18 - Understanding Biblical Tongues

Well, welcome back to the

Striving for Eternity Academy's School of Systematic Theology.

We are going through our lessons in systematic theology. As we go through our academy, we want to first off welcome some new students with us who have enrolled.

We are glad that you are here. We are going through, we have just actually finished up really, some lessons on the ministry of the

Holy Spirit. And this week we are going to deal with a somewhat controversial issue that often comes up when discussing the ministry of the

Holy Spirit. We hope to finish it up this week. Who am I fooling?

We will probably finish it up next week. But we are going to go into, because what we are probably going to do next week is formulating some questions that you end up having as you listen through this week's class and you contact us this week.

And as you do that, we are going to take those responses and try to answer any of those questions.

You can contact us, so write this down so you know where to email us, but it's academyatstrivingforeternity .org,

academyatstrivingforeternity .org. And you can email us there. If you have questions, write them down.

Let us know what those questions are and we are going to look to answer those next week because I kind of think there may be some questions that you are going to have.

If you are a student of the Academy, I hope that you have your syllabus out. You can get that.

If you don't have a syllabus, you can get it from us on the website right about there, which you can go and check out the new website.

Got a brand new website. It's looking really sharp. Still going to be adding a whole lot of new things coming up, but you can go to the

Academy page and you can look to enroll and with that you will be able to get the syllabus.

And when you have the syllabus, you will have a whole lot of notes that will be there at your fingertips.

But as we go through today's lesson, I want to caution. I kind of did this last class.

I want to do it again this class just because these issues we are dealing with could be controversial to some.

Not to me. I am very clear on them. But if you don't agree with me, then you may not be so clear.

That's a joke. Put those weapons down. I see you.

We got some rowdy students, I'll tell you. But anyway, what we would like to do is we would like you to contact us either on Facebook or at our email and let us know your questions that you have.

Either questions where you disagree with us or questions that someone has asked you, which may mean you want to practice trying out some of the stuff we're going to talk about tonight with those who don't agree with you or agree with me maybe on this.

If you agree with me, then you can ask those that don't agree with us on this and see what questions they ask and then bring it back to us and we're going try to answer those next week.

We are in lesson 13 on the understanding the biblical tongues.

Understanding biblical tongues, this is something that like I said is a little bit of an issue for some people.

And so where I want to start with is this. I want us to kind of, before we even get into the lesson,

I want to give just a real quick brief historical overview because that's going to help. We see that there's this thing called tongues and we're going to look at what that actually is in this lesson.

What are tongues? How were they used? Do they still exist today?

This has become a popular issue since about 1905.

It really was not an issue before then. In a bible study in about 1905, a woman talking at a conference with the speaker said that she believed that she had this gift and that really started what became the

Pentecostal movement. Later that led to the charismatic movement which led to the whole lot of real bad stuff like the faith healing and the word of faith movement and the prosperity gospel and all kinds of crazy things after that.

But we do get with this, when we look at it, some things that are not so radical all the way to extremes that are.

But prior to 1905, tongues really, you don't see any writings on it, you don't see anything historically on it other than in Mormonism.

That's right, that's where you see it. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, they were the only ones since really the first second century that we see this being used.

There's some occult practices that practiced it but Brigham Young really was the one that brought it in in the 1800s and so we don't see this.

So, right there gets us kind of some questions that maybe we want to answer down the road. But let us start with this question.

What exactly is the gift of tongues? That's a fair question, don't you think?

If we're going to understand or have an understanding of biblical tongues, be good to do that.

And you can look, we do have two important papers on this on our website.

If you go to the website under biblical commentaries, or I think that's where it's labeled right now, but if you do a search for 1

Corinthians, we have a paper on understanding biblical tongues, 1

Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, taking all three of them. It's a short paper, three -page paper, one page per chapter of the scriptures to put them in context to explain what those chapters are saying.

And then we have a separate paper on the meaning of perfect that we'll get into later on what does that word mean in 1

Corinthians 13, 8 and following when it talks about this perfect thing coming. So, those papers are available to you.

I encourage you to look those up, have them readily available if you want because they'll be accessible to you all the time and you can take a look at that.

But, what exactly is the gift of tongues anyway? I mean, is this gift still in exercise today or in existence today?

This study is going to address some of the confusion surrounding these questionings by examining first the meaning and then the purpose of the gift.

And we hope in covering those two that we'll be able to answer some of the confusion that is.

So, let us begin with the meaning of tongues. The meaning of tongues.

Well, as we look at the meaning of tongues, let us first take a look at some passages of scripture.

First, I'd like us to look at Matthew 16 and verse 17. Matthew 16 and verse 17.

If you take a look at this, it says, and these signs will accompany those who believe in my name, they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues.

Now, that may seem a little bit confusing because we don't know what tongues are, but maybe if we read it in a different translation, this will help.

