Let's look now to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and we will be reading verses one and through 19. Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle plays an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, If with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker. and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks in your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. These next two sermons are going to have a slightly different bent to them. We've walked through these past two chapters on spiritual gifts with Paul's call for us to seek to do all things for the love of others right in the middle. It's important to remember that. 13 is right in the middle of 12 and 14. It's very important that we see that because Paul is encouraging them here to be using these gifts that they have been given by the Lord in a way that is loving, to be using the gifts that the Lord has given to them in a way that builds up other people, that does not emphasize the one who is given the gift, but rather draws attention to, focuses upon, the one who has given the gifts. And I have intentionally avoided doing sermons that are primarily apologetic in nature. I didn't want us to spend three weeks talking about gifts and why they don't apply today. But rather, we sought to look at these gifts and look at these sign gifts that I believe are a sign that was given. And we'll see that very specifically next week when we're walking through the last half of 1 Corinthians 14. but these gifts that are given as a sign that the Messiah has come. Things that were prophesied that they would occur at that time period. They also give some authenticity to those that bring a message. Now one thing important about a sign is that if you're going to recognize a sign, you need to understand that that sign is going to be there. I mean, certainly if I was driving down the road, then I'm familiar with the signs on the road that I can look at the sign and I know it's telling me, this sign means stop. If I take that sign and I put it in the middle of the rainforest and someone runs across the Amazonian rainforest and they see the stop sign and they're not familiar with automobiles, they're not familiar with roads, that sign will mean nothing to them. This is something that's very important with these sign gifts. So we're going to spend a little bit of time today having an apologetic sermon. Aspects of this are going to be more apologetic. I won't just emphasize what Paul is saying here as we have in the past few weeks. We're going to spend a little bit of time interacting with the misuse of the so-called gift of tongues as we see it within our culture, especially as it has been done over about the last hundred years. I want us to reflect upon what Paul has written here, what he's writing here in 1 Corinthians 14 about the gift of tongues. And we're also going to look back at the narratives. The narratives are very important for us understanding the context in which these tongues occur. Because when you look at the narratives, It doesn't look anything like what many charismatics claim that tongues are. You don't have someone just walking out and speaking a known language to someone when they didn't know that language. So there's a different definition that is given here to tongues by charismatics. And I will try to make an argument here that it is not well founded. In this modern day, so-called tongues is not something that should be allowed in churches. It's not something that Christians should be participating in when they are gathered as a church. We need to remember what tongues is and what tongues is not. Our religion must be guided by the scriptures, not our experience, not our culture. We have a church here in Corinth that had a great fascination with the gift of tongues. They were a people that many of them were given this gift, they were blessed with this particular gift, and they were misusing it. And Paul is using these chapters to reorient them, to guide them, to tell them this is how this should be practiced. We need to read it that way. We need to understand there's a great deal of correction that's happening in these chapters. This is not a guidebook that I take and then walk through and say, this is exactly how I'm going to practice this in reference to so-called modern day charismatic tongues. Paul is encouraging them to be using the gifts that God has given them to edify others. to build others up, to operate and use these gifts in a way that is loving to others. That's not what they're doing with the gift of tongues. They're not using it in a way that edifies others. They're not using this gift in a way that is loving. Instead they're using this gift to draw attention to the one that is gifted instead of pointing the attention to the gift giver. That's a key theme that I want you to see in all of these chapters. That is the purpose of all spiritual gifts. None of the spiritual gifts are given to the church, are given to individuals for the purpose of making much of men, for drawing attention to men. The purpose of the gifts is to draw attention to Christ. to point others, not to the one that is gifted, but the one from whom the gifts come. Also, I want to remind you, tongues is to be understood as a language, a language that is spoken, a real language that real people speak. Not gonna spend time going through all the reasons why we know this to be true, but if you chose to look up the word and to study it in Greek and then you took your studies and began to look at other Greek texts other than the Bible to see what the word means, you would find that it's talking about languages. Nobody was disputing this before the early 1900s. You can look in commentaries prior to the so-called Azusa Street revival that happened in Azusa Street in California. And prior to that, you did not have people writing. And if you find it, bring it to me. I'd love to see it. But I haven't seen commentaries prior to that time where you have people making an argument that tongues is something other than languages. That's what it means in the Greek. That's what