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1 Corinthians - Part 35
"The Commission And Command Concerning Tongues"
Copyright 2003
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
(Permission is granted to distribute this transcript in its entirety, with no alterations)
I Corinthians 14:20-28 |
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Now we'll take time to read from verse 1, because it's very important that we understand everything that is in this chapter to do with the gift of tongues. As I said last week, it is the most important portion of the word of God on this subject for both those who believe in the existence of the gift of tongues with us today to be practised in the church - they adhere to that fact, that this is the most important piece of Scripture - and also those who oppose that practice also believe the same. So we're on safe ground when we say that. So we'll begin at verse 1 (chapter 14):
"Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue" - we saw that that word 'unknown' is not in the original, it has been added by the translators, and in our day and age it really misleads us in a sense because what Paul is talking about is known languages that are perhaps unknown to you and I in our particular nationality. He that speaketh in one of these tongues or languages "speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification", or significance. "Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God" - and we end our reading at verse 28.
Last week we looked primarily at the confusion that was caused in Corinth because of their misunderstanding of how this gift of tongues, which is a supernatural genuine gift of the Spirit, how it was to be used in their particular local church. We looked at how the influence of tongues had caused so much confusion in this church, and potentially how it has caused so much confusion in the day and age in which we live in the ranks of so-called Christendom. But initially what we had to do was an exercise of finding out what this gift literally is, not what it is said to be today, but what the biblical gift of tongues was in Paul's day and how we are to understand it in a biblical context. Now if you want to know that you need to get last week's tape, because we've no time to cover old ground - save to say that we proved, I hope categorically, that this gift of tongues is not the language of heaven. It is not a heavenly language, neither is it an angelic language that the angels speak - and we stated the fact that every time an angel spoke to a man, he spoke in his own language that he could understand. It is not an unknown tongue in the sense of a tongue that is not known to any nationality on the face of the earth, but rather it is a known language - and we cited primarily the text of Acts chapter 2, the Day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church, to show the first instance of tongue-speaking in the church context: how that it was a known language.
We will take time just to look back at that, because it's important. Acts chapter 2 - we have to move quickly, we've a lot of ground to cover tonight - Acts 2 and verse 1: "And when the day of Pentecost 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" - that has nothing to do with the gift of tongues. "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues", there it is, "as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews" - I asked you to underline that word - "Jews devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?" - and there's a list of, I think if I remember rightly, sixteen or so nationalities there that they all heard in their own national, human language. The reason being that the apostles and these early Christians were speaking in their literal language, not in a language that was other than human: heavenly, angelic, or unknown - but a known language that was unknown to the speaker, but it was known to the hearer because it was their language, the language that they had known from they were a babe.
But we noted that it was Jews that heard this marvellous thing - we need that information for what we are going to find out when we look at the intention of the gift of tongues in a few moments. But we also said that this word for 'tongue' Acts chapter 2 is the same word found in 1 Corinthians 14, which is the word 'glossa'. The word 'tongue' in English that we have is found 50 times in the New Testament, and 33 times the use is 'glossa' as in natural human languages - so the majority of definitions within the New Testament for this phrase 'tongues' is found to be always human languages, in the majority of cases. The problem in Corinth was that these people who were genuinely, I believe, gifted with this spiritual gift of tongues were exercising this gift at the expense of love. That's why we have 1 Corinthians 13 in between 12 and 14 that deal with this subject of tongues. Because they were all getting up, not to edify one another, but for their own self-exaltation, there was confusion in the assembly because everyone was getting up and trying to beat the other one to the post.
That was the influence that tongues had in that particular church. Here's the two points that we dwelt on: first, they were using it for self-exaltation rather than for the body's edification. You see how many times in this passage that we read tonight you have the word 'edify', it simply means 'to build up'. They weren't concerned so much about their brother - what he knew, what he understood of what was being imparted - but what they were really concerned with was how they looked in front of the whole church. But Paul was saying: 'That's not why the gift has been given, and that's not the way it should be used'.
