The verse that I want to focus on this morning was in verse 17 where the Bible read,
And these signs shall follow them that believe, and my name shall they cast out devils.
They shall speak with new tongues.
And the title of the sermon this morning is, The Sign of Tongues.
The Sign of Tongues.
Now, I had already preached a sermon in the past about Pentecostal speaking in tongues,
and that sermon was to talk about which tongues are not.
That they're not this gibberish and all this junk.
But let's look at it from the positive aspect.
What is the purpose of tongues in the Bible?
What is it saying here?
It's a sign.
And what is tongues throughout the Bible?
So let's kind of dig through this chapter for a second.
Look at verse 14.
The Bible says,
Afterward he appeared under the leaven, as they said, at mead, and abraded them with
their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him
after he was risen.
So Jesus Christ is talking to his disciples, and he's like upset.
He's saying, you didn't believe in me?
He's kind of abrading them for their unbelief.
He's saying, look, you need to have belief.
You need to have strong faith, because you know what I'm about to do?
I'm about to send you out.
That's why we see in verse 15, and he said to them,
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
So what's the point of the disciples?
To go out and evangelize the world.
To get the gospel to every single person.
Now, in order to make this message really effective, in order to kind of give them
that super boost charge, he gives them these special signs that are going to go and confirm
their word.
Let's keep reading.
He says in verse 16,
He that believeth in his baptize 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 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.
So what was the point of all these things that he's telling them?
It was to confirm their words.
It was to confirm the fact that these guys had seen the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Because when Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, he did not openly show himself.
He only showed himself unto the disciples, unto 500 brethren.
He only showed them to those that were saved, and those that were the witnesses of his resurrection
were to go out and preach the gospel.
What's the gospel?
The death, burial, and resurrection.
So if you don't have any witnesses of the resurrection, it's going to be tough to have
anybody go out and actually preach the whole gospel.
He needed these people to go out and preach this gospel.
And you say, well, how could I believe them?
Well, look at these signs.
I mean, they're casting out devils, which we all know, look, Satan's not going to cast
out Satan.
That has to be the work of God.
They're going to speak with new tongues, meaning, hey, they just go into an area they've never
been before, and they can just speak the language.
They can just speak, you know, Parthian.
They can just speak the Mede tongue, the Chaldean tongue.
They're just gifted with this ability to just preach the gospel wherever they go.
Not only that, even if something bad were to happen to them, something poisonous, something
deadly, something dangerous, God's going to just basically say, you know what?
That's not going to harm you.
I'm going to take, you know, if a serpent even came and bit you or if you drank something
poisonous, not going to happen.
Not only that, wherever they go, they're just laying hands on people and they're getting
healed.
Now, guess what?
If there was a person on this planet that if they just start laying their hands on people
and they're just getting healed right away, everybody would come hear that guy preach.
They would come from droves.
They would come everywhere.
It's not existent today.
We don't see that today.
We don't see any of these things today.
And so the correct interpretation of this is that this was signs for the apostles.
Now let's confirm this.
Go to Acts 28.
Go to Acts chapter 28.
We're going to confirm that all these things did already happen.
All these things that he's talking about, all these things he said were going to happen,
we already saw them happen in the book of Acts.
Look at Acts 28, look at verse 1.
Now let me tell you something.
If you get bit by a serpent, it's going to hurt today, every single time.
But the apostle Paul had this special gifting that when this viper came and bit him, he
didn't get any harm.
Not like that.
He didn't die.
And so all the barbarous people look at him, he's like, this guy's a god.
Nobody can survive.
But at first they say this guy's a murderer.
They say, well, this guy must have been a really wicked person.
He got bit by a viper.
It's like Final Destination.
There's this movie where you escape death one way, but you get it another way.
So they're like, well, he escaped the sea, but I guess the viper came and got him.
But the reality is he was an apostle.
And then not only that, look at verse 8.
So again, confirming the fact that what?
Once somebody has this ability to heal people, I mean, everybody's going to show up.
Everybody and their brother and sister and mother and daughter, everybody's showing up
to get this healing.
That was what was going on when these guys are going out and preaching the gospel.
And even though a lot of people are healed, not everybody believed the gospel.
Now go to backwards, go to Acts chapter 16.
So go back a couple chapters, go to the middle of Acts.
So we see two things were fulfilled here.
We see, hey, he was bit by a serpent, he had the poison, he felt no harm.
God miraculously saved him from that experience.
Not only that, he has the ability to just lay hands on people and they recover.
They just immediately healed.
What else do we have?
Look at Acts chapter 16 verse 16.
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of
divination met us, which brought our masters much gain by soothsaying.
The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High
God, which show unto us the way of salvation.
And this did she many days, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I
command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
And it came out the same hour.
So again, not only this, we see someone with a possession, someone has the divination spirit.
And Paul just says, come out in the name of Jesus Christ, it's gone.
It gets out immediately.
We see they have the ability to cast out devils, to cast out demons.
Go to Acts chapter two now.
So we've had all we've been confirming every single one of these signs, they have the ability
to cast out devils, they have the ability to not be harmed by venomous serpents, they
have the ability to heal people whenever they just lay hands on them.
Now look at Acts chapter two, verse one, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance.
So according to the Bible, we see there's this miraculous time in Acts chapter number
two, where all the disciples, all the early disciples and apostles are together, and there's
this wind that comes in, this mighty rushing wind, they see this fire above their head,
and then all of a sudden, they just can all speak with different languages.
They're not sitting here with Rosetta Stone.
They're not sitting here, you know, a Duolingo.
No, all of a sudden, by the power of the Holy Ghost, all of a sudden they can just speak
other languages.
It's a great miracle.
And we look at verse five, and they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every
nation in our 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.
And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these
which speak Galileans?
How here we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites
and dwellers of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia and Phrygia
and Pamphylia and Egypt, and in the parts of Libya around Cyrene and the strangers of
Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our own tongue, 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 we see, there's a lot of notice taken to this point.
When they see people just speaking in other languages, everybody's like, whoa, I mean,
this guy's speaking the tongue that I was born in.
This is amazing.
The wonderful works of God.
I mean, we see it's confirming whatever these guys are about to say.
I mean, when some guy just walks in, they can just speak every language.
You're like, I want to hear what this guy has to say.
You know, I want to hear what this guy wants to tell me.
I mean, he's going to tell me my native tongue.
This is amazing.
What what is what's the purpose of this?
