Sunday Sermon: Excel in Building Up the Church (1 Corinthians 14:1-5)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Well good morning everybody.

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1 Corinthians 14, turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 14 as we're going to be talking about two gifts in particular and those gifts being prophecy and speaking in tongues or specifically prophesying as the way that Paul puts it here and then also the proper use of speaking in tongues.

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So let's come together to 1 Corinthians 14. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version beginning in verse 1.

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This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Hear the word of the Lord. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

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Now I want you all 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.

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Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will

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I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

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If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?

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And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

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

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For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning.

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

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So, with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the

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Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

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Verse 13, Therefore one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

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For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do?

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

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Otherwise, 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 are saying?

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For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank

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God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church,

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I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to a difficult and even very controversial passage of Scripture, I pray that our desire here today is to know what the

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Spirit means, what the Spirit teaches to all the saints, that we may live in accord with one another.

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We may live in accord with sound doctrine that leads to godliness, but that we also be in unity with each other, that we may build one another up for the good of one another, for the good of your church.

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For as these instructions are given, we have seen spoken several times, seek to excel in the building up of the church.

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So in our understanding of these spiritual gifts, may that be the goal, to give glory and honor to Christ our

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King and to build up your church for your glory. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

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So yeah, not a controversial passage at all that we are embarking upon today with regards to talking about prophecy or prophesying and the speaking of tongues.

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As Brother Doug had shared with me before class this morning, it's not the text that's the problem, it's the people that you've got to deal with regarding the interpretations of these texts.

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So we're going to consider these things and understand it in context and even discuss what is meant by prophesying and what is meant by speaking in tongues.

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But I want to remind you again of my particular position, just to lay my cards out on the table, and I had shared this with you when we had started in on chapter 12.

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I'm what you might call a practical cessationist. I don't really walk around flounting that I am a cessationist, but for all practical purposes here, as you understand where I'm coming from as we talk about these spiritual gifts, practical cessationist would be the label that most fits me.

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Now what does that mean? Well I believe that those miraculous sign gifts that were given to the apostles, those have ceased.

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You don't see those in regular use today at all, and if anybody ever comes to you claiming to be a faith healer, they're lying to you.

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A faith healer is as common as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. If you ever have somebody that says that they're able to heal you and they are wearing glasses, you can especially know that they are lying to you.

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They have an ability to heal, but yet they can't seem to heal their own vision apparently. One of the most amusing experiences that I had in my life, this was even at a time when

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I would probably have still called myself a continuous, believing that those miraculous sign gifts were still in regular use today.

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I was in church one time where there was a preacher who was standing up in front of us who was talking about the gift of healing, claiming that he had it, and he even had a gift of being able to prophesy, or prophecy rather.

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He could see the future and he could tell you those things that were going to happen. And as he's standing in front of the congregation and saying this, he not only had glasses on his face, but he had two fingers that were bandaged up.

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And even at a time that I believed in continuism, the continuation of these miraculous sign gifts,

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I'm still sitting there in my pew and I'm looking at this guy and going, if he claims to heal, why are his fingers bandaged up?

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Even while he's saying this, he has bandaged fingers. So beware of those who claim to have these apostolic giftings.

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Hebrews chapter 2 tells us exactly what these giftings were for, that they authenticated the message that was spoken came from God.

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And the apostle Paul even shares with the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 12 .12, the signs of apostleship, miraculous signs and wonders were clearly demonstrated among you.

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And Paul says that to them so that they would know who the true apostles are and who the fake apostles are, based on the context in which he gives that, since he had just come out of chapter 11 talking about those fake apostles who were trying to woo away the

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Corinthians from sound teaching and follow after their ways instead. So anyway, that's just kind of a little bit about what

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I mean regarding practical cessationism. So I believe those miraculous sign gifts have ceased. That does not mean that I think

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God is not performing miracles today. I believe that he absolutely is. Can God miraculously heal someone today?

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Yes. If it be God's desire that he would heal somebody, he will. And scripture instructs us to pray for such things.

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John, when he wrote to Gaius, had even said to Gaius, I pray that you're in good health and that health is going well with you.

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In James chapter 5, we read, if any of you are sick, call upon the elders of the church that they may come and anoint you with oil and pray over you that you may be healed.

