Dr Greg Bahnsen - Modern Tongues Movement: Verbal Gifts (Part 4)

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.

Previously, in the last three sermons and lessons, we have been studying the baptism of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit, and the regular ministry, the Holy Spirit among us. And I want today now to turn more specifically to look at that work of the Spirit as it was known in the early church, the work of tongues, the special gift of tongues. And we'll be studying that for the next two weeks and in our concluding message as well, when I will finally look at the modern charismatic movement overall, in light of the Word of God and what we have discovered, our scripture reading this morning is going to be the chapter 1st Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14 is the only chapter in the Bible that gives sustained reflection upon and discussion of tongues. We have examples of tongues and things told to us about tongues elsewhere. But this is the only lengthy theological discussion that Paul gives us of tongues, and I want us to start paying some attention to it this morning, and we'll continue next week with the same. Hear the word of God, Paul says, Follow after love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto 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 should 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 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 tongue speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye will 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 thee amen at thy giving of thanks? Seeing he knoweth not 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 than I might instruct others also than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brethren, be not children in 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 you 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 hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation? Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by 2 or at the most 3, 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. Thus far, the reading of God's word. I want to look at two particular special gifts of the Spirit today. The gifts of prophecy and the gift of tongues. Prophecy and tongues, they stand together. Whenever we read of the gifts of the Spirit in the New Testament, you start to understand the work of the Spirit and the miraculous outpouring of the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost and in the early days of the infant church, you'll see that these two gifts, prophecy and tongues, always go together. In fact, it's not too much to say that in a very real sense, tongues stands in the shadow of prophecy. Tongues always is, if you will, in the shadow of prophecy. They go together and, and they always go together with the superiority being given to prophecy. It's very important for us to understand these principles. But before I get into the comparison of tongues and prophecy, I think it's high time that we stopped and explained what tongues is. After all, we've been talking here these past three weeks about the gifts of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit, and I have had occasion to speak of tongues often enough. But I have not told you precisely what the Bible says tongues is all about. What is it when a person speaks in a tongue, at least, what is it from a biblical standpoint? Well, I think if we were reading along in a book and we came to some strange word, something that denotes, refers to something else that we haven't heard of, our tendency would be to let that book explain to us what the, what the word means, what the phenomenon is that is being referred to, especially as we read along in the Bible and we see that, well, they spoke with tongues on the day of Pentecost. And we keep turning our pages and later on some other disciples speak in tongues. And we come to the book of First Corinthians, and here in the church at Corinth, people are speaking in tongues. Now, when you come to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, which we have just read this morning as our text, we see Paul speaking about tongues. And I think the assumption should be, since he doesn't say, now, with respect to the special tongues known as Corinthian tongues, I have the following to say. Paul just says, and if some speak in tongues, if some prophesy, he uses tongues in what appears to be a very well known way. He uses vocabulary that's supposed to be understood by his Hearers, Paul is talking about the same kind of tongues that have been referred to earlier in the Bible then. And so, even as if you were reading a book, you might go back to the first appearance of that new word and try to understand it in context. We're going to use the same procedure this morning. What tongues turn out to be, I think, should be determined by the first appearance of tongues. Unless, of course, later writers say, well, that was tongues on the day of Pentecost, but now we have a new kind of tongues to tell you about. Unless the Bible says there are different species of tongues, different subclasses, different, if you will, types of tongues, we should assume that all tongues are essentially the same. And we can see what tongues are if we turn to Acts, the second chapter. I'll ask you to do that with me this morning as we study this important subject, Acts 2. This is the day of Pentecost, and I'd like to begin reading at verse six. And I'll read through verse 11. And when this sound was heard, the sound of the rushing wind, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying, behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in his own language? Wherein we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia and Phrygia and Paphylia and Egypt and parts of Libya and Cyrene, and the sojourners from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our