Well, 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 vaporous 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 you say, well, what were they saying?
They were preaching the gospel.
They were preaching for people to call on the name of the Lord and to get saved.
So what was the purpose?
Why is God giving them this ability to speak with other tongues so that they can preach
the gospel to other people and get them saved?
Not only that, it's a sign.
It makes people want to hear even more that they're able to speak in their own tongue.
I mean, when they see it, they're like, wow, the wonderful works of God.
When they see you just healing people miraculously, they're like, wow, this guy must be of God.
When they see you casting out devils, that guy's obviously of God, he's not a Satan.
Satan doesn't cast out Satan.
Not only that, whenever they just have some viper hanging on them, he's like, that guy's
going to be dead.
And then they're not.
There's no harm.
They're like, well, there's something different about this guy.
There's something different about Paul.
So what was the point of all these?
It was to confirm the words of these early apostles, to confirm the word of Jesus Christ,
to help get them to go out and to preach the gospel to every nation in their lifetime.
Now go, if you would, to Acts chapter 5.
Let's skip over just a couple chapters.
Look at verse 12.
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people.
So the Bible's saying, look, the apostles, they're doing something different.
They're doing something special.
They've wrought many signs.
So what was the point of tongues?
It was a sign.
It was a sign to confirm the word of God.
And it was to get people to perk up and want to hear the gospel more.
It was to basically make the gospel more effective when they go out.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 now.
Go forward just a couple chapters in your Bible.
2 Corinthians chapter number 12.
Well, see, the Bible uses this particular phrase.
And I think this phrase is how we can interpret Mark chapter 16 very clearly.
It says in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among
you in all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds.
So here's my question.
What are the signs of the apostle?
I mean, he's telling there are signs of the apostle.
Well, you know what's a really easy way to interpret that?
Mark chapter 16.
It's the fact that, hey, they can just lay hands and get people healed.
They can speak with other tongues.
Even if they were to take something poisonous, they wouldn't, you know, die.
So we see they have these special abilities.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
But, you know, in this city and across this country, you'll have people say, well, I'm
an apostle.
They'll say, hey, I'm apostle so-and-so, I'm apostle John.
But here's the thing.
The Bible tells us that Paul was the last apostle.
And the reality is, in order to even be an apostle, guess what?
You have to have the signs of an apostle.
All right.
Show me then.
Show me you speaking with these other tongues.
Show me healing people miraculously.
Show me, hey, you want to dance with the serpent?
You know, these weird Pentecostal hillbillies in the woods.
They'll be dancing with these serpents, you know, and as soon as they get bit, they die,
you know.
And then guess what?
Their son decides to do the same thing.
I saw some video.
This guy, his dad was this, like, Pentecostal snake handler, and then his dad got bit and
died.
So then his son does it.
And guess what?
He gets bit and immediately has to go to the hospital.
It's like, when will they learn?
Look, obviously, that's not how to interpret the Bible.
Look at 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures.
So there's the Gospel.
Look at verse 5.
And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.
After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part
remain unto this present, but some are fallen 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 am not meant to be called an apostle because
I persecuted the church of God.
So what is Paul saying?
Well, he's driving in the point that we started with.
What are these people supposed to do after Jesus Christ descends into heaven?
They're to be witnesses of the resurrection.
Go to Acts chapter number 1, Acts chapter number 1.
But we see, look, Paul's saying, look, he was seen of every apostle.
So if someone calls themselves an apostle, here's my question.
When did you see the resurrected Jesus Christ?
Because that's a requirement to be an apostle.
That's what it means to even be an apostle.
What do you think that means?
It's one is being a witness of the resurrection.
Look at Acts chapter 1, verse number 8.
The Bible says, but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria,
unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
So he says, look, you're going to be a witness of me.
That's the whole reason you're going out.
The only reason you get these giftings is for one purpose, is to be a witness of Jesus
Christ, is to preach the gospel, to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
Flip over, if you would, to chapter 4.
It's the last place I want to look in Acts for this moment.
Look at verse 33.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and
great grace was upon them all.
So the Bible's crystal clear.
What's the point of being an apostle to be a witness of the resurrection?
So then what was the point of Mark 16?
It was to help give them great power to be this witness, to go out and confirm the word
with signs.
So then the question is, well, what's the point of tongues now?
Where do tongues come from?
I mean, was it just for this one moment?
Is it just isolated to this one, you know, single point?
And I want to lay down a foundation so we understand what this means.
So then we can apply it to, well, what does this mean in the Bible and what does it mean
today?
Okay.
So I'm going to take a moment.
How many languages do we even have in the world?
How many tongues?
I looked up.
There's 6,500 spoken languages in the world today.
Now it says about 2,000 of those languages have less than 1,000 speakers.
So not all these languages are that prevalent or that predominant.
So I was like, well, what's the number one language?
Now, if you look at different studies, they have different statistics, different findings.
But the one that I looked up, I feel like it's probably pretty accurate.
It says the number one language as far as number of native speakers is Chinese, would
be Mandarin.
And they have about 1,299 in coordination of millions.
So that'd be 1.3 billion people are native speakers in Mandarin, okay?
And then it says there's another like 200 million as a secondary language.
Number two language as far as native speakers, Spanish.
Spanish is the number, there's a second largest language by native speakers.
Standard English at 378, then it was Arabic at 315, then Hindi, then Bengali, then Portuguese,
then Russian, then Japanese, then Punjabi.
When you get all the way to the 10th most popular language, it's about 120 million
people.
So there's some big drops when you start going down the list, okay?
Now when you take all these primary and secondary speakers, so someone who speaks one of those
languages is either a primary or secondary language, you get about 4.9 billion people.
So that's, I mean there's about 7 billion or so in the world.
So we're saying almost 5 billion people speak just one of these 10 languages as either their
primary or secondary.
Now that doesn't even count some of the people that that would be their tertiary.
There's plenty of people in Europe or in India or other places in the world where they would
actually speak English still as a third or fourth language.
So I think you could even reach more people.
So just with 10 languages, you could reach like, I mean, five-sevenths, whatever that
equals to, you know, 60, 70% of the world with just these 10 languages.
Now I looked at another study because I wanted to just kind of see.
This other study was the top 20 languages.
So their statistics are a little bit different.
They said that the native speakers in Mandarin were only about 935 million, so a little bit
less than a billion.
They said that was about 14% of the population of the world.
