The title of the sermon this morning is Pentecostal Speaking in Tongues, Pentecostal Speaking
in Tongues. Now Acts chapter 2 is probably the most famous scripture dealing with this
subject or dealing with this topic, but I want to look at a lot of scripture today.
I have a lot of things to cover because this is a very important thing for us to understand.
Keep your finger here because we're going to come back, but go to Genesis chapter number
10. Now when you hear this phrase, speaking in tongues, this phrase is never used in the
Bible one time. You'll never see that exact phrase of speaking in tongues. This is kind
of the modern version of what Pentecostals call speaking in tongues. They bastardize
what the Bible truly teaches, but I'm going to present my first point this morning is
that tongue in the Bible, it either means language or your body part, the tongue, what's
in your mouth. That's the two options. You can basically say, hey, tongue means language
or it means the physical body part in your mouth, and we're going to make that clear
from the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, this is what it means, and I'm not going to
spend time focusing on the fact that tongue means literally the organ in your mouth because
I think everybody gets that, but let's see how it means language in a lot of different
places. This is the first time the word tongues ever used in the Bible. Genesis chapter 10,
look at verse 1. Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
and unto them were the sons born after the flood, the sons of Japheth, Gomer, and Magog,
and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshach, and Tyrus, and the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz,
and Riphath, and Togamar, and the sons of Javan, Elisha, and Tarshish, and Kidom, and
Dodanem. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his
tongue after their families and their nations. Now anytime you see the Bible, use a word
for the first time, you usually need to take note of that, because a lot of times the Bible
will tell you what this word means in the context, or it will even use the word that
means the same thing later to describe it. But it's making it clear, look, back in the
Old Testament, they used to only have one language. Keep your finger here, but just
look at Genesis 11. Just look at Genesis 11 verse 1. And the whole earth was of one language
and of one speech. So a lot of times the Bible, it will give you kind of a timeline, and then
the next chapter will kind of go back in that timeline and explain certain things.
And it's just saying, hey, this is how everybody was divided, but let's go back where we started
when we start with Noah, and Shem, and Ham. They had one language. They only have one
language. Men are only speaking one language. There's not English, there's not Greek, there's
not Mandarin, there's not Hindi, there's not Spanish, there's not all these languages.
There's one language. Everybody's speaking the same language. But look at verse 25 back
in chapter 10. It says, And Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for
in his days was the earth divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. Now, some people
take this one verse about the earth being divided and come up with all kinds of weird,
goofy doctrine. They say, oh, this means literally like this is when Pangaea broke apart or some
weird garbage or something. It's clear that what it's saying here is it's saying this
is when the languages were divided, when people started spreading across the face of
the earth. Why? Because they were speaking different languages. And you say, well, what
happened? Well, it explains it in Genesis chapter 11. Look at verse number six now.
So the whole earth was of one language, but something happened. Look at verse six. And
the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language. And this they
begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down. And there confound their language, that they may not understand
one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all
the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel,
because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth. And from thence did the
Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. So God was saying, look, because
they only have one language, they're able to work very efficiently. They're able to
accomplish a lot of things very quickly. And we see even in today's culture, when people
are all in the same language, it makes work go a lot quicker, doesn't it? It makes people
be able to do a lot more things. So God was saying, you know, I don't want this. I want
men to be scattered across the whole earth, across the whole planet. So he ended up dividing
the tongues. This is why we have different languages today. It would be impossible to
understand why we have different languages today, if you didn't have the Bible's explanation.
You know, all these atheists and college professors, they have no idea why we have all these different
languages, and how they're so complicated and so complex, and they all show up at the
same time. How do we have all these different languages that all have their own unique complexity
and different variations, but they all come up at the same time? It makes sense with the
Tower of Babel, with God saying, hey, I don't want man to just have one language. I want
there to be multiple languages. And what is he using the word? He's saying tongue, right?
The first time he explained it, he said tongue. And you say, why would you use the word tongue
to mean language? Well, if you didn't have a tongue, you wouldn't have any language.
There's an organ in your body that's responsible for you making sounds and making distinction
in those sounds. It's your tongue. And if I were to cut out your tongue today, you wouldn't
be able to speak very well. You could just make like, uh, uh. You wouldn't be able to
talk and communicate and express yourself and make certain, you know, certain languages
use the tongue very exclusively, like the language Spanish, right? It doesn't have rolling
of Rs. You can only do that with your tongue. That's why God is using the word tongue to
explain that it means language. Obviously it can mean the organ in your mouth. It can
also mean language. Go to Deuteronomy 28. It says in Ezra 4, and in the days of Artaxerxes
wrote Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions unto Artaxerxes king
of Persia. And the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted
in the Syrian tongue. So many times throughout the Bible, when it's trying to say, this is
what language they spoke, it's saying tongue, it's using the word tongue. It says in Daniel
chapter one, when it's talking about Daniel says children whom was no blemish, but well
favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and understanding science and
such as has ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the
learning and tongue of the Chaldeans. Now they trying to teach them about what their
organ looks like. No, they're teaching them their language, the language of the Chaldeans.
Look at Deuteronomy 28 verse 49. And the Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far.
And from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flyeth, a nation whose tongue thou
shall not under stand. So what is he saying here? He's saying, look, I'm going to bring
somebody from a distant place on the earth. You don't know their language. You know, I
bring somebody from China today and he starts speaking Mandarin to you, you're probably
gonna have no idea what he's saying. That's what the Bible is saying right here. It's
very clear. Go to Revelation now, go to all the way to the end of your Bible. So from
Genesis to Revelation, it uses the word tongue and I'm just kind of reading for you places
in between. In John chapter five, it says, now there is a Jerusalem by the sheep market,
a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches. Acts chapter
21 says, and when they had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with
the hand into the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in
the Hebrew tongue saying in Acts chapter one verse 19, it says, and it was known in
all the dwellers of Jerusalem and so much as that field is called in their proper tongue,
Al-Saddamah, that is to say the field of blood. Now I'm not going to belabor the point any
more than I'm already doing, but you can see the word tongue used so many times throughout
the Bible and every single place, Old Testament, New Testament, the beginning, the end to mean
language. And that's what the Bible means when it uses the word tongue language. Look
at Revelation chapter five, chapter number five, look at verse number nine. And they
sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and
tongue and people and nation. So he's saying, look, I'm going to have people in heaven from
every single nation, from every single language. That's what he's trying to say here. Tongue
means language. Go to Revelation chapter nine now and chapter seven, he says, after
this I'll be held in low a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations and
kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands. You know what the God of the Bible is? He's a
God of all nations. He's a God of all languages. And according to the Bible, every language
will be represented in heaven. At the end, when we're all in heaven, there's going to
be people from every nation. That's why if your religion is racist against certain ethnicities
or certain languages, it's a wrong religion. Because the God is the God of the Bible of
all nations, of all languages, of all tongues, of all people. That doesn't mean that the
majority of people are saved, but there's a remnant in every single tongue in every
single nation. Look at Revelation chapter nine, verse 11. And they had a king over them,
which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon.
But in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Now, how could you interpret this anything
other than language? He's saying, hey, this is how you say it in Hebrew. This is how you
say it in Greek. It's super clear. The Bible is very straightforward. It's not confusing.
Go to Revelation chapter 17. Last place we'll turn on this point. It says in Revelation
10, and he said unto me, thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and
tongues and kings. Look at verse number 15 there in chapter 17. And he saith unto me,
the waters which thou sawest where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations
and tongues. So again, it's clumped together with what? Lots of people, lots of nations.
