First Corinthians 14:6-12

So I don't, you know, I've just been enjoying going through these verses in 1 Corinthians 14 because they are so expressive of what our faith is all about in terms of the word of God. And I wanted to back up a little bit just to sort of put it in context.

Last week when we started with verse one, We were told that we should pursue aggressively love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that we may prophesy. As a member of the body of Christ, all of us should desire to be a couple of things. One desire we should have is we should be the means of blessing to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And second is that we might be used of God at some point in giving the gospel to a lost world.

But you can only do that if you're filled with the Spirit and gifted by Him in some special way. So it's quite in keeping with our Christian faith to seek the best that God has for us. worldly ambition is insufferable. It's unholy, but on the other hand, there is a laudable ambition, which we can consistently entertain, and that is to pursue love. What an ambition. And to desire spiritual gifts. And we have to make sure that those gifts that we pursue and we do all in love, every single gift, given for the blessing, is given for the blessing of the whole assembly, the whole church, the whole body of Christ.

It's never given in the sense to glorify oneself in an individual way or possessing anything where it may cause people to look at me like I'm something special. The whole church of God and the local assembly, which we are, And we local assembly of gathered believers. I want to emphasize the gathering of believers together With the worshiping company, that's what we are There's no place for Ordinary fleshly display it just isn't a place for it if I'm gifted of God in a degree and say preaching the gospel I I'm not to take advantage of that to exhibit my abilities pretentiously or to gather people about myself. If I've been gifted to sing a fine hymn that people may enjoy hearing, I'm not to use that talent to attract attention to myself or my voice.

But I'm to use it to give out a message which Enhanced by the melody will move the human heart That the spoken word couldn't move If I if I've been gifted to teach God's Word in the Bible I'm not to take advantage of that gift in order to exercise people's minds about strange and perplexing problems which would make them think perhaps I am more deeply taught than I really am and but I am to make the things as plain and simple as possible in order that every single saint might receive edification.

So the standard is for using spiritual gifts that are given to us from God, are they exercised in love and do they edify? Paul singles out here in this first verse a gift which we should earnestly desire. We should earnestly desire spiritual gifts. But then he cuts it down to one, and that is that we should prophesy. We should seek the gift of prophecy because it's the one that relates God's word to each one of us individually.

So the question is, what's the difference between a teacher and a prophet? As we talked about last week, we have a tendency to look at prophecy as though it was always discussion about things in the future. If you look at the Old Testament and the men that were prophets, very little of what they had to say was predictive. Most of the time it was enhancing God's word in the present, things that were going on right now.

So a teacher, of the scriptures, expounds the scriptures and illuminates the mind and understanding. That's what a teacher should do. But a prophet brings forth, brings truth home to the conscience. in order that he may exercise the people before God. It's more effective.

So I might be able to take a letter of Paul's to the Corinthians, perhaps even with divine help be able to expound it so that many hearers may thoroughly understand just what it is the Spirit of God is teaching. And yet your conscience might not be exercised one little bit. The heart might not really be lifted up to God, though you were edified intellectually. And there's a difference between being edified intellectually and spiritually.

So if I do have, or you do have, the gist of prophecy, you might relate exactly the same scripture that the teacher relates, And as the Spirit of God enables it, you can press it home to the heart and conscience so that those who hear it go away into a private place with the Lord and search themselves and ask God to, they ask God to enable them to go out and to live the truth that they have been learning.

That is the highest form of ministry there is, I think. Verse three that we looked at last week said, but one who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and consolation. That's the three aspects of one who prophesies. First, he's a divinely gifted man, gives a message that edifies people. They get something from him that is for their spiritual good. if he's able to open up the word of God to them in a way that instructs and feeds their soul. And then they are edified. It is a great thing, I think, to be involved in the building up of God's people.

