Let us seek God's face in prayer. Let's pray together. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that we have received such tokens of Thy mercy to us already in the course of this day as we've sat under the ministry of Thy Word. We bless Thee for Thy servant, Dr. Hamilton. We thank Thee, O Lord, for his faithful handling of thy word, and we pray, Father, that thou wouldst not desert us now. Be pleased, O Lord, to speak to us. Convict us of sin, if sin needs to be convicted of, and draw us in our thoughts, and draw us in our affections heavenward. For this we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Let's read together a portion of God's word from Paul's second letter to Timothy. We'll read the final section from chapter three to Timothy chapter three, reading from verse 10. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. While evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." Thus far in the reading of God's Word. Well, as I alluded to this morning, I believe that the attack upon the work of the kingdom is to be found substantially in a different place to where it might have been found 1500 years ago, when men, because they had been brought up with a philosophy, a world and life view, which was so heavily influenced by biblical thinking, had an understanding that there was such a thing as truth and such a thing as error. In our generation, I believe the doctrine which is most under attack is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. And if you pause to reflect for a moment, if you have had the conversation, perhaps decades ago, trying to argue for the truth and the authority of God's Word, you will recognize that now there are those who would be quite willing to concede to you that the Bible is true for you, but then reject it for themselves. And this thinking has, I believe, invaded the church so that our understanding of the sufficiency of scripture is undermined. And the net result becomes identical. We might disregard the word of God because we hold it to be but the opinions of men. Or we can say, at least in theory, that we have a high view of Scripture, and yet it's set it to one side because we don't really believe that it's addressing the issues which are before us today. Many a pastor, it seems to me, in our generation, is willing to concede that the Word that we have in our hands is indeed God's Word, and that it is true, and even subscribe to it being inerrant and infallible, but ultimately irrelevant. Because as they deal with the word of God, they set it to one side in preference for the opinions of men. And we can see how this plays out in the ways, the attitudes of the world, and then see how that is coming in to the Church of Jesus Christ. One of my sons played for me a video. It's on YouTube. I don't know the name of it, but I'm sure you could find it with the appropriate search. It's a young man. He's in his mid to late 20s. He has a rather handsome beard. Good looking young man. And he's stopping and interviewing students at a notable university or on a college campus. And as he's interviewing the students who we would be persuaded are educated and thoughtful, at least we would hope that they would be, he said to the students that he spoke to, if I identified as a woman, should I be allowed to use the female facilities on campus And each of the students in turn that he interviewed gave a response, well, if you identify as being female, yes, of course, you should be allowed to use the female restrooms and locker rooms and so forth on campus. So then he pressed them a little further. Well, supposing I told you that I identified as being Chinese. Now, anybody who looked less Chinese than him would be difficult to imagine. But the response, well, if you identify as Chinese, I might suppose that somewhere perhaps when your grandparents were Chinese and that you therefore identify as Chinese. Well, says he, suppose I tell you that I identify as being six years old. Should I be allowed to go to a kindergarten or a first grade school? Well, that might be a little difficult because the classroom's not really built for people that are 5'10". But if that's how you identify, perhaps there's a school that would take you in and you'd be able to attend some elementary school. Well, what if I told you that I identify as being 6'6"? And at that point they said, well, you can't. Why not? Well, because you're not 6'6". So it's all right to be a six-year-old Chinese woman, if that's what you're identifying as, but you can't be a six-foot-six six-year-old Chinese woman. That is the idiocy to which we have arrived. It used to be that if you declared to anyone to whom you're speaking, I hold this leather-bound book that I have in my hand to be God's word, and I hold to it. then the challenge would be, well, it's not true. I don't believe it. It's full of errors and so forth. The response is more likely to be in this generation, well, I'm happy for you if it's true for you. I suspect you could even tell the age approximately of the person that you were speaking to. Those that remember The