According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): Even without a bulletin in front of us, you can probably give a brief rundown of a typical service in your church. Maybe you start off with a few praise songs, some announcements are given, a message, prayer from the pastor followed by an offering, perhaps another song before you're dismissed. Every church does things a little bit differently, but whatever we do should be done decently and in order with the aim of glorifying God. Here today on According to the Scriptures, we take you to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and learn about the basis for order in the church. We catch up with Pastor Damian Kyle now here in verse 26.

Damian Kyle: 1 Corinthians chapter 14. The section we’ll be studying begins in verse 26 and so if you take a look there I’ll read and you follow along in your hearts. Paul writes to the church at Corinth, "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.

But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached?

If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order." So we come tonight to the end of this section in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 through 14, which is intended to be the cure for ignorance related to spirituals or spiritual gifts, as Paul began the entire section in declaring.

In chapter 12, he spoke there and in introducing the subject of spiritual gifts, encouraging us that the Holy Spirit is every bit as safe to yield to, to have control of our lives as Jesus himself is. And then he goes on further in that chapter to speak about the fact that each of us as a Christian has been given at least one spiritual gift by the Holy Spirit for the fulfillment of God's calling upon our lives. And then he gave a warning against two extremes that can occur related to spiritual gifts in that chapter.

And that is for the person who minimizes or diminishes the particular spiritual gift that God has given them and to think that their spiritual gift is insignificant. And then also kind of rebuking and putting in their place the person who believes that the spiritual gift they have received from God is superior to all the other spiritual gifts and by virtue of having the gift that they are superior to other Christians and not realizing, as Paul likens the body of Christ to a human body, that we all need one another in order for our gifting and our place in the body of Christ to be effective and health-producing.

And then in chapter 13, he made love central to his teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that it is important that the exercise of spiritual gifts occur but always under the motivation of love. And then as we saw last time in chapter 14, Paul addressed the spiritual gifts and the exercise of them in the public assembly. That is where the doors are opened up to a church and Christians and non-Christians, seekers are able to come in. You have believers and unbelievers in the same room.

And he laid the case very, very strongly for in that environment where both groups of people are present, the superiority of prophecy, the gift of prophecy being exercised in a church service over the gift of tongues for the simple reason that the gift of prophecy can be understood by everybody in the room and without an interpretation, the gift of tongues can't be. Now here as we come to these verses, having laid this entire foundation now for all of this, it's instruction in its own right, but laid a foundation now to come to this place where the rubber meets the road.

And he gives the church at Corinth very specific instruction on how a church service is to operate and what is to be the tone and the environment and the order that is to mark a Christian church service. Now in looking at this section, we have to remember that the apostle Paul is correcting a church service, a church whose services have become very, very chaotic and unhelpful in that regard. And so their services were the exact opposite of being decent and order. And instead they were chaotic and indecent.

And that is they were dishonoring. They were no longer their assembling together was no longer something that brought honor to God, but instead it dishonored him in the eyes of the unsaved world and even in the eyes of Christians and dishonored the name of Christian and Christianity, especially surrounding the exercise of spiritual gifts. And so this passage addresses something very specific. Now while the instruction in this passage applies to every church and every Christian concerning the exercise of spiritual gifts in a public church setting, it's not saying Paul is not saying that every single Christian church has to conform to the general character or the tone or the structure of the church services in Corinth as Paul lays them out here.

Every church is to be marked by Acts 2:42. There is to be the apostles' doctrine. There is to be an emphasis upon the teaching of the word. There is to be an emphasis upon prayer, including worship, which we just enjoyed and worshiping the Lord and then also there is to be the Lord's supper and then fellowship with one another. But beyond these foundational things, tremendous room has been given for diversity within a church service, within the body of Christ in terms of its tone and its structure and its style and its personality of a church's public services or their assemblies in terms of their worship or their distinctives or their emphases.

For instance, you have some churches are highly liturgical. I've been in them occasionally in my Christian life. They're known as what is high church. They're affectionately known as the smells and bells churches. And so you have they resist modernization radically, resist any modernization of the church. And their services are as much as they have always been for hundreds of years, the incense, the robes, the candles, and the kneeling and the sitting and the standing and the reciting of written prayers and so forth.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have what is known as low churches where there are very few of these kind of trappings. All of the trappings of high church are virtually nonexistent in a low church. So their services are much simpler and much less formal. We would be considered a low church in that kind of terminology. I discovered that in a startling way many years ago, decades ago, when we were relatively new as a church in town and I went to a ministerial association meeting in town and I was in line, they had kind of a buffet lunch and all.

