[0:00] Everyone, please have a seat. If you do not have a Bible, I know you thought, well, maybe I can get away with it for the reading at the beginning of the service, but we're actually going to be spending a lot of time, and I want you to be able to read the text in your own Bible. So if you do not have a Bible, I've got ushers. I got Jim with Bibles like he's wanting to give away, all right?
[0:23] So if you do not have one, please put up your hand, let him serve, let him give away these Bibles. If you do not have a Bible at home, we'd ask you to accept this Bible as a gift from us, and feel free to take it home with you. All right, a couple things before I get into the sermon. In case you didn't know, last week we met as a membership team, just membership team, just members of the church, and we shared some news with you. And there's a couple things that I want to do is I want to keep being able to share with you. Many people call this church your home. You haven't made that jump to membership, or maybe you just were a member and something else was going on. A couple things that I wanted to bring you up and speed about. We're looking to get every single person's email. We're developing a new email system that allows us to easily communicate to you. I know we've got Facebook, and we've got regular email. But if you're here, regular tender, I want you to know what's going on.
[1:36] Sometimes Dave and I have letters that we would like to write to you about specific things. So this would really help in that. So if you could do that. So kind of the gist of the meeting is we're kind of updating our communication. A couple things that we're using finances for is we're going to be updating the presentation software that we use for the worship time here on Sunday, which means a new computer. We're also going to need a new computer. So some of those hardware things. But as far as vision casting and direction, and I know it's kind of like the Canada day-long weekend is the last worst weekend to bring out any type of news. But we are going to be targeting our funds into developing a youth program. So we're going to be getting a SBC youth program off the ground. So for some of you who will work with the children's ministry, there's that gospel project, they have now gone ahead and developed a program to use in junior high and high school ministry. So there is a thought of teaching that we can take our kids all the way from, what, three years old they're here, to 12. And it encompasses a lot of really different options.
[2:56] What's really great, and I found out about this, is it turns out one of my friends who works for Lifeway is actually doing this. So we've got them kind of on speed dial, if there's anything we want to see developed or what we'd like to see kind of jig, he's willing to work with us on this. So this is no small thing, because one of the biggest things that bogs down a lot of teachers is what do I teach? Where are we going? So Dave and I are kind of developing that ministry, what do we need to teach our kids? Just think, we need to prepare our kids for college or university, right?
[3:30] It's a big task. And I think although primary, that's the primary responsibility of what happens in the home, we want to be there with you on this journey that is part of our calling to help you, to serve you, to bless you in that calling that you have. So are you guys ready for today's sermon?
[3:55] All right, a little bit of anticipation, I heard people. All right, so just so you know, oh, and one more thing, summertime is here, amen? Yay. And for the most part, people stick around in Squamish for summer. Am I right on that? My wife told me there's no holidays this year, right? We're just staying home, we love it here. It's like camp, you know, canoeing, jeeping, all those kind of things. Anyway, we're going to try to stick to the script on Ephesians, but just to bring it to speed, I'm not sure if you know, I'm actually working on a doctorate. So I'm at a process where they've accepted my main idea, which is now going to be a writing, and it's going to turn into 10 to 12 sermons here at the church. So you guys eventually are going to be a part of a preaching project.
[4:46] So some weeks might get be a little bit more heavier than others. Dave's working on counseling as he's taking more courses to further his counseling. We're all here, but it means sometimes we might step out of Ephesians just for some Sundays, but this is still our trajectory. So if you show up and you say, why is he preaching on Psalms this week? It generally means it's been a heavy week. We weren't able to do proper amount of prayer, but Dave and I have more than enough sermons in our back pocket that we've preached before that we still believe are going to be a blessing because God's word is eternal. Amen? All right. So if you're new here, welcome. It's really great to have you with us. We have been doing a study on Ephesians. We've been doing a study on God's church and how God is presently building his church. We are into this section of chapter four Ephesians, which Dave read to us today. In this section, Paul talks about the need for both unity and maturity in the life of a church, which ultimately is a need for unity amongst ourselves and maturity amongst the believers. A church needs people who are these things. Now, how do those things happen? First, we learn that God is the one who, or Jesus Christ specifically, is a member of the
[6:14] Trinity by his work on the cross unifies us in him. Amen? So we're all united in that way. So Paul's calling is you and I are to maintain that unity. Now there's this other aspect of maturity. What's really interesting about maturity is maturity does not happen independently of other believers or of the church. Do you know that? There is no such thing as a mature Christian who's not a part of the church.
