1Peter 3:15
Keeping the Doctrine Right
My goal is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. That is never my goal. However, I have
a charge on me to preach the whole counsel of the Word of God, which I must do.
Hence, tonight I preach on a topic which I know could hurt some people’s feelings.
I hope it won’t, but if it does, know that your preacher desires to help you, not
to hurt you.
I want to preach on the topic of Keeping the Doctrine Right. I believe there is
and has been a movement for the last fifty years to join all who profess any kind
of relationship to Jesus into one group. That movement is called Ecumenicalism.
And while it sounds good on the surface, the problem with it is twofold.
First, too many who profess a relationship with Jesus don’t actually have one.
Second, too many who profess a relationship with Jesus don’t actually know and
obey their Bible.
Again, my goal is not to be confrontational, but to be Biblical. The emphasis of
my ministry has always been to preach and to teach the Bible, then let God take
care of everything else. The doctrine taught in the Bible is important and,
sadly, many today have sacrificed doctrine in an attempt to bring people together.
Tonight, there are many things going on in churches which are not Biblical. I
have selected two, and only two for tonight, because I believe that these two are
today’s cutting issues. There are other — music, dress, Bible versions —
however, most churches have already made up their minds on these issues today.
In my opinion, most church have made the wrong decisions about these issues, but
whether it is right or wrong, they have made up their minds.
The two issues that I will speak to you about tonight will soon be past tense
issues as well. The church is rapidly making up its mind about issues without
consulting the Bible. So tonight, for a few moments, let’s see what the Bible
has to say.
I. The Bible has something to say about women preachers.
A. Understand that I do not question the competency of women preachers.
What I question is the Scriptural authority of women preachers.
1. Most women are far more gifted, far more sensible, far more capable
than most men.
2. For men to stick their noses in the air like they are something
special is both sinful and foolishness.
3. Rather what we need to do is to be careful that we use the role
of authority to build up and protect those under our umbrellas.
B. Notice what the Bible teaches:
1. The Bible teaches that women are to be silent in the church.
1 Corinthians 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not
permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as
also saith the law.
35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it
is a shame for women to speak in the church.
a. That sounds pretty hard.
b. We will note the context of it in a few moments.
2. Paul speaks almost the same message to Timothy.
1 Timothy 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
a. However, here he goes on to explain what he means.
1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over
the man, but to be in silence.
b. I do not think Paul meant that a woman could never speak but
that she should never teach or usurp authority over the men.
(1) It is our practice that women can teach women and
children, but we believe we should follow what the Bible
teaches concerning women teaching men.
(2) In this day and age, that sounds very narrow minded.
However, it is what the Bible says.
C. The text gives two reasons why this is so.
1. Because of the order of creation.
1 Timothy 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
a. I believe this is the primary reason that God has given men
the responsibility of authority.
b. It hasn’t got anything to do with competency. Men just got
here first.
2. Because of the responsibility of the fall.
1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in
the transgression.
II. The Bible has something to say about speaking in tongues.
A. I do have questions about whether today’s gifts is the same gift that
was practiced in the New Testament.
1. Because the word means "languages." \\#Acts 2:1-11\\
a. \\#1-4\\ The filling of the Holy Spirit
b. \\#5-7\\ The disciples are blessed with the gift of tongues.
c. \\#8\\ The word TONGUE is used for language. It is the
language these people were born in.
d. \\#9-11\\ The list of their nations is given.
e. As far as I can tell, this is the meaning of the word every time
it is used. (It is used more in Acts and 1Corinthians than
anywhere else.)
Acts 19:6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on
them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
1 Corinthians 12:30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues?
do all interpret?
2. Because the gift of tongues was to end.
1Cor 13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall
fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge,
it shall vanish away.
a. While you cannot see it in our English Bible, the phrase
relating to tongues which says, "they shall cease," is
different from the other phrases which describe the ending
of charity and prophecies.
b. That word CEASE is in the Greek Middle Voice, which means that
the gift of tongues will cease without any kind of outside
influence or pressure.
c. It could be translated to say, "tongues, shall cease of
itself."
d. There are a lot of reasons for believing that the tongues gift
ceased, but perhaps one of the strongest is the historical
record.
Finally, the gift of tongues has evidently ceased because, since the apostolic
age, it has reappeared only spasmodically and questionably throughout nineteen
centuries of church history. The gift of tongues is nowhere alluded to or found
in any writings of the church Fathers. Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the
Corinthian church in the year 95, only about four decades after Paul wrote 1
Corinthians. In discussing problems in the church, Clement made no mention of
tongues. Apparently both the use and misuse of that gift had ceased. Justin
Martyr, the great church Father of the second century, visited many of the
churches of his day, yet in his voluminous writings he mentions nothing of
tongues. It is not mentioned even among his several lists of spiritual gifts.
