Speaking In Tongues - by John MacArthur

the chapter is dedicated to the truth about tongues which was not only a major issue in the Corinthian assembly but is to put it mildly a major issue today and so we speak to the times as well as interpreting the Bible let me begin by saying at the Tower of Babel God confused the languages of men and the only other biblical incident that can rival the confusion of language at Babel is the confusion of tongues of Corinth they had so confused this issue of languages that God had given as a gift they had so counterfeited it they had so substituted the reality for the satanic counterfeit that Paul had to write an entire chapter just to deal with that issue now if you've been with us in the past you'll remember that there is a true gift of languages that when God gave the gifts to the early church he gave them some miraculous gifts which were designed to be signs that authenticated the validity of the message of the new age you see God had spoken in the past by the fathers through the prophets but in these last days he had spoken in his son and there was a new message and to let particularly the Jewish world know that this was a new era and there was new revelation and God was speaking again there were attendant signs and wonders and one of those was the ability that the apostles and some who worked with them had to speak a language they did not know under divine inspiration that was the gift of languages we learned also that it was always a language that it was the ability to speak a foreign language and acts to everybody understood in their own language it says but as we come to the Corinthian situation incidentally the only time that the gift has ever even mentioned after the book of Acts is in Corinth and there because it was so confused and chaotic but as we come to the Corinthian situation we find that they had counterfeited the real gift and substituted a pagan ecstatic kind of speech the true gift had been confused with ecstatic tongues which was the counterfeit now such ecstasy's and ecstatic speech is very common in pagan religion and I'm not going to take the time this morning to go from one end of the world and from one end of history to the present to prove that to you I just want you to understand that that this is a very common thing in pagan religion this kind of ecstatic gibberish speech and we've discussed that in the past but let me give you a little background on the Corinthians situation remember that for the most part the Corinthians had allowed the entire world system in which they existed to infiltrate their assembly for example they were all hung up with human philosophies the first four chapters say they had these they had the hero worship cult just like their Society did chapter 3 talks about that they had involved themselves in terrible gross sexual immorality chapters 5 and 6 talks about that they were suing each other in the courts chapter 6 talks about that they had fouled up the home and marriage and miss evaluated that whole thing chapter 7 talks about that they were all confused about pagan feasts and idolatry and things offered to idols chapters 8 9 and 10 talks about that they had goofed up the place of women in the church chapter 11 talks about that they had misconstrued the whole dimension of spiritual gifts chapter 12 talks about that and they had lost hold of the one great thing love chapter 13 talks about that they had let the entire mass of the Satanic system that existed in their society infiltrate the church and once it all came in in with it came pagan style of religion with all of its ecstasy's and all of its aratus isms and all of its sensualities they bought the whole bag and so the whole thing is a confused amalgamation of true and error a modern parallelism would be that of Roman Catholicism which is a combination of Christianity out of the Bible and ancient Bale worship and the mother and child cult that was initially known as Astaroth and Tammuz and the same thing occurred in the Corinthian church it was Christianity in part and paganism in part all wedded together now if you study in the Greek old warrant Roman world the time of the Corinthian church you would know that they had various priests and priestesses and people who were devotees of the gods would go to these great temples and they would worship these priests and priestesses and it was very common that a devotee would go into an ecstasy and ecstasy means to go out of yourself that's the literal meaning of the word to go out of yourself they would literally flip out and they would go into an unconscious state in which they would have all kinds of phenomena occur psychic kind of phenomena they would believe that when they went out of themselves they literally left the body and they ascended into space and they connected to the deity whatever deity they were worshiping and they began to commune with the deity and once they began to commune with that deity they would begin to speak the language of the gods this was a very common thing in their culture so that the term used in Corinthians glose ice-lollies n-- to speak in tongues was not invented by Bible writers but was a term used commonly in the greco-roman culture to speak of pagan Exodus ecstasy and going out of the body connecting with a deity and in a mystical way beginning to speak the language of the gods which came out of some kind