Main idea: Love learns in a respectful and orderly way in church gatherings.
Conclusion: Love builds up sacrificially, love learns humbly
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Well, good morning faith Bible Church. Let's just add my welcome to John's. If you're visiting with us new, I would love to meet you and see how we can serve you as a church. It's always a joy and then our church family. I love spending time with you all. Here. Last week, I was out of town with my boys last Sunday, we were worshiping at Grace Community Church. I'll be headed back this week for a shepherd's conference. Pray for those of us who are going be refreshed by good preaching. But we'll also see a lot of the scent preachers. So maybe Cory Milliken, and others out there, Bob, and Janice, I'll give him a hug for you, then right? Should I give him a hug? Okay. And anybody else Joe grew, I should see him on on Tuesday. So that'll be a great time for us pray for that. We are going to be finishing up First Corinthians 14 today. But let's let me say how excited I am that you're going through learn the gospel. And we're going to do that as groups. It's material by the people who develop two ways to live, Linda and I have been using that as a gospel framework for 20 plus years, it's really, really helpful. And then also over the next month and a half, two months, we're going to be going through First Corinthians 15, which is all about the gospel and the resurrection. This is a great time to ask any of your family, any of your friends, any of your classmates to come to church with you until they come. So just keep bugging them until they come with you. But this, these will be great times for that. Alright, stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We're going to round out first Corinthians 14. And next week, we have the exciting truth of the gospel coming up in 15. I'm going to read all the verse 33. It's broken up in your English texts, which is probably accurate, the verses split in the middle by paragraphs for good reason. But I thought the whole context would be good. Verse 33, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace. 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, there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church? Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So my brothers earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently. And in order. This is the word of the Lord. Our God and Father, we just read a text that in the cultural moment that we live in, is pretty abrasive. What you say here is not what the culture wants to say. But what we want to say with Jesus is not my will, but yours be done. And we would pray that You would help us understand the text what it says what it doesn't say, and we pray that You would help us be willing to submit to your loving and good and right authority and all things. Father, I pray for clarity for me. I want to speak your word accurately. And clearly. I pray that you would be with us as a congregation. We want to be a good testimony to a watching world and I pray Father, for you to be encouraging and blessing those among us I pray for the Hannah's who are back with us after Memorial for the Tanya's mom and I pray for their comfort and encouragement as they process and grieve. I pray for the Stowers who are back with us after Daniel's dad's passing and Serena has a mother who's got cancer here, broke her femur this week and is here in the hospital. much pain and many others among us give comfort and then help us as the body of Christ do what the body of Christ ought to do surround each other with the care and comfort and needed encouragement to be faithful and trusting. I do pray that You would give us a soft heart to hear what you have to say and I pray for the churches in our city. I think of Cornerstone Church, out in the other west of us hear out in the west of the Shadle area that you would help them be faithful help Dan Harris as he faithfully preaches week in and week out, give him strength and encouragement. I pray for Driscoll, Boulevard Baptist Church, that You would help them be faithful in preaching. And in all of us, we're reaching this circle of 40,000 people who, well over well over 90% of them, don't do anything with church, when we want to see your name proclaimed and your hope, given forth, so I pray that you would use them and us for that purpose. In Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Here's the introduction to the sermon. What's Dan gonna say about this? You're all thinking it, I know it. This ought to be fun. Really, the question that's the most important question to answer is, what you? What should you learn about God when the church gathers? We've been in the section from chapter 12, to chapter 14, about the gathering of the church and the various gifts that are used used in the church, what are we to learn about God, when the church gathers? We're quite used to learning about God from the sermons in the scripture readings, we're used to learning about God from the songs that we sing or even the prayers that we give. But is that it? Is that that the only thing? Of course, you know, there's more, you've heard the adage, it's