Then our second point, after we looked at verses 1 to 5, was found in verses 6 to 19 where we finished off last week - that this use of tongues for self-exaltation caused confusion rather than understanding. Paul was saying to them: 'Look, the reason why God has given us spiritual gifts is that we may cause others to understand God's word, but your exercise of your gift of tongues is causing confusion rather than understanding'. Now this week we are going to look at the commission of and the commandments for tongues: why God gave this gift to the church, and secondly how God has asked that it be used.
What Paul was wanting them to do was to ask themselves: did their use of this gift measure up with the intention why God gave it; and did their use, practically speaking, go according to the revealed will of God in His conventions that He has given as instructions as to how this gift should be used? Of course, we don't even need to say that what we're going to look at tonight will have contemporary ramifications to the church worldwide today as to whether what they are claiming as the gift of tongues in their possession, really is the gift of tongues that you have in the New Testament, and whether it is serving the intention that God commissioned it for in the beginning; and secondly whether in their practice of this so-called claimed gift they're actually practising it according to the instructions that God's word lays out.
So let us move to the intention, first of all, of tongues as a gift: God's commissioning of this gift. Now as this passage is the most important in the Scriptures on this subject, these verses that we are about to look at, I believe, are the most important in this chapter. He says to them: 'Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men'. Now in chapter 13 verses 8 to 11, you remember we read these words: 'Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away'. Paul said: 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things'. Now there's great speculation on what this 'seeing through a glass darkly' is, but I believe that certainly there is an insinuation in these verses at least that there is a temporary nature to some of these gifts in their primary usage in the early church. These Corinthians were like children as they used these gifts. You think of a child: a child is more interested in amusement than usefulness - that's why they play all day rather than going and earning a living. The Corinthians were like this with spiritual gifts, they were amused by them, they wanted to be titillated by the use of them by other brethren rather than their usefulness for the building up of the body.
Paul is saying: 'Don't be children! These things are the beginning of the church, but you've got to grow into spiritual maturity because you're behaving in a way that is the opposite of adulthood'. Let me show you this, for it's interesting...he said in verse 11: 'When I was a child, I spoke as a child'. We talked yesterday morning about people who speak before they think. If you look at this verse there is a reverse order here of the adult intellect. Look at it: speaking before you understand, speaking before you think - or as your margin says 'reason'. It's almost, I think, perhaps an insinuation to these Corinthians: you're behaving like children, you're opening your mouth and babbling all the nonsense of the day, and you're not even thinking about what you're saying. Understanding has got nothing to do with it, it should be the opposite order: you should be reasoning, then understanding what you're reasoning, and then speaking - but they were doing the opposite!
Now let's look at what I have said is the most important truth about this gift. Here is a very important verse, verse 21, Paul says - giving them now the reason for the intention why God gave this gift: 'In the law', and he doesn't just mean the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, he's not even talking now about that but he's talking about the broader sense of the Old Testament - 'it is written', your margin says 'it is written in Isaiah chapter 28', 'With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord'. Now this is such an important verse, because it tells us, as Paul comments on it in verse 22: 'Wherefore', the implication of Isaiah's prophecy is, 'tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not'. Now grasp the import of that: tongues is not a sign for those who believe, but for those who believe not, 'but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe'.
So right away, if you're going to write anything you need to write this down, Paul says on the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures that tongues is a sign to unbelievers, it is not primarily for the believer. Now to understand this prophecy you need to turn back to Isaiah with me, Isaiah 28 and beginning to read at verse 9: 'Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts'. The prophet is saying that God wants you to understand, God wants you to take in doctrine, and He puts it in such a palatable form that you may digest it even if you're a child that is just weaned from the milk or drawn from the breasts. He sets it all out very nicely: 'For precept must be upon precept', verse 10, 'precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little' - he's almost being sarcastic that God has spelt out God's truth to His own people here in Isaiah. 'For with stammering lips and', mark this, 'another tongue will he speak to this people'. That is the verse that Paul is quoting in 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
He is telling them, God's own people of Israel in the Old Testament, 'I'm speaking to you in such a simple way that you can understand, even the youngest child could understand what I'm saying - so you've no excuse for disobeying me, but you are disobeying me!'. God's own people, Israel, here in Isaiah 28, were actually rejecting God's word that He made so clear to them all. In fact they were going as far as to mock and blaspheme everything that God was saying to them, so God said: 'I'm going to come and with stammering lips and with another tongue will I speak to this people', He doesn't even call them His own people! Now the fulfilment of that prophecy was when the Syrian invaders came into Israel, and they sacked the whole city, destroyed it, killed thousands, and the people of Israel heard with their own ears the Assyrian tongue - another tongue! God was telling them that this tongue would be a sign to these Jews of God's displeasure towards them, and it was a sign that they had rejected His revelation.
