Godly People Recognize God’s Word

Transcript

GR 1361
07-15-07
Godly People Recognize God's Word
1 Corinthians 14:36-40
Gil Rugh

We are studying 1 Corinthians and we are ready to conclude chapter 14, so you can turn there in your Bibles, 1 Corinthians 14. We come to a very important area. We can say that any time we are studying the Word of God, but what Paul is going to address in pulling together what he has been saying in chapters 12-14 is particularly pertinent to issues that face us as a church today and the evangelical church more broadly. And you remember what Paul has been saying he sees as binding on all the churches. At the end of 1 Corinthians 14:33 Paul says, as in all the churches of the saints the women are to keep silent in the churches. And we get down to verse 36 he'll ask them, was it from you only that the Word of God first went forth? Has it come forth from you only? In other words, are you your own authority? You act like you are the only ones with the Word of God. You understand, what God has said to the church, He has said to all the churches, and that includes you. But it's not limited to you. And so you are not free to act on your own, you're not free to give it your own interpretation, you're not free to decide what you will accept and not accept.

Paul is concerned that the Word of God be presented in a clear and understandable way. He's been contrasting the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues. The gift of prophecy involved receiving direct revelation from God and then communicating it to the people in their language. The gift of tongues involved receiving revelation from God, but speaking it forth in a foreign language that you had not learned. The weakness of tongues is that it needs an interpreter, so there is another step required to make it effective, a translator, if you will. So Paul says prophecy is a superior gift, more important gift, it has greater impact on the church, because it can be used at any time in any of the meetings, because a prophet will not need a translator or an interpreter.

God gives His Word simply to be understood and obeyed. It cannot be obeyed if it is not understood. God does not minister apart from His Word. Our minds must be involved in God's work of maturing us and building us up. That's true individually, and for us as a church. The very fact that God has spoken should cause us to stop and consider, would He speak without an intention for us to understand? Would He give us instructions to be carried out and give them in a way they are so confusing we cannot be sure what He said? An obvious answer is no. Sometimes without intending to, at least I hope not intending to, we accuse God of being muddled in His thinking, of saying things but what He said is so confusing or so hard to understand that it almost is impossible to be sure. If that's the case, God might as well not have said anything. The only value to God speaking is that He speaks in a way that we can understand and learn.

Leave a marker in 1 Corinthians 14 and come back to the Old Testament to the book of Deuteronomy. I want to say a number of things to set the foundation for the passage we are going to look at in 1 Corinthians 14, and with this foundation I think what Paul says will flow more smoothly and clearly. Deuteronomy 4, God speaks to the nation Israel through Moses. Verse 1, now oh Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform. Now God has spoken to Moses, now Moses is teaching the people what God has told him. He is teaching them to perform it, to do it. Verse 2, you shall not add to the Word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. You see, God intends His people to understand the Word that He has spoken and to obey it. You cannot obey what you don't understand. If you go to another country and a policeman comes up to you and gives you instructions in the language of that country and you don't know the language, you don't have the foggiest idea what to do. If someone speaks in some kind of cryptic way that you need a code to decipher, you can't be held responsible for carrying it out. There must be understanding of the Word for there to be obedience to the Word. Over in Deuteronomy 12:32, whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do.

You shall not add to it nor take away from it. Statements like that, and they permeate the Old Testament as well as continue through the New Testament, indicate God speaks and we are responsible for understanding, we are accountable for obeying. God told Joshua in Joshua 1:7-8, as Joshua assumed responsibility for leadership of the nation that the book of the law should not depart out of his mouth, but he should meditate upon it day and night so that he could be careful to do everything that it says. Again, you think upon it, you meditate upon it, you be careful to do exactly what it says.

Come over to the New Testament to 2 Timothy 2, and we should spend several weeks of studies just going through the scripture with this emphasis, but just a reminder to you with a few passages. Look at verse 2, the things which you have heard from me, Paul writing to Timothy, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You see the line, Paul received revelation from God, God spoke to Paul. Paul taught that to Timothy, now Timothy is to take that and teach it to other men, and those men are to teach it to others. You see it's founded upon the reality that God has spoken in an understandable way, not just for Paul to understand, but for Paul to teach to Timothy so Timothy understands. And Timothy to teach to other men so they can understand and teach to others, so that God's people can live in submission and obedience to God's Word.