of gobbledygook and gibberish now the Greeks even had a word for this experience you'll be interested to know what the word was it was the word eros remember that word we sometimes translated as sensual love but the word is a bigger word than that has a broader meaning the word arrow simply means the desire for the sensual or the desire for the erotic or the desire for the ecstasy or the desire for the extra the ultimate experience or the feeling and the kind of religion they had was erotic religion it was religion designed to be felt it was sensual ecstatic kind of religion and you'll remember if you study those religions that when they went to those temples and to those priestesses they actually entered into orgies didn't they and that whole idea of erotic and sexual and sensual and ecstatic and the giver ish that went on with the divine utterances all was rolled into one big ball under the mystery religions that had spawned in Babylon and had come into the Corinthian society and I'm not going to take the time to read you all of the information on that but there is tremendous historical information that tells us that this did occur now I'm afraid that what has happened today in the charismatic movement is just a reproduction of exactly what happened in Corinth the church because of its deadness and because of years of ignorance of the true work of the Holy Spirit and because of a lack of really fine Bible teaching in many places and because of the of the just the dearth of anything really significant going on people in the church began to reach out and they want to feel God and the sense reality and Satan's counterfeit came flooding in the door and and what happened now in the charismatic movement is simply Corinth revisited the church has married the system of pagan religion again and we have developed a sensual feeling experiential erotic kind of approach to religion only we call it the work of the Holy Spirit when in fact it is the counterfeit of Satan if you were to find time to talk with various people who've been involved in it you would find that some of their experiences are very much in that way very sensual very feeling oriented I have a letter in my hand which I won't take time to read but probably will incorporate in the book which is from a lady in our church who was sharing with me the amazing experience that she had when they tried to get her to speak in tongues and there was the lying on the floor and all kinds of various things that occurred that were very much oriented toward the emotion and stimulating the feeling and not the thinking in the mind as the word of God would indicate now to give you another illustration there is the is a pamphlet written by a former leader of the Pentecostal movement in which he gives the testimony this what he says finally I went to the mission at 328 West 63rd Street Chicago and asked only one question why do I not receive the baptism what is the matter with me the good friends prayed with me and said nothing was wrong I only needed to wait praise the Lord they were right for the first time I knelt at the altar on Sunday afternoon March 17th the power began to seize me and I laughed all through the following communion service in the evening about 11:00 p.m. I knelt with a few of the friends praying for me elder so-and-so placed his hands on my head for a short time several times during the afternoon and evening and after some little waiting I began to laugh or rather my body was used to laugh with increasing power until I was flat on my back laughing at the top of my voice for over half an hour on raising I found that I was drunk on the new wine acting just like a drunken man in many ways and full of joy on kneeling to meet the Lord again I was suddenly seized with irresistible power of beseeching with groanings that could not be uttered asking the Lord to have mercy on me a sinner and telling him but I wanted to go all the way with him the power of this praying was too great for me to endure and suddenly my eyes open to see elder so-and-so who had been standing a few feet away fall as though he had been struck I was relieved in the few seconds was straight up in the air screaming glory at the top of my voice again kneeling my eyes grew dark and I was rolled over to the floor lying there for some time nearly unconscious then coming to a kneeling I felt my jaws and mouth being worked by a strange force in a few seconds some baby gibberish was uttered than a few words in Chinese that I understood and then several sentences in a strange tongue this turned into singing and I did not again speak in tongues until Wednesday three days later now what is going on there all kinds of feeling experience all kinds of emotionalism all kinds of sensual things in the broadest term of sensual that is apprehended by the senses rather than the mind this was very common to pagan religion Plato in his dialogues and incidentally Plato live from 429 to 347 BC before Christ and in his dialogues he has page after page after page describing these Pig and ecstasy's of speech this was not anything that belonged to Christianity in Christianity it was the true gift of languages used only when someone who spoke the language was present in order that it might be a sign that God was there and that God's people were speaking God's truth never was it intended to be confused with paganism but as always whenever God