1 Corinthians 14:1-19 Prophecy and Tongues - part 1
1 Corinthians 14:1-19 · Roger Henderson · Oct 2, 2016
1 Corinthians, No. 38
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926540156400

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This morning we're starting chapter 14. So if you look at the chapters 12, 13, and 14, you kind of see there's a message that's kind of been brought forth by Paul through all this. A lot of it is to do with spiritual gifts that were given to the church. And also a lot is what was happening in the Corinthian church during that time period. So mixed in with that as we go through the verses, we have to be careful to sort out what applies to the applied there in the apostolic times and what applies to us and we'll see a little bit of that today but there's many things for us to draw from this to understand from this so hopefully we'll just kind of work through this you know this is really a neat section this section is going to kind of point out chapter 14 is going to kind of point out about the difference between tongues and prophecy and Paul is going to make a really strong case that the value of prophecy, or at that time they didn't have the completed scriptures, so they couldn't turn to their Bible to see what the Lord had to say about a particular topic, right?

They could refer to what they heard from the apostles conceivably. We see that in Acts. In the very early part of Acts, Acts 2, it talks about the apostles teaching. They could go to the apostles teaching. They certainly could go to the Old Testament. if they had availability of that. But they didn't have the completed canon of Scripture. So the Lord in His wisdom allowed people to speak forth His message. And that's called prophecy.

Not to be confused with the future. I'm going to prophesy about the future. This is giving forth God's message about what's happening in the local church. So that was the method that God used during that time period to get out His word. So Paul is going to make a really strong case that that message is so important, that prophecy, that message from God is so important, that this spiritual gift of tongues, while it has validity in the sense that people may hear, remember tongues are the idea that men spoke in other languages, in fact they spoke not knowing what they were saying. Can you imagine you open your mouth and you start You start talking, and you don't really comprehend what's happening.

We're going to see that in this passage today. They could speak forth God's message. Well, apparently, as with all human beings, they say, this is really cool. And so, apparently, they like that idea, and pretty soon everybody, well, hey, if Brother So-and-so can do this, I want to do this, too.

And it got out of hand. So Paul, he goes through and carefully says that speaking forth prophecy What God has revealed to us directly is the most important part. Tongues are valuable, but only if somebody tells you what they mean. If you don't understand what is being said, they're of no value. So he's going to make that point as we go through here. So let's just jump into that.

As I've done in the past, I've utilized Macaulay's outline. And basically he labels the section verses 1-25 as the priority of edification or telling forth God's message in worship. So first of all in verses 1-5 which we'll cover today is the inferiority of tongues. In verse 1 we're going to see that there needs to be a priority set. We're going to see about that. He's going to argue for a change, basically a change to the priority of prophecy over tongues. He talks about the one addressed and the one benefited.

Some of the words I'm not all that comfortable with, but it's good. He talks about in 6-19, which we'll just cover part of today, the deficiency of tongues. You can see it's a pretty negative message on tongues. The inferiority of tongues and then the deficiency of tongues. If you don't come away with seeing that tongues are a gift from God, but you have to be careful. And he's going to point it out very carefully. And then basically the question is presented in verse 6, and it's illustrations about even with inanimate things.

If you listen to a school bell, like the bell that Brian is, if I don't understand what that bell means, I said, what does that bell mean? I don't know what it means. Well, it means that the class is starting. Sound has to have meaning. Random sound with no meaning is of no value.

If you're into heavy rock or heavy metal, maybe you think that's pretty cool. Of course, I was there. I liked all that kind of stuff at one time point. It's amazing how the Lord can work on you there. I thought that was pretty cool, but random sound typically is not of value.

Okay, so and then and then actually next week we're going to cover on 9 through 19 Kind of the conclusion of this whole section Okay, so let's just kind of jump into it here. So I guess I'm going to read I'd like to go back to verse the last verse in chapter 13 which is that marvelous verse It is you know verse 13 because could someone read? 1st Corinthians 13 Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest disease is charity.

Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto man, but unto God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit in spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesieth edifies the church.

