So, Paul exhorts, follow after love and desire
spirituals, but rather that ye may prophesy.
Now, we were told to covet earnestly the
best gifts.
Now, again, he is saying the same thing.
And desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye
may prophesy, for he that speaketh in an
unknown tongue speaks not unto men, but unto
God.
For no man understands him, albeit in the
Spirit he is speaking mysteries or divine secrets.
So, an interesting verse here.
If you're speaking in an unknown tongue, you're
speaking to God.
In other words, it is a gift whereby
a man might be assisted in his worship
of God or in his communicating with God.
For by communicating in tongues, because you do
not understand it, you are bypassing the narrow
channel of your intellect.
Have you ever come to a place where
your feelings are greater than your capacity to
express them?
I often do, especially when I am in
the realm of spiritual things.
I'm in the realm of God's goodness and
God's blessing, or the greatness of God, the
character of God.
And as I begin to ponder on these
things of God, the greatness of His love,
His power, His glory, when I begin to
think of all He's done for me, as
nothing as I am, I suddenly come to
the place where to express to God my
thanksgiving and gratitude, language is a barrier.
It doesn't really express what I feel.
It's inadequate, because I have to express it
through language and my vocabulary or whatever is
just restricted.
And to bring it through the narrow channel
of my intellect is sort of like a
funnel, and it just sort of backs up
because of the broad base of the Spirit
now channeling through the narrow funnel, the intellect.
It's so cut down, it's so restricted.
So God has given to us a gift
whereby we can bypass the narrow channel of
the intellect and we can enter into a
full worship of Him.
My Spirit now united with His Spirit and
a full unrestricted flow of my love, of
my appreciation, of my expression to Him of
His greatness and of His glory as I
praise and glorify the God that I worship
and serve.
And it's rather nice to be able to
bypass the narrow channel of the intellect in
the worship.
Sovereign Arolus said, when prayer reaches its ultimate,
words are impossible.
There aren't words to express the things of
the Spirit.
That vocabulary has not yet been developed.
And so, the Lord helps me in my
expression of these divine secrets, the worship, the
praise of my Spirit unto Him through the
gift of tongues.
And it assists me in my worship and
in my praise, for if I speak in
tongues, I'm actually speaking to God, though I
don't understand it, the things of the Spirit
as He assists me in praising and worshiping
the Father, in glorifying Jesus Christ.
Another capacity is that of offering to God
prayer according to His will.
For the Spirit also helps our infirmities, Romans
chapter 8.
For we don't always know how to pray
as we should.
But the Spirit will make intercession through groanings
which cannot be uttered.
So the Spirit helping us in our prayer
life, either with groanings which cannot be uttered,
or with words that are uttered, inspired by
the Spirit, expressing prayer to God according to
the will of God in the particular situation
over which I am interceding.
So, a gift whereby I am built up,
I am benefited, I am blessed.
But if I'm desiring gifts, it would be
better that I desired the gift of prophecy
than the gift of tongues.
Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may
prophesy.
For the gift of tongues is only for
my own personal benefit, as I express to
God my worship and praise with the help
of the Spirit.
But he that prophesies speaks unto men for
edification and exhortation and comfort.
So, the gift of prophecy has much broader
benefits.
The area of the New Testament prophet was
not so much foretelling as it was forth
telling, speaking forth God's truth to the people.
And as we speak forth God's truth to
the people, they're built up in their faith,
they're built up in their relationship with Jesus
Christ, they're built up in their fellowship with
the Lord.
As we speak forth God's truth, they're exhorted
in their walk with the Lord, in their
commitment to Jesus Christ, in their abandonment of
the flesh to live and to walk after
the Spirit.
And they're exhorted to trust the Lord, to
commit to the Lord, to believe in the
Lord.
And they are comforted as we speak forth
God's word, as they realize it's all in
God's hands and God will take care of
it and God is going to work.
And as I just patiently wait, I shall
see the work of God and glorify and
praise His name and I'm comforted by the
word of God.
