First Corinthians | God Is Not a God of Confusion

Well, good morning. It's good to see you guys.

We'll welcome you today. You have your Bible.

You can open the 1st Corinthians 14, First Corinthians 14 for the

last time. All right, we're going to finish

out chapter 14 today. Then we'll move into a new issue

within the Corinthian church concerning the resurrection and

really, really looking forward to those, to chapter 15 and the

text there. But our assignment today is

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14. And so that's where we'll be.

We'll be in verses 26 through 40 this morning.

We've been walking through chapters 12 through 14.

If you've been here, you're kind of aware of this at this point.

If you're new today, what I want you to understand is that Paul

the apostle Paul is correcting. He's correcting A gifted but

chaotic church. What he tells us in chapter 12

is that the Spirit gives gifts, spiritual gifts for the common

good, meaning it's for the building up of the congregation.

It's that's for their edification, right?

And so each believer is gifted with a spiritual gift to be used

for the edification of the church.

In chapter 13, he shows them that love is the more excellent

way, that love should be the foundation of the operation of

these gifts, that that love is the important matter.

It's the thing that should be on their mind.

And he's correcting their behavior because they haven't

been operating in love. They've been operating with with

selfishness and divisiveness, holding one gift or some gifts

higher than other gifts and giving more prominent time to

those with those more excellent gifts as they deemed them and

not paying attention to the lesser gifts, so to speak.

So in chapter 12 and chapter 13, you have this idea of the body

of Christ and each person being gifted in certain ways, and some

might be small, some might be large, but none of us can say to

one another that we have no need of you.

We all need one another. And so love is the more

excellent way in chapter 13. Therefore, in chapter 14, what

it gets to is that worship services, the collection of the

church, the gathered church, as we come together for worship,

these services must be edifying and understandable or decent and

in order. They must be peaceable.

They must promote God's peace, the peace of the Lord that

dwells among the Saints through our unity in Christ or unity

with one another. Paul elsewhere calls it the bond

of the spirit of peace, and that's what he's after here in

chapter 14. And so we have our final

instructions on this bond of the spirit of peace, how our

services should be decent and in order.

Now, Corinth had zeal, all right.

We can't fault them for not having zeal.

Corinth had a lot of zeal, and zeal is a good thing.

You know, in my own sons, I understand that God has wired

them with testosterone, which means they're going to be

zealous in some ways. They're going to be aggressive

in nature. And this is good and right.

It's according to God's design. But that needs to be channelled

with self-control, right? Needs to be channelled with

parameters, guardrails that help them exercise aggression and

zeal in the right direction. And that's sort of what Paul's

after here is Corinth is a church that's full of zeal, but

they're without order, all right?

They're, they're lacking order. They have noise, a lot of noise,

but no clarity. All right.

And so no one's being edified. There's spontaneity, which in

some circles, even circles I grew up in, was held in high

regard. The more spontaneous the

service, the more spiritual it must be.

And yet Paul says that spontaneity without submission

is disorder, that it that it lacks clarity.

So Paul with the with the shepherd's hook, so to speak,

right? He's like a shepherd with a

shepherd's shepherd staff with a hook.

He's got Apostolic authority and he is shepherding, shepherding

them back to the character of God himself.

And that that's the point of chapter 14.

He wants to show them what the character of God is and how the

character of God should be present in our services, which

he tells us in our, our, in our text, that God is not a God of

confusion, but of peace. All right.

God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

And so he's correcting them. He's bringing them back.

He's trying to rein in the zealousness.

He's trying to point it in the right directions.

And so I think you'll see that as we walk through this passage

today. Again, First Corinthians 1426

through 40, if you would please stand in honor of the reading of

God's Word. When I'm finished reading, I'll

say this is the word of the Lord and you can join in response.

Thanks be to God. All right, so First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 14:26

chapter 14, verse 26, What then? Brothers?

When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a

revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

Let all things be done for building up.

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or three, or

two, or at most 3, and each in turn, and let someone

interprets. But if there's no one to

interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to

himself and to God. But two or three prophets speak,

and let the others way would have said, If a revelation is

made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.

For you can all prophecy 1 by 1, so that all may learn, and all

be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are

subjects subject to prophets. For God is not a God of

confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the

Saints, the women should keep silent in the churches they are

not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the

Law also says. If there's anything they desire

to learn, let them ask their husbands at home.

For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

Or was it from you that the word of God came?

Or are you the only ones it has reached?

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should

acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of

the Lord. If anyone does not recognize

this, he is not recognized. So my brothers earnestly desire

to prophecy and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all

things should be done decently and in order.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we come

before it today. And it's our hope to humble

ourselves before your words, to submit ourselves to it.

And so we ask that Your Spirit would help us to do precisely

that, although that we would hold Your word in such high

regard that we revoke the opinions and the wisdom of man,

and we long for the wisdom of God, the truths of your Word.

Lord, I thank you that this people here at New Life

Community Church are a hungry people, and they hunger and

thirst for righteousness. And so you have been faithful to

fill them. And Lord, here we are yet again

in pursuit of truth, in pursuit of your word, and we know that

we will find you faithful to fill us.

So, Lord, would you do that today?

Would you open our hearts and our minds to to hear and to

understand Your Word, to know it, to believe it, Lord, that we

would also put these things into practice and bear the fruit of

Your Word in every area of our life.

It's in the name of Christ I ask these things, Amen, that you may

be seated. My title for the sermon today

comes from the text. God is not a God of confusion.

The text says He's not a God of confusion, but of peace.

So I want you to imagine for a moment inviting an unchurched

neighbor to church this morning. Or maybe you really did.

If. If so, good on you and welcome

to your friend. And one kind of service.