Why? That's what we see today, isn't it? I mean, there's like 252 nations or something
like that, right? And they all speak pretty much a different language. Most of them speak
different languages or different dialects. So it makes a lot of sense that when you're
making these divisions, we see people are dividing based on their tongue. That's why
God divided the tongues, so people would scatter. And even in this city, Houston, today that
we live in, people are scattering themselves based on their tongue. I mean, we'll go to
some neighborhood, you know, in Pasadena, everybody only speaks Spanish. Why? Because
it's just easier to communicate with people that speak the same language as you. So people
just naturally, you know, come together, divide and group together based on language. It's
just a common division that takes place amongst people. Now, go back to Acts chapter number
two. So I don't want to spend any more time on this point, but let's make it clear. Tongue
means language. It could mean the organ in your mouth. Those are your two options. But
when we talk about the doctrine of speaking in tongues, which is not the phrase that the
Bible uses, but if you were to say that that was biblical, it would just mean speaking
in another language or speaking in languages. Now, the Bible says speaking with tongues
or speaking with another tongue or speaking with other tongues or speaking in new tongues.
What does that mean? Speaking in a new language, speaking in another language, speaking with
other languages. And don't we have a lot of people today that can speak multiple languages?
I mean, there's a lot of people in Houston that speak Spanish and English. There's a
lot of people in America that speak all manner of languages. There's people that live in
India. They're like pretty much all forced to learn three or four languages. They learn
the like local dialect, then they learn the national language Hindi, then they have like
another sub-regional dialect that they have to learn. Then pretty much all of them learn
English because they have to learn English. Everybody has to learn English. You know,
if you don't live in America, you still have to learn English. We just force it on everybody
apparently. You know, pretty much the only nations that don't seem to like force their
people to learn English is like the southern countries of America. It's like Mexico and
South America. They seem pretty sufficient in their Spanish language because it's pretty,
it's like the second most popular language. You know, you got Mandarin, English and Spanish,
but it's like the second or third most popular language. Look at Acts chapter number two
now though, and let's, let's dig into this chapter and see what was happening. Look at
verse number one. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come and 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 on them cloven
tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them. Now this tongues, they're not seeing
languages, they're seeing the organ and what is, what is cloven mean? It means it's split.
So imagine your tongue were split. What is that representing? It's the fact that now
you're not going to just have one tongue. You're going to be able to speak in multiple
tongues. This was a special gift by the Holy Ghost and we see in verse four and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave
them utterance. So a miracle happened. The disciples are all in one place. The apostles
are there and all of a sudden there's a mighty rushing wind. There's fire over them. And
now all of a sudden I can just speak a different language. I've never studied it. I never was
born in that language. Now all of a sudden I can speak Spanish. Now all of a sudden I
can speak Mandarin. Now all of a sudden I can speak Hindi. And you say, well, what's
the point of that? Like what's the point of just instantly being able to speak another
language? Well, let's keep reading verse five and there were dwellers at Jerusalem, Jews,
devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noise abroad, the multitude
came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own
language. So it even tells us what the tongue was. It's language. And you say, what was
the point? Well, they had people come from every single nation on the entire earth. The
day there was a special feast, all these people are coming from every single nation. They
all speak different languages. So God thinks, hey, this is a good time to give this special
gift where they can speak these other people's language so they can give them the gospel,
so they can get them saved. Let's keep reading. Look at verse seven. And they were all amazed
and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? So
they're amazed because they're like, these are all Galileans, but now they're speaking
every other language. Look at verse eight. And out here we every man in our own tongue,
wherein we were born. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the Jewellers of Mesopotamia
and in Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Phanthelia and Egypt and
parts of Libya around 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? So he's saying, what, why
is this? What's happening? Well, they're getting people saved. And it was prophesied in the
Old Testament, the book of Joel. Look at verse 16. But this is that which was spoken by the
prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last day, saith 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 my servants and on my
handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. And
I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor
of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great
and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. So we understand everything that's happening here
from this passage. He's saying, look, this is already prophesied. God was going to pour
out his spirit on not only the men, but also the women. And they're all going to go preach
the gospel to these people and get them saved. You say, what do you think about women preachers?
Well, if they're going out and preaching the gospel, I think it's great. I think they should
go out and get a lot of people saved. You say, what do you think about in the pulpit?
Well, the Bible says, let the woman learn in silence. The Bible says the woman is not
supposed to get up and be the pastor. That's the office of a man. The office of a bishop
is for a man. But we see, Hey, I don't have a problem with women go out and preach in
the gospel. That's great. And we see the women here. They're getting people saved. That's
for every person, for man, boy, woman, child, female, male, doesn't matter. We're all to
go out and preach the gospel. This is not a commandment for just men. It's for everyone.
And you say, well, what were they doing when they were speaking their own language? They
were prophesying. And you say, what does prophesy mean? And the Bible means to preach. It means
to preach God's word, to speak forth God's word. Some people interpret prophesy is only
speaking that which is future. But the problem is, is that's not always true. We have the
prophecy and proverbs that was given to Lemuel by his mother, and there was no future foretelling
in that. Now, if you're preaching God's word, especially in the Old Testament, a lot of
what you're saying might be about future events. So it just happens to be that a lot of prophesying
is about future events, but to prophesy means to just speak God's word, just to preach his
word. And we see the women are preaching God's word, and you say, well, what were they preaching?
Look at verse 21. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call in the name of the
Lord shall be saved. They were soul winning. What was the first mention of speaking with
other tongues? Soul winning. They were going out in other tongues and preaching the gospel
and getting people saved. And look, if I go and knock on a door of somebody that doesn't
have my language, wouldn't it be a great gift if I could just all of a sudden just start
speaking their language so I can give them the gospel and get them saved? That's the
point here. And we have a special day where we have people from every nation under heaven
coming into one place, and it's like the opposite of the Tower of Babel. Now God's like, hey,
I'm going to give you all languages. I'm going to give you a special gift. And it says the
Spirit is what gave them the utterance. It wasn't them. It wasn't of their power. It
wasn't of their might. It wasn't of their learning. It was the Holy Ghost that gave
them this ability to preach in another language. It's very clear. Go to Acts chapter number
10. So this is the most popular, the most detailed account of people speaking with other
tongues. But the Bible is very clear that this is the same in every single place. Let's
go to Acts chapter number 10 and look at verse number 43. Very famous verse. Very good verse
to understand in the Old and New Testament. Look at verse number 43. To him give all the
prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of
sins. You know what the whole Bible is about? Jesus Christ. Every single prophet. They preached
about Jesus Christ. And when you believe in him, when you call upon his name, you shall
receive remission of sins because we always say by faith. They were preaching faith. They
were preaching calling on the name of the Lord. And right here we see the same thing.
To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins. Not maybe, not hope so. Nope. If you believe in him,
you shall receive remission of sins. That's what they're preaching. Look at verse 44.
While Peter yet spake these words. So what is Peter preaching? The gospel. He's preaching
for people to get saved, right? That it says here, 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.
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? So what happened? Peter's preaching to a bunch of Gentiles. And when he's preaching
the gospel, guess what? People get saved. Because you know what? The gospel saves. The
gospel has power today. And if you go out and preach the gospel, people will get saved.