Now mark that please - almost 800 years before Isaiah, through the prophet Moses, a long time before this prophecy in Deuteronomy 28:49 God said: 'The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand'. Right away, there at the very beginning of God's people as a nation, God was saying: 'Look, if you disobey my word one of the signs of my displeasure toward you will be that I will bring nations among you with other tongues that you do not understand, and that will be a sign that you have rejected my word and that you have incurred my wrath'. About 100 years after Isaiah, Jeremiah said exactly the same thing in Jeremiah 5 verse 15 - we don't have time to look at it, but the import of it was exactly the same: 'If you disobey my word, the sign that I will show of my displeasure and my curse is that you will hear languages of your enemies that you cannot understand among the nation'.
Now I hope you're beginning to see this, look back at this verse, verse 21 in Corinthians: 'With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore', and here's his definition, 'tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not' - it is a sign to the unbelieving, and primarily to the unbelieving Jew! Who were the people in Acts chapter 2 that were gathered at Pentecost? Who were they? Devout Jews from every nation. In Matthew chapter 12 verse 38 the Pharisees and Scribes came to the Lord Jesus and said: 'We seek a sign from you', because the Jewish people were always seeking a sign, and this was the sign that God was going to give them. Even in this very book of 1 Corinthians, you remember, in chapter 1 if you turn back and verse 22, Paul himself said: 'For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom'. The Jews needed a sign, and Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 was a sign to the unbelieving Jews, who were actually at the feast of Pentecost celebrating, this was a sign that they had rejected their Messiah and God's judgment was fallen upon them. The Jewish mind would have understood this because of their history, and because of their prophecy that tongues were a sign to them of the judgment of God on the nation.
Are you seeing this? It was a sign that God's people had rejected His message. Sure all you hear about tongues today is that it's a sign of God's blessing! Now it is that to an extent, but primarily according to Paul's definition in 1 Corinthians 14 it was a sign to the Jews not of blessing but of cursing! How things are turned upside down, aren't they? Instead of a sign for believers, as people purport, it was a sign to the Jews - the unbelieving Jews who had rejected their Messiah. Now come with me to the words of the Lord Jesus, because this is also important, in Luke 19 - the Lord told them that they would incur God's wrath if they rejected Him and His kingdom. Verse 43: 'For the days shall come upon thee', Jesus said, 'that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves'.
This was the Lord Jesus speaking to them and telling them that because of their sin and rejection of Him, they would be cursed. Now listen, if you know your history you will know that in the year AD70 judgment fell upon Jerusalem from the hands of the Romans. The Roman General Titus, who would later become the Emperor Titus, went into that city and slaughtered one million Jews. Thousands more were taken captive, the temple was plundered and desecrated and destroyed, and the whole city was burnt to the ground. One historian comments that for 60 years Jerusalem had no history - why? Because the sign came at Pentecost that their desolation would come, for they did not realise the time of God's visitation to them. That is what tongues was for, not for the believer primarily, but as a sign to the unbelieving Jew - and there's the scripture for it, Paul gives us it. This was a sign of God's displeasure upon His people.
Now I can't make that any clearer, and I think it's quite clear in scripture. But the question that I need to ask you, if your church practices - or claims to - this gift of tongues, is: how many unconverted Jews are in your meeting? Is that not a question worthy of asking? He says it's for a sign not for them that believe, but for those who don't believe - and they're talking about Jews here. Every time in scripture you find this gift of tongues, you find Jews. Acts chapter 2 - what did I ask you to underline? 'Devout Jews out of every nation on the face of the earth'. If you go to Acts 10, quickly, if you go to it - chapter 10 of the book of Acts and verse 45: 'While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost'. The Jews who believed, it was a sign to them that not only were they the people of God now, but the Gentiles were being brought in and blessed by God's Gospel. It was a sign to even the believing Jew! As we go on, the Jews were there in Acts 10, as we go onto Acts 19 quickly, verses 7 and 8 we find tongues again: 'And all the men were about twelve. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God'. Now up to that point, verse 4: 'John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying...', and they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in verse 2, and began to speak with other tongues, and immediately that happened what did Paul do? He went into the synagogue - why? Because this was a sign to Jews!
