First Corinthians | The Power of Clear Proclamation

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

Well, so you can stay up here, give you a chance to find your

seats as you do. I want to invite you to open to

1st Corinthians 14, First Corinthians chapter 14.

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

We're in a section here where Paul is lovingly but firmly

correcting the Corinth church because they've become

captivated by the spectacular and forgetful of the purpose of

spiritual gifts. And so he's been, we've been on

this topic now since chapter 12. We'll be on it this week and

next week and then we'll move into a new issue that he's

addressing within the Church of Corinth.

So if you'll remember in chapter 12, just kind of a a synopsis of

of what it saw out of summary. Paul taught that the Spirit

gives a diversity of gifts for the common good of the church.

It's to edify the church, but the Spirit gives the gifts.

They're not gifts that you develop within yourself.

They're not, you know, they don't come through training or

schooling or those sort of things.

Doesn't mean you can't grow in them or mature in them, but it

means that the Spirit gives these gifts.

And he even says there that not everyone receives the same

gifts, right? So some they're given the gift

of knowledge or faith or healing or tongues or, you know, so on

and so forth. And so he mentions several gifts

by name there, and chapter 13. He wants to recenter them a

little bit away from the gifts and to the purpose of those

gifts. He insisted that love is the

indispensable atmosphere of all ministry.

Love is to be the foundation of all that we do, especially as we

exercise the gifts that God gives us.

Without love, even the most dazzling gifts become noise, as

we saw in First Corinthians 13 one through 3.

Then in chapter 14, where we began a couple of weeks ago, he

applies love to corporate worship, and he encourages the

Corinthians there to use your gifts so that the church is

edified. We're going to see more of that

today. During that sermon a couple of

weeks ago, we saw that prophecy, which is clear, intelligible

proclamation of God's Word edifies the church, while

uninterpreted tongues do not. Uninterpreted tongues do not

edify the church. And so today in the sermon, Paul

is pressing that same theme even further.

The Spirit aims not at showing us, but at clarity, all right?

When the Spirit of God is at work, there is clarity.

There's peace not showing us, all right.

He, Paul's even going to talk about how it's not at the Spirit

doesn't aim at private elevation, but at public

edification. So it's not about edifying you

privately. It's about edifying the church

together publicly. The Spirit doesn't aim at

confusion, but at conversion, right?

And so we'll see that today as well.

So clarity in the gathered church, what we'll see today is

clarity in the gathered church strengthens believers and

confronts unbelievers with the presence of God.

All right, so that's where we're at in First Corinthians 14.

I'm going to read 13 through 25 and then we'll get into the

message. So would you please stand as we

hear God's Word this morning? First Corinthians chapter 14,

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

starting verse 13 through 25. Therefore, one who speaks in the

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 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 5 words with my mind in order to instruct others

than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in

your thinking be infants and evil, but in your thinking be

mature in the law. It is written by people of

strange tongues and the 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 prophecy and an

unbeliever outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is

called by, called to account by all, and 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your word. By God, we thank you that as we

continue the study through the book of First Corinthians, we

are seeing grace and the Christian life quite visibly,

Lord, quite clearly. And so, Lord, on this matter of

tongues, would you instruct us today on this matter of prophecy

and what is good for the building up of the church?

What is helpful actually to unbelievers and believers alike?

Will you help us to see that clearly, that it is the spoken

word of God? It's the clear Word of God.

And so, Father, in that vein, I ask that you help me to be clear

today, that you help me to preach and to teach clearly from

your Word this morning in a way that children and adult alike

can learn from it and understand it.

But we ask these things in the name of Christ our Lord.

Amen, Man, you may be seated. Clarity is power, all right?

When things are clear, they're powerful.

You think about a surgeon, they must see clearly before they can

cut, all right? Before any cutting begins.

You they need to know clearly the course of action, the attack

plan, those sort of things. A pilot who's flying an airplane

must hear clearly before landed, otherwise there's going to be

chaos, right? A soldier must receive a clear

command in battle, otherwise he doesn't know his marching

orders. What we see is that when there's

confusion, it costs lives. When there's confusion, it

creates chaos. When there's confusion, there's

disorder. There's no peace.

The same is true in worship. When the Word is clear, the

church is built. When the Word is clear, the

Church of God is built. When the word is muddled, the

church is weakened. Now, you can think about this in

the form of tongues, yes, but you can also think about the way

the word may get muddled through worldly ideologies, which again,

is partly what the Corinthians are guilty of, is bringing in

previous Pagan worship, previous ideologies, bringing them into

the church. And so the word becomes muddied,

it becomes weakened. Paul's point is not that emotion

is bad, all right. We don't.

We don't want to have this false thought that our emotions are

bad. God has created us to feel.

God has created us to emote, so to speak.

He, he's created us to, to cry when things are sad or to cry

when things are happy. He's created us to show emotion,

right? To to be righteously angry at

right things to be joyful when we should be joyful, right?

Their emotion is a good thing. I love to hear the laughter of

my children, right? I love to see them emote and

laughter at a good dad joke occasionally, all right, which

is occasional. I try them all the time, but

they only laugh occasionally. Let's be clear on that.

Paul's point is, is not that emotion is bad or that zeal is

wrong, right? He's not correcting the

zealousness of the Corinthians. He's directing the zealousness

of the Corinthians, all right. He's he's seeking to point it in

the right direction. Rather, zeal must be yoked with

truth. That's what Paul's point is.