So, the gift of prophecy has a broad
value as the church is benefited by its
exercise.
Benefited because it is built up, it is
exhorted, it is comforted, it is encouraged which
is of course exhortation.
Now, he that speaks in an unknown tongue
is built up himself.
It builds you up, it is a blessed
experience, one that does build you up.
But he that prophesies builds up the church.
Now, I would that you all spoke with
tongues.
I would that you all had this blessing
in your own personal devotional life.
But I would rather that you had the
gift of prophecy, for greater is he that
prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, except
he interpret that the church may receive the
edifying or the building up.
Now, here is where people often make a
mistake.
In that they believe that tongues with interpretation
becomes equivalent to prophecy.
Not so.
But it is a common mistake among the
Pentecostal churches, believing that tongues with interpretation becomes
the equivalent to prophecy.
Tongues, as far as I can understand from
the scriptures, are always, as Paul declared here
in verse 2, addressed to God.
You remember, as you go back in your
mind now to the second chapter of Acts,
and these men had gathered together there in
Jerusalem because of the phenomena, and these men
and women were speaking in these other tongues,
they marveled that they heard them all in
their own language as they were doing what?
As they were glorifying and praising God.
Their tongues were addressed to God.
They weren't addressed to the people.
They weren't being preached to in tongues, in
their own languages being preached to.
But actually, they heard them glorifying God, praising
God.
Paul the Apostle, in a few moments here,
is going to show us that we should
not speak in tongues in a public assembly
unless there is someone there who can interpret
in order that the whole church might be
edified.
For, if you speak in tongues without interpretation,
how is the person who is sitting over
here in the seat of the unlearned going
to say, yay, oh yes, amen, at your
giving of thanks, seeing he doesn't understand what
you're saying.
What is he saying yes to, amen to?
Your giving of thanks.
Your addressing of your thanks to God.
And then Paul went on to say, indeed,
you do praise God well, or it's a
good way to praise God, but not without
the interpretation because the others aren't edified then.
So, the interpretation, because it does bring to
the people the understanding of your worship and
praise to God, then does edify them.
As you, by the Spirit, are declaring the
glory, the power, the greatness of God, when
they can understand your words of praise and
adulation and glorifying God, they are edified by
your praises.
Now, if you have been in Pentecostal services
or circles, I'm sure that as you saw
the particular phenomena of tongues, that as you
recall those instances, you see that there is
an inconsistency here.
For in the observation over the years of
Pentecostal services, where there were the public utterances
in tongues, they called them messages in tongues.
And the interpretation so often was after this
manner, My little children, hearken unto me, for
I would call unto you today to praise
me.
My little children, hearken unto my voice.
And so often the interpretation, or I would
say at this point, the supposed interpretation, is
addressed to the people as God would be
speaking to them.
It would appear in the first person.
For I the Lord declare unto thee that
today I'm going to bless you and all.
And it comes out as a message from
God to man.
And I have observed this over and over
and over again in Pentecostal type services.
Does that mean that the tongues are not
genuine?
No, it means that the interpretation wasn't genuine.
And what I feel often times happens in
these meetings where you have this kind of
a happening is that you do have the
gift of tongues exercised followed by a gift
of prophecy exercised and not the interpretation of
the tongues.
And I think that this is a common
error in Pentecostal churches today and you'll find
it almost universally within them.
Tongues followed by prophecy rather than by a
true interpretation of what was uttered in the
unknown tongue.
So tongues with interpretation is not an equivalent
or equal to prophecy or the same thing
as prophecy.
For prophecy is when God speaks to the
church to edify, to exhort, to comfort.
Where tongues is addressed to God, the divine
mysteries, the secrets, the beauty, the glory as
my spirit worships Him.
Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking
with tongues, what shall I profit you except
I shall speak to you either by revelation
or by knowledge or by prophesying or by
doctrine?