I would that ye all spoke with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied. For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine, and even things without life, giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give an extinction in the sounds. How shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? Great. Thanks, Tom.

OK, so let's just start in the last verse in chapter 13, which is a marvelous verse. But now, faith, hope, love. Abide these three. But the greatest of these is love. I'm just going to really focus on the last part of this verse. But the greatest of these is love.

Because he's going to carry that thought over into verse 1. He's going to say, pursue love. And the question is, well, how are we going to pursue that love? And he's going to tell us about that. But it kind of carries over. Verse 13 carries over. And one way, there's actually, if you look on the original, there's actually a definite article there.

But the greatest of these is the love. So the question is, what do you think from verse 13? What did you take away? What was the love that was talked about all throughout 13? It gave a lot of detail of love forbearance and all the aspects of that love. But what is, if you had to, in a nutshell, what is the love?

God's love. Exactly. I like better Christ's love. I mentioned last week the time my brother Hal was with us. He would often read 1 Corinthians 13 with Christ's love is, Christ's love is, Christ's love is, because that's really the love, the only love we don't have We love because He first loved us. The love that we have in and of ourselves outside of the Lord, outside of Christ, is not of much value. It may be valuable to the world, conceivably, but Christ's love is what's going to be valuable.

And so that's just the love that's being talked about. So he's going to carry that over to the next chapter here. And McCauley is copying down, love is the highest Christian virtue, the fundamental and basics and quality of the believer's character. And the believer's character, can only be demonstrated through Christ's life. Love can only be demonstrated as Christ lives his life in us.

We see that in Galatians. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and so on. We see it in other verses in 1 John, about the one who does not love, does not know God. God's love being demonstrated through us is an indication that we've been born again, that we're a believer in the Lord Jesus. And that's not something we try to do. That's something that we allow the Lord to work through and live His life through us. Our part is faith. Our part is trust and faith in Him. His part is for His life to be lived through us.

What I do sometimes, I like to do this, is if I've discovered a definite article there, I like to see that the translators have picked up on that. And Wiest is particularly good about that. He will try to bring out the nuances many times. So he brings forth that definite article by a bunch more words. He brings that forth. But the greatest of these is the previously mentioned. That's the indicate. that definite article there, love.

For me it's really cool, I just really get excited because I say, wow, Weiss solved that definite article there and he brought it across in the translation to show us the importance of that. In other words, he connected the dots. Right, and actually what's cool is, Weiss lived, his lifetime, he's like my my parents, or maybe my grandparents. He was with the Moody Bible Institute, I believe.

Anyway, it's neat to see other men and women study scripture, and they look at it, and they come to the conclusion that you came to, and it reinforces that you're on the right path. So anyway, that's pretty cool. The greatest of these is the previously mentioned love. Okay, so now let's go into verse 1 of chapter 14.

So he starts off, Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. but especially that you may prophesy. Keep in your mind prophecy. Prophecy is don't think of somebody's incantations about the future. Think of God's divine message being given forth by men in that time period. Try to keep that in your head.

I try to do that throughout this. and then show you that. Okay, pursue love. Literally, it's in the present tense, present imperative, which is a command. Literally, and as you as implied, you be constantly pursuing this love. So you're constantly pursuing this love.

So remember, this is not going to be a work thing. You're not going to work this. It's a little bit hard. You say, well, how can the Lord give me a command, and I'm not supposed to work at it? It doesn't sound like I can accomplish that. But he says, your job is faith. Don't get outside the realm of faith. If you get outside the realm of faith, you're going to put yourself into it. You're going to say, well, OK, I've got some more, and you're going to be counting them, or you're going to be doing something. But if you're trusting and resting, he'll be able to do it.

OK, so pursue is the idea to follow or press hard after, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain. So let's look at a couple of these verses here that talk about, because it's going to be important that we look at pursue versus desire. That's going to be a good contrast here in this first verse. So could someone read? I want to read the Philippians. The one in Romans talks about pursuing the things which made for peace. But I think it's a little more forceful if we look at Philippians. Let's look at Philippians 3 verses 12-14. Actually 12-14 in Philippians 3.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become it. But I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So Paul is talking about how he's interacting with the Lord and how he wants to know the things of Christ. And this is how he's pressing on. So this is a rather forceful point he's making here. Pursue love. Press on to love by faith. So now we're going to contrast that.

Yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. So at first it seems like he's kind of saying, two things that are equal, but I don't think it's quite that. Yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts. So literally here, it's you again, you's implied, you desire, and there's a definite article, the spiritual things. It's in the present tense, it's also imperative as well. And actually here, what desire here is this word, actually comes from words for zealot, to have zeal for something. So it's a pretty strong word too.

And we can see that, let's see, it's worth reading a couple of those. Let's just read the one in, we'll see it later on here, 1 Corinthians 1439. Let's go ahead and read that. Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. Great. Thank you.

So what we see here is that this word for zealot is one word in the Greek, but the translators have tacked on in most translations, they've tacked on earnestly. So they have earnestly desire, but it's really only the word, the single word for desire. So, I like what Macaulay, after looking at this and pondering this, Macaulay made a very succinct statement. The word pursue is much stronger than the word desire and refers to intense and persistent action.

That's to be our life. Our life is to be one of pursuing love. But spiritual gifts are important and he's going to tell us which one of these spiritual gifts. Remember he gave us a list there back in 12. He gave us a list of spiritual gifts. He actually had them in order of importance it seemed like. He's going to give us the one in the last part of this verse which is the most important. So let's go there.

The C part of this verse is the third part of the verse, but especially that you may prophesy. a literal could be, but rather that you prophesy. And in this case, the subjunctive mood kind of indicates maybe you will and maybe you won't. You may or you may not. So there's a probability there. So prophesy here, once again, just sitting to beat a dead horse, so to speak, the primary meaning of telling forth divine counsel. And there's a bunch of different places that we see that. And just for exercise here, let's look at the case that we don't have here, but the case where it's used for telling the future.

Could someone look at John 11.51?

John 11.51. Maybe you can start back at 50. Consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not.

And this he spoke not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. So there's our word in 51. So this is Caiaphas, if you go back even to 49. Caiaphas, he's the high priest that year, he prophesied that year, he was foretelling the future, right? That Jesus was going to die for the nation.

So that's the context in which the word can be used to tell the future. But our context is the number one definition here. It's primarily the divine counsel from God. I'm drawing Macaulay here again. Prophecy was the power to comprehend and make known the will of God prior to the completion of Scripture. I added that little bracket there. Another good point from Macaulay is this verse is telling us, this is kind of another encapsulation of the thought of what's happening here.

This verse is telling the Corinthians to pursue love over gifts and then desire prophecy among the gifts. So if we're to pursue love, that's going to be our focus. But among the gifts that we're to desire, telling forth God's message is what they should be desiring. He's going to keep at that point through the rest of this chapter and just keep hammering that point that it's prophecy. Telling forth God's message is what's important.

Once again, I kind of fell back to looking at the translation to see if that picked up on some of what's happening here. So the translation by Wiest here in the C part of this verse, do this, I believe it's desire prophecy, in order that you might more efficiently impart to others the divine revelation you have received. Kind of wordy, but I think that kind of encapsulates. So here's a translator. doing an expanded translation, he studied through this and said, hey, what's really going on here is that they're to impart the divine message that they have received. And so I kind of, this is my words, this is how we're going to pursue love. So you say, well how am I going to pursue love? Well, I'm going to focus on God's message. So for us in the church age, Our focus is on God's Word.

Some believers out there think that some of the gifts are still in effect here. Some of those gifts are spectacular gifts. Let's say you take that position. If you listen to what Paul is saying here, he says the most important one is to get God's message out. That's the most important one. So that's how you pursue love. So I thought that was really cool. Just kind of tracing it through that. So that one verse here, Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may give forth God's word, prophesy.