If people aren't getting saved, you're not preaching the gospel. That's the clear truth
because if you go out and preach the gospel, look, me and brother Eli, we were going out
knocking doors yesterday. He says to this one lady, hey, we're just out inviting people
to a Baptist church down the street. She goes, great, I'm looking for a church. He goes,
hey, if you die today, are you 100% sure you go to heaven? She goes, no, but I'd really
like to know. He's like, can I show you? And she's like, yes. I mean, there's people out
there today that want to be saved, that want to hear the gospel. They're super easy to
get saved. You know why people aren't getting saved? Because nobody's going out and preaching
the gospel. That's why. It's simple. It's easy. Look, the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the labors are few. How hard is it to just give somebody that wants to hear the
gospel the gospel? If you're saved today, if you know how to be saved today, why don't
you go out with us and preach the gospel? And you at least have one language, don't
you? Don't you have the ability to get somebody in English? I mean, if you're hearing the
words I'm saying, I'm guessing you can at least speak some type of English, right? And
if you speak another language, now you have double opportunity to go get people saved.
But look at verse 46. You say, well, what were they saying? Were they speaking like
gibberish or some kind of babble or what were they saying? Look at verse 46. For they heard
them speak with tongues, what languages, and magnify God. So did they understand what they
were saying? Of course, because they hear them magnifying God. If someone's just speaking
in the language, you have no idea what they're saying, how could you know if they're magnifying
God or not? Could you really know what they're saying? No, they heard them speak with another
tongue that they knew and they're like, wow, these Gentiles, now they're speaking Hebrew.
They never learned Hebrew. They never learned all these other languages. Now we see them
magnifying God. So it's the same thing, isn't it? Go to Acts chapter number 19. So you see
again what? People are getting preached the gospel, people are getting saved, and now
they're speaking with other tongues so that we can get the gospel to the whole world.
That was the goal that the Lord Jesus Christ had given them, to go out and preach the gospel
to every creature, to go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Look at Acts chapter number 19. This is the third
time we'll see this. Verse number one, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at
Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain
disciples. He said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they
said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said
unto them, unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said
Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that
they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. When they
heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid
his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied,
and all the men were about 12. So what happens in this exchange? Basically Paul comes across
a couple of people that are supposed to be in church, they're disciples, they look like
they're faithful, and he's like saying, hey, do you guys have the Holy Ghost? And they're
like, well, we've never heard of the Holy Ghost. And he's like, then what were you baptized?
Because Jesus Christ clearly said that you're baptized in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and guess what, and of the Holy Ghost. So if you've been baptized in the name of
the Holy Ghost, then how could you say, well, I've never heard it? That doesn't even make
any sense. That's why he's saying, well, then what were you baptized? And he says, well,
John's baptism. Who's he talking about? John the Baptist. But then Paul says, well, wait
a minute. If you were baptized with John the Baptist, you know, baptism, then you're
saved. And if you're saved, then you have the Holy Ghost. So it still doesn't make any
sense. So he's saying, look, this is what John preached. He preached that they should
believe on him, which would come after him. That isn't on Christ Jesus. So then after
they hear the gospel, after they understand why people were even baptized in the first
place, they get saved. So these people were baptized, but they weren't saved. And now
that they've heard the gospel, and they're saved, guess what you need to do? Get baptized.
So if you got baptized before you're saved, you just got wet. And you know what? There's
a lot of people today, you go out and you knock the door and you say, hey, what do you
have to do to be saved? Be a good person. Go to church. Follow the commandments. Repent
of your sins. Get baptized. And say, hey, I was baptized as a kid. Well, guess what?
This person's not saved. You know what you need to do? Preach him the gospel. Preach
to believe on him that should come after him. And guess what? After they're saved, you say,
hey, guess what? The first step after believing is to get baptized. So we see people needing
to get baptized again. It even happens in today's culture. The same thing happened here.
And after they got saved and baptized, what happened? Well, now they actually have the
Holy Ghost, and now they're able to speak with other tongues. So we see again, people
are getting saved. They're getting baptized. Now they have this special gift of speaking
with other tongues, or they spake with tongues. So now I'm going to give you a little bit
of a history lesson, okay? So then what do the Pentecostals believe? I mean, the Pentecostals
say they're speaking in tongues. They say they have this special gift, that this special
gift is, you know, a continuation of the apostles and what we see in Acts chapter,
you know, 2 and 10 and 19 here. Well, I looked up in Wikipedia, and it says Pentecostalism
is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity. It places a special emphasis on a direct personal
experience of God through what they call the baptism with the Holy Ghost. The term Pentecostal
is derived from Pentecost, the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For Christians,
this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ
as described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. So the word Pentecost
is not a bad word. We even see it used in the Bible, and the word Pentecost just means
50th day, and you say, why 50th day? Well, according to the Jewish Feast, there was a
special feast that God said, hey, you need to observe seven weeks. Now how many days
are in a week? Seven. So we have a math lesson. What is seven times seven? 49 days, okay?
So then after that, they were supposed to accelerate on the day of Pentecost, which
is what? The 50th day. So this was represented as a prophesying of the future after the Lord
Jesus Christ, that they would observe this day as when the Holy Ghost would come upon
them. So there's nothing necessarily wrong with that name, and you know, there's all
kinds of false denominations and false churches today that will use biblical words. Church
of God, Church of Christ. We see, I mean, these words are found, these phrases are found
in the Bible, but is that a scriptural church? No, they don't believe anything the Bible
says. So just because you have the name right doesn't mean that you're a good church, and
there's so many churches today that have Baptists on the name, but you know what? They're Pentecostal,
and we'll learn what Pentecostal means. They believe in speaking in tongues. Now if you
look up speaking in tongues, it says the fancy theological term is called glossolalia, okay?
It's really just a Greek word. Glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, is a phenomenon in
which people appear to speak in languages unknown to them. One definition used by linguists
is the fluid vocalization of speech, like syllables, that lack any readily comprehended
meaning, and in some cases is part of religious practice, and which is believed to be a divine
language unknown to the speaker. Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and Charismatic
Christianity as well as in other religions. So the one identifying factor of a Pentecostal
is this speaking in tongues, okay? And they say, well, it's speaking in an unknown tongue,
but it's a divine language. It's a heavenly language, not like Spanish, not like Portuguese,
not like Mandarin, not like Hindi. It's just some other language that nobody knows, nobody
on this planet has ever heard of. This doesn't really make a lot of sense. This is just the
Wikipedia article. It says sometimes there's a distinction between glossolalia and what's
called xenolalia, or xenoglossy, which specifically designates when the language being spoken
is a natural language previously known, unknown to the speaker. So the distinction in the
theological terms, glossolalia, xenolalia. What is glossolalia? It's when you're speaking
something that nobody knows, just alien language or heavenly language or divine language. Xenolalia
is when I start speaking a language I've never studied, but that people understand, that
people use, that's a common language, is a natural language. People are born in this
language. I just start speaking Mandarin. That would be a miracle by the Lord. That
would be a miracle by the Holy Ghost, because I've never studied Mandarin. It sounds really
weird to me. It would be really difficult for me to get there. And if I could just magically
start preaching the gospel in Chinese, that would be what's referred to as xenolalia.
Let's learn the history of the Pentecostal movement. It says in the 20th century, so
we're talking about 1900, okay? It says that there was these two holiness preachers, Charles
Parham and William Seymour. They're credited as the co-founders of this movement. Parham
and Seymour taught that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not the blessing of sanctification
but rather a third work of grace. That was accompanied by the experience of tongues.
