Grab your Bibles tonight. Let's go to the book of 1 Corinthians. Most of you are probably already there. You knew where I was going. Chapter 14. Amen. We began looking last week at this chapter concerning tongues. If you want to know anything that the Bible says in detail about the speaking in tongues, you will find it mostly here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Paul took a very lengthy chapter being inspired by the Holy Spirit to deal with this in the church of Corinth. And the reason why was because that they had a major problem with it. As I mentioned to you last week, the church of Corinth being worldly as we have studied this, they were allowing an unscriptural tongues movement to take place in this church. Now we do know that there was a time of biblical tongues that God used in the transition period with the apostles, and during those days of transition, But that was not what was even going on here at the Church of Korea. They had so pulled in a worldly idea, really a pagan idea. A lot of the pagan idol worshippers would speak in a gibberish instead of a language as I have been told many do today. I've never seen it or heard it like that. But I have been told that in some of the far reaches of Africa and places like that, there's still some of that kind of satanic language that goes on. And I want you to understand tonight that just because it happens in a church doesn't make it right. We have had a generation of people that have not spoke out against this because they were afraid of offending somebody, and we need to see what the Bible says about it. And we began looking at that last week, and I titled this chapter, The Destructive Church. And each one of these chapters we've tried to give a title of what the meaning of the chapter was all about, and no doubt this kind of operation in a supposed fundamental church is destructive. So we're going to continue our thought in looking at that tonight. We will pick up in verse number 6. Last week, We looked at their communication this week. We're going to look at something a little different. And let's read verses 6 through verse 11. If you're able to stand with us, we'll stand together, read these few verses, and then we'll pray. And let's ask the Lord to meet with us this evening. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 beginning in verse 6. The Bible said, Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine. And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is pipe or harp? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise, ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for privilege once again to be here tonight. Thank you, Lord, for the good singing. The time of prayer You've given us. Lord, I want to thank You again for this study and this book. And Lord, even especially in this chapter, how that You've encouraged my heart in studying this week and just seeing the truths of God's Word. And I'm thankful tonight, Lord, we have a book that is very plain. It is a very literal book. God, I'm glad that You say what You mean and mean what You say. And I pray that You'd help us as Bible believers, Lord, to take the book at face value. And Lord, help us to compare Scripture with Scripture. Help us never to be caught up in the tradition of men over the authority of God's Word. Lord, may we be Bible students tonight, ever learning Your Word, that we may glorify You and give You honor in everything we do. Lord, for those tonight that are in our family, and maybe we work with, or friends, that are caught up in this movement that has been in our nation for years, I pray You'd open their eyes. Lord, I pray somehow, maybe another day, they would hear the messages and be changed, and their lives be helped. And God, have Your will and Your way this evening in our midst, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for standing. And last week, again, we saw the communication. Paul dealt with the first five verses concerning the tongues, and he dealt with them in light of improper and proper communication. And everything that is done in the work of God is done through communication. The preaching of the gospel is communication. Teaching is communication. The song portion of the service is communication. Everything centers around communication. And if communication is not right, then there's going to be confusion. And that's my fault for these verses that we read this evening. My message thought tonight is simply their confusion. The destructive church and their confusion. Now Paul goes a little bit deeper into why this unscriptural tongue speaking was bringing confusion in the church of Corinth. As I've already mentioned to you, many of the pagan believers, the idolaters, were practicing this in their demonic work, and then some that were supposed to be right with God, but yet they were very worldly, and really in the day of Corinth, you couldn't tell a whole lot of difference being in the church than you would have been out on the street. And sad to say, that's about where we're getting right now in America. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes whether you're in a Bible-believing church or whether you're out in the world. And we should never, never have that said about us. There should always be a distinction concerning God's people, and that distinction is found in the Word of God. If we will stay with God's Word and just take it, For what it says, I'm a literal believer, not a liberal, but a literal believer in the Word of God. I believe that God said exactly what He meant, and He meant exactly what He said. I don't read my Bible looking for hidden codes and hidden messages. There are portions of the Scripture that will use symbolic things, and the Bible will always let you know that. We find that in the book of Revelation. We find that in the book of Daniel. There are symbols and different things that are mentioned there. but if you will approach the Scripture from a literal viewpoint and compare Scripture with Scripture, then you won't go wrong. And what happens to people now that get off is because they don't take it literally. They either let tradition come in, or they try to make some kind of super spiritual thing out of something that God said it was just something of what it is. So tonight, let's pick up in verse 6. And I want to look at about three things here this evening concerning their confusion. And we never want to be a church that is involved in confusion. Our message should always be very clear. God is never the author of confusion. We'll see that when we get to the end of this chapter. And of course, that verse has been applied to a lot of different things, but it's in the context of speaking in tongues. And it's the context of communication in the church. So whenever we communicate, whether it be song, preaching, teaching, visiting, knocking on doors one-on-one, we should always be a people that communicate clearly. Miscommunication causes a lot of problems. And I'm convinced tonight there's been a lot of well-meaning people down through the years, saved people that are going to heaven, and they've missed out on some things because there was miscommunication either from the pulpit or from leadership somewhere, and things were not clear as they should be. And I think the Bible and Christianity is a very clear thing for we that believe. Now first of all tonight, I want to draw your attention to verse 6. Notice this about confusion. There's no profit in confusion. Now I know that goes without saying tonight, but I don't think there's anybody here that would enjoy being confused. I don't like to be confused. I find myself confused sometimes. As I'm getting older, I don't think as sharp as I used to, and I get confused about some things, but I don't like being confused. I want to have a handle mentally on what I'm looking at and what I'm reading and what I'm doing. So you find in verse number 6 that Paul deals with the issue of it being unprofitable. In the first portion of verse 6, he mentions confusing words. He says, Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues. Now the apostle here is not saying that's what he would do, but he is teaching them what they are doing. He's saying in verse 6, this is what you're doing. There are those in the congregation that are coming and they're speaking with tongues, they're unscriptural, and they're not doing things the way the Bible said to be done, and because of that, that's bringing confusion. This confusion is basically confusing words. Again, I can't stress enough tonight that our message must be clear. The Gospel itself is a simple message. It's very profound and it's very powerful. It is the dynamite, the power of the Gospel according to Romans chapter 1 verse 16. But it is a very simple message. It is not something that is hidden. It is not something that God hides that message and then wants people to search out and dig and stress and try to find. God has allowed the preaching of His Word. He's given us a printed, complete Bible tonight that is without error and without anything wrong in it. And God has given very clear instructions in the Word of God how to be saved. Not only to be saved, but everything concerning the Christian life is very clear in the Word of God. So Paul is telling them, he's reprimanding them here, there's no profit in what you're doing. When you come into the congregation and you're speaking in these quote-unquote tongues, remember last week we dealt in verse 2 with the writers of the Scripture pinning down the italicized word, unknown, which simply lets us know this was improper, this was not right. Remember that the biblical speaking in tongues was a known language. We find the greatest example of that in Acts chapter 2 there on the day of Pentecost. We find when Peter stands and preaches, it goes out to all the different 16 or 17 individual nations in their own language. And that is the biblical work of speaking in tongues. And of course, we studied back in chapter number 13 that when that which is imperfect is come, that which is in part be done away with. So we don't have that today. It's not scriptural at all today. It was scriptural in a period of time of transition in this day, but even the church of Corinth was not practicing these tongues in a scriptural manner. They were coming in with some outer body experience and some gibberish and craziness that goes on with it. We've seen that in a lot of denominations today, and you've seen that where folks are supposedly slain in the spirit. and they act like drunk people, and the Bible does not condone that. That's never been scriptural. It's never been right. That's of the devil. And yes, Satan does get in the midst of God's people, and he does everything he can to confuse. That's why we must have a handle on proper Bible doctrine. If not, then we'll be confused, and we'll raise a generation that's confused. So he mentions the confusing words. And then in verse 6 he mentions that this same confusion brings contrary results to the work of Christ. He said this, he said, what shall I profit you? He said, if I come into that congregation and I start speaking this, Unknown language. I'm not speaking a known language. I