This tongues movement, this charismatic movement or Pentecostal movement or whatever you want
to call it, is not biblical, okay, and I'm going to show you what the Bible actually
teaches.
Now, if we're going to have a doctrine called tongues, and they call it speaking
in tongues, that's not a term that the King James Bible uses.
The Bible talks about speaking with tongues or it will talk about speaking in another
tongue or in an unknown tongue, but it's the NIV version of the Bible from which
you would derive the term, you know, speaking in tongues, you know, or other modern versions.
But if you're going to have a doctrine called tongues speaking or speaking in tongues or
the tongues movement, then if we look up every single verse in the New Testament
that uses the word tongues, we should be able to learn what the Bible teaches about
tongues, shouldn't we?
Now, I'm not going to take the time to go through every Old Testament mention of
tongues because of the fact that I think everyone would agree that every mention of
tongues in the Old Testament is either talking about the organ that is inside of your
mouth, known as your tongue, or is referring to languages, because often
the word tongue will be used synonymously with language in the Old Testament.
I don't think anybody would point to an Old Testament passage and dispute that.
So I want to go through right now with you every New Testament mention of the word
tongues, and let's understand what the Bible teaches about this doctrine and what the
gift of tongues really is, as opposed to this counterfeit tongues movement of people
like Benny Hinn, what's that guy, the BAM guy, BAM!
Todd Bentley, you know, Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley, just, I mean, it's, it's, it's
pretty common.
It's a huge movement.
Well, name some of the other teachers, what?
Kenneth Copeland, help me out, Rod Parsley, never even heard of him.
All right, so let's look at Mark 16.
If we go to the first mention, it's going to be in Mark chapter number 16.
Let's look at the very first mention of this teaching in the New Testament.
And again, let me just emphasize to you, every time the word tongue is used in
the Old Testament, it's either talking about a foreign language, or it's talking
about the thing in your mouth called your tongue.
That's all it's ever talking about in the Old Testament.
No one would dispute that.
But look at Mark chapter 16, verse number 17.
And it says this after giving, you know, the Great Commission and so forth.
It says in verse 17, and these signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues.
They shall take up serpents.
And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.
And they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and
sat on the right hand of God and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord
working with them and confirming the word with signs following, amen.
Now many of those in this tongues movement or charismatic movement will point to this
and say, see, if you believe, you're going to speak in tongues.
Many of them will say, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved, because
that's the sign that would follow those that believe.
Well, if the interpretation here is that every single person who believes these
signs will follow them, then that means that every single person that
believes would also have to take up serpents and would also have to drink
that which is deadly and be unharmed.
They would also have to lay hands on the sick and they would recover.
Now, that is not the case.
And the proper interpretation of this passage, as we study the rest of the Bible, is that
these were miracles that did take place in the coming months and years.
These apostles who he's talking to and the other apostles outside of the 12, because
Jesus did ordain 70, for example, Barnabas is called an apostle and he was not one
of the 12, those men did go out and they did do these type of things.
For example, we can see the fulfillment of this when the apostle Paul is bitten by a
serpent in Acts 28 and he's unharmed.
And we can see the fulfillment of this when we see people in the book of Acts
speaking with new tongues, and I'll get to that when we get to the book of Acts.
But I just want to point out, first of all, this is not saying that every single
saved person will speak in a new tongue, because of the fact that even later on,
he talks about how some people have the gift of interpreting tongues or speaking with
diverse tongues and others don't.
In the church, God said he gave different people different gifts.
And that's just one of the gifts that he lists that's only given to certain people.
But when we notice this first mention in the New Testament, it says they shall speak
with new tongues.
Now flip over to Acts 2, and while you're flipping to Acts chapter 2, ask yourself
this question, if we just go with the normal definition of tongue, the definition
that was used all throughout the Old Testament and the definition that we've
known our whole lives in the English language, wouldn't it make sense that he's
just saying they're going to speak with new languages?
They're going to speak in a new language, OK?
Now, in Acts chapter 2, we'll see the fulfillment of that.
He's not saying they're going to speak with a new thing in your mouth, you know,
swap it out and get a new one.
He's saying you're going to speak in a new language.
Well, look at Acts chapter 2 and let's see the fulfillment of that.
It says in verse one, 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 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.
Now, what are the cloven tongues like as a fire?
Well, flames of fire are often likened unto tongues just because they physically resemble a tongue.
Have you ever heard of licking of flames?
Who's ever heard that term before?
If you read books, you'll read that term sometimes.
You know, it's just because it looks like a tongue of an animal that would kind of
reach out and grab something.
That's the way flames are often referred to.
So it says there were 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, what did it say back in Mark 16?
These are signs or miracles that will be done by those who believe.
He said, they shall speak with new tongues.
And what do we see them doing here?
Speaking with other tongues.
Wouldn't other tongues be the same as being with new tongues, something different than
what you've spoken before?
He says they're going to speak with, he said they spoke with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance.
Now let's see what that looked like.
Does this mean that they just said, I can look under the law?
No, what does it say?
When it says that they spoke with other tongues, look at verse 5.
And the explanation comes immediately.
It says, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of
every nation under heaven.
Again, showing that the word Jew in the Bible isn't just talking about an ethnicity.
Here it's people from all nations that have the belief of Judaism.
Just like it said in Esther 8.17, where many of the people became Jews because the fear
of Mordecai fell upon them.
Showing that it is not just an ethnicity, but that rather it's referring to their
belief here.
It says, and their practice, it says there were Jews, devout men, out of every nation
under heaven.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded.
Confounded means confused.
They're blown away.
They can't understand it.
It says they were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
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 a minute ago it said they heard it in their own language.
Now it's saying they heard it in their own tongue.
And God even goes so far as to list the languages just to make sure that we understand what
tongues are.
Tongues are foreign languages.
Another word for another tongue is a foreign tongue.
Another word for an unknown tongue would be an unknown language or a foreign language.
Not meaning that it's unknown to anyone, but it's unknown to you.
See to me, Chinese is an unknown tongue.
It's a foreign tongue.
It's another tongue.
It's another person.
That would be their mother tongue.
That would be their native tongue.
That would be their main language.
So it depends on whose perception we're talking about here.
And to these Jews dwelling at Jerusalem, namely the apostles, okay, who are Galileans.
There are all these men from 17 or so different places that are listed, let alone the
ones that are not listed because it says every nation under heaven is represented that
are understanding these Galileans speaking in all these foreign languages.
And what is it that confuses them or confounds them or astonishes them?
It's not what they don't understand.
It's what they do understand.
So they're not just amazed that, wow, that guy's really talking some cool gibberish.
I mean, that sounds cool.
