Southside Baptist Church in Decatur, AL
2021-10-10 Sn SERVICE
  • He Keeps Me Singing
  • He Keeps Me Singing
  • Wonderful Words Of Life
  • Ancient Words
  • Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me

  • I. The Reading

    ​
    A reading from 1 Corinthians 14:1-25
    ​
    1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV
    1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
    1 Corinthians 14:2 ESV
    2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
    1 Corinthians 14:3 ESV
    3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
    1 Corinthians 14:4 ESV
    4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
    1 Corinthians 14:5 ESV
    5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
    1 Corinthians 14:6 ESV
    6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?
    1 Corinthians 14:7 ESV
    7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?
    1 Corinthians 14:8 ESV
    8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?
    1 Corinthians 14:9 ESV
    9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air.
    1 Corinthians 14:10 ESV
    10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning,
    1 Corinthians 14:11 ESV
    11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
    1 Corinthians 14:12 ESV
    12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
    1 Corinthians 14:13 ESV
    13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
    1 Corinthians 14:14 ESV
    14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
    1 Corinthians 14:15 ESV
    15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
    1 Corinthians 14:16 ESV
    16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
    1 Corinthians 14:17 ESV
    17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
    1 Corinthians 14:18 ESV
    18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
    1 Corinthians 14:19 ESV
    19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
    1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV
    20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
    1 Corinthians 14:21 ESV
    21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
    1 Corinthians 14:22 ESV
    22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
    1 Corinthians 14:23 ESV
    23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
    1 Corinthians 14:24 ESV
    24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,
    1 Corinthians 14:25 ESV
    25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
    This is God’s Word. If you receive it as such, will you say Amen - AMEN!
    [ Scripture Reading ~6 minutes ]
    ​

    II. The Exhortation

    ​
    After reading God’s Word in the gathering of the church, I urge us all to “say Amen.”
    That is, after all, what it means to be a believer.
    Here is a simple definition of what it means to be a believer:
    A believer says “Amen” to the word and works of God.
    A believer says “Amen” to the word and works of God.
    Now, what does it mean to “say Amen”?
    The word “Amen” is an expression of faith. It means “let it be so” or “truly.” It is a response to light that God has given.
    When we “say Amen” at the end of prayers, what we are saying is that we agree with that prayer.
    When a believer says “Amen,” it is a witness to the truth of God’s Word and the promise that God acts. To “say Amen” is to say that I have a confidence in God and will act in obedience to His revelation by faith.
    A believer would be a hypocrite to “say Amen” and then live contrary to the revealed Word of God. The “Amen” holds us all accountable to live by what we have heard.
    Part of the worship of the gathered church includes saying the “Amen.”
    Saying “Amen” was, and is, a powerful witness for God. It is a witness for both insiders and outsiders, believers and unbelievers.
    On Sundays, after reading God’s Word here in the Sanctuary, and after praying, I invite us all to say “AMEN.”
    It is a powerful moment when God’s people offer a resounding “Amen” in response to God’s Word and prayers together, and it is even more moving, when we actually then, obey the “Amen” and act upon it. That is faith.
    With this understanding then, God’s word compels us today to pay careful attention to what we say and what we do as the gathered church.
    As a pastor, as I oversee what takes place in our gatherings, I continually ask:
    Does our worship of God promote the building up of Christ’s church?
    Does our worship of God move all people to “say Amen” to God’s word and works?
    There is a dual-nature to our church gatherings.
    On the one hand, we gather as the church, for the church, to hear God’s Word to the church. In this we learn and remember who God has made us to be and how to obey God’s will and glorify Him with our lives.
    The Sunday morning service and sermon is not intended to be an evangelistic rally to save the lost again and again, because it is the saints, the church, that is gathered.
    It is those who are being saved who do not neglect to gather together as is the habit of some. This gathering is of the church - called to be saints, in fellowship with God’s Son Jesus Christ.
    If all we do is call the church, again and again to salvation, if that’s all “AMEN” means to us - “come be saved,” then we have little confidence in God’s salvation. The church is not maturing. The church remains as infants. Never pressing on, never growing up. Never going out to reach the lost.
    Every sermon demands that we respond to God’s Word. But for those who are saved, and are being saved, that response is not to be saved again. Instead, our response, our “Amen,” is to stand firm in God’s revelation and in God’s salvation and obey by faith.
    But on the other hand, outsiders are present. Unbelievers do come in. We even bring them in!
    And if an outsider is present, or an unbeliever in attendance, it is our responsibility and our duty to be clear in our worship about who we are and what we are about - we belong to Jesus and we proclaim His Gospel!
    It is our prayer and purpose, every Sunday, that our worship would be a spiritually empowered witness to God’s glory and salvation in Jesus Christ.
    And that if an unbeliever enters into this Sanctuary for a service of worship, that person would leave changed, transformed, a new creation in Christ! And that invitation is always present.
    ​
    This is at the heart of what the apostle is saying to the church in Corinth, and to us. This is what it means to “pursue love” —
    Love points us always in two directions: to God first, then to our neighbor. This same love should be reflected in our church gatherings.
    Remember that Jesus was asked:
    Matthew 22:36 ESV
    36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
    Matthew 22:37 ESV
    37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
    Matthew 22:38 ESV
    38 This is the great and first commandment.
    Matthew 22:39 ESV
    39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
    Matthew 22:40 ESV
    40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
    Whatever we do as Christians, we do first unto God out of a love for Him. And it is from our love for God, that we act in love toward one another, our neighbors.
    This is at the heart of what the apostle is trying to communicate to the church in Corinth, who allowed the exercise of certain spiritual gifts to hinder their public worship and witness because they were not exercising these gifts in love.
    ​

