The New Testament Church, Part K
Taped by John Greene, transcribed by Mary Kay Lynd
Bible quotes are from NKJV unless otherwise stated.
This is the second part of looking at how to discern some of the events that take place in the
Church. Here we are in verse 13. It says, "Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret" Now understand specifically what he is saying. Keep it in context. This is the gift of tongues. If you speak with the gifts of tongues it must be interpreted, must be. Whatever it takes in time frame. Whatever prayer may need to be taken for somebody to have the interpretation, if the gift of tongues comes forth it must be interpreted. "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful." Here we have an understanding about praying in a tongue. "What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit." Of course he will! "and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding." They have their place and they have their time in a service. But to have an entire service devoted for praying in tongues is wrong. To have an entire service devoted for singing in tongues is wrong. We must do things and allow God to do things.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that if God is allowed to be God everything will be done decently and in order according to God's way. Now I may not necessarily understand at the beginning that its God way but He'll tell me by His Spirit keep my eye open, watch. Just allow my
understanding because what's going on is of Me. Or He'll say this isn't of me. But over
the years I've also learned that if you give somebody enough rope they hang themselves, and if somebody is being used in the flesh by the devil you give them enough rope they hang themselves so that they can be corrected. Now I believe in private correction, but if private correction doesn't correct the problem of somebody, and I've seen this is a number of different churches where you have one person come in and think they're the person who must give tongues all the time because that's what God says; and so these people, no matter what, come to the church service and they're going to be the one that's going to come out with the loud tongues. And then they're going to be the one that is interpreting those tongues. And guess what? That's not always of God because they came there in the flesh. They came there with a purpose in their heart, an agenda to dictate and to twist and to make the congregation think of them more highly than they are, which is one of the problems here in the Corinthian church. They need to be corrected in private. But if that correction in private doesn't take place and stop the problem and if there's no repentance then it needs to be done in a church service, and I know many pastors are afraid to do that. They know they have a problem. They know they have somebody doing things out of order. Doing things without any kind of guides. They know that and they
allow it to go forth, and there are people in the congregation thinking that that was of God. The pastor is going to be before God with a lot of blood on his hands.
A lot of these things are for the total manipulation of the congregation. God wants us to
understand according to Paul these spiritual things. We can understand spiritual things if
we just let the Scriptures say what they say, if men of God would stand up and be men of God. But let's not take these out of context and go back to some of these anti-Pentecostal opinions, people that want to destroy the truth of God's Word. Well, God's Word is not going to be destroyed despite what people do. It's going to still come forth. And if we believe it, its still going to have its effect. And certainly we want God's Word to move out and not to return. We want it to accomplish what needs to be accomplished and again the love of God's existence in people's lives needs to be accomplished. And so these issues of what happens in a church when we do things according to God's Will, we will see that discipleship will take place. There is nothing apart from that. The great commission is about discipleship! Now look what he says: "Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? 17For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified." Notice that he's talking about specifically the person that's praying endlessly in tongues, and no words of intelligence, and the person coming in thinks he's a fool, he's a nincompoop, doesn't know what he's talking about, because he can't understand it! Yet we know that when you are speaking in other tongues prayer wise or worship wise, that what you're doing is you're giving glory to God. You're praying God's Will. You're talking to God in a way that needs to be understood sometimes. And I think sometimes that Pentecostals are guilty of going endlessly in worship with other tongues, and that's not of God all the time; else how can that person standing by say amen? " For you indeed give thanks well," Praying in those tongues was giving thanks well. Worshipping God in those tongues was giving thanks well, but there's no way for the person to say amen. He can't be edified, and notice what he says, "18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; 19 yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue." So Paul's putting a balance on here to understand that sometimes we can get out into the flesh even though we may be well intentioned.
"Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. In the law it is written: "With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me," says the Lord. Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe." Now notice, what Paul did! He just took a passage and he used it in such a way that is very, very unique. And we've got to see what he's talking about because he's using Isaiah. Now Isaiah was talking about specifically the Babylonians that spoke Chaldean. And God was going to use the Chaldeans to take Judah captive. God was going to take in 586 b.c. Judah captive, and Judah went captive to Babylon in 586! A whole bunch of people who spoke Chaldean, they didn't come speaking Hebrew, they came speaking Chaldean. He used people with another language to correct His people who were in sin, His people who were idolaters, His people who were evil. They loved oppression. They loved dealing poorly with the orphans and widows. He used people of another language to correct His people, therefore, those Jews of Judah were unbelievers. And so it was a sign! The prophecy of Isaiah was a sign, and the actual occurrence of that exact prophecy did happen in 586. It actually took place. We know they went into captivity, and all of that was a sign. It was a sign to the unbeliever.
The believers didn't have a problem because the believers weren't in sin. Those who trusted the Lord who went into captivity and they had children and some of them came back out of captivity. Some of the children came out of captivity. Why do we know that? Because we have the book of Ezra to tell us that. So the tongues in the way that Paul is using this must be consistent with the way that it actually happened. So we see here that Paul is using that principle in setting up a guideline of using tongues in the church, and why tongues is used in the church, and why and how it is used correctly. The gift of tongues, the evidence of tongues, the worship tongues, all of these have specific rules behind it because God has so ordained to edify the church.
"Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?" Of course they will! And they rightfully should. "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you." Again, God reveals things through prophecy. Remember we already went through that briefly that prophesying is edification, exhortation, and comfort to men. And some people would tell you that prophesying can't be anything more than patting people on the back and saying "Whoopee! Praise God! You're okay. I'm okay. It's the world that's all wrong." And that's not what prophesying is completely all about. Edification, comfort, and exhortation bring about change in people's lives to a positive nature in spiritual things. Therefore, prophesying is not necessarily, "Oh wow. Sister Susie was so wonderful being used of God today as she said praise God. God loves you. You're okay." These pat me back on the back messages that are called prophecy are not necessarily prophecy, but people wishful thinking in the flesh. Because God wants his church and those in the church to be right with Him and again the unbeliever doesn't have a problem with things going on that are under prophecy because supposedly the prophecy is going to tell them the secrets of his heart and they're going to repent.
Not every unbeliever who comes to a church service is going to repent, but say those when the church service is operating in the Spirit of God that gives that person a chance to repent. "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification" Notice that they lack order. Notice that they lack submission to authority. Notice that they come saying, "I'm the one that's teaching. I'm the one that's interpreting. I'm the one that had a song to sing." Notice when they come they come in pride. They come believing that they're the boss. But see God has so ordained five members given by the Son to the church: the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher, and so the order and authority of the church must be done through the Godhead through those members of the five-fold ministry, not through the average person that committed their lives to Jesus Christ last year and think that now they're suppose to be the ones listened to, because that's pride! Paul's dealing with that here. He wants everything done for edification. So don't come to church in pride saying, "I've got this." Because if you sat home and you decided that you were going to come to church with an agenda that you are going to put together a prophecy so that when you came to church and you said these things that you were going to be the man, that's the flesh. That's not a spiritual thing, that's in the flesh!
Notice how we see that now. Notice he's saying, "If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret." It's been my experience that tongues come most of the time in several different locations of the service if the service is of God, and it doesn't mean that they're going to come in all these locations every service. Remember it's the Spirit of God that's behind the gift of tongues which must be interpreted. Here he's saying, "27If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn." One of the locations in the service when a tongue may come out is at the worship of God. When you're worshipping the Lord, and He has received and been enthroned as it says on the hearts of his people, when He is sitting on our throne, when He is sitting in our hearts as Lord, that opens up the possibility should He desire for the gift of tongues to come forth and Paul's saying at that time let there be no more than three people that come forth with a gift of tongues, and each time there must be one who interprets. You can't have the gift of tongues come forth three times and only one interpretation. They each must be interpreted.