I mean, that's of the spirit.
No, they're saying, wow, I understand what that guy's saying.
I traveled hundreds of miles to get here.
I'm in a town where I wouldn't expect anybody to speak my language and now I'm seeing these
guys that are clearly Galileans and they're speaking my language.
Look at the different languages.
He says in verse 8, how here we, every man in our own tongue wherein we were born,
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia.
Where's Mesopotamia?
That's Persia.
Iranians are there.
He says in Judea, Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in
the parts of Libya about Cyrenian, strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Crete and
Arabians.
So we're talking people from Greece, people from Turkey, people from Iran, people from
other parts of Europe, other parts of Asia, people from Africa, Libya is where?
That's North Africa.
But it just says that these are examples.
I mean it's every nation under heaven is there.
And they're saying in verse 11, 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.
But Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his voice and said to them, you men
of Judea and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my
words 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 days, sayeth God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your
old men shall dream dreams and on and on.
So what's going on in this story?
You have devout men from all over the world coming to Jerusalem for the feast day, coming
for the day of Pentecost and they're there and amazed when they hear these people
speaking them in their own language.
Now first of all, let me point out, this isn't one guy speaking, this isn't Peter
speaking because he points to other people and says, these are not drunk as you suppose.
Then he quotes the scripture from Joel, which talks about men and women.
He says, you know, the servants and the handmaidens, the sons and the daughters are
prophesying or preaching.
Why?
Because what happened is in chapter one, he talked about how the church was gathered
together and they had 120 people in that church, including the women, men and women
both in the church.
And in chapter two, what we see is that they're out in Jerusalem and they are preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ, what we do when we go soul winning basically.
We go door to door preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which the Bible also teaches.
They're basically just doing that in the city.
I mean, they just go to Jerusalem where there's this feast going on and they're
speaking to these people.
Now, you have to understand, obviously one guy can't speak 17 languages at the same
time, but there were 120 people in that early church.
So they're all speaking various languages.
So for example, just to help you understand this, let's say for example, let's have
a few guys come up here for the Dominique, come up here.
This is Simon the Canaanite.
No, I'm just kidding.
This is one of the apostles, Matt, come on up here, Charlie, just, you know, so let's
just understand this because so many people understand this story.
That's why I'm just slowing down and making sure that we're all on the same page, understanding
the story before we get to the rest of the scripture.
Okay.
Let's say these are three members of the early church.
Okay.
Now the Holy Ghost comes upon them and this miracle takes place.
I mean, would anyone disagree that this is a miracle?
He said, these are the signs that will follow.
They're going to speak with new tongues and they're amazed at it because whoa, these
guys are Galileans.
They're speaking in these languages from really far away.
So let's just say for example, the spirit of the Lord comes upon Charlie and he's
speaking in Arabic, right?
And then over here, spirit of the Lord comes upon brother Matt and he's speaking in,
you know, a Persian type language, whatever they heard over there, you know, and then
let's say the spirit of the Lord comes upon brother Dominique and he starts speaking
in the language of, you know, uh, Asia minor, whatever, you know, whatever language,
the one that they're born with, their most personal language they're hearing in
their mother tongue.
So basically he's speaking one language, he's speaking another language, he's speaking
another language.
Does everybody understand?
And what language they're speaking depends on who they're talking to.
Okay.
So for example, you know, I'm here and I'm from Arabia.
Okay.
So who's going to come give me the gospel?
Who did I assign Arabia to?
All right.
So, you know, if I basically I'm here and brother Charlie wants to give me the gospel,
he starts to talk to me.
Now how many languages do you speak, Charlie?
Just one.
Okay.
So he speaks English only, right?
So wouldn't it be a miracle if I'm this Arabian guy and Charlie walks up to give me the gospel
and all of a sudden he just starts speaking Arabian, Arabic.
Okay.
Sorry.
I mean, does everybody understand?
So basically whoever these guys gave the gospel to on the day of Pentecost, they
were miraculously able to speak that language.
So an Arabic guy is here and he walks up to me and starts talking and what comes
out of his mouth is Arabic.
It's miraculously, he's able to speak in that unknown tongue.
I mean, that would be a huge miracle because learning foreign language is very difficult.
And so go ahead and sit down guys.
So I just want to make that real clear so that everybody understands what's happening
in this story.
What's happening in that miracle.
Now others said, well, these men are drunk with new wine.
Okay.
Now when you look at who Peter rebukes when he says, Hey, these are not drunk as you
suppose.
He's talking to the men of Judea, okay.
He's saying ye men of Jerusalem, ye men of Judea.
And in fact, I think I counted seven times that he makes reference to the fact that
they are the ones who live at Jerusalem.
Who are the people that are speaking with other tongues?
Who are they talking to?
People who've come from all over the world, right?
Visitors to Jerusalem.
Who is Peter preaching to?
The dwellers at Judea and Jerusalem.
And he's saying these men are not drunk.
Now why would they think they're drunk?
It's basically they're just hearing a bunch of gibberish to them that they don't understand.
They start hearing a bunch of languages that don't make any sense to them and instead
of believing, Oh, they're speaking a foreign language to a guy who understands it.
They just don't want to hear the truth.
Don't want to believe it.
So they're just like, Oh, well these guys are just drunk.
They're just talking funny cause they're drunk, you know, because they're basically sounding
like barbarians because they're just, you know, I mean, look, some languages
sound pretty weird.
Let's face it, right?
I mean, I, you know, I, I mean, I don't want to attack any languages, but you know,
I was in the post office the other day and this guy was speaking another language
and it just sounded like just weird noises.
You know, it was just like, what in the world?
Like, and I was just thinking like, how can the person on the other end of the
phone be understanding what he's saying?
He's not even articulating anything that even sounds intelligible.
Just you know, and then there's those like African click languages, what in the world?
You know, you're drunk, but the point is it's the, it's the people who don't speak
that language that are just kind of writing it off as, Oh, you're drunk.
But then other people are like, Whoa, this guy's preaching the word of God in a language
that I can understand.
This is the tongue we're in.
How does he know that language?
I don't expect to hear that here.
So that's what happened.
Now what was the goal here?
What was the, what was the purpose of this miracle?
It was to get people saved, right?
Because what are they preaching to them?
The gospel and their hearing in their tongue, the wonderful works of God.
And then Peter preaches to the Jews that are there and deals with them.
Now let's go to the next mention of this miracle or not even miracle.
We're just looking at every time the word tongues is used, we're leaving no stone unturned.
I'm not going to skip any mentions.
If I do, then see me after the service and correct me.
But I'm mentioning every time that the word tongues is used in the New Testament.
So I'm not trying to hide anything from you.
No, we started in Mark 16.