Now it's not all negative, the reason that God commissioned this gift, as I insinuated in Acts chapter 10 - it was to show the Jews, even those who believed, that the Gentiles were now coming in to the people of God. It was, of course, a sign to validate the authority of the apostles and the early Christians - their claims and their teaching. It was a sign, as we have said, to those who did not believe - but even those seeking Jews, it was a sign that Messiah had come, that salvation was available for the Jew and the Gentile alike. But what I really want you to see this evening in the intention of tongues as a gift: God commissioned it primarily for those who do not believe who are Jews! Never forget that - and I'll tell you, that is something that those who aspire to tongues, a scripture they don't even know! It gives us the reason why God gave it in the first place, and that's why he says in verse 22 at the end that prophesying is better, because prophesying is for those who are believers - that's what we should be practising, that's what we should be majoring on.
So the first point is a sign: this is a sign to unbelievers who have rejected God's message. Now let's move on to the second intention of God's commissioning: it's not for unbelievers who have yet to receive God's message. I don't want to confuse you, but in verse 23 Paul says: 'If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?'. He's saying: 'Look, if somebody speaks in tongues, and there's no interpreter there, and some stranger walks in and they are not a Christian - what are they going to think about all this going on in foreign languages? They're going to think you're mad!'. Now there's an apparent contradiction here between verse 22 and verses 23 through to 25, because in verse 22 we're told that tongues are for a sign to unbelievers - that's what I just been hammering - whereas prophecy is for believers. But now in verse 23 through to 25, Paul says that if tongues are used in the church the unbelievers will be confused, so prophecy might help them - is he contradicting? No, he's not: the explanation is that the unbelievers in verse 22 are those who have already rejected God's truth, the Jews as a people, not individuals but as a nation. They have closed their hearts to God's word, but the unbelievers in verses 23 to 25 are those who are still willing to be taught, those who are coming into a Gospel meeting and would believe if they could only understand it! That's what Paul's talking about.
In verse 24 he says that if they enter and there is prophesying going on, rather than tongues, they'll hear God's word, they'll understand what's being said, they'll be convinced by all and convicted by all, and they'll get saved, and they'll fall down and worship God - verse 25 - and report that God is in you of a truth. Do you see it? Tongues is for a sign for unbelieving Jews who have rejected God's word, it is not for unbelievers who have yet to receive God's message! Some of these modern missionary organisations such as YWAM - who may do good works - but they insinuate that you are in some way deficient in the exercise of evangelism if you do not have these gifts of the Spirit - that's not what Paul says. You'd be better talking in a language they understood, that they might get saved. Here is a very important point: you need to understand before you can be saved! Do you see that there? When prophesying is going on, Paul says in verse 25, the secrets of a man's heart are revealed by prophecy.
Can I address - I know they mightn't listen - but the whole of the churches in Belfast and Northern Ireland: God's word still says, even in this epistle, that: 'after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe'! And it's still preaching! Not watching football matches! Not going to dances and dinners! Not taking photographs of people! Not bribing them! It is preaching! Oh, we think at times we can improve upon God's word - they need to understand, and the best thing we can do is preach them a gospel they do understand! We don't need clowns and balloons, we need Christ and the Bible! That's what we need!
We need to move on: that is the intention of tongues as a gift, God's commissioning. Now we move on to the instructions for the use of tongues as a gift, the Spirit's commandments with regards to this gift. Now I'm going to finish this tonight by hook or by crook - verse 26: 'How is it then, brethren?', now what he's saying there is literally: 'Where do you stand on this?', that's what he's asking them. How does your practice measure up with what I've just said about why God gave this gift in the first place? Where do you stand on this? The fact of the matter is, where they stood was absolute and utter chaos and confusion. Now I believe the tongues in Corinth were the literal and the actual gift, some do not believe that, I believe it - but I do believe that it may have lapsed into some kind of ecstatic utterance that they knew in paganism, and they were actually starting to pervert the gift of tongues into some kind of counterfeit.