So questions or thoughts so far? So hopefully this is kind of, you know, we've been looking at tongues a lot and there's a lot of, obviously a lot of Discussion out there. A lot of people have very strong feelings. I have relatives that are very focused on tongues. They think that's really important. I find it's hard sometimes to have a good discussion. But I have to love them and I believe they're believers. It's difficult sometimes. Okay, so let's go on here.

Verse 2. For the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. So there's a lot in that little phrase right there in verse 2. OK, so Paul's now going to compare tongues versus speaking God's message, prophecy.

So tongues is glossa. It's obviously an organ of the body. And metaphorically, it's used as speech or language And it's defined in Acts as a supernatural gift of speaking in another language without its having been learned. So let's have someone read here. Boy, if you ever get into a place where you get confused about tongues and you're saying, oh boy, it sounds like they have a point there, go back to Acts. Go back to where tongues are first mentioned. And it really sets it straight what tongues are about. So let's go to Acts chapter 2. Let's have someone read Acts chapter 2 verses 4 to 11. Acts 2, 4 to 11.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation unto heaven, And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing him speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, Why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Oratia, Phrygians and Benthelia, Egypt and the districts of Libya, around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Apostolites. The reason I had to go down that far was I wanted to make sure these were known languages. All the Medes, the Mesopotamians, the Judeans, and so on. All those people, different languages. Several things to pick up here.

Back in verse 4, it says, They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak, and they called other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. and they talk about the different people here from different places like we talked about. Then down in verse 6, it's going to talk about those other tongues as a synonym in languages. It says they were each one hearing them speak in their own language. And then down in verse 8, and each is that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born.

It mentions all the different kinds of folks there. That's what we're talking about in terms of tongues. This is a miraculous thing like I mentioned before. God gave certain people the ability to speak in a language that they knew nothing of. They would start speaking and people could understand that and people could understand the message from God. That's the definition of tongue.

Now let's go into the verse here. For the one who speaks in a tongue, first of all, he doesn't speak to men. It's important to understand. In the sense that that's assuming the people that he's with don't understand whatever language he's speaking in. He doesn't speak to men, but God understands it, because God gave him the gift. God obviously understands it, for no one understands it. So basically, in this situation, for the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands.

And then he's going to make the statement, I'll wait till it comes next. So here's a translation of that. For the one who is uttering in a tongue a language not understood except through an interpreter. But in his spirit he speaks mystery. So I kind of spent some time on this. At first I was kind of confused about this and it turns out that there's kind of a an alternate translation which may be helpful, may not be. The way it reads from the New American Standard is, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. His is in italics, so it's not.

Only the word spirit is there, pneuma, and then that could be rendered the spirit, and the is not there either. So there's kind of two sets of folks. Some believe, I don't think they're in conflict necessarily, Some believe that this should be rendered his spirit, meaning his human spirit. Others say it should be rendered the Holy Spirit, the Spirit capitalized.

But it actually doesn't make a whole lot of difference, because it could be his spirit, the Holy Spirit is working through his spirit to speak this, or it could just be referring to the Holy Spirit. So either way, I think it brings forth the same message.

And he speaks mysteries. Mysteries is this word that Verne likes, mysterion. It's the idea that it's something that's unknown in the past but now has been revealed and God is making it known. In this case, there's a group of verses that track along this way. It's a mystery that God is bringing forth that wasn't revealed before. This goes along well with the fact that God revealed things through men in that time before scripture was completed, even through tongues as well. Just looking at this, he takes this as a human spirit. and he utters with his human spirit divine revelation not explained."

So Macaulay kind of commented about this. Why does Paul say tongues are spoken to God? Because no one but God knows what was being said. Tongues without translation were intelligible to God but unintelligible to men. So that's why Paul, we're going to see later on, he's going to say there must be an interpreter.

If you're going to speak in a tongue, and it's truly another language, there must be someone there to interpret that message. Whatever message he had for, let's say, for the French. Let's say that I started speaking in French now. And you didn't understand French. There needs to be someone there to say, well this message that he's speaking to the French hearers out there is this. And there should be an interpreter there. So we're going to see that presented by Paul a little bit later. There must be an interpreter when tongues are used.

