Well, good morning. It's good to see you guys.
Well, so you can stay up here, give you a chance to find your
seats as you do. I want to invite you to open to
1st Corinthians 14, First Corinthians chapter 14.
We're in a section here where Paul is lovingly but firmly
correcting the Corinth church because they've become
captivated by the spectacular and forgetful of the purpose of
spiritual gifts. And so he's been, we've been on
this topic now since chapter 12. We'll be on it this week and
next week and then we'll move into a new issue that he's
addressing within the Church of Corinth.
So if you'll remember in chapter 12, just kind of a a synopsis of
of what it saw out of summary. Paul taught that the Spirit
gives a diversity of gifts for the common good of the church.
It's to edify the church, but the Spirit gives the gifts.
They're not gifts that you develop within yourself.
They're not, you know, they don't come through training or
schooling or those sort of things.
Doesn't mean you can't grow in them or mature in them, but it
means that the Spirit gives these gifts.
And he even says there that not everyone receives the same
gifts, right? So some they're given the gift
of knowledge or faith or healing or tongues or, you know, so on
and so forth. And so he mentions several gifts
by name there, and chapter 13. He wants to recenter them a
little bit away from the gifts and to the purpose of those
gifts. He insisted that love is the
indispensable atmosphere of all ministry.
Love is to be the foundation of all that we do, especially as we
exercise the gifts that God gives us.
Without love, even the most dazzling gifts become noise, as
we saw in First Corinthians 13 one through 3.
Then in chapter 14, where we began a couple of weeks ago, he
applies love to corporate worship, and he encourages the
Corinthians there to use your gifts so that the church is
edified. We're going to see more of that
today. During that sermon a couple of
weeks ago, we saw that prophecy, which is clear, intelligible
proclamation of God's Word edifies the church, while
uninterpreted tongues do not. Uninterpreted tongues do not
edify the church. And so today in the sermon, Paul
is pressing that same theme even further.
The Spirit aims not at showing us, but at clarity, all right?
When the Spirit of God is at work, there is clarity.
There's peace not showing us, all right.
He, Paul's even going to talk about how it's not at the Spirit
doesn't aim at private elevation, but at public
edification. So it's not about edifying you
privately. It's about edifying the church
together publicly. The Spirit doesn't aim at
confusion, but at conversion, right?
And so we'll see that today as well.
So clarity in the gathered church, what we'll see today is
clarity in the gathered church strengthens believers and
confronts unbelievers with the presence of God.
All right, so that's where we're at in First Corinthians 14.
I'm going to read 13 through 25 and then we'll get into the
message. So would you please stand as we
hear God's Word this morning? First Corinthians chapter 14,
starting verse 13 through 25. Therefore, one who speaks in the
tongue should pray that he may interpret.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is
unfruitful. What am I to do?
I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.
I will sing with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
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?
For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other
person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in
tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would
rather speak 5 words with my mind in order to instruct others
than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in
your thinking be infants and evil, but in your thinking be
mature in the law. It is written by people of
strange tongues and the lips of foreigners.
Will I speak to this people? And even then they will not
listen to me, says the Lord. Thus tongues are a sign not for
believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for
unbelievers but for believers. If therefore, the whole Church
comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or
unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your
minds? But if all prophecy and an
unbeliever outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is
called by, called to account by all, and the secrets of his
heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he
will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word. By God, we thank you that as we
continue the study through the book of First Corinthians, we
are seeing grace and the Christian life quite visibly,
Lord, quite clearly. And so, Lord, on this matter of
tongues, would you instruct us today on this matter of prophecy
and what is good for the building up of the church?
What is helpful actually to unbelievers and believers alike?
Will you help us to see that clearly, that it is the spoken
word of God? It's the clear Word of God.
And so, Father, in that vein, I ask that you help me to be clear
today, that you help me to preach and to teach clearly from
your Word this morning in a way that children and adult alike
can learn from it and understand it.
But we ask these things in the name of Christ our Lord.
Amen, Man, you may be seated. Clarity is power, all right?
When things are clear, they're powerful.
You think about a surgeon, they must see clearly before they can
cut, all right? Before any cutting begins.
You they need to know clearly the course of action, the attack
plan, those sort of things. A pilot who's flying an airplane
must hear clearly before landed, otherwise there's going to be
chaos, right? A soldier must receive a clear
command in battle, otherwise he doesn't know his marching
orders. What we see is that when there's
confusion, it costs lives. When there's confusion, it
creates chaos. When there's confusion, there's
disorder. There's no peace.
The same is true in worship. When the Word is clear, the
church is built. When the Word is clear, the
Church of God is built. When the word is muddled, the
church is weakened. Now, you can think about this in
the form of tongues, yes, but you can also think about the way
the word may get muddled through worldly ideologies, which again,
is partly what the Corinthians are guilty of, is bringing in
previous Pagan worship, previous ideologies, bringing them into
the church. And so the word becomes muddied,
it becomes weakened. Paul's point is not that emotion
is bad, all right. We don't.
We don't want to have this false thought that our emotions are
bad. God has created us to feel.
God has created us to emote, so to speak.
He, he's created us to, to cry when things are sad or to cry
when things are happy. He's created us to show emotion,
right? To to be righteously angry at
right things to be joyful when we should be joyful, right?
Their emotion is a good thing. I love to hear the laughter of
my children, right? I love to see them emote and
laughter at a good dad joke occasionally, all right, which
is occasional. I try them all the time, but
they only laugh occasionally. Let's be clear on that.