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Now there's a matter of confessing sins within the context of that particular instruction regarding healing.

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But we see there, even from James 5, if you're sick, ask for the elders to come and pray over you.

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Don't look for the local faith healer. Ask the elders. We're a church of about 900 people.

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That's I think where our membership roles are at. Regular Sunday attendance is somewhere around 700, but our membership roles are about 900.

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So if we're a church of 900 and we see these spiritual giftings that have been given to the church like we had gone through when we were in chapter 12, if miraculous healing still is of regular use today, then where is the miraculous healer in our church?

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Because in a church of 900 people, surely somebody has got to have that particular gift and can come lay hands on all these people we prayed for this morning going through these physical ailments and heal us all.

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But we don't have a healer in our church because why? Because again, those miraculous sign gifts are not in regular use.

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And scripture does give us instructions on praying for healing. But don't go look for the local faith healer.

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Be like looking for a witch doctor in your town. Such a person does not exist. So be careful about how we understand those gifts and the usage of them today.

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Now with regards to these two gifts that we're looking at, we have prophecy or prophesying and we have speaking in tongues.

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And I'm going to clarify what these two gifts mean and give you some definitions of these gifts so that we may understand them rightly in the context in which

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Paul is giving these instructions. But as we look at this section today, as we go through these 19 verses, here's my outline.

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First of all, we read about how prophecy or prophesying is greater than or better than speaking in tongues.

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And Paul lays that out in verses one through five. By the way, when he gave the list of spiritual gifts in chapter 12, do you remember which one he said was the greatest of those gifts?

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Well love. Yeah, we'll get to that. Yeah, sure. Love is the more excellent way, but of the spiritual giftings, which one was the greatest one?

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Prophesying. Which one was the least? Yeah, speaking in and interpreting tongues.

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So here he contrasts those two, the greatest spiritual gift that he had given on that list and then the least of those gifts regarding speaking in tongues.

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So here in this first section in verses one through five, he lays out how prophesying is preferable to speaking in tongues.

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Secondly, when we get to verses six through 12, he's going to say that you must prophesy to be understood.

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And so speaking in tongues does not lead to understanding because nobody knows what you're saying. But desire prophecy because prophesying is for the building up of the church.

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And you even see there at the end of that section in verse 12, he says, strive to excel in building up the church.

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Then that next section, verses 13 to 19, prophesying to instruct.

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So prophesy to be understood, but even prophesying so as to instruct, as to build up the church, that we may know how we ought to behave, how we ought to serve

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God and how we ought to love one another. So coming back to this first section, again, verses one through five, prophesying preferable to speaking in tongues,

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Paul says in verse one, pursue love. Now where did we just come from in our study of first Corinthians?

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What was chapter 13? The love chapter. You even said it right. There you go. Got to have that nice, long, drawn out, it's the love chapter, yes.

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But not romantic, not being emotional, but Paul instructing the

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Corinthians to love. And if you don't have love, then any of these great giftings that could be bestowed upon you in the spirit of God are for nothing.

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Nothing. You could even give all you have and deliver up your very body to be burned.

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But if you do not have love, then you gain nothing. So with regards to these instructions about spiritual giftings, spiritual things, really more accurately the description of it, desire love, pursue love the more excellent way.

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And may all these giftings and the exercise of these giftings be done in the love of Christ.

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So pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

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Now once again, if you've got the New American Standard, if you've got the Legacy Standard, there's a word there that's in italics.

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Which word is it? Gifts. Gifts, right. Why is that word in italics in those two translations?

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Because it's, yeah, it's not in the original Greek. So we're assuming, or we understand that in context,

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Paul is talking about gifts here. But as I said when we were in chapter 12, gifts may not even be the best word.

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It could be better to say spiritual things. Because there are other spiritual matters that Paul has talked about over the course of chapters 12 and 13 that have not been explicitly related to the giftings of the

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Spirit. So it may be spiritual things more a quantifying word there rather than gifts.

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So pursue love, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may what?

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That you may prophesy. And then he clarifies in verse 2, for the one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the

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Spirit. But on the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

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So let's define these terms here with regards to speaking in tongues and also prophesying.

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So the imperative at the start of the chapter is to pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts.