The second thing in the prophetic message is that it's for exhortation. How you and I need exhortation all the time. We're so apt to be asleep spiritually. The very meaning of the word of exhortation means to wake up, be awakened, to arouse the one who has gone to sleep, who has become apathetic. How the word of God comes to the conscience is by way of aroused people. Some folks don't like that kind of teaching. I know that I've talked to people about that kind of, it's not aggressive, but it is pointed. They don't want to hear it because it does affect their soul. It does affect their conscience.

But if you're a true servant of God, which we all are, it brings things home in a way that the hearts of men are exercised And men seek after God because of that. And show them their true state as he himself sees you. So few of us see ourselves as the Lord sees us in Christ. And lastly, the third of this ministry is for comfort and encouragement. And all I can say about that is if there's ever anything any of us need, we need encouragement and comfort all the time.

An old preacher in England named Joseph Parker, a great London preacher, in addressing a group of young theologians said to them, young gentlemen, always preach to broken hearts and you will never lack for an audience. How many broken hearts? How many bereaved ones are there? Trouble and distresses of financial circumstances. And all the things that come home so cruelly to the heart. Trouble in one's own family. How much of God's people need the word of comfort and the word of exhortation?

It's a really great quote from that man. So here's the problem with talking about speaking in tongues. The one who speaks in tongues really only speaks to himself. And he may enjoy it, but no one else does. You would understand this if I were to sing a solo. Those of you who know that I can't sing also know that I really like to sing. So if I were to stand up here and to sing my heart out, none of you would understand what I was doing. But if I'm out on a hike in the woods someplace, I can sing as loud as I want because there's nobody there to hear me. But the problem is you're here to hear me and so I better be clear. Singing, talking, teaching.

So we conclude that we should desire spiritual gifts, we certainly should. And the gifts of the Spirit are not for anyone's individual enjoyment. It's really important to know that. Or for your own personal glory, but it's for the edification of the entire church. You know, people, we talk all the time about, well, everybody has at least one spiritual gift.

And so we think, well, I wonder what it is, I wonder what it is. Maybe if we went at it from the standpoint of, what do I do in the, sphere of influence in the body of believers that I hang out with that edifies them, causes them to grow, then you'll know what the gift is, because that's what it's all about. So we're gonna look at the next eight verses this morning and ultimately connect them and put them together in which Paul starts with the first five verses and then moves on. So when we get to verse five, which we ended up talking about last week, he says that he wished that everybody spoke in tongues, but rather that you should prophesy.

Why? Because prophecy was the gift that edified everybody. And that edifies prophecy, then that speaks with tongues, except that the interpreter in order that the assembly may receive edification. He's gonna say before he's done with chapter 14 that you can't, he's gonna put a rule down or a principle down that if you do have the gift of tongues, you can't exercise it in the public ministry unless you have an interpreter. Because to the Lord, it's more important for everybody to get the message than just one person. And it's near to his heart, I think, and near to the Lord Jesus' heart that we be edified, that we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus.

Problem was in Corinth, they were all anxious for the showy gifts, and we know, we see that in our society today. In the Christian society, people really want a showy gift. The gifts that would attract widespread attention, especially speaking in tongues. The problem is, this gift, when first given, was the way in which God, in the earliest part of the church, spread the gospel.

Because the gift of tongues was a known language, people that had it could go into a village that had never been taught their language and they could tell them about the wonders of God in their own language. And there's no ecstasy involved with that. the way tongues are operated today, or what you hear about them, that they're kind of strange and weird sounds that don't really mean anything, and they're unknown to everybody who's around them, and even the speaker himself, probably even unknown to heaven. The tongues referred to in God's word are those of a definite language every time.

And we can see at once that Paul would censure the display of such gifts because they didn't edify anybody. The person speaking in tongues would get a big thrill out of it because he's edifying himself, but nobody else would. So Paul says, look, seek the right things for the edification of the body of the church. Now, verse six, but now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, What shall I profit you? Unless I shall speak to you either in revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or doctrine. Paul doesn't slight the gift of tongues because it's a gift from the Holy Spirit and it was used in those times specifically to spread the gospel. But the point is, The fact that you, Paul illustrated this point to the hearers, not for the benefit of all, but so that they would understand, so that there would be understanding.

