Tongues And Women - [1 Corinthians 14:20-40]

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Why don't you turn your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians this morning. You'll need a Bible here, 1 Corinthians.
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We've been in this book maybe three years, and I think we've got about seven messages to go in 1
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Corinthians. Paul has been writing to the church, addressing all kinds of problems that they had.
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If Thessalonians is a book written to encourage an excelling church, 1
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Corinthians is written to correct a carnal church. And so far in 1
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Corinthians, we've dealt with things like unity issues, church discipline, do we sue other
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Christians, sexual purity, divorce and remarriage,
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Christian liberty issues, and now spiritual gifts. And Paul calls those, in 1
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Corinthians chapter 3, not deep doctrines. Don't you think those are kind of deep doctrines?
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It seems like those are upper echelon issues, a lot of substance.
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Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, those are milk. This is just introductory stuff for a
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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.
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There is an old book, about 200 years old, by William Ramsbottom, and it was called Bible Doctrines Simply Explained.
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And they repackaged it, but what they've done is, since those were kind of harder concepts for our modern generation, it's called
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Bible Doctrines for Children. And so, with 1 Corinthians, it's good because Paul challenges us to grow.
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I don't mean numbers, I mean in your maturation. Spiritual growth is good for the soul.
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Physical growth, children, if you have a new baby and that baby doesn't grow, there's a problem, so too with spiritual growth.
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And so, I love Paul's way of doing things. Today, in this chapter, it's going to be spicy.
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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,
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Paul sometimes will encourage brothers. Paul sometimes, in this passage, will use sarcasm, of all things.
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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.
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And then, Paul also talks about ladies. Is it okay for ladies to preach? Is it okay for women to speak in the church?
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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
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Corinthians 14. Here's what we do at this church. We just pick a book and begin preaching verse by verse, verse by verse through.
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Last week, we finished chapter 14, verses 1 through 19, and now we'll just pick up where we left off.
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And it's right in the middle of chapters 12, 13, and 14, where Paul is talking about spiritual gifts.
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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.
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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
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I've never learned, and look at me. I must be spiritual. I must be mature.
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And Paul is going to say, if you have a gift, it's for other people.
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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.
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And you're going to see very quickly, this is not, well, I'm just led. How do you worship? Well, I'm just led to do this, and I'm led to do that.
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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,
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I think God is very concerned about my mature worship as I use my heart, soul, mind, and strength to worship
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His Son, Christ Jesus, my substitute, my representative. The resurrected Savior deserves this, and Paul demands it of the people.
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You want to be a carnal church? Worship, come what may. You would like to be mature in your thinking and your worship?
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It is regulated. Your worship is by the Bible. Easy to see if you go to the
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Old Testament. Leviticus, Exodus, God is a precise God, and He demands precise worship.
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So, if I were to outline 1 Corinthians 14, there's four major segments, two we've already been through, but my outline will reflect the text.
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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,
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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.
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And the key review verse is found in verse 5. Look at 1 Corinthians 14, verse 5.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Desire two we saw last week, found in verses 6 through 19, is best summarized if you look at verse 12.
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Desire number two, desire as a congregation, spiritual gifts that are intelligible.
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Speaking in tongues isn't gibberish, it's not a bunch of syllables put together. Look at verse 12.
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So you yourselves, emphatically, since you are eager for the manifestations of the
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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.
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That is to say, instead of saying, look at me, I have a certain gift, tongues, you should be saying,
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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.
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We went in great lengths last week to say, if you'd like to be built up here at the church, it is directly related to the
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Word of God. Would you like to mature? Would you like to grow? Would you like to say no to sin more often and yes to righteousness?
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To love your wife more? To love your husband more? To love your neighbor more? To love
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God more? It is directly related to the Word of God. There's no shortcuts for Bible study, there's no shortcuts for maturity.
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That's why in Colossians 1 Paul says, Him we proclaim. The Bible focuses on the risen
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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.