does something Satan counterfeits it doesn't he and that is what confuses the issue and so Satan's smokescreen to cloud the true revelatory work of the holy spirit in the early church were phony revelations and phony visions and phony tongues and that's why in first John John says when somebody comes along and starts telling you they speak for God you better test the spirits it's easy to fall prey to the phony and they and the Corinthians because they had decided to marry the spirit of the age were victims now remember Satan is called the god of this age Satan is called the spirit who energizes the children of disobedience Satan is the one who wants to be like God and Satan appears transformed as an angel of light he wants to counterfeit reality he wants the church to buy a phoning that's his business and so we see in hedonism all that fake and here in Corinth it had engulfed the church and I'm afraid it's doing the same today there are no ecstasy's no sensualities no errata systems no going out of yourself ever associated in the New Testament with the true work of the Holy Spirit never never in fact in 1432 it says the spirit of the prophets must be subject to the prophets nobody ever gives up his spirit nobody ever loses control nobody ever goes out of himself in terms of that which God is designed and that's why at the end of the 14th chapter the final word of the Apostle Paul has let everything be done decently and what in order this is not the Holy Spirit's way it is not the Holy Spirit's way you have everybody jumping up and everybody has a psalm verse 26 and everybody a doctrine and everybody a revelation and everybody an interpretation and everybody wanted to speak in ecstasy and everybody want to have a vision and so forth that's the confusion of paganism that has engulfed a church and I mean it was sophisticated stuff the mystery religions of Babylon that had dominated the time of the Corinthian culture they had developed all kinds of rites and rituals and vows and baptisms and animal sacrifices and feasts and fasts and ablutions for sin like dunking in a frozen river or crawling on your knees for miles they had all kinds of things that were phony religious things and ecstatic speeches and visions and prophecies were all a part of them and it all come to Corinth and when you went to assemble with the Corinthian Christians you entered into a situation of absolute chaos total chaos do you know that the twelfth chapter says that people were actually standing up and cursing Jesus in tongues and people were saying oh it must be the Holy Spirit just confusion the wild frenzy of the Greek paganism became madness in the Corinthian church and one writer says they like the pagans no doubt uttered their ecstatic speech with foaming lips and streaming hair and beloved as much as I wish it weren't true I'm convinced that today what we see in the charismatic movement is the same kind of engulfing of the church and pagan religion a counterfeit has been accepted because it impacts the emotions of people who for a long time of sat in a church where they never really got anything that changed their lives and so Paul writes the 14th chapter to corrected well let's study the 14th chapter now I want to divide it into three parts number one the position of the gift of tongues the position of the gift number two the purpose of the gift number three the procedure for the gift the position of the gift is in the first 19 verses the purpose of the gift is in verses 20 to 25 the procedure for the gift is in 26 to 40 the position the purpose and the procedure now watch this one the position is secondary the purpose is sign the procedure is systematic and those are the three great things that this chapter says the position secondary the purpose assign the procedure systematic first point is the position of the gift now Paul was to talk about tongues and he wants us to understand first of all its position relative to the other gifts its position is what did I just say secondary its position is secondary now he gives us a reason the first reason is in the first five verses and there are two others that we'll consider next week reason number one why is the gift of tongues secondary why is it less than the gift of prophecy because that's his comparison reason one is that prophecy edifies the whole congregation tones is useless to edify okay that's principle one prophecy is superior to tongues because prophecy edifies and tongues does not tongues no market can not edified that's what he's saying that's what he's saying in 14 one through five and there are two other reasons why the position is secondary and we'll see those two next week and I don't want to confuse you with them today so wait till next time alright number one then the first 19 verses deals with the fact that the position of tongues is secondary and the first five verses out of that that it is secondary because tongues cannot edify and prophesy and now let me add a footnote what is the purpose of the church when it meets together what is its purpose it's very simple identification edification verse 26 of chapter 14 tells us at the end let all things be done unto what edification let all things be done unto edification the end of verse 12 look at that that you may Excel to the edifying of the church in other words the point is edifying the end of verse 4 he that prophesies edifies the church