Dr Greg Bahnsen - Modern Tongues Movement: Tongues Have Ceased (Part 5)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

For Lord's Day mornings. We have been considering the modern tongues movement as a topic of genuine relevance in our day, and today we're going to be continuing that subject. As I come specifically to the question of tongues and their cessation after the age of the apostles, let's turn to First Corinthians, the 14th chapter, to use as our text for today's exposition. First Corinthians, chapter 14. Paul says, Follow after love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. But rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth but in the spirit. He speaketh mysteries, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men. Edification and exhortation and consolation. He that speaketh in a tongue Edifieth himself. But he that prophesieth, Edifieth the church. Now I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that ye would prophesy. And greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. But now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Unless I speak to you, either by way of revelation or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching, even things without life giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they give not a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain voice, who shall prepare himself for war? So also ye. Unless ye utter by the tongued speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall be speaking into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind is without signification. If then I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh will be a barbarian unto me. So also ye, since ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may abound unto 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 if thou bless with the Spirit, how shall he that filleth the place of the unlearned say the amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he knoweth not with what thou sayest, for thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all. Howbeit, in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that I might instruct others also than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brethren, be not children in mind, yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men. In the law it is written by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this people, and not even thus will they hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbelieving. But prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them that believe. If, therefore the whole church be assembled together, and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one, unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all, the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed. What is it then, brethren, when ye come together? Each one has a psalm, each has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by two or at most three, and that in turn, 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 let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern. But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence. For ye all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be exhorted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints. Let the women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. And if they would learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church. What was it from you that the word of God went forth, or came it unto you alone? If any man thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord. But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore my brethren desire earnestly to prophesy, forbid not to speak with tongues, but let all things be done decently and in order. That's part of the reading of God's Word. I began the series that we're now engaged in by pointing out that according to those of the Neo Pentecostal movement, our charismatic friends in Christ, one needs to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, understood as something of a second blessing subsequent to conversion, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, something of a quantum leap into another spiritual sphere where they can now lead the Christian life with greater enthusiasm and power. And the sign of the reception of that baptism of the Spirit will be the speaking in ecstatic tongues. Now, the difficulty, of course, with these claims is that they have nothing to do at all with the teaching of the New Testament and its use of theological phraseology. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an individual experience in the first place. It is a corporate experience. And that is not an experience primarily having to do with our redemption as individuals, but rather was an experience having to do with the accomplishment of redemption by Jesus Christ our Savior. Even as he died, buried, rose again, and ascended on high, so he from that position ascended on high to the right hand of God the Father, poured forth the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, thereby fulfilling what John was told at the time of Jesus baptism, that there would be a baptism in fire and a baptism in the Spirit. That spirit baptism then, was part of the work of Christ and not nearly so much a part the experience of the individual believer. Certainly not a model for the experience of the believer, not something repeatable, something that is to carry on through the age of the Church. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, we all have been baptized into the one Spirit because we are in union with Jesus Christ and members of his body. However, the Spirit does give gifts to the church. The Spirit does divide severally to each member. That portion of God's grace is necessary for their functioning in the body, having a ministry to all. And each of us should be interested in being baptized in the Spirit. Which is to say, we should be interested in being joined to the Body of Christ and being thus joined to the Body of Christ. We should be interested to know what ministry we have been given by the Spirit so that we might serve all. We went on to see that the normal charismatic life, not the charismatic life, is so often publicized today, but the normal charismatic life is the life of love and the life of paying attention to the spoken word of God. The normal charismatic life leads us to be filled with the Spirit in such a way that in our mundane affairs we obey God and we show loyalty to the Savior. That's charismatic. That's the way the Spirit operates. That's the maturity of the Christian in this day and age. It's not in some miraculous outpouring, some ecstatic speech. Then last week, we now focused our attention. Having studied the baptism and the work of the Spirit, we focus more particularly on prophecy and on tongues as the two verbal charismatic gifts that are spoken of in the New Testament. I pointed out in the first place that tongues as it's understood in the New Testament is not simply an emotional outpouring, some kind of babbling of one sort or another. Tongues is the speaking of an intelligible, rational human language. What's the miracle then? The miracle is that the speaker in tongues doesn't know that language, hasn't learned that language, and very likely in the New Testament, for all that we can see, didn't understand what he was saying in that language, there had to be an interpreter. And so the miracle of tongues, as it was understood in the New Testament on the day of Pentecost, and there's no reason to assume otherwise in Corinth was the speaking in an unlearned human language. And even the language of angels that Paul speaks. If I speak with the tongues of men or of angels, shouldn't be assumed to be some form of babbling, unless we insult angels and think that they don't speak any better than we do. Rather, angels use intelligible speech that can be heard. Everything we know about angels throughout biblical history indicates that they speak in such a way that they can be understood. Paul says, even if I should go so far as to speak with the tongues of angels, but don't have love, the normal charismatic experience, if I don't have love, then it's nothing. So we see what tongues is. It's speaking miraculously in a yet as learned human language. Now, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14, we said last week, uses this entire chapter to give us a long series of contrasts between prophecy in the one hand, tongues on the other. And so we have to keep that in mind. For instance, if you want to talk about importance, and this is something that I often do when I talk to charismatic brothers and sisters, I say, look, even if I grant that you have spoken in tongues today. I'm not willing to give that conclusion, really. But even if we should, for the sake of argument, say you have spoken in tongues. The difficulty that I have is that the emphasis you put on tongues is not Paul's emphasis. Because Paul says, I'd much rather speak only five words in a known human language that everybody will understand than 2,000 words in a tongue. That'd be interesting, wouldn't it? A five word sermon. Paul says, I'd much rather come and give you just a five word sermon than to spend two hours giving you this long outpouring of tongues that nobody's going to get anything from. So the emphasis is rather prophecy, tongues set over against one another. And clearly prophecy is the superiority relative to tongues. And yet I went on to point out that for two things to be contrasted, they must first of all have something in common. It's just a philosophical axiom that I didn't belabor last week, but it's just something that anybody knows that studied categories in philosophy, that you can't contrast anything unless it first has something that lies behind him as a tertian quid that gives it something common. So, you know, we don't contrast, for instance, the word sake with somebody up at bat. Nothing at stake there, unless you say, well, now let's have two topics of conversation, the word sake and also Steve Garvey at bat. You see, even then, to bring those two things that have nothing in common apparently together, you've still got to give some broad rubric under which you can talk about both of them. Now, what is the rubric under which both prophecy and tongues fall? So that Paul can say, now within this category, the contrast is the following. The superiority is the following. Well, it turns out that prophecy falls into the category of revelation. Prophecy is revelation. Paul says, if somebody comes and has a revelation, it's the spirit that gives prophecy. The spirit of Jesus is indeed present in the prophet. But now Paul says, the person who speaks in a tongue is not helping the church at all, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. He says, I'd have you speak all in tongues, but rather I'd have you prophesy, because greater is the one that prophesies. Except he interpreted. You see, if tongues is interpreted, Paul says it's equivalent to prophecy. You see, that's why it's in the same category. It's revelation. Tongues is revelation, Prophecy is revelation. The superiority goes to prophecy because there's no need to interpret the prophecy. But if the tongue happens to be Interpreted, it's the same as a prophecy, and it as such is a revelation. And I concluded last week by saying that if it is an inspired revelation, remember, Paul says, I don't speak my own mind. Rather, it's the Spirit within