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So 1 Corinthians 14. There's a major theme in this chapter. 1 Corinthians 14. Let me just read a couple of verses to you and then I'm gonna ask you if you know the answer to what the theme is. So look at verse number three. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. Verse four. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. Verse five. 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. Verse 12. Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. 17. For thou verily give us thanks well, but the other is not edified. Verse 26. How is it then brethren, when ye come together, every one of you have a psalm, have a doctrine, have a tongue, have a revelation, have an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. Does anybody wanna guess what the theme of this chapter is? It's here? Edifying. Edifying, excellent. The title of the sermon this morning is Edify the Church. Edify the Church. This is a great chapter on just how church ought to be run. Okay, so as we read through this, I want you to think about our church. I want you to think, hey, are we doing the things that are instructed of us in this chapter, and are we not doing the things that are not instructed to be done in this chapter? Okay, because there's a lot of reprimand as well going on in this chapter. But let's look at verse number one. Verse number one. Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts. So this is the third chapter about spiritual, the third and final chapter in this book about spiritual gifts. Okay, we looked at how, you know, we ought to desire having spiritual gifts, right? And I truly believe that everybody that's part of the body of Christ within a church has been given a spiritual gift, or you will receive at some point a spiritual gift. Now, I'm not talking about some miraculous gifts, okay? Brother Matthew made a good point as to how do we separate what gifts we have today versus the gifts that they had back there in the first century. And I think the good point that he made was those that were the miraculous gifts, right, where you could speak in a different tongue spontaneously, where you could just raise someone from the dead or heal someone spontaneously like that. Obviously, they're the miracles. And those gifts have been done away with, but still there are plenty of gifts that can be used for the edifying of the church, okay? And so I think that's a good way to sort of differentiate what those are, because we don't really get a hard list of what they are. Some of them we do know. We saw how, you know, the gift of tongues at some point will cease. We saw that on Thursday. Or the gift of, you know, prophecy. You know, having knowledge of the scriptures before it's even completed. Those kind of things will be done away when the New Testament, sorry, when the New Testament scriptures and the canonization of scripture would be completed, okay? So there are still spiritual gifts for us today. So don't throw out these chapters that talk about spiritual gifts. Don't think, well, that was for some point in time. No, they're still applicable for us today, okay? And even speaking in tongues, or speaking with tongues, I should say, what the Bible says, is still applicable today, because we still have people that speak in multiple languages. And as far as, you know, we see when the Lord comes back and he raptures his saints, the Bible says that they're from all nations and all tongues. Okay, so it's not like we're ever gonna get to a point where tongues or languages are not necessary. So if someone comes into this church speaking another language, hey, these things are still applicable to that church situation. But it says, follow after charity. We saw on Thursday that everything we do in service to one another, to the Lord and to the church, ought to be done with charity, ought to be done with love, so that it would be profitable, okay? So we went that through Thursday, so just carrying that thought across. Follow after charity, desire spiritual gifts. Don't be afraid of that. We're not Pentecostals, we're not Charismatics, okay? Yes, desire gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. But rather that ye may prophesy. Now, one thing that you need to distinguish in the Bible was prophesying as a miracle where the word of the Lord would come upon someone and they could speak the words of God. So we see that in the Old Testament prophets. We see that even in the New Testament apostles and those that wrote down the canon scripture. But then you've got your regular prophesying, which is just preaching the word of God, right? What I'm doing right now, I'm prophesying because I'm going to be speaking and proclaiming the word of God. When you go out and preach the gospel door to door to the community, you're prophesying, you're preaching, okay? So prophesying or preaching isn't just for men. Yes, it is for men. We'll see that soon. We'll see this in this chapter. At church, but prophesying or preaching is also for children, also for ladies, going out door to door preaching the gospel to this lost world, okay? So there is a such thing as women preachers, okay? And I'm not talking about Joyce, what's her name? Joyce Meyer. I'm not talking about that, okay? I'm talking about real believers going out and winning souls, knocking doors, and sharing the gospel. Okay, so look at verse number two. 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. Now, verse number two will be taken by the Pentecostals, by the Charismatics, right? Because we already saw that the tongues that people spoke in the scriptures were real languages, weren't they? Real languages that you understood. And then I'll take this verse number two and say, well, hold on. No, there's an unknown tongue. You do not see that in verse number two. An unknown tongue, that means people don't understand that tongue. And they'll say, well, see, the gibberish that we talk, that's the unknown tongue, right? That's what they'll say. But first of all, based on what we've seen in the scriptures we already said these are known languages, but there's no such thing, because look what it says there. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue. If we just take what we've read in the scriptures, we don't take by the pollution that comes from the Pentecostal churches, and just think about what's being said here. We know they're real languages, but they're unknown. So what is an unknown tongue? If we took that application today, what would be an unknown tongue right now? Can anyone speak Russian? Okay, so Russian would be an unknown tongue. If someone came here preaching in Russian, it's not gonna profit us. We're not gonna benefit from us, and it would be to us an unknown tongue. So if we just take what the scriptures have taught us, we wouldn't be confused by this, but unfortunately I have to address what the Pentecostals and Charismatics teach, because that's what they use. They use these passages to teach what they do is scriptural, whereas obviously it is not. But it says here, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. Because why? Because God created all languages. God understands all languages. The scriptures and the gospel can be said in all languages, not just English, not just Hebrew, not just Greek, not just Aramaic. The word of God can be preached in all languages. But again, if someone comes speaking in Russian, hey, they could be proclaiming the truth, they can be preaching the truth, and God will understand him, but it says, for no man but no man understandeth him. Howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. So it's mysterious to us what they're saying, okay? Verse number three. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. So come in and prophesy, preaching in the common tongue. So what I'm doing right now, preaching in the tongue of Australia, being English, it's going to edify the church. It's going to exhort the church. It's going to comfort the church, okay? So this chapter's also good if you wanna be a preacher. Someone that's preaching or you wanna develop and be a preacher one day, please take heed to the instructions that are found in this chapter. Your preaching ought to be a preaching that edifies the people of God. What does it mean to edify? It means to build them up, okay? Build them up with knowledge. Build them up on the Lord, as Jesus Christ is the foundation. Exhortation, that's to exhort someone, to encourage someone, to counsel someone, right? And then it says comfort. What does it mean to comfort somebody? It means to strengthen, strengthen, because look at that word comfort, okay? The first part is come, being like a Latin con, which is with, and then forts. So when you think about something that's fortified, or when you think of, let's say, war, and you think, man, that place is a stronghold, that place is a fort, it's some place that's strong, right? Being fortified is being strengthened. So if when you comfort someone, you're strengthening that person. So when you preach, yes, preach doctrine, yes, preach, teach people the truth, but also keep in mind, hey, I've gotta edify, I need to exhort, and I need to comfort the church. That's what I need to be doing as preaching. And what we're seeing in this chapter is that prophesying or preaching is held above being able to speak in tongues, or an unknown tongue, a tongue that nobody can understand in the church, okay? Verse number four, he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifyeth himself, but he that prophesieth edifyeth the church. So again, you have a Russian preacher coming here, he preaches the great things of God, you're not going to understand it, but he's going to edify himself because he understands it. He edifies himself, but he that prophesyeth, or he that preaches in the common tongue, in an unknown tongue, will edify the whole church, edifies everybody. Verse number five, I would that ye all spake with tongues. So Paul says, man, I wish you could all, you all had that gift of tongues. And remember, what did we learn about Thursday? What was the point of being able to preach in an unknown tongue, in another tongue? Well, so you can go out and preach the gospel to all nations. So what Paul is saying here, I wish you had that gift, so you can go out and not just preach to the Greek, but go and preach what I'm doing, going throughout all nations and preaching the gospel. But then he says this, but rather, so what he prefers, but rather that ye prophesied or preach. For greater is he that prophesieth, than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. So here's another instruction, okay? So it's better again to preach in a common tongue, because it edifies the church. But if we did have someone come and preach in a tongue or another language, it says, except he interpret. There must be an interpreter if someone comes preaching in another language. So there's nothing wrong with me getting a Russian pastor to come up here and preach before everybody, as long as there's a Russian interpreter, a Russian English interpreter, so that we can all benefit from what is being preached, okay? So keep that in mind. I actually went to a church, it was a Baptist Union church growing up in Cabramatta in Sydney, and we had an English service, but soon Cabramatta became filled with immigrants from Vietnam, mainly Vietnamese immigrants, but from all parts of Asia. And so the church started to grow with Vietnamese speakers, okay, and then we had Vietnamese pastors coming to preach. But every time they had a Vietnamese pastor come to preach in Vietnamese, there was somebody there translating, so the whole church could benefit from what was being taught, okay? That's the idea. Verse number six. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Again, he's saying, hey, if I come preach in another language, it doesn't profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine. So again, the unknown tongue does not profit a church. And again, think about the Pentecostal Charismatic Movement. Think about those churches, what do they do? They're speaking in tongues. Is it prophesying the church? Look, they're not speaking in biblical tongues, first of all, okay? They're speaking in their unknown gibberish tongues. It doesn't profit anybody, right? I would rather just listen to the Russian preacher, even though I don't understand. At least I know they're preaching something than some unknown tongue that they're gibbering. It doesn't have any comprehension, it doesn't make any sense, okay? So as we read through this, you're gonna notice that the Pentecostal Movement, the tongue speaking movement, just does not align itself with the scriptures. That's demonic, all right? If it doesn't align with the scriptures, and we'll conclude it, and I'll show you soon, like later on, that not only does it not line up, it's just like the complete opposite. What they do is the complete opposite of what we read about in the scriptures. But notice what your preaching ought to be like, okay? It says in verse number six, except I shall speak to you either by revelation. What's revelation? Again, keep this in mind as a preacher. You're revealing the truth of the word of God. You're revealing truth. And then it says all by knowledge. What's knowledge? We're preaching knowledge so you can learn the truth, okay? And then it says all by prophesying, preaching the truth. All by doctrine. Doctrine just means teaching. So doctrine is just teaching the truth, okay? So this is what a church ought to be. This is what a church ought to have. Revealing the truth, people are learning the truth, the truth is being preached, and they're being taught. Taught the truth, okay? Verse number seven. And even things without life, given sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? So what is learnt in the church, what is taught in the church, ought to be something distinctive, something distinguishable, okay? Something understandable. Again, when you preach, you stand behind the pulpit, make sure when you preach, you preach that the people can understand the sound. They can comprehend what is being said. So it's distinguishable from the falsehoods, distinguishable from the lies that is being taught amongst many churches and amongst this world, okay? It ought to be clear and understandable. Look at verse number eight. For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle, or to the battle? Because in those days, right, if it was time for warfare, they often had a trumpet, okay? If they were going to be attacked, for example, a trumpet would sound and people would know, hey, we have an enemy at the gates, prepare yourself for war, okay? Or if it's time, you know, if you had a grand army and it's time to charge the enemy, okay, a person's voice can only go so far. But if you have instruments, you have a trumpet, people will know, hey, now it's the time to attack. It's clear, it provides direction, okay? And so preaching ought to be clear. It ought to be like that trumpet. It ought to provide direction. And when you hear me preach, it shouldn't create more questions, okay? I should be able to answer your questions. Now, I'm not saying that I'm gonna answer every single question, but you know, the preacher's job is to try to make things as clear as possible. Because as Christians, we are in spiritual warfare. We are in a fight, okay? We're in a fight for this nation. This nation's going downhill. We're in a fight for our own selves because we're tempted to sin and we're tempted to fail. We're in a fight for our families, okay, that they would grow up knowing the Lord and fearing the Lord, okay? We're in a battle, okay? So we need to make sure that the preaching in a church is clear and distinct so we can be ready to fight the battle when it's time to come. Verse number nine, 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. Again, preachers, words easy to be understood, okay? Not an unknown tongue, okay? No going back to the Greek, no going back to the Hebrew. You don't even know what it says. And sometimes I've gone back to the Greek and Hebrew and every time I've done that, I've apologized to you guys, right? But I've done it just to reinforce something that people use usually to contradict what the English words say. Hey, use the Bible, we've all got the King James Bible, preach from this one Bible so we can all follow