own tongues, the mighty works of God. On the day of Pentecost, when the Jerusalem church was filled with the spirit and spoke with tongues, the. The amazing thing was that all these people who had gathered from around the ancient world, all the way from as far away as Rome and all these other areas, Asia Minor and Cappadocia and all these places came together, and they all had different languages. But as the Christians began talking, everybody heard in their own language. It's as though somebody were to come into our congregation who was visiting, say, from Germany, and then all of a sudden, I should break out speaking German to you this morning. Now, many of us today would not be terribly impressed by that, although if you knew my linguistic abilities, you probably should be anyway. But we wouldn't be impressed because, well, we teach German in our high schools and colleges, and maybe I had learned German, but what if I hadn't ever had a course in German. So happens I have. But let's assume I haven't. If I never had a course in German and I stood up to speak, and all of a sudden, being filled with the spirit, I preached my sermon in perfect German, or at least intelligible German. You'd all think that was really a miracle, and it would be. But what if it was a language that none of us knew? What if somebody had a friend from some remote tribe in Africa? Okay. And that person is coming to sit through the service, mainly as an observer person, doesn't understand English, but is with our friend who comes into our service and sits down. And I stand up, and unknown to anybody here, unknown to me, I begin speaking this language to that person. And now I evangelize that person. And that person hears in his own language the Gospel and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and is saved. That would be miraculous. And it was miraculous. God did that. God reversed what he once did at Babel. You see, at Babel, God judged the earth and he dispersed the tongues of men so that there was a multitude of languages breaking down further and further into various tribal variations so that men would find it very difficult to be unified in their ungodly and secular purposes, to raise up a humanistic culture against the knowledge of God. God once judged the earth at babble. You know, that's where we get the word babble from babbling people. When you don't know somebody else's language, you think they're just babbling. I notice that when I go to the store, whether it be Chinese or even Spanish, people who know the language just go on and on and on. This sounds like babbling to me. Well, the Tower of Babel, where God divided the languages. On the day of Pentecost, God reversed the process. And miraculously, people who didn't know the language of the visitor could speak to the visitor, evangelize the visitor. And that was the gift of tongues. It's interesting that on the day of Pentecost, this was considered prophecy. We'll come back to this. But Peter cites the prophecy of Joel that all of God's people are going to prophesy. And he says that's being fulfilled today as the gift of tongues is being used when we come to Corinth. And Paul writing to the Corinthian Church about the gift of tongues. I think we must assume that what he's talking about is what was being spoken of in the Book of Acts on the day of Pentecost. The ability to speak miraculously without education, without preparation, the ability to speak in an unknown human language so that somebody else who might know the language or have the gift of interpretation of that language, which is to say translation of that language, can then hear the word of God and speak it again to the congregation when we come to Corinth. Then the gift of tongues is the miraculous ability to speak in an unlearned human language. But now our Pentecostal friends have reason to want to dispute with that conclusion. I think up to this point nobody is going to have any difficulty. I've used what are considered common sense principles of interpretation. If Paul refers to tongues and doesn't say, and now I'm talking about a very special kind of tongues, if he just says tongues using a well known word, you would assume that what he means is what the Bible means when it earlier speaks of it. But the reason our Pentecostal friends, our charismatic friends today, need to hold to the idea that there's a special kind of tongues at Corinth is because they know that what is being spoken in their congregations today is not an unknown human language. In fact, the kind of scientific analysis, linguistic analysis that's been given to tapes of tongues speakers and what they go through in their services of worship clearly indicates there's a real dearth of, of any kind of linguistic variation in what is being said. You have a very limited number of syllables being used and that in random, not very intelligible or rational patterns of use. And it's just impossible to see that this is any kind of language at all. It is some form of irrational emotional outburst. However, the charismatics, who know that as a matter of scholarly analysis, they're not speaking French or Zulu or some other kind of language, want to say that nevertheless, this is the gift of tongues. And so when they turn to the book of First Corinthians, they want to say, there's another kind of tongues being spoken of here, not the tongues spoken of in Acts. Well, now, what's the justification for that? There is no justification for that, except that is the conclusion you want to draw. And so you read it into the passage of Scripture, because you'll find nothing in First Corinthians where Paul says, and now in terms of your special kind of tongues at Corinth, it's always tongues in general. Moreover, notice that Paul always refers to tongues as being interpreted. First Corinthians 12:10, for instance, and to another workings of miracles, and