I want to speak on this subject
this morning, speaking in tongues. In Acts chapter 2, we read of
the day of Pentecost coming, and God the Holy Spirit coming
upon the early church, and they began to speak in tongues. They began to speak in other
languages. And there were 17 languages mentioned
in Acts chapter two that they spake in. And this was a miracle. If you were from Russia and you
heard them preach the gospel, you would hear the gospel in
your native tongue and you would be able to understand it. Or
if you were from Greece, you would hear the gospel spoken
in Greek, or if you were Spain, in Spanish, on and on, but some
17 different languages were mentioned that they heard. And here is
what they said about this. This is before Peter's Sermon
on Pentecost, right before. This is what took place. These
people heard these men speak in other languages. Now remember
this, the gift of tongues is not a heavenly gibberish. It's
the ability to speak the gospel in other languages. And here
is what the crowd concluded after they heard this. We do, Acts
chapter 2 verse 11, we do hear them speak in our tongues the
wonderful works of God. Now whatever language was used,
and as I said, 17 different languages are mentioned in Acts chapter
2, but whatever language was heard, it was still the same
message. They heard the wonderful works
of God. Now much has been said over the
centuries about the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the
early church. They were able to raise the dead.
They were able to heal the sick. They were able to give sight
to the blind. They could drink deadly things and it wouldn't
affect them. They could be bit by serpents, poisonous serpents.
It wouldn't do anything to them. They could speak in other languages. And they really could do these
things by the power of God. And many in our day claim to
still be exercising these gifts. Some claim to have the gift of
healing. They say it's not me, it's God,
but if someone had the gift of healing. they should go into
a hospital and heal everybody there if they really have that
gift. And if they did have that gift, they could do that. But
no, they'll heal somebody's sore heel or toothache at some kind
of service, and that's not the gift of healing. That's phony. It's not real, the people who
make these claims. And let me show you why this
is true. Now, the easiest gift to replicate
is speaking in tongues. People can start making all kinds
of noises and say, I'm speaking in tongues. What are you saying?
I don't know, but my spirit's edified. I don't know what I'm
saying. God's enabled me to do this. But in Acts chapter eight,
we read about Philip going to Samaria and preaching the gospel. And there was a great revival
that took place. And many people were converted
through the preaching of Philip. Now, what did Philip do? Philip
called Peter and John to come because he couldn't lay his hands
on these people and transfer these gifts. And look what Acts
chapter 8 verse 18 says, when Simon saw that through the laying
on of the apostles hands, The Holy Ghost was given. He offered
them money saying, give me also this power that on whomsoever
I lay my hands, he may receive the power of the Holy Ghost.
It was only through the laying on of the apostles hands, and
there were only 12 apostles. We read of the 12 apostles of
the Lamb in the book of Revelation. These were the only men who could
lay their hands on someone and transfer this miraculous gift
of the Holy Spirit where I could speak in tongues and I could
raise the dead and I could heal the sick. The early church was
given this gift. But after the last person died
of the apostles, no one was able to transfer the gifts anymore. So if someone claims to have
these gifts, they do not have them. I don't know what's wrong
with them. I don't know if it's a mental
problem. I don't know if it's just phony, but they do not have
these gifts. They ceased in the early church
because it's only through the laying on of the apostles hands
that these gifts were given. The last apostle died somewhere
around the beginning of the first century, John, so no one has
been able to transfer those gifts since then. Now, with that being
out of the way, I want to speak on this subject, speaking in
tongues. Because 16 or 17 languages, or
17 actually, languages were used. in this chapter, and they said,
we hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. In
verse one of Acts chapter two, and when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, Pentecost was a Jewish feast. You could read
about it in Leviticus chapter 23. They were all the disciples. They were all with one accord
in one place. They were of one mind. And suddenly,
There came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind. I guess it sounded like a tornado
coming. And it filled all the house where they were sitting,
and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire,
and it set upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance. They were speaking in all kinds
of different languages. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded,
they were confused, because that every man heard them speak in
his own language. And they were all amazed and
marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which
speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in
our own tongue wherein we were born? Now that's what the gift
of tongues is. It's not some kind of heavenly
prayer language. It's the ability to preach the
gospel in other languages. That's how the gospel was spread.