In other words, when I come to you
tonight to speak to you, I come speaking
to you by revelation, by the word of
knowledge, by the gift of prophecy and by
doctrine.
If I stood up here the whole evening
speaking in an unknown tongue, it would be
a wasted evening for all of you.
But by speaking to you by revelation and
prophecy and word of knowledge and doctrine, you
are all blessed and benefited as we take
the word of God and as we learn
by it and as we grow by it
in our relationship and walk with God.
The speaking in tongues would only be meaningless
sounds and meaningless sounds, you don't know what
to do with them.
And so Paul said, there are things that
don't have life that give out sounds.
Now, if I would go over and play
the piano for you tonight, it would be
meaningless to you.
It would be meaningless sounds.
If a gifted, accomplished pianist played, it could
bless you.
And so there are things like pipes, like
harps that give out sounds.
But unless a person is really skilled, you
know, if you just get a guitar and
just hit the strings and let your fingers
go wherever, you know, you don't hear any
melody, you don't hear anything.
It's just a jangle of noise.
So tongues can be just a jangle of
noise unless there is an interpretation of them.
How do you know what song a person
is playing, you see?
Maybe just making the noise on the instrument.
You don't know what's being played.
Or if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound,
who's going to prepare himself for battle?
Now, of course, in those days and even
to the present day, they have certain bugle
calls, whereby they call people to wake up
in the morning, they call people to come
to breakfast, they call people to come for
mail, they call people to assemble together, they
call people to charge, they call people to
retreat.
And each one of these bugle sounds, or
bugle calls, has a message.
You know, charge.
And it has a message.
We understand the message.
But if a guy just gets up there
and starts blaring on the bugle, what are
we supposed to do?
Retreat, charge, or go to breakfast, you know?
It's an uncertain sound.
He's just making a noise.
And you don't know how to respond to
it.
So tongues can be meaningless.
You don't know how to respond to it.
You don't know how to react to it.
So likewise, unless you utter by the tongues,
or by your tongue, words that are easy
to be understood, how are people going to
know what you say?
So, just to get up and speak in
tongues to people is worthless.
It doesn't prepare them for anything.
They don't know how to respond to it
unless you speak in words they can understand,
bringing the simple truths.
Otherwise, it's just like speaking into the air.
Now, there are, it may be, so many
kinds of voices in the world, and none
of them without significance.
It may be that you're saying something extremely
significant, but who knows?
You may be saying something rather dumb.
Therefore, if I don't know the meaning of
the voice, coming into foreign languages sometimes is
a very interesting experience because you may do
something that's dumb in their culture, and they
start screaming at you and yelling at you
in their language.
And oftentimes I'm glad I don't understand it.
I don't know how to respond, but I'm
glad I don't understand what they're saying.
Therefore, if I don't know the meaning of
the voice, I'm like a foreigner to the
one who is speaking.
Even so you, for as much as you
are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek for those
gifts that you might excel in those gifts
that will edify the whole church.
Therefore, let him that speaks in an unknown
tongue pray that he may interpret, have the
gift of interpretation, so that should he exercise
that gift of tongues in the church, he
would also be able to edify the whole
church by bringing an interpretation.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue,
my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
I don't understand what I'm saying.
What is it then?
I will pray with the spirit, and I
will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the spirit, and I
will sing with the understanding also.
Paul is just declaring.
There are times in my devotions that I'll
pray in tongues.
There are times in my devotions that I'll
pray in Greek or in Hebrew, the language
I know.
There are times when I'll sing in tongues.
There are times when I'll sing in the
language that I know.
Else, when you shall bless with the spirit,
that is in tongues, how shall he that
is occupying the room of the unlearned say
amen at your giving of thanks if he
doesn't understand what you're saying?
For you indeed are giving thanks well, but
the rest of them are not edified.
And now Paul inserts this, lest you get
the wrong impression of what he's trying to
say.
I thank my God I speak with tongues
more than all of you.
Now Paul has told us already that he
doesn't do it in church.