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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.
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I go to drive -thru, 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.
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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.
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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.
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What I say to you, church, in speaking in tongues, real languages, doesn't need to be for today and isn't for today.
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You've got to have the Bible to help you grow. Show me a person who doesn't study their
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Bible and I'll show you an immature Christian. It's simple. Intake, you've got to have food to grow.
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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.
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Moreover, by them thy servant is warned, in keeping them there's great reward. And just think, we have the
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Bible. I don't want to say I have thousands of Bibles. Online I have them, but I have hundreds of physical
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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.
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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.
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Well, just give me the little ABC Christianity. I'd like enough Christianity so I go to heaven, but nothing else.
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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.
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And so, when Jonathan Goforth says, my deepest regret on reaching three score years and ten is that I have not devoted more time to Bible study, still in less than 19 years
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I have gone through the New Testament in Chinese 55 times. He's an
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English speaker, and so he knows I've got to have the Word because it exalts
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Christ Jesus, the risen Savior, to grow. Third desire found in 1
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Corinthians chapter 14. We're coming to new information, verses 20 through 25. How do
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I think rightly about spiritual gifts? Desire three, desire as a congregation, maturity in your thinking.
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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.
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Watch how the mind is focused upon. Watch how thinking and right doctrine is so important.
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What does he say in verse 20? 1 Corinthians 14 .20. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.
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So he doesn't say you're babies, but in a sense. Now there's a time to be a baby. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
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Direct context, you tongue speakers who speak a language you've never learned and you have no interpreter, you're acting like a baby.
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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.
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By the way, that's a pretty impressive thing to speak a language you've never learned. I would be impressed.
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By the way, that would save a lot of going to Bible school and learning other languages before you went on the mission field.
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Paul says you've got to think like you want to mature. It's time to grow up and to use your mind.
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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.
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Why? Because kids are blown away and led by their emotions.
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Not in your thinking. Don't be like children. And then he says it again, but positively at the end of verse 20.
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But in your thinking be mature. Paul is after edification with the mind.
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By the way, I don't know if you've put two and two together, but I want you to mature.
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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.
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Children like glitz. Children like glamour. Children like Christmas over Thanksgiving for those reasons.
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Children like shortcuts. Children like the easy way to get the most. Least input, greatest output.
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And so even when you think about worship, why do I dress with a suit on? Because I'm a grown -up.
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This is mature worship. Why do we not have a rock band with piercing rock music that I can't hear the singing?
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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?
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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
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Mickey Mouse shirt and skinny jeans. Actually, there's a very famous pastor who loves to wear in the adult worship service a
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Mickey Mouse shirt. Nothing wrong with a Mickey Mouse shirt. It's just all time and place. But back to the point.
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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.
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So what do we do? We give them that. But you know what's happened now? Now it's in adult church.
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You 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.
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You know what? Give me some Braveheart videos and a big PowerPoint presentation.
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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.
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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?
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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
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Bible chapter and a long prayer, your children will say, I don't like that.
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Why? Because they're children. And if you say, I don't like that, may
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I suggest you're childish in your thinking. This is adult worship.
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And when adult worship happens, the church grows up into adulthood. If it's dumb down here,
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I hate to say this, I'm not after you, but if it's dumb down here, it's dumber down there.
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Is that a word? Show me who Christ is. Doctrine matters.
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What you think about God is the most important thing about you, Tozer said. And everything about God has to do with doctrine.
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It's a truth about God. And you say, well, you're after rock music. No, I'm not.
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I just think it has no place in a mature worship service. Go in your car and listen to Striper all you want.
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I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. I like loud music. But what children don't get is time and place.
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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.
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I'm not after bongos. But if it was driving everything and silencing, this is supposed to help the church worship and sing.
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Not drown it out. You want a coffee house? Go to a coffee house on Friday. This is maturity what we're after.
