The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. All right, well, you two in the back, you're not socially distanced enough, are you okay? I don't know. All right, well, let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And so last week what we did is we made it through verse 25. And I would just by way of reminder, chapter 14 verses 20 to 25 ends up being really an incredibly crucial text for understanding the function of tongues. And there's a wonderful article written by O. Palmer Robertson called Tongues, Sign of Covenantal Curse and Blessing. And he makes the observation in the article that when people think about tongues, they think about day of Pentecost, and then what Old Testament text do they think of? Well, they think of the text that Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost, which ends up being Joel chapter two. And Robertson actually makes the point that God doesn't just bring stuff onto the scene out of thin air, that God has been preparing, right? So you think, for instance, of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, it's not as if, boom, Christmas day, all of a sudden God became man, right? You actually have 1,500 years of redemptive history and a thousand years of Old Testament to prepare for that event, right? So in other words, when that event happens, it happens against the backdrop of the preparation of the Old Testament, right? So it makes sense. So what God does is he brings things about, but they come about in a context, and that context is the Old Testament. And so what Paul does in this passage, is he actually demonstrates the Old Testament context for tongues. So if you just look at that paragraph, I wanna just make a couple more observations about this in case we kinda got lost last week. So verse 20 says, brethren, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants but in your thinking be mature. So there's an implicit criticism here of the Corinthians and that is their thinking, their view, their understanding of tongues was childish, was infantile. Paul wanted them to be mature in their understanding. The only thing you should be a babe in is in evil. But you need to be mature in your understanding. And so I think that the implication that Paul is making is your whole view of this gift is completely immature. And then, in order to bring a more mature understanding, he then quotes from the law, that is the Old Testament, verse 21. In the law it's written by men of strange tongues and by lips of strangers, I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Now, let me just say quickly that this is a quotation from Isaiah 28, 11, but Isaiah 28 11 doesn't spring into being out of thin air Isaiah 28 11 is connected to Deuteronomy chapter 28 all right so I explained this last week but if you just just take your Bibles and turn over to Deuteronomy 28 for just a second I wanna show you the way that this gets linked together. Deuteronomy chapter 28. So I mentioned this last week, it's worth repeating. So in the old covenant, right, the Mosaic covenant, what does God require of his people? Obedience. And what kind of obedience? We say it this way, these are the words, perfect, personal, and perpetual. Right? Perfect obedience, perpetual obedience, personal obedience, right? This is what God requires in the law. Now, God makes a provision in the law for people who obviously cannot render perfect, perpetual, personal obedience, and that remedy is, of course, the sacrificial system, right? So in a sense, God requires perfection, but there's another sense in which God's grace is there for imperfect people. But, this covenant that God makes with Israel has these incredible implications. If they are to stay in the land, they need to walk in covenant faithfulness to God. The covenant faithfulness, I don't think, is necessarily the idea of perfect obedience, but it is the idea of walking in a way in which God is honored, you're obeying his word, when you sin, you're making use of the sacrifices, there is a covenantal relationship with God. So what God does, and he does this in Leviticus 26, and then he does it in Deuteronomy 28, he actually lays out the implications for Israel if they obey and if they rebel okay so the reward for obedience are all of these blessings that God actually says to them now and now I would say that there's something that is peculiar about those covenant curses and covenant blessings that relate to Israel as a covenant nation, all right? So in order to stay in the land, they had to exhibit covenant faithfulness, but if they actually rebelled against God, God would bring curses on them, okay? The curses of the covenant. The ultimate curse of the covenant exile being uprooted from your homeland so remember the land is a gift and a grant from God by covenant and that is their inheritance So they're tied to the land, to be uprooted from the land, which has been given to you as a covenant nation and you as a particular family. So, you know, the Georges would have their inheritance and the Rices would have their inheritance and so forth. And it went from, in fact, so important was it that this stayed in the family that if the year of Jubilee, actually the land reverts back to the family. So even if you have to sell it because you're bankrupt, it reverts back in the year of Jubilee, all right? So to be exiled is the worst possible idea, to be removed from the land, to be removed from the sacred space. And so in Deuteronomy 28, you have all of these curses. Let me just start in verse 45. So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you're destroyed. because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever. By the way, the idea of a sign there is it's a sign of judgment, right? So the very words that you've broken, the very words you've disobeyed