Imagine what it was like - look at verse 26: 'When ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation' - you're all getting up, and there's chaos! Roy Lauren, the commentator, said: 'Having been regulated so long by law', those Jews among the church, 'or confined by ritualism of pagans', the Gentile Corinthians, 'it was easy for the early Christians to fall into excesses. They often carried on their meetings without restraint or without order'. Everyone had a psalm, everyone had a doctrine, everyone had a tongue and a revelation - and Paul says: 'Let all things be done unto edifying'. 'Every one of you', simultaneously is the sense there I believe - they weren't one after another getting up, they were all getting up at the one time causing confusion! I'll tell you, we could do with a bit more of a desire to minister in the meetings and pray and all the rest, but we don't need any of this because all this was was an eagerness to be heard: who could speak loudest and pray the longest, and who could reveal the greatest mysteries in their tongue-speaking or their prophesying. I'll tell you, there's room for this expression, and I believe this is the way the early church met in this sense, where the Holy Spirit was exercising the people to sing Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs - ministry. The meetings were probably freer and less formal than ours are today, because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty - but the problem in Corinth was not the exercise of these things, but the excesses of them! It was all exhibitionism rather than edification of the unbelievers around them, and Paul is coming in here - and boy if there's ever a message for the church today it's this: there must be control, and whatever spiritual gift is exercised, you must exercise order and control.
For that reason, he says: 'Let all things be done unto edifying'. He says in verse 40: 'Let all things be done decently and in order'. He says in verse 33: 'Our God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints'. He's telling them, and what a principle he's laying down, that the aim of ministry and the underlying philosophy of all that we do in ministering to one another, its regulations and conventions are motivated by one thing: edifying each other, not exalting yourself! Now please note that he says: 'Let all things', verse 26, 'be done unto edifying'. Verse 40: 'Let all things be done decently and in order' - and I believe that word 'all' means all, not just tongues, everything. You see if you preach, or you sing, whatever you do, if you evangelise, it all to be done decently and in order. Now you can define that how you like, but I believe a lot of what is being done in the name of God and Christ, evangelism and the church, is not decent and it is not in order. Some of it comes so near to Corinthian chaos that it's almost unimaginable.
In verses 27 and 28 he gives us four guidelines, four instructions the Spirit has commanded them for how this gift is to be exercised. The first thing he says in verse 27: 'If any man speak in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church'. Now there are four guidelines. First of all: only two or three people ought to speak in the one meeting. Now do you know what that tells me? This is tongue-speaking now, and he's comparing it through this passage with prophesying, and what he is saying here is: nothing must dominate prophecy in the meeting. Have you got that? This sensationalism of the gift of tongues must not dominate the prophets, there must be room for prophecy! Can I take an application to us today? God's word should never be relegated to epilogue status. Did you pick that up? You can sing for 45 minutes to an hour, but let me preach for an hour! Maybe you'll not...do you get my point? This is what's happening today - I heard of a church recently who were conducting a mission, a Baptist church, and the singers were told to sing five or six songs because there would only be about 15 minutes preaching! Is that what God's word says? If that's where we're going, God help us!
Then he says, not just two or three, but in turn. Now listen, it wasn't just the tongue-speakers that were trying to get one over another, it was even the interpreters - who could be on their feet first to interpret that man's message! Now one of the strongest indictments of the modern charismatic movement today is the common practice where people get up all together, pray all together audibly, sing all together audibly - we all do that, but they're all singing different things - and get up and prophesy and speak in tongues all together at the same time - and none of them are paying any attention to what the other one's saying or doing. Now this word in the Greek, the word for 'one', 'one interpreter, one interprets', in the Greek construction is in the emphatic position - that simply means it indicates a single person. Not just maybe one different person interpreting for the different person speaking in tongues, but one person in the meeting interpreting for all the tongue speakers. So if there were three that spoke, there was only to be one interpreter - do you know why? Because it would cut out all this nonsense of one trying to get over the other. It was every man for himself, and Paul says that's not what gifts are about!