struggles against communist Russia are more likely to say, well, it's not true, and therefore I don't believe it. But a later generation, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this is an approximation, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall, they're more likely to give you the response, well, if it's your truth, then I'm happy for you. There's a changing attitude towards truth, and therefore there is a changing attitude to the Bible. The Bible can be ignored because it is no longer felt by the people of God, no longer understood and gripping our minds to be God's holy and infallible word to which we turn for the answers to our questions. For those who would say it's wrong, that's a previous generation's response. For those who say it's just not my truth, that is this generation's. We're adrift from conviction of objective truth and that leads to indifference. And even amongst the church, and I'm talking in the widest terms, amongst the church, not just liberal Christians who have doubted the truth of God's word since liberalism came into the church. But even amongst those with whom in many respects we say, I identify this person as loving the Lord and seeking to preach Christ. And yet there is not that firm rooted conviction that the scriptures that we have before us are God's word. I want to this afternoon spend a little bit of time identifying some of the symptoms of a lack of commitment to the sufficiency of scripture and perhaps some of the remedies. Symptom one, we come to view the church as a commodity, and we think of it as being just one thing further that we can make our preference known. As a pastor, I'm often asked the question, for those that are outside of the fellowship, When it comes to worship, do you have traditional worship, or contemporary worship, or blended worship? There's a sort of smorgasbord of the styles of worship. Which one do you prefer? What lies behind that very question? that the state of worship in the church is a matter of personal preference. What is it that you as a fellowship prefer? What have you found to work? And what is not being asked? What is not being asked is what does God prefer in worship? What is the congregation like? What will bring the people in? What will bring young people in? What will bring the older people in? So we have the traditional worship at 9 o'clock in the morning. We have the contemporary worship at 11 o'clock. And the old people who like to get up early because they can't get to sleep, then they come in the first morning. The 20-somethings who aren't able to get out of bed quite so early, well, they come for the contemporary worship a little bit later on. I remember speaking to a pastor from Northern Ireland. I won't say his name because I think I'm quoting him accurately. But in case I am not, I don't want to put words in his mouth. He's a pastor who pastors in a church which is exclusive Sarmatist. They don't have accompanied worship. They have worship, but it's a singing of psalms, a cappella, all the worship. Singing of Psalms acapella. In a conversation, I heard him say, you know, Psalm singing can be a dreary thing. And if you've ever been to a Scottish church, then we could have cornered the market on dreary Psalm singing. If you have never heard Psalm 100 lasting 10 or 15 minutes, then you really don't know what dreary psalm singing is like. Well, he was honest. He says, psalm singing can be dreary. This is kind of strange coming from a minister who passes an exclusive psalm at his church. And then he followed it up by saying, when the spirit of God is not in the worship, then exclusive psalm can be dreary. But I want to know when the Spirit of God is not in the worship. My son, he worked out in California. Don't hold that against him. My son, he joined a church. It was probably the best church that he could find in the area. He, like myself, not gifted particularly in the musical department, And therefore he was never invited to join any praise group, band, choir, or anything else of that nature. So he helped out at the sound board. And at the end of one worship, one of the worship leaders came and said, you know, the worship wasn't so good today. Turn up the volume. Do you see the attitude there? In order to get the worship being more meaningful to the people, the only thing you have to do is turn a knob on the console, turn up the volume, and that will make worship better. You know, the pastor from Northern Ireland would be exactly right. We have ways of disguising to ourselves when the worship is not truly God-honoring and the Spirit of God is not in it. And we see that more and more in broader churches where there are extravaganzas. There's a local church near us. They have everything that you can imagine and a few things that you can't imagine for Sunday worship. The Christmas is spectacular. It would have played out on Broadway. There were jets of pyrotechnics bursting up from the stage as like giant sparklers. There was a fog machine so that the smoke rolled off the stage and down into, I can't call it a congregation, but