Here's the problem with the Corinthians. You know that verse that says, if your eye isn't single, then none of you is single, if you aren't myopically focused on the Lord Jesus. If your eye is single, then you're full of light. But if it's not, therefore, their unspiritual judgment, the Corinthians' unspiritual judgment, as well as their conduct, draws out the instruction of the Lord. Why? Because their focus wasn't single, searching after, seeking after love. What we have is, is that we don't have any record of Paul ever having to learn a language. Now, think about where he, on his missionary journeys, he went to all kinds of different places in the Mediterranean basin. And there were dialects, as little as 10 miles away would be another town, and the dialect was different there.

And he could go in there and speak the wonders of God in their language. And he didn't have a cell phone that would do the translating for him. He could just do it. And I think all the apostles had that gift. He could speak to the Greeks in their language. He could speak to the Romans in their language. And obviously he could speak Hebrew. But he could speak to all of these barbarian tribes in their language in which their dialect was.

Paul asked, what profit would it be if I speak with tongues without an interpreter? So if I said, Alan has a gift of tongues and he's gonna come up and he's gonna give us a demonstration, but we don't have anybody to interpret what he's gonna say, what good would it do to have him come up here and do that? because nobody would understand it. Maybe he would, but so what does he speak in tongues and then he translates? A lot of times these guys didn't know the translation. There had to be somebody else that was separately gifted.

So if you gather a group of believers together to edify them, you can only edify them if you're revealing something to them, if there's some knowledge that you're imparting to them, or you're prophesying or your teaching. If the speaker can reveal the language that he speaks, then he's prophesying to them. He can teach them, and they'll understand what he has to say.

So let's define these words. Revelation just is drawing away by Christ of the veil of darkness, according to Strahan's definition. In other words, it's like taking the cover off so you can really see. that you're able to communicate and you're able to receive the knowledge of the word of God. The word knowledge is gnosko which indicates there's a relationship between the person knowing and the object known. I like that word gnosko because in this respect what's known is of value and importance to the one who knows it. So especially of God's knowledge, you don't get to know about God without getting to know God himself.

That comes with it, and that's an important part of it. Knowledge, this knowledge would imply imparting to believers that which may have already been believed, but they understand that the more you know, like when you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, what's happening there?

Well, you're learning something. but you're learning about him too. And that's really the critical part. If somebody here and I go out to lunch and we don't know each other very well and we talk back and forth, what's happening? He's finding out knowledge about me and I'm finding out knowledge about him. But the most important thing is is that we're knowing, we're getting to know each other. The word of God is designed to do exactly that, so we can know the Lord Jesus. Prophecy is speaking forth of the mind and the counsels of God.

It brings the truth at home, to home. It brings it home to the conscience in order that we may exercise, that it may exercise people before God. I would say that prophesying is more the application maybe of the truths while doctrine is just the teaching, instruction of a particular truth. So those of you who teach Sunday school and teach other places, what are you really doing? We're explaining particular truth.

If we had someone with a gift of prophecy, it would attach to your conscience and it would make a difference in how you thought. So in the days of Paul, there were a lot of people that still had this gift of revelation because the word of God wasn't complete. But now that the word of God is complete, we could say the gift of revelation is preserved in the scriptures. I think also it's important to observe how it is insisted on that all is done in the church in the church service should be done in the spirit.

We talked about that some last week. The idea is not that he who spoke in a tongue didn't understand what he said, yet he never supposed that he would communicate unless he had an interpreter with him. His own knowledge of what he spoke is not the same as the interpreter. Unless he could interpret, there's no thought of his communicating to the local church what he was saying. Here's the reason that's so important.

In a public assembly, all of us, whose domain is it here? Who's in charge here? Who's the one that's really The leader, it's the Spirit of God. He's the one that, as we talked about weeks ago, He's the one that brings everybody and puts them in a local group. He gets the people in the group to do things to edify the group. He runs the show.