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Thinking properly. Paul doesn't want them to be childish. Why? Because he's a slave or a taskmaster?
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No, he wants the people to grow into maturity so they'll more reflect Christ. That's what he's after.
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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.
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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.
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Verse 21. In the law it is written, and Paul does this all the time, he'll use the
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Bible to back up his points. Sometimes law means Torah, Genesis, Exodus through Deuteronomy, and sometimes it's just a general comment.
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This is a general, freely translated quote from Isaiah 28. In the context of tongues, thinking like a grown -up.
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How would a grown -up think about tongues? If you were a Jew, how would you think about tongues?
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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
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I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the
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Lord. That is taken as your liner note to show you Isaiah chapter 28. Let's turn there.
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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.
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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
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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,
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Oh, what's tongues? Why was it used? What's the purpose of tongues? Certainly the purpose of tongues is not, Look at me,
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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.
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One of these passages that's really a fascinating passage. So if you go down to verse 9 in Isaiah 28, if you see in your study
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Bible or most new Bibles, you'll see quotation marks to start verse 9.
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This isn't Isaiah speaking properly. This is the people that Isaiah is preaching to.
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Now he's writing down, Isaiah is, what the people are saying. So Isaiah has come to them and said,
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Repent, trust in the Lord, follow the Messiah to come, do what the
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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?
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You mock him. Well, you're not supposed to mock him, it's just what they do. Verse 9, here's the mocking of the preacher.
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They've heard the message from God's preacher Isaiah, and now they're going to mock him, Isaiah 28. To whom will he teach knowledge?
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Who's he going to teach? What can this guy Isaiah teach me? He can't teach anything.
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School starts tomorrow, on Tuesday, to some public schoolers and private schoolers and home schoolers as well.
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This teacher can't teach me anything. And to whom will he explain the message?
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Those who are weaned from the milk. It's baby talk. It's really introductory.
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You know, repent and just introductory stuff. Anybody could get that in Bible school 101.
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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,
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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.
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Now let me give you the Hebrew. It sounds just very rudimentary. Here comes this preacher,
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ABCs. He can't teach us anything. It's all milk. He can't teach us anything.
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Do and do, don't and don't, rule and rule, repent and repent. So God sends to the
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Judah, to the people in Judah, repent, we won't listen. He said, okay, you won't listen to baby talk,
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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.
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It's a language of judgment. Tongues, a foreign language to the
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Jew, to the reader of 1 Corinthians, is going to do this. That's judgment. Tongues judge.
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Isaiah preaches in Hebrew, they say no, God judges with a foreign language.
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Tongues is a judgment on Judaism. That's what tongues was.
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If you look farther down in Isaiah, verse 11, for by people of strange lips, and with a foreign tongue the people will, the
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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.
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You're going to listen now, as they pull you by the nose into captivity, do the
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Assyrians. You want to speak, you want talk like that? Okay, I'll give you talk like that.
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Go down to verse 14, in 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.
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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?
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The Lord. God's people were in trouble, and who do they call for? The Assyrians are coming, what should we do?
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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.
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That is a covenant of death. They can't do anything. Isaiah 30 calls
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Egypt big mouth do -nothings. Big mouth do -nothings, they can't do anything.
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Look at verse 16 of Isaiah 28. This is good advice for all of us when we seek help from everybody but the
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Lord. The doctors, the psychologists, the elders, other people. Therefore, thus says the
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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.
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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.
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Verse 20. Don't you love how this is written? This is biblical precedent for short -sheeting your friend's bed.
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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.
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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.
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It's not going to cover. Well, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 14. The point is simple.
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Paul quotes Isaiah 28 to let everyone know tongue -speaking foreign languages is a judgment for the
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Jewish unbeliever. Now, what do you think he's going to say next? I wonder what his next verse is going to say.
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And here is the purpose statement for tongues. Out of all the Bible, here it is. This is the purpose statement.