[6:44] That person might do really great works. That person might know their Bible inside and out, but that is not the prescribed way that God describes maturity. Maturity is through two things that he's going to get into here. Use of your spiritual gifts and being under godly leadership. So those two things play a part in the life of maturity. So it's not about knowledge. It's not about works, but it's about growing up using the gifts that God has given you. So last week we introduced this teaching on spiritual gifts and we learned the following. One, a spiritual gift is a free gift from God. Amen? It's just like salvation. There's nothing we need to do to earn it. We don't need to ask for it. We don't need to plead for it. God gives it to us freely.
[7:45] The other thing is God talks about spiritual gifts vary amongst themselves and amongst us. There's nobody who's had a life like me like there's nobody who's had a life like you. So even within your machinations of experience, education, pain in life, successes in life, God's grace in your life, he's created this unique human being and when he gives this gift, it can work very differently than someone else's gift. Okay? So third thing we learned is that spiritual gifts vary in strength and ability, just like our faith. God's gifts to us are his free gift just like faith is.
[8:32] And the fourth thing we learned is that spiritual gifts are meant for the church. So my gift of giving, right, is for the church, right? It's not for me, right? I can't say buying new upgrades for my Jeep is my gift, right? I'm just, hey, I'm just exercising my spiritual gift, honey. You know, I'm getting those new tires for the Jeep that I've always wanted. You know, it doesn't work that way, right? It's the giving that God God does within my spirit to people here in God's church.
[9:10] We're also commanded to not neglect our gift. We're commanded to not neglect. As God is the source of the gift, God has a purpose for that gift. And if he's got a purpose for that gift and we're neglecting him, we're standing against God. God wants to do something with his people. Now you might be saying, well, no, you know, when he's talking about church, he's talking about the universal church that's everywhere. So, you know, I'm just using my gifts for my friends who are part of universal church.
[9:49] This letter is written to a specific body of believers who gathered in Ephesus. This letter was taken to other. It's meant for a local church that we're talking about here. So these gifts both unify us, mature us. And last week I spoke about some of the gifts and I talked on a subject that a lot of people ignore, don't agree with, and there might not even be totally agreement on our elder team on this. But there's two things that I talked about. One, I believe in what's called temporary gifts and permanent gifts. And the temporary gifts, I believe, God had given to the apostles.
[10:28] And those gifts that he gave to his apostles were used for him or them when they went out to teach where they didn't have a codified book called the Bible, right? A lot of people didn't even have, they had heard the gospel. They might have heard about this person of Jesus Christ, but ultimately, they just not like they had the gospel of Matthew in their hands. So when he talked about what Jesus said, you know, he could be lying. It could have been some guy named Leon down at the furniture store, right? But what God, what he was able to do is these people were able to do these miracles.
[11:02] They were able to do healings. And these miracles and healings did not lead people to Christ, but it authenticated the messenger. Amen? The only way you come to Christ is through faith in Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the only way in. So it's not, you don't believe Jesus because of the miracles, but you listen to Jesus. You listen to the apostles. So I believe, and a lot of people disagree with me, and that's fine. Like I said, I still love you even though I think you're wrong.
[11:35] But there's other gifts that are permanent, and I went over what some of those permanent gifts were. So today, I'm going to talk about one specific gift that gets brought up since time eternal, which is the gift or the issue of the spiritual gift of tongues. By all accounts and testimonies by us, I ask you to raise your hands if you knew people who spoke in tongues or had an experience of tongues and it was pretty much a universal response. Everybody had a hand up.
[12:10] Right? So what I thought we would do is do a special study at tongues that we're actually today going to look at every single verse that speaks about tongues. You will notice in your bulletin, I included various verses, and these are all the verses, and these are the ones that I'm going to be referring to today, but I'm going to be spending most of my time and our time in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians.
[12:40] Why? Why do I want to talk about this? One, I believe it's an issue that a lot of our friends, but I don't want you to be ignorant about these things. All right? These verses are in the bulletin, so you can go back, read them, pray over them, and see if they line up with what I'm teaching you here today. I believe at one time or another, you're going to be left with a situation where you need to explain tongues and whether or not it is a gift, a spiritual gift, or not a spiritual gift of God.
[13:18] Now, before I go any further, I made comment last week, and I want you to hear me now. A lot of people say, well, BK is what's called a cessationist, and that means he believes the gifts of God have ceased. Wrong. That's not what I believe at all. What I believe is the modern day apostles do not work on the walk on the earth today. All right? Those were 12 specific men who had 12 specific callings who had a relationship with Jesus Christ. Everyone else after are disciples, so I believe those people were able to enact and do special things, and I even believe today God does miracles. God does healing, but he doesn't use it through someone's permanent gift, right? So the gifts I'm talking about, you have this spiritual gift of healing. Someone comes, shows up at church. They got a broken leg. You have the ability to go over and heal the leg, okay?
