And we've looked at sage man.
And last week, we put man upon the
operating table of the Bible.
And with the blade of truth, we operated
and we looked at man's conscience.
And I want to thank you for some
of the letters that I received in the
weeks of the past.
It's so kind of you to write.
But it's a mighty subject, man's conscience, because
we found out that this conscience that was
given to Adam, right at the very beginning,
a conscience that was clear then, we found
out that it could become a defiled conscience.
And then we found it could go further
away from God and its usefulness and become
a feared conscience.
And then we found that some superstitious people
could be easily annoyed by things that we
do, and it would become a wounded conscience.
And we went on through looking at this
mighty faculty of conscience.
And I said last week that conscience was
the thought-judging faculty.
All the thoughts that come here, it is
conscience that judges whether they're right or wrong,
in the first instance, of course.
Oh, I know we've got the Word of
God to keep us right, and I know
that the Holy Ghost is within every believer.
But the faculty is there, nevertheless.
And next week we're going to look at
man's memory.
And, you know, that's the thought-retaining faculty.
If you have a good memory, it's a
great thing.
And it's a great thing for preachers, of
course, because you've got to memorize and you've
got to remember and retain, and this is
the faculty that retains and recalls.
But tonight we're looking at man's understanding.
You see, this is another part of this
wonderful mind that God has given to us.
You see, up here we have a brain,
and all the brain specialists know the different
departments of that brain, the different faculties, they
call it.
You see, you've got a memory up there.
It may not be as good as mine,
but it does all right.
And you've got an imagination up there.
It's just imagining things, you know.
And you've got an understanding up there.
That's quite different from memory and imagination and
conscience.
And so we're going to look at man's
understanding this evening.
You know, Solomon was the wisest man that
ever lived, apart from Christ.
You remember he asked God to give him
wisdom.
Well, let me show you something that he
penned in the book of Proverbs, and we're
at chapter three, please.
The book of Proverbs, chapter three.
And at verse five, this is what he
said, when he's talking to all the people
of the Lord.
He's saying, Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart, and lean not unto thine own
understanding.
Want you to get that.
You see, when we come to this mighty
doctrine of the understanding, man's understanding, it divides
itself into two parts, just the same as
heart will divide itself into two parts.
You see, there's an old nature in here,
and it's deceitful above all things, and it's
desperately wicked, and Paul said, In me that
is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Ah, but there was a day when I
was born again, and I got a new
nature, a new heart.
And when we come to the doctrine of
heart, we've got to see it in two
different ways, and it's the same with understanding.
You see, the old man's understanding won't do.
That's the Jacob side of the believer.
You see, Jacob, he climbed his own way
right through all in his own.
He maneuvered with his own understanding how he
would get the birthright, and how he would
get the blessing, and how he would get
the beasts.
He stole the sheep.
He was leaning on his own understanding.
And Solomon is saying, Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart, and lean not unto
thine own understanding.
Now, this is why he said that.
Let's go to Ephesians, and we're at chapter
four.
The letter to the Ephesians, and we're at
the fourth chapter.
And Paul writing to these saints, these born
-again believers at Ephesus, he said this in
verse seventy, This I take therefore, and testify
in the Lord, that ye henceforth, that's a
great word, isn't it, talking to believers, that
ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their minds, having the
understanding darkened.
Well, I want you to get the hold
of that.
Because I don't think that we grasp just
what the fall meant for us.
You see, it's true that God made Adam
perfect.
And it's true that God created him, that
he came from the hand of God.
But it's equally true that when by disobedience
to the will and word of God, that
sin entered.
Then a great many things took place that
we just don't get all at once.
You see, he spiritually died at that moment.
And we'll go into that in the night
to come, when we come to spirit.
Oh, but there were a great many other
things took place.
You see, his understanding became darkened.
Oh, that's a bit of a handicap, you
see.
You see, when you're not saved, your understanding
is darkened, and then the devil comes along
to blind you even more, that you're in
the dark.
And that's the reason that we should never
lean on our own understanding.
