1 Corinthians 14:1-35 - Part B

Whoever prophesies is going to say something, a word from the Lord, a message from the Lord, that will build up, stir up, or cheer up. And it's from God to men. He who speaks in a tongue, here it is, edifies himself. But he who prophesies edifies the church.

Self-explanatory. It's axiomatic. It's sad but true that the gifts of the Spirit can be used outside of God's intention for them. Well, today on Connect with Skip Hyting, Skip shares about the purpose of prophetic gifts and how you can know if they're being used properly. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will inspire you to shine God's love even more to the world and those around you. The most recent US Census revealed that our population is much more diverse than ever before. In fact, over the past 10 years, our multiracial population increased 276%, which presents new challenges.

Here's Skip Hytsick. To say that this nation is divided would be a gross understatement, but I am not going to take sides politically. I am going to take sides morally and spiritually and biblically. I'm going to raise the conversation to a different level, to a higher level, to a biblical level, because the issue as I see it is not a skin issue as much as it's a sin issue. We want to help you understand this divisive issue from a divine perspective. When you give $20 or more today to this Bible teaching ministry, we'll send you Pastor Skip's booklet, The Church and Racism, plus his teaching featuring a conversation with Pastor Tony Clark.

Get these relevant resources today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, as we join Skip Hytsick for today's message. Prophecy in the New Testament is far more than just foretelling the future. Oftentimes, like the prophets of the Old Testament, it is just forthtelling truth. You're just speaking forth something from the Lord, like the prophets would speak to Judah, the word of the Lord, that wasn't necessarily about their future all the time. It was just, this is the will of God, this is what God wants for you.

It was a special declaration for a special time. So, pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Now, he's going to tell you why prophecy is more preferable than tongues. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God.

For no one understands him. However, in the Spirit, he speaks mysteries. In the second chapter of the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost, when they were speaking in that initial manifestation of tongues in Jerusalem, which is a bit different than the manifestation of the Corinthian tongue, still the essence of it was the same. They, in Jerusalem, said, how is it that we hear each in our own native language them declaring the wonderful works of God? They were worshiping God. They were praising God. In the 10th chapter of the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles in Antioch, it says that the Holy Spirit came upon them and they magnified the Lord.

Again, it's worship. So, what Paul is going to do in this chapter is show us the difference between the gift of prophecy, which is preferable, and the gift of tongues, which is acceptable and desirable, but in the church not preferable. In the church, intelligent language is preferable.

Non-intelligent language, or language you don't understand, is not preferable. So, he's going to show us the difference. First of all, the difference in direction. Tongues is directed upward to God. Prophecy is not. Prophecy is directed downward to the church, to man, from God. Prophecy is God speaking to man. Tongues is man speaking to God.

So, there's a difference in direction. Also, there's a difference in intelligibility. When you speak in a tongue, you don't know what you're saying unless you have a correspondent gift of interpretation, or somebody else has that gift and tells you what you just said. When you speak in a word of prophecy in your language, you understand it.

You get it. Also, there's a difference in edification. When you speak in a tongue, you don't edify anybody else around you.

It doesn't help anybody around you. You only edify yourself. When you speak prophecy, you edify everybody else who's listening to it. They understand it.

They get it. It's beautiful. So, he who speaks in a tongue hears the direction, does not speak to men, but to God. So, in a meeting, and I do want to say this, because I have mentioned this in this series, this short little kind of series within a series on the gifts of the Spirit. I love the Pentecostal movement. I love my brothers in the Assemblies of God churches, and the Four Square churches. I love the body of Christ.

I love the variety. They're beautiful people. They're beautiful men and women of God, and I love their openness to the Lord. However, in many meetings that they hold, you will hear an utterance in tongue followed by something like this, "'Thus saith the Lord, O my children.'" A supposed interpretation of God speaking to people.

Well, good enough. Maybe the tongue triggered a prophecy, but we're still now waiting for an interpretation of that tongue, which is a prayer or worship to the Lord. It's directed to God.

So, the reason that that exists in the Pentecostal movement, and I've had endless conversations with scholars on this subject and ministers in those different veins, they have a little formula that they have worked out in the Assemblies of God and the Four Square churches, the Pentecostal churches, that tongues plus interpretation equals prophecy. That is not a scriptural formula. It's a clever formula. I applaud the idea that you are making a nice little understandable formula. The only problem is it's totally unbiblical.