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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.
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Thus, tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers.
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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 you a language that you don't know.
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So people say, well, you know, we speak in tongues today at our church. Is everybody in your church a Christian? Yes. Well, then
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I don't know what you're doing. Tongues is a judgment for Jewish people.
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And by the way, read Acts 18 sometime, and you'll see that's who caused the problem to Paul in 1
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Corinthians or at Corinth. No interpreter. It's not going to help anyone.
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With an interpreter, it's going to tell unbelievers, there's a new language here these people haven't learned.
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And like the people in Isaiah, I should repent. Look at verse 23. Therefore, the whole church comes together.
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1 Corinthians 14. All speak in tongues. They all speak in languages and outsiders or unbelievers enter.
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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.
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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.
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Their mind isn't engaged. It's not anything to do with the mind. Will they not say you are out of your mind, or the
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Greek word is in some kind of frenzy? These people have gone berserk. They're all talking some kind of language, and there's no interpreter.
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I can't understand it. Verse 24. But if all prophesy, that is give divinely uttered speech, an unbeliever and outside enters.
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What if an unbeliever walks in here today and hears me preaching that Jesus is the only Savior, He's the only way, that they're sinful, they need a substitute, they need a risen
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Savior who conquers death. He is convicted by all. He can understand that. He is called to account by all.
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The secrets of his heart are disclosed. That's what the word does. That's what intelligible word Bible preaching does.
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And back then, prophecy falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really...
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This week, Mark Gale did a little paving out front. And we didn't have enough money to do all the blacktop, but just up front, and that was the main part that we needed.
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And so then he sent me a picture of what he did because I thought it looked so good. But he photoshopped in a bunch of letters there, white letters, big letters, and it said,
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Seekers welcome, free donuts. Now, I want people who are unbelievers, if you preach the gospel to them and then invite them here,
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I want to be kind to them. That's why we give cookies at the end. If you get cookies, by the way, it doesn't mean you're an unbeliever.
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It could just mean you're a visitor. I want to be nice to everyone. But when unbelievers enter, if you're not born again today, this is what
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I want to have happen to you. I want you to be convicted of your sin, knowing that if you die this second, you're going straight to hell.
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And there's only one Savior, one substitute, one risen King who reconciles God who is at war with people.
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And irreconcilable differences except for the cross. And because of the cross work of Christ, the only
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God -man, you can have no longer a relationship of enemy, but a friend.
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And I hope if you're an unbeliever, that's the message. And I hope you would say not, well, do you know what?
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The music, just like I get in the world. The dance team, just like I get in the world. The Braveheart videos, just like I get in the world.
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No, I want you to hear the Word of God carefully. You have been made by God. He is your Creator.
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You owe Him worship. And one day you'll die and stand before Him. And you are going to be undone.
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There's only one refuge. And so what we want with unbelievers, of course if they show up we want to be kind, but we want them to be convicted.
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And if I'm up here speaking a language that the unbeliever doesn't know, he's not going to be convicted. Divinely inspired speech, prophecy, our preached word today, does its work.
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And what will he say? God is really among you, verse 25. That's what we're after.
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Unbelievers don't worship, they blaspheme. So why would I say we're going to concoct a service today that appeals to the unbeliever.
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No, we're going to concoct a service today in response to divine scripture in humble obedience saying this isn't my church, these aren't my people,
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I don't know how to worship you, you tell me how to worship you, God. And that in fact we will do because I will not be like Nadab and Abihu who offered a strange fire and then was killed for it.
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People play fast and loose with the church. Why don't we do this? Why don't we do that? And in our church it is we must do this and we will do that.
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I met with the pastor in the last month and he said I do not want to be known as the pastor who closed this church down.
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And I said wrong. You don't want to be the pastor that plays fast and loose with the word of God and does what
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God tells you not to do. There's honor in preaching the word and having everybody leave.