Now can the interpretation be something that is significantly different? Sure. Is it possible for the interpretation to be something similar? That's true too, but individually they will have their own interpretation. Another time in the service that tongues may come forth would be at an altar service where an altar call has been given, the Spirit of God is moving, and sometimes the Lord will announce or confirm a few things that are necessary and use the gift of tongues to do that. So there are a number of different times in the service that the Holy Spirit may choose operate because, not so much as He can't operate at other times, but He doesn't because He does things decently and in order. It is out of order that while the man of God is preaching for somebody to come up in the middle of that preaching, stand up, gives tongues, and then interpret. That would break the confusion, that would mean one of two people is not operating in the Spirit of God, because if the man who is preaching is operating in the spirit of God then the other one's out of order. If the man of God is preaching and he (the one who brings forth the gift) knows that the gift of tongues is coming, we get down a little bit further knowing that that gift of tongues is subject to the prophet and that gift of tongues may be legitimate, but the timing may be of God after the preaching.
It must be done decently and in order. Notice in verse 28 it says, "But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge." Now this is another passage that is very much important to understand because this is, in my opinion, one of the most important ones. The person who has been used in the past through the Spirit of God in the gift of tongues, and the person who has been used in the past through the Spirit of God through the gift of interpretation in tongues, that person knows by experience what the Spirit of God feels like, what his heart senses, that person knows these things, because they've been there; they've been used by God in that area. God doesn't use, remember we looked at it already, God doesn't use the same vessel over and over and over again and never use anybody else. It's the Holy Spirit who chooses what vessel to use, when to use the vessel, and how to use the vessel. It's by the Holy Spirit, His choice and not the man's choice or the woman's choice but His choice. So therefore you're going to have people in a service that have been used by God and these gifts. Let them judge whether what came forth is of God or not. Ask them! I went to a member specifically after one specific service I went to the leadership of that church, and I said, "Look, there was a prophecy that came forth that was not of God, and praise God, the leadership knew exactly what was going on and was aware of it. But they didn't say anything in the service that is wasn't of God, and they should have. They should have said something about it in some way, not to cause shame to the individual who prophesied unless that person had been corrected many times over, but the people just can't sit there, they can't be allowed to be subjected to hogwash. So after telling the individuals about that the church leadership they agreed and they saw what I was saying and the individual that brought forth the interpretation decided that that church wasn't for them. Why wasn't that church for them? Well they just didn't want to come under the authority of the Scriptures and to have things done decently and in order. Well see the accountability of all of that is the individuals that are placed in charge of that church, the authority of that church, so they have the responsibility for the souls in that church.
Notice it says in verse 30, "But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged." And notice that he says, "And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." He's just talking about a little peace, a little order; he's talking about understanding how the Spirit operates. These are spiritual things and if you want to understand spiritual things there are going to be some things that are going to happen that aren't of God, and therefore if they are not of God they have to be understood that they're not of God, and if it is of God then you want to praise God because God is speaking to His people. We don't need to keep giving the world reason to blaspheme, and we don't need to keep giving that segment that is out there in God's Kingdom that are ignorant and have done everything possible to destroy the sentiment about the Spirit of God. It's almost an anti-Pentecostalism if you will, because we've given them room to do so because we won't follow what Scripture says.
I don't want to get into women keeping silent in the church and everything because that's another topic, but let's skip down here. Notice it says, "37If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order." Again God's love, God's desire is for the whole world to come to know him, for the whole world to repent; He gave us the commission to go forth; He gave us the commission to make disciples of all nations. The church was given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the outpouring started on the day of Pentecost. There have been great gross miscalculations and misunderstandings about the Holy Spirit. The Corinthian church got in the flesh, a lot of things were misunderstood, and so Paul gave us some understanding about spiritual things. Let's hope that we understand spiritual things and we compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Let's use the Spirit to discern. Not everything that happens in churches is of God! And we need to understand that and we need to accept that! We need to act appropriately using God's Word when things are done, especially in a Pentecostal church. We're suppose to know better and yet we give room many times for the Lord to be blasphemed. Let's look at what Paul said and let's take it seriously. Amen?