We also see that Romans 10/2, the Spirit who fills our hearts

also renews our minds, right? And so our zeal from the, from

being filled with the Spirit of God, there's a zeal that comes

with that. And in Romans 12/2, what we see

or yeah, Romans 12/2 is that the Spirit renews our mind, right?

He, he makes us more Christ like, he leads us further into

truth. And so truth lands on the heart

and we emote, right? We show emotion, but truth moves

to the mind, right? It informs our thoughts and our

desires. It, it shows us what to think

and what to teach and what not to think and what to disavow,

right? The truth exposes, but it also

teaches, all right, Truth teaches as well.

And so the main point of the sermon today, I think is this.

It's, it's a little long and I'm sorry for that, but you can

begin writing now. The Spirit empowers clear

proclamation that builds up the church and brings unbelievers

face to face with the living God.

The Spirit empowers clear proclamation that builds up the

church and brings unbelievers face to face with the living

God. That's what Paul is trying to

teach here in First Corinthians 14.

I'll say it one more time, just as you're writing.

The Spirit empowers clear proclamation that builds up the

church and brings unbelievers face to face with the living

God. We're going to walk through this

passage in this way. First, we're going to see that

we are to pray and proclaim with understanding.

And verses 13 through 19, we're encouraged, we're instructed to

pray and proclaim with understanding.

Secondly, we'll see that we should pursue maturity that

builds up the body. Verses 20 through 23 pursue

maturity that builds up the body.

And then finally, we'll see that we should proclaim Christ

clearly to outsiders. We should proclaim Christ

clearly to outsiders in verses 24 and 25 S #1 pray and proclaim

with understanding verses 13 through 19.

Therefore, if one, 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 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 5 words with my

mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words and a tongue.

So pray and proclaim with understanding if someone speaks

in a tongue. Now if you remember when Paul

was using the form of a tongue versus tongues, plural.

A tongue is a reference to what is likely the Pagan practice,

right? So he's, he's being somewhat

sarcastic here, right? If I, if, if someone speaks in a

tongue, well, then that person must pray.

If he's speaking in this gibberish language, then he must

pray that he may interpret. Because meaningless sound can't

edify, right? It's a glanging, A clanging

gong, right? It's a noisy symbol.

A meaningless sound cannot edify.

And the truth stands that if you can't understand what you're

saying, then what point is there to what you're saying?

All right? Especially in the congregation,

right, If you're gathered with brothers and sisters in the Lord

and everyone's praying in a tongue, some gibberish language

that no one can understand. And what point is this, right?

It's merely puffing you up with pride, right?

It's an exercise of probably a false gift if we're honest,

right? And it's a puffing up with

pride. So Paul says if I pray in a

tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

It's just making the point that if I prayed like what you guys

are displaying, if I prayed in that way, then my spirit might

be praying, but my mind is unfruitful.

It's not edifying my mind in any way.

It's not encouraging my heart in any way.

It's not helping in any way. Paul's not opposing the spirit

and the mind. I want you to understand that

the spirit and the mind work together, right?

Again, it's, it's by the Spirit of God that our minds are being

transformed. So he's exposing this disconnect

that fails to benefit others, right?

If you pray in your spirits out loud in a way that no one

understands what's being said, then there's a disconnect

because it fails to benefit others.

It's not even a benefit to you, right?

In verse 15, Paul says, I will pray with my spirit and with my

mind. I will pray intelligibly, right?

I'll speak words that people can understand.

I will sing with my spirit and my mind.

I'll, I'll sing songs that edify and encourage and strengthen my

spirit and my mind. I'm going to rehearse the things

of God in the songs that I sing, right?

Corporate worship, right? We all agree on this.

Corporate worship requires intelligibility, right?

You guys will be far less likely to attend week in and week out.

If you showed up and couldn't understand anything that was

being talked about, right? You would find no benefit in

this. It requires intelligibility so

that we can all, as you're doing now, nod your head saying Amen,

right? It should be this way.

In verse 18, Paul had he says, I praise God that I speak in

tongues more than all of you. Again, he's using the plural

here again, right? Paul is saying I have more

occasions to use this real gift than all of you do.

I've had more occasions to speak in tongues more than all of you,

and I praise God for that. Now, we don't have in Scripture

any reference to Paul or any stories of Paul using the gift

of tongues. That doesn't mean that he

didn't, right? Paul saying clearly here.

I've had more occasions to use this gift to exercise this gift.

Now, if you think about Paul's ministry, Paul went into places

that did not know the gospel, didn't previously know the Lord.

They're they're going to be speaking different languages

even at times, right? And he's proclaiming the word of

God there. And so it bears to, it seems

very true, very likely that Paul did receive the gift of tongues

and he's exercising that gift of tongue, speaking other languages

to share the mysteries of the gospel with new people.

Amen. And so he's saying this as a way

of saying, I've had opportunities for this more than

all of you to use this gift in the right way.

But then he says, and he concludes with the striking

ratio, right? I would rather in church, I

would rather speak 5 words with my mind in order to instruct

others than 10,000 words in a tongue. 5 words with the mind

instruct others are better than 10,000 in a tongue, right?

You can utter all sorts of things into the air that no one

understands. And Paul saying this is

pointless. It's fruitless.

It's not edifying to the faith of the people that you're

speaking to. It would be far better for you

to prophecy 5 words than to Babble on and on and on where

nobody can understand you, right?

The Holy Spirit is truth, we're told in John 1613.

So what this means is that the Holy Spirit is not going to give

a gift to us. He's never going to bypass the

mind as though understanding were optional.