That's the only problem with that formula. It's not biblical, and because it's not biblical, I have to reject it. It's not that tongues plus interpretation equals prophecy. Tongues plus interpretation equals an interpreted tongue, which is magnifying the Lord, worshiping God, praying to God, thanking the Lord. You're speaking to God. It's a form of worship and prayer. It would probably sound much like a psalm of David or a psalm of Asaph in the book of Psalms. But he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation, and comfort to men.

The prophet is speaking on behalf of the Lord, and it falls into one of these three categories. It's edification, to build up, exhortation, to stir up, and comfort, to cheer up. If somebody speaks a prophecy, it's going to build you up. It's going to stir you up or motivate you to do something, or it's going to calm you down, or it's going to comfort you.

It'll bring consolation to you. So I've been in meetings where somebody says, Oh, my children. It's a supposed prophecy. You're all a bunch of idiots. Maybe they didn't say the word idiot, but you failed, and you're this, and you're that, and it's really demeaning and condemning.

That doesn't sound like this description. Whoever prophesies is going to say something, a word from the Lord, a message from the Lord, that will build up, stir up, or cheer up, and it's from God to men. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. It's self-explanatory.

It's axiomatic. When you speak in a prayer language or a tongue, tongue of men or of angels or an ecstatic utterance, and you're speaking in it, it is a very edifying experience. It's a wonderful experience. It builds you up. It strengthens you. It's fortifying to the individual, but that's as far as it goes. It doesn't do a thing for anybody around you, unless there's a correspondent gift of interpretation. Now, this is all leading somewhere.

I'm building this up because Paul is leading somewhere. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. He who prophesies edifies the church. I wish that you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied, for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets that the church may receive edification. So, a person who speaks an intelligible word in the language of the listeners, in our case English. For the most part, we know English. So, when I speak in, like I'm doing now, or if you're in a meeting and somebody gives a word and you understand it, that's much greater than somebody who speaks in a tongue in the public assembly because the whole goal of being together is mutual edification. You can't have mutual edification if there's a babbling in utterance of a language, a prayer language, that nobody else around you understands, including yourself, unless you have that gift. By the way, if you do utter a tongue out loud and nobody gives an interpretation, Paul will say you are responsible to provide that interpretation since you gave the utterance.

That's why I say it is scripted. God does give us the script and how these things are to be operated. So, I wish that you all spoke in tongues. Do you remember that in 1 Peter, I think it's chapter 2, Peter says, might be chapter 1, whom having not seen, we love and we rejoice with joy unspeakable or inexpressible, full of glory.

Remember that text? Have you ever been in a place where there's something in your heart and it's at a point where it's like, oh, the joy and oh, what I feel. I can't express it. Human language would defile the feeling.

It's so deep, so good. What I feel like and what I want to say to God is inexpressible. That's where tongues comes in. God provides, through the gift of tongues, the ability for your spirit to directly speak to God's spirit. God is spirit. You're praying in the spirit. Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6, praying in the spirit. Jude, I think around verse 20, 21, he talks about building yourself up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

You are edifying yourself, but you are also communicating directly to God. I told you before about how language is a pact. It's an agreement. It's a covenant. Our pact, our agreement is English. But if I say to you, most of you, unless you speak Hebrew, would have no clue what I just said, because the pact we have is not that pact. Unless you're bilingual or trilingual, makes no sense.

You need somebody to interpret it. So in the assembly, greater is he who prophesies than he who speaks in tongues. Again, Paul is honing in on only two gifts, and I can only surmise this. What was going on in the church of Corinth was an expression of the carnality that he addresses in the first few chapters. They were carnal.

Paul calls them on it. And part of the carnality was a lack of love. That's why love is between us.

Love is between chapter 12 and chapter 14. They were coming together in their meetings, and it was all about their wanting to express something on their heart. And it could be a prophecy. It could be a tongue. It could be this. It could be that.

It was just confusing. So because of that, Paul labors in this chapter to set it right to correct that abuse. But now, brethren, verse 6, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge? Revelation may be a reference to the word of wisdom, or by knowledge, the word of wisdom, or by prophesying, or by teaching.

All of those legitimate gifts. Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known? What is piped or played? For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? Paul is making the argument for intelligibility within the public worship service.

When you get together, things done, things said, things sung, things sung, things spoken, should be all things that people understand. And he uses two examples, one from the music world, one from the military world. Music world. Instruments. If somebody comes up to the piano or the guitar and is skillful and talented and can put notes together and they can play a song that we recognize, oh, I know that song. And we start singing that song.

They're leading us in it. We get that. That's beautiful. But if someone just takes it and just plays an open tuning pattern that's on the guitar, it's not a great sound. Or if a kid just grabs it and bangs on it, it's not a great sound.