into the audience. And there was an endless musical. The intro, it was about like 15 minutes long. It was a wonderful pop concert, but was it worship? We're not asking the question, what does God want in worship? What pleases God? Why are we not asking that question? Because we're not expecting to find an answer in scripture. We don't have an attitude towards Scripture that says, I want to ask these questions. What does my God want from me? This morning we were taken to, as it were, sit beside Jesus at the well. One of the things that Jesus said to the woman at the well was simply this, that God is looking for worshipers. God is seeking worshippers. Does it not behove us then to ask the question, what is it that God wants from me? When I come to worship, I want God to be pleased with the worship that I render to him, because truly he is a God to be worshipped and adored. If an unbeliever can come into worship and go out saying that they really enjoyed it, you've got problems. It's the unconverted who is just receiving it as he would a pop concert or any other musical item. It's the people of God as they lift their hearts and declare before all who have ears to hear, I love my God. And I want to worship Him with all that is in me, to love Him with heart and soul and strength and mind. And if the unbeliever in our midst says, that was good, I really enjoyed it, what am I getting wrong? He's not meant to understand it. So symptom one. in the church a rejection or at least a setting aside of the sufficiency of Scripture and a looking at things of what is it? What am I getting out of the way? We're being consumer Christians not asking the question because it never occurred to us to ask the question. What is it that God desires from us this day? Second symptom. A loss of confidence. in preaching. What do you do when worship starts to trail lying and it's not quiet? You just turn up the volume. That's the response. Turn up the volume and that will help the worship now. Well, what do you do if you're losing your confidence in the preached word of God? Well, you get the youth group in and the youth group comes in and does some kind of a skit or a play in place of the sermon. How do we ever expect to be more worldly than the world? You know, if I wanted to see a play, I'll go to Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier in Chicago, and there you'll get a world-class play performed for you. But we've lost confidence in the preaching of God's Word. And so the sermons that are preached are often filled with video clips from whatever the current movie that's just been released. And let's just illustrate this and two or three people will come and give some banal exposition which leaves you wondering what was the point of that. Are we confident in the Word of God? Or is it the case that we no longer expect old-fashioned preaching to bring results? Like Sarah. Sarah promised that through her, through Abraham, the seed of God's faithful people. Well, what is Sarah? I'm getting old. I better help God out a bit. Abraham, take Hagar and I'll have a child by her. The preacher says, this old-fashioned preaching is not working. People don't seem to like that anymore. Let's help God out and we'll have movies of the life of Christ, quite aside from any potential violations of the second commandment. Video clips up on the screen will have people to act, will help God out. So the people of God, what is the true need? The true need is the people of God should get up on their knees. And just as that pastor from Northern Isaac, if God is not in the worship, I want to know about it. And if God is not in the preaching, let's not help God out by adding our man-made inventions in, but get upon our knees and ask the Lord to raise up preachers who will declare the Word of God powerfully and persuasively. The old Puritans would say, preach as never sure to preach again. Preach a dying man to dying men. Where are they in our generation? At this point, I want to bring down the screen and show you a clip from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I don't know if any of you are Hobbit fans. The final movie, Return of the King, Frodo has run out of strength. He's collapsed on the fiery mountain and there's faithful Sam. What does Sam say to Frodo as his strength gives out in him? He picks him up on his broad shoulders, puts him on his shoulders, says, I may not be able to carry the ring but I can carry you. It's a picture taken from Scripture, isn't it? It's Moses at the battle of the Amalekites. Moses is an old, old man, and yet he is the appointed man through whom The blessing of God, he stands with his arms outstretched and as long as his hands are in the air, the people of God prevail against the Amalekites. But he's an old man and he can't keep his hands in the air. for too long and they start to drop down by his side until they hang limp beside him. And the Amalekites start to win the battle. He has Aaron and her beside. They draw up a stone for him to sit down on. They place Moses on the stone and they on either side, Aaron and