Then Spanish was still number two, then English, then Hindi, then Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali,
Russian, Japanese, Punjabi, German, Javanese, Wu, Malay, Telugu, Vietnamese, Korean, French,
Marathian, and Tamil.
So once you get all the way down to the 20th, Tamil is only 70 million people.
So you really see a pretty dramatic shift.
According to this study of the top 20 languages, and now we're talking about native speakers
only, not just including the secondary languages, that would encompass about 60% of the world's
population.
So 60% of the world's population as a native speaker speaks one of these 20 languages.
Again, that's not that, I mean, when you think about 6,500, it seems really overwhelming.
When you're talking about 20, I mean, that's a lot more realistic.
That's a lot more reasonable to kind of think about.
When you get to the top 100 languages, it's estimated from native speaking, that's 85%
of the world's population.
So 85% of the world's population as a native speaker speaks one of these languages.
And again, these people that have these obscure languages, they often always have English
or Hindi or, you know, Mandarin or one of these others as a secondary language that
they can communicate with.
So if you're able to have, you know, in the top 10 or the top 20, you could pretty much
effectively reach the whole world with the gospel.
I mean, because not only are you going to get them saved, they're going to probably
have the other languages and the other dialects, they're going to be able to reach other people.
So it's not that, you know, improbable to really reach the world with the gospel in
different languages.
I mean, we see only about 20 here that could really effectively reach a majority, if not
the entire world.
Now, according to the secular, you know, science and just research and history, you say, well,
where did language even come from?
Right?
Well, they even when they study language, they realize that a lot of languages that
exist today, they come from the same languages.
They come from the same type of trees.
And they basically only have a few different families.
Go view it in Genesis chapter 10, Genesis chapter number 10.
According to their research, they say there's the Elamo-Dravidian languages.
There's the Semitic, Afro-Asiatic, Hamitic, Indo-European, Uralic, Altic and Sino-Tibetan
or Sino-Caucasian.
And out of those about, you know, seven or eight families is virtually every language
you have today.
So it's not even that many family origins, family roots that even secular scientists
will say they came from.
Now, they'll say it came from some hominid caveman that was like, ooga booga, and then
we get every language you have today.
But is that really what the Bible teaches?
Let's go to Genesis chapter number 10, look at verse 1.
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
And unto them were sons born after the flood, and the sons of Japheth, Gomer, and Magog,
and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras, and the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz,
and Riphath, and Togamar, and the sons of Javan, Elisha, and Tarshish, Kidom, and Donaenim.
By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue
after their families and their nations.
So we see there's a division of the people.
And there's basically, I mean there's not that many families listed here, is there?
I mean there's just a handful of families, and he's saying this is where we get the division
of the Gentiles.
This is where we get the Gentile tongues.
Go to Genesis chapter 11.
Now when you read your Bible, sometimes what the Bible will do is it will give you a timeline,
and then you go to the next chapter, it will go back on that timeline and explain it more
in detail.
So when we have Genesis chapter 10, it's telling us, hey, here's just all these genealogies.
Now how long is that going to span in time?
I mean we're talking about tons of years, hundreds of years that it's spanning this
great time.
So then chapter 11 is going to go back all the way to the beginning of that timeline
and explain what he meant by the division of tongues.
He's going to tell you in detail how that happened.
Look at verse 1.
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
Let's get down to verse number 7.
So the whole world at one point had the same language.
They all spake the same tongue, you know, it was all Hebrew, no I'm just kidding.
That's what some people want to believe.
They just had one language.
I don't even know if it was necessarily representative of any language we have today.
It could have been completely unique.
But look at verse number 7.
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 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 you say, where did language even come from?
Well, obviously language comes from God.
And then you say, well, why do we have different languages?
Because God didn't want man to live in one city.
God does not want one nation with one city, one family.
He wants the whole earth to be inhabited.
So the way that he decided that the best way to do that is to divide the tongue.
And look, when you can't talk to somebody, it's really not that fun to live with.
I mean, it's a lot more fun when you can communicate, when you can dwell together, you
can talk about food and dwelling and your interests and your hobbies.
So when people don't have the same language, they tend to, you know, get away from each
other.
You tend to gravitate towards people that you can communicate with.
And so we see the division of nations across the whole earth.
This was God's plan and God's way to create nations, to create separate families.
And you know what?
That hasn't changed.
God still wants there to be different nations, different tongues.
We're not supposed to all come together.
Let's not just have an open border for the whole world and we just all have one tongue
and one nation and one family and one culture.
No, God wants it all different.
God wants the whole earth separate.
He doesn't look at one language as better than another.
One culture is better than another.
One skin color is better than another.
No, they're all precious in his sight.
God loves every single person the same.
He's not a respecter of persons.
You say, all my language is inferior.
Wrong.
Nope.
All languages created by God.
Look, it's all important.
It's all special.
It's all significant.
So we ought not look down upon somebody because they're not an English speaker, because they're
not from America, because they don't live in Texas.
You know, I like Texas, but we don't have to look down upon all the people that aren't
blessed to live in the greatest state.
You know, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Arizona is a close second.
I'm just kidding.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14, you say, what's the purpose of tongues today?
We see the original purpose of tongues is what?
To have divided nations.
Then we see the sign of tongues for the apostles was for what reason?
To go and confirm the signs of the apostles, to help them go and spread the gospel, you
know, at that time.
But is there a purpose today?
I mean, what would be the purpose in church?
What would be the purpose today?
Well, look at 1 Corinthians 14 verse 10.
There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them is without signification.
That's going to confirm the point I just made.
Look, I don't care what language, what tongue, what voice, you are important, you have value,
you're significant to God.
You know why?
Because there's other people that have your language and you can give them the gospel.
You have a gift, you have an ability, you have the aptitude to help people that I can't.
If you have a different voice, if you have a different tongue, look at verse 11.
Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a
barbarian and he shall speaketh, shall be a barbarian unto me.
He's saying, look, if I don't know what you're saying, it's not going to benefit me.
You're going to be like someone that's a barbarian to me or I would be a barbarian to you.
We see being a barbarian is relative to your perspective.
You see, he said, oh, they're barbarians and they're like, well, you're barbarians.
It's like, okay, go to chapter 20 or verse 21.
Verse 21, in the law it is written with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak
unto this people and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
So we see the Jews, they were given a sign.
They had people from all other nations coming to them with other tongues trying to give
them the gospel.
They don't want to hear it.
They do not want to hear it and we see when the apostles and the disciples and Paul, they
go out to these other nations and find Jews, which means what?