[14:17] That's the gift the Bible talks about. It's not a gift that, well, I'm pretty sure I helped her migraine, and she's feeling better. It just could be because we quit the music. We don't know, but we're talking about something that is so broken or in need of healing. That gift of healing in that place is perfect, right? Because it's a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we know when Jesus healed, it was perfect healing all the time. All right? So, anyhow, when we usually speak about the subject of tongues, it usually surrounds three areas. One, evidence of being filled with the Spirit.
[15:04] So people who talk about tongues, it's usually surrounding an area of evidence of being filled in the Spirit. I'm going to bring you these situations. We're going to look at the text, and then I want you to compare what the Bible has to say to this. The second area where we see tongues come up is evidence of salvation, that tongues, has anybody heard that, that tongues is evidence of salvation? Okay, a few of you guys, right? That some people in some Christian circles, they believe that after a person's been laid hands on, accepted Jesus Christ, and baptized in the Spirit, they will speak in tongues. And the third area where tongues comes up, it's evidence of a close personal prayer time with God. Those, by and large, are the three biggest areas that tongues comes under. So let's look at the first one. Evidence of being filled with the Spirit. People will often speak of several manifestations of the Spirit in a believer's life that accompany tongues when they are filled with the Spirit. These can include slain in the Spirit. Now, I lived in Toronto. Do you guys, have you guys heard about the Toronto Blessing Church? Okay, this was a church phenomenon. Some crazy stuff was going on there. People were flying in from all over the world. And I found out my church was actually sending people to the Toronto Blessing, hoping that the fire would catch on them and come back to our church. You know, so they wanted that, they wanted to have this experience at our church. The experience of being slain in the Spirit, about falling over and paralyzed. And I've talked with friends. They said, as soon as they touched the pastor's hands, they'd be fallen and paralyzed on the ground for hours, unable to move. Some talked about being so overwhelmed with laughter. They just couldn't stop laughing. Some crying, twitching. Some, literally, they had this, it was been documented on TV, barking like dogs. Okay? And they all believed that this was the manifestation of the Spirit.
[17:23] And they kept wanting to go back to this place where they believe it was going on. Okay? Now, let's go to the passages that talk about slain in the Spirit, overwhelming laughing, crying out, twitching, or barking. All right? Can you name them?
[17:45] There's actually no biblical evidence, no biblical commands, no even description anywhere in the pages of the Bible that talk about this. Nowhere are these seen as biblical characteristics of salvation or the work of the Holy Spirit.
[18:05] People will speak of it as being a sign of being filled with the Spirit. However, the Bible never, ever, ever states that. Nowhere. There's not even an allusion to it.
[18:22] Now, the Bible does talk about what it is to be filled in the Spirit. Every time we mention the idea of being filled in the Spirit, we are learning of what it is to live in holiness and live in godliness.
[18:38] That is what we are, what it's called. At its most basic level, to be filled with the Spirit means to walk in holiness. It is to walk in a manner worthy of God.
[18:53] Remember what Ephesians 4 is talking about? I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of God. Now, I'll tell you why most people think they get messed up with this filling thing.
[19:06] They think it's almost like this bottle. We're this vessel and the Holy Spirit is going to fill us. So once that gets filled up, kaboom! Really great, wonderful things happen.
[19:18] God is displaying himself through all these sorts of miracles. However, that is not how God actually describes the word filling. The word filling is described in Scripture is like a sail of a sailboat that is constantly being filled with the wind.
[19:39] It's always happening. So we're not to live moment by moment hoping we're going to get this filling and have this experience.
[19:50] And I'm not saying we don't have experiences. There's certain times in our lives there is, I call them special manifestations, where something pretty encouraging happens, right?
[20:05] Whether it's leading someone to Christ. But it also always happens by being obedient, pursuing holiness, and living a life like we're in this sailboat, to continue pursuing him.
[20:17] That is the image that is always given in Scripture. It's not a one-time occasion. It is to be a consistent aspect of our lives.
[20:30] All right, so now we've seen that some of those other aspects in regards to tongues, that's what they're closely associated with.
[20:43] And next to that, we get two other ones. So I'm dealing with the first one. The second two, sign of salvation and closer to God. That's a little bit difficult to argue against because you can say, hey, BK, tongues is listed in the Bible.
[20:58] Now, tongues is listed as a spiritual gift. So there's three things I want to accomplish with you today. First, I want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about tongues.
[21:12] Two, I want to answer some key questions about tongues through God's Word. And three, my prayer is that you yourselves, once looking at and understanding what God's Word has to say in the subject, will be able to answer in a way that is both biblical, and because it's biblical, you can be confident in that.
