**Fun? Kids, no fun this year at Awana. I am probably joking.**
Alright, so hey church, just to remind you, this Wednesday and Thursday we have Police Night Out, Pierce Township, and then Union Township. If you signed up to work with Pierce Township's Police Night Out, we have t-shirts for you in the back. So when you leave, go to the welcome desk, and Nate and Aiden will have the t-shirts for you if you signed up to come.
If you are going to one of the Police Night Outs and you are signed up to work, we would encourage you to wear a Clough Pike t-shirt. If, however, in the many ways that we have given those t-shirts out, you do not have one, please talk with Nate, and he can make sure if we have your size that we can get one for you.
Okay. So if you signed up to work, we would encourage you to wear a Clough Pike t-shirt. If you signed up to work one of those, and you don't... Now, this isn't because you didn't do your laundry. Okay. You've got time to get it by Wednesday or Thursday. But if you don't have a t-shirt, and you would like one, we'd like everybody in one of our Clough Pike t-shirts there for our Police Night Out.
I'm going to read from Isaiah chapter 28, verses 14 through 17, and then we're going to take up an offering.
Church, you have been praying for Alejandro. Alejandro is the pastor of Rey Nuevo, our Hispanic church plant on the north end of the city. He is down in Peru with his family right now. Kind of a dual purpose there, working at a pastor's conference alongside his father, who is a long-time pastor there in the jungle in Peru. And then after that conference has now been finished, then it's some rest and relaxation for him and his family.
However, there are these things that happen when you travel to the jungle. The food there is just a little bit different than what we're accustomed to here. The water, slightly different. So just some messages with Alejandro. Late last night, early this morning, I'm not sure which time we want to call it. Just ask that we pray for him because the ways of the jungle are upon him.
And he told me that he's like, "I think I sweat three gallons a day because of how hot it is." And so he's like, "And the food is making it even worse." So lift them up that they might have some time of actual rest and relaxation as he is there.
And it was really neat to see, you know, there were probably 50 people that came from surrounding jungle villages there where his father is at to do a pastor's conference that he was kind of partnering with and working with, which is just really neat. And church, you're a part of that. What we do here, and in a moment we collect an offering, part of that goes to support church planting efforts locally and internationally, and specifically with Alejandro.
And so we'll collect an offering for that. It is much more than just keeping the lights on here; it is to share the light of the gospel in places where it is not known.
So I'm going to read from Isaiah chapter 28, verses 14 through 17. God's word says this: this is he is speaking to Israel through the prophet Isaiah, and as he is doing that, he is pronouncing judgment on them for their sinfulness and their idolatry.
He says, "Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem, because you have said, 'We've made a covenant with death and with Sheol we have an agreement. When the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.'
Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I am one who has laid a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not be in haste, and I will make justice the line and righteousness the plumb line, and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overwhelm the shelter.'"
Father in heaven, we bow before you and we thank you for the opportunity that we have to worship you. Lord, we pray today that we would not be those scoffers who look at your world, and we pray that we would not be those scoffers who look at your world and laugh, that we would not be those who think that death will never come to us, but Father, rather that we would see and know that death comes to all.
But you have given us a shelter and you have given us a sure foundation in your Son, Jesus Christ, that he was tested and proven faithful and true. And Lord, we pray today that those who are here would hear the message of righteousness and justice, that they would repent of sin and trust in Jesus.
Lord, for those who are believers here, I pray that you would let us cling more tightly to your Son. Lord, as we, your church, look at the things going on around the world, we see tensions rising in the Middle East. Father, we know that all those are made in your image.
And Father, we see and know that there is a religious purpose against us. We see and know that there is a religious purpose against us. Those who are targeting and working against the nation of Israel. Lord, you have been kind and faithful in preserving the people there. And as they are under greater attack now, Lord, there is still a sure foundation for them in your Son, Jesus.
Lord, it is too much for us to figure out all the geopolitical issues of the day. But we raise them to you and we ask, Father, that you would send your Spirit there, that tensions would calm and that revival would come on both ends of the Gaza Strip. Father, that you would work and move miraculously and that we would see and know of your work amongst those nations.
