soon after I became a Christian, one of the first things I realized about my new faith was the issue of authority. Authority meaning who or what had the power over me to determine what I believed and how I behaved, how I conducted my life, authority. Having grown up in an environment where people freely gave their opinions without anyone knowing who was actually right or wrong, I recognized that Christianity was very different. Very different. It wasn't based on anyone giving their opinion, it was based on what the Bible said. Therefore, my entire faith came down to one, one essential issue. If the Bible was the Word of God, then it must be my sole authority in all matters. And although as a new Christian I struggle with some honest doubts as to whether or not the Bible was divinely inspired, eventually, after diligently studying and thinking through a number of critical issues, and God patiently giving me understanding, I came to an unwavering conviction that indeed all Scripture is God-breathed, or inspired, and therefore the Scriptures are fully authoritative, so that when Scripture speaks, it is God speaking, and therefore He must be obeyed, and He must be submitted to. Now the question of authority is something that affects all of us. You see, who or what your authority is determines a great deal about the way you think, the way you conduct your life, the way you behave, pretty much everything. What or who is your authority? And people have different authorities. For example, for Roman Catholics, church doctrine and the Pope. That's their authority, essentially. For some Protestants, their pastor and what he says is their authority. For observant Jewish people, their authority boils down to tradition. For others, their political party is their authority. Whatever the narrative of their particular party affiliation is, they embrace it without question. The party has set the narrative. It's their authority. For others, the news media is their authority. They accept as fact and truth whatever is communicated to them and whatever avenue it is communicated Still others claim pragmatism is their authority, meaning that if something seems to work and something is practical, then it must be right. For some, their experience becomes their authority, especially if it's a religious experience and emotional experience on top of it. And others look to so-called experts in the various fields of life as their authority. If they are labeled an expert, then they must be right about whatever they say concerning their area of expertise. And thus, they become the authority to some. For many, science is their authority. Whatever science says is true, must be true, even though scientific theories are constantly changing. But for many, science, if they hear the word science, that's it. And still for others, perhaps the vast majority of people, they become their own authority, believing that they and they alone determine what is right. They and they alone determine what is reality. They and they alone determine what's right and wrong. So their opinion is the final judge in all matters. And as a result of so many varying authorities, our culture is much like it was in the days of the judges, when the judges ruled Israel, so that we read in the book of Judges, there was no king in Israel and everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. In other words, everyone becomes their own authority so that they determine the way they want to live regardless of any other considerations. And as a result of this way of thinking, we have become a rather contentious and an angry society filled with dogmatic assertions and opinions without having any reliable source of authority for why we so strongly think and believe as we do. We just do. It must be right because I said so. Now in many ways we are like the false teachers the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about when he said these words in 1 Timothy 1, 6 and 7. He said, for some men straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law, meaning the Old Testament law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. In other words, although these men were quite dogmatic and inflexible, unbending in the things that they were saying about God's law, They didn't know what they were talking about. That's what Paul is saying. They were dogmatic, but they didn't know what they were talking about. They didn't have a clue. Now tonight, as we return to our study of 1 Corinthians 14, and this is our last message in this chapter, we're going to look at the issue of authority and what we as believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, what should be our authority. Specifically, we're going to examine the Apostle Paul's claim that what he wrote in scripture was divinely authoritative because they, he said, were God's commandments. Here's what Paul said about his authority as he concluded chapter 14. I'm reading to you verses 37 through 40. If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments. But if anyone does not recognize this, he's not recognized. Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak in tongues, but all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. Now, these words, as you know, they're part of a larger section in which Paul is instructing the church on how to conduct an orderly, peaceful Sunday worship service so that there would be no confusion, no disorder, no chaotic things going on and everything is to be carried out in a proper, organized, peaceful manner. And the reason Paul gave these instructions is simply because the Corinthians were so disorderly in their Sunday services. Paul is teaching them to bring order to the service. There was what? There was disorder and those who spoke in tongues because those who spoke in tongues wanted to speak at the same time all at once so that there was confusion and chaos. Can you imagine being in a church service where people get up and start speaking not only in the language of the people or really