All right, the the Holy Spirit is going to reveal truth.

He's going to reveal truth through the exercise of gifts as

well. Through giving gifts, truth will

be revealed, all right, because the understanding of the mind is

not an optional thing. It's required for us to worship

the Lord that we understand God, right?

That we understand why we worship, why we gather, why we

sing praises, why we pray prayers of laments, why we

wrestle with flesh and blood like it's it's or wrestle with

our own flesh, right? Our own evil desires, why we

wrestle against the spirits of darkness, right?

He wants us. God wants us to understand these

things. And so he's given us the Spirit

of God, not only to inform men who would write these things

down for us through the inspiration of Scripture, but

also that we would read it now and by the Spirit of God present

in us, we would understand it. That would be illuminated for us

all right. He illuminates the mind so that

the truth penetrates our hearts, all right, so that it captivates

our affections so that we want to worship God.

Second Timothy 27 Paul writes there.

He said, think over what I say for the Lord will give you

understanding and everything. Think over what I say, all

right, Well, that doesn't that. That's not the language of

someone who thinks the mind is optional, right?

He's saying, use your mind. Think, think over the words that

you hear. Think over what is being said,

what is being written to you, Timothy, For the Lord will give

you understanding in everything, right?

The Lord will give it. Psalm 1/19/18 Open my eyes, the

psalmist writes there. Open my eyes that I may behold

wondrous things out of your law. Open my eyes, right?

What are the eyes if not the gateway to the mind, right, when

he's talking about the law, right as I read the law, open my

eyes, illuminate my mind that I may behold wondrous things out

of your law. So biblical worship, you know,

Christ said there's coming a time where we will worship in

spirit and in truth. Biblical worship involves the

mind and affections. It involves both the mind and

affections of the worshipper. Biblical truth ignites our love

for God. As I've, as I've observed you

all, many of you grow in your understanding of doctrine,

right? Grow in your understanding of

theology. One of the best fruits of that

has been a deeper love for God. Right now, it's true that you

can inform the mind and affections don't follow, right?

You become pompous, you become arrogant because of the

doctrines that you're learning. They haven't yet formed in the

heart. That is true that that does

happen to people. But one of the fruits that we

see is that as we grow in sound doctrine, we also grow in sound

living, as Titus teaches, because we love God.

We love the God who reveals himself to us in the truth of

his Word, right? So biblical truth ignites our

love for God. It doesn't snuff it out.

It makes it burn brighter, right?

As Nehemiah 88, Ezra and the Levites, they're at the end,

towards the end of the book of Nehemiah, it says of Ezra and

Levites that they read clearly from God's Word and they are

from the law and they gave the sense of its meaning, meaning.

They explained it to the people so that the people understood,

right? It's a reading of God's word,

but it's giving the sense of it. This is what we're called to his

teachers. It's to know God's words.

We'll call to his parents as spouses, as friends and

neighbors and Co workers. We're called to know God's Word

in a way that we can give the sense of it to others so that

they too can understand God's word.

This is one of the things that made Charlie Kirk so stinking

efficient at what he was doing, right?

He was connecting truth, biblical truths to the heart and

mind of those who listened, able, willing to reason with and

to show that these things are true.

Not to get upset and angry and to stomp off and walk away.

Right. Just because somebody doesn't

just doesn't agree with you. No, he was.

He was good at knowing clearly what the word of God said and

then giving the sense of it so the people understood it.

Matthew 6-7 Jesus warns against empty phrases in prayer, the

Bible of words without understanding, right?

When we come before the Lord in prayer, we ought not to utter

empty phrases. It's better, brothers and

sisters, to pray what you might consider a very elementary

prayer in which you understand what you're saying, than it is

to evoke as many theological words that you can think of in a

moment of prayer, right? It's better for your listeners.

It's better for your own heart and mind right to utter what you

know, to ask God to train you and teach you yes, but to utter

what you know to take those things back to the Lord again.

Romans 12 to be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Ephesians 518 and 19 show us that spirit filled worship,

particularly in singing, is word saturated and intelligible.

Psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms, these are things that men and

women had written down to be sung to the Lord.

All right, this is our conviction in the songs that we

sing, hears, we want our songs to be saturated with the word of

God that they'd be intelligible, right?

That it's clear who we're singing about, who we're singing

to, who we're praising, right? We want those things to be

clear. Spirit filled worship ought to

be word saturated. And so again, the question may

come, was Paul anti emotion? No, Paul commands singing and

praying with my spirits, right? This is an anti emotion.

Again, the the the issue isn't emotion.

The issue is edification. When you sing, can others

understand what you're saying? When you pray, can others

understand what you're saying? Is it edifying to the body of

Christ? Heat without light doesn't build

up anyone, right? Another question that may come

Isn't there such a thing as a private prayer language?

Paul recognizes prayer here in a tongue, yet he repeatedly

presses interpretation. If you pray with a tongue, pray

also that you would be able to interpret, because

interpretation matters for the gathered church.

Now, while I do not believe there's enough biblical evidence

to support this kind of gibberish private prayer

language that we see so prevalent in charismatic

Pentecostal circles today, whatever you conclude about it,

the public principle is unambiguous, right.

The public principle must be followed.

Intelligibility for the sake of others is the public principle,

right? Is that we need to be clear,

right? It needs to be intelligible so

that others benefit from it. And my conversations through the

years with and I walked in these circles for five to six years of

my life. And I remember like imitating

the sounds and the noises I would hear in these prayer

gatherings, right? Thinking I too had received this

gift of tongues only to realize that there was nothing edifying

about that prayer of of that gibberish style prayer and my

conversations with pastors of of those varieties.