I will argue to you. We see within the narratives, that's what it means here even within these chapters in 1 Corinthians. But the tongues here... in the Corinthian church were being used in ways that are sinful. And that's just one more way in which the Corinthians are taking something that is good and using it in a sinful way. You think of the Israelites, like the Israelites, the Lord took them out of Egypt, but it was many years that the Lord spent taking the Egypt out of the Israelites. And here you have the Corinthians who were called the Christ, called to be separate and distinct from the world, but they are slow in departing from their sinful culture. Their culture is very much permeating within this church, and we've seen this, these divisions within the church. That is one of the main words that I would use to define the Corinthian church. That is division, divisiveness. I'm saying, well, I'm with Paul, I'm with Peter, I'm with Apollos. And then, of course, the very spiritual one, I'm with Christ. This division that is there, are they not all in Christ? Disagreements between Christians that were not criminal in nature, instead of being handled by leaders in the church, instead of Christians working their problems out themselves, they're going to professional mediators within the culture. This church tolerating very gross immorality within the church. Christians partaking in pagan worship. Christians being careless with their liberties and causing other people to stumble. Division, division, division. Christians bringing pagan worship into the church, calling it the Lord's Supper. And here we have them bringing a very pagan perspective on gifts and giftedness. That it's primarily about the one who gives, has the gift. You see that emphasis with Peter, Paul, Apollos. Now we have it here with these gifts, the emphasis being upon the man, this division that comprise the Corinthian church. Here we have the church gathered in Corinth and people speaking in tongues, speaking in another language and no one knows what they're saying. People don't know these languages, they don't know what is being said. There are three things I want us to pull out of this and I believe that each of these points very much applies to gifts as a whole. I do want us to hold on to that. I want to keep that theme. I want us to understand that spiritual gifts as a whole, I believe, fall under each of these categories of thought, each of these points that we're going to pull out of here. that Paul is applying to prophecy and to tongues, tongues specifically, but I want to argue that these apply to all gifts. Number one, gifts should edify the church. It's a theme that we've seen Paul saying. Gifts should be used to build up others. Gifts should be used to benefit others, not to divide people, not to make someone feel as though they are less of a person because they don't have this particular gift. Number two, gifts should be used to communicate a message. There's something clear that should be communicated. Sometimes you're going to need to add words to it, and what you're doing in your giftedness is going to support the message that you have, but gifts are communicating something. They should be, at least. Gifts should operate orderly. There's an orderly fashion in which gifts should be operating, and they all should be operating one with another, not stepping over each other, not stepping on each other, not shoving some to the side. It's a theme that Paul has given to us. He uses the example of a body. We don't emphasize one part over the other. All of the parts are important, but they serve different purposes. So number one, gifts should edify the church. We see that in the first five verses. 1 Corinthians 14 verses 1 to 5. Pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself. but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. So all spiritual gifts within the church, all of the ways in which the Spirit is blessing people and granting them these gifts, they should be used for the purpose of edifying others. They should be used within the church to strengthen others. That's why the Lord has given us these gifts. They're there to be a blessing. Now some will use this chapter, some will take verses from this chapter, in particular to make arguments that the reason why the gift of tongues exist is for the purpose of edifying oneself, for the building up of oneself. So the tongues is for me, this is something special for me, this is to build me up, and then over here I've got this other gift, this is prophecy, and that is to build up others. I see that in verse 4. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. I want to say this, I don't think that Paul here is talking about speaking in tongues as a whole, but rather he's dealing here in this chapter with the misuse of tongues, the way that the Corinthian church was misusing this gift. And here's why I want to say that, because this idea, this idea that tongues is just something that is for me, and it's to edify me, and it's to build me up, contradicts what he writes just two chapters earlier. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 7, to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. He's talking about spiritual gifts. And in case you don't think that's what he's talking about, we go on to verse 8 in 1 Corinthians 12 where he writes, for to the one is given the spirit of utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by one spirit, to another the working of miracles. to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another the various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. These gifts are given for the common good of the church, for all people. All of the gifts exist for the edification and building up of the church. None of these are to be operated in a way that is selfish. None of these are to be used and operated in a way that brings focus and attention to the one that is gifted. I also want you to see this. When we look back at Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, I would make this argument that you don't see those in Acts chapter 2 speaking