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Remember that we were in chapter 12, I said there was no imperatives in that chapter. Everything was very descriptive,

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Paul was kind of being informative there. But here we get to chapter 14 and we're starting with an imperative.

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Desire love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. In this section, he's going to compare two gifts, prophesying, so I distinguish that over prophecy, all right.

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Prophecy is part of prophesying, but prophesying is more encompassing of the gift in particular. So he contrasts prophesying with speaking in tongues.

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Though sometimes these gifts have been observed together. For example, in Acts 19 .6, it says the

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Holy Spirit came upon them and they prophesied and spoke in tongues. So both gifts are mentioned there in Acts 19 .6.

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Nonetheless, they are distinct giftings. Someone prophesying benefits the whole church, whereas speaking in tongues does not.

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For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands.

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Speaking in tongues certainly draws attention to the person speaking, but no one can understand what he's saying.

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Now with regard to speaking in tongues, what are we talking about? Because when

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I say speaking in tongues, what's probably the first picture of speaking in tongues that pops into your mind?

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Yeah, right, the Pentecostal babbling, right? I should have bought a Kia but I bought a Honda, you know, that kind of thing.

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I'll interpret what I just said. I should have bought a Kia, but I bought a Honda. That's the interpretation of that tongue.

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But yeah, it's speaking gibberish and nonsense, and there was a video that was circulating on social media just earlier this week.

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It's actually old. I think it comes back from the 90s. But it's a video of a church service that was taking place in California, where this man claims that he's been anointed with the

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Spirit, so the guy on stage hands him a microphone and says, son, let that Holy Ghost language come out of you.

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And he just, you know, just crazy language. But as soon as he says it, everybody goes nuts.

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Everybody's cheering, falling on the floor, laughing, rejoicing. The guy on the stage that handed him the microphone went bolting across the stage.

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I have no idea why. Why did he break out in a dead sprint was running? And somebody in the comment section under that video said, he's running away from that junk like the rest of us should.

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So that was kind of the joke that was said there. So that's probably the first thing that comes to mind with regards to speaking in tongues.

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It's the Pentecostal speaking in tongues. But nobody understands what that means. The person speaking doesn't even understand what that means.

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And is that really the kind of speaking in tongues that Paul is talking about here? So let's come to our definition or our understanding of it this way and recognize this definition that I give you is according to the definition of speaking in tongues that we have given to us in Scripture.

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Speaking in tongues is speaking in a foreign human language.

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And you cannot find one example in Scripture that speaking in tongues, whenever that term is used, speaking in tongues is anything other than that.

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It's speaking in a foreign human language. Now some will say, well, there's tongues of angels.

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Because what did we read back in 13 .1, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love,

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I'm a noising gong or a clanging cymbal. So clearly Paul is saying there, there are these angelic heavenly languages.

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And some will even argue that you must pray in that angelic language so that the devil won't understand your prayers.

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But the angel, that's a good response. The devil was an angel once.

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So how could you be praying in a language that the devil wouldn't understand when he knew those angelic heavenly languages?

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But the person praying in that kind of muttering type of language doesn't even understand what it is that they're saying.

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Which is why Paul gets to a little bit later on, I'm going to pray with my spirit, but I'm going to pray with my mind also. So that even

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I can understand what it is that I'm praying. So keep those things in mind as we come to that. In every place that we find an understanding of speaking in tongues or that term, tongues used, whether Old Testament or New, I'm going to talk about Old Testament next week because we get to that portion of chapter 14 next week.

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But whether it's Old Testament or New, speaking in tongues is a foreign human language.

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Scripture does not refer to tongues as speaking gibberish, unknown to any man. In verse 2,

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Paul says, in his spirit he speaks mysteries. And it is uncertain whether spirit here means the person's own spirit or the

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Holy Spirit. As I sat with Mark and Eric this past week, we had gone over this section and Mark, who's much more versed in Greek than I am, agreed.

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He said it's difficult to know whether the reference to spirit here, in his spirit he speaks mysteries, whether it means the

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Holy Spirit or a person's own spirit. Since the Greek word for spirit can be used either way.

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These mysteries would be known only to the one speaking, but is not known to others.

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And it's clear here that Paul is encouraging the church to not speak in tongues in the gathered assembly.

