If you would please open your Bibles to First Corinthians, Chapter 14. First Corinthians, Chapter 14. This morning, we're going to be looking at verses 20 through 25. First Corinthians, Chapter 14, verses 20 through 25, hear the word of the Lord. 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 tongue and by the lips of foreigners, I will speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus, tongues are assigned not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is assigned 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 are out of your minds? But if all prophesy and unbelievers or outsider inners, 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 is really among you. Let us pray. Father, we ask now that you. Would work among us and that you would send the spirits To mold us and to change us. Father, here, prepare our hearts just now and hear our request to soften us, to hear your word. Not the voice of a man, but you speaking through your word to us directly. And Father, we ask that you would be pleased with our worship today. We ask that you would change us and mold us and that we would be more in the image of Jesus now than when we entered here together with the beloved. Father, we ask that you would do this work. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. May be seated. We continue along the path with Paul and dealing with tongues used in the gathering of the church. Last week, we saw that Paul contrasted speaking in tongues with prophecy and then. In doing that, we saw that he began his case for building up the body of Christ using our spiritual gifts. He wrote to the church in Corinth. and told them that they should not speak unintelligibly with utterances or languages that are not interpreted because these do not build up the church body. I made the case last week that all of your spiritual gifts should be used to build up the body. And by I made the case, I mean I pointed out what Paul said. That all all that we do, all the gifts that we are given should be building up the body. We continue this week to look at Paul's case against using tongues in the gathering of believers. And he shifts from the physical action of tongues to calling people to think about and to understand this use of gifts properly. The underlying thing, how do you understand the way in which they work? And he does so by way of exhortation. So right at the beginning, he makes his main point, we're going to see. That through exhortation, he tells them not to be children in their thinking. That is his main point of this section. He's already told them about why they shouldn't do it, some practical things. Now he says in your thinking, do not be children, but mature. Then after making this exhortation, he looks back at the Old Testament and he substantiate what he says using scripture. And then thirdly, we're going to see that he illustrates what he means. So basically, what Paul has done is outlined a sermon for me. He has given us the main point. He's used scripture to substantiate what he's saying, and then he's illustrated it. And I would be really tempted this morning to just read it, say amen and walk out, because it's a sermon outline. All the things that you're taught to do in seminary, he does. However. There are some parts that need to be explained and examined and applied here today because we live in a different culture that the main point is still for us today to not be children in our thinking, but be mature. But the application of that is going to look a little different due to where we live in our context. So let's look at what what Paul says in this many sermon today about our thinking, and he starts out with his exhortation. And he says this, brothers, and he would include sisters in that beloved, do not be children in your thinking, be infants and evil, but in your thinking, be mature. His exhortation is that they should be mature in their thinking about the use of tongues in the worship service or in their gatherings. He is clearly stating here that they have been immature in their thinking. And as a result, their actions and speaking in tongues have come forth. They haven't fully examined what it means to gather together as the church body. So Paul says in your thinking, be mature. Now, I want to point out and we lose this sometimes in in English or any language. We lose the sense sometimes of what what people say when we come from one language to another in translation. The term thinking is not just a fleeting thought. That's not what he means here. He doesn't mean just when you are passing by thinking about church, you should be mature. He's referring to thoughts about things that need deliberation. Things that really need to be thought through and understood. The use of tongues. And more so the proper purpose and function of the gathering of the believers needs and deserves thought and it deserves mature thought, Paul says. You should be mature in your thinking, in your deliberation, in your understanding of what's going on around you. So I'll take a moment. And I want us to consider what mature thought is in the Christian context. How do we think about and deliberate things such as speaking in tongues in a mature fashion? What does that mean? Well, if we look through where we've been so far in first Corinthians, I want to use as an outline and propose Paul's model as the way that we should think maturely. We've seen this over and over and over again. What he does in the first part of first Corinthians in the letter is he he outlines and spells out with much clarity and some detail the gospel. He assures the people that they have, in fact, been redeemed. They are no longer sinners. They're no longer bound to sin. They are, in fact, the beloved of the Lord Jesus. That's step one. So step one, we