not only what you say, but how you say it. That's also true, you communicate by how you say things. So the testimony of the church is how the church says it. That's that's the testimony. That is the Christ like behavior of believers, and the order of their gathering there to say much about God too. If you look at the first part of 33, which Brian finished up with last week, he says, For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. So when, when we gather we should see that part of being a loving community making disciples of Jesus Christ is gathering in peace and order. It's part of it. It reflects the character of God. And this is a pretty amazing thing to say. The attitude, and the manner of how we gather reflects the character of God. Either it either clouds it, or it properly reflects it. So before we dive in, I think we have to set this in context if you're new today, and there's so many of you new even since we started chapter 12. So many new to the church. The passage I read, read, just read seems so out of step with contemporary culture, I mean, this one seems as out of step as Indian contemporary culture that the Bible has. But let me briefly speak about the gospel of peace according to the Bible. At creation, Genesis one in the Garden of Eden, Genesis two, God first made Adam and then he instructed him to work and protect the garden. This word, work and keep the word keep has the idea of protecting, protecting the sanctity of the garden work, God's going to walk with Adam and Eve. Well, Adam, was alone, God put him to sleep, took a piece of Adam side fashioned Eve out of it, Adam was then to instruct Eve about their role together, we saw that you'd see that in Genesis one, and Satan possessed a snake and tempted Eve to disobey. The only restriction that Adam and Eve were given, and he stood by passively as the snake, the serpent had a conversation with Eve and tempted her to disobey that one restriction. Ever since we all sin ever since we experienced sickness ever since we experience death ever since then, we experienced strife at the national level there is war. At the local level, there are political issues. And in marriage, there is a constant struggle which was predicted in Genesis three men are going to try to dominate women women are going to try to usurp the role. And this has created a great Mass Effect. Next, every sphere of life most practically for faith Bible Church, our counseling center has job security. Because there's always a waitlist for non members seeking counsel.
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But there's good news. God didn't leave us with that. Ephesians 217. And 19 speaks of the national issue between Jews and Gentiles, but there's this application. That's really crucial. And it says, key, Jesus came and preached peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near for through him, we both have access. In one spirit to the Father Jesus came. The war between God and man has an answer in Jesus Christ, the glorious reality of the gospel, and in the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ gives to all believers, God, the Father, is the first person of the Trinity there is an authority structure in the Trinity. And he sent Jesus Christ God, the Son, Jesus, the second in authority came, took on human flesh, and he lived a perfectly obedient life, to the point, he knows he's going to die, and he's praying. If there's any other way than this, please remove it from me. It's the story in the Garden of Gethsemane, we just sang about it. And he said, Not my will, but yours be done. In his life, Jesus demonstrated the supreme submission to his father's will, being ready to go to death. During his life, Jesus performed miracles, He empowered His apostles to perform miracles. We're seeing some of the second generation of that in this passage that we've been in First Corinthians. And despite that, he was betrayed by one of his own. He was arrested, he was abandoned by his own, he was crucified by his own people and by the Roman government. As we will look at the coming month, we see the glorious reality he was raised from the dead. And that provided the proof that what he did on the cross was accepted. So on the cross the submissive, Jesus bore the wrath of God in our place. And in bearing God's wrath, he satisfied the requirement for forgiveness. And on the third day, he was raised, he ascended to heaven, and he sends His Spirit to indwell, and gift each person who repents and believes and this gifting provides divine enablement, further people in the church to serve each other, but realize this, he will come to judge the living in the dead. So here's this glorious news, especially if you're here, and you're new with us today, and you're hearing these gospel truths. And you understand the conflict of life, in relationship, family, marriage, country, world, if you understand that if you repent and believe you can have peace with God, and He can give you a new heart to start forging peace with other people, the glorious news of the gospel. And I would urge you, if you're new with us, that's the setting for this. So when Paul says, God is not a God of confusion, but a piece that