The Gift of Tongues, No. 1
BD28-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1971)
This morning we come to a very crucial and controversial
subject, and one that is raging in our day relative to another one of
the temporary spiritual gifts. This one is the gift of tongues. This is one of the
gifts which was temporary in the New Testament church. It was the ability that some Christians in
the local congregations had to be able to speak in foreign languages
which were unknown to them. Tongues was one of the miracle gifts. It was designed therefore
to be a sign to authenticate the message and the messengers of the New Testament. Because tongues is a miracle
gift, as we have learned, it would therefore phase out. There is nobody therefore today who can
perform miracles, nor can anybody exercise the gifts of tongues
today—the ability to speak in a foreign language that he himself does not know. He cannot do this under the power of God.
Now I’ll qualify what I said in the fact that Satan has the
ability to perform the miraculous. Satan
has the ability to bring about cures under certain conditions. Satan
has the ability to take possession of a
person and to enable him to speak even in a known language, but God is
no longer exercising this miraculous gift. It served its
purpose and it has been phased out. This
happened with the fall of Jerusalem in
70 A.D. and with the completion of the New Testament scriptures with
the book of the Revelation.
So, all of the modern claims for speaking in tongues that you
hear about is really nothing more than an experience that Satan has
been often producing through the old sin natures of people in primitive societies. It
is important that you understand that the
ecstatic gibberish that you hear today as tongues was practiced by the
pagan priests and priestesses of the Greco-Roman world. These
were viewed as messages from the Gods. There were people
who would take this gibberish that the priests and priestesses, under a detachment of
soul and in absorption with their idol deity which you know has a demon behind
it. They would receive this gibberish message and
there were people who would seek to interpret this as a message from
the gods, the oracles of the ancient world.
Today the witch doctors have the same experience. They
put themselves in the position where they
come to an ecstatic condition where they are babbling in ecstatic
meaningless expressions. The condition of
self-hypnosis, or the state of being detached from your own soul and
united with another force, is a state of ecstasy where you have no
consciousness of your own, and it is an ancient practice under satanic direction.
We have historical records of pagan tongues experiences. Associated with
these experiences are such things as ecstasy and great sense of joy; a
frenzy; howling; being in a trance; violent physical motions; foaming at the
mouth; rhythmic sounds; and, singing. Well this
is all the same thing that you have today. If
you’ve been in a tongues meeting, you will immediately
recognize that all of these things are present. It
is exactly what happened in primitive societies in ancient times and it
happens today. This occurs among non-Christian
societies as well in our day—the expression of the gibberish type of tongues.
Tongues in History
In a little volume by Gromacki, The Modern Tongues Movement, I’d like to
read you a paragraph. He says:
“Stoley reported that ecstatic speech is found in Muhammadanism. The
Dervishes of Persia constantly utter the
name of Allah accompanied by violent shaking of the body and trances
which issue in foaming at the mouth. These
violent motions lead to physical exhaustion and partial unconsciousness. During
this period of ecstasy they preach moral sermons.”
Now if you have been in Pentecostal meetings you may have
seen the site, frequently of women—men as well, but very
often of women—who are just in what you would call a catatonic state. You would think
they are having a convulsive fit. They’re shaking and they’re rigid. Their
mouth is foaming and their eyes are rolling, and usually it takes two or three men to hold one woman down
in the exuberance of the ecstatic possession of what they call the Holy
Spirit’s coming upon them and the ecstasy of the moment.
This is followed, when the person comes to, by a state of
extreme exhaustion. I wonder how much of
a Pentecostal meeting has the satisfaction in it that a person goes in
there, and he is of the emotional temperament type, and it just releases him.
Incidentally, a lot of defense for tongues, with its
associated ecstatic expressions, and I find this on college campuses: I
have kids coming back and saying, “We have
a college professor who speaks in tongues.” This sometimes
occurs in Christian schools. He speaks in chapel and he defends his position. He
presents it as a vehicle by which he worships and praises God. I think that a
misrepresentation of the scriptural issue of tongues.
If you are of the type that goes for a jiving jumping church
service, and I know that some of you are, then that’s the
kind of a church service you can find. Now it’s OK if you
like to go to church services where they sing Amazing
Grace to the Coca-Cola song and they clap their hands and that sort of thing. That’s
OK. If you like a jumping jiving service, just say, “I’m the
emotional type and I like to go in there and I like to jump and jive.” But
don’t go in there and defend tongues,
which I think as we unravel it you will see that it is a fantastically
heretical practice today, and is satanic in its influence to the core. Don’t
go in there and defend tongues as a way of expressing your praise to God. Just
say, “I’m the kind of emotional character that
likes to come in and jump and jive all over the place, and that’s the kind of a service I
like. I like to worship God like that.” Well and good. Just do it. But
don’t try to defend that and your temperament on a heretical ground.