Say that five people speak all at once.

No one explains what is happening.

And your friend leaves saying, well, that was loud, but I

haven't learned anything. I didn't gain anything from

that. Imagine another kind of service,

really, the kind we aim for each week, where God's word is read

and it's it's explained. The prayers are clear songs

teach or rehearse scriptural truths.

And so your friend leaves saying, I understood those

things. I was helped today.

Which gathering best reflects a God of peace?

I think we would all agree it's the latter because God is a God

of peace and order. Here's the main point.

If you're taking notes, you can write this down.

Because God is a God of peace and order.

Spirit filled worship must be intelligible, orderly, and

submissive to God's Word. Spirit filled worship must be

intelligible, orderly, and submissive to God's Word.

This morning, the first point we'll come to is order for

edification. We'll see that in verses 26

through 33 A Secondly, we'll see submission in the assembly and

verses 33 B through 35. And then finally, we'll see

biblical authority and peace in verses 36 through 40.

Along the way, I do hope to answer questions that I assume a

congregation may have as we walk through the passage.

So let's begin. Number one, order for

edification, verses 26 through 33.

A. In verse 26, Paul writes, what

then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a

lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.

Let all these things be done for building up.

So Paul lays out the agenda, right?

He, he, he lays out that it is the building up of the

congregation which must set the agenda for our worship services

now to be done in a way that would build up the congregation

now. Paul assumes abroad

participation, right? He said.

Each one has, each one has a hymn or a lesson, a revelation,

a tongue or an interpretation, right?

The, the problem is not the gifts.

I want to reiterate that the problem is not the gifts.

The problem is aimlessness in the gifts.

They've, they've got no clarity. They've got no direction on

where they're going with it. Everyone's participating, all

right? Everyone's kind of doing their

own thing. They're highlighting their own

gifts. And so there's an aimlessness

about what they're doing. And Paul's seeking to provide a

target, right? The target is the bull's eye on

the target is these things must be done to build up the church.

And so if you're missing the mark, right, you're not hitting

the bull's eye, then you have aimlessness.

He gives the controlling purpose of that, right?

It's the bull's eye for building up.

Literally what that means is edification.

It means a strengthening, it means a really a building in a

sense. It's laying foundations.

It's, you may think of building a house as a good analogy,

right? You lay a foundation, you put up

walls, you put on the roof. All right, you, you then go back

into the house and you begin to build out the rooms.

You begin to construct what their purposes are, what they're

for, right? I suspect that none of you have

a bedroom in your kitchen, right?

You're not using the kitchen as a place to sleep.

You're using the kitchen as a place to host, all right, The

kitchens used as a place to prepare meals.

It would be weird for there to be a bedroom in your kitchen

unless you're remodeling like, and that's just where you have

to sleep for a little while. But under normal circumstances,

that would be strange. Well, this is what you have.

You have a house that's in disorder here in Corinth.

All right. And you may want to underline,

if you're comfortable writing in your Bibles, that idea of for

building up, let all things be done for building up.

This is the litmus test for churches.

It's the litmus test for everything that we do in

gathered worship is how does this song we're going to sing

build up the congregation? How does this sermon we're going

to preach build up the congregation?

How does this prayer we pray build up the congregation?

How does the Lord's Supper practice each week build up the

congregation? How does baptism on weeks we

have baptisms? How do they build up the

congregation, right? It becomes the litmus test for

everything that we're doing before an element makes it into

our liturgy, whether there be songs or testimonies or prayers

or exhortations. The question has to be, will

this build up the body? The question cannot be, is it

exciting? Is it going to create a great

worship experience for everyone? The question must be, how is it

going to edify the church? All right, so that's where we

want to be is how is it going to edify the church?

And verse 27, Paul says if any speak in a tongue, let there be

only two or three or two or at most 3 and each in turn and let

someone interpret. So here Paul provides a

regulation of tongues, right? He's saying clarity is more

important than novelty. Clarity matters more than all of

you speaking in tongues. All this 3 guardrails here as he

addresses regulations for tongues.

The first guardrail is number 2, or at most 3.

The second is sequence, each in turn, not all at the same time,

each in turn, and 3rd is interpretation.

The third guardrail is interpretation.

Interpretation. Let there be an interpretation,

and if there's not, let him keep quiet.

Let him remain silent, right? In chapter 14, Paul has stressed

that uninterpreted tongues are unintelligible to the church and

therefore they are useless for building up the body of Christ.

They're not helpful. All right?

Remember, in context, tongues are languages.

We saw that in chapter chapter 14, verses 10 and 11.

So whatever your view of their continuance today, the principle

here must stand those guardrails, must stand the

number, the sequence, the interpretation, those things

must be present in a local worship service for these things

to be practiced. There should be no speech in a

worship service without understanding.

In verse 28, Paul continues, But if there's no one to interpret,

let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and

to God. So Paul states a rule now for

worship. Silence must exist where there

is no interpretation or it cannot be explained what the one

speaking in tongues is saying. He should not say anything, He

should remain quiet, right? This is the first of three keep

silent commands that you see in the passage this morning.

Paul is telling the Corinthians that it is better to refrain

than to fill the room with sound that does not edify.

He's already said that it's better to speak 5 words of

prophecy than to utter 10,000 words of a tongue that no one

can understand, right? Why?

Because prophecy builds up the church when we open our Bibles

and we say, thus says the Lord, this is an edifying thing.

It brings comfort, it brings peace, it brings healing.

It's helpful to the soul, right? It calls sinners out of the

darkness and into marvelous light there.

So there's redemption in the spoken word of God.

It also strengthens Christians, right?

It helps us along our way. It sanctifies us.