her, hold his hands up so that the blessing of the Almighty God should fall down upon the people and the Amalekites are put to flight. Brethren, do you see the responsibilities that you have as a congregation to uphold the hands of those who preach? That you could say to your pastor, it's not my calling to stand here behind the pulpit. That's not what God has called me to do. that I will be as Aaron or as her to you and I will stand by your side in the place of prayer and hold your hands up so that the blessing should fall down upon the people and that the people of God should know the victory. That is my calling to be not the man out front but to hold your hand. I tell you this as a preacher how important that is for me to know that the people of God are praying for me in the work of the kingdom. Do you suppose that it is the ability of man to stand behind the pulpit and rightly divide the word of God? We've already heard this morning that that is not the case. Of course it's not the case. Pastors are men of flesh and blood too. And if Jesus could say in the Garden of Gethsemane to his disciples, wait and watch with me. Here he was in his humanity asking for the love and the support of those. Only he could bear the burden of that hour. And yet he wanted Peter and James and John to share with him and to minister to him in that way. Watch with me, he says. Of course they failed him. But do you see how Every member of every congregation, if you'd love and trust the Lord, what is it you are desiring to see? You want your pastor to stand here and rightly divide the Word of God and apply it to your heart, to seize you by the lapels and not let you go until the Word of God has been placed in your heart by that powerful and persuasive preaching. And what are you doing to hold his hands up and say, I will stand with you, that is my calling, and I will plead with the throne of grace that you will know that unction of the Holy Spirit that you will deal faithfully with my heart. The prayer meeting, whether it's on a Wednesday evening or a Thursday morning or whenever it may be, is where the pastor hears his people engaging in prayer for him and holding his hands up. Do not think that that is some insignificant meeting that you can either attend or not attend, but there is where He receives the encouragement of knowing that he's not standing alone in the pulpit, but the people of God are supporting him prayerfully, desiring that the Spirit of God would be in him. Let me give you one other practical application when it comes to encouraging your pastor. Don't be too shy about telling him how you have been encouraged by the preaching of God's word. Now, pastors walk the tightrope. If they hear nothing, then they're apt to think, did anyone listen? And if somebody says something complimentary, then they're apt to grow conceited. You don't want a conceited man in the pulpit. Spurgeon, I owe a great debt to Spurgeon. I read at least one sermon of Spurgeon every week. Who ministers to me? Spurgeon does. I'm blessed by his name. He being dead yet speaketh. He ministers to me every week. Somebody said to him as he shook hands at the end of one particular sermon, that was a good sermon, Mr. Spurgeon. to which in his own way he responded, the devil already told me. I don't want you saying to your own pastor, what a great sermon. That's not what he's desiring to hear. When you say it's a great sermon, what might you be saying? Well, it was very well constructed. It was eloquent. it had the right length of time, or whatever else it might be that you judge a sermon by. He doesn't need to hear that. Why do you come to church? Do you not so often feel yourself like the Greeks that came to Philip? And the unspoken plea in your heart is simply this, Sir, I would see Jesus. Sir, I would see Jesus. And when the Word of God is rightly explained, and a passage is opened up to you, and you say, how have I not seen that before? I have read that a thousand times and I never saw that. He's not making it up. He's not inventing it. It's there as plain as the words on the page and I never saw it. But he speaks to me of Christ and of his beauty and of his excellence and his glory. I saw Christ. My prayer was answered, so I would see Jesus, and I saw Jesus. Tell your pastor that, not to build him up in the flesh, but so that he might know that the word of God is being channeled through him to your heart, and you know how I have preached Christ. And that's your pastor's desire. And if you say to him on a Sunday morning, I saw Christ, that's not to build up his ego, it's to assure him of what? That the Lord has used him in your life to speak to you of the things of Christ. Symptom number three, letting scripture fall from our hands. One thing that seems to have struck me in recent years is that I have my own congregation that the Lord has privileged me to serve now for almost 20 years. But as I visit other congregations on vacation, or as members of the congregation give me their bulletin from their times on vacation, one thing that seems to come out again and again is that