They were of Judaism and they're preaching them in Greek.
They're preaching them in the Medes and the Persian languages.
Wherever they were born, they didn't want to hear it.
They did not want to see Jesus Christ, those that are stuck in Judaism.
They don't really want to believe the gospel.
You know who wants to hear it?
The Gentiles.
But look at 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.
Now what do all these Pentecostals like to do?
They like to do all their speaking in tongues, their dancing, their jumping and church.
But what does the Bible say?
It says tongues are not for them that believe, which of course none of them believe anyways.
But we're just saying, in their mind, they think everybody's saved at their church, right?
So they shouldn't even be doing it in church.
That's not the point of the tongue.
What was the point?
It was for people that don't believe.
Why?
Because when you go out to somebody and you start speaking their language and they weren't
expecting it, they're like, whoa, I better listen to this guy speaking to me.
I want to actually hear what he has to say.
This guy, that's impressive to me.
That's wow.
This person must think it's really important to have learned my language so they could
give me the gospel.
That must be an important message that he wants to give me, huh?
Look at verse 23.
If therefore the whole church be come together in one place and all speak with tongues and
there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that you're
mad?
He's saying, look, if I just got up and I started speaking in Hindi and some new visitor
comes in, they're going to be like, this church is weird.
Nobody understands what's going on.
Everybody looks confused.
I don't speak Hindi.
I'm going to leave.
This is silly.
This is stupid.
Look, obviously the Pentecostal version, they're mad too, but then the context is talking about
the fact that you just wouldn't understand what they're saying.
Look at verse 24.
But if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not or unlearned, he is convinced
of all.
He is judged of all saying, look, anybody can prophesy.
Anybody can preach the word of God.
Everybody could get somebody saved, but specifically in the church, he's going to give us a little
bit more direction of what this means, but he's saying, look, if everybody in the church
is preaching the word of God, they could be, you know, convinced by somebody to believe
God's word, to increase their faith, to get saved, whatever the case is, wherever they're
at.
Look at verse 25.
And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.
And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth.
Look at verse, let's skip down to verse 27.
And 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.
Let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge.
If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.
For ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted.
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 is not permitted unto them to speak,
but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn anything, let the master of husbands at home, for it is a shame for
women to speak in the church.
So there's a lot of things here.
Let's just unpack a few of them real quick.
It's saying, look, when they were coming to this church, apparently it was just like a
madhouse.
People over here are like singing, people over here are like preaching, somebody's preaching
in tongues.
It's like, what's going on?
We need to get some order.
Let's do it one at a time.
One person come up and edify the group, and then the next person come up.
And if you're going to do it with tongues, at most three.
Maybe two, but at most three.
And if you're going to speak with tongues, you must have an interpreter.
These are the rules for the church.
He's saying, look, I can't get up and start just speaking in Spanish or speaking another
language without somebody also preaching in English so everybody can understand what's
being preached.
Again, this is not something that's necessarily super common in churches we have today.
But if you're in a situation, let's say I go to Mexico and I'm preaching to a crowd
of English and Spanish speakers, if someone were to preach in one language, you should
have an interpreter preaching in the other language so everybody could be edified, everybody
could understand the word of God.
And he's saying, don't do more than three.
At most, do two or three.
And he says in verse 31, for you may all prophesy one by one.
So what is he saying here?
He's saying that, look, any man could technically prophesy.
Any man is permitted to go up and preach the word of God.
Now here's the thing.
We believe in an elder led church, an elder run church.
I'm the one in charge of this church.
I'm the one deciding who's going to get up and actually preach.
But if I decide, hey, I'm going to let brother so and so get up and preach, that's within,
you know, the realm of the Bible.
You can let any man could be able to come up and preach the word of God.
Now I'm not just going to take some yahoo off the street and put him in front of the
pulpit.
You know, I actually respect the pulpit.
I respect the house of God.
I'm not just going to put some yahoo up here that doesn't even know any of the Bible, doesn't
even have a King James Bible, isn't even saved, isn't even doing soul winning, doesn't even
know the things of God.
He's not going to get up here and preach behind the pulpit.
That's not going to happen.
But there's not a restriction to, well, only these certain guys can because of their nationality,
because of whatever, you know, prejudice somebody wants to have.
Any guy can.
But what about the women?
No.
It says, let your women keep silence in the churches.
Women are not allowed to come up behind the pulpit and preach the word of God.
It's forbidden.
There's not, there's not a special case.
It's not like one case unless your name is Joyce Meyer, unless your name is Beth Moore,
unless whatever.
No, only men are supposed to come up and preach the word of God.
Now here's the thing.
The Bible said in Acts chapter number two that there was a fulfillment that maidens
would prophesy.
So if women are supposed to preach, but it's not in church, where is that supposed to be?
Outside the church.
The women are supposed to go out and preach the gospel that what?
Whosoever, you know, call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So I believe in women preachers just not behind the pulpit, just not in church.
They can go out and they can preach the word of God.
The Bible says it's important for the elder women to instruct the younger women, but we
see what's the point of tongues?
Is it for church really?
I mean, we see it's, you know, you could use it.
You could have somebody get up and preach in a certain language.
Someone would interpret, but what was the point?
He says it's, it's not for them that believe.
It's for them that believe not.
So what's the point of having the tongue is to go out and to get someone saved and their
language and the tongue wherein they were born, their native tongue to help them believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then they can come to church and they can hear the word of God preached in their tongue.
Okay.
Go if you would to Jeremiah 25.
This is what we see throughout the whole Bible.
God using different tongues is always for a sign.
He's constantly using different languages as a sign unto people to shake people, to
wake them up, to use, make his word more powerful, to give it more prominence.
And look, when someone comes up to you and starts speaking your native tongue that didn't,
you know, wasn't born that way, it makes you want to listen a little bit more.
It just gives that more power, more influence, more ability.
Look at Jeremiah 25 verse 17.
Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand and made all the nations to drink unto him the
Lord had sent me to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and the kings thereof and the princes
thereof to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing and a curse as it is this day.
Feral king of Egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people and all the mingled
people and all the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines
and Ashkalah and Nazah and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom and Moab and the children
of Ammon and all the kings of Tyrus and all the kings of Zion and all the kings of the
isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan and Teman and Buz and all that are in the utmost
corners and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell
in the desert and all the kings of Zimra and all the kings of Elam and all the kings of
the Medes and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another and all the
kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth and the king of Shishak shall
drink after them.
