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, that is
the apostles, and others, there were some others after them,
the Lord gave them special gifts, special gifts, 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 is that's the proof that he 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 the 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, most
people, 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. You listen carefully. There are
many pretenders today. There are many pretenders, 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 undiscernible
words that they've made up. They're liars. These men and
women are liars. They're forgers. They're just
like Pharaoh's sorcerers trying to imitate the miracles of Moses. Did you hear me? They're a bunch
of liars, pretenders. Now, how do I know? Number one,
they're 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. First 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, not known 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 the tongues here, the language
is not some gibberish or babbling that somebody made up to impress
people. But 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. How be it in the spirit? He speaketh
mystery. What he's saying is if a man
speaks in a language that other people do not know. Well, 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.
Howbeit, 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, the 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 one. Desire that you may preach. Desire to learn a language that
you may preach, in other words. Because these gifts were being
given back then, like I said, for the sake of preaching the
gospel all over the world to people in languages they did
not know and languages they did not have time to learn. The gospel
had to go out. And there were no schools, as
it were, of language as there are now. 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 him,
it's of no profit whatsoever. El que habla en lengua extraña,
asimismo 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's 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,
he goes on to say, Brethren, if I come to you speaking of
languages, what shall I profit you except I speak to you by
revelation or by knowledge or prophesy or by doctrine? In other
words, what profit is it if you don't understand what I'm saying? Verse 7, things without, 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 piped?" 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're not
played in tune, if they're 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 at it. 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 Uh, 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 fella 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 giving babbling around
to impress people. They're not saying anything.
They're not sent by God. They're 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's spoken? You're just speaking into the
air. There are many kinds of voices, he said, none of them
without signification. So the whole purpose, and 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 is preaching
the truth, preaching the gospel. You believe him. And 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.