He'd rather in church speak five words in
a known tongue than 10,000 in an
unknown.
Therefore, if he speaks in tongues more than
all of them, it is obvious that he
does so in his own personal private devotions
in his closet.
And I do believe that if a person
has the gift of tongues, that the proper
place to exercise that gift is in their
own personal private devotions, as by the Spirit
they worship God with the assistance of the
Spirit, declaring to God their love, His glory,
His goodness, His power, His greatness.
So, I thank God I speak in tongues
more than all of you, yet in church,
I'd rather speak just five words that people
can understand that I might be able to
teach them than 10,000 words that they
don't understand.
Brethren, be not children in understanding.
Howbeit in malice be children, but not in
understanding.
Be men.
So, we should seek to understand things.
Not to be as children, only as far
as malice.
We should be as children as far as
the malice is concerned, but in understanding.
Seek to really understand.
Seek to really know.
Now in the law it is written, with
men of other tongues and other lips will
I speak unto this people, and yet for
all that they will not hear me, saith
the Lord.
Now in Deuteronomy, the 28th chapter in the
law, Moses was warning the people of Israel
at the end of his ministry how that
because of their turning their backs on God,
their enemies were going to come in and
overthrow them.
And they would be hearing in their own
streets other languages being spoken as God's judgment
was upon them for their turning their backs
on Him.
And so, the hearing of these other tongues
was really a sign of the judgment of
God because they had turned their backs upon
God.
Paul, it seems, was referring to Deuteronomy, the
28th chapter, because he said in the law
it is written.
But also in Isaiah, in the prophet, it
is also written in the 28th chapter that
with stammering lips and other tongues will I
speak to this people.
But for all of this, they will not
hear.
Now this is in the context where they
were making fun of Isaiah's ministry.
They said, who is he going to teach?
He ought to go back and teach kindergarten.
For he is so simple and basic.
His teaching is line upon line, precept upon
precept, here a little, there a little.
And they were making fun of his teaching
methods.
And then he said, but with stammering lips
and other tongues will I speak unto this
people.
And this is the rest wherewith he will
cause the weary to rest.
Yet for all of this, they will not
hear.
So, Paul is evidently putting together both of
these passages of Scriptures.
With men of other tongues, will God speak?
As they hear these foreign languages of these
soldiers from the alien armies.
As they have been captured.
Deuteronomy 28.
And yet for all of that, they will
not hear me, saith the Lord.
Taking Isaiah's.
In other words, even with this judgment and
of course going back to Deuteronomy, the judgment
did not turn the people to God.
Wherefore, tongues are for a sign.
Not to them that believe, but to them
that believe not.
But prophesying serves not for them that believe
not, but for them which believe.
So, the tongues, an interesting passage, are a
sign for those that believe not.
Now, herein is a very difficult passage of
Scripture because it would appear that the very
next verse completely contradicts this.
We do find on the day of Pentecost
that tongues did serve as a sign for
those that believed not.
For on the day of Pentecost, when these
devout Jews were drawn by the phenomena, they
heard them speaking in the various languages, though
they were all of them from Galilee region,
languages from all over the world, using these
languages to praise God and to glorify the
Lord.
And as Peter then explained to them the
phenomena that they were observing, giving them the
scriptural basis, when Peter was finished with his
message and the Holy Spirit had convicted their
hearts, they said, What shall we do since
we've crucified the Lord of Glory?
And Peter said, Repent and be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of your sins and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises
to you and your children, those that are
far off.
And approximately 2,000 of them believed and
were added to the body of Christ that
day, the birth of the church.
Now, they were drawn by the phenomena, they
were convinced by the phenomena of speaking in
tongues, and it was assigned there to the
unbelievers and they were converted to Jesus Christ
as a result of the phenomena that they
observed.
Whereas, prophecy is more directed to those that
believe, to encourage, to strengthen, to comfort, to
edify.
Now, in the next verse, it seems that
Paul totally reverses his position.
