The central claim in the passage is that the primary purpose of spiritual gifts, particularly tongues, is clear communication and edification, not confusion. The message emphasizes that biblical tongues are known languages, not unintelligible sounds, and that their use must be accompanied by interpretation to benefit listeners. The sermon draws parallels to Elijah's encounter with God in a still, small voice to illustrate that God is not found in commotion but in quietness and order. It concludes by stressing that all church activities, including prophecy and speaking in tongues, must be done decently and in order, with an emphasis on understanding and building up the body of Christ, and that women are to remain silent in the churches, asking their husbands at home if they have questions.
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First Corinthians chapter four, Peter. Before we can point out any specific text, I want to say that we've been pointing out in these studies on Corinthians the necessity for clarity in presenting the gospel. Well, the Apostle Paul is trying to point out that the main purpose of these tongues is the deliverance of a message, the communication of a message. Don't use tongues unless you don't have someone to interpret that, and if no one's going to hear or understand what you say, he's not going to be edified.
So Paul is crashing out this situation time and time again from different angles that unless people are hearing the message, understanding it clearly, they're going to be confused. So he says the main purpose of all tongues, and the tongues in the Bible when they're referred to, refer to a known dialect. Not a lot of gutful sounds and seismic sounds and things like that. But it's some language that can be understood by those in the audience. And we'll say more about that a little later on. And there's no reason why we can't deliver a message that's clear, plain, simple, understandable, when God has given us The whole New Testament, backed up by the Old Testament as a picture gallery where we can draw illustrations to illustrate New Testament truth.
And so there's no need for a person to be confused or confusing others when he's got an open Bible. And the gospel is simple, it's plain, that even a rare way-taring man, though he be a fool, need not err therein. When reminded of three men, they went to church for the first time. And so this was a new experience for them. And after it was over, one said to the other, well, what did you think of them? Well, he went down deep. The second one said he stayed down quite long. The third one said he came up dry. In other words, it wasn't very edifying, was it?
They didn't get anything out of their message. Well, God wants... His word so preached and so presented that somebody is going to get something. The unsaved are going to hear the gospel, and God's people are going to be head of us. The Lord Jesus makes it very plain that if his word is confused, men are the ones who are going to confuse his word. And when you think of the gospel and how the Lord Jesus Christ made it plain, that his word and his word alone was sufficient. It's essential, it's sufficient for man to hear the gospel and be saved.
He was born again by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Remember the centurion over in Matthew eight, eight. His servant was sick, and he went to the Lord, and he besought the Lord to come and heal him. And the Lord said, why, just go thy way. Thy servant shall be healed. And the man said, well, he couldn't understand this. He says, I'm the man of authority. And he said, I'm not worthy that she should come under my roof. Speak the word only. That's the point I want to get across. Speak the word only. And my servant shall be healed any more.
And that's the point. Speak the word only. God's word is enough. God's word is sufficient. And yet how much of it is confused today? Remember back in the Old Testament when Elijah was in the mountains. And God wanted to speak to Elijah. And God told him to go and stand upon the mountains. Then you know what happened? The strong wind rents the mountains. But God was not in the wind. Then a terrible earthquake shook the mountain. And God was not in the earthquake.
Then fire swept through the mountain. God was not in the fire. Then a still small water. And I dragged up the net. It was still small water. God had never been associated with commotion. excite turmoil. At the end of this chapter, God is not the author of confusion. Let everything be done decently and in order. Order becomes my house. When you think of that be still and know that I am God, the dew is a lovely type of the Holy Spirit, and the dew falls in the spindle.
You never see dew on the ground after a lot of wind. It's there. It falls in the sin. This morning, the tabernacle was referred to. And when it was referred to, I thought of this past week when up in Atlanta, a doctor's wife, and I was quite surprised. She invited me over to the house and said, I want you to explain the Trinity. Well, I thought, why not ask me where King got his wife? Because these are some of the run-of-the-mill Christians. explain the deity, and you are the wife of a very capable Bible teacher? Well, she said, can't you explain it?
I said, no man can see my face and live, said God. God the Father, you cannot see. God the Father does not have form. He does not have figures. Did he just sit? God is a spirit, but I said, God, the Son has a form. He has a spirit. I said, for instance, taking the tabernacle, inside the holy of holy, that small compartment was the satina glory. God was in that little box, if you want to call it that.