to another prophecy and to another destruction, discernings of spirits, and to another divers Kinds of tongues or languages. And to another, the interpretation of tongues, whatever was being spoken at Corinth could be interpreted. What does interpretation mean? It's a very common word being used by Paul here. If a tongue can be interpreted, it is clearly a language that has rational structure, something that another person can listen to and say, oh, oh, I get the message. I see the pattern. I know what you're trying to communicate. Paul says that the tongues at Corinth could be interpreted, and therefore it must be in some sense a genuine language, some vehicle for communicating intelligible meaning. What Paul is talking about here is the translation of the tongue. When he says somebody must be able to interpret it. He is not talking about what our Pentecostal friends would like us to believe. Somebody having an intuitive and empathetic feeling for this emotional outpouring of the other person and then turning around and giving some kind of discursive and rational expression to it. You see, the modern tongues movement would have us to believe that somebody stands up in the congregation and begins going through some kind of language. Well, it's not really a language, but going through some kind of vocalization of syllables that gives vent to that stirring of his inner spirit, a spirit which is sub rational, something which is below rational discourse in the use of the mind. And that this feeling, this emotion wells up within the person and comes out in just this playing of syllables in his mouth. And now somebody else sitting in the congregation has a real feeling for that. They kind of have this. You know, he's on the same wavelength emotionally. And so this person kind of intuits, well, that's. If I were feeling that and if I were babbling those syllables, this is what it would mean. And so that person has been, quote, given the gift of interpretation. And so he stands up and he says, let me sympathetically tell you what our brother here is trying to say in what may seem like a very primitive, mad language to you. I'll tell you in your ordinary English or whatever it may be, what that person is trying to say. That isn't what Paul's talking about at all. He's talking about interpreting. He's not talking about, well, now, sometimes you see a modern painting, right? And you say, now how would you interpret that? Which amounts to, if you were throwing paint on a canvas like that, what would it mean? Are you angry? Are you in love? Interpretation in that sense, means see if you can get inside the other person's skin or in his shoes or in his mind and feel what he must have been feeling. And Then try to put it in your own words. But anybody who's ever been part of that kind of procedure, and it's almost humorous to study the modern use of aesthetics and the philosophy of aesthetics today, you try doing that, and invariably the person who threw the paint on the canvas will say, well, that isn't what I was getting at at all. I don't accept your rational interpretation of what I was doing there. This is a process that just doesn't allow for any kind of control, any objectivity, any kind of true communication, any kind of certainty as to what the author is saying. And Paul's not talking about interpretation in that modern sense. Interpretation here is the word used over and over again in the Bible for hearing a language and translating it. To interpret something is to be able to take what is unknown to somebody else, even though if they had the gift, the key, if you will, they'd be able to understand it. You apply the key and then unlock it. So the meaning comes through to them. And not a meaning where the author says, no, wait a minute, that isn't what I had in mind. But the author says, yes, what I was saying in Zulu is exactly what you've now said in English. So the fact that at Corinth, these languages were interpreted, the fact that the tongues were interpreted indicates that they are genuine languages, structured vehicles, communication, intelligible meaning. The last out of the Pentecostalists at this point is to look at First Corinthians 13:1, where Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and the Pentecostalist wants to say, well, what you've been saying talks about the tongues of men. Isn't that what you said? These are the languages of men, right? Zulu, French, German, whatever it was, they were speaking in the languages of men. But Paul leaves the door open here that somebody might speak with the tongues of angels, the language of angels. Well, I think Paul is telling us that it's possible to speak the language of angels. But what I want to know is why should anybody assume that angels babble and that when angels speak to one another, they don't use intelligible speech, that they don't have some kind of structure and syntax and some kind of semantic rules that govern what they say to each other? There are no known instances in the Bible where angels speak. And by the way, they speak very often in the Bible. God sends them the messengers, we hear them speaking in heaven, but they never speak anything better. Human language or a language similar to a human language in that it can be interpreted, translated by some third party. There's no reason to think that angels just blather on and on in some ecstatic way. They have a language. I tend to think it probably is not terribly different than any human language, if not actually being a human language. But Paul says, look, even if I should speak as angels do, it won't make any difference if I don't have love. You must understand that Paul's not trying to say, now, look, some of you would like to speak in the tongues of men, but here's another thing you can do, speak in the tongues of angels. No, what he's saying is, even if you push it as far as to say that I should