in tongues just to edify themselves. We see the gospel being brought to a great many people here. Thousands of people hear the gospel this day. Many of these people believe and there's the sign gift that is given there that was prophesied, which is a sign that the Messiah had come and it authenticated the message that these people were giving these Galileans, the ones that they know they shouldn't have been able to speak these languages. It was evident that this was an act of God. The context here is different here in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 12. It says, For the one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God. For the one who understands him he utters mysteries in the spirit. What we have here I believe are people in Corinth speaking in languages. speaking in human languages, as we will see the word means in Greek, as we will see, as we see what is happening here within narratives. We have them communicating languages spoken by others in the world, but they're speaking these languages in the context of a people that do not speak that language. And as we see Paul's illustrations that he's going to give as we walk through this chapter, it's going to tie right into this idea. Because what good is that? How is that helpful to other people? How is it beneficial to someone if I just show off that I can speak in this other language and they have no idea what I am saying? Is that gift blessing others? Is that gift pointing others to Christ? No, it's making much of me. It's showing off what I can do. It benefits no one else. That's why Paul argues here, it'd be better that one prophesies, that one is speaking the truth of God. And as I have argued previously, I would argue the closest thing that we would have to prophecy now in the church would be the proclamation of the Word of God, would be someone standing and proclaiming what the Word of God says. And prophecy is something like all gifts that should be pointing others to Christ, pointing to the one, right, that Moses was told of that would come, that would be a prophet like Moses. That's the goal. That's the goal of all proclamation. That should be the goal of all preaching. The goal should be to point others to Christ, not to make much of yourself, not to point to yourself. I'll confess this is an area that preachers have to be careful with because there is great, great temptation in this area. There's great temptation to draw attention to yourself or to focus upon yourself. But in the proclamation of the Word of God and teaching and preaching, just as in all gifts, the focus should be on Christ. We should be pointing others to Christ, guarding from pride. Prophecy is not something that is further needed at this point. And why is that? That's because we have the Word of God. We have a finished canon. Hebrews 1 beginning in verse 1, long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. That is where all preaching should focus. people to Christ. That is who we are proclaiming. I want to argue that all gifts should be pointing others to Christ. This is very contrary to the modern idea of the gift of tongues, the charismatic idea of the gift of tongues. Scripture needs to be our guide. The word of God must be that which fences us in, that causes us to stay within what God has proclaimed to be true. Not allowing our experience, not allowing our desires, not allowing even our culture to influence us. Many would say that tongues is merely this ecstatic speech. They will say, well, you look at Acts chapter two, that's one kind of a tongues. And then we have this other kind of tongues here, and that is my own private prayer language, where you're just speaking this language. Nobody knows what language it is. Nobody can identify that as an actual language. Let's look at some of the ways in which people come to these conclusions. Romans chapter 8 and verse 26. It says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. This is a passage that has absolutely nothing to do with the gift of speaking in tongues, but it is a common go-to passage. for the support of speaking in tongues because the person will say, well, you see the noises that person is making, they're kind of like groanings and the spirit is speaking through them and that person doesn't even know what he is saying at this point. It's not at all what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter eight. I would encourage you to read through it. And just a simple reading of the text would not lead you to grab this out of context and apply it to the so-called modern charismatic idea of speaking in tongues. But I wanted to direct you to another direction, and I want you to imagine what Paul might be speaking of. Second Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 21, and Paul says this, but whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I am talking like a madman with far greater labors, far greater imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes, one less. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger with false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of the anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak? Am I not weak? Who is made to fall? Am I not indignant? Just think about that. Paul's experience is there where there are not times in the midst of his suffering and his struggles that he was not even able to compose his prayers and yet the Spirit prayed through him. The Spirit gave him utterance at that time. It makes a whole lot more sense to me to take what you see in Romans chapter 8, these groanings and utterances as someone who just doesn't even know how to pray, not someone who's just babbling foolishness, someone who's just blurting things out. Another way that some will try to say this is they will say, look, it is a language. They will say you're right and the use of the Greek word absolutely means language but it's a heavenly language. It's a language that you will be speaking when you get into heaven. They will take the first verse of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. They will take that to mean that see there's