If, therefore, the whole church be come together
into one place and all speak with tongues
and there come in those that are unlearned
or unbelievers, will they not say, you're crazy?
Now, is Paul totally reversing his position?
No, he's giving here a hypothetical case.
Probably what's happening in Corinth.
When the church would gather together, they'd all
stand up and just start speaking in tongues.
Now, if I went to a church and
everybody in the church got up and started
speaking in tongues, I'd say, hey, they're crazy.
Don't understand what's going on.
If I were an unbeliever.
If there is to be tongues in the
church, they are to be governed by the
rules that Paul set forth here.
Verse 27, if a man speaks in an
unknown tongue, let it be two or at
the most three and that in turn and
let one interpret.
Now, if the whole church is gathered together
and there are unbelievers present, the exercise of
the gift of tongues by the whole church
would draw the conclusion that they're crazy.
It would not be a sign to the
unbeliever at all.
Except a sign that you're all crazy.
However, if there is to be the exercise
of tongues, definitely it would appear that Paul
is discouraging it in the church.
I personally, Paul says, wouldn't do it in
church.
I do it in my own devotions.
If it is done in church, then definitely
it is and should be limited.
Two or three at the most, that in
turn and one person should interpret.
Now, further restrictions.
If there is no one there with the
gift of interpretation, then keep silent and speak
unto yourself and to God.
I totally discount the person who gets up
and speaks in tongues and says, God made
me do it.
I couldn't help myself.
Paul here does declare that you do have
control over it and that if there is
no interpreter and you feel this urge and
this anointing, just speak to yourself and speak
to God.
It could be, as God's word is going
forth, the Spirit of God is touching your
heart and you're blessed.
And many people only know how to respond
to God's touch upon their heart by speaking
in tongues.
And if that be the case, and you're
being blessed and you want to just praise
God for what you're gaining and learning, then
just do it to yourself and to God.
There are times when the church gathers together,
not the whole body, but in parts.
Little prayer groups, little prayer cells.
Then I think that there are other rules
that apply.
And I think that there can be a
greater freedom in the use of tongues in
those smaller groups.
But when the whole church is gathered together,
unbelievers present, then there are definite rules that
apply.
Now here at Calvary Chapel, because of the
size, when the whole church is gathered together,
for a person to get up and speak
in tongues would be confusing.
And therefore, we do not allow it in
our public services to save confusion.
Number one, we don't know all of the
people who might want to stand up.
The other Sunday night, we had some real
winners over here.
I was expecting one of them to get
up and speak in tongues, really.
Unfortunately, they spoke language that we did understand,
which wasn't edifying.
But there are people who have psychological problems,
who are drawn to Pentecostal type services, and
they use the freedom of the platform within
the Pentecostal services to satisfy a psychological need
in their own lives.
And inasmuch as we exercise the gift of
prophecy, and word of knowledge, and word of
wisdom as we are teaching the Word, it
would not be consistent for the Holy Spirit
to interrupt Himself with utterances in tongues, with
interpretations.
As I say, we do have the prayer
groups, the cell groups and all, where there
is a freer exercise of this particular gift
with interpretation.
And it is valuable.
And we don't invalidate it.
We recognize it as a valid work and
gift of God, but not in the whole
assembly of the Church when the whole Church
is gathered together and unbelievers present.
Then we put the brakes on it.
But if all are prophesying and there comes
in one that does not believe or is
unlearned, he is convinced of all and judged
of all.
Now he said, though the prophecy was not
for them that believe not, but for them
which believe.
But I have found something that is very
interesting.
As we are teaching the Word of God
using the gift of prophecy, quite often when
unbelievers come in, though prophecy is for the
body and I'm exhorting or comforting or edifying
the body, and unbelievers come in, though the
gift is directed to the body, yet so
many times things are said that cut their
own hearts.
As I start speaking on a particular issue,
start creating examples, we've had people bring their
friends to church who became extremely angered with
their friends because they figured it was a
setup.