the scripture readings are getting shorter and shorter and shorter. To the point that it has disappeared altogether from the services of some churches. They don't even have a reading. I was asked by some of my young people to go to the large, large the church of what's happening now in our area. And I went to the church, they had one line of scripture in the whole service. One line! A lot loss of confidence in reading the word of God. Has it occurred to you, I say this affectionately but insultingly, you are dinosaurs. You're dinosaurs. Don't you realize that these churches don't deal with scripture anymore? And yet here you are on a beautiful day like this, an autumn day, the sun is shining, the skies are blue, it's a Saturday, and what are you doing all day? You're engaged in a conference about the truth of God's word. Thy word is truth. Do you see how you are out of step with this generation? You're out of step with your fellow believers. Churches are cutting back on scripture and you're spending two and a half days doing nothing but looking at scripture. Do you realize just how out of tune you are? But we make no apologies for it, do we brethren? Thank you. We make no apologies. Dr. Hamilton made reference to a jigsaw. I say that to the class that I take the high schoolers for Sunday school class. We're going through, have been through the Westminster Confession of Faith. What's the objective in that? Do I think that by the end of their time with me that they'll all have memorized the Westminster Confession of Faith? I would that they had, but that may be a little bit too much to expect of high schoolers. It's perhaps a bit more like the barn wall philosophy of education. If you throw enough mud at it, some of it's going to stick. Every time I sit down with it, and not just with them, but the congregation, what's a preacher doing? Saying, here, I'm giving you a piece of the jigsaw, and here's where it belongs. Place it down here, and the next Lord's Day you come back, here's another piece of the jigsaw. Place it next to it. Do you see how it connects with the one that we looked at last week? And so you're building up the picture. It may not be that you're seeing the complete picture. There may be gaps in your theology and things that you don't yet understand and you hope one day that you will. And perhaps it will take eternity and glory for those truths to be revealed to you. But you're building up the picture. The jigsaw puzzle is being completed one piece at a time, Lord's day by Lord's day. So that when somebody presents another piece, you say to yourself, I know that this does not belong in my jigsaw puzzle. This is not fit with scripture. I don't know what it does fit with. Well, how can you know it doesn't belong if you don't know, if you haven't got the whole picture yourself and if you don't know what picture it comes from? It may fit. You say, no, no. The jigsaw puzzle that I'm working with is wooden, and this one is cardboard. I can see the colors are different. I can see the matte finish and the gloss finish. I can look at it and say, I know that this does not belong. And the preachers, Lord's day by Lord's day, because they have your preacher here, you're here because you do have an idea of the sufficiency of scripture. You say, I want to have another piece for my jigsaw puzzle. And you're on your knees on a Saturday night before you come to church on a Sunday saying, Lord, let me have another piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Let me put it in place so that I can see how these things fit together. Fourth symptom, there's a thirst for the spectacular. We all like to be able to see things. And if you have something that is visible, it will always be preferred by people. And we're no different. Something that will attract the attention, something that we can look at. But what does your scripture say? Faith comes from seeing the youth group do their little skit. Faith comes from having the fountains of fireworks that explode from the stage. You're already ahead of me. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of Christ. That's where faith comes. Why does God use preaching? Is it because that preaching is such a wonderful medium? Paul describes it as foolishness. And I used to think in my vanity as a young, makey, learny preacher, that that just meant that people, it seemed to be foolishness, but really it's not. But I don't know if it's wisdom or whether it's just a realization of my own weakness. It's not that it seems to be foolishness, it is foolishness. That a man should stand behind a wooden desk and open up this book that is thousands of years old and lives are changed. It is foolishness. It's not my eloquence that will ever change anybody's life. It's the power of God. And he takes the foolishness of preaching to show that it's not men that accomplish this, but his spirit. My mom had an expression. She would look at me and say, you know what, Ian? You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Wasn't sure why she was looking at me at the time, You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. But isn't that what God does with us when he transforms us? You are a wretched, miserable sinner. And so am I. But when the Spirit of God is poured out upon us, he adopts us into his family. makes us joint heirs with Christ. We want to see the spectacular and we have lost an understanding of the nature of true biblical preaching. We need to plead. What is it Jesus says? Plead with God that the harvest is white, the fields are white unto harvest. