Guidelines for the Use of the Gifts

Transcript

GR 1359
07-01-07
Guidelines for the Use of Gifts
1 Corinthians 14:26-33
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of 1 Corinthians, and so I'd invite your attention to 1 Corinthians 14.  We're considering a matter of great importance to us as the church because it is dealing with how the church is to function, what God intends our worship to be as the church of Jesus Christ.  This gets to be a delicate area for many people.  It becomes politically incorrect to imply in any way that someone's worship is unacceptable to God.  We have a general idea in the world that God ought to be pleased that we would even be willing to take some of our time and come and go through certain religious forms or activities, that we would, as we would say, worship Him.  And we have a sense that anything that we would choose to do in that area should be acceptable to Him.  It's interesting to me as I thought about this that at the very beginning of the human race a conflict took place over the matter of worship.  And that conflict led to the first murder in the human race.

Turn back to Genesis 4 for a moment.  We don't have time to look at the details, but just to remind you of a couple of highlights here.  Following Adam and Eve's sin, Eve bears two sons—one named Abel and one named Cain.  And because sin has entered the human race, these two men have sin natures, they are sinners.  We're told in verse 2 that Abel was a keeper of flocks, Cain was a tiller of the ground, he raised crops.  Verse 3, “And it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground”.  Doesn't this seem logical?  He's a tiller of the ground, he produces crops.  So he's going to bring an offering to the Lord from his crops.  Verse 4, “Abel on his part also brought of the firstling of his flock and of their fat portions”.  Abel raises flocks, so he brings an offering to the Lord from his flocks.  But the end of verse 4 says, “The Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard”.

The first acts of worship recorded in the Bible, two men bring offerings to God.  One man has his offering accepted by God and the other man has his offering rejected by God.  Now we're not going to go into the details of some of the reasons and the necessity of a blood sacrifice, since sin has entered the picture, but I want you to note two men came, both brought out of the resources they had, both came with the intention of God being pleased.  And God rejects the one and accepts the other.  And note the impact that the rejection of Cain's offering has on Cain.  The last part of verse 5, “So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.”  God says, your offering is not acceptable, and Cain is angry with God.  And I would offer you an experiment.  This afternoon when you go to lunch or you're out someplace and you see someone that may have been to church some place, sit down and talk to them.  And find out what they believe about the living God, about worship of the living God.  I daresay if you find out that they are worshiping God as they see it, apart from what the Bible instructs, founded on the finished work of Christ, and you tell them their worship is not acceptable, you will get a similar kind of reaction as Cain evidenced.  People become very angry when you tell them, your worship is wrong, your worship is not acceptable to God.  But here we are at the beginning of the human race, two young men bringing their offerings, one accepted and one rejected.

Turn over to the New Testament to John 4.  Jesus is traveling and He comes through the region of Samaria.  And as we're aware, the Jews and the Samaritans had no dealings with one another.  That is stated at the end of verse 9.  Jesus talks to a woman at the well and tells her He could give her water, living water, which would spring up to eternal life.  In response she says in verse 20, and He has revealed to her something of her past, right down to her present situation, she recognizes He must be a prophet.  Verse 20, she says to Him, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you people,”” referring to you Jews, say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”  The Samaritans worship here at this mountain in Samaria, you Jews worship at the mountain in Jerusalem. Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”  There is coming a time when worship will not be focused either in Samaria or in Jerusalem.  However, Jesus is not skirting the issue.  He's not saying, right now that's an issue of no importance, because soon both places will be done away with.  He does say, soon neither will be a center of worship.

But then note what He goes on to say.  Verse 22, “You worship what you do not know. “ Your worship is characterized by ignorance.  “We worship what we know, we Jews.  For salvation is from the Jews.”  There will come a time when it's not going to be focused in Jerusalem or Samaria.  But let me tell you, as it stands, you don't know what you're doing when you worship, you don't know who you worship.  Salvation is of the Jews.  Then He goes on to say, “But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.  For such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”  Note God is not looking for everyone and anyone He can get.  He's looking for those who will worship Him as He requires, who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth.