are a sign of judgment against you. because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart for the abundance of all things. Therefore, you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things. And he will put an iron yoke on your necks and your neck until he has destroyed you. The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar from the end of the earth as the eagle swoops down a nation whose language You shall not understand. So the very idea of covenant curse is to actually hear foreign tongues, okay? So you understand why that's the curse, right? Because the invaders have come, okay? So when you hear people speaking Assyrian and you only speak Hebrew, then guess what? Sign of God's judgment, all right? The sign of God's covenantal judgment on Israel then sounds like what? Like a babbling tongue, all right? Now, look at Isaiah chapter 28. In Isaiah chapter 28, start at verse nine, To whom would he teach knowledge, and to whom would he interpret the message? Those weaned from milk, those just taken from the breast, for he says, order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there. Now, by the way, if you have New American Standard, notice the marginal reading there. So it gives you the Hebrew, right? Sov-la-sov, sov-la-sov, cov-la-cov, cov-la-cov, za-er-shom, za-er-shom. So notice the Hebrew monosyllables imitating the babbling of a child, and it's a mockery of the prophet's preaching, okay? So this is what they were saying about Isaiah, okay? Now, of course, they're drunk, okay? You actually see that in verses seven and eight, right? In fact, I won't even read it, it's kind of disgusting. And so verse 11 then says, indeed he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue. So guess what that is? That is Deuteronomy 28, 49, okay? That's the judgment that God's going to bring. So it's as if God is saying, if you think my word to you sounds like baby babbling, then I'm going to judge you by bringing foreign stammering tongues, okay? He said to them here is rest give rest to the weary and here is repose but they would not listen. So the word of them. So the word of the Lord to them will be. Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, here a little, there a little. I think, doesn't the King James say like precept upon precept or something like that? By the way, this is not the way that the teaching of the word of God, so precept upon precept, that's not like a command on how to teach the scriptures. This is mockery, okay? This is mockery. that they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive. By the way, it's this very passage where it talks about the stone being laid in Zion. So, Robertson says this at one point, he says, if they persist, speaking to people in Isaiah's day, in acting like children, pretending not to hear or understand, then God will speak to them in judgment in their childishness. So that's the idea. Again, so you've got the covenant curse, and then you've got the prophet saying, here's God's judgment upon you. If you think God's word sounds like Babel, then what you're gonna get is God's word of judgment in Babel, through foreign lips and stammering tongues. Now, I mentioned last week that at Pentecost, what happens? At Pentecost, you have both blessing and curse, right? So they're filled with the Spirit, they're speaking in tongues, and who is the gift of tongues a blessing for? Well, those who understand it. they understand it in their own tongue. So in a sense, there's a reversal of Babel. So they are hearing the word of God in their own language, they're hearing the mighty deeds of God, and then what happens? Okay, so then, remember, there's another group of people, and they say, they're drunk. By the way, that's a direct connection back to Isaiah 28, all right? For those that said they're drunk, tongues were a sign of judgment. Okay? Because they didn't understand. Now what happens, we didn't talk about this last week, but it is interesting. What happens after the phenomenon of tongues? Peter gets up and preaches. Right? Right? Peter gets up and preaches. And there's every reason to believe that those actually who heard the tongue in their own language and understood it were then prepared as it were for the message that Peter was about to bring, which was a message of repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. He preaches Christ to them, right? So that brings us then to what Paul then says in the rest of this passage, which seems a little odd to us. But if you keep, so keep that background in mind, okay? Verse 22, so then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. Now immediately we, Say, well, how can that be? Because Paul turns around and says, but prophecy is for a sign. Actually, that's not what the text says, is it? It just says for prophecy, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say you're mad? So it seems like Paul's saying two things here about tongues, right? If they're a sign for unbelievers, but if you do it, unbelievers are gonna think you're crazy. Here's how I think you reconcile this, and that is when Paul says a sign, he doesn't mean a sign that leads to belief. He means it's a sign of judgment. Just like tongues were a covenant curse upon ancient Israel, so tongues, when there's no intelligibility, end up being a curse. judgment on those who hear them and don't understand them. Could be unbelieving Jews, could be unbelieving Gentiles, but so Paul says tongues in are for a sign. Well how do we know that's a sign? Because the sign is already given to us in Isaiah 28 11 which he has just quoted and so prophecy though is for believers. So tongues, people are gonna say you're crazy, like yodeling, right? Everybody starts yodeling, and what are they doing? That sounds crazy, I'm outta here. Verse 24, but