Oh, no, you need to be born again,
you know.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter 1, so you
see the difference.
Ephesians 1, and verse 15, Paul's talking to
these believers, Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, It's
great to hear of people's faith in the
Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints.
You know, when a fellow truly believes, he
begins to love the saints.
You see, six months ago, before some of
you got saved, you wouldn't come here, because
you weren't saved, you know.
Once you've got faith in the Lord Jesus,
and you're looking for help, and looking for
food, then you come along, and we're glad
to see you.
He says, Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, cease not to
give thanks for you.
Thank God for every one of you.
If you got saved at workman's mission, or
you got saved in the free Presbyterians, or
you got saved in the Methodists, no matter
where you got saved, we just thank God
for you getting saved.
Why wouldn't we?
Oh yes, it's wonderful.
Oh, Dr. Chalmers was asked this question once.
He also said, Would you preach for six
weeks every night, doctor, Sunday and Saturday, and
every night in between?
And at the end of six weeks preaching,
if only a little boy of twelve was
saved, would you do it?
He said, Certainly I would do it, should
it might be my little boy.
That makes a difference.
It doesn't make a matter of where you
got saved, so long as you got saved,
we pray the Lord.
Yes, and we pray for you.
Maybe we don't get credit about praying for
you.
He says, Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, cease not to
give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom, and
revelation in the knowledge of him, that the
eyes of your understanding, being enlightened.
Now that's different.
Did you get that?
Because if I used that phrase on my
own, and I started to talk about the
eyes of your understanding, somebody would say he's
gone off the rock.
No, not a bit of it.
This is a figure of speech and you're
alone.
You see, when Adam fell, this old understanding
was darkened.
And the devil comes along to blind the
minds of them that believe not.
He's determined to keep us in the dark.
But then one day the light shone in.
And God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness away at the beginning, it
was God that shone into our hearts.
And that day we got saved.
Now, you see, when you get saved, God
enlightens your understanding.
You're a new creature, you see.
You see, it's perfectly true that there's an
old nature there, and it's darkened.
Or that it's perfectly true there's a new
nature there, and that the eyes of the
understanding of the new man is enlightened.
Where do you think I'd ever find the
things in this book without that happening?
So, I think you can see that the
doctrine divides itself into two, doesn't it?
There's a natural understanding and there's a spiritual
understanding.
I think we'll get this better if we
come to 1 Corinthians, and we're at the
second chapter.
1 Corinthians, chapter two.
Well, I think we're at the portion now
that every one of us, we need to
learn this early.
Want all you young preachers to learn.
Want all the Sunday school teachers to learn.
Want all the believers to learn this.
We're at 1 Corinthians, chapter two.
We're at verse nine, just for the sake
of time.
But as it is written, I have not
seen nor heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him.
And you see, I'm perfectly sure that the
phrase, neither have entered into the heart of
man, should be, neither have entered into the
heart of the natural man, the old man.
Are you of a perfect light to say
to me, how do you know that?
I'll tell you how I know that.
I'll read it over for you again and
you'll find it.
But as it is written, I have not
seen nor heard, neither have entered into the
heart of natural man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us.
Did you get the us?
Because if God is revealing them unto us,
then we know about them.
Or that there are folks who never know
about them.
Yeah, they don't see them.
Their eyes have not seen.
Their ears have never heard.
It has never entered into the heart of
the natural man whose understanding has darkened.
Oh, but the day we were saved, we
were born again, and God hath revealed these
things unto us.
Now, do you see it coming out clear?
He says down the chapter, verse 13, which
things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but
the natural man, that's the word in its
proper place, no, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him.
Now, will you get this a little bit?
Neither can he know them.
He can't understand them.
You see, I go to the Queen's University
twice a week, and I talk with all
the professors, and I talk with the doctors
who lecture there.
And I'd be amused, you know, absolutely amused
at the ignorance of these men.
If you see, these men are in the
dark.
They're just natural men.
And let's make this quite clear, it doesn't
matter about your degrees.
You can have all the degrees in the
world, but if you're still a natural man,
I'll tell you this, the things of God
would be foolishness unto you.
