Now, I want to set context. Context is everything, and because of what we're going to be looking at in this chapter, and really any chapter, you want to make sure that you have context. You're not moving away. You're not changing the context of why this epistle was written, who wrote it, and who is it written to? Why is he writing it? So our context, remember, now we've worked our way from chapter 1 and we're going to talk about chapter 14. We remember chapter 1, the church here had perverted the doctrine of baptism in chapter 1. If you remember to this effect, verse 27 or 17, they said that, well, I'm of Paul, I'm of Paulus. I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ." And he says, look, you're doing yourself injustice by putting these men or saying that your water baptism is more important. He says, I say to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he says, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Some of our brethren friend who are low information Bible enthusiasts, they'll say, well, he there he does away. Paul does away with water baptism. It's not it's not what he's teaching. Not exactly what he said. What he's saying is the water baptism is not the important thing. Christ sent me. Christ commissions people to preach. The call to preach the gospel, that's the most important. The obedience and the following Christ after that is water baptism, church membership, the Lord's Supper, and then reaching the world with the gospel. That's the commission. And so Paul says, you're focusing on your water baptism and these different individuals inside this church. He said, that's carnal. That's just in chapter one. They were bragging in chapter one about what little human wisdom they had. I don't know much about the Bible. I just don't study. I don't read. And they were bragging about it. Like that made them a better type person not knowing anything about scriptures. You say, well, I thought that's pretty cool. That's not cool. That's not cool. And so they were messed up here, and they bragged about it in chapter one, and he got on them for that. You look at chapter three, two and three, they were carnal and struggled to grow spiritually. They did not see that they should grow in Christ. If you're sitting here in Sunday school, The desire of any of the pastors or any of the preachers or teachers that gets up to teach is that you, whoever's standing in the pew, is going to grow. You're not here just to be here. You're here for a reason. There's a purpose. There's a plan, and God's plan is that you grow spiritually. You could ask it this way. What have you learned from the word of God since you've been here? Say, well, there's a lot of stuff I disagree with. You're in the wrong place. Either the heart needs to change, you need to let the light bulbs come on in your spiritual life, or you're going to grow. And so you either go carnal or you grow. And they were growing carnal, and they were glorying in the fact that they weren't growing spiritually. Chapter three. Chapter three, also they had deceived themselves. They were okay with being self-deceived. And he told them, be not ignorant, be not self-deceived in chapter three. 3 about verse 18. Also in chapter 3, they had defiled their bodies. They were thinking that it was perfectly okay to have a defiled body as a Christian. And he says, you're not to be doing this. They defiled it with sin. on different types. And he gets into some specifics as you move on into this epistle. Here's the setting of this epistle. In chapter four, they were puffed up. They had a pride problem. They were definitely okay with having pride. And Paul says, no, I don't want you puffed up. I don't want you prideful. You need more humility. And this was a problem in that church. Also in the church, in chapter 5, they were tolerating horrible immorality in the church. They were thinking that just because somebody lives a sinful lifestyle inside the church, now part of the church, not a visiting, but inside the church, that it was okay, it was nobody's business, and it was fine how they lived. Here's the problem. You are a body of Christ, and that sin will affect the rest of the body, and Paul has to teach on that. And what was the sin? Well, if you look at chapter five, it was fornication. and it was pretty messed up, but they were tolerating horrible immorality, and he needed to correct them on this. In chapter six, they were suing each other in the world court or the heathen courts of that day, and Christ says you don't need to take a brother to law, especially on the outside. It should be handled from the inside. He says even the least among you in wisdom should be able to discern or make a judgment call with your indiscretions or your conflicts. So don't take a brother to law, especially outside of the church. And so this is what they were doing. Also in chapter seven, they were confused about marriage. That kind of sounds like our culture today is it's confused about marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman, one man, one woman. And this is consistently taught through scriptures. And so we see that they were confused about marriage in chapter seven. In chapter eight, they had abused the doctrine of Christian liberty. They were of the belief that once you're saved and it's by grace, that you could live however you wanted as a Christian. There was no obligation, no commands, no laws, and this liberty that you had was to be for the flesh. Paul says that your liberty should never be taught that you can give an occasion to your flesh. The liberty that God gives you is that you can serve him more. You can do more for him. You can go farther for God. You're not bound. That liberty is to be used of God. It's like stealing your neighbor's gasoline and using it for your car. You're stealing God-given liberty to be used on yourself. God said it's not to be done that way. And so they were messed up in that area in chapter 7. They were confused, and they had abused the doctrine of Christian liberty. In chapter 11, they were not dressing