only way you're going to be built up is through your mind. And speaking in tongues without an interpreter bypasses the mind. What I say to you, church, in speaking in tongues, real languages, doesn't need to be for today and isn't for today.

You've got to have the Bible to help you grow. Show me a person who doesn't study their Bible and I'll show you an immature Christian. It's simple. Intake, you've got to have food to grow. It's no different when it comes to the Bible.

Psalm 19, for they are more desirable than gold. Yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them thy servant is warned and keeping them, there's great reward.

And just think, we have the Bible. I don't want to say I have thousands of Bibles. Online, I have them, but I have hundreds of physical Bibles. Maybe, I don't know, let's just say 60. Everywhere I go, I have the Bible, this word that matures us and grows us.

And by the way, if you have big trials in your life, you better have big doctrines and a big view of Christ to combat those big trials or else you're going to be knocked over like a tsunami. Well, just give me the little ABC Christianity.

I'd like enough Christianity so I go to heaven, but nothing else. So then when the huge tidal wave of trials come and you don't have the right view of God because you've taken the shortcuts, you are going to be carried to and fro.

And so, when Jonathan Goforth says, my deepest regret on reaching three score years in 10 is that I have not devoted more time to Bible study. Still in less than 19 years, I have gone through the New Testament in Chinese 55 times.

He's an English speaker, and so he knows I've got to have the word because it exalts Christ Jesus, the risen Savior, to grow. Third desire found in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. We're coming to new information, verses 20 through 25.

How do I think rightly about spiritual gifts? Desire three, desire as a congregation, maturity in your thinking. Now, Paul's going to get a little tougher here. He's going to cloak it with nice language.

He's not going to call them babies directly, but in effect, that's what he's going to call them. Watch how the mind is focused upon. Watch how thinking and right doctrine is so important. What does he say in verse 20?

1 Corinthians 14, 20. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. So he didn't say your babies, but in a sense. Now, there's a time to be a baby, be infants in evil, but in your thinking, be mature.

Direct context, you tongue speakers who speak a language you've never learned and you have no interpreter, you're acting like a baby. You're acting immaturely because it's not helping the congregation.

It's not edifying them. It's just showing off what you've got. By the way, that's a pretty impressive thing to speak a language you've never learned. I would be impressed. By the way, that would save a lot of going to Bible school and learning other languages before you went on the mission field.

Paul says, you've got to think like you want to mature. It's time to grow up and to use your mind. Do you see the text again? Do not be children in your thinking. I'm not against emotions, but Paul is focused on the thoughts.

Why? Because kids are blown away and led by their emotions. Not in your thinking, don't be like children. And then he says it again, but positively at the end of verse 20, but in your thinking, be mature.

Paul is after edification with the mind. By the way, I don't know if you've put two and two together, but I want you to mature. I want you to grow. And it's through your mind and through your thinking.

Yes, the emotions will follow, but they don't lead. Children like glitz. Children like glamour. Children like Christmas over Thanksgiving for those reasons. Children like shortcuts. Children like the easy way to get the most, least input, greatest output.

And so even when you think about worship, why do I dress with a suit on? Because I'm a grownup. This is mature worship. Why do we not have a rock band with piercing rock music that I can't hear the singing?

Why? Because we're not children. What has happened is you have youth ministries 50 years ago and 100 years ago saying, how are we ever going to get the kids in the church? Well, we'll have a little thing on Friday nights.

And how do you get the kids? Kids want rock music. And kids want a cool looking pastor with a Mickey Mouse shirt and skinny jeans. Actually, there's a very famous pastor who loves to wear in the adult worship service, Mickey Mouse shirt.

Nothing wrong with the Mickey Mouse shirt. It's just all time and place. But back to the point. So now how do we get those kids? Kids are immature in their thinking and they're all feeling based and they want the rock and everything else.

So what do we do? We give them that. But you know what's happened now? Now it's in adult church. Say, well, we want a lot of rock and roll music. And Paul would say, I'm positive. He would say, it's time to grow up in your thinking.

You know what? Give me some Braveheart videos and a big PowerPoint presentation. Paul would say, it's time to grow up in your thinking. That's childish. That promotes a congregation that's a mile wide and an inch deep.