Otherwise, it's of no value. It's just sound. Verse 3. But the one who prophesies speaks to men for edification. So now he's going to elaborate. Here's the contrast. The first part was he spoke in a tongue, He talked about that, that only God could understand it. It is a mystery.

But the one who prophesies or speaks forth God's message to men for edification, for exhortation and consolation. There is a three-fold benefit by speaking God's message in something that people can understand. So let's just look at that for a bit. But the one who prophesies, telling forth the divine counsel, speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and consolation.

So here I just went through three different parts to this edification. is the idea to literally build up in the faith, to edify, to cause to advance in divine light. So let's look at a couple of these verses. We see these verses throughout scripture, but a couple of them are particularly good. Let's look at Romans 14, 19. If someone could read that.

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Right, pretty straight forward. And here the edification comes across as building up. So it kind of literally takes the idea of this to build in a home, to build up the home or build up the faith.

And then in Ephesians, kind of a similar thing, can someone read Ephesians 4.12? the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. Okay. Edify. They use edification. That's the word right there. Some translations may use edification. Edification is fine. Some will use building up, some will use edification. That's the first of his three benefits. When a person speaks God's message, his divine counsel, it can be for edification, building up the body, or The next point can be for exhortation. So this exhortation is a calling to one's side for encouragement and exhortation.

So can someone read Hebrews 6.18? So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hopes that before us. Good. Thank you, Wayne.

So here is strong encouragement. to take hold of the hope set before us. And then actually in the Romans passage it talks about the fact that we have encouragement of the scriptures, that we might have hope. And also it talks about, it gives us perseverance and encouragement. So basically speaking forth God's message is going to be for edification, for exhortation or encouragement. And then we're going to see another word, which is consolation, which is very similar, has some of the same ideas.

In fact, actually, it's the only place in Scripture this word is used. Once again, it's consolation, comfort, but it seems like with maybe a tenderness involved. So all three of these things are the outcome of speaking forth God's message, prophecy, And that was contrasted with the fact that when you spoke in a tongue, only God understood it and no one else understood it. So it wasn't of much value. This can be of tremendous value. Encouragement, consolation, exhortation.

So there's that contrast between tongues and prophecy. Giving forth God's message. Okay, so verse 4. The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. So he has like a contrast he builds here. Another contrast again. Tongues edify himself versus prophecy, giving forth God's message, edifies the church. So edifies is the idea to promote spiritual growth and development and character of the believer.

I'm confused because I think it seems that they said that one who speaks... You're exactly, you're right, you're listening Francis, you're listening. You're absolutely listening. You're talking to God and that you don't know what you're saying. You hit the nail on the head. I looked at this and I said, Roger, I better call Mike or Vern. I'm in trouble here. I got a problem. Houston, I got a problem. I didn't call micro bird. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. I kept studying and thinking about it a little bit.

So the question is, how does, how in the world, he just got through saying that no one understands, even the speaker. So how in the world is he edified? So anybody else want to, I have some thoughts on that, but It is rather unsettling a little bit. He just got through telling us that no one understands. Then he comes back and says, well, the one who speaks edifies himself. You say, he does? I'm speaking in French and I don't understand French and it edifies me?

I don't get that. This is going to sound like a Hail Mary thing. Look it up in the concordance and try to connect the dots that way. It may not be perfect but at least it might give you a lead. I said, oh I know, I'll check the word edify. That must have the Hail Mary in it. There must be some kind of thing in that that's going to tell me. Well, it didn't give me a whole lot of input.

Like 1 Corinthians 8.1 says, knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

You know, Edify is to promote spiritual growth and development. So the only thing, and I read different folks, the only thing that I kind of came away with was that if you realize, if you, in that time period, or now, if you see that the Lord is working through you, that very fact, whether you understand what's being said or not, but the fact that others are benefited by that, you're going to say, wow, thank you Lord that you use me. So I think that has to be the context. That's the only thing I can think of, that you're thankful to the Lord for using you as a vessel for his purpose. The fact that you didn't understand the message doesn't seem to be at the moment. It just says that you are edified himself. You are edified in the fact that God is using you and you are thankful for that and you praise him.