need to do the same thing. We need to ponder the cross, the magnitude of Christ's work and its application to us. Brothers and sisters, it is worth the effort. You may think, how do I do that? How do I really ponder what the gospel is and how it applies to me? And Christ's work actually applied to me. We do this by reading the Bible to see God's Word, to see its truth, to hear Him encourage us in that. Just as Paul is encouraging the Corinthians here in 1 Corinthians, you are indeed the beloved. We do that through much, much prayer. If you read any of Paul's writings, You see over and over that his time is saturated in prayer. Not a short five second prayer asking that God would bless your efforts. Those have a purpose. But really spending time in prayer, pondering God's grace in your life, asking that he would show himself to you, time confessing sin, and then through reading Scripture, being encouraged to trust in His grace as being sufficient for you. That's step one. This is what Paul has been doing. This is what he does over and over and over again. He presents this robust picture of Christ being the one who has pulled you out of this domain of darkness. You're no longer the person you were before. You're a new creature. And then Then you apply that to situations. You think through things in light of that understanding of the gospel. You take situations like the one here, speaking in tongues, and you think about what God's word says about them. You think through the implications of your decisions. You pray that God would give you a deep, deep understanding of it. You consider how it affects the church. It's what Paul's doing here. He says, look around you. Because of your immaturity, how is it affecting the church? We've seen over and over in this letter, are you building people up or are you pushing them away from the gospel? You consider, now we see here, how your understanding of certain things, be it tongues or other issues, how it helps in the advancement of the kingdom of God. The people think that you're out of your mind, Paul is going to say when they enter in and see you, because you're doing something that's childish. Or have you taken time? To ponder the gospel in your life, to ponder, to ponder what God's word says about issues that you're understanding your application of them. Brothers and sisters, mature thinking is biblical. thinking that is biblically saturated, it is gospel saturated, it is saturated in love, it is saturated in your care for other people. And it is not simply, it is partly this, it is not simply a theological framework that you have, that you like, that is cold and self-serving. Because this will go against everything that we've read so far that Paul is writing to this church. It's more than that. Being mature is not believing that your understanding of secondary issues makes you superior to others. Being mature is not believing that those who disagree with you in secondary issues are not Christians. Being mature is not believing that you are superior in your Christian faith simply because you are an American or that you speak English. Being mature means that you know when to go to war for the truth. And that you don't do that against the church that understands the gospel. There is a time to fight heresy. There is a time to stand on a hill and die. Being mature is that you know when to do that. This is exactly what Paul has been doing this whole time, and he continues on. Being mature is to look at and savor Christ in his work and then trust that his grace has been applied to you. And then in the strength of the spirit, you apply that grace to your life and your words and your deeds and your understanding of how the church works, how everything else around you works. Brothers and sisters, will you heed Paul's call today to be mature? To be mature in all your thinking. He's leading up next week, we're going to see him talking specifically about orderliness of worship and the things that we should do in worship. Are you maturing your thinking of worship or maybe have you allowed legalism to crept in? Has it crept into your life and that you are you're being childish in that way? Be thinking about those things this week as we get to the next part of First Corinthians. Now, opposite of being mature, Paul says in his exhortation, be mature in your thinking. But opposite of that, if you're going to be infants in something, be infants in evil. Now, most of you have been around an infant at some point in your life. They aren't they aren't very good at doing things on their own. All right, most of the infants I know, the only thing they're really good at doing on their own is screaming and not sleeping in the middle of the night. They're really good at that, but everything else they need help on, they're not good at it. Paul says we are to be like these infants that aren't good at anything. We are to be like that at doing evil. He's meaning not do it. or not be good at it. And so I think we have to ask now, ask ourselves, are you an infant or are we infants in evil? Would you say that you aren't good at sin or would you say maybe I'm really mature in sin, I'm an expert in pulling off premeditated sin so that no one knows about it? Or is it really easy without even thinking of responding to events to to think about what's going on, to respond in a sinful manner? I think the reality of it is, is that in some areas we are all guilty of this. And Paul is saying, put that away. Be mature in your thinking, be mature in Christ and not in these other things, not in evil. Because when you do that, it is showing that you haven't dwelt on the glory of Christ, you haven't understood how Christ's grace has been applied to your life. Now, Paul's made this exhortation. He slapped him on the wrist a little bit. And