Thirdly it is to be interpreted, as I said that legislates against people getting up and down and doing it all together - that's why it ought to be in turn, that's why it ought to be interpreted. Then fourthly, if you can't have an interpreter, or you cannot interpret yourself as may be the sense, you're to keep silent - that would be hard for some of us, wouldn't it? You've got a message, and you want to give it - is that what it's like? Contrary to pagan ecstasies that were starting to infiltrate Corinth, and would be, I say, today in the charismatic movement, the person could control the gift - that's what Paul is saying! Keep quiet - God says something to you, and you're the fourth person, well then keep your mouth shut! These people say: 'I lose control! I can't control myself! I babble, I don't know what I'm saying! It's all coming out - I don't know when it started, I don't know when it's going to stop!'. In relation to prophecy, Paul says, as we'll see next week in verse 32, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets - that's a good reason for telling me to finish at nine o'clock on the dot, because I can! The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, there's nothing in Christendom where you're out of control in the sense of spiritual gifts.
We've got to move on, and I want to move on in this sense of concluding: concluding for Paul in this passage, concluding for a contemporary application to us in our day. I want to do it by asking this question: is the gift of tongues that is claimed in the Christian church today the same as the gift of tongues in the word of God? And the answer, according as I can see it, is categorically: no, it is not! Now do not misunderstand what I'm saying. I am not saying that God can't give this gift even if He wanted to, that is not what I'm saying. God is sovereign in His giving of the gifts, the Spirit giveth to every man severally and divides as He wills - and if He wanted to give it, He could give it, and maybe He has given it for one of His sovereign wise purposes. There is no verse that I can point to in the word of God that says He can't give it, but the overwhelming evidence of early Christianity from the days of the apostles right till now is that that gift has been silent for 2000 years almost! I'm talking about known languages: this phenomenon in the late 19th to early 20th-century that has been claimed as a revival of tongues hasn't got anything to do with biblical tongues!
Now I'm quite sure about that - I'm not sure about many things, but I'm sure about that. So you must understand that we are not castigating the gift of the Spirit that the Holy Spirit gave to the early church, we're not even saying that God can't in an exceptional circumstance use it if He wants - He can do what He likes, I'm not going to restrict Him, that's for sure! But what we are saying is what is claimed today: there are biblical gifts, and there are pseudo-gifts or counterfeit gifts, and what we see today were the seeds of abuse in Corinth - and it's with us today in the charismatic movement.
The old prophet said that there is nothing new under the sun, and I'll tell you: you should read early church history, because in the early years after the apostles had died and after the church had been formed, there were the seeds of many of the heresies that we have with us today even in the 21st-century. At the latter part of the 2nd-century there was a group called the Montanists, the heresy was called Montanism, the leader of the group was the man called Montanis. If you like, if you wanted to put a label on it, you could call it a 2nd-century charismatic movement. In fact, some of the modern day charismatic leaders look back to Montanis as their fore-father. Now this leader Montanis, he, before his conversion, was a pagan Greek priest to the goddess Sybil - so he was very familiar with the type of tongue-speaking and prophesying that, perhaps, you found in Corinth among those Gentiles who were converted and were beginning to pervert God's gifts of the Spirit. So he was familiar with the excesses of ecstasy in the same way as the Corinthians were. Now we know factually that he added to the teachings of the church in the Scriptures. We know that he claimed personally to have revealed to him by God, God's word - and according to him his revelation was final (a bit like Joseph Smith), it couldn't be added to or taken away from - the Bible can, but Joseph Smith's prophecy can't!
Just like the cults of today, if you like, and one of his teachings was this: the individual believer, the Christian, should become passive - that means that you should just let go and let God - a bit like yoga. Don't get pulled into yoga whatever you do, that's not Christian. You should let go, he said, and allow the Spirit of God to take control - and any words that are spoken when you do that, in that state of passivity, will be the voice of the Spirit - this is what he said, and I quote: 'Behold, man is a lire' - a stringed instrument, and speaking as if he were speaking for God he said: 'and I', God, 'hover over him as a plectrum. As man sleeps I wake, and the music that comes forth is God's word'. Now listen, you hear charismatic and pentecostal leaders saying: 'Just open your mouth and whatever comes out, just let it come out - don't think'. That's what they say, don't think, just say what comes into your head - that is of the pit of hell, of the devil!