It was Parham who formulated the doctrine of initial evidence after studying the Bible.
Parham came to the conclusion that speaking in tongues was the biblical evidence that
one had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. So in 1900, Parham opened Bethel Bible College
in Topeka, Kansas, America, where he taught initial evidence. During a service on January
1st of 1901, a student named Agnes Osmond asked for prayer in the laying on of hands
to specifically ask God to fill her with the Holy Spirit. She became the first of many
students to experience glossolalia, coincidentally, in the first hours of the 20th century. Parham
followed within the next few days. Parham called his new movement the apostolic faith.
So what's happening here? There's this preacher. He gets up and he starts teaching. Well, I
believe not only are you saved and baptized, there's this third thing called the baptism
of the Holy Ghost. And when you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost, now you start speaking
in tongues. Now nobody had ever seen this. Nobody had ever experienced this. But when
he starts preaching it, one of the ladies in the audience decides, I want that. So she
comes up. He prays for her. Now all of a sudden she's speaking in these ecstatic utterances
that cannot be understood by any person. And they're like, oh, look, it's Acts 2. Oh, look,
you know, people are being filled with the Holy Ghost. And guess what? Now the preacher
a few days later, he decides, you know what, I'm going to jump on that train. Now I'm filled
with the Holy Spirit. Now I'm going to start speaking in tongues. So we get these, this
is where it kind of starts, okay? In 1901, right? Then there's another guy in this church
says in, Parham followed within the next few days. Parham called the new movement the apostolic
faith. So they're trying to be apostles. In 1905, he moved to Houston and opened a Bible
school there. One of his students was William Seymour, an African American preacher. So
this guy moved to Houston. And now he has a new student, this other guy, William Seymour.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if you would. So I'm kind of giving you a history lesson
because it's good to understand where things come from. Because then maybe you're not so
confused. You're not thinking, oh, this has just always been the case. We see there's
nobody doing any of this junk. We have this guy basically creating it in his, you know,
new church. Then he comes to Houston. Oh, I wonder why there's so many Pentecostal churches
in Houston. I wonder why if you leave this building, there's eight other churches in
this complex and the one next to it. And they're like all Pentecostal. They all speak this
demonic, wicked, false fraud, okay? Let's learn some history in the Bible, okay? In
1905, he moved to Houston and opened a Bible school there. And one of the students was
William Seymour, an African American preacher. Oh yeah, and guess what? African American
preachers, they seem to all be Pentecostal. Just a phenomenon. 1906, Seymour traveled
to Los Angeles where he preached, ignited the Azusa Street Revival. This revival is
considered the birth of the global Pentecostal movement. Witnesses at the Azusa Street Revival
wrote of seeing fire resting on the head of participants, miraculous healings in the meetings,
and incidents of speaking in tongues being understood by native speakers of the language.
According to the first issue of William Seymour's newsletter, the apostolic faith, okay? So
now what they describe here is they're trying to say what Acts 2 said. They're saying hey,
we have people. They had the cloven fire. Then they started speaking in other known
languages and people are hearing them in these other languages. So they're saying exactly
what Acts chapter 2 was saying. They're saying it happened. Now I believe it's complete fraud.
We know that it's complete fraud. But what they're saying is exactly what Acts 2 taught.
They're not trying to teach some extra thing or something completely different. They're
attributing the origin of this movement to being actually speaking in known languages
to people. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and we're going to look at verse number
5. We're going to see what it means to be an apostle. Because what these people like
to do is they like to call themselves apostles. They say oh, I'm apostle so and so and you
know we're just an extension of all the apostles and you know I'm apostle John. Wrong. Look,
there is no more apostles today. The apostles are dead. There is no such thing as apostle
in the flesh. Why? Well look at 1 Corinthians 15 verse 5. And he was seen of Cephas then
of the twelve. Who's this talking about? Jesus Christ was seen of Peter. Cephas is another
one of his names. Look at verse 6. After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren
at once of whom the greater part remain in this present but some are falling asleep.
After that he was seen of James then of all the apostles and last of all he was seen of
me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that I'm not
meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. So Paul's saying look I'm
the last of the apostles. Why? Because I saw the Lord Jesus Christ out of due time. But
we see all the original apostles they saw the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the first 40 days before he ascended up into heaven. And one of the signs of an apostle
or one of the evidences of an apostle is you literally saw the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they're supposed to be witnesses. They're witnesses of the
resurrection. How can you be a witness of the resurrection if you've never seen the
risen Lord? If you've never seen the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And guess what? He didn't
secretly come and show himself to some you know apostle over here in this building. No.
When he comes the second time every eye shall see him is what the Bible says. That's what
we're waiting for. That's what we're looking to. We see that the Paul was born out of due
time. He had this special gift that was given unto him and he is apostle. Why? Because he
saw the resurrected Lord. Not only that he had the signs of a possible. He would go out
and heal people. He did a lot of wonderful miracles. He was able to speak with other
languages that were unknown to him. So he had the signs of the apostle and he saw the
Lord Jesus Christ. But these people they say oh we're apostles. Because you know we're
healing people and we're speaking other languages. You know the problem is you never get to see
him do it. You can only hear them talk about it. Oh yeah we did it you know in Africa we
went to this one tribe and it all worked out. Look they're just a bunch of liars and
it's always in Africa or some distant place. We'll keep reading this article. It says
Parham and his early followers believed that speaking in tongues was xenoglossia. So they're
saying hey we don't believe in glossolalia. They said we believe in xenoglossia. Which
means what? Speaking native languages. Languages that people know. And some followers traveled
to foreign countries and tried to use this gift to share the gospel with non-English
speaking people. From the time of the Azusa Street Revival and among early participants
in the Pentecostal movement there are many accounts of individuals hearing their own
languages spoken in tongues. It is likely that the majority of Pentecostals and Charismatics
still consider speaking in tongues to primarily be human languages. In the years following
the Azusa Street Revival Pentecostals who went to Mission Field found that they were
unable to speak in the language of local inhabitants at will when they spoke in tongues in strange
lands. But Pentecostals and Charismatics have reported many cases of speaking in tongues
that were identified as human languages since. Let me explain what just happened. There are
a bunch of these people that are gathered together and they're speaking these ecclesiastical
speech and this ecstatic speech. These utterances. And people there at the same church building
in this demonic trance they're saying oh I heard them speak in another language. We should
go out and try it. We should go to Africa. We should go to South America. We should try
it. And then when they show up it doesn't work. Now they can't speak the native language.
Now they're not talking to anybody. But we heard them speak in that other language when
we were in church service. When we were all together in our private little cult worshipping
Satan we heard them speak in other languages but when they actually tried to get someone
in the gospel they can't. And you know why? Because they preach a false gospel. All these
Pentecostals all these holiness preachers they preach you can lose your salvation. They
preach that you have to be holy to go to heaven. They preach hey a lot of them will
preach the same standards as an independent Baptist but then they'll say you have to do
that to be saved. They'll say it has something to do with how well you love the Lord. And
they'll say hey if you're not following in the faith, if you're not continuing, if you're
not steadfast you're not saved and you lost your salvation. They teach all kinds of damnable
heresy. God's not going to bless them with other tongues to go out and damn other people.
