The Benefits of Well-Ordered Worship

2:38Let's begin then here in verse 26, where Paul does. He asks this question: What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. Paul seems to be implying that every member of the church wanted to use his or her gifts publicly in the corporate worship service. And no doubt, many of these people really wanted to use their gifts to build up the church, but there's also little doubt that some of them had selfish motives. And so for the eighth time in chapter 14, Paul writes these words, let all things be done for building up. Building up the church has to be the motivation and the goal for using our spiritual gifts at any time, but especially in the corporate worship of the church. So in verse 27, Paul moves to specific application that is aimed at helping the Corinthians use their spiritual gifts to do just that, to build up the church. So let's start with Paul's instructions on tongues in verses 27 and 28. I want you to notice a few things. First of all, Paul begins with if.

4:01He says, if any speak in a tongue. He's teaching that tongues can be a part of the corporate worship service, but they don't have to be, if anyone speaks in a tongue. Second, I want you to notice that Paul puts a limit on the number of people who can speak in tongues during corporate worship. He says that there should be two or at most three. Now that's very significant because Tongues are often presented as uncontrollable phenomena. The Holy Spirit takes over, and you have no control over when the speaking begins or when it ends. But the Apostle Paul, who is being inspired by the same Holy Spirit to pen these words, is saying that's not true. Instead, he's saying that the gift of speaking in tongues, of speaking in these unlearned foreign languages, is given by the Holy Spirit, but that gift is under the control of the believer. And that means that if you're in corporate worship and one or two other people have already spoken in tongues before you, then you need to receive that as evidence that God intends to edify the church in some other way. The use of any spiritual gift must not dominate the time of gathered worship.

5:29The third thing I want you to notice is that two or three prophets, or two or three people who speak in tongues, rather, they must take turns, and someone must be there to interpret if they're going to have tongues spoken in the corporate worship service. And why is that? Well, it's because if they're all speaking at once, or if the languages aren't interpreted, well, then the rest of the church can't understand what's being said. And if the rest of the church is, Church can't understand what's being said, then they can't be built up, which of course is the whole point of the spiritual gifts.

6:10But unless we think that Paul is singling out tongues, he also has instructions for prophets in verses 29 through 33. And I want you to notice in this section of scripture that he has almost the exact same instructions for prophets as he did for those who are speaking in tongues. He says that two or at most three may prophesy, same number. He says they need to speak one at a time, so they can't be talking on top of each other, just like the tongue speakers. I want you to see that they can't claim to have no choice but to speak, as Paul says in verse 32, the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. The big difference that we see in this section is in verse 29. And in verse 29, we see that others in the church are to weigh what is said. They're to weigh what is said. What does Paul mean by that? Well, the Greek word translated weigh could be defined in this way, to make a judgment on the basis of careful and detailed information. To make a judgment on the basis of careful and detailed information. So take a look at these.

7:30Two scriptural commands on your screen. 1 Thessalonians 5, 20 and 21. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. Look at 1 John 4, verse 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. Church, it is our collective responsibility to weigh what is said by anyone who is claiming to be a prophet. We don't cynically despise all prophecies, but we also don't naively receive all prophecies either.

8:23Last week, we defined prophecy as speaking the word of God or delivering the word of God to the people of God. Every day of the week, and especially on Sundays, people across the world are supposedly delivering the word of God to the people of God. And many of us see these men and women on the internet who are false teachers, who are not speaking the truth, and we shake our heads at that. But we have to understand that these men and women who are Speaking, have thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of people watching them in person or online. All of them are typically professing believers, and yet none of them is weighing what is said in the name of the Lord. None of them are testing it against the scriptures.

9:21So we have to recognize that the Apostle James writes that teachers will be judged more strictly because what we say affects what people believe and how they live their lives. But Paul is also clear that every believer in the church has a responsibility to ensure that anyone speaking the word of God to the people of God is speaking the truth and not leading others astray. Friends, all of this is important because of what we find in verse 33. In that verse, Paul says, For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

10:03That's why when we gather to worship God, our meetings can't be characterized by chaos. People talking on top of each other, people speaking in uninterpreted foreign languages, services that go on all day because no one will defer to anyone else. So, whether you're a member at New Life or whether you're watching today for the first time, if you're a professing believer in Jesus Christ, Then you have a responsibility. We all have a responsibility to ensure that spiritual gifts are being used responsibly in the church.