starts with the totality of our relation with him, and then with each other, and he applies it even further into the order of the church. This particular passage that were in the piece that he's talking about, should be the norm of the gathering, it should be how the gathering normally looks, it should be reflected in the love, we feel and demonstrate for each other. And it should be reflected reflected in the in the respect and orderliness very particularly this whole chapter ends with two areas of respect and authority. One is respect for God's designed authority structure of male servant leadership in the church and in the home. And the second is respect for the supreme authority of apostolic teaching. So we just read that's how Paul summarizes and ends this chapter. So here's the big idea for you this morning. Here's the big idea. I know you're waiting, forgot how I'm gonna handle women being silent in the church. But there's a big idea I want you to get that. That gives us your enduring principle. Love learns in a respectful and orderly way in church gatherings. Love learns in a respectful and orderly way. In church gatherings. We all know that you can learn from Proud purposes to there are asking questions. Then there are asking questions. There's asking questions, and then there's questioning. A lack of respect and order introduces confusion and division. And if you want to know when it feels like spiritual warfare feels like spiritual warfare when there's confusion and chaos, confusion and chaos. If the elements of the gathering are disrespectful or chaotic, it clouds the character of God. So as we as we finished this chapter 14 is going to close out with close out the whole section from 12, one with three final principles. So we're going to look at those learn respectfully in the church gathering, remain submitted to the scriptures, apostolic teaching, and then doing everything decently in order in the church. So let's look at this first one learn respectfully in the church gathering. The key attitude here is going to be respect specifically respect of God given authority structures, every Christian that gathers with other Christians, they're both servants and learners. As Paul finishes the section, we're going to focus on that final bit of learning how people learn in the church. So the end of verse 33 says this, as in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they're not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says, there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home for to shameful for a woman to speak in church. So before we unpack this, let's make sure we understand the proper context. And the biblical context that's connected to it turned back a couple chapters to chapter 11, Chapter 11, to where we have moved from, talk about idolatry. And now we have moved to talk about worshiping the church. And the Apostle says, this is 11 Two now I commend you, because you remember me and everything and maintain the traditions, that's what the Apostle has set forward about how to operate in the church, even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, the head of Christ is God. So notice here there is a God given authority structure. Within the members of the Trinity, God is always Father, he is First Person of the Trinity. The son is always second person of the Trinity. So you have the head of a man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, but the head of Christ is God. So there's, there's even an authority structure in the Godhead. And as Jesus takes on human flesh, this becomes very apparent that he is fully submission, submissive, his whole life. So that being true that there is a divine authority structure. First, for every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, Brian and I preached this several months ago, you can go back to those but the summary is that in a Corinthian marriage, the sign of a wife's marital status and her submission to her husband was wearing a head covering doesn't specify what it is, whether it's a veil or not, but some kind of headcovering and it would be functionally like her wedding ring. That's what it was. If a man does that, he is taking on the role of the woman, especially if he's doing it in public, but it would just be an odd thing. But every wife who prays or prophecies prophesize, with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is is Abbott as if her head were shaving. Which is only done in extreme cases generally, a shameful thing for If a wife will not cover her head and she should cut her hair short but since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head for a man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of man for man was not made for a woman but woman for a man neither was man created for women but women. For men. He's quoting the Genesis one and two principles. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. So we we have this scenario where there is praying and prophesy going on. In our passage, it says the woman should keep silent in the churches. We're gonna get to this question. But the key in verse in 1434 is the issue of submission, understanding authority roles that God has given in the church.
