1 Corinthians chapter 14, as we continue with Paul's letter. And Paul has been talking in chapters 12, 13, and 14 about spiritual gifts. And I want to just remind you that if you are here and you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have been given a spiritual gift, a gift that is to be used in the church to edify the church, that every gift that God gives to us, that we are to use in the edification of the whole body. And here at Paul's concluding part here in chapter 14, his concluding point to the Corinthians about the proper exercise of spiritual gifts, specifically tongues. And again, let me reiterate what I said last week. In the Bible, any time you see the word tongues used, it always, always refers to a known language. It never refers to this ecstatic gibberish that you hear a lot of people do. It always refers to known languages. But division and confusion reigned in the Corinthian church as it does in many churches today. And Paul is writing to them to correct the problem. There were those who were puffed up with pride in Corinth, because they said, well, I have the gift of tongues, or I have the gift of prophecy, so I'm more important than you are, because you don't have these gifts. And Paul is writing to correct their thinking in this, because every single member of Christ's body is important. Every single... I am no more important than you are. Every one of us that has been given a spiritual gift that belongs to Christ is to use it for the building up of the body, and no one person is any more important than another is. But we begin, we pick up there in verse 14 with verse 20. Paul says, Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written, By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus, tongues are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign, not for unbelievers, but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, Will they not say that you're out of your minds? Paul addresses the effects of uninterpreted tongues on unbelievers. Now, again, let me say that we believe the Bible teaches that there are certain gifts that were given specifically to the apostles that are no longer in play today. And one of those, that's the gift of healings, the gift of miracles, and the gift of tongues. These are gifts that are no longer, they have ceased because they were given to the apostles for the building up of the church, for laying the foundation of the church. The foundation has been laid. Peter tells us that now you and I, we are bricks that are building the temple that the Holy Spirit dwells in. Paul here, in the city of Corinth, there were some who had the gift of tongues, the gift of speaking known languages, but they were speaking these languages and nobody was there to interpret it. And Paul said, what good does that do? What good does that do to anyone? Believers are not edified because they cannot understand what's being said. Non-believers will be completely put off by the confusion and the chaos. Listen, I want to tell you, I grew up in a denomination. I've been in church all my life. I grew up in a denomination that practiced what they called tongues. But all it was was just a bunch of gibberish. And I can tell you I have seen many services when it was total chaos in the place. You would have eight or nine people praying in tongues at one time. That's all I'm going to say. I'm not going to tell you what else they were doing. But you see, Paul, seeing the disorder and the confusion, Paul says, the unbelievers will look and say, these Christians are crazy. What's wrong with these people? You know, when my daughter was about 14 years old, I was pastoring a church in Wiley, Texas. And she knew that she could never go somewhere and stay overnight on a Saturday night because she was going to be in church on Sunday morning. So she convinced me, this friend of hers that she went to school with, she told me, she said, Dad, she said, they regularly go to church. She said, I promise I will be in church in the morning. So I said, OK, go ahead. And it was a long weekend. I think Monday was a holiday. So she was going to go stay all day Saturday, stay the night, Saturday night, Sunday night, come back Monday. Well, I got out of church about 12 o'clock Sunday afternoon. And just as I got home, my phone rang and it was my daughter. And she said, Daddy, please come get me. And I said, what's wrong? And she said nothing. Just come get me. I need to come home. I mean, I was freaking out. I didn't know what was going on. So I got over there and I picked her up and she got in the car and I said, I said, what's wrong? And she said, oh, my Lord. She said, I went to church this morning, but I ain't never going back. She said there was total chaos in this place. She said they were doing things and saying things I've never heard in my life. And this 14-year-old girl told me, she said, I am so thankful that I go to a church that's biblical because if I had gone to that church and not have a church and not know the Lord, she said, I would never step foot in church again. That's what Paul's talking about here. He's saying don't use the gifts to make yourself look important. That's what they were doing in Corinth. Don't use the gifts to make yourself look important. Don't use the gifts to cause confusion and disarray in the church. He says, because what good have they done in doing this? And so he's saying, not only does it cause confusion for unbelievers that makes them think Christians are crazy, but even worse, Unbelievers will think that these Christians are no different than the mystery religions that surrounded the city of Corinth, and that still surround us today. And Paul says, we as believers need to be set apart, we are