Look in 2 Timothy 4. Verse 1 gives the charge, with God as the witness, in the presence of Jesus Christ, and I remind you, you will give an account before the judgment throne of Jesus Christ. He's the judge of the living and the dead. Preach the Word. Why? Verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. In the preaching of the Word, the end of verse 2, you reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they won't want the preaching of the Word, they won't want to be rebuked with the Word, they won't want to be reproved with the Word, they won't want to be exhorted with the Word. Stay with it, it will take patience and you keep instructing them. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. They will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you'll note, Paul tells Timothy, you can stay on track by staying with the Word. In other words, you should understand the Word, and as you are taught the Word you are to develop a discernment to be able to sift the Word out from myths. And God's people are held accountable for staying faithful to His Word and not turned aside to myths. That presupposes you should understand His Word. How am I going to distinguish between what God has said and not said if He hasn't spoken in an understandable way? Marvelous, the eternal God has spoken. But it would be irrelevant if He has not spoken in a way that we can understand. But you do know that the God who created us, created us to communicate, to communicate verbally in an understandable way. And so I would assume that He is more capable than any of His creation, because He is the creator of communicating to us, speaking to us, and doing it in a way that we can be held accountable for understanding.

This doesn't mean everything in the Word will be easy. Turn over to Titus 1. You'll note the responsibility of the elders in Titus 1:9, they are to be men who are holding fast the faithful Word, which is in accordance with the teaching. So that they will both be able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to refute those who contradict. They will know what is sound, healthy teaching, they will know what is not. And they will exhort with healthy teaching, and they will refute any teaching that is not for the spiritual health of God's people.

Doesn't mean that it will be easy. While you are here, back up to 2 Timothy 2:15. Paul instructs Timothy, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth. It takes diligence. You must apply yourself with zeal, with passion, so that you can be approved by God. What is that standard of approval? Handling accurately the Word of God, literally cutting it straight. Handling accurately the Word of truth. We've emphasized this before. Coming together for what we call worship, where we're instructed the Word. It is not a time of relaxation, it's a time we apply ourselves diligently because we desire the approval of God, and that requires handling His Word correctly, accurately.

Turn over to 2 Peter 3:14, therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, the climax of all things and the destruction of this earth and the heavens around this earth. We're looking for a new heavens and a new earth, therefore, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace. Note this, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother, Paul, according to the wisdom given to him wrote to you. As also in all his letters, speaking to them of these things. Now note this, in which are some things hard to understand. Peter acknowledges, some of the things that Paul wrote are difficult to understand. Which the untaught and the unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction. Now I want you to note the connection here. Peter says Paul has written some things hard to understand, but there is no excuse for not understanding, because those who twist or distort what Paul has written, do it to their own destruction. So even though some portions of the Word take more serious study and drive us to study more thoroughly that portion, there never is an excuse for mishandling it, for twisting it, distorting it. So even Peter in acknowledging some things are harder to understand, does not cut slack for anybody to not deal with the Word of God correctly.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 14, and let me just quote to you from 2 Timothy 3:16-17, all scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, complete, equipped to do everything God wants him to do. Equipped for every good work. All scripture is profitable.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 2. This is an extensive introduction, I know. We'll call it sermon one and you'll get sermon two in a moment, but the second sermon will move along because of our foundation. In 1 Corinthians 2 Paul has covered some things which are foundational to where we are going to be in a moment in chapter 14. Note verse 5, Paul said his concern was that their faith not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. That's why he preached the purity of God's Word to them. Verse 6, but yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. The church is not to be conformed to this world, because the world and its wisdom are transitory. We have a wisdom not from this world. We speak God's wisdom in a mystery. It's the hidden wisdom, the wisdom that is unknown by the world because it must come through revelation by God.

The rulers of this age didn't know this wisdom, they didn't originate it. Verse 8, none of the rulers of the age understood it, otherwise they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. It's something that is not found by human means. Verse 9, things which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit. You see this is not something. We think, well, if you're scholarly enough, if you're a good enough scientist, if you're a good enough whatever, you'll come to a knowledge of this truth by natural means. It never happens. It doesn't come through natural means, it comes through revelation from God, and the Spirit brings that revelation from God to man, through men like the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter, other writers of our Bible.