Let's look. And these signs will accompany those who believe in my name and they will drive out demons and they will speak in new, notice that word, languages.

Oh, that's very interesting. Languages. That is a good translation.

That's one of the reasons if you went through a school of biblical hermeneutics and we dealt with the

English translations, you'd already pick up. That's my favorite translation, the Holman. And this is why, because it's very good and very accurate in some of the words that it chooses to translate.

So, one sign which would follow or accompany, as we saw in the text there, the apostles was the ability to speak in a new tongue or a new language.

That's your blank there in the syllabus. New language or a new tongue. I prefer the word language because that helps to explain what it is.

If you look in your notes in your syllabus, you see that the word from the Greek that we get for tongue, kenos, is the meaning of a new to one speaking.

It's a language that's new to one that's speaking. It does not mean something that's newly created.

Now, the word in Greek that we have for, well, sorry, that was the word for new, for new tongue.

The word for tongue that we have in the Greek, glasa, is, it means a human language.

It's never used, there's only one place where people argue that this is an angelic language, alright?

And if you look at that, that is going to be in 1 Corinthians, we don't have this text for this, but 1

Corinthians 13 .1. Now, that is used to speak of an angelic language in the context of explaining the gift compared to love, tongues to love.

People were claiming to speak in tongues and he was comparing it to love. Now, if that's a literal angelic language, okay, in verse one, then verse two must also be literal in 1

Corinthians 13. And in verse two of 1 Corinthians 13, it says, if I have all knowledge and understand all mysteries, but do not have love, well, if there actually is an angelic language, then it's actually possible for me to be

God. That's what, if I was omniscient, if I had all knowledge,

I would be God. So, the question would be, why would you take the one as a literal and the second as hyperbole?

That, if we're going to properly interpret, remember our class on biblical hermeneutics, we've got to make sure that we're interpreting it accurately.

Because when we do, we see that that is hyperbole in both cases.

Now, one of the things that we also have is the fact that when you look, and I have this in your notes in Acts chapter 2, 1 through 11, you will see that when they first spoke in tongues, the very first time they spoke in these new languages, the languages are even named in scripture.

So, we know what those languages were. People understood those languages. That was the amazement. They heard in their own language, and they named those languages.

Alright? So, we see that this new tongue, or new to the speaker human language, was accompanying the apostles.

Now, a good question to ask is, does it accompany all believers?

Or was it just the apostles? Hold that question. We may get back to it.

Let's go to Acts chapter 2 and verse 4, and see here it says, and they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now, let's take a look at this in another translation. Which one would that be? Oh, it's the

Holman again. There you go. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different, notice that word, languages, as the

Spirit gave them the ability for speech.

So, do you see there? We see here that in this one, the disciples were filled with the

Holy Spirit and spoke in different tongues. That's your blank for there.

Different. The word different. So, the first one, they speak a new tongue. That's Mark 16, 17.

In here, when we see now this fulfillment of what Jesus prophesied in Mark 16, or was prophesied or stated there, we see here now in Acts 2, 4, that this word different, heteros, has a meaning of a different of another kind.

So, it's not a completely different. This is different of another kind. The disciples spoke another human language, different than their native language.

You can compare this also with verses 4 and 11, and you'll see this. Compare 4 and 11 with verses 6 and 8, but you'll see that the word here for language is the word that means to have a dialect of a region.

So, it's more specific to a language of dialect. So, what we see here is that both of these talk about a new, not new created, but new to the speaker or different, different to the speaker, something different than their native tongue, but in both cases referring to a human language.

Now, we do have an issue. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 14, 2, because here's where we get problematic issues, but this is in the

King James Version. If you look in a King James Version, you'll notice a word that I put in red that is not in the original.

If you look in a King James, it'll be in italics, but this created some confusion for people. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh unto men, but not unto men, but unto

God. For no man understandeth him, howbeit in the spirit speaketh mysteries.

Now, in the newer translations, it reads like this. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God.

For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries of the spirit. So, what we see there is the word unknown in the

King James is not in the original, and we know that if you were a good student of the

School of Biblical Harmonetics, because of the fact that we had that word in italics, in other words, the translators added that word to help explain the

English as they translated. But if you remove that word, it removes some of the confusion that people have saying that this is some unknown language, unknown to humans.

Okay, and so you don't see it there, and I think the better translations have kind of removed some of that.

Now, what's the significance of this? As we look at these scriptures, what is the significance? Well, the significance is quite simply this, that tongues, whatever they may be, making the point that I believe they are from the book of Acts and everywhere that we see, they are a known human language.

They're a human language. In Acts, when we first see this happen, we are given the actual languages, okay?

And the people that are there understand them. They're even saying, how are these guys speaking in the language we know?

And the people that didn't know those languages just thought they were drunk because it sounded like they were speaking gibberish.