along and confirm that what you're preaching is correct. But use easy words to understand. You know, it doesn't matter how educated you are. Obviously, people that are more educated have a greater vocabulary. You know, I've got some friends that are really, you know, educated richly. And you know, it's fine, you know? But sometimes they speak to me and I've got to ask them, what do you mean by that? Like, what's that word mean? You know, because I'm a little bit simple sometimes with words, but that's fine. That's the way preachers ought to be, using words that are easy to understand. Also keep in mind that this church is a family integrated church. We have children here. We don't take the children away to teach them easy to understand things and then have the adults understand difficult things and say, no. Like we take whatever it is that's in the Word of God and try to convey it with easy to understand words so our children can understand, okay? So the family can go home and discuss the sermon if that's what you want to do, right? Well, the children can ask questions to their parents and learn from that as well from home. And then it says there, if you don't use words that are easy to understand, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you shall speak into the air. I don't want that. I don't want to just speak to the air. You know, I've usually preached like 50 minutes to an hour every Sunday or, you know, 40, 50 minutes on a Thursday. I don't want my words to just go in the air. What a waste of time. What a waste of time. I want to make sure that what I preach hits you guys, that you understand what is being said. And I appreciate the questions that come my way afterwards. Look at verse number 10. First Corinthians 14, verse 10. First Corinthians 14, verse 10. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them is without signification. 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. There's a lot of voices in the world. There's a lot of preaching. There's a lot of preachers, okay, both good and bad, okay? But notice it says there in verse 11, again, preachers, pay attention to this. It says, therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, the meaning of the voice, okay, and what you'll notice sometimes if you talk to me and you ask me a question, I might sometimes ask you, what do you mean by that question because I want to make sure that the answer I give you fits your question, okay? Because preachers that are preaching false doctrine, they come in saying the right words, but they mean something else, okay? I've seen this time and time again. You know, and I've been confused by it. I've heard things that sound right, that sound good, that sound honest, but then when you quiz them about it, they mean something totally different to what I understood. So make sure preachers, when you preach the word of God, you say what you mean and you mean what you say, or you explain the meaning so people can, you know, don't go away doubting, you know, what did you mean by that, right? I try not to be general. I try not to use vague language so that you walk away thinking I said this or you walk away thinking I said that. You know, I try to be as clear as possible, as possibly, you know, as I can be, okay? But, you know, we need to make sure that when we preach, we preach with clear meaning. And then it says in verse 11, because if you don't, it says, I shall be unto him that speaketh of a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. So we can be in church saying the same kind of words, but unless we understand what we mean, it's like we're speaking to a barbarian. You guys know what a barbarian is? It's like a uncivilized foreigner, a savage, right? Because, you know, he was writing to the Greeks and the Greeks and the Romans at this time thought themselves highly civilized. You know, they were, they had a lot of wisdom. You know, a lot of the things that they developed and taught are still taught today in our world, because they were highly educated. They had a lot of wisdom. And so people that were uncivilized from foreign nations that didn't have education, they saw them as barbarians, people that they could not communicate with clearly. So we don't want that in a church, right? I don't want to sound like a barbarian to you, and you don't want to sound like a barbarian to me. So we need to make sure that what we speak about is clear, that we have the right meaning with one another and that we communicate well. Verse number 12, verse number 12. Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Okay, so do we want spiritual gifts? Yes, we want God to give us the ability to serve in the church. But do we want the spiritual gifts just for the sake of having spiritual gifts? Just for the sake that we can boast that God has given me this ability? No, it's good to be zealous for the spiritual gifts, but seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Because here's the thing, all of you have a spiritual gift, but do you use it to edify the church? Do you use it to edify the church? Are you excelling in the gift that God has given you? Matthias, off you go please. Guys, are you excelling in the gifts that God has given you? Which, what does that mean? That means you need to put your gift into practice. You need to use your gift so that you can excel in your gift, right? If you were going to study a subject, let's say you were studying mathematics, how are you going to excel in mathematics? You put it into practice. You practice what you do, you continue practicing so that you may excel in that subject. Hey, you need to take the spiritual gifts that God has given you and put it to use so you can edify the church, okay? It's not to edify just you, it's to be used to edify the church. And if you say, Kevin, you know, I don't know what my spiritual gifts are. Hey, pray that God will give you the understanding of what it is. Pray that God will show you how you can help and edify this church. And let me say to you right now, there's a lot of you that have already spiritual gifts and you already use it to edify the church. You may not even know it, okay? But you're already, a lot of you are already using the gifts that God has given you. Sorry guys, what verse am I up to? Does anyone know? 14, verse 14, yep. First Corinthians 14, 14. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. 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. And again, your Pentecostals and your Charismatics are going to take this verse because you know the gibberish they speak, the so-called tongues that they speak? They readily admit, I think most of them readily admit that they don't understand what they're saying, okay? And so they'll take this verse and say, for if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. So it'll be like, see, Paul doesn't even understand what he's saying. Well, hold on. We don't just take a verse like that and take it out of context. What have we been reading about so far? That when we preach, we ought to preach with clarity, right? We need to preach with words that are easy to understand. We need to preach so that we may edify the church, right? And when we preach with tongues, we need to make sure that there's an interpreter. So someone that's preaching or teaching in tongues or preaching, you know, prophesying, who are they edifying? The others. They're edifying and they're helping the other church to understand so they can grow and be strengthened by the words of God. So where is this understanding that is not, who's not understanding the unknown tongue? What we just read about. It's the people that don't know that language. It's not a person that's preaching in the unknown tongue. Okay? So we can't take this out of context. The understanding is unfruitful to the congregation, to the people in the church, but also to Paul, because he's preaching in tongues or praying in tongues, but nobody's getting anything out of it. And we'll see in the following verses, he expounds on this. Look at verse 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? So who's not understanding the unknown tongue? The person, it says there, that occupieth the room, right? So this is like a