Edification Through Clarity: Prophecy Over Tongues (1 Corinthians Sermon 55)

I’d like to ask you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. We continue our study in this incredible epistle, 1 Corinthians. We completed multiple sermons in 1 Corinthians 13, now we get to chapter 14, and as we do, we need to understand the overall context as we’re unfolding 1 Corinthians. We’re in a midst of a three-chapter section on spiritual gifts, and Paul began in chapter 12 on through chapter 13. The love chapter also really has to do with spiritual gifts and how they’re used, and if gifts are not ministered in love and they really are ultimately damaging, they result in nothing beneficial at all if the spiritual gifts are not used in love.

And now we transition to a focus on tongues and on prophecy. Now we need to understand the big picture all the time, we gotta understand this in life, that the reason that we exist, the reason that anything exists is for the glory of God, that God created the universe out of nothing for his own glory. And that when we get to heaven, the new heavens and new Earth, the new Jerusalem are gonna be radiant with the glory of God and what is the glory of God, but the radiant display of the attributes of God, the perfections of God. What kind of God he is, his power, his mercy, his grace, his justice, those attributes on radiant display.

And I say to you that nothing displays the glory of God more clearly than the perfection of the church of Jesus Christ, through the redemption accomplished by Jesus on the cross and applied by the Spirit in every generation, that is the most glorious work there is. And it’s an ongoing work. It’s a work in progress. Jesus said in John 14, “I go to prepare a place for you.” And so that work of ongoing building of the church of Jesus Christ is glorious in every generation, it’s also very imperfect ’cause it’s a partnership ministry between the Holy Spirit and un-glorified saints who have sin natures and who mess up, and who don’t fully understand doctrines properly and who don’t live out what they know properly, and so when we come to tongues and prophecy, we come to a controverted area, we come to things where people who are genuine believers in Christ don’t agree with each other, and so we end up needing humility and needing wisdom to come and ask God, is there a way that our church could grow and develop in some of these areas, are we seeing some things wrongly?

And it’s interesting, an analogy that hit me this morning, and I’ve been thinking about… I don’t know if it’s a perfect analogy, but it’s amazing how when a blood vessel is blocked, God opens up other blood vessels and delivers the nutrients and the oxygen often to the brain or to other parts when that is blocked, and so you take a local church and we would not say that the local church has to have a perfect understanding of all the spiritual gifts in order to be a healthy church, being fruitful. And so we’re gonna see this morning over the next couple of weeks, God willing, how there are different definitions of the gift of prophecy. How do we understand it? What is it? And it could very well be that God delivers the goods through the Spirit, even if those people don’t call that gift the proper name; that could be… It’s, we’re gonna find out a lot of these things. So the irony here this morning is, the basic concept is edification through clarity in the word, that’s what we’re looking at, the body of Christ being built up by a clear speaking of the word of God, and that superior over unintelligible speaking.

I. The Central Concept: Edification through the Ministry of the Word in Love

When someone once said a long time ago, as I’ve studied preaching, I continue to study it, “a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew,” so I was a little insecure this morning as I’m continuing even this very morning, to think new thoughts about prophecy and continuing to learn. So ironically, I don’t wanna be unclear as I talk to you this morning in 1 Corinthians 14, it’s a continued work in progress.

So the simple doctrine that we’re stating here is edification, the body of Christ, the church of Christ being edified. He says it again, again, look at verse 3, it says, “The person who prophesies, speaks to people for edification, encouragement and consolation,” one translation. Again, in verse 5, he says, “He who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be edified.” If your eye goes down to verse 12, you’re gonna see the same thing. “So it is with you. Since you’re eager have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up [or edify] the church.” And again, verse 17, “You may be giving thanks well enough but the other person is not edified,” so the spiritual gifts are given for that purpose.

Now, what is edification? Well, it means a building up, or reconstructing of the church. And so we have a very good practical illustration in terms of the more than a building program and the renovations that have been going on in our building, those of us that have continued to work here and are here every week have seen even in this room, the sanctuary, massive changes over the last five months. So at one point, you could have come in here and every square inch basically was taken up with scaffolding as they were painting the ceiling and they’d removed all the pews and all the scaffolding was in, took them a week to set up the scaffolding, incredible, massive undertaking. And so, I don’t know if I was allowed to or not, but I slipped in here on a Saturday, I went up to the top, but I was able to look around… It’s pretty cool. That’s a high ceiling. It’s up there and able to look… And by the way, friends, in case you don’t know, that’s where it all started, there was an area there that needed painting, and they said, “Well, the only way we’re gonna do that is to remove the pews,” and it was like the layers of the onion, it kept getting bigger and bigger.

At some point, we had to say, “Okay, that’s enough renovation, that’s what we’re going to do,” but that’s really the idea that you should have when it comes to spiritual gifts, they are scaffolding, they’re temporary construction avenues by which the real work can happen, and that is the building up of the body of Christ. As these skilled workers have come in, so we’re talking about plumber, electricians, painters, carpenters at all different levels, following a pattern laid out by the architect and all that, that’s a picture that we have of the body of Christ. And the body of Christ is likened to a spiritual structure in Ephesians 2, one of the text I’ve quoted the most in my preaching ministry, Ephesians 2:21-22 says, “In Christ, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord, and in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

So there is this spiritual structure, this spiritual temple being built. And as I’ve reached again and again over to 1 Peter where we have the image in chapter 2 of living stones, these are individual human beings who are redeemed, they are rescued out of Satan’s dark kingdom, and they are like living stones in the wall of the spiritual structure as it rises, it’s a dynamic word to become a holy temple in which God dwells by his Spirit, that’s the building project going on in every generation.

So it really ultimately has to do with the evangelism/missions and discipleship or pastoral ministry, so individuals are rescued, redeemed, they’re set in the wall as a living stone, but the work goes on in them, they are polished and kind of continue to be quarried while they’re set in the wall, that’s the picture of justification, you’re perfect in Christ, but sanctification, you’re made more nearly perfect and conform you to Christ, those things are going on. That’s the edification. Now, how does that happen? It happens by the clear ministry of the word of God, both formally and informally, in the life of the church, the word of God is just flowing and the spiritual gifts are delivery systems for that ministry of the word. Beautiful picture. And it’s temporary, but that’s the edification that’s going on.

Now, let’s take a step back and look at the Corinthian context. Alright, we’re in chapter 14 now, in 1 Corinthians, the Corinthian church was a local church in Corinth, about 30 miles south west, I think of Athens. Paul planted the church along some other co-workers, there you can read about it in Acts 18, that’s how the church is planted, this local church, genuine church [of] Jesus Christ, was badly dysfunctional. All kinds of messed-upness, if that’s a word.

And this messed up church Paul is addressing in 1 and 2 Corinthians and it’s much to the benefit of 20 centuries of other messed up local churches, of which every one of them is in some way messed up, so that we can see the problems: you’ve got factions and divisions along human lines, people following certain key leaders. You’ve got worldliness. You’ve got problems with sin that should have been addressed by church discipline, sexual immorality. You got problems with lawsuits among believers, people taking each other to court; bad witness. You got problems with sexual immorality, people visiting temple prostitutes. You’ve got problems with marriage, dysfunction in marriage, a bad understanding of marriage and singleness. You get problems, and Paul addresses it in three chapters with meat sacrificed to idols as they’ve recently come out of paganism, and they don’t know exactly how to deal with that in the life of the Christian church, three chapters, and they get problems with the role of women in the church, they get problems with the Lord’s Supper.

