tonight as we look into the continued
investigation of the gift of tongues, their meaning, their
validity, their relevance, their non-relevance, to make sure we
understand what's going on. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14,
I'm going to read verse 20 through verse And then we're going to open
in a word of prayer and we'll continue our investigation. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 20, Brethren,
be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be you children. But in understanding, be men.
In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other
lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that Will they
not hear me, saith the Lord? 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. If therefore the whole church
come together into one place and all speak with tongues, and
there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will
they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and there
come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced
of all, or thoroughly convinced, and he is thoroughly self-judged,
and the secrets of the heart is made manifest. And so falling
down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in
you of a truth. Amen. Amen. In our opening discussion
and investigation into the subject of the gift of tongues, we started
with our 15-point questionnaire. You can pull the PowerPoint up,
and we can start from there. The issues that we dealt with
last week were established on the premise of the question of
assumptions, assumptions meaning that a lot of us buy into notions,
embrace notions, adopt ideas and concepts, and we don't really
know whether those things are true, whether those things are
relevant or valid. Assumptions are very dangerous,
but also a very common experience for us. It is often the consequence
of laziness. On the other hand, it's also
the consequence of simply being naive and trusting. Sometimes
we embrace things out of assumption because we have no way of testing
or proving or validating a thing. If one understood assumptions
from a technical standpoint, what you would realize is that
assumptions are something with which people embrace simply because
it's more convenient. A lot of times we make judgments
to embrace things because they're consistent with our character.
They appeal to us. Opinions, as you have heard stated
so many times, are like belly buttons. We all have one. But
opinions can be valid and opinions can be non-valid. And so with
the Word of God, we can't be dealing with opinions and we
can't be dealing with assumptions. We have to deal with facts. And
the Word of God would have you and I to prove everything. Now think about this for a moment
as we deal with it under the concept of assumptions. What
does it mean to assume something, the act of assuming? It means
to take to oneself or take upon oneself. It's the act of taking
up or adopting something, to take a position, to take a view,
to embrace an idea, to embrace a concept. What that means is
you have now made yourself vulnerable to and you have exposed yourself
to something. Um, point number two, it's the
act of taking for granted are supposing a thing to be without
proof, a supposition and unwarrantable claim. Thus the example, their
assumption of his guilt disqualified them from jury duty. Now you
and I know if you are put on a jury duty that you don't have
the right to draw a judgment on that person until all the
evidence is brought in. Well, how much more so on propositions
and ideas that have eternal weight behind them? So the scriptures
would tell us, and this is very important, you could pull up
the next point, that you and I are to test, test, test, test
everything. Is that true? We are to test
everything. Now, I want you to think about
this for a moment. I have several verses up there. You have heard
these verses before. But you have to ask yourself,
as we continue to delve into the subject of tongues, do you
operate out of this kind of integrity? Are you a person who challenges
views, who weighs out matters? who seriously pursues knowing
whether a thing is right or wrong. I mean, really, most professing
Christians say they do, but I have to be honest with you. After
37 years in the faith, I meet a lot of people who really are
operating out of mere assumptions. Very seldom do I meet people
who are diligent in the word of God. I mean, really diligent.
Like Acts chapter 17 says, these were more noble than the Thessalonians. For they actually searched the
Scriptures whether those things were so or not. They didn't even
take the apostles' word for it. One of the other reasons with
which you and I are investigating the subject of tongues is because
we're going through the book of Acts and we want to make sure
that we are clear on the biblical understanding of the concept
as it is set forth in the scriptures and not merely adopt for ourselves
the interpretation that has been granted to us by our common experience. I have challenged Christianity
for the last 20 years on the assumption that what's taking
place in most of our charismatic and Pentecostal churches does
not square with what the scriptures actually teach. I have challenged
the idea that to speak in a kind of gibberish that is unintelligible,
some type of heavenly or angelic speech which has these broken
nouns and disjointed verbs and disjointed syntaxes. I have challenged
that as not actually having scriptural Verity and you're gonna see that
tonight that there's no way that you can through a grammatical
and contextual interpretation of scripture derive that kind
of conclusion We're gonna see that tonight. I've challenged
that but it's been about 10 years since I've actually gone into
the study in depth and And when we went into it 10 years ago,
it was because at that time there were major fads taking place
in the church that many of us saw as not only dangerous but
absurd, which is what you saw last week as we were looking
at some of the late 1990s examples of so-called holy laughter. We
know that those two words are oxymoron. Holy laughter and running
in the spirit and being slain in the spirit and falling in
the spirit and all of this stuff that you see having going on
in many Pentecostal churches now to be fair the reason why
I gave you the example of the outlandish behavior of the Kenneth
Hagin, Kenneth Copeland model of them running around the church,
falling out and waffling all over the place. Then we looked
at the more rational view of a man speaking in a tongue and
someone else rising up to give an interpretation is because
you have the spectrum, particularly within your Pentecostal churches,
where some at least pay some allegiance to the biblical model
of 1 Corinthians 14. Most don't, but some do. And when I say most don't, I
really mean most don't. When you examine what first Corinthians
14 says in terms of the clarity, edification and order essential
in every gospel church, clarity, edification and order. This is
the CEO of first Corinthians 14. Paul essentially says it
should never be done in the church without interpretation. It should
never be done. No one has the right to engage
in an unintelligible expression of articulation or speech. It
doesn't matter what the case is without someone there being
able to interpret what they're saying. Now, that's the contextual
regulatory principle for the gift of tongues as they were
obviously present at that time. But for those of you who know
the arguments and you know the issues, you know that we are
actually asking several relevant questions around tongues. Not
only what is it and not only, you know, what, what were their
purposes, but whether they are even relevant today. That's one
of the more crucial points we'll get to in a little bit. And then
we will deal with their implications as well. When we say we must
test them, scripture demands skepticism and analysis of all
untested claims. You know when somebody says to
you that they have the gift of miracles, you are automatically
not to believe them. Automatically not to believe
them. When they say they have the gift
of healing, you are automatically not to believe them. Automatically. When they say they have any spiritual
gift, you are to test that claim. and you are detested by the word
of God. You and I are called to be skeptics. That's 1 Thessalonians
5, 21. Prove all things, put it in the
fire of biblical examination with multitudes of qualified
witnesses to determine whether or not the person that is alleging
to possess the gift actually possesses the gift or are they
deceived and perpetrating a deception. And the reason for which you
must be skeptical is because the Bible says multitudes will
be deceived by false religion. Multitudes. And in fact, the
vast majority of Christendom that does not operate out of
a solid biblical basis is deceived. This is what our master meant
in Matthew 7 when he says, wide is the road that leads to destruction. Many be there that go in. And
I am fairly confident that as we are reexamining this case,
this is going to prove to be very edifying for many of you
who have never been exposed to the charismatic Pentecostal community,
but you know intuitively that there is something askew. It's
going to be a blessing for those of you who have come into that
community and have come out of that community, but you never
have been able to test it and, uh, and, and settle the matter
in terms of what the Bible teaches. It's going to be a challenge
for those of you who still embrace those alleged, uh, views. But I hope that if you're a child
of God, you will submit to biblical true and not embrace something
that you cannot prove to be true. First Peter chapter three, verse
15 and 16. This is a common text. You and I are to give an answer
unto every man that asketh us of the hope of the calling, which
is within us with meekness and fear. The idea of giving an answer
is to give a defense of our view as Christians. In other words,
ladies and gentlemen, you don't get to just tell somebody you
believe something or hold something or do something or practice something
without being able to thoroughly demonstrate whether it's biblical
or not. You can't just do it. Acts chapter
17 verse 10, we quote it. Proverbs chapter 14 verse 15,
I used to quote this a lot. You may not know it. Earlier
in my early days in my 20s, one of the things I did was establish
myself deeply into eschatology as well as apologetics. Because
when God saved me, he threw me right in the fire of a lot of
chaos that was going on in the evangelical church. and I was
hearing voices on the left hand and voices on the right, and
they were contradicting each other, even though they called
themselves biblical authorities. And I'm looking at the scriptures,
and I'm seeing that they're not practicing what they preach,
and I'm wondering what's going on. So immediately I had to learn
how to rightly divide the word. But what that required was a
conversion in my youthfulness and my naivete. Because when
you're brand new as a Christian, you are open, you are wide open
to suggestions by allegedly older Christians. You are vulnerable
because you are babes. You are brand new in the faith
and you have no idea how to discern right from wrong. That requires
time, experience, and diligent study in the Word as Hebrews
chapter 5 says. that you go from the milk to
the meat, because by reason of having your senses exercised,
you can now discern good from evil. And over the span of your
youth, this is why we have to grow up in the faith. And you're
going to hear me talk about growing up again, because that's part
of the problem that was in the Corinthian church, and I am sure
it's still the problem today. a lack of maturity in the faith
causing people to want to embrace signs and wonders as if signs
and wonders in and of themselves have the capacity to grow you
up and they don't. You can stay spiritually immature
embracing signs and wonders and never grow up and never be effective
in the faith because signs and wonders are not maturity gifts.