So you see in the Old Testament, did Jeremiah preach to one people, one language, one tongue?
He preached to every single kingdom.
Now we don't know exactly how that happened, but guess what?
Tongues were involved.
Because guess what?
Either all these kings speak the same language he did or he speak all their language or they
had an interpreter.
But either way, we see the word of God going out to every tongue, every nation, everywhere
at this time.
And you know what?
That's throughout the whole Bible.
God wants to spread his word to every nation, to every tongue.
Now in Jeremiah, it's not a positive message.
Go to chapter one.
Chapter number one.
It's not actually a real exciting message.
They're damned.
They're doomed.
But you know what?
In a way, that's still the same message of the gospel.
Guess what, buddy?
You're damned to hell.
You're condemned to hell.
But you know what?
If you believe on Jesus Christ, you can be redeemed.
You know what Jeremiah's message was?
Look, you're going to be judged.
Nebuchadnezzar is going to take you unless you submit unto him, unless you trust in him,
unless you humble yourself.
A picture of the gospel that you have to humble yourself and put all your faith in Jesus Christ
to be saved.
There's judgment coming.
If you don't want to believe in the judgment, it doesn't matter if you believe it or not,
it's coming.
It doesn't matter if you believe there's a hell.
You'll find out real quick if you never believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you die.
You'll lift up your eyes.
Look at Jeremiah chapter one.
Look at verse number eight.
Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold,
I have put my words in thy mouth.
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and pull
down and destroy and to throw down and to build and to plant.
So you see, look, he made him a prophet to the nations.
It says that in verse number five.
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou comest forth out of
the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Now what did Jesus say to his disciples?
Go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He ordained the disciples to preach to who?
Everyone.
To every nation.
He ordained Jeremiah to preach to every generation.
Then we see in Acts chapter number two, he ordained them to preach to every single nation.
We see in John chapter number 17, Jesus Christ, he says, I'm not praying for just my disciples.
I'm praying for everyone that will believe on me through their word.
So if you've believed on Jesus Christ, you're supposed to be an ambassador to all nations.
Every church is to be an ambassador to all nations, to go out and preach in every tongue.
Go to Matthew 24, Matthew 24, and this will happen.
The question is, are you going to be a part of it?
Are you willing to say, hey, I want to be the people that actually did this.
I want to be the group that actually went out and preached the gospel to every nation,
to every country, to every tongue.
Matthew 24, look at verse 14.
And this gospel of the kingdom might be preached, could be preached, no, shall be preached in
all the world for a witness unto some nations, the ones we like, the ones we've been, unto
all nations and then shall the end come.
The Bible says it's going to happen.
The gospel will be preached to every single nation, every single tongue.
The question is, who's going to do it?
Are you going to do it?
Am I going to do it?
Who's going to do it?
That's what I want to do.
That's what I want Pure Words Baptist Church to do is to go out and preach the gospel to
every nation.
Now, obviously, as a local New Testament church, it's super important for us to reach our immediate
area, to reach all the people here and to get people saved in their tongue here and
that they can go and spread out the gospel.
We also should be cognizant of the whole world.
We should be cognizant of every nation of trying to reach every people, every tongue,
not limiting ourselves, not limiting ourselves to a five-mile radius where we just keep out
sending mailers trying to get people to come in and bring their tithe money.
That's what most churches do, they just want everybody in their five-mile radius to come
and bring them the tithe money.
They don't even care if they get saved or not.
Go to Revelation, Revelation chapter number seven, Revelation chapter number seven.
We'll even see this fulfilled in the Bible.
Jesus Christ said, hey, it's going to happen.
Then we see in Revelation, John already saw that it happened.
John already identified and was a witness of this reality.
Look at verse 11.
And all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and
fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God saying, Amen, blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and
ever.
Amen.
Now, why are they saying that?
Well, let's get back to verse number 10 or verse nine, I'm sorry.
After this, I beheld in low a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations.
So why are they praising?
Why are they excited?
Look, there's people from every single nation.
There's people from every single what?
And kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb, clothed
with white robes and palms in their hands and cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation
to our God, which sit upon the throne and under the lamb.
So oh, there's only certain nations that like God, that are the brethren, that are deserving
of gospel.
No, every nation.
God's going to save people from every tongue, every nation.
Look at verse number 14.
And I said unto him, or let's look at verse 13, I'm sorry.
And one of the elders answered saying unto me, What are these which are raved in white
robes?
And whence came they?
He's like, Where did these guys come from?
All right.
Look at verse 14.
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.
These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the lamb.
So in Revelation, in Matthew 24, he's saying, look, once all the nations get the gospel,
what's going to happen?
They're going to be caught up into heaven.
They're all going to be praising God.
So see, God wants in the end times, one last hurrah, one last time for the gospel to go
out into every single tongue, every single nation to get the gospel to everybody.
So go to Isaiah 28.
This is the last point I want to talk about.
Why should we use tongues then?
So we see a few different things.
We see that tongues were for a sign for the apostles.
We see that language was created by God to divide the nations.
God likes the divided nations.
He wants the different tongues.
He wants the different cultures.
He wants to have this separation.
Then we see in First Corinthians chapter number 14, what does it say?
Tongues are not a sign for them to believe.
It's for them that don't believe.
The reason why God wants us to use other tongues, why we could preach the gospel in
other language, is because it has more power.
It's to give more emphasis to the gospel.
And you know what?
This is true as the day is long that when I'm going into another nation, I don't look
like I speak Spanish.
Let's just be honest.
They're like, man, this guy's white as the sun.
This guy does not look like he can speak Spanish for a second.
And look, I sound like a gringo.
I can't make all the pronunciations perfect.
My grammar is not perfect.
But here's the thing.
They want to listen.
And you know what?
They want to listen more than English speakers.
That's weird.
When I go out and I can actually speak clearly with proper pronunciation, with proper grammar,
I can expound anything I wanted to.
I can even read the King James Bible.
It's so tough.
Isn't that what people say?
King James Bible is so tough to read.
It's not tough to read.
But here's the thing.
They don't want to hear.
They're not interested.
But you go to a foreign nation where I don't really speak the language that well, they're
all ears.
They're ready to hear.
They want me to give them the gospel.
They're excited about the gospel.
They're excited to hear what the Bible says.
They want to listen.
Do you have 10 minutes?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do have 15 minutes.
Yes, I do want to hear.