But we can become more Christ like, more godly, right?

Learning how to follow him in the right way.

So these people, Paul is saying, these people must resist the

urge to say something merely to participate.

All right, so I don't want to be left.

Outlet me. Let me offer something.

Well, they must resist the urge. Spear filled worship is not

measured by how many speak, but by how much the church

understands and benefits. All right.

It's not measured by how many are speaking.

It's measured by how many are edified, right?

Is this an edifying worship service?

That's again the litmus test here in verse 29.

He says let two or three prophets speak and let others

weigh what is said. So here we see that prophecy

must be weighed. This was the practice of the

other church. You couldn't just stand up and

say, thus says the Lord, and everybody has to take it for

granted. No, you say it and all the other

prophets in the room, all the other leaders weigh what's being

said, right? And again, Paul provides a two

or three limit here, right? It's not that everyone should

stand up and speak. There's a two or three limit.

When Paul instructs the Corinthians to weigh the

prophets, he's teaching them that they must discern or test

their speech. They must see by which spirit

they're speaking. Is it from the Spirit of God or

is it from the spirit of another world?

The church must never receive speech uncritically.

Must never receive speech uncritically.

When I ask you to open your Bibles at the beginning of a

sermon, it's not a style choice. We don't have somebody walking

around taking pictures with open Bibles in your laps.

We're not looking for style points.

What we're what we're trying to establish is an obedience

choice. When we come to God's place of

worship and we gather with the Saints, it must be obvious that

we have gone to God's Word, right?

That we've opened our Bibles and we've spoken from what God has

said to us the way that he's revealed to us.

It also helps you to be discerning in what we say right

as you read the words. Is what Kyle says, is what

Jasper says, is what one of the other elders or other teachers

we put up here, is what they're saying true?

Right. If it's not true, then let us be

found liars, all right, let us be repentant, but let us be

found liars in God's house. We don't want to utter things

that are untrue, all right? We want you to be discerning of

what we say. We want you to test what we say

because God requires you to be this kind of a Christian.

It requires you to understand in this way.

In verse 30, Paul writes, if a revelation is made to another

sitting there, let the first be silence, right?

So Paul commands deference in real time.

Even truly gifted speakers in Corinth must yield the spirits.

Work then includes self restraint or self-control, which

is one of the fruit of the Spirit.

In a service of or in service of clarity.

We ought to be restrained people, right?

And the leaders in Corinth were being required to model this

yieldedness to one another. Right, if something better

serves the moment scripture to read, prayer to pray, truth to

clarify, then they were being asked to yield.

So what are the goals of orderly gathered worship services?

What's the goal of it? Paul tells us plainly in verse

31. For you can all prophecy 1 by 1

so that all may learn and all be encouraged to learn and

encouraged right. The result of order is learning

and encouragement. It's the result of order in a

worship services that all are learning, all are being

encouraged. What this means is that the head

and the heart are working together, right An orderly

worship service like expositional preaching, walking

verse by verse through the text instructs the mind.

It impacts the heart and it invites the will of the man

right. So if people leave saying I felt

a lot, but I did not learn God's Word, then we fell that this

verse, we've grown a lot in this area.

I can remember in our very first membership class nearly 11 years

ago at this point, I can remember uttering these words to

the people in the membership class.

What we want for you here is that when you leave this place

on Sunday mornings, we want you to sit in your car with your

hands on the steering wheel and to think to yourself, man, that

was amazing. What a great experience.

How foolish, how foolish was I. But I praise God for His grace

and growing us up. Praise God for His grace and

leading us. If people leave saying I felt a

lot but did not learn God's word, then we have failed Paul's

instruction here. They'd be learning and

encouraged. If they learned but we're not

encouraged, then we've also failed this verse.

There should be learning with encouragement.

In verse 32, Paul says in the spirits of prophets are subject

to prophets. So any claims of being carried

away by the spirit are corrected here.

Any claims of I just couldn't control myself any any claims of

you know, that was a word of the Lord and yet it's not aligning

with the scriptures. Those things are being corrected

here. The spirits of the prophets are

subject to prophets that the Spirit of God is not going to

get his people in such a frenzy that they lack self-control.

This is contrary to the holy laughter and whole body shakes

experienced and praised often in charismatic circles today.

These things are not decent and in order.

Authentic spirituality must be governed.

It must be governed by the word of the Lord.

Now, we're not saying that God kills personality or that He

kills zeal or any of those things.

Remember, we're saying that God channels these things in right

directions so that the body is being built up, right?

So the body is matured. They're governed, not

uncontrolled, right? They must be governed by the

Lord, right? I couldn't help myself.

It's not a justification for your children and home when they

haul off and hit their brother. And so it shouldn't be a

justification for hauling off and doing whatever we want in a

worship service apart from the Spirit of God, right?

It's not a, it's not a justification for disorder in

worship. And finally, in verse 33, A for

God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

So why are all these things happening?

Well, Paul shows that our theology must undergird our

liturgy. Our theology must undergird our

liturgy. Confusion means instability.

It means there's disorder, right?

We don't want confusion in a worship service.

We want peace. And when we see that God is not

a God of confusion, he's not a God of disorder, He's not an

instable God. How many of you would want to

worship an instable God? Not me.

I don't want a God of peace. I want a God of order.

I want a God who this is decent and a God who's sovereign in

power, of course, but a God who's governing all things for

his glory. That's, that's what we want, all

right? And so peace means wholeness

means harmony. There's a togetherness, right?

The whole body is working together.

There's harmony among the body. There's harmony in the worship

service, not just in the singing.

Our liturgy must mirror God's life.

Our liturgy must mirror his heart.

Our liturgy must mirror who he is.