speak as angels speak, it won't mean anything unless I have love. So let's not push Paul's statement beyond what it was intended to be. It's hypothetical here. But even if we should believe that men can speak in the tongues of angels, let's not assume that angels just give vent to 8, 9, 12 syllables over and over again. They have a language even as we have a language. At least the Bible wouldn't show us anything other than that. So the gift of tongues. Throughout the Bible, Acts and first Corinthians, the gift of tongues is the miraculous ability, the spirit given ability, to speak in a language, an intelligible language that you've not yet Learned. Now, in First Corinthians 14, Paul goes into a sustained reflection upon this gift of tongues. And you notice that he deliberately and extensively contrast the gift of tongues with the gift of prophecy. In fact, the whole chapter, First Corinthians 14, is structured along just those lines to contrast the one over the other. You see that in verses 2 and 3, then verse 4 is another one, and verse 5, another one, verse 6, another, verses 17 to 19, an extended one, verse 22, verses 23 and 4, verses 27 to 32. And then he caps it off. Verse 39 over and over and over again. He says, prophecy is this, Tongues is this over and over. Paul is giving us this contrast between the two. And the main point Paul wants to draw is the relative superiority of prophecy to tongues. Paul wants to say, you have tongues on the one hand, prophecy on the other. And prophecy is superior to tongues. And why is that? Well, because prophecy edifies the church, prophecy edifies the church, and it isn't as difficult to receive edification through prophecy because it doesn't need an interpreter. Let's look at some verses here. Verse 1, chapter 14, Follow after love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts but rather that you may prophesy above all, desire to prophesy. That's the best gift. Verse 19, which we studied last week. Howbeit in the church I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that I may instruct others also than 10,000 words in a tongue. Then verse 39, at the very end of the chapter, Paul says, wherefore my brethren desire earnestly to prophesy and forbid not to speak with me. Tongues, you see, it's almost a condescending he says, well, now, don't forbid the people to speak in tongues, but desire to prophesy. That's what you should be seeking. Prophecy is relatively superior to tongues in terms of the edification of the Church. What is prophecy? Well, we know that prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and it's a gift that was not given to all. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 28 and 29, God hath set some in the church. First, apostles, secondly, prophets, thirdly, teachers, then miracles and gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? No, the gift of prophecy has not been given to all people. In fact, the gift of prophecy can be very temporary. In Acts 19:6, we learned that at the time that the followers of John the Baptist finally learned of the giving of the Holy Spirit and received the Holy Spirit, were converted, that they spoke in tongues and they prophesied. It seems to be right. On that occasion they gave prophecy, but nothing further is said of them in that regard. However, we do read, for instance in Acts 21:10, of a person who is called a person prophet. Not simply someone who prophesied in some particular instance, but somebody who regularly manifests this gift of prophecy. Acts 21:10. Let me read that for you. And as they tarried there some days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. Okay? And Paul tells us in First Corinthians God has given prophets to the church. So let's distinguish, first of all, just so we keep our category straight, between the gift of prophecy and the designation a prophet. The gift of prophecy might be given to an individual on one particular occasion or maybe a few scattered occasions. But a person who's called a prophet is somebody who regularly has the gift of prophecy, of speaking the word of God. Now, a prophet is not the same as a preacher, not to be identified with a teacher or preacher. I stand before you and I exercise a gift similar to prophecy in some respects. But in terms of strict theological understanding, we must distinguish between the Gift of prophecy and the gift of preaching. And what is the difference? Well, I know that not all churches do this, although they should. But you'll notice in our church, whenever the sermon is preached, we first read the Word of God. While you don't always see the connection because of the inability of the preacher or my letting you down, there should always be a connection between the text and what is being expounded. Because the expounding is the expounding of the text. After all, a preacher has a text previously given and he works to interpret that text to you, to pull out its meaning for you and apply it to your life. A prophet doesn't have a preordained text. And a prophet is not simply interpreting such a text. The prophet is revealing directly by the inspiration of the Spirit, the word of God. Preaching is the interpretation based on a text. Prophecy is the revelation without a text, the revelation directly of God's own words. Ephesians, the third chapter. You'll notice that the group called the prophets are associated with the apostles as those who disclose the unsearchable wisdom of God. Ephesians 3. I'd like to read verses 5, then 8, 10. 