Yes, I do want to ask questions.
Yeah, I am excited that you came.
I mean, look, tongues are for a sign.
Not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
Now look at Isaiah 28 verse 11.
Why is God constantly doing this?
It's a sign.
He's saying, look, I'm trying to pull out all the big guns.
I'm literally bringing people that don't even speak your language and they're trying to
get you saved.
They're trying to convince you to trust in me, to believe in me, and you still won't.
But we see the point is, he's still using it as a sign.
Now go over to Romans chapter number one, Romans chapter number one.
You say, but is it really that important for us to do that?
Let's let the other nations worry about themselves.
Let's just let the Russians worry about themselves, and the people in Mexico worry about themselves,
and you know, the people in China worry about themselves.
They got it.
Why do I need to worry about other nations, about preaching the gospel in other languages?
Was this Paul's attitude?
Look at verse 14, I am deader, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the
wise and to the unwise.
Now we already read in first Corinthians 14 something.
He said, look, if I speak to somebody that I don't know their language, what does he
call them?
A barbarian.
So what is he saying here?
He's saying, even if I come to somebody that I don't speak their language, I'm still a
deader to give them the gospel.
I still am supposed to try and get him saved.
It's still my job to try and get the gospel to every creature, whether I speak their language
or not, whether he's a barbarian or not, by whatever means I can.
Look at 15, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you there at Rome
also, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek.
He's saying, look, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, and you know what, I'm going to be
as ready as I can, and I'm going to use all my strength and all my effort and all my talent
and all my energy and everything I got to get the gospel to everybody.
To the Greeks, to the barbarians, to everyone, go to Acts 28, Acts chapter 28.
But you know what, some people, they get stuck on people that are unreceptive.
They get stuck in an area that doesn't want to hear the gospel.
The Bible's teaching move on.
The Bible's saying, go where they will hear it, and you know what, America is still ripe
under the gospel.
There's still a lot of people that want to hear it, but what would happen as our country
keeps getting wicked and more wicked and more wicked?
What if our country was getting to a point where nobody wants to hear?
What if it was really hard to give the gospel?
Why wouldn't you consider just going somewhere where it is really receptive, focusing your
energy and efforts on places that are really receptive?
Look at Acts 28 verse 25, and when they had agreed not among themselves and they departed,
after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias the prophet
unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall
not understand, and seeing ye also see, and not perceive.
For the heart of this people's wax grows, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Be it known, therefore, unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
and that they will hear it.
He's saying, look, I've identified there's this group, they really want to hear the gospel.
So you know what's important?
To go where it's receptive.
To go where people want to hear the gospel.
You know why we went back to Merce, Mexico the second time?
Because they really like the gospel.
Because they're really receptive to the gospel.
Yeah, the tacos are good, but guess what?
It's because they're really receptive and want to get saved.
That's why we went back.
That's where we should decide where we should preach the gospel anyways.
Where they're receptive.
Who's that usually?
Poor people.
Let's just be honest.
It's the people that don't have that much, that are humble, hardworking, but they don't
have a lot of money.
They don't have a lot of goods.
They're not consumed with the lust of the flesh.
They haven't been deceived by the riches of this world.
They say, hey, there's got to be something more than just this poverty that I live in.
There's got to be something more than all this abject poverty and this government corruption
and whatever.
And you know what?
A lot of people in Mexico, they're really good people.
They're really hardworking.
They're really humble.
And you know what?
They like the things of God.
They like God's word and it's making wise the simple.
Now go to Isaiah 45, Isaiah chapter number 45.
Look the Gentiles heard the gospel.
Why didn't all the disciples go?
They got stuck preaching to these Jews that don't want to hear it.
They got stuck to hearing the people that didn't want to hear it.
We should never be a church that would get stuck when people don't want to hear it.
Now obviously right now, we got a white field of harvest.
We can go anywhere.
But we should always keep this in mind.
We should always have this in our heart because you don't know what's going to happen 10 years
from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 40 years from now.
And it could be where we get to a point where, hey, we've reaped all these poor areas and
the only doors we can get are these really rich, snobby white people that don't want
to hear any of the gospel.
Or we could just take a trip down to McAllen, Texas or go to Mexico and get thousands of
people saved.
Maybe that's a better idea.
Or maybe you go to another area or another country, go to Jamaica where they speak English
or go to Belize or go wherever.
Go somewhere where it's actually receptive, where people actually want to hear the gospel.
I'm not interested in wasting my time.
You know when I get to a door and someone answers the door and I say, hey, if you die
today or 100 percent sure you go to heaven, I hate Jesus and the Bible.
Don't come here.
Okay, see you.
I'm not interested in arguing with you.
You know, if you want to go to hell, all right.
I mean, there's no point in just sitting there and beating, you know, down the door of people
that aren't receptive.
Go to the next door because you know what?
There's somebody in that apartment complex that you'll say, hey, do you want to know
how to go to heaven?
Yes.
Please show me.
Open your Bible.
So why are you wasting five minutes trying to talk to somebody that's not interested,
trying to tell them, well, can I give you another verse?
Can I talk to you?
No, I don't like the Bible.
No, I don't want to hear.
Please go away.
I don't want to go away.
I just want to keep preaching to you.
Look, that's not being more righteous or more Christian or more godly.
Go to the people that are receptive.
Go to the person that's interested.
If someone's not interested, see you.
Have a good day.
All right.
Here's a card.
I don't want it.
All right.
See you.
You know, I'm just going to go to the guy that wants to hear the gospel.
Look at Isaiah 45 verse 18.
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it.
He hath established it.
He hath created it not in vain.
He formed it to be inhabited.
I am the Lord and there is none else.
God wanted the earth to be inhabited.
That's why he divided the tongues.
He's a creator of everything.
He's a creator of all language, of all people, of all tongues.
You say, I only like a specific color of skin.
Well, God likes them all because God created them all.
I only like certain people's language.
Well, God likes them all because God created them all and he created the whole earth to
be inhabited.
I don't like that part of the country.
Well, God likes it.
God likes all of it.
God created all of it.
Look at verse 19.
I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth.
He's saying what?
His gospel, the God of the Bible is not for one people.
It's not for one area.
It's not for one language.
It's not for just one little part of the earth.
He's the God of the whole earth.
He's the God of every people, of every tongue, of every nation.
He's the God of all.
He's the King of kings.
He's the Lord of lords.
He created all of it on purpose.
Look at verse 20.
