The Right Use Of Tongues Series

Intro

The gifts of the Spirit are an essential part of God’s plan for His Church. When the Church is operating in the power of the Spirit, lives are transformed, and cultures are turned toward godliness. When the Church tries to do its work through human ingenuity and carnal resources, we lose every time—no matter how large those resources may seem or how successful our efforts initially appear.

God’s plan is (1) get empowered by the Holy Spirit and (2) in that power take the saving message of the gospel to a lost world. That’s why we are studying the gifts of the Spirit. We need God’s means for accomplishing God’s goals.

The most substantial teaching on the supernatural gifts of the Spirit are found in 1 Cor. 12, 13, and 14. In that letter, Paul is giving instruction and correcting some of the practices at the Corinthian Church. In chapter 13, Paul addresses the most significant problem at Corinth, a lack of love toward one another. The Corinthian Church was operating in the supernatural. But their hearts were not right. It’s possible to do that because God honors faith. But it should not be happening. Love should be motivating our ministries. Paul deals with this most fundamental problem before he goes into specifics in chapter 14. In chapter 14 he will teach them how to operate in the gifts of the Spirit.

It is a gross misunderstanding of Scripture to think Paul is speaking against the gifts in chapter 14. His whole purpose is to tell them HOW to use these gifts effectively. He opens the chapter by saying, “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts….” You can’t make it any plainer than that. “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts….” Don’t do one without the other. They go together. How are these gifts to operate? That is Paul’s instruction in chapter 14.

In this chapter, it is easy to get lost in the details. So, let me begin by giving you two major themes in 1 Cor. 14. The theme in the first 25 verses is found in verse 12: “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.” Our end objective in all ministry, and particularly when operating in the gifts, is to help others: to encourage them, strengthen them, and comfort them in their journey. Seek to excel in edifying the Church. Operate in the gifts with that principle in mind.

Then, in verses 26-40, the theme is stated in the concluding statement, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” Conduct your public services in an orderly fashion so that you maximize edification or ministry effectiveness.

Today, we will try to get through verse 19. There are three key facts we will address.

I. FUNCTIONAL PURPOSE OF TOUNGES IS DIFFERENT FOR THE FUNCTIONAL PURPOSE OF PROPHECY

Follow with me as we read: 1 Cor 14:1-5 “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.”i

The primary purpose of tongues is for personal edification. In these verses, Paul makes four statements about tongues.

1. (verse 2) Speaking in tongues is for communication with God, not communication with men. In Acts 2, the 120 were communicating with God, praising Him for His wonderful works. God designed that event so that men from various regions would overhear those praises and understand what they were saying because the languages that were being inspired by the Spirit were languages those men understood. They were not languages understood by those speaking in tongues. But the utterances God was giving were in languages the hearers understood. That was an unusual occurrence because that is not the case in the other occasions in Acts when people spoke in tongues.ii But, in general, God gives utterances in tongues so that we can speak to Him in that way. He does not give tongues as a means to speak to men. This was apparently something the Corinthians did not fully understand.

2. (verse 2) He who speaks in tongues is speaking mysteries out of his spirit.iii He does not understand what he is saying, and those who hear him don’t understand what he’s saying. It’s a mystery to the speakeriv and the hearer. We noted that there are occasional exceptions to this rule, as in Acts 2. But, as a general rule, men don’t understand the language being spoken.