Now verse 12 says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the things freely given to us by God. When you come to place your faith in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God comes and takes up residence in your life, and He is the one who enables you to understand the wisdom that comes from God. But verse 14 says, the natural man, a soulish man, a man without the Spirit of God, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, he cannot understand them, they are spiritually appraised. How often do you hear people make comments about the Bible, sometimes scholarly people, sometimes ridiculing those who would believe the biblical account of creation as unscholarly? And other areas. Well, that doesn't match with the wisdom and the knowledge that we have today. Well it's not a matter of we've grown in wisdom. It’s a matter of two different sources of wisdom. The wisdom of this world which is transitory, and often in error because it is permeated by man's sin, and the wisdom that comes from God and can only be understood by those who have the Spirit of God as their interpreter. So we ought not to be intimidated or confused when the world does not understand the truth that we are presenting.

Now our concern, where I want to focus, and where we're going in 1 Corinthians 14 is the understanding of the Word, because many people would agree with what I've said up to this point. Many people claim to be Bible-believing Christians, go to an evangelical church. Yes, we believe this is the Word of God. But then we think that interpreting it is what we might say is an inexact science, and so we can't be sure what God has said. I think we can be sure. You don't start your day by saying, I'm going to the office today, I won't know what they're talking about. I don't know how I'm going to communicate to the people who work with me and for me, and I don't know how I'm going to understand what they have to say. You say, well, you better go back to bed and sleep a little more, or maybe get a job in a different field. I mean, we communicate all the time. We come to the Bible though, it's hard to interpret. You know why we get that idea? People who don't have the Spirit of God have often said you can't understand the Bible, and they can't apart from the Spirit of God. Secondly, we have to be careful to interpret the Bible as God gave it. In other words, we interpret it literally or normally. I read the paper a little bit this morning. I didn't read every sentence and say, I wonder what he really meant, I wonder how I should interpret it. We read it and we turn on the news, we listen. We may not agree with what is being said, but we pretty much understand what is being said. We don't allow our kids to fudge around everything we say, by saying I'm trying to figure out how that interprets. Right now I'm working on is, it all depends on what is, “is.” We all know the silliness of it.

But we come to the Bible, that silliness is supposed to be intellectual. Well, you know not just anybody can interpret the Bible. What verse do we use to support that? God gave it to common people, people wandering through the wilderness who hadn't been to college. He told them, you listen and you do what it says. How am I supposed to interpret this? Just as it is, no problem. So we follow literal, normal interpretation, I interpret the Bible the way I interpret the newspaper, the way we talk to one another—normally. The rules of grammar, in light of its historical context. There are two ways that believers set aside the scripture, particularly in the context as you come back to chapter 14, of what Paul has been writing about. He's talked about spiritual gifts, and then he has added on at the end of that discussion in chapter 14 verses 34-36, some comments about the role of women. And people say, some of this is cultural. I gave you some examples of that as we studied different portions. They say, it's cultural, it was for that particular culture, that particular day, that particular social setting, so it is not applicable to us today. We have to be careful, because that becomes a way of just validating not having to accept and obey what God has said.

Another way we do it is we say, well, look, we're not going to agree on everything. So let's focus on the majors, not on the minors. Let's focus on those major doctrines that we have to believe, and we agree that there will have to be disagreement on the minors. You know as I've tried to search through the scripture I can't find anywhere where God says it's all right to disobey me in areas you think are minor. In fact, if you've been here for our study of the Old Testament, we've found that sometimes people who disobey God in what would seem like a rather minor area suffered devastating consequences. You know, is not the seriousness of what is said determined to a large extent by who says it? If you're driving down the road 3 MPH over the speed limit, give you the benefit of the doubt, one of your kids says to you, Dad, slow down, you're going over the speed limit. You say, yes, son, thank you for reminding me. You may, congratulations. I say, shut up and sit down. Put your seat belt on and don't look at the speedometer, it's none of your business. But if a policeman pulls me over and says, you were going over the speed limit. That carries a different kind of weight. Why? Because of his position.

If I stand here, we're having a debate on the war in Iraq and I say, we're going to get out of Iraq with our troops tomorrow, or this week at the latest. You say, wonderful, good to hear. Means nothing. But if the President of the United States gets up and says, we have decided to remove our troops by the end of the week, all of a sudden it means something. Why? We both said the same thing. Depends on who said it.