That was what I came away with. I'm open to other thoughts on that too. But it is kind of disconcerting. You come down and you say, he doesn't understand and now he edifies himself. And that was good. Boy, you need to come more. Don't stay at home. I'll bring you here. No, I'll overdo it here. So that's important. There seems to be a contradiction, but I think that the fact that the Lord was utilizing those people just like he does us today.

When you see someone benefited, you go visit Ben and Ben is encouraged by you going to see him. You're thankful. Maybe you couldn't think of anything to say because you were hurting so much with Ben, you couldn't say a word. Many times that happens. You go to help someone in the hospital, you can't think of a word to say, but just being there helps them. So I kind of think it's got to be along that line. That's how the person's going to be edified, build up in his faith by saying, well, the Lord, I was there for that person. Looks like Job's so-called comforters, right?

Bear this, be quiet. Don't say anything. Many times comfort can be there by saying nothing. Yes, go ahead. Well, the other thing here is he does not speak to men. So if you're not speaking to men, I'm kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It almost sounds like there's two types of tongues. You know, there's one tongue where you're not speaking to men, and there's another tongue where you are speaking to men. It just seems like there's two types of tongues. I guess I wouldn't say that, you know. Because, see, he contrasts here. He says, OK, here's the contrast.

He says, the one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but the one who prophesy, that speaks to men, right? I don't think he says that In the previous verse, he says that tongues don't speak to men, right? So he already made the case that in the previous verse, he said that tongues didn't speak to men. He says back in verse 2, it said, For the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands. So he already made the case that tongues, if you aren't the audience that God is directing that message to, in whatever language, then you're not going to benefit. But he says there is some benefit for the speaker, the one who God is using apparently. He edifies himself. A little hard to take away. But then he says, verses, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

God is concerned about, in this context, the body of Christ. He wants his message to get out in the body. Tom? I'm thinking of one part of the scripture and I can't place it right now, but groanings that cannot be uttered. And so you're going through a situation and the Lord's encouraging you, but you may not be able to put the encouragement into words, but you know he's there and he's rooting for you.

I think that is what is here. He is edified in the fact that he knows that God is working through him. He doesn't understand that exact message, but he is confident that God is. It says he is edified, he is built up. Hopefully that's somewhat satisfying. Francis, you're great. I love you. I'm so good. It's funny.

When I go through a study, I say, well, there'll be this question here. And a lot of times, nobody has a question. Not that I'm, it's just that I had that idea. But when somebody responds to that and saw that inconsistency, wow, that's great. That's great. OK. And then Macaulay just, you know, kind of something. You know, tongues benefits one. Prophecy benefits all. Now Paul is going to say, well I wish you all spoke in tongues. Oh no, what are you doing Paul? You can't say that. Now you're going to confuse me even more. Don't say that. Okay, so Paul tells his desires. This is his wish.

You all speak in tongues. Once again, kind of hammering the point home. Tongues is speaking in a language, supernaturally, that you do not know. But even more, and actually that even more is coming, in fact, very, very much more. He really wants you to prophesy. He really wants you to proclaim God's message. And greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in a tongue. So he starts, once again, he starts ranking these. If you don't come away with prophecy is superior to tongues, you've missed the boat. Greater, that's the word mega. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues.

Here's another kind of unnerving one. Unless he interprets so that the church may receive edifying. So, all I could take away here was, apparently, this is kind of wild, I speak in French, and then after I do that, then the Lord tells me what that meant. and he gives the interpretation. Those are miraculous times. The apostles' times were miraculous times. So apparently, unless he interprets, so the church may receive the edification. So I speak in French, and I tell you what the French, even though I don't know French, the Lord tells me what the French means, and I interpret it for you. It's like the Lord speaking in subtitles. So hopefully we're navigating through this okay here.