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out harvesters. I am the least biblically scholarly of any man here. I can't quote extensive passages of the New Testament as others are able to do in the original language. But there was one time, though, in going through this that the word just stuck in my mind. The word that is sent out, the word in the original is ekbalain. Ekbalain. The translations are altogether, I think, too gentle. It's not pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out. It's pray that the Lord of the harvest will drive out. Drive out. Well, here's a challenge for you. You pray that the Lord of the harvest will drive men into ministry. and that they will find that they can do no other. I was speaking to Roman earlier on today after the morning sessions. And I was telling him how I had, half the flesh, a longing and desire. If I had my way, I'd be standing on the bridge of one of Her Majesty's warships right now. That's what I want. Jonah, I'm with you. Take a ship. Let's go. And I spoke to Professor Finlayson that Dr. Hamilton will also know. He was gracious, kind enough to teach me Greek and theology. If I have any theology at all, I would give thanks for Professor Finlayson's tutorship. I said to Professor Finlayson one evening, Professor Finlayson, I have a real struggle. Should I become a minister or should I join the Navy? That's what my heart wanted to do. And I was expecting some wonderful counsel, some deep delving into scripture. But those that know Professor Finlayson would know that he had a way of doing the unexpected. He said to me, Ian, toss a coin. No, no, no, no. This is not the way careers are decided, let alone calling to the Holy Ministry. Toss a coin. Toss a coin, he said. Well, I didn't do it there and then, but I went. You know, student, my entire week's salary, it was 50p. Lord, if it's heads, I become a naval officer. And if it's tails, I'll become a preacher. Because we always know that heads come down more often than tails, right? When did it come down? It came down heads. And I knew at that moment, though I had the answer that I wanted, that God had called me to be a pastor. There was wisdom with Professor Phil. I'm not saying this is the way you should I always make these choices, but he knew me well enough to give me the unexpected. I'm standing before you today because the Lord called me to be a minister. I don't know why. But to prove to you this day, perhaps, that God can take the sow's ear, turn it into a silk purse, We have a desire for the spectacular and one of the ways in which that shows itself is in the spectacular so-called charismatic gifts, the speaking in tongues and words of knowledge, healing and so forth. And the difficulty is for us that those that have been caught up with that sound spiritual. As a pastor, I have found over and over again that somebody comes to me and says, the Lord told me. What am I supposed to say to that? No, he didn't. He told me something different. It short circuits the response that we should be making. Is this truly biblical? Well, let me take a, it's not really a diversion, but I, I have found that few folk have really got the grasp of 1 Corinthians 14. So let's just take a very brief excursus through 1 Corinthians 14, and we deal with this issue. I want you to be able to be sure in your own minds why it is that when you come to church here on the Lord's Day, you're not hearing folk giving a word of knowledge. There's no prophecies. There's no speaking in tongues. So keep your Bibles. Put one finger in 1 Corinthians 14. We'll just turn back very briefly to Acts chapter 2 and the sermon at Pentecost. Acts chapter 2. We'll read verses 4 and 6. I'll try to be brief on this. At verse 4 of chapter 2 of Acts, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Verse 6, and at this sound a multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. You get the point here. At Pentecost, when the Spirit was given, they didn't hear mindless babbling that nobody understood. They heard people speaking in their own language, and they were amazed by it. Acts chapter 2 sets for us the default setting of how we receive speaking in tongues and this particular gift. We are schooled from Acts chapter 2 that when we come to 1 Corinthians 14, we are expecting it to be what? Expecting it to be a known language. Let's see if we can follow through on that. from 1 Corinthians 14. Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Oh dear, there we are as reformed Christians who don't get into prophecy and speaking in tongues, we're already condemned by the word of God. We sort of shy away and shrink back from that. For one who speaks in tongues speaks not to man, but to God. For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. Nobody understands what he's saying. And now we have this issue with, isn't that what we see when you visit a charismatic church or Pentecostal church and they're speaking in tongues, nobody understands it. It fits in so well to 1 Corinthians 14, only if you come to it with a lack of appreciation for Acts chapter 2. What's happening here? Instead of the word tongues being used, let me just put another language. For argument's sake, are there any Chinese speakers here? Oh. Congratulations, there's one in every crowd, and officially you are now he, right? OK. Are there any Korean speakers? Excellent. OK. So instead of speaking in our tongue, we're going to substitute Korean and see if we can make sense of this. For one who speaks in Korean. speaks not to men but to God for no one understands him. You're in a room and somebody is speaking in Korean and somebody said, well, you know, he was speaking in Korean and nobody understood a word that he was saying. Why not? Because nobody speaks Korean in this assembly. Does that mean, do you automatically infer because you don't speak Korean that the Korean doesn't speak Korean? Of course not. He understands what he's saying. It's just that you don't speak Korean and therefore you don't understand. So somebody was speaking in Korean and nobody understood what he was saying. Doesn't mean to say the speaker himself doesn't understand. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. What is the definition that's being given here of prophesying? It's saying when somebody prophesies, he has a word from God in an age when they didn't have the New Testament scriptures. And when he speaks, he speaks to the people and the people are built up and encouraged and consoled. But the one who is speaking Korean builds himself up. What does build himself up mean? Well, he has been told what it means because of the definition that is given to prophecy. The one who prophesies is for the upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation. But the person who is speaking Korean builds himself up by encouragement and consolation. But the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now, I want you all to be able to speak Korean. I was going to be Chinese, but we've changed that. And I want you all to be able to speak Korean, but even more prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks Korean, unless someone interprets it, so that the church may be built up. I can speak Korean. Let me interpret it for you. Why does that need to be a special gift of the Holy Spirit? Well, I did English literature as part of my first degree at Edinburgh University sometime last century. And John Donne wasn't actually around at the time, but I remember studying John Donne. There was a poem, but this flea and mark in this how little thou denies me is thee it sucked first and now sucks thee and then this. or two bloods mingled be, thou know'st it cannot be said, a sin or shame or loss of maidenhead, yet this in joy before it woo and pampered swells a one blood made of two. Guess what? It's been burned into my memory. All right, now you just repeat that back to me. Do you get the point? I can give you, you know, it comes out straightforward. You say, well, it's something about a flea. The people of God want something more than that. They want to be able to, I need the detail. Tell me what's being said. Now brothers, if I come to you speaking Korean, how will I benefit you when you don't speak Korean? How will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching Even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes. How will anyone know what is played? If the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?" You see, the argument here is not about mindless, dare I say, I don't want to be offensive. If there's any of you that attend a charismatic or a Pentecostal church, I'm not seeking to be offensive. I have to say, I think you have got it wrong. I think you've got it wrong. It's a wrong understanding. I don't want to be offensive. But perhaps even those that are within that community say, well, nobody understands it. The speaker himself, herself doesn't understand it. It's just sounds. And that's all it is to the hearer, even the speaker himself. But do you see what Paul is saying? If it's an indistinct sound, how is anyone going to be getting ready for battle? It's an argument against indistinction, not an argument for it. So with yourselves, if you With your tongue, you utter a speech that is not intelligible. How will anyone know what is said? For you'll be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages. Paul's talking about many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning. If I do not know the meaning of the language, I'll be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourself, since you are eager for manifestation of the spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. What's building