Lord, thank you for the work that is being done in Peru and how, Lord, you have used Alejandro and his family to bless us as a church body. And then, Lord, to use them to bless other pastors and church leaders in very difficult, hard-to-reach places.
Lord, give them good health and give them some rest and relaxation. And, Father, for us as a church, this week, the busyness of police night out gives us an opportunity to meet many of our neighbors.
Lord, I pray that those who are working would have the opportunity to share the gospel, that those conversations would be fruitful in us declaring and praising this sure, precious cornerstone who is a sure foundation. And, Father, that we trust that you would draw those to yourself.
We pray these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord and our King. Amen.
You have your copy of God's word. I invite you to turn to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 14.
The book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. We'll be looking at verses 13 through 25 this morning. 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verses 13 through 25. It is our second week in this chapter. We'll be here one more week.
God's word says this. He's continuing on. He says, "Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written, 'By people of strange tongues and by lips of foreigners will I speak to this people.' And even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.
Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an outsider enters, he is convicted by all, and he is called to an 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's pray.
Lord, you are the ruler of heaven and earth. God, you are Father, Son, and Spirit, and we praise you. And we ask, Lord, that you would speak to us clearly. Lord, for those outsiders who are here, we pray, Lord, that your Spirit would speak to their hearts and that they would worship you.
Lord, that we would all know that you are here among us in the songs and the prayers and in this time in your word. Lord, help me now teach through me. Let me be a vessel of your Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
So you guys know my wife and I were missionaries in Central and South America. Before we moved to Ecuador, I took many short-term trips down to help train pastors kind of at the tops of the Andes mountains. And I was a missionary. It was those short-term trips that the Lord used as a catalyst for us to go and to serve him overseas.
And one of those trips, when we went down there, we did like a Bible institute for pastors. And so they would come in for a week of intensive training, and they would bring in pastors from the US to help kind of shoulder the burden of teaching various pastors throughout the week.
And so one of the weeks that I went down there, I was assigned the task of helping to teach church history. Now I'm a certified nerd, and so that's okay for me because I like church history. But some of you are not real big fans of the names and dates.
Now if you can imagine, you have to go down and teach a group of 15 pastors the time period from 1600, so right after the Reformation, right after Calvin in Geneva, all fast forward through the Pope, Billy Graham, who's not actually the Pope. If you're a Baptist, you kind of get that.
So right through Billy Graham, all the way to modern day, and you've got like four to five hours to teach this period of time in church history when a majority of everything that's ever been written about church history has been written in this time.
And so here I am, I'm teaching through a translator at this point and trying to figure out how we're going to do this. And I was like, you know what? They probably don't care that much about the first or second Great Awakening here in the United States and in England. That is not as pertinent to them as it would be to us.
And so what I wanted to do was share beginning with the great gospel of the Gutenberg printing press and the various translations of the Bible and share with them how the Bible crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to them.
If you're familiar with the story of Jim Elliot and the five missionaries who were killed by the Aka Indians, that was not too far away. That was down the mountain from where I was teaching up on the mountain.
And so here I am, Florida redneck, teaching a bunch of pastors about how the Bible has come. And then all of a sudden, one of these men, he's a Kichwa, so he's kind of like the South American version of the Sherpas. So a tall Kichwa is maybe like four foot nine. It'd be great to play basketball with them because they're all short, dark skin, tea-colored hair.
And so he begins to stand up, and he's being animated, and his arms are moving, and he's getting louder. And I'm like, this is not... I've just got done talking about five missionaries being killed in Ecuador. I have no idea what they're saying.
And then another one stands up, and they're looking at me with their dark eyes intently and getting loud. And I'm like, this is not good. I don't know if they're cannibals at this point or not, and they're just thinking, "Let's start with the redheaded one first."
And so they're getting loud and loud, and then they're all standing, and they're beginning to just almost just yell at the top of their lungs. And at this point, I'm just thinking, I'm going to have to write a note to Katie, "I'm sorry, I went to be with Jesus."
