First Corinthians 14:13-19 The Deficiency of Tongues

where in chapter 14, Mike started out chapter 14, down through verse 12. So I get to pick up with a section, and I borrowed Macaulay's definition, deficiency of tongues. He actually kind of started that earlier. You know, Mike talked about the idea that tongues were an unknown language. Actually, I think I misspoke when I answered The question about did Paul know many languages, if you are clear about tongues, that was an unknown language. So Paul didn't have to know the language, he just had to be obedient and let the Spirit of God speak through him. So I may have answered that a little bit too quickly. the gift of speaking in tongues.

And he says that. In fact, that's one of his defenses. He's going to instruct the church about the proper use of tongues. And he says, you know, I speak in tongues more than all of you. He said, I wish you all could speak in tongues. But he wants it to be used properly in order and to edify the church. And that was the problem. They were not using tongues to build up the church. They were not being edified.

If you think about it, if I start speaking in a language you don't know, say I can speak, I don't know, Chinese. I don't know Chinese. Who knows Chinese in the audience here? I don't see one single hand. So I speak in Chinese. I go through my message all in Chinese.

How much value will that be to you today? You'll say, well, Roger sounded pretty good. He sounds like people I know who speak Chinese, but I didn't understand a word he said. Well, that's of no value. And that's Paul's point. If you speak in the body of believers, in a language that nobody understands, then what's the value in that?

He said, I'd rather have you speak five words in a language I do understand than 10,000 words in a language I don't understand. So we'll go through the verses here. But that's kind of the overall picture of where he's going. So let's look. I used this chart before from Merriman, kind of a quick review. Chapter 12, and this is kind of a package deal, 12, 13, and 14.

You know, Chapter 12 started the subject of spiritual gifts. You know, spiritual gifts are special abilities given in the church age. They were given in the early church age to bring the church to maturity. And we saw in Chapter 12, they rank those spiritual gifts.

They talk about their purpose. Then we saw in that beautiful Chapter 13 about if Christ's love isn't part of your spiritual gift, then it's all for nothing. You miss the boat. And then at 14, he wants to correct their thinking. And actually, he's going to focus on just two of the spiritual gifts, tongues and prophecy. And we need to be careful about prophecy, because when you hear prophecy, who thinks of foretelling the future? Almost, I mean, my mind goes right there, but in the New Testament church, prophecy was not that kind of thing.

It was talking to people who did not know your language. You spoke to them in their language, which you didn't know, which was amazing. And there was perversion that went on. They were preferring tongues over prophecy, and prophecy is a declaration of God's word. And that was a special gift in that time period, because they didn't have the Bible as we have it. They couldn't open to John and read a beautiful section in John. The Spirit of God had to give them those words, or they had to read one of Paul's letters, possibly. So it's a different situation.

So Paul's going to give them instruction here in chapter 14, which is a long chapter. about how to properly balance between tongues and prophecy. Okay, so with that in mind, so here's some key points that I kind of, and this kind of picks up some of what Mike talked about and then some coming up here. I'll say there must be a priority for edification in the local church. And edification is just the idea of instructing people in what God is telling them, telling the body of believers there in Corinth and telling us ultimately. The misuse of tongues was getting in the way of edification. If I spend all my time talking in Chinese, the body of believers gets nothing for that in that time. So it was a wasted time.

So this chapter tells us why prophecy is superior, why God's word is superior to tongues. And then just for, here's the definition, this is Macaulay's definition. Prophecy is the telling forth of the mind of God before the New Testament was complete. You know, any one of you right now today, open your Bibles, you can tell us what the mind of God is. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and so on. That's God's mind.

Well, they didn't have, you know, unless they had the Gospel of John, I think John was written toward the end, They didn't have the Gospel of John, so somebody had to get up, a brother or sister, had to get up and say, well, God, you know, the Spirit tells me that for God so loved the world.

So it's a different, I found, it would be very difficult to exist in that environment. I just, the problem is I'm basically not very trusting. So my mother trained me that way. She was a very She grew up in a family of mostly boys and she had to fight for her place at the table. So she was a little spicy little lady and she would fight for things and she instilled in me that. So I'm not very trustworthy. So if a brother or sister got up and started speaking, I'd say, Well, how do you know that? You know, today I can test it against God's word, but then they had to rely upon brothers and sisters. So that's where prophecy came in and was very valuable, was critical in the New Testament church. So now we're going to get into a little chartsmanship here.

I was listening to Macaulay, Macaulay, Merriman, and he painted this picture. You know, when you listen to a recording, they'll say, on this picture, Bob Botany described the picture. Well, you got to listen really carefully. So Macaulay drew this picture differently than I drew it.