You know what? They still damn a lot of people in this country by teaching all their perversion
and wickedness and turning people off from the true gospel. Turning people off from wanting
to even hear God because the unsaved look at these demoniacs doing their static speeches
and their utterances and say Christianity is a joke. Because guess what? That is a joke.
That is a fraud. It's fake. It has nothing to do with what the Bible teaches. Did we
see that in the Bible? And you know what? If you look at their own origin, their own
origin doesn't even say anything other than the Bible. They're saying hey it's other languages.
We just weren't able to do it. Do you know what they did? They said well it's a heavenly
language. Hey, we figured it out. It's not speaking in native languages. It's this heavenly
language, right? So how are they going to prove that? Well go to 1 Corinthians chapter
13. I still have a few more points I want to make this morning because it's a very important
thing to just understand the whole part of the Bible. I don't want to give you a half
explanation. I don't want to show you half the verses. Let's look at all the verses this
morning. Let's get a clear understanding of what the Bible teaches on this subject.
1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Ah, now we have
languages of angels. Oh, I guess there's all these divine languages, right? Because what
did we learn? What did we learn so far? Tongue can mean one of two things, right? It can
mean language or it can mean the organ in your mouth. Okay. What was the second thing
we learned? Well, in the speaking of tongues, what were the apostles doing? They were speaking
a language that they had never learned to get people the gospel to get people saved,
right? Then we learned that the Pentecostal movement, they said they were doing that,
but they could never prove it and it was a fraud. So now they're trying to turn it in
this heavenly language. They have no verses about it. They have no experience in the Bible
about it. They have nothing to point to. So they're grasping at straws and they say,
well, first Corinthians 13 says tons of angels. Now here's the thing you say is, is there
a heavenly language? Is there a language that only angels speak? I don't believe so, but
does that mean that that is not possible? Look, maybe it's possible, but is that what
this verse is saying? No. And I'm going to, I believe I'm going to prove that, but go
to two places. Go to John chapter 12 and Exodus chapter four. So then what are we saying?
He's talking about the organ in your mouth. He's talking about the fact that he's able
to speak eloquently. It's beautiful language. Have you ever heard this man? When she's saying
it sounded like an angel. Oh man. When this guy spake, it was like he spake like an angel.
Are they saying he spoke a different language? No. They're talking about in the manner in
which he spake. They're saying the way he used his organ was great. He used that organ
really well. His tongue, it was like an angel when he was speaking. This is what the Bible's
teaching. He says, if you're not like that, if you don't have charity, you're like sounding
brass or tinkling symbol. What's more annoying than someone walking up to you with two symbols
and just blah, blah, blah, blah. So what would be the opposite of something super annoying
and unpleasant to yours? Something that sounds really good, right? So he's saying, Hey, though
I speak of the tongues of men and of angels and I've not charity. Look, I'm a sounding
brass or tinkling symbol. It's annoying. It doesn't make any sense. He's saying it doesn't
matter how well you speak. Oh, Joel Osteen, his voice is so smooth. Oh, it's so eloquent.
You know, this is my Bible and I just love you this morning and God bless you and he
wants you to be blessed and blessed in this life. Oh, it's so beautiful and eloquent.
But if you have not charity, it's annoying. And guess what? His voice is annoying to me
because it's so effeminate and sissy and weak. It's not like a man. Look, Paul said
he spoke like a man and like angels. Look at John chapter 12 verse 29. The people therefore
that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an angel spake to him. So what
is it like when an angel speaks? It thunders. It's loud. It's in charge. He's saying though
I speak like an angel, if I don't have charity, it's nothing. It's worthless, right? Go to
Exodus chapter 4 now. Revelation 5, he says, and behold, I heard the voice of many angels
round about the throne and the beast and the elders and the number of them was 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was
slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing
and every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are
in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and
power be unto him that sit upon the throne and of the land forever and ever. So when
John is in heaven, he's seeing not just men, every creature, and they're all worshiping
and he hears what they're saying. So to me, I don't think that there's a special language,
the language of these angels, whatever they're saying, he can hear it. He can understand
it. I don't believe that that's some special miracle. And even in Psalm 66, the Bible
says, come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he has done for my soul.
I cried in with my mouth and he was extolled with my tongue. He was extolled being what
he's encouraged by my tongue. Look, the way you use your words, the way you use your mouth
can have an effect on people. That's why the Bible talks about a lying tongue, a deceitful
tongue, a tongue that speak of vain things. It also talks about a wholesome tongue. So
the way you use that organ in your mouth can be good. It can be bad. You can be a good
speaker. You can be a bad speaker. Look at Exodus chapter four verse 10 and Moses said
on the Lord, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou has spoken
unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. Here, here's another
example of talking about the way you use that organ. Have you met someone that's a slow
tongue? How's it going? Hey poo, having a bad day? I mean, what he has got a slow tongue,
right? Just talking about the way he's speaking. That's what first Corinthians 13 is talking
about. Is it talking about some special divine heavenly language? Now we're communicating
with angels. That's completely out of context. Has nothing to do with first Corinthians 13.
I don't believe it for one second, but not only that, we don't see an example of that.
Every example of speaking with other tongues is what? Speaking another language to get
people saved. Go if you would to Mark chapter number nine now. So what are the Pentecostals
doing? Are they still on this boat ride of trying to figure out how to speak another
language to get people saved? No. What do they do? They peep and they mutter and they
make all these, you know, ecstatic sayings and utterances and they start rolling on the
floor and foaming at the mouth and barking like dogs and doing all kinds of wicked, you
know, demonic activity. You go look on YouTube. It's everywhere. These people are acting like
lunatics. This is not God's people. This is not what happened in Acts chapter number two.
How does that give honor and glory unto the Lord to see people looking like an idiot,
looking like they're possessed with a demon and a devil? That's not glorying unto God.
But what if all of a sudden I can just speak another language and get somebody saved? That
can give a lot of honor and glory to God because that's what? It's not by my power. It's not
by my might. It's a gift of the Holy Ghost. The only people we see doing this are possessed
with devils. In Isaiah eight verse 19 it says, and when they shall say unto you, seek unto
them that familiar spirits and under wizards that peep and that mutter should not a people
seek unto their God for the living to the dead? He's saying, look, the false prophets,
the false teachers, these people that are, you know, witches and warlocks and wizards,
guess what they do? They do peeping. They do muttering. You say, what's peeping? It's
like a bird. You know, it's like, I mean, these are the sounds that people are making.
They're going to church today and their people are making these type of noise. They're peeping
and they're muttering. What's muttering? It's like to say something kind of in your breath.
People are going to church and doing this thinking that it's the Holy Ghost. It's wicked.
It's blasphemy. It's of the devil. It has nothing to do with the Bible. You can't prove
that from the Bible. Show me how I'm supposed to peep and mutter in the Bible. Never. And
the only people that do it are possessed with devils. Look at Mark chapter number nine verse
17. And one of the multitude answered and said, master, I have brought unto thee my son
which hath a dumb spirit and wheresoever he taketh him, he tareth him and he fometh and
gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples that they should
cast him out and they could not. Look, not only are they doing these weird noises, they're
also, you know, and they're falling on the ground and foaming and gnashing. That's being
possessed with the devil. That has nothing to do with God, nothing to do with the Bible.
It's a fraud. And if you're in that church run, you don't want to be in that spirit.