me that speaks when I speak in a tongue. If the Spirit is inspiring somebody to speak in a tongue, then we have no more right to disregard what the tongue speaker says than we have a right to disregard what Paul the Apostle says. I remind you, at the end of 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says, if any man thinks he's spiritual, let him acknowledge that what I say is the commandment of God. You dare not depart from what I say. You may. You must acknowledge it to be true. You must obey it. But if any man's ignorant, let him be ignorant. Paul says there's only two ways. You can be obedient to the revelation I give you, or you can be a fool in the eyes of God. Now remember, anybody who speaks in a tongue today must be willing to say that what they say, by the inspired word of God, that revelation coming through them is to be acknowledged and to be obeyed. And if it is not, then the person who won't obey it's foolish, unlearned, and is opposing God himself. Why did I leave it just at that last week? Well, for the obvious reason that not many tongue speakers today are willing to go that far. I've told you before, it's interesting. When you talk to our charismatic friends, they'll say, well, Jesus said we do even greater things than Jesus did. To which I think you should always say, well, then, where is the one who walks on water and feeds 5,000 with a few loaves? Let's see these greater miracles. Because if that's what Jesus was talking about, obviously the prophecy hasn't been fulfilled as yet. But the answer to that is that isn't what Jesus was talking about. What Jesus did in terms of his preaching ministry in that day, the outcome of that is rather clear. He was crucified, rejected of all men. Even his followers, his closest followers abandoned him. Followers didn't understand, even after his resurrection, that that's what had happened. There's an empty tomb, but they're all dejected, wondering what has happened. Jesus has over and over and over again taught them these things, but it hasn't taken hold in their lives. But now, in the day of Pentecost, we see the preaching and 3,000 are converted, and the Gospel is being proclaimed throughout the known world, the Roman Empire. Twelve or thirteen men, as you Very well know, changed the course of Western history and indeed international history because of the preaching of the Gospel. Indeed, greater things have been done in the days of the apostles and after, not greater miracles. Likewise, when our friends who say that they speak in tongues tell us that they have had this experience, we should say, well, then, what did God tell us, the church, through your experience? Because if God is telling us something through you, I have an obligation to hear it and to obey it. So your servant listens. What did God say just at that point? Well, really not too much more than you could find in the Bible anyway, or we really weren't sure what it meant when we said it. And you get all this heaming and hawing and equivocation at that point. But I think the pressure needs to be kept right up. If that's God speaking, if that is an inspired tongue, then I've got to obey it. Well, now, today we come to the point, though, after putting everything in context, in the context of the baptism of the Spirit, the context of the normal charismatic Christian life, in the context of what is the importance of tongues, in the context of what is tongues, I'm going to come right now to the point and say, is tongues for today. And the theme of today's message, very simply, is praise God. Tongues not for today. Praise God. No tongues today. Let's rejoice. There are no tongues today. That's a rather strange thing to say in light of the fact that's a gift of the Spirit. Paul says, I wish that you'd all speak in tongues, but in the course of my exposition, I trust you'll understand why I put it just that way. The charismatic view, very simply put, is that all of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in Romans the 12th chapter, 1st Corinthians the 12th chapter, and Ephesians the 4th chapter, that all of those gifts in the list were given to continue in the church until the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Spirit has given the following gifts. And then there's this list, and there's another list, another list, and they put all these lists together and they say, those are the gifts given to the church and to the church for all time until Jesus comes again. Moreover, if we should even suggest that any of those gifts have ceased, we are told that we are disregarding plain biblical teaching and that out of embarrassment, we are rationalizing the absence of those gifts in our own church. Now, I don't want you to think that I'm trying to set up a straw man. I think most of you know Me well enough to know that I try to do the best for my opponent before I knock down his arguments. That is not a straw man. That is what I have been told repeatedly, face to face. Then it's rationalization. Your church, you Presbyterians, you people who emphasize doctrine, you don't have the outpouring of the Spirit in your churches. Look at your churches. They're small, they're puny, they're miserable. They aren't evangelistic, they aren't excited, they aren't enthusiastic. No wonder you want to rationalize. There's no gifts of the Spirit in your presence. The Spirit's not present. And you people who try to say that the Spirit was not intending to give tongues and prophecy and miracles today, you're resisting the Spirit, you're quenching the Spirit, and you'll certainly not be adequate to the satanic force of our own age. I tell you with my own elder, I've been told that just recently, in the presence of some of the members of our church, when we talked about this