You guys are laughing because I'm just absolutely petrified. I've been in the army a long time. It was one of the few times I'd ever traveled outside of the U.S. without a weapon, and I'm like, I'm going to be... I'm a goner.
And this translator is listening, and then he comes up. He says, "Do you want to know what they're saying?" I'm like, "Yes, please tell me."
They went on for 45 minutes with an extemporaneous prayer service. The first gentleman that stood up began to stand up and say, "Brothers, I never knew how we got the Bible. I just had to believe and trust that God was faithful to bring it to us."
And the other man stood up, and he said, "God is faithful, and his word is true." And someone else began to give a testimony of how the Bible came to him and to his family. And they stood up, and they said, "God is faithful, and his word is true."
And for 45 minutes, they went on giving testimony and praising the Lord. One of the absolute highlights of my life. And it is absolutely key if people are speaking in another language that somebody translate it.
This is exactly what Paul is saying: If one of you speaks in tongues, let him pray that he might interpret also.
So as we look at this, the second week in chapter 14, we'll be here another week. You may be wondering, "James, we are Baptists. We are really set in this position. Why are we talking about this for three weeks?"
Partly because it's a long chapter. Secondly, there are groups of people that will practice speaking in tongues in a way that does not accord with biblical truth. And it may be that you may not live where you live forever, and you may be visiting and going to look at other churches. College students, one day students, you may be going to another school and outside of here, and you're going to be looking for a church.
It doesn't really matter what church you attend. There are some groups within Christianity as a whole that practice a more free usage of this idea of tongues. Some of those groups outright deny what we believe about God.
There are more historic Pentecostals that deny the existence of the church of the triune nature of God. What does that mean? They deny the existence of the Trinity. They do not believe that God exists in three persons for all time. They do not believe in the Father, Son, and Spirit as being co-equal and co-existent, but rather he exists in the Old Testament as God the Father and the New Testament as God the Son and now as God the Spirit.
This places them outside of historical Christianity. Yet still, there are others who would say that you can be a Christian, but if you have not yet spoken in tongues and you have not been baptized by the Spirit, then you operate and function on a lower tier level of Christianity.
I've had someone ask me. They came up. It was interesting. They came up to witness to me, and as they shared Jesus, and as a brother, "Hey, I am a Christian. I love that you are doing this. This is great." And then they said, "Well, have you spoken in tongues and been baptized in the Spirit yet?"
And then they began to let me know that I was not on the level that they are because they speak in tongues more than me, which is none. And so this chapter is incredibly important and pertinent for us today.
We saw last week that God's command when we gather together for worship is that God's word would be clear, it would build up, and it would benefit the local gathering and the church.
There might be... You said last time you may think that you are growing in your Christian faith if you've got the Holy Spirit goosebumps. But I argue to you that if God's... If the message of the gospel and if God's word is clear and you understand it, then you have heard from the Lord and God's presence is among us.
As we'll see today, my prayer for you is that you will leave here with a greater burden for the lost and that you would grow in your love for the Lord and use your mind and your attention when we're gathered together.
And can we even know that God is with us in our worship service? Don't you want to be a church that is filled with the presence of God? How can we pursue that? And if you didn't feel that in the worship, can you say God's not with us?
This passage answers these questions for us. So my goal for us today, kind of this theme that will guide our time together, is that we're to pursue the presence of God by understanding His message.
Pursue the presence of God by understanding His message. We're going to answer two questions when we look at the gathered time of worship, which is who Paul is talking to. He's talking to a local church.
So we're going to gather together and pursue the presence of God by understanding His message. Answer two questions: Does the worship service... Does the message edify? Question one. And then question two is, does the message evangelize?
So the first question: Does the worship service edify believers? Build them up. Does the message do that? That can only happen if the message of God is understandable so we can be agreeable.
Look at verses 13 through 19. The message of God is understandable so we can be agreeable. This is why he begins and he says, "If any of you speak to God, speak in tongues, pray that he may interpret."
He says you can pray in a tongue, and you might be praying in your spirit, but your mind would be unfruitful. Now if you can speak in another tongue or in another language, that does not necessarily mean that you can interpret or translate that language.