to be different. And we're going to see, you know the last thing he says, jump ahead to verse 40, he says, let all things be done decently and in order. Now we'll talk more about that here in a minute, but for this point I want to look at Paul, this is what he's talking about. And he says, you know, that while these Christians should remain naive or childlike in regards to evil, he says that they need to grow up or be mature in the intellectual sense. And as they grow up, as they become mature in Christ, then they would realize what they were doing. They would correct the error of their behavior and stop being a stumbling block to unbelievers. And therefore, hindering them from coming to faith in Christ. Listen, anything we do, anything that I stand up here and say, anything that we as a church do, our ultimate goal is the glory of God. But listen, the way we bring glory to God is by being faithful to His Word, by preaching it faithfully, by being obedient to it faithfully. and by telling people that are lost in sin and under the judgment of God that there is hope. in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we bring glory to God. And Paul says, but the behavior in the Corinthian church was such that these people were saying, you people are nuts. He said, I'm getting out of here. And he said, therefore, you have hindered them from hearing the gospel and coming to know Jesus Christ. And in verse 21, Paul illustrates this point. He says, in the law it is written. Now, the word law that Paul uses here, let me tell you, when Paul uses the law in this sense he's talking about the entirety of the Old Testament. And he's actually quoting from the book of Isaiah, from the prophet Isaiah. And he says, it is written, By people of strange tongues, and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people. And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord." Now what was going on was that because Israel did not listen to the heedings of the prophet Isaiah, God brought the nation under judgment. And He said, by people of strange tongues, that was the Assyrians. The Assyrians came in and they conquered Israel. And so the Israelites were under the thumb of a nation that they couldn't even understand. And it was a sign of judgment for them. God says, I'm going to make you, I'm going to send a people to you that are going to talk to you, and you can't even understand them. He said, but I'm going to do that on purpose. And it's a sign of judgment. And so, when the Corinthian church gathered for worship and people were speaking in tongues, which were a sign of judgment, those who were present were thinking they were crazy. And so because of the current practice, the Corinthian church, they risked being like Israel and held captive to a people they could not understand. Now listen, this is so simple what Paul says here. And he has said this over and over and over in chapters 12, 13, and 14 concerning the gift of tongues. And it is this right here. When we gather together, my purpose in preaching the Word of God is to see you grow and mature. But you have to understand what I'm saying to do that. That's the whole point Paul's making. And he's going to go back to talking about prophecy or preaching here in a minute. But when the Corinthian church gathered for worship and people were speaking in tongues, those outsiders thought they were crazy. And unbelievers would conclude that this church was no different than the pagan temples around them. Listen, speaking in this language, what they call tongues today, of this gibberish is nothing new. It's nothing new to Christianity. It is practiced in many false religions today. There is a practice within some denominations that's called slain in the spirit. And I have a good friend who goes to a church that practices that. He's telling me, he said, oh, you've got to get slain in the spirit. And I said, show me where that's at in the Bible. and he can't. But I showed him where it's in the Bible. It's found in Acts chapter 5 concerning a person, two people by the name of Ananias and Sapphira. They came and they lied to God, and God killed them on the spot. They were slain in the Spirit. That's what that is. But the point is, that's nothing new. That's practiced in many false religions. And so Paul says, look, it comes down to this. When people come into the church to gather with us for worship, they need to walk out of here and say, those people are different. Those people don't act like these in these false religions. They don't act like these pagans do out there in the world. They're loving one another. They're serving one another. They're edifying and encouraging and lifting up one another. And Paul says, when you use your gifts in a way that was not intended and you edify self and raise self above everybody else, You know, in the book of Revelation, one of the churches that Jesus sends a letter by John to, he says, I hate the works of the Nicolaitans. And people have wondered for years who the Nicolaitans were. But here's the thing, the word Nicolaitan means above the laity. And what that basically means is that I stand up here and say, I'm the pastor, I'm more important than you. I'm the pastor, I'm better than you. Anybody know of a denomination out there that does that anyway? So anyway, so what it says, Jesus says, I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And this is what this church in Corinth, listen, it's a very comforting thing to you and I, it should be a very comforting thing to us. that Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth. This is a church that was rampant with sin. They had sexual sin going on in their church that they were ignoring. They had people who were puffed up with