So, continuing our quote here: These things take
place in non-Christian religions—the expression of tongues. He
continues: “The Eskimos of Greenland are
reported to have engaged in glossolalia (that is, tongues). Their
religious services are led by an Angok,
the medicine man or priest. In these
services there is a definite attempt to get in touch with the
Netherworld, the spirit world. The services are
characterized by drum-beating, singing, dancing, and nudity of both men and women.
“Peter Freuchen in his book Artic Adventure observed glossolalia in this way: Suddenly one of
the men … went out of his head, unable to contain himself to the regular rhythm
of the service. He leaped to his feet,
crying like a raven and howling like a wolf. In ecstasy he and
a girl … began to yell in a tongue I could not
understand. Certainly it was not the usual Eskimo language. If there is such
a thing as speaking in tongues, I heard it then.”
Tongues advocates today defend their practice by pointing
out how it improves them religiously. This is one of
the favorite defenses—how it improves a person’s
religious active life and his conduct. “I
stopped swearing. I stopped drinking. I started reading
the Bible. I started giving money to church. I got active in
church services.” This is one of the most
tiresome defenses, and I hear this from Christians. Here
is some joker who sits in a church where
he’s receiving the Word of God and he’s receiving
sound doctrinal instruction. He is negative to the core
because it is striking him right where he is resisting it. He
is a spiritual do-do. Suddenly he finds himself in another church
under another ministry where there are accommodations to his old sin
nature, and he blossoms out and starts reading the Bible and going to church
and attending prayer meeting and giving his money and getting into
ministries. And there are Christians who are stupid enough to say, “Now he has gotten on the ball for the
Lord.”
Religion
Don’t you realize that you old sin nature is steeped with
religion? Don’t you realize that all
those things are nothing but religion in a negative person toward the
word? Are you so diluted to think that a
person who is negative to sound doctrine in one place can go to
someplace else and get on the ball spiritually? Never. What
he has done is gone someplace else where he is comfortable in his negative resistance, and
now he starts becoming religious in his expression. Unless you
understand how Satan loves religion, you will be fooled.
Satan has no objection to your being religious. That’s
the greatest thing in the world. He has no objection to your giving the credit
to God. There’s another thing people bring: “I
can’t see how healing and tongues could be so wrong. When we
gather, we give God all the praise. We give God all the credit. We look to
Him.” Do you think Satan objects to that? He knows that
what you’re pursuing is out of the will of God. It’s
out of the plan of God. He’s got nothing to lose. As long as he
keeps you in religion, you’re not going to do the one thing he wants you
to do as a Christian. You will not identify your
spiritual gift and you will not start exercising it. When
you find your spiritual gift and you
start exercising it, then you start creating a lot of trouble for Satan. Until
then he doesn’t care about you at all.
So, religion comes from the old sin nature. That sin nature is corrupt. It’s
spiritually blind, and it’s eager for emotional experiences. It’s
quite willing to improve its conduct to impress itself. It’s
hardened and it’s negative. Religion is a human good deception of Satan
and you know that God rejects everything that comes from our human
good—just as he does our sins, so he does our good. The imagined
achievement of some level of desired spirituality in itself
causes a person to be joyful and to have a sense of elation and excitement.
Suppose that somebody told you (and you believed him) that
if you got up and spoke in this gibberish tongue, it would be the sign
that you have entered an intimate relationship with God and that your life would
be on a whole new dramatic plateau. And you so, “Oh, is that true?” So
you would start pursuing the gift of speaking in tongues. And
remember—anybody can speak in tongues. All
you have to do is get around people who do it. All you have to
do is concentrate on it and pretty soon you’ll let go and it will take over and
you’ll be speaking gibberish without any problem at all. Then suddenly
after you pursue this and you do it, because you have
psyched yourself previously into thinking that if you do this you now
have a beautiful relationship with God, you’ll be overjoyed. You’ll
be rejoicing. You’ll be ecstatic. You’ll be elated. You’ll
get out there and start hustling in your religion like crazy for God. And
you have been diluted by Satan right down the line. So
giving God the praise is no problem for Satan. He just wants to
neutralize you in your permanent spiritual gifts.
So, the problem with the tongues crowd is that they are not
judging their experience by bible doctrine. Unfortunately
most people in the tongues movement don’t have doctrine by
which to judge. Most of them couldn’t
come to it if they wanted to. It’s
not available to them. All of our
experiences which originate with God the Holy Spirit are going to
conform to sound doctrine. A Pentecostal
insists that it’s the other way around. They
insist that a man who has had an experience cannot be confounded or
confused by somebody’s arguments. If I had an
experience, that’s all I need to guide me to the truth. We’ve
already gone over how experience is deceptive.