Now, I don't know if you've ever experienced that. Some of you may know that my wife speaks

Chinese, and I pastored at a Chinese church, and there'd be very often that I would be surrounded and be in gatherings with many

Chinese people. And a lot of times, especially when I would be not knowing any

Chinese, I would have this experience. And I don't know if you ever had this happen.

Maybe you were in a foreign country and you've had this happen. But I have the experience often where I hear a lot of people talking in Chinese, and it just sounds like gibberish to me when

I don't understand the words. But then all of a sudden, I hear something in English, and it just rings out.

All of a sudden, though, everything else sounded like gibberish, and I could kind of tune it out. I'll hear some words in Chinese that I know, or I'll hear something in English, and all of a sudden, it just comes right to the forefront of my mind.

I think that is a good description of what happened in Acts 2. You had all these people suddenly speaking foreign languages, and those that knew those languages suddenly perked up because they heard their native tongue.

And those that didn't understand any of those languages just thought it was gibberish and thought the guys were drunk.

Okay? And so that becomes a way. So think of it as a foreign language. The way

I like to illustrate it is if I had the gift of tongues, it would be like me suddenly and miraculously knowing the language perfectly that I never knew before.

It's not me speaking something that I don't know, and I don't know what

I'm saying. It's actually the gift was where I would speak a language I didn't previously know.

All right? So I would speak, say, Cantonese, and I could communicate fluently in Cantonese.

That would be pretty miraculous because I kind of butcher that language. Okay. All right.

I'll explain. This is a little off topic, but it'll give you guys a chance to laugh at the professor.

I was trying to impress my future mother -in -law with the Chinese that I was learning.

And I was, my wife was teaching me Cantonese, and Cantonese is a tonal language. So if you say it just by emphasizing a little different, you say a totally different word.

And I was trying to ask my mother if she had a good breakfast, a good early meal, jiu tan.

And instead I said jiu tan, which was asking her if she had a good abortion. Yikes.

Not a way to impress the future mother -in -law. So if I could suddenly speak

Cantonese, boy, it would be pretty neat because I really do a better job butchering the language when

I try. So it's a good thing that my wife was there to explain what she knew what I was trying to say because she knew what she taught me.

Yeah. Great way to impress the mother -in -law. You have a good abortion today? Yeah.

Her jaw hit the ground, and I knew I said something wrong. My wife didn't want to tell me what I said. Maybe it would have been better if she never told me.

But the significance of this is that tongues are spoken in the

Bible as a known, intelligible, and contemporary language.

Those are three important words. Known, intelligible, contemporary language that were clearly understood by native speakers of that nation or region that understood the dialect which spoke the language but the language was unknown to the one who received the gift prior.

In other words, if you suddenly are speaking a language that you didn't previously know and those that are native speakers understand it.

Okay? We hope to be able to explain that if you need more, if you have questions on that as we look into it next week.

But I do encourage you to go to the website and look at the papers that we have on 1 Corinthians 12 -14 because that's going to explain in more detail what

I don't have the time to go into here. So we looked at the meaning of tongues.

Let's now look at the purpose of tongues. What is the purpose of tongues?

So, what we have here is that tongues were used as a benefit to fellow believers.

It was a benefit to fellow believers. We see this in 1 Corinthians 12 -14 that tongues is listed and explained as the gifts, as one of the gifts in chapter 12 verse 4, it is a spiritual gift that bestows favor by God freely and graciously given.

Remember when we talked about those gifts of the Spirit? Tongues is mentioned as a gift and if you remember the purpose of a gift is to edify the body so in some way the gift of speaking in tongues benefited the body of Christ.

Now, let's take a look at some passages here in 1 Corinthians 12. We're going to stay there for a little bit.

Let's look first at 1 Corinthians 12 -7 and if you look in your blank there it says that spiritual gifts are given to every

Christian to profit all. To profit all. Let's take a look at this. It says, to each is given the manifestation of the

Spirit for the common good. In other words, for all of the believers.

So, one of the things that we see is that spiritual gifts were given for the benefit for all, for the profit of all, all the believers.

So, in some way this gift must benefit all. Second, we see that all these are empowered by one and the same

Spirit who apportions to each one individual as he wills.

So, you see the Spirit works all spiritual gifts. That's these things that we see here referring to the spiritual gifts that he mentions in verses 8 -10 and he's distributing them as he wills.

Now, that's speaking of the Holy Spirit. Leave that up for a second because I want to pull this apart a little.

I want you to notice this. It is the Holy Spirit who apportions each of these individual, each of these gifts, one individually as who wills, as the

Holy Spirit wills. Do you see that? So, it's the Holy Spirit who gives us these gifts.

Now, why is that important? That's important because when I was in the

Charismatic Movement, it was something that we were encouraged to seek that gift.

Now, if you remember from last week, we saw that all spiritual gifts are given at salvation.

Now, you say, well, wait a minute. You're saying that Peter and the Apostles were saved on the Day of Pentecost. Well, remember that that was a transitionary time.