If the eternal God who created everything who is sovereign over everything says something, who am I to become His editor? And say, Lord, you're fortunate to have me because you have said a lot, but you know it's not all worthwhile. And so you don't have to thank me, but I'm going to tell these people what you've said is important and what is not. And let them know that they don't have to do what you said if I decided it wasn't important. I know you'll appreciate my narrowing it down to four, five, maybe half a dozen key things. Does that not sound arrogant, if not blasphemous?

All right, all of that brings us to the end of chapter 14. Paul is ready to wrap up what he has said in chapters 12-14 regarding order in the church, particularly as it related to spiritual gifts and the role of women. Verse 37, if anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments. Anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual. He doesn't say they are a prophet. If any of you is a prophet or spiritual, if anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, because he's going to set down a test that will determine whether they are or aren't. Not everyone who thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, particularly with the gift of tongues in the context of what he is talking about, really is. Because it will be settled by whether you pass the test. A prophet was a person who received revelation. He's talked about the importance of the gift of prophecy. Or spiritual. A word that was used in chapter 12 verse 1 at the beginning of the discussion of spiritual gifts to refer to spiritual gifts generally. It was used again in chapter 14 verse 1 to refer to spiritual gifts. And the particular spiritual gift that is in view here, along with prophecy, is tongues. Those are the two gifts he's been comparing, and he'll compare again in verse 39—prophecy and tongues.

So if anyone thinks he has one of these gifts that have been an issue in the church at Corinth, and is receiving revelation from God to give to the congregation, then he must recognize, fully know. The words, “know,” with a preposition on the front, emphasizing fully know, understand, recognized. That the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments. In other words, if you're receiving revelation from God as a prophet or one who has the gift of tongues, then you will fully know that what I am saying is the Lord's commandment. And the emphasis in that statement is on the word Lord's. The last words of this, the word Lord's is put first, and that meant they put the strong stress on the Lord's. He is the source of this command. What I have been writing are commands coming from the sovereign Lord. And if you receive revelation from the Lord and you truly are, then you will recognize, you will fully know this, there won't be any doubt. That becomes the test. Because if you deny what Paul is saying as coming from the Lord, then you really are not receiving revelation from the Lord. Because He wouldn't be saying something different, something contradictory.

So Paul is God's apostle, is God's spokesman. There is revelation being given to the church at Corinth through prophets and those who had the gift of tongues. But it will always be in concert and agreement with the revelation being given by God's apostles. So that becomes the standard. And if you don't agree, you don't have the gift. In fact, it may be an indication you are not saved at all. We'll get to that in a moment. But what are we talking about here? Are we talking about agreeing on the majors? As though anyone who has the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues, gifts that involve receiving revelation, will acknowledge that the major things I am saying are the Lord's commandment. What has he been talking about in the context here in chapters 12-14? Spiritual gifts. What has he just talked about in the immediately preceding verses? Something that applies to all the churches, the end of verse 33, as in all the churches the women are to keep silent in the churches, they are not permitted to speak. Two areas, the dominant one is the use of the gifts, but you understand in the functioning of the church, the ministry of the Word of God is entrusted to men, not to women. Are these major or minor things? Are these things you have to agree on or you don't have to agree on? How the gifts are used, you're charismatic or not charismatic; Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal or not Pentecostal or not neo-Pentecostal. You believe that women should nor should not. Are these majors or minors? Well, Paul says, if you don't agree with me on these, you don't pass the test.

Let me read you what one modern evangelical professor has written, he's a professor at an evangelical seminary, he's written a commentary, he also coauthored a commentary on Bible hermeneutics, how to interpret the Bible. I want to read a little extensively, but follow the quote, see if he is saying what Paul says. Now I understand what Paul said here in verse 37. Let me read you what Paul said, if anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I am writing to you are the Lord's commandment. What has he just written? Well I just talked to you about the role of women in the church, verse 34-35; I've been spending time talking to you about how spiritual gifts are to be used and not used, and what they are.

Here is what this person writes. Verses 36-38 call into question the continued attachment to denominational distinctions that prevent the contemporary evangelical church from achieving powerful, visible unity. In other words he starts out by saying, the kind of things that divide us into denominations are called into question by what Paul says here, because we shouldn't be dividing over those things that hinder the achieving of our powerful, visible unity. I'm not sure where Paul said anything about the importance of achieving powerful, visibly unity in verses 37-38.