So this is my take on his, this is a comparison between tongues and prophecy in chapter 14. Okay, so we start off with a person speaking in a tongue, a language he doesn't know. Okay, well first off the bat, if we understand spiritual gifts right, this is a special ability given to him from God. So he got the information that God about this, to speak in this language, and the Holy Spirit allowed him to speak. Well, he could speak to one of three different kinds of people.

First of all, he could speak it, as we see in verse two, he could speak it back to God. God would understand it, right? God was the source of it, God the Holy Spirit. Obviously, God understood it. So that was number one. It says that in verse two, which Mike covered.

Then secondly, he could speak it to the church, but the problem there was he needed somebody to translate it. He needed an interpreter. If there was no interpreter, like I said, Chinese goes nowhere. If there's a Chinese interpreter, then he can interpret it. But that's kind of a slow process. Have you ever watched something where there's an interpreter involved? It's very It's very slow. It's not very dynamic. You can't tell it. So it's very hard. I think that's why Paul compares 10,000 words in a tongue versus five words that you understand.

And then lastly, and we'll see this when we get to verse 22, it was a sign for unbelievers, actually particularly the unbelieving Jew. It was a sign and it was a judgment on the unbelieving Jew that God said, and we'll see it, it's from Isaiah. He'll declare that this was a sign or tongues were a sign for them to come to the Lord, the unbelieving Jew. Okay, now we go to prophecy. So now we have a person prophesying, telling forth the mind of God. Once again, in our day, that would be the Holy Scriptures, that would be the Bible up there. We get our information from God's Word.

But they didn't have that. They had portions of it, so God is giving them what he wants them to tell. speak for their prophecy okay it goes to the church directly they're edified because they're speaking in their own language they're speaking what God wants them to speak and then secondly it goes to unbelievers if you look in verse 24 which we'll see later on it would convict the unbeliever. They talk about a person coming into the assembly, he'd be convicted by the words that they were speaking forth from God. So that's kind of a pictorial picture of tongues, who it talked to, and prophecy, who it talked to. So in the prophecy case, everybody understood. No interpreter. The unbeliever was convicted as the Holy Spirit used it to convict them. And believers were edified and built up in the body. Okay, so let's go on. So here's McCauley's outline. Mike covered the first 19 verses, the inferiority of tongues, the deficiency of tongues, and this is kind of a reiteration or additional information about their deficiencies.

So one thing is kind of key in here is that understanding, and it's back to the thing, if you don't understand Chinese, then you're in trouble. Your mind has to be engaged. Tongues cannot stand on their own. They need someone else to interpret them. Without that interpretation, they're of no value. So understanding has to be there.

And we're going to see also, we're learning something that we don't see elsewhere in scripture. that prayer and singing can't be mindless either. And Paul's going to directly address that. And that kind of goes against, you know, we'll see in today's world, there'll be people chanting, there'll be, in their services or whatever, different religions, different groups will chant, they'll sing, and it's kind of a, sometimes it's a repetitive kind of thing that just goes on and on and on. And what happens to your mind when you're chanting something hour after hour? Your mind's not engaged, it's just in idle. So, and Paul's saying that's not what should happen in the body of believers. Not in Corinth, not today. And then lastly, Paul will serve as an example of himself. This is where he says, you know, I speak in tongues more than all of you, and so on. So there's the three sections we'll cover today.

So let me just read this again. It was read before. Let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. It's kind of an interesting verse. We'll get to that shortly. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit. I will pray with my mind also. I will sing with my spirit. I will sing with my mind also.

Otherwise, If you bless in the Spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say, Amen, at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you. in the church, I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also rather than 10,000 words in a tongue. So you see the very strong emphasis on your mind's engaged, your mind's in action.

And that's why, you know, I have a little story. When I first came to Holly Hills, I came, Courtney and I were together there, but, you know, I didn't, my mind wasn't exercised as much. I can remember coming home after being at Holly Hill saying, well, I'm worn out. I've been thinking, I thought in Sunday school class, oh my goodness, and I thought all through the whole service, I'm tired, I've been working, I've been thinking, and I've been trying to understand. And if you come from a place that isn't as strong as that, You're kind of shocked at first.

I mean, I have to think. I have to work. I have to read. I have to reason in church. Well, what's that all about? That sounds like school. That sounds like schoolwork. I thought I was going to get a rest day here on Sunday. No, it's not a rest day. It's a time to be the Lord to show you his marvelous grace, his marvelous word. So quite a contrast.

So actually, I keep thinking, boy, Paul's spending an awful lot of time talking about something that really We found out in earlier verses that tongues are done away with. They're not appropriate for today's world. People have a version of that which they claim are appropriate, but they're not appropriate. They've been done away with. And prophecy has been replaced by the completed canon of scripture.