They're merely sign gifts, initiatory gifts. to affirm certain essential
propositions with regards to the nature of God and the gospel.
Again, we'll see that as we go on. But Proverbs 14, 15 says,
now listen to it, the simple believe every word. You know
what the word simple means? Naive. Vulnerable, ignorant. They believe anything and everything
that people say, especially when you put them in a group dynamic
where people know more than you, they can tell you anything. You
just bob your head, yes, and buy it. That's Proverbs 15, four. So you can write that down if
y'all don't know it. Write it down if you don't know it, because
this is discernment time. The simple believe every word,
but the prudent man, prudent woman looks well to his going.
See that? The prudent man looks well to
his going. You know how you get to a point where you had trusted
someone, and you thought what they said was true, and then
over time, they started demonstrating levels of inconsistency, theologically
and practically, and all of a sudden you became suspicious, and internally
you were going through conflict, because you were becoming suspicious
of that very person with whom you had an allegiance. And they
may have been an upline individual who had more maturity than you.
And so you naively assumed that they were right. And over time,
you came to discover that you could not just yield yourself
to them and trust them indiscriminately. Isn't that right? And so now
you are on your journey of being more objective and critical and
discriminating. But you found when you started
asking questions that you got in trouble, didn't you? Absolutely. You realize that your leaders
weren't willing to negotiate the truth claims that they said
that they embraced, that they were not willing to sit down
and open up the scriptures and demonstrate explicitly why they
practice certain things. So it's important for you to
do that in first John chapter four, verse one says, beloved,
do not believe every spirit. But try the Spirit. So you see
right there, you have no grounds, child of God, to simply believe
what a person says. You have no grounds. There are
two spirits in the world. You guys know that, right? The
spirit of truth and the spirit of what? The word era is the
Greek word planos, and it means to leave the sphere, leave the
realm in which you were originally and naturally placed in it, It
describes the falling star, the star that now loses its place
in the hemisphere and now is falling, falling, falling. And
it describes false prophets and false teachers who leave the
realm of truth, leave the dimension of biblical truth. And they are
from the path of righteousness. That's a spirit. Now again, I'm
thinking about where we are presently in the church age in the 21st
century. And I'm thinking about how the
Pentecostal charismatic movement has continued on over the last
20, 30 years. And it has become worldwide gargantuan
in nature and its influence is exponentially larger today than
it was 30 or 40 years ago for very obvious reasons, which we
won't be able to get into tonight because the material is too vast.
But suffice it to say, it's still an issue to be dealt with because
everyday people are coming into the kingdom, and everyday people
are being challenged with whether or not they are, as it were,
graced to be able to get rooted and grounded in biblical truth
as they discern what's right and what's wrong. So we move
now to our second point. our second point, our third point
in our outline. Three positions or three views
that I wanted to call your attention to that have to be addressed.
First is, as we said last week, the gift of tongues are languages
of men, this is one view, and they are still operating today.
The gift of tongues are languages of men, and this is one view,
and they are still operating today. In other words, when God
gave the gift of tongues, as we have the model and framework
in Acts chapter 2, Those were the gifts of languages of different
ethnic groups, correct? Explicitly set forth, unambiguous,
there's no argument about that. That very same gift of languages
can be consistently understood to run through the whole of the
Book of Acts. And when we get to 1 Corinthians 14, a sound
exegetical development of 1 Corinthians 14 would lead us to conclude
that the Corinthians would have been given the very same gift.
This is called the principle of continuity, uniformity. Why would 1 Corinthians 14 have
a different kind of tongue than that in the book of Acts? There
would be no reason for it. But we'll be able to demonstrate
that by grammar and history here in a moment. There is that position,
and that position still holds true today. Even in your Pentecostal
charismatic churches, I have several Pentecostal friends.
I know several pastors who are such. They hold to your gibberish
kind of disjointed terminology that's more along the pagan lines,
and we'll talk about that. Then there are those who are
a little bit more learned, more knowledgeable, understand languages,
have some background in sound theology, they recognize that
the only legitimate biblical conclusion that can be drawn
is that the gift of tongues are the gift of languages so they
are in both camps you guys understand what I'm saying they're in both
camps I was listening to Donnie Swagger yeah Jimmy Swagger you
remember Jimmy and all of the problems that attended him we'll
talk about the normative immorality of that attends many of these
especially large charismatic preachers. It is epidemic in
the church. It's still Corinthian in its orientation. But Donnie
Swaggart is an evangelist. He goes about preaching and teaching
and he teaches tongues too, because he's still Pentecostal. But at
least he has a more biblical interpretation. He calls it languages
of men because he understands grammar. One of the problems
in our Pentecostal and charismatic churches is that they really
are anti-intellectual. Historically, they've been anti-intellectual.
And what I mean by that is they have not been serious about biblical
studies. They have not been serious about
biblical studies. And when you challenge them on
the integrity and veracity of the scripture, they want to run
from you because they really don't know how to handle the
languages. But without understanding how to handle the languages,
you cannot come to truth consistently. There are nuances in the scripture
that demand that you understand the languages enough to know
whether or not your interpretation is solid or does it run across
some other passages of scripture and contradict it. And so it's
very important to know. So there are the gifts that are
languages of men and they're still in operation today. These
would be called continuationist. The gift of tongues are languages
that are unknown, heavenly or angelic, and are still operating
today. That's your other category of people that I said that are
often individuals who adopt tongues by virtue of being in that culture,
and they receive that gift in several ways. We'll talk about
that. And they don't know whether it's a heavenly language, earthly
language. Somebody told them it was the
language of angels or your heavenly language or your prayer language.
They couldn't verify one way or the other. But so they basically
say, you know, it's a prayer language. Then the third one
is the gifts of tongues were past tense languages of men,
but are not operating today. That's a secessionist position,
cessationist position. That's my position. The Word
of God forces me to that conclusion for several reasons, as we will
see. Next PowerPoint. Here's the problem
with the first two views. I want you to get this. This
is rational, reasonable, and necessary to get. The problem
with the first two views, if the gift of tongues are the languages
of men, then they can be tested. If the gift of tongues are the
languages of men, then they can be tested. What do I mean that
that's a problem? It's a problem or a challenge
only in this sense, that if you allege to have the gift of tongues
and it is in fact, according to the scriptures, a language,
we can actually test that whether it's so or not, as they have
already done. Meaning, Let's say you're English,
you're an American and so you speak English, but God gives
you the gift of Cantonese. We can test that. If he gives
you the gift of any other dialect around the world, ladies and
gentlemen, we can test that. At least now you correspond to
the scriptures. Got that? If he gave you that
gift, we're not denying the possibility of him giving you that gift,
particularly if you are submitting to a biblical interpretation
of tongues. What we're simply saying is, here's your challenge,
here's your problem. If he gave you that gift, we
can prove it. And if he really didn't give
you that gift, when we test you, you will be found faulty. The
evidence is already in. If your gift of tongues, your
alleged gift of tongues, are angels, are the gift of angels,
are heavenly gifts, are heavenly tongues, then here's the other
problem. They cannot be tested. See, we can't test a so-called
angelic tongue. And we can't test a so-called
heavenly tongue. It can be so heavenly that it's
from the planet Pluto. We can't test it. That's the
problem. This becomes one of the loopholes.
It can't be tested. And if it can't be tested, we
are in trouble because the scripture says test everything. And then
when you follow the regulatory principle, 1 Corinthians chapter
13, 14, you understand that there must be interpretation. If a
person ever utters a so-called heavenly language or a prayer
language or an angelic language in public, in the assembly whether
they're gathered two or three. A lot of you talk about your
prayer language in your prayer group. But that's not the whole
church. Well even there you can deceive people. You can mislead
people. You can guide them astray. How
can that person listening to you pray in your prayer language
be edified by hearing you go shallow the kind of hot cut up
by that that that that that and not give an interpretation. How
can they know? Can they be edified? Now they
are bound to assume. And you have taken away from
them not only the right, but the mandate to prove that what
you are doing as a group, no matter how small you are, is
biblical. That's the problem. Third one.
I want to talk briefly about the founder of modern day tongues. I'm gonna just read about Mr.