You can write this down if you'd like.

Doctrine shapes doxology. Doctrine must shape doxology.

What we understand about God, doctrine, right?

The things that God has revealed to us about himself, that thing

must shape doxology. There's no greater example.

Well, there's several great examples.

One of my favorite examples, let me word it that way, is in

Romans Chapter 11, when Paul comes to the end of chapters one

Romans 11 · chapter mention

through 11 before launching into a new conversation where he's

just expounded on thoroughly salvation, rebellion,

sanctification. He's expanded on these things so

thoroughly At the end of that, he's just concludes it all with

praise, with doxology. All right.

And that is, it's instructive to us that the doctrine of Romans

one through 11 should lead us to praise like Paul does at the end

of the chapter there. It should lead us to want to

praise him, not question him, should lead us to want to praise

Him and not doubt him. Doctrine shapes doxology.

Who God is determines how we worship him.

It must determine how we worship him.

So maybe some of the questions that you would have from this

part of the text is does each one has?

When Paul says each one has, does that mean that everyone

must speak weekly? All the introverts are here or

hoping for a no right now. All right, no, it doesn't mean

that everyone must speak weekly. Weekly.

What it does, though, is it affirms widespread gifting, all

right? It's not about one man standing

in the pulpit week after week after week after week, being the

sole man of God, the one who hears from the Lord, and

everyone else must walk in tow with him.

It affirms widespread gifting. A plurality of elders A plow

out, a plurality of gifted men who can teach God's Word.

It doesn't give us guaranteed airtime, right?

Often each week, really, the elders are yielding to one of

the other elders to stand up and proclaim the word of God.

All right, So we're not guaranteeing that every elder

gets airtime even the aim is edification.

The aim is that the church would be strengthened.

And so that controls access to the microphone that determines

who should speak and when they should speak.

Another question that may come are the two or three, whether

it's in tongues or in prophecy, are those hard caps for all

time? Well, the principle is timeless.

Yes, limited intelligible, curated participation is what

Paul is showing here. All right.

Must be used for the edification of the church.

Second point, we come to submission and the Assembly.

All right. Verses 33, B through 35.

Let me read it again because it's been a moment since we

first read it. As in all the churches of the

Saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they

are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the

law also says. If there's anything they desire

to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is

shameful for a woman to speak in church.

All right, so as you may suspect already, this is a hotly

contested paragraph. All right, so let's go through

it carefully. Let's go through it in context,

and let's allow Scripture to interpret Scripture where we

need it to. All right, so in verse 33 B,

Paul lays out a universal norm as in all the churches of the

Saints. This is what we call a

transcultural proclamation, right?

This is for all the churches of the Saints both present in the

world that Paul's writing in and present in the world today and

throughout history from us back to them and in the future.

This is transcultural, as in all the churches of the Saints.

So what he's saying is I want you Corinthians, and I want us

today to understand that what follows is not a Corinth only

rule, right, which is often the argument.

This is a cultural thing only. Now this is not a Corinth only

rule. When Paul says, as in all the

churches of the Saints, he's negating the cultural arguments

and God's peace and order are for all churches at all times.

Amen. One of you agrees.

Good off to a good start. Verse 34 reveals A situational

silence and also role clarity. Situational silence and role

clarity. Look at 34 again.

The women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not

permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the law also

says. Maybe that's why I didn't get

any Amen from the ladies a moment ago.

It's not saying you can't say Amen, all right.

And if you can't say Amen, say Ouch as our dear passed on,

Brother Vodi Baulkham says so. We've already heard two keep

silent commands, one in verse 28, one in verse 30 concerning

tongues and prophecy. This is the third in context

here, the speaking being restricted is not all forms of

vocal participation because that would contradict what we looked

at in Chapter 11 verse 5, which was some time ago.

I totally understand that was last fall right?

And so we'll get to it in a moment.

But there what we see is that women pray and prophecy by by

joining the church in prayers, singing and agreeing with God's

word as it's being taught. The the restriction then is

placed on authoritative governing speech in the

assembled church, especially that weighing and judging the

testing of the prophets. It's also being applied to the

exercise of teaching authority. All right, now this is in line.

This is where we have to let Scripture interpret Scripture.

This is in line with what Paul teaches in first Timothy 2:11

1 Timothy 2:11

and 12:00 where he writes, let a woman learn quietly with all

submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach

or to exercise authority over a man.

Rather she is to remain quiet. So immediately after those

verses, we get First Timothy 3:00, which gives us the

requirements for elders just to be a man who's been chosen by

God, set apart by the Spirit. There's a he has a desire to

serve as an elder. He's a husband of one wife, all

right. He's above reproach.

He's self controlled. There's a litany of things there

that he is to be all right, but it is a him.

It is a he. Pronouns matter here.

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissivists.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a

man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.

So that's First Timothy 2:11 and 12:00 here.

1 Timothy 2:11

What we have is very similar wording.

The women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not

permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law

also says. We'll get to that in a moment.

No, we'll get to it now. Sorry.

As the law also says, refers to the creation order.

All right, He's he's, he's bringing this, he's grounding

the argument in creation. So again, I think that verse 33

B is plenty to say that the cultural argument doesn't stand

as in all the churches of the Saints.

That's plenty, right? But just in case that's not

plenty, he also grounds it in the creation order, Genesis 2,

where you have the man created. He's to work and keep the Garden

of Eden. He is then brought to this

realization that he's alone. God says it's not good for this

man to be alone. And so he creates a woman for

him who's to be a helper fit for him.