have no interpreter. There's no Jew present. Remember the qualifications of biblical tongue speaking? Had to be an interpreter. Had to be a Jew present. It was a sign gift. And it could not be a woman. That knocks out 99.999. Well, that knocks out 100% of everything we're seeing today. Amen? Everything you see today is right opposite of what the Bible gives us. I'll never forget one time I was watching something on TV years ago about these faith healers. And I believe in divine healing. I believe God can heal. Matter of fact, that's the only kind of healing that I believe is for our day, is divine healing. And I noticed the individual that was doing the supposed healing was pushing people down. You've probably seen that before. they would come up to him and he would say some words usually, some kind of out-of-the-body tongue speaking that's unscriptural, push them down. And I got to thinking about that and I went into the Bible and the Gospels and began to read the places where the Lord healed. And not one time in the Scripture do you find the Lord pushing somebody down. But numerous times you'll find Him lifting them up. And I thought about that. I thought, well, if they're going to mimic what the Lord did, at least I would do it the way the Lord did it, amen, if I said I had that gift. If I believed there was that kind of gift and I had it tonight, I'd go to the hospitals, especially these children's wards, and I'd empty them out. I'd go down through there and touch every one of them and pray over them. But they don't have that because they don't do that, amen, and we know that's not right. So Paul tells us tonight that this so-called tongue speaking is contrary to the work. He said there's no profit. Remember we studied last week that everything that goes on in the church should profit the body. It should build up, edify, benefit the entire body of Christ. So he mentions confusing words, contrary things to the Word. And then in verse 6 he mentions a correct way. He reminds them again of how this thing should be handled. He said, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, which in that day we could say there was still revelation through prophecy. And remember, prophecy is not only the foretelling, but it's also the foretelling. Now, we don't have foretelling in our day. There was foretelling in the Old Testament in the transition time. But we have foretelling. I stand tonight to foretell. I don't foretell. I don't give you any future things unless I find it backed up in the Word of God. And Paul said, the only way that this communication can be correct is through knowledge or revelation, prophesying or by doctrine. All those things eliminate confusion and eliminate what was going on here in the church of Corinth and what you see today in this charismatic movement. So there's no profit in it. If anybody wants to debate you about so-called speaking in tongues, you can take them to verse number 6 and explain that we know there's not that gift available, but even if it was, there's no profit in it. There's no good in it if you can't understand what's going on. Then he moves on to verse number 7. Verses 7 and verse 8, well, really down through verse 9, we see the second point that the apostle makes in our text tonight. In this second point, we see there's confusion when there's no preparation. There's absolutely no preparation in confusion or confusing words. Paul was saying that as this is going on, again bringing confusion, it's not preparing anybody for anything. You know why we come to church tonight? We come to church because we're saved. We come to church to prepare. We come to church to mind the Word of God. The Bible tells us plainly that we're to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. And He said, so much the more as you see the day approaching. So we come to church to benefit from coming to church. We come to read God's Word. We come to pray. We come to hear the songs sung of praises unto the Lord. We come to hear a message out of the Word of God. And hopefully, if everything goes according to God's Word, when we go out of the service, we're closer to the Lord than when we came in because of the fellowship of God's people and the centering around God's Word. So we don't come to church to put on a show. Now this church in Corinth, these people that were exercising this satanic thing that they had, they were doing it to edify themselves. We saw that last week. They were lifting up their own flesh and they were making out as if they were closer to God than those that didn't practice this. And the same kind of spirit, same kind of mentality is going on today. When you see the charismatic movement, the things they do, and all the hype and the hula, it's not according to the Word of God. It is a self-edification. They're wanting to fool you. They're wanting to make you think they're something that they're not. One of the great truths of that is found in the book of Exodus. If you'll study the book of Exodus, when Moses came to deliver the nation of Israel, you'll find out there that when God sent plagues, those magicians were able to mimic most of those plagues. They were not able to copy life. But Satan has a deception for everything that God has its right. He's got a substitute. And that's what was going on in the church of Corinth. This was a spiritual substitute. Nothing spiritual about it. Again, I firmly believe it's demonic. You can't even put a touch of spirituality on it. Because it does not honor the church, and most of all, it doesn't honor Christ. So we find here now, he deals with this thought of having