So, we see that the False Prophet in Revelation 13 is going
to deceive people into worshipping the Antichrist on the basis of
experience of miracles that he performs for them. Without
doctrine you will misinterpret experience. If we seek to
determine if today’s tongue’s practice qualifies as
the New Testament tongues practice, which is what we’re going to
do. We want to know: Is what happened in the New Testament is
what’s happening today? Then we have to
know doctrine. That’s the only way we
can decide that. We have to see what God
intended to do with tongues; why he produced it; how long He intended
to use it; and, what it was really like. Then
we can step back and we can walk into a Pentecostal meeting, and
immediately we can analyze it, and on the basis of doctrine we can determine whether
what is purported as tongues today is what the New Testament gift was.
So, people with an emotional temperament need a frame of
reference particularly in their minds of doctrine to guide them. I’m
not saying that you will not have
emotions as a result of God the Holy Spirit’s production in
your life. You will. Your old sin nature will produce false emotions. But
when you come with sound doctrine, God
the Holy Spirit will give you great elation and great joy in what you
have learned and in how He functions through you. There is a great
deal of emotion in the Christian life, but emotion as
the controlling element will destroy you.
Women, for this reason, are prominent in the tongues
movement. They have a natural emotional
bent, and Pentecostalism is the haven of the women’s lib in
the religious realm consequently. Here is where
women have their hay day. And if you have
inclinations to be a woman preacher; if you want to get up and lead
meetings; and if you want to get up and be an aggressive female, then join a
Pentecostal church because it is the haven for the religious women’s lib
movement.
The History of the Tongue’s Movement
I think it would be helpful to think through a little bit
the history of the tongues movement. There were very
few reports following the apostolic period of
tongues. Those which were reported by
the early church fathers were cases not of what they did but of what
had been reported to them. George B. Cutten
was an educator at Colgate University. He wrote a book called Speaking
with Tongues. He made an extensive examination of all the
ancient records following the apostolic period of speaking in tongues. His
conclusion is that following the apostolic period there is not one demonstrated proven instance of
speaking in tongues.
When we come to the Middle Ages we again have no verifiable
records. We have a lot of superstition,
like dogs and babies preaching and defending the faith, but you have
again no accurate records of people speaking in tongues. When we come to
the Reformation period and we have some reports of
claims to tongues, but always among fringe groups. Among
the reformers tongues was not a factor
in recovery of New Testament doctrine. Since then the
gibberish of tongues periodically flared up and then
disappeared—always out on the fringe, never with great
support, so it didn’t last.
But when we come to the modern tongues period, in the
beginning of the 19th century, we find tongues in the Mormon
group. Joseph Smith taught and practiced tongues. This is part of
the doctrinal statement of the Mormon Church today—belief in tongues. This
was how he received, in effect, the Book of Mormon. It was given to
him in a language that he had to interpret on those tablets.
The Shakers were another cult group who practiced tongues
gibberish with ecstatic dancing, jumping, and shaking. Their
founder, Mother Ann Lee (a lady, you
notice), claimed the ability to speak in 72 languages. Today’s
tongue movement that you and I are
acquainted with, in the Pentecostal Holiness churches really began in
about the year 1900.
Tongues in Modern Times
In 1900, the beginning of the 20th century, a man
named Charles Parham opened the Bethel Bible School in Topeka Kansas. Part
of his teaching was that tongues was for our day. This school had
no teachers. It just had students and Bibles and they taught themselves. They read
the Scriptures and they pursued seeking the practice of speaking in tongues.
However, the real solid beginning of Pentecostalism was in
Los Angeles in the year 1906. There the modern tongues, as we know it today, broke out on Azusa Street. I
want to read you a quote that describes a little bit of what happened. This is by
Carroll Stegall in The Modern Tongues and Healing Movement, a
little brochure. This is referring to this outbreak from which the modern Pentecostal movement has come. This
happened in Los Angeles, California.
“A negro named W. J. Seymour, who had been at a Bible school
in Houston, Texas, began preaching to a group of Seekers in a home at
214 Bonny Brae Street. On April 9th,
1906, the people in this group, having been in intense prayer for some
days, began to break into ecstatic utterances which were joyously hailed as
the apostolic tongues. The group grew and
move into a tenement basis meeting hall at 312 Azusa Street. To
the tenement people, the tongues were the
sure sign of the approval of the Holy Spirit. They felt certain
that God was preparing to usher in the end of the age
with the promised latter reign of power spoken of in Joel. They
considered this prophecy only partially
fulfilled at Pentecost.