Fox Perham. Anybody know about him? Mr. Fox
Perham? He's the founder of the Modern
Day Times. Most of you, particularly if you're African-American, you
know about William Seymour because he was part of the movement back
at the beginning of the 20th century, the Azusa Street movement
that basically emerged and became the Pentecostal movement throughout
the 20th century. I just wanna read something about
him and we're getting ready to pull that up. You can pull that
as a PowerPoint. Our body can see it as I am reading it through.
I just want you to hear the history of this. And I think some of
you will be able to bear record with the similarity of characterization
of persons like this. Um, in 1900, Mr, um, per ham
founded Bethel Bible college in Topeka, Kansas. Do you guys
have that on the PowerPoint? You don't have that on there.
Okay. It should have been on there. In 1900, Mr. Parham founded Bethel
Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, specifically to train holiness
missionaries. He believed his students could
recover the Pentecostal gift of tongues. They would be able
to take the gospel to all nations without any need to learn languages. He further became convinced that
the gift of tongues was the only true sign of Holy Spirit baptism. See where it started? There's
a mandate for affirming your salvation is that you have to
speak in tongues. Remember that? This started with
Parham. Soon his fascination with speaking
in tongues became an obsession. As the year 1900 drew to a close,
Parham urged his students to spend several days in fasting
and prayer seeking the restoration of that apostolic gift. I'm almost
inclined to go into a commentary here about Adventism and how
people started getting wrapped up in the end times during that
time and looking for the Lord's return, because these were ideas
that were sort of running together, congruent at the same time, but
I won't. On New Year's Day, January 1st, 1901, one of Parham's students,
Agnes Osmond, began uttering random syllables. Those who heard
her concluded she was speaking Chinese. Though none of them
knew any Chinese dialect for the rest of the day, she seemed
unable to speak in English. And she wrote a kind of stylized
scribbling that Parham and his disciples judged to be Chinese. So they tested it and they made
a conclusion that she was speaking in Chinese, Mandarin or Cantonese,
right? The students were convinced that
their prayers had been answered and that they were witnessing
that what they were witnessing was the very same miraculous
phenomena described in Acts chapter two. However, within days, a
sample of Miss Osmond's writing was published in a newspaper.
Isn't that wonderful? A person makes a claim. They
demonstrate a certain gift. We capture that and we test it
because that's what's going on here. It was tested. Listen to
the language. It was published in a newspaper.
It provides objective proof that Parham's claims were totally
false. It is a scrap of paper covered
with crude, indecipherable, artificial hieroglyphics that clearly have
nothing in common with Chinese characters. In fact, like the
random syllable she spoke, Miss Osmond's writings has none of
the characteristics of any language at all. Parham nevertheless insisted
that Miss Osmond has spoken and written Chinese. In fact, Parham
himself and at least 30 other students now claim that they
too have received the gift of tongues. In the face of careful
scrutiny and hard questions, Parham defiantly enlarged his
original fiction. He announced that the students
had spoken many languages. He himself had received the capability
of preaching in German, Swedish, and Agnes Osmond in Chinese and
others in various languages, including Japanese, Hungarian,
Syrian, Hindu, Spanish. Parham noted that cloven tongues
of fire appeared over the heads of the speakers. So all of a
sudden now we're going back to Acts chapter two. And I told
you that happened only one time and never again. But all of a
sudden it happens again in his place and no one evidences it. But this is what he's propagating.
So it goes on to to state that After he declares that cloven
tongues appeared over their head sometimes interpretation followed
such as God is love Jesus is mighty to save and Jesus is ready
to hear parham zealously advertised the phenomena insisting It was
a momentous breakthrough in missionary strategy at least six months
after numerous language experts had stated that Agnes Osmond's
scribbles bore no likeness whatsoever to Chinese writing, Parham was
still feeding newspaper reporters his own highly embellished version
of the event. A typical report from that time
cited his very words. This is what he says in quotes.
We are expecting thousands of ministers, evangelists, and other
people from all parts of the United States who desire to become
missionaries to attend. There's no doubt that at this
time they will have conferred upon them the gift of tongues.
If they are worthy and seek it in faith, believing that they
will thus be made able to talk to the people whom they choose
to work among in their own language, which will of course, being an
estimable advantage. The students of Bethel College
do not need to study in the old ways to learn the language. That's
anti-intellectualism. They have them conferred on them
miraculously. Different ones have already been
able to converse with Spaniards, Italians, Bohemians, Hungarians,
Germans, and French in their own language. I have no doubt
various dialects of the people of India and even the languages
of the savages of Africa. We're savages, okay. I'm gonna
talk to you about them next week. Will be received during our meetings
in the same way I expect this gathering to be the greatest
since the day of Pentecost. What was he doing? He was writing
in the newspaper embellished stories that had no basis in
truth because like the modern day preachers and modern day
salesmen, they use these kinds of Madison Avenue techniques
to garner interest and to make money before they are even proven
because people operate out of assumptions rather than testing
things. And especially today with the
media being so absolutely worldwide and global in nature, you can
preach a lie and it covers the world in seconds, in seconds. Unlike Parham's days, it took
time to get caught. Today, we can catch you pretty
quick. We can catch you. As soon as
it goes out, apologist, watchdog groups that are tracking these
crooks are right behind them to catch them almost right away. Parham was lying, of course,
but his students naively accepted his assurance that the sounds
that they were uttering were legitimate foreign languages.
Their teacher had admonished them not to entertain any doubt
or put their gift to the test. Wow. I've told you this many
times. People that are sitting in many
of these churches where they are operating out of these false
premises will blatantly and openly and overtly tell you to operate
out of an unbiblical principle. They do that to test your allegiance
to them over the scriptures. And most people fall for it because
they are anti-intellectual and they are not studious in the
scriptures. Their teacher admonished them
to do this. Therefore, over the next decade, it took about 10
years, several streams of missionaries under Parham's influence went
overseas expecting to be able to preach and converse in languages
they had never studied. Listen to this. The failure of
the Pentecostal missionary strategy was immediate and spectacular.
An article published in 1909 described the fiasco in these
words. Missionary C.S. Todd of the Bible Missionary
Society has made investigations personally in three missionary
fields among four groups of well-meaning but deluded people who have gone
from this country to Japan, to China, to India, expecting to
preach to the natives of those countries in their own tongues.
But in no single instance have been able to do so. They have
needed an interpreter even in the commonest affairs of life. Some of them are in absolute
destitution and are dependent on their Christian brethren there
for the necessities of life and are as helpless as what? That's
the problem. That's the problem. In some cases,
they are in danger of losing all faith in the supernatural,
in religion, and drifting into infidelity and sin. And how many
times have we not seen that? where a person stumbling in false
religion and in error and in heresy gives up on God because
their allegiance was in the wrong place from the beginning. Failure
and scandal seem to sully everything Parham touched. Do you see that
line right there? Failure and scandal seem to sully everything
Parham touched. What is remarkable to me, ladies
and gentlemen, is what the Bible teaches concerning false prophets
and false teachers in Matthew 7 and many other places. Most
of them are scandal written. Most of them are immoral. Most
of them are idolaters. Most of them do not operate with
the fruit of the spirit and the characteristics that mark a regenerate
person. Most of them ultimately are exposed
for being some kind of crass hypocrite. And that accords with
the scripture. Listen to the language. Less
than a year after its founding, Bethel Bible College in Topeka
closed permanently. Less than a year after its founding. Bethel Bible College in Topeka
closed permanently. Five years later, newspapers
across the country reported that some of Parham's followers in
Illinois had beaten an invalid woman to death in an effort to
drive the demon of rheumatism from her body. Don't laugh. You
understand this is what happens when people are not rooted in
sound doctrine. This is the logical consequence
of ignorance, and a kind of mystical interpretation of the word of
God where somehow you are endowed with powers of being able to
cast out devils and you assign to people's very natural and
physiological illnesses certain kind of demons. This goes on
all the time. Even today, people are being
abused in religious circles in the name of some spiritual one
having the ability to exercise supernatural powers over your
cold. He goes on to say, before the
shock of the story subsided, Parham was arrested in San Antonio,
Texas. Why always Texas? And charged
with sodomy. You guys see that? Now, be careful
about using that phraseology. But the reality is this. When
you are not operating in the spirit of truth, One of the constant
preoccupations or manifestations of your era is that you are either
given over to anger, that's hostility, or sexual perversion. They operate
out of both sides of the brain, anger or sexual perversion. And
the anger, sexual perversion paradigm simply means that you
are still dominated by your carnal nature. This is why most of these
false prophets all around the world are caught over and over
and over and over again. We're committing so much adultery
and fornication that is not even funny. And abuse of the subordinates,
this happens with women and men, especially your women who think
they're called to be prophetess and preachers. They abuse the
younger underlings. because it is definitely a spiritual
matter, only it's really the manifestation of the flesh. This
goes on not only in your Christian religion, ladies and gentlemen,
this goes on in your Hindu religion, this goes on in your Buddhist
religion, it goes on in all of your religious circles because
people are pretending to be connected to a higher power when they're
not. And when they dupe the masses
into sitting up under them, they make them their slaves and they
use them for their own pleasure. I had a good friend of mine,
A very good friend of mine who wrote several books, he's an
apologist too, who had gone to India because he was just tired
of Western Christianity in the 70s. And he thought that he was
going to find truth under the Alibaba. He was one of the prominent
gurus of India back in the 80s and the 90s, Alibaba. And there's
several of them. And these guys in India were paradigms, are
models for many of our 70s and 80s Pentecostal church pastors.
