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With that, let's get into the Word of God. Looking forward to what the Lord has for
us today as we begin a new chapter. First Corinthians chapter 14 and our
text will be verses one through four today. I'll ask you to turn there if
you're not there already, and once you do if you're able please stand. You can
follow along as I read. If not, that's alright you can remain seated. The Apostle
Paul is writing and says, verse 1, follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts
of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone, notice the emphasis on that,
it's actually a different word of prophecy, but verse 2, for anyone who speaks in a tongue
does not speak to people but to God. Indeed no one understands them; they utter
mysteries by the spirit. But, verse 3, the one who prophesies speaks to people for
they are strengthening, encouraging, and comfort. Anyone, verse 4, who speaks in a
tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. Let's
pray. Lord thank You for Your word. We're just so thankful to You for this time
that we have together in Your word this morning. And we're looking to You Lord,
the author and finisher of our faith, to minister to us in and through this
portion of Scripture that we have open before us today. Lord would You speak in that
still, refining voice of the Holy Spirit, very personally, very clearly into our
lives, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. You can be seated thank you.
Today's teaching is going to be part one of a new series titled: "Practical Worship
Guidelines." First Corinthians 14 is really a unique chapter in the sense that it
provides us with the nuts and bolts, if I could say it that way, of our worship
both privately and as well publicly. As we're going to see in our verse by verse
study through this chapter, the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit is going to
address the Corinthian's ignorance as well as their arrogance concerning the
use and really the abuse of the spiritual gifts. However, in all fairness to the
Corinthians, and for all their problems centered around their abuse and misuse
of the gifts, they're at least to be commended for exercising their gifts. In other
words to their credit, they were eager for and open to the supernatural
manifestation of the spiritual gifts within their worship services. The
problem wasn't that they weren't using the gifts, the problem was that it wasn't
being done properly, decently, and in order; hence the reason why we have first
Corinthians 14 in our Bibles. Actually this explains what I'll call book end
verses in the last verse of chapter 12, chapter 12 verse 31, and the first verse
in chapter 14, where Paul in effect acknowledges their
eager desire for the gifts. He's in a way almost commending them, but he's also
saying that they're eager desire for the gifts, their exercising of the gifts needs
to be vis a vis the most excellent way of love. In Chapter 12 verse 31,
he says: "Now eagerly desire the greater gift and yet I will show you the most
excellent way." Which is an introduction to chapter 13, the famous love chapter.
And then subsequent to chapter 13, the first verse in chapter 14, verse one, he
says, follow the way of love that I just got done writing you about, teaching you
about in chapter 13; and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit; but then he adds
especially prophecy. And then we're going to see why here shortly.
It seems that the issue was not that the Corinthians didn't desire the gifts.
Rather it's that they selfishly and carnally over emphasized the gifts. I
suppose it could be argued that in some ways it's better to err on the side of
over emphasizing the gifts as opposed to never using the gifts. I think that can
be the greater issue and I'll take it a step further and suggest this: I believe
that God has given everyone of us a gift,
sometimes more than one; and it's been deposited into each of our accounts, as it
were. But the problem is is that oftentimes many a Christian will never
make a withdrawal so as to put it to use. Many years ago I was at a senior pastors
conference for Calvary Chapel's from all over the world. It was in California. And
the speaker made the comment, it was really, I think, an insightful observation
on the part of the Calvary Chapel's; and he suggested that his concern was that
the Calvary chapel's were erring on the other side of this, in that there was no
use of the gifts; and in our desire to not be to pentecostal, we sort of went to the
other extreme. And please I don't mean this to be derogatory towards our
baptist brothers and sisters in Christ, or pentecostal brothers and sisters in
Christ; but I think that there are two extremes. On the one side where the
baptists believe in cessationism which we've talked about, in that the
gifts have ceased. Then you have over here on the opposite spectrum the
pentecostals who, oh wow. I mean hyper Pentecostalism where the gifts, I believe
like they were in the Corinthian church, were used in a way that created
confusion and chaos. And so the admonition from this pastor was that
we've kind of become more like the baptists in our attempt to not be like
the Pentecostals, and I think to err on both sides can be an issue, and this is
the issue that I believe Paul is addressing. It's been said that unique to
the Calvary Chapel's, we're baptacostals in the sense that,
I know last time I mentioned that I got some interesting comments; but you know
decently and in order,
yes; but not at the expense of using the gifts. But then don't go to the other
extreme and like the Corinthians overemphasize the gifts. Where all of a
sudden now in a church service you've got people speaking in tongues with no
interpretation, which is why Paul's going to get very specific about when tongues is
spoken in a church setting; it has to be accompanied by the interpretation of
tongues. Now I think I shared that a few weeks back that I've really been looking forward
to and I love the timing of God's Word.