They thought that their friends had told me
all about them before they got here.
And were so upset that they would be
set up like that.
And they were sure that, you know, I
had received the full report on them because
as we started to talk, the Spirit of
God began to nail the issues in their
lives.
And of course many times the person in
hearing things like this is convicted by the
Spirit and he realizes, hey, God is real.
The things of God are real.
Even though the gift is being exercised towards
the church.
There are those who in hearing the teaching
of the Word are convinced in their own
hearts of the reality and the truth of
God.
So prophecy serves a wonderful place within the
church to edify, to exhort, to comfort.
And unbelievers hearing it don't go away and
say, you're crazy.
They go away saying, hey, there's something there
that's real.
For thus are the secrets of their heart
made manifest and falling down on their faces
they will worship God and report that God
is there in truth.
How is it then, brethren, when you come
together, every one of you has a psalm,
has a doctrine, has a tongue, has a
revelation, has an interpretation.
Now, here is where they made a mistake
in punctuation.
In the Greek there is no punctuation.
This was done by the translators.
And herein I believe they made a mistake
in punctuation.
In putting the question mark after the word
brethren, the question mark should be after the
word interpretation.
So the question is, how is it then,
brethren, when you come together, every one of
you has a psalm, has a doctrine, has
a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.
In other words, your services are wild.
Everybody wants to get into the act.
Every one of you have a psalm, an
interpretation.
Now, because of the mistake in the punctuation,
there are some people who say that when
the church comes together, this is the order
for the church.
When you come, you should have a psalm,
you should have a song, you should have
a prophecy, you should have an interpretation.
You know, it should be freewheeling.
Everybody should get up and do their thing.
And that this is the order.
It's like when Chuck Jr. was growing up
and had misbehaved and I took him in
to spank him and I was wanting to
explain to him why it was necessary that
I spank him for this infraction of the
rule.
I said, you know Chuck, the Bible says
to spare the rod and spoil the child.
He says, yeah, and why don't you?
I said, no, no, it means that if
I spare the rod, I'll spoil you.
But he had interpreted that as a command.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.
You ought to spoil me, Dad.
And people have misinterpreted this in the same
way taking it as a command.
It's not a command.
It's a rebuke for the disorderly services that
they were having in Corinth.
And that is why he gives the first
rule when you're gathered together, let all things
be done unto Edifying.
Everything that is done, let it be for
the building up of the whole body of
Christ.
Let it have that benefit of building up
the body.
First rule.
If they speak in an unknown tongue, as
we've already covered, two or at the most
three, one interpret.
If there's no interpreter, then let them keep
silence in the church and let them speak
to themselves and to God.
Those that prophesy, again, two or three, and
let the others judge.
If a person gets up and says, Thus
saith the Lord.
Don't just buy it.
Judge it.
Is it really the Lord speaking?
Thus saith the Lord.
Go out and sell everything.
There's going to be a crash.
Get rid of all your stock.
Is it really the Lord speaking?
Judge it.
A lot of people have gotten in trouble
because they didn't judge supposed prophecies.
A lot of weird things have been done.
So, let there be two or three.
Let the others judge.
And if someone is prophesying and something is
revealed to someone sitting by, then let the
first hold his peace.
Let the other one have a chance to
share what's on his heart.
For you may all prophesy one at a
time that you all may learn and all
be comforted.
So, the purpose of prophecy was for comfort
and learning.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject
to the prophets.
In other words, the Holy Spirit will not
make you do something inordinately.
The Holy Spirit isn't going to just take
and set you on your feet and set
you to shouting in the middle of a
service.
The spirit of the prophet is subject unto
the prophet.
You have the control over the gifts and
the use of the gifts of the spirit
in your life.
The spirit doesn't take you out of yourself.
Second rule, God is not the author of
confusion but of peace as in all of
the churches of the saints.
So, those things that are done should not
be or bring confusion.