God is very clear.  People are sifted out when it comes to the matter of worship.  The Samaritan woman with the Samaritans worshiped at Mt. Gerizim in Samaria.  God wasn't looking for their worship because they did not worship Him according to His requirements.  And now worship must take place in the realm of the Spirit and according to truth.  Worship is not a matter of externals, being at a certain place at a certain time, doing certain physical things.  True worship takes place in the inner being of a person.  It is Spirit, and that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior.  Apart from Jesus Christ, no one comes to the Father, no one can truly worship the living God.  “No one comes to the Father but by Me,” Jesus said in John 14.  And the worship must be in the truth.  John 17:17, Jesus said, “Thy Word is truth,” praying to His Father.  The worship of the living God must take place in conformity to the truth He has given.  The foundational truth is the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death, burial and resurrection. And then the carrying out in obedience to His instructions.

So come back now to 1 Corinthians 14.  What we have in this letter and in the portions we are in are instructions regarding the worship of God's people.  We saw instructions on worship back in chapter 11 regarding the Lord's Supper.  And Paul referred to the fact, when you come together, referring to their assembling as the church, it's for the worse, not the better.  You get together to worship and that's worse than when you don't get together.  What a terrible thing to say about a church's worship—it's better if you don't get together, it's worse when you do.  They corrupted the worship of the living God by not being obedient to Him.

In chapters 12-14 Paul has been talking about spiritual gifts and the part they play in the church and its functioning.  And the spiritual gifts as chapter 12 made overwhelmingly clear in the analogy of the physical body, the spiritual gifts function in the context of the church as the body of Christ.  And the church at Corinth, made up of believers, each one specially gifted of the Spirit to contribute to the functioning of that local church.  Now in chapter 14 Paul has been dealing with the problems in the church at Corinth.  And the overemphasis on the gift of tongues in Corinth, and the misuse of that gift.  He has been showing that prophecy is a superior gift to tongues, and tongues has a place when it is interpreted, but true worship always takes place in the context of our understanding, the proper use of our mind.  He's spent 25 verses in chapter 14, he's demonstrated clearly that the mind, understanding, we must be learning when we come together as the church to function as God intends us in our worship and our service.

So you'll note how chapter 14 verse 26 begins, “What is the outcome, then, brethren?”  Now let me draw this together.  What shall we make of all that I said?  Let me summarize for you what we have said, Paul is saying.  And he calls them brethren because there are strong rebukes here for the Corinthians.  But I love you.  Four times in this chapter he calls them brethren.  I speak to you as one who has a family concern for you, that you be functioning as God would have you function.  What is the outcome, then, brethren?  What he's going to do in verse 26 is give a general statement, then he'll apply specifics to the issue of tongues, specifics to the issue of prophecy, then he'll conclude it.
          
Verse 26, “When you assemble. “ When the church comes together he'll refer to in the church in a few verses, what takes place in the church.  Like we have assembled together as the church.  Through the week we were scattered in different places, doing different things, in different jobs, different homes, but we have come together as the church.  When you assemble.  Here's what happened at Corinth.  “Each one has a psalm, each one has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.”  Everyone came to the meeting of the church ready to exercise their gift.  But it was a problem, because they were coming self-focused.  My gift is tongues, I can't wait to get there and use my gift.  My gift is prophecy, I can't wait to get there and use my gift.  My gift is a song, I can't wait to get ............  Paul focuses here on the speaking gifts that involve verbal communication, either in song or speaking.  Everybody came ready to exercise their gift, and it created a sense of competition.  Just like if we came here today and everyone who had a speaking gift was planning on getting the platform so that they could use their gift.  When they didn't get the platform, you had them using their gifts at the same time.  So you'll have two or three people speaking at the same time in the church at Corinth, and it was creating confusion.  So they were coming, ready to use their gift.  Now note here, the problem at the church at Corinth was not that they weren't gifted, the problem at the church at Corinth is they weren't using the gifts God had given them properly.  And so it prevented the church from developing and growing as it should, it prevented God from being worshiped as He required.

The clear instruction at the end of verse 26 is, ”let all things be done for edification.”  So whether it is a psalm, in verse 26.  A psalm is a word that doesn't have to just be limited to the Old Testament psalms, it's a word for singing or a song.  It was used back in verse 15 of chapter 14, the last half of that verse.  “I will sing with the Spirit, I will sing with the mind also.”  Same basic word—psalm.  I will psalm with the mind, because a psalm was a song.  So he's not necessarily just talking about singing the Old Testament psalms here, but singing a song that had been prepared, whether an Old Testament psalm or one that the individual had written.  And there it had to be with the mind, there had to be understanding.  Has to be a song that makes sense, that will communicate truth in an understandable way, clear way, to my mind.  So I can process that truth and thus grow.