in the verse 5 that the church may receive edifying now all through the chapter folks you have the same thing repeated again and again verse 31 you should prophesy that all may learn and all may be comforted it's just the same thing over and over and over again that you all be edified that you all learn that you all be built up that's the whole point the church comes together for identification or to be built up and Paul says look tongues can not and if I especially your kind which aren't even the real ones they that's the basic proposition of the first five verses all right here we go verse one follow after love and desire spirituals but rather that you may prophesy now follow after love is really the end of chapter 13 isn't it he's really saying I've just given you the greatest thing and that's love and the thing you ought to really chase is that chapter 12 verse 31 remember how it ended 12 31 and I translated it as an indicative because of the context what he's really saying in 1231 but you are coveting the showy but you are coveting the showy gifts but I show you a more excellent way you're busy chasing the showy gifts the Eagle building ones the upfront ones the dramatic ones and I want to tell you a better way seek love and he gives him a great statement on love in Chapter 13 then he comes back to the same point love in chapter 13 is like a parenthesis and in verse 1 of 14 he says now if you're going to earnestly seek something then earnestly seek love see uses the word deal go in the Greek which means to chase or to run after or to pursue and it is often translated to persecute to be so vehement and so excited and so energized and so after something that you literally persecute that thing you dog it steps he says if you're gonna chase something if you're gonna follow after something if you're gonna run after something let it be love let it be love but continue desiring spiritual and the word gifts is in italics it just says continue desiring spirituals now this word desire could be translated in many ways because it's a kind of a form that could go a lot of ways but when you study the context that comes out as an imperative and it comes out I believe as a kind of a continuous imperative so that it would translate this way now watch pursue love and then there's a debt in the Greek and that is like but it's not equating equals that would be Chi it's adversative there's a change here so he's saying follow after love but continue desiring spirituals in other words I'm not telling you to quit desiring gifts you and then go back 1231 you are pursuing the showy things you should pursue love but don't stop pursuing gifts or the spiritual realm literally in other words I don't want you to quit because you should want the ministry of the holy spirit through the gifts of the spirit but now look at the end of the verse most of all most of all Milan most of all that you should prophesy you see tongues are secondary you when you come together instead of the chaos and the confusion and the gibberish of tongues should be the clarity of prophecy say what's prophecy John we've studied that I'm not going to take time to do it again comes from the Greek word profane 202 words Pro meaning before they me meaning speak it means to speak before privacy is for somebody to speak before somebody else that's what I do every Sunday i prophesy you said I thought that meant to predict the future no no you know the idea of protecting that predicting the future never came along until the Middle Ages when the English word took on that meaning that's never it's attention in the Greek it simply means to speak before somebody and he says instead of everybody shouting at the same time in ecstatic gibberish somebody ought to stand up before everybody else and speak the Word of God you see that's what ought to be going on not the chaos and confusion of times but the speaking of those who speak the voice of God now beloved is sometimes that was revelatory in those days sometimes it was reiterating revelation already given but the point that we want to make here is that it was simply that the church was to come together to hear the word of God spoken in that great we are to gather to hear God speak and God will use men to speak in his place men who have the gift of teaching the gift of preaching or prophecy so he says rather or most of all or more than tongues you should seek that which is intelligible see the obvious reason for the inferiority of tongues is nobody can understand what was being said the only time that gift was ever to be used was when somebody would understand what was being said like in acts or when there was a connection to be made to Pentecost such as in the repeated occasions in Acts that was a sign gift never intended for edification in fact totally useless to edify how could you edify somebody who didn't understand it the only possible edification could come if someone understood or if it was interpreted so that they could understand but its purpose was not edifying that was not it the purpose was as a sign that God was speaking and that the prophets of the New Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament were truly representatives of the voice of God now notice verse 2 and this is important here's why tongues is secondary for he that speaks in a tongue speaks not unto men but unto God for no man understands him however in the