1 Corinthians chapter 14 is this famous chapter on the subject of speaking in another tongue.
And that's what I want to preach on this morning, the subject of preaching in an unknown tongue
or preaching in another tongue or speaking in another tongue.
Now if you would, go to Acts chapter 2 because before we can get into 1 Corinthians 14, we
need to get a little bit of context with the rest of the Word of God.
And a lot of people get into false doctrine because they take one scripture in isolation
instead of interpreting it in the context of everything else that we have in scripture.
So let's go back to Acts chapter 2 and this is going to shed a lot of light on what we're
going to read in 1 Corinthians 14.
So in Acts chapter 2, the Bible says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled
all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and
began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now you'll hear a lot of churches and so-called Christians refer to this as speaking in tongues
or glossolalia they'll sometimes call it.
And there's an entire movement called the charismatic movement or Pentecostal churches
where there are literally hundreds of millions of people worldwide who are mixed up in this
movement of what they do as speaking in tongues, which is like an ecstatic utterance.
Like just the, you know, they just kind of bust out and they say something and they don't
even necessarily know what they're saying.
It's a lot of gibberish coming out of their mouth and sometimes people will even be like
kind of doing this kind of stuff and falling on the ground, rolling around, barking like
a dog, whatever.
And they take that from Acts chapter 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 and they are twisting these
scriptures to get this bizarre practice of glossolalia or speaking in tongues.
Let me tell you something is not biblical.
Speaking in tongues is not a thing and notice the Bible that we're reading here, the King
James Version of the Bible doesn't even use that term speaking in tongues.
What it says is you're speaking with an unknown tongue or speaking with other tongues.
And what are tongues?
Well let's read the Bible here and see if we can figure this out.
Look at the scripture and let the scripture tell you what it means.
It says in verse 5, and they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every
nation under heaven.
So the first thing we want to see right away in verse 5 is that we're dealing with lots
of other countries, lots of other nations, lots of other ethnicities.
And so when they're speaking with other tongues, it has to do with the fact that there are
people from all over the world that speak other languages, okay?
Look what the Bible says in verse 6.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded.
Confounded means they're kind of confused or surprised, perplexed.
They were confounded.
They're at a loss because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Now notice that phrase, in his own language, and then it says in verse 7, and they were
all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?
And how here we, every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born.
So notice how these words are used interchangeably, in our own language, in our own tongue.
So tongue isn't some spooky, mystical, strange thing.
It simply just means language.
So speaking with an unknown tongue, it just means speaking in an unknown language.
Now it doesn't mean that it's unknown to anyone, it just means that it's unknown to you or
unknown to someone else.
Because what's unknown to you might be known to me.
Or what's unknown to me, you might know.
Different people know different languages.
Everybody knows some language and somebody knows every language that's a living language,
but they're unknown to other people.
And so when the Bible talks about them speaking with other tongues, it's saying that they're
speaking in a foreign language, which makes perfect sense since you have people here from
all over the world.
And the thing that confused them, or perplexed them, or astonished them, or that had them
at a loss, or got their attention, was it the fact that people were speaking in gibberish
that they could not understand?
No the thing that was so surprising was the fact that they could understand.
They were confounded because they said, well, I can understand these guys.
You know, here I am from this obscure country and I've shown up and these guys are local
Galileans and I'm hearing the word of God being preached in my own tongue wherein I
was born.
You know, some languages are more obscure than others.
You know, you wouldn't really be surprised to show up in Arizona and hear someone speaking
in Spanish.
It wouldn't really be that surprising, or even somebody spoke French.
That wouldn't really surprise you too much.
If somebody used German, it wouldn't be that shocking.
But if you showed up from a country speaking a pretty obscure language, you know, let's
just say Estonian or Finnish or something, and you showed up and, you know, you walked
into church and somebody's just talking to you in that language, preaching to you in
that language, and maybe it's somebody who doesn't even look like they're from there.
It's somebody Chinese and they're speaking to you in Estonian.
You know, a black dude busts out with Finnish.
It's like, huh?
So this is the confusion that they're experiencing because they're showing up from these distant
countries.
Everybody's a Galilean and yet these Galileans are just talking to them in their own language.
And this is shocking unto them.
Why?
Because it's a miracle.
Look at verse number nine.
In verse eight he said, how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born.
Verse nine, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and
Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya
about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Crete and Arabians.
We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God and they were all amazed
and were in doubt saying one to another, what meaneth this?
Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine.
There's no way that that's happening.
You guys are, go home, you're drunk, okay?
So what we see here is that it lists off, you know, 17 different geographies from which
these people are coming.
So it's pretty hard to misunderstand this passage, okay?
The problem is the Pentecostals, the Charismatics, they want to hang around in 1 Corinthians
14 and just completely ignore the introduction to the subject here in Acts chapter 2.
Because when you read it in Acts chapter 2, it's crystal clear you've got foreigners coming
from other parts of the world and when the apostles and the early church members speak
with other tongues as the spirit gives them utterance to speak in these foreign tongues,
people who are foreigners are saying, hey, you're speaking my language.
Now this makes sense that God wants the word of God to go to all nations.
Jesus Christ has just risen from the dead only a matter of weeks before this and so
Jesus has risen and the gospel needs to go forth to the entire world and so this event
at the day of Pentecost is a way for God to jumpstart evangelism and kind of jumpstart
the gospel going to all nations because people have come from all over the world, devout
Jews have come from all over the world to be at the Feast of Pentecost and if they can
all hear the gospel and a bunch of them can get saved, then they can take the gospel back
home to literally all nations.
