Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14. We are going to be looking at verses 1-25 tonight and dealing with a very interesting topic - the topic of speaking in tongues.

Let's go ahead and read the text together, and we will jump right into it.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:1-25 - KJV

1. Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
2. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
3. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
4. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
5. I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
6. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?
7. And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
8. For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
9. So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
10. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
11. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
12. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
13. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
14. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?
17. For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.
18. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
19. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
20. Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
21. In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
22. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.
23. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
24. But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
25. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

I've been wrestling with this text all week, and dreading it for awhile. I am committed as a preacher to stick with the text and teach you what the Bible teaches - and I've been studying this, trying to understand what Paul was actually saying, and the truth is - I don't think I ever really understood this text personally before this week and I've come down on a very different interpretation on it than I thought I would.

So would you pray with me, that God's word goes out clearly tonight, and that we listen carefully. And if you disagree with my interpretation - that is ok, but please study this for yourself and study it in the scripture - let God be true and every man a liar.

Let's pray.

Before I get into the weeds of this chapter, I want to give you the main point I think Paul is making. I believe the main thing Paul is saying here for us is...

Everything we do in church needs to edify others through what they can understand, no matter how spiritual it feels.

The word that keeps coming up again and again in this text is the word "edify."

Edify means "to build up." It seems like what was going on in the church at Corinth is that you had a bunch of people speaking in tongues, all at the same time. (Much like we probably imagine happens in some Pentecostal churches.) Their justification was probably - well, it makes me feel good. It makes me feel spiritual. And the main point Paul is making here is that it doesn't matter if it makes you feel good, it doesn't even matter if it truly helps you personally, in the church gathering everything must edify or build up - and if people cannot understand it - it doesn't edify.

Now, the main way Paul applies this principle (everything has to edify in the church through the understanding) is by comparing the public use of the gift of prophecy - which we will define here as speaking to men for God, with the public use of tongues.

And that is our first sticking point. Because the traditional understanding of the word tongues in the Bible for baptists is that it always refers to known languages. I've said that before many times. Adam has said that before.

But I'm going to go against that here - because it doesn't fit. Paul is very clearly not talking about speaking to other people here. He is talking about speaking to God.

Look at verse 2

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:2 - KJV 2. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

I don't know how it gets any clearer than that. Paul is talking here about speaking to God in some unknown tongue.

And I also think it is clear that Paul is not against this practice. I mean, look at verse 5:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:5 - KJV 5. I would that ye all spake with tongues

Look down at verse 18:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:18 - KJV 18. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

In context, I just don't know how to slice this any other way than to say that this is some kind of prayer in the spirit - being moved along in the spirit - that Paul isn't against, in fact he thinks it is a good thing and he himself partook in it.

So what Paul is doing here is applying this principle that everything in the church needs to edify through the mind to the practice of speaking in God to tongues - a practice that he is not against and that he says he does more than anyone.

And so where we land here is that Paul isn't against speaking in tongues - but He is against speaking in tongues in church.

Now Paul is going to make three points about speaking in tongues in church, and that will be my outline for the rest of the message.

The first point is:

1. Speaking in tongues edifies yourself - not others around you.

Look at verses 3-4 again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:3-4 - KJV 3. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. 4. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

Paul's point is that when someone comes into church and they start preaching or teaching or speaking to others on behalf of God - their words can build up, inspire and comfort other people.

But when someone is praying in the spirit, speaking in tongues, they might feel good. They might be edified, but it doesn't really help anyone else.

The criteria for what we do in church is not how it makes any one individual feel - even if it is a spiritual activity - the criteria for what we do in church is whether or not it builds up others and the way that we build up others is through their understanding.

When someone is speaking in tongues - no one else understands them. No one else has any clue what is going on - so it doesn't help anyone but the one who is speaking - and that doesn't help the church.

Paul's second point in this passage is...

2. Speaking in tongues in public is useless without interpretation.

That's what verses 5-11 are saying. Paul's underlying principle seems to be this: if you don't understand something it cannot help you.