like a good pastor and a good, good teacher, he goes to scripture to substantiate what he says. And so he does this here. So we have his exhortation. Now he's going to use the Old Testament and apply that Old Testament to to provide some credence for for what he's saying. And he he says this starting in verse 21. In the law, it is written. By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners, I will speak to this people. And even then, they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Now, this is a paraphrase of Isaiah 28, verses 11 and 12. And Paul uses this to make his point that about tongues being ineffective for the building up of people. Now for us to understand really what he's doing here, because as we read in English, it doesn't always make sense to us what he says. We need to know the broader context of what's happening in Isaiah. So in the broader context, God has pronounced judgment upon Israel. They have refused to heed what God has spoken to them in the language they can understand through the prophets. He has sent prophets to these to the northern ten tribes, and they have completely rejected his word. And so, Isaiah says, God will use a foreign language, the language of a conquering Assyria, to come in and to conquer them. The result of this foreign tongue did not bring faith to Israel, but it was a sign of judgment upon them. In fact, in the Old Testament, oftentimes tongues were seen as a sign of judgment. Paul is drawing off this understanding. So how does this connect to what Paul's saying? Speaking to Israel in a foreign tongue did not cause Israel to turn towards God in repentance. And in the same way, speaking to outsiders, to unbelievers in an unintelligible tongue will not bring these sinners to faith in Christ. They need to hear God's word and be able to understand it. Paul points to this in Romans chapter 10. You're familiar with this passage, I'm sure, starting in verse 12. He writes the Romans for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him? in whom they have not believed. And how are they to believe in him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? You see, the people must hear the gospel to understand the context is that they would hear a language, they would understand it. And Paul saying when you're speaking in these tongues that no one understands or this this utterances, no one hears the gospel. No one hears it. It's a sign of judgment on them because they're going to walk away and never hear it. Some of you are very astute, all of you are very astute, actually. Some of you have looked ahead in this passage and you're asking, now Dirk, wait a minute. It says right here in verse 22 that that the tongues are assigned for the unbelievers. It says it's for them. Then I don't understand in light of that what you're saying. You might be asking, shouldn't tongues be used to speak to people in their own language so they understand, making it a sign for them to be saved? And I will say that God, in times, has given people the ability to speak in a language preaching the gospel. We see that in Acts 2. I'm not going to argue with people who say that continues. I'm not going to fight that battle on this letter. But that's not the context of this passage. Paul is speaking about the church gathering. They speak a common language. And so he's going to illustrate for us, so he's given us the exhortation, he's taken the scripture and given it as an application or a a substantiation of what he's saying. And now he's going to explain that in some illustrations, he says it is for them. Thus, inversely to tongues are signed not for believers, but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for believers. If therefore, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy. An unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all and he is called to account by all the secrets of his hearts are discerned. And so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. The use of tongues is for unbelievers. But it's a sign of judgment for them. It is, in fact, for them. But it is not intended to help them believe. It is intended as a sign of God's judgment upon them that they don't understand. The intended outcome that the church in Corinth had in speaking in tongues is the exact opposite of what God is, or Paul is, God is saying through Paul is actually the outcome. You speak in tongues thinking you're going to impress people. What you're actually doing is showing them a sign of judgment that they don't understand the gospel and they leave. You think that they're going to be impressed and want to understand the gospel, but in actuality, they are being pushed away in the same way that foreign tongues came and judged Israel. This utterance that you're doing is a sign of judgment because they don't hear the gospel. They think you are mad and they're walking away. Paul says they will come in. And they would think that you are deranged. That's the sense of the word there. They're not going to be impressed with your tongues, they're going to think you're deranged. And the idea here is the same as if you saw someone sitting somewhere alone, talking to themselves, uttering, and they were living in a completely different reality than everyone else around them. We've seen folks who have mental illnesses that are that way. That's the idea. The idea is that the people don't come into the church and hear the gospel, they come in and they think you're deranged, you're in an alternate reality and they walk away and it becomes a sign of judgment upon them. The desired outcome is not what you want, Church at Corinth. Instead, Paul says, those who prophesy. What that for them is speaking God's word. They didn't have the canon at the time, but speaking truth will cause people to hear the