WWUTT 1603 One Who Prophesies (1 Corinthians 14:4-9)

The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts Is to Build Up the Church

The purpose of the spiritual gifts is for edifying and building up the church. If someone claims to have the gift of speaking in tongues, but nobody can understand what they are saying, how does that build up the church?

When we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And as with yesterday, I'm going to start off here by reading the first nine verses out of the Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.

But one who prophesies speaks to men, for edification, and exhortation, and encouragement. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. But I wish that you all spoke in tongues, even more, that you would prophesy.

And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he translates so that the church may receive edification. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophecy, or of teaching?

Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?

So also you, unless you utter by the tongue a word that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. So we come back to the first few verses here, summarizing what we've looked at Monday and Tuesday.

Paul begins by saying, pursue love, because that is the highest achievement for a Christian. We are to grow in love for God and for one another. We all have the same love in Christ. We'll have different spiritual gifts, but we all have the same love.

We're all growing according to this one love. So that should be our highest pursuit. And the exercise of spiritual gifts then is going to be done in love. So we all have this love in common. Pursue love.

That's what we're doing together with each other and for each other. Yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts. If those spiritual gifts are being exercised in love, then it is for the benefit of one another.

And then Paul adds into verse one, but especially that you may prophesy. This is really the most important thing here, because it is by the declaration of the word of God that we're grown in sanctification.

We're supposed to love one another. We're supposed to grow together. But how do we do that through and according to the word of God? John 17, 17, once again, Jesus saying, Father, sanctify them in your truth.

Your word is truth. And John or Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So in verse two, Paul says, for one who speaks in a tongue, one who speaks in a in another language, a foreign language that not everybody understands, one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands.

But in his spirit, he speaks mysteries. Now, I want to point something out here. We're going to come back to this in a moment in verses two and four. Tongue is singular. Then in verse five, it's plural.

All right. So notice that distinction. I'll explain that here in just a moment. One who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. If you're speaking a foreign language that people don't understand, well, then that's just between you and the Lord.

And there's nothing edifying that is happening there. In his spirit, he speaks mysteries. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and encouragement. And that's what we receive when we hear the word of God.

We understand it and we do what it says. We are edified. We're fed. We're fed by the word of God. We have exhortation. We're told to do something. There's an imperative there. It changes our lives and we walk according to what is being spoken.

And there is encouragement that in these days, we know that God is with us. He is at work in our lives and in the things that are going on around us. And we have that promise of Christ's return, that he is making all things new and he is going to set all things right.

He will judge the wicked and will deliver the righteous. Then verse four and verse four really could have gone with what I was doing yesterday in verses two and three. But this also serves as kind of launching off into the next part.

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. Again, you have tongue singular there. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. So this could be understood a couple of different ways.

And I've heard scholars go about this in different ways. We could be talking about nonsense gibberish here. That could be what Paul is referring to. Because as I mentioned yesterday, the gibberish that some people will do in their prayers and they will say that this is speaking in tongues, this is not unique to Christianity.

All kinds of religious faiths practice this. This speaking an utterance from the void, right? Or like spirits have given me this thing or I have this spiritual ecstasy and now it's coming out in these groanings or indiscernible words.

It's something that comes from the flesh. It is driven by emotion. It is not from the Holy Spirit. Even if you wanted to argue that it is from the Holy Spirit, you would have to admit that it's easily faked.

So you would never be able to tell if a person is genuinely in the spirit or not. This is something again that is practiced by multiple different religions. This utterance of nonsense. So therefore, since it is common to many different religious practices, it was surely practiced in Corinth.

There were pagans there in Corinth that would practice this gibberishness and claim that they were speaking the tongues of the gods or that they were bestowed by spirits to speak some sort of mysterious language.

For that reason, it could be that when Paul refers to a tongue here in the singular in verse 2 and in verse 4, he is talking about that practice of speaking gibberish that doesn't really mean anything or come from anywhere.

It is a person trying to demonstrate that they have the Holy Spirit of God, but it doesn't benefit anybody. No one is edified by this because the words don't make sense. So in verse 2, again, where Paul says, one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands, but in his spirits he speaks mysteries.

We can understand this in a couple of different ways. Either this is Paul referring to the gibberish nonsense, or he could be referring to a person who is actually speaking a foreign language. Maybe he knows that language and nobody else does, or perhaps he's rehearsed some lines from another known foreign tongue, and then he's speaking those lines before the church to make it look like that he has the gift of tongues, but not really.

I would argue that it could go either way. So either you're talking about a person who's speaking the gibberish nonsense that is not really a language at all, hence why Paul refers to it in the singular as just simply a tongue, or it's somebody who is faking speaking in tongues by speaking a language, a foreign language, and they're claiming to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So you could interpret that, or you could apply that either way. One who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Either way, Paul would be saying, this is not the proper practice. This is not benefiting the church.