Yes, and you can't know them.
You need to be born again to know
things.
We could make somebody stand up in the
sleeping room in a couple of weeks saying,
oh, but you know, they're beginning to know
things now.
The whole thing's changed, you know.
They never knew these things.
Oh, but they know them now.
The lady that was singing here on Sunday
evening, she sang that old hymn, If I
am dreaming, let me dream on.
And I remember, you see, it was old
Gypsy Smith who wrote that, and I remember
that.
And he wrote it, one day he entered
into a railway carriage, he stopped out, and
there was a man in front of him,
and the old gypsy, you know, was always
on the go for God.
Yes, he was just ready to talk to
everybody he came to.
And he was quite a clever fellow, Gypsy
Smith.
I'll tell you a story in between this,
and I'll get back to the other one.
He was leading a donkey from the gypsy
camp one evening, and the whole lot of
fellows outside the university, you know, all said,
oh, look at this fellow coming with the
donkey, and thought they'd take a hand out
of him.
And one big fellow said, how much would
you like for the donkey?
And the old gypsy said, why would your
mother be able to keep two?
Well, you know, you, he was quite a
clever fellow.
He was a gypsy, all right, but he
was all there.
But when he got into the train that
day, there was a gentleman on the other
side of the carriage, and he said, you
know, I'd like to tell you how I
got saved.
He started to tell this fellow how he
got saved, and everything about it.
And at last the fellow got outraged and
said to him, you're dreaming.
And the old gypsy started to write then,
and he wrote one of the most beautiful
hymns we have, If I am dreaming, let
me dream on.
My sins are gone.
And he went on with that wonderful hymn.
You see, there are men in this world,
and they've got honors at Queens, and they've
got honors at different universities.
Sure, I see some of the Highlander boys,
and I see some of the Japanese.
And you know, they can do the job.
They're here in chemistry, and they're here in
the medical field.
And you know, they work so hard that
they come out with honors.
And they get honors at Queens, but they
go back home and kneel down before stones
to worship idols.
Doesn't make them spiritually inferior, you know.
If you're a smart aleck in this meeting,
and you're not saved, let me tell you,
you know nothing about the things of God.
You're a darkened soul.
And until you're born again, you'll never understand
what we're talking about.
Let me show you this bit again.
Watch it very carefully now.
Verse 14, But the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness unto him.
Try to tell them about the man on
the cross.
I was talking to a doctor at Queens
the other day about the sacrifice of the
cross.
He said, I can't understand this.
I don't understand this at all.
Why should a man have to go and
get his wife?
Why?
I said, do you believe there's a God?
I don't believe there's a God.
What kind of a God do you think
he is?
Is he a holy God or a non
-holy God?
He says he's a holy God.
So let me get to the end of
it.
You can't have a God who steals, can
you?
You can't have a God who covets, can
you?
You can't have a God who murders, can
you?
Do you want them to love thieves?
Let them not be a sacrifice for their
sins.
They couldn't make the sacrifice.
For he so loved that he gave his
son.
There he is now.
I don't know whether it's in his head
or not.
You see, I just happen to know that
he doesn't know and the preaching of the
cross is foolishness unto them that are perishing.
Sure, I know that all the time.
That's why I did such tricks in the
meeting to get Congress.
Sure, God's not working.
They'll never get paid.
Take God to put the light in.
Don't go pushing them now.
Just pray to God and preach the truth.
But you can see this.
The natural man receives not the things of
God for they are foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them.
He cannot understand them.
Because his understanding is darkened.
Can't you see that?
You know, our Lord Jesus said to the
men of this day, you can discern the
face of the sky.
Oh, they can do it in this day
too.
They tell you all about what's coming to
pass for the next day in the weather
and all the rest.
And the old folks bless and say red
at night is the fear of the light.
Red in the morning is the fear of
the morning.
And they're really always right, you know.
And they can discern the face of the
sky but they can't discern the time they're
living in.
They don't know how near they are to
eternity, you know.
