Do all speak in tongues? What did Paul mean by that rhetorical question? Part four.
Hi and welcome to today's Little Lesson. Thank you so very much for joining me. If you're a regular
viewer, you know that we've been on a rather lengthy series on speaking in tongues and the
baptism of the Holy spirit. I can't remember if this is the 26th or 27th lesson, but we're
going to actually close it out probably today. Maybe one more, but we're very close to the end.
And we've been working our way through these really relevant scriptures in 1 Corinthians 12
and chapter 14. We skipped over chapter 13. There's relevant stuff in there,
but if we speak in tongues when out of love, then you're just a
clanging cymbal. So love is more important. And when Christians fight and divide about speaking
in tongues, oh my goodness. That's a far cry from what God really wants.
So I'm not claiming to understand everything within these chapters. There's a couple of
things that I've been scratching my head over for years. One of them is found in 1 Corinthians
chapter 14 in verse number 20, where it seems like what Paul says there contradicts what he says just
right after that. Some commentators have suggested that throughout Paul's letter to Corinthians,
he just quotes what they wrote to him, because he is responding to their letter. There's no doubt
about that. And so they recognize it, but we don't recognize it. And we think, "Wait, Paul, you're
contradicting yourself," but it's possible that Paul quoted them. And then he said, "No, here's
my answer." He didn't say, "Here's my answer," using those words, now let me respond to that.
Here's my answer. But they would have recognized their own words in their letter written to him.
So, just a confession that I don't understand everything. So, I'm going to skip over what seems
like it's contradictory and just jump into something later on in 1 Corinthians chapter 14,
where in verse number 23, Paul says, "Therefore, if the whole church
assembles together and all speak in tongues," well see now it sounds like everybody in Corinth
could speak in tongues whenever they wanted. So again, that helps us contextually understand
that when Paul said do all speak in tongues and obviously the answer was no,
he wasn't talking about the initial evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit,
but talking about one of the nine gifts of the spirit that operate not as I will,
but as the Holy Spirit will. Whereas this, this ability to speak in tongues
operates as I will. Once you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you'll understand that.
So, "Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues,
and ungifted men," that is those who don't speak in tongues, "or unbelievers enter,
will not say that you are mad?" See, so this fits into the flow of Paul's argument that
let's not have a bunch of speaking in tongues in church, if there's no interpretation.
"But if all prophesy," he says now in contrast, "and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters,
he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed.
And so he will fall on his face and worship God declaring that God is certainly among
you." So Paul's argument here is an unbeliever comes in and hears y'all speaking in tongues.
They're just going to say, "Well, this is a bunch of weirdness here."
But if all prophesy, and apparently the prophecy can be directed at an unbeliever who enters,
and disclosing the secrets of his heart. So that goes beyond the simple gift of prophecy
into the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom where God spontaneously reveals
some little bit of information that you couldn't have known otherwise. If it's past or present,
that's the word of knowledge. If it's future, it's the word of wisdom. And so, the secrets
of his heart, that's the word of knowledge and operation accompanying the gift of prophecy.
All right. This is all so foreign to us, isn't it? Church services,
church gatherings, modern ones, there's so few that are like this. And it's really a shame.
Anyways, let's look at the conclusion here. 1 Corinthians 14:26, Paul says, "What is the outcome
then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has," and he lists how, when they came together,
everybody brought something with them, a gift from the Holy Spirit to edify everybody else.
It wasn't just people sitting in pews, listening to a sermon and hearing the choir sing. It was
more participatory. "Each one has a song." So that would be some somewhat prophetic. "Has a teaching.
Has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation." See, these things were an
operation in the Corinthian church. And apparently it was pretty regular. He said, "Let all things
be done for edification." That's the overriding argument of the last couple of chapters. That's
why he said, "Don't be speaking in tongues with no interpretation." You want to edify people.
"If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three and each in turn,
and one must interpret. But if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church
and let him speak to himself and to God." So there's the general rule, and that was the
general problem there during their gatherings. And again, one more time, we have affirmed what I've
been arguing for these past few Little Lessons, that the rhetorical question do all speak in
tongues is not a reference to the initial evidence that accompanies the baptism of the Holy Spirit,
but is a reference to one of the nine gifts of the spirit that operate as the spirit wills
and is always accompanied by the gift of interpretation.
So here's the test. Paul says people are speaking out in tongues and there's no interpreter. Well,
that means God's not giving people the interpretation. So that means you're out of order.
You don't have the gift of tongues given by the spirit to minister to the body. What you have
there is the ability to pray in tongues, and you ought to be quiet and not be yelling out
in your prayer language, as many Pentecostals and Charismatics refer to that ability. Then he says,
"Let one interpret." That doesn't mean one person interprets all the messages in tongues
possibly, but maybe he means we're trying to discourage competitive interpretations,
if more than one person was given the ability to interpret.
Again, I can't say I'm 100% certain about that.
But look at this. "Let two or three prophets speak." Now, they had prophets in their church
and Paul's encouraging them to speak out. "Let two or three prophets speak and let the others
pass judgment." So we are to judge every prophecy. He said that in other places too.
"But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent,
for you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and be exhorted, and the spirits of
prophets are subject to prophets." So in other words, when God gives someone a prophecy, they
don't have to immediately belt it out. They can sit on it because if someone else is prophesying,
and that apparently was a problem in the church. Here are people who are called to be prophets,
and yet they're interrupting one another because, oh, I got a revelation. Well he goes on to say,
"For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."
So, God's doing supernatural things, but there's a component of human
control. Just like, for example, when you're baptized in the Holy Spirit and you have the
ability to speak in tongues, the utterance is supernatural, but the speaker has control over
whether he or she is going to speak or not and how long and whether he or she is going to add a
melody to it. See? So it's divine and it's also human, a combination. And people use that, or
I should say people misunderstand that when it comes to speaking in tongues.
They pray to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and then they wait because they don't want to,
"Fake it or do it myself," and that robs them of the gift, because they think God's going to
just take their mouth and begin to make their jaws flap and make sounds come out. No, no, it's your
mouth, your vocal chords, your lips, your tongue. God's not going to force you to speak in tongues.
You have to yield. He gives the utterance. So if you have spoken in tongues after you've been
baptized in the Holy Spirit and the devil says to you, "Well, that's just you," you can say, "Well,
you're partly right, devil, and you're partly wrong. It's not just me. It is me though. It's me
with the Holy Spirit helping me to speak in tongues."
On the day of Pentecost, we read in Acts chapter two, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And
the understood subject is they began to speak in tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. And so,
they did the speaking, the spirit gave them utterance. And that's been the experience of
millions of Christians who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
I think I'll just do one more Little Lesson just by way of encouraging those
of you who have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoken in tongues.
I'll give you my best advice and that will close the series. Thank you so much for joining me.
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That's the ministry that I've been blessed to have founded almost two decades ago,
and we're serving around the world, caring for the least of these and doing our part to expand
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on many levels. Check out HeavensFamily.org. All right. Until next time, may the Lord bless you.