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 in the Spirit. Verses 8 to 10. Unto me, who, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hidden. God, who created all things to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God. Paul says that God is through the apostles and through the prophets, making known his wisdom, the mystery of his grace. Prophecy then is the direct utterance of God's own word. It is revelation. New Testament prophecy is always seen in just that light. It is a non derivative word of God. Like I go to the Bible and I derive from the Bible my text and then I preach on it. But the prophet doesn't go to a text. It's not derivative. It's something that comes directly through the Holy Spirit by inspiration. Now in this chapter we've read this morning, 1 Corinthians 14:29 31 indicate the revelatory function of prophecy and let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern. But if a revelation be made to another sitting by you see how Paul says, now how do the prophets function in the Church? He says, now if a revelation is given to another prophet, Paul says, revelation comes to the Church through these prophets. Revelation 19:10 John is told that the spirit of prophecy is to be found. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10 for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The angel says to John, the words of the exalted Jesus through the prophets are in fact the words of the Holy Spirit. Second Peter 1, verse 21 tells us that the Holy Spirit bears along men, that they actually give out the word of God, the very word of God that is prophecy. Prophecy is God's revelation. Prophecy is not made to be revelation in terms of its newness. By the way, prophecy is revelation because it's spirit given words. When the Holy Spirit gives the words directly, we have prophecy. The fact that Paul called for discernment of the prophets in the Church doesn't indicate that they were a lower class form of prophecy, or what was being given out was a lower class form of prophecy than what is found in the Old Testament or say in the Book of Revelation through the Apostle John. Now, in the ancient church, it was important to discern the spirits, to make sure that the prophecy came from God and not from the demons or from Satan. In fact, Paul said, let two or three prophets speak, but then the others should discern. The fact that there has to be a gift of discernment. To say, yes, that is a word from God doesn't indicate that the prophecy is not the full inspired word of God. What it indicates though, is that everybody claiming to be a prophet may not really be prophesying in the name of God. We see the same kind of exhortation elsewhere in the Bible. For instance, in 1 John 4:1 John tells his hearers that they are to discern the spirits, whether they are from God. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God. You want to make sure that when some spirit is speaking through a person that he's really speaking the word of God. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul exhorts the same thing to be done. First Thessalonians 5, 20 he says, Despise not prophesying, Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Prove it. See to it that it is a good prophecy, that it's not something that comes from a source other than God himself. In fact, Paul says in Acts 17:11 that he commends the Bereans that when he preached to them, they went to the Old Testament to see if these things were so. And so Paul says in Corinth that when the prophets speak, you'd better check to make sure that what they say corresponds to what the apostles have taught, what the Old Testament has taught. You must discern the prophets to make sure that they're actually giving the word of God. That doesn't take away anything from the first class inspired quality of what they're saying. Just means that sometimes people stand up and they are false prophets and they need to be discerned as such. He doesn't say with respect to any individual, well, now he's given you 20 different propositions. Now you go through there and you weed out which are the good ones and the bad ones. And what he's saying is somebody might speak and actually be speaking in some other spirit than the Holy Spirit of God. Okay, well, that's prophecy. Prophecy is direct revelation from God. And throughout the chapter, Paul is contrasting prophecy in tongues. Now stop and think about that. If two things are being contrasted, they have to have at least one thing in common. Not the place to teach you something about categories and philosophy, but that is one of the amazing things about life and intelligence. You can't contrast something without first of all having something behind the contrast that draws them together. Anytime you contrast something, it's always under a broader unity. Let's say I want to contrast Chevys and Fords. Well, that only makes sense because Chevys and Fords are, first of all, cars, automobiles. And so in terms of the category of automobiles, you have this contrast Chevys and Fords. Let's say I want to contrast automobiles and horses. Well, they're only contrastible because they're under the broader rubric of means of transportation. Well, what if I want to contrast horses and food, where we assume we don't eat horses? Well, that would be a contrast between means of transportation and means of physical sustenance. You see, it's impossible to contrast any two things without putting a context around them, some unifying theme or issue or question or category. And so the fact that Paul is contrasting prophecy and tongues tells us that they also have something in common. What is it that they have in common? What is that general category within which they both fall that makes the contrast possible? Well, if you stop and think about it, the list of the gifts of the Spirit given to the congregation that you'll find in Romans 12, 1st Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 are all lists that tell us about two general kinds of gifts. Let me just take One of these passages to illustrate my point, 1st Corinthians 12, 8, 10, Paul speaks here saying, to one is given through the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit to another faith and the same spirit to another gifts