Does it feed the flesh? Of course. If you look to your kids and say, would you like to go back to this church today? Did you like it? And if it's, you know, sing a couple hymns that have good words and have a 50 minute sermon and have a public scripture reading of a whole Bible chapter and a long prayer, your children will say, I don't like that.

Why? Because they're children. And if you say, I don't like that, may I suggest you're childish in your thinking. This is adult worship. And when adult worship happens, the church grows up into adulthood.

If it's dumb down here, I hate to say this, I'm not after you. But if it's dumb down here, it's dumber down, down there. Is that a word? Show me who Christ is. Doctrine matters. What you think about God is the most important thing about you, Tozer said.

And everything about God has to do with doctrine. It's a truth about God. Well, and you say, well, you're after rock music. No, I'm not. I just think it has no place in a mature worship service. Go in your car and listen to Striper all you want.

I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. I like loud music. But what children don't get is time and place. Immaturity doesn't know the difference. So there's a time and place. This whole time I'm up here preaching, there's a bongo up here.

I'm not after bongos. But if it was driving everything and silencing, this is supposed to help the church worship and sing, not drowned it out. You want a coffee house? Go to a coffee house on Friday.

This is maturity. What we're after thinking properly. Paul doesn't want them to be childish. Why? Because he's a slave or taskmaster. No, he wants the people to grow into maturity. So the more reflect Christ.

That's what he's after. And for them specifically, the Corinthians. They're evidencing immaturity by saying, give us tongue speaking as an end all. And we'll show you how spiritual we are because we speak in tongues.

And Paul says, if you speak in a language you've never learned and there's no interpreter, it doesn't do anybody any good. Verse 21. In the law, it is written and Paul does this all the time. He'll use the Bible to back up his points.

Sometimes law means Torah, Genesis, Exodus through Deuteronomy. And sometimes it's just a general comment. This is a general, freely translated quote from Isaiah 28. In the context of tongues, thinking like a grown up.

How would a grown up think about tongues? If you were a Jew, how would you think about tongues? If you knew the Old Testament, what would you think about tongues? Verse 21. By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people.

And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. That is taken as your liner note, show you Isaiah chapter 28. Let's turn there. Paul loved to quote Isaiah and let's find out what it means. So we can see why Paul would use it in the context of tongues.

Isaiah chapter 28, close to the middle of your Bible. And you're going to see how Paul springboards from Isaiah chapter 28. Because any Jew would know there's something to be said about tongues in the Old Testament that should make the light bulb go on.

When you think, oh, what's tongues? Why was it used? What's the purpose of tongues? Certainly the purpose of tongues is not look at me. I can say a language that you can't. That's not the purpose. What was the purpose?

It's found right here in Isaiah chapter 28. One of these passages, it's really, really a fascinating passage. So if you go down to verse 9 in Isaiah 28, if you see in your study Bible or most new Bibles, you'll see parentheses, excuse me, not parentheses, quotation marks to start verse 9.

This isn't Isaiah speaking properly. This is the people that Isaiah is preaching to. Now he's writing down. Isaiah is what the people are saying. So Isaiah has come to them and said, repent, trust in the Lord, follow the Messiah to come.

Do what the Lord Yahweh says. They haven't listened. So what do you say to a preacher that keeps getting on you about things over and over and over and over? You mock him. Well, you're not supposed to mock him.

That's just what they do. Verse 9. Here's the mocking of the preacher. They've heard the message from God's preacher, Isaiah, and now they're going to mock him. Isaiah 28, 9. To whom will he teach knowledge?

Who's he going to teach? What can this guy, Isaiah, teach me? He can't teach anything. School starts tomorrow, on Tuesday, to some, you know, public schoolers and private schoolers and homeschoolers as well.

This teacher can't teach me anything. And to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk. It's baby talk. It's really introductory. You know, repent and just introductory stuff.

Anybody could get that in Bible school 101. Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast. And then we come to a verse that has nothing to do with expository preaching, but everything to do with a mocking person when they hear the plain word of God and they say, Isaiah is talking like a baby for it is precept upon precept.