tongues of angels. Angels are speaking this sound and so that's what's happening here. in the gift of tongues. Once again, I believe this is another passage being taken out of context. He's just using this as an example. Even if I were to speak of this great heavenly language, if I'm able to speak in this way that is straight from heaven, the words of angels, and I didn't have love, it would be worthless. It would be empty. Not an idea that we're supposed to gather from this. He's not expecting us to go back to the first verse in the last chapter and say, oh, well, you must be talking about some kind of a heavenly language. Another idea that is used is the second verse of 1 Corinthians 14. And this is this idea that when you're speaking in tongues, you have no idea what you're saying. It's just your spirit that is speaking. Again, to edify yourself, 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 2, he says, for one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. This idea that I'm just speaking here, I don't know what I'm saying, very, very inconsistent with what we see demonstrated in the narratives. That you have a people that are speaking a specific language that people can hear and can understand. Paul here in 1 Corinthians 14 is cautioning them away from this behavior. He's calling them to operate and use this in a way in which is edifying and builds up others. I want to close this point with a quote from Thomas Schreiner, and he says this. We see from this text that spiritual experience is not authenticating. One cannot defend a spiritual practice in the church simply because we find it enthralling or exciting. Spiritual maturity is not self-absorbed. The real mark of spiritual growth is a concern for others, such that believers should pursue what will edify others. Attention must be given not just to form, but especially to content. Form without content, experience without understanding, does not build others up. I think that's a good summary of what Paul is trying to say in this first part here, that gifts should be used to edify the church. And the Word of God needs to be that which we use to determine that which is true. It needs to be that which we use to determine what we do during the gathered church. So first we see this idea that gifts should be used to edify the church. Secondly, we see that gifts should communicate a message. All gifts should be communicating a message, beginning in verse 6. Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, How will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up of the church." All gifts. I argue, and have been arguing, communicate a message, either directly because of the message they are saying, right? For instance, someone is preaching, someone is teaching, there's something very direct that is being said, or they're communicating something in the message that they are supporting. That's something that we all need to be cautious of, that as we're serving As we're using the gifts that He has given us, the Lord has given us, that we are cautious and we're careful about the message that is being communicated. And Paul gives three analogies here that tie very much into this idea of communicating a message. In all three of these, it's very important that the people know what is being communicated. He uses this idea of a harp or a flute. If someone just gets up like a young child, they just begin to beat upon the piano, it may be cute if they are three, but if it's a 40-year-old man, you won't find that amusing. Now, believe it or not, there are some who have gathered and put on such shows, but it's foolishness. The vast majority of music is nothing, nothing like that. You can't just play random notes, the instruments need to be playing together. And even styles of music where you have this idea of different things happening such as jazz, there's still a theme that is running through these pieces. It's not just people playing whatever, there's something that's communicated. Next it gives the idea of a bugle. The gifts are communicating something. Speech needs to be saying something. That's the idea of the bugle. They blow the bugle. They're ready. They know it's time for battle. How is the church to become engaged if the sound is incoherent? As he says, you're merely talking to the air. Third illustration he gives is that of human language. All language has a purpose. Without a common language, there's no communication. It's impossible for two people to speak to each other with words if they don't have the same language. It's divisive. Once again, that's what we have in the Corinthian church. We have them being divisive. We have these gifts causing division when the purpose of the gifts was to bring the church together, to bring people together. They're eager to act in these gifts. Paul's calling them to be eager to be constructive, to be eager to build up. All of these communicate something, each of these analogies that are given. That's the irony that I want you to see here when you compare this with the modern charismatic gift of tongues as it is communicated. There's great irony that is here. We've made this argument previously that spiritual gifts are given to the church to assist her in her role, to build up. And I've given the illustration back even into the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians that each of the gifts that we are given, that you see displayed in the church, they point to something. It's a glimpse into eternity. Because I want you to think of this. Which of the gifts would you need apart from the fall? Each of these gifts, as we see them, are supporting the church in some way. It's a glimpse of the kingdom of God shining forward to us now. It's a recognition we should have. There's an eschatological hope that we have that the Lord is going to remove all the consequences of the serpent in the garden, and there will be a time when none of this will be necessary. The gift I pointed to before was the gift of healing. Why is it that someone is physically restored? Why is that necessary? Because of the fall. Man was cursed in the fall. Men get