Paul's point is, is not that emotion is bad or that zeal is
wrong, right? He's not correcting the
zealousness of the Corinthians. He's directing the zealousness
of the Corinthians, all right. He's he's seeking to point it in
the right direction. Rather, zeal must be yoked with
truth. That's what Paul's point is.
We also see that Romans 10/2, the Spirit who fills our hearts
also renews our minds, right? And so our zeal from the, from
being filled with the Spirit of God, there's a zeal that comes
with that. And in Romans 12/2, what we see
or yeah, Romans 12/2 is that the Spirit renews our mind, right?
He, he makes us more Christ like, he leads us further into
truth. And so truth lands on the heart
and we emote, right? We show emotion, but truth moves
to the mind, right? It informs our thoughts and our
desires. It, it shows us what to think
and what to teach and what not to think and what to disavow,
right? The truth exposes, but it also
teaches, all right, Truth teaches as well.
And so the main point of the sermon today, I think is this.
It's, it's a little long and I'm sorry for that, but you can
begin writing now. The Spirit empowers clear
proclamation that builds up the church and brings unbelievers
face to face with the living God.
The Spirit empowers clear proclamation that builds up the
church and brings unbelievers face to face with the living
God. That's what Paul is trying to
teach here in First Corinthians 14.
I'll say it one more time, just as you're writing.
The Spirit empowers clear proclamation that builds up the
church and brings unbelievers face to face with the living
God. We're going to walk through this
passage in this way. First, we're going to see that
we are to pray and proclaim with understanding.
And verses 13 through 19, we're encouraged, we're instructed to
pray and proclaim with understanding.
Secondly, we'll see that we should pursue maturity that
builds up the body. Verses 20 through 23 pursue
maturity that builds up the body.
And then finally, we'll see that we should proclaim Christ
clearly to outsiders. We should proclaim Christ
clearly to outsiders in verses 24 and 25 S #1 pray and proclaim
with understanding verses 13 through 19.
Therefore, if one, one who speaks in a tongue should pray,
that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my
spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but
I will pray with my mind also. I will sing with my spirit, but
I will sing with my mind also. 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? For you may be giving thanks
well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak 5 words with my
mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words and a tongue.
So pray and proclaim with understanding if someone speaks
in a tongue. Now if you remember when Paul
was using the form of a tongue versus tongues, plural.
A tongue is a reference to what is likely the Pagan practice,
right? So he's, he's being somewhat
sarcastic here, right? If I, if, if someone speaks in a
tongue, well, then that person must pray.
If he's speaking in this gibberish language, then he must
pray that he may interpret. Because meaningless sound can't
edify, right? It's a glanging, A clanging
gong, right? It's a noisy symbol.
A meaningless sound cannot edify.
And the truth stands that if you can't understand what you're
saying, then what point is there to what you're saying?
All right? Especially in the congregation,
right, If you're gathered with brothers and sisters in the Lord
and everyone's praying in a tongue, some gibberish language
that no one can understand. And what point is this, right?
It's merely puffing you up with pride, right?
It's an exercise of probably a false gift if we're honest,
right? And it's a puffing up with
pride. So Paul says if I pray in a
tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
It's just making the point that if I prayed like what you guys
are displaying, if I prayed in that way, then my spirit might
be praying, but my mind is unfruitful.
It's not edifying my mind in any way.
It's not encouraging my heart in any way.
It's not helping in any way. Paul's not opposing the spirit
and the mind. I want you to understand that
the spirit and the mind work together, right?
Again, it's, it's by the Spirit of God that our minds are being
transformed. So he's exposing this disconnect
that fails to benefit others, right?
If you pray in your spirits out loud in a way that no one
understands what's being said, then there's a disconnect
because it fails to benefit others.
It's not even a benefit to you, right?
In verse 15, Paul says, I will pray with my spirit and with my
mind. I will pray intelligibly, right?
I'll speak words that people can understand.
I will sing with my spirit and my mind.
I'll, I'll sing songs that edify and encourage and strengthen my
spirit and my mind. I'm going to rehearse the things
of God in the songs that I sing, right?
Corporate worship, right? We all agree on this.
Corporate worship requires intelligibility, right?
You guys will be far less likely to attend week in and week out.
If you showed up and couldn't understand anything that was
being talked about, right? You would find no benefit in
this. It requires intelligibility so
that we can all, as you're doing now, nod your head saying Amen,
right? It should be this way.
In verse 18, Paul had he says, I praise God that I speak in
tongues more than all of you. Again, he's using the plural
here again, right? Paul is saying I have more
occasions to use this real gift than all of you do.
I've had more occasions to speak in tongues more than all of you,
and I praise God for that. Now, we don't have in Scripture
any reference to Paul or any stories of Paul using the gift
of tongues. That doesn't mean that he
didn't, right? Paul saying clearly here.
I've had more occasions to use this gift to exercise this gift.
Now, if you think about Paul's ministry, Paul went into places
that did not know the gospel, didn't previously know the Lord.
They're they're going to be speaking different languages
even at times, right? And he's proclaiming the word of
God there. And so it bears to, it seems
very true, very likely that Paul did receive the gift of tongues
and he's exercising that gift of tongue, speaking other languages
to share the mysteries of the gospel with new people.
Amen. And so he's saying this as a way
of saying, I've had opportunities for this more than
all of you to use this gift in the right way.
But then he says, and he concludes with the striking
ratio, right? I would rather in church, I
would rather speak 5 words with my mind in order to instruct
others than 10,000 words in a tongue. 5 words with the mind
instruct others are better than 10,000 in a tongue, right?