Think about it because the Bible talks about how the Jews have been scattered into all
nations and so a lot of them would take this trip.
Now think about it.
The people who are taking the trip from distant lands to be at the day of Pentecost are probably
some of the most dedicated worshipers because they're willing to make this special trip
so if we can get these guys saved and get them the gospel and teach them about the Lord
Jesus Christ, they're very likely to spread the gospel when they get back home and so
this is part of God's plan to get the gospel started going around the world.
But the problem is you've got these people coming from all over the world but they don't
necessarily all speak the language or maybe don't speak the language well enough to really
get a good presentation of the gospel and so God does this miracle where he allows the
apostles and other early members of the church to basically miraculously speak in a language
that they didn't know.
So this is a miracle where basically imagine if I were confronted with a Chinese person
and I wanted to give this guy the gospel and I don't speak Chinese and this guy needs the
gospel and what if God just performed a miracle where I just opened my mouth and just started
speaking Chinese and I'd never learned Chinese, I'd never studied it and it just started coming
out of my mouth just perfect like, you know, and it's just like, whoa, I can speak Chinese
and that would be a miracle, that would be amazing.
That's what's happening here is that basically each person, the person that they go to witness
to, it's like boom, they open their mouth and that language comes out no matter how
obscure because God's performing a miracle here.
So this is definitely a miracle but it involves actual foreign languages and the purpose is
what?
Evangelism, right?
The purpose is to get people saved.
That's the purpose in this passage.
Now the people who are mocking and saying these men are full of new mind, it's because
think about it, if you're there, let's say you hear one guy over, one Galilean guy's
talking to a Chinese person, one Galilean is talking to an Arab, one Galilean's talking
to somebody from Africa and you're hearing all this clicking and ching chong and all
this kind of stuff, then basically they don't understand those languages so they're just
hearing a bunch of wild noises coming out of these Galileans and just saying, no, that
guy's just making noises, he's just drunk.
They're trying to just explain away what's going on but the guy who's listening, he knows
it's real because he's getting the clicks.
He's getting the Chinese or whatever and so it's making sense to him.
But the people who are making fun of it, they're just trying to discount it because
they don't believe in Jesus, they don't want to believe that the Holy Spirit would be doing
this miracle amongst Christians because they're not Christians, they don't believe so they
try to downplay it or discount it by saying, no, no, these men are full of new wine.
Verse 14, but Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his voice and said to them, ye men
of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my word,
for these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel and it shall come to pass in the last
day, saith God, I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
And anyway, we could go through this whole wonderful passage but let's go back to 1 Corinthians
14.
It's really impossible to misunderstand Acts chapter 2.
1 Corinthians 14 is a lot easier to misunderstand.
So here's a great tip for interpreting the Bible.
Always go to the easy passage first, go to the clear passage first.
Acts chapter 2 is very simple, very easy.
Now that we've got that under our belt, let's bring that knowledge into 1 Corinthians 14.
And it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse number 1, follow after charity and desire
spiritual gifts but rather that you may prophesy.
So we finished in chapter 12 talking about all kinds of spiritual gifts that God gives
to people and he's saying spiritual gifts are great but you know what's better is prophesying
and prophesying is basically preaching the word of God, expounding the word of God.
Now a lot of people misunderstand the word prophesy and they think it always means you're
telling the future.
But the pro in prophecy, it's not always a foretelling like telling something before
the fact but it's often a forthtelling.
You know, if I make progress, I'm moving forward, okay?
And so prophecy is often just speaking forth the word of God and you can look up lots and
lots of scriptures where someone is speaking the word of God and it's called prophecy but
they're not predicting any future event.
They're just speaking the word of God.
So prophecy is just a preaching or telling forth of the word of God, a proclamation of
the word of God, proclaiming the word of God.
So he's saying look, desire spiritual gifts but rather that you may prophesy.
He's saying prophesying is the main thing that we all need to be focusing on doing is
speaking the word of God, teaching the word of God, proclaiming the word of God, preaching
the gospel, etc. and preaching other doctrines as well, all things that Christ commanded
us.
Why?
Because it says in verse 2, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men
but unto God for no man understandeth him, howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
So what the charismatics will do, they'll take verse 2 just all by itself to isolate
this and say well, you know, speaking in tongues is where you speak in this like heavenly
language that only God understands and you don't even understand it.
It's like a prayer language where you speak to God and nobody understands it and it's
just totally unknown even to you and you're just saying these things directly to God and
only he knows it and it's a heavenly language.
That is not right at all.
When the Bible said, first of all, we saw in Acts chapter 2 what this miracle is about.
It's about speaking in a foreign language, okay, that humans understand that need to
hear the gospel or need to hear the word in their own language.
Now when it says he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, the first thing that we need to understand
is that it doesn't mean unknown to everyone on the planet.
It means unknown to the church.
So in this church, finish is an unknown tongue.
Does anybody here speak Finnish?
So Finnish is an unknown tongue here, but what about in Finland?
There are literally millions of people who to them that's the easiest language in the
world.
To us it would be extremely difficult, none of us know anything about it, it's very obscure
unto us.
So that in Tempe, Arizona is an unknown tongue, but in Finland it's not an unknown tongue.
So the unknown aspect is relative to where you are, okay, and he's going to explain this
further as we go.
So when the Bible says he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but
unto God, it means that if I walked into the church and I start speaking in an unknown
tongue, meaning I get up and I start speaking Finnish in the church, the only person I'm
actually talking to is God because God's the only person who understands me.
Now if I'm live streaming it to Finland that would be another story, but that technology
didn't exist at this time, you know, they get up and they speak, nobody understands
if it's the wrong language.