Was there any confusion there?
Any confusion here in acts two or is it pretty simple?
Okay, well then let's go to the next mention acts 10 and let's see if God's going to
move the goalposts on us.
After spending the entire Old Testament referring to a bonafide foreign language that people
speak on this earth, after spending the entire Old Testament driving that in and
then come into Mark 16, yeah, they're going to use a new language.
So what?
Acts chapter two, a miracle happens and sure enough, they're speaking new languages.
It's foreign languages and they're listed.
And the purpose is that people might hear the gospel in the language we're in.
They were born.
Now let me ask you this, don't you think that those guys that were at Jerusalem probably
spake the language of Judea also?
Yeah, because if they're comfortable traveling there and if they're talking to the
Jews and if they're probably reading the scriptures in the Hebrew language or at least
you know what?
But there's something different about hearing it in the language we're in, you're born.
You know, your first language that you're born with is always going to be the language
that you understand the best or the one that's the nearest and dearest to you.
No matter how good you get at a foreign language, it's not the same as when you're
native with it.
It's just different.
And so it was just amazing because they could hear the gospel in their own native
tongue and they glorified God for that.
Why would God do that?
Well, because Jesus has just risen from the dead.
God wanted to get the word out to all nations.
Here's a great way to get the word out.
They're all showing up for this feast.
Get them all the gospel, get them saved, and then they can take it back home.
And by the way, there's a great lesson there about how we can reach the world with
the gospel.
You know how you reach the world with the gospel?
Reach foreigners here.
Everybody wants to go to the mission field and, oh, we're going to go to the deep dark
jungles of Africa.
Oh, we're going to go into the reaches of inner Mongolia.
But wait a minute.
Do you do any soul winning here?
And you talk to some of these missionaries that are on deputation.
Hey, when was the last time you went soul winning, buddy?
Oh, well, let me show you my slide show.
No, I want to see you go soul winning now.
Show me your slide show.
I want to go soul winning with you now and see what you're doing now.
Because look, if you won't do it now, you won't do it over there.
All this pie in the sky talk about, oh, I'm going to go.
And they're always going to plant churches, plural.
Hey, why don't you plant one and then we'll talk.
You know, I planted one church, Faithful Word Baptist Church, and it's not very easy
to plant a church, you know, but, oh, we're going to plant churches all over.
This is our goal.
It's like, oh, okay.
But you haven't been soul winning in six months, but you're going to plant churches.
Okay.
No, you need to get out soul winning now, because if you won't do it here, you won't
do it there.
And look, we it's funny because Brother Segura and I, we made a video a few years ago.
I don't know if you if you've seen this video or not.
We made a video.
We went to an apartment complex that's literally four miles away.
And it's a place where everybody who lives in this apartment complex is from Africa.
And I don't mean that they're black, I mean they're from Africa.
I mean they're actually wearing clothing that shows you immediately like, wow, these people
just got here from Africa.
I mean, you look in their homes, it's all just a completely different culture.
I mean, it's literally like just stepping into a like a warp zone that would just take
you to Africa.
You feel like you're in Africa at this place.
So we went there and we did a bunch of soul winning.
And we took a whole bunch of pictures while we were there, because I had this idea about
making this video.
So we just took a whole bunch of pictures of us soul winning in this place and all
the people that we saw.
And we put together a slide show.
And then we got the really like touchy feely music that missionaries use in slide shows.
You know, here am I, I will go, I will reach the lost untold.
You know, the people need the Lord, when will we realize?
So I basically just took all these pictures that we took, and I put it to music like
that, and I uploaded it to YouTube, I just called it East Africa Missions Project.
And everybody who watched the video who didn't know that going in, thought that we were
in Africa.
Every single person thought we were literally in Africa.
And then at the end of the video, the punchline is, these were all taken in Phoenix,
Arizona, four miles from our church, which shows you that the mission field is right
here.
And people want to go and come past sea and land to make one process like, look, open
your eyes.
The field's white under harvest.
You know, it's okay to witness the white people too, okay.
But you know what?
He said, well, no, I just really want to witness the black people.
They're here.
No, real, real African people.
They're here.
No, I want to speak a click language.
It's here.
I mean, literally, we went there and we're, you know, people who spoke Swahili, people
who spoke Somali, people who spoke language I'd never heard of.
And here's the thing, you could win them to Christ.
And then guess what?
They could win their friends and loved ones back home because a lot of the people from
Africa were on the phone back to Africa while we were there talking to their friends
and family back in Africa.
Okay.
They might eventually end up over there and, and, and whatever.
The point is that, you know, God's plan to win people to Christ is yes, to send
us out into all four corners of the earth.
That's true.
I believe in that.
Send out people to start churches and send out people to, to preach the gospel.
But you know what God's other plan is that we just win everybody to Christ in our town.
And if we try our hardest to win people to Christ, you're going to accidentally run
into people from all over the world.
If you knock every door in Phoenix, I bet you would knock virtually every nationality
that exists.
I mean, you don't think everybody, you don't think probably every nation is represented
in our city of 4 million people.
I just really want to reach Chinese people then go to Chinatown, save the plane ticket,
save the money.
And I'm not saying it's bad to go to mission field, but if you're just want to send a bunch
of money to the mission field and send, and you're going to go to the mission field,
but you won't do it here when it's easy, when it's right down the street.
I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to, to, you know, when, when we've got the
soul winning to do the fields are widened to harvest is open your eyes and look at
the neighborhoods and the, and the people that are ripe and harvest.
Now let's keep going in this passage though.
I don't want to get off on.
Yes, I do want to get off on that, but anyway, I'm done.
Last chapter 10, verse 46 is the next mention of tongues.
Let's see if it's consistent with what the Bible has taught so far.
This is, uh, uh, Peter is preaching the word of God unto them.
And here's a great verse.
This is one of my favorite verses.
Verse 43 is one of my favorite verses.
It says to him, talking about Jesus, to him, give all the prophets witness that through
his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
That's the message of the whole Bible, whole Bible.
All the prophets give witness that whosoever believeth in him and his name shall receive
the remission of sins.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy ghost fell on all them which heard the
word and they of the circumcision, which believed were astonished as many as came with
Peter because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy ghost.
How do they know that?
Verse number 46 for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
Then answered Peter, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized,
which have received the Holy ghost as well as we, and he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord.
Then prayed they him to Terry certain days.
Now this is also miraculous, which is why there's astonishment taking place where the
Jews are astonished when they hear them speak with other tongues and they realize, hey, this
is like what happened to us at the day of Pentecost.
In fact, when Peter tells this story, he says, this is like it happened with us
at the beginning, back in acts two.
He doesn't use the word acts two, but he refers back to that incident.