Now, in chapters 12-14, problems with spiritual gifts. So what was going on from their pagan background, in paganism, there was often a sense of spirituality through frenzy, through acting crazy. We actually… Some of that still, it’s like, “Man, that’s crazy!” means good, means amazing, like at a high level. But that idea of you’re being touched by the divine when you’re out of your mind, and so you got almost like in the Muslim whirling dervishes or this kind of thing, you got just a mindless, frenzy chaotic experience, which proves that those individuals, this is in paganism, were touched by gods and goddesses. Well, then comes the gospel and speaking in tongues and all that, and that gift got elevated and zeroed in on in the Corinthian church because it was in touch with the divine, and there was a sense of mindless-ness, and a sense of chaotic, weird behavior that was so awesome and amazing. Paul has to rectify that, he’s basically gotta explain tongues and put tongues in its place. And so that’s what he’s doing here.

Now, our context, we are 21st century evangelicals, part of a denomination in which at the highest level, the leadership level historically has been hostile to the sign gifts, the charismatic gifts. The charismatic movement started in Azusa Street revival, modern charismatic movement in 1905, Pentecostal movement. And so I’ve been through all this, I’m not gonna review all this, but in 1 Corinthians 12 there are sermons in which I lay this out, but just quickly by way of review, there are charismatics or the people that believe the sign gifts, speaking tongues, prophecy, miracles, those things, are still functioning today. On the other end of the spectrum, you got cessationists who believe that those gifts ended with the end of the first century when the New Testament was completed; those gifts are done, those particular spiritual gifts.

So tongues, prophecy, miracles, the gift of… The role of being an apostle, those things have been fulfilled, and then you have people in the middle who are like, they’re not charismatics, they’ve not personally used the gifts like that, they’re not willing, they’re not cessationists ’cause they either strongly don’t see cessation-ism in the New Testament, or they just haven’t studied it much and they may have experienced it, so you got a kind of a wide range of open but cautious people, that’s generally the phrase given to them, there could be some open, but skeptical people in there somewhere, I mean, you got all kinds of range in the middle, from the extremes of charismatics to cessationists.

Now in my years, 22… Almost 22 years at FBC, I’ve never had anyone come and advocate an expansion of the sign gifts in Sunday morning worship, so that- we need to have tongues and prophecy working on Sunday morning, no one is advocating that. You could say, “Pastor until now, wait till you see what happens over the next number of weeks.” so we’ll see, we’ll have that interesting conversation, but we’ve never done that in 22 years, however, I do know there are individuals who practice private prayer languages, ’cause you’ve told me so and there are other individuals that are ardent cessationists because you’ve told me so, and we’re doing local church together.

My own mentors are… My highest level mentors are divided on this topic, so you got Jonathan Edwards and John McArthur, on one side, they’re just straight cessationists, they believe that those gifts ended with the completion of the New Testament, and they make a case from that, they seek to do it, biblically from 1 Corinthians 13, but I’ve shown that that’s… I think that’s not valid, and I’ve already been through all that. On the other side, you got John Piper, who is, I would say charismatic on this, believes in the gift of prophecy and tongues still functioning, and he and Wayne Grudem and others give new definitions to prophecy which are worth at least considering, they’re weighty. We have to understand them. Etcetera. So that’s the spectrum, I can speak for the others, I think on this, that we are not likely to make any significant changes in Sunday morning worship any time soon. If you think differently, if you’re an elder, and you think differently, tell me later, but I think we talked about this quite recently, and I think both of us, all of us feel that on both of these gifts, tongues and prophecy, there’s some reasonable biblical tests that would have to be passed for us to see that functioning in the life of the church, for example, tongues, which is just another way of saying this, King James, just languages. We would have to be hearing a language. I’ve been all over the world.

I’ve been in worship services all over the world. I know what Paul is talking about when he says, “My mind is unfruitful.” You can go through a whole worship service in China or India, whatever, and you’re just thinking your own thoughts, I would just go over scripture, memory verses or different things, ’cause you just don’t understand anything that’s being said except, and I’ll mention this later an occasional amen or hallelujah, so I got that. But other than that, I have no idea what’s being said. So that’s what tongues… Tongues are languages. I can hear a language I don’t know at all, but recognize it as a language and make a distinction between that and gibberish and gibberish is just repeated empty phrases and patterns that can be learned, and so however, just because they are fraudulent versions of tongues and fraudulent versions of interpretation of tongues doesn’t mean the gift itself has ceased or has ended, you just have to be a more careful thinker about that, but there are fraudulent displays, etcetera.

And on prophecy, I continue to believe that Deuteronomy 18 test of being able to predict the future in order to validate the prophetic gift is still biblical and reasonable, and so I’ll talk more about that later in the message, but there may be other ways of defining our understanding, prophecy, that we might want to try to understand and in those sense, if that’s a delivery system, for example, Piper, John Piper says that prophecy is just the delivery of God’s wisdom and truth into a circumstance, so it just sounds like wisdom to me, and it says in James 1, “If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God. Who gives generously to all without finding fault,” and not only that, there are individuals within the life of the church, both men and women, who are just consistently giving wise counsel and you go to them for wise counsel, and you get it again and again, and they’re identified as wise people or counsel givers, but we don’t call them prophets or prophetesses, when we get to heaven we’ll get all this sorted out, but God may well be delivering the wisdom he needs to cessationist local churches, so they’re able to function well and do what they need to do in mission and able to send out missionaries and do things strategically well in their community while they the whole time don’t believe that the gift of prophecy is continuing; and guess what, it is, but they just call it something else.

So that’s what we’re dealing with in 1 Corinthians 14. By the way, I’m planning on preaching three sermons in this chapter, you may notice a difference in pace in 1 Corinthians 14 from 13, so just… That’s what’s going to happen, God willing. So we’re not gonna be real slow going through this, but we’re gonna continue to look at…

 II. Prophecy Edifies the Whole Congregation

So let’s look at the exegesis, 1 Corinthians 14:1-19. And the second point of my outline: prophecy edifies the whole congregation, verses 1-5. Prophecy edifies the whole congregation. So Paul strongly elevates prophecy over tongues. The basic concept here is this: tongues un-translated are unintelligible to the local church. Prophecy, by contrast, is clear to everyone, and therefore is superior, because what really edifies the church is the clear delivery of the word of God, that’s Paul’s basic point in these verses. Alright, now he begins in verse 1, commanding the church to pursue love and to pursue spiritual gifts, look at verse 1, “Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy.” So the word, the Greek word here, pursue means to follow after ardently or to hunt, like hunt down, chase after with focus and intensity.