So she's to help in these things, but not the lead in

these things, right? And Paul grounds the argument in

First Timothy 2 in the very same verses Genesis chapter 2, Paul

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

uses the creation order to found his teachings on Mel headship as

well in First Corinthians 11, which we have looked at but also

in Ephesians 5. All right, so I wrestled with

this text this week mainly working to harmonize.

I wasn't I wasn't upset about what it said.

I think our church believes this well.

But I wrestled with this text mainly working to harmonize with

First Corinthians 11 because there a woman is instructed to

pray and prophecy and here she's being told to keep silent.

So what? What's going on?

Why the differences? And here are the 2 main

conclusions that I think we're able to draw from Scripture.

The 1st is different kinds of speech in the same gathered

setting. All right, different kinds of

speech in the same gathered setting.

So First Corinthians 11 fives assumes that women pray and

prophecy. They may offer Spirit empowered

speech, but that's to be under visible submission, which was a

head covering. There again, you can hold the

the that the head covering is merely her husband.

My belief is that it's also a cloth of some sort.

All right, that there's a covering.

All right, we looked at that. If you're interested in that

teaching, you can go back and find it on in our sermons.

But she should do so under visible submission and subject

to testing. All right, she's subject to

testing. As I mentioned earlier, this

passage restricts, restricts women from authoritative

speaking that governs the assembly, right, especially the

weighing and judging of prophecies and any teaching over

the gathered church. So verse 29, but also first

Timothy 211 through 12 as a cross reference there.

You also want to note the three Keep Silent commands, 2830 and

34. All are situational and they're

meant to preserve order. They're not blanket gags on all

speech. Again, here, the silence is

about governing and deciding speech.

It's about weighing and testing speech.

It's not about congregational participation, such as singing,

praying, confessing or testifying, or even offering an

Amen. The second thing that we see are

different settings. I think I've kind of made that

point, but I want to make it more clearly.

In First Corinthians 11/2 through 16, Paul addresses the

propriety for men and women in general Christian gatherings or

smaller home settings, right? Churches would often meet house

to house, and there you might see women pray, you might see

them prophecy with appropriate signs of authority.

In First Corinthians 1426 or 40, he's addressing the church, and

we know that because he says when you have come together as a

church in 1118, but also in 1423.

So the official assembly of the church, Sunday worship under

elders where authoritative speech is regulated, including a

prohibit, including prohibiting women speaking in the

authoritative sense. So then the question becomes

what's allowed and what's not allowed, right?

What's allowed and what's not allowed?

Well, allowable things that are allowable and gathered worship

would be congregational singing, singing some sort of a meaning

responsive prayers. Sorry, congregational praying, a

meaning responsive prayers, those sort of things.

Secondly, congregational singing and public scripture result

responses, right? All the Saints are instructed to

sing. An elder might get up.

We kind of do this in our call to worship where we're saying

something together, right? We're declaring some things

together and it's often led by, it's always led by qualified

men, but we say those things together.

Another thing that would be allowable testimony and

Thanksgiving, right? The testimony, Thanksgiving,

these things are non authoritative.

They're curated for edification. We've seen this a few times even

in our members meetings. We see them often in home groups

where a woman will testify to the things that the Lord's doing

in her life. She'll give thanks for the

things that the Lord's doing in her life.

She'll even share things that the Lord taught her as she was

going through the study in Home group, right?

This is allowed in the Apostolic era.

Women could offer a prophetic revelation 11/5.

We see that in a way that did not place them in the judges

seat all. Right.

And that honored roll order with a covering as the sign, all

right. So things that would not be

allowed in the stated assembly, authoritative teaching or

expounding of Scripture to the mixed congregation, we would not

permit. Paul is not permitting a woman

to stand up and preach. There are no such thing in

Scripture as lady preachers. All right, it does exist in our

world, but the Scriptures do not affirm this.

Secondly, the formal weighing judging of prophecies or

doctrine in the assembly they're they're told to ask at home.

Right. That sort of formal weighing and

judging evaluates it. It governs the act, and that

belongs to the male leadership or the elders of the church.

Also, you see, disruptive interrogation.

One thing here that some commentators pointed out as I

was walking through this is that the women, like everyone else,

were confused by what was going on.

And so they're asking questions. What in the world is taking

place? What's going on here?

What's happening? You know, And so disruptive

interrogation that that shifts the learner into a governing

role, right? And so, Paul says, they should

ask their husbands at home. They should pursue understanding

without destabilizing the order of worship.

So men and women are equal in dignity.

We affirm this wholeheartedly. They're equal in value, but

they're distinct in their roles. God has given men and women

different roles, distinct from one another, complementary of

one another. God's does not design is not a

demotion, even though the third way feminism would have you

believe it is, and even first wave for that matter.

It's not a demotion, it's wisdom.

God is laying out wisdom here. God's peace and edification are

advanced when gifts flourish within the lanes that God

assigns to us. Right?

His peace and his edification. His wisdom advances when gifts

are allowed to flourish within the lanes that God assigns to

us. So since revelatory prophecy has

ceased with the Apostolic foundation, the abiding

principle is this. Women fully and vigorously

participate in all the non authoritative elements of

worship and ministry, singing, praying with the body,

scripture, memory, recitation, testimonies, discipling women

and children, and 1000 other great works.

God does not, he's not bound women to some sort of box,

though. He's unleashed women into the

roles that he's designed them for, right?

And that's a good thing for the body of Christ.

The whole body is built up in this way.

So authoritative preaching and Speaking of the gathered church

that belongs those formal doctrinal proclamations that

remains the responsibility of qualified men and elders.

So in summary, 11/5 affirms women's meaningful non

authoritative participation, whereas 1434 and 35 guards the

assemblies governing speech, the weighing and authoritative

teaching so that the church displays the God of peace decent

and in order, as verse 40 will show us.