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Paul quotes or alludes to the Old Testament law in chapter 11. Now, what's going on here? in Corinth, there was a cultural symbol of submission, that was a head covering. And so a woman who did not wear them would have been improper, she would have disrespected her husband's authority if she prayed or prophesy. But what what's happening here, here in chapter 14, it says, a woman's not to speak. So this is where our dilemma is. What is it in chapter 11? What is it here? It's the question that everybody's asking. There's many views on the passage, there's two popular conservative views that I think are worth looking at. There are a whole bunch of other views that are not worth looking at. I could give you 10 and bore you all. And you just say, no, no, no, no, but here's, here's the question, Does 1434 take precedence over 11? So is this the passage that bears and that's one common interpretation. And that means that when he talked about praying and prophesying a chapter 11, he was talking about the places the scripture says that that's okay for women to do like, for children, or to other women, or in evangelism, that's a very common view. And this view, would say, See, she's just to be silent in the churches. And those other things are what's at stake. And I used to hold that view. And if you just pull the verse out of its greater context, you'd be like that. mean, it says what it says, and that's all my job is, as a preacher, all my job is as a follower of Jesus is just to do what it says, and trust him for it. But I don't hold that view anymore. And I have several reasons why I don't hold that view, the primary. The primary reason is the context of chapter 11. We have started to move into the corporate gatherings and it would be interesting for him to say, It's okay for her to pray or prophesy as long as she has a headcovering but only to children, women and evangelism. It doesn't look like that the context, the greater context looks like. We are talking about together the second part of chapter 11. You have them mistaking the Lord's Supper when they're all together. Chapter 1213, and 14 are all about the corporate gathering. So starting a chapter 11, this looks like that. So is he talking about an absolute rule? I don't think so. I'll get to what I think he's talking about, like, but here's the second reason why I just did a brief survey of the word profit test and you could do it you have all these electronic tools, just look up profit tests in the in the Bible, and you're gonna find that there were profit testers who spoke to the whole of Israel. Miriam Moses sister, speaks to the whole of Israel. She's called the Prophet test. Deborah was a judge, she speaks to the whole of Israel, we have a whole chapter recorded from her words of what she spoke to the whole of the nation. We have a woman named to hold in Second Kings, who preaches warning to the whole nation. She has a prophet test. And then we have the New Testament, where we have Phillips daughters and Acts chapter 21. They were single women who prophesied we don't have any record of what they said, but they did. And then you have Acts chapter two and Acts chapter two is a really key pivotal point in the early church, because in Acts, chapter two is the fulfillment of a prophecy in Joel Joel 228, where the Spirit is going to be poured out. And it says this, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And Acts chapter two, there's 120 People gathered together in the upper room. And it says, The Holy Spirit came upon them from Acts chapter one, we learned that Mary is there, and the other women so this 120 included Mary and other women, and tongues of fire came on all of them, and all of them spoke in a language that they had not learned to people who were foreign to that area. In fact, it was so powerful to have the tongues of fire coming from their heads the Shekinah glory and speaking this for length, these languages 1000s and 1000s of people gathered around saying what's going on? Are they drunk? Peter says no. Here's what's happening. Joel two is being fulfilled. And he literally quotes Joel 228. Through 30. About the coming day of the Lord in judgment. It's time for you to repent. It's difficult to say that Deborah Miriam holder, Hana, only spoke to women, children and evangelism. It's difficult to see that. Plus, Hannah, gives a psalm in First Samuel two and Mary gives a song in Luke chapter one. So it looks to me that there is a place for women to pray publicly and prophesy in Paul's time. So what's he talking about here? That's what you've been waiting for. Okay, great. Thanks for the context. Just tell us what it means. In the immediate context, Brian, priests through just brilliantly last week, talking about an orderly church service where different people brought things to the table. Some might bring this language they had learned, but there needed to be an interpreter. If you look at what it says, if there's no interpreter, it says, Let them be silent. It's not, you might have the gift, but it's not useful. So be quiet. There might be prophets there and the first stands up to speak a revelation from God. And if he goes too long, the second one who's also got a revelation is going to Nehemiah, it's my turn, and he's like, Okay, I'll be quiet and says, Let this first Be quiet, like there was an orderliness to it. So things didn't get carried away. And then they needed to be weighed. So what do I think's going on here? As a prophecy was given. It needed to be weighed or tested, according to Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 18, it needs to, the