Tongues vs. The Book of Acts (03/09/2003)

2 Timothy, the Pastoral Epistles, and Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

We'll get into the word this evening. Are we? We're rolling. All right. Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14, okay? Are you ready? Follow along. These things write I unto you, unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Those verses show that the book of 1st and 2nd Timothy and a few others of Paul's epistles, Thessalonians, some portions of 1st Peter, but mostly they call these epistles of Paul, 1st, 2nd Timothy, Titus, and Thessalonians, the pastoral epistles.

And it's because of this passage where it says that thou would know how you ought to behave in the house of God. It shows that when Paul went out into the desert for three years and spent time alone with Jesus Christ and was taught mysteries that no man had known up until that point, he was appointed by the Lord to be the one that predominantly God would use to reveal how we ought to be.

That's in 2nd Timothy chapter 3, how we ought to be in the church age, how the church ought to be run, how a church, how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, he says. Now look back one chapter to 2nd Timothy chapter 2, verse 15, I'm not, well maybe, no I was in 2nd Timothy, were you in 1st Timothy?

I'm sorry, it's 2nd Timothy chapter 3, verse 14 through 16, but you missed it, I've already read that. So now I'm to 2nd Timothy 2 and verse 15, I'm not there yet, oh you mean it's first instead of second, ah, I'm sorry, okay, it's first, for those of you out in radio land, rewind the tape, start over, 1st Timothy 3, 14 through 16, now turn to 2nd Timothy 2, 15, you see I got confused there, I had verses from both places, should just stick to one verse, close the Bible and give a poem or two.

Yeah, well we're headed to Acts, so we're actually going to Acts after a while, no we're going to Luke I suppose, and then from there to Acts. 2nd Timothy 2, 15, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, and this is a very key phrase, rightly dividing the word of truth.

That's where our idea of dispensations come from, that you have to divide the Bible up into proper dispensations or you might likely misinterpret what God is really saying. Now we are in Luke, we've been studying Luke, but what I'm going to do today is I'm going to take I think Luke chapter 5 and verse 14, and as a text verse, and make a point this morning rather than going on into new material, and Brother Otis can just pick up next week where he left off last week.

Look at verse 14, Luke chapter 5, and he charged him to tell no man but to go and show thyself to the priest, you see that, we're all together on that, aren't we, okay, and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.

I want to take that verse, it's a bit of a historical verse that will help us understand a lot, and that is that Jesus and all the apostles were in the Old Testament dispensation as we read about them in the book of, certainly in the Gospels, but in the early portions of the book of Acts.

So you have the only time in history where this happens where you're going, you have people living in both dispensations in their one lifetime. You have another peculiar phenomenon that happens that we mentioned briefly in the morning service that it was the only time in history where you had people saved before they heard the Gospel, at least before they heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it was presented in the New Testament, because there were some who were saved under the Old Testament dispensation, such as Anna was a good example, some of the Jews that were looking for the Messiah, Simeon is another good example, John the Baptist is another good example, his, John the Baptist's apostles, I wouldn't call them apostles, but his disciples, another good example.

And so they were saved and then all of a sudden later they heard the Gospel, and so then when they heard the Gospel, they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, not before, but they were already saved. Now that doesn't happen today in the church age.

You cannot be saved and then indwelt by the Holy Spirit later. You are saved and at the moment of your salvation, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Jesus Christ and indwelt permanently by the Holy Spirit all at one moment.

And so it's, you have a transition period. And the reason you have to have it is because you're on a timeline and you're moving from the Old Testament to the cross to the New Testament, there's no way to avoid it.

And so the book of Acts by and large is a history of this transitional phase from the Old Testament to the church age. So I want to show you something in the book of Acts, I want to take you through some things.

Pentecost, Tongues, and the Danger of Building Doctrine from Acts 2

Let's look at Acts chapter 2 verse 1. This is a real good study for ourselves too, something that should cause us to really fear the Lord when it comes to Bible interpretation. It is so easy for us to interpret scriptures according to our theological underpinnings and our backgrounds rather than to just let the scripture speak as it is written in proper context and in proper connection with all the other scriptures in the whole Bible.