Sometimes you can speak better, and then trying to understand or interpret it is much more challenging. And you can imagine in a multicultural place like Corinth where that is more difficult.
Paul's speech is speaking of two things: praying and praising God in a different tongue or language. He says it is profitable for his spirit but not his mind. And he's doing this, and you see right before in verse 16, he says, "If you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen?"
There's kind of three groups of people that he's speaking to. He's speaking of believers, unbelievers, and then this third group called outsiders. You could maybe see those as seekers or as inquirers, as people kind of here. They're not like opposed, but they've got questions. They're not believers; they're not hardened unbelievers.
And he says, "How can if someone is praying, how can you say amen?" They're not encouraged. What does this look like?
So humor me for just a moment, and I'm going to hope to maybe illustrate this for some of you. And there will be two or three of you that will understand what I'm going to say, but all of you who are believers who are very familiar with church will maybe be able to pray alongside me in your spirit because I'm going to say the Lord's prayer or the model prayer in Spanish.
Now if you're a believer and if you grew up in church, you can know that in English in your mind. If you are completely new to church, you're like, "What are you talking about?" This is this idea of believers, unbelievers, and outsiders.
And so you can imagine if we're in a multicultural setting, somebody says, "Oh, let me pray."
Says, "Padre Nuestro, que estas en los cielos, santificados sea tu nombre. Y venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad, como en el cielo, así también en la tierra. El pan nuestro de cada día, danoslo hoy. Y perdonamos nuestras deudas, como también nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores. Y no nos metas en tentación, más liberarnos del mal, porque tuyo es el reino, el poder, y la gloria por todos los siglos."
Y toda la gente dice, "Amén."
If you know that, there are two of you that have done it. You can imagine the first time that I'm in Ecuador. We arrived. Now I've gone to language school. I understand enough Spanish to order a taco that they don't serve in Ecuador, but I have enough Spanish for that.
Those pastors gather. I can have some conversations with them, and we start to have a song of prayer before we do our pastoral training. And this time I can teach more than two times because I don't need a translator.
And they start to sing a song, and the song is familiar. It's a song, and I don't know any of the words. I'm like, "Oh, this is bad." Because not all dialects of Spanish are the same. There are different versions and different flavors.
You know this, right? My mother, who was born in the south of Boston, never pronounced an R in her life. If you're from further south, you never finished a sentence in the whole conversation because it's continuing.
You talk with... I need a translator for Larry Harrell and what he brings from Kentucky, right? The number of little signs, I'm like, "I don't even know what that means, Larry."
I've met with all these pastors who are singing a song with the song that I know and none of the words. And then they give me a little book of hembró poco de papel que se imprimió en Ecuador en Kinko espiral.
And I'm looking at the words, and I'm like, "Oh, I don't know any of them." Oh, there's one word. That's it.
Well, they were singing in their preferred native dialect, which is Kichwa. But in Ecuador, there's eight versions of Kichwa. But there are twenty-seven if you include Peru. And if you look in Bolivia, there's forty-five different dialects of Kichwa.
And in Peru, it's Quechua because they don't have an I. And so they attempted to make a unified Kichwa dialect hymn book that all the Kichwa or Quechua believers could gather to sing, and they don't have all of the words.
So some of them are in Spanish. And let me just tell you that it's really hard. But I could still praise the Lord in my spirit when they were singing in a different language.
It may be like you, like we just sang the song "It Is Well," but you could be there and you could hear the words:
"Cuando la paz, como un río, a mi manera, cuando los dolores, como las alas de mar ruidan, sea cual sea mi destino, tú me has enseñado a decir: Está bien, está bien con mi alma. Mi pecado, la felicidad de este glorioso pensamiento, mi pecado no en parte, sino en el conjunto, está clavado en la cruz. Yo no lo soporto más. Alabado sea el Señor, alabado el Señor. Mi alma está bien, está bien con mi alma."
It is well, it is well with my soul.
So you can see when there is someone that is able to speak in different languages, there is a need for it to interpret that your heart may sing out loudly, but your mind is not edified.