But they know about tomorrow's weather.
Understanding is darkened.
Yes.
Now, I want you to get the hold
of this.
There is a spiritual understanding.
See where we are the way down in
the notes.
Now, I want you to get this bit.
There is an evangelical understanding.
Can I just quote this to save time?
Paul says, I know.
I know.
It's the old Greek word for understanding.
He says, I know whom I have believed.
And I'm persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day.
You know, if I were to make everybody
stand up who knows this?
Oh, what a flock we would have initially.
There's a whole lot of us.
And we never passed the 11 plus.
And we never did very much at school.
And we're nobodies at all.
And there are folks with us who are
architects.
And there are folks here who have progressed
in business.
And they're smart businessmen.
But we would all have to stand up
together, you know.
Because we've got this understanding tonight.
We know.
We know that we are not redeemed with
corruptible things such as silver or gold.
We know we're redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb.
You see, I can go on with this
for ever so long.
Because we know that Christ is coming.
And we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him.
That's the spiritual understanding.
Now, there's a devotional understanding, too, and it
comes into us.
Let's go way back to Luke's Gospel, chapter
24, please.
Luke's Gospel.
And we're at the 24th chapter.
And you remember he walked the Emmaus Road
with them that day.
What a thrill it is if you go
to Palestine and you walk that old Emmaus
Road.
I walked every yard of it once upon
a time.
And the thoughts that come to your heart
of how Christ walked with them and how
he began at Moses and all the prophets
and expounded onto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself.
And what a day it must have been.
And he revealed himself to the Jews that
evening down at the table in the little
cottage in Emmaus.
And in faith of these two, verse 33,
and they rose up the same hour and
returned to Jerusalem.
You know, that was quite some doing because
it's a long way, it's eight miles.
And when you walk for eight miles in
the burning sun, you know, you get tired.
But these folks were so thrilled with Christ
that they're going back to Jerusalem and found
the eleven gathered together, Judas was gone, of
course, and them that were with them, saying,
the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared
to Simon.
Somewhere that day, the Lord Jesus appeared to
Simon.
You remember how Peter had denied him, how
he had said, I don't know him, how
he had denied him with oaths and curses.
And then when the Lord turned and looked,
he went out and wept bitterly.
And I think he was alone for the
two days.
And then when the Lord rose on the
third day, you know, he went round to
find Peter.
I've always thought of seeing Peter way out
on the mountain there, maybe the Mount of
Olives, sitting alone.
And he was crying.
He had blasted everything, yet he loved the
Lord.
He had blundered badly.
And then somebody sat down beside him and
put their arm round him and squeezed him.
And it was the Lord.
He'd come for Peter.
Very wonderful, you know.
And here's the story now.
The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared
to Simon.
And they told what things were done in
the way and how he was made known
of them.
They came in with their story.
You know, when he was at the table,
just the way he bricked the bread, we
knew it was him.
And as they thus did, Jesus himself stood
in the midst of them.
Here he is.
And said unto them, Peace be unto you.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed
they had seen the Spirit.
He scared them.
And he said unto them, Why are you
troubled?
Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it
is I myself.
Humble me and feel, for the Spirit hath
not flesh and bones, as you see me
have.
And when he had thus spoken, he showed
them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believed not, for joy
and wonder, he said unto them, Have you
here any meat?
And they gave him a piece of a
broiled fish, and often honeycomb.
And he took it and ate before them.
And he said unto them, These are the
words which I speak unto you while I
was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled, which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in
the Psalms concerning me.
Then opened he their understanding.
Oh, yeah, that's wonderful, isn't it?
Because, you know, he began to open up
the first five books of the Bible.
It's called Moses.
And then he's opening all the prophets.
And then he's opening all the Psalms.
Oh, you know, this thrills me.
Because these pictures and prophecies and wonderful statements
in the Psalms, they belong to my Lord.
He's real.
The one who died and rose again, He's
real.
My friends, this evening, let's get this thrills
me to my very toes.
He's alive and He's real.
And what's more, He's mine.