not in the language of the people but in another foreign language and tongue and they're doing it at the same time. There was also disorder in that many who had the gift of prophecy, meaning that they had the ability to preach God's Word, they all wanted to speak and be heard each Sunday. They'd show up and they'd all want to take their turn. There was also disorder in that there were some women who were teaching the congregation and other women who were apparently calling out questions during the service. It was just a mess. And so because of all this disorderliness, Paul gives some very specific regulations for the purpose of bringing orderliness to the church for when they met on Sundays. Therefore, starting in verse 26, until the end of the chapter with verse 40, Paul lays down certain very specific procedures for how the Corinthians were to conduct themselves in their church. services. And he does this by regulating the three specific areas that were problem areas in the church. Areas I just mentioned. These were the areas at the heart of all the confusion that was taking place on Sunday. So the first problem area that I'm just quickly reviewing to bring you up to where we are tonight. The first problem area Paul addressed and regulated by laying down certain procedures was the use of spiritual gifts. in the church service, specifically the gifts of preaching and speaking in tongues. The second problem area that was contributing, as we said, to the chaos and confusion taking place in the Corinthians church was the problem of women speaking in the church services. And so, as we've seen in previous studies, having addressed these two problem areas, spiritual gifts and women being out of order, the apostle now proceeds to the third area, which was a problem for the Corinthians, that area being his divine authority as an apostle. Verse 37, if anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments. Now with these words, Paul is addressing a very real and a very serious problem that existed at the Corinthian church. That problem being that some who had the spiritual gift of prophesying or preaching and others who had the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues felt that they could use their gifts any way that they chose to use them because, after all, they were God's instruments, his vessels, in bringing his message to the congregation. In other words, they felt that they were their own authority since they were specifically gifted to declare God's revelation. You see, this thinking went back to their attitude, their sinful attitude of pride and arrogance. It's throughout this letter that Paul is addressing that they were proud and they were arrogant, and they were especially proud of their spiritual gifts. And so they exalted themselves, especially those who had speaking gifts, exalted themselves above others who didn't have these speaking gifts, and they felt like they were a law unto themselves. And so what Paul is doing in this verse, he's addressing those with the gifts of prophecy and tongues and telling them that they are not their own authority. He is. They're not their authority. He is. Because as an apostle of Jesus Christ, the things that he has written to them about concerning how to use their spiritual gifts in a church service, these are not his human opinions, these are the very commandments from the Lord. You see, what Paul is telling these folks is that if anyone thinks He's a genuine prophet. And if anyone thinks that he's spiritual, and I take it when Paul says he's spiritual, he means he has the spiritual gift of tongues, then the proof that they are what they claim to be is that they will acknowledge that what he has written to them about concerning how to properly use these gifts are the Lord's words, the Lord's commandments. In other words, what Paul is saying is that if anyone is really spiritual, if anyone is really godly, as they claim to be, then they will submit to His commandments because His commandments came from the Lord Himself. And folks, what Paul is saying is still a vital and a critical truth for us today. Although for us, the issue isn't that anyone is claiming to be a prophet or that they speak in tongues, not in our church. Yet the truth that Paul reveals here is quite relevant, pertinent, applicable to us. Why? Because the principle of what he's saying is that the mark of someone who is a true Christian and who claims to love the Lord. The mark of someone like that is that they recognize that the words of Scripture are absolutely authoritative, and must be submitted to, and must be obeyed. You see, there are many people today who claim, oh, they claim to love the Lord. They claim to believe the Bible. But when the Bible tells them something that they don't want to hear, and they don't agree with, they refuse to submit to it. I've known, for example, of family relationships destroyed because someone in the family has a child who is a homosexual and rather than condemn this behavior as the Bible does, they accept it. They don't want to go against their child. They accept it and then they refuse to associate with any family members or relatives who disagree with them. It all goes back to authority. And there are many within the charismatic movement who consider themselves to be spirit-filled. They'll be happy to tell you that they are. but who put their personal experience over what the Bible says, and when they are shown from Scripture that their experience is wrong, their experience is not only unbiblical, sometimes it's anti-biblical, they refuse to submit to the authority of Scripture, thus revealing that they are indeed not Spirit-filled, because one who is truly under the control of the Spirit always, always submits to God's Word. It is the voice of the Spirit. I remember having a very strange conversation years ago with a cousin of mine who was a professing Christian, but who had a problem accepting the authority of the Bible above her experience. So one day she was telling