room. Those that are occupying the room and the unlearned can't say amen. You can't agree. What does amen mean? That's truth. I agree with what's being said. I agree with what's being prayed. I agree with what's being preached. So if you can't understand that tongue, if I'm speaking to you in Russian or Spanish and you can't understand what I'm saying, you can't agree with me. You can't say amen, okay? Because it says, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest. So the thou understands what he's saying, but the one that's hearing it is not understanding what is being said because they don't know that language. So please don't just listen. These charismatics, honestly, they take these verses and say, well, read the whole chapter. Read the whole book at least. Can you start there and then build the context and understand what is being preached? You know, if we just, and I hope as we go through this book chapter by chapter, you realize the value of making sure when you take verses that you understand the context of the verses, okay? Because the Bible is such a big book, you can teach falsehoods if you want, it's so easy. But if you keep it within context, you're going to be able to preach the truth. Now, let me say this. I want you guys to get in the habit of saying amen, all right? When I was preaching in Canada at the winning conference, first of all, like the whole room was about 300 people, and just amen, amen, right? And amen in the truth, because what was being preached was clear and easy to understand. And you could easily say amen. Like in the United States, in North America, it's common for people to say amen. But I noticed in Australia, it's not so common, okay? So, but hey, look, it's not some American culture, cultural thing. I think this is something we see in the Bible that hey, if you agree what's being preached, I want you to say amen, okay? Not because I want to be like, I'll say, let me explain this. So when I was in Canada, I was preaching, and I'm not used to hearing so many amens, okay? But as I was preaching, it was like, amen, amen. But what was good about that as a preacher was that I knew that what I preached was understood. It was covered. Okay, I can move on now, kind of thing. Sometimes when it's quiet, I'm thinking, man, did anybody understand what I just said? Maybe we gotta explain that again, okay? So if I get so many amens out of you, and I actually believe only men should be saying amen. We'll see that soon. But if I get so many, then I know, okay, cool. That was understood. I can move on to the next point, right? So it does help the preaching. It does help the preacher. It's not to edify me, it's to, you know, confirm that the truth is being preached to the whole church, so the whole church can benefit from that. Look at verse 18, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 18. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. Yet in the church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding than by my voice, sorry, that by my voice I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. So we see that Paul definitely had the gift of tongues. Of course, he's the apostle to the Gentiles. He's going out throughout the whole world, preaching the gospel, establishing churches. He had done a great work. So he thanks God for that, for that ability. But then within the church itself, he says he would rather speak five words that you can understand, right? I mean, if I came and let's say all I could really speak was Spanish, okay? Let's say, like what he says here, than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Let's say I could speak 10,000 words in Spanish. Like I was a brilliant preacher in Spanish, and I came here, it would be better for me to just be able to speak five words in English. You would profit more from me preaching five words in English than preaching in Spanish and you guys not understanding what's being said. You see what's being said there? So preaching in the common tongue is more important than having the gifts of unknown tongues, okay? The gifts of other languages that the church itself cannot understand. They were, what can I say in five words? Jesus died for your sins. That's pretty profitable, right? If you can start with that, you can tell people that, hey, that's pretty profitable. Because then they know, hey, someone has paid for the mistakes that have made against God. I mean, you can start there, five words. Five words can get you a long way than speaking 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Verse number 20, verse number 20. And again, think about the Pentecostals, how they love to boast about the gibberish. It'd be better if they just said five words in English, than what they're doing, okay? They're just totally messed up in their understanding. Verse number 20. Brethren, be not children in understanding. Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. 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, sorry, and yet for all that will, they not hear me, saith the Lord. So verse 21 there, well, first of all, he says, we already read this on Thursday. He doesn't want us to be children, right? He wants us to eventually put away the childish things and mature as believers, right? We don't wanna be children in understanding, why? Because children are easily misled. Children tend to believe whatever's been taught to them. You need to grow up and be adults in your understanding. You need to know the Word of God, so that when I preach the Word of God, you can actually judge, and we'll see that later as well, you can judge what is being said. You can say, hey, this is truth, or this is a lie, and that will help you stay clear of the false prophets, okay? But then it says, how be in malice, be ye children. So when it comes to doing evil things, it's better to be children that way, why? Because children don't tend to hold a grudge like adults do, right? Children somehow, you know, my kids, you know, when we went to Chile for those three months last year, my, a lot of my kids don't know Spanish, but somehow when you've got kids, doesn't matter what language they speak, they all work out what they're doing. They know what they're playing, they can get along, they still have fun, you know, somehow children find it easier to get along with other kids than adults get along with other adults, right, we tend to offend one another much easier, we hold those grudges, hey, when it comes to that side of things, yeah, be more like a child, be more innocent minded, you know, don't think evil straight away of people, but in understanding, be like men, be mature. Now, it's said in verse 21, in the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people. Now, please turn to Isaiah 28, okay, keep a finger in 1 Corinthians 14, keep a finger in 1 Corinthians 14, and turn to Isaiah chapter 28, Isaiah chapter 28, because we want to see where this was written in the Old Testament, Isaiah 28, Isaiah 28 verse 11, Isaiah 28 verse 11. We get a little bit more enlightenment when we go back to the Old Testament and see what Paul is referring to here. Isaiah 28 verse 11, for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. So this people is a reference to Israel, the God is saying there's gonna come a time when there's people with stammering lips, what's that, someone that like stutters, they can't speak clearly, and with another tongue, someone that's not speaking Hebrew, the other languages, they're gonna come and speak to the Israelites, okay, because when you think about today, when you think about who's doing the great works of God, who is God using to preach the gospel, where are the missionaries coming from, are they coming from a Hebrew background, or are they coming from a Gentile background? It's Gentile background, right, mainly the Western world, you get the missionaries and people going out and preaching the gospel. So God foretold about a future where Israel, the physical nation of Israel, will not be the ones teaching the things of God, in fact, they're the ones that are gonna need to be taught by the other nations, okay. Now it says stammering lips, and again, for the preachers there, for those of you that wanna