The reason for the spiritual gifts is that the church may be edified. If that's what you're doing, speaking this spiritualness or this gibberishness, or you're speaking an actual foreign language but it's actually not benefiting anybody, then no one understands.

You're speaking mysteries. It's just between you and the Lord. He knows the condition of your heart. He knows whether you're genuinely in the Spirit or not. Verse four, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.

Again, we have that in the singular. So a person who has kind of chosen a certain language or a foreign language and they're speaking things that nobody else can understand, if you know what it is that you're saying, then you're only edifying yourself.

Now the argument that I would make for in opposition to the gibberishness, like Paul is not even addressing the gibberish talk here because it's a nonsense language. You wouldn't even call it a tongue because it isn't anything at all.

So my argument against that interpretation would be that he, first of all, that he refers to it as a tongue, and secondly, that he says that the person edifies himself. I don't think that a person who speaks the gibberishness even edifies themselves because how are we edified?

By the Word of God. So maybe when a person is speaking that gibberishness, maybe they're thinking the Word of God in their mind. It's just not what comes out of their mouth. Or Paul is just referring to a known language here.

The person knows what they're saying, but nobody else can understand what it is that they are saying. And so therefore, the one who speaks in a tongue, if he's edifying anybody, he's only edifying himself.

But the one who prophesies, the one who speaks words that make sense, the one who is actually communicating the Word of God to the people of God, he is building up the church. One who prophesies edifies.

He is feeding the flock of God. That's what a pastor has been called to do. As Peter instructs pastors in 1 Peter 5, the word pastor means shepherd, and that's what he calls them. You've been called to shepherd the flock of God.

So what are we supposed to do as shepherds? We're supposed to feed the sheep. Jesus said this to Peter at the end of the book of John, three times, asking him, Peter, do you love me? Then feed my sheep, feed my lambs.

And as the apostles have gone out with the message of the gospel, they are feeding the flock of God. As the Word of God continues to be taught in the church, and we're growing in sanctification and in holiness, in love toward one another, then we are being fed.

All of this is happening by the Word of God. We're building up. We're maturing. How do you grow up in the body? By eating, right? You tell your kids, eat their vegetables so that they will grow up big and strong.

And just as we eat food to sustain ourselves, to grow ourselves, some might feel like they're growing out more than they're growing up, but you know, you get what I'm saying. We continue our lives, we prolong our lives by eating, feeding ourselves, charging our batteries in such a way.

And so this is with the soul also. We are feeding ourselves. We're growing. You can't stop eating, you'll starve to death, whether in the body or in the spirit. If you stop eating food, your body will die.

If you stop feeding your soul with the Word of God, it will also languish and die. And so we encourage each other, we feed each other, we serve one another in the church through the Word of God. If you speak in a tongue, if you're speaking nonsense, if you're doing things that no one else can understand, then at best, you're edifying yourself.

Whether you understand this as Paul talking about speaking gibberish or speaking an actual known human language, he's still saying something that's a rebuke here in verse four. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.

That's a rebuke because it's Paul saying to the church, that's not the point, guys. If you have a spiritual gift, it's not to edify yourself. It is to edify and build up the church. So he goes on to say, but one who prophesies edifies the church.

Even in the gift of tongues, there is an expectation of prophecy, hence why he will say later that if somebody's going to speak in a tongue, there needs to be a translator so that the speaking in tongues turns into prophecy that may benefit the rest of the church, that everybody may be edified.

If there is not a translator, sit down and shut up because it is not beneficial to the church. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. Now, since Paul is saying this as a manner of rebuke, you cannot take that verse to say, well, I can have my own private prayer language.

He's not encouraging that. However, Paul does not want that statement of rebuke to be received as discouraging the speaking in tongues. So he goes on in verse five to say, but I wish that all of you spoke in tongues, but even more so that you would prophesy.

Like he's not saying speaking in tongues is bad. If you ever see anybody speaking in tongues, then they're doing something wrong and tell them to shut up. Now we get to the plural, right? Before it's been singular, a person has a single language that they're speaking.

Either it's gibberish or they've memorized some lines from another language to make it look like they have a spiritual gift. So Paul uses it in the singular. When you get to verse five, it's in the plural.

I wish that all of you spoke in tongues. I wish that you would be gifted with the Holy Spirit of God, that you would be seen speaking these foreign languages and that multiple people could be blessed to hear the word of God in their language as the spirit has given you utterance.

But he says even more so that you would prophesy because this is the point. It was even the point of speaking in tongues in the book of Acts. Those three occasions that I went through yesterday where we have speaking in tongues.

In all three of those occasions, it's to prophesy. The apostles are gifted with tongues in Acts chapter two so that they may go into Jerusalem during Pentecost and preach the gospel and everybody hears the gospel proclaimed in their own language.

In Acts chapter 10, it happens among the Gentiles so that the Jews may see that the Holy Spirit has come upon even the Gentiles. But what the Gentiles are doing is exactly what they saw at Pentecost in Acts two.