That's difficult for a new believer to do at all because he hasn't been through the Bible enough times to have it in his mind where he reads something and he says, well, there's something over here. I remember somewhere over here it says something about this.

And then go find it, see what it says and it sheds light on this. A new believer can hardly do that. So a new believer needs to be very careful before he makes any interpretation that's different than something he's heard his teacher say or read commentators say in the past.

He just needs to be very careful because he doesn't have a grip on the whole scriptures yet. So he can't use that key ingredient of letting the Bible interpret the Bible very well yet. There are several interpretative rules that can be broken as we know.

But there is an interesting thing that all of us tend to do. Now I'm going to pick on a group that's not our group today and I'm not really picking on them. I shouldn't use that word. I'm going to use them as an example.

But you know, if you've been in this church long, I use the independent Baptist and Baptist in general as examples more often than any other group. So bear with me. I'm going to use the Pentecostals as an example today.

Now I have, God has blessed me with the ability to have not a lot, but a few. By that I mean a small handful, two or three good friends in my lifetime who have that background, did not grow up in a Baptist church, grew up Pentecostal.

And it's interesting to me to share with them a scripture that to me is so clear because I interpret it the way I've always interpreted it. And they read that and they say, hmm, you see that in that? And then they'll read it and say, here's what I see.

And then on the other hand, sometimes it works the other way. They'll read a passage and say, well, we see here where God is saying this. I'll say, wait a minute. I don't see that in there. And then I'll go and go start at the top, read down through the context and say, why do you think it's talking about that?

This context says it's talking about this. So you see, both groups can fall prey to that error of interpreting the Bible to fit a plan you already are in love with, rather than making sure you're seeing what God is saying.

I want to give you an example. Acts chapter 2, verse 1, obviously is more comfortable for us to pick on them than ourselves today. So let's look at a problem that sometimes they have. Look at this, Acts 2, 1.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, here's where the name for the group came, the Pentecostal church, came from this word that's found in verse 1. When it was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat 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.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And so there was a doctrine and an entire church denomination formed on this passage of Scripture. They call them Pentecostals.

Sometimes they call them the fullness movement. And by fullness, they mean that they believe the whole Bible, not just parts of it. And they accuse us of believing just the parts we want to believe and leaving off parts we're uncomfortable with.

And they say, well, the Bible, just as surely as it says anything, says right here in chapter 2, verse 1 through 5, that in order for it to be a genuine salvation experience, there must be tongues spoken and this filling of the Holy Ghost, which is a second blessing that takes place after salvation, and it's evidenced by speaking in tongues.

And they say it's because the Bible says it in Acts chapter 2, verse 1 through 5, and would accuse you of not believing the Bible if you don't believe that's true. Now, to a novice, that sounds very much like a strong argument.

And if you were a new Christian and you did grow up in a Baptist church, it would cause you great strife because you would think, well, I don't want to be accused of being someone who only believes parts of the Bible.

I'd better reinvestigate this. And the truth is, though, let's investigate this from the point of view of asking the question, why is it that Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 4 are chosen as the method by which God saves?

Why couldn't certain other passages, even in the book of Acts, been chosen? So let's look at the, let me name the sequence of things that happens in the passage we just read. Number one, there's a group of people.

Number two, these people are already saved people. These are Jesus' disciples in the upper room. These are already saved people. They were saved under the Old Testament economy or dispensation. They were also given the gospel by Jesus Christ.

And then third, we see that there is a sound from heaven that accompanies this like the sound of a mighty wind. And then we see there are cloven tongues of fire, perhaps resting upon the heads of each person who is being indwelt by the Holy Spirit at this moment.

And then we see that they begin to speak with tongues. Now, we have to understand, however, in the English Bible where we see tongues, in some places in the Corinthian books where it says unknown tongues, the word unknown is in italics, which means it is not in the Greek language.

There's no place in the Greek New Testament where it says unknown tongues. This word was simply the word used by the Greeks to mean languages. In fact, verse five here gives evidence of it. It says very clearly that there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation.

