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

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 1 and 2

Timothy and a few others of Paul's epistles, Thessalonians, some portions of 1

Peter, but mostly they call these epistles of Paul, 1 and 2

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 2

Timothy chapter 3, how we ought to be in the church age, how the church ought to be run, how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, he says.

Now, look back one chapter to 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15. I'm not, well, maybe, no,

I was in 2 Timothy. Were you in 1 Timothy? I'm sorry, it's 2

Timothy chapter 3 verse 14 through 16. But you missed it,

I've already read that. So now I'm to 2 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, could we rewind the tape, start over.

First Timothy 3, 14 through 16. Now turn to 2 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.

2 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, 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 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 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. 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. He said 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. 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 what 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. Say why is 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 it's 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 is 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 upon 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 like 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 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 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 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's 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 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 5 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 in 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 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 appear 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. 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 that 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 play they true communism they gave up ownership of their possessions 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

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 uh uh chapter five in chapter five

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 Tim first second Timothy in 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 do 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 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 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 and 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 were 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 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 said well

I'm full 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's 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 an

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 sign 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 speaking they said 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 you can't say well

I just 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 myself 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 and 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 and their job is to keep that from happening and 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, Tory, 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 Kerry 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 Kerry 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 in 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 it'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 and well he was the only one that's because you just don't believe that part of the bible counts anymore today well he would that's

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's 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 filling 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 their 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 second

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

AD 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

AD 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 prove have this proven by the speaking of unlearned languages so that doesn't happen anymore but the rest of it does 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 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 there is no this is kind of interesting fact if you look in your

Bible there is no New Testament book or epistle of Paul or anything written after the year

AD 59 there is no book written after AD 59 that mentions tongues in the church at all so after the

Corinthian passage where it says tongue shall cease that was written in the year AD 59 there is no other book of the

New Testament written after that that mentions tongues this means Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st

Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philippians, Hebrews, I mean

Philemon, Hebrews, James, Peter, 1st

John, 2nd John, 3rd John, Revelation other than Revelation mentions languages but not in this context none of them mention tongues in the church if it is the predominant sign or proof that a person has just been born again why would the majority of the

New Testament not mention it why would they not teach doctrines about it in these epistles to the brand new churches that didn't know how a church was supposed to be so you have some very interesting questions that you could ask 1st

Corinthians 1 22 and 23 Paul says very clearly it's because tongues were for a sign to the

Jews the Jews require sign the Greeks seek after wisdom 1st

Corinthians 14 22 wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not it was a sign to unbelieving

Jews that God is working with Gentiles and then the judgment of all leading church historians agrees that there has been no reoccurrence of the tongues phenomenon of the first century in the succeeding centuries you have so many people that write on this including

Philip Schaff who wrote a book that's in all the seminaries called History of the

Christian Church and he says very clearly that there were some approximations and counterfeits that have appeared but nothing like the book of Acts tongues he mentions that this counterfeit phenomenon also occurs among Mormons non -christian sects and he is referring to ecstatic utterances or gibberish in his book and we've mentioned

Chrysostom who wrote in AD 347 in his commentary on 1st and 2nd

Corinthians let me quote it to you it's kind of amazing

I quote Chrysostom this whole place is very obscure and he's referring to 1st

Corinthians chapter 12 through and following he says this whole place is very obscure but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place in the church that's a direct quote by a man who lived in 347

AD Augustine in the Western Church in AD 353 to 430 was his lifespan he was a leader a church father in the

Western Church said this I quote him in the earliest times the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed and they spake with tongues which they had not learned so what did

Augustine think they were gibberish or languages languages which they had not learned as the spirit gave them utterance these were signs adapted to the time for there behooved to be that betokening of the

Holy Spirit in all tongues to show that the gospel of God was to run through all tongues all over the whole earth obviously he's talking about languages that thing was done for a betokening and it passed away that's written by one of the greatest church fathers

Augustine in his book Homilies on the First Epistle of John volume 6 number 10 why did men like Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Whitfield, John Knox, Charles Spurgeon, D .L.

Moody, Billy Sunday, Gypsy Smith, Lester Olaf, Rocky Freeman not have the faith to speak with tongues why did great missionaries like Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor not speak with tongues why is it that all the tongue speakers are segregated into the

Pentecostal and charismatic churches and not found in fundamental bible -believing churches does God not give out his gifts as needed in each local church so I think the tape's about out so the point that I try to make is that there are some very sound questions that should be asked before one just accepts the theory that because Acts chapter 2 verses 1 and following say a certain thing that that is the pattern for the church today in fact it's nonsense if you even compare it with other such passages in the very book of Acts they give different patterns and so we need to pray for our brothers and sisters who have grown up being taught this that they would be to the point where they would simply read the scriptures as God writes the scriptures and not put it through the sieve of their grandmother or their mother or their preacher or their theologians or their pox that they have

God in but we need to pray the same prayer for ourselves we don't need to do that either let's let

God speak to us through his word properly interpreted let's pray together father we ask you to bless this study father if there's if there are

Pentecostal charismatic friends that hear our tapes across the country may they know that we we love them as brothers and sisters and that we're only trying to prod them as as Paul did sometimes he would try to prod the