So go after love as I’ve defined it, 1 Corinthians 13, we’ve walked through that. We know that we don’t love perfectly, we know we could grow in love, so pursue that, ardently pursue love and pursue spiritual gifts, go after spiritual gifts and then especially that you may prophesy. Now, here’s the thing, if you’re not a cessationist, this ends up becoming troubling, if you’re kind of a open but skeptical church where you’re not using prophecy, you have to say, “Okay, should we be pursuing prophecy? And how do we do that?” And that’s an important question. But anyway, this is what the verse says. Some interpret this as saying, “Esteem all the spiritual gifts, and especially esteem prophecy because of its impact.” Others argue, they say, “Look, if God gives spiritual gifts as he wills, then why should you pursue it, he’s gonna give you what you’re going to get so what benefit is there to pursue a gift, let’s say you don’t have?”

So should we be pursuing gifts we don’t have? I’ve always wanted the gift of evangelism, and nothing excites me more than be able to be there when someone crosses over from death to life. It’s gotta be the coolest gift, but it’s maybe a grass is greener syndrome where others say, “I would love to be able to just unfold the word of God and feed people week after-,” so I think we need to be content with what you have, but suppose you look at your gift package and you’re like, “Man, it’d be awesome if that one more gift were added.” Is it valid, biblically valid to pursue a gift you don’t have?

Now, early in my Christian life, I thought whatever gifts you’re gonna get, you get at conversion, bang. So it’s kind of like you’re a recruit at boot camp and they slide a group of things across the table to you, and that’s what you have. However, the more I’ve carefully studied, I’ve seen no time orientation for the giving of spiritual gifts, it could happen any time, there’s no verse that links it to conversion, so you could get gifts that you then discover and develop and use, or you could have another gift that’s added to you as you step out in faith and go on a mission trip, something you never needed before, but now the Holy Spirit opens up an ability, we’ll never know if you had it all along, but weren’t using it or if it was given to you then and there’s no Bible verses about it either way, beyond that, I don’t think it’s wrong to pursue something that God gives, I actually think this is the normal pattern in the Christian life, you read something in scripture that you consider a good thing, you don’t have it, and you pursue it from the hand of God in prayer.

Take biblical marriage, for example; let’s say you’re a single man or woman. We know it says in Proverbs 19:14, “A prudent wife is from the Lord.” You get houses and wealth inherited from your parents, but a prudent wife comes from the Lord, so it’s like, Well, I don’t need to seek her, God’s gonna give her or he won’t, that kind of… No one should act like that, and if you ever… You’re an older man in the church that there’s ever a young man like that just coasting who would like to be married, but he’s not doing anything about it. You’re saying, “Look, pursue her in prayer.” Pursue her generally. Now, in your prayer life, “Oh God, if it be your will and you want me to be married, bring a godly woman in my life.”

Secondly, once you start finding somebody and say you’re gonna pursue her in godly courtship, etcetera, there is an effort being made, but she is still a gift from God, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pursuing a spiritual gift, and then he says, especially prophecy over tongues. Paul is saying the Corinthians should be especially zealous after the gift of prophecy. Why? Look at verses 2-4: “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, and indeed no one understands him, he utters mysteries with his spirit. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening encouragement and comfort. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.”

So again, the whole goal here, as I’ve said, is edification of the church building up to maturity. The unintelligible, un-interpreted tongues are essentially, Paul says, mysterious to everyone, even to the person who speaks them. Now, in some way, a person who’s speaking in a tongue he or she has never studied, is edified somewhat, Paul says, in themselves because they’re having a supernatural experience that they know wouldn’t be happening to them if they were not a Christian, if they didn’t have the Holy Spirit, that’s what Paul means when he says, he edifies himself. But he says prophecy is superior because it’s intelligible to everyone who hears it, and therefore edifies the whole church.

“The whole goal here is edification of the church building up to maturity. The unintelligible, un-interpreted tongues are essentially, Paul says, mysterious to everyone, even to the person who speaks them.”

Now, we need to stop and try to understand what prophecy is. What do we mean by prophecy? Now, in the Old Testament, to me, it’s very clear that prophecy is the delivery of the word of God through a human being, male or female, there were women prophets and men prophets in the Old Testament as there are in the New Testament. So through a prophet or prophetess the individual is able to say, “Thus says the Lord” or “an oracle from the Lord,” and out comes a packet of words or truths that are directly from God, “Thus says the Lord,” That’s prophecy.

Now, the content in that could be anything. Could be anything. It could refer to any time aspect, it could refer to past, present or future, we believe that all of the written word of God are prophecies that were ministered through prophets, the whole Bible is a prophetic book. But when Moses wrote Genesis, he was writing about the past, it was a prophecy about the past. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” it had already happened, but he was prophesying about it. So prophecy, we tend to think of it only in future, and I’ll talk about that in a minute, but it’s really anything. Current events could be- I mean the Old Testament prophets were constantly talking about current events, about issues of injustice and morality.

Think about John the Baptist; he clearly stated to Herod that it was sin for him to take his brother’s wife. Got him killed. It was a current event. So prophets did that, past, present or future, however, the prediction of future events is unique in prophecy, it’s set apart as unique, it’s highlighted, especially in the book of Isaiah, as unique. And so I can say, and I’ve said many times before, prediction of the future sets the Judeo-Christian heritage apart from any other religion in the world, there is no other religion that has this feature, and it only had Judeo because that’s up until the time of Christ, in that the Jewish nation rejected Jesus and rejected Christ as the fulfillment of those prophecies.

The Christian church is almost on its own now as a prophetic entity in the world. We believe in predictions that have been fulfilled in Jesus and predictions that have yet to be fulfilled. We’re looking ahead to prophecies, it sets Christianity apart from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, any other religion, and not only that, it sets the individual who does it apart as a prophet. In Deuteronomy 18:21-22, Moses wrote this, this is God speaking, “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has been has not been spoken by the Lord?’ if what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken that prophet has spoken presumptuously, do not be afraid of him.” So I am asserting here that for any local church to identify an individual as a prophet or prophetess, it is right for us to ask that this be done, that independently verifiable predictions of the future be made, and this did happen in the New Testament. Agabus, in Acts 11 predicted that a famine would come over the entire Roman world; this was fulfilled in the reign of Claudius, that kind of thing. You can’t predict something that’s gonna happen in 70 years, like Jeremiah did with the return of the Jews, because that’ll be 70 years of us not knowing you’re a prophet. So there has to be something that comes up there very soon, so we can identify that gift.

“The Christian church is almost on its own now as a prophetic entity in the world. We believe in predictions that have been fulfilled in Jesus and predictions that have yet to be fulfilled.”

Now, John Piper, Wayne Grudem and other more modern… They have a broader definition of prophecy, as I’ve said, more of a delivery of the word or of the will of God in a certain situation, what I would call wise counsel or strategic decisions about missions, about other things. That again, from James 1:5, “If anyone lacks wisdom, you should ask God,” they call that prophecy, and then therefore what you’re looking for is a consistent pattern of wise counsel being given, they look on that as prophecy as well. Beyond that, however, all sides agree on this, that whatever is prophetically uttered must line up with the existing revelation of the word of God. Now, back then, it was a work in progress, the New Testament hadn’t been completed, and so what Paul says in Romans 12:6, he says, “If someone’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in accordance or in proportion to the faith.”