Sometimes it says out of every tongue in heaven. They spoke many different tongues. And so when they speak of the gift of tongues here, they're speaking of the gift of being able to speak another world language that has significance, a significant world language that you haven't learned in school.

Therefore, it would be a miraculous gift from God to be able to do that. That's what tongues means throughout the Bible, even in the Corinthian passages, which we can demonstrate at a later time, and we'll do that together.

But we see these things, a group of people, a group of people already saved, a sound of a mighty wind, a visible something that looked like a fire. And when they say fire with tongues, it doesn't mean there was a literal human tongues.

It means like when you see fire, it shoots up and it looks like little tongues of fire. You've even heard the expression tongues of fire before, and that's all that meant. It was up above their head. Now, if we really chose to use this passage literally, why couldn't I say, okay, I believe the whole Bible.

Therefore, I believe the Bible says if it's truly a salvation, there must be a sound of a mighty rushing wind, and you must have a literal cloven tongue of fire up here above your head, and then you must speak in languages you've never learned or it's not a true salvation experience.

Now, I'm using the exact passage they used to found their entire movement upon saying that we don't believe the whole Bible, but I'm interpreting it more literally than they are. Are you with me? So, if we're going to use the book of Acts to form doctrine and methods for the New Testament church, then we have to be consistent.

We have to use logic consistent all the way to its end, or we're playing games. We're playing games with the scripture, which is certainly not any more dishonest than leaving out certain scriptures. Both are dishonest.

Acts 4, Common Ownership, and the Problem of Using Transitional Narratives as Church Rules

Well, let's turn to Acts chapter 4, verse 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak the word by stretching forth thine hand to heal.

Now, this is talking about God stretching his hand forth to heal. And that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Now, notice this is the same group. Many of these were already indwelt by the Holy Spirit a couple of chapters earlier. So unless you believe this is a second indwelling, then this must have to do with the filling of the Spirit for power, not the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But it goes on and it says the place was shaken, so now we have an earthquake-type effect, a shaking of the place that they were in. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. They spake the word with boldness.

They began to speak the word. It does not say they began to speak in foreign languages in this place. It means they began to preach the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart, one soul.

Neither said any of them owned anything, and they shared their possessions, but they had all things in common. So we see communism in place here. Truth, communism, they gave up ownership of their possessions and said we just all own it all.

It was a commune. So now, why don't we use chapter 4, verses 29 through 32 as what we base our religion on? Since the Bible says it, and since we don't want to leave out any of the scriptures, we now have to have a group of people together, and there has to be an earthquake and a shaking of the building in order for us to be filled with the Spirit.

And then when it is, we will not speak with tongues, unknown languages that we didn't already know. What we will do is we'll preach the word boldly in our own language, and then we will give up everything we own and give it to each other.

Then we'll know we're really saved. Now you say, well, we don't use that. I mean, that'd be ridiculous. Well, then we're leaving out part of the word. But I'm full gospel. I believe all of it. So this is what I say our group has to do to have assurance and knowledge that we're really saved and have the Holy Spirit.

There will be no speaking of foreign languages. There will be only bold preaching of the word, only with an earthquake, and then you will give all your money to me, and I'll give what I have to you. If I don't have any, you give me yours.

And then I'll know that you're saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, do you see the logic that it would be just as logical to base our group upon this word of God as the other word of God, and we could go around accusing people of leaving this out if they don't believe just like we do on this, and yet it's still from the book of Acts.

Now, let's go to chapter 5. In chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira were killed by God. Now, what if we use that as the true word of God that tells us how it ought to be in the church? Rather than using Timothy like the Holy Spirit said that 1 Timothy and the pastoral epistles were given by Paul, by the Holy Spirit through Paul to teach us how we ought to behave in the church, we say, no, no, no, we don't believe that.

We believe we learn it from the book of Acts. So we're going to get how we behave in the church from the transitional book. We don't know if it's Jewish or Gentile or what's happening, but that's where we're going to get it.

Then, all of a sudden, if someone lies and we find out about it, they have to die in the congregation in the assembly. And if they don't, it means God is not there because the word of God says when New Testament Christians lie to the Holy Spirit, God kills them.