Paul uses three illustrations for this:

The first illustration is a musical instrument just making a bunch of noises with no discernable melody.

Picture Addie or Jack trying to play the piano. Just hammering away at random keys. It may sound good to them. They might think they are the greatest piano player of all time. But everyone else in the room is just hearing random noise and we would rather not.

That's what it is like when people speak in tongues in church - it might be great for the speaker, but for everyone else it is like a child pounding random notes on the piano.

Paul's second illustration is a trumpeter in battle playing an uncertain sound. Picture this, the troops are ready, they are waiting for a clear trumpet blast and the trumpeter picks up his trumpet, puts it to his lips and blows and (raspberry sound).

That's not helping anyone. They need clear and they are getting confusing.

Paul's third illustration is just conversing with people we don't understand.

When I was in Africa, most of the people we met with there spoke Afrikaner, or spoke Xosa - which sounds like a bunch of clicks. Now, imagine one of those brothers came up to me to give me an important message about where I was supposed to be, but they told me in Xosa. I would be lost as a ball in the high weeds.

For language to work, we have to understand what is being said. For edification to happen in the church, there needs to be understanding.

Which is why Paul said that you shouldn't speak in tongues in the church - unless there is interpretation. Because unless you understand it, and everyone else can understand it, it can't really help the church.

That's why Paul said in verses 18-19:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:18-19 - KJV 18. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: 19. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

Paul wasn't against this as a private devotional thing - but it didn't help the church and so it shouldn't be used in the church.

And that leads me to the last point I think this passage makes:

3. Speaking in tongues should be restrained in the church.

That's really the practical point of this whole passage. Paul is basically saying - stop trying to speak in tongues in church. It isn't helpful. It doesn't edify. It doesn't build up.

Look at verse 23-25 again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 - KJV 23. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 24. But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Paul ends this little section with a hypothetical:

Let's pretend you have a church meeting, and you have unsaved visitors.

In scenario one, the unsaved visitors come in, and everyone is speaking in tongues. In scenario two, the unsaved visitors come in, and people are speaking to them for God - people are prophesying to them.

Paul says that if the visitors come and they hear everyone speaking in tongues, they are going to leave and think that you are all mad. You are all a bunch of loonies. You are crazy.

We know this happens. Just this week I had a conversation with a new Christian who visited a charasmatic church and they said "that was something, I don't want to go there again." I've heard the same things many times.

That doesn't help anyone. It's just confusing. But in the scenario when the visitor comes and people are speaking to them for God as God leads them - they are convicted, its like God is looking right at their heart and they will worship God and say "God is really with these people."

So the principle here is:

Everything we do in church needs to edify others through what they can understand, no matter how spiritual it feels.

Now - I want to close this message with a few statements.

First, I want you to know that I don't speak in tongues. I don't believe it is something most people do.

If you do, and it is a private thing between you and God. That's great. It doesn't need to be a part of the church service.

Second, I think we can be honest about what this chapter says, and still say that there is so much confusion in the charasmatic movement about speaking in tongues.

There are those who teach that if you don't speak in tongues - that you aren't saved - that is obviously unbiblical.

There are those who teach that if you do speak in tongues - you are super spiritual - well this was a whole church speaking in tongues and they were as immature as any group in the whole Bible.

Second, there is absolutely zero chance of me and our church ever becoming charismatic.

First, I'm about as charismatic as a cardboard box.

Second, because I still very much believe that movement is extremely dangerous.

Third, because I believe that this passage, properly understood limits this stuff to private times with God and shouldn't be in the church. Practically, recognizing that private tongues are biblical makes no difference to how we act in church.

Finally, I want to say again that if you disagree with this, that is fine. My job is to teach scripture and not to twist it. If you had asked me my opinion on this two months ago I would have told you something different.

So if I've challenged you tonight, read the text and prove me wrong. I would appreciate it.

I will have my full notes tonight available for anyone who want to read them more closely if you as