Back in 14:26, a teaching, the gift of teaching, explaining truth that's already been revealed.  A revelation, something divinely disclosed.  This would be the basic word we have for the apocalypse of John, or Jesus Christ, recorded by John—the book of Revelation.  God revealed Himself.  The prophet had the gift of revelation, and received revelation from God.  A tongue, we've talked about the ability to speak in a language.  The interpretation, the ability to interpret tongues.  Every one of these gifts has to be used for the edification of the church.  It's not all about you and your gift, it's all about what will build the church to maturity.  Let all things be done for edification.  That has been repeated again and again and again throughout this chapter.  We looked at the different emphasis on the importance of edification.

That being the case, let's give some specific instructions regarding tongues and then prophecy.  The songs weren't particularly the great problem, but tongues are and prophecy also was.  If anyone speaks in a tongue.  The time is going to come when the church is assembled together and exercise their gift of speaking in a foreign language that they have not learned and it is not part of the language of the congregation, what are the guidelines?  And what he does is set down regulations, rules, guidelines for the use of tongues.  And he will demonstrate that the gift of the individual is under the control of the individual, so that all things will be done decently and in order.  So to have a gift like tongues doesn't mean the Spirit of God comes upon you and all of a sudden you stand up and start speaking in another language, and you just don't have any control over it because the Spirit of God came upon you.

Look at the instructions given.  If anyone speaks in a tongue, number one, it should be by two or at the most three.  So that's the first requirement.  There is a limited number who could use their gifts when the church assembled together.  So in a meeting of the church, only one or two, at the very most, and that word at the most indicates we are moving to the outside edge here.  The absolute maximum would be three people to use their gift of speaking in tongues at any one meeting of the church.  That's the first.  So what happens if four or five people say, I feel constrained by the Spirit to give my message in tongues.  If three have already spoken, keep quiet.  You see, the person has the ability to control that gift.  They are not stifling the Spirit, because the Spirit of God would not have them use their gift contrary to the instructions of God.  Second, each in turn.  In other words, you don't have two people speaking at the same time.  Each in turn.  One person will give their message in tongues, when he's done then another person may give their message in tongues.  Each takes his turn.  Again, the Spirit does not so overwhelm a person with this gift that they just don't have control, they just stand up and speak and lo and behold somebody over here is standing up and speaking.  Then somebody back here is standing up and speaking.  No, if someone is speaking, the other person stays quiet until he is done.  And if three have already given messages in tongues, no matter how you feel a burning in your stomach or heart or wherever it is, stay seated and keep quiet, because there can only be two, at the very most, three, and each has to take his turn.  And thirdly, one must interpret.  So even if you have three tongue-speakers, one will do the interpreting, one person with the gift of interpretation.  Because if he has the gift of interpretation, he can interpret for the other speakers.  So that clearly gives the guidelines.

Now he's going to pick up on this last one, one must interpret.  But if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church.  How about when the church assembles together?  If there is no interpreter, he keeps silent.  So this would indicate that before the service the person with the gift of tongues must be aware whether or not there is a person there with the gift of interpretation, because if there is not a person there with the gift of interpretation, they can't say anything, using their gift of tongues.  You see, it is controlled.  Here it is controlled by the presence of  a person with another gift, the gift of interpretation, or perhaps the tongue-speaker himself has that gift.  But there has to be an interpreter, because we've already seen if a person speaks in a language that no one understands, no edification can take place.  The body is not profited.  There is no understanding, the mind cannot be engaged, and God does not have that kind of activity in His church.  That is not acceptable worship.  We need to keep in mind that our minds must be engaged in worship.  As we've talked about, we've tended to move worship to the realm of the emotions and the feelings, but the Bible places it in the realm of our minds and our understanding.  God's intention is that we learn, as he will say down in verse 31.  “So if there is no one to interpret, keep quiet in the church, when the church is assembled.”