Oh, you don't believe that? Well, I'm sorry, but we believe the full gospel. We believe everything the Bible says is the way it is, and you'll get there someday. You'll understand. You see that I'm not trying to be facetious.

What I'm saying is they often talk down to us as if we're not believers of the whole Bible. Couldn't we turn this around and use the same book of Acts to do the same to them or to any group that doesn't believe any of these things?

Acts 8, Samaritans, Laying on of Hands, and the Spirit

Now, go into Acts chapter 8. Maybe we should pick this passage to be true Pentecostal people. Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.

Now, here we have a group of Samaritans that are half-breeds, part Jewish, part Gentile. Now, nowadays, if a person is half-Jewish, they're considered to be Jewish anywhere even in Israel, especially if the mother was the half that was Jewish.

So, these really are Jews. From our definition, these are Jews, but they are called Samaritans. And so, verse 15, who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Now, look at verse 16.

For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. You see, we're in a transitional period where people don't even have the whole truth. They don't have the whole gospel.

Some of them were John's disciples, and they had just heard what John said, repent and be baptized. And there's one coming after me. Some of them over in Samaria had just heard rumors. There is a Jesus Christ, and they wanted that, and they received that as their religion, but they didn't know anything about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or the filling of the Holy Spirit or any of these things.

So, they sent the apostle to them, verse 17, then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now, notice what happens in this passage. First, you had some people who had already heard the gospel and apparently believed in Jesus.

They were part Jewish people, and then they had the laying on of hands, and they received the Spirit, and there were no speaking of foreign languages. So, now we could base our church on this, that only Samaritans can be saved.

You have to be half Jewish, half Gentile. There has to be laying on of hands of apostles, but they're all gone now, so we're in trouble. And then you receive the Spirit, but you don't always speak with foreign languages.

We could have chosen this passage just as well. Right in that same passage is the place where the witch wanted to purchase the ability to lay hands on people and give the Holy Spirit, and he was denied that.

Then you go into Acts chapter 8, Philip is caught away by the Spirit. And if you were to choose that little passage where he went out to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch to prove that you're called to preach, you would have to miraculously fly from Mahea to Groesbeck to preach there.

The proof that you had the Holy Spirit would be you would be transported. Beam me up, Scotty. You'd be transported from here to the next place you're going to preach in. Could be New Zealand, could be anywhere, and you would just be there.

You say, well, I don't choose to believe that. I say, well, I'm full of gospel. My Bible says this is what happens as proof that you're a Spirit-filled evangelist or missionary. Therefore, if you don't believe that, you're just pulling that part out.

You don't want to believe that part. You see how we can take these scriptures? Do you know why it's this confusing? Because it's a transitional book never intended to be used as the methods for the New Testament church, which are given in the Timothys by Paul from the Holy Spirit as he met with him out in the wilderness for three years.

It's a matter of rightly dividing the word of truth, ladies and gentlemen, and you cannot do that as a novice. You can't do it as a baby Christian. You can't do it without studying. And studying, according to Paul, who said, bring me the books and the parchments, includes reading commentaries from other believers before you, not just the Bible.

Do you know there are certain parts of the Bible you cannot possibly ever interpret without another man's written book? I could read one to you, but I won't look it up. But just pick any of those books over in the Pentateuch where they start just listing the peoples.

In Genesis, for example, where they started listing the peoples that populated the world in different places, and they name all those names. You couldn't possibly interpret what those names were without going to Unger's Bible dictionary and looking it up, and Unger will tell you what part of the world that is and what nation it is.

You couldn't know that with just a Bible. So you cannot rightly divide the word of truth with only a Bible. And if you think you can, then you're probably a person who has your own private interpretations of every passage, your own opinions, and you'll teach your followers what you think it says.

You don't care what people for 2 ,000 years have written that that passage says. You can find commentaries on 1st and 2nd Corinthians written 300 years after Jesus died, verse-by-verse commentaries.

And the commentators, by the way, say on the passage in chapter 13 to 14, we know not what these particular signed gifts truly are, for they no longer happen in the church. The commentator wouldn't even try to tell you what it meant exactly, this tongue-speakingness.