When Paul says when you gather together in a multicultural place, speak the language that is understood and speak with a translator.
So that you know this is why we gather together and worship in a language that we know so that you may, when we finish a prayer or a song, say amen.
But you understand that when you say amen, you're saying, "I agree. It is true. I identify with that." It is to say that yes, it is as if I had said that. I agree.
And that is what I believe. You can say amen if somebody prays in another language.
At the end of that time, when those pastors were praying God for 45 minutes, I had tears in my eyes because all of it was not translated because it was too much to go on.
But to know that those brothers there, they didn't know how they even got the Bible. They don't have Google to be able to share that with them. I was so moved in the spirit, but I didn't understand anything they said.
When we gather for worship together, we need to know and we need to understand because when we are here, we are here to edify our mind.
When we pray as a church, and when someone stands here and prays, there is a point where we are instructing, edifying, and encouraging. When someone prays, you should be praying along with them.
It's not a time to tune out, but rather a time to attune your mind to what is being said. Paul is not speaking negatively of people speaking in tongues or other languages. Rather, he says that he can speak in more than any of them.
But it's better, he says, if I was to speak five words that you understand than 10,000 words that you don't understand.
So when we think about this paragraph, some applications for us. Let's just be clear. When we're here, we're here that you can understand God's word and so that you can be instructed.
So when you come, what's your posture of worship to be? Come with a posture of expecting to meet God and hearing from Him through His word, through the prayers, and through what is sung.
The Bible, we preach the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. The Bible is an inexhaustible mind of gems that we can come to continue to pull out from.
That if you are tired with the Bible or you think it is just... We'll see in a moment, baby talk. It's just too simple for your high intellect and mind, then the problem is you.
Come and hear the word of the Lord. And we need to be cautious in our own worship and how we evaluate worship, that it's not just our feelings, but it is our intellect.
For instance, when we sing, some of these songs, are you going to be thinking of the meaning of the words that you are saying? Stephen works very hard to choose songs that are theologically rich and true and helpful that instruct and form and edify us.
The song "It Is Well" that we sang earlier, that I quoted some in Spanish, teaches us in times of prosperity and in suffering to praise the Lord, to say, "It is well with my soul."
The very reason the song was written, it was written by a guy named Horatio Spafford that lost everything that he owned in the Chicago fire of 1871.
And his family and his wife and his four girls, they were also devastated. They went to New York and they said, "Let's take a long vacation." So he says, "Let me finish some business matters here in New York."
He told his wife and the girls, "You go ahead, go to England, and I'll catch up and see you soon." He got a message from his wife that said, "I'm the only one who survived. What do I do?"
Because the ship that his wife and four daughters were on got in a collision, and of over the 200 people that passed away, it was all four of his girls.
He immediately boarded a ship to England, and right where they were at the place where the collision happened, the captain of that ship said, "This is where your girls are buried."
And that's where he wrote the song. That's when he says, "When sorrow like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, you have taught me to say, 'It is well, it is well with my soul.'"
I mean, how could he say such a thing? Because he could say that the Lord has taken his sin, not in part, but the whole, and has nailed it to the cross.
And if your sin has been nailed to the cross and your sin has been paid for by the death of Jesus, then the great hope is this: that when your life ends here, that your faith will then become sight.
That's how you can say, "It is well, it is well with my soul."
When we sang the song "Ten Thousand Reasons," it teaches us that God is who He is, what? That He is rich in love, He is slow to anger, His name is great, and His heart is kind.
Church, we should not be able to sing those words and be unmoved in our heart and not instructed in our mind.
And if you think of your own sin even this last week and to see that He is rich in love and He is slow to anger, then you see the great kindness of God that He has shown you.
God's requirement for us is that we would be sinless and perfect. True righteousness is what is required, and we don't meet that standard.
That's what He demands of any who will be in His presence. This is why Jesus, taking our sin in whole and nailing it to the cross, providing a sufficient sacrifice, should cause us to sing with joyous expression.
We're not people who get smarter than the gospel. We're not going to ever get to the end of its depth. The message has to be understood so we can agree.
Needs to be clear. Church, when we gather, we're here to worship the Lord and praise Him and learn from Him.