Let him speak to himself and to God.  Now some people somewhere along the line drive off the edge of the cliff on these matters.  They say, what God is saying is you use this at home to speak to yourself and God.  What has he just said?  He must keep silent in the church and let himself speak to himself and God.  That's what it means to keep silent in the church.  Rather than talking out loud, he can sit there quietly, he could speak in his own mind, and God understands.  This is an example.  I go to another church, I'm on vacation, I'm sitting there.  I'm listening to another preacher and perhaps he's preaching out of 1 Corinthians 14. Lo and behold, I just did that.  You know what I'm doing?  I'm sitting there teaching that in my mind, I'm going through that passage thinking, this is what he ought to say, this ought to be said here, this ought to be clarified.  So I just stand up in the service and say, I want to explain to you and teach to you.  Well, he's teaching.  But I have the gift of teaching, too, and I want to get it out.  And I just can't sit here any longer, I have to say it.  We don't function that way with the gift.  We say it would not be proper.  Why?  Well with my gift of teaching I can sit there and work through that passage in my mind, believe me I do, and some of you do the same thing.  What am I doing?  I'm speaking to myself and to God, of course, because He understands everything that's going on in my mind.  But I'm not speaking aloud using my gift in the congregation, I'm keeping silent.  Seems so clear when you look at another gift like teaching, and say, of course, that's the way it works.  But we come to tongues and somehow we think, this must be some kind of exception.  What he really means is that he's talking about some kind of private use of tongues for your own development, which has nothing to do with anything in chapter 12-14.  The only proper use of any of the spiritual gifts that he has talked about, was for building up others in the body of Christ.  So when he says, let him speak to himself and to God, he's not talking about some kind of private prayer language.  I don't know where we insert that.  I mean, just like any gift.  You can't use the gift of tongues if nobody is there to interpret.

So those are the guidelines for the gift of tongues.  What about the gift of prophecy?  It doesn't need guidelines because it speaks in the language of the people, and it's the most important gift, the most valuable, as Paul has already made clear.  Nonetheless, it has regulations governing its use.  So verse 29, he starts talking about prophets.  “Let two or three prophets speak.”  Again, you're going to limit the number.  You say, we come together and all the prophets are going to fight for the opportunity to exercise their gift and then you can have confusion.  Two or three.  Now he doesn't address it in the same way, that three will be stretching it, but three is the maximum.  Two or three.  With tongues, two, at the very most, three, indicating that one or two would be more normal.  But here it can be two or three prophets.  But again, the number is limited—no more than three.  So at the meeting of the church gathered together, people have the gift of prophecy, they receive revelation from God, now they're going to speak it for the learning of the church and the exhortation of the church.  But only two or three can speak.  Well what if five of the prophets come and say, I have a message from God.  Well God's intention is only three of you share that message today, only two or three.

“Let the others pass judgment.”  I take it in the context here, probably the others refers to the other prophets.  So there will be others with the gift of prophecy, and their role is to evaluate the message of the prophets—to discern, to distinguish.  Because you can have false prophets as well as genuine prophets.  In  2 Corinthians 11 Paul will warn the Corinthians about the danger of false apostles who have infiltrated the church and are teaching them things that are not true.  The church ought to deal with them and not tolerate them.  So here, a person stands up and says, God revealed to me that it's all right for God's people to have sex outside of marriage.  No, God didn't reveal that to you, that is contrary to what God has said in both the Old Testament and what He has revealed on other occasions up to this point.  Remember, they don't have 1 Corinthians, they're just getting it now and reading it.  So during this time when they did not have a completed New Testament, and at this early stage they had very little, God raised up prophets and gifted men and women to be prophets in the church, and they could bring the revelation that was needed to the church at Corinth, or whatever church they were part of.  And bring revelation concerning specific situations on specific occasions.  So that had to be evaluated, and the other prophets could do that.

That word translated pass judgment at the end of verse 29, if you back up to          1 Corinthians 12:10, where he lists the different gifts that were given.  “To another the effecting of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the distinguishing of spirits.”  That word translated distinguishing is the same basic word translated pass judgment, over in chapter 14.  Passing judgment, distinguishing, judging between them.  And sometimes that would be a separate gift, sometimes it could be one exercised by the prophets.  The prophet's message had to be evaluated and discerned to be sure that the church doesn't become gullible to everyone who walks in and says, I'm a prophet, I have a revelation from God.  It had to be evaluated to be sure that his content was indeed from God.  All right, so there can only be two or three prophets speaking at a meeting, each of the messages had to be evaluated and discerned.