And so I was in line and the guy in front of me turned around and he introduced himself and I said hi to him and gave him my name and then he asked what church I pastored. And I said Calvary Chapel and he looked at me and he responded by saying, "Ah, a low church." Well, I didn't know what he meant. It didn't sound very good to me, whatever he was saying. You know, we may not be much but we kind of like what God's doing over there. But what he was meaning it was that it was a more informal kind of a setting and not having being bound by a lot of traditions.

And so I didn't understand all of that at the moment but when you've been put down, sit down as Romaine used to say and so I found someone more edifying to talk to at that meeting and to eat my lunch with. I'm kidding. Then there are the Pentecostal churches which are much more free-wheeling in their worship and in the expression of their emotions toward God. And then there are churches that are much more conservative in their worship service and sometimes affectionately known as the frozen chosen.

And so you have all of these and more that kind of get put under these banners that within the body of Christ and there are almost as many kinds of churches as there are different kinds of people. And each kind of church, as long as they and we are faithful to the scriptures, it's okay. The various styles are okay. In fact, it's important to have those various kind of personality of a church and emphasis of a church in terms of the style of worship and so forth and to be represented within a community.

And God can be worshiped in a lot of different ways. And here we're just talking about the city of Modesto. To travel the world and to attend church services around the world is to realize that the diversity is quite broad in terms of how church services that are Christian are conducted. So you have some people, they're very, very big on tradition and they're uncomfortable with change and they like things to remain the same. And so they want the church service to be exactly the same every week.

And so Monk attends there. A little OCD there and he heads to that kind of a church. I'm kidding. I'm not saying you're OCD if you go. But they like the same scriptures to be read, there's no movement from the order of the service, the same prayers are prayed, the incense is lit at just the same moment in the service and just as it's been for hundreds of years. And what it gives a worshiper in that environment is a sense of security and that I'm in the middle of something that has deep historical roots. Christians have been doing this for years.

And so that kind of person is drawn to heavily liturgical churches. Other people, they want the exact opposite. They want a highly emotional experience with God and there's nothing wrong with that. But they want to be a part of a church where when they anticipate going to church on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, in the back of their minds, they're wondering, "What is going to happen today? Anything could happen today in the church that that I attend," as they think about it. And so they're drawn to the more charismatic or Pentecostal churches.

And then others, very, very conservative and they're by personality, the Christian is maybe very uncomfortable with emotions, very uncomfortable with emotional displays in a public setting and in a church. So they'll find a more conservative church to attend. And all of that's great and it's one of the reasons God doesn't operate in a city like Modesto or in any city by just securing us 50 acres somewhere in the middle of town and then putting a church there and then having all of his people attend the same church.

He allows for all of these kind of distinctions to occur and all of this kind of personality to be represented. And so no single or individual church that God births within a community is right for everyone, but each one is right for someone. I remember Chuck Smith, Pastor Chuck Smith saying many, many years ago, in fact decades ago, where at a pastors' conference he spoke to us as pastors and he said, "The sooner you realize that your church or the church that you pastor is not going to be right for everyone, the more you'll be at peace."

But the fact that God raises somebody up to lead a church and the church exists and God favors it in any way indicates that it's right for someone. And then how many people and what kind of people, that's all entirely up to the Lord. But there is a line that can get crossed in a worship service and how a worship service is to function that goes beyond the legitimate, biblical expressions of worship of the Lord and it crosses into something that misrepresents the Lord, it dishonors the Lord publicly and makes the worship service unedifying to other people.

And the church at Corinth had crossed that line. And they had crossed that line in very, very significant ways. And so Paul was forced then to correct them, which he did. And his correction is really invaluable to us because it has provided us with two great principles that are to guide our public worship services. The first principle is given to us in verse 33, if you notice, "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." So this tells us a number of things all at the same time.

When a church service is under the control of the Holy Spirit, it will not be marked by confusion because the Holy Spirit is not the author of confusion. And the word confusion means insurrection, commotion, tumult, riot. That's the kind of thing or something bordering on that that was going on in the church at Corinth at their gatherings. It's always important I think, and it really helps me because there is a level of distrust that many Christians have related to the Holy Spirit because what has been ascribed to him by Christians and how they've conducted ourselves potentially is frightening to them.