preach, and you might say, yeah, I don't speak that clearly, you know, I stutter, I'm not very clear, hey look, God is gonna use you, okay, you with the stammering lips. You know, I sometimes misspeak, I sometimes just say, I sometimes listen back to my preaching, I'm thinking, why did I say that? Did I, like, a good example of that was the, when we're going through the resurrection of Christ and who he appeared to, and I kept saying 5,000, that he appeared to 5,000, it was 500, right? I mean, I've said stupid things like that, you know, I remember saying Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a camel, when he was a donkey. Like, you know, God's, you know, you know that what I'm saying is, you know, but you know, God can use your stammering tongue, right, God can use your lips, even if you misspeak, God can make sure the message that's being preached is clear. So please look, even Moses, remember when God wanted to use Moses, Moses was, I can't speak, you know, and God got a bit angry at him, because I can use you, you know, it's me through you that does the work, but then he ended up using Aaron to help encourage Moses to speak to Pharaoh. So, you know, yeah, please, you know, don't think because I struggle to speak, God can't use me as a preacher. Yes, God can, in fact, he'll use you even more, because you'll have to rely upon his strength even more than your own strength. But let's look at verse number nine there in Isaiah 28, verse nine, let's get a bit of context here, verse number nine. It says, whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. So who does God wanna use to teach knowledge and understand doctrine? New people, right, children, little children. God uses the next generation over and over again. And what we need to understand as parents is that our children, yes, they're our children, but God wants to use the next generation to reach the next generation, right? We need to make sure they are children who are weaned from the breasts, that they can understand the word of God, and that God can then use them as his vessels for the next generation, okay? We need to remember that as parents, God wants to use the next generation. But look at verse number 10. Verse number 10, a very important concept when it comes to preaching. It says, for precepts must be upon precepts. Precept is another way of saying the law of God. We need to build on the word of God, okay? Precept upon precepts, line upon line, here a little and there a little, okay? So the next instruction for preaching is that we ought to preach precept upon precepts, line upon line. You don't wanna start teaching the deep, meaty doctrines immediately. You wanna build upon the foundations. Establish the foundations. Teach the milk of the word of God. It's good, okay? And then once you've built that foundation, then you build line upon line, precept upon precepts, okay? So when I come and preach to you guys, I'm trying to keep things simple. I'm not trying to preach doctrines that are extremely controversial or doctrines that are difficult to understand. We'll get there as a church at some point, but first we need to establish line upon line, precept upon precept, okay? Meaning that when you preach, don't preach your wisdom. Don't preach your logic. What sounds reasonable to you? Take the word of God and preach from the scriptures, right? Because so much preaching out there, yes, even in good churches, is just hot air. It's just a preacher standing up, showing how intelligent they are. Use the scriptures, okay? Preach the Bible. Our spirit is nourished with the word of God, right? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So when you preach, use the scriptures. Use it heavily. It's good. And the more scripture you use, the more accurate and the more correct your preaching's going to be, because you're going to minimize your understanding and minimize your knowledge, because your knowledge and understanding sometimes can be faulty, because none of us are perfect. But what we know is perfect is the word of God. And so that's why we need to make sure as preachers, we build things from the word of God very clearly. And I always, the way I think when I preach, and I've always thought this and I still think this today, when I first started preaching, and even till today, I used to think the congregation has no reason to believe what I'm saying is true. They have no reason to believe what I'm saying is true. They can't say, well, he's standing behind the pulpit. He must be telling the truth. Or, you know, Kevin, yep, you know, he's proved himself. We know he's a man of God. We know he loves the Lord. So whatever he says is the truth. Never have that mindset, okay? And as a preacher, never think that. Never assume that. Always think if I'm going to make a point, I need to make sure I have scriptures teaching that point. Okay? I need to make sure I have clear scriptures teaching that truth. Always keep that in mind. Please turn to 1 Corinthians 14. Back to 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14, 22. And we looked at this verse on Thursday. But just to repeat it there. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. But prophesying or preaching serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. So again, think of the Pentecostal movement, their gibberish tongue speaking that they do. Are they preaching to the unbeliever? No, they're doing it within the church amongst so-called Christians. So they're not following the instructions here. Now, think about what they do. Think about the words that they say, the gibberish that they say. Do you think if they've knocked on someone's door, hey, I'm from such and such Pentecostal church, and then they just start speaking in tongues, do you think that person is going to get saved? Are they going to understand what is being preached? No. So what is the tongues or the language? We need to speak the language that the person at the door can understand. That's what tongues are for, the gift of tongues at this time. And even if you go and learn another language, think, how can I learn this other language so that I can reach people of that language? So tongues is not for the church. Unknown tongues is not for the church, but prophesying is, preaching is. Verse 25. And thus, sorry, verse 23. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, so if we come together like we are now, and I speak, who can speak another language other than English? How many of you? Oh man, not many. All right, let's say I come speak in, let's say Brother Matt could speak Russian. He comes to church speaking in Russian, and I'm preaching in English, and Brother Callum could speak in, what's the language you wanna learn? Swahili. All right, and we're all speaking different languages. What profit is there for the church? It's going to sound like a zoo. It's gonna sound like a bunch of animals speaking, like we won't be able to make sense of each other, right? And all speak with tongues, and look at this, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers. So either an unbeliever comes in, or someone that's unlearned, like a new believer that doesn't know much. They come here in all these languages that they can't understand. Will they not say that ye are mad? Will they not say, hey, these people are crazy. These people don't make any sense. And I've been in a Pentecostal church when I was a teenager, I went to see, hey, is this stuff legit? And at first it was all right, they started singing songs, and then they had someone come to preach, and I was looking forward to hearing the preaching. But I feel like he preached for like five minutes, and then he fell on the floor or something. I can't remember, we started speaking in some tongues. Things went crazy, right? And then all of a sudden these people behind me are preaching in their gibberish tongues, and I thought these people are mad. These people are crazy. I wanted to get out of there, right? I mean, it grieved the Holy Spirit that was in me, even as a teenager. Even though at that point I loved the music, it appealed to the flesh. I thought I was doing something righteous. I thought this was the will of God, but I thought they were crazy. I