You don't want a devil coming upon you. You don't want to be harassed with demoniac, you
know, freaks. That's what these people are like. Look at verse 20. And they brought him
unto him and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground
and wallowed foaming. Look, this guy's not in control. And these people that go to these
demon-possessed churches, they're not in control. Don't even say that. They'll say, oh, the
spirit took over my body and I don't even know what happened. I blacked out. And then
they show video of him like barking like a dog and doing all kinds of weird junk. It
says in verse 22, and oftentimes it has cast him into the fire and into waters to destroy
him. But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. You know what the common
reaction is to somebody that's shaking violently and speaking like a child and gibberish and
foaming at their mouth? Call an ambulance. Call some help. Get some. This guy needs medical
attention immediately. Is there a doctor in the house? I mean, that's the normal reaction.
That's the normal, you know, thing that we see. Not, oh, that's the power of God. Oh,
that's the Holy Ghost. That's wicked. That's blasphemy. This is this Pentecostal speaking
in tongues. And look, even if you look at their own origin, they didn't start doing
this. They were trying to say, oh, we're doing, you know, the actual speaking with other languages.
But when it's a fraud, when they can't produce any results from it, now they turn to this.
Now they just turn to the demons. Now they just let the demons come into them and they
produce a fake experience. Go to First Corinthians chapter number 12 now. You know, see these
spirits are renting them sore. They're tearing them. They're foaming at the mouth. They speak
with other voices. My name is Legion for we are many. This is, I mean, this is demonic
and this is what people are doing in churches today. And these church, they need to shut
down. They need to go out of business. If you're in this church, get out. The Bible
doesn't say it. And you know what? If you have a doctrine that cannot be taught to you
from the Bible, it's false. Get rid of it. Throw it out. I don't care what experience
you had. I don't care what feeling you had. Look, if you trust your feelings, you're going
to go straight to hell. You say, oh, I don't feel like God would send me to hell. It doesn't
really matter because he's going to if you don't believe in his gospel. If you don't
trust in him, if you don't have faith in the Lord, you know what? Jacob trusted his feelings.
Whenever his younger son came under him and said that he was Esau, guess what? Oh, he
feels right, but it sounds wrong. Guess what? When it sounds wrong because the Bible doesn't
say it, don't trust your feeling. Trust what the Bible says. Don't trust me. Trust what
the Bible says. Look at verse three in chapter 12. I have a few more points this morning
because I want to cover it all. And before we get there, one other place. Go to Romans
chapter number eight because they'll say, well, yeah, but the Bible proves that we have
this special language that we're speaking to God, this special heavenly prayer language.
Here's a proof. Romans chapter eight. It talks all about it. You know, it's a grave
detail. Wrong lie. Look at verse 26. This is the one. Another verse will try to pull
out. Likewise, the spirit also help with our infirmities for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself make an intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. So they all groanings. Oh, see, we got this, you know, weird speech
and this weird stuff going on. We'll go back to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter two, because
they're saying this is part of speaking in tongues. They're trying to say their version
of speaking in tongues, but what did it say there? With groanings which cannot be uttered.
Let's focus on that. What does utter mean? Make a sound. So if it's impossible for you
to utter it, how are you going to be speaking it? I mean, how are you going to be speaking
in tongues? And guess what? That's the exact opposite of what happened in Acts chapter
number two. What do they say in verse four? He says that the spirit gave them utterance.
So when they're speaking with another language, who's helping them do that? The Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is giving them that utterance, is giving them that ability to do this. But
guess what? When they're praying in Romans chapter eight, it says whatever the spirit's
doing to make intercession for you, you can't utter. You can't say. It's saying there's
a special connection there when you're praying what you know, when you're praying what you're
trying to say. The Bible's saying you sometimes don't even know what you should be praying
for. You're just praying for somebody, hey, God bless this person. God help this person.
But you don't know what's going on in their life. And the Holy Spirit will say, hey, God,
I know what's going on in their life. This is what they need. He's trying to help make
intercession for you for that person. But you can't utter it. That's what Romans eight
chapter is saying. Is it saying, hey, speak in this weird demonic, you know, ecstatic
speech and these utterances? No, nowhere. Go back to first Corinthians chapter 12 now.
So again, there's no proof. There's no evidence. They have no verse. They're grasping at straws
and they have to play on people's emotion. They have to play on people's feelings. They
get all caught up in this experience. They feel like something happened. Oh, it must
be God. Guess what? It's another spirit. It's a familiar spirit. Oh, it feels good. It feels
right. It's familiar. Oh man, I like it. It's demonic. It's wicked. It has nothing to do
with God. Look at first Corinthians chapter 12 verse eight. For to one is given by the
spirit, the word of wisdom to another word of knowledge, by the same spirit, to another
faith, by the same spirit, to another gifts of the healing, by the same spirit, to another
working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another
divers kinds of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these work of that one
self-sustained spirit dividing every man severally as he will. Look at verse 29. 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? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the
best gifts and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. So in these passages, he's
just basically giving lists of gifts, right? And he's saying, hey, another divers kinds
of tongues. Now, are we talking about one heavenly language? No, we're saying multiple
languages, right? Because it makes sense. Hey, there's lots of languages on this earth
and the divers kinds of tongues. Hey, now I can speak in a Spanish tongue, a Mandarin
tongue, you know, all these different tongues. Now, today we have so much technology. The
apostles already got the gospel, the whole world. So as God saw fit, he wanted to give
the apostles a special gift to prove that they were apostle, to get the gospel out as
quickly as possible. So he gave them the ability to speak with other tongues. But that was
the signs of the apostles. That was the, you know, the evidence and the confirmation
of the gospel going out. God doesn't see fit to give that to us anymore. I don't see anybody
that has that gift. If you know somebody that can just magically speak all kinds of languages
without talking, show it to me. But we don't see that today. And the best way to interpret
the Bible is to say, look, this was a sign of the apostles. This was a sign of the disciples.
And it makes sense. He's letting, he's letting them come to a foreign land that they've never
been. These people have never heard of God. Guess what? God decides to boost up that goal,
that soul winning by giving them what? The ability to just heal people miraculously by
giving the ability to speak with their language automatically. And now they're preaching the
word of God with power and they're getting people saved and their works are confirming
what they believe. Confirming the signs. Hey, I'm a sign of apostle cause I can just lay
hands on people and they recover. Hey, a serpent bit me and guess what? I didn't die. You thought
I was going to die, but I didn't. Guess what? Because the Lord is on my side because I have
the sign of an apostle. But today we don't see that. And we see, he even asked in that
in first Corinthians chapter 12, he says, does everybody speak with tongues? He's saying,
look, not everybody even had this gift back then. Only certain people had this gift. So
go to first Corinthians 14. This is the other main point of the Bible. And I want to cover
every single verse. I know it might be a little bit longer sermon, but it's important to get
all coverage so you're not confused. Someone doesn't pull out some verse and say, well,
what about this verse? Ever thought about this verse? Look at first Corinthians chapter
14. Now if you understand verse Corinthians, Paul's talking to a church that's doing everything
wrong. This church is screwed up. They're doing things bad. He's trying to teach him,
Hey, what you're doing is wrong. Do it right. This is what you're doing wrong. Let's get
it right. Look at verse one. Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather
that you may prophesy free. That speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men,
but unto God for no man understandeth him. How be it in the spirit? He speaketh mysteries,
but he, that prophesies speaketh unto men to edification, to exhortation and comfort.