They were paradigms, they were models where they became great
men of God. You hear the term, he's the great
man of God or the man of God, the woman of God. I'm going to
help you understand that terminology and is perverted since over the
next couple of weeks. But in India, these gurus are
held so high that people live with them and operate at their
beckoning call because they really see them as incarnations of God. And this is where in your Pentecostal
religion, the hyper authoritarian position of leaders in the church
take on that same aura and role given to them by the people imposed
upon the people by their superficial authority and superficial influences. And in some cases also by demonic
presence, but it always ends up ladies and gentlemen in scandal,
always in scandal. Because there's only two spirits
in the world, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And
the spirit of error is always designed at the end of the day
to reward you with scandal. His job is to cause you to fall,
to make God look bad, to make the way of truth evil spoken
of when you really don't operate out of the true spirit of God.
Texas charged him with sodomy he wrote a confession in order
to obtain his release but later recanted his own admission of
guilt He had discredited himself in every conceivable sense. His
reputation was never fully recovered from the scandal But Parham was
relentless and he always seemed to be able to attract willing
disciples when he died in 1929 More than 2,500 followers attended
his funeral, even though it was held in a remote Kansas town
during a fierce blizzard. What are we talking about? We're
talking about a sucker being born every day. We're talking
about people being constantly gullible and driven to follow
these guys all the time. Really, what we're talking about
is this, as we get ready to go back to our PowerPoint. We're
talking about people who do not really take the word of God seriously.
Okay, this is what we're talking about. And so tongues were the
languages of men given by the Spirit of God. I already asserted
that for you in Acts chapter 2 verses 6 through 8, 10 and
19, Acts 10 and Acts 19, that they were the languages of men
given by the Spirit. This is also confirmed and you
saw it in my reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 22, very clearly. With men of other tongues and
other languages will I what? Speak to this people. You guys
remember Paul plainly saying, therefore tongues are for a sign,
not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. And
then he quoted the pointer passage out of the old Testament, which
was the premise upon which the prophecy was given that there
would be the languages of the nations speaking to the Jews,
showing the Jews by virtue of their ability to speak the gospel,
that the Jews were in trouble because they had rejected Messiah.
That was the premise and foundation for it. So we have three things
here going on. The framework of Acts 2 is the most reasonable
framework for the mention of tongues anywhere in the scriptures.
Understand Acts 2 and you've got your framework. What is the
framework? Multiple ethnic groups present. That is Jews and Gentiles. Wherever the gift of tongues
was manifested at that time, multiple ethnic groups were there.
You guys hearing me? Which means, as we learned as
many years ago, it makes no sense for a person to receive a language
in a congregation that is mono-ethnic, where we all speak the same language. There's absolutely no necessity
for a gift of languages in a culture where we are all English. None. None. None. So we would ask if,
in fact, we are still receiving the gift of languages, what's
taking place there? Well, we'll get to that with
questions 7 through 14. The multiple ethnic groups represented
Jews and Gentiles wherever you went. A witness to the Jews,
it was a witness to the Jews, that's 1 Corinthians chapter
14, 22. And I began to develop it in the Acts study that when
the Jews in Acts chapter 2 were mocking the Gentiles, for mocking
the Galileans, for speaking in the language of the Gentiles,
Peter stood up and gave interpretation to what was happening, remember?
And he says, you men of Judea, now mark this. I want you to
get this, because this is where Pentecostals continually distort
the Scriptures. They do not rightly divide the
Word. In Acts chapter 2, the only people that did not understand
the languages were the Jews of Jerusalem. All 15 nations understood. The Galileans that spake in those
languages understood. The people that didn't understand
was the targeted group who had rejected Messiah and had killed
him. The reason they didn't understand
was because God was fulfilling Joel chapter 2 and Isaiah 28,
and He would do it repeatedly throughout the book of Acts to
let the Jewish people know that the very Messiah that you had
rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. He's
building a new church. You better get in it. You guys
got that? He's building a new church and
the whole of the book of Acts is devoted to the spread of the
gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and then the uttermost
parts of the world. And by the time we get to Acts
28, Paul says, well, then Isaiah has said, God has given you the
spirit of sleep and slumber. He has closed your eyes. You
cannot hear. You cannot see. Therefore, the
gospel is going to the Gentiles. Watch this. This is how he closes
our acts and they will hear it. So the issue of tongues was a
very intelligent gift given for a very specific purpose. And
we have to ask as we work through the rest of the language, what
was it for? What was it for? So in your outline,
point number four, we are dealing with tongues were the languages
of men given by the spirit. And here's my proposition to
you now, as we deal with some of the grammar, the term utterance,
as you have in Acts chapter two, and they all and the spirit gave
them utterance and they spoke with tongues. And Peter stood
up and spoke forth in tongues. As Peter stood up and spoke forth
words, the idea of utterance, because in our Pentecostal churches,
they will talk about how given the gift of utterance, utterance,
utterance, utterance, utterance. And they will conflate that with
speaking in tongues. But what I want you to understand is speaking
in tongues as they are defining it is not the same as utterance. Utterance is speaking clearly
and rationally Setting forth intelligently what God says When
the spirit gives utterance, it means the spirit is giving clear
articulate speech Utterance is never to be confounded with simply
an expression or a flow or a language that's not understood utterance
always means That which is told, declared, plain speech, prophecy,
proclamation, that which is revealed and that which is made known.
Example, Acts chapter 2 verse 4 and 5. Look at it again. Acts chapter 2, 4 and 5 in your
Bible. Just want you to see this. There are several places in the
book of Acts. I just want to go to some verses while I'm talking
to you. And as this is being recorded, let it be plainly understood
that when you use the term utterance, you are not to use the term utterance
as simply having a movement of the Spirit and not knowing what
you are talking about. Acts chapter 2 verse 4, And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with
other tongues as the Spirit gave them what? Utterance. Utterance. utterance and over in verse 14,
listen to this, but Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his
voice. See that word voice. He uttered,
he uttered same word, lifted up his voice and said unto them,
So the Spirit of God did not communicate in some unintelligible
speech even in that initiatory act in Acts chapter 2. The people
that were listening to him, the targeted group that were listening
to them, heard them speak in their own languages the wonderful
works of God. Utterance always means intelligible
speech. The word didomai is a verb from
which we get to pour forth or to set forth. to declare. And the other verb, and these
are the two verbs that are used both in 1 Corinthians chapter
14 and in Acts chapter 4, 18. Go to Acts chapter 4, 18. These
are the only two verbs in the New Testament that are used for
the word and translated as the word utterance. And here's how
it is set forth in Acts chapter 4 verse 18. And they called them
and commanded them. This here was the Sanhedrin telling
Peter and them that they cannot preach the gospel. And they called
them and they commanded them not to what? At all nor teach
in the name of Jesus. What does it mean to utter? To
speak. And to speak intelligibly. Rationally,
clearly, articulately. Like I'm uttering to you now.
That's utterance. So never conflate the idea of
utterance with some jangled jargon, syntactical speech that makes
no sense. You won't be representing scripture.
The other verb there is used frequently in the scripture.