But he's going to tell us in here that when we gather as a body, it's critical that edification takes place. OK, therefore, based on what has been said before, so the subject, I like to do this. I actually have the luxury these days. I have this, you know, Courtney and I and others took the class on sentence diagramming. And I'm still not much better than I was when I left. I had the class, I should say. But I did retain, I'm able to read a complete sentence diagram. So I actually can look at them and make some sense.

So in this case, the subject is the one speaking in a tongue. Let him and his present imperative middle And so Paul's giving a command, so the person who's speaking a tongue has this requirement, and actually it's going to benefit him, and actually benefit others. Let him pray that he may interpret. So this is kind of cool. He's going to interpret. He's not only going to say forth the words in another language, but God's going to give him the ability to interpret it too, which wasn't the typical pattern. Paul kind of breaks the precedent here. He says, I want you to pray that you can interpret now too. Because otherwise, it doesn't interpret, nobody's edified. So the word interpret, to interpret fully, to explain. The prayer that you may interpret in this language you do not know.

And I actually kind of already, you know, why would Paul give this command? I think we already have talked about that, but let me just say a couple more points about that. To remind us again of the importance of edification in the church. The church is a place where God is going to tell us about his marvelous grace, and we have to understand it.

Constable says note that Paul never said they should abandon this gift. He didn't say no You can't ever speak in a tongue anymore. He didn't say that he said we need to control it We need to do it use it properly and actually this is a really good case the word interpret is You know If it's not a language, if it's just some kind of ecstatic speech that nobody understands, you don't need an interpreter for that. It's just somebody kind of going, oh, you know. You can guess that by looking at them. So anyway, it supports the idea of human speech very well.

And then lastly, Constable points out, the Corinthians who already had the gift of tongue should now ask the Lord for the ability to interpret his or her utterances so the whole church could benefit from them. And we saw that, and Mike covered this first, that church may receive edifying. So think about this, a person that spoke in this other language could say, and he could then, he could speak in that language, and if there happened to be somebody there in that language, they would be edified, and he'd say, oh, by the way, what I really said was this. And sometimes you'll see bilingual people do that. They'll speak, and they'll switch it over, and they'll go in your language. So we could get real edification out of this. Okay, so verse 14.

For if I pray in a tongue, a known language, my spirit prays, and I, you know, if you look at the by means of the Holy Spirit. And it reminded me, you know, in the study that we did back quite a while in Romans, in the Romans class they covered it too, it says, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. So, you know, that mechanism of the Holy Spirit interacting in a believer's life and praying, that kind of fit well in my mind at least.

It said, the Holy Spirit is involved and his message is going out, but my mind is unfruitful, unprofitable. And that's kind of the crux of the case here. Or you could say, my mind bears no fruit and helps nobody. So a constable says, while praying in a tongue, one might give the person While praying in a tongue might give the person doing it a sense of exhilaration in his spirit, his mind would not benefit.

Exaltation. Okay, now I thought of this verse, you know, God wants us to reason, you know, come let us reason together. says the Lord of hosts, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. So God wants people to, He wants to come and reason with man. And that's one of the big fallacies that you hear from people that don't know the Lord.

They think, well, your faith is just, you have faith in this, you know, nebulous thing and he's not, you know. No, he's very reasonable. He's very precise. He's very accurate. He wants to reason with you. He wants to show you that that He created you, He loved you, He died for you. He wants to show you by your reason, not by some, actually not by feeling, even though feelings are important. He wants to reason that you'll see that you need a Savior. Okay. So verse 15, so what is the outcome then? He somewhat backtracks here.

I will pray with or by means of the spirit. I will pray with the mind also, with aid of my intellect. So he kind of says, you know, if I can interpret, I can do both. I can pray in the spirit by means of, and I also can pray with my mind. Otherwise, my mind isn't engaged. So prayer is to be. an intellectual process. It's not just to be some chant or whatever. And he's going to expand that in a second. Paul advocates praising and praying to God with both the spirit and the mind. Okay, and now he adds a little interesting thing. He adds singing, okay? It makes me feel good. Thank you, Vern. Vern, he worked hard, as you know, at making sure our songs were scriptural. And many times, Vonnie and I, well, it's just scriptural, and we still do it today.

Is that scriptural? Is that song being sung, does it have scripture? And this is where Paul delineates that thought, I believe. He says, I will sing by means of my spirit, okay, but that doesn't edify anybody. I will sing by means of my mind also, with the aid of my intellect. So singing is to be is to be scriptural, too. Prayer is to be scriptural. Singing is to be scriptural.

And wouldn't it be? This is all God's Word, right? We're all interacting with God's Word. And whether we pray using God's Word or whether we sing using God's Word, it all should be that. If something else creeps in, you're off on the wrong track. So I thought of this. This verse came to mind.