properly in the house of God. You can look at that in chapter 11, about verse 6. In chapter 11 also, they had a mockery of the Lord's Supper. We kind of just went through that. They began to eat, and they were eating their meals at church, their supper meals at church. And then they were withholding the people that didn't bring anything. They were saying, Beans, you didn't bring any food. You don't get to eat any of our food. He said, you're all messed up. The Lord's Supper is not what you, you're not to partake the Lord's Supper at the time you eat a meal. You have houses to eat in. Eat your meal at your house. When you come to the Lord, It's the Lord's supper, not your supper, not the Baptist supper, not anybody else, not the Catholic supper, but it's the Lord's supper. And so they had a mockery of the Lord's supper in chapter 11. If you look at chapter 14, now this is where we're at today, they had corrupted the gifts of the spirit, especially the gifts of tongues. They say, oh, that's what he's writing about. Every chapter he deals with two or three problems that this church has. So that's the setting. This is the setting. So we're not just landing somewhere and thinking, well, what is going on here? We're chapter 14. Now look with me in chapter 13 in verse 9. Chapter 13 in verse 9, we've got a... look at some things and look at what we're going to speak of and have an understanding of. He says, for we know in part and we prophesy in part. He's telling this church that there's something that they're doing that's in part, it's part of it. It's like taking, I'm gonna speak in the analogy of food, it's like taking a cake and cutting it in half and then you get to only work with that half of that cake. And he says, look, these gifts that we have, here's what he's going to say and teach on, the gifts that you have and what you're enjoying that Christ has gifted you and given you for the use in the church and to the saved and to the lost, you only have part of what God really wants you to understand and know. And for the person that struggles with just that, he wrote verse 10 and 11. Let's read on. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 10, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. There's two schools of thoughts here. This is speaking, you'll have one school that will push this into a prophecy. They'll push it out into the thought that, well, when God comes, everything will be perfect. And then he said, you have a problem with that. I don't have a problem with that, but I think Paul is more, localized and centered on his argument and what he's going to teach. I think what he's speaking of here is the context of scripture. And one of the things that they were struggling with is where were they getting this or who was telling them what to do or how to do it. We are still using the Apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians today. And so is a number of other churches across the world today. And so this thing is we're saying, and has been since the first century, that this Bible, God's Word, is completed. It's not in part. The special revelation has come, and this is what we have. It's not general revelation. It's special revelations, and it's been completed. And it was completed before the end of the first century. 95, 96 AD. And so I believe this is what he's speaking of. He's still in doctrinal context of what he's going to teach. Now watch what he says in verse 11. So on the hills of verse 10, when I was a child, here's his illustration. And this is a very good, very truthful illustration. When I was a child, for most of us, when I was a child, I speak as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. What he's going, he uses illustration to say, what, how you're operating in ministry right now is like on the level of children. It's a child. And you're thinking that you're all up in all of this because you've been given these gifts to be used. And so you're thinking you have the whole cup and the bag of chips and all of it. Well, he's saying you're looking at this like from a child's perspective. Let me share with you what he says. I'm gonna fast forward. Look at chapter 14. Look at chapter 14 and notice with me something here. He wants us to see something in verse 20. He's going to stay on point with this illustration. And he says in verse 20, chapter 14, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, Verse 20, brethren, be not, say it with me, children in understanding. They thought their understanding was complete in what they were doing and it wasn't. I just give you a whole list from chapters all the way up to where we're at of the problems. and the confusion that they had in this church. So here he's teaching, he's gonna teach them a lesson. He says, brethren, be not children in understanding, how be it in malice be ye children. You say, what does he mean by that? It means be childish, mean don't get all caught up in how malice works and use malice. So you're gonna be ignorant in malice. But he says in understanding, what's he tell you to be? Be men, that means be an adult, be grown up. And he says they weren't. This was the problem with this chapter, chapter 14. Look at verse 21. Now I'm gonna give, there's a tidbit that goes along with what we're gonna look at here. Lay a little groundwork so we understand full context. In that, he says, in the law it is written. Now he's going to prophesy. This is a prophecy that was written in the Old Testament and Paul is going to draw their attention on the reason why this church and the church of God had been given these gifts. I'm gonna call them signed gifts because that's what they're normally called. In verse 21, it says, in the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people. And yet for all that will they not, what did he say? Hear me, saith the Lord. The Lord had already prophesied that I'm going to use these gifts. I'm going to use the gifts of other tongues to reach them, to get them to gospel. And he says, they're still going to refuse me. He even not only give him the