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We want the glitz, we want the glamour, we want good grammar too. We want the rock and roll, we want to be babies, we want to be immature.
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That's what we want. Well my friends, I think you ought to reconsider because deep down in your heart don't you realize the problems of sin and issues of pain and trouble that you have in your own heart and you think rock music and a spiritually weak service and sermon are really going to help you.
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You know better. And so dads, why don't you be a man and say we're not picking this church for we like the music, we like the carpet, we like the songs, we like this.
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We're going to go there because we would like to grow. That's what we want. We're going to grow. We want to honor
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Christ because it's a sin not to grow if you're a Christian. It's a sin not to be transformed into Christ's image because you say
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I want to go play in the sandbox when I could be walking into the palace. Paul isn't mad at them.
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Paul's heart's broken because he's taught them better. Spurgeon said the pastor's job is to feed the sheep not entertain the goats.
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The fourth desire and the final desire is found in verses 26 and following. How do we think about spiritual gifts?
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It's okay to desire spiritual gifts and so I'll use desire as the outline. The fourth desire is you should desire orderly worship as a church.
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You want mature thinking of course. You want edification. You want intelligibility. And Paul now spends the rest of this time verses 26 and following to talk about ordered worship service.
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Systematic worship service. God is triune. God is ordered. God wants ordered worship.
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God is not chaotic so God does not want chaos in worship. God is not evolving so He doesn't want evolving worship.
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Now you might be saying we've got 26 to 40. How are we going to get through those verses? Well we did it at the first service but we'll see if we make it here.
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It would be bad to preach two services and end at verse 38 in one service and end at verse 40 at the other service.
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That would be bad. So Paul is going to say we need order in the worship service.
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That's what he's after here. The ground rules for worship service. And Paul is going to make sure that the prime directive is going to override well
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I just got caught up in my emotions. I just got caught up in the spirit. I just couldn't control myself.
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When the Spirit of God indwells you and the Word is leading you you will always have self -control.
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The fruit of the Spirit is all kinds of things, love, joy, peace, self -control. You never can say as a
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Christian I didn't know what I was doing. I just let myself go in the Spirit. No, you just let yourself go but it was not the
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Holy Spirit. It might be a small spirit, your spirit or it might be another spirit but not Jesus' Holy Spirit.
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You can't say I'm pleading, I'm led when you're already told.
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I didn't say this first service but you get this. I mean, I get it too. Okay, kids. What I'd like to do is
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I'd like to have you clean your room. Okay. Take about a half hour. Enjoy yourself.
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Play some acid rock or whatever you want to do in your room. Clean your room. And you walk back in a half hour.
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These kids were old enough to do it. You didn't ask them to do something they couldn't do. Did you get your room clean? Wait a second, your room isn't clean. Why didn't you clean your room?
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Dad, I wasn't led. What do you mean you weren't led? I'm going to lead you right over here to the discipline room.
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I wasn't led. No, I told you to do it. I wasn't mean when I told you to do it. I had no sin in my heart when
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I told you. I'm not sinning to have you do that. Obey. No, I wasn't led. It's the same thing but we just in a way trick ourselves and say well,
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I just wasn't led to do that. So Paul gives order to the worship service. Let's call this
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Robert's Rules of Worship Service Order. Here's the principle that overrides verse 26.
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What then brothers, when you come together talking about corporate worship, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or interpretation.
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Let all things be done for the building up. There's that refrain again. You don't do it all at the same time.
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Everybody just does a tongue at the same time. Everybody interprets at the same time. Everybody sings a hymn at the same time.
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That wouldn't be good. Stop vying for attention. Stop being the one who wants to be the preeminent one.
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That's not loving. That ignores chapter 13. The focus isn't on us.
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The focus is on who Jesus is, what He's done, how He's accomplished salvation, how
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He's the risen Savior. And so Paul says in verse 27 he's given some rules for the gift of languages you never learned as a signed gift that was existent before the canon was closed.