You can utter all sorts of things into the air that no one
understands. And Paul saying this is
pointless. It's fruitless.
It's not edifying to the faith of the people that you're
speaking to. It would be far better for you
to prophecy 5 words than to Babble on and on and on where
nobody can understand you, right?
The Holy Spirit is truth, we're told in John 1613.
So what this means is that the Holy Spirit is not going to give
a gift to us. He's never going to bypass the
mind as though understanding were optional.
All right, the the Holy Spirit is going to reveal truth.
He's going to reveal truth through the exercise of gifts as
well. Through giving gifts, truth will
be revealed, all right, because the understanding of the mind is
not an optional thing. It's required for us to worship
the Lord that we understand God, right?
That we understand why we worship, why we gather, why we
sing praises, why we pray prayers of laments, why we
wrestle with flesh and blood like it's it's or wrestle with
our own flesh, right? Our own evil desires, why we
wrestle against the spirits of darkness, right?
He wants us. God wants us to understand these
things. And so he's given us the Spirit
of God, not only to inform men who would write these things
down for us through the inspiration of Scripture, but
also that we would read it now and by the Spirit of God present
in us, we would understand it. That would be illuminated for us
all right. He illuminates the mind so that
the truth penetrates our hearts, all right, so that it captivates
our affections so that we want to worship God.
Second Timothy 27 Paul writes there.
He said, think over what I say for the Lord will give you
understanding and everything. Think over what I say, all
right, Well, that doesn't that. That's not the language of
someone who thinks the mind is optional, right?
He's saying, use your mind. Think, think over the words that
you hear. Think over what is being said,
what is being written to you, Timothy, For the Lord will give
you understanding in everything, right?
The Lord will give it. Psalm 1/19/18 Open my eyes, the
psalmist writes there. Open my eyes that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law. Open my eyes, right?
What are the eyes if not the gateway to the mind, right, when
he's talking about the law, right as I read the law, open my
eyes, illuminate my mind that I may behold wondrous things out
of your law. So biblical worship, you know,
Christ said there's coming a time where we will worship in
spirit and in truth. Biblical worship involves the
mind and affections. It involves both the mind and
affections of the worshipper. Biblical truth ignites our love
for God. As I've, as I've observed you
all, many of you grow in your understanding of doctrine,
right? Grow in your understanding of
theology. One of the best fruits of that
has been a deeper love for God. Right now, it's true that you
can inform the mind and affections don't follow, right?
You become pompous, you become arrogant because of the
doctrines that you're learning. They haven't yet formed in the
heart. That is true that that does
happen to people. But one of the fruits that we
see is that as we grow in sound doctrine, we also grow in sound
living, as Titus teaches, because we love God.
We love the God who reveals himself to us in the truth of
his Word, right? So biblical truth ignites our
love for God. It doesn't snuff it out.
It makes it burn brighter, right?
As Nehemiah 88, Ezra and the Levites, they're at the end,
towards the end of the book of Nehemiah, it says of Ezra and
Levites that they read clearly from God's Word and they are
from the law and they gave the sense of its meaning, meaning.
They explained it to the people so that the people understood,
right? It's a reading of God's word,
but it's giving the sense of it. This is what we're called to his
teachers. It's to know God's words.
We'll call to his parents as spouses, as friends and
neighbors and Co workers. We're called to know God's Word
in a way that we can give the sense of it to others so that
they too can understand God's word.
This is one of the things that made Charlie Kirk so stinking
efficient at what he was doing, right?
He was connecting truth, biblical truths to the heart and
mind of those who listened, able, willing to reason with and
to show that these things are true.
Not to get upset and angry and to stomp off and walk away.
Right. Just because somebody doesn't
just doesn't agree with you. No, he was.
He was good at knowing clearly what the word of God said and
then giving the sense of it so the people understood it.
Matthew 6-7 Jesus warns against empty phrases in prayer, the
Bible of words without understanding, right?
When we come before the Lord in prayer, we ought not to utter
empty phrases. It's better, brothers and
sisters, to pray what you might consider a very elementary
prayer in which you understand what you're saying, than it is
to evoke as many theological words that you can think of in a
moment of prayer, right? It's better for your listeners.
It's better for your own heart and mind right to utter what you
know, to ask God to train you and teach you yes, but to utter
what you know to take those things back to the Lord again.
Romans 12 to be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
Ephesians 518 and 19 show us that spirit filled worship,
particularly in singing, is word saturated and intelligible.
Psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms, these are things that men and
women had written down to be sung to the Lord.
All right, this is our conviction in the songs that we
sing, hears, we want our songs to be saturated with the word of
God that they'd be intelligible, right?
That it's clear who we're singing about, who we're singing
to, who we're praising, right? We want those things to be
clear. Spirit filled worship ought to
be word saturated. And so again, the question may
come, was Paul anti emotion? No, Paul commands singing and
praying with my spirits, right? This is an anti emotion.
Again, the the the issue isn't emotion.
The issue is edification. When you sing, can others
understand what you're saying? When you pray, can others
understand what you're saying? Is it edifying to the body of
Christ? Heat without light doesn't build
up anyone, right? Another question that may come
Isn't there such a thing as a private prayer language?
Paul recognizes prayer here in a tongue, yet he repeatedly
presses interpretation. If you pray with a tongue, pray
also that you would be able to interpret, because
interpretation matters for the gathered church.
Now, while I do not believe there's enough biblical evidence
to support this kind of gibberish private prayer
language that we see so prevalent in charismatic
Pentecostal circles today, whatever you conclude about it,
the public principle is unambiguous, right.