Eusebius, the early Christian church historian from 264AD to 340, assessed Montanis in these words - and you can read it for yourself - listen: 'Through his unquenchable desire for leadership' - wasn't that the Corinthian problem? Pride! - 'Montanis gave the adversary opportunity against him, and he became beside himself - and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner contrary to the constant custom of the church handed down by tradition from the beginning'. Eusebius named it as heresy. Listen to what he said, and he was nearer to it than you: 'The false prophet speaks in a trance which induces irresponsibility and freedom from restraint. He begins to deliberate suppression of conscious thought, and ends in a delirium over which he has no control'. Let me tell you: do you see that type of tongues? That was long before the Lord Jesus Christ - Plato, five centuries before Jesus, he claimed he saw these things! The Gnostic claimed it after Christ, the heretics; the Montanists claims it - and do you know who claims it today? The Africans of the jungle and the Amazon, the Roman Catholic system with all their idolatry, the Mormons claim it! Joseph Smith claimed in article 7 of the articles of faith: 'We believe in the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues' - now who are you going to follow?
Oh, I know there's all the popular Christian paperbacks, but let me let you into a secret - an open secret that nobody wants to know: the golden age of the church of Jesus Christ, the age of the revivals and the awakenings of two centuries ago, the Calvins of the Reformation, the Luthers, the Whitefields, the Wesleys, the Jonathan Edwards, the C.H. Spurgeons, the D.L. Moodys, the Billy Sundays - none of them spoke in tongues!
Sometimes people ask me after a meeting like this, and maybe I'm anticipating your question: what is it then? What is their babble? Is it emotion? Yes, I believe probably the majority of it is emotion - it is even psychological, it may be put down under the title 'hypnotic', where people are put into a trance by music and noises and sounds and swaying and dancing. It may be self-induced, because apparently you can teach yourself it - did you not know that? It's self-taught. I think the majority of it may also be pretence - in other words, they're putting it on! But there is probably an extent of modern day tongue-speak which is demonic - and I think Mormonism is self-evident evidence of that!
I'll tell you what it is, in a primary sense, the reason why this has thrived in our modern age is twofold, just like the Corinthians. One: an ignorance of the Scriptures; and two: an immaturity of seeking after childish things. How do we build up the church of God and edify today? Listen to God's word as I close this message, 2 Peter chapter 1:19: 'We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts' - do you know what's happened to us today? The church has got tired of the word of God. Do we despise the gift of tongues? No, it's of the Holy Ghost, we can't despise what is of the Holy Ghost. Is it around today? I don't know if it is, I've never seen or heard anybody, but I'll tell you that what is claimed for it is not that gift! And there is no need of the gift if it is in a revelatory sense, because all that was in the early church in these sign gifts has now been superseded by the word of God.
Now let us never get to the stage where we are a church who say, like the Laodecians, that we have need of nothing. We have need of God, we have need of His Spirit, we have need of His unction and His power, but when it comes to the message of God: we have in His word what we need! Would you turn with me to a verse as we close, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. People say you need tongues to know you're saved, to know you're baptised in the Holy Spirit, to know that you've a deeper Christian life, to know that you're a mature Christian, to know this, to know that, to know the other - you need it, and without it you're deficient. Here's what God's word says, verse 16: 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness', and mark this, 'That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works'. Thus saith the word of God.
Our Father, we pray that at all times You will deliver us from confusion of men's wisdom, of the emotion of the flesh, and help us always to walk in the Spirit - the Spirit of truth who has inspired these pages for us. Let us always be a people and individuals that search the scriptures to see if these things are so. Lord, let us never despise Thy Spirit, or the gifts that He gives, but let us always surrender to His sovereignty, and let us always know His fulness and unction in our lives. But Lord may we always, in everything that we do as a church, may we do it decently and in order - according to Thy word - for Thou, our Father, are not the author of confusion. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Don't miss part 36 of the 1 Corinthians Study Series: "God's Order"
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Transcribed by:
Andrew Watkins
Preach The Word
December 2003
www.preachtheword.com
info@preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the thirty-fifth tape in his 1 Corinthians series, titled "The Commission And Command Concerning Tongues" - Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word.
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