Now the thing I want to point out here is that in verse 47 it says they heard them
speak with tongues and magnify God.
So it's not that they're just hearing gibberish or something that to them is gibberish.
They're not just hearing and they're just like, Oh wow.
They're speaking with other tongues.
This is the Holy spirit upon them.
No, what they're hearing is their own language because they're saying we heard
them speak with other tongues and magnify God, which means that they were speaking
in a language that the Jews understood because they're saying, wow, I'm hearing them magnify
God in our language.
So why did God cause these people to miraculously be able to speak with other tongues?
Because the Jews had this idea that the only one who could be filled with the Holy Spirit
or the only one that God was going to use to prophesy was someone who was Jewish,
right?
And someone who's of Judea, someone who's of that chosen people.
They're still on that mistaken teaching.
And so when they see the Gentiles speak with other tongues and glorify God, the purpose
of God allowing that miracle where when they praise God, it came out in the language
of the Jews was because God wanted the Jews to see, Hey, I want to use the Gentiles
also.
I want the gospel to go to the Gentiles.
That's why they were shown that, okay.
Look at Acts chapter 19 verse six.
So again, they're speaking in a language that the people around them can understand.
In Acts two, it was for the benefit of the visitors from other countries.
In Acts 10, it was for the benefit of the Jews.
It's like an opposite miracle.
The Jews are showing up in a foreign place and they're hearing it in their own language.
Okay.
Look at Acts chapter 19 verse six for the next mention of tongues.
Says in Acts 19 six, I'm sorry, I have 19 six written down.
It is right.
Okay.
It says, and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and
they spake with tongues and prophesied.
Okay.
So again, people are being filled with the Holy Spirit and they speak with tongues
and prophesy.
So in chapter 10, they were speaking with tongues and glorifying God.
Here they hear them prophesying or preaching.
So again, they're understanding what's being said.
Okay.
Going here to contradict so far the, the, the definition that, hey, this is foreign
languages.
Okay.
Look at first Corinthians 12.
It's the next place that this is mentioned.
First Corinthians chapter 12.
First Corinthians chapter number 12.
This is talking about spiritual gifts.
The Bible says in verse number four of first Corinthians chapter 12, now there are
diversities of gifts, but the same spirit and there are diversities of administrations,
but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which
worketh all in all, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit
with all for to one is given by the spirit, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom
to another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit to another faith by the same
spirit to another, the gifts of healing by the same spirit to another, the working
of miracles to another prophecy to another, uh, discerning of spirits to another divers
kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues.
But all these worketh that one in the self, same spirit dividing to every man severally
as he will.
For as the body is one and have many members and all the members of that one body being
many or one body.
So also is Christ for by one spirit.
Are we all baptized into one body?
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free and have been all made to
drink into one spirit for the body is not one member, but many, and we don't want to
go on and on, but each local church, this isn't a universal church.
We don't believe in that.
That is a false doctrine.
The word church means congregation or assembly.
I am not congregated with every believer in the world.
The only time that will happen is at the rapture and we'll all be congregated, but
at this point we're not okay.
Right now we are in a local assembly here and when the Bible says that Christ is the
head of the church, it's talking about each church.
Just like when it says the husband's the head of the wife, it's talking about each
wife.
There's not one wife in the world.
Well, there's not one church in the world.
The husband is the head of his wife.
Christ is the head of each church and we're all baptized by one spirit into the church.
Okay.
Meaning the assembly, the congregation, not talking about a universal body.
And that's why the Bible says, you know, we're all baptized by one spirit and whether
we be Jew or Gentile, whether we, what does that mean?
We're not baptized into separate churches based on whether we're a Jew or a Gentile.
We're not baptized into separate churches based on whether we're white or black or
Chinese or anything else.
That's why I don't believe in this messianic, Oh, I messianic Jewish church.
No getting a Baptist church because guess what?
It's a house of prayer for all nations.
You don't need a separate Jewish church and a separate Gentile church.
No, it's God.
Well, that's another sermon.
I don't want to go off on that, but it's supposed to be one body.
And so that's what the Bible is teaching here.
He says different people in the church have different talents and abilities and gifts
of God.
There's another list in Romans 12 where he gives a completely different list of spiritual
gifts about teaching and governments and all different helps and different things.
But what he's saying here is that certain people have the gift, okay, of speaking
with other tongues or interpreting tongues.
That's one of the gifts that's mentioned.
Now go to first, and you know, that doesn't surprise us because we saw that manifestation
in Acts 2, Acts 10, Acts 19.
So go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 for the next mention, or I'm sorry, we didn't cover
everything in 12.
That was in 1210.
Jump down if you would just to leave no stone unturned to verse 28.
It says, God had set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, third
teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities
of tongues, are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles,
have all the gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues?
But some Pentecostals would tell you yes, wouldn't they?
Everybody speaks, everybody needs to speak.
If you haven't spoken in tongues, you need to come down the aisle and get right with
God and speak in tongues.
But that's what they believe.
Do all speak with tongues?
No.
The answer to all these is no.
Are all apostles?
No.
Are all prophets?
No.
Are all teachers?
No.
Are all workers of miracles?
No.
Do all speak with tongues?
No.
Do all interpret?
No.
There are some people who don't have these gifts.
And that's why he says in verse 31, but covet earnestly the best gifts.
He's saying you should desire, that's what covet means.
You should desire the best gifts.
You should want to have spiritual gifts.
And he says, yet show I unto you a more excellent way.
And then he goes on with the famous chapter in chapter 13, but what are the best gifts
according to this list?
I mean the best gifts are, you know, he says God has said something to the church,
first apostles, secondarily prophets, third, teachers.
So what are the top three gifts?
Apostles, preachers, and teachers.
Now we know that there are no longer any apostles because to be an apostle you
had to be one who witnessed bodily the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Paul talks
about in first Corinthians 15, being the last apostle as one born out of due time,
a late comer to being an apostle, but being a preacher or a teacher, he says, those are
the best gifts.
Okay.
So basically that's why the Bible says if a man desire the office of a Bishop, he
desire at the good thing he's saying, look, you should desire to want to preach the
Bible.
You should desire to want to teach the Bible.
Okay.
That should be at the top of the list.
But you know what?
In the charismatic movement, the emphasis is not on becoming a preacher and a teacher
of sound doctrine of God's word.
No, it's about performing miracles and speaking in tongues and that's where the
emphasis is.
It's the wrong emphasis.
Okay.
So and by the way, let me just stop right here and define the word prophet because
a lot of people are mixed up on this.
They think the word prophet means you predict the future and it happens.
Wrong.
That is not what prophecy means.