Since you bring up First Corinthians 14, I I haven't

found good answers for it yet, right.

There's an unwillingness to address the Scripture.

One pastor told me, well, this is just the way we've always

done it right. This is the way I was raised.

I was raised in the Assembly of God church.

This is how we've always done things.

I just tried to lovingly, gently tell him that's going to be a

poor answer one day. In heaven, when you're required

to give an account for the souls that you're leading, you need to

consider what the Word of God says, not what tradition has

said, not not what you've practiced for decades of your

life. Consider what the Word of God

says about these things. Intelligibility for the sake of

of others is what matters, right?

This is what God is after. Even Thanksgiving, Paul says in

First Corinthians 10/24, must be for the good of others, right?

Even when we utter prayers of things, even when we give thanks

to God, this needs to be for the good of others, all right.

It's not merely for our own hearts.

We ought to utter Thanksgiving in a way that it edifies the

church. Another question, all right,

because again, in these circles you were told these things, like

I've heard this over about expositional preaching as well.

Does emphasizing the mind quench the Spirit?

Does emphasizing the mind quench the Spirit?

Not at all, right? Not at all.

The Spirit authored Scripture, 2nd Corinthians 121, right?

We see there that the Spirit gave utterance and holy men

wrote these things down. The Spirit illumines

understanding, right? The Spirit gives us the ability

to understand. 1st Corinthians 212 through 13 taught us that

clarity is not the enemy of the Spirit.

In fact, confusion is the enemy of the Spirit.

We'll see that more next week. And so our prayers, if you're

thinking about how to apply this teaching to our lives, our

prayers should be biblically rich, yet simple enough that new

believers can say along with us. Amen.

Amen to that, right. They ought to be able to agree.

Our songs should teach Colossians 316, very much like

Ephesians teaches that our songs should teach one another.

They should rehearse the truths of the gospel in such a way that

we're learning them, right? We're being reminded of these

things. Our hearts are being enraptured

in worship to God as we sing those things.

So we got a favor. Lyrical clarity over complexity.

All right, our preaching must aim at understanding, not verbal

fireworks, right? Our our preaching must aim at

the the the heart and the mind and the hands and feet of the

listener, right? 5 clear words can do more good

than 10,000 impressive ones. As parents, another application

point, we should model intelligible prayer for our

children. All right, If you're training

your children to love the Lord and you're praying with them,

you should pray in a way that they understand it.

All right? Maybe you have the ability to

pray, you know, really smart prayers, right, that use big

words and you understand those things.

When you pray with your child, you grab the hand of your child

and you pray with them. Pray in a way that they can

understand it, that they know the God of heaven is going to

war with them for them, that He's on their side.

All right. We should do so at the table and

at their bedside. And as we go along the way,

Deuteronomy 6/6 and seven show us we should disciple little

minds with clear truth. It'll be clear in the truth that

we teach to little minds. The second thing we come to is

pursue maturity that builds up the body.

Pursue maturity that builds up the body.

So again, three of the points that Paul has laid out for us

over these last few chapters is or, or this tongues was not a

gift for all believers. It just wasn't right, which is

again, not clearly taught in many of the circles who practice

these things today, right? It's it's taught us something

that everyone should do, right? There's even some denominations,

United Pentecostals do this, that when you're baptized and

you come up out of the tank, there will be people surrounding

you praying in tongues so that you too will then pray in

tongues. All right, It's part of your

baptism. But tongues wasn't for all

believers. It's given sovereignly by God

through the Spirit. We saw that in chapter 12, verse

11. We also see that tongues are not

connected to the baptism of Spirit, right?

All believers receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

You see this in Ephesians 1, Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

You see this in First Corinthians 12/13.

All believers receive the baptism of the Spirit, meaning

we all have been washed as Titus 35 says, with the washing of

regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

It's required in your salvation that there is a spiritual

baptism that takes place. This is what awakens you from

the dead, right? This is what gives your, gives

life to your heart. This is what grants you a right

spirit with God, all right, It's through the baptism of the

Spirit and all believers have received the baptism of the

Spirit. Otherwise they would not be

believers. The third thing is Paul is

clearly showing us here that tongues are not, not a superior

sign spiritually, right? That they're misusing it in a

way he's showing them here's there's much higher gifts,

right? The gift of love was the one

that he really clung to. But this is that you should

pursue A pursue the spiritual gifts, but earnestly desire that

which is most higher, which is a love for the body of Christ.

So tongues is an inferior gift, right?

In verse 5, we saw that so they were experienced in evil, right?

And we see this in verse 20 where he says, brothers, do not

be children in your thinking be infants and evil, but in your

thinking be mature. And the law is written by people

of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners.

Will I speak to this people? And even they will not listen to

me, says the Lord. Those 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? Right.

So they're experienced in evil, but they're lacking wisdom.

He's encouraging them here. Think carefully about this gift

of tongues. Think carefully about the way

that you're employing this gift. Think carefully about it because

you're misusing it, right? Isaiah, when he quotes, when he

says in the law it is written, he's quoting Isaiah 2811 through

12, which show that foreign tongues among Israel were a sign

of judgment, right, because they had refused clear prophetic

word. God said, in effect, you

wouldn't listen when I spoke plainly.