if all prophesy and an unbeliever and ungifted man enters, he's convicted of by all he's called to account by God, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, so he'll fall on his face, worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. So it's like, well Paul, what is it? Is prophecy for believers or for unbelievers? Prophecy is for the edification of believers, but guess what? If people are going to get saved, they're not saved by hearing people speak in tongues. They're saved by hearing the Word of God proclaimed. By the way, just like on the day of Pentecost, nobody was saved by tongues. They were saved through the message that Peter preached, that the Spirit used. All right? I think that that's the way that that works together. So there is this magnificent, powerful sense where, so we have not even really defined prophecy, we'll do that sometime later, but here, prophecy is intelligible that's it's understandable right it's not gibberish understandable and that is what edifies comforts consoles builds up the church but it is also what God uses to expose men's hearts bring conviction make them realize that God is among them and then they realize their need of salvation. Okay. So prophecy serves both believers and unbelievers. Okay. Tongues uninterpreted are simply a sign of judgment. Okay. So that brings us to the next part. So, um, The next part, the remainder of the passage actually falls into two parts. You have directives for order, for the sake of edification, verses 26 to 36. And then you have these closing admonitions on authority and order. So now what Paul's going to do is he's going to get down to real practical stuff. He's giving guidelines on what the church needs to do. Now, what's important to remember is that Paul is correcting Corinthian abuses, okay? He's not necessarily saying to us, here's the divine order of worship. He's trying to bring some order into a chaotic situation, all right? So verse 26, He says, what is the outcome then? Literally, just what then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification, all right? Now, you have to appreciate this little phrase, when you assemble, okay? So there's, I can actually just count all of you right now, two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 13. When you assemble. So the word that Paul uses for assemble, which is vitally important in this context, means to come together with others as a group. to assemble, to gather, okay? It's used in the book of Acts repeatedly, both positively and negatively. So the church assembles, but a mob can assemble too, all right? But for Paul, this word has peculiar relevance because even back in chapter 11, just turn back there just for a second. Paul uses this phrase numerous times. I just wanna point this out here. Chapter 11, verse 17, but this is on the Lord's Supper. But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because, here's our word, you come together, you assemble, you congregate, not for the better, but for the worse. So that was bad on their part. Verse 18, for in the first place, when you, notice these next two phrases, when you come together, that's our verb, when you come together, when you gather, when you assemble, what's the next phrase? a church so for Paul the idea of assembling gathering congregating is what you do as a church All right? He goes on, he uses the phrase again in verse 20, therefore, when you meet together, right? Verse 33, he says, so then my brethren, when you come together to eat, by the way, what is he talking about there? He's talking about the agape feast, the Lord's Supper, right? When you come together to eat, if anyone is hungry, let him remain home so that you will not come together for judgment. And then that verb is also used in verse 23 of chapter 14, if the whole church does what? Assembles together. So why am I spending time on what seems to be just sort of a passing point for Paul? And that is this, it is clear in the way that this word is used that the church is only the full expression of the church when it assembles. So through the week, you know, you're out doing your job, I'm out doing my job, you're here, right? And since the church is scattered, when the church is scattered, the church is functioning in the sense of individual Christians ministering to a lost world, evangelizing people and all that, which is vitally important. But guess what? When you go to Starbucks and hang out with two of your friends, that's not church. What's church? Church is, someone said, well, where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm right there in the midst of them, right? So let me just ask you, is that a good proof text to say if two or three people get together, that's the church? That's not a good proof text for that. Do you know why? Because in the context where two or three are gathered in my name, that is in the context of the process of church discipline. The two or three gathered in my name is not just some sort of generic promise that Jesus is present. There is an implication Jesus is present when his people gather, but that's not the point of that passage. It's when the church assembles together that the church is complete. It's when the church assembles together that we function as a church. And so, you've seen it, I thought I was past this stage of life, but then I have grandkids, and now you see those dreaded words, which on a box, something you have to put together, assembly required, is absolutely frightening, especially if the instructions were done by somebody in China. But, guess what's on, as it were, the box of the church, assembly required. assembly required and so when Paul says when you assemble together when you gather together as a church that's not just some sort of throwaway line this is this is where we