person needs to be authenticated. And the message needs to agree with the other teaching, in this case with apostolic teaching or Old Testament teaching. It needed to be weighed, because there were false prophets during the time, just like there's false prophets today. So everything needs to be tested. So what he's saying, I think, is in light of that. A woman needs to respect the male authority in protecting the truth. So it would even go like this. If you have a husband and wife, both of them have the gift of prophecy. She might give her prophecy, he might give his prophecy. Others way it as soon as she gives her prophecy, she now submits to the authority of the men in the church to apply and interpret it. Because Adams role in the garden was to guard God's word. And remember, it's once it's given, it's no longer the person so to speak, that's authoritative. It's the word that's authoritative. And so that authoritative word now becomes the measure. And you can imagine what would happen a husband prophesize, a wife's a prophet, she's weighing and she says, I don't think so. In front of everybody. Well, I imagine this is going to go really well at home after church and lunch, like lunch is not going to go well. There's an authority structure within the local church. Remember, the the word from God is what's authoritative? I mean, do you have examples of that? Yeah, Old Testament. balem, who is a false prophet hired by bale act, curse is real is overpowered by the Spirit of God and gives a true prophecy which really comes true. And as part of our divinely inspired scripture, later, he gets killed as a false prophet. But the word is still true. I'm not saying that the women here were false prophets. I'm just saying, just saying. It's the word that's the authoritative thing. And then God charges, men in the church to accurately communicate, apply and protect it. That was the role of Adam and then the new creation in the church. Also true at home. It's also true at home.
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Maybe there were more general questions being asked. But if you if you look at our text, the issue of submission for they're not permitted to see But should be in submission, as the law also says we've already looked at that in chapter 11. Let's also look at this in the home and first are in Ephesians 522. Flip over to your right, a couple of books to Ephesians Ephesians 522 in the home, says this Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife. And by the way, it's the same idea of submission. For is the husband that is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and his himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her here. Here's the divine order in the new creation, both in the church and in the marriage, that the wife submits and respects that's the two major issues and Ephesians five in the home. wife doesn't submit to every man she submits to her husband. Husbands love your wives. And then the man has sacrificial loving leadership. What does that look like? Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. There's the loving sacrificial service that He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, what's a man's number one role toward his wife in marriage, that she become as much like Jesus as possible during his life. To keep bringing the Word of God to her to help her be as much like Jesus as possible, then that's your number one job, sacrificial servant leadership that helps her become as much like Jesus as possible. Remember what Jesus did, he's a cleanser by the Washington water with the word that's the gospel message so that He might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husband should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church. Husbands are to nourish and cherish their wives, wives in such a way that they grow in Christ's likeness and purity and wives are to respect their husbands. So back in the church service in Corinth, Prophet one speaks, Prophet two speaks, Prophet three speaks, we're all done. It was very common in the synagogue, it's very common in the early church for there to be a time of dialogue about this. And if a wife stands up, and asks a question, or, you know, the other way to do it questions, because you can ask a question, or you can question with a question, just asking a question. Yeah. Or are you challenging? Well, this isn't an appropriate place to make a public challenge of the elders or your husband. You should go home and talk about it with each other. Let her go home, ask her husband, she wants to learn something, I'm just asking a question. If you're just asking a question, why don't you go home, and you and your husband should talk about it? Issues submission, the issue is respect. So this is an absolute prohibition. For women having any speaking role in the church. We have our gals pray and read Scripture every time they sing scriptural songs. With First Corinthians says, Praise her prophets prophesies and prophecy is our view of prophecy has done so we we think it's just fine for women to read Scripture upfront to sing, which is praying. But when it comes to now, asking questions, we have an order and we have a respect for the authority structures in the church and in the home. one more verse that talks about this, Paul, Paul talks about the issue. It is shameful for a woman to speak in public, which that speaking is the questioning, challenging or weighing what it's the elders job to do. So what's what's the shame and embarrassment? It's an embarrassment to him. It's an embarrassment in the church. Turnover to First Timothy 210. This is the other place that we find this and here's the law that Paul's talking about when he just quotes it without citing it. It's because he's cited in other places. First Timothy 210 says let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. Now there we have the two ideas together. So quietness is not a quietness is an attitude. It's a settled part of your spirit submissiveness. In same concept, says I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man rather, she has to remain quiet. Chris, we all know there's such a thing as not talking, but speaking loudly by your attitude and your body language. This this is talking about a quality of respectable spirit. And then it goes to law for Adam was formed first, then Eve. So God give gave Adam the task of leading his wife. Adam was not deceived. No, he was just passive and uncaring. Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became the transgressor. Adam was passive and cowardly, he did not protect his wife from Satan's temptation. Men fall prey to this false to false teaching all the time, often through passivity. And as you remember, it's not only women that are deceived, men are too. But here's Paul's point in the new creation, that is the church, and it is the Christian home, the man has to step up into that role, again, that Adam lost that Adam ruined. So he has to act as care. The words nourish and care correspond to those ideas of tend and keep. The home is a garden, the church is a garden. And so he needs to take that role of nourisher and protector of his wife. And she must not bring on shame by stepping outside that authority.
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Silent in the churches, it's not to bring an open challenge. It's not to bring open questioning. It's not to dominate the scene with curiosities when the husband's role is to go home and help talk through what they heard. Now, what really needs to be said men? Is are you taking notes? Are you paying attention? Are you fully engaged? So that if your wife has questions, and your wife is curious, or if she's like, I don't know, if I really agreed with what he said that you're ready to think it? Well think through it well with her, are you ready to give me an email? Not her the email. Are you ready to give me the email, said of her sending me the email, happy to answer her email, happy to do it. But I'll still be asking. I wonder what your husband thinks. So here's that related idea. It is a bit of a sidebar, because we don't really have that scene. We don't structure ourselves that way. I mean, we don't even structure spontaneity. The greatest spontaneity we have, I like to jokingly call scattered applause after a song. I liked it. That's our spontaneity. But there's a heart issue that I think is really helpful. How often have I been talking to a gal who's very exercised about a biblical issue? She's challenging and questioning, and I don't mind being challenged and questioned too much. I'm gonna love it. But mind, but I'm asking myself this thing all the time. What is your husband thinking? Like, did she ever talk to him? What's your husband said about this? Where's he in this? Why isn't he calling me exercised? And concerned? How many moms have teenagers called the youth pastor or some other mom in the church scolding and critiquing them for what a student does or the child does? And ultimately, who's supposed to be ensuring godly behavior by the teenage sons and the teenage daughters the father is? So as mom calling all exercised about it. Can she call can she be exercised? Well, it would always be a good idea to talk to your husband. Why isn't the husband calling ultimately he's responsible. But we know the issue. We know the issue. She's exercised and if I Don't agree, we got a thing. I really just want to watch the Lakers game this afternoon. And I just want to watch it in peace. I don't want to go through the thing. Oh, yeah, you're really bothered by that all I know. She's got nowhere to go if he's just watching the Lakers game.
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And so Eve talks to the serpent. And he stands there, with his sword sheathed, kicking back with his drink of choice for a relaxing afternoon, or evening, or whatever it was good. Shouldn't he be leading? Should he be leading? I think this is an issue related to social media to go. And this really goes both ways. I mean, if you're going to respect your wife, if the issue is Respect, respect your wife, husbands does what you post lead to some kind of trouble or difficulty for your wife? Does she have to bear whatever you said, on your post? Wives? Does what you post reflect the feelings and wisdom of your husband? How husbands do you give wisdom to your wife about what she posts? It's all public. It's all public. You know, honey, I saw what you posted there, and I'm not sure it sounds like it. And then she's exercised. So you could like, Oh, I saw what you said. I know what's gonna happen if I bring that up. I am never gonna get the bed tonight. So you let it passively go. Women are to be men's helpers. You know, there's a super simple solution to all of it. You know, I just heard this and I'm fired up and I'm gonna write this. Okay, honey, what do you think of this? Before I hit send? Before I hit post? Well, let me read it. I think you should delete it. I think you should change some things. I have been rescued out of a mountain of trouble by handing it to my wife. I have also gotten in trouble by not handing it to my wife or vice versa. Vice versa. Because I'll read the post. I'll go do you have a husband? Like is this really what you want to represent your whole family with?