So therefore, Paul says women are to pursue understanding

without disrupting the order right in verse 35.

If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their

husbands at home. British shameful for a woman to

speak in church. All right.

Paul says women are to pursue understanding without disrupting

the order. Shameful in this setting.

When Paul says this is shameful, shameful in the setting means

that it's out of place. It's out of place, right?

And so therefore it becomes shameful.

It'd be like if a man wore, you know, his swimming trunks to his

wedding. It's out of place, all right?

It's not decent and in order. I know that's a silly analogy,

but it's the best I had on the fly.

Brothers and sisters, I'm sorry. It could have been much worse.

It's shameful. Right.

Because it's out of place with the honor and order of the

gathered church, Paul commends eager learning.

Questions are good, sisters. They're good and right.

But Paul urges that they be channeled in ways that do not

destabilize the worship service. Let them ask their husbands at

home. All right, So men, there's a

charge here for us, is there not?

I mean, you can read it and say, yeah, women should keep silent.

That's not the charge for husbands.

The charge for husbands is let them ask their husbands at home,

which says a certain thing about what husbands should be men.

We see that we must be men of learning.

We must be men of understanding, such that we can adequately

teach our wives and children God's Word.

We should always be willing to receive their questions and work

toward biblical answers. But we have to be men of

learning to do this. In Ephesians 5, you're quite

literally charged with the washing of your wife with the

water of the word. Well, what that means is you're

to be a primary resource of her growth and godliness, Learning

the Word of God in such a way that you can apply it to your

wife's life all right. Learning the word of God in such

a way that you can, he says there to nourish and cherish

your wife as you apply these things.

All right, So it's not some domineering.

I'm the head of the house. I have, you know, all the

answers you need to submit to everything I say.

That's really stupid. It's really foolish behavior.

But that's often what ignorant men do.

And I don't mean ignorant in the sense of stupid.

I mean ignorant in the sense of unknowing men that that's often

where they go with that verse. And then that becomes another

kind of patriarchy that really is evil, another kind of

headship that is evil. Right.

But what we're told is that we're to be the kind of man who

nourish and cherish our wives, who love them as Christ loves

the church. And so we're able to wash them

with the water of the Word, meaning we know the Word of God.

Our hearts and our souls have been washed by the Word of God.

Our minds have been renewed by the Spirit of God, according to

Romans 12/2, right? We're not following the ways of

the world. And we're seeking to help our

wives walk in line with the Word of God.

All right, we're learning how to do that in the right ways.

So that's Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6.

Just a few verses later, Paul continues to harp on what godly

headship looks like in the home. In Ephesians 6, we're charged

with raising our children with the discipline and instruction

of the Lord. All right, so discipline is

often one of those ones we we find easy to get right.

All right, it's easy to be an authoritative kind of

disciplinarian in your home. Maybe you're wired that way,

maybe you're raised that way, so it just comes real natural for

you. Well, that that's a part of it

and it's a part of it that can be grossly taken out of context

if you're not also understanding that you're to raise them with

the instruction of the Lord, right?

We have to raise our children in the instruction of the Lord,

which means we are to be a primary resource of their

exposure to the law as we lay down right discipline.

But we're also an exposure, their primary place of exposure

to the gospel as we apply grace and mercy, as we show them

Christ. And in all of those things

working together, you become a primary resource of their growth

and godliness as well. You become the head of your home

in a way that your wife and children flourish under your

rule, under your leadership. I think we also find application

for the church in this text as well.

We must reserve authoritative, authoritative teaching and the

formal weighing of doctrine in the in the assembly to qualified

men and elders. That's one of the applications

here. Another application is that we

must maximize women's robust participation within scriptures,

design of them, congregational singing, Scripture reading where

appropriate, and corporate prayer, inappropriate settings,

maybe home groups, small groups, those sort of things.

Our Home group would practice this just by going around the

room reading a verse at a time of the Scripture that we're

studying. So men and women and children

who are present are participating in Scripture

reading testimonies. It's another way that women

should have robust participation, sharing, telling

of what the Lord's done in their life all.

Right. Mom did this just several weeks

ago as she told of the great work of the Lord in her life

prior to her baptism. All right, This is a great way

to maximize a woman's robust participation in the General

Assembly discipling women and children.

Titus 2 is very clear and it's call for women to be involved,

not the primary involvement, but hugely involved in the

discipling of other women and in children.

Older women are to teach, to train younger women how to love

their husbands and children. Well, all right, that's

discipleship. That's taking doctrine and

applying it to life, right? God has saved us.

God loves us. God's given us this gift of

being women, right? We're to be wives and mothers.

God's called us to this task. And so how do we carry the love

of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the wisdom of God

into our home, right? That often takes older women

sitting down with younger women and saying here's how we walk

this out. Here's how we obey these

commands. Leadership and ministries that

are fitting to Titus 2 is also a lap every good work in the home

right. Like I said, 1000 other good

works, 1/3 application is there ought to be clear avenues for

questions, clear avenues for learning with questions, whether

that's classes, whether it's elders making themselves

available during the week, whether it's home discussions so

that no one is left unheard. All right, we want there to be

questions, clear avenues for that.

And so finally, because Paul lays this out as a transcultural

norm, our practice as a church is to be honoring, protective

and proactive in cultivating the gifts of men and women and to

disciple them in their God-given roles according to their divine

nature and design so that we can glorify him in the church, at

our homes and in the culture. Amen.

Hopefully we can all agree on that being our task #3 Biblical

authority and peace. 36 through 40 Biblical authority and peace.

In verse 36, Corinth learns that they are not the standard.

Another hard hitting comment from Paul.