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but he, that prophesied edify the
church. So what's the goal of the church? The goal is for you to come this morning and
learn the Bible, to be edified, to be built up, to gain information and knowledge through
God's word. So if I get up and I start preaching and Mandarin the whole service, how is that
going to benefit you? How is that going to profit you? That doesn't even make any sense.
But what if it was a special gift of the Lord, right? What if I just have this magical gift
and I'm just wanting to show off how cool it is that I can speak in another tang. Oh,
let me, let me show you all this Mandarin, but guess what? That's not profitable. And
the point of church is not to come and brag and show off to people and show how cool you
are is to help build up the people, help edify the people. And he's saying, look,
if I'm speaking in an unknown tongue, I'm not speaking to you. The only person that
can understand me is God. If I just start speaking a language you don't know, the only
person who's understanding me is me and God. Look at verse five. I would, that ye all spake
with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied. For greater is he that prophesied than he
that speaketh with tongues, except ye interpret, that the church may receive edifying. Now
brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Except I
shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine.
So he's saying a couple of things here. He's saying, look, uh, what's better than speaking
in tongues? Preaching. You know, it's better than you being able to speak multiple language,
get someone saved in your language. I would rather every single person in this room speak
one language and be able to give the gospel than all of us speak every single language.
Why? Because it's better if you'd be able to give the gospel to somebody and get somebody
saved. If you speak a language today, there's a lot of opportunity to go out there and preach
the gospel in that language. You know, he says, I wish you spake with tongues. Why?
Because then we get even more people saved, right? Then you have more opportunity to give
the gospel, but you need to seek first to be able to preach the gospel. You know, if
someone were studying, hey, I want to learn a foreign language and then I'll learn how
to give the gospel. Wrong. Learn how to give the gospel now and then you can learn how
to speak another language. That's more profitable as being able to preach the gospel. And he's
saying, look, it's more important for me to speak unto you revelation. What? Revealing
to you scripture or knowledge teaching you the Bible or prophesying, preaching you the
Bible, teaching you things with exhortation or doctrine, learning the core doctrines of
the Bible. That's the point of church. That's the most important thing. And look, tongues
aren't bad, but the emphasis should be on the preaching. The emphasis should be on the
teaching. The emphasis should be on the doctrine, not on speaking another language. Look at
verse number seven and even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except
they give a distinction in the sounds. How shall be known was pipe or harp for the trumpet
given uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle. So likewise he except he utter
by the tongue words easy to be understood. How shall be known what is spoken for he shall
speak into the air. He's saying, look, it's not profitable. If I was just playing some
kind of musical instrument and it was just, especially if we're out of war, people, you know,
you're supposed to do and we're just charged, right? But if one of the guy gets up, everybody's
like, do we go or was that an accident or what's happening? Look, and if I get up and I start
preaching another language, how are we going to know what to do as a church? Would you even know
when the service is over? Would you even know what I'm telling you to turn your hymnal or turn the
page? Nobody knows what's going on. But when I say, Hey, turn to verse Corinthians 14, you know
what I'm saying? We can read the Bible together. We can learn the Bible. That's what it's trying to
say. Like verse number 10, there are, it may be so many kinds of voices in the world and none of
them was without signification. Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be
unto him that speaketh a barbarian and he that speak is a be a barbarian unto me. Look, the
Bible says your voice is important and it is important because you have the ability to go out
and get someone the gospel. And it's not made without signification. Look, we all have our
purpose. We all have our place. Some people may not get saved because they don't like me. They
don't like my voice. They don't like the way I present the gospel, but they might like you. They
might like the way you present the gospel. And you're not without importance today. God has a
plan for you to go out and preach the gospel and get people saved. But you know what? If I start
speaking an unknown tongue or someone's speaking to me another tongue, it's like a barbarian. It's
like, what's going on here? I can't understand what's happening. He's saying, look, this is what
they keep doing. They keep getting up and preaching in unknown tongues. And church is
meaningless at that point. There's no prophet. There's no edification. There's no revelation.
There's no knowledge. We need to be preaching. That's what's important. He's rebuking them
saying, look, don't get up and show off how cool you are to preach in another language. Preach
something that has meaning, that has value, that's going to encourage the brethren, that's going to
help edify them. Look at verse number 12. Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual
gifts, seek that ye may excel the edifying of the church. Wherefore, let him that speaketh an
unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth,
but my understanding is unfruitful. 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. Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the
unlearned say Amen without giving thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest.
Saying, look, if I'm going to pray, I'm going to pray for me to understand. Some people would ask,
did the apostles always know everything that they were saying when they spoke, you know, with other
tongues? Maybe not. It's kind of saying, look, sometimes they need an interpreter, or they need
someone that knows the language to help explain it to people. There's nothing wrong with me getting
up and, or having somebody from China come and preach to us if we have someone interpreting it
in English. He's saying, look, that's okay, but we need that interpreter, and if I were able to
speak in another language, but I didn't really know what was going on, or what I was saying
exactly, I need to stop that. That's unfruitful. I need to pray in a language I know. I need to
pray with the understanding, and I need to sing with the understanding. You go to these churches,
and they'll say, sing your own song, and they're like just making these weird noises and doing
this. That's unprofitable. When you're singing, you should know what you're singing, and you
should have understanding with it. Why do we sing the hymns? Because they have understanding.
They're not just like, God is an awesome God. He reigns. God. They just sing this chant over and
over. It has no meaning, no doctrine, no value, doesn't benefit anybody, and you know what's wrong
with that song? What religion can't sing that song? Tell me. Can the Muslim not sing that song?
Can not the Mormon sing that song? You know what? That's not giving any honor and glory to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look, we need to sing songs that give honor and glory to Jesus Christ,
not just some old creator, oh, just some God. But you know why people write those songs?
Because everybody will buy their music. Because they'll get money off of them. Because guess what?
Everybody can buy that song and worship it. That is not the God of the Bible. God is distinct from
all the other gods. There's only one God, and we should worship him in spirit and in truth
through his word, singing the songs and the hymns and the spiritual songs, not just some
vain utterance, some vain jangling, like God is an awesome God. That's not a good song. It's wicked,
because it doesn't glorify the true God of the Bible. So I don't like that. Well,
I like the God of the Bible. I like to sing about him, not just some generic God.
Look at verse 18. I thank my God. I speak with tongues more than you all. Yet in the church,
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. Brethren, be not children in understanding,
howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. Look, he's emphasizing
the point that we need to understand what we say. Words have meaning. Words have value. They have
importance. So we need to understand everything that we're saying. Look at verse 22. He's going
to explain the purpose of speaking with tongues. 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,
but for them which believe. So he's saying what? What is the point of speaking with another
language? It's when you go out of church to give someone the gospel so they can be saved.
And you know what? If I show up to somebody and I start speaking Spanish to them, a lot of times
they have a little more respect for me, because I've been able to give them the gospel in Spanish,
and they want to get saved. It's a sign. It's saying, look, what this guy is saying might be
important, because he took the time to study another language that he didn't know, that he's
never had any experience with, because he thought it was that important to give me the gospel.
He thinks it's that important for me to be saved, that I have value. It's a sign unto those people.
But you know what? It's not special for me to get up and preach in another language in the church.
You're not getting any extra benefit from that. And you know what? Preaching is the same way.
I shouldn't go out and be this street preacher telling people how wicked they are and looking
at all their sin and judging them. That's not going to benefit anybody. These street
preachers aren't getting anybody saved. That's not helping anybody. I'm not going to cast my
pearls before swine. I'm going to preach Christ and him crucified to the unsaved, the gospel.