actually most reflect that heavenly colony of of of the spirits of just men made perfect the church in heaven It's when we gather together, it's when we sing God's praise, it's when we hear God's word. This is what, by the way, this is what makes forsaking the assembly together such a grievous and dangerous sin. Now, what we're doing under these circumstances is not forsaking the assembly, all right? If you're sick and you can't come to church, that's not forsaking the assembly, okay? But if you willfully refuse to assemble when God's people assemble, that is forsaking the assembly. And it's dangerous, right? So all that to say, let's not get used to this. Let's make sure that empty seats and missing faces make us painfully aware that we're missing out on assembling together as a church. Now, I'm thankful that you're here. It's actually easier to talk when there are people listening, OK? And so I don't minimize your presence here at all. But let's face it. There are a lot more faces that we're accustomed to seeing on a Wednesday. and we miss them, right? Now, back to the Corinthians. So the Corinthians were a mess, all right? Let's just put it this way. what would you think of a church that when they said okay we meet at such-and-such a place at 1030 on a Sunday morning and let's say a friend of yours invited you to go and you get there and it's absolute chaos a total bedlam everybody's just walking around speaking in tongues or yodeling if you prefer And then they come to have the Lord's Supper and you notice that some people actually have already gone to the table and they're already drunk. Can you imagine? Could you imagine? drunkenness at the Lord's table somebody's you know, there's a there's a meal so let's say we have the potluck before the the Lord's Supper and somebody has had to work the graveyard shift and let's say there's a whole bunch of people that had to work the graveyard shift and they get in just in the nick of time and they're hope hoping to have something to eat and all the foods gone, you know, and there's Vic and he's got barbecue sauce down this front and he's got barbecue sauce in his beard and he's got a pulled pork hanging on the edge of his lip and there's there's this poor guy that comes in he's starving to death and now all of a sudden there's nothing for him to eat this is the Corinthian Church absolute chaos absolute individualism everybody out for themselves. So I think that when you look at the Corinthian church, tongues weren't the only thing that was out of control in the Corinthian church. The assembly itself was absolutely disorderly, highly individualized, everybody doing their own thing. And what Paul is gonna try to do in this very practical section is he's gonna try to bring some order to a specific context, he's not, again, giving us a list of what church ought to be. In fact, even the Pentecostal scholar Gordon Fee says that this next list is intended neither to give the order of service nor to be exhaustive of what each one has to offer by way of ministry, okay? So here's what Paul says. So what's the outcome, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. So Paul presents a picture of the church assembling together, and notice each one has, all right? So the idea is probably something like each one brings something. So the first thing mentioned is a psalm. Most of the commentators think that really what is in view here is probably a hymn. This word, by the way, is used in Ephesians 5.19 and Colossians 3.16, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. the idea of singing something, two commentators make the comment, it could be like a known composition or something fresh, all right? So you just come with a song, okay? Other comes with a teaching, that is comes with doctrine, with knowledge, with Bible teaching. Another comes with a revelation, probably connected to the idea of prophecy. And then a tongue. So notice Paul does not discount tongues, but notice what he does. He most definitely qualifies it, doesn't he? Because if somebody brings a tongue, what else needs to be brought? An interpretation, all right? Now, Very interesting observation. There's two Australian scholars, Siampa and Rosner. They make this really interesting observation. They say, because of our Pentecostal and charismatic environment, we tend to think that this little list that Paul gives were just spontaneous, unprepared things. Like somebody pops up and says, I've got a song. And somebody else pops up and says, I've got a teaching. And so that it was just like spontaneous on the spot. Siempa and Rosner actually say, they argue that each one of these things that Paul lists could have been known and even prepared beforehand. just as easily as they could have been spontaneous. So when you gather, each one has, the idea is not just sort of this helter-skelter kind of craziness and somebody's popping up over here and somebody's popping up over there. It's when you come together, you bring these things, right? Intentionally prepared. And then Paul gives the principle. What's the principle? Let all things be done for edification. Now if you read 1 Corinthians 14 and come away with any other view than the primary goal of 1 Corinthians 14 is to say edification. Edification requires intelligibility. Edification is what love requires. If I love you, I want you to be edified. And if you're gonna be edified, you have to understand. So Paul says, so the gathering of the body should be for edification. One's contribution should be for edification. If you bring the psalm that day, you do it for edification. If you bring the teaching that day, the goal is not to show how clever you are, the goal of the teaching is what? To edify the body. If there is a revelation that day, it is for edification. If there is, and here's the kicker