[21:37] Let's be honest. Most people approach tongues as live and let live, right? That's got friends that speak in tongues. That's okay. For friends that don't, that's okay. The big problem is when I know those who say, hey, we speak in tongues.
[21:53] You don't, you're not saved. That's kind of a really big issue there. But anyway, first things first. I get why it's confusing, and I hope that after this sermon, it won't be.
[22:07] All right. My ultimate goal through this is not to bash our brothers and sisters of the faith, but I want you to really see what God's Word says, and by virtue of that, being drawn into a greater worship of Him, and that you'd have greater peace of mind.
[22:27] All right. So first, turn with me to the Book of Acts. Book of Acts. As most of you know, Book of Acts was written by a man named Luke, and he's the same guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke.
[22:39] He was a historian, and he's writing about the beginning of the church, how the church started off after Jesus Christ died and was resurrected.
[22:52] So he writes these under the power of the Holy Spirit. What we see in Acts is a description. All right. It's a description.
[23:02] What I mean by description, it's not a prescription. We're not seeing any commands in this book, but what we're seeing is a history, a narrative of what happened in the early church.
[23:15] So what we see is that Jesus Christ, we're at this scene, we're going to look at Acts 1. So Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, he's meeting with all his disciples, and he states in Acts 1, 4, You heard from me, for John baptized with water.
[23:33] But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So there's a switch going on in the covenants. Because we used to have the baptism of repentance was an Old Testament baptism.
[23:46] Remember, we know John the Baptist, right? John the Baptist wasn't giving a Christian baptism. He was actually giving a Jewish baptism of repentance. And that was for Jewish people who are saying, Hey, I started living secularly.
[24:00] I got away from the faith. I want in back to my old covenant people. And you would do that through a baptism. All right? So that was a good, righteous thing to do.
[24:12] I'm ready to come under the law of Yahweh. I want to get closer to God again. So John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
[24:26] Verse 6. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? Now remember, a lot of people were expecting Jesus Christ to establish the kingdom here on earth right there and then, right?
[24:41] Jesus, ready? Take it over. Rome, you're out of here. Jesus is now reigning supreme. We believe that this is going to be in the future. It's not there. So verse 7 says, 7 to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed his own authority.
[24:59] So hey, timeline's not there yet, guys, for you guys to know. Now notice what he says in verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
[25:11] And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, Samaria, in the end of the earth. And I'm convinced that where we live now is the end of the earth.
[25:25] Geographically, if we measure it out from Israel anyway. Okay. So Jesus raises up to heaven at that time. So later, as the apostles and the disciples of Jesus Christ waited for the Holy Spirit, as they were commanded to, let's take a look at Acts 2.
[25:43] When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound, like a mighty rushing wind.
[25:55] And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. So this is the onset of this new covenant. And it said, in divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them.
[26:11] So this is the birth of the church that we're witnessing. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
[26:23] Now what that word tongues is, the Greek word is, glosia. We're going to find out very soon that's the same word that's used throughout Scripture. That is a language.
[26:34] Okay. It's talking about a known language or dialect that's understood by a people. All right. So they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.
[26:49] That word utterance is declarations that are right and true. They weren't saying stuff that no one understood. They understood them to be speaking another language that totally made sense.
[27:03] And it says, Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together. And they were bewildered.
[27:14] Because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. All right. So they're hearing something that they understand. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans?
[27:29] So what they're saying is, Those guys are Galileans. They're northern Israel guys. They don't know these languages. And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?
[27:43] Now, we're not even left to guess what those languages are. Look at verse 9. Parthians, means, Alamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judeo, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the ports of Libya, belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans, and Arabians.
[28:09] We hear them telling in our own languages the mighty works of God. So here we are, new covenant.
[28:21] The Holy Spirit has come upon this church. A couple things that we observe. The gift was given to them by the Holy Spirit.
[28:34] This was Holy Spirit powered. This is not how things worked in the Old Testament. Now, a lot of people, it's interesting when they talk about in some of the charismatic circles about wanting to see miracles and powers of the day.
[28:51] When you go through the Old Testament, they act as if that there's, it's a whole time of all these mighty works that God was doing. It actually, it isn't.
[29:02] We see very little miracles. We see Elijah and Elisha. Elisha is an intense time of miracles. Moses, we see intense miracles and mighty works.
[29:16] But after those prophets, we just read books of history and we read very rarely that these men did amazing things. And the reason I'm telling you that is to dispel the myth that we're going back to a time where all believers in God were able to do great and mighty works.
[29:34] When it's not true, once in a while, you had a person like Samson show up on the scene being able to do, that was one man in all the world that was doing that. Okay?
[29:44] So there are these very unique times in church history that God has done these things. All right. So notice, these people didn't practice their gift.
