Paul’s encouraging the Corinthian church.  He says, “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues…”     “Ahh, so prophecy is greater than tongues?”  Yes.  “Except” is the next word, right?  “…Except he interpret,” here it is.  Underline it, double underline it, put a star by it, get it in your mind and in your consciousness, these gifts are for the purpose of edifying the church, “…that the church may receive edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:5).  Praise God.  They are not equal or the same in their purpose and function.  They are the same in their effect; it brings edification to the body.  But tongues without an interpreter, in fact, he tells us later on in the chapter, “Don’t give a message in tongues if there’s no interpreter present.”  And then admonishes us, “If you pray in an unknown tongue, pray that you might interpret”; amen?  That way, you’re always assured that an interpreter is going to be there, if you have faith that God will interpret through you.  Why?  That the church would be edified.  That the church would be edified.  That the church would be edified.

I was wanting to get further down in the chapter because I was really wanting to get into a lot of the misunderstanding, today, about women being silent in the church.  And the two camps are so polarized, it’s amazing.  I mean one of the groups you could almost classify as—you remember The Little Rascals?—"The He-Man Woman Haters Club” (1937).  Does anybody remember “The He-Man Woman Haters Club,” The Little Rascals?  You have a group that’s almost over on that side, polarized, and then you have the other group over here that says there’s neither male nor female in Christ, therefore, let’s go like the world and put the women in charge of everything in the church and rule the thing.  Because that’s what’s happening in a lot of churches today.  And when Paul speaks of women being silent in the church, as he talks in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Corinthians 10, you’ll find that neither one of those positions are correct. 

We’ll finish with emphasizing that the church may receive edifying.  “Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?  And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?  For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:6‑8). 

Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we just ask You to put in our hearts a desire for the visitation of Your Holy Spirit.  We want to encounter the living God through Your Word, by Your Spirit.  Father, this fourteenth chapter is so vital in that it tells us that worship and the house of God need decency and order in it.  We look for the decency and order, and we also look for the mighty power of the Holy Spirit that would manifest in discerning of evil spirits, in working of miracles, in words of wisdom and words of knowledge, that the church might be edified.

And for that, Father, we’ll give You all the praise and all the glory in Jesus’ name, Amen.