ESV says precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. Now, let me give you the Hebrew. It sounds just very rudimentary. Sovla, Sov, Sovla, Sov, Kavla, Kav, Kavla, Kav.

Here comes this preacher, ABCs. He can't teach us anything. It's all milk. Kavla, Kav, Sovla, Sov. He can't teach us anything. Do and do, don't and don't, rule and rule. Repent and repent. So God sends to the Judah, Judah, the people in Judah, repent, we won't listen.

He said, OK, you won't listen to baby talk. I'll give you a language of judgment that you'll listen to. And so he brought in the Assyrians and they spoke a different language to them and ruled them and made them captive.

It's a language of judgment, tongues, a foreign language to the Jew, to the reader of 1 Corinthians is going to do this. That's judgment, tongues, judge. Isaiah preaches in Hebrew. They say, no, God judges with a foreign language.

Tongues is a judgment on Judaism. That's what tongues was. If you look farther down in Isaiah, verse 11, for by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue, the people will, the Lord will speak to this people.

In other words, you're not going to listen to Isaiah preach in Hebrew. Then you'll listen to a different tongue. You're going to listen now as they pull you by the nose into captivity. Do the Assyrians, you want speak, you want, you want talk like that?

OK, I'll give you talk like that. Go down to verse 14 and Isaiah 28. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. You scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem, because you have said we have made a covenant with death.

What do you mean you made a covenant with death? The Lord's people are in trouble. And when you're in trouble, who do you call for? The Lord, God's people were in trouble. And who do they call for? The Assyrians are coming.

What should we do? Let's have a truce with Egypt. Egypt will help us get out of this. And God said, you're not coming to me for help. You're coming to Egypt for help. That is a covenant of death. They can't do anything.

Isaiah 30 calls Egypt big mouth do nothings. Big mouth do nothings. They can't do anything. Look at verse 16 of Isaiah 28. This is good advice for all of us when we seek help from everybody but the Lord.

The doctors, the psychologists, the elders, other people. Therefore, thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am the one who has laid a foundation in Zion. A stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation.

Whoever believes will not be in haste. And if you want to have your own advice and you want to get information from Egypt or with other people who aren't godly, you're going to have a short sheeted bed.

Verse 20. Don't you love how this is written? This is a biblical precedent for short sheeting your friend's bed. So they'll learn a biblical lesson. For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.

Oh, I'm going to have Egypt help me with my problems. It's just like taking a garment and trying to wrap yourself up with it. And it's basically a hand towel for your blanket. It's not going to cover.

Well, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. The point is simple. Paul quotes Isaiah 28 to let everyone know tongue speaking foreign languages is a judgment for the Jewish unbeliever. Now, what do you think he's going to say next?

I wonder what his next verse is going to say. And here is the purpose statement for tongues out of all the Bible. Here it is. This is the purpose statement. This is not to get a zap. This is not to show off.

Speaking a language you've never learned before the canon was complete. Here's what it was for. Verse 22. Thus, tongues are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. They're a sign of judgment. While prophecy is a sign, not for unbelievers, but for believers.

The judicial sign of judgment happens when someone speaks to a language that you don't know. So people say, well, you know, we speak in tongues today at our church. Is everybody in your church a Christian?

Yes. Well, then I don't know what you're doing. Tongues is a judgment for Jewish people. And by the way, read Acts 18 sometime. And you'll say that's who caused the problem to Paul in first Corinthians or at Corinth.

No interpreter. It's not going to help anyone with an interpreter. It's going to tell unbelievers there's a new language here. These people haven't learned. And like the people in Isaiah, I should repent.

Look at verse 23. Therefore, the whole church comes together. First Corinthians 14. All speak in tongues. They all speak in languages and outsiders or unbelievers enter. There's no translator, no interpreter.

Will they not say that you were out of your minds? I've walked into charismatic churches before and they were all talking. What they said were tongues and they weren't even languages. And by the way, I had that exact same thing.

I said, they're out of their minds. Literally out of their minds because their mind isn't engaged. Their mind isn't engaged. It's not anything to do with the mind.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 830 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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