And what's more, He can open this old
understanding.
Sure, He has helped me for years.
Everything I have, and everything I am, and
everything I ever hoped to be, I owe
everything to Him.
Yes, He just opened the understanding.
And I see things in the Psalms, and
I see things in the prophets, and I
see things in Moses.
It's the Lord, isn't it?
You know, that's a devotional understanding.
Now, let's go way back to 1 Chronicles,
chapter 12.
First book of Chronicles.
Just take your time now and find it.
1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings,
and then 1 and 2 Chronicles, and we're
at 1 Chronicles, and we're at chapter 12.
It's a mighty chapter, because it's here that
you find David, the way out in the
wilderness.
And it tells you all the people that
came to stand beside him when he was
despised and rejected of men.
And it gives all the names, and we
don't want to go into the names.
Verse 1 says, Now these are they that
came to David to take Glad, while he
yet kept himself close because of Saul the
son of Kish.
You see, Saul was hunting for him every
day.
He had six hundred warriors at his heels.
He wanted to take David's life, and this
book says he hunted David on the mountains
like a partridge.
But although David was outside the camp, there
was a lot of people who was willing
to bear his reproach, and they were standing
with him.
And then it tells you all the folks
that came and the tribes they came from.
And way down at verse 32 it says,
And of the children of Ithaca, there came
a lot of people from Ithaca, which were
men that had understanding of the times to
know what Israel ought to do.
That's a mighty thing, you see.
That's a dispensational understanding.
I'm afraid this is what's lacking in our
land today.
You know, it's a great thing to be
saved, and it's a great thing to get
an enlightened understanding, and it's a great thing
to have an evangelical understanding, just to know
that, well as I was blind, now I
see, just to be sure of that.
And it's a great thing to have this
dispensational, where you feel that when you read
and look into the book, that the Lord
is opening your understanding, just to understand the
Scriptures.
But I think, you know, what we need
is quite a lot of teaching on the
times we're living in.
Living in dreadful times, you know.
I think every Ulster man and woman knows
that to a certain extent.
But I don't think that we know the
times we're living in the way we should.
Let me help you just for a moment.
Let's leave that and let's come over to
2nd Timothy, 2nd book of Timothy, and we're
at the 3rd chapter.
2nd Timothy, chapter 3.
Now, he's talking to Timothy, and don't let's
get away from that.
It's time to teach this young fellow.
He's saying, this know also.
And the word know is the old word
for understanding, this understand, he's wanting him to
understand.
That in the last days, perilous times shall
come.
Because he's wanting this young fellow to have
an understanding of the times.
And I believe we're in the last times
now.
And perilous times have come.
Now, you'll notice where these perilous times will
come from.
They'll come from men.
He says, this know also, that in the
last days, perilous times shall come from men.
We have bothered with men.
For men shall be lovers of their own
selves.
That kind of men, covetous men, boasters, boasting
men, proud men, blasphemous, blaspheming men.
I want you to hold on to that
word, blasphemous.
Disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy men.
Why did God put all these words in
here?
Is to fill a book up?
Oh, not on your life.
We want to just hold on to the
blaspheming men and the unholy men, because they're
going to give us bother.
Verse 3, without natural affection, toothbreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce men, despisers of those that are
good.
Let's get a bit into these blaspheming men,
these unholy men, these despisers of those that
are good men.
And if you're going to talk about trickers,
heavy and high-minded, lovers of pleasure more
than lovers of God, then he says something
that would startle you.
Having a form of godliness.
How can blasphemers have a form of godliness?
How can unholy men have a form of
godliness?
How can those that despise those that are
good have a form of godliness?
I want to know.
I'll tell you.
You see, we're in the last days, and
we're going to have trouble from then.
And I think we're going to have more
than we imagine.
You see, just last month, I want you
to get this very carefully, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, yes, I want you to get this
now, very, very carefully, he was preaching at
the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral, and he called,
this is out of the Times in London,
it's dated the 26th of the first 78,
and it says, the Archbishop of Canterbury preaching
at the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral calls for
true and urgent unity with Rome, and thus
exposes the real objectives of the ecumenical dialogue.