Does everybody understand?
So if you're speaking an unknown tongue, you're not speaking unto men because nobody understands
you, no man understands it.
How be it in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
So the Bible is saying you can get up and you can be preaching the most powerful sermon
of all time, but if it's in Finnish it doesn't do anybody any good, only God is hearing you.
And it says in verse 3, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation
and comfort.
So the purpose of proclaiming the word of God is to actually help people.
Like if I get up on Sunday morning and I preach the word of God, I'm not just going through
some kind of an exercise up here just for myself and for God and you guys are just kind
of spectators.
No, I'm talking to you, right?
I'm opening the Bible and I'm teaching you, I'm exhorting you, I'm comforting you, I'm
edifying you, that's the purpose of preaching.
So therefore if I'm here to comfort, edify, exhort you, it has to be in a language that
you understand.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, why would anyone need to hear this?
This is too obvious.
Okay, well can, it took the Catholic Church, you know, almost 2,000 years to figure this
out.
Because until the 1960s, the mass was in Latin.
Now imagine a Roman Catholic coming to the Catholic Church and listening to the mass
in Latin, how much are they really going to get out of that?
And here's the thing, let's say they open the Bible and they read verses from the Bible.
In the Spirit, they're speaking mysteries.
I mean, God's Word is powerful.
God's Word has truth in it, even if the bozo who's reading it is unsaved and he, you know,
but at least the truth is being proclaimed but nobody's understanding it.
And so throughout the Middle Ages, also known as the Dark Ages, you have the Catholic Church
proclaiming God's Word in a foreign language that the people can't understand and the,
you know, the priest understands it, God understands it, but they are not edified, the church.
And the whole point of preaching in church is that the people might be edified.
So if I'm up here speaking in Latin, I'm not helping anyone except possibly myself or God's
listening to me and say, alright, good job, but nobody's hearing it.
Nobody's getting the message.
So he says in verse number four, he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but
he that prophesieth edifieth the church, right?
So if I'm preaching the Word of God in English, the church is edified.
If I get up here and start preaching in Greek or Hebrew, I'm going to be edified because
of the fact that when I preach sermons, I'm actually learning too.
One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it.
If you teach something to someone else, you actually end up learning a lot as well.
So I actually learn a lot on Wednesday nights when we go through different books of the
Bible.
Like right now we're going through Ezekiel.
I'm actually learning a lot about the book of Ezekiel through the process of teaching
through the book of Ezekiel.
So if I got up and said, okay, the Ezekiel series is going to all be in, in the original
Hebrew, you know, I'm, I'm starting this Ezekiel series and it's all going to be in Hebrew.
And I got up every Wednesday night and I preached through the book of Ezekiel in the original
Hebrew.
I explained it in Hebrew.
I read the scriptures in Hebrew.
Do you think I would be edified?
I mean I'd probably walk out with a pretty good handle on Ezekiel after 48 weeks of preaching
through it in Hebrew.
How much would you get out of it?
Zero.
Zilch.
Nada.
Nothing.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
So he's saying here, you know, if you speak in an unknown tongue, you're edifying yourself.
You're building yourself up, but you're not edifying the church.
If you preach to people in their own language, you're edifying the church.
I would that you all speak with tongues.
He's saying, I think it'd be great if everybody spoke in various languages, but rather that
you prophesied, for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except
he interpret that the church may receive edifying.
So if we did have some foreign preacher that we really wanted to hear, we could bring him
in and have him preach, but we must have an interpreter so that the church can figure
out what the guy's even saying.
Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except
I 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?
So likewise ye except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall be
known what is spoken for you shall speak into the air.
So the Bible is saying we need to make sure that when we have preaching in church, it's
clear, it's understandable, and it's in the language of the people.
It should be in the common speak that we all use, not using fancy theological terms that
no one understands, not using Greek, Hebrew, or Latin terms that no one understands.
It should all be broken down into today's English and even, and you say well you're
using a King James Bible, that's archaic, but here's the thing, when we preach the King
James Bible and we come to words that are archaic, you know what we do?
We break it down into today's lingo.
You know, so we come to the word sodomite and people are like what's that?
It's a faggot.
Oh, okay, and then it's like everybody knows what I just said.
Nobody's confused about what I just said.
Anybody confused?
So there, you know, you come through different words in the Bible that are archaic and sometimes
you have to explain them because they're words that we don't really use anymore.
They're ancient words or words that have gone out of fashion.
You know, even important Bible words that come up a lot like fornication.
Sometimes the word fornication would have to be explained to someone who hasn't been
in church their whole life.
Or words like propitiation or words like, you know, um, conversation.
You know, we think of a conversation as two people getting together and talking, but in
the Bible conversation often means the way that you live your life, not just what you
say, but also what you do.
And so there are words in English that have changed a little bit in meaning and they don't
mean the same thing they used to mean.
Like in 1611, the word nephew could also be a grandson, but when we hear nephew, that's
only your uncle's son or I'm sorry, your brother's son.
See, I don't even know what nephew is.
You know, it's your sister's son is your nephew.
Your brother's son, that's your nephew.
Whereas in scripture when the word nephew is used and in the context when you read it
in First Timothy chapter five, it's clearly referring to a grandson, not what we would
think of as a nephew.
So part of the purpose of preaching is to explain to you the Bible.
You know, if you could read the Bible and just understand everything perfectly the first
time, then there'd be no need to ever have preaching.
We would all just read the Bible and just be super understanding and we don't need anything
now.
Now truly you can learn the Bible on your own.
Don't get me wrong.