So much so, the very air was charged with mighty power. Had you posse that inner veil and stepped in there without blood, you'd have been trivened up, you'd have been killed on the spot. Was there a form of God in the Holy of Holies? No. There was no form whatsoever. The form of a human being knows. There was just the concentrated power of Almighty God. God is a spirit. He fills the universe. Go thousands and millions of light miles east, west, north and south.
God is there. And Joe points to us, if I go to the uttermost parts of the earth, there's the life that is coming. How were you going to concentrate? God, the Almighty God, into a small compartment. Life in the cabinet. And yet he did. Please, God Almighty, to concentrate his presence, his power in the Holy of Holies. Boards and curtains kept him from spreading. Isn't that strange? Just a day. The Lord Jesus said to the day, let it stay as flesh.
God concentrated all his power in flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. When you look into that holy of holies, you couldn't go in, but God is there, and there was supreme silence. There was an awful part of the holy stillness, the divine tranquility from God, you say. Had those curtains been removed on those boards and God's presence that was concentrated in the Holy of Holy who had spread over that nation, everyone would have been dead.
They couldn't stand the presence of God. Here is God. There's no form in the Holy of Holy. No physical figure or anything to represent God. God the Fathers are finished. And I said to this, Sister, you can't grasp that. But when God comes down to consecrate his power, incarnate in Jesus' sight, even the Son of God let a little light out, when they came to arrest them and see, they said, for he said, who seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth, I am he. There's the great I am, and a flash went out and they fell to the ground.
Yes, God was in Christ. Remarkably, they. So we know that God the Father is a spirit. He's everywhere. God the Son has a form. A human form. He's the only one now in eternity in the spirit world that has a form. He's there, a God's right hand with a body you can handle, you can touch, you can see. He's the forerunner. And all the redeemed in that day will have a spiritual body like unto his body. When you come back to the Holy Spirit again, he is a spirit.
Because in order for the Lord Jesus to be on earth and be enjoyed by all God's people, he would have to be traveling all the time. He could only be localized in one place at a time when he was in Jerusalem, he was there, when he was in Nazareth, he was there. He was a person. He was limited in his movement. But he said, I've got to go back to heaven. But if I stay here, only a few can enjoy my presence, my company. I'm going back to heaven and when the Spirit comes, he'll be in every believer. My other self. I went over this to this lady.
I don't know whether I got to or not. But the point is, The presence of God is characterized by full quietness, stillness, not couching, carrying on, think of the golden calf, worshiping the golden calf, and all the excitement, the shouting, the dancing, half naked. God frowned on that when it comes to the presence of God. Holy quietness. God is there, and I shudder to think of some of the scenes today that are carried on, supposing to be filled with the Spirit, controlled by the Spirit, is nothing but a loss of commotion and temptation.
This is what God wants us to know something of, that quietness in our heart. After forty-six years preaching, some of the meetings that God has blessed the most and the most souls that have been saved in have been meeting grace at Hereupindra. There's a holy heart that God is working. This is in two of all evangelists. This is one thing these men have recorded in their meetings. It is the sin of a meeting where God is working in the heart. Billy Graham, Hugh Jarrett, that there's anything he wants is quiet, not to move.
For the quiet, God moving upon human spirit, the Holy Spirit, a church, I know not how the spirit moves from this thing that has been, revealing Jesus through the word creating faith in Jesus. And a meeting that's had it to rise by the sense of God. Last Sunday night, In Atlanta, there were an awful lot of tears, and it was one of those quiet meetings. You could almost hear one's own heart peaking in his breath, quietly. That's why he says at the end of his chapter, God's not the author of the complete.
There's that divine stillness, the stillness. You can only hear God's feet when there's stillness. If there's commotion you can't. Paul is going into this subject in this chapter on tongues. A lot of people talking at the same time, they don't know what they're saying, and they think they're having a wonderful time. Ask at the end, what did you learn? Nothing. Nothing. That's not a problem. That's why he set out this subject. Verse fifteen. This is some point I want you to know again.