[29:57] They didn't pray for their gift. But we see here that the Spirit gives us as he sees fit. Number two, the second thing I want you to see, verse four, utterance.
[30:08] It means to declare, to speak remarkable things. Okay? It's not gibberish. There's actual real truth being stated.
[30:19] And three, people were hearing them in their language. This is important. As I said, the word tongue, Greek word is glosia.
[30:30] It is a particular language or dialect as spoken by a particular people. Okay? Do you get that? Now, one thing, this is not the gift of hearing.
[30:43] A lot of people say, well, they had the gift of hearing to hear them speaking. No, no, no. These guys were all speaking different languages of all the people that were there.
[30:54] Okay? And what were they doing? Number five, the fourth thing I want you to understand is that they were teaching the gospel. Right? They were teaching about the works of Jesus Christ.
[31:06] They were not praying. They were not off on their own. But they were declaring to people in another language, and they knew exactly what they were saying.
[31:16] They had remarkable speech. They were all telling people in a language that they just started hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ and who he was. So it's not like their mind was devoid of their tongues.
[31:31] All of a sudden, the guy knew how to speak Persian, spoke, started speaking Persian. All right? So what we're seeing is an evangelistic work which is telling people about the mighty works of God.
[31:44] So we see three purposes here. One, it is a sign of God's power. Amen? Holy Spirit showing up. Boom. Holy Spirit brings power. Two, we see that it's a sign of evangelism.
[31:57] This is meant to lead people to faith. The work is actually to preach the gospel to people in their language. And three, and not very well known, it's a sign of the new covenant.
[32:12] And what the sign of the new covenant means to the Jew is actually judgment. Okay? Allow me to explain. Isaiah 28, 11 to 12 tells the Jew that when you start hearing foreign tongues in your land, it means my spirit has gone on to another people.
[32:36] It says, for by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue, the Lord will speak to this people to whom he has said, this is rest.
[32:48] Give rest to the weary and this is reposed. Who are the weary? Sinners. People who were weary from all their works.
[33:01] Just think. We've just been learning about this in Ephesians. To be a Gentile is to be totally separated from God. You know there's a God and you want to believe in a God.
[33:14] You know you've sinned against the God but you don't know how to fix it so you carve this idol out. You get some wood. Maybe you're good with making stone idols.
[33:26] Maybe you go down to the temple of Artemis. Someone else has made that stone idol and I'm going to go worship this, right? But just think there's this constant consternation within yourself.
[33:40] Maybe Artemis isn't the right God. Maybe I need to go down to Egypt. Maybe Ra is the right God I need to be under, right? So the Roman Empire, they just took them all, right?
[33:52] If you're Roman, we'll just take all your gods. Come on. Come on in. Bring all your gods. Bring all your idols in. But just think, God is bringing conviction to your soul.
[34:06] You know what you've done is wrong. You have this burden on you. You've got this burden. Perhaps it's even led you to sacrifice your own child to idols as some of those gods required.
[34:23] Like, that's a horrible thing. And he says to them, this is rest. Give rest to the weary and this is repose.
[34:38] That's what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. Amen? It's rest for our weary bones. Yet they will not hear, hey, my people, I came, you did not hear.
[34:50] So I am now going to all people. And that's exactly what we're seeing here. Hey, Jerusalem, Samaria, and all the people.
[35:00] So the gospel is going out in the kingdom of God is quote unquote leaving Israel. For all times, Abraham spoke, God spoke through Israel.
[35:14] Not anymore. So turn with me to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8.
[35:25] If you remember, this is the story of Peter being sent over to Samaria. You know, those false religiousites, the people that are so despicable, I won't even walk in their land.
[35:42] I'll actually add time on my journey to go to Jerusalem because the last thing I want to do is walk through a Samaritan plan, right? All of a sudden, they're starting to hear that the gospel has come in to the Samaritans and they believe.
[35:58] They send Peter and John in there. What happens? They lay hands and the Holy Spirit comes upon them. So this is why some of our brothers and sisters of the Christian faith and some Pentecostal circles think, well, look, it's going on there, right?
[36:14] So there must, has to be a hand, laying of hands. There has to be a separate, there has to be accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There has to be this other experience of laying hands of the Holy Spirit.
[36:28] Now go to Acts chapter 10. This is Acts chapter 10, verse 44. So now we have Cornelius and Romans, okay?
[36:40] And it says, while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard. So Peter had been sent. So now the gospel was not just for the Jew, it's for those dirty Samaritans.
[36:56] And now, it's for these occupying Romans too? Like, this is crazy, God. You've all been for us and now you're like giving away this grace to other people.