Wherever you're at in Gods word that's where you're at, both individually and
also corporately as a church. And I think that we're at as a church now, especially
prior to getting into our new building, when I can't wait because we actually
have a church that we can go to seven days a week instead just Thursday night and
Sunday mornings. And we can, it's our church, we can do whatever we want. So,
not whatever we want; but I mean, I have been for many years now praying
that we would be able to have what are known as believers meetings, aka after glows,
where we just wait upon the Lord, and we have the gifts of the Spirit manifested
in that church setting for the edification of the body of believers. I
think we're there we're at the place now as a church corporately, where with
especially this teaching; and we'll revisit this teaching when the time
comes; as far as the guidelines when it comes to what a believer's meeting is. And it
will probably be
in the context of a midweek. It wouldn't be something that we would do on a
Sunday morning; but I am looking forward to doing that once Lord willing we're in
our new church building. But the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy in his First
Epistle chapter 4 verse 14, addresses this. He says: do not neglect your gift
which was giving you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands
on you. You know what's interesting, I was reflecting on this this last week in
preparation for this teaching here in First Corinthians 14, that when I
first received the gift of tongues, this prayer language I was using it all the
time. Everyday, sometimes all day. Just that
praying continually in the spirit in this prayer language that God had given
me. And it's interesting over the years, and this has been many many years ago now,
I started neglecting that. I started neglecting that. And the Lord really just
impressed upon my heart how easy it is to neglect the one thing that God gives
you, that gift that God gives you, to edify you, to encourage you, to strengthen
you. So it is possible to neglect the gift, but pre-supposing we don't neglect
the gift we still have a problem here, and it needs to be resolved as it
relates to the proper way to exercise the gifts; and more specifically the gift
of tongues. Now it seems that this was the primary focus of the Corinthian
church, which is why Paul is now seeking to correct them, and even redirect them,
and get them to focus more on the gift of prophecy. Prophesying
as opposed to tongues and for good reasons, and this is where our texts today comes
into play. Paul is going to explain why it is that the focus of their worship
services was to be on the edifying of the church over the edifying of oneself,
which seems they were doing the latter. In verse one he tells them to follow or,
as some of your translations render it, pursue the way of love; and to also
eagerly and earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of
prophecy. He says why in verse two, that speaking in tongues is not to people but
to God, as no one understands the mystery they utter. It's a language that is
unknown,
it's an unknown tongue. Whereas in verse 3 he goes on to tell them that prophecy
on the other hand speaks to people: to strengthen, to encourage and to comfort
them; and boy who of us doesn't need to be strengthened, encouraged, and comforted.
Those are three very important dynamics in the life of a church, and truly in the
life of a Christian as well.
In verse 4 he says that the one who speaks in tongues is only edifying
himself.