Let me go on. If only one small branch of contemporary Christianity holds to a particular doctrine or practice, it is probably not clearly mandated in scripture, and therefore not important enough to divide believers. Now it depends on how large the group is agreeing on what the Bible teaches. Then it becomes hard to sort this out, because Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 that the hoi paloi, the majority, the masses are not interpreting and handling the scripture properly. The main exception. Now if only a small minority group holds a particular doctrine, then we shouldn't divide over that doctrine, because we're going to vote on it, I guess, by numbers. The main exception to this principle, though. There is an exception to when it's just a small minority. The main exception to this principle lies in matters of racism, sexism, ageism (guess that's me, I'm in my 60s, I qualify as an ageism group) and the like. Because groups that are discriminated against are by definition minorities. Now we have race, sex, age and any other minority as being able to carry extra weight in determining whether we have to accept something as valid or not. But the broad-based consensus on the fundamentals of the faith achieved by many organizations in the para-church movement needs to be imitated by the church, too. Then views on baptism, church polity, eschatology and so on would not longer hinder churches from working in cooperative ventures for the promotion of kingdom priorities. Now he says things of eschatology oughtn't to divide us, but you note, he wants us to act on the basis of his eschatology—we have to implement kingdom priorities. My understanding of eschatology is we're not in the kingdom. So it's a red herring to say these things oughtn't to divide us. Really what he is saying is you ought to operate on the basis of my convictions.

And so now we have a whole set of differing standards from the Word of God that says how we're going to decide what we believe in scripture and what we don't. Listen to this statement. And surely views on women's roles come under this category of nonessential. He goes on. Egalitarians and hierarchalists, in other words, whether you believe in women being able to do everything that men do, or you believe in a limited role for women and the responsibility of men to lead and teach. Both groups alike need to stop accusing each other of being unbiblical, and instead acknowledge more humbly that the bible data simply is not clear enough to permit dogmatism on either side. The same is almost most certainly true for charismatics and non-charismatics. In other words, two areas where we ought not to divide and hold dogmatic convictions for sure, are on the role of women and the use of spiritual gifts. And he gets that out of verse 37, 38. I scratch my head, because Paul says in verse 37, if anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment. Which things is he talking about? I couldn't find any commentary that didn't think he was talking about the things in chapters 12-14. But now this man tells me I don't have to acknowledge what Paul wrote here. He says, I acknowledge this as Paul's writing, it's just that there isn't enough information in what Paul wrote for us to understand it. Then I say with all reverence, God just should not have spoken. He wasted His breath, He spoke but He didn't give enough information to have any idea what He is talking about. And furthermore, Paul didn't know what He was talking about, because he made the standard of fully agreeing with what he has said as the Lord speaking. And yet we don't have enough information to know what He said. And so you can hold opposing views on the role of women, totally opposing views. And that's all right. And you can hold totally opposing views on spiritual gifts, and that's all right because God spent three chapters of His Word here, some would include chapter 11 because that was also involved in the worship of the church when it comes together where Paul discussed more fully the role of women and then the Lord's Supper. But all of that talking by the Lord, He didn't say anything that we can really sort out for sure. So all we can say is you have your opinion, I have my opinion.

You see what we do then. Everybody is right and it really doesn't matter. There is enough disagreement here that we say we can just put an X over this, we can take this and really just tear it out because if it's all right to hold opposing views, then it doesn't matter if you have a view at all. God is not going to hold you accountable to this. I just use this as an example because this is where we are, but this is the way people go through the Word and handle it. This is a man who has written a book with another man on hermeneutics, how to interpret the Bible. What it really comes down to is how to get rid of portions of the Bible that you don't like. This is the way people get rid of hell. You know, that's too terrible a concept, I don't like to think of an eternal hell. Well I have another reason, you know the gospels talk about demons, but you know what? That was in an uneducated, superstitious day. Now we know that people have brain seizures that cause them to throw themselves down. Now we have an understanding of psychology and we know aberrant behavior is caused by . . . And on we go. So we don't have to believe in demons anymore. And we just keep working through the scripture and we find more and more of the scriptures being discarded.