And actually, when it's translated into another participle, it's
translated to give light, such as in Luke 11.33. in 1st Corinthians
chapter 14 verse 7 in fact go there I want to show you in 1st
Corinthians 14 verse 7 how Paul uses this term utterance there
This here actually can be the basic text from which we actually
operate for the rest of the night really in 1st Corinthians chapter
14 as he is dealing with clarity because the first 12 verses are
so is about clarity in the church not chaos but clarity and Verse
five, he says, I would that you all speak with tongues, but rather
that you what prophesied for greater is he that prophesied
than he that speaketh with the tongue, except he interpret that
the church may be edified. Now, brethren, if I come unto
you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except I shall
speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophecy
or by doctrine and even things without life giving The word
is sound. Even things without life giving
sound. You're talking about inanimate
things like the pipe or the organ. Now watch this. Except they give
a distinction in the sound, how shall it be known what is pipe
or heart? Got it? The principle for the
people of God is never chaotic, unintelligible speech. Never! God is not the author of confusion. The principle for the people
of God is never unintelligible speech I think it's again seen
over in 1st Corinthians chapter 14 verse 9 Notice what he says
so likewise except you what? by the tongue Words easy to be
understood How shall it be known what is spoken for you shall
speak into the air? Got it Now Paul is very clear
and what he's doing in regulating the issues at Corinth. Now Corinth
is filled with a lot of issues, a lot of challenges. I want to
go on to my next proposition is point number D. Uh, and that's
this tongues are always languages. You know, when you see the word
tongue, don't think about unknown because when you think about
the word unknown, what you and I know, according to the original
language is that the term unknown does not exist. Right? It is not in your original language,
is it? It's italicized. Is that right? Look at your Bibles carefully.
Wherever it says unknown, it's an italicist in the King James
Version. You know why? Because the King
James translators were at least sensitive enough to know that
when they were translating the original language into English,
that where they were giving supplementary words, they had to put them in
italicis to let us know that they were not in the original
language. You don't read in your Bibles anywhere where a tongue
is unknown. No unknown tongue, no unknown
tongue. Tongues are always languages.
You guys see that proposition in your outline now You can take
this back to your pastors your scholars or theologians. This
is basic Bible doctrine. They will agree with me terms
are always languages in Genesis chapter 10 verse 5 and 20 Exodus
chapter 4 10 in Exodus 4 10. This is what Moses says I am
slow of tongue and slow of speech and Deuteronomy 28 49 which is
the first point of passage that has to do with God judging Israel
through the Babylonians pull up Deuteronomy 28 49 listen to
the language and Deuteronomy 28 49 this is the first time
where God is Before the children of Israel even entered into the
promised land, God tells them that because of their disobedience,
they're going to meet with the Babylonians. The Lord shall bring
a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as
swift as the eagle flyeth. A nation whose tongue, that is
language, you shall not what? But it's not an unknown tongue.
It's a tongue of men, a dialect of men, that they just didn't
understand because they were not Babylonian. It would have
been the tongue of the Chaldean. You guys understand that? Hebrew
people listening to Chaldeans would not have understood what
they were saying. But it wouldn't have been some heavenly language
or disjointed, non-syntactical speech. This would have been
the languages of men. So I am asserting to you that
when we follow the scriptures all the way through, and I could
have given you 50 verses, ladies and gentlemen, to affirm this.
Go with me now in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 32, verse 4. I'm going to just do two more
in the Old Testament, then we're going to move forward. Because
Isaiah constantly warned Israel that this phenomenon would occur.
Not only would they be brought into captivity, but they would
be brought into captivity by their captors because God would
speak through their captors to them because of their disobedience. And it had its ultimate fulfillment
in Jesus Christ Becoming the enemy of the Jewish people as
Lord of all in the salvation of the Gentiles the Gentiles
speaking in languages Becomes a sign to the Jews that the Messiah
that they had rejected now is Lord of all even them even though
that they are under judgment and so Isaiah chapter 32 verse
4. Here's how Isaiah puts it. I
said 32 for I I'm going to start at verse one. Behold, the king
shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment.
And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covered
from the tempest as as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the eyes of the of
them that shall not in the eyes of them that that sea shall not
be dim and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart
also of the rash shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the
stammerers Shall be ready to speak what and the tongue of
the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly The vile person
shall be no more called liberal nor troll Nor the troll shit
said to be bountiful I Isaiah chapter 32 verses 1 through 4
if you really want to put that in a certain place and I submit
to you that you would take the block of Isaiah 32 verses 1 through
4 and put it in Acts chapter 2. Remember I told you the Galileans
were southern country bumpkins whose language was very rude,
who were not intelligent people, who did not speak with the kind
of clarity and precision that the Jews did, who were more scholarly
from Judea. What good can come from Galilee
and Nazareth? These people don't know the law
being a curse in God's irony. He took 120 Galileans, Jesus,
the 12 disciples, a bunch of women and folks who had no reputation
at all and gave them the gift of speaking clearly, articulately,
articulately in the languages of 15 nations who heard them
gladly. I submit to you that that's the
fulfillment of this passage right here. That's why they were wow. How here we these Galileans speaking
so clearly in our own language, the wonderful works of God. God
takes the foolish things of the world and confounds the wise.
The base things of the world to confound those things that
are high and mighty. One more verse in this text, Deuteronomy
chapter, Isaiah 33 verse 19. Listen to how he speaks of it
or uses this word in Isaiah chapter 33 verse 19. This here is with regards to
the Babylonians. This is with regards to their
coming. Here's the same language. You shall not see, this is, actually
this is God speaking concerning their return. You shall not see
a fierce people, a people of deeper speech than you can perceive,
of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand. Look upon
Zion, the city of our some limnities. Your eyes shall see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down,
not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither
shall any of the cords thereof be broken." Interesting prophecy,
isn't it? Listen to it. Let me help you
grasp this if you don't get it. God gives prophecy here to the
true believer in Israel saying, if you trust Messiah, when he
comes, you won't fall prey to the judgment that the rulers
of Israel fell prey to, and that is them not understanding the
interpretation. Listen to what it says in verse
17 your eyes shall see the king in his beauty They shall behold
the land that is very far off your heart shall meditate Tara.
Where's the scribe? Where's the receiver? Where is
he that that count at the towers? This is the question that they're
raising You shall not see a fierce people a people of deeper speech
than you can perceive of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand
my point being this I When the Jews, the rulers of Israel, were
finding themselves struggling through the uninterpreted languages
that were taking place in Acts chapter 2, they were describing
or they were being described as those who were under judgment
because they could not understand the language. All the other people
understood what was going on but them. And this is why I say,
as we get ready to head to our fifth point, to speak in an unknown
tongue To speak in an uninterpreted tongue is to actually heap judgment
on people because you are cutting them off from any sense of clarity
of the message. and you don't want to be in that
kind of situation. Up here, what we're simply dealing
with is the grammar. In the Old Testament, the word
for tongues is leshona. Our talker in the New Testament
is dialectos, as in Acts chapter 2. Our glossos, which is also
in the book of Acts, as well as in 1 Corinthians chapter 12
and 1 Corinthians chapter 14, that's our word glossos, and
it simply means tongue. Go to our fifth PowerPoint. Here's
a proposition that I want to make and then I want to get into
one more very critical area of discussion before I open the
floor for questions. There is no evidence in the scripture
that biblical tongues are similar to pagan tongues. Now, I want
to talk about this. This is very important for you
to grasp. You guys understand that other nations in the world
speak in tongues, that other religions speak in tongues. You
guys understand that? You understand that tongues in
terms of this kind of gibberish, this kind of heavenly or spiritual
dialect has been going on way before the ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It goes way back during the days
of Aristotle's and Socrates that the Greeks had mystics who would
be endowed with certain powers as they would seek these mystics
and they would speak in an unintelligible speech and then they would also
give prophecies. Do you understand that the Hindus
speak in a tongue? Do you understand that the Buddhists
speak in a tongue? Do you understand that the Mormons
speak in a tongue? Do you understand that the Muslims
speak in a tongue? Do you understand that the Catholics
speak in a tongue? That shamans speak in a tongue?
What is the inference then that I am drawing out of this? that
tongues are not an exclusively Christian gift, which means if
they are not exclusively Christian, you can't tell if you are not
dealing with an authentic gift, whether or not you're operating
out of a pagan tongue versus a Christian tongue. This is where
you better do your research. This is one of the challenges
that we have and have had in warning people about getting
caught up in the tongues. Listen to the proposition that
I set forth. Now I want to go to point number
five. There's no evidence in the scripture that, point number
six, there's no evidence in the scripture that biblical terms
are similar to pagan terms, gibberish, babble, loss of control, unseemly
behavior, mindlessness, chaotic, emotionally charged, and unstable
frenzy. And in all these groups, that's
how they behave on a physiological, emotional and psychological level.
You can't find anywhere in the scriptures where people who are
indwelt by the Spirit of God, overwhelmed by the Spirit of
God, behave like the pagans. You can't find one place in the
scripture where the Holy Spirit takes a believer and puts him
into tremors or knocks him down. or causes him to go into convulsions,
or behaves unseemly, or takes his clothes off, or runs through
the auditorium. Nowhere! Nowhere! Because the spirit of God and
the spirit of devils are diametrically opposite of each other, both
characteristically and ontologically. They don't have anything in common. They don't have anything in common.