Analogia, sometimes people just transliterate that over into the analogy of faith, but what it means is it’s got to line up with the doctrine that we’ve already received from the Bible, so if anyone speaks false doctrine, they are a false teacher or a false prophet, and they must be eliminated. It’s gotta be… So two tests then: predicting of the future that is verified, and then everything that’s uttered is biblically true or accurate, that’s how you would filter a prophet. Beyond that is it necessary for a church that has Godly counsel givers, both men and women who speak clear words of wisdom and discretion to be identified as prophets or prophetesses, maybe so, because this word is given to us and it could be we are defective in that way, not identifying them as such, etcetera. So for me, verse 1, where it says, pursue prophecy means study more and keep praying.

So I’ll move on from the definition, what is the purpose, what should prophecy do look at verse 3, “The person who prophesies speaks to the people for [one translation gives] edification encouragement and consolation,” these are the three functions of good prophecy back in Paul’s day. Edification is the building up to maturity of the individual bodies of Christ, individual members of the body of Christ and of that local church and universally of the church as a whole. Edification, as we mentioned, secondly, encouragement or exhortation, this is more application-oriented, where you hear the truth clearly, unfolded you, you find out what it is, then you’re exhorted to live accordingly, you’re warned even maybe to live accordingly. So that’s the exhortation aspect.

Jesus said in John 13:17, “Now that you know these things you’ll blessed if you do them.” So that’s exhortation. And then beyond that, consolation, consolation or comfort, this world is hard. There’s a lot of suffering that goes on, there’s a lot of persecution in some regions in the world and some different times in the world, far more than for us now, it’s a hard life, it is through many hardships that we must enter the kingdom of God and so the prophets were able to speak a word of consolation or comfort. Again, Jesus leads the way in everything. But in John 16:33, He said, “I’ve told you these things so that in me, you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world.” That’s the ministry of consolation.

So, those three things are done by the prophets; I would say they’re also done by good preachers today and good teachers of the word of God, if you wanna be a good teacher of the word of God, do those three things. Edify by instruction, by careful instruction, exhort to a life change and console or comfort the people on their way to heaven. I think that’s just good preaching and teaching, by the way, the Puritans called preaching prophesying, so they believe that that was prophesying, so I’m not saying because they did it, it’s right, it’s just that’s how they interpreted that gift. So that is the clear superiority of prophecy over tongues, verse 4, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.”

Now, big picture in this chapter, Paul is not throwing the gift of tongues under the bus, he’s not denigrating it, he’s just trying to put it in its place, they had elevated it too high and misunderstood it, so he wants to put it and put it in its… He’s not throwing tongues under the bus, look at verse 5: “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues,” and reminds me of when Moses said, “Would that all God’s people were prophets!” that kind of thing. Now, he’s not- he himself is gonna say in verse 18, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” talk more about that in a minute, but he’s clearly not denigrating tongues, ’cause he says he does it, it’s not a bad thing. Neither is he questioning how the Spirit is apportioning the gifts, “I wish the Spirit would get on the ball and give everyone the gift of tongues.” he’s not saying that either. He’s saying, “I’m just… I’m very pro-gift of tongues, but I’m just saying prophecy is better for the edification of the body,” that’s what he’s saying. “He who prophesies [he says] is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so the church may be edified.” verse 5.

III. The Problem of Unintelligibility

Now, point three, we have the problem of unintelligibility. Paul heightens his argument here, and the problem of the unintelligibility of tongues if they’re not translated, and he does it by means of some everyday life illustration. So Paul says, “Look, even if I myself came and did that, I would be of no benefit to you.” Look at verse 6, “Now, brothers, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good would I be to you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction.” Those are clear deliveries of the word of God, that’s what he’s saying.

So imagine how frustrating that would be Paul coming back to Corinth. We get the author of the book of Romans coming to preach our sermon today, we get the- I mean, just the greatest doctrinal mind in the history of the church, and he comes and does that, speaks in tongues for 20, 30 minutes and never… And then sits down. How frustrating would that be? You wanted a clear word from the Lord, you wanted clear instruction, so he said, “Even if I were the one to come do it, it would be of no advantage, unless I come and do edification, exhortation, consolation.”

So he uses two illustrations, first musical instruments, verse 7, “Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the flute or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played, unless there is a distinction in the notes?” So I’ve cleared this with Wes, we’ve talked- I don’t know music, I love music, I appreciate music, but even me with an untrained ear, I can tell the difference between someone like Micah who sits down and plays beautifully, and a child that’s big enough to sit on the bench and bang on the keys, you can hear it from the other room, “Oh, a child is banging on the keys,” your brain tells you. There’s no chord progression, frankly, there’s no cords. There’s a bunch of sounds, there’s no time signature, there’s no progression, there’s no musical story being unfolded, but any other pattern of music, even if you don’t like it, it still has rules, even jazz has rules Wes told me, there are certain rules. Alright?

And your ear hears it, and that’s pretty awesome when you think about… I believe that the brain is wired to accept good music and hear it as beautiful, and I think there’s a portion of our souls waiting to hear a new pattern of music that no human has ever heard up in heaven. It’s gonna be incredible, the new song, but meanwhile, we can identify musical wisdom or musical science or musical logic, we can hear it in all patterns or our styles of music.

The second illustration he gives is of a trumpet in battle look at verse 8 “Again, if the trumpet sound does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” So in the military, let’s say in the Civil War, units would learn trumpet signals that would tell them what to do in the midst of a battle, whether to advance to retreat, turn left, turn right. These were very important as the way that the commanders could, somewhat, keep control in the chaos of a battle, and we know some of those sounds… Even if you’ve never been in the military you know the sound of Revelry or Taps, you know what those things? I’m not gonna hum them, but you know what Revelry sounds like, you know what Taps sounds like, even though you’ve never been in the military. It tells you it’s time to get up/it’s time to go to bed. So also in the World War II, the citizens of London, during the blitz, when the Luftwaffe was going over London, they had two different sirens, one for get in the cover now, and the other one is all clear, you can return to your normal life, you definitely need to know the difference between the two. And they did. So if the signals are not clear, then how will any soldier know what to do on the battlefield, he’s saying in the same way, verse 9, “So it is with you, unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you’re saying? You’ll just be speaking into the air.”

Now, as he talks about this, he needs to clarify something about tongues, about languages. Look at verse 10-11, “Undoubtedly, there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning, if then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying to me, I’m a foreigner to the speaker and he’s a foreigner to me.”

So no true language is gibberish. We can tell the difference between repeated phrases again and again and an actual language that has a wide range of sounds, but that are cohesive, and you just don’t know it. But even if it’s a cohesive, logical, clear language, if you don’t know that language, you get nothing out of what’s being communicated for you with the untrained ear, it’s like a foreigner speaking to you, the Greek word here is barbarian, and the word is literally barbar. It’s, like that’s what it was like: bar, bar, bar, bar, bar. It’s people imitating a language they can’t speak.