But now brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, of knowledge, of prophecy, or of teaching? So he gives us four things that will be beneficial to you other than tongues. So it's kind of emphatic right now immediately present brethren if I come to you speaking in tongues and languages. Now I just want to point out that earlier back in the earlier part of Corinthians he talked about coming to the Corinthians and he said I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. There's a little bit more in that passage if you read it but Paul was intended to come to you so it seems like there's some connection there between this verse and that verse.

He's going to come to them and speak to them. And now he says, what will I profit you unless... So he says, it's not going to be any profit to you if I come and speak to you in a tongue that you don't understand. And he says, but this is what's going to profit you. If I speak to you by way of... I put in the amplified version here. How shall I make it to your advantage unless I speak to you either in these four ways. Revelation is disclosure of truth from God.

Could someone read Ephesians 1.17? Let the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Right.

So Paul is saying, The first of the four things I'm going to tell you about, it will be valuable to you if I can disclose a revelation from God, a disclosure of truth from God, as it talks about in Ephesians 1.17. is knowledge, experiential knowledge.

This one seems to be maybe particular to that time, because remember back in 12, I taught that one, where we had the list of all these gifts. There was a gift, not to be confused with knowledge that God wants us to be, but special knowledge from God. So that seems to be connected to that one. And then prophecy, once again, what we've been talking about a lot. And then Kosovo kind of gave him his view on how that was accomplished, this telling forth of divine counsel.

He talks about it being possibly an impromptu word that someone would share in a service in which the congregation was part of the congregation. And then the fourth one is of teaching. And if you look up, I'll just read that one. Just look at Acts. Acts 2.42 talks about the apostles teaching.

Acts 2.42 says, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, which is this word we have here, to fellowship, to breaking of the bread, and to prayer. So these are the four things that he says will be valuable to you over tongues. Alright, so in the last part of this, these last two verses here, kind of talk about what I mentioned before. He's going to take some inanimate objects, the flute and the harp, the bugle. He's going to talk about those and say they have to have distinct sounds, otherwise they're not going to accomplish the purpose for what they were designed for.

Even if lifeless things, either the flute or the harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tone, How will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? For if the beagle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? So I just kind of put this in kind of bullet form. So these are lifeless or inanimate objects. A flute or a harp produces a distinct sound or note. If they do not produce a distinction in their tone, how it will be known what is played on the flute or the harp.

Think about if you like music, you recognize certain songs, certain melodies. And you like certain combinations of sounds. Maybe that brings to mind the words, like hymns. I hear certain tunes, and I know the words behind that, so that brings God's word to my mind. So, sounds are to have a purpose. I think what's interesting about that is that a lot of times when you're confused about something or would like something, you'll hear a tune. And then you start having to think, now what are the words behind that?

And then you find that it really fits your situation. No, I agree with you. A lot of times, you know, hymns or those things will come to your mind and you will remember the, you know, amazing grace. Of course, that was overused a bit. Anyway, but certain particular, so that the sound of that produced that understanding of God's Word from that, which is great. Which is great.

Okay, and then he gives the bugle example. Like I was telling Brian, when Brian goes, he rings the bell. We know what that means. The bugle was used to tell him to charge or whatever, prepare himself for battle. Actually, Macaulay sums it up. He says, the premise of this illustration is that sound is not sufficient unless it communicates meaning. You have one little example of that, and that's, well, you know, my time was through in boot camp in the Navy. They gave you a quick and dirty rendition about how you hear it recognizes melody.

That means all hands on deck. Does that get your attention? Well, how about fire alarms? How about a number of things? Sirens, we all react to those sounds and they have meaning. You know, you hear some random sound and you're like, I don't know what that is. So, sounds are to have meaning.

OK, so that's it for these first eight verses. Then we're going to expand that more. He's going to make some conclusions in 9 through 19. Hopefully that was helpful. We got through a couple of bumps there. I think we're on the right path through those.

So there is benefit. Apparently, the Lord tells us there is edification for a person in that time period to know that God is using him to speak forth his word. And to us too, as we speak forth God's word, and people respond to that, that's wonderful. And that encourages us. Okay, let's close it. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have. We thank you for our time this day. In Christ's name, Amen.