for the Corinthians, if there's a tongue that day, it better be interpreted if it's gonna be for edification. Now, this principle is absolutely universal and applicable to us at all times. Let all things be done for edification. So let me just make a quick application of this principle for us. I want you to think for a moment about our services when we gather together. I want you to think in terms of formal and informal contributions. Now, formal and informal may not be the best way to put it, but somebody's going to stand up in every service on, well, morning and afternoon service, somebody's gonna stand up and they're going to give an introduction to a passage of scripture that's going to be read. Which, by the way, is in compliance with 1 Timothy 4, 13, give attention to the public reading of God's word. And so somebody stands up, gives the sense of the text, right? And then they read the text. Now, how many times have, you don't need to raise your hand, but how many times have you just not paid attention to that part? Well, how many times have you paid attention, right? And you go, oh, that was a very helpful comment. And then the passage is read and there is this edification with the reading of God's word, right? By the way, one of the reasons why we're not more edified with the simple elements of our worship is because we end up taking those things for granted, okay? Do you know why we have in the Reformation tradition a scripture reading in the morning and the evening? with explanation, giving the sense of the text. It was because not everybody had a Bible. And actually the reading, the consecutive reading of the word of God in the worship service was for the edification of the people so that they could hear the word of God being read. So that's for your edification. So Charlie will do a psalm or Vic will do a psalm in the morning and Roger will do a reading in the afternoon and sometimes they'll read a quotation from Charles Spurgeon about that psalm or they'll make some comment about the way this psalm fits together with the other psalms or they'll make some comment about Nathan doing the reading, they'll make some observation about the text, set the text up, maybe make a word of application, and then the text is read. They brought that to the service for your edification. They didn't, at least I hope not, say, oh, I'm on the schedule again. Oh, I gotta go and read the Bible to God's people, right? No, they go, this is a privilege. It's a privilege. And this is my contribution of making an edification. I'm bringing a text. I'm bringing a psalm. I'm bringing a portion of the gospel, right? Think about, The musicians, our pianists, our violinist, whoever plays guitar, even the cello, the vocalists, the song leader, you know what they're actually doing for us? They're bringing songs. They've gone over those songs, they've practiced those songs, and then, and then, we have the added blessing of having Jason and Allie giving us new songs. Did you hear the new one from Psalm 39? It is absolutely fantastic. Well, you know why they do that? You wanna know, by the way, if Allie's watching, I'm sorry to spill the beans, but A-G is Allie Gadat, all right? Now, she didn't want you to know that because she doesn't want credit. And notice Jason put his name up, and if he's watching, then he puts his name on it, but I'd rather see his name than, nevermind, I'll leave that alone. So, the fact is, is that what have they done? They collaborated together, lyrics, music, for a song to bless, encourage, strengthen, edify the congregation, right? So we bring songs and we do it in a way that emphasizes the corporate edification of God's people, right? You get the point, you think about this. So has anybody ever looked back at the sound booth There are a lot of buttons, no, no, I don't mean like look back from here, but look at the sound booth, what's in there, right? There's a reason why I don't do sound. I mean, I'm busy, but I wouldn't know what I was doing, okay? Put me on those cameras, I'd be a disaster. I would be absolutely terrible at it. So guess what? We have people that what do they do? They bring their technological knowledge. For what? For edification. They don't sit back in the sound booth going, boy, I'm sure glad we're back here and not with the unwashed masses. They're back there. not being able to be as edified as the people in the seats, you do realize that, they're doing a lot of things all at one time back there, okay? So they're missing out on the full edification of the sermon or the songs or whatever so that other people can be edified. So they bring their skill as a gift for edification. The person bringing the sermon brings that sermon for edification. Those are all things that need to be brought to the service in order for the service to actually be for edification. Those are all formal things. But stop and think about informal things, because not everybody is gonna read scripture, not everybody's gonna sing together, and that's a blessing, that's contributing, but not everybody's gonna bring a song, so to speak. What if you don't have one of those formal things to bring? Well, the answer is you have informal things that you should bring. Again, do you realize what would happen to church life if people thought, this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm gonna go assemble with God's people today and I've got something to bring. Maybe on Saturday morning you were reading a passage that just absolutely gripped you and God used it in your life and you say on Sunday morning, Lord, give me an opportunity to just share this with somebody as I try to find somebody to pray with. In other words, the whole idea is if everything's to be done for edification, bring a contribution that edifies. Do something to build people