The Book of Acts is a transition. So, in that time, some things were happening that don't carry on further.

We don't eat, we don't worry if we have meat that's strangled or had blood in it.

That was a command in Acts 15 and that was for a specific purpose because of this transition between a

Jewish mindset to a Gentile mindset. So, not all of the things that are transitionary we carry through.

So, those are transitionary things. But after the transition was done, what we do know is that spiritual gifts, as we saw last week, were for all believers at salvation.

Which means that going forward now, we would have those gifts at salvation. And they're given by who?

By the Holy Spirit as He wills, not as we will. We could desire a spiritual gift but that's the whole purpose of chapter 12 of 1

Corinthians. It's not about us desiring the gift, it's about the Holy Spirit who gives that gift.

And He gives as He wills. Let's look further at 1

Corinthians 13. This is a little bit of a long one, it's 7 verses. But let's take a look at this and see what we're going to learn from this.

So, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Now notice, I want to stop right here just to point this out.

Do you notice the hyperbole? What's the contrast here? The tongues of men and of angels but not love.

So, what He's doing here is giving hyperbole. If I spoke the tongues of men, if I even spoke the tongues of angels,

He's not saying that there is an angelic language. He's saying an extreme scenario to say, if I spoke all the languages of men and even of angels but I have not love, so what's

He saying? The love is more important. But let's move on. Now, if that's literal, then verse 2 has to be literal.

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith, so to remove mountains but have not love,

I'm nothing. Now, if we had all knowledge, we would be omniscient. So, however you interpret verse 1, you must also interpret verse 2 the same way.

They're either both literal saying that we could become omniscient, therefore we could become God or they're both hyperbole.

So, let's move on now. If I give away all that I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love,

I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

That's a beautiful thing. Many people focus on that. You know, weddings, they talk about that definition of love or the description of love but in the context, what's it there for?

It's there because it's contrasting what's the priority. The priority is not these gifts but love.

And so we see that the proper motive for tongue is what, class? Very good, love.

That is the motivation. The motivation for tongues is love.

And notice that in the first three verses that the possession and use of spiritual gifts without love is described, if you look in your syllabus there, as useless and nothing.

If you have a gift, he's saying if you speak in tongues but you don't have love, he describes it as useless and nothing.

It's all about love. And that's true. That is the focus of the spiritual gifts.

We should use our gifts to love one another, alright? Chapter 14 and verse 2, sorry, verse 12 says, so with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations, and I want you to look at that because this is describing what we see today.

People that are eager for manifestations. Paul's not saying that in a good way.

He's actually saying that in a bad way. You, yourself, since you are eager for manifestations of the

Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. So you're eager for these manifestations but what you should be doing is striving to excel in the building up of the church because that is the purpose of these gifts, okay?

So in 1 Corinthians 14, 12, we see that those that desire spiritual gifts should seek them for the edification, that's your blank there, the edification of the church.

That's the purpose. It is not for self -edification and there's some that argue that, that it's for self -edification.

I want you to think about that. Where in Scripture do you see self -edification?

It's only seen in a misinterpretation of a passage that you see it where Paul's being sarcastic, okay?

God never tells us to glorify ourselves, to edify ourselves, to build ourselves up.

Our pride does a perfectly good job of building ourselves up. That's the problem, okay?

That right there, right off the bat, when people are saying that they speak in tongues for self -edification should be a warning sign because the only one we should be boasting in is

Christ. Paul says boast in Christ, not self. Do you see?

That right there should be a warning. Whatever the gift is, gifts are used for the building up of the body of Christ, not self, okay?

Let's look next in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 6.

It says here, now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will

I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

Now if you see in here, it says here, if you look in your syllabus, and I want to keep this up while we look at this because this is going to describe four different things that you have for your syllabus.

In this verse are listed four circumstances under which the gift of tongues will benefit another believer, thereby being used in accordance with one's biblical purposes.

So he gives us four different things here. First, he gives us revelation.

Do you see that? I bring you, it would benefit you more than speaking in some language that you don't know.

I bring you some revelation, knowledge, prophecy, and teaching.

He says those four things are more beneficial, to give you some revelation, some knowledge, some prophecy, or some teaching.

Revelation meaning that he's bringing something that wasn't previously known before, or some knowledge, some further explanation.

Some prophecy, he's expounding on what has already been taught boldly, or some teaching where he's giving some instruction.

Those are all more beneficial. Why? Because those are instructive to the church, to the body.

It helps build it up. So when tongues were spoken and interpreted, the content profited others because it contained some direct revelation from God at a time when there was no compiled

Bible. Tongues with interpretation was one means that God used to communicate to believers before believers had a full written account of revelation associated with life and death and resurrection of the coming of Jesus Christ.

So what you see is that before we had our Bible, we now have something that's nice and complete, at least for our day and age, that we can rest upon, and we can hold to, and we can look at, and we have it so that we have the revelation.