spirit he speaks mysteries now listen what he said he that speaks in a tongue speaks to men speaks rather not to men but to God and the Greek literally says but to a god what you have Paul doing here saying look you people with your pagan ecstasy's are not doing what all spiritual gifts were given to do that is to speak to men but rather your ecstasy's are speaking to a God nobody understands what you're saying you are wrapped up in speaking pagan mysteries do you see what he's saying those aren't the musterion of God those aren't the mysteries that Paul gave those are the mysteries of paganism he that speaks in a tongue speaks not in the men now let me tell you something folks this is a basic bottom line truth all spirits or gifts are given for the purpose of ministering or speaking two men to get that two men no spiritual gift was ever given for God but four men all gifts are given to build the body of Christ they are to minister to each other that doesn't need us to minister some gift to him he's not in complete right and Paul is saying you have fallen down on the very basic use of a gift and that is that it is for men but what you are doing is not for men but for a god and here you have the anarthas construction the absence of an article not V God or the true God but better translated I think a God in other words you are out of yourself connecting to some God speaking your pagan mysteries and you have violated principle number one of the spiritual gift which that is is to be for others other people other humans God doesn't need you to talk to him in some ecstasy listen it's amazing to me that the modern charismatic movement falls short at this very point they repeat the Corinthian error and they teach that the essential use of tongues is as a private prayer language to God that is just what Paul is condemning here he is saying you have missed the point the point is that gifts are to speak to men but yours are some kind of convenient with a god and nobody knows what you're saying and you're speaking in pagan mysteries God doesn't want to be talk to you like that there's never God's intention to be addressed in some speech incomprehensible to the speaker go through the epistles and take out every prayer prayed in the epistles and then when you're done check every single prayer in the entire Bible and then check every single prayer that Jesus ever prayed and then check every single thing Jesus ever said about prayer and see if you find any word anywhere anytime that suggests that it ever should be unintelligible you'll never find it in fact Jesus said the exact opposite Matthew chapter 6 and verse 7 listen to this when you pray use not meaningless repetition watch this as the pagans do and you know what the phrase there the word is meaningless repetition Batala gal legato is the word to speak from which we get the word la das which means word and the prefix is bata and bata is not even a word it is what we call in English some of you English people remember this onomatopoeia remember that like we say a bee goes blue or a zipper goes far the plane goes well bata isn't a word either what he's really saying the literal Greek is when you pray he says when you pray in Matthew 6 7 don't say bata bata bata or don't go to God with wish that's the whole idea that is not the kind of communication God is interested in that is what the pagans do in other words even in Jesus time Jesus recognized a certain stammering stuttering gibberish being offered by pagans to their gods and he says that's exactly what I do not wish you to do when you pray to the Father always we are to pray intelligibly always we are to pray with the understanding says Paul always we are to understand what we say and to speak clearly to God when Jesus went into the garden to pray to the Father he didn't talk in some heavenly language why should you when did he communed with deity had spoken in language that was clear when jesus stood by the grave of Lazarus about to raise him from the dead he prayed and John heard every word he prayed and wrote it down in just the way he said it it was clear you studied John 17 you listened to the private prayer between Jesus and the father it's all very clear translated beautifully into English from the original language the carnal Corinthians however like current charismatic Syme afraid with their desire for the showy and the attention-getting in the ego building and the emotional istic gift of tongues were using it as a badge of spirituality and they were saying oh I have reached the spiritual plateau I can now talk to the eternal God in my own private language beloved that is pure paganism pure paganism the so he says you have missed the whole point you don't speak to men with the true gift you're speaking to a God in some kind of mystery and the mysteries that they believed were some secrets some little hidden secrets that only the initiated would know and you only got those when you got into your ex ecstasy and you went out of your body and you connect it up with your God and then you got these secrets see beloved you know something everybody in the church is initiated everybody in the church has all the mysteries right no secrets so says you missed the point tongues don't minister to people not the way you do it not your town not your languages because nobody even knows what you say but verse 3 he that prophesies speaks to men is that's