gifts of tongues, he give him the gifts of miracles or healing. And he says, I'm gonna give him the sign gifts that the Jews, that my people, that my people will know that this message that the apostles preach and these Christians, these Christ lovers, these Jesus followers, these disciples of Christ know that they're from God. and they still wouldn't believe. They did not receive this message. That's why you see a transition. You see a transition from Jewish to Gentile. And so here in this chapter, now follow with me in, he says in verse 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 12, for now we see through a glass darkly. I believe this is speaking of the clarity that we have in the, There's areas where we will not have clarity because God doesn't want us or choose us not to give us all of this. He says here, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, now I know, he says in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known. He's speaking of, I believe that is futurist. I believe he's speaking of a time where we will know and have the full mind of Christ, verse 13. in now, back in present, and now abideth, what's he say here? Faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. So now let's read verse one of chapter 14. Follow after what? charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy." I believe that prophecy here doctrinally is used in two different meanings. I believe he gives you the definition of prophecy right here. Also prophecy can speak of futuristic times. You had prophets of old and basically what the prophet of old is he would declare what the word of God had been what God had given him and he spoke that or wrote it out and that prophecy was to prophesy of what God was going to do. Genuinely It was always connected, not always, but most of the times it was connected with judgment. And because of sin, he sent these judges and prophets to work with his people, to draw his people, the nation of Israel, that's his people, the children of Israel back to him. And so here today, we have, we use the word prophecy as its meaning here. Now watch, he'll give us the definition. Look at verse two. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. You say, what's he saying there? Very simple. He's just saying here an individual, some of them had gifts to speak in other languages that they didn't know. And he's going to address this problem. You say, well, what was the problem? The problem was is they were speaking in another language and they themselves didn't know what they were saying. Neither did anybody else in the congregation. And it was bringing confusion to the body of Christ, and they were glorying in the fact that they could do that. And Paul says, look, I'm not going to forbid you to speak in tongues, but if you're going to use an unknown tongue and you don't have an interpreter or there's no interpretation to it, you need to be quiet. There's a lot that he lays down in chapter 14 and in chapter 15. And this is where a lot of the so-called Bible believers, they kind of like scatter. They separate, because they really don't believe what it says. This is an area where the Bible's very clear, and you'll have people come over here and they do a lot of twisting, right, in this chapter. There's no twisting that needs to be had, just simply read it, understanding the context that you find it in. So he says here in verse three, let's move on, let's get to the prophecy. First he says, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to, what's he say there? Edification, and what's he say there? exhortation, and comfort. So those are the three definitions. Words define, I call them parameters, or guardrails, to prophesying or prophecy. This is how that prophesying should be used, or prophecy, speaking out, exhorting. And so here in verse three, this will be a good working, I call it a working definition, to the prophesied. He defines it for you for the context. Now let's read on verse four. He that speaketh, now he's gonna get back, where he's headed is to the tongues and the unknown tongues he's gonna deal with. So he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth, what? The church. So he's making a distinction here between speaking in tongues, an unknown tongue, and speaking or prophesying, all right? Let me say right here, this might scare or you might be surprised that I say this, I believe in tongues. When I define it, you're going to say, oh, well, that's not why, but I believe in gibberish. I don't believe in gibberish and jabbers. I believe in tongues. I believe in languages. One is English. I don't know it very well. I study it every day. I like reading it, and I'll write it down, and I'll try to memorize it. And when I begin to falter and fail, which is only about four or five minutes into whatever I'm looking at in the English language, I pull out a grammar and definition book that I learned about when I was in the 9th grade or 10th grade struggling with language or English is called today. And so that language and grammar book had all the rules and give you definitions and give you working definitions to how it's to be used or not to be used. No, that doesn't make me, I don't know a lot about that, but that's how you learn. You got to learn. Open a book. The next language would be the Spanish language. I don't profess of speaking Spanish. I can understand it better than I can speak it. It's because our family, some of them, most of them are bilingual. They speak Spanish. Some of them speak Latin. So that language, you know, you get bits and pieces. Just about everybody nowadays, you'll have some Spanish, all right? You might have taken Spanish in high school. The next language that was kind of instilled in me was Japanese. And Japanese, it's a weird language. It's very simple rules. But Japanese was another language that I'm familiar with. I understand more if I hear it rather than speaking it. And so when I think of tongues, I'm in the same context as the Word of God. I don't want to step outside the Bible's context. Tongues, is