me, about an experience she had with a family member, and before, and she anticipated this, before I could even point out to her that her experience went against the teaching of Scripture, she just blurted out, she said, Steve, now I don't want you telling me that my experience was wrong. You see, in essence, what the Apostle Paul is saying to the Corinthians is that those who are truly spiritually minded, they recognize the authority of Scripture. But it even goes beyond that. It even goes, folks, beyond being spiritually minded. While it's true that Christians often have differing interpretations of what we would call certain secondary, relatively minor doctrines of Scripture. If an individual outright, I mean outright, it's not struggling, but outright refuses to accept the Bible as the authoritative Word of God, then it proves, note this, it proves they're not even a Christian. They're not truly born again. This is precisely what the Apostle John said in 1 John 4, 6. He said this, We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. And I take it he means us as apostles. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So John says that true believers in Christ, those who have been converted, those who have trusted Christ as Savior and Lord, they listen to us. Meaning they listen to us as divinely inspired apostles. And those who aren't true believers, they simply don't listen to us. They don't care what we have to say. It means nothing to them. Now, that's the heart of what the Apostle Paul is saying in verse 37, that those who accept and who heed the authority of Scripture are true believers. But I want you to know that while this is the heart of Paul's statement, there's something else in this verse that Paul said that is extremely important. Note again how verse 37 reads. If anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments. Now with this statement, Paul, Paul is making a clear and a dogmatic claim that his words, his words which he had written to the Corinthians were the Lord's words, the Lord's commandments. That is to say, Paul is telling the Corinthians that His words are not mere human words with mere human understanding, mere human wisdom, but rather His words carry and have divine authority. They are the explicit commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Paul is claiming that Jesus is speaking and he's writing through him. Now what this tells us, it tells us something very important. It tells us that Paul was very much aware that when he was writing scripture, he was writing under divine inspiration. So that his words, though written in his own unique style, his own unique vocabulary, had their origin in God. Paul was aware of this. So that they were God's words and therefore carried with them divine authority. Paul didn't simply say these things and then someone later said, hey, I think this might be God's words. No, Paul was aware when he was writing this, when he was speaking as an apostle. And this isn't the only time Paul acknowledged that his words were inspired words of God. He said essentially the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, when he said, for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, You accepted it not as the Word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." Now folks, here's something important to keep in mind. What Paul is claiming isn't that he's a divine person in any way. He's not claiming that he's perfect. He's not claiming that he's a sinless man, or even that he's better than anyone else. What he is claiming is that when he wrote as an apostle, he was writing with divine authority because he was writing God's words coming through him. Concerning this very issue of Paul and his authority and the fact that Paul as a human being was a sinner like all of us. In fact, he said he was the chief of sinners. John MacArthur said this, He said in verse 37, Paul gives perhaps the strongest claim to authority as God's apostle. Paul had personal limitations and blind spots, which he freely recognized. But when he spoke for God, his views were not tainted by cultural or personal bias. He did not, for instance, teach the submission of women in the church because of his Jewish background or in order to conform to any personal male chauvinism. He taught that truth because he himself have been taught by the Lord. Paul did not claim omniscience, but he claimed unequivocally that everything he taught about God, about his gospel, and about his church, was God's own teaching, the Lord's commandment. Now Paul's claim that he was a human instrument to communicate the very words of God, they go back to what the Bible says about the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, which is spelled out, and you should note this if you're not already aware of this, in two very important verses. The first verse is 2 Timothy 3.16. So let's look at that. Here Paul is writing Timothy. He says, All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. Now, with this statement, Paul is stating the fact. He's not explaining how it happens. He's just stating it as a fact that all the Bible, every word of it, from Genesis to Revelation is in the word, this is the Greek word that's translated in most of our English versions as inspired. It is the Greek word breathes out. It's a fancy word. Theopneustos, breathed out by God. God breathed. Meaning that the very words of Scripture came from God Himself. He is the source. He is the origin of Scripture. And that's what Paul is saying. Now, concerning the meaning of divine inspiration of the Scriptures, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this, He said the scriptures are a divine product breathed out by God. Inspired really means God breathed. We mean that God breathed these messages into men and through them. And these scriptures are the result of that divine action. We believe that they were produced by the creative breath of the Almighty God. Put in a simpler form, we mean that everything we have here