thought they were mad. And if you've set foot in a Pentecostal church, you know what I'm talking about, right? But same thing, hey, if we come speaking in other languages, and people aren't gonna understand, they're gonna think we're insane. Verse 24, but if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, so again, a non-believer or a new believer comes in, and he's preaching. We all preach, okay, not behind the pulpit, but it says he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. So think about a non-believer. He comes in, let's say, you know, brother Jason gets to talk to him, and he gets to preach the gospel, right? He hears the gospel, then he goes and meets someone else, and brother Caleb meets that person and preaches them the gospel. That we're all preaching the same thing. That's gonna benefit that person, because it says there that he is convinced of all. He'll be like, hey, they're all saying the same thing. They're all showing me what the Bible says. He's judged of all, we'll all be able to determine where that person stands before the Lord. There's benefit to preaching. There's benefit to speaking the words of God. They're not gonna think you're crazy. They're not gonna think you're mad. They're going to say, hey, this church is in agreement with one another. And again, think about that example, and think about a church that is writing the gospel, but they would not preach against the repenting of your sins heresy, okay? They leave it open-ended. Yeah, you know, you have to repent. The Bible says that. And yeah, we should repent of your sins, but they leave it so vague, and they don't show people how teaching a false gospel is adding works, or adding works to the gospel, or adding how you gotta clean up your life is a false gospel, and then you end up with a church that half the church believes salvation by grace through faith, and the other church believes, yeah, by faith, but then you also have to turn from your sins, and then you have the unlearned come in, you have the non-believer come in, they hear, hey, it's just by faith on Jesus Christ, and then they hear, no, you gotta clean up your life. They're gonna be confused. They're gonna think you're crazy. They're gonna think you're mad, okay? So we need to keep that in mind. Hey, we can apply these things to our church as well. We need to make sure that we're of one mind, okay? Now, I know that some of you, and already, disagree with some of the things I believe and teach, okay? But keep in mind, hey, when someone walks in, we don't wanna make, you know, I mean, I'm happy to discuss those things one-on-one, or as a group of mature believers, but when we have the unlearned come in, you know, we need to make sure that we stand on what is being taught behind the pulpit, right? Because at the end of the day, hey, I have the rule over this church, and we need to make sure that we give a clear sound to the people that come in, okay? But yeah, of course, look, naturally, we're gonna have different opinions on hopefully secondary or tertiary things, and obviously not the main things, okay? The main things remain the main things, the things that are clear in the scriptures. What are we up to? Verse 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. So again, the unlearned, the unbeliever walks in, they hear that we're in agreement, it makes sense, things are understood to them, they're going to recognize, yes, this is a church of God, this is a church that worships God, and hopefully they will then come and worship the Lord, hopefully they will be saved and make the God of their Bible their God. Verse 26, 1 Corinthians 14, 26. "'How is it then, brethren, when you come together?'" So this is something the Corinthian church were doing, when you come together, every one of you have a psalm, that's like a song, have a doctrine, a teaching, have a tongue, speaking in other languages, have a revelation, have an interpretation, so someone's interpreting those tongues, "'Let all things be done unto edifying.'" So he's saying, look, he's not saying it's bad to have a revelation or a song or a teaching, you know, you come in, but make sure that when you do it, it's done to the edifying of the church, okay? And so I personally, I know some people do have a problem with, say, a song, like a special, you know, like before I left, we had the kids sing a song to us, but what we see here is that it's fine to come with a song, a psalm, okay, but make sure that it's for the edifying of the church. Again, some churches, you know, you have somebody come up to the front, they sing in a beautiful voice, but it kind of edifies that one person. It's like, wow, look at that person's voice, they're so talented. No, it's not their voice that ought to be amazing, it ought to be the doctrine of the song that they're singing that can edify and give knowledge to the church, okay? Keep those things in mind. Yes, it's cute to have little kids singing at the front, but that's not what it's about. You know, they're singing so they can teach us that hymn, teach us the words of that hymn so we can grow in knowledge, okay? Keep that in your mind. Verse 27, 1 Corinthians 14, 27. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two or at the most by three, and that by course, so one at a time in order, and let one interpret. So again, nothing wrong with having someone speak in an unknown tongue, as long as you have an interpreter, okay? But notice that it says there, at most, like two or three. No more than three people. We'll see that as well here in verse 28. Oh, well, verse 29 I should say, but let's read verse 28 first. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself, and to God. Okay, so the example of the Russian preacher. He's going to preach us a message, right? And then we find out, hey, the interpreter didn't come to church. So what do we do? You sit down quietly, keep your mouth shut. We'll get someone else to come and preach. That's what happened, that's what needs to happen, okay? Keep silence in the church. Hey, but he can pray to himself, he can pray to God in his language, that's fine. Okay, but not to the whole congregation. Look at verse 29. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. So let's look at that last bit first. Let the other judge. So when I'm preaching, I've already covered this, should you just accept what is being said? No, it says what? Judge, okay? You need to judge what is being preached. Is it right? And if it's right, say amen, right? And if it's wrong, come and challenge me later on, okay? Challenge me with the scriptures, all right? And I've done that in the past, where I've gone to church, I've taken my family to church, and I've heard, rubbish. I've heard just nonsense. And as we drive back home, I've told my family, hey, you know what we heard today, that was nonsense, right? This is the truth of the word of God, okay? So when you listen, please judge. Don't tune out, because I might be lying to you. You want me to lie to you? At least judge. And then you know, hey, is this the truth, or is this not the truth? And obviously apply the truth to your life. But look at the first bit there. Let the prophet speak two or three. Now what I believe this is saying is, we should not have more than two or three preachers in a church service, okay? So think about the soul winning mega marathon. You know, we went soul winning, then we had a little church service afterwards. We had three preachers, right? Myself, Jason, and Callum. But I would never have a fourth. I would never have a fifth, okay? I don't agree with churches that have multiple preachers on one day, okay? I believe what the Bible says here is don't have more than two or three, otherwise it's too much, it's like, again, it takes away that clarity of that service of what's been taught. You know, if you have too many preachers, if everyone came here to preach in a 10 minute sermon, you know, like 10 of us, you're not going to be able to absorb or take in what is being said. It's not going to edify the church as much as having a maximum of three preachers. Okay, so if you're ever wondering, why don't you ever have more than three preachers? It's because I take this verse at