Because the real objectives are one world church
headed by the Pope and the Roman Communion.
The purpose, the pursuit of the Archbishop's objectives
would destroy Her Majesty's coronation oath.
You see, our Queen, you remember her being
crowned, do you?
And she took an oath to be a
defender of the Protestant faith.
Now if the Archbishop gets his way, then
our oath will be worth nothing.
And this paper said, the pursuit of the
Archbishop's objectives would destroy Her Majesty's coronation oath
and the Protestants' accession to the British throne.
Then it adds, and it's not afraid to
add, Archbishop Coggan is culturally unworthy of the
trust committed to him.
And if he were honest, he would resign
and join the Church of Rome as a
sincere convert.
Now here's what he actually said at that
meeting.
Now I'm quoting his actual words.
He said, Should I not be asking, as
indeed I now do, for the forgiveness of
the Roman Catholic friends, for the lingering attitudes
of suspicion and coldness, even sometimes of contempt,
which characterized us up to fifteen or twenty
years ago, and sometimes do still.
And should not that confession of sin be
sealed in joint participation in the sacrament of
Holy Communion?
Archbishop Coggan wants one church with the Pope
at his head, and we've got to go
back to have communion at the Roman mass.
Let me tell you again what this book
says now.
Watch it again.
We're in the last days, and we're entering
into perilous times because these blasphemers, these unholy,
these men are going to have a form
of godliness, not the ecumenical movement, but denying
the power thereof.
We'll tell you what God says.
Form such family!
That's what God says.
Paul Coggan says, go in!
Do you mean to tell me that we
could go in to sit down at the
pagan mass?
There's a million priests lifts a river every
Sunday morning and shakes it, and they say
they create Christ.
It is blasphemy.
They could never create Christ.
And then they put the river on the
altar, and they crucify Christ.
They will never crucify him again.
He lives in the power of an endless
life.
See, Spurgeon, who was a holy man of
God, called this religion a bastard religion.
And it's nothing else.
That's where we're heading for.
That's where we are.
And your old arse, Peter, would take you
down the drain, wouldn't he?
I wouldn't even bother getting some of us
through the gate.
We have no notion of down to that
mountain.
And if you're stuck in the big church,
it's time you were out.
Form such family!
And that's not my words.
We're beginning to understand, aren't we?
But some of us are so tarnished with
tradition, and we're so afraid to upset.
By God, you would nearly step in Rome.
It's a pity of you.
They have no notion of Diocese or Pope.
Not for a second.
That won't work.
Yes, this understanding is the mighty thing, isn't
it?
Because you see, we need an evangelical understanding,
and a dispensational, and a devotional.
Now, let me do this for you.
The time is moving on.
It's come to 1 Corinthians 14.
Because we hear a whole lot of crap
about tongues these days.
More than we've ever done before.
Well, just watch me reading the chapter with
you now.
Because you know that when Pentecost came in
its fullness, that God gave, on that particular
day, this special gift.
So that little nucleus that was to be
the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ.
And they were enabled that day to speak
to men of other languages, only to Jews,
of course.
And they were able to speak in their
own languages.
And remember, if you go back to the
Acts chapter 2, and I can take you
on out there if you wish.
There was no interpreter.
You see, I cornered a big fellow at
King's not so long ago.
He says, you do this?
Yes.
Same as on the day of Pentecost?
He says, no, I can't do that.
No, I says, you're afraid to say that,
because I can get you boys out to
Queen's Hill in just two ticks.
I can get you Chinese and Japanese and
all the rest of them, and you can't
speak English.
You're mumbling about there.
Yeah, I get sick with it.
Let's really stand up and be counted now.
What's me doing this for, you see?
He's talking to these people at Cairns who
were playing about with this.
He says, follow after charity.
That is, follow after love.
Desire spiritual gifts.
That's right.
God's an honourer that he may prophesy.
That word prophesy is just preaching, isn't it?