issue, quite clearly the charismatics think that we are saying this only out of embarrassment. Well, I've said it to them. I will say it to you, that if any man can show that the gifts of the Spirit, for instance, tongues and prophecy, were intended for the church in all ages, then I'll be the first to say that our churches are without the Spirit and will repent of that and will seek the face of God and ask him to supply what has been lacking. But I don't think anything is lacking. And I think, as a matter of fact, that if we're going to weigh all of our experiences according to the word of God, and that's what we're requiring to do, that every thought may be made captive to the obedience of Christ, so that everything I think and every feeling I have is put in the context of God's Word and interpreted in the way God sees things, then I think we have to conclude that tongues were never intended for the continuing life of the church. In fact, I think I can show very quickly here, if you just turn to 1 Corinthians 12, that the gifts of the Spirit listed for us are not intended for the continuing life of the church. Because not all the gifts given by the Holy Spirit to the Church can be said to continue until Christ's return. First Corinthians 12:28 and God hath set some in the church. First apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps governments, different kinds of tongues. Well, there's one list, there are others, and they all have the same thing. What's the first gift? What's the number one thing God has done for his church? He's given the apostles. And there's not a Pentecostalist that I've met who, when pressed, would say that the apostles have continued in the church. The apostles were a once for all gift from the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ. They have ceased to exist. And if that gift has ceased, it's at least an open question that maybe others have. We can't conclude that they have from that, but we can certainly say there's nothing unspiritual, nothing contrary to Scripture in suggesting that maybe the others were never intended to continue until the second coming of Jesus Christ. You see, the office of apostle was intended to be temporary, wasn't it? The office of apostle was confined to the first generation of the church's history, and that necessarily. But what did you have to do to be an apostle? Well, among other things, this was a necessary requirement that the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to you. You were a witness of the resurrected Christ. Obviously, with the passing of the first generation of the church, you have the passing of those who have seen the resurrected Christ. Unless, of course, today somebody claims that Jesus is appearing to somebody called an apostle in the same way that he appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. But again, since we don't have a whole lot of takers to that sort of claim, I'm not going to bother with that. With the passing of the first generation of the church, you also have passed away all those who could qualify as an apostle. Moreover, in First Corinthians 15, 7, 9, it's interesting, Paul says about this appearing of Jesus Christ to various people. First Corinthians 15 at verse 7. Now, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, last of all to me as a child untimely born. For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. You know, we often focus on that. Paul says I'm the least of the apostles. I'm not sure how you want to interpret that, but that isn't the subject for today's sermon, so I'll pass beyond that. Paul doesn't say simply that he's the least of the apostles. He says, and I'm the last of the apostles, last of all, he appeared to me. You see, that's it. Jesus doesn't give Damascus Road visions anymore. He's appeared to Paul and that put an end to that kind of revelation. Last of all, he appeared to me. And that means Paul's the last guy on the list who can qualify to be an apostle. And with the passing of the first generation of the church, and especially with the passing of Paul, there passes the apostolic office. You notice in the Pastoral Epistles, for instance, Timothy is viewed very clearly as the successor of Paul in his ministry. And yet Paul never calls Timothy an apostle. Indeed, the Pastoral Epistles were written in particular to make provision for the post apostolic future of the Church. That's just why the Pastoral Epistles are there to provide for the church after the apostles are gone. If you have your Bible in your lap, please turn to Ephesians 2:20. This is a crucial passage, because what we learn in Ephesians 2:20 is that the work of the apostles was foundational by nature. The work of the apostles was never intended to be repeatable and perpetual. Ephesians 2. And I'd like to read for you verse 19 and following. So then you are no more strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. So now Paul has brought up the image of the household of God which is common in the New Testament. The church is the house of God, it is the temple of God, it's the temple of the Spirit. He says, you are the household of God. And then beyond that being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God and the Spirit. Paul says God is building his church like a house, and the apostles are the foundation. Actually, the apostles and the prophets, the New Testament prophets. We'll come back to that in a second. The apostles are the foundation, and we are being built upon the witness of the apostles. And of course, the witness of the apostles is built on the chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ himself. But in terms of God's ongoing work of building his church, advancing his kingdom, calling men into the body of Christ, he's