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All right, I got an everybody's grill. It's really exciting day. But you can see how that respect to be absolutely vital for the testimony of God's people to the world. Be really important. We're not done although we could quit there and go home. Tomorrow. Thanks. Let's finish them up. There's a submissiveness in the authority structure of the church. And remember, the men all need to submit to Jesus, nobody is getting out of the Submission role. Everybody needs to submit to somebody. We round it out with a remaining submissive to apostolic teaching. The apostles were hand selected by Jesus to speak his words in the world. And you can easily understand what's going on in Corinth, a person has the ability to speak in a tongue and it get interpreted a person has the ability by God to prophesy and you're suddenly thinking, look, I have God's word to who's this poor guy to think that he's the final word. Paul's like, I'll tell you who I am. I'm an apostle, hence selected by Jesus. And I've been given a special role. It's Paul proud about that. Not at all. He gets beat more than anyone on Earth for having that role. Read Second Corinthians. It's not a coveted role he's commissioned by him it's so Paul says with his sarcasm was it from you that the word of God came? Did it really come from you? Did it just show up here and you you brought the Gospel? No, I brought it. Are you the only ones it has reached? Paul? is asking this pointed question with sarcasm. Are you the be all and end all of revelation did originate with you? Does it end with you? Suddenly they think they're equal to the apostle. Paul's saying no, that's not the case in modern charismatic and Pentecostal movement. That is the case. When charismatic teacher says, it's not what the Holy Spirit said, That's most important. It's what the Holy Spirit says. Throw me today. And there are those who are claiming equal standing to Scripture and apostolic authority. It's not what Paul says, If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, that's how the whole thing started with the spiritual gifts in chapter 12, verse one, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. You have to remember we love this idea of the Red Letter edition in the New Testament, you see Jesus words. But if we understand what an apostle is, all of the words of the New Testament are red letter, they're all red letter. He's saying Jesus words, he's been charged to say Jesus word. If he doesn't say Jesus words, he'll be disciplined.
46:37
So, if somebody thinks he's a prophet, you know what he's gonna do? You know what she's gonna do? What Paul said? Look, we're all sitting here and you're kind of getting uppity about your you can proud about your prophecy, like what Paul said. Paul has the final word. He has commissioned and as the apostles died, and their words are written down the Scripture and the apostolic teaching is our final authority. So you have the Old Testament scripture, you have the New Testament scripture by the apostles, this is the final and highest authority. Paul says, If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. Remember, at the beginning of chapter 12, he said, No one by the Spirit of God can say Jesus is accursed. You have to have an orthodox profession of faith, an orthodox message, and no one but by the Spirit of God can say Jesus is Lord. That was the confessional standard here, it bookends the whole thing. Because if they're not recognizing apostolic authority, they're not a genuine prophet. He's not to be recognized.