The public principle must be followed.
Intelligibility for the sake of others is the public principle,
right? Is that we need to be clear,
right? It needs to be intelligible so
that others benefit from it. And my conversations through the
years with and I walked in these circles for five to six years of
my life. And I remember like imitating
the sounds and the noises I would hear in these prayer
gatherings, right? Thinking I too had received this
gift of tongues only to realize that there was nothing edifying
about that prayer of of that gibberish style prayer and my
conversations with pastors of of those varieties.
Since you bring up First Corinthians 14, I I haven't
found good answers for it yet, right.
There's an unwillingness to address the Scripture.
One pastor told me, well, this is just the way we've always
done it right. This is the way I was raised.
I was raised in the Assembly of God church.
This is how we've always done things.
I just tried to lovingly, gently tell him that's going to be a
poor answer one day. In heaven, when you're required
to give an account for the souls that you're leading, you need to
consider what the Word of God says, not what tradition has
said, not not what you've practiced for decades of your
life. Consider what the Word of God
says about these things. Intelligibility for the sake of
of others is what matters, right?
This is what God is after. Even Thanksgiving, Paul says in
First Corinthians 10/24, must be for the good of others, right?
Even when we utter prayers of things, even when we give thanks
to God, this needs to be for the good of others, all right.
It's not merely for our own hearts.
We ought to utter Thanksgiving in a way that it edifies the
church. Another question, all right,
because again, in these circles you were told these things, like
I've heard this over about expositional preaching as well.
Does emphasizing the mind quench the Spirit?
Not at all, right? Not at all.
The Spirit authored Scripture, 2nd Corinthians 121, right?
We see there that the Spirit gave utterance and holy men
wrote these things down. The Spirit illumines
understanding, right? The Spirit gives us the ability
to understand. 1st Corinthians 212 through 13 taught us that
clarity is not the enemy of the Spirit.
In fact, confusion is the enemy of the Spirit.
We'll see that more next week. And so our prayers, if you're
thinking about how to apply this teaching to our lives, our
prayers should be biblically rich, yet simple enough that new
believers can say along with us. Amen.
Amen to that, right. They ought to be able to agree.
Our songs should teach Colossians 316, very much like
Ephesians teaches that our songs should teach one another.
They should rehearse the truths of the gospel in such a way that
we're learning them, right? We're being reminded of these
things. Our hearts are being enraptured
in worship to God as we sing those things.
So we got a favor. Lyrical clarity over complexity.
All right, our preaching must aim at understanding, not verbal
fireworks, right? Our our preaching must aim at
the the the heart and the mind and the hands and feet of the
listener, right? 5 clear words can do more good
than 10,000 impressive ones. As parents, another application
point, we should model intelligible prayer for our
children. All right, If you're training
your children to love the Lord and you're praying with them,
you should pray in a way that they understand it.
All right? Maybe you have the ability to
pray, you know, really smart prayers, right, that use big
words and you understand those things.
When you pray with your child, you grab the hand of your child
and you pray with them. Pray in a way that they can
understand it, that they know the God of heaven is going to
war with them for them, that He's on their side.
All right. We should do so at the table and
at their bedside. And as we go along the way,
Deuteronomy 6/6 and seven show us we should disciple little
minds with clear truth. It'll be clear in the truth that
we teach to little minds. The second thing we come to is
pursue maturity that builds up the body.
Pursue maturity that builds up the body.
So again, three of the points that Paul has laid out for us
over these last few chapters is or, or this tongues was not a
gift for all believers. It just wasn't right, which is
again, not clearly taught in many of the circles who practice
these things today, right? It's it's taught us something
that everyone should do, right? There's even some denominations,
United Pentecostals do this, that when you're baptized and
you come up out of the tank, there will be people surrounding
you praying in tongues so that you too will then pray in
tongues. All right, It's part of your
baptism. But tongues wasn't for all
believers. It's given sovereignly by God
through the Spirit. We saw that in chapter 12, verse
11. We also see that tongues are not
connected to the baptism of Spirit, right?
All believers receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
You see this in Ephesians 1, Ephesians chapter 1.
You see this in First Corinthians 12/13.
All believers receive the baptism of the Spirit, meaning
we all have been washed as Titus 35 says, with the washing of
regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
It's required in your salvation that there is a spiritual
baptism that takes place. This is what awakens you from
the dead, right? This is what gives your, gives
life to your heart. This is what grants you a right
spirit with God, all right, It's through the baptism of the
Spirit and all believers have received the baptism of the
Spirit. Otherwise they would not be
believers. The third thing is Paul is
clearly showing us here that tongues are not, not a superior
sign spiritually, right? That they're misusing it in a
way he's showing them here's there's much higher gifts,
right? The gift of love was the one
that he really clung to. But this is that you should
pursue A pursue the spiritual gifts, but earnestly desire that
which is most higher, which is a love for the body of Christ.
So tongues is an inferior gift, right?
In verse 5, we saw that so they were experienced in evil, right?
And we see this in verse 20 where he says, brothers, do not
be children in your thinking be infants and evil, but in your
thinking be mature. And the law is written by people
of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners.
Will I speak to this people? And even they will not listen to
me, says the Lord. Those tongues are a sign not for
believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for
unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church
comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or
unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your
minds? Right.
So they're experienced in evil, but they're lacking wisdom.