You don't need to rely on me to teach you the Bible because you have the Holy Spirit
to teach you the Bible, but you're never going to understand the entire Bible.
I don't understand everything in the Bible.
I never will.
You never will because the Bible is so deep.
It's written by God.
We're human and so we're never going to understand everything.
And so the purpose of church is to speed up the process of you understanding.
You could learn everything that I teach you.
You could learn it all on your own by yourself with the Holy Spirit without me.
You don't need me to teach you anything, but you think you're going to learn faster coming
to church or not coming to church.
You know, by coming to church, you're speeding up that process because the pastor is going
to point out things to you that you would not have come to on your own for a long time.
Maybe 20 years from now you figure it out, but I've already spent the 20 years.
I've already spent the 30 years studying the Bible so I can say, hey, let me just explain
it to you.
Let me break it down to you.
You know, you can teach yourself how to play piano, but if you take a piano lesson, it's
probably going to go faster.
Same thing with church.
Church is helping us grow and learn the Bible, and we're here to get taught the Word of God
and to have things broken down into today's language 2021.
And a lot of people say, well, we just need an updated Bible, but here's the thing about
that.
A lot of things in the Bible that are archaic, there is no word for it in our modern language
because we don't do it anymore.
Like for example, you could point to words that are hard to understand in the King James
like dowry.
What's the modern word for that?
What's our 2000, you know, what do we call it in 2021 America, a dowry?
We don't have dowries in 2021 America, so therefore that's always going to be a hard
word for us because it's not something that we do.
You know, and when you're reading through Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, there are
a lot of really specialized terms that have to do with sewing and making clothes.
In Acts chapter 27, there are going to be some terms that have to do with sailing and
ships.
So we're not necessarily going to know all those things and some of them, because they're
ancient technologies, don't even have a modern word.
So the Bible's an old book.
It's always going to have some things in it that are archaic.
Even if we put it into today's 2021 language, we'd have to use a few archaic words because
we don't have a word for that.
Okay.
So, you know, preaching helps to make those things clear and break those things down to
you.
Let's look down at our Bible here.
It says in verse number 10, there are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world
and none of them is without signification, meaning every language has a meaning.
Nobody speaks in gibberish.
Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a
barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
Okay.
It doesn't matter how smart you are if you're speaking in a foreign language, I'm not going
to get the idea that you're speaking intelligently.
I'm just going to say, oh, it's just a bunch of jibber jabber to me, you know, he's a barbarian
unto me.
It means nothing to me.
Even so, for as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to
the edifying of the church.
And this is the key thing that keeps coming up over and over again in this passage is
that we've got to think about edifying the church.
What's the point of having a spiritual gift to edify the church?
So if any kind of miracle takes place or if any kind of special ability is given by God,
it should always be with the goal of helping other people, edifying other people.
So if I'm a gifted speaker, which I'm not, but if I were a gifted speaker, you know,
it doesn't really do any good unless I'm getting up and using that gift for God and
actually helping people understand the Bible and teaching people because I could get up
and just deliver some beautiful flowery speech using all these giant words that no one understands.
And people would be like, wow, that guy can talk.
What an incredible speaker.
But if you didn't learn the Bible, I failed no matter how well I spoke, okay?
Same thing with music.
You know, what's the purpose of, you know, being good at playing piano or being a good
singer or being good with the guitar is so that you can actually help the music program
go forward, help people sing and learn through the singing and be edified by the music.
Everything should be with an attitude of edifying people, not self-glorification.
And this is part of why we don't have musical performances at our church.
You know, a lot of churches have almost no congregational singing, but they have a lot
of musical performances.
So you show up to church and some amazing soloist will get up and sing a song to you
and then everybody's, oh, that was so great.
But more than anything, they're just kind of glorifying themselves.
The church isn't really receiving the edification as much as if we're all singing, we're all
participating.
What do you think does more for you spiritually?
Singing a hymn or listening to a hymn?
You know, singing a hymn, participating.
That's why the Bible says in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee?
You know, when Jesus is at the Last Supper with the apostles, they all sang a hymn.
It's not like, you know, Peter sang a special and they all sat back and listened to Peter.
And here's the thing, a lot of these singers that are singing in these churches, they're
not even emphasizing the message of the song.
They're not even emphasizing the words and emphasizing the doctrine of what we should
be trying to get out of the song, which is, you know, something spiritual.
They just get up and they sing it in a sensual way in what I would call the bedroom voice
where they got the microphone right up to their mouth and they get really close to the
microphone, you know, and they have to use a microphone because, you know, if they use
their little bedroom voice, without technology, you wouldn't even hear them because if you
sing loud, you sing normal, right?
To God be the glory, great things he hath done.
You know, I'm singing normal because I have to project my voice, right?
I can't be like...
To God be the glory, great things he hath done.
You know, it's just like, it's all this, it's all this just like weird, just trying to show
like, ooh, look what I can do with my voice.
And a lot of times you got people up there that are scantily clad.
They're up there in a mini skirt, short skirt, and they're up there just, you know, getting
all sensual with the microphone and getting all breathy with the microphone.
Sorry, I didn't do very well demonstrating that.
Actually, I'm not sorry.
I did, I'm glad I failed.
But the point is that, you know, what's the goal?
You know, I wonder what's going on in someone's heart when they put on a party dress and a
short skirt showing their nakedness, right, or some tight-fitting, immodest clothing,
and then they go to the house of God and sing this sensual, worldly style of music while
everybody just drools, oh, wow, so great, you know, that's, there's nothing spiritual
about that.
It should be about edifying the church, it should be about teaching doctrine, helping
us get closer to God, and you know what, you know, scantily clad women singing in a breathy
voice doesn't bring us closer to God.