what I want you to do because you'll speak to man and three things will happen edification exhortation and consolation you will speak the Word of God and you know what'll happen boy things will take place in their lives they will be build up first of all secondly they will be encouraged to a new kind of behavior and thirdly they will be comforted in their Agony's and their hurts that's what I want you to do when you come together I want to hear the word of God proclaim not fact about that about that verse for he that speaks in a tongue edifies himself but he that prophesies edifies the church which is better which is better what's Paul trying to say what's the point of the whole chapter edify what the church edify the church edify the church edifying yourself is not the point listen beloved you were never given any spiritual gift for yourself never never and if a person takes a spiritual gift and turns it to himself he has prostituted the gift right because it's for others it's to build the body you say well it says right here John you speak in an unknown tongue you had a fire yourself yeah but you don't edify the church and that's the whole point you don't edify the church you say but if it's translated you edify the church all right then it was the gift of interpretation that edified not to gift of tongues the gift of tongues is useless to edify the church right then nobody knows what you're saying that's what he says too Corinthian with all of that going on even if the real gift happened to be used even if somebody popped up with the real thing it wouldn't edify anybody in and of itself it would have to be translated that's what he says at the end of verse five except he interpret that the church may receive edifying and you know what's wonderful when the true gift was used and when it was used as a sign and when God did want to use the true gift and it happened to be used with some Christians their God would always have somebody interpret it so that it would not go without meaning to the church because even when the true gift was used which could identify God had the gift of interpretation so that it would edify because God didn't want anything going on in the church that didn't edify and build up but the way the Corinthians were doing it was chaotic and they had determined that just in and of itself it would edify the church you know won't and when people do it for their own self sake they are trying to edify themselves and you know something that's the second perversion your gift was not only meant for men not God secondly it was meant for men not not you they not you and and yet Donald G a well-known charismatic says the revealed purpose of the gift of tongues is chiefly devotional and we do well to emphasize the fact and Larry Christiansen says one speaks in tongues for the most part in his private devotions this is by far its most important use and value and quote you see that is the very opposite of what Paul is saying number one he is saying your gift is not to speak to God and number two your gift is not for you we see the whole point is it's for them it's for them it's for them and so if you seek to edify God you're out of line if you seek to edify yourself you're out alone and there's almost sarcasm here he that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself you know Paul has already kind of knocked down that self edification thing he's kind of dealt with that I think rather pointedly if you go back with me for a minute to chapter eight I'll show you what I mean and verse 10 and you remember here we've got a situation of meat offered to idols and Paul is saying well now you know it's not wrong to eat meat offered to idols but there are some weak Christians who think it's wrong so don't do it or you'll make them stumble say you'll make them stumble because they feel this is wrong so verse 10 for If any man sees you you have knowledge you're mature you're big strong Christian sit at a table in the idols temple and you eat the idols meat and you're right there doing your whole thing the conscience of him that is weak is built or edified exactly the same word that is used in 14 is edified to eat things offered to idols and through your knowledge when he does that the weaker brother perishes in other words you could NFI somebody to their harm do you see the point use the same term edification can be for good or identification can be for bad if you use a gift to build up the church it's for good if you use a gift just to build yourself up that's an act of selfishness and that's bad the word edify I'm only trying to point out can be good or bad so you have to find some qualifying principles now go over to 10 the tenth chapter and further look at verse 23 all things are lawful for me I have the gift of tongues let's say I could use it if I wanted but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me but all things edify not edify woo verse 24 let no man seek his own if you will edification but every man another's edification to see the point in other words all things might be ok for you but don't do them because they're okay for you do them because they're going to mean something to somebody else that's the point of all spiritual gifts they're not for God and they're not for you they're for the church so when you come together instead of everybody seeking his own expression and his own edification love does