no preparation. Let's look at a couple things here from verses 7 through 9. In verse 7, Paul mentions an uncertain sound. Notice what he said. He gives a natural example of a spiritual truth. He said, "...and even things without life, giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or is harp?" Now, Paul says that these tongues, quote-unquote tongues, are uncertain sounds, and we'd have to agree with him. It's not a language. It's nothing interpreted. It is, again, a gibberish, a made-up thing, a demonic thing even in some instances. And Paul is saying, listen, when you hear that, it's an uncertain sound. Now, if you've been around music at all, you know what instruments sound like. You know what a piano sounds like. You know what a guitar sounds like. You know what a trumpet sounds like. Maybe a fiddle or a clarinet. I took a couple years of band class in high school and learned a few different instruments and I know kind of what they sound like. And if you've been around music, you know what they sound like. Alright? They're distinct. You know what it is. When you hear a trumpet play, you don't mistake that for a piano. Amen? If somebody was up here blowing on the trumpet tonight during the choir, which I have heard in some churches, and it is good if it's played right. I went to a church years ago visiting. We were out of town. It was a big church, fundamental church, and went on a Wednesday night, and they had a full orchestra. and the curtains rolled back, and they started playing trombones and trumpets. And I'm telling you, it was good. God stirred my heart. Amen? I believe it was Northside Baptist down in Charlotte years ago. But God stirred my heart. I mean, it was a blessing. It was good. And there was just a handful there on Wednesday night, comparatively speaking. That sanctuary was huge. I think it was maybe 200 people there that night, but it looked like just a drop in the bucket. But the orchestra was good. I'd never heard anything like that before. And I've got a preacher friend that's trying to kind of bring in an orchestra into his church, and it's good if it's played right. And it's a distinct sound. You know what it is. You don't have to look around the corner and see if that's a trumpet or a piano or a guitar or whatever it is. So Paul uses this natural truth here to say, listen, what you're doing in the church is uncertain. It's not good. There's no definite sound to it. Do you know tonight when you hear someone go to a piano, and they strike out on Amazing Grace, you know what it is. You don't have to look at the songbook. They don't have to open their mouth and sing. When they start those notes and it starts out, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, then immediately we know what that means. And immediately, if you're saved, your heart begins to join in and worship that. And if somebody were to get up here and bang on the piano like I did a couple weeks ago, I'll not do you that way again. I promise. But if anybody were to do that, we wouldn't know what was being played. We wouldn't know if it was a song for the Lord or if it was a song for the world or what it might be. So Paul is teaching them here, just really driving this lesson home that if you don't have a certain sound, you can't prepare. If we were to come in here tonight and somebody that was not Christian, somebody that was not saved, they went to the instruments and played worldly music, our hearts wouldn't be ready for worship. We wouldn't be ready to hear the Word of God. If it was worldly music that you understood and knew, then you'd be going back in your mind before you got saved. Maybe some of the songs you used to listen to or sing, and you'd be thinking about things that were far from being godly. So it's important that there's a certain sound. In our music, let me say this just a minute before I move on. In our church, our music ought to have a certain sound. Let me challenge everybody. I'm glad we haven't had a problem with this, but let me challenge everybody here tonight, because I know how the devil is, and I know how Satan loves to slip into all of our lives. But you need to know what you're singing. If you're going to sing specials, sing godly specials. And again, we haven't had a problem with that, and I'm thankful. I know of some places where pastors have had to really, really watch. about any singing whatsoever because people would bring all kinds of stuff in. But know what you're singing. Know what the song's about. Know that it is a godly song and it's Christ-honoring. Know that it's something that edifies and not something that is in this emotional contemporary movement that appeals to the flesh more than it does to the spirit. I heard a man say this years ago. This is probably a good litmus test. But he said this. He said, if it gets your foot tapping before it gets your heart rejoicing, it's probably not good. And you know what I'm talking about. We all have heard that music that gets our foot tapping, you know, but there's no God to it. There's even some churches tonight, well-meaning churches, that they'll have in their song service music that's not necessarily considered worldly, but yet it really has no edification to it. There's no Bible doctrine in the music. That's why I love the hymns. The hymns are full of doctrine. When I read and when I sing these hymns and we sing them in the choir, I'm thinking about Scripture verses. It reminds me of fundamental truths in the Word of God. We must have a certain sound. Every time we have a service here, people come into the church from the pulpit, from the choir, from