Same with the military. Somebody blows a trumpet. Now in the ancient days, still in some outfits, it is the trumpet that makes certain sounds that makes the military move certain actions or do certain things.

And they're unmistakable. Charge. That's what it means. But if the trumpeter goes, dum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, that means turn out the lights and go to sleep or you're going to die.

One of the two. But if you just grab the trumpet, you're just blowing your own horn when you come to church, you make an uncertain sound, nobody knows what you're supposed to do. Do you retreat? Do you charge? Do you go to sleep?

What do you do? Who will prepare for battle? So likewise, you. Unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.

And I feel some people do just that. They're just speaking into the air. Speaking into the air.

The practice of some assemblies is to gather together, play the song, you kind of move back and forth, and then you're just going off on your own. And then pretty soon one person starts speaking out in the tongue and then another person and then another. Pretty soon the whole congregation is shondala, shondala, and it's all a cacophony of sound. Everybody's just kind of speaking into the air. Everybody can hear.

I can hear everybody around me what they're saying. That does not seem to be what Paul says is a good thing to do. So again, we have the script.

He's going to tell us how it is to operate within the assembly. There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world and none of them is without significance. Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me. Even so, you are zealous for spiritual gifts.

Let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel. You know, some languages it's exciting to listen to. When I listen to Italians speak, because when I listen to Italians speak, I'm not just listening to an Italian speak, I'm watching the Italians speak, right? I mean, the hands are moving with the with the words, and I try to pick it out and some of the things I can understand because I've had a few years of Spanish, or when I hear French, it's just so beautiful.

And the way everything is slowed together, so Columbus, wow. I mean, come on, that's just so romantic and beautiful. I have no clue what they just said. They could have said, hey, that big America who's listening is sure ugly. It might not be a flattering statement, so it doesn't do me any good unless somebody is there to tell me what the meaning of that language is. But notice something in verse 11. If I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to the one who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me. Now, that word translated in English foreigner is an onomatopoetic word. Remember that word in your English class, onomatopoeia, where the word sounds like what it means?

So the word he uses for foreigner is the word barbaros, where we get the word barbarian. And that's a significant Greek word because the Greeks believed that their language was the best language on planet earth. No other language came close. No other language was beautiful. No other language captured the full meaning.

I have to say they're right when it comes to that, the accuracy part. No other language comes close to the Greek language in my humble but I think slightly educated opinion. But they believed that Greek was it and that anybody who didn't speak Greek but spoke some other language, it sounded to them like this, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar.

And so it was nicknamed barbar or barbaros. It's an onomatopoetic term that captures the idea of they love their language so much that every other language sounded like garbage to them, like barbarians. Even so you, since you are zealous, verse 12, for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification, the building up of the church that you seek to excel. Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.

Now again, I'm praying. I'm not giving a message to men. It's not a thus sayeth the Lord. It's not tongues plus interpretation equals prophecy. If I pray in a tongue, so I'm directing it to God, my spirit prays, my understanding is unfruitful. Or I'm saying words, but I don't understand what I'm saying. This is why many people have trouble with the gift of tongues.

Even though it is controllable to speak it or not speak it, when one speaks in the tongue because they don't understand it, it's an affront to your intelligence, to your intellect. You go, oh, that's just babble. That's bar, bar, bar, bar. You just made that up. That's gibberish. That's child speak. That's nonsense.

And so because it's an affront to your intellect, your intellect wants to be completely knowledgeable and in control of that, in control of that, you pull back from it. But Paul says your spirit is praying, but your understanding is unfruitful. So I told you, and again, we come up with this idea language is a pact, right? We have this understanding. We could, like I said a few weeks ago, come up with our own secret language.

Nobody else would know. We could come up with the words. When I say a sentence, you say another sentence. Nobody knows what it is, but you and I know what it is.

It's our secret language. So with tongues, it's a pact I have made with God that He knows what it is. And have you found in your prayer life that when you pray, you sometimes have difficulty expressing what it is you want to express. In fact, you don't even know exactly what you ought to be praying for when you pray. Well, that's exactly what Paul said in Romans.

We do not know how to pray as we ought. So the Lord has provided a way to communicate with Him to bypass your intellect, but directly contact the Father in the name of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, through this beautiful gift, in a way that is powerful and potent, edifying of self, but also very, very efficacious. That's Skip Heiting with a message from the series Expound First Corinthians. Now here Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's Word. Our God has unmatched wisdom and power. That knowledge should give us great peace and comfort because we are in His care. We want to help friends like you to connect even deeper with the Lord.

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