That is the importance of understanding, understanding. Verse nine, and this one is all your attention to these verses. Verse nine. So likewise ye, except ye uttered by the tongue, words easy to be understood, tongues shall it be known, what is spoken. for ye shall speak into the air. Then down to verse fourteen. What if I pray in a tongue? It says here on the known, but that's in the appellate. What if I pray in a tongue?
My spirit says, but my understanding is ungrateful. What is it that? I will pray with the spirit. And I pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. The emphasis on understanding else, when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall it be? How shall he that occupy the room of the unlearned say, Amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing thee understandeth not what thou shalt. And yet they do say amen and we don't understand what he says.
Plenty of amen. Amen. Hallelujah. We don't know what he's talking about. He's supposed to say amen when you understand what the man is saying. Paul said, if I'm going to pray, if I'm going to sing, I'm going to sing in language and pray in language so somebody can understand it and say amen. So be it. I heard a meeting one time the preacher was talking about all the people going to hell. Amen. In other words, so be it. and them all go to home. This is confusing. Simply notice also verse nineteen. You don't think verse fifteen. For thou verily give a thanks, well, but the other is not anybody.
And verse nineteen, yet in the church thou hadst rather speak five words this my understanding. that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in understanding, or be it in malice, ye children, but in understanding be ye men. Now notice how many times you use the word understanding, you know, for me. If you're not understanding what's being said, then the whole thing is worth the time.
You might as well stay home. And if the preacher is not saying things that can be understood and profitable and edified, he might just as well as stay home too. So this very chapter says that what he says is not edifying the people he can be found. And so the apostle is getting across the need for ministry that understands that it can be understood and edified. He pointed out last week, ten thousand words In an unknown tongue, Paul said, I'd sooner speak five words, and those five words be understood than ten thousand. Two thousand to one. Very sure.
That's something. Here are five lovely words that you can speak in a tongue that everybody can take in. Behold the land of God. If that message rang around the world in every language, wouldn't it be wonderful? But here are people, just as long as they're talking, whether they're edifying anybody or not. It's not at the point. They're talking. They've got the platform. Ten thousand words. No one's being edified. No one's understanding. But they're telling. They've got the platform. Satisfied that they're talking. Edification? Well, they're the fighter and everybody else.
That doesn't matter. It matters. I'm hope. That's what Paul says. Our two utter five words and people be edified. And ten thousand. Rejecting self. Promoting self. Exulting self. He gets right down to the kernel of this thing. Now what I want to get at now are some of the rules laid down in this chapter. And if we get these rules, I think we'll get the speaker. what Paul is trying to say. He speaks about being men and not children. Children prefer that which is noisy, that which is amusing, instead of that which is solid, and that which is useless.
Now these rules, verse twenty-six to twenty-eight. We want to get into this subject. Here are the rules for the use of tongues. How be it is that then, brethren, when ye come together, every one of you has a psalm, has a doctrine, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto everybody. Whatever you do, be sure you're edifying somebody else. You're building them up. If any man speaks in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most, by three, and that by course, one by one, one out of the other, unless one intercessor.
But if there be no intercessor, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to him strength from the door. Let the prophet speak, as you're noticing from twenty-six to forty-eight, the laws, the rules concerning tongues, And there's a little word that I went through this chapter and underlined it. It's found thirteen times, and I was surprised that four times the capital is used. L-E-T, let. In other words, this little word let means there's authority. There's permission. And when the capital letter is there, it adds to its importance.
Four times, you'll find... The capital letter is written left. I think it's right up to the beginning. Left. After the first four days, and I think it's down further, it's one of the old poems about left. What do you have, anyway, in verse twenty-six at the end of that verse? Let all things be done under edified. And thirteen times, and thirteen is the number of rebellion. Isn't that strange? Thirteen is the number of rebellion.
And thirteen times in this chapter he uses the little word, let. Let. Be sure you have authority. Be sure you've got permission to do this. Otherwise, it's going to be disordered and confused. Let. All things be done unto ever thought. What are they rules for the women or the subject of tongues? Only one to speak at a time. Now that's one rule. Only one to speak at a time. And that everything that's said be interpreter. It's no interpreter, no speaker.