But there was a time when all they had was the

Old Testament, this part here. They didn't have all this. They didn't have the

New Testament. That was being explained, that was being prophesied, that was explained in a new tongue.

And that's one of the purposes of the gift. So Paul said that when he comes, if he came with a tongue, it better be with revelation or knowledge or prophesying or teaching so that it could add some benefit.

Now, we looked at the meaning of tongues and the purpose of tongues.

Oh, actually, wait. Before we get there, I'm sorry. Sorry about that. One part

I forgot. Let me get into, we looked at tongues were used for the benefit of believers, but I also want to cover that tongues were used to convince unbelievers because that was another purpose of tongues.

It was used to convince unbelievers. The truth of the message.

As we discussed earlier, one of the signs which accompanied the apostles was that they would preach the word in these tongues.

That was Mark 16, 17. Now, the sign is a mark or a point.

It was pointing to something that was distinguishable. Now, I do want to say this, Mark 16 is not a great passage to rest upon because Mark 16, much of that we don't find in the original manuscript.

So we think that those were kind of added in. So it wouldn't really, Matthew 16, 17 would not be so much a prophecy of what was going to happen as much as afterwards some people had kind of copied that in.

We don't see it in the originals. None of it is untrue. All of it we can support in other scriptures, but I wouldn't argue for that being a prophecy in a sense.

But what we do see is that as the apostles went forth preaching from that text, the

Lord confirmed the proclamation with signs and that's one of the purposes. How do you know someone's really speaking for God?

They do miracles. It vindicates not only the message, but the messenger and that was a purpose.

And so when we look at that, we can look at also

Matthew 16, 20 to see that, but I don't know we have that here.

But it says in Matthew 16, 20, and they went out and preached everywhere. The Lord was working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.

So the two verses that we had there in Matthew, the two verses teach that the reason the apostles were given signs, including tongues, was to confirm the words which were preached and signs were often used by gods to prove the message spoken by the messengers.

This is why you see miracles in three main time periods in history. With Moses, we have new scripture being written.

And so there was a silence period for several hundred years. And then we have the prophets and then we see

Elijah with lots of miracles. And then there was silence for a while and Jesus comes on scene and now there's lots of miracles again in a third time.

What happens at all three of those times? After a period of silence, there's written revelation.

And so these miracles were a way of testifying to the messenger that the message is valid and from God.

It vindicated the message and the messenger. And so that's how they would know, especially when they're giving future prophecies that you wouldn't know because you'd be dead before those come true.

Also, we see that the gift of tongues was a judgment for the rejection of the gospel.

Let's look at that one. 1 Corinthians 12, 21 and 22, In the law it is written,

By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners

I will speak to this people, and even they will not listen to me, says the Lord.

Thus tongues are a sign not for the believers but for the unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for the unbelievers but for the believers.

Prophecy being the expounding on God's word, giving that explanation of God's word, that's for the believers.

But he's saying for the unbelievers, this was a judgment on the Jewish people that rejected the gospel that Jesus preached.

And therefore the gospel now is going to go to the Gentiles. Those very people that the

Jewish people thought were so horrible, they wouldn't even enter their homes and they say that for them this is now a judgment.

You'll see it in the book of Joel. But note in this passage, in 1 Corinthians 14, 22, that tongues were therefore a sign for unbelievers.

I think I missed by the way, so let me give these three, fill in the blanks and I'll go back to one.

Note in 1 Corinthians 14, 22 that tongues were a sign, that's the first blank, a sign not for believers, the second blank is for believers, but for unbelievers.

I think the one I missed was as the apostles went forth preaching, the

Lord confirmed, and that was the blank up top there on your page, confirmed the proclamation with signs.

But here as under judgment, in the context it appears that tongues were a special sign to unbelievers, especially the

Jewish people. Verse 21 is a quote from Isaiah 21, 11, and 12.

So this was a prophecy, a warning, a judgment if you look at it, that judgment would come upon unbelieving

Jews for their rejection of God's message by means of invading armies, the

Assyrians, who spoke a language foreign to them. But just as the tongues of the

Assyrians were a sign of judgment to the unbelieving

Jews, so the tongues of believers would be a sign of judgment to the unbelieving

Jewish people of Paul's day. Okay? So that's the context there.

So we see that it serves the purpose both to the believer and the unbeliever.

So now, we talked about the meaning of tongues. We talked about the purpose of tongues.

Now let's talk about the duration of tongues. How long are they going to last?

Good question. This is a question that's hotly debated. Okay? And if you disagree with me, that's okay.

You have the right to be wrong. Kidding. Just contact us and let's chat about it.

Alright? So what we see here in your syllabus number three, the duration of tongues, in this section it will be shown that the gift of tongues like other revelatory gifts and sign gifts ceased when the purpose that they served was no longer needed.