He's encouraging them here. Think carefully about this gift
of tongues. Think carefully about the way
that you're employing this gift. Think carefully about it because
you're misusing it, right? Isaiah, when he quotes, when he
says in the law it is written, he's quoting Isaiah 2811 through
12, which show that foreign tongues among Israel were a sign
of judgment, right, because they had refused clear prophetic
word. God said, in effect, you
wouldn't listen when I spoke plainly.
You will now hear unintelligible speech as a sign of your
hardness. And so Paul draws this line from
what's happening in Isaiah to what's happening in Corinth,
that uninterpreted tongues function as a judgment and
confusion, not as a blessing, All right?
It's not a blessing. That's if outsiders walk in and
hear everyone speaking in languages they cannot
understand. They will say you are out of
your minds, all right? And they have a right to say
this, right? That's what it appears to look
like in Acts chapter 2, though when tongues first arrived on
the scene in the early church, there was no confusion, all
right? There was no disarray.
There was no lack of peace. And we read there that everyone
understood in his own language the mysteries of God that were
being declared to them in their own tongues, All right?
So it's not the gift of ears, all right?
There's no such thing as the gift of ears.
But some have interpreted Acts, too, to be that Peter spoke, and
now everyone hears it in their own language.
That would be the gift of ears, not tongues, right?
No, these men were filled with the Spirit of God.
They go out proclaiming the mysteries of God in a language
that they previously did not know.
And so that everyone hears in their own language, right?
So there's no confusion, there's no chaos.
But in Corinth there is much chaos.
John MacArthur used the term charismatic chaos, right?
So what does verse 22 mean? Tongues are a sign not for
believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not
from unbelievers but for believers.
On Isaiah's context, foreign speech signaled judgment on
unbelief. This is applied in Corinth.
Uninterpreted tongues are not evangelistic.
They signal divine displeasure by producing confusion within
the body of Christ. So the blessing of that sign,
the blessing of the gift of tongues, is that God would build
a new nation of Jews and Gentiles, that He would build a
new nation of believers who had Jewish backgrounds and Gentile
backgrounds, right? Meaning He would call them all
together as one people of God, as Ephesians 2 and 3 show us.
Yeah, 2 and 3, Romans 3-4 and five teach much of the same
truths. Prophecy, however, that clear,
intelligible proclamation that serves believers by edifying
them. And we're going to see in a
moment that it, it also powerfully exposes and draws
unbelievers to the Lord as well, right?
A clear proclamation of God's Word in Ephesians 4, four
through 16. Maturity means we grow up into
Christ by speaking the truth in love, to build the body.
In Hebrews 511 through 14 we see that immaturity is dullness of
hearing. Maturity, however, discerns by
practice and Acts 2, four through 11.
When the gift of tongues arrives, it was recognizable
languages declaring God's works to those Jews who had been
dispersed. 1st Corinthians 122 Jews demand signs.
This wasn't an encouragement. All right, Paul is correcting
them. Jews demand signs that sign
language without faith often hardens hearts.
So our tongues always known human languages and acts.
Yes, hearers from many nations say we hear in our own tongues,
we hear in our own languages in Corinth.
Whatever the phenomenon is, though, it does seem like they
may have adopted Pagan as ecstatic speech from their
previous religious practices. Paul's public rule is simple.
If the tongue is not interpreted, it must be silent,
it must not be uttered. The purpose of the gathered
church is edification, not display, right?
It's not putting on the show. It's it's not showing my my
great gifts that God's given me, right?
That calls glory to myself rather than glory to Christ
who's unified us. In verse 22, it said there those
tongues are assigned not for believers, but for unbelievers.
So we have the we should ask this question.
Does verse 22 mean that tongues are for evangelism?
Not necessarily, but possibly. Uninterpreted tongues are a sign
of judgments in Isaiah 28. Evangelism requires
understanding, which means that you may go proclaim the
language, proclaim the Gospels, in a language previously unknown
to you, through the gift of tongues.
Evangelism requires understanding.
We see that in Romans 1014 through 17.
All right, The gospel flourishes through clear words.
Another question, are we quenching the Spirit by
insisting on clarity and order? It's a similar to is Paul
quenching the Spirit by insisting on the mind?
Well, Scripture says the opposite and and verse 33 of
chapter 14, which we haven't got to yet, we'll get there next
week. But he says God is not a God of
confusion, but of peace. All things should be done
decently and in order. And verse 40.
So order is a fruit of the Spirit's presence.
It's not a it's not a fruit of his absence, right Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, we read that there is freedom or the
Spirit of the Lord is we might rightly conclude also that there
is order, there's peace, right. So again, some application
points. This is one of the things we
think there is elders and various leaders in the church.
We want to design services or whether it's a service or
training or whatever, we want to design them for comprehension.
We want people to rightly understand.
We want there to be clear scripture readings, explained
prayers, well introduced songs, sermons that connect the dots
for the listener. All right, as members, when you
pray publicly, think of the room that you're in.
Think of the people you're praying with.
Avoid insider jargon, right? Explain references, aim for the
good of the many. If you pray something from the
word, the word of the Lord, which you should often
incorporate the word of the Lord in your prayers so that you know
you're praying according to his will.
As you do that, explain it even in the prayer, right?
I'm not saying make the prayer sermon, but just make it clear
what we're praying for as small group leaders, right?
We want to give the sense of what the text says.
We want people to understand what's being said.
You might even ask questions like how will this build the
others around me as I teach this right?
I want to make sure I'm encouraging.
I want to make sure I'm edifying of what I'm saying.
Finally, we come to this point proclaim Christ clearly the
outsiders. This is possibly the strongest
point that Paul makes in this whole section.
He says, but if all prophecy and an unbeliever outsiders enters.