    III. The Teaching

    This is why the opening and guiding command is to “pursue love.”
    14.1
    1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV
    1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
    14.2
    1 Corinthians 14:2 ESV
    2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
    14.3
    1 Corinthians 14:3 ESV
    3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
    14.4
    1 Corinthians 14:4 ESV
    4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
    ​
    This phrase “builds up the church” is a repeated theme throughout this text. It simply means “to increase the potential” “to strengthen” or “to make more able” (LN).
    To build up the church means to become more like Jesus, together.
    This goal summarizes each section of instruction and it is really the sum of our lives in Christ.
    In these opening verses, the apostle contrasts two gifts of the Holy Spirit and two audiences receiving those gifts: the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues.
    On a basic understanding, prophecy is a gift of speaking God’s Word to people.
    Tongues is a gift for people speaking words to God.
    Both are gifts, and both have a purpose, and so both have a place in the Church, as God gives and God empowers.
    The apostle also contrasts two distinct outcomes of these two gifts. And as we desire spiritual gifts, we must prayerfully discern the outcome of their use:
    The apostle shares that tongues builds up one’s own self, but prophesies build up the church.
    When rightly deployed, these two gifts serve important functions.
    But the Corinthian Christians were not deploying these gifts rightly.
    They apparently over-emphasized the gift of tongues meant for personal upbuilding in their public gatherings, and under-emphasized the gift of prophesy, meant to build up the church.
    And we do the same thing when we try to impose our private worship on the public worship of the church.
    We need to continually be reminded of this, that this hour in which we gather, is not about you or me. It is about “the worship of God" and the building up of His Church.
    Love compels us to lay down any preferences “I” have for worship, so that we all may worship God together.
    If ever we leave a service of worship and say “well I just couldn’t worship today, it wasn’t for me” then WE might be the object of our own worship and in danger of committing idolatry.
    Some gifts are more exciting than others. Speaking in tongues was likely much more exciting than prophesy. We have a tendency to pursue after what moves us the most. What touches our emotions the most. What puts on the best show.
    But God’s Word doesn’t say pursue after our emotions, or feelings, or thrills. God’s Word commands us to “Pursue love.”
    And rightly understood, love is unto God first, and then for the benefit of the other.
    Notice again verse 3 how the church is built up through prophesy:
    1 Corinthians 14:3 ESV
    3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
    These three words, “upbuilding, encouragement and consolation” represent the work of the Holy Spirit.
    The same Holy Spirit who convicts also encourages and consoles.
    Let me again challenge us all not to view God, or love, or the Spirit’s gifts, or worship through one adjective only.
    I have heard so many times, a person judge a worship service by one word alone — “conviction.” As if, “if I don’t feel convicted when I leave, then there was no power, it was not worship.”
    That’s a miss! That’s a gross misunderstanding of worship.
    You may not always feel convicted in worship.
    There certainly is conviction, but if you leave here convicted then either one of two things is true:
    One - you have unconfessed sin and you need to repent.
    Or Two - You haven’t experienced God’s salvation!
    Respond with repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ for the forgiveness of your sin!
    You need not always feel convicted.
    For the church is built by the Spirit who also encourages, and consoles. The Spirit is also a Comforter.
    14.5
    1 Corinthians 14:5 ESV
    5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
    14.6
    1 Corinthians 14:6 ESV
    6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?
    If what we do is not accompanied by some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching, then brothers and sisters - it doesn’t belong in our public worship! For it will not benefit anyone.
    The apostle does not condemn speaking in tongues. He does not forbid speaking in tongues, but speaking in tongues alone does not help those who do not understand that tongue. (See Bruce, 130).
    14.7
    1 Corinthians 14:7 ESV
    7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played?
    14.8
    1 Corinthians 14:8 ESV
    8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?
    ​
    14.9
    1 Corinthians 14:9 ESV
    9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air.
    ​
    14.10
    1 Corinthians 14:10 ESV
    10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning,
    ​
    14.11
    1 Corinthians 14:11 ESV
