In a moment, I will be speaking
from the first letter of Corinthians, chapter 14. I was speaking on
an interesting subject this morning, which should get your attention. I'm speaking on the subject of
tongues or languages. Now, in Mark's Gospel, chapter
16, verses 15 through 18, is that great commission which the
Lord gave to the apostles to go into all the world and preach
the gospel. The commission given to the apostles
to preach the gospel. Well, the apostles were plain
ordinary men. Most all of them were plain fishermen,
unlearned men, going into other countries to preach the gospel.
other countries which spoke other languages. Languages which they
did not know. The apostles were men from Galilee. They knew one language. And they
were going throughout the world preaching the gospel to a people
who spoke different languages. They had no time to learn those
languages. So the Lord gave them and others,
there were some others after them, gave them special gifts,
special gifts, the immediate knowledge of other languages,
along with healing and some other things. All of this was before
God's Word was complete. God's Word was being written,
and so these things were needed to open doors wherever they went
to preach the gospel. We don't need these things now.
We have a Bible. We have a more sure word of prophecy,
Peter said, where until you do well to take heed, the scriptures
and the man who preaches and teaches God's word is proof that
he's sent by God. But before, these apostles and
others had these special gifts, knowledge of languages and miracles
and so forth, to open doors to them to preach the gospel. That
was a sole purpose. of them knowing these tongues
or languages. Now, these were languages previously
unknown to them, specific languages, not an undiscernible language,
but specific languages. And this all began Back in Acts
chapter 2 at Pentecost, which many people have heard of, at
Pentecost, the gathering of the apostles and many people from
all over the world came to Jerusalem to attend the Feast of Pentecost.
And I'm reading in Acts chapter 2, it says in verse 4, they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other
tongues. Now, the word tongue is language,
and they began to speak with other tongues. Well, down in
verse 7, it says, They were all amazed, that is, the people who
heard them were amazed and marveled, saying, Behold, are not all these
which speak Galileans? How do we hear every man in our
own tongue or language? Now, there were Parthians, Medes,
Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,
Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Egypt, parts of Libya and Cyrene, strangers
of Rome, Jews, and proselyte Cretes, Arabians. And it says
in verse 11, they said, We do hear them, that is, these Galileans,
we hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. So in other words, all of these
different people from different nationalities heard these Galileans
speak in their language the wonderful works of God. And that being
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the chief principle
work of God. The work of salvation through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what these men were
sent to preach to all the world. And so they did. A specific message
in the language of all the people. And they heard them. They heard
what they were saying. They understood what was being
said to them. It wasn't a mystery or a secret
to anyone, but they all heard them in their language. Now listen to me, people. You
listen to me carefully. There are many pretenders today,
vain babblers is what they are, that speak nonsense, that speak
a ridiculous gibberish, trying to impress people that they have
some kind of special gift or anointing. speaking in undiscernible
words that they made up. They are liars. These men and
women are liars. They are forgers. They are just
like Pharaoh's sorcerers trying to imitate the miracles of Moses. Did you hear me? They are a bunch
of liars, pretenders. Now, how do I know? Number one,
they are not preaching the gospel, the gospel of God's sovereign
grace as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not preaching
the gospel, and what they're saying is an undiscernible gibberish
or babbling that they don't understand, nor does anyone else. And that's
not scriptural. It's not according to Scripture.