So they're really cautious related to the Holy Spirit and to remember that the Holy Spirit will never, ever do anything that is inconsistent with the life or the nature of Jesus himself. If you're ever in a setting or an individual is speaking to you in some way and what it is that is happening in that setting is not consistent with the Jesus that we see represented in the gospels and we know him to be as he's represented there, then it is not the Holy Spirit. One of my favorite names for the Holy Spirit in the Bible is that he is the Spirit of Christ.

And what that does for me at least is it reassures me and reminds me that the Holy Spirit will never act and operate in a way that is inconsistent with Christ himself. When a worship service is under the control of the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us it will be marked by peace because the Holy Spirit is the author of peace. And God Paul tells us further that this is what his presence will look like in any church, not only the church at Corinth. And so no matter what the cultural diversity of Christian worship services all around the world, and I have an ability to appreciate all of them. But Paul says if they ever move into confusion and become marked by confusion, now they've crossed a line and they've gone from a legitimate diversity in expression toward God into something that the Holy Spirit not only doesn't want to be a part of and won't be a part of, but is not of him at all.

Guest (Male): Hey thanks for hanging out with us here today and studying the word with Pastor Damian Kyle. This is According to the Scriptures and we are knee-deep into our study of 1 Corinthians. Damian will be right back. For resource requests like today's message on CD, reach out to us by phone. The number is 209-545-5530. That's 209-545-5530. Pastor Damian Kyle's studies can also be heard online at AccordingtotheScriptures.com, OnePlace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we also have a church app where you can listen to Damian as well. Search for Calvary Chapel Modesto in the App Store or Google Play. If you would like to partner with us financially with a financial gift, you can do that through our website at AccordingtotheScriptures.com and thank you very much. Let me also give you our mailing address, According to the Scriptures, 4300 American Avenue, Modesto, California, the zip code is 95356. Well, let's return to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, shall we, for the rest of Damian's message.

Damian Kyle: The second principle that he gives us is there in verse 40 of chapter 14. He said, "Let all things be done decently and in order." So this tells us two very important things and it has something to say really to Christians at both ends of the extreme so often related to the expression of worship within a church. To the more conservative of us, Paul writes, "Let all things be done." And he exhorts that end of the spectrum that that is what that group needs to be careful of, lest in our conservative personality we then encumber God with that and then we suffocate all life in the church because we will then remove every element of the supernatural from their worship services.

So Paul is saying Paul is saying, "I have not written these three chapters to give you folks," affectionately you folks, not talking to you but that group, "you folks ammunition to not allow the supernatural of the Holy Spirit to mark the Christian life and the assembly of the saints." And then to the more adventurous among Christians, he says to them, "Let all things be done decently and in order." And the word decently means fittingly, properly, becomingly. And becomingly of who? Becomingly of God, becomingly of Christianity. The word order means in an orderly manner.

So a worship service is to have structure, there are to be people in authority within a church service who are before God given the responsibility of assuring that the service is conducted decently and in order and that that order then that authority is to be respected and to be submitted to. And so a church service is not to be a chaotic free-for-all and then ascribing it to the work of the Holy Spirit, which is the specific situation that Paul is addressing here. When the Holy Spirit is in control, the result will be all things will be done, but they'll be done in an environment that's decent and orderly and edifying.

Sometimes in trying to understand a Bible passage, it really helps, especially with the apostle Paul, because I think it's chapter 1 of the book of Ephesians, he starts and of course this is all by the Holy Spirit, but the whole chapter is one sentence. And he's following a thought progression and you just you're along for the ride and you're what where in the world what how does this fit and you try and figure it out and sometimes he's absolutely clear and the best way to understand him is to begin at the beginning, read him through and then come to his conclusion. Then it all crystallizes for us. We say, "Ah, there it is."

Sometimes if that's not successful for you and sometimes it's not successful for me, and the best thing to do is to go to the end of his thought, the final verse, see what it is that he's saying here, his point that he's wanting to make and then back your way up through the passage to understand how he is getting there. And these are the two great points that the apostle Paul, as we see them toward the end of the chapter, that he's wanting to make in this section of chapter 14.

Guest (Male): We'll stop right here. We've got the rest of chapter 14 for you tomorrow here on According to the Scriptures. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Modesto.