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I don't know how you could take 1 Corinthians 14 and use it as an argument for speaking in tongues in the gathered assembly because it's clear here that Paul is not encouraging that practice.

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He's discouraging it. If people can't understand you, you're not benefiting anybody.

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So don't desire speaking in tongues, even speaking known human languages, though they be foreign languages.

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Don't desire that, but desire instead to prophesy. Now what do we mean by prophesying?

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And notice again that I made a distinction between prophesying and prophecies.

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Although Paul does use that word coming up, he uses the word for prophecy.

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But specifically we're talking here about prophesying. Prophesying is to proclaim

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God's word. Verse 3 says, one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and encouragement.

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We even have the way it's stated exactly there. What is the purpose for it? How does it benefit the church?

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It's for edification and exhortation and encouragement. Later on in verse 6, look at verse 6,

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Paul says there that prophesying may be of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching.

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

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All of those things bound up in the word that he uses prophesy. So it may contain one of those or all of those revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching.

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Now when we use the word prophesying, we're speaking a little bit more than merely preaching.

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Because remember when Paul instructs Timothy in 2nd Timothy to preach the word in chapter 4, be ready in season and out of season, he says preach there, he doesn't say prophesy.

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He could have said prophesy, but it's a different word entirely. He says preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.

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He doesn't say prophesy. So when we use that word prophesy, we're meaning more than preaching, but preaching would be contained in prophesying.

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To prophesy God's word also means to proclaim God's word with the expectation that something is being accomplished in the prophesying of that word.

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Does that make sense? So whenever today, though we do not have new revelation today, new revelation has ceased.

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All the revelation that we could ever get is right here in the Bible, right? This is sufficient.

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So we don't need more than what God has already given to us. There's no new revelation that is being given.

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Canon is closed. Nonetheless, there are still things here in canon that have not yet been fulfilled, have they?

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Christ has still not returned, for one, and we're still looking expectantly for that day, hoping for that day, praying for that day, longing for that day.

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And Paul even talks about with the churches to be ready for that day. Jesus talked about get ready for that day, that you would not be caught off guard, that it would not come upon you like a thief.

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The day of the Lord comes upon those who aren't expecting it like a thief, but for those of us who are looking for that day, it's not going to surprise us.

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But nonetheless, we prepare ourselves for that day. As we hear the word, as we grow in it, as we're growing in holiness and sanctification, something is being accomplished.

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As Paul said to the Philippians in Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

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So there's a work that's being accomplished. There's something being done. And we even have the hopeful expectation of a day that is to come.

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Last week when Pastor Tom was preaching about the resurrection of Christ, we were not just hearing about his resurrection that happened 2 ,000 years ago.

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We were hearing about a resurrection that is to come. All of us with that hopeful expectation of that day when

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Christ returns and we too, even our bodies will be resurrected to be like his glorious body.

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We prophesy about those things that are yet to come. So there is a prophesying that still happens even though new revelation is not being given.

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So some other definitions regarding to prophesying. According to Tom Buck, I'm going to reference

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Tom, prophesying is not foretelling, but forth -telling.

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Matthew Henry says, prophesying is explaining scripture. John Gill says that prophesying is not so much the gift of foretelling future events, though there was such a gift bestowed on some persons in those times and in certain cases was very profitable to the churches, but a gift of preaching the word or explaining the prophecies of the

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Old Testament and of praying and singing of psalms, all which, as appears from some following parts of this chapter, were included in it.

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So even the singing of songs, when we sing a song like Almost Home or when we sing in Christ alone and we're singing about that day that Christ is going to return and we'll join with him in glory, we're singing of something that is prophesied.

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So prophecy is part of prophesying, but there's more to it than that. Preaching is part of prophesying, but there's more to it than that.

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So again, we have that understanding in verse 6 of Paul saying, I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching.

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Now again, as I mentioned, new revelation has ceased. We're not being given anything new.

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So when we're talking about prophesying, then we're talking about explaining those things that have already been given to us in Scripture.

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Now, remember for the Corinthians, I think there's a little bit more context to prophesying for the

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Corinthians than for us, because the Corinthians did not have the whole of canon completed, correct?