We have to recognize we're here. If you're here and you are not trying to figure out how you can love Jesus more and hate your own sin more, we really don't have anything to offer you.
Because as the gathered body of people, we are called to give Him glory and honor and praise and push back the darkness both out there and even in our own hearts.
This message edifies us when we look at the word, and that's why we have to understand it. If we were up here speaking in another language, we may feel moved in our heart, but if our mind is not edified or instructed, then we cannot be built up.
We are here to be built up. So in thinking about tongues, does it edify? Can we agree to it? That's why we worship in a language we understand.
The second question is, does the message and worship service evangelize? So the message of God must be understood so we can be convicted of sin.
Paul gives a bit of like a sandwich of instruction in verse 20. Look at what it says. So you know, he says, "When he says brothers, he's about to give them a bit of a correction."
Right? He says, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. This is for people who thought that they were wise. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature."
So you can see the first and the third half of that: "Be children in... Do not be children in your thinking" is you being mature in your thinking.
Kind of that center part, being infants in evil. He's kind of saying the goal for this is that we would be renewed, refined, and mature in how we think.
Thus, how we think distances us. As the more we think alongside with what God has for us, the more we are distanced from evil.
Puritan John Owen in his little book on the mortification of sin says this line: I've shared it with you before. "Be killing sin or it will be killing you."
This constant pursuit of the Lord when we gather together for worship, there is a sanctifying effect of coming together, of singing songs, of praying prayers, and hearing God's word.
When we gather together, this is the only way we can practice those one another's. We grow more in love with Christ as we're instructed so we can be obedient.
Now verse 21 and 22 are a bit challenging and probably the more challenging of the verses in the whole letter. Look at what it says in 21.
"In the law it is written, 'By people of strange tongues and by lips of foreigners I will speak to this people,' and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."
Verse 22: "Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers."
So we can see that and say, "Okay, that's good." He says in the law, "It is written," and then you may look in your Bible and see that he's quoting from Isaiah.
You think, "Well, I thought the law was the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy." But here he's quoting Isaiah. What is he talking about?
And then he says tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. But then it appears as if his illustration in verses 23 through 25 says the exact opposite.
Look at what it says. So tongues are not a sign for believers but for unbelievers. But prophecy is for believers.
And then he says this: He says, "If 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?"
So Paul is saying tongues are not for believers but for unbelievers. So now unbelievers come into a worship service where people are speaking in tongues, and then these outsiders look and say, "Y'all some crazy people. I don't understand a thing that you're saying. I'm getting out of here, you bunch of crazies."
And they leave. But Paul, didn't you just say that tongues are a sign for unbelievers? But no, they're not getting the sign.
He goes on, "If all prophesy, which is a sign for believers, if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an outsider enters, he is convicted by all."
I thought Paul just said that prophecy was not a sign for unbelievers, but he's now... The whole church is gathered, they're prophesying, and now this person is convicted by all.
And then he's called to account. The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and then he falls on his face and he worships God and says, "Surely God is in this place."
What is he talking about? Thus, this was my struggle this week. What is he talking about?
I made multiple jokes this week that I was going to be sick and Jacob was going to preach. He didn't know that, but that's what I said.
So let me clear a couple things up for us because it's quite clear. I just needed to slow down a little bit.
He says, "For in the law it is written," and then he quotes Isaiah 28. Isaiah is part of the prophets. He's not reading the law there.
However, Isaiah 28 is actually quoting from the law. He's quoting from Deuteronomy. He's quoting Deuteronomy 28:45 through 50. I'll read it quick for you.
In this, the nation of Israel is about to enter into the promised land. And in entering into the promised land, God is giving them the law a second time. That's Deuteronomy.
It's the second giving of the law. And he says this: "And giving this law, he tells them that he was not given the law and that he was not given the law, and they will be his people.
And if they follow all of the words that he says, there will be blessings for them. And if they don't, there will be curses."
The curses is what he's discussing in Deuteronomy 28. Listen to what it says. He says, "All these cursings shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
You did not keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things.
Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness and lacking everything. He's going to put them into slavery.
He says you'll put a yoke of iron on their neck until he has destroyed you. And then the Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, sweeping in down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a tongue that you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who will show no respect to the old or show mercy to the young."
So the nation of Israel has come. They've heard these cursings. They enter into the promised land. David has been king. God promises that there will be one who will sit on the throne of David forever and ever.
David died in the land of Israel, and Solomon, his son, is given the kingdom. He builds the temple, but Solomon was not faithful to all of the words of the God.
And so Solomon gives... He dies, and the nation of Israel is fractured into a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah, where Jerusalem is.
And this is the book of First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles. The nation is fractured. The kings continue to lead Israel and Judah into further levels of wickedness where they mock God, they worship false gods, and they're idolaters.
And the cursings were for even those that did not obey God's word and did not serve God joyfully. And here Isaiah is the prophet who is speaking to the nation of Israel and to Jerusalem and to Judah and calling them to faithfulness to the Lord.
And the teachers and leaders of Israel are shown to be people who are there mocking Isaiah and saying, "Who is he to teach, and what is he going to teach? He's going to teach precept upon precept and line upon line."
And those are all monosyllable words in Hebrew, so you almost sound like it's just baby babbling that's going on. "Who are you going to teach? You're just going to teach and teach and teach line upon line upon line upon line. What are you going to do, Isaiah?"
I mean, what are you? And then through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord reminds them of Deuteronomy chapter 28 and it says, "Oh, there will be a voice and a word for you in a tongue that you do not understand. Who's going to come as judgment for you?"
The northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, and then later on, the nation of Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians.
The babbling that was going on was God's voice of judgment against them. And you can look throughout the whole Old Testament when there is a language or a tongue that is not understood by the people of God, it is always used as a tool of judgment against God's people.
And so Paul, in quoting this, is saying when the people of God, when the church gathers, we should not give a sign of judgment to people.
Do not speak in a language or in a tongue that is not understood or translated because when we gather together, this is not for judgment but rather for edification and celebration for us to understand of the love and mercy and justice of God.
The nation of Israel thought little of the word of God, but we as people of... We as the people of God need to think much of what God has for us in His word and think much of it.
Now the difference is when languages or tongues were used in the New Testament, it was always in the terms of missions and evangelism. We saw this last week in four different places in the book of Acts.
Acts chapter 2, they are given the ability to speak in languages they did not know, and people... Everyone, what's the difference? Those outsiders heard in their own language and understood that these languages are used.
These tongues are used for missions and evangelism. So follow with me. He says these untranslated tongues are a sign of judgment for the people of God.
They're not... Tongues are not a sign for believers. The sign for believers is prophecy. When we gather together, it is for us to have a clear understood message.
Tongues function as a sign of judgment for the people of God. And then in the context of missions and evangelism, this gift of languages is given so that people might understand the message of God.
What is the sign for the people of God? What is the sign for the church? Prophecy. A clear message from God.
We saw last week that if someone speaks in tongues and if someone interprets it, Paul looks at it the same way and speaks of it the same way that he does prophecy.
So if someone is given a message from God in another language and someone translates it, Paul accounts that to be the same as prophecy, and we'll see more of that next week.
So prophecy is this message from God for his people, and unbelievers can't have that because they're not filled with the Spirit.
And prophecy is a spiritual gift that God was using to give His message. Hear this from an old commentator, Matthew Henry.
He says, "The gift of tongues was necessary to spread Christianity and gather churches. It was proper and intended to convince unbelievers of the doctrine which Christians had already embraced.
But prophesying and interpreting Scripture in their own language were most for the edification of those who already did believe. So speaking with tongues in Christian assemblies was altogether out of time and place because neither one or the other was proper for it."
He goes on to say the apostles, the only way that they could spread the gospel was through this gift of tongues and by sharing that.
So why would the church at Corinth want to speak in tongues? They had this ability. Why would they want to show that? The whole book has been about them flaunting who they are, their wisdom, and their great spirituality.
They wanted to stand out. Even when they gathered together to have like a fellowship meal and they had the Lord's Supper, some of them were bringing in a big old feast while they watched poor people starve.