If there were no gift of tongues, they couldn't speak to people
in other countries. But oh, thank God for this gift.
And that's how the gospel was spread. And we read in verse
8, and how here we every man in our tongue wherein we were
born. And then he names 17 different languages that were being used
in that day. And here's what we all hear,
we do hear them speak in our tongues, verse 11, the wonderful
works of God. Now that was the subject matter,
the wonderful works of God. And this word is only used one
other time in the New Testament. It's used with regard to Mary.
When she said, after hearing that she was going to bear the
Lord's Christ, He that is mighty hath done great things to me. And holy and reverend is his
name. He that is mighty hath done great
things. That's the same word translated,
the wonderful works of Christ. Now, I think it's interesting
that When I've heard people who put
this emphasis on the gifts, they may speak of their own wonderful
works. Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your name? Have we
not cast out devils in your name? Have we not done many wonderful
works? Notice the quantity of their
works, many, and the quality of their works, wonderful. You
know what the Lord will say to them? Depart from me. ye that work iniquity, I never
knew you." These people spoke of their own wonderful works
and no doubt gave God the credit for enabling them to do it, but
they don't speak of His wonderful works. And that is a good definition
of what the gospel is, His wonderful works, the works of God, the
works of God in creation, The works of God in providence and
the works of God in salvation. Indeed, they're all wonderful. Deuteronomy 32, 4 says he is
the rock. His work is perfect. And whatever
God does is perfect. His work of creation is perfect.
His work of providence is perfect. His work of salvation is perfect. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse
14 we read, The wise man says, I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. It's eternal. Nothing can be
put to it, nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from
it. It's complete, it can't be added
to, it can't be taken away from. And God doeth it that men should
fear before him. You know, the only people who
really fear God are the people who trust only his perfect work. And they see that it can't be
added to or subtracted from. And they look to the work of
Christ only. He said, I've glorified thee
on earth. I have finished the work that
thou gavest me to do. Now, here is the subject of the
speaking of tongues. I don't care what language it's
in. If I'm really speaking in tongues, if I'm really speaking
under the power of the Holy Spirit, my subject will be the wonderful
works of God. Now, first of all, there's the
wonderful works of his decrees. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11,
he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Now, before time began, God decreed
everything that would take place. He said in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah chapter 46, beginning
in verse 9, I declare the end from the beginning. And from
ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel
shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. What's going on right
now is what he decreed before time began to be done. He controls
everything. Everything in creation was decreed
by him. Everything that happens in providence,
all the events that take place in time, he decreed before time. And most especially salvation,
he decreed before time. So much so that Hebrews 4.3 says
all the works were finished. from the foundation of the world.
When God decrees something, it becomes past tense, completed
before it even takes place. That's how sure and certain his
decrees are. I love that. He decrees everything. I love the scripture in Isaiah
9, verse 6, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Now the
word counselor there is not a noun. People go to their counselors
to get good advice. Well, he's not a counselor to
give good advice. When it says he's the wonderful
counselor, my counsel shall stand. He's the one who counsels and
who decrees all things by an act of his will and how wonderful
he is in his decrees. This is worthy of God. Somebody
says, my God's not like that. Well, yours might not be, but
your God's not the God of the Bible then because this is the
God who controls everything and has decreed everything that takes
place. First of all, in his decree,
there was the wonderful work of creation. He spake the world
into existence. Paul tells us in Colossians 1.16,
all things were created by him and before him, and he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. David said, when I consider
the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars which
thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him?
Now God created the universe. Evolution just isn't true. It's
just not true. God created the heavens and the
earth, and whatever God Did? That's what I believe. Did he
create the earth in six days? Maybe. If he did, that's what
I believe. Do those six days represent six eons? You know,
the scripture does say one day with the Lord is a thousand years
and a thousand years as a day. That might mean different things,
but whatever it means, that's what I believe. Is the earth
only 6,000 years old? Well, if it is, yeah. If it's
billions and billions of years old, yeah, I believe whatever
God, whatever is true, that's what I believe. But God created
the heavens and the earth. Now, if I believe in evolution,
I say, look how far we've come. If I believe in creation, I say,
look how far we've fallen. God is the creator, and oh, his
creation is so beautiful, it's so perfect. I said to my wife
the other day, you can't improve on the Lord's blue, can you?