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They're just now being given 1 Corinthians. They're still hanging on for 2 Corinthians to come.

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So they don't have the whole New Testament canon that's been completed and given to them. So there is certainly a revealing of prophecy that's happening even within their own midst that is happening in the context of the church in Corinth that is not happening in our context today.

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So there were perhaps new revelations and new prophecy that were being given to the

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Corinthians, especially the elders of those church who are standing up and prophesying of those things that Christ has revealed.

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But that kind of revelation is not happening today. I remember a sermon that was preached by Jesse Duplantis a number of years ago.

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False teacher, don't look him up. But he gave this ridiculous sermon.

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And it's probably the sermon that he's most well known for. Duplantis is a preacher from Louisiana, in case you don't know.

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So nearby to us. But just as heretical as you would expect

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Ken Copeland or somebody like that to be. But anyway, Jesse Duplantis gave this sermon in which he talked about a journey that he made to heaven and had a personal audience with Jesus Christ in heaven.

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Even describes him like, he was taller than I thought he was. He stands about 6 '1". It's like, I don't know, that sounds pretty average height for a male to me.

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I don't know what he means. So anyway, he talks about these experiences and him being taken up into heaven and what he described as being like a cable car.

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So he gets in a cable car with an angel and takes a journey up to heaven. And it's this whole theatrical, excited thing.

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Everything he saw there, who he talked to, what Jesus said to him and all this other kind of stuff. And so for the 30 or 40 minutes that he's going on and on and on and on about this.

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And he said, Jesus had a message for me. What was that message that he brought

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Jesse all the way up to heaven for to give him a personal revelation and a personal audience with God so that he could go back and tell his people?

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What was that unique special message that Jesse had to come all the way there for? That message was this.

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Tell my people I'm coming. I got the same thing.

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I know it's right here. What in the world are you talking about? There's a quote from J .I.

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Packer. It's actually when he's explaining a particular teaching from John Owen. But Packer said that if there are any new revelations, they are false.

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And if there are any revelations that agree with scripture, they're not needed. So somebody is going to go on and on and on about detail, about these visions.

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And then Paul says to the Colossians, beware of people that do that. They go on and on about visions of angels. And speaking out of his sensuous mind is all he's doing.

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People go on and on about visions. But the message that they give to you is a message you could already find right here. You didn't even need to hear any of that.

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We already know Christ is coming. We need regular reminders of that.

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We need good encouragement in that. Life gets hard. And we can wonder, how long,

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O Lord? So we need the reminders that Christ is coming. But you don't need somebody's fanciful vision of having gone to heaven, which was completely false anyway, and having a personal audience with Christ, as though a specific revelation needed to be given to him to come back and tell people that you couldn't already find in the

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Bible. So beware those people who claim these visions and revelations.

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There was a time and a place in which those things were being given. But that time is over.

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As Peter said in 2 Peter 1. And Peter's even adding to canon at that point. But he said, we have the prophetic word more fully completed.

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More fully established. More fully fulfilled. Peter said, what we've got here now in the

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Bible is even better than the day that he and James and John were standing with Christ on the

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Mount of Transfiguration and observed him transfigured before them. What sight would that have been?

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That would have been incredible to see. Wouldn't all of us want to see the same thing? Someday we will.

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But Peter says, you've got confirmation that's even greater than what we had on that day because we saw it and we didn't understand the meaning of it.

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But all of those things are given to us and explained for us here in the Scriptures. I went through a time in my life where I was trying to make deals with God.

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I was trying to say, God, if you would just show me something that I could believe. And my prayer was really more a matter of,

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Lord, I believe, now help my unbelief. But I was still praying for things like, you know, give me a burning bush sign.

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Why don't I get to see something like that? Or the Red Sea part. Or my water turned to wine.

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Something. I don't even drink, but I just want to see it. And one of the things in that season that the

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Lord showed me in reading his word is that the

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Israelites got to see all of that stuff. And they still didn't believe.

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They still rebelled against God. So how arrogant of me to think that in my flesh, if I could just see this, my faith would be stronger.

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They saw it and they still worshiped a golden calf. And it was during that season,

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I'm thankful to the Lord, that he, his spirit convicted me to recognize

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I've got everything I could ever want to see. Right here in the Bible. Everything that I could ever want to know has already been given through Christ's apostles and prophets in his word.