You will now hear unintelligible speech as a sign of your

hardness. And so Paul draws this line from

what's happening in Isaiah to what's happening in Corinth,

that uninterpreted tongues function as a judgment and

confusion, not as a blessing, All right?

It's not a blessing. That's if outsiders walk in and

hear everyone speaking in languages they cannot

understand. They will say you are out of

your minds, all right? And they have a right to say

this, right? That's what it appears to look

like in Acts chapter 2, though when tongues first arrived on

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the scene in the early church, there was no confusion, all

right? There was no disarray.

There was no lack of peace. And we read there that everyone

understood in his own language the mysteries of God that were

being declared to them in their own tongues, All right?

So it's not the gift of ears, all right?

There's no such thing as the gift of ears.

But some have interpreted Acts, too, to be that Peter spoke, and

now everyone hears it in their own language.

That would be the gift of ears, not tongues, right?

No, these men were filled with the Spirit of God.

They go out proclaiming the mysteries of God in a language

that they previously did not know.

And so that everyone hears in their own language, right?

So there's no confusion, there's no chaos.

But in Corinth there is much chaos.

John MacArthur used the term charismatic chaos, right?

So what does verse 22 mean? Tongues are a sign not for

believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not

from unbelievers but for believers.

On Isaiah's context, foreign speech signaled judgment on

unbelief. This is applied in Corinth.

Uninterpreted tongues are not evangelistic.

They signal divine displeasure by producing confusion within

the body of Christ. So the blessing of that sign,

the blessing of the gift of tongues, is that God would build

a new nation of Jews and Gentiles, that He would build a

new nation of believers who had Jewish backgrounds and Gentile

backgrounds, right? Meaning He would call them all

together as one people of God, as Ephesians 2 and 3 show us.

Yeah, 2 and 3, Romans 3-4 and five teach much of the same

truths. Prophecy, however, that clear,

intelligible proclamation that serves believers by edifying

them. And we're going to see in a

moment that it, it also powerfully exposes and draws

unbelievers to the Lord as well, right?

A clear proclamation of God's Word in Ephesians 4, four

through 16. Maturity means we grow up into

Christ by speaking the truth in love, to build the body.

In Hebrews 511 through 14 we see that immaturity is dullness of

hearing. Maturity, however, discerns by

practice and Acts 2, four through 11.

When the gift of tongues arrives, it was recognizable

languages declaring God's works to those Jews who had been

dispersed. 1st Corinthians 122 Jews demand signs.

This wasn't an encouragement. All right, Paul is correcting

them. Jews demand signs that sign

language without faith often hardens hearts.

So our tongues always known human languages and acts.

Yes, hearers from many nations say we hear in our own tongues,

we hear in our own languages in Corinth.

Whatever the phenomenon is, though, it does seem like they

may have adopted Pagan as ecstatic speech from their

previous religious practices. Paul's public rule is simple.

If the tongue is not interpreted, it must be silent,

it must not be uttered. The purpose of the gathered

church is edification, not display, right?

It's not putting on the show. It's it's not showing my my

great gifts that God's given me, right?

That calls glory to myself rather than glory to Christ

who's unified us. In verse 22, it said there those

tongues are assigned not for believers, but for unbelievers.

So we have the we should ask this question.

Does verse 22 mean that tongues are for evangelism?

Not necessarily, but possibly. Uninterpreted tongues are a sign

of judgments in Isaiah 28. Evangelism requires

understanding, which means that you may go proclaim the

language, proclaim the Gospels, in a language previously unknown

to you, through the gift of tongues.

Evangelism requires understanding.

We see that in Romans 1014 through 17.

All right, The gospel flourishes through clear words.

Another question, are we quenching the Spirit by

insisting on clarity and order? It's a similar to is Paul

quenching the Spirit by insisting on the mind?

Well, Scripture says the opposite and and verse 33 of

chapter 14, which we haven't got to yet, we'll get there next

week. But he says God is not a God of

confusion, but of peace. All things should be done

decently and in order. And verse 40.

So order is a fruit of the Spirit's presence.

It's not a it's not a fruit of his absence, right Where the

Spirit of the Lord is, we read that there is freedom or the

Spirit of the Lord is we might rightly conclude also that there

is order, there's peace, right. So again, some application

points. This is one of the things we

think there is elders and various leaders in the church.

We want to design services or whether it's a service or

training or whatever, we want to design them for comprehension.

We want people to rightly understand.

We want there to be clear scripture readings, explained

prayers, well introduced songs, sermons that connect the dots

for the listener. All right, as members, when you

pray publicly, think of the room that you're in.

Think of the people you're praying with.

Avoid insider jargon, right? Explain references, aim for the

good of the many. If you pray something from the

word, the word of the Lord, which you should often

incorporate the word of the Lord in your prayers so that you know

you're praying according to his will.

As you do that, explain it even in the prayer, right?

I'm not saying make the prayer sermon, but just make it clear

what we're praying for as small group leaders, right?

We want to give the sense of what the text says.

We want people to understand what's being said.

You might even ask questions like how will this build the

others around me as I teach this right?

I want to make sure I'm encouraging.

I want to make sure I'm edifying of what I'm saying.

Finally, we come to this point proclaim Christ clearly the

outsiders. This is possibly the strongest

point that Paul makes in this whole section.

He says, but if all prophecy and an unbeliever outsiders enters.

He is convicted by all, He is called to account by all the

secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on

his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really

among you. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord

for that. When God's truth is plainly

spoken, when it's plainly proclaimed, the Spirit wields

the Word to do at least three things in the unbeliever.