face value, and I don't think more than that's going to edify the church. Verse number 30. If anything be revealed to another that sitify, let the first hold his peace. So this is talking about the preaching, okay? So when you have a preacher, a preacher stands up and preaches. If you have another preacher, let them hold their peace, be quiet, okay? Because we do things by course. Then if we have a second preacher, we need to make sure the first preacher's finished, then the next preacher can come up and preach. But then that first preacher needs to be silent. Hold his course, okay? What did it say there? Hold his, sorry, hold his peace. Hold his peace. Verse 31. For ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted. So one preachers, one at a time. Let me take you back to that Pentecostal church that I visited. The preachers started preaching in tongues. The people behind me started all talking in tongues. How can you even understand what is being said? Is that what most Pentecostals, I don't know, because it's not like I've been there week in, week out. I don't know if I just turned up to a crazy one or they're always like this, where you just have multiple people talking at once, multiple people praying at once. And you gotta, I mean, first of all, it's in a language or gibberish that we don't understand, but then even if we could understand it, you wouldn't be able to understand it because there's so many people talking. That's not the way things are to be done in church. Things are to be done decently and in order, one by one. We have someone come, read the Bible. When they're finished, I'll come up and preach. One thing at a time that all may be comforted, that we can all understand what is being said. Verse 32, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. What I believe this is saying, the application for us today, is that when we preach, it ought to be subject to the prophets. Now, what do we mean by that? Well, the Bible was written by prophets, okay? So when we prophesy, we proclaim, we preach the word of God, we need to make sure that it's subject to the scriptures. Okay? That would be the application for us today, that it's subject to the preachers. And again, if there's anyone else that has a good understanding, they're to judge what is being preached. Okay? Let me just read to you. Actually, please turn to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 20. 2 Peter chapter 20. Sorry, chapter one, verse 20. 2 Peter chapter one, verse, there goes my stammering lips, okay? But 1 Peter chapter one, 2 Peter. 2 Peter, the stammering lips, okay, keeps coming out. 2 Peter chapter one, verse 20. 2 Peter chapter one, verse 20. The Bible says this, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. So if I come preaching something to you that you've never heard before, no other preacher is preaching that, that would be a private interpretation. And the Bible says the scriptures are not of any private interpretation, okay? Verse 21, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy man of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So the men that penned the Bible, that wrote the Bible, that spoke the Bible, they were moved by who? The Holy Ghost. Who's the author of the Bible? The Holy Ghost. Okay, look at 1 Corinthians 14 again. 1 Corinthians 14, 29. Let the prophet speak to, sorry, no. Verse 32. And the spirits of the prophets, so the spirit that is within me ought to be that same Holy Ghost, ought to be that same Holy Spirit that offered the Bible. So what we preach must line up with scriptures, okay? Which is why it's so important that when you preach it's line upon line, precept upon precept. Verse 33. 1 Corinthians 14, 33. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. So teaching needs to be clear, scriptural, and understood. And if it's not, it's not of God, okay? If you hear preaching, and you don't even know what's being preached, and it's adding confusion, that's not of God. That's of the will of man. It may even be a private interpretation, okay? You need to make sure that what you preach is clear, understood, and lines up with the Holy Ghost who offered the Bible. Verse 34. The controversial verse, all right? Let your women, ladies, this is for you, okay? Early Mother's Day sermon, not really. But let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. Okay, now, I've heard ladies say, man, that Paul, you know, he hated women. He didn't even get married. That's how much he hated women. And he didn't even want the women to speak in church. They were nobodies. They were undervalued, not at all. If you read about the missionary journeys of Paul, you know that he had women workers with him, working with him, getting people saved. He used man and woman in his service for the Lord, okay? Is this saying that women should never speak in church at all? No, again, what's the context? What have we been discussing this whole time? Preaching, right? Teaching the Word of God to a church. So what speaking should a woman not do? During the teaching, during the preaching, right? A woman at Joyce Meyer should not come up and teach the Word of God behind the pulpit. That is a role and responsibility for a man. It's not because men are better. It's just that we have different roles in life, right? I mean, women can give birth, right? Men can't. We just have different abilities, right? Physical and spiritual abilities, right? God can use men in a powerful way to preach His Word. And women, unfortunately, are easier to be deceived by the devil. And which is why Eve was first deceived by Satan and then Adam, okay? It's just easier for women to be deceived and fall into false doctrine. And many times when you see women preaching in the Bible, they're teaching falsehoods, okay? Now, not always. I mean, some women, especially if you've been saved longer than your husband, may even know more truth. But even then, okay, it's a man's responsibility to lead the preaching and the teaching in church. And that's when the ladies ought to be quiet. And I personally believe that women should be quiet even with the amens, okay? Now, if a woman says amen while I'm preaching, I'm not just gonna, I'm not gonna correct them, right? Because they're just agreeing with what's been, it's not like you've been heretical or rebellious on purpose or anything like that, no. But keep these things in mind. If we wanna please the Lord, these are the instructions of God and not of Paul only. I've got a friend, a family friend. We were close family friends growing up and the daughter is now a Baptist pastor, okay? First of all, she's unmarried and she's pastoring like churches and writing articles and for Baptist publishing press and stuff like that. You know, I remember when she was being ordained, her family invited my family to go and be part of that, right, to celebrate with her. I told my parents, I'm not going. I love them, but I just, I can't go and show my support for something that is unscriptural, okay? It's not, you know, I love her, you know, honestly. I grew up with this family, I care for them, but she's doing things that are wrong. She's not following after the Lord. I don't even know what she preaches. Maybe she preaches false heresies anyway, like heresies anyway, okay, false heresies anyway. So women ought to keep silence in the church during the preaching, okay? It's not that, you know, you can sing, you can pray, you know, and you can do other things in the church, okay? We can fellowship together, you can talk, but during the preaching, it's not for the ladies to come and ask questions or to preach. Look at verse 35. Verse 35, and if they, being the ladies, will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church, okay? So ladies, if you have questions, it's, I don't have a problem with you asking me, but your first point of call ought to be your husband, okay? Why, because the husband is the head of the wife, okay? So if you have a doctrinal question, it doesn't matter if your husband knows less than you. You need to go and ask your husband at home and see, hey, and grow in knowledge through that husband. And husbands, they ought to encourage it, motivate you that, hey, I need to know more