It isn't a denomination. Everybody in the body of believers serves. Roger and I serve. You all serve to some degree. But it's the Spirit of God who runs the place. Interpretation would therefore be a gift. It wouldn't be a human power. It would just be a gift from the Spirit.

In an assembly like this that's public, The people of God, everything should be done in order to edify. Everything we, every move we make should be done to edify. That's why that back in verse six, he says, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in an unknown language, let's say I come that way, or Paul came that way, and I spoke this language, well, what good is it gonna be? You're not gonna be edified.

Really critical, important to him. Then he uses an example. He said, even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? So he's using this to confirm his point. Sounds must be distinguished in order to be understood. If you don't distinguish sound, you can't distinguish a language. We don't know what the truth is to be conveyed. We don't know how weighty it might be. It's unknown and it just confuses us.

Things that have no life, like an organ or the piano, if every tone was exactly the same, of putting this together, I thought, well, if I would sing, you would know what I meant. Every tone is exactly the same. There wouldn't be any edification. No one would understand what was being played.

The hymns we sang this morning, if they were one note, I've been trying to envision that in my mind. So, for the edification of believers, Music is designed to impart some knowledge, to apply a word of prophecy to the conscience and to teach particular truths. It's another way of understanding. The problem is is that obscurity is not spiritual. If there were no distinctions in sound, music could not display any meaning at all, but it does. That hymn we sang this morning, it's just a wonderful hymn. Now, Paul doesn't just stop at that verse, he says also in verse eight, for if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?

Those of you who have been in the military know about bugles. If you've ever been on a military base, when they play, I think it's retreat in the afternoon, and they bring the flags down, wherever you are walking around on that base, at least in the Marine Corps, that's the way it was, you had to stop, face wherever, you might be five blocks away, but you faced where the flag was, and you saluted, and you wait until the music is over. And that happened every single day. And this happened in the morning at Reveille. Flags going up, everybody's standing no matter where you are. Well, how did I know where to stand or to stop or what to do? It was the sound of that bugle. And there's, a bugler has not only those two things, but a whole bunch of other ones that, you know, like charge up the hill, retreat, or time to go to sleep.

You know, those sounds without words convey information. And it's the same way if a man stands up in front of you like I am today and I give out a sound that doesn't have any meaning, how are you gonna be edified? You won't be, that's the point. You have to understand the trumpet call. If the sound is uncertain, what's gonna happen? It'll produce no effect on the hearers. And I think anybody who's been in the military, you're taught those sounds. You listen to them, and you know you're supposed to respond to them. Verse nine, so also, unless you utter by the tongue the speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? That makes just super common sense. For you will be speaking into the air.

So all of us, we should endeavor to get from God that which will be the greatest blessing to the people whom we minister to. I know that in my own life, you know, when I'm talking to somebody on the phone or we're having lunch or we're just together, just having a conversation is how important it is to be as clear as you can be and for them to be clear so you can understand them. A lot of times when you sit with somebody with a problem, it takes half the conversation to identify the problem because the clarity isn't there. So distinctness and clarity so as to be understood is the point that Paul is pressing here. Sometimes it's not exactly easy to be understood. Boy, no kidding. But distinct speech so as to be intelligent, intelligible, otherwise really all is lost for the hearer.

And I know sometimes I walk away from conversations with people where, well, the conversation got ended, but I'm not really quite sure what they said. Or what did they want from me? Or I think, well, I didn't get from them what I was after, probably because I wasn't clear. So ministry can put forth in such a confused way sometimes that it really doesn't convey a message at all.

It may be expressed in such uncertainty that there's no effect on the hearers at all. In this, Paul not only rebukes the arrogance of ministers who delight to use the pulpit as a place to display their education and their culture, But he also is a use of language that's far above the heads of the people whom you're ministering to. And we've all sat under somebody who was way up here with the 25 cent Christian words that you really didn't understand what they were talking about.