The first we see there is conviction, right?

The Spirit brings about conviction.

John 16 teaches us, too, about the Spirit.

When Jesus is explaining what the Spirit will come to do, one

of the things he highlights is conviction.

He comes to convict sinners. The Word exposes sin, right?

Again, this is what makes people who are ungodly, people who are

unbelievers, so angry at the spoken word of God, at the clear

presentation of God's word is it's a convicting thing.

They're trying as hard as they can to actively suppress the

truth. Romans one tells us.

And when the word is clearly proclaimed, their fingers are

being pried away from that suppression and they get angry

about it often, right? It enrages them.

You think about Stephen in chapter in Acts chapter 6 and

Acts 6 · chapter mention

his martyrdom, right? As he's proclaiming boldly the

truths of God's Word. I mean, he's just, he's just

preaching through the Old Testament.

I mean, he's given a great summary of what the Old

Testament teaches us about God and why Christ is the Messiah.

And it says there that the people begin to gnash their

teeth at him. Gnash their teeth.

They're angry, right? They begin to seethe with anger,

so much so that they picked up stones and they threw them at

him until he was dead and they murdered him over the truth of

God's Word. So conviction is one thing that

the Spirit does through the proclaimed Word.

Another thing that he does is it brings about accountability,

right? Paul says that the unbeliever

outsider who enters and hears this prophecy of God's Word is

called to account by all. So the Word places him under

God's verdict. This is a fearful thing for the

unbeliever. It ought to be a fearful thing

for us as believers. We're resting in Christ because

we understand that God is going to issue a verdict one day and I

will be found guilty if I'm not covered by the blood of Christ,

right? And so they feel the sense of

this verdict, they're being held accountable.

So it's conviction. And the conviction leads to this

understanding of accountability. Oh wait, I'm accountable for my

sins. It's not the way I was raised.

It's not my parents fault. It's not my grandparents fault,

all right? It's my fault.

I'm accountable for my sins before the Lord.

And so God's Word places the unbeliever, the outsider, under

God's verdict. The third thing the Spirit does

through the proclaimed word is disclosure, right?

The Word it says here the secrets of his heart are

disclosed. The Word unveils the heart's

secrets, right? We see in Hebrews chapter 4

Hebrews 4:12

verse 12 that the Word of God is living and active, that it's

sharper than any double edged sword.

It's living and active. Brothers and sisters, when you

proclaim the Word of God, you're proclaiming something that is

living and active. That it's sharper than any

double edged sword, that it pierces down to the very joints

and to the marrow of the person, right?

It gets all the way down to the inside and it lays him bare

before God. It discloses the secrets of his

heart. They're unveiled before the

Lord. So the effect on unbelievers

would be amazingly, amazingly powerful.

The gospel would be honored and souls would be converted to

worshipping God as the Word of God has proclaimed.

Clearly. That's why Paul is saying 5

words of prophecy are far better than 10,000 in a tongue does.

10,000 in the tongue will not bring about conviction and bring

the listener into account that will not disclose the secrets of

his heart. Prophecy will.

The plainly spoken word of God will and the result of that

worship worship. Look what it brings the

unbeliever to do the outsider. And so, falling on his face, he

will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

Is this not the story of all of us?

All right, as we heard the proclaimed word at some point in

our life as God worked conversion in us by His Spirit.

It was through conviction, right?

It was through being held accountable for our sins.

It was through the secrets of our heart being disclosed.

And what did we do? We fell on our face before God

and we worshipped Him and we thought, surely God is in my

midst right now. Surely God is in this place.

Surely God is really among you. That's the aim of gathered

worship. The aim of gathered worship is

not to entertain outsiders. We don't, we don't cater the

service to outsiders, right? The aim of worship is to reveal

God through His Word. It's to reveal God through the

spoken word. It's to bring clarity because

clarity is a conduit for that revelation.

Clarity is a conduit for helping people understand what the Word

of God is saying. So you may ask, well, what is

prophecy here? The prophecy is Spirit

empowered, intelligible proclamation that applies God's

revealed word to the moments for edification, encouragement, and

consolation. The way that preachers and

teachers prophecy today is to say, thus says the Lord, it's to

hold up the word of God and to say this is what the word of the

Lord says, and it is to give the sense of its meaning.

It's to proclaim it in a way that people can understand it,

to bring about edification and encouragement and consolation.

It's, it's forth telling more than foretelling, right?

It's, it's being honest about what the word of God says.

It's not trying to hide it under a Bush so that you don't offend

people. That's, that's not important.

It's forth telling more than foretelling.

It's truth that's being pressed on the conscience of the

listener and it's calling the listener to believe God's word

with boldness, with courage, with great faith, right?

The preacher, the teacher, the parents, the spouse, the Co

worker, the friend. They proclaim the truths of the

word of God with confidence, with courage, with faith, and

they entrust that he will give the increase.

They entrust that to God. They understand that our role,

remember way back early in First Corinthians, our role is to

plant seeds or to water seeds, But it's God's role to give the

increase. God will give the increase when

His truth is proclaimed. Clearly.

We see that here. All right, We see that here.

So this month, just in a few days, marks my 11th year as lead

pastor here. And I praise God for that.

But what I really praise God for is that He's allowed eleven

years for me to be able to discern the fruit of the people,

right? Not all preachers get that

right. Not all preachers want that,

just to be quite honest. Many want to up and go to the

next big thing, whatever that may be before things get tough.