gospel. God will use that in a language that the unbelievers can understand. They will be convicted. Of their sin, the secrets, the sins of their hearts will be disclosed and they will fall upon their face and worship God. and declared then that God really is among you, not because they spoke in tongues, but because they heard the truth of the gospel. Paul is calling out here in these illustrations that they are to be mature. They are to be mature in the way that they handle their church gatherings. Speaking in tongues is immature. It's pushing people away. It's telling people that they are mad as opposed to thinking through understanding the gospel and then telling other people the gospel in a way that they can understand it. So what do we do with this? What do we do with this as Christians in 2016 and a half flooded Kingwood? Well, I would say part of the application is really easy for us. I could tell you to stop speaking in unintelligible gibberish during the gatherings of the church. Done. Done. I'm not seeing that happen here. You've completed that task before I even got started here, and that is good. Now, we are to be on guard of that. We are to be on guard to make sure that we aren't pushing people away from the gospel by speaking in unintelligible gibberish. We all speak a common language here. We all speak English. There's no reason for us to be speaking in some gobbledygook languages, utterances that Paul has said without any sort of translation. That would be immature in your thinking. There's more to it than that. This is a call for us to be mature. We don't have the problem with people getting up and saying in a trance or being deranged in utterances. We don't have that. But it's a call to be mature in other ways. It's a call to be mature in savoring Christ, to understand the gospel, to really believe, to believe that it's been applied to you, that you are a saved sinner and that you have received the Spirit's strength, that the Spirit indwells you. And then to take much time in prayer through different situations and apply that understanding of the gospel to your life, It's our functions in the church. So let me ask you this. Are we as a church doing things to build up the believers around us when we gather together? In a mature way, have you thought through this in a mature way? Are we actually doing these things? And if not, are you a part of changing that maybe on a more personal level? We ask ourselves, when we come here and we are gathered, are we doing things that are actually beneficial? Or do or we just perceive in that they are because like tongues are building ourself up. Maybe we got to quote unquote encourage someone, but what we really did is to show them how much knowledge that we have. Because what we haven't done is the full process of what Paul is model all the way through this letter to savor Christ first, to spend time praying about it and then look for ways to use our gifts in a mature fashion to build up the believers around us. And the other question we should ask ourselves, are we making the message of the gospel clear to everyone? To adults, to children, to unbelievers, Are we making it absolutely clear that we are all sinners, that Christ has come, as we read today in our affirmation of faith and being fully God and fully man, dying upon the cross for us, burying our sins and then giving that freely to all who believe? Are we actually doing that? Are you actually doing that in your personal life? I say we as a church body, but really individually, are you doing that? In what other ways in your life does your thinking need to be immature? Has your thinking about your family life, as you're thinking about every part of your life, come to maturation? Have you really pondered what you're doing? Brothers and sisters, Christ has indeed died for you. You have been indwelt with the Holy Spirit, if you trust in Christ. And you can. You have the ability because of the spirit in you to dwell on things in a mature way, to ask that God would help your understanding, to spend time praying and to looking at God's word to have better understanding. Will you do that? Will you spend time this week in God's word and prayer, asking him to help you think through how to apply the work of Christ to all the areas in your life? To be mature. To be mature in what you're doing. That is our call this week. I want to close. Here, rereading verse 20, Paul's exhortation to us here, what Paul has to say to us today, brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking, be mature, let's pray. Father, we we ask that you would be kind to us, that you would renew our love of the gospel. We ask that you would help us to be mature in our thinking. We ask that you would help us to be mature in our thinking about how we interact with each other at this church, with our family, with those around us. Father, we ask that You would give us a desire to spend time pondering and reading and praying about all of these things in our life that deserve it, that are worth it. And Father, we ask that first You would enthrall us with the Gospel, that we would come to love the Lord Jesus more than anything else, and that that would drive us forward in all that we do. And Father, as we finish up this coming week, Exploring how to gather together and worship. How we are to to do those things, I ask that you would prepare us and that you would give us understanding. Father, help us to continue to be mature in our thinking. And if you would find us childish, that you would change our hearts. That you would break down our pride and that any way that you see us to be childish, you would convict us of and that we would be willing to cling to you and to change for our own good. Father, we pray all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.