It puts us in the flesh.
It puts us in a carnal frame of mind, whereas we want to get in a spiritual frame of mind
in church.
So we want the music and the singing to get our hearts and minds focused on the Lord,
so that we go into the sermon with the right attitude, filled with the Spirit, and focused
on the Lord, not focused on Sister So-and-so, and just in awe and amazement of her incredible
talent.
And look, I'm for musicians being talented.
The Bible says play skillfully with a loud noise, but we want that talent to enhance
the music and bring the message to the front, not to be a distraction that hides the message,
where we're so focused on that talent that we can't see the forest for the trees.
So the Bible says that we need to seek that we may excel to the edifying of the church,
whether it's a speaking ability, whether it's any kind of music talent, whatever the talents
or abilities of teaching, make sure it's so that the church is edified, not just showing
itself, hey, look at me everybody, look what I can do, okay?
Wherefore because of this, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret,
for if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
And again, when he says when I pray in an unknown tongue, he's not saying that the tongue
is unknown to him, he's saying that the tongue is unknown to everyone else.
He's speaking in a tongue that no one else understands, and his spirit prayeth, I mean,
I could pray to God in any language right now, and it would be effective.
God speaks all languages.
But you would not be edified, it would not bring forth any fruit.
It would not bring forth fruit, it would not help you grow or do anything for other people.
It would bear no fruit in the lives of others.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
Now a lot of people misunderstand this verse, and they'll say, well, my spirit prayeth,
but I don't understand what I'm saying.
It doesn't say I don't understand what I'm saying.
What does it actually say?
My understanding is unfruitful.
Now what does my understanding mean?
Stuff I understand.
Wouldn't I say, if I said, well, this is my understanding, what am I saying?
This is what I understand.
So how can my understanding be twisted into meaning I don't understand?
What does my understanding mean?
It means I do understand.
My understanding is the stuff I understand.
My understanding, or here's another way that we could word this, the fact that I understand
is unfruitful.
The fact that I understand does no one any good.
It only edifies me and no one else.
But see, a lot of people will twist this verse to say that it means that you're praying in
an unknown tongue and you don't even understand.
That's not what the Bible says, okay?
The Bible says I'm praying in an unknown tongue, my spirit's praying.
But my understanding, the fact that I understand, the understanding that I have, the understanding
that I possess, that's what my means, my understanding is unfruitful, it's unprofitable, it's unhelpful,
it's not blessing anyone else, so don't do it in the church, right?
Now if I'm by myself I can pray whatever language I want.
But if I'm in the church I must speak in a language that people understand.
Not Latin, not Greek, not Hebrew, it needs to be English.
In America, if we were in Mexico it would be Spanish.
Wherever we are we would adjust that to the locals.
And so it says, what is it then?
I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.
Now again, this is not saying, yeah, I need to understand what I'm saying, it's saying
other people need to understand what I'm saying.
And here's the proof, look at the next verse, we've got to read in context folks, what's
the next verse?
Or else, right, else, if I don't pray with the understanding also, if I don't sing with
the understanding also, else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupy
the room of the unlearned say amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understand not
what thou sayest.
Now what does it mean to say amen?
To say amen is to put your stamp of approval on what was just said.
If I say something and somebody says, amen, you know what they're saying, I believe that.
That is true, I approve this message.
That's what amen means.
So if they say, I believe that, it's true, I approve this message, would you be comfortable
saying that after a prayer that was said in a foreign language?
Because who knows what your amen, they could be saying, hail Satan, and you're just like,
amen.
You know, so the Bible's saying, don't just say amen to anything.
You know, somebody's up in Latin saying something, you know, and they're saying all this stuff
and you're just like, amen.
Who knows what you just say meant?
You could have amen the weirdest garbage and you don't even know.
The whole point of saying amen is that you're listening, you hear something that's good,
that you like, that you agree with, that you believe, and so you put that stamp of approval
on it.
Amen.
That's what amen means.
So it says here, otherwise, how can he that occupies the room of the unlearned say amen
at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understand not what thou sayest.
Because someone's uneducated.
Now again, this proves that we are not talking about some angelic, heavenly language, because
what would that have to do with being unlearned or learned?
Apparently these languages can be learned, am I right?
Because the problem is, if I, he says, I'm going to pray within the spirit, but I'm going
to pray with the understanding also.
I'm going to sing in the spirit, I'm going to sing with the understanding also.
What's the alternative?
Oh, my heavenly language.
So if I, so if I sing in my heavenly language, uneducated people won't get it.
That makes no sense, does it?
But if I'm singing or praying in a foreign language that I understand, you know, Latin,
Greek, Hebrew, whatever, then the uneducated aren't going to understand.
See how, see how when we actually interpret this the right way, according to Acts chapter
two, the chapter actually makes sense.
But if we were to insert the definition of, oh, it's just a, it's a, it's an angelic spirit
language.
What would that have to do with learning?
How can you say, oh, you're uneducated.
That's why you don't know angelic, heavenly languages.
Well, where do I download Pimsleur for that?
You know, where do I get Rosetta, Rosetta Stone, I got the subscription for all languages
lifetime, but I can't find the angelic, heavenly, hakalaganla language because it isn't there.
And so when we read the scripture here and he says, the unlearned can't say amen at thy
giving of thanks, that proves that the reason why he can't say amen is because he hasn't
learned that language, which means that it could be learned.
You could learn Latin, you could learn Finnish, but you haven't.
And so therefore you can't say amen at that.
And by the way, this is why I don't, I don't ever click like on a video on Facebook unless
I watch it first.