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If any speak in a tongue, that there be only two, or at most three. You ever walk into a church and 50 people are all saying a bunch of things?
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First of all, if it's not a language, it's not biblical. Second of all, if there's more than two or three who are saying it, it's not biblical.
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And thirdly, if it's not done in turn, look at each in turn and let someone interpret.
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It's a language. Just like Walvoord said, I read a Walvoord commentary and he said, a guy memorized
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Psalm 1 in Hebrew and went to a Charismatic church and got up and said, I have a word from the Lord, started speaking in tongues and he read from memory
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Psalm 1 in Hebrew. And the guy could not translate it. The interpreter, thankfully, they had an interpreter, but he couldn't interpret it.
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And then D .A. Carson, who's obviously a friend of Charismatics, he said one of his friends memorized John 1, 1 to 18 in Greek, went to a church, said,
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I've got the gift of languages, said that in Greek and nobody knew what it meant. But even if somehow people say, if tongues are for today, let each do it in turn.
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Verse 28, here's what you do if there's no interpreter. If there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself or to God.
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Just pray. Just pray to God. There should be order in the worship service. Spirit led through the
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Word. Prophecy has order too. Verse 29, let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said.
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Didn't have the canon closed back in those days. How do I know if it's biblical? Other prophets could examine.
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People with the discernment gift could examine. Let others weigh what is said. Verse 30, if a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
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See, they're all just all talking at the same time. That's not loving. For you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn.
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There it is, the mind again, that you may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
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Can't just say, I couldn't control myself. Something just took over.
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It's against my will. For God is not a God. Here's the summary of the last three chapters.
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Verse 33, God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. He's an orderly God. As in all the churches of the saints.
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It's just not a Corinth, but it's all these churches. And speaking of order, here's some other order that's in the church that they weren't doing.
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The women should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the law also says.
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Why don't we just pray right there. Now, I know we have some visitors today and so I can't redo this whole issue, but here's what
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I'll say just briefly to make sure there's some bumpers on this. God has made man and woman in his image.
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They are both image bearers. Galatians 3 .28 says that in Christ we are equal. By essence, equal.
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But by function, we are different. By function, we are different. And the lie of feminism is differences in function means there has to be inequality with nature, our essence.
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That is a lie. Look at the military and the captain and the private. Who's better?
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See, that's a wrong question to ask. Who's in charge is the right question. Husband and wife, my wife is not inferior because of her functional difference because we're equal in Christ Jesus.
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And same thing in a local church service. Women are not unequal because they can't be elders or pastors.
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And so there was a lot of talking with the women there at Corinth. That was one of their problems. And by the way, to give them a little, not an excuse, but just so you can understand what was going on, some of these churches met in homes.
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So what if it was your home? You can't talk in your own house now because it's a church service? What if you went to your friend's house?
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And normally when you go to your friend's house you talk, don't you? At least most people do. And now I can't talk?
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And by the way, Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, before the canon was closed, women could prophesy and pray.
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And now you mean they can't talk? What does that mean? You can pray and prophesy in chapter 11, but in 14 you can't talk.
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So the only way to put those two things together is this, when God moved a lady to get up and say,
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Thus saith the Lord, before the canon was closed, He did not allow them, in chapter 14, to talk about, is this from God?
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Is it not from God? Weighing the prophecies, distinguishing if it's right or wrong, they were to ask their husbands at home because it was causing a problem of confusion, not of peace.
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In other words, Paul says to order the church, you must have the men and women have the correct roles, and the role for the women was not to discuss the prophecy if they were right or wrong, it was to submit to it and talk to their husbands.
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Some scholars, you know what they end up doing with this verse because they don't like it? They're egalitarian in function and by essence.
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Guess what they do with this verse? If you don't like a Bible verse because it goes against your theology, what do you usually say? Well, maybe you don't say it, but I'll tell you what people say.