Or was it from you Corinth, that the word of God came?

Are you the authority or are you the only ones that the word of

God has reached? You can hear the sarcasm in

Paul's questions. They're two cutting questions,

and questions have a way of exposing things that need to be

exposed here. It's exposing Corinthian pride,

right? Churches receive the word.

Corinth as a church has received the word.

Churches do not invent the word, and Corinth is not the inventor

of God's Word. Brothers and sisters, we do not

discover worship, rather we receive worship from God.

God is the one who creates us for worship.

We become new creations in Christ Jesus.

Old things passed away, all things becoming new, walking in

the reconciliation with God. All of this is laid out in 2nd

Corinthians 5. And we become Proclaimers of

that reconciliation. We become ambassadors for this

message of reconciliation. Why?

Because we received it from God. We didn't create it.

We didn't discover it ourselves. God, in his great mercy, with

great love and great grace, saved us from the pit of hell

and made us worshippers. All right.

And so we become Proclaimers of worship and verse 37, we have

the recognition test. We might call it all right.

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should

acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of

the Lord. Paul saying, look, you should

recognize this if you're a prophet, if you're spiritual,

this will bear witness with you as being true.

You should recognize this. You should acknowledge the

things that I'm writing to you as a command of the Lord.

So to be spiritual, all right, sometimes we wonder what does it

mean to be spiritual? To be spiritual means that we

submit to Apostolic doctrine. We submit to God's Word in full.

Paul's pin carries the Lord's command, he says This is a

command of the Lord. Any leader who dismisses

biblical instructions for worship, however gifted they

might be, they are disqualifying themselves from spiritual

credibility. They're no longer above

reproach. Right.

And so we must submit to biblical authority if we're

going to have order and peace in our worship services, we must

submit. We must acknowledge this.

We must not think that we are a prophet of some other kind, that

we're higher than Paul, that we're higher than God's word.

And so therefore we don't have to submit.

No, if we think that we're spiritual, we must acknowledge

the things that are being written here as being truth from

God. And so we submit to them.

Glad heartedly all. Right.

We lay ourselves down at them, we humble ourselves before them,

and we trust that God's Word is right.

We have a warning in verse 38 for anyone who won't do that.

It's a stark warning. If anyone does not recognize

this, if he doesn't acknowledge these things as true, then he is

not recognized. It's a grave warning there.

So when a person refuses to recognize Apostolic authority

when a first, when a person refuses to recognize, in other

words, the authority of the scriptures that leads to their

non recognition, they they should not be recognized.

Their authority has no weight. It has no meaning any longer,

and so the church, both locally and universally, the church must

not platform those who are unsubmissive to God's Word all.

Right. What are ways that we can

platform those who are unsubmissive to God's Word?

We may find a kernel of truth in something they've said on a

social media reel and share it. You're platforming men and women

often who are unsubmissive to God's Word.

And so we must weigh the things they say.

Now, that could be really hard when someone has hours and hours

of podcasts, hours and hours of sermons or teaching, you know,

books and books of things they've written.

But we must be discerning brothers and sisters, even of

the people we would platform on social media.

As careless as that might seem, it's important.

Right. In the church, elders must guard

the pulpit, elders must guard the Mike.

Authority is always accountable to the Word of God.

Authority does not stand on its own right, that the only

authority we have is the authority that's been given to

us by God as we humble ourselves before Him.

If someone will not submit themselves to God's Word, then

Paul is saying they should not be recognized by the church.

So therefore the church cannot approve them.

Rather the church must rebuke them.

The church must pray for their submission to God and his word

to seek their reconciliation with the Lord.

And verse 39, Paul teaches A balanced zeal.

So my brothers earnestly desire to prophecy and do not forbid

speaking in tongues in the Apostolic era.

Both gifts are both gifts had a regulated place, earnestly

desire prophecy, do not forbid speaking in tongues.

Paul refuses both extremes, right?

We're not going to be chaotic. The church should not be

enraptured in chaos. But we're also not going to

allow for prohibition, all right.

We should do these things in the right way.

So legitimate languages, the gift of tongues, these were

limited in purpose and very likely in duration, but as long

as it was still active in the early church, they were not to

be hindered. They should be done in the right

way, decent and in order. But prophecy was the most

desirable gift to be exercised because of its ability to edify,

because of its ability to exhort, because of its ability

to comfort with the truth. And so we ought to still desire

the ends of revelatory gifts, which is intelligible

proclamation that builds up the body of Christ.

So that means we maximize expositional preaching, we

maximize Scripture, rich singing and prayers.

We maximize the ordinances that Christ has given to the church,

baptism and the Lord's Supper, right?

Because these things are the kinds of things that edify,

exhort, and comfort us with the truth of God's Word.

And then in verse 40, Paul provides the summary principle.

But all things should be done decently and in order or read

the word decently, we ought to think of fittingly.

They, they fit well, right? They, they fit the purpose.

What's the purpose? Edification.

They're becoming right decently means becomingly means it's

attractive. It's good for us.

It's obvious that it's good. Right order.

I will read the word order. We ought to think of arranged in

sequence, right? The things are arranged.

They're they're meant to build. They're they're meant to edify.

They're meant to strengthen. They're done with purpose.

Beauty and structure belong together, right?

Beauty and structure belong together.

Order is not cold. Order is lovely when it reflects

the God of peace. Order is not cold.

It is lovely when it reflects the God of peace.

So there's a checklist maybe that we could run through for

application on this. Number one would be

intelligibility. All right.

Do we have intelligible worship services, plain explanations,

clear scripture readings, understandable prayers, so on

and so forth? Secondly, limits in sequence.

Is it one voice at a time? Is it curated participation?