Whereas the one who prophesies edifies the church. I tell you I've been in
believers meetings where God would give a prophetic word fitly spoken. A
scripture verse usually that was perfectly, and exactly, and precisely what
I needed to hear. In fact in some cases it's a prophetic word that answered and
even confirmed a prayer that I had been praying; and so the Lord gave. And I've also
been on the other side of that,
where the Lord has given me a word, and I'm fighting Him. Lord I don't want to
get up and speak. What if, you know, that's not You. And the enemies right there trying to get you to think
that, oh come on that's not the Lord, no but. And then you're fighting the Lord. And so the
Lord just goes on to somebody else, and then somebody else has that exact word
that you were supposed to get up and speak, and you're like: ah, I blew it, I totally blew it. The
Lord gave it to me. Lord, next time when you give it to me I'll get up and I'll
speak it, because invariably, because the Holy Spirit knows exactly what every
single person in a church body needs. They know exactly what that
strengthening word is, that encouraging word is, that comforting word is that
they need at that time. Sometimes it's a word of wisdom sometimes it's a word of knowledge,
sometimes it's a word of prophecy. And I think as a church we do err greatly when
we don't allow the Holy Spirit to minister to the body in that way. It's
important to understand that the Apostle Paul is not in any way being dismissive
of the gift of tongues. You might almost get that impression when he is really
rebuking them concerning the gift of tongues; but the truth of the matter is
tongues was and today's still is a dominant gift. So much so that in verse
eighteen of this chapter, Paul says that he thanks God that he spoke in tongues
more than all of them did. It almost sounds kind of boasting a little bit, but
he tells them I think God that I speak in tongues more than any of you do. In
other words Paul really exercised and used this dominant gift. Even the Savior
himself validates the dominance of this gift when he tells the disciples to go
into all the world
and preach the gospel. Mark's Gospel chapter 16 verse 15, He said to them go
into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is
baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these
signs will accompany those who believe, in my name they will drive out demons,
and they will speak in new tongues. So much for cessationism that teachers
they gifts have ceased. They have not ceased. Perhaps an explanation of what
tongues and prophesying is would maybe be helpful at this juncture. Maybe it's an
oversimplification, but tongues is the supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit
whereby one speaks prayer, praise, worship, and thanksgiving to God. Conversely
prophesying is the supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit, whereby one
speaks a prophetic word from God to man.
Tongues is from man to God, and prophesying is from God to man; and the reason Paul
is delineating between the two is because he wants to clear up this
confusion surrounding the gift of tongues. Now it's really important. This
is where context becomes paramount importance. From Chapter 7 of 1st
Corinthians on through the remainder of the First Epistle: Paul is answering questions
that they wrote him about. Which means that they asked him about this. I kind of
imagine them writing: Paul
we've got a problem. We've got people in our church that are speaking in tongues, and
it's creating a lot of problems in the church. What do we do? You know, we
don't want to you know grieve the Holy Spirit. We want to use the gifts. We
eagerly desire that gifts, but they're creating a lot of problems within the
church. And so this is Paul's answer concerning their question about this
matter. Now tongues is from man to God whereas prophecy is God through man to man such
that the prophetic word strengthens, encourages, and comforts the whole church.