Okay? I've kind of already tipped my hat to what I think that purpose is, right? The completed Bible. And we're going to look specifically at 1

Corinthians 13 8. This is the verse that we go to. Now, love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease.

As for knowledge, it will pass away. Now I want to mention a couple things in here. Okay? When we look at this verse, there is something interesting about the pass away, the cease, and pass away.

Pass away, that you see both times, are something there, so when it speaks of the prophecies and the knowledge, they will pass away because of some cause.

But tongues will cease on their own. Okay? And so what you have here is you see that this is something where I believe if the tongues were given for the purpose that they were a known language to a person,

I suddenly have Cantonese. Okay? Once we have a completed Bible, if that's the perfect, what it brings about the ceasing.

Okay? The completed Bible. If that's what brings about the ceasing, then the prophecies and the knowledge would stop because God would stop giving them.

But knowing a language would last as long as I'm alive. So if God stops giving that gift, he stops continuing that gift, then they die out on their own as the people who have that gift pass away.

Does that make sense? So they cease on their own where the others are stopped by an event.

Just an interesting note. But what causes the ceasing? Let's just put that up here again.

You see here that there's something that's going to cause that ceasing. Okay? Now let's, we're going to look at that, but let's first say in 1

Corinthians 13 .8, the Bible clearly states that tongues, along with two other revelatory gifts, prophecy and knowledge, gifts which

God used to communicate to believers in the infancy of the church, would cease or stop.

Okay? They would cease or stop. So what you see there, okay, is that we have something here that they would stop.

Something would cause them to stop. All right? And so you have here a case where you have something that's going to cause this stopping.

All right? I hope that makes sense. Now, what is the cause? What's the reason?

Well, let's continue in that passage, the very next verse. For we know in part, and we probably, actually

I want to back up for one second. Sorry. Notice that the tongues, the prophecy and the knowledge are all revelation type gifts.

They were gifts that were used to give further revelation, Scripture. Okay? Now that we have the

Scripture, one could argue, why do we need it? I'm going to come up to it with a question though, because there is a question why many people today don't believe they completely ceased.

And that is the question of what about evangelism in remote places? What about places where they don't have the gospel and they don't know the language?

So we're going to come back to that, I hope. All right? For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

And here we have the reason, 1 Corinthians 13 .9 says, we know in part, that's your first blank, we know in part and we prophesy in part.

And each of these gifts were manifestation. They were supplied in small parts of what was to become

God's completed revelation. They ceased when there was no longer a need for any partial revelation.

Now, as we look at that, I'm trying to build this up, that these are revelation.

We knew in part. And what we're seeing is that this is something that has to do with the giving of new revelation.

Okay? Now, 1 Corinthians 13 .10,

we'll take the very next verse. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Now, this is very interesting. So you're blanking your syllabus for letter C. 1 Corinthians 13 .10 tells us that when tongues will cease, when that which is perfect is come.

When that which is perfect comes, there you go. What's the perfect? That's the whole dilemma.

And we do have a paper on the website that covers that question. It's just focused on this one question.

What is the word perfect? Okay. And what does it refer to? I'm going to kind of give a synopsis here, but if you want more information, go to the website and look at the paper on the word perfect.

But perfect literally means complete or mature. It means something that's perfect and not in the sense of being absolutely perfect, but perfect in the sense of coming to completion or maturity within the context that deals with the partial knowledge manifested by the revelatory gifts and the completed knowledge we have of the

Word of God. So when the perfect comes, in other words, the canon of Scripture, we no longer need that which is in part.

Okay? When we look at this word, we see that it has the connotation of something that is coming to perfection, coming to maturity, coming to completion.

It's something that was in progress, but now it's perfect. Now it's complete.

Now it is mature. Okay? And we're going to see that as we look through this.

We're going to see this in the illustration now. I want to point this out, the meaning of the word, because many people will argue that perfect, well, that must be

Jesus Christ because He's the only one that's perfect. But that's not the way this word is used everywhere. And therefore, this word can't be, because in the other context that we have the word teleos, it doesn't mean perfect, meaning

Jesus Christ. Okay? So let's keep that in mind.

But He then later gives us three illustrations to make this point.

And that's what we're going to focus our time now on. As we look, let's look at all of them at once.

This is 1 Corinthians 13, 11 -12. And I want you to see three illustrations here.

Let me just give you the illustrations for your blanks there. The illustration of childishness, the illustration of a mirror, and the illustration of knowledge.

Childishness, mirror, and knowledge. Okay? When I was a child,

I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,

I gave up childish ways. For those who see in a mirror dimly, but now see face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know as fully, even as I have been fully known.

Now, I want you to look at these, I want to keep them up for a moment. Let's look at the first one, the illustration of childishness.

Paul became a man, he put away childish things. Do you notice the child, what happens to a child when he becomes a man?