building a house. And the first thing he did is he laid a foundation. Even as you'd lay a foundation if you were building a house, that's the first thing you do. You don't start with a roof and build downward. The historical order is that you lay the foundation and build upward. And the historical order with God is First the apostles, then the building activity. The work of the apostles is by nature not perpetual. You don't lay a foundation and then next to it lay a foundation. Unless, of course, you're building a whole track of houses, which is not at all what Paul is thinking of. You don't lay a foundation, then lay a foundation, then lay a foundation. You don't perpetually lay a foundation. You once for all lay the foundation, and then finally the superstructure comes. The work of the apostles then was not perpetual. It was the foundation work, the building of the church. It's not to be repeated. And that's, I think, how we can understand what the New Testament says when it speaks of the apostolic tradition. Not traditions, not the continuing giving of revelation, but the tradition. It's looked back upon, you see the deposit that's been given, or better yet, in Jude 3, the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The apostles laid the foundation, you see, and now the house is being built. The key foundational ministry of the apostles was in fact their witness to Jesus Christ, their revealed interpretation of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. You all remember how Jesus said to Peter on that day, and you will be called Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Well, Jesus is building the church upon Peter, but not Peter as Satan. Just a few verses later, Peter is also saying things that get him the title Satan. Get thee behind me, Satan. Jesus says it's not Peter in terms of his person, but Peter in terms of his confession, where Peter gives the proper witness to Jesus Christ. And it's obvious from the passage that Peter is speaking for the whole band of the apostles. And so the confessing apostolic group is foundational to the church. And that's interesting to me that in Ephesians 2:20, Paul associates apostles and prophets. It's the apostles in virtue of their prophetic function, the. Their revealing function. In Ephesians 3:5, which is just a few verses down from this, Paul says, which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets. I think I've told you before that the advice given off in the seminary is not to take your hearers into the kitchen, but simply to feed them the meat and the potatoes. So I'm going to violate that prescription here this morning. And I have to tell you just one thing that to me is crucial about the Greek language here in the Greek, Both in Ephesians 2:20 and in 3:5, where the apostles and prophets are brought together, it says the apostles and prophets, not the apostles and the prophets. Or if you will, there's a failure to repeat the definite article here. That's because there's one group being spoken of, and it consists of two different kinds, apostles and prophets. The apostles and prophets, you see, they're lumped together. The apostles, in virtue of their prophetic function, and the prophets, in terms of their revealing function, are together seen as the foundation of the Church, the historical foundation of the Church. See, now we're getting very close to our conclusion here. We've been studying all these lines of evidence for five weeks, and finally the conclusion is staring us in the face, isn't it? Prophecy is temporary, isn't it? Must be, because prophecy is grouped with the apostolic office. Prophecy passes away when the apostles pass away. What did we say last week? We said the tongues is prophecy. You see now, like a ton of bricks. It has to be apparent to all of us as it falls. Tongues have passed away because prophecy has passed away. And prophecy has passed away because the apostles have passed away. And what began as just an opening question to say now you have to at least consider the possibility that tongues have passed away because the apostles have now becomes a necessary inference. If the apostles have passed away, tongues must pass away because tongues are associated with the apostolic office. Indeed, in 2 Corinthians 12:12, Paul speaks of the signs of an apostle, various miraculous outpourings, various things that give indication from God that one is an apostle. Does that mean that only the apostles did these signs? No. We know very well that people who weren't apostles also had the gifts. So how could they be the signs of an apostle? They are the signs of an apostle because the apostles are the nucleus for the spiritual gifts in the early Church. In Hebrews the second chapter, verses 3 and 4, the author of Hebrews tells us that these signs were given as corroboration of the apostolic witness to Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2, 3, 4. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? We which, having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will, we will escape that day of judgment. If we neglect the salvation presented to us with the passing of the apostles. Then is the passing of the corroboration of the apostles, the signs of an apostle, such as tongues. With the passing of the apostles, you have the passing of revelation and the passing of prophecy, and thereby the passing of tongues. Let me put it to you very simply now, after all of this study, when it's all put in context, we can just put it this way. First of all, tongues are a mode of prophecy. Secondly, prophecy is revelational. Thirdly, the revelational function known as prophecy was temporary and tied to the original work of the apostles. And therefore, with the passing out of the Church's history of the apostles and with them of the gift of prophecy and revelation, tongues have passed out of the Church's history as well. As we like to say in logic, QED that means there's nothing left to be proved, because if every premise has been shown to be true and if the logic cannot be assailed, then the conclusion has to follow. Tongues are not for today because the apostles are not for today. Did that come by embarrassment? Has anybody heard in the rehearsal of this argument any reference to what's happened in our church to say, well, now we know that we're pretty good people even though we don't speak in tongues? It's no rationalization. It's the word of God. I'm going to follow that up with two more lines of thought here to show that not only does the Bible make this perfectly clear in terms of the proper function of tongues and its association with the prophetic gift and thereby with the apostles, but in 1 Corinthians 14, which we read this morning, verses 20 to 25, Paul says, Brethren, be not children in mind, yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men. Paul is going to say something that's very sobering. He doesn't give these sorts of exhortations for nothing. And right in the midst of this, he says, now wait a minute. Don't be childish in your understanding when it comes to what I'm going to say. Now be mature and be discerning. In the law it is written by men of strange tongues, and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this people, and not even thus will they hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbelieving. But prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them that believe. If therefore the whole church be assembled together, and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one, unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all, the secrets of his heart are made manifest so he will fall down on his face, worship God and declare that God is among you. Indeed, here we have the most explicit indication of the purpose of tongues that I can find Anyway, in the New Testament, Paul says, wherefore tongues are for a sign. You see, don't focus on the tongues themselves, because tongues are like a sign. There's an arrow. Tongues are looking at something else. So Paul says, what are tongues pointing at? Well, they're pointing at the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah that said that God said, since you will not listen to me when I speak to you in a known language, I'm going to have the word of God spoken to you in an unknown language. Since you won't hear the clear word of God, I'll give you an obscure word of God. Why would God do that? It doesn't fit in well to our 20th century American imaginations about God and about his Santa Claus character. But God does that because he intends to damn certain people. God does that because he has not chosen for all men to follow his son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, In Matthew the 13th chapter, when Jesus was asked, why do you speak in parables? You make it so tough. Jesus. Jesus says, I speak in parables so the mysteries of the kingdom will not be understood by some of my hearers. So that in hearing they will hear not, and in seeing they will see not. Which again fulfills a prophecy of Isaiah that that's the way God would speak. Tongues are like that too. Isn't it interesting? Chapter 14, verse 2. He that speaketh in a tongue, speaketh mysteries. Paul says Jesus had said, the mysteries of the kingdom are presented in parables, so that in hearing they would not hear and understand. And so now God says with respect to tongues that it too is a judgment sign. The very fact that tongues are being spoken is a sign of God's judgment on unbelief. Whose unbelief. Though to understand that, it's helpful I think very quickly for us to look at the background the Old Testament, we have to look at Isaiah, the 28th chapter, verses 11 and 12. Isaiah 28:11 12. Nay, by men of strange lips, and with another tongue will he speak to this people to whom he said, this is the rest. Give ye rest to him that is weary, and this is the refreshing. Yet they would not hear. Israel has rejected God's overtures. Israel has rejected the graciousness of God. And God now will reject Israel. Israel will not hear the clear word of God. Let them be spoken to in tongues that they'll not understand. This is Associated, by the way, if you go on just a little bit further in verse 16 with a very well known image in the New Testament. Verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of sure foundation. He that believeth shall not be put to shame. God's going to lay a foundation in Israel. God's going to lay a foundation in Zion. God's going to build his church, his kingdom will grow. But we know very well from the New Testament that in the laying of that sure foundation was not only a precious stone, not only a foundation stone, it was a stone rejected by the builders. A stone that when the builders started to walk away from the work of God, they stumbled over because they would not receive God's own son. Romans, the ninth chapter. Paul then cites this very same passage from Isaiah. At verse 31, he says, But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works, they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. What are tongues all about? Tongues are a sign of God's judgment on unbelief. God had said in the Old Testament that he would lay a foundation stone and that Israel will stumble over it. And Paul tells us in no uncertain terms In Romans the 9th chapter, Israel has stumbled over that stone because Israel will not follow the Savior. And I give you just one more piece of historical background. Paul met some of his most violent opposition from the Jews in the book of Acts.

Where?