languages, all right? There probably, more than likely, will be somebody here that speaks another language. I know Mr. Spreadman, he'll speak German. I think Ms. Branson speaks some German. So probably somebody took French or can speak some French. Those are other tongues, all right? Another tongue. My brother-in-law, Doug, everybody pretty much knows him here, he can speak in English and then he also can interpret what he said in English into Spanish. And he's preached from this pulpit in both languages at the same time. To be scriptural, you wouldn't want somebody to speak in a foreign language or an unknown tongue. I wouldn't want to be speaking in Japanese to you this morning and you not understand what I'm saying. That would be unscriptural. You say, why? Because it's not edifying only to one person. I know another language. That's what was going on. And so here, this unknown tongue, he said, look, it's not used for edification. And he says, to prophesy, edify the whole church, but the unknown tongue edifies himself. So there was a problem and he is addressing this and he's approaching it very clearly. Here's the problem with it. We as people today, if we move into our field, we have denominations and beliefs and they'll come over here and they'll pick a verse and they say, well, that's what that means. You've lost the whole context of what he's, he's correcting them. They're using it in the wrong sense. That's why. this morning is an explanation of the gift of tongues. Look at verse 5. He says, I would that ye all speak with tongues. All right? He's not going to exclude tongues. Don't let that intimidate you or like, oh, I definitely believe in tongues. I've experienced that all through ministry growing up, people speaking in different languages and trying to learn other languages. Some people it comes to very quickly. I spoke of a friend of mine. He actually happened to be my instructor for many years, still a good friend. He speaks Spanish, and he learned Spanish in, like, weeks. He's not a dumb man. So, I mean, he catches on real quick, is what I'm saying. So, in a few weeks, he was speaking fluent, pretty much fluent Spanish to a point to where he didn't take courses or classes. He self-taught himself how to speak in Spanish. And then on top of that, I think he teaches Spanish. I think he still teaches Spanish online for one of the universities. And so that was somebody who'd been given that gift of he can speak and learn another language very quickly. The Japanese language, being my instructor, it's where most of the Japanese come from, that language, he knew that forwards and backwards. He had conversational Japanese down. When we traveled to Japan years ago, he was a person I traveled with, along with two other But he spoke fluent enough Japanese that we didn't need an interpreter. We had one, Yuichi-san. John's new Japanese. He just could pick up on it. And it wasn't frustrating for him. He could speak it very well. And so there are people who have that gift. So I'm not in the context of what you see on TV. I'm not in the context of what you see maybe down the road in maybe a holiness setting or charismatic setting. Not to take nothing from that, I just, I don't have that definition. I have a more of a Bible definition of tongues. And so in verse five, he said, I would that you all speak with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied, okay? So he wants them to key in on this prophesied. For greater is he that prophesied than he that speaketh with tongues. Now, when you see the word prophecy, here's the problem. People already have their jaded definition of what that, look at verse three again. Verse three, a prophecy speaketh unto men for edification, edifying, and exhorting in comfort, comforting. So he says here that he prophesied for greater is he that prophesied than he that speaketh with tongues except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. That's why when you have somebody get up, we'll have a missionary, this will take place in this church. We'll have a missionary come in and he'll wanna sing a song in Portuguese or the Chinese language, or whatever language he might have, and we're like, well, you might pick up on maybe Amazing Grace. You won't know the exact words unless you sing along in English, but he's going to speak in that language. Then we'll have him sing it in English. He's going to interpret what he's saying in that language. That's the setting. You say, no more than that? No more than that. You'd have to read into it or twist it to get it to say something else. Now, let me give you a little bit on edification. I don't want to move too far away, but If you fast forward, let me take you to 1 Thessalonians. That's the one coming to my mind. These are kind of old notes, but if you turn to 1 Thessalonians, I want to give just a little bit more on this prophecy or prophesying. So in 1 Thessalonians 5, look with me in verse 20. And it says here in verse 20, he gives a list of the, he says, verse 19, quench not the spirit. Uh, in verse 18 and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And here's the will quench not the spirit verse 20. Here's our verse despise, not prophesying. Don't shut it down. Don't do away with it. All right. Now, some of the prophecy that was given of this time is done away with and here's, here, here's. Here's where you need to understand about prophesying. When this was given, Paul was prophesying to them here when he wrote the Bible. John, the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos was writing down prophecy of things to come, but it hadn't been completed yet. John hadn't started writing yet. The Apostle Paul maybe hadn't finished some of these epistles yet. And so the prophesying was still being meted out or given to the church, not to academia, not to religion, but to the church. And the apostles, the prophets, apostles, and then you have preachers and teachers, all right, and evangelists. And that's kind of where we're at. That's why he says that whether they be tongues, they shall