We're not sure by experience what it means because it's not happening anymore. That's out there to be found if you will, what? Study to show yourselves approved. You have to study, though, to find those things.

You can't just say, well, I've got a King James Bible. I'll just sit and read it, or I'll go like this. That's God's word for me. It may say, go out and hang thyself. That's a scripture that's true. You can't take that approach.

God wrote it where you couldn't. You have to study, and you have teachers. I know the Bible says the Holy Spirit is a teacher, and he is the teacher, but God gives human teachers and gives gifts to the church.

Their job is to keep that from happening. The sad thing is that in our day what the teachers are doing is causing it because they're giving us their own private interpretations that don't match up to anything that was written before the year 1900 by any commentator, no matter whether it's Matthew, Henry, or any of the great ones that existed, the great preachers like Moody, Spurgeon.

Have you ever asked yourself the question why Moody, Spurgeon, Torrey, Roloff, Finney, Judson, Hudson Taylor? Who's the father of the mission movement? I can't believe I forgot his name. He's my favorite one to read about.

Carey. None of them spoke in tongues. And there's much written on their lives, both biographies and autobiographies. They never spoke in tongues. Wouldn't it have been a nice gift for William Carey to have?

Do you know that he lost his wife to dementia because she lost so many children who died on the mission field? They died of these horrible diseases, and she watched so many of her little children die that she went crazy.

And she would stand in the next room while he was working at his desk interpreting the Bible into 10 or 11 different languages, and he'd have to listen to her hollering and screaming, almost demonic-type noises she was making because she had lost her mind.

And he spent his life interpreting that into 10 or 11 different languages so people could hear the gospel and be saved. Why didn't he just speak with tongues? You can't tell me he didn't have it all. You can't tell me he didn't have the blessing.

So these things, if you study and you study history, why is it that you go and you look at the early church fathers, like Chrysostom, like Augustine, like Polycarp, probably 10 of them you could study and read, and it's beautiful to read what they had to say.

And no, these are not Roman Catholics. This was before the Roman church was perverted. None of them spoke about any tongue speaking going on, any faith healing like you see it in modern times. There was no such thing as being slain in the spirit.

None of that was happening. You won't find it in the church fathers. You won't find it in any of the great preachers of the last two great world revivals, in the 1800s and the early 1900s. You won't find any of them.

None of them ever spoke with tongues. Why is that? Because they did not accept a counterfeit. If the real thing wasn't there, they wouldn't have anything to do with it. Now let's look at, if you look at Acts chapter 9, Saul's conversion.

We studied it in Sunday school this morning. What if we chose that as the true gospel that we must use to be a full gospel Christian? Well, in that salvation experience, you would have to see a bright light from heaven and hear a loud thundering voice that told you exactly what to do next and you would then have to do that or you couldn't be saved.

You say, well, I don't believe that. Well, that's because you're not full gospel. I believe the whole Bible and I believe if the word of God says that's how a salvation experience is, then that's how it is today.

So this is what we do in our church. We don't let anyone join who hasn't seen a bright shining light and heard a thundering voice and then they can be baptized. Well, he was the only one, but that's because you just don't believe that part of the Bible counts anymore today.

Well, I agree. It would be a very small church from that point on. We would dwindle even from where we are in size, wouldn't we? Peter raises Tabitha in Acts chapter 9. That would be evidence that you had the Holy Spirit that you could raise the dead if you chose that passage to base your experience of what a New Testament church is supposed to be like.

Chapter 10, Cornelius, a Gentile, is saved and Peter taught that the Gentiles could be saved. In fact, Peter was taught that by the Holy Spirit himself, and it was a turning point in Peter's life when he as a Jew learned that God would save Gentiles.

It was also a turning point in the book of Acts because as far as I can see from chapter 10 on, there's only one other place where there was any laying on of hands for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

What happened from chapter 10 on, except for the one passage in 19 that we'll look at, but what happened in general is that when Gentiles heard the gospel and they believed in their heart, they were instantaneously indwelt by the Holy Spirit and permanently.

They did not have to go get a second blessing later. It happened at the moment of belief. That is the New Testament pattern. There is no case now when someone is saved first and then hears the gospel.