about the Bible, because if my wife comes asking questions, I ought to be able to give them an understanding of the word of God. Now, again, I don't have a problem with a lady coming in and asking me questions. I'm going to assume that you've already asked your husband, okay, or girls, you've asked your father, okay? And you've already said, hey, do you mind if I ask Pastor Kevin? Do you mind if I ask Kevin at church? And if they're giving you the go-ahead, okay, I'm happy to answer any questions, but make sure that you follow the authority that God has put over you, that being the husband or the father, okay? So I won't go into it right now. I had some passages here. I think I'm going a bit long, but should women ever teach? Yes, there's a time for women to teach, and the Bible teaches that the older women ought to teach the younger women how to be a good wife, how to love their husbands, how to love their children, okay, especially in this day and age, especially in this day and age, because ladies, mothers, wives, you have such an important role with your children. God's given you such a great responsibility, but this world is going to make you feel undervalued. They're going to make you think, what, you're just a housewife? You're just looking at, what kind of life is that? Hey, that's the best kind of life you can ever have. You're going to find the most joy and the most satisfaction when you're doing the things that God has asked you to do, okay, God knows how a lady finds satisfaction. God knows how a man finds satisfaction, and we ought to just listen to what God says, because when you start moving away from those roles, you're going to find that your life is going to start to fall apart. You're going to find yourself trying to enjoy things that you really don't enjoy. You're going to try to fit in into a society that you don't really fit in, okay, because that is not how God made you, but we won't go into that today. I'll cover that for some other time. Look at verse 36, 1 Corinthians 14, 36. What? Came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you only? Again, scriptures is not of a private interpretation. It doesn't just come from you alone. Verse 37, if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, look at this, let him acknowledge that the things that are right unto you are the commandments of the Lord. So the things that Paul is writing about, it's not just Paul. You're going to say, well, Paul, you don't like women. That's why you wrote this, that women ought not to preach in a church. No, Paul says, hey, if you're spiritual, if you're mature, if you think yourself a preacher or a prophet, then you need to acknowledge that the things that I've written are the commandments of God. Okay, so my friend, you know, the lady preacher, the lady pastor, she does not acknowledge what Paul wrote. So she's not acknowledging that these are the commandments of God, meaning that she's not spiritual, that she's not mature, okay? That's what he means. So should she be leading the church? No, of course not, okay? Verse 38, but if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Now, I was scratching my head as to what this meant until I kind of read it over and over again. So Paul, remember Paul was being criticized or being questioned, was he really an apostle? Were the things that he was teaching really the words of God, right? Now, he's saying if someone wants to be ignorant and just ignore what I teach, if someone just wants to pull out the writings of Paul out of scripture and say, well, that's not scripture, well, then just let them be ignorant. Okay, what does ignorant mean? Lack of knowledge, lack of understanding. If that's the way they want to be, let them be stupid on purpose, okay? Because they're not going to be able to take the words of God and grow from it and profit from it, okay? So if they just say, yeah, the writings of Paul, that's not scripture, all right, let them be ignorant. They're not going to benefit from the commandments that we read about from God. Verse 39, wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak with tongues. Okay, so we're wrapping up now. He says covet, hey, it's a good thing to desire to preach. You know, if you have a desire to preach, you know, if you say to me, Kevin, I've got a sermon I'd like to preach in the church, hey, let me know. And I'll give you the opportunity to preach. I will, because this is something we ought to desire. This is something we all ought to practice. Hey, it's good to have two, three preachers, right? It's fine. If you say, I'd like to preach, but I've only got a 10-minute sermon, hey, that's cool. I'll preach something else after you. If that's all you've got, okay, that's fine. You know, it doesn't have to be 40 minutes. It doesn't have to be an hour. If you've got something that you want to preach, you want to desire those gifts, you want to excel to the edifying of the church, let me know, and I will give you the opportunity to preach. I promise you that. As long as you're not preaching heresy. As long as you're preaching the word of God, okay? And then, but also he says, forbid not to speak with tongues. Because during this chapter, he's kind of been putting down speaking in tongues over prophecy, but he's saying, look, don't forbid people to speak in tongues. That's fine, because they can edify themselves, right? If someone wants to pray in their own language just for themselves, that's fine. Or if someone wants to preach in another tongue, that's fine, again, but have the interpreter there so that the whole church can benefit from it, okay? Now, and then it says this in verse 40, let all things be done decently and in order, okay? So the reason why we have one thing at a time, the song, then prayer, then another song, then another song, then quoting a Bible verse, then a song, then a Bible reading, then a song, then preaching, one thing at a time is because everything needs to be done decently and in order, okay? So everybody can benefit, okay? So please keep in mind, hey, how can I minimize the distractions in the church so that everybody can benefit from this, okay? And look, I know we have little children. I want this church to be family integrated. Yes, there's going to be sounds, there's going to be noise, there's going to be distractions. We must accept this, okay? But this is the way we want the church to be. We want the church to be a place where children can grow and learn as well, okay? So keep this in mind. Hey, if we can minimize distractions, hey, let's do that as well. Let's keep those two things in mind. But just in summary, just in summary, let me just talk about the gift of tongues, just very quickly. Sorry, I don't call it the gift of tongues. What the modern day tongue movement, you know, the gibberish is doing. Think about some of the, I'll tell you five things. Five things that we need to keep in mind from these chapters that we read about true tongue speaking. Number one, it was spontaneously speaking a foreign language that was not previously learnt. That was the gift, okay? Number two, and think about, as I go through this, think about the modern day tongue movement, okay? Number two, it was used to preach the gospel to unbelievers of that foreign tongue, okay? Number three, it was not to be used within a church unless they had an interpreter, okay? Number four, it was done one at a time, one person doing it at a time. And number five, we read about on Thursday that it would cease with the completion of the New Testament and canonization of scripture. That is the true gift of tongues. These are the true facts, five facts, okay? Now, for those of you that know the Pentecostal movement, how many of those facts did what they do line up with? I'd say zero, zero out of five, right? What they do, just to reinforce, guys, is unscriptural, it is not of God, it is not the Spirit of God. And be gentle with these people because they have a zealous, they do love, they do want to try to serve the Lord. They are zealous for God. Be mindful, you know, when you speak to these people, but always understand, hey, don't you be deceived because these are not things of the Spirit of God. All right, now let's pray.