Assemble yourselves and come draw near together, either escaped of the nations that have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save.
Tell me and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together who hath declared this
from ancient time, who have told it from that time.
Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just God and a savior?
There is none beside me.
Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none
else.
You know what God says?
I want everybody to be saved.
I want everybody to look upon me.
I want the gospel to go to every creature and I want them to all look and live.
Look to Jesus Christ and live like they looked at the serpent and they were immediately healed.
That's all it takes is just looking at Jesus, just resting in Jesus, just trusting his death
beyond resurrection like a child.
Like a child just putting your faith in Jesus one time, done deal.
Saved with a D at the end, it's over.
Now you can't do it, you're saved.
You're now going to heaven and he wants everyone to do that.
Look at verse 23.
I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall
not return that under me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear.
God wants every nation, every tongue to come and worship him, to give him honor, to give
him glory and they will whether they like it or not, but we see, look, that's what he
desires.
Go to chapter 66, chapter 66, only a couple of last places I want to turn this morning.
Chapter 66, look at verse 18, for I know their works and their thoughts that shall come that
I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory and I will
set a sign among them and I will send those that escape of them under the nations to Tarshish
pole and mud that draw the bow to Tubal and Javin to the isles of far off that have not
heard of my fame.
Neither has seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles and they shall
bring all your brethren.
You know what these people in Mexico are that want to get saved?
Your brethren.
You know what the people in China are that want to hear the gospel and get saved?
Your brethren.
You know what everybody is and every nation that wants to get saved that gets saved is
your brethren and he's saying, look, I'm going to send these people out to all these places
to preach the gospel and to bring your brethren in so they can serve me.
He says in verse 21, and I will also take of them for priests and Levites, saith the
Lord.
He says, look, I want all these people to serve me and he's made of kings and priests
unto our God and revelation chapter number one.
So you say, Hey, we believe in the priesthood of the believer.
Everyone that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a priest unto God is what the Bible teaches.
Go to Romans 10, the last place I want to turn.
The Bible says in Proverbs 18, 21, a very powerful verse.
The Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall
eat the fruit thereof.
The Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall
eat the fruit thereof.
You know what?
You have the ability.
You have the power to go out and change somebody from death unto life to change their eternal
destiny.
It's in the power of your tongue, but the reality is a lot of people don't use it.
Most Christians never use their tongue to give anybody the gospel to never get anybody
saved.
Not only that, some people are blessed.
Some people are gifted with multiple tongues.
Wow.
You have, you have a greater opportunity to reach even more people with the gospel and
God saying, you have the power of death and of life.
If you keep your mouth shut death, if you open your mouth life, if you preach lies,
death.
If you preach the truth, lies.
But you know what?
He's saying use the talent that God gave you.
You know what?
Some people look at themselves and they say, why haven't you know a low income job?
I wasn't born in a rich family.
I don't have a college degree.
I don't do anything special.
You know what?
You can speak two languages.
You know what God says?
That's worth a lot.
The English and Spanish speakers can pretty much reach a billion people or more with the
gospel.
You have the power to save billions of people.
Why not use the gift that God's given you?
And you know what?
There's people that speak other languages.
You know what?
I want to be a church that takes the talents and the resources that we already have and
use them.
If we got people that speak Spanish, let's use it.
If we got people that speak Hindi, let's use it.
If we got people that speak Russian, let's use it for God.
So why not develop those skills, cultivate those skills, and say, you know what?
I realize that I'm humble enough to say, hey, I'm important.
God has made me on purpose.
There's not a voice without signification, and you know what?
I should devote myself to being able to preach the gospel, to be able to go out and preach
the gospel to other people.
I'm going to humble myself and realize I actually have an important job, and I'm going to go
do it.
But you know what?
People, they say, you know what?
I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going to take the time and the energy and the effort.
I just want to do other stuff.
That's actually not a humble opinion.
The humble opinion would realize, hey, these people need to get saved, and you know what's
more important than my selfish desires is them getting saved.
That's you humbling yourself, saying, you know what?
It's not important for me to enjoy every single moment of my life.
You know what's more important?
For that guy to get saved, for that family to hear the gospel, for this person to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, for to be changed from death unto life.
So I'm going to humble myself and just be a living sacrifice.
That's what God wants, which is your reasonable service.
God's gifted you with all kinds of different things.
He's given you this opportunity.
And look, to people that don't speak multiple languages, why not try?
I mean, if you're in an area where a lot of people speak another language, why not try?
You say, hey, why do you try to learn Spanish?
Well, I wanted to start a church in a place called Houston.
And you know what?
There's about 20, 25% of the population in Houston that speak a language called Spanish.
So I said, hey, maybe if I actually want to give the gospel to everyone in my city, I'm
going to have to speak Spanish, aren't I?
I'm going to have to learn the language.
I'm going to have to use something that's practical.
Now look, people go to school and they learn a language just because, right?
I'll learn French.
I'll learn sign language.
Look, I'm not against you doing, like in all labor there's profit, the Bible says.
But if I have to choose between sign language and Spanish, I'm going to get a lot more people
saved in Spanish.
There's a lot more opportunity.
I'm going to get more people saved in Spanish than French, than German.
I'm not against you learning other languages.
Learn all the languages.
If you can, I don't think that's about 6,500.
That's not practical.
And you know what?
The Bible's not saying go home and learn every language.
But why not learn the language that you already have, learn how to give the gospel in that
one.
Or, hey, if you live in an area where there's a bunch of people that speak another language
that you could give them the gospel, why not consider learning that language?
At least enough to give them the gospel.
At least to go out and preach the gospel.
And then let's take the people that we can reach with other languages and let's cultivate
their skills and use them to reach those people.
Look, we only have to get to about 20 languages, 10 languages, and we're reaching a huge percentage
of the whole world.
Look at Romans chapter 10, verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved.
Isn't that what we read in Acts 2?
Isn't that what they were doing in Acts chapter 2, was using other tongues to preach the gospel
in every language?
It's the same goal.
It's the same mission.
Now, obviously, nobody in this room has the signs of an apostle.
We actually have to either get born with a language or learn as a child or do a lot of
study.
But you know what?
We can still use tongues.
And guess what?
It's still a sign to them that don't believe.
It's still powerful.
It still has the same effect when somebody can hear their language in their own tongue
to give them the gospel.
But the question is, in verse 14, how then shall they call on him and whom they have
not believed?
How is Mexico going to get saved if nobody goes down there and preaches the gospel?