sick, men die, and this gift of healing was a signed gift where people were healed and people had the gift of healing and they could heal other people. It was a sign the Messiah had come. It's also a glimpse at the future because there's going to come a time when none of you are going to need to be healed. None of us will be gathering together in glory for a time of prayer, to be praying over cancer or to be praying over someone who is injured. I want you to think of this. John the Baptist, whenever he was imprisoned, it was kind of a time of doubt for him. He wasn't quite sure. And he asked, he's like, is Jesus the one that's going to come, or is there another one that we should be expecting? What does Jesus say? He says, go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Why does Jesus point to these as signs? Because these were signs the Messiah had come. These things happening here, these were signs that the Messiah had come. And these are what these sign gifts are pointing to. What does tongues point us to? What is the gift of tongues pointing to? It's not meant to point to you as a person. It's meant to point to something the Lord is doing and has done. He's bringing to pass that which he said he would do in the garden and he would crush the head of the serpent. Think of this. I want you to think of tongues in this way. It's the very opposite of what you see in the tower of Babel. You have these men that gather together and they're standing against the Lord and they are going to reach divinity apart from the Lord and the Lord confuses their speech there in Genesis chapter 11. It's a judgment that happens there. So no longer is man going to use his speech for the purpose of working against the Lord. See, but here in the New Testament, it's different. The tongues here are no longer representing judgment. They're here representing redemption. The Lord bringing to pass what it is he said he was going to do. It's the opposite. It's the opposite of Babel right here. Instead of the language being confused so the men conspire against the Lord, there are men who are speaking a language they don't know and other people are understanding them. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. And the message that is being communicated is that Christ the Messiah has come. Very, very opposite of judgment. The very, very opposite. And we'll deal with this a little more in the second half because Paul is going to begin to use quotations from the prophet Isaiah. And it's the very opposite of what is here. This is not the judgment of God. This is the blessing of the Lord at this time. But instead in this church, It looks more like the opposite. Instead of having this gift given and people speaking and other people understanding, it's being used in a way that is divisive, that is working contrary to the intended purpose that the Lord had given it. That is the beauty that is there. The redemption of Christ Jesus is that to which all gifts should point. And that's not where the gift was pointing here. The gift here was being pointed at the person that was speaking. But all of these gifts exist for the purpose of edifying others, for building others up, not for dividing. And these gifts all should be communicating a message. They all should be pointing to the Messiah. They all should be pointing to the one who has crushed and will crush the head of the serpent. This now and not yet principle that we have, and as we have these gifts, we need to remember where it is they came from, the source from which they came, the one to whom they point and see this eschatological hope. They're not about me. They're not about me making much of myself. They're not about me having my little territory. They're about me making much of Christ. That is the one that people need. That's the message that all gifts should be communicated. We need to be cautious in how we use what the Lord has given us. Thirdly, they need to be done orderly. Paul is beginning this idea that he's going to unpack in the last half of this chapter. But these gifts should be used in a way that is orderly. beginning in verse 13. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving? when he does not know what you are saying. For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. These gifts are intended to edify others, to build the church up. These gifts should be communicating a message. I'll give you a quote from one commentator named S.T. Oum. He says, prophecy and interpreted tongues essentially did the same thing. They were intelligible words from God to his people meant to build up the church and convince non-Christians of the reality of the faith. The problem in the Corinthian church was that they had gotten it backwards. They were more interested in the unintelligible, uninterpreted tongues. As a result, the community could not be built up. The non-Christians would remain unconvinced. They were prioritizing the impressive over the intelligible. The problem was that the impressive was not making a good impression. It was actually doing the very opposite. It was divisive. It was not orderly. The gifts that are given by the Lord should be used in a way that is orderly, like the illustration that Paul gave of a body. All the parts of a body should be working together. It's a sign of a sick body when the parts begin to fight one with another, or one part begins to think that they are of greater importance and take that which is necessary for the other parts. I want to make this argument, though, that what you see in the charismatic movement, what you see in the charismatic gift of tongues, as it is called, is wrought with disorder. It is wrought with great, great disorder. It is wrought with very unbiblical practices that are not given emphasis in the scriptures. These are passages, as I have emphasized earlier, that are taken directly out of context to support not something that you have clearly given within a narrative, not something that you're clearly instructed to do, but rather taken out of context for the purpose of supporting someone's experience. Someone's desire. As a young man when I was