Origen, a brilliant church scholar who lived during the third century, makes no
mention of tongues. In his polemic against Celsus he explicitly argues that the
sign gifts of the apostolic age were temporary and were not exercised by
Christians of his day. Chrysostom, perhaps the greatest of the post-New
Testament writers, lived from 347 until 407. Writing on 1 Corinthians 12 he
states that tongues and the other miraculous gifts not only had ceased but
could not even be accurately defined. Augustine, in his comments on Acts 2:4,
wrote, “In the earliest times the Holy Spirit fell on them that believed and
they spoke with tongues. These were signs adapted to that time, for there
behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit. That thing was done for
betokening and it passed away.”
The historians and theologians of the early church unanimously maintained that
tongues ceased to exist after the time of the apostles. The only exception of
which we know was within the movement led by Montanus, a second century heretic
who believed that divine revelation continued through him beyond the New
Testament.
Apparently no other tongues-speaking was practiced in Christianity until the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when it appeared in several Roman
Catholic groups in Europe (Cevenols and Jansenists) and among the Shakers in
New England.
For over 1800 years the gift of tongues, along with the other miracle gifts,
was unknown in the life and doctrine of orthodox Christianity.
MacArthur, J. (1996, c1984). 1 Corinthians. Includes indexes. (361). Chicago:
Moody Press.
3. Because most of what I have seen being practiced today (and granted
what I have seen is limited) is contrary to the Bible.
B. The practice of tongues today by most is wrong.
1. 1Corinthians 14 lists for us the guidelines of speaking in
tongues.
a. Interestingly, this is the chapter with the word is used more
often than anywhere else.
b. It is also the chapter that those who speak in tongues most
often quote to justify their gift, primarily because the
KJV has added the word UNKNOWN in front of it.
(1) While this could mean a heavenly language, the only
reason one would see it that way is because of an
experience they have had, not from the Scripture itself.
(2) It is evident from the remainder of the chapter that
Paul means a language being spoken without an
interpreter.
(3) There are some people that I respect who have had such
experiences.
(4) The best I can say is that as long as your experiences
fall within the guidelines of what the Bible teaches,
I will leave you to them.
c. However this passage settles for us that what many are
doing today is not Scriptural.
2. \\#1Co 14:27-40\\ Notice the guidelines for speaking in tongues.
a. \\#27\\ Only in groups of 2 or 3
b. \\#27\\ Must be with an interpreter.
(1) This is a very important point in this text.
(2) \\#1Cor 14:7-8\\ Paul emphasizes that everything, even
musical instruments, must give a sound that can be
understood.
(3) \\#1Cor 14:9\\ Paul applies that truth to the church
and the gift of tongues.
(4) \\#1Cor 14:13\\ His conclusion is that in the church,
there must be an interpreter.
(5) Someone ask, "What about my private devotions?"
(a) \\#1Cor 14:14\\ Paul says that if one prays in an
unknown tongue, their spirit may be praying but
their own understanding is missing it.
(b) \\#1Cor 14:15\\ Paul then concludes that it is
better to pray, sing, or whatever we do both with
our spirit and our understanding.
c. \\#30-31\\ It must be in an orderly, one-at-a-time manner.
d. \\#32-33\\ The spirits must be under the control of the
speaker.
e. \\#34\\ Women are not to use the gift at church at all.
(1) We looked at these verses earlier and notice that they
seemed kind of sharp.
(2) This is why it is so sharp.
(3) Paul was insisting that the gift of tongues is not a gift
for women to practice in God’s house.
3. While I can respect some people and their experiences, I cannot
believe that the Holy Spirit is going to operate a service in
direct contradiction to what the Bible itself tells us we are to
do.
a. To say that the Holy Spirit would take us, sometimes in such
a way that we cannot control ourselves, and force us to
disobey the Bible, is something that I cannot agree with.
b. If there is a gift of tongues to be practiced today, it would
have to be Scriptural.
The question of the hour is not, "What do I believe." The question of the hour is
and always has been, "What does the Bible teach?" The truth of the matter is
that over the years, I have changed my mind about a lot of things. I used to
believe what most churches believe about both dress and music, but the more I
studied the Bible, the more I saw that what I believed was wrong.
I would challenge you tonight, make sure you keep your doctrine right.
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