In what city? As at the founding of what church? The Corinthian church. Just look at Acts the 18th chapter, verse 17 verses, and you'll see the kind of difficulty Paul had with the Jews in Corinth, the slander they brought against them and how they wanted to kill the Christians there. And so Paul writes to the Corinthians. He says, you know why you speak in tongues? It's the fulfillment of God's prophecy that a stone will be laid that the Jews will stumble over. Tongues are a sign of the unbelief of God's people, the rejection of those people. In Matthew the 21st chapter, the same passage is referred to verses 40 to 45. Jesus, ending his parable of the wicked husbandman, says, when therefore the Lord of the vineyard shall come, what shall he do unto these husbandmen, these wicked men who have killed the, the messengers and even the Son of the owner of the vineyard, they say unto him, he will miserably destroy those miserable men and will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen who shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Why tongues? That's a good question. Especially at Corinth. Tongues were given on the day of Pentecost because there were visitors from all over Asia Minor who spoke different languages, and God proclaimed the gospel to them in their own language. It makes perfect pragmatic sense. There was a function for it. Why tongues and Corinth, though? Why have somebody speak an unknown language and then have to have somebody else interpret the unknown language? Because tongues are for a sign. They aren't just pragmatic. They aren't just a vehicle for revelation in terms of content, but the revelation itself is a judgment sign against Israel. The Jews have been rejected. The kingdom's been taken away from them and now given to a nation producing the fruits thereof. Well, now our Pentecostal friends deserve some word in response to this. I mean, there is something that causes people to stop and wonder about the kind of argument that I've been given. By the way, this is not an argument that somehow is unique to me, not an argument that I dreamed up the last six weeks. Somehow, finally we figured out how to answer this sort of problem. We finally rationalized the lack of enthusiasm in our churches. This is an argument that's been known throughout church history. But why is it people have still stumbled when the Pentecostals have presented their case? Let me tell you very quickly some reasons, and then I'd like to conclude in 1 Corinthians 14. It seems to some people that Paul might be saying that tongues are ideally for all believers. 1 Corinthians 4:14, 5. Now, I would that you all speak with tongues. Paul says, verse 18. I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all, which indicates, won't you all come along with me? That's really a great thing. Verse 23. If, therefore, the whole church be assembled together and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned, doesn't it seem like Paul's holding that up as kind of a model? All of you should speak in tongues? Well, it's a Matter of grammatical fact. No, it doesn't. It's hypothetical. Paul says, why would have you all speak with tongues? But rather. See, that's a comparison there. He says, it might be nice if you all spoke with tongues, but I'd much rather have you all prophesy. Moreover, Paul says, and if you all speak with tongues, he doesn't say, you all are going to, or you all should seek it. He says, but if you all do, the following will still be true. By the way, you'll find a similar sort of thing where Paul says, I am this way, and I wish you were all like this. First Corinthians 7:7. The hermeneutical principles used by our Pentecostal friends are not used consistently, and that makes them suspect. Paul says in verse seven, yet I would that all men were, even as I myself, Howbeit each man has his own gift from God, one after this man or another after that. Well, how is Paul there in that passage? Single? Unmarried? Paul says, well, I would that you were all single and unmarried. Does that mean Paul teaches none of us should get married, that the ideal charismatic life is that of celibacy? No, he's not teaching that at all. If he were, not only would the apostles have ended with the first generation of the church, the church would have ended with the first generation of the church. No. Paul says, well, there's some value to this state, and so it's fine. It applies generally to everybody. If anybody fits into this gift, that's great. In the same way, Paul must be interpreting, he says, I would that you all speak in tongues. There's nothing wrong with tongues in itself, so it's for all of you. But he doesn't mean by that all of you should seek it. In fact, he says in 1 Corinthians 12, at the very end, verse 28, after he points out all the gifts God has given. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? What's the implied answer? Well, of course not. Paul doesn't want everybody to speak in tongues. Tongues is not normative. Tongues is not expected in the life of the Christian church. But isn't Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever? How often have I heard that verse cited by my friends who are Pentecostalists? If Jesus did it in that day, he must be doing it today and will do it forever. Forever. Well, that makes us think of 1 Corinthians, the 13th chapter, where Paul says, love never fails. But whether there is Prophecies, they shall be done away. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. And so if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that means he must be giving tongues today, that means he must give tongues forever. Paul says, tongues, tongues will cease. So quite clearly that passage is not being used. By the way, Jesus wasn't giving tongues in the Old Testament. So the same Jesus yesterday, apparently is doing something different in the apostolic day. Now, whether he's doing it differently today and forever when it comes to tongues is obviously going to be an open question. Again, what we have here, and it's sad to say, and I don't say with any sense of superiority, I say it with disappointment, that so often our friends have got a preconceived conclusion and then they seize on any passage of Scripture that hopefully will support what they want. But of course the Bible doesn't support that. As our long study of these issues has shown us, experience is not, it may not be, it cannot be, the source nor the standard for Christian knowledge and doctrine. Our