I don't just click like, like, oh, this is a good preacher, like, like, you know, I always
listen to it first and then if I like it, I click like because I don't necessarily just
want to aim in whatever every, every preacher is saying or ever pastor saying, how do I
know that what is said in that video is right unless I watch it first.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
I just hit, hit like favorite, never even watched it.
It makes no sense, does it?
So if you see me liking something, it typically means that I listened to the entire thing
and I'm saying, amen, I like this, this is good.
Now I'm going to start getting less likes on my videos because I'm, I'm telling people
you actually have to listen first and then say that you like it, but no, no, you could
trust me.
Everything I say is always going to be right.
Just go ahead and hit like in advance.
I'm just kidding.
But anyway, you know, saying amen is something that you would do because you understood it.
I got to hurry up because there's so much to say for thou verily give us thanks.
Well, I mean, you prayed a great prayer, but the other's not edified.
You know, God heard your prayer.
You prayed to God, great, but you didn't help that guy at all.
So here's the deal.
That kind of prayer should be done at home.
Prayer that's in a foreign language should be done at home.
I'm glad you speak Spanish.
Who here speaks a language other than English?
You're fluent in a language other than English.
What language is it?
We got Yoruba, Korean, Spanish, Romanian with German, right?
Who else?
We got, of course, Hindi, Afrikaans, Urdu, right, Urdu.
We got Tagalog.
It's like a fun game.
I got to guess what people speak, you know.
So we had all these languages.
Here's the thing.
You know what?
You may pray in that language at home, and in fact, I would say you're probably going
to pray in that language a lot because that's your heart language, the one that you were
born and raised.
So you're very likely to pray in that language, or if you get hurt or something, you're probably
going to yell something out in that language and not necessarily in a second language.
And so, you know, yeah, pray to God.
I'm for you praying to God in Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Yoruba, whatever, but if you're asked
to pray in church, don't just stand up and go, you know, you're not helping anybody.
The whole point of church is to have a connection here, not to just we're all doing our own
thing in the same building.
We're here doing something together as a body here, okay, that's church.
And so Paul says in verse 18, I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.
Now why did Paul speak with tongues more than anybody else?
Because he was one who, number one, was very highly educated.
He was actually brought up as a scholar, as an intellectual.
He was trained at the feet of Gamaliel, which is a famous Talmudic scholar, you know, in
the Jews' religion.
Of course, Paul later said it was all dung, you know, the stuff I learned in that religion.
But you know, he was brought up, so that's Paul's take on the Talmud, by the way, because
Gamaliel is one of the people in the Talmud.
And so, you know, you've got Paul who's brought up as a scholar, highly educated, he's a Roman
citizen, he's lived in all these different countries, he's traveling the world as a missionary.
I mean this guy knows a lot of foreign languages, makes perfect sense.
Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that my my voice
I might teach others also, notice, that I might teach others also than 10,000 words
in an unknown tongue.
So again, what is consistently the emphasis?
Other people understanding, teaching others also, letting them understand.
My understanding isn't enough.
Me speaking languages that I understand isn't enough unless other people understand them
as well.
Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding
be men.
In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips, will I speak unto
this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me say it the Lord.
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, now watch this key verse, tongues are for a sign, not
to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
So what is the purpose of the sign or miracle or wonder of tongues?
Was it for those that believe or for those that don't believe?
Those who don't believe.
Now let's think back to Acts chapter 2, is that what Acts chapter 2 taught us?
Well in Acts chapter 2, what was the purpose of this miracle where they spoke with other
tongues?
It was so that unbelievers could hear the gospel in their own language.
So that miracle or that sign or that wonder took place for the benefit of unbelievers
so that they would be able to hear the gospel.
And not only did they hear the gospel, they were also pretty impressed by the miracle.
You know that kind of got their attention as well because of the fact that they're speaking
in a language that they've never learned even though they're Galileans.
So that sign was a work in the hearts of the unbelievers, not the believers.
So how do we get from this to the modern charismatic movement where we get together
in church, everybody already claims to believe in Jesus, everybody who's there already claims
to believe in Jesus, and here we are in church and it's just, they're not foreign language,
nobody understands what's being said, it's a charade, it's a sham, it's junk, it's fake,
it's not real.
Now you say, well, how do you explain the modern tongues movement and I've heard people
explain it this way.
They said, well, if millions of people all over the world are doing it, there must be
something to it.
Sort of like Tide Pods and sort of like, you know, stacking up those crates or sort of
licking ice creams in the store.
I mean, you know, just because millions of people are doing something doesn't mean there's
any rush.
There's 1.6 billion people following a pedophile named Mohammed who's openly a pedophile who
on the record married a nine-year-old, okay, on the record.
We married her when she was six, consummated when she was nine.
That is pedophilia by anyone's definition.
Anyone with half a brain or half an ounce of morality knows that that is perverted and
sick and evil and wicked, but 1.6 billion people are doing it.
They're following it, right?
One point six billion people.
And look, I've never talked to a Muslim who didn't know that.
Every Muslim I've ever talked to knew that Mohammed did that and they follow him anyway.
So what does that tell you about the fact that mass numbers of humans will do stupid
idiotic things that make no sense?
I mean, we could, we could go through example after example after.
Just look at the pop music.
Look at the top 10.
It's a bunch of garbage, but I mean, there must be something to it if I listen to it.
There's nothing to it.
It's junk, okay?
It has no value.
It has no artistic value.
I mean, you know, think about how many dumb things people just follow along with the crowd.
It's like the emperor's new clothes.
You know, a guy puts a snow shovel in an art gallery and that's his art.