of healings in the one spirit and to another workings of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. And there are other lists, by the way, the fact that the lists differ from one another in some respects indicates that Paul doesn't give us an exhaustive list anywhere. Paul is always using a representative principle. He says, here's some examples of gifts of the Spirit. He's not trying to lay out all of them. Moreover, the list that Paul gives us does not sharply differentiate between one gift and another. In First Corinthians 12, which I just read, he speaks of the gift of wisdom and the gift of knowledge, clearly very close to one another, if not being identical. He speaks of healings on one hand and miracles on the other. But we know that the miracles spoken of are healings in most cases. So there's another case of overlapping. Teaching and exhorting in Romans 12 are brought together, not meant to be sharply differentiated. Paul himself is called in the New Testament an apostle. He's called a teacher, and he's called a prophet. And yet Paul, when he gives the list of the gifts of the Spirit, mentions separately apostles, prophets, and teachers. So you can't say that these are highly structured, sharply differentiated things. Paul is just going over a number of illustrations. They overlap. They're not meant to be complete by any means. But in all of the lists there is one fundamental cleavage that runs through them all. On the one hand you have gifts of deeds, actions of some sort, and on the other hand you have verbal gifts. On the one hand you have, if you will, deed charismata, the gifts of doing certain sorts of things, be it the gift of government or healings or miracles or interpretation. On the other hand, you have the verbal gifts, prophecy, and tongues. By the way, for that fundamental breakdown, we can look to 1st Peter 4:10, 11 for scriptural authority. It's not just eyeball inspection of it. We'll tell you this. But in 1 Peter 4:10, Peter says, according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speaketh, speaking as it were oracles of God, if any man ministereth, ministering as of the strength which God supplieth You see, Peter lays it out in two broad categories. Ministry gifts, the doing of certain things, and speaking gifts, verbal gifts. What Paul indicates is that with respect to the two forms of deed charismata excuse me, verbal charismata, the two speaking gifts, prophecy and tongues, stand together in that category. The they are both forms of revelation. And the superiority goes by way of contrast to prophecy because it doesn't need to be interpreted. Tongues is revelation and prophecy is revelation. But tongues is revelation in an unknown language and therefore calls for an interpreter. You'll notice it in 1 Corinthians 13:2 and 14:2. Both prophecy in tongues are associated with the reception and communication of the mysteries of God, 1 Corinthians 13:2. And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, then 1 Corinthians 14:2. 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. The prophet and the tongue speaker are both speaking the mysteries of God. And this is the crucial point. Verse 5 of 1 Corinthians 14 indicates that when tongues is interpreted, it is equivalent functionally to prophecy. Look at verse five. Now I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that you would prophesy. And greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edification. When the tongue is interpreted, it is equivalent to a prophecy. When the tongue is interpreted, it shows its genuine core character, its essence as a revelation of God. They are both word gifts. Then they both amount to revelation. By the way, in Acts the second chapter, as I said earlier, when the people spoke in tongues, Peter quoted Joel's prophecy saying that all of God's people would prophesy. And he says this is the fulfillment of it. Tongues, you see, is a form of prophecy, and prophecy is what revelation? Now, I've sustained this little study this morning for some time, and we've got to bring it to an end. But I want to make sure you see the connection. It is a scriptural biblically based on pattern of reasoning that I've tried to lay out for you here this morning. In the first place, prophecy is a special gift, and it is a revelatory gift. It is the inspired word of God that the prophet speaks and those who speak in tongues. And by the way, remember, these are unknown human languages. When a person speaks in tongues, he is prophesying. He is revealing God in the very same way, the only difference being because it's unknown. The language is unknown. It must be interpreted. So what is the origin of tongues? When a person genuinely speaks in tongues, where does it come from? Does it come from somebody in the room or a group of people in the room surrounding that person and trying to work them into some ecstatic state? Does it come from somebody saying, God, please give me the gift of tongues, somebody trying to develop that gift? Does it come through him thinking through certain things or getting into a certain mental state or emotional fever? No. The gift of tongues comes directly from the Holy Spirit. You don't seek it, you don't develop it. The Holy Spirit grants it to you. And when you speak in tongues, what you are speaking is the very word of God. And no man hearing the word of God dare disobey, disagree with, or in any way deprecate what you say. For when you speak in tongues, you speak with the same authority that the Apostle Paul spoke with. I remind you that in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul said in verse 37, if any man thinks himself to be a prophet or a spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord. If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. If any man disagrees with the Apostle Paul, he is not spiritual. He is ignorant in the eyes of God. And