Now that's what we've sort of started to use it as in English in America in 2015.
That word has come to mean that.
But biblically speaking, that is not what the Bible means when it says prophecy or
prophet.
You say prove it.
Well how about in Proverbs 31 when Solomon's mother is teaching him about a virtuous woman
and talking about what attributes he should look for in a woman and in a wife.
It says that it's the prophecy that his mother taught him.
Now is it predicting future events?
Absolutely not.
It's just teaching the Bible, just teaching her son.
And so when it says the prophecy that his mother taught, there's no future event.
It's funny because I will refer to pastors and preachers and teachers who preach lies.
I'll call them false prophets because that's what the Bible calls everyone who teaches
lies or preaches lies, a false prophet.
And people will say, well hey, that doesn't make any sense to call him a false prophet.
What prediction did he make that didn't come true?
They think that to be a false prophet you have to say like, Jesus is coming back in
1844 and then it doesn't happen.
And now you're a false prophet.
No, you're a false prophet if you deny the Bible, if you deny scripture.
That's what makes you a false prophet because prophecy is what we would call today in
our modern vernacular preaching.
And the prophets are the preachers.
And when the Bible talks about someone prophesying, it's saying that they were preaching the
word of God.
Now does preaching sometimes predict future events?
Of course, because if we're preaching the book of Revelation, we're going to be talking
about future events based on the Bible.
But prophecy is just any Bible preaching.
It's prophecy, okay.
Now where were we?
1 Corinthians chapter 13.
It says in verse 1, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have
not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
So this is where people start to bring in the wild doctrine because so far everything's
been so cut and dried.
But here's where they want to move the goalposts and say, the tongues of angels.
And say there's a heavenly, angelic language.
There's a language that's a celestial language, a prayer language, a special language that
we humans don't know and they'll come up with this.
Now first of all, notice he says the tongues of angels, plural.
So if there were just one heavenly language, you wouldn't say tongues of angels, would
you?
Now here's the thing.
Do you really believe that in heaven there are just all these heavenly languages?
Look why did God confound the languages on earth at the Tower of Babel?
Because he didn't want people to be united.
He wanted them to be in separate nations.
Well is God up in heaven just desiring disunity in heaven?
No that doesn't make any sense.
So why would he create a bunch of diverse, heavenly languages where there are just these
foreign, people are speaking competing foreign languages in heaven that only angels
speak?
Now that doesn't make any sense.
Let's look at both mentions in 1 Corinthians 13 that they'll point to, but they'll point
to that in verse 1.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become
as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity,
I am nothing.
So what's he trying to teach in these verses here?
He's trying to teach that, you know, basically if you don't have charity, you could be
a wonderful public speaker and a wonderful preacher and a very knowledgeable teacher
of God's word and you're a waste if you don't have charity.
If you don't have love in your heart for your fellow man, you know, it's not profiting
anything.
You're a sounding brass.
You're a tinkling cymbal.
You're just getting up and making noise.
No matter how eloquent you are, if it's not in your heart, love for the Lord and
love for other people, okay?
That's what he's saying here.
So people will just take that and build an entire doctrine.
The primary application isn't to tell you, hey, you know there's a heavenly language,
huh?
You want to speak on this?
You want to speak this?
Has anything, have we heard anything about anywhere else in the whole Bible about heavenly
languages that we want to get access to?
No, because the gift of the Spirit where they spoke with other tongues, they were
speaking human tongues and the purpose was so that people would understand them, okay?
So to sit there and say, well, no, angels speak a foreign language.
So I guess when the angel shows up, you know, you better have an interpreter or God's
going to have to perform some kind of a miracle for you to be able to communicate with those
angels.
This is just taking one verse and this is how all false doctrine originates.
You take one verse, you don't apply it based on what it's actually talking about,
the actual context.
You just take an auxiliary point from that verse and just run with it and create a
whole doctrine about a heavenly language and if you're filled with the Spirit, you speak
a heavenly language.
No, that is not taught in the Bible.
And he says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity.
Here's the thing.
Let me just explain it to you because it's not that complicated.
Angels speak the same types of languages that human beings speak.
Now, just stop and think about that.
See, people are just going way too deep with this verse.
It's really not that deep here, okay?
What are some languages that we speak on this earth?
English, Spanish, German, French.
Okay, so what kind of languages do you think angels are speaking when they're, you know,
throughout the Old Testament when an angel shows up and speaks to Daniel or shows up
and speaks with Jacob or shows up and speaks with, you know, Laban in his dream or an
angel shows up and speaks to, you know, Nebuchadnezzar or whatever.
You know what they're speaking?
The languages that those people speak.
Because if you don't communicate in a language that people understand, you're wasting your
time.
And, you know, Nebuchadnezzar didn't have to be filled with the spirit to interpret
the tongue of the angel that spake to him.
Because the tongues of men and of angels are the same tongues.
Same languages.
See, when we get to heaven, it's not just going to be some celestial language that
nobody's ever heard of and nobody's ever spoken.
You know, people are going to heaven.
Human beings are going to heaven.
And they go there and they speak human languages and so forth.
So to sit there and say, well, it's a heavenly language, well, then there would
only be one.
It wouldn't make sense for God to create this multitude of, was there like a Tower
of Babel event in heaven to divide all the heavens?
You know, I'm going to divide the cherubims and the seraphims from speaking the same
language.
They're getting too powerful, you know, uniting together.
No.
And when it says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, he's just
saying, no matter what language I speak in, and no matter how well I speak it, if
I don't have charity, I'm like a sounding brass or a tinkling stone.
No matter how good the words sound.
You know, for example, we've been working on a project of putting our films, Marching
to Zion, After the Tribulation, into foreign languages.
And we've been working on getting them translated and put into other languages.
Now some of the languages that we're putting them into, I understand.
Some of them are foreign to me.
And sometimes I'll listen to one in a foreign language and I'll be like, this sounds
really cool.
But I don't understand a word of it.
But I just think like, this sounds cool, this guy.
And I'm like, hey, Paul, didn't this guy do a really good job with narrating this?
And Paul's like, yeah, it sounds great.
But here's the thing.
He doesn't know what it says.
I don't know what it says.
And I ask other people, is this right?
I just make sure that it's all right.
I pick out, oh, I heard the word Moses in some of these.
Because it's all foreign to me.
OK, so what is it?
But we still like the way it sounds.
Sounds great!
But here's the thing.
A trumpet can sound great to us.
A tinkling cymbal sounds great.
That's why musicians use cymbals.
That's why musicians use a brass section.
Because it sounds good.
And what he's saying is, look, you can speak in a beautiful way that sounds good.
But you're not saying anything that's worth listening to.
That's what he's saying.