He is convicted by all, He is called to account by all the
secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on
his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really
among you. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
for that. When God's truth is plainly
spoken, when it's plainly proclaimed, the Spirit wields
the Word to do at least three things in the unbeliever.
The first we see there is conviction, right?
The Spirit brings about conviction.
John 16 teaches us, too, about the Spirit.
When Jesus is explaining what the Spirit will come to do, one
of the things he highlights is conviction.
He comes to convict sinners. The Word exposes sin, right?
Again, this is what makes people who are ungodly, people who are
unbelievers, so angry at the spoken word of God, at the clear
presentation of God's word is it's a convicting thing.
They're trying as hard as they can to actively suppress the
truth. Romans one tells us.
And when the word is clearly proclaimed, their fingers are
being pried away from that suppression and they get angry
about it often, right? It enrages them.
You think about Stephen in chapter in Acts chapter 6 and
his martyrdom, right? As he's proclaiming boldly the
truths of God's Word. I mean, he's just, he's just
preaching through the Old Testament.
I mean, he's given a great summary of what the Old
Testament teaches us about God and why Christ is the Messiah.
And it says there that the people begin to gnash their
teeth at him. Gnash their teeth.
They're angry, right? They begin to seethe with anger,
so much so that they picked up stones and they threw them at
him until he was dead and they murdered him over the truth of
God's Word. So conviction is one thing that
the Spirit does through the proclaimed Word.
Another thing that he does is it brings about accountability,
right? Paul says that the unbeliever
outsider who enters and hears this prophecy of God's Word is
called to account by all. So the Word places him under
God's verdict. This is a fearful thing for the
unbeliever. It ought to be a fearful thing
for us as believers. We're resting in Christ because
we understand that God is going to issue a verdict one day and I
will be found guilty if I'm not covered by the blood of Christ,
right? And so they feel the sense of
this verdict, they're being held accountable.
So it's conviction. And the conviction leads to this
understanding of accountability. Oh wait, I'm accountable for my
sins. It's not the way I was raised.
It's not my parents fault. It's not my grandparents fault,
all right? It's my fault.
I'm accountable for my sins before the Lord.
And so God's Word places the unbeliever, the outsider, under
God's verdict. The third thing the Spirit does
through the proclaimed word is disclosure, right?
The Word it says here the secrets of his heart are
disclosed. The Word unveils the heart's
secrets, right? We see in Hebrews chapter 4
verse 12 that the Word of God is living and active, that it's
sharper than any double edged sword.
It's living and active. Brothers and sisters, when you
proclaim the Word of God, you're proclaiming something that is
living and active. That it's sharper than any
double edged sword, that it pierces down to the very joints
and to the marrow of the person, right?
It gets all the way down to the inside and it lays him bare
before God. It discloses the secrets of his
heart. They're unveiled before the
Lord. So the effect on unbelievers
would be amazingly, amazingly powerful.
The gospel would be honored and souls would be converted to
worshipping God as the Word of God has proclaimed.
Clearly. That's why Paul is saying 5
words of prophecy are far better than 10,000 in a tongue does.
10,000 in the tongue will not bring about conviction and bring
the listener into account that will not disclose the secrets of
his heart. Prophecy will.
The plainly spoken word of God will and the result of that
worship worship. Look what it brings the
unbeliever to do the outsider. And so, falling on his face, he
will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Is this not the story of all of us?
All right, as we heard the proclaimed word at some point in
our life as God worked conversion in us by His Spirit.
It was through conviction, right?
It was through being held accountable for our sins.
It was through the secrets of our heart being disclosed.
And what did we do? We fell on our face before God
and we worshipped Him and we thought, surely God is in my
midst right now. Surely God is in this place.
Surely God is really among you. That's the aim of gathered
worship. The aim of gathered worship is
not to entertain outsiders. We don't, we don't cater the
service to outsiders, right? The aim of worship is to reveal
God through His Word. It's to reveal God through the
spoken word. It's to bring clarity because
clarity is a conduit for that revelation.
Clarity is a conduit for helping people understand what the Word
of God is saying. So you may ask, well, what is
prophecy here? The prophecy is Spirit
empowered, intelligible proclamation that applies God's
revealed word to the moments for edification, encouragement, and
consolation. The way that preachers and
teachers prophecy today is to say, thus says the Lord, it's to
hold up the word of God and to say this is what the word of the
Lord says, and it is to give the sense of its meaning.
It's to proclaim it in a way that people can understand it,
to bring about edification and encouragement and consolation.
It's, it's forth telling more than foretelling, right?
It's, it's being honest about what the word of God says.
It's not trying to hide it under a Bush so that you don't offend
people. That's, that's not important.
It's forth telling more than foretelling.
It's truth that's being pressed on the conscience of the
listener and it's calling the listener to believe God's word
with boldness, with courage, with great faith, right?
The preacher, the teacher, the parents, the spouse, the Co
worker, the friend. They proclaim the truths of the
word of God with confidence, with courage, with faith, and
they entrust that he will give the increase.
They entrust that to God. They understand that our role,
remember way back early in First Corinthians, our role is to
plant seeds or to water seeds, But it's God's role to give the
increase. God will give the increase when
His truth is proclaimed. Clearly.
We see that here. All right, We see that here.
So this month, just in a few days, marks my 11th year as lead
pastor here. And I praise God for that.
But what I really praise God for is that He's allowed eleven
years for me to be able to discern the fruit of the people,
right? Not all preachers get that
right. Not all preachers want that,
just to be quite honest. Many want to up and go to the
next big thing, whatever that may be before things get tough.