cease. Whether they be prophecy, they shall cease. They're gonna be done away. Why? It's because the Bible's gonna be completed. And then we preach from what we have been given. That's the Word of God. That's why a preacher should preach from the Word of God. And so his content, his information, his burden, his message, if you please, should be from the Word of God. And so here, Paul, when he says here, despise not prophesying, this is what he means. Don't shut this down to this church here. Thessalonians. I want to go to second, I believe it's second Peter. I might need help on this. Second Peter, I believe one, second Peter chapter one. Second Peter chapter one. Yes. In verse 19, we're going to, we're working on the prophecy and we'll get back on the tongues. Trust me. There's, there's a lot there in chapter 14 and 15. Bear with me here. Uh, he says in here in second Peter chapter one in verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. So the Word of God, that's why we're making the connection to prophecy, will come from the Word of God. When you have a pastor, when you have a teacher, when you have a spiritual mentor, whatever you want, a leader, teacher, whatever you want to put on that title of that person, when that individual begins to undermine That means do away with, sand on, round over, to maybe only use half of the Word of God. That is a person you want to get away from. The reason why is because you have to have an authority. It's either going to come from you and your opinion, or you have to have an outside source of authority. We're stating, I'm stating this morning, you might not be, but I am, that this is the word of God. And so when I undermine God's word, guess what I undermine? Anything, any validity that I might bring to the table, whether through preaching or teaching, if I say we don't have God's word, we're not sure we have God's word, I'm not certain of this, but you need to listen to what I have to say. Well, what are you going to use? If you're not going to use God's Word, if you're actually telling me in an indirect way that God's Word is not reliable, what other authority are you going to use? Hopefully you're not saying, you know, I don't see that argument. Trust me, if you don't see it, we'll keep praying for you. But you should see that. You should understand when you undermine the Word of God, you undermine what you're going to say. Here in 2 Peter, he says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Now watch this, knowing this, this is something we don't need to be ignorant of and we need to know. He said, first, not secondly, not thirdly, but he says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. What does that mean? Well, what that is saying is the people down the road that have a different belief, either I have the different belief or they have a different belief, but there should not be a private interpretation. You say, well, that's just how I believe it. Peter's saying, if you have that, it didn't come from God. That's not how God set it up. There is only one interpretation of scripture. Now, whether you either line up with that interpretation or we decide to say, well, I don't believe that part of the Bible or I don't see it that way. I have my own definition. That's why you have different denominations and different beliefs. And here, Peter is teaching us that you need to know this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. You can't use it for your own self or what you personally want to believe or feel. He says in verse 21, here's the reason why. It didn't come from you. It come from God and the Holy Spirit. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. It doesn't come from man. You see, and you mean these religions out here that teaching something other than what the Bible says that comes from man? Absolutely. And it's backed up by another spirit called the spirit of Antichrist. It's anti-God. He says, by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the... By their feelings, no, by the Holy Ghost. Very important to catch, very important to catch. I am out of time, let's move back to chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. Now, look, he says that, look, this church, he wants the church to be edified. This is the reason why he give this gift or these gifts, you might say. And you notice that he's gonna load down, he's gonna bear down on this unknown tongue or tongues. And he's going to define it very, very carefully. Read this chapter and read chapter 15, if you would. And in chapter 14, he's going to talk about tongues are assigned to Israel. It's not for believers. Tongues are not for believers. You say, well, I don't think it says that. Verse 21 in chapter 14. Or 22, wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that, what's it say there in verse 22? Believe, but to them that believe not. It's for lost people. It was to the Jewish nation. And so you learn about that. Also in verse 27 and on down, you read about the rules of tongues. how it's to be a minister. So yeah, he is not silent on this. I need to finish. I've got two wordy, and we will close in a word of prayer, and then we'll be ready for our main service this morning. Heavenly Father, we do bow before you. We thank you for the clarity of your word. And Father, I ask that you would be with our hearts and guide us with the light of your word through these doctrinal areas that We would not just be censored or filtered through maybe a man-made religion or a man-made belief. And Father, I pray that our eyes would stay and remain open to your word. And Father, give me clarity. Fill me with your Holy Spirit as this is done and taught. And Father, I pray for our next service coming up. I pray for the singing, Father, the music and the worship and the giving, the offering giving. And Father, I pray that you would bless the preaching and everything that takes place in today. We thank you for it and we ask that you would meet with us today. We ask all this in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. God bless you.