Just like when we listen to something in a foreign language.
And we say, man, I like the way that sounds.
But we don't know what it means or anything.
Doesn't really do anything for us.
That's all it's saying.
And so we think of the tongues of men and of angels.
It would be the eloquency of great human speakers or the eloquency even of great angelic
speakers that would speak marvelous praise to God.
I mean, when we go to heaven, look at the book of Revelation.
The angels are going to speak and say all these marvelous praises to God.
I'm sure it's going to sound great.
So to just take this one verse and just to derive this whole doctrine of there's
a different heavenly language that no one on earth understands.
And if you're filled with the Spirit, you're going to speak that language.
No, it's foreign to scripture.
But let's go on.
Look at verse 8.
Here's another one that people will point to.
Verse 8, it says, 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.
And they'll say, well, it says tongues will cease.
Some people will say, well, you know, back then they spake with other tongues.
Now they don't.
That's not what that means.
And it says tongues will cease.
Tongues will stop.
You know what that means?
There are foreign languages that will cease to exist.
Now, for example, I was doing some research over the past week about some of the languages
of the world.
Because we're doing a project of getting these films out into a lot of languages.
And I looked up, because we have people in our church from Nigeria.
So I looked up, you know, okay, what are the languages of Nigeria?
What are they?
What do they speak?
521 languages in Nigeria.
But you know what it said?
Nine of them have gone extinct.
Nine of them have ceased to exist.
And I was like, phew, that means there's only 512.
That's way easier to deal with.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, you know, okay, we're not putting it into every obscure language.
But it was amazing, some of these languages I thought would be obscure, talk about
that Yoruba language, I'm like, who speaks that?
And it's like 25 million native speakers.
25 million?
Wow.
Everybody, who here has heard of the language Icelandic?
Put up your hand if you've heard of Icelandic.
Almost everybody.
Right?
It only has 300,000 speakers.
Who's ever heard of Yoruba?
Virtually no one.
And yet it has 25 million speakers.
So anyway, it's amazing how some of these African languages are spoken by a lot of people.
But I was looking it up, and they said nine of them have gone extinct.
Well, because guess what?
Languages are constantly dying.
New languages are created, old languages are dying.
You know, Indian tribes that assimilate in with the United States and start speaking
English, eventually their language dies.
You know, I've seen stuff in the news where it's like the last native speaker of this
language just died at age 89.
Therefore, now no one on the planet speaks that language anymore, you know.
And by the way, she was lonely when she died because she had nobody to talk to.
No, I'm just kidding.
So that's what it means when it says tongues shall cease.
It's called dead languages.
Okay.
But anyway, I got to hurry.
Man, I'm almost out of time.
1 Corinthians 14.
This is the big chapter.
This is the main one.
We don't have time for it.
No, I'm just kidding.
This is the main chapter.
I'll just quickly show you this.
Everything else has been foundational, and this chapter should be easy to understand
if you've understood everything so far in the sermon.
Verse 1, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.
So again, he's putting that at the top.
Desire the best gifts, preaching, teaching.
Rather that you may prophesy, for, for means because, 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, but he that prophesiest speaketh unto men
to edification and exhortation and comfort.
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth
the church.
I would that ye all speak with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied.
For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he
interpret that the church may receive edifying.
Now what have we read so far?
He's saying that if a person speaks in an unknown tongue, they're not speaking unto
men but unto God because nobody understands them.
And he says they're not edifying the church.
He said if you're going to speak in a foreign language, somebody's going to need to
interpret so you can edify the church.
Now you may be edifying yourself, you're speaking to God, but you're not edifying
anyone around you and the purpose of assembling together in the church is to benefit
others not to benefit yourself.
So it doesn't make any sense to come to church and speak in an unknown tongue.
Now what the charismatic movement will do is they'll take unknown tongue and say,
oh, it's just unknown to everyone.
It's an unknown language.
It's a language that nobody knows or it's a heavenly language or it's just a...
Whereas when the Bible talks about an unknown tongue, it's talking about a language
that the person who's listening doesn't know, okay?
So for example, if I got up tonight and started speaking Hungarian, I would be speaking
in an unknown tongue because virtually no one here understands Hungarian.
So if I got up and start preaching in Hungarian, I'm preaching in an unknown tongue.
Now here's the thing.
What if I said, let's open the service in a word of prayer?
And I just started praying in Hungarian.
Okay.
Am I speaking to God?
Am I being edified?
Yeah.
I'm praying to the Lord.
I'm communing with God.
Okay.
What if I read a chapter in the Bible out of the Hungarian Bible for you tonight?
Would God...
I mean, God would bless his word in my heart and I would understand, but it'd be a waste
unto the church.
That's all he's saying here when he says, when you pray or prophesy in an unknown
tongue.
And look at the proof, okay?
Because he says in verse six, 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, this verse seven, 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 it be known what is spoken for you shall speak into the air.
So he says, look, you show up and you speak in a language that the people around
you in church don't understand you're speaking into the air.
You're not profiting anyone.
Now what are they doing in the charismatic movement?
Oh, praise the Lord.
They're filled with spirit.
No.
Who are they edifying?
What are they teaching?
What are they preaching?
And by the way, they don't even understand what they're saying many times.
They'll tell you that.
So hold on.
Is that what the Bible's teaching?
That people will say things and they won't even understand what they're saying?
They don't even know what they're talking about?
No, because the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.
And in Acts chapter two, they knew what gospel they were presenting.
And in this passage, he says that if he speaks in an unknown tongue, he's edified.
That means he he's being built up.
He knows what's up.
God knows what's up, but the people around him don't.
So he says you're speaking into the air when you're speaking a foreign language that
nobody understands.
It says, verse 10, there are it may be so many kinds of voices in the world and none
of them was without signification.
See, look, there's no such thing as a language that no one understands.
Every language is understood by someone.
It's just unknown to you if you haven't learned it or if you weren't born there.
He says, 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.
So whether you're speaking in an unknown tongue is from the perception of who's listening.
OK, it's not saying it's unknown to no one.
It's saying it's unknown to the listener.
He says this.
Even so, verse 12, for as much as you're zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you
may excel to the edifying of the church.
Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, watch this, but my understanding
is unfruitful.
Now a lot of people will take that where he says, my understanding is unfruitful, and
they'll just interpret that as I don't understand what I'm saying.
Now is that what it says?
Now let's just stop and think for a second.
Here, Brother Garrett, I haven't looked this up in the NIV in many years, but I'm pretty
sure the NIV goofs this up.
Look this up in chapter 14, verse number 14.
Because here's the thing.
If I say my understanding, here's my understanding of this.
Am I saying I don't understand, or am I saying I do understand?