the Sunday school rooms, from the Christmas play, whatever it is, let's always make sure we're putting out a certain sound. And that sound is lining up with the Word of God. If we'll do that, God will always be honored and He'll visit us. Here's a good example, and I don't want to stay on and on on this point tonight, but here's a good example. If I went to a church, somebody invited me to a church tonight, and I'd never been there, but I said, okay, I'm going, and I went down to that church, and I went in that service, and somebody's up here just having a big time playing rock music or whatever, and they're dancing around, and they're, I mean, it looks like a nightclub, I'm not going to stay there. That's not my place, amen? Now there was a day when I listened to that kind of music. There was a day when I enjoyed that kind of atmosphere, but not now that I'm saved. So I'm not going to hang around. And I'm a sinful creature saved by the grace of God. What do you think God does when He shows up to churches And that kind of sound, either coming out of the choir, or coming out of the pulpit, or wherever it may be coming from, that uncertain worldly sound is being pumped out. What do you think God does? I'll tell you what He does. He goes somewhere else, amen? He's not going to show up in that either. And we want God in our services or we're wasting our time. So we must have a certain sound. Notice this. Now this confusion brought no preparation because of an uncertain sound, and then also because we find there's an unprepared soldier here. Look in verse number 8. Notice what the apostle said. He said, For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? We live in a little bit different time. Most of us here that were in the military, we didn't have trumpets giving us commands. It's a little different nowadays, but especially Civil War days, Revolutionary War years ago, the trumpeter and the bugler in the military, in the squadron or wherever he was at, that man gave the sounds whether to attack, to charge. How many of us have been watching them old Western movies? and you hear the charge. And you know what that is. They're fixing to fly in and they're fixing to tear somebody up. Amen? Or if you've been in the military, you've heard reveille, you've heard taps, you've heard things such as that. It is a certain sound coming from that trumpet. And what it does is it prepares the soldier to do what he needs to do. So, tonight, if we were to come in and had a church like the church at Corinth here, nobody would know what to do. If we had unscriptural speaking, unscriptural music, and all kinds of things like that, we'd all go out of here and not know what to do. And that's what is happening in the lives of people that are caught up in this charismatic mood. They come to church, they get on an emotional high of something that's unscriptural, they go out of the service, and if you ask them, how was the service? Well, I feel pretty good, you know what I mean? you know, charge a bulldog with a water gun, but yet you ask them, what did you get out of it? What did you learn? What spoke to your heart? I don't know. It just feels good. Amen? And you know, we've all probably been in services like that even in the Baptist church. Not necessarily when God was moving, but something that was going on when God wasn't moving, and it was just an emotional hype, and then how many times did somebody sit there and think, well, you know, I'm not doing what so-and-so's doing, so I must not be spiritual, and then they'll jump in and just kind of put on, and then everybody goes out the door and they're like, hmm, what just happened? We should never leave the house of God not knowing what's happened. I don't think you can find that in the Scripture. Now, there'll be times where the overwhelming presence of God shows up and we may shout and testify and praise God. Not a thing wrong with that. But when we leave, we'll know what happened. We'll know we've heard from God. We won't be scratching our heads saying, what brother so-and-so do? Or what sister so-and-so do? And I'm going to tell you, when you worship God, it is not an ugly thing. The Bible said when that ark came in, in the presence of God, David danced before God. That was not an ugly thing. That was not something that he did as the world was talking about in the wickedness of the flesh. He was leaping for joy over the fact that the presence of God was there. So there's a right way of doing it. And if there's confusion, as was in the church of Korea, it leaves an unprepared soldier. We don't know what's been preached. We don't know what's been sung. You can go to many churches right now in America tonight that claim to be fundamental churches, and you can ask a lot of the people that sit on pews, what did your pastor preach on Wednesday night? What did he preach this past Sunday? And they have no clue. They don't know anything about it. There was no doctrine. There was no rightly dividing of the Word. There was no structural preaching. How do we learn the Bible? Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. That's why I am not much of a topical preacher. Now, I'm not going to say that there's never a need for a topical message. There are times when there are needs for topical messages. But I am a line upon line, expositional preacher. Because I believe, personally, I'm convicted in my heart, that's how we learn the Word of God. That's how we get prepared for the battle. I can go pull a verse out, take it out of context, and I can make you believe anything I want you to. But if I keep it in its context and go line up on line, that channels me to stay true to the Word of God. I'm scared personally to preach Scripture out of context. I don't know where I'll go with it. I may apply it to one thing and it's not even supposed to be applied to that. So it's important tonight that there's no confusion so the soldier can be prepared. Notice the third thing he mentions about no preparation. In confusion, there's an undirected speech. Look in verse number 9. He said, so likewise, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, How shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air." Now, would you speak into the air tonight? No, we wouldn't do that. I was at work the other day, and I don't want to say too much because I don't know who this individual is. It may be somebody in the community that has an issue, and I'm not making light of them. But there was a man walking down the road, and I just happened to see him walking out there. Several people walked by the place there where I'm at, the office, and as I opened the door to go outside, I heard this man talking. So I stopped a minute and I looked. I thought maybe he's talking to me. He wasn't talking to me. He was yelling at himself and he was making some very loud noise. Now I'm not making lie to him. There may have been something wrong with that man. And God love him. If there's something wrong with him, God help him. Amen? I'm just using that as an example. What I'm saying is if we see people speaking to the air, we say there's something wrong. If you go somewhere and somebody's yelling at somebody that's not there, there's something wrong. Either they have a condition mentally, something's happened, they've taken something that's altered their mind, there's a problem, they need some help. Again, I'm not making light of those people, but I'm using it as an example here. Paul said, if we do these things, we're just like somebody who speaks to the air. If I came in here tonight and turned my back to you, and I started talking to the light fixtures, and talking to the piano, and maybe coming over here and opening that door and yelling at somebody back there, I hope you'd get somebody to help me. Amen? or escort me out of here before I make a mess and take me to the nearest place where I can get some help. Amen? There's something wrong with that. And Paul said that's what's happening when the church of Corinth was meeting and they were coming with this quote-unquote unknown tongue. That's exactly what was happening. They were speaking into the air. Speech is always directed. When I preach to you, I'm directing my message. When the choir sings, they're directing their songs. When you Sunday school teachers get up, you're directing your message to the people that are in your class. There's always an intended direction for speech. And Paul said, what you're doing has no direction at all. It's bringing confusion. Nobody knows who's talking to who. Nobody knows who's saying what. You know what it's like? It's like holidays at my house, amen? Y'all come to my house sometime. We had 20 people at the table at Thanksgiving, amen? And I don't know that that was all the little kids. And every now and then they'll all get 15 different conversations going on, and I'm not necessarily used to that. I was an only child. I grew up in a very quiet home. And still sometimes, you can ask my wife, I'll slip off sometimes just because that's just not me. I love my family. I love them coming into the house. I love to see them all. I'm looking forward to getting together at Christmas. But sometimes it just gets a little too loud for me and I'll scoot off. Now my wife loves that. She was raised in that. Fifteen different conversations going on. I have enough trouble listening to one conversation. Amen? And Paul's just saying, listen, all that kind of stuff brings confusion. It's got to be a directed speech. When I'm preaching to you the Word of God, if I'm preaching right, and if I'm giving a proper sound, you're going to know what I'm saying. You're not going to walk out of the service and say, well, I wonder what that preacher meant. No, you're going to know what I'm saying. When the choir's singing, and they're singing right, you're going to know what's being sung. There'll be no confusion there. Let's look at the third thing tonight, and we'll wind this all up. I know several of you are tired and been here since 5 o'clock. I appreciate your dedication, and I'll try not to be too lengthy tonight. In verse 10 and 11, let's look at this, and we'll be done. There's no perception in confusion. Now we've seen tonight, there's no profit. If we come into the house of God and it's confusion such as it was at Korean, we're not going to go out of here any better than when we came. Matter of fact, we may go out of here more messed up. I gave you an illustration last Wednesday night of what happened in my life one time. I was in a service, there was some confusion in that service, and I went out in worse shape than when I came. I had to go home and I had to hash some things out in the Scripture and in my mind. God helped me and He settled some things in my life, but it was not good there for a while. And when we come to the house of God, there has to be profit. If things are right, we're going to go out knowing we've gained something from the Lord. There's got to be a preparedness. When we leave, when we go out from the house of God, we ought to have a little bit more preparation to fight the battle. We ought to have a little bit more courage and strength and whatever it takes to be a Christian. And then thirdly, we ought