pride. They were going into the Lord's Supper, and they were getting drunk, and they were leaving the poor. I mean, there was just sin after sin after sin after sin. But yet, rather than God saying, you know what, I'm done with you. I'm just going to wipe this church off and start all over again. He didn't do that. He sent Paul and said, you straighten these people out with my word. And that ought to comfort us. Throughout the letter, Paul calls them, he refers to them as brothers. Brothers. Brothers. He says, look, I know that you have fallen by the wayside, you have fallen into this sin, but you're my brother. So it ought to be a great comfort to us that God, that there even is a book of 1 and 2 Corinthians. And as a matter of fact, if you read in 2 Corinthians, one of the things you'll find is everything that Paul's saying in 1 Corinthians, they completely ignored him. They didn't do any of it. but they were still called brothers. So Paul's point in illustrating is that tongues are not as important as they had set it up to be. Look at verse 24. He says, but if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God really is among you. So here's this contrast here. You come in, you got these people speaking in these tongues that nobody can understand. The unbelievers are going out saying, you people are crazy. I'm never coming back here. Paul says, but you got people that are standing up and prophesying or preaching the word of God that people can hear. And as a result, they're being convicted of their sin. As a result, they're coming to see their need of Christ and they're falling on their face before him. They're repenting of their sin. and they're being saved. And Paul is basically saying, now which one do you think is the right way? And his point is clear, that prophecy or preaching has a different effect. In preaching, the law and the gospel are clearly proclaimed, making unbelievers aware of their sin and to know that they exist under the judgment of God. And instead of seeing the confusion, of tongues as a sign of God's judgment on the church, they will hear the gospel in an intelligent way. We are called to proclaim the message of the gospel. You know, next week we get into chapter fifteen. I have preached more sermons in my ministry on chapter fifteen, verses one through three, or four, than I have any other thing. Because in those verses are contained the gospel of Jesus Christ, about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And so Paul is saying, when the gospel is preached in a way that people can hear and people can understand, that's when lives are changed. That's when hearts are changed. And Paul says that we must make sure that what we preach and what we teach is the truth and the full truth, the whole counsel of God found throughout the Word of God in the Gospel. And that's what changes people's lives. People in Corinth were thinking only of self. They were self-centered. They were puffed up with a false sense of importance. And as a result, lost people were going out having not been affected at all in a positive way. And so Paul says, but if all prophecy and an unbeliever enters in, he is convicted by all. He is called into account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed. Listen, do you know that you don't know what's in my heart? I don't know what's in yours. But I do know this, that the word of God can make known what's in my heart. Because see, I'm going to tell you something. Not only do you not know what's in my heart, I don't either. And you don't either, in your own heart. And so when we hear the gospel preached, and it's preached intelligibly, and it's preached plainly, the secrets of our hearts are made known. You know, the Bible says there is none righteous, no not one. Now how many of you have not, at some time in your life, myself included, have not thought, you know what, I'm a good person. I am a good person. But yet the Bible says, no, you're not. There's not any good. None. Not one. And I hear that and I say, well, I don't like that. I like to think of myself as being good. And the gospel says, but you're not. That's the point. There's been only one who was good, only one who was perfect, only one who was sinless. And He went to a cross and He took our sin with Him. And Paul says, this is what the world needs to hear. The gospel must be at the center of it. And in verse 26, he says, what then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. Paul describes a normal church service. We sing songs. We sing hymns. You know, in Paul's day, they probably sang the Psalms. There are many churches today that sing the Psalms. I hope to someday get us to where we're singing some of the Psalms. You know, the Psalms is a beautiful hymn book and prayer book in the Bible. But Paul's point is this, that when the church gathers for worship, that everybody has something to contribute. All of us do. We have come to the place to where we see coming into churches that there are those who stand on the stage and put on a show, and those of you who sit out there, you're the audience. But that's not how it works. We all work together. We all have gifts. And Paul says, when you gather together, some have a lesson, a hymn, a revelation, a tongue, or interpretation. but let all things be done for what? For the building up, for the building up of one another. Look at verse 27. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let him keep silent in the church and speak it to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." So it was the misuse of the gift of tongues that had created so much controversy there in Corinth, and tongue speakers were to speak one at a time, not simultaneously. And it was to be immediately interpreted. If someone stood up and they spoke in a foreign language and there was no one there to interpret it, Paul says, then you who have the gift, he said, be quiet. He said, what's the point in saying things that nobody can hear? And it was to be, but in verse 29, Paul turns his attention to prophecy, and Paul restricts the number of prophets to two or three. Now, in those days, in the early church, it was nothing to have a church service, and one person stand up to preach, and then another person get up and preach, and then another person maybe get up and preach. We can try that sometimes. Y'all got all day. You know, I was reading, you know, I love the Puritans. And I was reading a book of Puritan sermons, reading through the other day, and it was a book, a sermon by, and my mind just went blank on what his name is. Maybe I'll think of it in a minute. But the point is, it took me 35 minutes to read this sermon. And I thought, my goodness, how long would it take me to preach that? I think I'll try that sometime. So you might want to bring sack lunch. I'll let you know when we're going to do it. But you see, the point is Paul's saying that it's nothing for the preachers to stand up and preach and there be more than one do it. It's only in, you know, it's been recent years, I'd say recent, I mean in the last hundred years or so, that you would see one man stand up and do all the preaching. But Paul says, when this happens, but he says, even then let there be order. Let there be everything done decently and in order. And the purpose was to end the mass confusion that was disrupting the service. And the Corinthians were not to emulate the pagans and allow public assemblies to become basically a free-for-all. God desires peace, and so that the members of the church may be instructed, encouraged, and strengthened, and edified. That's the reason we're here. We call this a worship service. Okay? There's only one that we worship, and that is God. You know, I've had so many people walk out and say, Pastor, I'm sorry, but, you know, the worship service just didn't do anything for me. And I told the guy, I said, well, that's good. It wasn't for you. It's for God. We are here to worship God. But we hear the preaching and the teaching of God's word so that we might grow, so that you might mature in the faith. And this is what Paul is saying, that God desires peace so that we can be instructed and encouraged and strengthened and edified. Look at verse 33. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak." I couldn't read that without laughing. Okay, now that's pretty explanatory, so we're going to move on. No, I'm just joking. Listen. What is Paul saying here, ladies? Now, you know, Paul's already talked about this once earlier in his letter. So let me reiterate this point. Paul doesn't hate women. And ladies, you are not inferior to men. That is not at all what the Bible's teaching. But what the Bible does teach is that God has given us certain roles. Why a man would ever want to be a woman, I don't know. I mean, seriously, I don't. But I also don't understand why any woman would ever want to be a man. In the garden, when God created Adam and Eve, he created Adam out of the dust of the earth. Then he put him to sleep and took one of his ribs and created a woman. Adam said, this is woman. She is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. We talked about in our study of Genesis, when we looked at chapter three, and the fall of man, and we noticed that the first sin that was ever created, or ever created, the first sin that was ever committed, was not the eating of the fruit. God said to Adam, because you listened to your wife and ate of the fruit. The first sin was that Adam listened to his wife. Now, don't throw anything yet, I'm not done. There's been many a time I've been thankful that I've listened to my wife, but that's not what this is talking about. You see, Adam was the one who was the head of the house. The man is the head of the house. God designed it that way. for a purpose. But you see, Adam allowed Eve to step into that role. Guess what happened? All of mankind was eventually plunged into sin. And when Paul says, let a woman keep silent in the church. Now, here's what he's talking about. He's not saying, ladies, that you can never talk in church or that you can't ask questions and stuff like that. He's not talking about that. But they're talking about a worship service that when we come together If you disagree, ladies, with something I say, you shouldn't say anything to me. You should go to your husband. If you have a question about something, you should go to your husband. In Paul's day, and this is kind of a cultural thing but not, in Paul's day, when women and men would go to the synagogue, the women sat on one place, the men sat on the other. And they didn't talk to each other during the service. The women didn't speak to each other, speak out during the service. They may speak to each other, but they didn't speak out. And so Paul has that in mind. But here's his point. Today, we don't have to do that. Today, we don't have to sit separately. But today, when we come together, we must understand that men have their role and women have their role. It's just that simple. By the way, I didn't make those rules. God did. And what God does is perfect. Over in 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, Paul talks to a young Timothy about this. When he says here in verse 11 and 12, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet. Okay? Now, I know that there are men that wish that women would just take that and just sit down and be quiet. But that's not what Paul's saying. That's not what he's saying at all. But listen, women are not to be