For he that speaketh in a non-known
tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God,
and this is what they try to get
something out of.
For no man understandeth him.
Well, let's keep this preaching, because we're on
the understanding tonight.
You see a fellow standing up in the
church, and he's preaching to a Jew in
the backseat, and the Jew came from Germany,
and in the area of the church this
gift was there, and he could speak in
German.
Ah, but no man in the church was
understanding what was going on.
No man was understanding that.
Let's get this.
Now watch this very carefully.
Albeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries.
But that just won't cover this thing, you
know.
But he that prophesieth, speaketh unto men through
edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
You see, that's what preaching's all about, to
edify, and to exhort, and to comfort.
He that speaketh in a non-known tongue
edifies himself.
Now this is the bit.
Watch the next phrase.
He that prophesieth, edifies the church.
How does he edify the church?
Because the church understands what he's saying.
I hope you understand what I'm saying.
Now, if a fellow's going to talk in
tongues, if he's going to edify himself, he
must understand what he's saying.
Ask any woman.
No, they don't understand.
They don't understand a word of God.
They just all amalaphalic and all, and that's
a fucking good any time.
Yeah.
I'll tell you this.
The man that's had the gift when the
gift was here, the gift is not here
now.
The man could understand because he edified himself.
Now watch this again.
We'll go further with this.
I would that ye all speak with tongues,
but rather that ye prophesied.
For greater is he that prophesieth.
Oh, they don't like that bit.
Than he that speaketh with tongues.
Except he intempted that the church may receive
edifying.
You see, if this fellow stopped into the
German and the Baptist, somebody will have to
tell the church what's all, what's going on.
Yes.
They counter-catification all the time.
Now brethren, verse 6, I come unto you
speaking with tongues.
What shall I prophesy to you?
Except I speak to you either by revelation
or by knowledge or by prophesying or by
doctrine, and even things without life giving sound,
whether pipe or harp, except they give a
distinction in the sounds.
How shall it be known what is pipe
to harp?
You know, if a fellow came here with
a violin and just rolled, they all go
across the thing back and forth, you wouldn't
understand a thing about it, would you?
Oh, but if he played the Sass and
the Father of War, you would of course
know what it was all about.
It's just the first thing that came to
my mind.
That's all right.
Now let's get this quite clear.
Verse 8, For if the trumpet given on
certain sound, who shall prepare himself for the
battle?
You know, the bugler out in the front
there was the colonel.
If he would play retreat when he should
be playing advance, you know, we're going to
get into a bit of a muddle.
Oh, listen.
What we are working round is that the
thing is understood all the time.
And if the thing is not understood, then
nobody's getting nothing.
Watch this.
For if the trumpet given on certain sound,
who shall prepare himself for the battle?
So likewise he, except he uttered by the
tongue words easy to be understood.
Did you get that?
Because that happens to be right there.
Because even when the gift was here, it
was an understanding.
My, the tripe that's put over for guns
today.
I'll tell you it's tripe.
Watch this again.
For there are, it may be so many
kinds of voices in the world, but none
of them is without signification.
Therefore if I know not the meaning of
the voice, I shall be unto him that
speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall
be a barbarian unto me.
Even so ye, for as much as ye
are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye
may excel through the edifying of the church.
And ye can't edify the church if it
doesn't understand.
Therefore let him that speaketh in an unknown
tongue pray that he may interpret.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue,
my spirit prayeth, but my understanding, watch this,
you see sometimes these men got up to
pray in another language.
But all the time they understood what they
were praying, but their understanding was unsuitable to
the meeting.
If I stand up and pray in German
and I understand every word I'm saying, it
is no use to you.
My understanding, remember he understands.
You won't get none of them.
This day for three, we understand.
Go on, pray.
I'll tell you, it was always understood.
Now it's gone now, and we don't need
it now, it has ceased.
Yes, and let me just go back to
where it ceased.
Let's go into the other chapter.
You see, we're at chapter 13, and
he's talking about love.
And he says in verse 7, love beareth
all things, love believeth all things, love hopeth
all things, love endureth all things, love never
faileth.