So here now they have the gift of tongues, and they want to flaunt that as well. And I just wonder if maybe sometimes that resembles your own heart.
Not that you can speak in other languages and flaunt that, but you know those things weren't just for the Corinthians. But maybe you're here and you want people to know you're important.
Maybe you want to stand out. You want people to think you're someone you're not. You may be here and you want to say amen so that people think that you're just like them, but you're somewhere else in your mind.
You may be here because you want people to think that you are spiritual and you're a good person. Maybe you're here and you can't say the amen because you kind of only half agree.
You may sing the songs, but you tune the sermon out. Or maybe you stand, but you don't sing. You kind of come and you have your own modified worship service.
Maybe if this resembles some of your heart, you can be what like those in verse 24 and 25 say that you could maybe see these secret things in your heart that you've bound up, these selfish motivations now being disclosed.
Maybe then you can hear this as a word from the Lord for you to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
That instead of coming in and being reserved or coming in and checking out, that you would come in and worship Him and not do your own thing.
That's not a new thing for man. Our very first parents wanted to do this, to do their own thing too. God gave them every tree of the garden to eat, and He says, "The one that you're not to eat from is the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
Instead of worshiping God and honoring Him, they thought, "Oh, I can be like Him, smarter than Him, and let me take that fruit."
So instead of worshiping God, they contended against Him. Adam and Eve ate, sin entered into the world, the process of death began, and then they went and they hid from God.
Does that sound good to you? Sound like you? Have you been a person who's been running or hiding from the Lord? Have you been holding back?
See, we don't need some fanatical language or some fancy display. What your heart needs is to hear the word of God that will pierce your heart.
The Bible says it will. It's like a sword that cuts between soul and spirit, between bone and marrow. The word of God will cut you to your heart.
Your response is to then return to Jesus, to turn from your ways and to turn to Him. And for us, when we gather, to be deeply committed to what this book says.
Now if you are committed here on Sunday but yet don't open this word on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday or Saturday, brothers and sisters, the Lord has given us a book.
The Lord has given us literacy and study Bibles to understand it. Let's be committed to His word here, and let us be committed to His word when we go out there.
And then we will trust the Lord to do the work that His word says it will do, to convict us, to edify us, and that when we preach the word here and when you preach the word where you go, that the Lord will use that word to convict others.
But you may be here, and you may be one of those outsiders. But you may be here, you may be one of those people who has been an onlooker.
I want to just be real clear with you: commit to Jesus today. Don't run. Don't hide. Don't put it off. Don't think I have tomorrow.
Where you're sitting right now, you can confess your sin and trust in Jesus. In a moment, Stephen's going to come. I'll be down front. I'll talk with you.
I almost promise the person sitting to your right or to your left, if somebody brought you, they can tell you the message of Jesus and show you how to begin to walk with him.
You don't have to wait for a third verse for the goosebumps to come one more time. You can commit to Jesus today.
If you're one who always comes and you're one of those believers who's here, commit that when you walk in these doors that you focus on the Lord and on His word.
As a very distracted person in my life, I would encourage you that if you use your phone while we're gathered, let it be scripture.
Because you are probably like me, and if there is any flashing notification that happens, it is impossible to let it go. Even for me, while I'm preaching, I have to turn off all notifications.
Somebody say, "Yeah, I got the holy glow." But I like the paper version. Let's commit to pursuing the presence of God by understanding His message in the songs that we sing, in the prayers that we pray, in the sermons that we hear, so that we might be instructed and edified.
And if you are here and you need to trust in Jesus, that you would be evangelized by the message and that you wouldn't leave here today without being sure of that.
Let's pray.
Father, help us to worship you in spirit and in truth and in understanding for the glory of your Son, Jesus. Lord, thank you that you have given gifts to men and to your church, that your word and the gospel has spread around the world and spread to us.
Let us be faithful to hear your message, to be edified and encouraged, instructed by it. And Lord, for those who need to trust you, let them commit to you today.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Will you please stand as we sing the song of response?
on Aug 05, 2024