So again, you have known human languages. It wasn't everybody speaking a bunch of gibberish. They've seen Gentiles do that. That's not impressive. That's not something miraculous. But the Jews who were with Peter there at the house of Cornelius that saw these Gentiles speaking in tongues, they heard known languages just as was demonstrated at Pentecost in Acts two.

So they knew the Holy Spirit, same Holy Spirit that had been given to them in Jerusalem has now also been given to the Gentiles. Then in Acts chapter 19, the third occasion where we have the gift of tongues being given, it's the Apostle Paul witnessing to 12 men at Ephesus who come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He lays hands on them that they would be blessed with the Holy Spirit to speak in multiple languages because they're going to go with Paul into Ephesus, a port city, a center of all kinds of culture and commerce.

And they're going to be proclaiming what God has given them to proclaim in languages that people can understand. There's the occasions that we have speaking in tongues in the book of Acts. So Paul says, I wish that you all would speak in tongues.

I wish that the Holy Spirit would grant that all of you would be able to do this, but even more so that you would prophesy because that's the thing that is going to build up believers testifying to what God has done through his son, Jesus Christ, so that all may believe in him and have faith and so be saved.

If you can't understand the word that is being said, then what are you putting your faith in? How do you grow in that faith unless you hear and believe? So Paul goes on to say, greater is the one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues unless he translates so that the church may receive edification so that the speaking in tongues then turns into what?

It turns into prophecy so that the church may be blessed. Verse six, but now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues and we know Paul speaks in tongues, we saw that with the men at Ephesus in Acts chapter 19.

What will I profit you? He says, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching, I could come to you speaking in tongues. But what would that benefit you?

Unless it's revelation, unless it's God revealing truth to you, it's knowledge. It's a word that you hear that fills your mind with an understanding of who God is and what he is doing or of prophecy of, of things that God is going to do, what is going to be fulfilled through the speaking of his word or of teaching that we may know what Jesus has said and what we are to do as his disciples.

A disciple means a learner. So as you have teaching, you have a learner, somebody who is learning that teaching. Paul's saying when I come to you, it has to be with this motivation, a revelation, a knowledge, a prophecy or a teaching.

If it's not that, if what I'm saying to you is not that, then how does it benefit you? You may be amazed at my ability to speak all these different kinds of languages, but it doesn't benefit you in any way.

Clear Speech in Worship and Spiritual Warfare

And then Paul gives an example, verses seven, eight and nine, yet even lifeless things drawing from general revelation here, right? This isn't special revelation. That's prophecy. Now he's going to general revelation, even lifeless things like a flute or a harp in producing a sound.

If they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? And he picks instruments here that are very particular, very precise in the notes that are produced.

If you want a certain note out of a flute, you have to cover certain holes. If you want a certain song out of a harp, you have to pluck certain strings. If you just take a flute and you blow on it real hard, that doesn't produce any music.

It's just a loud noise coming out of it. Remember the example that Paul gave at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 13? If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, right?

That's kind of what the harp and the flute become here. If it's not making a discernible sound, you just blow real hard on the flute. That's not a lovely sound. There's no song. There's no musical notes.

Nobody can name that tune because there's no tune coming out of it. Same with the harp. You can just strum real hard on the strings, right? That's not a song. Nobody can say, oh yeah, that's the music to Psalm 23, you know, or whatever they would be playing on the harp back then.

So without distinction in the notes, nobody knows what is being played. For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? Now a trumpet is a less precise instrument than a flute or a harp, a trumpet in those days anyway.

But you would still have different trumpet blasts for different instructions that an army is supposed to follow. If you're leading an army into battle, you got an army of 10 ,000 troops. How do you communicate to that whole number of troops exactly what it is that are supposed to do?

Especially when the battle gets really heated, there's a lot of shouting, a lot of noise. How is a general going to rise up and tell the army what to do, whether to advance, to regroup, to retreat or whatever?

Well, there's trumpets for that. And the trumpets would have certain blasts for certain commands. The army knew when they heard the trumpet do this, then here's what we're doing next. So if the trumpet doesn't make a distinct sound, if you don't know exactly, if somebody's just blowing real hard on the trumpet and you don't know exactly the notes or the pattern of what's being played, then how is an army going to know what to do in battle?

So also you, Paul says in verse nine, unless you utter by the tongue a word that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, we've been summoned to battle.

We're doing spiritual warfare. And how do we fight in that battle? How do we know what it is that we're supposed to do? Unless we hear the command of the king given to us clearly. So the desire needs to be for the clear word of God to be spoken.

And my friends, that doesn't matter whether it's in preaching or in prayer. Know the word of God and speak it. Heavenly Father, thank you for our lesson today. And may it be clear to our ears that we know what we have to do.

Jesus Christ spoke to us clearly. He prayed clear prayers in the presence of his disciples. And so may we desire to do the same, building one another up in love according to the word of God and praying for and even edifying one another with our prayers.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.