I remember coming back from the mission field in Japan, and I had gotten functionally conversational in Japanese, but I was working in a certain area that apparently didn’t get across the county line very much or something like that, and they were trying to do- [unintelligible] I was like- well, that’s not what Japanese sounds like, friend, but anyway, that was just a moment that I had with that, but they were trying to imitate Japanese, but to you, it’s effectively gibberish if it doesn’t communicate meaning. So he repeats the point for emphasis in verse 12, “So it is with you since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.”

IV. The Goal of Worship: A Fruitful Mind AND a Fruitful Spirit

Point number four, the goal of worship then is a fruitful mind, resulting in a fruitful spirit, a combination of mind and spirit, that’s what we’re looking for. Verse 13, “For this reason, anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.” Now, I think in chapter 12, it could be a different person in it. One speaks in a tongue, the other interprets, in this case, it seems like it’d be good if you could do your own interpretation, that may be possible, but in any case, you need the… And somebody needs to do the interpretation, un-interpreted tongues, Paul says, make a mind unfruitful, verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.”

Now, this would probably be the number one key, “I have a private prayer language” text in the Bible, verse 14, 1 Corinthians 14:14, an individual praying in tongues, their mind is unfruitful, but they’re communicating in some way to God. Now, some people, the cessationists, say that’s completely invalid, Paul’s making another point or he’s being sarcastic. They do different things with the text, but Alistair Begg points out very helpfully: later Paul is gonna say, look at verse 18-19, how much he speaks in tongues, he said, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you, but in the church, I would rather speak five intelligible words so as to instruct other than 10,000 words in a tongue.” Now Alistair Begg asks, “If Paul’s not using his gift in the church then when is he using it? When is he speaking more than anyone else? Then it must be in his own private prayer closet,” something like that, that’s the way he argues. There are different ways to interpret this text, even than what Alistair Begg said.

Oh, the interpretations never end. I will say this, if you speak in a private prayer language, I don’t have any verses to contradict you. I am commending these verses actually to encourage the practice and not shut it down. I don’t personally know whether it’s valid or not. But I know this: nothing I say in 24 seconds is going to convince you that what you’re doing is not from God anyway. But at any rate, there is some indication here that Paul prayed in a tongue he didn’t always understand. That seems to be what’s going on here. But in any case, Paul’s main point here is his mind is unfruitful during that time. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.

True worship then must be a combination of the mind and the spirit, verse 15, “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I also pray with my mind, I will sing with my spirit, but I also sing with my mind.” So this is just how it works in sanctification and in worship. The mind understands the word of God. The Spirit is warmed up or heated up, the heart is heated up and loves and engages, and then the worship flows out through the body, mind, spirit/heart, body, that’s how it works in the Christian life, everything starts with the mind and with the word of God.

Jesus himself said with the Samaritan woman, about the perfect combination, this is what worship is, John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him, must worship in spirit and in truth.” So we could reverse it: truth first, hear the word of God and faith comes by hearing the word, in comes the word, your heart is transformed, and then out it goes in singing and prayer, praise and living. That’s how sanctification happens, that’s how worship happens.

So we want a combination in our corporate worship of mind and spirit. We want light and heat, first, the light then the heat. You don’t just want light; you don’t just want heat. Maybe you’ve been to a service in which there was just heat and you didn’t know what everyone was heated up about. I don’t think they knew either. You don’t want that. But you don’t wanna be in a cold formal orthodox service in which you’re getting all of the doctrine right, and there’s just no joy or zeal or energy. There’s got to be both spirit and truth.

“The Spirit is warmed up or heated up, the heart is heated up and loves and engages, and then the worship flows out through the body, mind, spirit/heart, body, that’s how it works in the Christian life, everything starts with the mind and with the word of God. “

Alistair Begg puts it this way: you don’t want the carnival on the one side or the crematorium on the other. I thought that was helpful. So you want a beautiful combination of mind and heart. So that’s our goal in Sunday morning worship. Without intelligibility, he says, how can we say amen?

Look at verse 16-17, “If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say, ‘Amen’ to your thanksgiving since he does not know what you’re saying. You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.” As I mentioned earlier, “Amen,” in different pronunciations is like the one word that’s made it worldwide. Everywhere you go people say a version of it, it’s Hebrew word, means effectively “I stand” and it’s related to the Hebrew word for stand, but it’s translated when Jesus said, “Amen, amen,” it’s “truly, truly.” So you’re saying, what I’m hearing, I say, “True. I stand on that, I agree with you.” And that’s what corporate worship is all about. Truth gets rolled out and everyone around says, “Yes, amen, I love it. That’s what I want.” That’s what we do together.

And you realize that God, the Holy Spirit is working the same thing. It’s why he says in 1 John, “You have an unction or anointing from the Spirit and all of you knows the truth. I don’t write you ’cause you don’t know the truth, but ’cause you do know it.” “Well, John, why are you writing if we already know the truth?” I didn’t say you couldn’t learn, what I am saying is when you hear the truth, the Holy Spirit enables you to identify it as truth and you celebrate it. It’s like, “yes, that’s good.” And that’s what corporate worship is all about, that Amen. You say it together. But if you don’t understand what’s going on, you can’t do it, you can’t say Amen, and you can’t delight in it. So unintelligible words are worthless. Verse 18-19, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you, but in the church, I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than 10,000 words in the tongue.”

Now, Paul’s own use of the gift of tongues is established here and nowhere else in the Bible. Nowhere else. We don’t even get it in his baptism account like you do in other baptism accounts. But Paul says, “I do, I speak in tongues, more than anybody else.” He’s identifying with those with the gift of tongues, but he’s saying, “Look, when I come for corporate worship, what I want is to speak five clear words rather than 10,000 unintelligible words.” Five clear words can change your life, “Jesus rose from the dead;” change your life. But 10,000 words in gibberish? Now, my Microsoft Word counted the words in my sermon up to this point, 5000. So we’d be halfway through 10,000 words of gibberish. I think many of you would have walked out by them, like, “What in the world was that?” So Paul saying this is clearly what we need is intelligibility. And I’d rather speak five clear words than 10,000 words in an un-translated tongue.

V. Application

Application. First and foremost, let everything that we do here on Sunday morning be for edification. That’s the goal. Every spiritual gift everything would be for the up-building, the strengthening of the body of Christ. This is what is being built here, not the physical building. This building is beautiful. It’s ready to go, God willing, if the Lord tarries another X number of decades, we believe it is. But buildings, all buildings are temporary; everything physical is temporary. The real building project here is the church of Jesus Christ, so let everything be done for edification.

Second of all, esteem in your hearts the clear unfolding of the word of God. Esteem this in your heart. Understand what clarity is all about. The book of Revelation, we’ve got so many clear verses, you know, says that the… “Before the throne of God was what looked like a sea of glass clear as crystal,” clear as crystal. That’s where we’re going. We’re going to a new Jerusalem, which will, Revelation 21:11, “Shone with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like Jasper, clear as crystal.” And then the river of the water of life is gonna flow right down through the center of the city clear as crystal, everything’s clear, and it just shines. So what you want is God’s word, a lamp to your feet, a light to your path, shining clearly through the ministry of the word, and not just through the sermon, not just at Sunday morning worship, but in all of the formal and informal teaching ministry of the church, it’s all about clarity, a delivery of the truth. And that’s what you should seek.