He matures. Do you notice the maturity there? You're seeing here that the way this is being used in the context, if you were a good student of biblical hermeneutics, you know that here we see, okay, we see that this is talking about maturity.

Just as childish behavior should no longer be presented in adult life, so tongues no longer would be presented in adult mature life of a church, there's no more need for that revelation because we have the revelation.

But do you see here, childishness to adulthood, okay, maturity, because that is the meaning, that's what we see here.

Now we have the second illustration, the illustration of a mirror, and there's some issues that people have with this. So let's look at this, and we're going to go a little long today, but I want you to look at it.

Second illustration, which we find in verse 12, compares the quality of a revelation before and after something is completed, okay.

Now let's just, let me explain for a moment, okay. In the first century, they didn't have mirrors like we have today, okay.

The mirrors were polished metal. You didn't see clearly like you would in our mirrors today.

Our mirrors today, we'd say you're seeing face to face. That wasn't the way the mirrors were back then, okay.

So now at this present moment, Paul's writing in approximately, when he talks now, he's talking about 55

AD when he's writing. And Paul and the other Christians saw dimly in the development of, you know, as he develops his metaphor, he's seeing dimly.

In other words, he doesn't have all of the scripture revealed. It's dim, it's still being written. But then when we have a completed

Word of God, we see as if we see face to face. When God's revelation would be complete, that's the now, which is more comparable to be better.

It's better to have face to face encounter. So before the completed Bible, God's revelation to his church was partial.

It wasn't complete in that sense. And so when God's revelation was complete,

Christians were able to see the totality of God's communication and no longer need the partial, okay.

Does that help? Let's put that passage back up again and now look at the third illustration, the illustration of knowledge in verse 13.

Before the completion of God's revelation, Paul knew in part, do you see that? I know in part, but I shall know as I'm fully known.

In other words, he knew fully and clearly all of God's revelation in the same full and clear way as he's been known by God.

In other words, he knew fully and clearly all of God's revelation in the same full and clear way as he now that the revelation is.

So what I want you to see here as we look through these things, okay, looking through them,

I want you to see that these three, because some people will say, well, the face to face is when we see

Jesus face to face. So tongues will cease when we see Jesus face to face because he's the only perfect thing and the same face to face.

But again, using proper biblical hermeneutics, looking at the context, the word perfect, if we have three illustrations of something coming from partiality to completion fits that we, and the fact that these gifts that he talks about are revelation, it fits that we have the incomplete revelation of God's word to the complete revelation of God's word.

Now, what's not a good way of hermeneutics, a good way to interpret is to say the first one, childishness to manhood, that first is an illustration.

Almost everyone agrees on that, but some will take the second literal and say that to see in a mirror dimly versus seeing

Jesus face to face. And then they'll take the third one to say, well, to know in part, but then to know when

I'm in heaven glorified, to know as I'm known in order to know as God knows me. So the issue would be, why would the first one be an illustration and the other two somehow spiritual, figurative, or futuristic in a literal sense?

You see, there are three illustrations trying to show something in part, incomplete or partial coming to completion and maturity.

All right? And so when you have that, what you have is the word of God, I think is what we have, that was the revelation that came to completion and we no longer need those gifts.

And historically, that is why after the first century, you do not see that gift being used for quite some time.

You don't see it being used really, except for in the wacky

Colts, you don't see it until the Mormons, the Latter -day Saints. And then you see it in 1905.

All right? Now, what about those far away remote places where people evangelize? Could God give the gospel there?

God could do whatever he wants. Now, in an area where they don't have the

Bible, they don't have a completed word of God, could God give somebody to know their language so that he could communicate?

I would say yes, he can. But should we see it normative, in other words, normal behavior for the church?

No, we shouldn't. It wouldn't serve that purpose. And that's why you have some guys, John Piper and others, who would say they're not complete sensationists.

And maybe I would fit in that category. I don't think that the gift of tongues is used normatively or in an everyday practice in the church.

And I think actually 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 actually condemns much of what we see with the gift of tongues.

Now, if you practice the gift of tongues, here's the one question I would ask you to do. Please, do not attack me based on your experience, because I cannot speak to your experience, okay?

I can only speak to the word of God. Therefore, if you disagree with me, you must do it with the word of God, not your experience, okay?

Your experience is not authoritative in my life. And therefore, because you practice this gift of tongues that you believe you have, it is not proof that the

Bible is accurate, okay? So you must come to me with the word of God.

Is that fair? I hope it is. I hope that's being reasonable, okay? And I'm trying to say

I don't believe it's complete sensation, but I think it's pretty close, alright?

But if you do have questions, contact us at academyatstrivingforeternity .org, alright?

Get a hold of us. Let us know what you think, and we would be happy to answer your questions, alright?

Now, I do want to let you know, I don't, I want to let you know that we have, oh, that's,

I'm just looking at the TV. Yeah, really small print. We have to get that enlarged. Never be able to see that one.