in college, I was a part of a college Christian group and we would go out on mission trips and we would do various activities and we would serve people. But it was what they called interdenominational and that meant that we had many different denominations, many different views of Christianity all within the group. Although it was evangelical, they had a right understanding of the gospel. But you would have Baptists and Methodists and Charismatics all kind of in the group together. And I noticed something when we go out on these mission trips. There was a certain group of men who would desire to go out and we were out working and we were trying to deal with the people that we were there to help. We were working on some kind of a college ministry and we were sharing the gospel with others that we would come into contact with. And these men, these charismatic men, their emphasis was not upon bringing the gospel to the lost. See, they were there to focus upon these other Christians. They did something that they called Holy Spirit evangelism. And they would go around and try to start conversations with other students that were there on the mission trip, and these were not seminary professors, they weren't, you know, doing teaching lectures on pneumatology, which would be the theological study of the Holy Spirit. They were finding these people that were not charismatics and trying to lead them to do what they called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is what they said would have been the first step. Right after that, they would then speak in tongues. And as we've discussed this previously, this idea of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that happens to all Christians. It's something that happens at your conversion. It's not something that happens to you after you're a Christian. If you haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you're not a Christian. This was something that was incredibly unorderly. And I began to watch what they were doing, and they had already tried to do this with me, and they weren't successful, and they derided me and said, well, you're just not believing enough. And after I had gone to some of their seminars and meetings, I began to realize this is incredibly unbiblical. And so as they would walk around with other people, I would then come behind and speak against what they were saying, say, you're using that passage out of context. used, went so far as to accuse me of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which I want to remind you is what Jesus says is the unforgivable sin. But this was something, I want to argue, that was incredibly disorderly. There's no evidence in the Scriptures that you need to seek to give someone this experience where they are being knocked unconscious, where they're completely no longer in control of their faculties, where it's so bad that people are falling down immediately and then others are running behind to try to catch that person and then someone else is running with a blanket to try to cover someone else because they're wearing a dress or a skirt. There's absolutely nothing to support these kinds of disorderly practices. There is no such thing as the slaying in the Spirit, at least not in the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is some spirit that someone is getting slayed in, but it is absolutely not Christian. It is absolutely not something that you can support with Scripture. It's very opposite of what you see Paul calling them to here. Paul is calling them to be orderly. Paul is calling them to work in a way in which you have the gifts operating appropriately within their context for the building up of others, for the strengthening of others to point others to Christ. There is absolutely nothing that is pointing to Christ when you have people falling unconscious, when you have people that are out of their mind. The passages you see here where Paul is talking about not engaging the mind, he's not encouraging people not to engage the mind. When you read them, he's encouraging them to be engaging their minds. Remember, one of the fruits of the Spirit is that not self-control. If you are full of the Spirit, you're going to have self-control. You're not going to be someone who can't control anything you're doing. You're not going to be someone that can't control what you're saying. You're not going to be someone that can't control your faculties and is passing out. It's the very opposite, I would argue. These gifts that are given should be operating in a way that is orderly. That is the purpose of them because they are given for the purpose of edifying the church, to be pointing others to Christ. That is the message that all of this should be communicating. All of these gifts that the Lord has given, the gifts that the Lord has given to his church, these many, many ways, your friends, that you have been blessed. And I see the ways in which so many of you are blessed. And as you begin to interact and be in more community, in more community with the church, we see you begin to operate in these ways. I want you to cling to this. I want you to seek after this, as Paul says. Seek these gifts. Seek the gifts that the Lord has given you, because He's blessed you in many ways. He's made you for a purpose, and that purpose is to glorify Christ. And you glorify Christ when you build others, when you point to Christ, not when you point to yourself. It is to Christ that all of us should desire to point. All of us should be taking that which the Lord has given us, these blessings that He's given us, to point back to Him, a reflection of the glory of God, not to ourselves. Because apart from Christ, none of us have any hope. Apart from Christ, we would all be lost. And we as a people who have been saved by grace through faith, we as a people who would be hopeless, left to ourselves, should recognize that others have no hope apart from Christ. So that which the Lord has given us, we should be using for the purpose of pointing to Christ, making much of Christ, using that which the Lord has given us by His grace and for His glory. Let's pray.