in a place of authority. It's just the way God designed it. But let me tell you something, what comes with being the head of my house, responsibility comes with it. When I make a decision, maybe Cindy disagrees with me, but I make the decision. And if it's wrong, guess who gets to blame? I do, not her. So Paul here is saying that it's about the roles that God has established, and God exhorts the Christian women. He's saying, look, be in submission to your own husbands. And being in submission, Paul says there in Ephesians chapter five, husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Okay, now, is there anybody here that would deny that is a very tall order? That I am called to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. I am to be willing to die for her. But I've got to be doing that more than that. You see, Christ didn't just die for his church. He teaches his church. He nurtures his church. He loves his church. And that's what we're called to do. And wives, be in submission to your own husbands as to the Lord. You show me a woman that says, I am in submission to God, but I will not be in submission to my husband, I'll show you a liar. Because if you're in submission to the Lord, you're going to be in submission to your husband. That doesn't mean that you have a subordinate role, that's all it means. It doesn't mean that you are less than or inferior to. And so Paul is saying these women, he's saying, look, we are looking for these people to come into the church, things to be done decently and in order. And he exhorts these Christian women not to speak in church as a sign of submission to their husbands or their fathers, and it's the essence of public modesty. It's saying, I am in submission. And therefore, I am submission to the Lord. And Paul says this will have a great impact on what is done. You know, a couple of points of application here. Paul is speaking to the importance of modesty and differentiating Christian worship from pagan worship. In most pagan religions, women are an authority. Listen, do you want me to tell you that, you know, 1 Peter tells us that judgment must begin at the house of God. And somebody asked me the other day, do you think that God is going to judge the church? And I said, He already is. And I can give you at least, well, I'll just say three. I can give you at least three instances where God today is judging His church. Number one, We see in almost every major denomination has thrown the doors open to a lifestyle that God calls an abomination and allowed the homosexuals to come in and be part of the church. Another thing is we have seen an explosion of false teachers in our world today. I can stand up here and now I can tell you Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, I mean I could go on and on and on and on. False teachers are a judgment, are God's judgment against His church. And the third is there has been an explosion and there are many denominations today that have women pastors, women in a position that God says is not theirs. Ladies, God loves you just as much as He does the men. You are just as important to Him as you are to the men. There is nothing here that Paul is saying or that the Word of God says that makes a woman inferior to a man, but Paul says when we all go where God has put us, It's a witness to the world. And that's why Paul here is talking about this. Christians are to be modest and behave decently. And for women to not be silent and not be in submission would be immodest. And we need to remember that Paul is speaking of the worship service. Now I say that because I want to differentiate. When we have our Wednesday night Bible study and our Sunday night Bible study, many women speak up and make comments or ask questions. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not what Paul's talking about. Paul's talking about when we gather for a Sunday morning in worship, that we need to make sure everything is done decently and in order. Look at verse 36. Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only one it has reached? Paul's being sarcastic with them. He's being sarcastic with them, and he rebukes them for their pride. Verse 37, if anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. So Paul says that the underlying issue there in Corinth was their pride. Listen, When you look at the list of sins that God says that he hates, you know what the number one one? It's pride. It was pride that caused Lucifer to rebel against his creator and become Satan. It's pride that will cause someone to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm good. I'm good enough. And God says, no, you're not. And you say, well, I don't like that. And God says, well, that's just how it is. But my pride says, I can't accept that. Those who truly possess the Spirit, Paul says, the Holy Spirit, and exercise the gift of the Spirit will not behave in such a way as to cause disruption. And so he says that If anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge the things that I am writing to you are a command from the Lord. Paul here is exercising his apostolic authority. And he's saying, look, folks, you need to understand that what I'm writing to you right here, what I'm saying to you concerning all these things, this comes from God, not from me. This is the Word of God that I'm speaking to you. And so in verse 40 he says, but all things should be done decently and in order. This is the key principle in light of which all public worship should be conducted. What we preach is of vital importance. Listen. When I stand up here, and I open this book, and I speak the words of God, and I preach on it, I expound on this, don't walk out of here and say, well, it must be true, because