Oh, the blueness of the sky, the beauty of it, the beauty
of his creation. He created the universe, and
he saw that it was very good, the scripture says, and then
there are the wonderful works of his providence. Everything
in time is what he purposed in eternity. It's His will being
done. Romans 8, 28 says, And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Ecclesiastes
3, verse 11 says, He hath made everything beautiful in His time. Now people say, how could a good
God, the loving God allow this to happen and allow that to happen?
Where was God when this happened? Where was God when that happened?
And what they're doing, they're sitting on judgment of God and
they're not seeing the reason. Things happen, it's because of
sin, because we're living in a fallen, sin-cursed world. But
the Lord is going to bring good out of evil. Only He can bring
good out of evil, and the proof of that is the cross. The most
evil thing to take place when men murder the Son of God is
the most glorious thing to take place, the salvation that came
from the cross. And that leads me to talk about
His work in salvation. Salvation is given to us to manifest
who He is. What would we ever know of grace
or of mercy or of the forgiveness of sins or of kindness and compassion
if there were no fall and there were no sin and God sent His
Son to manifest who He is. All that God is is manifest. in how he saved sinners by the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to know who God is,
look at the cross and you'll see every attribute of God fully
displayed. Now, when we talk about his mighty
works in salvation, let's begin with the scripture. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God. We have a book that is perfect. It's without error. Somebody
says, I just can't believe that. Well, I'm sorry. I do. I do. If God can create the universe,
he can cause and inspire men to write a book and preserve
it from error. And if we don't have the inspiration
of scripture, all we have is my opinion or your opinion. And
what's that worth? Absolutely nothing. But oh, what
a great work he did in writing this book, the Bible, through
different men with different personalities over a 1,500 year
period to give us the gospel, how he saves sinners. And in
the Bible, we find out about his great work as a surety. The Lord Jesus Christ stood as
a surety for his people before time began. What's a surety? He's someone who bears the responsibility
for somebody else. When he became my surety, and
the scripture says in Hebrews 7.22, he was the surety of a
better covenant established upon better promises. That's talking
about the covenant of grace when God gave the elect to Christ,
and he stood as a surety for them and took complete responsibility
for the salvation of all of God's people. Listen, my salvation
is sure because he's my surety. He cannot fail. If he saved me,
I'm saved. If he took full responsibility
for my salvation, that means he has full responsibility for
my salvation. It's all upon him. And I love
it that way. I love him being my surety. David
put it this way in 2 Samuel 23, 5. Although my house be not so
with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire, though we make it not to grow. Now, before
time began. He stood as the surety of all
of God's elect, and in time, God became flesh. He came as
the surety of those people to do what he guaranteed to do to
save them from their sins. God was manifest in the flesh. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. And the word was manifest in
the flesh. Christ Jesus came in the flesh.
You see, I'm flesh. For him to save me, he's going
to have to become flesh. And in the flesh, he was born
the infant and became an infant. And in the flesh, he kept God's
law perfectly. Now, if he would have just gone
back up into heaven after having kept the law perfectly, what
good would that do me? It would do me no good at all. But understand
this, what he did, he did as a surety. What he did, he did
as a representative. That means when he kept the law,
he did it for somebody else. You see, for me to be saved,
I'm going to have to have a perfect righteousness. So he kept the
law for me that I might have perfect righteousness. Matthew
chapter three, verse 15, when he's speaking to John the Baptist,
And he wants John to baptize him, and John said, I have need
to be baptized of thee. Why are you coming to me for
this? He said, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Everything Jesus Christ did,
he did as an us. When he kept the law, everybody
in him kept the law. All of the elect kept the law.