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And so when we talk about, when we talk about prophecy, there's certainly a revelation that's going on here in the context of the

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Corinthian church. But for us, canon is closed. It's been revealed.

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We have everything that we could need, even for our own comfort in these present days, as we look forward to the day of Christ.

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Amen. So that's our working definitions of speaking in tongues and of prophesying.

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And we're a little longer on that than I expected that I would, but let's finish up this section and then we'll pick up in first Corinthians 14, six next week.

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So Paul says in verse five, now, I want you all to speak in tongues. I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.

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Why does Paul say that? Though it appears here in chapter 14, that he's discouraging the regular exercise of that speaking in tongues in the congregation.

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Paul's not trying to say that speaking in tongues is unimportant. It does have an important usage and function, especially in this particular time.

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Now, again, he's going to give the explanation or the reason for speaking in tongues was with regards to judgment.

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And he references the old Testament in that. We'll get to that a little bit later on. But he says, I want you all to speak in tongues.

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It doesn't mean everybody will speak in tongues because what did we read at the end of chapter 12? Are all apostles?

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Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing?

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Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? What are the answers to those questions? No, so not everybody will do that.

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But when Paul says, I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy, again, it's the desire for the gift.

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Remember what he said in verse one, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

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It'd be great if you all spoke in tongues. But that shouldn't be the great desire that you have in your congregation.

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Even more, I desire that you would prophesy. So that people know what's being said and they may be built up according to the revelation of the word of the

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Lord. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets because if someone interprets the tongue, what's being done?

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Prophesying, yeah, and then it's building up the church. And then as he says there at the end of verse five, so that the church may be built up.

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How are we built up as a church? Through the word. It's through the preaching of the word.

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And sometimes we refer to these things as the ordinary means of grace. That sounds so common, just preach the word, just do the

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Lord's table, just pray, just fellowship with each other, just sing songs. Isn't there something more?

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My friends, what more do we need? God has provided these things. It is through these means that he builds up his church.

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And if we try to deviate from that, as Paul had addressed this with the Corinthians earlier, we deviate from that.

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We think that we need other methods or gimmicks or whatever else to build up the church. We don't build it up. We divide each other.

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We fight and we squabble. We tear the church down and we might see our numbers grow.

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But are we seeing the spirit of the person grow? Are they growing in maturity?

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Or is the church a mile wide and an inch deep on its theology? All kinds of things we talk about, but we never go anywhere with it unless it's grounded in the word of Christ.

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I'm so thankful to be part of a church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the word, and I hope you are as well.

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You're growing in the spirit today because you are sitting under the proclamation of God's word and are singing the word together even when we come together as a congregation.

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I'm going to finish the lesson there. We've got a couple of minutes for questions if you have any as we kind of wrap things up.

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Any arguments or questions of clarification? He said, I wish all men were as I am.

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Yeah. He was celibate. But he said, but I realize that not everybody has that gift. Yeah. So that's not, he's not saying this is what you ought to be doing.

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Although he would say strongly, I wish we're all celibate because there's a purpose behind it.

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That's a great point. So we heard that earlier when Paul in chapter seven was talking about gift of singleness or gift of marriage.

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I wish that all would remain as I am, but not that you would be that way. Yeah. Yes, sir.

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Seems to me that it's pretty simple that speaking in tongues, tongues is a real foreign language, human language.

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He wants them all to speak in tongues if they can, because they can speak to people that don't know one language.

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They have a different language. If you're speaking in tongues, you can prophesy the word of God to them in their native tongue so they'll understand.

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Right. And that's what was going on at Pentecost. Yeah. In Jerusalem. Absolutely. All right, let's finish there with prayer, and we'll come back to chapter 14 next week.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for what we have read here. And I pray that that what we've read with regards to speaking in tongues and prophesying though complicated issues and even controversial, depending which circles you're speaking in.

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I pray that even what we've heard today is beneficial for the building up of your church that we continue to grow in our knowledge of who you are and what you expect of us because we have read it in your word.

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We read here at the very beginning, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.

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So may we do that within our body. We desire those gifts that would help to build the body up in love, holding fast to the head who is

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Christ. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more