[37:10] You're giving rest to other people. And it says, while he was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. In verse 45, and the believers from among the circumcised, that's the Jews, who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
[37:33] Us filthy people now can have the Holy Spirit. Notice verse 46. For they're hearing them speaking in tongues and a stolen God.
[37:46] These people were speaking in other languages to these Gentiles. What we're having is the gift of tongues working out again.
[37:56] So where our brothers and sisters of the faith were kind of mixed this up is they say, well, you get saved, then you have this, you got to lay hands and they have to have that Holy Spirit come upon them and then you have to speak on tongues.
[38:11] So there's churches today that believe that threefold process that we're reading here. This is descriptive, okay? This is a whole new thing going on in all of God's world.
[38:22] It's never happened before. And I believe it's because God is teaching these disciples and we see this problem with Peter throughout Acts.
[38:33] He has a hard time with you Gentiles. Right? He's been the Jew of the Jew his whole life. And now God is giving them these special treats to see, ha, I work in Samaritans and ha, I work through Romans 2 and ha, look at that Holy Spirit fall upon them.
[38:52] You're watching it right there. Okay, now let's take a look at Acts 19 and these are all the instances of tongues that we're looking at today. Acts 19, 1-7.
[39:07] So here, Paul meets Apollos at Corinth with other disciples. And he just says to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
[39:19] And Paul, and Apollos and his group said, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. Now we need to understand that Apollos who became a great preacher was an Old Testament believer.
[39:34] Okay? He was all in on the Old Testament. He was a God follower in a sense that you could have from the Old Testament. He had probably done, he probably didn't even need to, I can't say that, but I was going to say he didn't even need to do John's baptism of repentance and he probably didn't need to but if he was always following God then he would not have needed to do that.
[39:56] So he's a follower of God so he says to them, did you receive? No. Then he says, well, into, oh yes he was. Into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism.
[40:08] Look at that. I contradicted myself with one verse. Bible's good, right? So he's a perfect Old Testament believer. He's repenting. And then we go to verse 4. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptizing of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him.
[40:29] That is Jesus. But he didn't know the Jesus part. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid on his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
[40:48] Same pattern that we're seeing. People who were not trained in the language began to speak a known language.
[40:59] That word, prophesy. People believe prophesy is to predict the future. That can be a part of it. But prophecy was to basically preach the word of God before he had the word of God.
[41:12] Okay? Do you remember that? They didn't have this right at the very start. They did not have the gospel. They did not have all of Paul's letters. So when these men would prophesy or preach, declare what God was saying, what it meant was they would have these authoritative gifts along with them showing them that what they said is true.
[41:35] So here's the definition. I know it's taken me a long time to get there. In the gift of tongues, it's a spirit-giving supernatural ability to speak a human language that has not been learned previously.
[41:50] That's what the gift is. All right. There's only one other mention of tongues and we're going to go there right now.
[42:02] So we're going to turn to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. I know when you hear about tongues, you think there's a whole bunch, a lot written about it.
[42:14] But it's actually written about in these sections. And a lot of it, what was understood is from Acts. And a lot of people ignore what the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians about it.
[42:29] So last week we learned the following. Verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 12. Now there are varieties of gift but the same spirit. And there are varieties of service but the same Lord.
[42:44] And there are varieties of activities but it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.
[42:58] So what do we learn? 1. Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit. 2. Every believer has a gift. 3. Since the gifts are God powered there is no greater, there is no lesser.
[43:15] Alright? And 4. Not every believer gets every gift. So we're going to learn here what a three-fold purpose of the gift is. 1.
[43:25] We learn from this verse. It's for the common good. A gift that God has given is for the common good. Not self. 2. Verse 12 of chapter 12 it says it's for the edification of the church.
[43:41] The building up of the church. And just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body through many are one body so it is with Christ. It's like the hand is all about the body.
[43:56] The hand doesn't do things to bring glory to the hand. the hand does things to bring glory to the body. And if we would turn to 1 Peter as we did last week I'll just read you this verse.
[44:11] It's 1 Peter 4 10 11. It says as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as God's good stewards of as good stewards of God's varied grace.
[44:26] So when it comes to the subject of tongues we need to understand these things right? We need to understand it's for the common good it's meant to build up the body and it's meant to serve one another.
[44:43] That to have a gift that doesn't meet those three criterias is no longer a spiritual gift. So when we come to the context of 1 Corinthians we need to understand something.
[45:00] 1 Corinthians was an exceptionally it was a letter written to a church at Corinth and to say it was messed up would be an understatement. Okay?
[45:11] It was an exceptionally messed up church. These guys living on the testimonies of what they've been hearing through different prophets took their own thing ran with them and created havoc among God's people.