There are a lot of people that that’s not what they do when they get up on the pulpit. It’s not. There are a lot of charlatans, a lot of people that are tickling the ears. But my job should be to make the word of God clear. I love the story of Charles Spurgeon. He was the most, probably one of most eloquent, language gifted people in the history of the English language. He knew he could blow people away with his vocabulary. But what he did frequently was he had a young woman, a maid, not highly educationally trained, that would listen to one of his sermons before he preached it. I don’t know if she was trained to raise your hands like, “Okay, what was that?” And he would just circle and just zero in and say, “Okay, I got to make that clear.” There’s no point in me getting up here and not being clear with the word of God. So you should never settle for anything less than a clear unfolding of the Scripture from the pulpit ministry.

Concerning prophecy and tongues, I can’t finally render a verdict on whether they’re still functioning in the same way they were in the first century. That’s a matter for study. I’m confident that God will use our dysfunctional church, like he’s used every other dysfunctional church in every generation of church history. But the more functional we can be, the better, so let’s keep praying, let’s keep studying. No matter what you personally believe about prophecy and tongues, the elders will seek to be wise about what we do on Sunday mornings, follow the rules that are given here in this chapter. Tongues will never be used unless they’re interpreted. We’ll talk more about that, God willing, over the next two weeks. Prophesy, we’re gonna keep studying it, but fundamentally, we’re gonna keep preaching and teaching the word and giving wise counsel. We’re not likely to have an open mic anytime soon, but that’s where we’re at.

And finally the most important thing I can ever do is to exhort any that are listening to me, I mean by livestream or sitting here, who have not yet come to faith in Christ to trust in Jesus. The clearest word I can give you is that God sent his Son to die in the cross for sinners like you and me. You are a sinner, so am I. If you don’t have Christ as your Savior, you will perish, you will die eternally. But if you know him and love him, and trust in him, all your sins will instantly be forgiven, and you’ll have eternal life. That’s the clearest thing I can say to you. So today, if you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts but trust in Jesus. Close with me in prayer.

Lord, thank you for the time we’ve had to study in 1 Corinthians 14. Thank you for the things that you’ve taught us. There’s so many things to learn. Father, I pray that you would strengthen each one of us in your Word, help us to understand what’s said here, and be able to walk in it, and to be healthy as a church. I pray that you’d help all of the spiritual gifts to be used as you intend, and wherein there’s any misunderstanding or blockage or hardness of heart on our part, so Lord, we ask that you’d remove it and help us to esteem the spiritual gifts, all of them, not just the showy upfront gifts, but all of the gifts that are useful for the building up of the body. In Jesus name, amen.

I.   Central Concept: Edification through the Ministry of the Word in Love

A.   The Doctrine Simply Stated

1.   Paul is addressing the purpose of the spiritual gifts in the context of corporate life—especially corporate worship

2.   He is deeply concerned that the Corinthian church should be EDIFIED to full maturity in Christ

CSB 1 Corinthians 14:3 But the person who prophesies speaks to people for edification, encouragement, and consolation.

1 Corinthians 14:5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.

1 Corinthians 14:12 So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:17 You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified.

3.   The Spiritual gifts are all given for that purpose… they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves

4.   What is “edification” It means “building up”… picture a construction site, like FBC has been all this year; workers have come in week after week… tearing down the old, clearing away the rubble, building up the beautiful new building—skilled workers—carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, interior decorators—everything done according to blueprints done skillfully by the architect we hired to draw up the plans

5.   So also the church of Jesus Christ—a spiritual entity made up of people—is likened to a spiritual STRUCTURE

Ephesians 2:21-22 In [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Edification is done when human beings are converted through faith in Christ and made what Peter calls “living stones” in this spiritual temple; then those stones themselves are continually quarried and shaped and polished toward perfection in Christ—holiness, sanctification, spiritual development every single day of your lives

6.   This EDIFICATION is done ultimately by God through the Holy Spirit; his central powerful tool is the WORD OF GOD… it is the WORD, the Scriptures, rightly divided, rightly taught, rightly exemplified, rightly applied, rightly lived out that enables each individual member of the Body of Christ to GROW toward our heavenly goal of total conformity to Christ… the WORD OF GOD transforms our MINDS and HEARTS, from which our LIVES follow in holiness

7.   Spiritual gifts are given by the Spirit to aid in this overall building project… they are TOOLS in his powerful hands

B.   The Corinthian Context

1.   Supremely gifted church… “you lack no spiritual gift” (1 Cor. 1:7)

2.   BUT extremely immature, sinful church, as we’ve seen through 13 chapters: factions, divisions, struggles with gross sexual sin, etc.

3.   Recently converted from paganism… had much of the old Greek pagan mentality when it came to spiritual gifts

a.   They greatly esteemed TONGUES above every other gift

b.   It was showy and spectacular; enabled the practitioner to be esteemed and honored and elevated, stoking his ego

c.   From the pagan background, their religion believed in ecstatic frenzied worship patterns that involved drunkenness and frenzied activity which showed a mystical UNION with a god or goddess

d.   When speaking in tongues came in as a part of the Christian worship, they effectively heard it with pagan ears and were using the gift of tongues in a disorderly, even frenzied way, prideful, self-serving, resulting in division and CHAOS

e.   Especially damaging was their seeking of MINDLESSNESS, oblivion, that showed this mystical union with the divine

4.   Paul has to effectively “put tongues in their place”… specifically below the clear, intelligible ministry of the Word of God

C.   Our Context

1.   21st Century Evangelicalism

a.   Fundamentalism arose in response to 19th century liberalism; commitment to inerrancy; evangelicalism arose from fundamentalism

b.   1905: The Azusa Street (Pentecostal) revival… the birth of the modern charismatic movement; speaking in tongues a huge part of it… a sign that you had received the “Baptism of the Spirit”

c.   Division within Bible-believing Christians on the “sign gifts”

2.   Southern Baptists: part of the broader evangelical movement

a.   Also divided on the charismatic issue

b.   The general leadership of the SBC has been hostile to the charismatic movement; the IMB had a big battle over tongues and the private prayer language when Jerry Rankin was President of the IMB

c.   A spectrum in the SBC: from open, bold embracing of the charismatic gifts to a staunch denial of their validity

d.   In the middle, some called “open but cautious”… have never spoken in tongues, are very aware of excesses, cannot resolve the issue through simple exegesis; aware of the historical divide