Are there intentional transitions, those sort of

things? Can everybody follow along?

Is there a clear limit, a clear sequence?

Thirdly, weighing an oversight. Elders test teaching.

The congregation becomes Bereans right.

Weighing the word of God against the word of God.

Weighing the spoken word of God against the Word of God.

Right. Role clarity Another checklist.

Qualified men bear the load of authoritative teaching.

Women's gifts flourish in biblically fitted lanes or the

roles clear in a church. And then finally Apostolic

submission, right? Or biblical submission.

What does the Scripture require is our question, Not what do we

prefer? What do the Scriptures require

of us? Right.

So who weighs teaching today? I hope this has been plain, but

I want to make it more plain by answering the question outright.

Who weighs teaching today? Elders first must weigh the

teaching of God's Word, then a word saturated congregation

weighs the teaching of God's Word.

And we do those things under confessional standards.

All right. Confessional standards include

things like the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, which is

our church's confession of faith.

Another really helpful 11 I use very, very often is the 1689

London Baptist Confession of Faith.

And another one that I find very helpful is the Baptist Catechism

with has questions and answers in it.

Those documents serve as guardrails.

They are not authoritative, but they serve as guardrails as we

strive to align ourselves with God's Word as the primary, all

sufficient and infallible, infallible authority in our

lives. OK, so who weighs the teaching

elders then? The congregation under

confessional standards? What does decently and or and

and in order? Yeah, that was tough.

What does decently and in order feel like?

Well, it's warmth without whirlwinds, right?

It's the difference between sitting in a hurricane and

sitting in a calm, peaceful spring day.

All right? It's reverence without rigidity.

It's it's clarity without quenching the Spirit.

Church order and worship is not about fussiness, it's about

love. Order and worship is about love.

When we plan our services, when we limit them, when we sequence

them for understanding, what we're communicating is that we

love the Saints that Jesus has purchased with his blood.

We love them. And submission and worship is

not about power plays. It's about peace.

The peace of God ruling among the people gladly under his

word. The God of peace has made peace

by his blood on the cross. And if you're outside of Christ

today, you're not. You're an unbeliever.

You haven't submitted yourself to the Lord.

Then your life is no doubt noisy and your heart is disoriented.

It's disordered. And so I implore you to come to

Christ today to lay your sins at His feet, to find forgiveness in

Him, to understand that Christ alone can reconcile you to the

Father, and to also understand that He will give you His

spirits who produces self-control and peace, among

many other things. So let's commit together that

everything we do is for building up.

Everything we do is for building up the body.

Nothing we do is to be without understanding.

Everything should be under Scripture always and for all

time, because God is not a God of confusion, but a God of

peace. And so we want to promote the

peace of God in the lives of His people and in the lives of those

who have yet come to him. Brothers and sisters, remember

that spirit filled worship must be intelligible, orderly, and

submissive to God's Word. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that we've studied

this morning. And Lord, I just want to ask

that you would make this church a living picture of all that

we've seen in chapters 12 through 14, but especially of

what we've seen today in verse 26 through 40.

May all that we do, the intelligible, may all that we do

be orderly. May all that we do be

submissive. May all that we do be joyfully

alive in the Spirit. And Father, I pray that there's

a church, but I also want to pray that for the members here

that their lives too would be intelligible, orderly,

submissive, and joyfully alive in your spirit.

Father, we understand from chapter 12 that you've gifted

everyone for the purpose of edifying the church.

And so therefore, everyone has a responsibility before you to

walk in step with you, to have their lives governed by you as

their Lord, to submit to you, to humble themselves before you.

And if they'll do that as Christians who have an

individual relationship with the Father, then what we'll see is a

church corporately where individuals walk together in

unity is we'll see true unity. We'll experience peace.

We'll understand that God is not a God of confusion, but a God of

peace. And so, Lord, would you do those

things here among us? Would you continue to sanctify

us, continue to strengthen us, Lord, even as this Word has been

pressed upon us this morning? Would you help us to respond in

faith to it? Help us not to have hearts of

rebellion any longer, but help us to submit to Your Word by the

power of Your Spirit? Would you reveal to us those

areas where we are unsubmissive? And God would you lead us in

Christ likeness and Father, it is my prayer of that, if there's

anyone here who is not yet a believer, that you would draw

them to yourself, that you would save them by calling them out of

darkness and in the marvel marvelous light.

Or that they would see the error of their ways clearly.

That they would see that they have no Lord but themselves,

their own desires. Let them see, Lord, that they

are not in fellowship with the God of heaven and earth.

Rather, they've rebelled against Him willingly, even gladly at

times. And Father, would you bring them

to their knees this morning in repentance?

Would you convict them of their sin?

And would you reveal Christ to them, the only one who's able to

save us? Would you grant them new life

today? I'm going to be a moment now to

pray there in your seat, not to seek the Lord.

Maybe you need to confess sins. Maybe you need to examine these

scriptures and see where the Lord's calling you to believe

them today. Whatever it is, you have a

moment now to pray, just you and the Father.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace this morning.

We thank you for calling us. We thank you for equipping us,

for molding and shaping us. We thank you, God, that as the

Word testifies over and over again, you are always faithful

and steadfast in love. Not only does that say something

about your character, it says something about ours.

We are not always faithful. We are not steadfast in love,

and so we need you daily. But God, we thank you that you

never leave us. You never forsake us.

You remain faithful and steadfast in love even when

we're found not doing so. And so, Lord, we thank you that

you have dealt with us yet again today in faithfulness and love.

We thank you for Christ, who has died to save us from our sins,

and He's the one who makes the way to you possible.

We praise you for that. It's in the name of Christ I

pray. Amen.