    11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
    ​
    14.12
    1 Corinthians 14:12 ESV
    12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
    ​
    There it is again. “build up the church.”
    Literally, this verse says “seek for the edification of the church, in order that you may abound.”
    Not that you as an individual may abound, but that we together may abound. That we together, may have more than we need, more than we expect (LN).
    If we are lacking as a church, it is not that we are lacking in gifts, or people, or talents, or funds. If we are lacking as a church, we are lacking in love.
    This again is what it means to “pursue love” in all that we do and offer to God. Love builds up.
    ​
    14.13
    1 Corinthians 14:13 ESV
    13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
    ​
    14.14
    1 Corinthians 14:14 ESV
    14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
    ​
    14.15
    1 Corinthians 14:15 ESV
    15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
    ​
    14.16
    1 Corinthians 14:16 ESV
    16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
    An “outsider” is someone who does not have experience with the gifts of the Spirit. An outsider would not know what is happening when people are speaking in unintelligible tongues in worship.
    An outsider is someone unfamiliar with the service of worship and its purposes.
    And God wants the “outsiders” to “say AMEN.”
    God wants the “outsiders” to know what we are saying.
    God wants the church to be built up, even with “outsiders.”
    So if we use big theological words with good intentions, words like sanctification, propitiation, regeneration - it doesn’t please God or build up the Church if we don’t explain what these words mean.
    If we read the Bible with an archaic translation that is hard to understand, it doesn’t please God or build up the Church if we don’t explain what those difficult sayings mean.
    We need not design our worship services around the outsiders - that is what evangelistic services are for. But we must design them with outsiders in mind.
    The apostle goes on to say —
    14.17
    1 Corinthians 14:17 ESV
    17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
    ​
    14.18
    1 Corinthians 14:18 ESV
    18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
    ​
    14.19
    1 Corinthians 14:19 ESV
    19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
    And now verse 20 begins a summary word of instruction concerning all the apostle has been saying. He writes:
    14.20
    1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV
    20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
    Children say some of the most amazing things, and it is wonderful to watch the innocence and creativity God gives the mind of a child!
    But the apostle is not speaking of a child-like mind, in a good way here.
    Instead, he is speaking negatively of a child-ish mind.
    Child-ish thinking.
    And we all know what child-ish thinking is. It is immature. Children have a difficult time thinking about the other person. Child-ish thinking is selfish thinking.
    And that is what the Corinthians are doing when they elevate speaking in tongues in public gatherings over prophecy. It becomes a “me-show” that doesn’t benefit anyone else but “me.”
    The apostle would rather, us think with a maturity of mind that loves God first, and others second instead of ourselves.
    We are to “be infants in evil” but in our thinking “be mature.”
    14.21
    1 Corinthians 14:21 ESV
    21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
    ​
    14.22
    1 Corinthians 14:22 ESV
    22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
    ​
    When God’s people Israel, refused to obey God’s Word, when they refused to believe, God sent judgment upon them in the form of nations that spoke other tongues (TTC).
    The apostle uses that example to teach that the use of tongues is like that.
    An unbeliever is like a person who does not understand tongues. They do not understand God or the things of God (TTC). Their audible mis-understanding, represents a spiritual misunderstanding that only God can give through His Spirit by faith.
    ​
    14.23
    1 Corinthians 14:23 ESV
    23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
    Notice that the assumption is that outsiders or unbelievers will enter in.
    And if they do - what will they find?
    If we are all building up ourselves and our own kingdoms, speaking in unintelligible tongues, will they not think that we are crazy? Mad? Out of our minds? They won’t understand!
    ​
    14.24
    1 Corinthians 14:24 ESV
    24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,
    ​
    14.25
    1 Corinthians 14:25 ESV
    25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
    ​
    Church - If God is really among us, then our public worship will witness to God’s presence through Immanuel, God with us - through Jesus Christ.
    If God is really among us, then our public worship will clearly testify to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
    And this brings us to —
    ​