3.   FBC

a.   In my 22 years here, we’ve never had any controversy over this

b.   I would call myself among the open but cautious camp… I am skeptical of attempts made (even by some of my heroes, like Jonathan Edwards and John MacArthur) at a strong biblical case for cessationism… that the sign gifts, especially tongues, ceased with the completion of the NT canon

c.   My own mentors are divided on this: John Piper and Wayne Grudem are charismatics; John MacArthur is a strong cessationist

d.   We have the spectrum here at FBC… I know there are some brothers and sisters here that pray in a private prayer language (because you’ve told me so), but no one has made any argument for incorporating tongues and prophecies in our Sunday morning worship services

e.   FBC, under the leadership of this group of elders, is not remotely close to becoming charismatic on Sunday mornings… but neither are we going to speak against the validity of all charismatic gifts based on exegesis we’ve done

f.   Yet it is not hard for us to read the MAIN IDEA of 1 Corinthians 14: if tongues are ever to be used on Sunday morning in the corporate worship service, they MUST be interpreted right there and then; and the elders will most certainly want that ability to be demonstrated privately to our satisfaction before we would ever permit it a part of our service…

g.   Tongues can be faked… gibberish (mindless repetition of a very small number of phrases and sounds) can be acquired as a learned pattern; some other people have claimed the gift of interpretation, and have said “He’s saying this, he’s saying that” but they were exposed as frauds

h.   So, the elders would need rock-solid proof that the tongues are truly a work of the Holy Spirit… that would be by someone speaking a coherent language, and then someone else would have to interpret it in a way we are convinced is accurate

4.   The SAME is true of prophecy for me… I believe that it is scriptural to make a prophet PROVE he or she is a prophet by predicting the future… independently verifiable prediction; how else can we know that someone really is a prophet? It is the Bible’s test in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. We are well aware that not all prophecies are predictions… but it is biblical that the GIFT

ITSELF be vindicated in the person’s life by at least one verifiable prediction

D.   Now… the Exegesis of 1 Corinthians 14:1-19!!

II.   Prophecy Edifies the Whole Congregation (vs. 1-5)

A.   Paul Strongly Elevates Prophecy Over Tongues

1.   Tongues are UNINTELLIGIBLE if not translated; prophecy is clear to all and therefore edifies the whole church

B.   Pursue Love… and Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

1.   The Greek word means “follow” “hunt”, “chase after with focus and intensity”

2.   The “Love Chapter” is over; Paul knows that his definition of love is a perfect and timeless standard; therefore, Christians will have to pursue perfect love as a goal the rest of their lives

3.   In the same way, he wants them zealous after spiritual gifts as well, to delight in them and love them… all of the gifts, not just the showy ones

C.   Especially Pursue Prophecy

1.   Now this brings up an interesting question

2.   If spiritual gifts are given by the sovereign God “as he wills” according to his wise plan and purpose, then why should we pursue or eagerly desire this or that spiritual gift? For example, would my yearning to acquire the gift of evangelism or the gift of faith mean that God would give it to me?

3.   Some say that since God distributes them according to his own sovereign will, we should not pursue any gift; rather what Paul means here is that the church as a whole should be zealous in their ESTEEM for prophecy

4.   However, I do believe that God can add a spiritual gift to a person any time; there is no time frame for when the gifts are given to each specific person. I used to think it was at conversion, like the equipment given out to a new recruit at the beginning of basic training. But I think God could add some key gifts to a person who is going out on a mission trip for the first time

5.   Also, just because God gives something as a gift doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek it from him in prayer; e.g. a prudent wife

Proverbs 19:14 Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

a.   BUT I would still advise a young man who wants to get married to seek her in prayer before he ever meets her, and then seek her both in prayer and in loving courtship after he meets her

b.   So also all the gifts God gives can also be sought from his hand in prayer

D.   “Especially” Prophecy OVER Tongues

1.   Paul is saying that the Corinthians should especially be zealous after the gift of prophecy as clearly superior to the gift of tongues. WHY?

1 Corinthians 14:2-4 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. 3 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

2.   Again, the central goal of all spiritual gifts is EDIFICATION of the whole church…

3.   The unintelligible, uninterpreted tongues are essentially MYSTERIOUS to everyone, even to the one who speaks them

4.   In some way, the use of the gift gives a small amount of encouragement to the individual Christian… he “edifies himself” in that he knows that only by the Holy Spirit can he speak this language

5.   But prophecy is INTELLIGIBLE to everyone who hears it, and therefore edifies the WHOLE CHURCH

E.   What Is Prophecy?

1.   Prophecy is a direct communication of the literal Word of God by the means of a human being… “Thus says the Lord”

2.   The content could be anything… any message the Lord wants to give

3.   All scripture is God-breathed and actually prophecies written down for all time; but many genuine prophecies were never written down, even in Bible times

4.   Prophecy could refer to any time aspect—past, present, or future. When Moses wrote down the Book of Genesis, he was writing prophecy about the PAST. Many prophets spoke clear words of instruction or rebuke to a current issue; John the Baptist was a prophet who strongly warned King Herod that his marriage to his brother’s wife was adulterous; very much a CURRENT EVENT

5.   However, by far the most significant form of prophecy is PREDICTION of the future… Moses gave to the people of God for all time the TEST by which a prophet should be validated:

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

6.   I have not heard from John Piper or Wayne Grudem or Sam Storms or C.J. Mahaney or any advocate of the modern use of prophecy why we should not still look to this form of prediction as the way by which a prophet’s words may be tested

7.   Prophecy must also be tested by whether or not it conforms to the existing validated prophecies… the inerrant Word of God; the prophet must speak in proportion to THE FAITH

Romans 12:6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith

Literally “according to the analogy of the faith” … analogia means showing a right relationship, properly aligned with; “the faith” is Christian doctrine

So a prophet must first be tested by predicting the future; then his prophecies must be continually evaluated to see if they are doctrinally sound by the standard of the word of God

F.   The Triple Focus of Genuine Prophecy

CSB 1 Corinthians 14:3 But the person who prophesies speaks to people for edification, encouragement, and consolation.

1.   Edification: building up to maturity in Christ by right DOCTRINE… so there is a strong INSTRUCTION aspect

2.   Encouragement: or exhortation… it is an APPLICATION aspect… putting into practice what you have learned; So… “Here is the truth; now DO IT…” or as Jesus said

John 13:17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

3.   Consolation: or comfort… prophets are able to soothe the fears of the people, to bring a word of consolation that brings joy in the midst of suffering and sorrow

John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

If prophecy has been fulfilled and is now obsolete with the completion of the Scriptures, then preaching takes this place

These three things should be in every good sermon: INSTRUCTION, EXHORTATION, and CONSOLATION

So, this is the clear superiority of prophecy over tongues

1 Corinthians 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

G.   BUT… Paul is Not Throwing Tongues Under the Bus!

1 Corinthians 14:5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues

1.   He is not questioning the validity of the gift of tongues

2.   Not at all… later he will say this:

1 Corinthians 14:18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.

3.   Nor is he questioning how the Spirit is apportioning gifts to various ones… he knows that not everyone will have the same gift

4.   His point is, however much he would like everyone to speak in tongues, he would rather that they PROPHECY because it is much more impactful for the whole church

1 Corinthians 14:5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.

III.   The Problem of Unintelligibility

Paul Heightens His Argument Here in the problem of the unintelligibility of tongues if they’re not translated

He does it by means of some everyday life illustrations

A.   Even If Paul Himself Did It… It Would Be Close to Worthless

1 Corinthians 14:6 Now, brothers, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction?

So imagine the great Apostle Paul coming back to Corinth to resume his powerful ministry. He goes into their worship service on the Lord’s Day, and beings speaking in a tongue without any interpretation at all… everyone would be bewildered and frustrated

They yearn for a clear word from God… the greatest theologian in the history of the church, the man who WROTE THE BOOK OF ROMANS! Here at your church service… and you’re getting unintelligible words!