47:50
Old Testament scripture, New Testament scripture are supreme. And if you were like me, when I was a Pentecostal spoken tongues gave words of wisdom. And you ask yourself, what was that? I've been asked that question. Like, I have a family member who speaks in tongues, and they think it's genuine. What is it? Well, here is the issue. Is it? Is it submitted to the authority of Scripture? Is scripture the final word, both in what it is, and its operation. Scripture is always the Supreme. And scripture is always the sufficient authority. And we're not Pentecostal or charismatic. So you're all listening to this for somebody else's church. But you might have a charismatic friend who speaks in tongues and the only question to keep asking me, Is it the biblical version? Is it the biblical version? Let's just go with the biblical version. Is it that and after 2000 years, we have profound insights of centuries of theologians, we have church traditions, we have catechisms and confessions of faith, and hopefully they're rooted in Scripture, but it is always the scripture that is supreme. If a catechism or confession, or doctrinal tradition goes against Scripture, we always take Scripture. We have a tradition to read the Scripture before we preach to show this precise principle because the Scriptures what a thought is authoritative. And my preaching or Brian's preaching or any of our other brothers preaching is an explanation of what is sufficient and supreme. The Scripture is always supreme. Not the sermon. Sermon explains. Calvin Luther Augustine, Edwards, MacArthur or Piper are not the be all and end all The scripture is Aren't you gonna go to Shepherd's conference, Dan? And listen to MacArthur this week? Yes, I am. He's 85 years old and he's still preaching strong. But he's not my Pope. Everything still comes under scripture. So we need to remain submissive to apostolic teaching. I liked how Brian said it, you need to keep remaining Bereans keep examining everything under the light of Scripture. Alright, let's round it out. We need to use our gifts properly and in order. So he summarizes the whole thing. Remember, in his era, where tongues prophecy, were still going, he didn't want to end them. Verse 39, he says, so my brothers earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues, they're done properly, there'll be beneficial. But all things should be done decently and in order. The word decently or indecency has to do with propriety appropriateness, respect, that's what he's been talking about this, this whole last section is a propriety. This is one of the ways we show love in the gathering. Gatherings aren't a playground for self advancement. They're not a playground for gathering a personal following. In a gathering we should show love by respecting others contributions, not just our own and a gathering, we should show respect for our spouses in the leaders, we should do things in an orderly way. This word decent and an order this last word is taxon. It means good order or sequence. It means that means an orderly flow, so it's not a free for all of spontaneous. Speaking, remember, chaos does not lead to peace, and it does not give good reflection toward God. The God of peace. So let me summarize the whole section. Let's round out the whole section, chapter 12. And on in chapter 12, we have the mutual care and responsibility of the church, this mutual dependence, each person has a gift, if they're a believer, in the church, and every gift, every special ability given by the Holy Spirit is to build others up. Every role is worthy of respect. So we need to serve with our gifts, but we are all individually insufficient. So we need the gifts of others. And as we receive the gifts of others, we receive those humbly, we need them. That's the total message of chapter 12. And then in chapter 13, we find this beautiful exposition of Christian love, and it governs how people use their gifts, not serving to be seen. That was Brian's language last week, I really liked it. We're not serving to be seen or to be noticed or to be exalted. We're serving to love. Chapter 14 makes a bit specific application to that those two speaking gifts, prophecy and tongues. But I think we could apply the learning in 13, four through eight, just as well turned turned back there. And let me read it as our as our final application about learning. Because you can learn pridefully and selfishly as well. Just follow from verse four. Love learns patiently and kindly. Love does not learn out of envy, or to boast. Love doesn't learn, thinking he knows it all arrogantly or rudely. Love doesn't learn to get its own way. Love isn't irritable or resentful as it learns. Love does not learn to find out the juicy tidbits of somebody's wrongdoing. Now Love rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things as it learns love believes all things as it learns love hopes all things as it learns love endures all things as it learns. There is a respect and care that's given as we learn to this chapter ends with that and it applies to authority structures as well. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for what you have given us here in this word. We are so thankful that you give us some time to heart read passages because it really makes us dig in. You have given me a task to say what your scripture says, and I pray that this, whatever was faithful to that would be remembered and embraced. Father, I pray that you would now also help us. Apply this help us learn with humility and respect for the purpose of being more loving. That's why we learn to be more loving to be more glorifying to you help us do that, in Christ's name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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