I found a quote from Charles Spurgeon. He said, I'm afraid that many of my ministerial brethren must imagine that when scripture tells them to feed my sheep, it means feed my giraffes. For they put the food so high that the people would have to be a giraffe to reach it. That's pretty profound. It should be the ambition of every one of us because we all teach in some way that the word of God to use language that's simple and plain and that everybody can understand. Harry Ironside quoted an experience in his life.

He said, a few months ago a lady brought me a little boy about 10 years of age and she said, that my little grandson wants to meet you. I hope you won't be offended about what he said. I had been telling him about you and he wanted to hear you. He said to me, why grandma?

He's not a great preacher, I could understand every word he said. I replied, well, my dear madam, I consider that a great compliment. I hope you will always pray that when I stand up to minister the word, I will do it in such a way that the youngest child as well as the oldest saint may understand every word because if we do not, we are just speaking into the air.

That's just such a great quote. Verse nine, there are perhaps a great many kinds of languages or voices in the world. No kind is without meaning. So this word, the word meaning, This word language or voice, you see how it's P-H-O-N-E. We know what that word is. You all have one in your pocket. It's a communication device. The Greek word is translated sound. That's really what it means.

Every voice in nature has a special significance about it. And so words have special meaning. None of the words are without significance. And scripture, the word of God, that book you all own, is a wonderful treasure house that we should come from God with the words suited to his people. It's all in there.

So Paul says, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be of one who speaks a barbarian, and one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. So again, the focus is on understandable language. It communicates nothing if you don't understand. Interesting word barbarian. To the Greeks, a barbarian was anybody who couldn't speak Greek. We in the United States would say, well, anybody who can't speak English must be a barbarian. What's the matter with you? You can't speak English?

It meaning understanding of that sound. If ministry is to edify, it must be set forth in easy to understand words with the certainty of the oracles of God. So easy to understand and certain about what you're saying. If you use words which convey no meaning to hearers, we become barbarians. They don't understand us. And we speak in some strange jargon to them.

So in conclusion, so also, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. It's essential, I think, to be understood For that purpose, does it edify? I think you can always ask yourself, and we can always ask ourselves, is what I'm doing gonna edify somebody? Is it gonna really help them?

No matter how excellent the information conveyed, but if it's conveyed by an unknown language, it has no claim to be said in the church body unless it can be duly interpreted. I had a really close friend, who's home with the Lord now, and he was a man from Chihuahua, Mexico. And he spoke enough English and I spoke enough Spanish, which was very little, that he and I could communicate together. And his son-in-law is a pastor of a Spanish-speaking church in Aurora. And he wanted me to come over there someday and give him a talk.

I said, how many of them speak English? He said, oh, some. I said, I can't do that unless we have a translator. I said, because they won't understand what I'm saying. He said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, listen, I go stand before people that all speak English and they still don't understand what I'm saying. It is foreign there, even more out of place than a dialogue with a barbarian or a foreigner. It would have been useless.

If the Corinthians were really serious for the power of the Spirit in the middle of their group, why didn't they seek to abound for the building up of one another? That's where it is. This would prove and show distinctly that love was what they were really after, and not a vain display, but something worthy of Christ and his saints. It is the flesh that likes distinction for itself, not the service of the Lord for the good of others. Where God agrees to deal with souls, nothing that sets aside this great principle of edification can be of the Spirit of God, just can't be. Where the Holy Spirit is unhindered, love prevails. And where love prevails, every expression will be for the edification.

I must say that Roger and I, we talked about this last week. The expression of your love for us is just amazing to us. You talk about something that motivates, it's really cool. There's something about the body of Christ, which is the love and edification that each person contributes, not only to us, but anybody that's here, whether you're in the back row, the front row, or somewhere in the middle, love prevails. And that's why being back together is so exciting to all of us, because we get to be face-to-face.

We get to talk. We get to say, I love you. I'm really glad to be with you. So let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace. How we thank you that you're so careful in very clear words to instruct us to pursue love and to learn how to pursue prophecy so that we can instruct all of our fellow believers in love. We thank you for that grace. We pray in your son's precious name, amen.