But God and His kindness has given us this time together over
the last eleven years in which we've seen the fruit of
salvation. We've seen the fruit of
sanctification. We've even seen the fruit of
glorification as we've had brothers and sisters go on to be
with the Lord. We we see the fruit of these
things, It's easy to discern in many of your lives.
And that's not a Kyle thing. That's not another one of the
other elders things. That's a word of God thing.
That's proclaiming the word of God as clearly as we can try to,
as clearly as we can, proclaim what the Word of God says and
encourage you, implore you to believe God's word over man's
word. Amen.
And so we praise God that we've been able to see those things.
The test for that is always Scripture.
How do we know? If we're proclaiming clearly,
what do the Scriptures say? What do the Scriptures say?
And if what we're saying is not in line with the Scriptures, let
it be damned to hell. But if it is, let it bear fruit
for eternity. Amen.
Romans 10/17 Faith comes from hearing.
Faith comes from hearing. Hearing comes from the Word of
the Lord. First Thessalonians 15.
The gospel came not only in Word, but also in power and in
the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction.
Hebrews 412. The word discerns the thoughts
and intentions of the heart. 2nd Corinthians 520 In proclamation,
we are ambassadors and God makes his appeal through us.
So there's been a movement in churches over the last couple of
decades, really, really longer. It's been really since you've
seen it. It started in the 80s really so
much more than a couple of decades, but we've seen it very
prevalent. It's it's definitely risen in
popularity. Hence the it's what we would
call the seeker sensitive movements, right?
So you read a text like this and you think, well, should churches
make Sunday services seek or sensitive?
My answer to that is no, we should make services Scripture
sensitive. God's presence is what convicts
and saves. God's word is what convicts and
saves. We should speak plainly.
We should explain the terms, but we should always center the
meaning on God. We should center the purpose of
the service on the edification of His people, not on the
unconverted. Though I praise God when
unconverted people are with us, I want unconverted people to
hear the word of God truthfully. I want them to hear it
proclaimed boldly. I want them to have the sense of
its meaning and to sense to to know the conviction and
accountability of the Spirit that He would disclose the
secrets of their hearts before them and they would turn to the
Lord in salvation. We want that.
And so we know that to have that, we must center the me the
meaning of our meetings on God Himself.
Clear proclamation builds the church.
It equips believers for witness throughout the week.
All right, when we come together on Sunday mornings on the Lord's
Day, it's part of our Sabbath rest.
You think, well, man, this isn't restful.
We get up early, we show up to serve.
We show up to, you know, it's, it's part of the Sabbath rest.
It's spiritually restful for you.
It's part of God's work in your life to remind you, to remind
you that though the world is chaotic out there, though your
lives may be chaotic out there, when you come here, you see
Christ is on the throne. He's raining from heaven above.
His purposes will not be thwarted, right?
He's using me to accomplish His purposes in the world as I
submit my life to Him. It's to be encouraged.
It's to be edified. It's to be strengthened so that
as you go back out those doors, you carry Christ into your
world. You carry them into your homes,
into your workplaces, you carry them into your families, you
carry them to your children and all the above, right?
Whatever I'm missing into your schools or you carry Christ to
back with you. And you say I'm committing my
life to Christ because I heard the word proclaimed truthfully
on Sunday. I heard it proclaimed on the
Lord's Day. And he is worthy of my effort.
He is worthy of my worship. He is worthy of my best today.
All right, you think that on Monday morning.
You think it on Tuesday morning and Wednesday and Thursday and
Friday and Saturday. And then on Sunday you come back
and you, you exhale, you breathe, you worship the Lord
alongside the congregation. You understand I am not alone in
this effort, right? I'm committed to the same things
that many of the people beside me are committed to.
And the Lord is going to bless those efforts because He loves
His people. He works all things together for
the good of those who love Him and are called according to His
purpose. And that's you.
If you're a believer and you can trust that, all right, you can
be encouraged to go live for the Lord.
So we don't make services seeker sensitive at all.
We want them to be scripture sensitive.
We want to expect outsiders every Sunday.
I want, I want there to be unbelievers here every Sunday so
that we can make the gospel explicit in our sermons and in
our prayers and in our songs. You want to teach your teens and
your kids to listen for the So what in a sermon, right?
You want to teach them to listen to what the word of the Lord
says, but you want to teach them to also listen for those calls
to repentance and faith. Nudge and pay attention here,
right? In your testimony, you're
sharing what the work of the Lord has been in your life,
whether it's in salvation or the overcoming of some trial and
temptation, whatever it may be in your testimony, move quickly.
Move quickly to Christ, crucified and risen.
I overcame such and such because Christ is crucified and risen,
right? I left my previous Pagan worship
and I came to Christ. He saved me because he is
crucified and risen. We want to be clear about Jesus
when we share our testimony. Your testimony is not a glorying
in self. And so often testimonies in
churches, testimonies in public events are more about the glory
of the person than they are about the Savior.
Let Christ receive the glory in your testimony.
Don't let it be about the drama of your story, but let it be
about who says. And friend, if you're here as an
outsider today, if you're here as an unbeliever, and this word
today is God's kindness to you, he already knows the secrets of
your heart. And the cross where Christ was
crucified for our sins announces the verdict that you deserve
death, but it also announces great mercy.
Your sin deserves death. Yet Jesus bore that death, and
he rose again, so that you may be forgiven of your sins, so
that you may know Christ and him crucified, so that you may walk
in fellowship with God on high. And so today would you repent
and believe? Would you repent of your sins
and believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all?