and anybody who disagrees with the prophet of God is in the same category. Now, I'm not this morning going to tell you that tongues are impossible today. I will tell you that next week. I will stand firm upon that conviction. But this much we must see this morning that if you claim to speak in tongues, you remember that you stand on a par with the Apostle Paul. And no man dare disagree with what you say. If you speak in tongues, it must be an intelligible human language that somebody else could be given the gift of interpretation for, or somebody who happens to know the language could actually hear the Gospel preached through your word. The origin of tongues is spoken to us very simply. In First Corinthians 14:14, Paul says, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. Paul says my mind is bypassed when it comes to speaking in tongues. I don't develop this message. Moreover, I don't even understand the message. My mind is bypassed because I don't understand the language so clearly. The origin of tongue speaking cannot be the individual, he says. Rather, my spirit speaks. And here will be the last point that I want you to get this morning. It's just here that the charismatics have so much difficulty because they can only understand that to mean some kind of non rational inner spirit in man that wells up within him. His spirit speaks irrationally because it bypasses his mind. That's not even true to a New Testament view of man and his character. That's Freudian, by the way. I don't want to get technical with you, but it's with Freud and that school of psychology that teaches us that human beings have this sub rational domain that kind of wells up sometimes, this cesspool really of emotion that you can't control. But that isn't Paul's view of man. Paul has basically, as he says in 2 Corinthians 4, 16, a simple view of man. There's the outer man and the inner man. The outer man is the body, the inner man. It's described in a number of ways. It's called soul, it's called spirit, it's called mind, it's called heart. Any number of things are used to describe that. And when Paul says my understanding, my mind is not being used, it's my spirit speaking, he doesn't mean that this one part of the inner being mind is overlooked so that it's not going to be rational, but this other part of the inner being spirit is being used. Rather, what Paul is talking about is the Holy Spirit. He says, when I speak in a tongue, it's not from my mind, it's my spirit speaking. Now you say, why does he call it my spirit? Well, that's not too difficult to understand really, if you're reading First Corinthians 14 in context, in verse 15 and 16, he uses the same word, spirit. He says, what is it then? I will pray with the spirit. I will pray with the understanding. Also verse 2 of chapter 14, he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth but in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. What spirit is he talking about? Talking about the Holy Spirit in context, that's how he uses the word spirit. And Moreover, in verse 12 of the same chapter he says so also since you are zealous of. And I don't know what your translation will have, but in the Greek it says, since you are zealous of spirits, plural. And yet almost every translation, I think verse, virtually every translation in the English language has, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, the word gift is not there. But that's clearly what Paul means. He uses spirit generally of the Holy Spirit. And the plural means things given by the spirit. And when Paul speaks Therefore, of my spirit. In verse 14, he's talking about the Spirit in me, my spiritual gift. So let's look at verse 14 again. For if I pray in a tongue, my Spirit prayeth. The Holy Spirit is the one praying through me, through this gift given me. But my understanding is unfruitful. My understanding is fallow. My understanding is not doing it. It's the Holy Spirit in me. So the lesson today is to understand what tongs amounts to tongues is first of all, in its general character, a miraculously given ability to speak in an unlearned human language. And secondly, tongues is revelation. It is spirit given words. My understanding is unfruitful. Paul says, it's the Spirit speaking in me when I speak in a tongue. And when the Holy Spirit speaks, no man dare fail to hear. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you have made known the manifold wisdom of God, the riches of grace in Jesus Christ to the Church, that you've done so through your inspired apostles and prophets. We thank you that the many gifts, the special miraculous gifts of the Spirit were made known in the early days of the Church so that the revelation of Jesus Christ might be full and complete. Lord, we pray you'd give us a due reverence for these gifts of prophecy in tongues. We ask, Father, even if we are of the conviction that these things do not function today, that we would never deprecate their genuine manifestation as they were found in the days of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for that miraculous ability that people had to communicate the Gospel to strangers through the gift of tongues. We thank you that in Corinth that very gift was made known. We thank you that you have poured out your spirit and that your church was indeed founded on the truth of revealed Scripture. Lord, we pray that our lives today might be founded on that same foundation. We pray that our lives might be focused on the revelation of the Spirit of God as it comes to us through the apostles and the prophets. We pray that you might give us an understanding of what the Scriptures teach, that we might live them out both in terms of the proper beliefs that we have and also in terms of the proper behavior that we pursue. For it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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