The Spirit of God is never tyrannical. The Spirit of God never takes
a person and throws them into fits of a loss of control. In fact, if you know your Bibles,
1 Corinthians chapter 14 says, the spirit of the prophet is
always subject to the prophet. Do you know that? Do you guys
know that? You can never say, I couldn't help myself. You can never do that. You can
never do that. It's very important to understand
these things. Moreover, here's the real big challenge that I
have. If my proposition is true, you can go and test it. Talk
to your pastors, talk to your theologians, talk to your scholars,
be glad to talk with them. To accept this interpretation
that the tongues that are described in 1 Corinthians 14 and the tongues
that are described in the book of Acts corresponds to the similar
manifestation of pagan tongues, to accept this interpretation
is to embrace confusion. Don't you think? If the pagan
tongues are exactly and precisely as similar as the Christian tongues,
aren't we embracing confusion? We're embracing confusion. It
would affirm an ecumenical experience of diverse and false religious
systems in harmony with the true spirit of God. It is at this
level that we warn of identifying with such manifestations. Here's
my conclusive proposition. Unity with the spirit, i.e.,
that is in tongues, by those divided over Christ is impossible. Unity in the spirit, that is
because we all speak in a tongue. Whether we're Catholic, Pentecostal,
Methodist, Baptist, Hindu, Buddhist, Shaman, whatever, Mormon, Jehovah
Witness, whatever. If we all speak in a tongue and
we establish our unity upon that, our unity is false. Because all
of them have a different soteriology when it comes to Christ. You
cannot have a unity where our knowledge of Christ is diametrically
opposed to each other. The Holy Ghost does not teach
one group something different about Jesus and then teach another
group something diametrically opposed about Jesus and brings
us all together under the unity of the Spirit. He never does
that. Are you hearing me, ladies and
gentlemen? Therefore, we've got a real problem because there
is a unity being built up not only in the Christian church,
but Christian Catholic and beyond, based upon a spiritual experience
that does not correspond with the gospel. Am I making some
sense to you? Who speaks in tongues? Mormons,
Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Unitarians,
Baptists, Methodists, Hindus, Muslims, Tongans, Shamans, Africans? That's point number 10. Go with
me in your outline now to point number six. Now here's the area
in which theologians have really labored, ladies and gentlemen,
because they understand the language that Paul sets forth in 1 Corinthians
13. And this is where we will end
for tonight. And we'll take this study up one more time next week.
Here's where I want to challenge you as well with regards to the
assumption that the gift of tongues still is an extent today. The Apostle Paul, very plainly
in 1 Corinthians 13, before he even gets into chapter 14, in
fact, in chapter 12, you know what Paul did in chapter 12?
He relegated the gift of tongues to the lowest gift in the church.
Paul relegated the gift of tongues to the lowest gift in the church.
And you can see this as we close out chapter 12, and this is going
to get into questions 13 and 14 and 15. But I'll start at
verse 28 of chapter 12 and go through chapter 13. Now, God
has set some in the church. First, what? Secondarily, what? And thirdly, teachers. That would
be pastors. After that, what? Miracles are
under the teaching gifts. They are subordinate to the pastor,
to the apostle and to the prophet. Do you know why? Because the
prophets and the apostles were the foundation ministry. They
were the foundation of the church and the local pastor reinforced
apostolic doctrine. What were the miracles for? To affirm apostolic doctrine. It goes on to say, then gifts
of healings, helps governments and what diversity of tongues. Now this is very important for
me to make this statement before we go on to the next one. My
sister down here, uh, yes, last week made the statement that,
uh, the apostle Paul said, uh, he spoke with tongues more than
they all. And I listened to Pentecostal preachers quite frequently cause
I have to see if they're still maintaining certain eras and
then what new ones that are popping up too. Because when they don't
understand the languages, they misinterpret the scriptures,
either sometimes intentionally or unwittingly. The idea that
Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I speak in more tongues than
you all. That's the latter part of chapter
14. Does not mean that Paul went around 24 hours a day going shalalakandahakarapatatatata. Does not mean that. It doesn't
mean that he was engaged in speaking in tongues more than anyone.
It meant that he had the gift of languages on multiple levels,
different dialects, different languages. The term tongues is
in the plural in the text. Just as it's spoken of here,
diversity of tongues, several tongues, whether it's English
or whether it's Spanish or whether it's Cantonese, whether it's
Mandarin, whether it's this that Paul said, I had multiple gifts
of tongues. It wasn't that he went around
speaking in tongues all day long to see the problem with what's
taking place in our present culture is that they have exalted the
gift of tongues as a central feature to affirm one's salvation
and spirituality. And that's a misrepresentation
of what the text is teaching. The text is actually teaching
the opposite. The text is actually teaching
that you don't put much stock in the gift of tongues. You are
not to make that the all and all gift. Because like in most
of our Pentecostal churches, they will tell you, if you don't
speak in tongues, you have no evidence of your salvation. That's
a psychological abuse. That's a psychological abuse
for many reasons. But let the text demonstrate
what I'm saying. It goes on to say in verse 29, are all apostles? These are rhetorical questions,
right? Are all apostles? What's the answer? Are all prophets? What's the answer? Are all teachers? Now I'm getting ready to talk
about the emergence of the fivefold ministry again. How many of you
guys know about the Fafo ministry? Today we got apostles and prophets
and we got evangelists. We got new apostles today. You
guys know that, right? New prophets, right? New prophetesses,
right? We got all that today. Do you
know why we have all that today? Because if they were to accept
a sound exegesis of scripture, they would have to abandon these
highfalutin offices. And to abandon these highfalutin
offices would lose their authority over the people. Got it? Are
you gentlemen hearing me? Listen to the language. Is everyone
an apostle? Is everyone a prophet? Of course not. Are all teachers?
Of course not. Are all miracle workers? Have
all the gifts of what? Now watch this. Do all speak
with tongues? Do all interpret? Got it. So then why are they forcing
you to believe that tongues is a universal gift that must be
manifested in everybody's life? Because they have made a caricature
out of this one gift, which I think is bogus, in order to control
a group of people with an agenda that they have. Be very careful,
ladies and gentlemen. The Apostle Paul set that forth
in order to premise what he's getting ready to get into. So
now, he speaks charitably to them because He was the one that
established Corinth. So now we're going to just consider
one more thought tonight, one more proposition tonight, and
then we'll come back and finish up the rest next week. There's
more for us to learn. But here's the proposition that
I'm going to share with you now, and I'm going to read it through,
1 Corinthians 13. Paul is going to tell them, before he gets
into the regulatory principles of chapter 14, you need to grow
up. That's what he's saying. You
need to grow up. You need to understand that tongues
was not a gift of maturity, but rather immaturity. That tongues
is an infancy gift given to the church in its early days, as
it was initiating breakthrough into different nations while
the gospel was being established. That tongues was never a telltale
sign that you were actually saved. Do you know folks that speak
in tongues live like hell, act a fool, live immoral lives,
perverse lives, filthy lives. Do you understand that? At the
highest level and still speaking tongues. I deal with the pastors
and the elders who come to me because they, they respect me
for my consistency and my boldness. And they say, pastor, I got a
problem in my church. These folks can speak in tongues
till the sun go down and go right out and buy that crack and get
high. And I know pastors sleeping with several women. And I'm going
to show you a DVD, and I may have it by next week. Pastor
Ombiwe, who is a pastor in Zambia, a very prominent African pastor
in Zambia, who says the problem is enormous in Africa with this
whole tongues movement and the perverse leadership there. Here's
what I'm getting at. Tongues does not sanctify you. It never has. Your sanctification
doesn't come in your speaking in a tongue. If you're saved,
your sanctification comes from your walk with God, your study
of the scriptures and the spirit of God conforming you to the
image of Jesus Christ. And you don't need a tongue for
that. Are you guys hearing me? You don't need a tongue for that.
Listen to the language. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, he didn't say he was doing it. The context
is in what we call a hypothetical. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and angels, and if I have not charity, I am becoming as
a sounding brass and a tinkling what? Now be careful because
part of the argument on the part of the Pentecostals and the Charismatics
who don't want to be tested is that when we call them out like
I'm doing, I'm not being charitable. But am I being charitable? I'm
being charitable to somebody, if not them, you and my children
and the ones who are going to listen to these CDs 10 years
from now when the world is a whole lot worse. And they realize that
we were standing on truth in the year 2013, even though large
segments of the Christian church were falling away. Listen to
the language. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, And though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long,
is kind. Charity envies not. Charity does
not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself what?