That's the edification of the church, but keep in mind that tongues strengthens,
and encourages, and comforts the believer too. I can't even begin to tell you how
much the prayer language, that praying in tongues that God has gifted me with, and some
of you with I know. How much it's been an encouragement to me, even just this last week I,
on Thursday morning learned that a dear friend of mine, in fact he was one
of my elders at the church that I pastored on the mainland had went home to be with
the Lord after a really tough battle with cancer. Which really was a lifelong
battle. He had been misdiagnosed and had to have a liver transplant, and had
all kinds of problems, and he was my age, 53. And for the last forty years since he
was 13 years of age he's been really battling a host of you know physical
problems and medical issues. And he leaves behind his wife of thirty plus
years and his daughter. His name is Kevin Davis and his wife Margaret were
very close to Kelley and I. They were like Kelly and I unable to have children;
and they actually were able miraculously to have a daughter, and her name is Kayla,
and she's thirteen years old now. You might remember them in prayer. They're
just you know of course grieving. Not as the world you know
grieves, but we we don't grieve as those without hope, but it's still very hard as
parents still alive, and his brothers and their wives. And on Thursday when I had
gotten a news, it was a tough day. And usually Thursday is a study day, and
I just was, you know, unable to concentrate. I'm just grieved. I'm glad for
him, his home going, but I'm just heartbroken for his family, and his wife
his daughter particularly. And the Lord just impressed upon my heart to just start
praying in tongues. And I started to just pray in this prayer language of tongues; and
it was almost instantaneous, there was a strengthening of my heart, an encouraging, a
comforting of the Holy Spirit; and I was able to study, and I made it through
Thursday night. I just prayed Lord, you know that's our mid-week Bible study. Right? We're going to
finish First Kings, just help me get through. And you know God is always
faithful. His grace is always sufficient. But God has given this gift to us for
those reasons; but he's also given the gift of prophesying to the church for the
very same reasons, because it's for the edification of the church as a whole.
Again I want to be very careful that in no way our understanding of this
passage
is diminishing of tongues. It's not really a diminishing of tongues. It's a
contrasting with tongues.
You know that famous verse and Romans 8:28: for we know that God works all things together for
the good; to them that love him and are called according to His purpose. I want
to read you the two verses before it.
Romans 8:26 and 27, and again this is why tongues is so important to a
Christian in their life personally. It enables us to pray to God with words that in the
natural, I just cannot express; and sometimes there are no words at all only
moans that come from the cry of the heart. and this is what Paul is saying. He says in
the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to
pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless
groans; and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the
Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. When our
daughter Noelle was born, and we knew that it would only be a matter of time
before she would die; my wife and I who, we would sleep in shifts because we had
to care for her round the clock. And I remember when it was my shift and my
wife was sleeping; and in the early hours of the morning I would be holding my
daughter and there were no words to pray. There were no words to pray, but I
specifically remember the groans, and I could only groan. I could only just you
know in that unknown tongue just cry out to the Lord; and the Lord just harkened unto
the voice of my cry. I didn't know how to pray. Lord what is your? My will
is that you heal her miraculously and that she doesn't die. Nevertheless, Lord not my
will but your will be done; and the Holy Spirit interceded. The Holy Spirit
searches our hearts, knows our hearts and mind, and knows what needs to be prayed;
and so the Holy Spirit by way of this gift intercedes on our behalf. And it's
always a glorifying and magnifying of God, and this is the thing as we get more
into this, especially when we get into our building. The litmus test by which we know
whether or not a word of prophecy is from the Lord or not is this, I'll call it a
three-pronged template: does it strengthen, does it encourag,e and does it comfort.
And I think you could take that same template and superimposing on tongues: are
you strengthened, are you encouraged, and are you comforted. I will say that I
don't know how I could have ever gotten through this, and my wife as well,
had it not been for this gift that God had given us, to be able to communicate
with Him in wordless groans, as the Apostle Paul says. I think it's
unfortunate that the Corinthians were abusing such a grand and glorious gift
like the gift of tongues; and that they were doing it in the context of their
worship service. And again this is why Paul his answering their questions and
correcting them in their overemphasis on tongues and
wanting to redirect them to, not abandon tongues altogether, but rather pursue
prophecy when they're together. So instead of tongues in the setting of a
worship service, their emphasis should be on pursuing prophecy, because that
edifies everybody. And the reason we're going see this later on in the chapter
is because in the church service you can have Christians and non-christians that
are gonna be present; and Paul is going to address why you have to be really careful when
it comes to the gift of tongues. I'll never forget and I know I've shared this before. My first
experience at a Pentecostal church. I had no idea what to expect. All I know is
this friend invited me to church and I said yeah, sure, you know why not. I walked that door and
it was freaky because, I mean everybody was speaking in tongues at the same time,
and nobody was interpreting anything, and they're clapping, and jumping, and speaking
in tongues; and I hadn't got to that part in the Bible yet. I was
reading the Bible from cover to cover, but I hadn't got to the part about tongues.