It would be of no value if he did not bring the three things I just gave you: INSTRUCTION, EXHORTATION, and CONSOLATION

B.   Illustration #1: Musical Instruments

1 Corinthians 14:7 Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the flute or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes?

1.   We’ve all heard an untrained child sit at a piano and start banging on the keys…

2.   The notes are clear enough, but they make NO MUSICAL SENSE; they are MUSICAL GIBBERISH; there is no rhythm, no time; there is no chord progression; indeed, there are no chords at all; the sounds are random and chaotic

3.   Similar to the random sounds made by the wind on some chimes or wooden flutes hanging on a line around a Buddhist temple… random noise

4.   But true music follows RULES and even if it’s not your style— even if its fusion jazz or Renaissance or Baroque or extremely modern… it still follows rules and has an order and beauty to it

C.   Illustration #2: Trumpet in battle

1 Corinthians 14:8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?

1.   In the Civil War, units learned clear trumpet signals by which a company would be commanded to advance or retreat; even into the 20th century, everyone knows reveille and taps… the sounds at the beginning of the day and at the end

2.   So also the civilian population of London during the Blitz by the German Luftwaffe, learned two air raid sounds… the pulsating rhythmic alarm that rose up again and again in a wail, telling everyone that bombs were about to be dropped on their city… everyone ran immediately to the subterranean shelters; then there was a long, slow, rising wail that gave the ALL CLEAR sound that it was safe to come out and resume their lives

3.   Paul’s point: if these signals are not clear, who will know what to do on the battlefield?

1 Corinthians 14:9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.

D.   All Language Has Order

1 Corinthians 14:10-11 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. 11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me.

1.   No language is gibberish… that is how we must test even private prayer languages; is there actually a wide-ranging vocabulary and grammar and pattern to it? Or is it just gibberish, empty phrases repeated again and again?

2.   But even if the unknown tongue is definitely a high-level, organized language, if there’s no translation, it’s as though it’s gibberish to the UNTRAINED EAR

3.   The word “foreigner” in verse 11 is literally “barbarian” in the Greek (Barbaros… because the words sound like “bar-bar-bar”)

E.   The Point Repeated for Emphasis

1 Corinthians 14:12 So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

IV.   The Goal of Worship: A Fruitful Mind AND a Fruitful Spirit

A.   Pray for Interpretation

1 Corinthians 14:13 For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.

1.   It doesn’t matter who does the interpretation; but without it, the gift has to stay out of the corporate worship setting

B.   Uninterpreted Tongues Make the Mind Unfruitful

1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

1.   This is the key “private prayer language” verse, if private prayer languages are indeed valid

2.   Alistair Begg points out that later, Paul will say that he speaks in tongues more than anyone, but seemingly not in church

1 Corinthians 14:18-19 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

a.   Begg asks “If Paul is not doing all this speaking in tongues in church, then where and when is he doing it?”

b.   It would imply that he does it in private

c.   I am not so sure; I think Paul in verses 18-19 is saying that any tongue spoken in church without being interpreted is close to worthless… five clear words are better than 10,000 uninterpreted words… that’s an incredible statement!!

3.   I cannot finally resolve this… People who truly believe that their private prayer language is from God will not be dissuaded from it by 30 seconds of reasoning on my part… nor am I seeking to do it based on sound exegesis of this difficult passage

4.   It may well be that Paul had a private prayer language

5.   But his point here is that, even in that case, his MIND IS UNFRUITFUL if he never understands the words he is saying

C.   True Worship is a Combination of the MIND and the HEART

1 Corinthians 14:15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.

1.   The mind understands, then the heart SINGS it back to God

2.   As Jesus said plainly to the Samaritan woman

John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

a.   Not vapid, empty emotionalism on the one hand; not cold dead orthodoxy on the other

b.   As Alistair Begg said, “Not the crematorium nor the carnival”

c.   Rather, we learn sound doctrine… it is clearly unfolded to us by the ministry of the word; then our hearts are delighted in it and we sing

D.   Without Intelligibility, How Can We Say “Amen”?

1 Corinthians 14:16-17 If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.

1.   “Amen” is a Hebrew word meaning agreement and commitment

2.   “I stand on that”… or “Truly truly”

3.   In corporate worship, all manner of truth is being presented… the true worshiper is AGREEING IN HIS HEART with what is being said, then out comes thanksgiving and praise and worship

4.   But if someone has no idea what was just said, how can he AGREE and DELIGHT in it?

E.   Unintelligible Words are Worthless

1 Corinthians 14:18-19 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

1.   Paul’s own speaking in tongues is established here… a bit of a surprise, since we never see him do it anywhere in the New Testament

2.   But he is identifying with those whose gift it is… he is not throwing them under the bus; he delights in the gift of tongues and uses it more than anyone else does

3.   Five accurate clear words can change your life forever: “Jesus rose from the dead!”

4.   But 10,000 unintelligible words would be tedious and empty beyond all measure… close to worthless; 10,000 words is far more than a full sermon! This sermon on Microsoft Word just passed 5000 words… and its already too long!

V.   Application

A.   Let Everything Be Done for Edification

1.   See the TRUE building project at FBC… not the “More than a building campaign”

2.   This building will someday be destroyed

3.   The true work is going on in souls of people… the transformation of human beings by the ongoing ministry of the Word

B.   See the Value of the Clear Word of God!

1.   All true worship begins with God’s written Word

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

2.   The word “clear” in heaven

Revelation 4:6 Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

Revelation 21:11 [The New Jerusalem]shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

Revelation 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city

The more we can make the Word CLEAR here on earth, the better!!

3.   The clear, understandable word must be preached

a.   For me as a preacher, I need to be sure I don’t use obscure phrases and eloquent vocabulary that will actually hide the clear truth of the gospel

Charles Spurgeon, one of the most intelligent and eloquent preachers in the history of the English language reigned himself in every week by preaching his sermon first to a chamber maid of limited education; if she didn’t understand something, he rephrased it

4.   Note the pattern of life transformation: MIND, HEART, BODY… understand, believe, be, do

C.   SO… for the rest of your life, seek a Sunday morning FEAST in the Word of God

1.   Don’t settle for less than the clear Word of God; there are a lot of charlatans out there… entertainers who are tickling ears

2.   The ministry your soul needs is a clear exposition of the Word … INSTRUCTION, EXHORTATION, CONSOLATION

3.   If that is not happening week after week, go somewhere else

D.   Prophecy and Tongues May Well Both Be Obsolete… OR NOT

1.   Either way, we must follow the clear rules laid out here: uninterpreted tongues must never be used in public worship

2.   Priority must always be given to EDIFICATION through the intelligible ministry of the Word of God

E.   Come to Christ!