Verse 30, “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.”  You know, not all prophecy came on the spur of the moment.  Think of the Old Testament prophets.  Sometimes God revealed a message to them, and then they later went and shared it with the people.  Sometimes God revealed it immediately, and it was spoken.  So here you have prophets that come, and maybe earlier in the week in a dream or a vision God had revealed something to this prophet in the church at Corinth.  And while he is sharing that with the church, the Spirit of God reveals something to another prophet sitting there listening.  The prophet who is speaking is to yield the floor to the prophet who has just received a revelation.  So if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.  In other words, there is going to be order.  That one who receives a revelation just doesn't get up and start speaking at the same time as the other prophet.  And he says, you can all prophesy one by one.  Again, just like tongues, had to be done each in its turn, no two speaking at the same time.  So prophets, you don't have a man over here speaking up and prophesying and another individual over here speaking up and prophesying, one back here getting a prophetic message and standing up and prophesying.  No, in order.  And if someone did get an immediate prophecy at that time, then the other would yield the floor.

“And you can all prophesy one by one.”  Now this is one of those verses, we saw was like the gift of tongues earlier in the chapter, where some say, it says all can prophesy so it meant everyone in the church could prophesy.  But back in chapter 12 verse 29, we are told, all are not prophets, are they?  So I sometimes have a hard time understanding the commentaries I'm reading, and I'm trying.  But I read some commentaries, the men said, this has to be a different gift of prophecy in chapter 14 than in chapter 12.  Now we're really creating confusion.  Well it says you can all prophesy, one by one.  That meant everybody in the church.  Well if that's the only verse we had, we might say, yes, I guess that means that.  But I did read chapter 12 verse 29 before this, and remember, there were no chapter and verse divisions in this letter as Paul wrote it.  What he is saying is you can all prophesy, all you prophets can prophesy, but it's one by one.  I mean, you can have only two or three prophets speak, and they can all prophesy one by one, each in his turn, in his order.  And what if there are five who have a revelation from God to share?  Well, at least two of them are going to have to save it until the next meeting of the church, because a maximum of three are allowed to speak at one meeting.  So you all will get your turn in this meeting, up to three of you can share and then any others will have to wait until the next meeting.  That's all it’s saying.  You all, you prophets can prophesy one by one.  There is order.

“So that all may learn and all may be exhorted.”  Now there the whole church is obviously in view, because the purpose of the prophets was to enable the church to learn, be exhorted so that it can grow.  Back in chapter 14 verse 3, “The one who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, consolation.”  So, do it in order, do it properly.  And that will allow the church to learn.  You put a setting there where you have several people speaking prophecies at one time, a couple of people speaking in tongues at the same time and somebody wants to get out their songs, so they take off singing, you just have confusion.  You don't learn like that.  Sometimes you've been in situations where there has been a discussion or debate going on and two or three people are talking.  Finally they have to stop and say, stop, stop, stop.  One at a time.  Why?  Because you can't learn anything when three or four people are talking at the same time, it just makes confusion.  This is what's going on in the church at Corinth.   Why?  They've become self-focused.  The most important thing for me when I get to the church is to exercise my gift of tongues.  The most important thing for me when I get to church is exercise my gift of prophecy.  And so they became self-focused.  Everything has to be done for edification.  So the consideration has to be, how can I exercise my gift today for the edification of the church, and following these guidelines is what God intends.

Verse 32, important statement.  “The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.”  The spirits of prophets refers to that gift given by the Spirit to the prophet.  The prophet has control of his gift of prophecy.  These are spiritual gifts given by the Spirit, but both the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy are under the control of the person who has the gift.  And here he's just talked about prophets, so he says the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.  It's just not a matter, well I couldn't help it, the Spirit of God came over me and I had a revelation and I had to give it.  No, you can control that.  If three prophets have already spoken, you can control that gift and say, the Bible doesn't allow a fourth in the same meeting.  God said no, so I will wait.  No excuses.  Oh, it was just like a burning and I had to do it.  Well, not on this occasion, you didn't.  So there is order.  The spiritual gifts are under the control of the person who has the gift.  This is a crucial, crucial principle.