up. Be intentional about it, be conscientious about it. And if that means, so at elders or deacons meetings, I haven't done this in a few months, but there are times where I'll read a prayer from Matthew, Henry, A Way to Pray, and I bring that to the meeting because I knew it edified, I know it edified me and I'm really sure that it's gonna edify my brothers as I read it to them. Be intentional about bringing something to edify, even if it's just a willingness to pray with somebody that needs to be prayed with, or to have a conversation with somebody, right? And what this means is that it requires us to get outside of our comfort zones, right? Because everybody has little circles that they feel comfortable in, little pawns, right? Get outside of that. Not necessarily tonight, but under normal circumstances. Do you know how many needy people are all around you? People that are hurting, people that are lonely, and just come with the intention of edifying somebody, building somebody up. So verse 27, if anyone has a tongue, it should be two or three Two, or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret. So here's rules for tongues. Two or three, at the most. I told you that when I was a teenager, I used to go to Charismatic and Pentecostal churches all the time. Do you know, I never saw this rule observed. It was like, free for all, right? Two or three, Two, three at the most, right? And we'll talk about why. And then in turn, so one at a time. And then only if there's one to interpret. That's the guideline Paul sets down. So, he might be assuming that the speaker is the interpreter as well, but here's the point of the guideline, is that he doesn't want tongues to dominate the service. Two, three at the most. Notice he's not forbidding it, but understand this, he's limiting it, and then he's qualifying it. limited in number, in turn, so it's not chaos, and then only if there's an interpreter. And so why does there need to be an interpreter? Because edification requires intelligibility. Now, prophecy is interesting here. Let two or three prophets speak. You see a difference already, you should. Someone has a tongue, someone is a prophet. So Paul's actually, Paul's making sort of an interesting distinction. If anyone speaks in a tongue versus two or three prophets. And I think there's a difference there for a very good reason. So Paul wants there to be prophecy. Why does Paul want there to be prophecy? Because prophecy is what consoles, edifies, comforts, encourages, exhorts. and he wants the prophets to exercise their gifts of prophecy. This is just how practical Paul is. I hope that in heaven we get to hear all of Paul's stories that go into why he wrote what he wrote, right? I mean, that would be kind of interesting. So Paul says, let two or three prophets speak and let the others pass judgment. Now, what is not clear is who are the others? It could be the other prophets, or it could be the whole community of faith, right? So you remember what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, do not despise prophetic utterance. Examine all things, right? Examine all things. Hold fast to what is good, right? 1 John 4, what does John tell his readers? Brothers, test the spirits. Almost all the commentators say that the idea of spirits is a reference of those that are going out and preaching or prophesying, okay? Test the spirits, it's not probably like some weird, you know, test the demonic spirits, you know, the spirit of, you know, heart disease or the spirit of COVID-19 or whatever. Test the spirits is test the message being preached to see if it's from God. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. So there is this obligation that the church had, whether it's the other prophets or the assembly altogether, to do what? To evaluate the prophecies. How do you think they were to evaluate the prophecies? The New Testament's not finished. In fact, most churches at this time may only have bits and pieces of some of the gospels, or maybe a little bit of an epistle, or maybe a whole epistle, but they certainly don't have the whole New Testament canon. How in the world were you to evaluate the prophets? Well, you're gonna have to start there, right? So it has to be consistent with the revelation that's already there. But it's also, we're gonna see this at the end of the chapter, it also has to be consistent with what we end up having in the New Testament, which is the apostolic testimony. The words, the doctrine of the apostles. so they were to pass judgment. So now, notice what Paul says. He says, this is also interesting, but if a revelation is made, so this is a spontaneous event, if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. So what do you make of this? Well, the idea is there's somebody up there who is prophesying, okay? Somebody that seeded, so let's just say for instance, that the three prophets sat up at the front, and let's say Charlie's the first prophet, and Charlie's up there, and he's doing his prophesying, right? And again, we've not carefully defined this, but he's up there prophesying. And then, a fresh revelation, right, comes to Vic. and Vic says, I have something from the Lord. Charlie, who also has something from the Lord, but Vic just has a fresh something from the Lord. Charlie goes and sits down and Vic stands up and gives that fresh word. Now, what is happening is Paul is expressing a concern order but he also wants to honor the work of the Spirit in the midst of the assembly so then he turns around and he says for you can all prophesy one by one that by the way he doesn't mean everybody in the church he means those that are prophets you can prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all may be exhorted and so what he's saying is everybody's gonna get their turn now You ever go to