10:42That takes us to the second half of verse 33. And in this part of the verse, Paul shifts his attention to the way women are conducting themselves in corporate worship. Now, that's not a new theme. We saw that Paul addressed that subject back in chapter 11 as well. And if you missed the sermon on 1 Corinthians 11, verses 2 through 16, it was called Gender Expression and the Gospel. And I really want to encourage you to go back or to go and listen to that sermon online. In that sermon, I mentioned that the Bible is the only ancient book that affirms the inherent value and worth of women. And many of the women who began following Jesus in the first century are coming out of cultures where they were devalued. And it seems that a lot of these new Christian women are living out this freedom, which is good, but they were living it out in a way that was disruptive in the worship service and off-putting to unbelievers in the culture. And so we talked about in chapter 11 the fact that the first century Greco-Roman world, all women. Covered their heads in public. The Corinthian women who were removing their head coverings in worship were distracting other believers and offending unbelievers. And so Paul taught that they should cover their heads in worship to avoid both of those things. And so, with that background or that reminder, let's take a look at these verses together. Pick up in verse 33, right in the middle. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

12:50When Paul writes that women should keep silent in the churches, what does he mean? Because if you just take a look at this one verse and you pull it out of its context, you can come to the wrong conclusion about what Paul is saying. A moment ago, I referenced chapter 11 where Paul is talking about women covering their heads in worship. And what does he say that they're doing in the worship service? Well, they're praying and prophyling. So Paul cannot mean that women are literally forbidden from speaking any words when the congregation is gathered for worship, because that Would mean that they couldn't pray or prophesy, which he was giving instructions about back in chapter 11.

13:36So, what does he mean? I think verse 34 is the key to understanding. Look at how he explains it again in verse 34. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. The word also tells us that Paul is giving us two reasons that women should keep silent in the churches. And it seems clear that the two reasons are cultural practice and the law of God. In terms of cultural practice, we must understand that women weren't permitted to address men publicly in most first-century cultures. Culture is not the final arbiter of truth, and neither Paul nor any of the apostles was afraid to go against cultural practices when necessary.

14:33But as he did with head coverings back in chapter 11, Paul is saying, listen, in your culture, it's considered shameful for a woman to speak to a man in public. And since that's the case, if you have a question, there's something that you want to discuss, go ahead and ask your husband at home. Paul is teaching them to acknowledge cultural norms to avoid unconsciousness. Necessarily offending other people. However, I also want you to notice that Paul refers to the law or the commands of God in chapter in verse 34, rather. So this isn't simply a cultural thing. It's not something that we can just look at and say, well, Paul only meant this to apply to women in the first century Corinthian church. When we study the Bible, we find that God has a special design and order for all of his creation. And that includes a special design and order for men and women. In both the home and the church, God has assigned men and women complementary roles. Men and women weren't designed by God to be indistinguishable, interchangeable parts.

15:58Men have been designed and called by God to lead in both the home and the church, loving and serving their wives at home and teaching and exercising authority in the church. And women have been designed and called by God to help their husbands by using their gifts and their talents in the home and by utilizing their spiritual gifts under the authority of called, qualified, godly elders to bless. The rest of the members of the church and the community at large. So, when Paul writes that women are to keep silent in the churches, he is referring to the cultural practice of the day.

16:44But at a deeper level, he's referring to God's unchanging law, the way that he created men and women in his image and likeness with equal worth and value, but also with distinct roles in the home and the church. So, he's saying that if a woman has a question or wants to discuss anything, she should ask her husband at home, because doing this demonstrates submission first and foremost to God and his word and the way that he designed the world, and then secondarily to the elders of the church and to her own husband. This preserves order in the church so that everyone can be built up when the church comes together to worship God.

17:33That takes us to verse 36, where Paul returns to a theme that he hasn't revisited in several chapters, but he's going to come back to now. And that theme is authority. In verse 36, he asks them rhetorically and maybe a bit sarcastically as well, if the word of God came from them, or if they were the only ones that it had reached. You see, what Paul is doing is he wants them to acknowledge that they didn't write the word of God, and that they didn't deliver the word of God, and that they weren't the only church on earth. Their behavior during worship was disorderly, and it was confusing to both believers and to unbelievers. So they needed to acknowledge that. They needed to submit to God's word, which was spoken and delivered through the apostles, like Paul, who first brought the message of the gospel to them. And lest anyone claim that they were speaking for God, and therefore trumping the commands of Paul or the other apostles, Paul says in verse 37 that any true prophet, any truly spiritual person, would acknowledge that what Paul is writing is a command from the Lord.

18:53Paul was aware that he wasn't merely sharing his own opinions, his own views, when he was writing this letter. Carried along and inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul was writing the Word of God, and he knew it. You may remember that Paul defended his apostleship back in chapter 9. He noted that he himself saw and spoke with the risen Christ, and that the Corinthians were the seal or the proof of his apostleship in the Lord. But some proud Corinthians refused to recognize Paul's authority as. An apostle. What he's saying is that if they refuse to recognize his authority, they themselves would not be recognized as spiritual people or as true prophets because they would be contradicting God's message through Paul, the apostle.