That's what I meant. See and all the gifts are given
by the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Christ is the spirit
of love And the Spirit of Christ is not going to have you acting
unseemly diversity of tongues Now this is very important for
me to make this statement before we go on to the next one my sister
down here Yes last week made the statement that the Apostle
Paul Said he spoke with tongues more than they all and I listened
to Pentecostal preachers quite frequently because I have to
see if they're still maintaining certain errors, and then what
new ones that are popping up too. Because when they don't
understand the languages, they misinterpret the scriptures,
either sometimes intentionally or unwittingly. The idea that
Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I speak in more tongues than
you all, that's the latter part of chapter 14, does not mean
that Paul went around 24 hours a day going shalalakandahakarapatatatata. Does not mean that. It doesn't
mean that he was engaged in speaking in tongues more than anyone.
It meant that he had the gift of languages on multiple levels,
different dialects, different languages. The term tongues is
in the plural in the text. Just as it's spoken up here,
diversity of tongues, several tongues, whether it's English
or whether it's Spanish or whether it's Cantonese, whether it's
Mandarin, whether it's this, that. Paul said, I had multiple
gifts of tongues. It wasn't that he went around
speaking in tongues all day long. To see the problem with what's
taking place in our present culture is that they have exalted the
gift of tongues as a central feature to affirm one's salvation
and spirituality. And that's a misrepresentation
of what the text is teaching. The text is actually teaching
the opposite. The text is actually teaching
that you don't put much stock in the gift of tongues. You are
not to make that the all and all gift. Because like in most
of our Pentecostal churches, they will tell you, if you don't
speak in tongues, you have no evidence of your salvation. That's
a psychological abuse. That's a psychological abuse
for many reasons. But let the text demonstrate
what I'm saying. It goes on to say in verse 29, are all apostles,
these are rhetorical questions, right? Are all apostles? What's
the answer? Are all prophets? What's the
answer? Are all teachers? Now I'm getting
ready to talk about the emergence of the five-fold ministry again.
How many of you guys know about the Fafo ministry? Today we got
apostles and prophets and we got evangelists. We got new apostles
today. You guys know that, right? New
prophets, right? New prophetesses, right? We got
all that today. Do you know why we have all that
today? Because if they were to accept a sound exegesis of scripture,
they would have to abandon these highfalutin offices. And to abandon
these highfalutin offices would lose their authority over the
people. Got it? Are you gentlemen hearing me?
Listen to the language. Is everyone an apostle? Is everyone
a prophet? Of course not. Are all teachers?
Of course not. Are all miracle workers? Have
all the gifts of what? Now watch this. Do all speak
with tongues? Do all interpret? Got it. So then why are they forcing
you to believe that tongues is a universal gift that must be
manifested in everybody's life? Because they have made a caricature
out of this one gift, which I think is bogus, in order to control
a group of people with an agenda that they have. Be very careful,
ladies and gentlemen. The Apostle Paul set that forth
in order to premise what he's getting ready to get into. So
now, he speaks charitably to them because He was the one that
established Corinth. So now we're going to just consider
one more thought tonight, one more proposition tonight, and
then we'll come back and finish up the rest next week. There's
more for us to learn. But here's the proposition that
I'm going to share with you now, and I'm going to read it through,
1 Corinthians 13. Paul is going to tell them, before he gets
into the regulatory principles of chapter 14, you need to grow
up. That's what he's saying. You
need to grow up. You need to understand that tongues
was not a gift of maturity, but rather immaturity. That tongues
is an infancy gift given to the church in its early days, as
it was initiating breakthrough into different nations while
the gospel was being established. That tongues was never a telltale
sign that you were actually saved. Do you know folks that speak
in tongues Live like hell, act a fool, live immoral lives, perverse
lives, filthy lives. Do you understand that? At the
highest level and still speak in tongues. I deal with the pastors
and the elders who come to me because they respect me for my
consistency and my boldness. And they say, pastor, I got a
problem in my church. These folks can speak in tongues
till the sun go down. and go right out and buy that
crack and get high. And I know pastors sleeping with
several women. And I'm going to show you a DVD,
and I may have it by next week. Pastor Ombiwe, who is a pastor
in Zambia, a very prominent African pastor in Zambia, who says the
problem is enormous in Africa with this whole tongues movement
and the perverse leadership there. Here's what I'm getting at. Tongues
does not sanctify you. It never has. Your sanctification
doesn't come in your speaking in a tongue. If you're saved,
your sanctification comes from your walk with God, your study
of the Scriptures, and the Spirit of God conforming you to the
image of Jesus Christ. And you don't need a tongue for
that. Are you guys hearing me? You don't need a tongue for that.
Listen to the language. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, he didn't say he was doing it. The context
is in what we call a hypothetical. So I speak with the tongues of
men and angel, and if I have not charity, I am becoming as
a sounding brass and a tinkling what? Now be careful because
part of the argument on the part of the Pentecostals and the Charismatics
who don't want to be tested is that when we call them out like
I'm doing, I'm not being charitable. But am I being charitable? I'm
being charitable to somebody, if not them, you and my children. And the ones who are going to
listen to these CDs 10 years from now when the world is a
whole lot worse. And they realize that we were
standing on truth in the year 2013, even though large segments
of the Christian church were falling away. Listen to the language. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long,
is kind. Charity envies not. Charity does
not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself what?
That's what I meant. See, and all the gifts are given
by the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit
of love. And the Spirit of Christ is not going to have you acting
unseemly, is not easily provoked, does not think evil. Rejoice
is not an iniquity. Love rejoices in the truth. You
guys got that? Love rejoices in the truth. It
beareth all things, believeth all things that are true, hopeth
all things, and endures all things. Charity never fails. Now watch
it, because this is where the argument and the serious consideration
comes into now. Charity never fails, but whether
there be prophecy, they shall what? Whether there be tongues,
they shall what? And whether there be knowledge,
it shall vanish away. See verse 8? You know what Paul
said? There's a time coming when the
gift of knowledge, the gift of prophecy, and the gift of tongues
will disappear. Paul spoke this in about the
year AD 5253. We are some 1,900 years removed
from the Apostle Paul. Right? 1,900 years. We're not
living in the year AD 65. We're living in the year 2013,
right? Almost 2,000 years removed. Isn't
it a valid question, and this is where I will leave us tonight,
isn't it valid that in all likelihood some of these gifts have ceased? Isn't that valid? Isn't it at
least a valid question that they could have ceased by now? because
he already gave us the language that they would. Now, I'm not
going to bore you right now with the technicalities of the Greek
language, the verbs there. But the verbs are very insightful
and we'll deal with it next week. But Paul is already telling us
in chapter 13, you've got to grow up because these gifts that
are now being used for a specific purpose will no longer be involved. They won't be necessary because
grown people won't need them. Diversity of tongues. Now this
is very important for me to make this statement before we go on
to the next one. My sister down here last week
made the statement that the Apostle Paul said he spoke with tongues
more than they all. And I listen to Pentecostal preachers
quite frequently because I have to see if they're still maintaining
certain eras and then what new ones that are popping up too.
Because when they don't understand the languages, they misinterpret
the scriptures either sometimes intentionally or unwittingly,
The idea that Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I speak in more tongues
than you all. That's a lot of part of chapter
14. Does not mean that Paul went around 24 hours a day going shalalakanda
hakalaka ta ta ta ta ta. Does not mean that. It doesn't
mean that he was engaged in speaking in tongues more than anyone.
It meant that he had the gift of languages on multiple levels,
different dialects, different languages. The term tongues is
in the plural in the text. Just as it's spoken up here,
diversity of tongues, several tongues, whether it's English
or whether it's Spanish or whether it's Cantonese, whether it's
Mandarin, whether it's this, that. Paul said, I had multiple
gifts of tongues. It wasn't that he went around
speaking in tongues all day long. To see the problem with what's
taking place in our present culture is that they have exalted the
gift of tongues as a central feature to affirm one's salvation
and spirituality. And that's a misrepresentation
of what the text is teaching. The text is actually teaching
the opposite. The text is actually teaching
that you don't put much stock in the gift of tongues. You are
not to make that the all and all gift. Because like in most
of our Pentecostal churches, they will tell you, if you don't
speak in tongues, you have no evidence of your salvation. That's
a psychological abuse. That's a psychological abuse
for many reasons. But let the text demonstrate
what I'm saying. It goes on to say in verse 29, are all apostles,
these are rhetorical questions, right? Are all apostles? What's
the answer? Are all prophets? What's the
answer? Are all teachers? Now I'm getting
ready to talk about the emergence of the five-fold ministry again.