That's another rule right here. And they must speak in a known language. That's another rule. And not to be any sound, garble, guttural sound, things like that. The words have got to be clear. Well, there are the rules laid down strictly in these everses concerning tongues. If people went by those, there wouldn't be. All the confusion that is today relative to this subject. Take Villagray, and when he goes to Korea, talk of me further than I did, he had an interpreter. Don't let anybody tell me that Billy Jim hasn't been laid hold of by God and used mightily by God, and I've never heard him speak in tongues yet.
And yet he's spoken to more people in this world than any other living man as far as the gospel. He's spoken in the language that he knows English. When he's in another country where there's another language, he's huge and intrusive. Whether in Africa is real or real. The intrusive, I thought, was brilliant. When he followed Billy Graves, put the same emphasis on it. That was our masterpiece of interpretation. And how God went, that's what God would teach us. If a man can't speak the language of his audience, let him use the interpreter. And if there's no interpreter, let him keep quiet. Well, that's plainly the rule laid down in the subject of ponder.
Then the other rule is relative to prophets. You'll find that in verses twenty-nine and thirty-three. Left, here we are again. We had the letter left with the capital letter in verse twenty-six. Now you have it in twenty-nine. Let the prophecy, leaving the tongues, is coming into the field of prophecy. Let the prophet speak two or three and let the others judge. anything be revealed to another that sitteth by leaps the first holdeth peace for ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted and the spirit of the prophet the subject of the prophet for God is not the author of confusion but of peace and in all the churches of the faith one of the law rules here for the prophets, but they speak one at a time.
Those two are the same ones. And if one gets up, and at that time they didn't have the subsidiary pointed out last week, and someone gets off the track, another one sitting by, the Spirit of God is quick. Today, if you heard somebody on the platform say something against the deity of Christ, something was wrong, you would say, brother, Let me show you what the Bible says. They didn't have the new church in the Middle Ages. But if a brother gets off the track, the Spirit of God immediately reveals to another brother the heir. And he says, Listen, I've got an answer to that. You're wrong. He has a revelation. And the first holder is peace. And the second man proceeds.
That's the way it was done. The prophet prophesied in those days. And he said, No prophet is a judge of his own ministry. Let that prophet speak and let the other prophet judge, let them discern, analyze what he says. These are the rules for prophesying in the church. And every servant should be a profitable servant. I think you have that in verse thirty-one. What a profitable service it is. For ye may all prophesy one by one that all, everybody may learn. and all may be comforted. Isn't that a prophet at all meeting?
Everybody learned something. Everybody needed comfort, God. That's when the prophets are under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. And these prophets also were to be in possession of their own faculties for the prophets are to control themselves for the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophets. Now you come to the next section for the room, and that's in connection with the lady. By the way, before we get into the section for the lady, can you stop to think of what God is pointing out here about the leading of the Holy Spirit?
How wonderful it is, how the Spirit of God through the Apostle, he moved from section to section. He takes up one section, and then he goes, and covers it well, and he goes into the next. Now he's coming to the third section, and it's that of the ladies. Notice this in verse thirty-three. Let, here's that capital letter again, let your women keep silent in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. but they are commanded to be under obedience as also there is a law.
And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the good." Now he lays down the law right here for women. In that church at Cornwall there was so much confusion. And it's very interesting and very civil. One, rule number one, they are to remain silent. He said, it's not permitted for them to speak. And you know, it's remarkable here. So people can talk about these women in Corinth.
And I'm amazed that some Bible scholar so-called take this view. These women were just muttering, trippering away, and gossiping. That's what they referred to. That's a lot of hogwash. The word speech right here, the same word Leneo, that Jews ninety-some times in the New Testament and refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, refers to John the Baptist, even refers to God in his early passage. then if the women are here told as some say, you're not to gossip, you're not to Twitter, you're not to carry on and be whispering one to the other, I suffer not a woman to speak.
That word is Laleo and a speak of intelligence. Avoid! And if you use the connection with God, it will apply to the women and apply it to God, God clippering, God clippering, Jesus Christ clippering. Jesus Christ brought this, brought this. John the Baptist are saying, that's the way they tricked the Word of God. A woman is to keep silent in the truth. I suffer not a woman to cheat, nor to use authority, to serve authority over the man. And it seems as though Paul uses a little irony here in verse thirty-six. What? Came the Word of God out from you, or came it unto you only.