And if the result is confusion, then it
was not of God.
As those three ladies went prating out the
other night shouting their judgments upon the house
of God.
It was confusing.
It was not of God.
God is not the author of confusion but
of peace.
Now, Paul said, let the women, let your
women, keep silence in the churches for it
is not permitted unto them to speak.
But they are commanded to be under obedience
as also saith the law.
Now, you remember we pointed out when we
were in the 11th chapter that Paul there
speaks of a woman praying or prophesying with
her head unveiled.
So, when Paul is declaring here that a
woman is not to speak but is to
keep silence, he is not referring to women
not praying in church or not prophesying in
church because he already has made allowances for
that back in the 11th chapter.
Then what does he mean that your women,
notice, your women keep silence in the church.
And if they would learn anything, let them
ask their husbands at home for it is
a shame for women to speak in the
church.
The early church followed the pattern of the
Jewish synagogue.
Men sat on one side, the women sat
on the other side.
Now, we don't follow the Jewish synagogue pattern
anymore.
We commingle.
They did that because they felt that they
might be distracted by women.
So, they kept them on one side separately,
the men on the other so they would
not be distracted by them.
Here, as you're sitting together, if something is
said you don't quite understand, you might say,
what do you mean by that?
Or you might write a note, what does
that mean?
There, because her husband is on the other
side, honey, what is he talking about?
And so Paul said, let the women keep
silence.
Your women keep silence.
Your wife, keep silence.
If she wants to learn anything, if she
has a problem, a question, let her ask
you when you get it home.
It's a shame the way the women are
calling out in church.
It isn't prohibiting them from praying, from prophesying,
from exercising the other gifts of the Spirit.
It is prohibiting them from calling across the
room to their husband to get an explanation
of what's being said or what's going on.
And so, if they want to learn anything,
let them ask their husbands at home.
It's a shame for the women to speak
in church, speak out in church that way.
Now, Paul said, hey, do you think that
you originated the things of God?
Do you think that you set the standards,
that you set the rules, that the Word
of God has come forth from you or
only to you that you have a special
dispensation?
And now Paul, I think, uses a lot
of wisdom.
He says, look, if any man really thinks
himself to be a prophet or he really
thinks himself spiritual, then let him acknowledge that
the things that I'm writing to you are
the commandments of the Lord.
You know, there were a lot of people
puffed up spiritually.
Paul said, love isn't puffed up.
It doesn't bond itself.
But that was happening in Corinth.
People were, you know, trying to take positions
of spiritual authority.
And it's interesting how so many people get
on these spiritual trips, you know, and spiritual
pride.
And, you know, they've got the revelation and
they've got the understanding.
They've got the knowledge, you know.
Paul said, look, if a guy is truly
spiritual, let him acknowledge that these things that
I am saying are from the Lord.
If you really have the gift of prophecy,
if you're truly spiritual, you have to acknowledge
this.
But if a man is ignorant, that's too
bad.
Wherefore, brethren, desire to prophesy and forbid not
to speak in tongues.
But then, finally, the last rule, let all
things be done decently and in order.
That's the failure of the Corinthian church.
There was disorder in the house of God
bringing confusion and people were going there and
saying, hey, they're crazy.
And probably for good reason.
So, let all things be done decently and
in order.
Next week, that exciting 15th chapter of Corinthians.
Oh, it's a dilly.
May the Lord bless you and guide you
in your walk and fellowship with Him that
it might increase and be enriched.
May the Lord keep His hand upon your
life this week.
May you be blessed as He leads and
guides.
And may it be really a beautiful week.
May you experience a new depth of relationship
with Him.
Some of you who have, in times past,
exercised some of those gifts of the Spirit
in your own devotions or whatever, and you've
just sort of let them be lax.
May you stir up the gifts that are
in you.
May you begin to just really use every
tool that God has given to worship, to
know, to fellowship, to understand.
May you draw closer to Him.
Be deepened in your walk.
In Jesus' name.