I was a blank slate and I remember asking them: What are they doing?
What is going on here? And he explained to me what was going on and I never went
back.
Boy was I glad when I first stepped foot in Calvary Chapel, and everything was
decently, and in order; and I'll never forget my first believers meeting when I
saw the gifts actually exercised in a biblical and proper way. It was a a life
changer for me personally. But Paul is wanting them to be careful when it comes
to tongues for those reasons. Now here's a question though that I think comes up.
Why?
Why were they doing this? Why were they speaking in tongues in this way, within
the church service, and apparently at the expense of prophecy, which they were it
seems neglecting? Well I believe that it was because the Corinthian Christians
only cared about themselves. They didn't care about others in the church. They
certainly didn't care about the non-believers who might have been in
church. Now I know that sounds a little harsh, but the fact remains that this is
characteristic of selfish carnality, Selfish carnality is the only
explanation that I can come up with; and I'll take it a step further and suggests
that these Christians there in Corinth were self focused. They wanted the
attention on themselves; and wow, you must be really spiritual because you
speak in tongues. You must be a mature Christian. I picture in my mind this
church service; what it would have been like to attend this church there in
Corinth; what one of their services would have been like. And I think would have been a
lot like this church that I had experienced. It was chaotic, it was
confusing, and the reason it was is because everyone was trying to draw attention to
themselves. Now tongues strengthens, tongues encourages, tongues comforts the
believer individually, but its prophecy that will do it for the church
corporately. So this self focused carnality that we're going to see here in
this chapter that Paul is going to address, and in a way true to form very bluntly. I
want to close this way: I think it would behoove every single one of us to ask
ourselves the question of whether or not we are self focused, self focused. I was
having a conversation with my oldest son about being self focused, where you're
thinking only of self. You're not thinking of others. And the most miserable people you'll
ever meet in the world are people who are living for themselves. The most
discontent people that you'll ever meet, Christian or non-christian alike, are
people who are self absorbed, narcissistic, self focused, living for
self; and we know from Scripture, and really from the words of the Savior that
it's the polar opposite that's true. You want to live, die. Die to self.
The most fulfilled people you will ever meet in this life are those who are
living for Jesus Christ, who have died to self, who have picked up their cross
daily. Keyword, daily. This was the teachable moment for my son was, that it's
daily, and he looked at me with this response: Every day!
That means not even on my birthday can I live four myself. No.
It's my party. I can cry if I want to. Why? Because you're living for yourself. It's all about self.
God did not wire us to live for our selves. You know that saying. I know you've
heard it. You've heard me say it and I'm going to repeat it, because I like it so much.
If you're focused on self, you're depresses. If you're focused on others,
you're distressed. If you're focused on the Lord you're blessed. I know it's
dorky, but it's true. It is so true. If your focus on other people, talk about
stress. You know, and I mean no disrespect to the to the field, but
modern psychiatry is
all about looking inward, focusing in on, you know, that candy bar use stole from
the dime store at age five. Wow.
And you're looking inward and it's all about focusing on self. Whereas the Christian
faith is all about dying to self. It is the antithesis. The most joyful people, the
most fulfilled people are those who are living for the Lord, and serving others,
and dying to self. And you could in theory say to the Corinthians here's how
to solve the problem,
you do have a problem here, and your problem is is that you're all self focused
clearly. So the answer is to die to self, serve others, and live for the Lord. You're
living for yourselves and that's carnality. Thats carnality. Let's pray.
Lord this is an interesting chapter that we have before us, and Lord it is so important
for us here, almost two thousand years later, to really take this to heart. Lord search our heart
and see if there be anything at all that is keeping us from loving You, and
knowing You, and living for You, and not ourselves,
in Jesus' name, Amen.