Stop and think for a second.
What is my?
The word my is a possessive pronoun, right?
So if I say my car, I'm saying the car that belongs to me.
My Bible is the Bible that belongs to me, the Bible that I possess.
Well guess what my understanding means?
The understanding that I possess, the understanding that I have, my understanding.
So when he says, if I pray, look down at verse 14, for if I pray in an unknown
tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful, as he's saying, I'm praying
and I don't even understand what I'm saying.
Is that what he's saying?
He's saying my understanding is unfruitful.
Okay, what does it mean to be unfruitful?
It means you're not bringing forth fruit.
So here's what he's saying.
The fact that I understand, I'm praying in an unknown tongue.
The fact that I understand isn't bringing forth any fruit.
It's not helping anybody else.
It's not benefiting anyone around me.
There's no production.
What does it mean to bring forth fruit?
To produce.
It's not producing anything.
It's not doing anything.
What's it say in the NIV?
Is this the one that goofs up?
Am I thinking of a different?
I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my mind is unfruitful.
Well, that's just weird.
I don't know.
They just change it to my mind's unfruitful.
Okay, well, nevermind.
It was a different version.
Plus, the NIV is constantly changing.
So I might have been on a different edition of that NIV, so whatever.
But anyway, does everybody understand that verse in the real Bible?
It says my understanding, the fact that I understand is unfruitful.
It's not benefiting anyone else.
Okay, now let's keep reading.
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.
He's talking about the understanding of the people around him.
If I sing a song, I want them to understand what I'm saying.
I want them to understand what I'm praying.
He says, else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, okay, verse 16, how so he that
occupies the room of the unlearned.
Now look, that right there, the unlearned, shows that it's possible to learn these
foreign languages by studying, not just through a gift of the spirit, but you could actually
learn them.
He says he that occupies the room of the unlearned is not going to be able to say
amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest.
For thou verily give us thanks well, but the other is not edified.
So if I said, you know, Brother Pion, would you lead us in prayer, Brother Pion?
And he just started praying in Spanish.
And then he expects us all to say amen at the end.
Now what does amen mean that you agree with what he just said?
Now what if what if he just goes blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you know, you pick
out a word like dios or heso Christo and you're like, oh, yeah, blah, blah, blah,
Do you just want to put a stamp of approval on what he just prayed when you have no idea
what he even said?
Because the Bible talks about in prayer that if two or three of you shall agree on earth
as touching anything you ask of him, you know that he'll do it.
I mean, there's power in praying together.
And we both say amen showing to God, look, we agree we're praying together for you
to do this, Lord.
But if he says it in an unknown tongue, and then I just say amen to that, what am
I even saying amen to?
That's why if I'm in church, and somebody prays, and it's too quiet for me to hear, you
know, somebody's praying, and they're kind of quiet.
I don't say amen.
Who knows what I'm stamping my amen on, you know, I want to say amen to some actually
understand.
See, he just said amen, because he agrees with me.
All right, because I'm speaking English up here.
But see, if you get the context and read it, it's clear that that's what he's talking
about when he defines it.
Because, you know, they'll look at verse 15 and be confused, you know, I'll pray with
the Spirit and I'll pray with the understanding also.
But verse 16 is continuing the same thought because else is a conjunction there.
Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupies the room of the
unlearned say amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest,
for verily thou give us thanks well, but the other is not identified.
I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than you all, yet in the church, I'd
rather speak five words with my understanding that my vibe by my voice, I might teach others
also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
Notice he's saying, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my
voice, I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
What's he saying?
Why would I come to church and just show off my knowledge of foreign languages and just
start eloquently speaking and saying things in a foreign language?
You say, Pastor Anderson, you're interpret, this is what people would say to this, Pastor
Anderson, your interpretation of this is ridiculous because nobody in the world would
ever go to a church where they speak a foreign language that nobody understands.
It's about, it's about this kind of, woo, woo, that's what it's about.
It's about, you know, that's, that's what it's about.
No, no, no. Because guess what?
There are people who go to church in a foreign language that they don't understand.
Let me introduce you to hundreds of millions of them.
They're called Roman Catholics.
Hello. Is anybody out there?
The Roman Catholic Church has been getting up and now they're starting to do it as
they've modernized. They're starting to do it in English and do it in.
We're talking about the church that burned people at the stake for teaching their
children the Lord's Prayer in the English language, because you got to speak
Latin. And we're talking about hundreds of millions of people who showed up to
church and it was all Pax vorbiscum, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And they have no idea what's even being said.
And the priest's understanding is unfruitful.
Of course, he's he doesn't understand anything anyway.
But I don't care what kind of mysteries and prophecies he's speaking, if it's in
Latin. I mean, there are people who sit and listen to the whole mass in Latin,
every word of it. To this day, there are hardcore Catholic churches that do it
in Latin. OK, how about the Greek Orthodox?
There are people who go to the Greek Orthodox Church and don't understand a word
of it. Now, obviously, there are a lot of people who speak Greek and go there
and understand it, because at least Greek is actually a language spoken by 15
million people, whereas Latin is a dead language.
OK, but there are churches throughout history that have done this in a foreign
language and nobody understands.
And he's saying somebody needs to interpret that if you're going to do it in
a foreign language, doesn't make any sense.
I'd rather speak five words in English, you know what we can actually hear and
understand. And what is he talking about here that we need to have one
language in the church, one language and that language in this church,
our faithful Baptist Church is English, because how can we have unity if we
speak different languages?
How can we say amen at the preaching if we speak different languages?
Now, let's say there's somebody here that doesn't speak English and we
wanted to minister to them, you can have somebody interpret to them.
OK, or let's say we had some foreign preacher that came and he didn't speak
our language, we can interpret for him.
Now, this is something that a lot of missionaries will do, because, you
know, they might be in a country where there are very few preachers.
So they'll bring in preachers from America and teachers from America to
cover certain subjects.
And they'll have a guy standing off to the side interpreting.
And I've sat in services in Germany and other places where you and I've
preached before to foreigners and had somebody interpret my words under them.
And I'd say it and they'd interpret it.
I'd say they'd interpret it.
Why?
Because God is saying that you have to have one language that everybody
understands in order to have unity in the church.
When everybody comes together, everybody needs to understand what's
going on and not have a church where half the people are speaking
English, half the people are speaking Spanish, and there's no unity and
there's no interpreter.
It doesn't make any sense.
OK, that's what he's saying in this passage.
So all that to say this, and I have to close the sermon.
There's more to talk about, but I'm running out of time.
But all that to say this, God is the one who created foreign
languages in the first place.
The world started out with everybody one language.
Now, let me ask you this.
In 2015, does God desire everyone to speak the same language?