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It's not in the best what? Manuscripts. That's actually what some people say. No ancient manuscript lacks it, but they'll say, you know what?
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Not in the best manuscripts. How could Paul say that? It's easy for us today if we're not at Corinth, but if you want to know how
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God regulates worship in the New Testament era post -canon, the
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Bible is clear in 1 Timothy. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over man.
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Rather, she is to remain quiet. Why? One, before the fall, creation order, for Adam was formed first, then
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Eve. Two, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
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Anyone that knows me, anyone that knows Kim and knows about Kim and myself, realizes that I do not, at least publicly, say
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I'm the caveman, but I don't say that privately either. That just turned out to be a bad joke.
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I respect ladies. It's sin if I ever treat
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Kim less than an image -bearer. And pretty much, you know Mrs. Abendroth, she wouldn't put up with it for one minute if I treated her as an unequal person in Christ Jesus.
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But functionally, the Bible couldn't be clearer on men's roles and women's roles. I'm starting to get sweaty up here.
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That's what I'm starting to do. Verse 36.
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Let's just wrap this up. Verse 36. Look at Paul's sarcasm. Or was it from you that the
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Word of God came? So you wrote the Bible now? Or are you the only ones it has reached?
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You're above Scripture now I guess. Maybe you wrote Scripture? The pride and the unloving nature of the
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Corinthians. Paul is so sarcastic. Corinthians, you think you're Rome?
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You think you're the Mother Church? If anyone thinks that he's a prophet, verse 37, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things
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I am writing to you are a command from the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.
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Corinthians, you say you're so spiritual. Anyone as spiritual as you should know that I'm an apostle sent by the will of God and I'm writing
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Scripture. My words are authoritative. My words are canonical. And if you don't believe that, you're not recognized.
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We're not going to call you. People say all the time, well you know what, this whole homosexual issue, this whole women's roles issue,
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Jesus didn't talk about that, but Paul did. Therefore, Jesus' words must be right and Paul's words are not biblical.
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When a person says that, here's what my mind says, you are not to be recognized. You're not to be recognized.
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You wrote Scripture. You're the mother church. It's very, very clear. If you don't like Christianity, because of that, you don't like Christianity.
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But the second you submit to the God who made you, if God said, by the way, you deserve hell and you get heaven and you get everything in Christ Jesus and you're not only functionally different, but you're by nature lesser than someone else, what would you say?
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I know what I would say. I'm just glad to go to heaven. You just put me on any lower level rank, slave, servant.
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I don't deserve anything. I'm just glad to know that the King knows me and then
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I know Him. And people say, well, Paul didn't say the right thing. Paul's words aren't inspired.
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Jesus never talked about homosexuality and Paul did. Paul's wrong. He may not be recognized.
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Well, only two short verses to go, I think. Verse 39, So my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy.
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There's nothing wrong with divine utterance that builds up. Do not forbid speaking in tongues and language you never learned.
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In those days, that's a good thing because it was a sign of judgment to the unbelieving
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Jews. But in case we forgot, he says, verse 40, but all things, all things should be done decently and in order.
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Those are the marching orders from Paul because Christ's church, if it was our church, we'd do what we want.
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But if it's Christ's church, we submit to Him. Let's pray. Father, I do thank You this day that we can learn from Your Word.
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How incredible is Your Word. How awesome is it that deals with all these kinds of issues. I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church.
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I pray that You would help her to grow in love for one another, mature. I pray for those who are mature saints that You would give them many blessings of training and discipling the younger generation.
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I pray for those who are still in infancy because they're new Christians. I pray that You would help them to grow and give them a desire for the
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Word. And Father, I pray for those that should be growing more than they're growing. I pray that You'd help them embrace repentance and then that You would have them open their
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Bibles to study Christ Jesus, our great God and Savior. And Father, may You be the one who regulates our worship, not just on Sunday, but throughout the day.