Would you lay your life before Him, just as we see in this
text, falling on his face? He will worship God and declare
that God is really among you. Would you lay your life down
before him and confess that God is really among you?
Today I want you to know that Christ will receive you.
That God will receive you because of what His Son has
accomplished on the cross. He welcomes you to Himself.
To conclude, I want to talk for a moment about why clarity
matters. Why does clarity matter so much?
Why is Paul making such a stink about clarity?
I want you to understand it's more than just the misuse of the
gift of tongues. That's that's the issue that
that's the problem that he's addressing.
It's the symptoms, so to speak, but it's not the disease.
The disease was that they were being unclear.
And clarity matters. It matters because God's
character matters. God is a God of truth and order.
He must be worshipped in truth and with order.
It matters because of Scripture's nature.
The Word, we're told, gives light.
It's a light to our path. The Word also gives faith or
creates faith. You may say clarity matters
because of the church's mission. We are charged by Christ to make
disciples by teaching all that Christ commanded.
That's not merely the red letters.
Jesus is the Word Incarnate. It's all the Scriptures, and so
we want to teach what the Word of God says so that we can make
disciples who love Christ above all else and who love their
neighbor. We want to glorify God in this.
Clarity matters also because of Love's aim.
In First Corinthians 13 five, we were told love does not insist
on its own way. It doesn't insist on its own
way, but it seeks the good of many.
Therefore, a love of God and a love for your brothers and
sisters in the Lord, a love for your neighbor who is
unbelieving, requires that we choose clarity over novelty.
It requires that we be clear and that we worship God through
clarity. I rejoice with all of you that
God still answers prayers. I rejoice with all of you that
God still heals people. I rejoice with all of you that
God works mightily in the world today.
And at the same time we rejoice that Scripture gives regulative
wisdom for us in the gathered church.
Uninterpreted speech has no place.
What is often called tongues today is frequently not
recognizably human languages. Whatever our experiences, our
rule is the Apostolic rule. Our rule is Apostolic clarity.
Love for God, love for people, aims at edification, and
edification requires intelligibility.
It requires that we understand what's being said.
And so we neither despise claims of spiritual experience nor do
we build our worship on these claims of spiritual experience.
We test all things and we hold fast to what is good.
That's First Thessalonians 519 through 21.
Teach us. And so we center our services,
we center our worship, we center our lies on the clear word of
Christ Church. Let us grow up into Christ.
Pray and proclaim with understanding is we should be
heat and light together so that it's a benefit to those around
us. Pursue maturity that builds up
love, chooses clarity over novelty.
Proclaim Christ clearly to outsiders so that consciences
are pierced and worship rises to God.
And always remember that the Spirit empowers clear
proclamation that builds up the church and brings unbelievers
face to face with the living God.
May the Spirit make us a people of clear words, may make us a
people of strong love so that every Sunday someone walks away
saying, surely God is among them.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
today for your word. It's interesting to me, Father,
that this can be one of those texts that we would say is hard
to discern, that it's not clear, and yet it's one in which you're
literally teaching clarity to the body of Christ, the
importance of clarity, the importance of the proclaimed
Word. And Father, what gets revealed
through this, when people would say that this text just isn't
very clear, part of what gets revealed is that we have hearts
that do not want to obey your Word.
And so when a word is spoken clearly, we say it's not clear
to Lord. Would you help us, each of us,
to submit ourselves to Christ, to submit ourselves to your
Spirit, to work towards clarity in our lives?
Help us to see that your Word, Your Word, is inspired by your
Spirit. That's given to us as a help.
It's given to us to bring us to salvation.
It's given to us to create godliness in our lives, to lead
us into sanctification, to help us grow by the Spirit of God.
It's given to us that we might run this race well, that we
might endure trials of various kinds, that we might walk with
God and one day be glorified with Him.
Lord, would you help us to love your word, to hold it up above
the words of man, to submit our lives to it, to check every
thought of our own heart, every thought of our own mind against
it, to see whether or not it is true, Not your word, but our
thoughts. Or help us to be like the
Bereans, that as we study your word, as we hear it proclaimed,
we've been tested against the word of Godfather.
I thank you for making a people here who love your word, who
hold it in such high regard in their lives.
And though we are unfaithful at times, we have found you to be
always faithful, abounding and steadfast.
Love. But God, we thank you that one
of the fruits of the presence of your spirit and us is that we
love the word of God and we strive to to submit ourselves to
it in our in our lives. I thank you for blessing us with
that sort of mindset, that sort of heart.
Father, I pray for anyone in here who may be an outsider, who
may be an unbeliever. Board, would you convict them of
their sins? Would you hold them to account?
Would you disclose the secrets of their heart before them
today, that they might flee to Christ?
The only one who is powerful to save, the only one who is said
to be mighty to save. As Peter wrote, Lord, would you
save them from their sins? Would you grant them new life in
Christ Jesus? It's in the name of Christ I
pray, Amen. I'm going to give you a moment
there in your seat to pray and to seek the Lord.
Lord, we love you. We thank You that your Spirit
still moves among us. We thank You that your Word is
living and active. It convicts and draws us to
account, discloses the secrets of our hearts, that even as
believers we're still wrestling with this flesh.
We're wrestling with evil desires.
We're wrestling with sinful passions.
Lord, would you help us to put those to death today by your
Spirit, as Romans 813 teach us, help us to mortify the deeds of
the flesh. We thank you for your word and
for its clarity. We thank you for its instruction
and its help to us. It's in the name of Christ I
pray. Amen.