a church where maybe the same guy stands up every week and says exactly the same thing? Maybe it's in prayer time, maybe it's sharing testimony. I remember when they used to do testimonies at the prison services, remember, and it was, It was at times it was edifying, but most of the time it was not, right? Because what you would have is you'd have the same people stand up every week, say the same thing and go on and on and on and on, right? I've been in prayer meetings, not in our church, in other churches where Guys, actually, I was preaching at a different church. They had a pre-service prayer in the evening, and a guy gets up and he starts to pray, and he prays this really long prayer, which actually was a rebuke to the congregation. You know how those prayers go, right? And afterwards, I asked one of the brethren What was up with that guy? And he goes, he does it every week. So you could imagine that Paul kind of knows the dysfunction of a church filled with sinners. And so he's trying to bring some order to this, okay? You know, let's just say, you know, you've got, in light of the two or three, right, prophets, the evaluation, the idea of freshness, it could be that the assembly had the responsibility to evaluate somebody's gift and say, you know, We've come to the conclusion, we wanna say this in love, but we don't think that you're a prophet. This practice, this guideline that Paul is laying down is to prevent people from monopolizing. Now notice the next verse. Paul says, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. Now you know why he has to say this, right? Anybody have a guess why he would have to say this? As you can imagine, Let's just say Prophet Ben, just as in, just a wild example. Say Prophet Ben says, okay, okay, he's up there prophesying and Prophet Vic says, I've got a fresh revelation and Prophet Ben goes, I'm not done yet, I'm not done yet. And you're like, no, brother, you need to sit down. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't help myself. The spirit of God is like fire in my bones and I've gotta keep on going. Well, no, actually, Paul says, well, Paul doesn't realize that I'm under the control of the spirit. Could you imagine something like that? Paul says, no. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. In other words, you have self-control. This is not a case of you being so out of control that you can't shut your mouth. In fact, you need to, right? Spirit of the prophets, subject to the prophets, fruit of the spirit is self-control. It's not the gift that's in control, it's the one who's indwelt by the spirit who's in control, all right? And then Paul wraps it up and he says, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. And next week we get to order and women speaking in church. That'll be interesting. So I actually think that the paragraph, The sentence should end after, but of peace, and then the new paragraph is, as in all the churches of the saints, the women are to keep silent. But we'll talk about that next week. But notice, here's the principle. So the first principle is this, right? Everything's to be done for edification. Now, everything is to be characterized, not by disorder, but by peace, okay? So, God is not a God of, and then Paul uses this word, new American scenario, confusion. Confusion is good. The word means unsettled state of affairs, a disturbance. A tumult, like a mob action. Opposition to established authority, disorder, or unruliness. In fact, Paul uses this word again in 2 Corinthians 12.20, James uses it in James 3.16, the idea of confusion or disorder or disruption. So, what do you make of the Corinthian services? Well, they're chaotic. There's mass confusion. It's disordered, it's unruly. Everybody's just doing what they wanna do. And Paul says, that's not how God is. That's not how God is. You might think that it's really cool that we have this chaotic situation in which all these people are just overflowing with an abundance of their gift. That's not how God operates. God is a God of order, God is a God of steps, God is a God who measures, God is a God of progression, A, B, C. God is not a God of disorder or unruliness, but of peace. Shalom, wholeness, well-being, okay? Peace here really being the antithesis of chaos and confusion. So edification, order, and peace are what should mark the worship of God. Tom Schreiner says, life in the spirit is not chaotic and disorderly. Vibrancy and order are not enemies but friends. and the gifts can be controlled since God himself is not a God of disorder, chaos, and confusion, but of peace and order. So, when we gather together as a church, first of all, we should long to gather together. When we gather together as a church, come ready to edify, come ready to build up. Musicians, singers, bringing a psalm, bringing a hymn, bringing scripture, bringing an instrument, bringing a reading, bring what God has given you to bring for the common good. Not to put self on display, but to edify the body. And so, no matter what our role, no matter what our gift, we can actually all think like this. edification, order, peace, serving one another, building each other up. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, and we thank you for the church, and we miss our brothers and sisters, and we pray that you'd help us tonight as we try to apply this, Lord. Father, in these difficult times, may we continue to think how we can apply serving each other and edifying each other. And Father, whether it's calling somebody and praying with them on the phone or sending them a message, Father, whatever it may be, pray that you would help us to think beyond ourselves, to think of others, to serve others. And so, Father, we thank you that you are the Lord of the church. We thank you for this passage in Jesus' name. Amen.