Are you interpreting the scriptures you told him to treat yourself? But a woman has a child, a family, to participate in a public audience. Where did he get the word of God from? Are you the source of it? Should the word came unto you, Christian? Or came it unto you from someone out without? They came unto you. God sent his word unto you. You're not the authority. The church is not the authority of these matters. And just a little bit of irony, what came the word of God out from you? Or came it unto you. They came unto you.
And it didn't come unto you only, you church. You're not the only church to get the word of God. All the churches of the faith. And how the Apostle Paul brings this in when he's dealing with women's ministry in this place. And it's very remarkable. You take the women out of the charismatic movement, and it will die overnight. She has a leadership. And finally, listen to the word of God. And then he goes on here, too. You'll notice another one of the rules in verse thirty-seven and thirty-eight. If any man thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
Paul says, I know there are those who are going to take the view, but I am an old bachelor, and I am prejudiced against the women, and therefore I am seeking my mind. I don't want them to... treat, peace in the church. Paul hits that right on the head. These are not my views. He said, as any man think himself the apostolic or spiritual, if you're spiritual, you'll take what I'm saying as what. Let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandment of the Lord.
Justice from God. Justice is not my view, my view. And that question of my view entering into the participation of women of church is outside my thinking. What I'm telling you, he says, is a command of the Lord. Can you get around that? And Timothy supports. And Timothy is referred to again. Wherefore, brethren, enter verse thirty-eight, but if a man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. In other words, he's got to say, If you're spiritual, you'll accept these as the commandments of the Lord, the rules and regulations as to church order and as to this tongue situation.
And if you're not spiritual, And you don't accept these things as a commandment of the Lord, then be ignorant. That's what he says. But if any man be ignorant, left him be ignorant. That's the third, twelfth time, you find a little word left. Now verse thirty-five. Careful, brethren. Cover to prophesy. And forbid not to speak in tongues. Tolerate the tongues. But they're only to be used. If tongues are used, they've got to be used according to the rules laid down in their chapter. And Paul makes it plain, if anybody is going to follow the rules laid down in chapter fourteen, then that's the news about them.
But it's going to be men only. And they're going to speak one of the power. He lays down the rules in his chapter. And there's no need of anyone going astray. When you take up this book in the manner that God has given it up to the Apostle Paul. So there are these things, four rules relative to the tying on of the assembly and relative to these tongues and women speaking in tongues. The four rules are, first, you've got to have an interpreter. Second, your ministry's got to edify.
Third, one at a time. What! Holy men! I challenge anybody to repeat that. They are the rules for speaking tongues in the assembly of Scripture. Then it is through the remarkable chapter which let all things be done decently and in it. Decency has hardly characterized the talent not of humor. It used to be a group meeting down on Palomar Road. There were a couple here tonight who could vouch for this. You can hear them a mile away. Siring on to midnight.
Rolling on the floor. Men having enough decency that take coats and cover up the women. Is that becoming holiness? Is it become a God house? Is that order? Or is that confusion with flesh and not spirit? According to the teaching of his chapter on the subject of Christ, let all this be done deeply and poorly. Because God is not the author of confusion. This is what the word says, I hope, for you, the chapter.
And this word order is very important. I think it's over in Luke we have concerning Zechariah and how he executed his thought according to the order of the priesthood. If you go back to the Old Testament and see the order of the priesthood and Zechariah was carrying out that same order given in the Old Testament, the order was fixed. The order was right down the line. The law order was becoming a holy God on God's holy place. Holiness. Become of this house.
Here are the rules for the observance of tongues as I hear. And I know one thing, if I knew the Lord Jesus Christ was coming an hour from now, I wouldn't say, Lord, let me speak in tongues. I would say, Lord, let me go and heal somebody's body. I'd say, Lord, lead me to some soul, appoint that soul to Christ before the Lord comes. That's what God wants us to do today. He says, prophecies are named, coveted. But if someone does have a gift from God, if two or three people sit in the audience, they can speak another language.
And a brother gets up and speaks that language and benefits those two to three people with that fresh of garlic tolerated. But if this...