Well, who are the elect? The elect are those who believe
on him only as everything in their salvation. They're the
ones God chose before time began. And the evidence that God chose
them is they believe the gospel, every single one of them. As
many, Luke said in Acts chapter 13, verse 48, as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. In the flesh, he kept God's law
perfectly. And what about the great work
of his death? It's amazing to me that he could
die in the first place, the God man. But he actually did die
and what he accomplished by that mighty work of his death. Luke
9 31 says they spake of the deceased, which he should accomplish. And
when the Lord died on Calvary's tree, there was something that
was accomplished. The complete putting away and
removal and canceling of the sins of everybody he died for.
If he died for you, your sins are put away. They're gone. They're forgiven. They're blotted
out. They're canceled. He fully satisfied
all the demands of God's holy law. He made it to where God
is satisfied with you, where God can say, I can ask for nothing
more. I'm perfectly satisfied with that one. That's what the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's tree, a full redemption. My debt was completely paid. The moment he died, all my sin
blotted out and made satisfaction for and I now stand before God
perfect. What an accomplishment that is.
And what about the accomplishment of his resurrection? He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. When he
was raised from the dead, all of God's elect were justified.
That means I have no sin. That means I have no guilt. That
means I stand before God perfect. What an accomplishment that is
that he was able to do such a mighty thing by his resurrection. And
what about the great work of regeneration? You see, those
the Father gave to Christ and Christ died for, they are going
to be called by the invincible, irresistible work of God. They're going to be birthed by
God. They're going to be born of God.
They're going to be born again, and they're going to be given
life from the dead. The hours come, yea, now is,
that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name, which were born, not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. born of God. That means I'm given
a new nature, a holy nature that was not there before. People
talk about the heart being changed. The heart's not changed. You're
given a new heart, a heart that was not there before, that understands
the gospel, that can hear the gospel, that believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a great work that is, this
great work of regeneration, being born again, born from above,
the dead sinner being given life from the dead. And then there's
the great work of being preserved, being kept by the power of God
through faith and salvation. Now, somebody says, do you believe
in one saved, always saved? Well, it depends on who does
the saving. If you saved yourself, if you had anything to do with
it, no, I don't believe it. You'll fall away. You won't continue.
But if God saved you, yes, you're eternally saved. You're kept,
preserved by the very power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time, Peter said. Paul said to
the Philippians, I'm persuaded of this very thing that he which
hath begun A good work in you will perform it into the day
of Jesus Christ. Christ said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life, not temporary life, but eternal life, and they shall
never perish. One of Christ's sheep cannot
perish because he keeps them. He preserves them. He causes
them to persevere in the faith. And what a great work that is,
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And then
there's the great work of glorification. And what is amazing, Romans chapter
8 verse 29 says, Whom he did justify, them he also glorified. If I'm a believer, I'm already
glorified. Scripture says we're seated together
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. But here's the point. You say,
you don't look glorified. I know I don't, but God's word
says I am. So I believe what God says. Here's the point. One of these days, I'm going
to enter in to glorification in the sense that I'm going to
be perfectly conformed in my experience. Now I'm perfectly
conformed in the purpose of God right now. I'm perfectly conformed
because of the work of Christ right now, but one of these days,
I'm going to be perfectly conformed in my experience, perfectly conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to be just
like him. Oh, what a day that will be when
my Savior I shall see and I will be perfectly conformed to his
image. I won't be a sinner anymore.
I won't even remember what it's like to sin. I won't remember
what it's like to have trouble or sorrow. But I know this. When
I'm in glory, perfectly conformed to his image, there's one thing
he's going to have that I'm not going to have. Those are the
scars of his body from his death. And I'm going to know by looking
at those scars that the only reason I'm here is because of
what he went through for me. But oh, what a great work every
believer. has awaiting, this thing of being
perfectly conformed to the image of his son. Now people put a
lot of emphasis on the gifts, speaking in tongues and so on,
and I hope I've shown you from the scripture that that's not
scriptural. But I'll tell you what those who were speaking
in tongues had as their subject, the wonderful works of God. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. Until then, this is Todd Nyberg,
praying that God will be pleased to make himself known to you.
That's our prayer. Amen.