But that is the Jersey Fire website, and if you can make it out to the

Jersey Fire, you can, that would be great to have you there.

And the Jersey Fire is an event that we run that is done once a year, and registration, oh, wow, is, oh, you could, okay, great.

There you go. I like that. Live. Just got it larger. Jerseyfire .net,

actually, I think we took jerseyfire .org as well now, but Jersey Fire is open.

We don't have a thing for it yet, but we do have the Ohio Fire, which is www .ohiofire .org,

and you can find out about the Ohio Fire, which is one of our spreading of, the newest of our spreading the fire events.

They'll be in Ohio, Memorial Day weekend, which is coming up, so please get the word out for the

Jersey Fire, the Ohio Fire. Both of them have, the registration is open, and you can register today for both of them.

What are they? Well, if you go to ohiofire .org or jerseyfire .org, you will see a description of them, but it is an event that helps people to get out in their local areas.

We train people to evangelize. We take people out to evangelize. If you're afraid to evangelize, it is the event for you because we will train up your church to evangelize your area, all right, and then you can help build your church up, but we get 100, 200 people out evangelizing on a single day.

It's a great encouragement, and it will help people, and so if you want to help put on, we are going to keep adding, hopefully, a new fire event every year.

We are talking to someone in Florida right now to maybe start one up in Florida, in northern

Florida, in the Jacksonville area, so we're looking at that. We are looking for areas, so if you're interested in hosting one, contact us, but registration is open.

We want you to come out. If you are in the New Jersey area, I'm involved in a church revitalization, and that is

Faith Bible Church. If you're in the New Jersey area and don't have a good church to go to or you're visiting the area, we've had a lot of evangelists that are coming through town and are stopping in and visiting us, and they keep wanting to come back to visit the church because they're really enjoying the preaching and the church, so I encourage you to come out to our church if you want.

It's a revitalization, meaning that the church was basically dying out, and me and Pastor Will Costello are trying to rebuild this church.

There's other godly men who are there and have been there, and we're trying to establish a lighthouse in Jackson, New Jersey, so we encourage you to come out.

One last thing that we have for class tonight, as I know all of you know, we want to encourage you to encourage others, and this person we're going to ask you to encourage, many of you will know her, but she's more known by not so much her name, but one particular thing about her.

It sounds something like this. That's right,

Jennifer Pepling, also known as Giggles, and you now know why she's known as Giggles.

If you know her laugh, if you've heard her laugh once, you'll recognize it. Okay, Jen.

Jen. Stop that, Jen. Really, Jen. Enough. We're going to make fun of Jen because Jen is not watching live that I know of.

Why? Because right now, and this is why you can encourage her, Jennifer right now is taking a team of college students into New York, Connecticut, I believe, and New Jersey, and you can see her website down there.

She's taking a bunch of students that are on their summer vacation, or spring vacation. They have spring break, and they are going on to campuses, other colleges that don't have spring break, and they're going on to those campuses and preaching the gospel, handing out tracts, and having conversations one -on -one, and she is helping to lead a bunch of students to do that this week.

And so, that's a great way to spend your break. I mean, most students want to take their spring break, go to Florida, go somewhere, hang out, relax.

These students are taking their spring break and using it to glorify God, and Jen drove out.

It was a long drive. She got to come out to church with us at Faith Bible Church this weekend, and she got to steal some shoes and hide them on us, okay?

So, if people couldn't find their shoes in my house, I can't believe someone would do such a thing, and I'm asking you to encourage her anyway.

Wow, that's crazy. If you don't know her, she's, I mean, just awesome. Awesome.

I mean, amen. I mean, wow, right? I mean, if you know her, you know those are the words she always says.

Actually, kind of in that order. She is a blessing to be around. She's an encouragement.

She will make you laugh, not just with her laugh that is kind of contagious to listen to.

Jen. Jen. Stop it, Jen. She does actually laugh, like, all the time.

It's a nervous laughter, nonstop. It's a great laugh, though. That's actually going to be my ringtone for her when she calls me, if she ever calls me.

I'll get to hear that, and I'll know immediately it's Jen, but I encourage you to encourage Jennifer Pepling as she takes these students out this week and is trying to help them to further the gospel on other campuses, and so we want to ask you to remember this week.

Now, next week, actually, I should say this. Next week, we are going to start a new doctrine. We're going to look into the doctrine of angels.

We're going to have two, oh, actually, no. Next week, we're going to, that's what's in the syllabus. Unless you guys have no questions on this, if you guys give me no questions, we're going to deal with the angels.

If you do have lots of questions, then we're going to cover them, but if there's just a few questions, I'm going to answer them in email and online, but if not, then we may go into, so we'll figure out later in the week what we're going to talk about.

It's either going to be a further explanation of 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, or it is going to be the doctrine of angels, okay?

Either way, but we want to encourage you to strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.