How many of you guys know about the Fafo ministry? Today we got
apostles and prophets and we got evangelists. We got new apostles
today. You guys know that, right? New
prophets, right? New prophetesses, right? We got
all that today. Do you know why we have all that
today? Because if they were to accept a sound exegesis of scripture,
they would have to abandon these highfalutin offices. And to abandon
these highfalutin offices would lose their authority over the
people. Got it. Are you gentlemen hearing me?
Listen to the language. Is everyone an apostle? Is everyone
a prophet? Of course not. Are all teachers?
Of course not. Are all miracle workers? Have
all the gifts of what? Now watch this. Do all speak
with tongues? Do all interpret? Got it. So then why are they forcing
you to believe that tongues is a universal gift that must be
manifested in everybody's life? Because they have made a caricature
out of this one gift, which I think is bogus, in order to control
a group of people with an agenda that they have. Be very careful,
ladies and gentlemen. The Apostle Paul set that forth
in order to premise what he's getting ready to get into. So
now, he speaks charitably to them because He was the one that
established Corinth. So now we're going to just consider
one more thought tonight, one more proposition tonight, and
then we'll come back and finish up the rest next week. There's
more for us to learn. But here's the proposition that
I'm going to share with you now, and I'm going to read it through
1 Corinthians 13. Paul is going to tell them before he gets into
the regulatory principles of chapter 14, you need to grow
up. That's what he's saying. You
need to grow up. You need to understand that tongues
was not a gift of maturity, but rather immaturity. That tongues
is an infancy gift given to the church in its early days, as
it was initiating breakthrough into different nations while
the gospel was being established. That tongues was never a telltale
sign that you were actually saved. Do you know folks that speak
in tongues live like hell, act a fool, live immoral lives, perverse
lives, filthy lives. Do you understand that? At the
highest level and still speak in tongues. I deal with the pastors
and the elders who come to me because they respect me for my
consistency and my boldness. And they say, pastor, I got a
problem in my church. These folks can speak in tongues
till the sun go down. and go right out and buy that
crack and get high. And I know pastors sleeping with
several women. And I'm going to show you a DVD
and I may have it by next week. Pastor Ombiwe, who is a pastor
in Zambia, a very prominent African pastor in Zambia, who says the
problem is enormous in Africa with this whole tongues movement
and the perverse leadership there. Here's what I'm getting at. Tongues
does not sanctify you. It never has. Your sanctification
doesn't come in your speaking in a tongue. If you're saved,
your sanctification comes from your walk with God, your study
of the scriptures and the Spirit of God conforming you to the
image of Jesus Christ. And you don't need a tongue for
that. Are you guys hearing me? You don't need a tongue for that.
Listen to the language. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, he didn't say he was doing it. The context
is in what we call a hypothetical. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and angel, and if I have not charity, I am becoming as
a sounding brass and a tinkling what? Now be careful because
part of the argument on the part of the Pentecostals and the Charismatics
who don't want to be tested is that when we call them out like
I'm doing, I'm not being charitable. But am I being charitable? I'm
being charitable to somebody, if not them, you and my children
and the ones who are going to listen to these CDs 10 years
from now when the world is a whole lot worse. And they realize that
we were standing on truth in the year 2013, even though large
segments of the Christian church were falling away. Listen to
the language. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, And though
I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long,
is kind. Charity envies not. Charity does
not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself what?
That's what I meant. See and all the gifts are given
by the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit
of love and the Spirit of Christ is not going to have you acting
unseemly It's not easily provoked does not think evil Rejoice is
not an iniquity Love rejoices in the truth You guys got that
love rejoices in the truth It beareth all things Believeth
all things that are true hopeth all things and endures all things
charity never fails now watch it because this is where the
argument and the serious consideration comes into now Charity never
fails, but whether there be prophecy they show what? Whether they
there be tongues they show what and whether there be knowledge
it shall vanish away see verse 8 You know what Paul said there's
a time coming for when the gift of knowledge, the gift of prophecy
and the gift of tongues will disappear. Paul spoke this in
about the year A.D. 5253. We are some 1900 years
removed from the Apostle Paul, right? 1900 years. We're not
living in the year A.D. 65. We're living in the year 2013,
right? Almost 2,000 years removed. Isn't
it a valid question, and this is where I will leave us tonight,
isn't it valid that in all likelihood some of these gifts have ceased? Isn't that valid? Isn't it at
least a valid question that they could have ceased by now? because
he already gave us the language that they would. Now, I'm not
going to bore you right now with the technicalities of the Greek
language, the verbs there. But the verbs are very insightful
and we'll deal with it next week. But Paul is already telling us
in chapter 13, you've got to grow up because these gifts that
are now being used for a specific purpose will no longer be in
vogue. They won't be necessary because
grown people won't need them. Is not easily provoked. Does
not think evil. Rejoices not in iniquity. Love
rejoices in the truth. You guys got that? Love rejoices
in the truth. It beareth all things, believeth
all things that are true, hopeth all things, and endures all things.
Charity never fails. Now watch it, because this is
where the argument and the serious consideration comes into now.
Charity never fails, but whether there be prophecy, they shall
what? Whether there be tongues, they shall what? And whether
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. See verse 8? You
know what Paul said? There's a time coming when the
gift of knowledge, the gift of prophecy, and the gift of tongues
will disappear. Paul spoke this in about the
year AD 5253. We are some 1,900 years removed
from the Apostle Paul, right? 1,900 years. We're not living
in the year AD 65. We're living in the year 2013,
right? Almost 2,000 years removed. Isn't
it a valid question, and this is where I will leave us tonight,
isn't it valid that in all likelihood some of these gifts have ceased? Isn't that valid? Isn't it at
least a valid question that they could have ceased by now? Because
he already gave us the language that they were. Now, I'm not
going to bore you right now with the technicalities of the Greek
language, the verbs there. But the verbs are very insightful
and we'll deal with it next week. But Paul is already telling us
in chapter 13, you've got to grow up because these gifts that
are now being used for a specific purpose will no longer be involved. They won't be necessary because
grown people won't need them. Listen to it. Here's what he
said, For we know in part And we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect is calm, then that which is in part shall
be done away. He's talking about the coming of something perfect.
And when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part
will be done away. These are the two tensions that
we will be working with. You can make your own assumptions.
We will look at them more advisedly next week. But here's what he
says. When that which is perfect is calm, that which is in part
will be done away. You got that? People have their
views of Jesus coming, the fulfillment of scripture, the maturity of
the church. Those are three views. We're going to look at look at
that next week. In my view, it's the maturity of the church and
the coming of Jesus. OK, we do have a full canon of
scripture, and that's going to be challenged, too. We'll deal
with that next week. You see it in your outline. The danger
of embracing the perpetuity of the spirit is a diminishing of
a respect for the sufficiency of scripture. Because in many
of these churches, they don't regard the word of God. It's
all about getting to the man of God or the woman of God so
she can prophesy on you and lay hands on you and give you a revelation
and give you a vision and give you a dream. And you guys understand
where that goes, don't you? We'll deal with that more fully.
Here's what Paul says, and this is the admonition to you and
I in the year 2013. If you and I are the church of
the living God, here's what he says to us. When I was a child, Now
he puts himself in the very box of prophetic, uh, utterance with
regards to the nature and character of the gifts. When I was a child,
I spake as a child, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da It's true. Of course, it goes
on in other churches, too. But in Corinth, it was very clear
that they were abusing their gifts, weren't they? Here's what he says. When I was
a child, I spake as a child. I thought as a child. But when
I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through
a glass dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know even as I also am known. And now abides
faith. Hope charity these three, but
the greatest of these is charity So paul is telling the church
at corinth that they've got to prioritize the gifts They've
got to grow up in the faith Because god is calling the church to
maturity now you and I know that if a child doesn't grow and mature
That there's something wrong, right? And this is what we'll
look at next week because we've talked about it before The whole
New Testament says, grow up, grow up. And when people don't
grow up, there's a real problem. Because of the time, we won't
take questions. We'll do it next week. Let's close in prayer.
Thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for your
word. We thank you for once again, an examination of the scripture.
May these things seek deep down into our heart. May we go back
and cogitate them deeply, profoundly, thoroughly, and ask ourselves
where we stand. Have we actually thoroughly examined
these things and weighed them out and understand the implications
of our positions? Do we actually know what you
have called us to? Certainly you have called us to maturity
and we want to walk in that. You've called us to love. We
want to walk in that as well. You've called us to obedience
to your word. We want to walk in that as well. And whatever
gifts you have given us, may they be done all to your glory
and to your praise. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.