to have the right perception. Everything in life is about perception. How many times have we misperceived something? Here's a good example. Husbands and wives. Let me get down to where we live. Ladies, have you ever misperceived something your husband said to you? I know my wife has. There's been some times that I've answered her, maybe a little short, not meaning to. Maybe she'd call my name from another room and I'd say, yes, or what? Then she'd come around the corner, well, you don't have to be mad at me. No, honey, I wasn't mad at you. She misperceived. I saw some men turn their heads, amen? She misperceived what I said. I didn't mean it like I said it, but it came out wrong evidently, and I had to change it so she could get the perception of what I say. And Paul is telling us tonight, when we're involved in things like this, there's no perception. Nobody understands. There's no layout. There's no intelligence in the matter. Amen? God's people are not an ignorant people. God's people are not a bunch of people that just wander around with their heads staring in the air, not knowing what the next day holds. God's people are wise people. You study the Bible, you study predominant Bible characters, they were not ignorant people. They were wise people, people that knew the Scripture. You remember of the sons of Jacob, the sons of Ishakar, they said they knew the times. They were the wisest of the wisest in their day. Why? Because God is a God of knowledge. And the more we know about God, the more we know about things. I don't have to have a school textbook to learn about science. Now, it's good to have one. And I know some of you young people say, whoo-hoo, I don't have to take science. No, that's not what I'm saying. You ought to get all the knowledge you can as long as it's in line with the Bible. But I can go into the Bible and find knowledge. I can go to the book of Isaiah and find out plainly, and it tell me that the world's round. People used to believe the world's flat if they had just studied the book. The Bible said God set it upon the circle of the earth. Amen? We can read the Bible. God is a God of knowledge. So God's people, the more they get around the things of God, ought to be a people of godly knowledge. Amen? Now look at this. Two things about this perception that will not happen in confusion. Number one, we look again at the purpose of speech. Look at verse number 10. He said, there are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world. Would you agree with me tonight? There's all kinds of voices. I don't know how many languages are in this world. Untelling. How many different languages in certain countries and then different countries will have different languages within themselves. There's all kinds of different voices. Alright, Paul said this. He said, and none of them is without signification. Now this word signification simply means to make sense. He's saying that all the languages of the world, they make sense. Now they may not make sense to you and me, but they make sense. When I went to Mexico, that Spanish language didn't make sense to me. But it did make sense to the people in Mexico a bit. And if you've been to a foreign country, you know what I'm talking about. They'll be talking and going on, and every now and then you'll pick up a little bit if they're pointing at something or talking, and you'll start putting a few things together. But for the most part, the language makes no sense. I can't understand it. I can't get directions from them. I remember when I was overseas the first time that I went overseas on a ship, and we were there at Rhodes, Greece, and we'd just got off the ship, and we were wandering around, me and a buddy, and this couple came up to us, and I couldn't understand what she was saying. So she pulls out this camera, and she's pointing at it. And finally, I get the point. She wants me to take a picture of her and her husband, or whoever was with her. So they stand on the edge of the bank there, and we took a picture. And she said, I found out later, it was German, I believe, Donkeche, or whatever it is, thank you. And she goes off. I didn't understand what she was saying. Somebody later told me, said, hey, that's German. They were German people. There's all kinds of different languages, and they all have different significances. But what was going on at the church at Corinth had no meaning. There was no signification. God is not involved in anything that doesn't have a meaning. Amen? God is a God of order. Study the universe. I wish I knew more about it. Study the universe. Look at how God lined up the planets. Look at how He put earth so far away from the sun that it didn't burn up, but yet not so far away that we didn't freeze to death. Think about the orbit. That amazes me how the earth tilts in the orbit and the seasons. All that stuff just absolutely just boggles my mind when I think about it. God is a God of order. So it stands to reason His people ought to be a people of order. Amen. We ought to be understanding things. Paul said, that's the purpose of speech. When I speak to you, it has a significance. Notice verse 11, and I'll be done tonight. He winds up this little thought before he goes into verse 12 with the perversion of speech. Speech that cannot be perceived is perverted speech, if you will. It's not right. Look what he said in verse 11. He said, therefore, he gives them another natural example to sum up the thought. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian to me. Now in this context, this word barbarian simply means a foreigner. You know, if somebody comes into our church and we were to be doing what they're doing here, and thank God I know we're not going to, but if that began to happen, they're going to come in and think, what's wrong with those crazy people? What's the matter with them? Now they should come in and they should see us worshiping God, and if they think we're crazy for worshiping God, that's one thing. If they think we're crazy for saying amen and backing the choir and one thing and another, that's one thing. But if they come in here and we're speaking gibberish, and there's confusion, and I get in the pulpit and say all kinds of crazy things, and Sunday school teachers are off the wall, and one thing and another, all that does is it dulls people's perception. And you know what they'll probably do? They'll probably never come back. They'll probably never listen one more time again because of a misperception. So it's important tonight that however we communicate as individual believers, as a local assembly, as a church, we should never be guilty of being confusing. I don't ever want to be confusing in my preaching. I don't want to ever bring a message that people walk out and scratch their head and say, I don't understand what he said. I want to be very plain. I want to be very biblical. I want our church to be very plain in what we stand on. When people come, we don't have to have a t-shirt on of what we believe. We don't have to have bumpers. And if you've got one with something on it, I'm not against you. You've got a good bumper sticker. But we don't have to have that on our car to promote what we believe. If we worship God right and if this church is ordered according to the Word of God, then people are going to know exactly what we believe when they come to the house of God. When they hear the singing, when they hear the preaching, you let them stay around a while and they'll find out whether it's their place or not. And that's the way God ordained this thing. And when sinners come in, they'll hear a clear message on the gospel, amen? Nothing hidden. One thing that makes me madder than anything in the world is when a preacher tries to hide the gospel. And I've heard it. I've heard some men that I guess they meant well, but they made it out for you to get saved. You had to jump through three hoops and climb over ten mountains and run around backwards and hop on one leg. And I'm telling you, that's as demonic and that's as devilish The gospel is not a hidden thing. The gospel is not a confusing thing. It is a very, very clear truth of who Christ is. As a matter of fact, when we get in the next chapter, we're going to see the gospel in a nutshell. It's the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I'm glad it was preached clear to me one day. I'm glad I got in a church that had plain preaching and Bible, Christ-honoring music. I'm thankful for that. I've known some people. I was in the service with a guy that was a Pentecostal, and he was a good man. I mean, he loved the Lord. His life had been changed, but he was so confused. I mean, and I was too young to help him at the time. There's a lot of things I didn't know. But he was so confused. He didn't know sometimes whether he was coming or going. And I'm not picking on any denomination. I'm just saying we need to be a people that are not wrapped up in confusion as was the church of Corinth. Amen? So we'll stop right there tonight and we'll pick up in verse number 12 next week and continue verse by verse looking at this chapter of this destructive church. My, what kind of crazy stuff was going on in the church of Korea. If there's ever been an hour that we need to be very plain and very clear, it's the hour we're living in. The world is confused. People are confused. People don't know whether they're coming or going. And now we have an opportunity in our generation, as a Bible-believing church, to be a very clear message in everything we say and do. And hopefully people will hear that message, come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and get gloriously saved. Amen? You have the message tonight. Let's stand, heads bowed, just a moment. God spoke to your heart, I'll give you just a minute to come to the altar. I know this is not necessarily a convicting message as much as it is a teaching message tonight, but we need this. We need to know what the Word of God says, and we need to be grounded and founded and be able to answer every man. according to the hope that lieth within us. We need to know. When people come to you, young people, and when people come to you and try to challenge you on the Scripture, I want you to know what you believe. If you have a schoolmate or a friend that says, hey, you know, my pastor says it's okay to do this, I don't want you to get in a fight with them, but I want you to know what the Bible says. I don't want you to just go and say, well, my pastor says it's this way. I want you to be able to take them into the Bible, show them verse by verse, Because I'll tell you what you might do. You might very well change them. You might help them. And that's what this thing's all about. Helping folks for the cause of Christ. Amen. Appreciate your attention tonight. Appreciate the goodness of the Lord meeting with us here. Just good singing this evening. Good presence of God. I trust the Christmas play's going well. It looked good. A little bit I got to see of it. But it will not be far away till that happens, so continue in prayer. Remember these objects of prayer we heard tonight, and pray God would touch in these situations. Brother, you want to mention what you need to mention now?