entire experience as Christians must be made captive to the obedience of Christ. Genuinely Christian experience is evaluated against and it is approved by the written word of God. So when a charismatic says, I have spoken in tongues, the most loving, peaceful thing I can say ironically is, no, you haven't. Our charismatic friends say they've had an experience. The answer is, of course you've had an experience. Nobody's going to deny that you have an experience. What that experience is of is another question. How it's to be interpreted, how it's to be categorized is another question. Is it an emotional outpouring? Is it some sort of self induced or psychologically induced experience? It may even be profitable to your spiritual life for all I know. Sometimes it is good to let off steam. Maybe it's good to go home and bang on a typewriter, or to bamble. I'm not going to deny that any of this can't help their Christian life or isn't a real experience. But I deny from the heart on the basis of God's word, that it's tongues. It's not tongues. The Bible says otherwise. First Corinthians 13 I began to read. Let's see this in context. Paul says, love never fails. Whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, when that which is complete is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was A child. I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, and the greatest of these is love. Paul says tongues will cease, tongues will stop, prophecies will be put away when. When that which is complete is come. Well, the suggestion that there's something complete coming is that there's something partial that's leading up to it. And Paul tells us what that partiality is. First, there's partial tongues, partial prophecy, partial knowledge. And here he's not just knowledge of mundane affairs like how many ants there may be in Ethiopia. Paul's talking about specially given knowledge, revealed knowledge. When will that all cease? When will it be put away? When the complete has come. When God's complete revelation has now been deposited in the church, the partial will be done away. Because you see, all of that leading up to the completion is for children. It's for the immature stage of the church. But the mature level of church growth is based on the complete revelation of God. And then we turn to the abiding virtues of faith, hope and love. The complete is the culmination. You see the endpoint of a process described as partial in Paul's day. That is, it's the completion of the revelatory process. When God has finished revealing himself through the apostles, tongues will cease, prophecy will be done away. Now, the only answer, of course, to that is that when Paul says the complete, he must mean the perfect. And there's only one thing perfect, that's Jesus. And when the perfect comes must mean then when Jesus comes. But you see, that's wrong. Because when Jesus comes, that isn't going to be the cessation of revelation. That's going to be the breaking open of all revelation. That's going to be the revelation of all revelations when Jesus comes. No, he's talking about something in the course of church history. When God completes the revelation process for this age, then it will be done away. Tongues, prophecy, specially given knowledge. So the conclusion of our line of thought today is praise God. First of all, praise God for tongues. Because tongues, you see the gift of the Holy Spirit, showing that Jesus accomplished redemption for his people and baptized his church. Praise God that he did that. If tongues hadn't been given, if we didn't have the sign of spirit baptism in the early days of the Church. We wouldn't know that the work of the Messiah was complete and that we are saved. Praise God for the miracle that tongues was, for it showed the almighty power of God. Praise God for tongues because it was revelation to his church. Praise God for tongues because it's a sign that Israel has been cast off, which means that you and me can now be incorporated in the body of Christ. Praise God for tongues because they verified the work of the apostles. But then beyond that. Praise God tongues have ceased. Thank you, Lord, that tongues are no longer being given because the complete has come. No longer do we look darkly in a mirror through obscure speakings, through partial revelation. But now the complete has been given, and it's right here, my friends, the whole word of God. And that's what we found our lives on, not individual bits and pieces obscurely interpreted from time to time in the congregation. Praise God, tongues have ceased because now the complete has been given. The obscure has been replaced, the partial has been done away. The infant state of the Church has given rise to the mature state of the Church. And now we live by the prevailing virtue of love and not miraculous outpourings. The foundation has been laid and so now the building can go on. Praise God for tongues. Oh, but praise God, more tongues have ceased. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have loved the Church with an everlasting love and you have sent your own son to die for the Church. We thank you that in so dying and rising from the dead and ascending on high, you, he has baptized the Church in the Holy Spirit. We thank you that the judgment has been undergone on our behalf, and now tongues of fire can rest on the Church without consuming it. Now we thank you for the gift of the Spirit resident in the Church, perpetually in the Church. We thank you for that work that gives us insight to the Scripture and strength to lead the Christian life. Lord, we pray that the Spirit would be seen working mightily in our midst. But Lord, we don't seek after that which you don't intend. Lord, we don't seek for miracles and for prophecies and for tongues and ecstatic speech. Lord, we seek obedience. We seek pure lives. We seek the working of the Spirit in the mundane affairs of our lives. We thank you for all the good that was intended by tongues. But Lord, we thank you that the mature age of the Church. Church has come, that we are blessed to be part of this. We are blessed to be part of a nation bringing forth the fruit of the kingdom and not those who are rejected. Lord, we thank you for the foundation of the Church. We pray you would continue to build it and build it in our day and build it in our midst. We pray these things would be done for your glory and for the sake of your Son, in whose name we pray.

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.