19:48Friends, today there are many professing believers who disregard Paul's writing in the New Testament, saying that his words are no longer authoritative for us. Others will say that we have new revelation from God that trumps what Paul and the other writers have said 2,000 years ago. But friends, Paul claimed to be writing the very commands of God. More than that, his ministry was affirmed by the original disciples of Jesus, by his miraculous life, by his holiness and his obedience, and by his willingness to lay down not just his freedom, but his life for the message of the gospel.

20:36No one, not in the first century and not in the 21st century, can claim to be a Christian prophet or even a spiritual person and deny Paul's teaching with their words or their lifestyle. We affirm the teaching of the Bible here at New Life, not because we're traditionalists who are stuck in the past, but because we genuinely. Believe the Bible's authors were writing the very word of God. It was true and relevant then, and it's true and relevant today as well.

21:12Take a look at 2 Peter 1, verse 21. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Paul is going to conclude now in verses 39 and 40, and that's where we'll land the sermon as well. These two verses neatly summarize his teaching. Look at what he writes. So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order.

21:57Mark Dever said it very well. Take a look at this quote: There is nothing inherently disorderly in desiring spiritual gifts, and there is nothing undesirable about expressing them in an orderly fashion. Passion and order can and should go together in our assembly in order to communicate the truth about God. In every worship service, what we do and the way we do it. Is telling everyone who is watching and participating something about God. It's either telling the truth about God or it isn't. It's either allowing his word to be heard and understood or it isn't.

22:49So when we plan our worship services, we want everything to be done decently and in order. Which also happens to be me and Pastor Cody's favorite verse in the Bible. To do things decently is to obey God's commands about worship and to avoid offending anyone with the methods that we choose to use in our worship, many of which are simply culturally conditioned. And to do things in an orderly manner is to do them in a way that isn't chaotic, confusing, or distracting.

23:28Decency and order in worship are important for two main reasons. First, decency and order are important because God alone can tell us how to worship Him in an acceptable way. God's creatures don't get to decide what is acceptable or unacceptable in worship, no matter what kinds of justifications are offered. Some churches make worship all about their members, what kind of music they like. The kind and the length of the sermons, what people need to wear when they come to worship, and other churches make worship all about non-Christians. What do we have to do to get them in the doors? What will be entertaining and interesting enough to keep them here so they don't go to the church down the street?

24:23But the problem with either one of these approaches is that it makes worship all about people instead of about God. God is the object of our worship, and when we gather, we gather to worship Him on His terms. Decency and order are important in worship because they help us to remain focused on God rather than allowing our focus to drift to people and what they are or aren't doing. Second, decency and order are important in worship because the message of the gospel must be clearly proclaimed.

25:05This really builds on the first point. Because if we believe or if we act as though worship is primarily about people, then the question is naturally going to be: what do people like? Well, people do not like to hear the truth. The truth that you and I have been created by a holy and righteous God to bring Him glory. With our lives and to obey His good and pleasing and perfect will. We don't like to hear that we have rejected and rebelled against Him and His authority, and as a result, we deserve to be righteously judged for our sin.

25:47We don't like to hear the truth that we cannot save ourselves by any number of resolutions or by trying to become more and better religious people. We don't like to hear the truth that we can only be saved through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, His life, His death, and His resurrection from the dead. But friends, this is the message that people need to hear. And this is the message that Jesus has commanded us to preserve and proclaim until He returns.

26:27During this difficult and unusual season, we are prevented from meeting together to worship God as the body of Christ. It is without question the most difficult and biggest sacrifice that we have been asked to make for the good of our neighbors. But I hope and pray that this forced absence will help all of us to appreciate just how precious it is to gather together with the saints to worship God. And I hope and I pray that when we We're finally able to gather again after this plague has run its course, that we'll also have a new appreciation for decent and orderly worship because that's the kind of worship that glorifies God and edifies the church.

27:20Would you pray with me? Father, we are sorry that so often we have made worship about ourselves instead of about you. As church leaders, we have done it. As members and visitors, we have done it. We've turned worship into something that is all about us and our preferences and what we want. We pray that your word would do its work in our hearts and in our minds so that we rightly understand and we rightly believe what worship is all about, and that's you. Worship is about you, God. And so we pray this morning that we would cultivate that kind of an attitude where we seek to honor you with what we do and don't do in worship. That we seek to cultivate the kind of attitude that prioritizes others above ourselves. What our Christian Brothers and sisters need, and what our non-Christian friends and neighbors need.

28:37God, we thank you for your word, and we pray that we would internalize it and apply it and live it out. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.