But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.
Prophets are gone.
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part, but when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away.
Now here's how he explains that.
When I was a child, I speak as
a child, and I understood.
Let's get back there.
I understood as a child.
If he were a child, we'd have a
read one about this.
And I watch him.
He's just one.
You know, he can understand a whole lot
of things.
But you know, I can see that his
memory's all right.
Because when he comes into our house, he's
just out of the prom, and he looks
all around.
Then he knows down in the kitchen there's
a lot of things he can lift.
He lifts them off the refrigerator.
Now, they won't break, so we don't bother.
But away he goes.
He remembers them, doesn't he?
He lifts them.
But when he gets a wee bit bigger,
just a year or two bigger, you know,
he just understands like a child.
He's a child, you see.
I can remember his father.
I'll get into trouble for this, but never
mind.
I remember his father creeping across the floor
with a cowboy hat on and a big
scarf round his neck and a gondi song.
And he would creep round.
You would think there was a thousand Indians
in the house.
And his understanding was just like that.
That's a child's understanding.
Now, let the child be the child.
Don't be trying to put an old head
in young shoulders, you know.
Just let them play, you see.
Now, when the early church was going out,
these things that God gave to us were
just like childish things.
Don't you try to carry them on right
into this age.
You put them away.
We're men now.
Those things are gone.
That's what he's trying to tell them here.
He says you put away childish things.
This book has come in all its perfection.
All that God wants to say is in
there when that which is perfect has come.
Oh, see.
Somebody said, but that was talking about Christ
coming.
Oh, bladders.
Nobody ever talked about that when you mean
Christ.
You wouldn't call Christ that.
Not at all.
Put away the childish things.
Do you see that there's a supplication which
is understanding?
You know, if you're going to pray, you
must pray with the understanding.
And you must sing with the understanding.
We have a great singer in our meeting,
Mr. Eric Clark, and sometimes he goes to
Spain, and sometimes he goes to Germany, sometimes
he goes to Yugoslavia.
And he learns the hymns in their language.
And he's able to stand up and sing
in their language.
I bet he knows what he's singing.
Because he learns Rock of Ages left for
me in the Yugoslavian language.
He's singing with the understanding.
Friends, have you got the hold of this?
You know, God wants us to understand His
will.
He says through the Ephesians, understanding what the
will of the Lord is.
He wants us to understand His love.
Yes, to know the love of Christ.
Oh, what a wonderful thing.
You know, He wants us to understand His
sacrifice.
When we come to the table, if there's
no discerning, and that word is understanding, the
Lord's body, well, the Lord will deal with
you.
Oh, have you got that?
Because the understanding is the mighty thing.
You see, friends, for folk to say that
God uses their lips when He has closed
their mind would be baloney.
He's taken your understanding away from you.
And when your understanding is taken away from
you, a devil can do whatever he likes.
God would never take that away.
That's a faculty that belongs to you.
Even when the gift was here, the man
understood what He was saying because he was
edifying himself.
Now, we're coming to memory next week.
Mind you, that's a mighty faculty.
Because, you know, even when Adam sinned, and
the conscience could be defiled and even feared
from there on, and the understanding was darkened,
you know, there was something happened to the
memory.
Because, you see, a man can come and
look into this book and he can see
himself in the mirror of God's Word.
And the next word is straightway forgettable.
Lord, we bow at Thy feet.
We lift our hearts to Thee.
We thank You for Thy Word.
We thank Thee, Lord, that so many of
us, we know whom we have believed.
And we are persuaded in our hearts and
souls to might that Thou art able to
keep that which we've committed unto Thee against
that day.
O Lord, make us to understand this book.
O Lord, make us to understand the times.
Lord, there's so much at work from the
devil.
O God, make us to stand in the
evil day and be counted.
Lord, bring us to see these mighty things
that Thou hast planted in this book, that
we might indeed be men that wait for
the Lord.
O Lord, part us in Thy fear and
with Thy blessings for Thy manship.
Amen.