But God and His kindness has given us this time together over

the last eleven years in which we've seen the fruit of

salvation. We've seen the fruit of

sanctification. We've even seen the fruit of

glorification as we've had brothers and sisters go on to be

with the Lord. We we see the fruit of these

things, It's easy to discern in many of your lives.

And that's not a Kyle thing. That's not another one of the

other elders things. That's a word of God thing.

That's proclaiming the word of God as clearly as we can try to,

as clearly as we can, proclaim what the Word of God says and

encourage you, implore you to believe God's word over man's

word. Amen.

And so we praise God that we've been able to see those things.

The test for that is always Scripture.

How do we know? If we're proclaiming clearly,

what do the Scriptures say? What do the Scriptures say?

And if what we're saying is not in line with the Scriptures, let

it be damned to hell. But if it is, let it bear fruit

for eternity. Amen.

Romans 10/17 Faith comes from hearing.

Faith comes from hearing. Hearing comes from the Word of

the Lord. First Thessalonians 15.

The gospel came not only in Word, but also in power and in

the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction.

Hebrews 412. The word discerns the thoughts

and intentions of the heart. 2nd Corinthians 520 In proclamation,

we are ambassadors and God makes his appeal through us.

So there's been a movement in churches over the last couple of

decades, really, really longer. It's been really since you've

seen it. It started in the 80s really so

much more than a couple of decades, but we've seen it very

prevalent. It's it's definitely risen in

popularity. Hence the it's what we would

call the seeker sensitive movements, right?

So you read a text like this and you think, well, should churches

make Sunday services seek or sensitive?

My answer to that is no, we should make services Scripture

sensitive. God's presence is what convicts

and saves. God's word is what convicts and

saves. We should speak plainly.

We should explain the terms, but we should always center the

meaning on God. We should center the purpose of

the service on the edification of His people, not on the

unconverted. Though I praise God when

unconverted people are with us, I want unconverted people to

hear the word of God truthfully. I want them to hear it

proclaimed boldly. I want them to have the sense of

its meaning and to sense to to know the conviction and

accountability of the Spirit that He would disclose the

secrets of their hearts before them and they would turn to the

Lord in salvation. We want that.

And so we know that to have that, we must center the me the

meaning of our meetings on God Himself.

Clear proclamation builds the church.

It equips believers for witness throughout the week.

All right, when we come together on Sunday mornings on the Lord's

Day, it's part of our Sabbath rest.

You think, well, man, this isn't restful.

We get up early, we show up to serve.

We show up to, you know, it's, it's part of the Sabbath rest.

It's spiritually restful for you.

It's part of God's work in your life to remind you, to remind

you that though the world is chaotic out there, though your

lives may be chaotic out there, when you come here, you see

Christ is on the throne. He's raining from heaven above.

His purposes will not be thwarted, right?

He's using me to accomplish His purposes in the world as I

submit my life to Him. It's to be encouraged.

It's to be edified. It's to be strengthened so that

as you go back out those doors, you carry Christ into your

world. You carry them into your homes,

into your workplaces, you carry them into your families, you

carry them to your children and all the above, right?

Whatever I'm missing into your schools or you carry Christ to

back with you. And you say I'm committing my

life to Christ because I heard the word proclaimed truthfully

on Sunday. I heard it proclaimed on the

Lord's Day. And he is worthy of my effort.

He is worthy of my worship. He is worthy of my best today.

All right, you think that on Monday morning.

You think it on Tuesday morning and Wednesday and Thursday and

Friday and Saturday. And then on Sunday you come back

and you, you exhale, you breathe, you worship the Lord

alongside the congregation. You understand I am not alone in

this effort, right? I'm committed to the same things

that many of the people beside me are committed to.

And the Lord is going to bless those efforts because He loves

His people. He works all things together for

the good of those who love Him and are called according to His

purpose. And that's you.

If you're a believer and you can trust that, all right, you can

be encouraged to go live for the Lord.

So we don't make services seeker sensitive at all.

We want them to be scripture sensitive.

We want to expect outsiders every Sunday.

I want, I want there to be unbelievers here every Sunday so

that we can make the gospel explicit in our sermons and in

our prayers and in our songs. You want to teach your teens and

your kids to listen for the So what in a sermon, right?

You want to teach them to listen to what the word of the Lord

says, but you want to teach them to also listen for those calls

to repentance and faith. Nudge and pay attention here,

right? In your testimony, you're

sharing what the work of the Lord has been in your life,

whether it's in salvation or the overcoming of some trial and

temptation, whatever it may be in your testimony, move quickly.

Move quickly to Christ, crucified and risen.

I overcame such and such because Christ is crucified and risen,

right? I left my previous Pagan worship

and I came to Christ. He saved me because he is

crucified and risen. We want to be clear about Jesus

when we share our testimony. Your testimony is not a glorying

in self. And so often testimonies in

churches, testimonies in public events are more about the glory

of the person than they are about the Savior.

Let Christ receive the glory in your testimony.

Don't let it be about the drama of your story, but let it be

about who says. And friend, if you're here as an

outsider today, if you're here as an unbeliever, and this word

today is God's kindness to you, he already knows the secrets of

your heart. And the cross where Christ was

crucified for our sins announces the verdict that you deserve

death, but it also announces great mercy.

Your sin deserves death. Yet Jesus bore that death, and

he rose again, so that you may be forgiven of your sins, so

that you may know Christ and him crucified, so that you may walk

in fellowship with God on high. And so today would you repent

and believe? Would you repent of your sins

and believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all?