Now, if you want to turn with me, we'll look at it. 1 Corinthians
14 is where we find a chapter which speaks a great deal on
tongues or languages. 1 Corinthians 14. The Apostle Paul is the writer,
and he says, follow after love, that is charity, and desire spiritual
gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. Desire gifts, but only
to prophesy. Prophesy has always been a word
for preach, or to reveal things to some who have not previously
understood. To reveal the truth to some. Now he says in verse 2, "...he
that speaketh in an unknown tongue." Now, before we go any further,
if you have a King James Bible and you look at it, every mention
of the word tongue is preceded by unknown, the word unknown. And that word is in italics. If you have a King James Bible,
an original King James, I don't mean a new King James, a new
International, any of that stuff. I mean the King James. You'll
find the word unknown is in italics. That means it was added by the
translators, meaning it was not in the original text. So the
fact of the matter is that the language, the tongue that are
being spoken of here are not completely unknown, that is unknown
by anyone. Because over in verse 10 of this
chapter, it says, I'm reading verse 10, it says there are many
voices, many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them
is without signification. That is, there's no voice without
a particular sound, no voice, no words that somebody does not
understand. So tongues here, the language
is not some gibberish or babbling that somebody made up to impress
people. It's languages, all right? I
read on. Verse 2, it says, Now he that speaketh in an unknown,
or speaketh in a language unknown by some, speaketh not unto men,
but unto God. For no man understandeth him,
howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. What he's saying is,
if a man speaks in a language that other people do not know,
they don't understand him. He understands himself if he
knows that language. And I believe the apostles, I'm
convinced the apostles knew what they were saying, what they were
preaching in whatever language it was. But now the people who
did not know that language, they didn't understand what they were
saying. How be it the apostles did. They knew what they were
saying. It's like a man now who speaks a language you don't understand. He can speak it and say things,
mysteries, that he himself understands, but you don't. Verse 3, he goes
on to say, but he that prophesieth, that is, preacheth, speaketh
unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. That is, a person
who stands up to preach has one thing in mind, that is, the prophet,
the exhortation, the edification, the comfort. He wants people
to understand him. He's not trying to impress people.
He wants people to understand the truth, which will set them
free from fellows who are trying to impress people. Oh, no. He that preaches. And that's
what this is all about. That's what Paul said in verse
1. Desire that you may preach. Desire to learn a language that
you may preach. Because these gifts were being
given back then for the sake of preaching the gospel all over
the world to people in languages did not know and languages they
did not have time to learn. The gospel had to go out. Verse
3 says, He that preaches speaks unto men to edification, exhortation,
and comfort. That's the whole purpose. Verse
4 says, He that speaketh in another language edifieth himself. But he that preaches now, he
edifies the church. If a person is just speaking
in a language that he knows, well, he can understand what
he's saying or praying or whatever. If it's to himself, that's one
thing. But if it's before others and they don't understand it,
it's of no profit whatsoever. El que habla en lengua extraña,
así mismo se edifica. Pero el que profetiza edifica
a la iglesia. Did you understand what I just
said? I was speaking in Spanish. I just quoted that verse in Spanish. Now, to the average person or
someone who does not know Spanish, that was of no profit, no value. I did not comfort or edify or
exhort you in any way. You did not understand what I
was saying. But to the person who spoke Spanish,
they understood what I was saying. I hope they did. My Spanish is
not that good. But here is the whole point.
Preaching is for the purpose of being understood. Now, he
says in verse 5, I would that all of you spoke with other languages. Why? But that you prophesy, that
you might preach. Now, he says down in verse 6,
Brethren, if I come to you speaking of languages, what shall I prophet
you, except I speak to you by revelation, or by knowledge,
or prophesy, or by doctrine? Or in other words, what prophet
is it if you don't understand what I'm saying? Verse 7, even
things without life-giving sound. whether pipe or harp, except
they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known
what is pipe?" He goes on to say, if the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? He says, even things
without life-giving sound, that is, instruments, if they are
not played in tune, if they are not played, if a certain music
or tune or melody is not played, it's of no value to anyone. Nobody understands what's being
said or played. It's of no value. It's noise.
But now, and he says, if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
who shall prepare himself to battle? In other words, back
in the old days in the army, they used to play Was it revelry? Is that the name of it? Went
to awaken the troops in the morning and used to play taps at night
to put them to sleep. But what if a fellow got up in
the morning and played taps? You see what he's saying? If
a trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to
battle? So it is. These charlatans out there babbling
around impress people. They're not saying anything.
They are not sent by God. They are trying to impress you.
The only purpose for language is to preach the gospel to those
in another language. He says in verse 9, Except you
utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it
be known what is spoken? You are just speaking into the
air. There are many kinds of voices, he said, none of them
without signification. I hope this has been enlightening
to you on this subject of tongues or languages. Don't believe these
people. Don't fall for them. You believe
the man that's preaching the truth, preaching the gospel,
you believe him. Don't fall for these others that
are merely trying to draw away disciples after themselves. Well,
I've been true to God's word, and I hope you've heard it, and
I hope it's been some profit to you. Until next Sunday, good
day.