Pastor Bobby said it was. You get in your Bible, you look at it, and you say, now, did what he say, is it really in here? Is that really true? It's important what we preach, but Paul says that it's also important that we do it the proper way. that everything be done in a way that brings glory to God, and an immodest and self-centered and disruptive behavior has no place in Christian worship. This is why we as a church, we follow what's known as the regulative principle of worship. In other words, if it's not in the Bible, we don't do it. And so in that way, we make sure that we don't, you know, there's so many churches today that are bringing the world into the church in order to reach the world. And that doesn't work, by the way. Everything is to be done in a way that is fitting with God's purpose for public worship. Christ's Word is to be proclaimed. The elements, the Lord's Supper and baptism should be administered properly. And everything done by God's people serves the common good and brings glory and honor to God. Listen, here's a simple thing for us to understand and to remember. Paul says, let all things be done for the glory of God. So anything I do, anything I preach, anything I teach, anything we sing, anything we do in any activity in this church, not just in this church but in my house, no matter where I'm at, I have to look at it and say, how will this glorify God? I don't look at it and say, how will this bring people into the church? How will this make people like me? How will this make me look better? My sole focus should be, how will this bring glory to God? And that's a good way for us to make sure things will be done decently and in order. And you know, there are a lot of people who scoff and laugh at the rules and the procedures that we do, but Paul says it's an apostolic command to do things decently and in order. We have a bulletin. We have to go by this, you know that, right? No, we don't. But we do, it just kind of helps. We've allowed freedom for the spirit to move. But a lot of people think that when you allow freedom for the spirit to move, that that means you'll see some miraculous thing go on. And it's just not true. We allow God to move and work in His church the way He wants to. But we must always make sure that we do things decently and in order, that nothing distracts or detracts from the proclamation of the gospel, ensuring that everyone hears and everyone understands the message of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. If we don't tell them that, we have nothing else to tell. You realize that, right? We don't have anything else to take to the world except Christ crucified and risen from the dead. and why that happened. This also ensures that our worship doesn't descend in confusion and chaos like those in pagan worshipers and the worship service is not to be dominated by one individual. This is not the Bobby show. This is a church, the body of Christ coming together to worship. and you using your spiritual gift, and me using my spiritual gift, and together we lift each other up. We help each other to mature in the faith. And we must remember this. Christ is Lord of His church. You understand that? Jesus is the Lord of this church. And He is the only one who can dominate worship. People love to read in the Revelation there at the first couple of chapters when John, he sees the glorified Christ, and he's walking amongst the candlesticks. Those candlesticks represent the churches. And they say, oh, how he loves his church. And that's true. But I want to tell you something. When John sees Jesus, he has eyes of fire. and feet like brass. Those are signs of judgment. And Jesus, in those letters, he says to Eve 1, he says, you better repent and straighten up and get back to your first love. I'll blow the candle out. See, Jesus, he dominates his church because he has a right to. He is Lord. He is Lord. He's not a Lord, he's the Lord. And so Paul here in talking about as he concludes this section on spiritual gifts, he's saying to them, you better stop and think about, number one, are you using your spiritual gift? Whatever gift God's given to you, how are you using it in this church? And if you're not, you're being disobedient to God because he gave it to you for that purpose. And he says, if you're using it, what's your attitude behind it? Are you doing all things in love? Do you stand up and preach because you love the people? Do you do whatever your gift is in this church, do you do it out of love for everyone else? Do you do it for the ultimate purpose of glorifying God? That's what we have to ask. That's what you have to ask. And remember that Christ is the Lord of his church. Not me, not Tim, but Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, as we come together this morning, we thank you for your word. Father, I pray this morning that we would heed your word. That Lord, we understand that none of us are here by accident. That every person in this room has been brought here by divine appointment. And Father, I pray that for those of us who are saved, that we might be faithful in using the gift that you've given us. Whatever it may be, that we may exercise that gift in love for one another, in love for you. that we might seek to add your glory as our ultimate purpose. And Father, for that one that may be here or listening this morning that is lost without Christ, may they this morning see their sin, see their lostness, recognize that they abide under the judgment Father, that they may run to Christ, that they may this morning hear the voice of the Great Shepherd and run to Him and repent and receive eternal life in Christ. Father, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand and turn to page number 126.