They can't.
They can't understand the Bible.
You know, I've seen some people with their soul winning, they'll read a verse in the
Bible.
They'll just read John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And then they'll ask the unsaved person, what does that mean?
And I'm like, look, the unsaved person's not going to get saved from just reading the Bible.
You got to tell them what it means.
You're there to preach them the gospel, not to have them preach the gospel to you.
You tell them what it means.
And then you get them to, you know, repeat it to you.
Now, I just told you this by believing.
I just told you what believe means.
So what did the Bible just say you have to do to be saved?
Oh, believe.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Look, we're there to preach them the gospel.
That's how someone gets saved.
We see the guy reading the book of Isaiah, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter number
8.
Philip the evangelist shows up, understand is what thou readest.
How can I accept some man should guide me?
He's saying, look, I need somebody to tell me what that meant.
I don't know what it means.
I'm not saved.
I don't have the Holy Ghost living inside me.
They need a spirit-filled preacher to say, hey, this is what it means to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
False prophets, they'll say believe means works.
We were even in Mexico and guess what, a heretic's a heretic's a heretic.
It doesn't matter what the language is.
The Seventh-day Adventist preacher, we ask him, hey, what's the one thing you have to
do to be saved?
Well, the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
It's like, okay.
And he says, but you know what believe means?
It means works.
It means if you believe in your heart, you'll do all the works.
So every time it says believe, he sees works.
He like just changes the word to works.
That's what believe means to him.
So look, unsaved people, they don't know what these words mean.
You got to explain it to them.
You got to use, you know, the analogies the Bible does of being born again, of the fact
that it's a gift, of the fact that it's everlasting life, the fact that all your sins are washed
away, the fact that you're changed from death unto life, the fact that look, all these things
are true.
That's how we know we're saved.
That's what the Bible like kids have done too.
But look at verse 18.
But I say, have they not heard, yes verily, their sound went to all the earth and their
words unto the ends of the world.
Some people accuse, you know, Christians as saying, so you think all these people that
haven't heard the gospel, they're going to be damned?
Well, first of all, show me the guy that's never heard it.
That's my first question.
But yes, someone that doesn't, someone that was, you know, a sinner, even if they didn't
hear a clear presentation of the gospel, they're going to go to hell.
And I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
But here's the thing.
First show me the guy.
I don't believe the guy exists.
I believe every single person has heard at least one verse of God's word, John 3 16 or
whatever.
Find me the guy that's never heard John 3 16.
And when you hear John 3 16, you have to make a choice.
Is that true?
I mean, it's saying I could ever last in life.
It's I got to believe in the sun and the person that seeks will find the person that asks
the knocks, it'll be opened unto them.
God will get them say that they want to be saved.
It's not like there's all these people, you know, that are seeking with all their heart
and all their mind and all their strength and they're not getting saved.
But you know what?
There are people that are willing to get saved, but they're not really seeking and they're
going to die and go to hell because no one came and preached them the gospel.
They heard a verse, but they didn't have enough interest in themselves to go and find it out.
And so they're going to be damned and go to hell.
And the Bible says if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
So you know what we need to do?
We need to find people that didn't even know they wanted to get saved yet and get them
saved.
And that's what it says in verse 20.
Let's do one more verse.
Let's do 19.
But I say, did not Israel know?
First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish
nation I were angry.
But Isaiah says very bold and saith, I was found of them that saw me not.
He said, why did you go to immerse Mexico?
Did they call you?
Did they, like, you know, make a video and say please come here and please give us the gospel?
No.
They didn't ask for it.
They didn't even know we were coming.
But look, I was found of them that saw me not.
You know what?
I like the way it words that.
And it's saying it's like found and the fact they actually really want to hear it.
They didn't even know they wanted to.
They didn't even know what it was.
But then when you show up, they found it.
They were like, yeah, I like the gospel.
I like being saved.
I like having everlasting life.
Look at this.
I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
So you know what?
We need to find the people they didn't even know they wanted to get saved.
And give them the gospel.
When what?
They're receptive.
When they want to hear the gospel.
In a sense that once you start trying to give the people the gospel, they're actually finding
it.
They're being found of it.
They're interested.
They're getting saved.
Obviously, I'm not saying let's go to Israel.
They don't want to hear it either, okay?
When you go to an area and they're getting saved, hand over fist, go keep going there
and preaching them the gospel.
And us as a church, I hope that we can have our own trips in the future to the English.
And guess what?
Also to the Spanish.
You know why I like the Spanish?
Because they're so receptive.
You know what?
If the English were way more receptive, I probably wouldn't be as interested.
But the reality is that the Spanish speakers are way more receptive.
Just by and large.
In America and especially in Mexico.
Especially when you go down there.
And you know what?
If you're somebody, you say, well, I don't speak it native.
Guess what?
You're going to be a bigger sign.
You're going to be a greater sign under those people when you show up and they're like,
who's this gringo?
What's he doing down here?
But then when you start opening your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
and it's in their own native tongue wherein they are born, they're like, wow!
The amazing works of God.
The wonderful works of God.
And they want to get saved.
And Jesus says, look, I want all the ends of the earth to look on me and be saved.
So what's the sign of tongues?
It's the them that believe not.
You say, hey, we see that it's consistent through the whole Bible.
What was the purpose of tongues?
Divide the nations.
But you know what?
God's still the God of all the nations.
He still wants everybody saved.
In the Old Testament, Jeremiah was a sign for people to get saved.
You know what?
In Acts, the apostles were a sign to get people saved.
You know what you are today?
You're supposed to be a sign to go out and get people saved.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you so much for all the opportunities that you've given us to go out and preach
the gospel in our tongue and also potentially use other tongues.
I pray that anybody that already has the gift of tongues would see the importance and the
value that they have, that they are a great value to God, that they could use that gift
to get many people saved, and they would not squander it.
They would not decide that it's not important, that they would not desire their own selfish
desires over other people's souls, that they would see, hey, I should humble myself.
I should realize the importance of going out and preaching the gospel in both languages.
Not only that, people that have an opportunity to learn a language, I pray that you would
help us to try and reach people in our area and other areas of the world that are receptive
with the gospel, and even just people that have their own one language that they would
just still be motivated to go out and preach the gospel in that language, to still reach
other English speakers or other people in their native tongue, and then those people
that have multiple languages could be inspired to go out and reach others, that you just
have multiplier efforts, that we could go out and see people saved from all nations.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.