[45:28] Paul had to address division in the church so they missed that whole unity thing. There was lack of discipline. We read about lack of purity, right? There was a man in that church who was sleeping with his stepmother, right?
[45:45] And they weren't doing anything about it. They had problems with public worship, there was problems with the role of women, and those problems with the use of spiritual gift and church order.
[46:00] So Paul, it's a long letter dealing with a lot of these things. Now turn with me to chapter 14. So it's almost Paul was writing this chapter to today because he's bringing out a lot of the issues.
[46:21] So verse 14, guys, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts that you may prophesy.
[46:33] Remember, that's to teach God's truth. And he says verse 2, for one who speaks in a tongue, so tongues had obviously been a huge focus of this church, and he's starting to address this.
[46:49] for one who speaks in his tongues speaks not to men, but to God. Why? Because no one can understand him. But he others mysteries in the spirit.
[47:03] So remember the rules of spiritual gifts, to be good for the common good, to bless those that are there to edify the church. But if we can't hear you or understand what you're saying, it's really not doing any good.
[47:19] So he says, on the other hand, in verse 3, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Now remember, we're talking about worship service.
[47:33] Verse 4, the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
[47:45] All right? Now I want you to all speak in tongues. I wish you had all the ability to speak foreign languages so you could evangelize.
[47:57] But even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you?
[48:13] Unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching. If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp do not give distinctive notes, how will anyone know what is said?
[48:29] Is this making sense to you guys? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? They were trained to hear a certain sound to gather the people that there was an enemy approaching.
[48:46] If you're just making some sound that really means nothing, what good is it? Verse 9, so with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?
[49:01] For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world and none is without meaning. But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
[49:16] So verse 12, so with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Get that?
[49:29] A lot of people, we think if there's a whole bunch of experiences and we're manifesting the Spirit, if we have this belief that tongues have to accompany the Holy Spirit filling the place, that's what we're looking for, right?
[49:43] And I'll be honest with you, I've got friends, dearly loved friends, they have bought into this system. And if they go to church and there's not some manifestation, they're coming home broken hearted.
[49:57] They go to church, not expecting to be taught, prophesied, they're going to church hoping someone's going to do something. And I remember her and her dad were kind of coronering me, this was before I was in pastoral work, and they just kind of said to me, the reason you don't believe that stuff, BK, is because you don't believe, you don't have faith.
[50:18] And I said, actually, I believe I've got more faith because I don't need to see that. I don't need to have a perpetual experience to let me know that I'm close to God. The Bible tells me that he's here, if I draw near to him, he will draw near to me.
[50:34] He doesn't say if you go and experience some kind of miracle, then you're closer to God. Because we see all those people who saw all the great miracles that Jesus Christ did. Did all of Israel get saved?
[50:46] No. But we somehow make that association. Verse 13, verse 15, what am I to do?
[51:07] I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
[51:18] This is huge, guys. A lot of people saying they're praying in the spirit, but they have no idea what they're saying. Paul puts a dagger into that thought process right here.
[51:37] You may pray in the spirit, but it has to be what is going on in your mind. You're not praying blindly. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
[51:56] For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I'd rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.
[52:15] Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the lot is written, by people of strange tongues and by lips of foreigners will I speak to this people.
[52:29] And even when they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Thus, tongues are assigned not for believers, but for unbelievers.
[52:40] While prophecy is assigned not for unbelievers, but for believers. believers, if therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are all out of your minds?
[52:58] But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all.
[53:09] The secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. That is talking about the declaration of God's word.
[53:23] What then, brother, when you come together, and I'm just going to skip this part. So here we go. Let's just sum this up. Verse 13, one tells us if there is no love, gift doesn't matter.
[53:38] All right? So it has to be for others. It's not for yourself. Two, teaching has to be valued more than tongues. Three, says quite clearly tongues are meant for unbelievers.
[53:53] Believers. And four, we read the church order. Verse 27, no more than two or three. And five, must be interpreted.
[54:04] Why? Otherwise, it's useless to everyone else. This is the Bible's teaching on tongues. All you now, you have a paradigm now.
[54:17] When you hear about an experience, you run it against this paradigm, and you will know whether it's biblical or not. One, it's not a non-language.
[54:31] It is not just an experience that someone has on their own. Let me recap. One, it proves the speaker in New Testament time, the apostle.
[54:42] Two, it was for unbelievers. Three, because it was for unbelievers, it functioned as evangelism. And four, it does not build up the church.
[54:55] So the tongues that we're seeing here was not a spiritual gift as we understand spiritual gifts to be. Now, if you go through all of the teachings of the New Testament and salvation, and the message of God is being preached, you will find no other mention of tongues.