So therefore there is no need for someone to be saved first and then get the Holy Spirit later. It just doesn't work that way in the church age. It was a transitional period in the book of Acts where you had people that were already saved who then had to learn about the fulfilling of the Holy Spirit.

And as far as I can tell, and I have taken time at this point to study every place in the book of Acts where the laying on of hands was used, there is no place where they laid hands on a Gentile for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Now they did the Samaritans, but as I said, Samaritans are half Jew. By today's standard, they would be called a Jew, not a Gentile if they're even a fourth Jew. So in Acts chapter 10 it says,. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

There was no laying on of hands. And they of the circumcision which bleed were astonished. The Jews, when they saw these Gentiles saved, they were astonished as many as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For they heard them speak with languages and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.

Then prayed they him to tarry there certain days. So notice what happens in this passage. Number one, there's a group of people. They are Gentiles. They hear the gospel and believe and are instantaneously saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

And they are given the gift, miraculous gift to speak languages they had never learned before, which did what? What was the purpose of? There's always a purpose when God does a miracle. What was the purpose of it?

Who was standing nearby that needed to believe they were true Christians that had really been saved? The Jews. Who is it that Paul says require a sign? Who is it that Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter, I'm going to say 14, 13, 14 or 15, where Paul says tongues is a sign to the unbelieving Jew.

He gives the purpose of tongues. Now today, how many churches do we have predominantly they're filled with Jews? Not hardly any have one Jew. But let me ask you this. How many of them are filled with lost Jews?

None. You can't get a lost Jew to come to a Gentile church. I'll promise you that. And if one does get saved, he might come. But probably not. He'll go get a Jewish congregation. So what would be the need or the purpose of tongues in a predominantly Gentile church where everybody sitting in there is saved?

There's no purpose for it. God doesn't do miracles without a purpose. That's why the Bible says tongues shall cease. And by the time of Chrysostom, 300 A .D., they had already ceased from the church. As we know from the East, Chrysostom was an Eastern church father.

It was not in the Eastern church. Augustine was a Western church father. And he said the same thing. Almost word for word, it was not found in the Western church. So it was nowhere in the church by the year 300 A .D.

So it's interesting then that we see, and if we use chapter 10 of Acts as our passage, we would end up with a church more like our church where we believe people hear and believe and are immediately indwelt.

They don't get a second blessing. Now unless we had some unbelieving Jews, there would be no need for us to have this proven by the speaking of unlearned languages. So that doesn't happen anymore. But the rest of it does.

Acts 19, John's Disciples, and the Last Laying on of Hands in Acts

Now look at Acts chapter 19. Here's a situation where Paul passes through Ephesus and he finds certain disciples. So here you got some saved people walking around. Verse 2, he said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe?

And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. You say, well we're in Ephesus, this must be Gentiles.

No, these were John the Baptist's disciples. John the Baptist was a Jew. His disciples were Jews. Then said Paul, John barely baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him who should come after him, that is on Jesus Christ.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, they were Jews, he laid hands on them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied.

So here if we use this passage, we'd have to say first of all, only Jews could be saved. Secondly, they're saved first, then later they get baptized. After that, you lay hands on them, then they speak with tongues and prophesy.

And if you don't see that, then it's not real. You see how that doesn't make sense to pick one passage from anywhere in the book of Acts and use it as the guideline for the church? It contradicts itself.

There are too many patterns, and they're all different. Each one is different because you're moving in a transition from a Jewish economy to a Gentile church. And so, now, that is the last place in the Bible.

You don't see any place where they lay hands on Gentiles, and that's the last place you see in the book of Acts where it's not where when they just hear the word and believe, they're instantaneously indwelt.

Every other place, that's the way it is from Acts 10 on. So, that gives us the pattern. Now, this is kind of an interesting fact. If you look in your Bible, there is no New Testament book or epistle of Paul or anything written after the year A .D. 59.

There is no book written after A .D. 59 that mentions tongues in the church at all. So, after the Corinthian passage where it says tongues shall cease, that was written in the year A .D. 59. There is no other book of the New Testament written after that that mentions tongues.