But guess what? To the saved, preaching hard against sin, preaching against the wickedness
of this world, renewing your mind with the word of God, washing you clean from the filth and the
deception and the seducers and the evil, wicked, false prophets. We need to learn God's word when
we come to church, not just the gospel. Like I hope everybody here is saved this morning.
I hope everybody has already believed in Lord Jesus Christ. I don't need to preach that. I
need to preach the whole counsel of God. I need to warn you about these wicked Pentecostals out here
deceiving the whole world. Let's skip down to verse 27. If any man speak in an unknown tongue,
let it be by two or at most by three and that by course and let one interpret. But if there be no
interpreter, let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to God. So the
Bible is saying even if someone had this gift, it should only be done by two or three people,
one at a time with an interpreter. But you go to a Pentecostal church, they're all just
everybody at the same time making no sense. They're, they're walking, they're rolling on
the floors, doing all kinds of wicked demonic things. Look, this is not what there's no part
in the Bible that lifts up their doctrine. It all condemns it every single place. And you know,
it said in verse number 23, instead of those that come in are unlearned or unbelievers,
they will say that you're mad because if someone comes in, they speak Mandarin and I started
preaching in Mandarin, they wouldn't think I was crazy. They would just, Oh, okay. Interesting.
This guy knows Mandarin, right? But if I just start speaking and someone comes in, they're
going to be like, you're an idiot. This guy's crazy. I don't want to have anything to do with
that. And they'll go, they'll walk away. Right? And why is he saying unlearned? If someone doesn't
know your language and they come in, someone comes in, that's an English speaking person.
I just started having the service in Chinese. They'd be like, y'all are crazy. Why do y'all
go listen to a guy preaching a language you don't know? Like the Roman Catholic church,
the Roman Catholic church had services in Latin for thousands of years and nobody spoke Latin.
They're violating the scripture here. It's not beneficial to preach in a language. Nobody knows
what you're going to, they're going to come in and be like, y'all are idiots. Why are you going
and hearing somebody preach and you don't even understand what they're saying? It doesn't matter
if it's a known tongue or unknown tongue, get out of that church. You better go into a church
where you understand what they're saying. That's what the Bible is saying here.
And it says in verse 39, it says, well, let's go back to 32. And the spirits of the prophets
are subject to the prophets for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all
churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches for it's not permitted
unto them to speak, but they're commanded to be under obedience as also say at the law.
Now, you know, a lot of these Pentecostal churches, you know what else they have?
Women preachers, women get up and preach the Bible. And it's saying here, look,
the women are not supposed to be the pastor. They're not supposed to be the one getting up
and preaching the word of God. Why? Because we need men to do it. Not because women are,
you know, inferior, have no value or couldn't have a good idea. It's a man's job. And so we
need the men to get up and preach the word. And it's a shame when you don't have any men
in your congregation that can get up and preach the Bible. That's a shame. It's not the women's
fault when man won't do it. Guess what the woman does? She just goes up and does it. You know,
if there's a strong man in the pulpit, the women feel really comfortable in their seats. They are
fine with it. I'm great. This guy's up there preaching the word of God. That's that doesn't
bother me at all. But you know what? When nobody's preaching, when the word of God's
being forsaken, sometimes women feel like, well, maybe I should get involved. Maybe I should do it.
It's still wrong. It's still wicked. Look at verse 39. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy
and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.
The Bible says, look, if you were to have a gift of the Spirit, it's subject unto you.
You are the one that's ultimately in control. Now, the Spirit gave them the utterance.
The Spirit is the one that's giving them this power. But they weren't being, the Spirit's not
taking over their body. It's not this out of body experience. Look, they still have to be in control.
They're still the ones that are, you know, using their mouth and their organs to be able to preach
in another language. Go to Mark chapter number 16. Last place we'll turn. So I know I've covered a
lot this morning. Let's kind of review. What does the word tongue mean? Language or the organ in
your mouth, right? That's the two options. And the Bible makes it super clear. There's no,
there's no arguing at that point. Okay. What did we see in Acts chapter number two? What happened?
People are preaching in another language to get people the gospel and get them saved.
What happened in the Pentecostal origin? They claim that's what happened. They claim that they
were preaching in other languages that people knew, but they couldn't prove it. It was a fraud.
They went out and tried it and failed. So then what do they do? Well, they turned it to being
a heavenly language or this, you know, ecstatic speeches. And now they start rolling on the floors
and acting like demon, demon possessed people. Look, the only people we see that doing that
are demonic possessed people in the Bible. It's super clear. And then lastly, we see
every other evidence in the Bible is confirming it. And we see that speaking in tongues is not
the most important gift. Is it? What was the purpose? It was a purpose to show, Hey,
these are the guys are really apostles. Hey, to get the gospel and all nations very quickly,
right? That was the purpose. That was the main reason why we have it. And today people still
have this gift. They just have to learn it. Don't they? People study and try to learn other
languages. Why? So they can give the gospel to other people. It's still a sign. It's still
something that we should do in church. We could have somebody come and preach another language.
We had to have an interpreter. It has to be, you know, at most one, two or three, right? In order.
And it shouldn't be the main focus. The main focus should be the preaching of God's word.
So let's look at Mark chapter number 16, because I think it's most important to look at this verse
after we understand the whole Bible. Cause sometimes people will go to this verse and
then they're like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Well, look at verse 16.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe. And 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. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So then after
the Lord has 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 what's happening here? Jesus Christ is speaking to the apostles.
He's speaking directly to them. And he says, look, when you go out, I'm going to give you some
superpower here, man. You're going to go out. You're going to speak with new tongues.
If a serpent comes and bites you, it can't even harm you. And when you lay hands on people,
they're going to recover. Why? He wants to confirm their word. They're going to go out
into foreign lands where there's no help, where there's no GPS. They don't have Google earth.
They don't have all these tools. And guess what? God's going to confirm all of their words with
signs. Like what? Hey, if you walk into town, you just start healing every single person.
People are going to pay attention. People are going to wake up when you just start speaking
their language. They're like, you've never even been here. How do you, how do you know my language?
This is amazing, right? And when they preach the gospel, it has even more power,
right? It's confirming the word that they're preaching. It makes perfect sense. But people
read this and they, you know, they'll get a snake up on stage and they'll start dancing with it.
These snake handling, you know, Pentecostal preachers are like, oh, look at this snake.
And then the snake bites them and they die. Why? Because they're a liar. They're a fraud. We see
it's very clear in the Bible. Hey, this was a sign of the apostle. What was the purpose? It was to
get people saved and to get the gospel out in all nations. What should we do with speaking other
languages today? We should go out and preach the gospel and get people saved. Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for giving it so clearly to us.
I thank you that you're not the author of confusion, that if we study your word in your
Bible, you'll explain everything to us. And there's nothing new under the sun. All the
false prophets and teachers, they always muttered and peep. I pray that we'd never be seduced by
these wicked devils and all the devils in this building. I pray that you just send them to hell
today. Just kill them and get rid of them, because I don't want them perverting the gospel and
ruining people and getting them confused. It's demonic. It's wicked. They're hurting people.
I pray that you would just let this church be a light of the gospel, that we could go out
and preach with other tongues and preach in other languages and get many people saved,
not just in Houston, not just in America, but the whole world. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.