He just puts a snow shovel, sells for a million dollars, oh, it's so groundbreaking.
You know, guy duct tapes a banana to the wall and it's like, oh, brilliant.
You know, a guy just stands and just eats a raw onion.
Performance art, oh, wow.
Why didn't I think of that?
Stupid, right?
Art used to be actually highly skilled people producing works of beauty.
Now it's just these sloppy, slap a bunch of paint on the wall and it's just like some
weird goo, like, nah, it's like, pfft, pfft, pfft.
It looks like a kindergarten finger painting.
It's like, oh, so deep, oh, so great.
You know, why, why do they, why do they do that is because other people are saying it's
good so they have to think it's good too.
I mean, you know, if all of the pop stars started wearing their clothes inside out,
all of the young people would, millions of young people would start wearing their clothes
inside out if that's what they were all doing.
If they wear it tight, the kids will all wear it tight.
If they wear it baggy, the kids will all wear it baggy.
People will just follow the crowd and do things and so you have this mass movement of speaking
in tongues and, you know, you say, well, there's got to be something to it if millions of people
are doing it.
No, that's not true because millions of people will do something dumb that makes no sense.
But not only that, is if you actually study the phenomenon of speaking in tongues or glossolalia,
you'll find that it actually takes place outside of Christianity as well.
So there is something to it, alright.
You know, there is something to it when you see a bunch of pagans and people who are doing
like Chinese folk religions or other indigenous religions and you see people doing these kind
of animist, spiritualist religions, they'll take drugs and say all kinds of stuff.
And so speaking in tongues is not limited to Christianity, oh no, because I'll tell
you what there is a little something to it is that often it's demons, okay.
That's the little something to it.
Now I would say most of it is probably just people pretending, faking it, you know, they
have to speak in tongues in order to be accepted or, you know, to show that they're part of
it.
So part of it is people are faking it to be accepted.
Part of it is that people are just getting worked up and excited and then just kind of
letting their tongue go crazy.
I mean, I could do that too.
I can just kind of get all excited and just go like, you know, just.
So some of these people just get worked up and then they'll just kind of retrospectively
say like that was from God, what I just did.
But I'm here to tell you that I believe that many of these people are literally demon possessed
because think about it, let's think about what we're seeing in Acts 2, people are speaking
the word of God, people are understanding.
In 1 Corinthians 14, it's all about the church being edified.
It's all about God's word being proclaimed.
It's all about people understanding the word.
It's all about teaching and edification.
But what do we see today in the charismatic movement is just like, right?
And people are flopping around, did I stop my mic on, people are flopping around and
doing all this stuff or they'll have this thing, come on up here, Daniel, let's roll
play some of this stuff.
You know, you'll have this stuff where, go ahead and slap me on the forehead or something,
come on.
That's the power of God right there, do you see what he did?
And this time he's not even going to touch me, he's just going to kind of extend his
hand to me.
I mean, look at that.
You've got to have a seat, Daniel.
Who's seen these videos online of people doing that?
You know, and sometimes people will put in like Street Fighter 2 sound effects where
it's like, Hadouken, Hadouken, and basically, you know, they send like a fireball that knocks
them over.
So where in the Bible do we see people flopping around on the ground?
Where in the Bible do we see somebody just drop to the ground, flop around, speak with
another voice that's not their own, where do we see it?
When people are demon-possessed.
That is when they will fall on the ground, flop around, and do all these things.
Now, look down in the chapter here, let me find, okay, verse 32.
The Bible says, And the spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
So when the spirit of the Lord comes upon a prophet in the Bible, the Bible says the
spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.
What does that mean?
To be subject to someone means you're under their control.
So do the prophets of God have control over their own spirit?
The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.
So what he's saying is somebody can't just jump up in the middle of the service and interrupt
the preaching and people are talking over each other and just say, well, I couldn't
help it, the spirit of the Lord just came upon me and I just couldn't control the fact
that I was talking, even though it was the wrong time or the wrong place, because I just
couldn't help it.
The devil possesses people, okay?
And that's a whole other sermon of itself, I'm almost done this morning.
The devil possesses people, meaning that, like, he actually takes control of their body
in the Bible.
When people are demon possessed, you're not even talking to that person.
You're talking to the demon.
Like, remember when Jesus asked the guy who's demon possessed, what is your name?
And he says, My name is Legion, for we are many.
So the demons are answering through this guy's voice.
He's not even talking to that guy.
That guy's not in the driver's seat.
These demons have taken control of his body and they're talking.
They're giving their name.
So Satan entered into Judas Iscariot and controlled him.
Satan will enter into the Antichrist and possess him and control him.
And so when people are demon possessed, they're not in the driver's seat and they're being
controlled by the devil.
Now on the other hand, when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit or when the spirit of
the Lord comes upon them, the Holy Spirit does not possess people and just start talking
and it's like it's God that's talking now because they've just taken control of the
body.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
The spirit of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
So if I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and I'm preaching God's word, I'm still coherent.
I'm still in the driver's seat.
I still know what I'm doing.
Now I've talked to many people who came out of the charismatic movement.
They got saved and they left that garbage and they told me what their experience was
like back when they were in the charismatic movement.
And here's what they said.
And again, I'm sure lots of people have had all different experiences, but the people
that I talked to had come out of that movement and they'd gotten saved and now they didn't
believe it anymore.
They said, I went down to the front and it was almost like blacking out and then basically
like I came back to my senses and they're like, oh, you spoke in tongues and did all
this and they had no recollection of even doing it.
It was like just a blank space where they weren't in the driver's seat.