No.
Now there is a movement to basically make English everyone's language in
the whole world and to eradicate other languages and just everybody
speaks English one language, like a pre-Tower of Babel world.
OK, but that's not the will of God.
God divided people's languages for a reason.
And so his desire is not the whole world speak English, but that
rather, you know, different people would speak different languages.
Now, but throughout the Bible, most people that you read about in the
Bible spoke multiple languages.
OK, because we don't really understand this because we live in America.
And since we speak the big language that everybody wants to learn, we're
like, why would we learn another language?
We speak English.
You know, we were born with English.
It's the ultimate language.
So why would we learn anything else?
Who here speaks only English?
Put up your hand.
It's practically every person in the auditorium.
Look around 90% of the auditorium English only.
Did you see that?
OK, but here's the thing.
If we went to other countries, it wouldn't be like if we were in
Nigeria and we just took a group of typical Nigerians in Lagos, how many of
them would raise their hand to that?
You think Lola and Jenny would say, I only speak one language.
Very few.
Did you hear that?
Why?
Because people in other parts of the earth of the earth speak multiple
languages.
OK, like everybody I've ever talked to from India spoke three languages.
Three.
And most people I've talked to from Africa spoke either two or three
languages because we'd go to these apartments and talk to them and they'd
speak all they do.
Oh, I speak this.
I speak this.
Why?
Because most of the world is a place where there are a bunch of
different languages going on.
Now, if we went down to the border, if we went down to
Calexico or we went down to Nogales, you'd find a ton of
people who spoke both English and Spanish because they're on the
border.
Well, when you're in a country with 521 languages, you know, you're
on the border of something, you know, so there's going to be a lot of
languages that are spoken.
And so that's why this issue of foreign languages is something that
he deals with with the Corinthians, because they're surrounded by
foreign languages.
And even in Jesus' day, him and the apostles, they're in an area
where three languages are being spoken at least.
That's why the sign above Jesus' head was in Greek, Hebrew and
Latin, because those are three languages that are being spoken
where he lived.
And so if you want to put up a sign and I've been to countries
where they put up every sign in three languages, every sign,
three languages, three languages.
I've been to Luxembourg, the people there speak all of them.
All of them speak like four languages, all of them.
And they even in school, they have elementary school in one
language, high school in another language, home life in
another language.
I mean, it's literally they at a certain point in their
schooling, they just switch languages.
Isn't that wild?
But they do, they all and everybody there because it's such a
tiny place and it's so bordering everything else.
Okay, that's what this is talking about.
Multiple languages, people trying to get up and speak to a
certain faction of the church that speaks that language and
everybody else is going.
Or the priest gets up and starts speaking Latin, everybody's
like, he's saying, look, when you come to church, every
single person who's there should understand everything
that's said.
And it should be for the edification of the whole body,
for the whole church.
That's what it is.
Now, when it comes to the gifts, look, people have different
gifts.
Some people are gifted with foreign language, other people
can't learn a foreign language to save their life.
Okay, but but some people are gifted with it.
Now, there was a miraculous outpouring where people just
miraculously spoke it.
But here's the thing about that.
God isn't just going to hand us miraculously that which we
can do on our own.
You know, God gave them manna from heaven to feed them when
they were in the wilderness.
But as soon as they got to the land and were able to do the
work and get the food themselves, the manna ceased.
And so God's not just going to miraculously, you just
say, well, you know what, I'm praying about going to the
mission field.
And you say, well, are you learning the language?
No, I'm just praying for an outpouring like in Acts
chapter two, I'm just going to get there and just be
filled with the Spirit and just begin to speak Chinese.
That's my game plan.
Well, you know, God expects you to do the work of
learning and studying it.
Now, this isn't for everybody, because some people, this
isn't for them.
And the older you get, the harder it is to learn foreign
language, better learn when you're a kid, teenager, adult,
the older you get, the harder it is.
But God's desire is not that the whole world learn English,
but that rather people who do know the gospel, people who
are saved, learn foreign languages and preach the
gospel to the lost in the tongue wherein they were born.
People that are gifted in that area or people who are
just born and raised with three languages can be used
by God to deliver the gospel into those languages.
So it's not that everybody needs to learn English, it's
that people who know English and know the gospel need
to take the word of God into those foreign languages
and bring it to them in the language wherein they were
born.
That's actually what the Bible teaches, because the Bible
teaches that when we get to heaven, there will be people
from heaven in heaven from every tongue.
So there's not all of those 521 Nigerian languages, there's
going to be somebody in heaven that spoke all of them,
because of the fact that the gospel has gone throughout
the whole world into all nations.
And so we will see people from all these different
places that speak those, that's our job.
When he said go and teach all nations, that's what he's
talking about, getting the gospel out to all the people.
So again, what's the purpose of a gift of tongues?
Well, the last thing I wanted to show you in First
Corinthians 14, he said, it's a sign.
So look at this one last thing, and then this time,
I promise I'm really done.
First Corinthians 14, he talks about it as a sign.
Let me find my place here.
He says in verse 22, wherefore tongues are for a sign,
not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
But prophesying serveth not for them that believe not,
but for them which believe.
What's he saying?
You know, people that don't believe, people that aren't
saved, they're not going to understand the preaching.
They're not going to understand the prophesying.
Okay, but what's he saying also is that tongues are
assigned to them that believe not.
Well, in Acts 2, who was it assigned to?
Unbelievers.
And so what was the goal?
Getting them saved.
So what's he saying?
You know, you learn foreign languages to go out and get
people saved in those foreign languages.
That's the goal behind it.
It's not just so you can go to a service, have an
emotional experience and impress people.
Everybody, I'm spiritual.
Here's the proof.
You know, everybody see I'm filled with the spirit.
Everybody see that?
No, it doesn't make any sense.
It's not edifying anyone.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for
the clear teaching.
Help us to understand this subject, Lord.
And there's so much false teaching out there.
It's a huge movement of this so-called tongue speaking, Lord.
And it's just an ecstatic speaking, it's gibberish, it's
falling on the ground.
It's a heavenly prayer language where people just start
praying to God and gibberish.
It makes no sense since God understands English perfectly
well. Lord, I pray that you would just help us to study
to show ourselves approved on this subject.
But also, Lord, help help those who are talented, those
who have the ability to to get the gospel out to the
lost in all languages, Lord, and those that are fluent in
Spanish. Lord, I pray that they would go out soul winning
and knock doors with us because we run into so many
Spanish speakers that need the gospel in Spanish.
So, Lord, help us to excel in these spiritual gifts,
Lord, to the edifying of the church through preaching
and to the reaching of the lost, Lord, even through
foreign languages. And in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.