has been given by God to man. So that's the very first statement. And it simply means, Paul is simply stating the fact that all the scripture, every word of it comes from God. He is the origin and source of scripture. There's a second important verse. concerning divine inspiration. And this verse deals a little bit more about the mechanism of how it happened. It's still a mystery to us. Nobody here completely understands it. We've never experienced this. But here's what we read in 2 Peter 1, 21, where we read, having just spoken about the scriptures of the prophets, Peter says, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. But men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God." Now here Peter is simply explaining, as I said, the mechanism or how divine inspiration actually works. God supernaturally moved upon the writers of Scripture, and He controlled them so that they spoke from Him. In other words, they spoke and they wrote His words. Now, it is helpful to know that the Greek word that Peter used that is translated moved, or born along, as in men moved by the Holy Spirit. It's the same word, same Greek word used in the book of Acts in chapter 27 to speak of a ship, a ship that Paul was on, being moved and carried along by the wind. That's the thought. The writers of Scripture were moved and carried along by the Holy Spirit so that what they spoke, they spoke from God. So going back to our text in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul makes it very clear that those who are believers and spiritually minded will acknowledge that the things that he has written to them are the Lord's commandments. The question is, but what if someone in the church doesn't acknowledge, does not recognize Paul's authority as a mouthpiece for God, then what? Well, the very next verse Paul addresses such a situation. Verse 38, but if anyone does not recognize this, he's not recognized. And what the apostle is saying here is that there is a serious consequence for not recognizing and obeying his words as from God. Specifically, his words about how to use their spiritual gifts in church and the role of women in the church service. Although it certainly applies to all that he's written. And that consequence is that if anyone in the church does not recognize Paul's words, as the Lord's commandments, then that person is not to be recognized. In other words, anyone who ignores, anyone who disregards Paul's divine authority, meaning they willfully and deliberately reject it, then they are to be ignored by the church, disregarded by the church, rejected by the church. And those he's specifically talking about are those who claim to be genuine prophets and genuine tongue speakers. If these individuals who claim to be spiritual servants of the Lord, if they ignored Paul's words as divinely authoritative, then they, Paul said, they're to be ignored by the church. That is to say, regardless of what they claimed about themselves, they were not allowed to speak in church. If they refuse to acknowledge that Paul's words were God's words. Paul said, they are not to get up, they are not to speak, you are not to acknowledge them. You see, the Apostle Paul wasn't about to waste his time debating such people. He simply tells the church, the Corinthian church, to not let such people speak in their church meetings because they are not spiritually minded servants of the Lord. Though they claim to be, but they're not. Listen, no true church, and by true church I mean where the gospel is preached and where the people are God's people, no true church should ever have someone speak in the pulpit or in a Sunday school class or any venue who doesn't believe in the divine inspiration and the authority of the scriptures. We would never have anyone speak here at Lakeside who does not believe the Bible is the Word of God. We would never do that. We would ignore their request to speak. We would ignore their attempts to speak here, regardless of their academic credentials, regardless of their expertise, regardless of their ministry experience, regardless of their speaking ability and eloquence. Not only are they unqualified to speak, they are to be rejected by the church as legitimate teachers. And that's exactly what Paul is telling the Corinthians to do. Could you imagine any other scenario? Could you imagine how much chaos and confusion there would have been at Corinth? On top of all their confusion, if they had some of these guys get up who were unqualified and they spoke as if they were the authority and their authority was in conflict with Paul's authority, it would be just madness. This church had enough confusion to begin with. They didn't need any more. You'd have two conflicting authorities. And so having addressed these three problem areas, the area of the use of spiritual gifts in the church, the role of women in the church service, and his authority as an apostle, Paul now closes this chapter by summing up the two main points that he's covered in this section of his letter about speaking in tongues and prophesying. This is really the two main points that he's been hammering away at And he concludes with some summary statements about this. The first summary statement is found in verse 39. Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak in tongues. Now in this statement, Paul exhorts the church to have the right balance between prophesying, meaning preaching, and speaking in tongues. Have the right balance here. He exhorts the church to desire and to emphasize preaching. Preaching above tongues. Why? Because, well, as he's made it very clear earlier in this chapter, preaching is what edifies the church because people understand preaching since preaching is always given in their own language. Whereas tongues is delivered in a foreign tongue, a foreign language that no one understands. However, although preaching is to be the primary desire of the church, that's what Paul is saying, a church should desire preaching above all, Paul tells the Corinthians not to forbid those who speak in tongues. And what he means by this is that is that if someone at that time, remember tongues existed then, someone at that time had the legitimate gift of speaking in tongues, and if they followed the procedures, the regulations laid down by Paul in this chapter about how to use their gift, then the church wasn't to forbid them from exercising their gift, because they're coming under his authority. As one Bible teacher put it, he said, tongues was a limited gift, both in purpose and duration, but it was the Lord's gift, and as long as it was active, was not to be despised or hindered. But listen, although tongues doesn't exist today, so that this really, it's not an issue for us, the primary truth that we need to grasp from this verse is that preaching is always to be the highest priority in the life of the church. Historically, when the church has exalted preaching, the church is strong. Historically, when God's people have lowered preaching so that it's not that important, that's when trouble sets in. And how relevant this truth is for us today, when preaching is often not the priority of many churches. Tom Pennington, a pastor in the Dallas area, He wrote the following words about the role that preaching should have in the local church. He was actually, this is from a seminar he gave on expository preaching. And Tom wrote this, he said, the place of preaching in the church should be central. But today it is almost an endangered species. Programs, musicals, dramas, pageants, rituals, announcements occupy the major portion of the meeting of the family of God. The proclamation of the Word of God must once again become ascendant if the church is ever to have any power. We must reassert the place of preaching as the primary reason the people of God come together. I want you to know this is exactly what we hold to at Lakeside Community Chapel and by God's grace this is what we intend. to keep holding on to at Lakeside Community Chapel. So Paul's first summary statement as he brings this chapter to a close is that the church ought to make preaching their highest priority. His second summary statement ends the chapter. It's recorded for us in verse 40. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. Now once again, Addressing the issue of confusion and chaos that was taking place on Sundays in this Corinthian assembly, Paul exhorts them that their church services were to be done properly and in an orderly manner. So what does he mean by this? Well, what he means by this is that their church meetings should be characterized, first of all, by beauty. by beauty because the Greek word for properly means well-formed, something that is comely. In other words, something that is attractive. A church service should be attractive to those with the right frame of mind. The right frame of mind meaning someone who's walking in fellowship with the Lord ought to feel comfortable in a church service that it is attractive, it is something of spiritual beauty, Those who have a godly perspective ought to feel very comfortable that they are in the midst of something very, very special and very, very attractive unto the Lord and unto God's people. In addition, a church service, says the apostle, should always be carried out, he said, in an orderly manner. What does that mean? Well, the word orderly means in turn. In turn, in the sense that everyone acts at the proper time and in the proper way. so that confusion and a mob mentality doesn't take place. But that was precisely the problem at Corinth, where people were speaking all at once rather than one at a time, and they did what was right in their own eyes. Now folks, God has given us very clear instructions about how to conduct a church service. Number one, we are to make preaching the priority. It's not the only thing we do, but it is to be the priority. Secondly, we are to make the service as spiritually attractive as we can. And number three, we are to conduct ourselves in an orderly manner, in a harmonious manner. And we will do this. when we're in submission to the authority of the Scriptures, recognizing that Paul's words, as well as the words of all the other biblical writers, are God's words, breathed out by Him. If you have never submitted your life to Jesus Christ as your Savior, your Lord, then I urge you to do this. We're talking about submitting to the Scriptures, but you must first submit to Christ. You must first yield your life to Him by trusting Him and His death on the cross for your salvation. If you've never done this, I urge you to do this. And if you want to speak to someone about this, then just see me as we now close the service. Now Father, we indeed thank you for these precious words, Lord. Precious words indeed. We thank you that you raised up men like Paul, the other apostles, New Testament prophets, and Old Testament prophets, who you used as your vessels as you breathed out your words and they wrote them down. And you so controlled them so that what they wrote were not their opinions, their thoughts, but your words. So Lord, we thank you. We thank you that we open our Bibles. We are opening something that is of divine origin. How much we love the Word of God. We thank you for communicating to us. We thank you that this is your revelation. This is your mind revealed to us on the pages of the Scriptures. Help us to love it. And Lord, help us here at Lakeside to love the preaching of the Word of God. To never think that it's outdated. To never think that we have to be culturally hip and relevant. and try to do other things. May we, until Jesus comes, be faithful to preach your word, and may our church services be attractive, and may we do things in an orderly manner that honors you in all ways. And we pray, Lord, for any here who may not know you as Savior, not know you as Lord, may today be that day that they turn from their sin and turn to Christ, trusting you alone, Lord Jesus, for their salvation. All of this we pray in Christ's name. Amen.