Would you lay your life before Him, just as we see in this

text, falling on his face? He will worship God and declare

that God is really among you. Would you lay your life down

before him and confess that God is really among you?

Today I want you to know that Christ will receive you.

That God will receive you because of what His Son has

accomplished on the cross. He welcomes you to Himself.

To conclude, I want to talk for a moment about why clarity

matters. Why does clarity matter so much?

Why is Paul making such a stink about clarity?

I want you to understand it's more than just the misuse of the

gift of tongues. That's that's the issue that

that's the problem that he's addressing.

It's the symptoms, so to speak, but it's not the disease.

The disease was that they were being unclear.

And clarity matters. It matters because God's

character matters. God is a God of truth and order.

He must be worshipped in truth and with order.

It matters because of Scripture's nature.

The Word, we're told, gives light.

It's a light to our path. The Word also gives faith or

creates faith. You may say clarity matters

because of the church's mission. We are charged by Christ to make

disciples by teaching all that Christ commanded.

That's not merely the red letters.

Jesus is the Word Incarnate. It's all the Scriptures, and so

we want to teach what the Word of God says so that we can make

disciples who love Christ above all else and who love their

neighbor. We want to glorify God in this.

Clarity matters also because of Love's aim.

In First Corinthians 13 five, we were told love does not insist

on its own way. It doesn't insist on its own

way, but it seeks the good of many.

Therefore, a love of God and a love for your brothers and

sisters in the Lord, a love for your neighbor who is

unbelieving, requires that we choose clarity over novelty.

It requires that we be clear and that we worship God through

clarity. I rejoice with all of you that

God still answers prayers. I rejoice with all of you that

God still heals people. I rejoice with all of you that

God works mightily in the world today.

And at the same time we rejoice that Scripture gives regulative

wisdom for us in the gathered church.

Uninterpreted speech has no place.

What is often called tongues today is frequently not

recognizably human languages. Whatever our experiences, our

rule is the Apostolic rule. Our rule is Apostolic clarity.

Love for God, love for people, aims at edification, and

edification requires intelligibility.

It requires that we understand what's being said.

And so we neither despise claims of spiritual experience nor do

we build our worship on these claims of spiritual experience.

We test all things and we hold fast to what is good.

That's First Thessalonians 519 through 21.

Teach us. And so we center our services,

we center our worship, we center our lies on the clear word of

Christ Church. Let us grow up into Christ.

Pray and proclaim with understanding is we should be

heat and light together so that it's a benefit to those around

us. Pursue maturity that builds up

love, chooses clarity over novelty.

Proclaim Christ clearly to outsiders so that consciences

are pierced and worship rises to God.

And always remember that the Spirit empowers clear

proclamation that builds up the church and brings unbelievers

face to face with the living God.

May the Spirit make us a people of clear words, may make us a

people of strong love so that every Sunday someone walks away

saying, surely God is among them.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

today for your word. It's interesting to me, Father,

that this can be one of those texts that we would say is hard

to discern, that it's not clear, and yet it's one in which you're

literally teaching clarity to the body of Christ, the

importance of clarity, the importance of the proclaimed

Word. And Father, what gets revealed

through this, when people would say that this text just isn't

very clear, part of what gets revealed is that we have hearts

that do not want to obey your Word.

And so when a word is spoken clearly, we say it's not clear

to Lord. Would you help us, each of us,

to submit ourselves to Christ, to submit ourselves to your

Spirit, to work towards clarity in our lives?

Help us to see that your Word, Your Word, is inspired by your

Spirit. That's given to us as a help.

It's given to us to bring us to salvation.

It's given to us to create godliness in our lives, to lead

us into sanctification, to help us grow by the Spirit of God.

It's given to us that we might run this race well, that we

might endure trials of various kinds, that we might walk with

God and one day be glorified with Him.

Lord, would you help us to love your word, to hold it up above

the words of man, to submit our lives to it, to check every

thought of our own heart, every thought of our own mind against

it, to see whether or not it is true, Not your word, but our

thoughts. Or help us to be like the

Bereans, that as we study your word, as we hear it proclaimed,

we've been tested against the word of Godfather.

I thank you for making a people here who love your word, who

hold it in such high regard in their lives.

And though we are unfaithful at times, we have found you to be

always faithful, abounding and steadfast.

Love. But God, we thank you that one

of the fruits of the presence of your spirit and us is that we

love the word of God and we strive to to submit ourselves to

it in our in our lives. I thank you for blessing us with

that sort of mindset, that sort of heart.

Father, I pray for anyone in here who may be an outsider, who

may be an unbeliever. Board, would you convict them of

their sins? Would you hold them to account?

Would you disclose the secrets of their heart before them

today, that they might flee to Christ?

The only one who is powerful to save, the only one who is said

to be mighty to save. As Peter wrote, Lord, would you

save them from their sins? Would you grant them new life in

Christ Jesus? It's in the name of Christ I

pray, Amen. I'm going to give you a moment

there in your seat to pray and to seek the Lord.

Lord, we love you. We thank You that your Spirit

still moves among us. We thank You that your Word is

living and active. It convicts and draws us to

account, discloses the secrets of our hearts, that even as

believers we're still wrestling with this flesh.

We're wrestling with evil desires.

We're wrestling with sinful passions.

Lord, would you help us to put those to death today by your

Spirit, as Romans 813 teach us, help us to mortify the deeds of

the flesh. We thank you for your word and

for its clarity. We thank you for its instruction

and its help to us. It's in the name of Christ I

pray. Amen.