We had an idea, and many of the writings I've been reading, even some who are not charismatic but want to be scholarly and open, want to say, well, our churches stifle the Spirit today.  And there is not enough freedom and liberty.  Isn't it interesting?  We come to the Word of God here and Paul's concern is to limit the liberty and bring order to the service.  The Spirit just doesn't come in, and we need the kind of freedom that you can just do this and this and this and what everybody wants to do.  It has to be done in order.  Well that doesn't sound like the real freedom of the Spirit.  They've already had two tongues-speakers and three prophets, so nobody else can use those gifts.  That's stifling it.  What if God had a special something to say?  In other words, what if God violated His own Word?  No, we have control over our gifts.  Why?  The church is to be a manifestation of the character of God.

Note verse 33, “For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.”  People come in and look at the church at Corinth and they have all kinds of things going on.  I was watching a program on one of the channels of a charismatic service the other day, and there is a speaker on the platform speaking and there is some kook running up and down all the aisles and back and forth across the front of the church.  He had the holy running.  I mean we have people.............  We had the Brownsville revival, the Toronto revival, we had holy laughing and holy running.  And people supposedly couldn't sit in their seats any longer because the Spirit was just moving him and their legs had to go.  And you have people running all over the auditorium.  I thought that stuff had run its course.  And here I see this kook running around on television up and down the aisles, and here's the guy speaking.  And he comes ZIP right across in front of the camera, and ZIP running across the channel, then he starts running up the next aisle.  And this is supposed to be the Spirit.  Then you get somebody standing up over here and starting to talk about something.  What happened to 1 Corinthians 14?  Well, we have the liberty of the Spirit.  Well, you have liberty of a spirit, but not the Holy Spirit.

God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.  And we sometimes think, the more liberty, the more freedom, the more activity going on, that's a sign the Spirit of God is working.  That is not a sign the Spirit of God is working.  That's a sign there needs to be some correction.  How can you learn in that context?  You can't.  And the body of Christ comes together to learn so that they may grow.  Understand, the worship of God takes place in the context of obedient submission to God, and His Word.

All right, I want to say a few things, so I left myself some time at the end, about our current activity as church in light of this.  Well verse 26 says, here's what it was like at Corinth.  “Each one had a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation.”  It all had to be done for edification.  But you'll note, more than one tongue-speaker could speak in a service, and more than one prophet could speak in a service.  And you would allow for the song or singing because they brought a psalm.  How does this fit in our service, when everybody comes and sits and listens to one person.  Well number one, all these gifts are not present today.  And we have been through this so we aren't going back through it.  The gift of tongues is no longer present today, speaking in a foreign language a person has not learned.  We've been through that.  The gift of prophecy is not present today.  So some of these gifts are not present today so we should not expect the church to be functioning in a way that it did when these gifts were present.  The church did not have a completed New Testament.  Now that we do, the gift of teaching is the foremost gift, according to chapter 12 verse 28.  The first gift was apostle, the second was prophets, the third is teaching.  And apostles and prophets are no longer present, as we have seen.  So the gift of teaching is the primary gift.  We are not looking for new revelation to be given as we gather together.  There is no new revelation to be given, we have a completed Scripture.  So now the teacher takes and explains that Scripture.  Well, why am I the only one?  Why don't we have two or three teachers?  We have a whole group of teachers.  Our church gathers together in the morning, we have a first hour which is longer than an hour, and a second hour which is longer than an hour.  Didn't want you to come up and draw that to my attention afterwards.  And what goes on in that first hour?  And our church has come together, we have a dozen classes going on from junior high up, and then classes going on for children and young people.  We have numerous adult teachers teaching other adults.  Some of them indeed would be better teachers than I might be.  There are places we go to be taught the Word, so indeed there are, even as we gather together, different teachers teaching.  And the role of each teacher is to take the revelation that is given to study it, prepare it and then explain it.

As I mentioned, sometimes people think, well our churches are so structured, there is no room for the liberty and freedom that the Spirit would bring.  Where do we get the idea that when the Spirit wants to deal with our mind it's going to be some kind of instantaneous, just has to happen on Sunday morning?  You know it would be like my saying, I didn't prepare anything this week, but as I thumb through my Bible here I think, Hebrews 11, that would be a good place for us, let's look at that today.  You say, well couldn't the Spirit direct him earlier in the week so he could prepare under the direction of the Spirit?  Yes.  So what kind of freedom?  That we cannot plan and prepare and do our work in advance?  The idea of the freedom of the Spirit that they're talking about does not come from Scripture, it comes from some kind of idea where we just want to be open to go with the flow and do what we feel at that time.  That wasn't the case in the church at Corinth, and it is not to be the case in the church today.  And it's interesting, the clearest instruction we have on this, the concern is to limit the freedom and bring structure to that church and order.