I was reading about an evangelical movement that has come out of Britain and now coming across to the United States that denies the substitutionary atonement of Christ, that God had His Son come to take your place to bear your penalty. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, I Peter. Do you know what this “evangelical” theologian says? And it's gaining wide acceptance, starting to permeate evangelical churches. That's a form of divine child abuse, for God to punish His Son for your sins would be child abuse. Where does it stop? Now we're at the atonement. If we don't allow the Bible to be the authority and scripture to speak and sit in judgment, then men become the authorities, scholarly men, and we become intimidated. Well, I've read commentaries, I've listened to this scholar and this scholar and he says we don't have enough information and he's a scholar, he knows more than I. Therefore, I guess we don't know. Remember, no one in Israel could claim that kind of excuse for their disobedience, no one in the church will be able to claim that excuse for disobedience. That's why many in the scholarly community don't like the simplistic approach we take to scripture. That's unscholarly, that's because you don't know enough. That's why God raised up fishermen like Peter, James, John to be His spokesmen. And Paul was willing to set aside and put on the dung heap all that made him admirable in the world, and become a fool for Christ's sake in preaching the message of Christ.

My concern is, people look at us as a church and say, if you don't agree with them in every detail. Well, I am not claiming the perfect knowledge, that I'm the only one who has ever interpreted the Bible correctly, but I do have a responsibility before God as you do to be obedient to the Word of God as we have studied. I can't just say, well, look that's a minor, we won't deal with that, as long as we deal on the majors. Where in the Bible does God ever say the church has to get together like that on this kind of universal, broad-based thing, and on that basis we can narrow down to six things you must agree on. We go to the seven churches of Asia Minor addressed in Revelation 2-3. God never tells them to get together. Different churches have a different set of problems and strengths. They’re on the same mail route in that part of the area. God could have told them to set aside their differences and get together and have a united testimony and blah, blah, blah. It's not there. We're trying to do what God never said to be done, and that justifies now, our weakening scripture. We have to achieve powerful, visible unity as a church. So on that basis we're going to decide that these are the only things that are major in scripture and that's what will unite us. Well men haven't been called to set God's agenda, God sets His own agenda and we come to the scriptures to get that agenda. And this whole red herring and smoke machine of it all depends, everybody has his own interpretation. Next time you get stopped for speeding, tell the officer, everybody has his own interpretation of the speed limit. Go have lunch and walk out and say, I'm not paying, everybody has his own interpretation on paying, and I don't think that was a meal. I paid for it just eating it. Now how does that go? Well everybody has his own interpretation, I guess that's valid. Why do we come to the Bible and why does anybody who is a believer give credence to this idea, we have differing interpretations. That's right, some are right and some are wrong, and we better be diligent to study the scriptures so that we handle it straight, we cut it correctly, accurately so that we might be approved by God. That word approved means to pass the test, to handle the scripture accurately. As I study it I realize I haven't been handling it accurately, I want to make the adjustment. But the scripture stands as the ultimate, final authority. It is outside ourselves.

So that's what Paul is saying. If you are a prophet or spiritual, you recognize, fully acknowledge, know the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments. Godly people recognize God's Word. That ought to raise red flags. So the next statement, if anyone does not recognize this he is not recognized. If anyone is ignorant of this, he himself is ignorant, will be ignorant. You have to bring in the word, “recognized” or “acknowledged” here, because that second statement is a passive. He is not recognized, he is not acknowledged, he is not known. We get words like agnostic from it. If anyone does not know this, he will not be known, not recognized. For sure it would mean in the church that anybody who does not agree with this then is not recognized in the church, not acknowledged in the church, will not be accepted as a prophet or spiritual person. This is the standard. The church at Corinth is being infiltrated with false teaching already. When we get down to chapter 15 verse 12 Paul says, if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection from the dead? There are teachers in the church at Corinth denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The standard is the Word of God.