up the church? Going back to prophecy and the clear preaching of God's word. Well, my time is all but done. But might I just trespass a few more minutes or hours? Just want to make sure you were all tracking with me. This is God dishonoring. I'm not speaking about our dear brethren, the charismatic movement. I have dear brethren who are charismatic. I just think that they're wrong. It's God dishonoring, not just because some of the things that are said are in disagreement with God's Word, but because the very way in which it manifests itself You don't have to go too far nowadays as you occupy yourself perhaps. You have a few moments and you'll see what craziness is there out in the world. It's fascinating. Have you heard of clown-led communion? How do people even come up with these ideas? Some large cathedral packed and there's somebody dressed as a clown behind the communion table. And the choir, for some inexplicable reason, all dressed in white robes, wearing Viking helmets. You couldn't make this stuff up. You really couldn't. Why are people engaged in these things? without a sound grasp of the sufficiency of scripture. We're not even asking the question, what is it that God requires? What is it he desires? What is he telling me to do? We're not asking that question. Why? Because we have abandoned the concept of the sufficiency of scripture. It then becomes merely a matter of personal preference. And supposing you're okay with clown-led communion, but I am not, well, who's to say which is right and which is wrong? It's just a matter of, well, for me, it's bad taste. But for you, it's quite acceptable. May have some hidden meaning that quite eludes me. But it's God dishonoring it in a more profound way. You're familiar with the story of Uzzah. The ark is to be brought back into Jerusalem. And it's placed on the back of a cart. If we could put it into modern terms, David goes down to the dealership and gets a brand new pickup truck. Because nothing but the best pickup truck is worthy of bringing the Ark into Jerusalem. And out he goes with his brand new pickup, his four-wheel drive, and all the bells and whistles. And they put the Ark of the Covenant on the back of the pickup truck. What happens? Well, it has a flat tire. And the Ark wobbles. Uzzah puts out his hand to steady it. You think, well, thank goodness Uzzah was there in order to steady the Ark that it didn't fall to the ground. But what happens to Uzzah? He's struck dead. Why? Because the Ark of the Covenant is not to be carried in on the back of a pickup truck. But men appointed for that task are to put it on their shoulders and bear it on their shoulders. Why is God seemingly so caught up with trivia, like the very means of transport for the Ark of the Covenant being brought into Jerusalem. Why did he strike down Nadab and Abihu? Because they used unauthorized fire. Because eternity hangs upon it. If God is not showing us in his word the way in which we arrive at last at heaven, we become For those of you that are old enough to remember us, we're like Dorothy without a yellow brick road. We have no way of getting there. We come to scripture and say, it's sufficient. It will lead us to the eternal mansions. Natural man receives not the things of God. These things are spiritually a discernment. You do not have because you do not ask. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask God, and God, who gives to all men generously, will give that wisdom, that the man of God may be competent. I'm not sure that that actually is the best translation at that point. Furnished completely would be my preferred translation. that the man of God, that the woman of God may be furnished completely. We desire therefore to see a restoration of confidence in the Word of God. Not just notionally, the Word of God we hold to be inerrant, but that it will furnish me completely to ask questions that I've not been asking before, and to ask those questions of the Word of God, to come to Bible conferences like this one, trusting that the Lord will use whoever He has raised up for that occasion to speak to me of the needs and the longings of my heart, that I'll find answers in God's Word. to the questions that so many of our, even of our brothers and sisters, are not even asking. And that in our generation, the preaching of that word would be bold, believing, and biblical. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for the time that we've had together in this conference. We recognize, Father, that in many ways we are asking questions and desiring to hear the theology of Scripture expounded in a way which many of our fellow believers in this generation do not appear to be asking. We say this, O God, not to boast of ourselves. But we would thank Thee, Father, that Thou hast been pleased to awaken our hearts, for we do long for the sincere milk of Thy Word. Be pleased, O God, to use these conference addresses to strengthen us and to challenge us that Thy Word indeed is sufficient for us today and tomorrow and always. Hear us, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.