[55:12] You know that? There are no further examples given in the other three sections of Acts. There is no more teachings. In fact, there is no mention of the gift of tongues in the list that is mentioned in Romans.
[55:25] It doesn't even mention the gift again. So, when the question comes up, are all believers to speak in tongues?
[55:38] You guys can answer that question. Are all speakers to speak in tongues? No. So, someone tells you, you need to speak in tongues to be saved. You go, eh.
[55:49] That's not what the Bible teaches. Some believe that tongues is a sign of the Spirit. Sometimes it's a sign of salvation and of greater works.
[55:59] The truth of the matter is, we've just read here, for just the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ, for in one Spirit, we were all baptized in one body.
[56:15] What that means is, upon salvation, that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's not a separate event. Jews, Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
[56:27] At the moment of conversion, we are all placed in the body of Christ. This is the baptism of the Spirit. Tongues is not a pre-ritual for this occurrence.
[56:41] Further, Paul will teach that not everyone has every gift. So to say that you have to be saved, you have to speak in tongues, hey, Paul already destroys that argument.
[56:54] He says not everyone has every gift. Chapter 12 tells us that the Holy Spirit distributes different gifts to different people. So let me answer a few more questions here.
[57:09] Some will point to verse 5 of chapter 14 when it says, I wish you all spoke tongues. What he's talking about, I, but he says, I'd rather you all prophesied, which is teaching God's word, but he who prophesies is greater than the one with tongues.
[57:25] So what he's saying is there's no need for interpretation with prophecy. If the Lord has a message for people, why wouldn't he give him that message in their own language?
[57:36] Is our God a God of confusion or not? So the other question that comes up, what about personal praying in tongues?
[57:50] The other question, is there a language of angels and is there a language that only God understands? It says, if you know anyone who comes from a charismatic background or maybe even you yourselves have had this experience, you've been praying and you felt you were speaking in tongues.
[58:08] I'm not stating you weren't speaking some other noises or you're not having a different manifestation. But one, there's nowhere in scripture that it says that we are to speak tongues to God or another language to God.
[58:28] In fact, as we've seen here, it's all about evangelizing in real language. Now, some people call it a secret prayer language. Now, the obvious question is, if you know what gifts, if you know that the spiritual gifts are meant for the edification of the body and the coming good, would God give you a spiritual gift just for your private use?
[58:50] Yes or no? No, right? Right? As well, the language, although they did not know the language, they still knew what they were saying.
[59:02] When you ask people about this language, they will often say, well, I didn't know what I was saying. Now, I'm going to tell you the biggest problem with this, and we just had Paul say this.
[59:14] What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
[59:26] If you go through every single prayer that exists in this Bible, everyone knew what they were praying. There's no such thing as a prayer that you do not know.
[59:40] Does that make sense? Now, there's prayer without words. How many people here have cried while praying? You know, just in that emotion, you can't even speak words.
[59:53] You're so hurt and brokenhearted. But you still know what you're communicating, right? Sometimes we cry, Lord, I am lost, without saying those words.
[60:06] So, prayer always has to engage the mind. So, everyone always points, I'm just going to wrap it up with this one thing.
[60:20] In 1 Corinthians 13, 1, Paul says, If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. This is the go-to verse.
[60:31] Look, there's an angelic prayer. Paul was saying, hey, I could speak in tongues of men or tongues of angels. First of all, the point of this passage is love.
[60:42] It's not about speaking in angelic languages. Two, Paul is in the middle of making an argument, and he's not claiming to speak in an angelic tongue. He's basically using hyperbole.
[60:55] If I were to speak in men, or if I was to speak as an angelic tongue. So, it's this wide breath, but I had not love.
[61:06] It means nothing. It's like, it's an idiom. It's like, he's citing something that would never happen. We see the same in Galatians 1, 8, 9.
[61:16] But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. All right? If it were for me as a gospel, or the number one angel preaching a false gospel, it's never going to happen, right?
[61:34] That's what he's saying. But it's like the highest high and the lowest low. It's like if it were raining cats and dogs outside. Matt, some foreigners do not get that saying whatsoever.
[61:48] Right? What are you talking about? Really? There's a time where cats and dogs fall from the sky here? No. So the question is, are tongues for today? I'm going to let you decide.
[62:02] Knowing what you know, what God's word says when people experience what's happening, open your word. I have given you now every single passage that relates to tongues.
[62:18] Perhaps God in this day will create a miracle and give someone that tongue, in a specific location to speak to people. Yes, I do believe that. But as far as having a specific gift of tongues that we are able to call upon at any moment to speak the gospel to people from around the world, I really wish we did.
[62:43] But I don't think it's happening. I think God is reaching other people through other means today. Let's pray. Let's pray.