But I think there may be something more serious here, and most commentators recognize that because of the grammatical construction. If anyone does not know this, he is not to be known. It goes beyond just the church recognizing or acknowledging them, but when it comes to ultimate judgment, he will not be acknowledged, known by Christ. Remember in 2 Timothy 4 Paul challenged Timothy to preach the Word. He did it in the sight of God and of Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and the dead. Preach the Word, because the time will come when they will not endure healthy, sound teaching. Remember Matthew 7? Jesus said in the last day at the judgment many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we did many mighty works in your name. We did many mighty miracles. What is Jesus going to say to them? Depart from. Me, you cursed ones, I never knew you. They will not be known. This is a serious matter here. This idea that people can disagree with the Word of God, refuse to acknowledge the teaching of the Word of God. Oh I acknowledge it's the Word of God. It’s just not clear enough for us to understand. It's just another way of saying, I deny it, we don't have to obey it. Whatever you want your view of women in the church to be, it can be, because it's not clear enough. Whatever you want your view on spiritual gifts to be, it can be, because it's not clear enough. Whatever you want your view to be on prophecy and future things, it can be, because it's not clear enough. Whatever you want your view to be on the atonement, it can be, because it's not clear enough. Where does it stop? If the Word of God is not authoritative in everything it says, then we have transferred the authority to man who tells us what portions of it are authoritative. And that is a denial of God's authority. It is an excuse to not have to obey. If I don't like what it says, I don't want to have to do it, the whole culture is going differently on women's and men's roles, the whole culture is going differently on homosexuality, the whole culture is going differently on marriage, the whole culture . . . I just say, the culture has changed so we're not obligated to obey that today. Then who has become the authority? Not the Word of God any long, because it is only relevant in the areas where we decide it's relevant. It's only clear in the areas where we decide it is clear. I have a hard time finding a clearer statement in scripture than the end of verse 33 and verse 34, as in all the churches of the saints the women are to keep silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak.

And other evangelical commentators that are different than the one I quoted, says I have concluded for myself that this is a social setting, applicable to Paul's time in Corinth. Well, that's nice you concluded that, but it's not what the passage says. I can conclude that on any portion of scripture, every passage of scripture was written at a different time and a different culture. The last portion of scripture was written almost two thousand years ago, that was a totally different time, different culture. Old Testament goes back further than that. So that enables me to decide what I like, what I don't like, and if I don't like it I'll just say it's a different culture, it doesn't apply to us. If that doesn't work, I'll just say, there are enough people with different views on this that we can't be sure, so let's let everybody have their own view. And all of a sudden we have the Reader's Digest Bible, we've got the five or six things that we've decided are essentials, but you know what they do. They nibble away at the essentials, like the evangelicals that are saying, and they claim to be evangelicals, about our doctrine of the atonement. We have misinterpreted it. They don't deny what the Bible says directly. They don't say, the Bible says that but we don't believe that. They say, we have misinterpreted the Bible on the atonement. Openness theologians say, we have misinterpreted the Bible. God doesn't know the future, He doesn't know for sure what you're going to do tomorrow anymore than you know what you're going to do tomorrow. And they all claim to be evangelicals, because they all claim to believe the Bible. And yes it's God's Word, but we interpret it differently. And you realize what we've done. We’ve canceled the Bible. But we ought to be sure. God hasn't changed His mind. You know your kids can come up with all kinds of twisted reasons why they didn't do what you said. And you say what? What I said was clear, now here's your punishment. That's why Paul tells Timothy, remember, I'm charging you in the presence of Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and the dead, preach the Word. Now I know there will come a time when they will not put up with sound doctrine, they won't want to hear healthy teaching. But you remember, Timothy, you're going to give an account not to those people, but to Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and the dead. This church needs to realize we're not in a popularity contest with the people of this city or this country or other churches. We're not in a popularity contest or agreement contest with other evangelical churches. We are accountable to God for His Word. Now I realize that evangelical Bible-believing Christians are united in a view of scripture. I want to examine that carefully. That's why I end up reading these commentaries by men who claim to be evangelical that are holding silly views. I want to know if I have failed to handle the Word of God correctly and they are making a point. But just to write it off, if I can quote 13 scholars that have different views, that means this is a non-major view, and anybody can hold what they want. Doesn't matter if God said it as clearly in black and white as it can be said.

All right, I have beat that horse. Verse 39, therefore my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, do not forbid to speak in tongues. Now I am not forbidding speaking in tongues. In fact, the church ought to desire to have people bringing the Word of God from God. They didn't have a completed New Testament, so the church ought to have that desire for people to speak in tongues, bring revelation from God. And they shouldn't forbid to speak in tongues. So the focus is on the prophesy, that's what the church ought to be focused on. That's how he started chapter 14. But there is also a place for tongues. I have at times had people quote this verse to me to say you shouldn't be forbidding people to speak in tongues. Remember what we have to do, we have to allow the Bible to speak for itself. We have to determine first what was tongues in the New Testament, just like we have to determine what was prophesy. Just because somebody runs around and says I have a tongue or I have a prophesy doesn't mean it's true. It has to be examined in light of scripture. Determine first, what was biblical prophesy in the New Testament? What are biblical tongues? And we spent some time working through that. So in light of that, then, we don't forbid speaking in biblical tongues. We have to determine why these gifts are no longer present and the evidence to determine what were biblical tongues, what was biblical prophesy, that they are not present today. The Bible determines that for us.