this first Corinthians 13:5 love seeks not its Oh see the point that's what he's trying to say and so the gift is not supposed to be directed to God it is not for self edification tongues can't edify the church though they may give you a little freely but if those people had the true gift and they would use the true gift on their own and get a sort of self edification Paul says they see that's a misuse that's a misuse you use it for what God intended it to be used otherwise you may speak but the tongues of men and angels but since you seek your own edification you have not loved and you have become as what sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal now finally in this section Paul balances his strong words on the secondary nature and the uselessness of tongues to edify by acknowledging that there was a true gift and it did have a true place in verse 5 I would that you all spoke with tongues you say Paul why did you say that boy there's so many good solid evangelicals who wish that wasn't in the Bible because the cares and I see you see I wish you all spoke in tongues but you see you kind of take it in the light of other scriptures the end of chapter 12 for example and verse 30 do all have the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret and what's the answer implied by the Greek construction no and verse 11 of 12 but all these gifts working the one in same spirit who gives them to every man severally as he wills you say well why does Paul say I wish you all did if he knows they can't well that's just that's hyperbole for example go back to chapter 7 of first Corinthians show you an interesting thing chapter 7 verse 7 first Corinthian he's talking about marriage here and he says marriage is great good thing verse 7 he says but I would that all men were even as I myself in other words I wish you all single now is that an actual statement or an actual divine mandate no that's wishing the impossible for the sake of emphasis isn't it and that's exactly what he's doing in 1st Corinthians chapter 14 he's saying hey I'm not downplaying this thing I wish there are some ways I wish everybody had the real gift more wouldn't that be great we'd all have that real but he knows that's not true that's not going to come to pass it's hyperbole to emphasize against his strong words denying that the privacy of tongues to emphasize there is a true gift but always is much more that you promise I if I had my way it would be fine if everybody spoke in tongues but wow if everybody was a proclaimer with a gift of prophecy but that too isn't going to happen either is it it's just sort of saying if I had my way I wish everybody had that gift for greater is he that prophesies and he that speaks with tongues why because unless it's interpreted the church can't be edified unless it's interpreted it doesn't do any good to the church and in fact I'll tell you something else these people who think they have some great thing going in their private prayer language with the God that doesn't do any good for them either because there's no knowledge of what they're saying consequently there's no learning in the mind consequently all it is a sensual ecstasy it's a feeling it's an emotion and Christianity beloved has never been predicated on a feeling never so Paul says there is a true gift which as we saw from 13:8 has since passed away remember that tongues shall cease and if you have the true gift that's fine and it has its purpose as we shall see later in the chapter as a sign but when the church comes together let it be to prophesy and to proclaim the Word of God what does it say to us two things you ready number one when the church comes together what does it come together to do they hear the word of God hey we're right on target aren't we secondly we need to be careful beloved to prevent religious pagan forms to infiltrate the truth of God's pure church right like they have there's an interesting little footnote here just kind of snuck in there do you notice in verse 2 and in verse 4 where it says tongues that the King James people have stuck the word unknown in there you notice it but down in verse 5 where it says tongues they don't you know why it seems as though they put the unknown in there with the singular and left it out with the plural and some Bible scholars believe that that's because when Paul was using the singular he was referring to their ecstatic gibberish which all was one kind a tongue a gibberish but when he refers to the true gift it is languages like in acts when every man heard him in his own language and so in verses 1 to 4 he's saying your false thing is all wrong but in verse 5 the right thing is all right when it's interpreted in its place beloved let's be sure these two things one that we come together to hear the word and two that we are on guard Satan hasn't changed his tactics at all and he always seeks to infiltrate the church and listen beloved it's so dangerous to seek something that God is not giving because you're wide open for Satan's counterfeit let's pray father thank you for our time this morning as we just shared from this text we pray somehow Lord that these thoughts would find lodging in our hearts and bear fruit help us to deal with those who might disagree with us with great love and admonish them as brothers as Paul said

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Published: Tue Feb 09 2016