Now I've, I've actually been to a charismatic service where people were speaking in tongues
right next to me because I didn't know it was that kind of church and it was scary.
I was told that this was a Baptist church and I went to this church and I'm there and
they kept singing songs and I kept waiting for the sermon to start and it just kept being
like another song, another song and they'd talk a little bit between songs, but there
wasn't really a sermon and I was kind of like, when's the preaching going to start?
You know, you know, I got, I got stuff to do here, you know, we're going to get the
show on the road or what?
And they kept singing and singing.
All of a sudden, there are probably like 300 people in the auditorium, you know, so all
of a sudden just this girl in my row, nobody else, this girl in my row just starts going
like, so, and I kid you not, a couple weeks before at round table pizza where I worked,
someone had had a seizure and I called 911 because someone was having a seizure in the
restaurant and so I thought like it's happening again, like this is another seizure and then
this other girl is like putting her arm around her and stuff and I was thinking like, oh,
okay, you know, yeah, you know, she must know that this is, you know, something that she
deals with.
So I felt bad for her, so I was, I was like praying for her in my heart, like, dear God,
you know, please bless this poor girl that's having a seizure, like, you know, help her
to be okay and I was thinking like, should I call 911 again?
I mean, I just did this two weeks ago, you know, should I do it again?
And so, you know, this is happening and I was just thinking like, man, poor girl, you
know, but then it like within a couple minutes, all of a sudden it started happening all over
the building and I realized like this is not a support group for epilepsy, you know what
I mean?
So I was like, I don't know what's going on cause it was happening all over the building
and I got up and I got out of there as fast as I could and it freaked me out because people
were doing all kinds of crazy because, because actually I left out one part of the story
when it started, as soon as it started happening in other parts of the building, the guy at
the front with the mic, he said, you know, if anybody needs to come down to the altar
and get right with God, you know, come on down here or maybe you just haven't spoken
tongues in a while, you know, maybe you just want to come up here and speak in tongues
and I just thought like, that's what this is.
I've heard about this my whole life, you know, and I was like, get me out of here and I got
out of there.
And there's a lot more to say in this chapter, but the spirit of the prophets is subject
to the prophets, you know, people that are actually filled with the spirit, they still
are in control.
God doesn't hijack your body to do stuff, but let me tell you something, the devil does
hijack unsaved people sometimes and they become demon possessed.
And when you see people falling on the ground, flopping around, and I mean even the idea
of being slain in the spirit, sounds wicked, sounds evil, like killing someone in the spirit,
like what?
What does that have to do with this?
I thought it's called the spirit of life.
You know, I was just reading my Bible this morning and kept talking about the spirit
of life, not this death spirit, this hadouken thing or whatever that is.
Okay.
I don't even know what that means.
That's an unknown tongue right there.
Okay.
Is that Japanese or something?
It's gotta be, right?
Hadouken.
Kevin, help me out after the service.
All right.
But where, yeah.
All right.
So the point is, you know, the devil possesses people.
And so when people are not in the driver's seat and flopping around and doing all these
weird things, that's not of God.
And then it also says right after it says the spirit of the prophets or subject of the
prophets, if you're still in first Corinthians 14, the next verse is for God is not the author
of confusion.
God's not the author of confusion and he says that if people walk in and everybody's speaking
in other languages, they'll think you're nuts because they don't even understand what's
going on.
Okay.
But how much more would they think you're nuts when you're falling on the ground, flopping
around.
I mean, what if somebody just walked in just as I was doing that and they thought it was
real?
Or they tuned into the sermon just at that moment and they saw Daniel, you know, slaying
me and stuff.
You know, it'd freak them out.
And I just want to close on this one final thought.
Isn't it interesting that all the churches who believe that salvation is by grace through
faith and that you can't lose your salvation, right, because it's all paid for by grace
and it's all through faith and that it's a free gift.
Isn't it interesting that every church who believes the gospel of believing in Jesus
to be saved, faith alone, isn't it interesting that none of them have this phenomenon taking
place because if this were the Holy Spirit, wouldn't it be happening in amongst churches
of the saved everywhere like, like independent Baptists who believe that salvation is by
grace through faith.
This phenomenon would be happening.
But isn't it interesting that it never happens in an independent Baptist church.
Isn't it interesting that it only happens in churches where they believe that you have
to do works either to be saved or to stay saved or you can lose your salvation.
Isn't it interesting, I have never in my life met a tongue talker who believed in eternal
security.
Never.
Every single tongue talker I've ever met in my long life of soul winning and preaching
and going to church, I've been around the block, my friend, and let me tell you something,
they all believe you can lose your salvation.
They're all ultimately trusting in living a good life, keeping the commandments.
They might give lip service to faith, but they will say, if you don't live right, you
can lose it.
You can't just live however you want.
Isn't it interesting you have millions of people with a false lying gospel flopping
around and doing this stuff, but then in actual churches where people are actually
saved, where people actually believe what the word of God says, isn't it interesting
it's never happening.
That should be enough right there to show you that it's a complete fraud.
But I've shown you in the scripture as well that if you actually read Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians
14, you'll never come to that crazy conclusion.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and I just pray that no one here would
ever be deceived by all this wild jazz of ecstatic speaking and flopping around and
slain in the spirit stuff, Lord, it's a fraud.
I know much of it's demonic, much of it is just fake, just preachers trying to get donations
and make money by doing fake healings and fake utterances, Lord.
I just pray that those that are mixed up in that movement would get saved and get out
of it before it's eternally too late, Lord, help us as we go out soul winning when we
find these people that we'd be able to gently and lovingly give them the gospel so they
can understand that they're saved by faith, not by their works.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.