But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. ‘Properly,” is a term of beauty, one person has written. It literally means, “well-formed,” it's a compound word. The basic word is what we get the word scheme from, schemanos, and you put the word well on the front. Well-schemed, well-formed, beautiful, attractive. Could mean fitting, that which is proper. And the church as it assembles together in its worship ought to conduct itself in a beautiful manner in the sense of what is fitting, well done, proper. It's what he has talked about. There is to be that kind of attractiveness to it. It's not a time of chaos, not a time of unbridled freedom where everybody is fighting for the floor, trying to get their say. No, there is a beautiful time, an orderly time, it is attractive. And in all we do in our worship together. It ought to be structured along those means. This is a serious matter. It's not done how we feel, this is all right, I'm comfortable with this, everybody ought to be comfortable with this. No, would this be considered proper, would it be considered fitting, attractive in that sense, properly done. That is to characterize our worship, everything is so . . . The next word gets to the structure. Properly and in an orderly manner. Military expression here of what you would say when a military contingent is organized. Everybody is in his proper place doing his assigned tasks as he should. You see how these go together. It's done in an attractive manner, a beautiful manner, well formed, it's orderly, everything in its proper place. People say you have structure, you have . . . Well the Spirit of God can lead us in the preparation and the planning and the order. We saw that with the prophets, they can't speak two or three at a time. It has to be each in order. Same with speaking in tongues, there has to be an order. Each has his place, his time. There is an order and a structure that takes place in the church and that is Paul's concern. In order that The Spirit of God can take the Word of God and bring it to the minds of God's people so they can understand it, concentrate on it. That's why we do our services and we provide a setting for babies to be cared for in the nursery, so that you can concentrate on the Word of God. You have to be diligent to apply yourself to the Word. You have to put your mind in focus on the Word. Some of these things are hard to understand, but God says you are accountable to understand them. So we have people who are devoted to that ministry of caring for the infants, we have people devoting themselves to the ministry of God's Word to children and young people so the Word can be brought down to their level so they can learn and the distractions are minimized. Then it can be done orderly with everything in its place, with a setting conducive to the learning of God's Word.

Isaiah 8 says something important. Verse 20, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn, no light. So to the law and to the testimony, to what God has said. If they don't speak according to that Word, it is because they are in darkness, they have no dawn, no light. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Those who speak contrary to God's Word, who speak not in agreement with God's Word are speaking out of darkness. That is the standard. I have no desire to try to sort out, these are the majors, these are the minors. I realize there are certain things that have to be known, understood and believed to be saved. We want to present the truth of the gospel. We’re going into that when we go into chapter 15. But God has not called me to be His editor, to try to tell you that this is what the Bible seems to teach here on spiritual gifts, but you know there is a lot of disagreement so if you want to hold one view or the opposite view, that will be acceptable. And on we go. No, we are here to learn what God says and when we learn that we are accountable to it. Paul has told the Ephesian elders, my hands are free from the blood of all men, for I have taught you the whole counsel of God. And so we come together to learn the whole counsel of God and that makes each of us, then, accountable before God to the truth that He has graciously enabled us to know and understand.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the marvel of your Word. We are in awe at the privilege given to us as your children to have your Spirit indwell us, your Spirit to enable us to understand your truth as we study it together. Lord, we are thankful that each word is precious, from the first word of the book of Genesis in our Bibles to the last word of the book of Revelation. It is your Word, your truth, every word precious, more precious to us than gold, more necessary to us than our daily food. Lord, may we take this Word, be careful with it. Our desire is to be approved by you as we handle accurately, correctly, faithfully your Word. We understand it. The passion of our life is to be obedient to it and live it out. I pray for any who are here. Lord, we study the Word, they may sit here week after week but it is meaningless to them. It's a time when they can hardly endure. They don't understand. It’s not a passion of their heart and mind. May they contemplate the reality of their spiritual condition and consider whether they really know you, the living God, through faith in your Son, the One who brings life. And the One in whose name we pray, amen.