Some of our practices, to step beyond Corinthians, do fit within this framework.  Sometimes people wonder, why don't you bring babies and children into the service with adults?  The whole family ought to be together.  Well I don't have a verse that tells me the whole family ought to be together when the church comes together, but I do have verses to tell me the church is there to learn.  So it is important that to the best of our ability we provide the kind of setting where we can learn.  So we are blessed to have wonderful people who use their spiritual gifts of serving and helps and so on to care for the infants.  And those who have their gifts and ability in teaching to gear their instruction to young people, children.  And so then adults can come and without distraction, learn.  You know you don't go to a college class and sit in there and have the people on both sides of you have four squawking kids.  Why?  Because you are in that class to learn.  Well the church isn't a classroom.  No, but the Bible says it's the place where we learn.  We learn what God has said.  And so we provide the setting where there is the least confusion we have, and the most benefit.  When you send your kindergartner off to school, you don't tell them, now I want him to sit in the class with the 12th graders.  Why?  He doesn't understand that.  But some people think their kindergartner ought to come here and if they don't learn anything else, they'll learn to sit.  Well maybe you could teach them that at home.  And when they come when the church comes together, they learn what the church is about—it's a place to learn.  And they go and learn from teachers who have prepared the study of the Word of God on their level, so they grow and learn.  Sometimes we feel on the defensive when people criticize us, when we need to be ready to explain to them why we do what we do.  We want to be Biblical.  When we come together to worship, we come to learn.

You know the church is losing its grip on this, and I say it so many times, you wonder why I keep repeating it.  You know you send your kid off to school and you say, I hope you have fun today, I hope you have an exciting day.  No, you tell them, you be sure to pay attention, listen carefully to the teacher, don't get distracted.  But somehow we go to church and we want to ask people, did you enjoy it?  When I came home from school, my dad never asked me if I enjoyed it, if I had fun.  Did you learn anything?  I mean, we need to understand what God says, because remember, worship that is not done according to His instructions is not accepted.  We think, we've believed in Jesus Christ; therefore, anything we do is accepted as worship.  No, no, no, no.  The church at Corinth had heard the Gospel and placed their faith in Christ and the way they are conducting themselves in the church and worship is not acceptable.  That's why we have the correction.  So we want to come together as the church and function as God intends us to function—for His honor, for His glory.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy and said, be diligent to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth.  That's why we come together to learn the Word of God.  I want to be approved of God, I want His approval. How do I do that?  I handle correctly, properly, literally, I cut His Word straight, I handle it accurately.  That is what means I am approved by Him.  I passed the test.  Handle accurately the Word of truth.  The church is the pillar and support of the truth, so we come together.  This isn't the most fun place to be on Sunday morning, not the most exciting place to be.  A church in the South calls itself The Fellowship of Excitement.  What does that mean?  I mean, is this Disneyland?  Is this more exciting than taking a roller coaster ride?  I mean, we trivialize the church and turn its focus away from what it is and what God says it must be, and we think, God must be so pleased—look at the crowd.  Remember, He is seeking those to worship Him who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth, who will do it His way.

Now I'm not holding us up saying we're the perfect church.  But we ought to be striving to be the perfect church, be the church that is everything God says the church must be.  And where, as we study the Word of God and diligently examine it and find things that need to be altered, then Lord, make us ready to make the adjustments to come into conformity to the Word.  What a privilege to be the people of God, what a privilege to be the church that He purchased with His own blood, what a privilege to be a truth center in the world today.  

           Let's pray together.  Thank You, Lord, for Your grace.  Thank You for the work of salvation that You accomplished for us in the giving of Your Son, that perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Lord, we are Your people, not because of our efforts, not because of our works.  We are Your people because by Your grace we have come to place our faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone.  We'd have no confidence and no hope for salvation but in the fact that He loved us and died for us and was raised from the dead.  And now as Your people the passion of our heart is to honor You, to bring glory to You, to be the people that manifest the beauty of Your character as we come together.  May the truth as we consider it be used of the Spirit to mold and shape us.  May our minds take in and ponder and consider and think through these matters, so that we can diligently implement them in our lives individually and our life together as Your church.  We pray in Christ's name, amen.