    IV. The [ Christ ] Conclusion

    ​
    The apostle is returning the Corinthian church to truths to the first appeal that opened this letter.
    1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV
    10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
    The apostle would have us all, insiders and outsiders, believers and unbelievers, “say AMEN” to Jesus Christ.
    And we preach Christ crucified.
    1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
    18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
    The cross of Christ is what separates we who believe and are being saved, from all who are perishing and condemned.
    And the appeal is that we all agree — that we all unite in Christ.
    This is what the Holy Spirit does as He convicts the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment.
    Sin - “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Sin is unbelief in God. And we all have sinned. And sin has a consequence. It pays us like a wage. We sin, and our wages is death.
    “The wages of sin is death.”
    But the good news of grace is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, in accordance to the Scriptures. Jesus took our sin, and paid our debt on the cross, so that we might be forgiven. And by His death, we have been saved!
    Jesus was buried, and on the third day, God raised Him from the dead. This means Jesus is alive! And God is righteous to forgive us and give us a new life, the life of Christ! God is just in making us new. By Christ’s resurrection life, we are being saved!
    And in the coming judgment, we will be saved, in the end of time, the last Day, when God separates the believers from the unbelievers, the sheep from the goats. Those who may enter His eternal Kingdom, and those who will be cast into the lake of fire and the last death.
    What shall we say to these things?
    Is this the truth, in which we stand?
    God would have us all “say Amen.”

    Sermonic Eschatonic

    And Jesus takes reveals to us what we could not comprehend or understand, the Father.
    John 1:18 ESV
    18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
    Jesus is our interpreter of the Father, Jesus is God’s gift of eternal life, Jesus is our interpreter of love, and Jesus is our AMEN who is coming again.
    Revelation 3:14 ESV
    14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
    Jesus is the AMEN.
    ​
    2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV
    20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
    Do you know this Jesus? If so, will you say Amen!
    ​
    [ 4,148 words; 35 minutes ]

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  • Speak To My Heart
Southside Baptist Church
info@southsidebaptist.net
2563538814
http://www.southsidebaptist.net
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