Ephesians 5.19, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So he wants us to be engaged with him. This is from Ironside. When he, Paul, said the preaching to the public ministry of the word is just as true of singing, therefore the importance of singing hymns that express spiritual truth.

Okay, on to 16. This actually is a pretty short lesson. Go home and start your fireworks. Might be a little bit early. OK, we still have a ways to go. Hang in there. But actually, it's funny how, as a speaker, you want to have something to say, right? Well, I'm the kind of guy that likes to have more than I want to say. I look at it, oh, we're coming to the end here, and I've only been speaking five minutes. That's not long enough.

So there's a little bit of that, even though it's his word, whether I do a big portion or a small portion. OK. Otherwise, and so now he brings in, we talked about the speaking of God's word, the praying of God's word, and the singing of God's word. Now he brings in the blessing or eulogizing or praising.

You might guess that just can't be in your spirit. It just can't be something that the Holy Spirit's doing. It has to come out as something people understand. Otherwise, if you bless in the Spirit only, so Paul poses a question about anyone hearing you bless in an unknown language.

How can anyone in the position? So actually, this is kind of a tough verse, and King James has it even tougher, but I thought the Amplified did a good job. How can anyone in the position of an outsider, or he who is not gifted having the ability to interpret, say amen to your thanksgiving?

So if I'm up here, and I again speak in Chinese, you might be reluctant to say amen. You say, well, I trust Roger. He must know his Chinese well. But if you hear it, for God so loved the world, you say amen, brother, amen, right on. So you can't do it if you can't understand it.

And then Constable says, see, those ungifted, actually, the Greeks were pretty myopic. Anyone outside didn't know Greek, the word is idiot. That's where we get the word idiot. They said, you're not Greek, you're an idiot. I mean, you know, that's pretty rough, right? It's a pretty close society, right? They didn't understand what the person was saying in a tongue. as unable to add their affirmation at the end of their prayer, amen or so be it.

For you're giving thanks well enough. So this is kind of a consolation. So Paul's saying, okay, you may bless in the spirit and you're giving thanks. God hears you, God understands it, but other persons are not edified. God understands you're giving thanks, but other persons is not edified or built up. But the bystander, this person is considered a bystander in this case, it does him no good. Speaking in tongues is inconsistent because it does not consider the needs of others for understanding. There should be nothing in the corporate worship that is not understandable and orderly.

And I think, you know, just actually Bonnie and I, we had the privilege of being overseas for five years and there was a church service which kind of bordered on that and I don't know, it was kind of weird. People would, it was like if when Courtney got up to lead singing, Well, he'd get up, and then people would just kind of pop up singing, and they'd just kind of go around the room, and Courtney wasn't in charge, or the person wasn't in charge.

It's just those people popping up and down. It was kind of bizarre. So anyway, that was my one experience with that. A little strange. So Courtney couldn't be a song leader. He'd be an observer. OK, so now Paul kind of talks about his personal life here. I thank my God. I speak in tongues, an unknown language, more than all of you.

So what we take away from this, in the Corinthian church, speaking in an unknown language was vital to getting God's word out. Scripture wasn't complete. So Paul had to depend upon the Spirit to give his message too. He hadn't read the Gospel of John. He didn't know it, but the Spirit knew it. So he had to depend upon the Spirit to give him God's message. So we saw a similar contrast where Paul said, now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy or speak forth God's word.

The Corinthians tongue enthusiast could not reject Paul's instruction. They could not say he did not have the gift himself. He said, I have the same gift as you have, brother, but it's got to be controlled. It's got to be under control. It can't be out of control. However, in the church, in the assembly, Strong contrast I desire to speak five words with my mind and This is a noose is the Greek word for mind Comprises the faculties of perception understanding those of feeling and judgment And and here it's used in Luke of the Lord talking he said He opened their mind the Lord opened their minds to understanding the scriptures so that or the purpose that He wants to instruct them to teach or instruct, spoken of oral communication or preaching was used in the early church.

And Galatians 6.6 says, I put it in there and I want to make sure I read it here.

Yeah, it says, Galatians 6.6, the one who is taught, our word here instructed, the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches. So it utilizes the same word. So Macaulay says the word instruct is a word, catecheo, brought into the English, a word for catechism. It refers to instructions presented in an orderly and categorical manner, rather than 10,000 words in a tongue.

So, you know, kind of a short little section, so one kind of final thought, or a couple thoughts here. from Constable. Paul affirms the gifts that the Corinthians apparently regarded as a sign of genuine spirituality, but he did so by correcting their thinking about what was really important in their meetings.

Worship should never be selfish, but it should always be intelligible. So that's kind of this little package of verses. We're going to move on next week. There's other sections. But it all revolves about how prophecy, the speaking of God's word, is so critical to the gathering of believers. We gather to understand the mind of God and walk in that understanding. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today. Thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. We ask it in his name. Amen.