“Night after night the meetings continued as scores of
people, whipped into a high state of emotional fervor, broke into the
babbling torrent of monosyllabic sounds and appeared to be possessed of super
human power. The meetings continued almost
without end for three months or more and the excitement swept the
entire area. People came from far and wide to scoff, and were convinced. They returned
to their places, carrying the movement with them. It
swept like fire across America, and thence
across the seas to India, Sweden, and other lands. It
is today well established in several foreign countries although its greatest following is in America.”
Tongues Today
So, the tongues movement began from this beginning and spread
rapidly. It has various names today: The Assemblies of
God; The Church of God in Christ; Pentecostal Assemblies; Pentecostal Holiness Church;
Full Gospel Churches; Four Square Gospel Church, and so on. But
on April 3rd, 1960, a dramatic
new era in the tongues movement began. On that day
Dennis J. Bennett, the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
in Van Nuys, California, stood up on that Sunday morning and announce
to his congregation that he had had the experience of speaking in tongues. This
was immediately caught up by the news media and it was given extensive coverage in Life
magazine and in the Post magazine. The congregation was torn
apart by this issue. They finally secured the pastor’s resignation and he began another church
in the Episcopal tradition but devoted to the tongues practice.
From this beginning, however, something new happened in the
tongues movement as we know it today. Up to now, tongues had always been out in the usual Pentecostal Holiness
groups. From that day, tongues moved into the old line denominations so that today the tongues movement is
no longer (only) among Pentecostal groups. You’ll find it in Methodism. You’ll
find it among Northern and Southern Baptists. You’ll
find it among Presbyterians and Reformed Churches. You’ll
find it among Lutherans. And you’ll find it among Roman
Catholics. So, the tongues movement has invaded even evangelical colleges and missions, creating great havoc in those institutions.
Now you have religious leaders today, and institutions, who
are reflecting great spiritual confusion now that tongues has moved
into their own realm. It was alright when it was
out there among the Pentecostalists. Then they could
make declarations and speak on it. You
would be surprised how many spiritual
religious leaders in the circle of your acquaintance that you would go
up to and say, “What about tongues?” How
often you would get an equivocal answer. You
would be surprised how many people in evangelical denominations, in
strong churches, and in educational institutions are now beginning to cop out
on saying that tongues is either of Satan or it is psychological
self-hypnosis. One or the other, but it is not of God.
You’re going to find that it’s going to be hard for you to
hear a preacher who gets up on a basis of the exposition of doctrine
and says it that pointedly. They’re all going to
hedge. Do you know why? Because once Mr. Bennett broke this loose
into the open among regular denominational groups, vast numbers of
people have been drawn into this delusion, and the support of congregations and the
support of educational institutions is now dependent upon people who are
sympathetic to the tongues practice.
College students will come home and, because they have had
college professors, nice people, people they know who practice tongues,
and who have a chance to get up and defend it. They’ll
come home and they’ll have a sympathy for it instead of
saying, “He’s wrong. He’s out of line with
Scripture. Whatever he is experiencing, it is not the practice of New Testament tongues.” So
you’re going to have to have a pretty clear idea on this subject.
Isaiah 28:9-12
The place to begin is in the book of Isaiah. Will you turn to chapter 28? We’re
going to begin at verses 9-12. Isaiah chapter records two great failures of
the Jewish people. The first eight verses tell you about extensive alcoholism in Israel which led to
national disaster. For example, verse 7 says, “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong
drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. (Even the
religious leaders are on booze.) They are swallowed up of wine. They are out
of the way through strong drink, they err in vision, and they stumble in
judgment. For all the tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean.” That’s
their first problem. Alcoholism was destroying the Jewish nation.
Consequent to this came a second destructive issue in verses 9 through 12. These tell us of
the negative volition to doctrine which led ultimately to the nation’s dispersion
in 70 A.D. Verse 9 says, “Whom shall he teach knowledge.” The word
“knowledge” indicates understanding of doctrine. When he says,
“Whom shall he teach knowledge,” he’s
indicating that few would gather to listen to instruction in Bible doctrine. This
is the same problem we have today. A preacher can break his neck with all kinds
of pleading, all kinds of admonition, and all kinds of exhortation, and
people say, “Ho hum, yeah, I should be in church to learn doctrine. I
should do this every day.” And then vast periods of time pass and you
never see them. Then they phase in for a while and then they phase out. And they
think they’re getting away with something. You
don’t know what you’re doing to yourself eternally. But
here’s an example. It destroyed this nation. And you will
destroy yourself and you will destroy your nation. When a maximum
number of people become confused and disoriented to God’s
viewpoint, the nation goes down the tube. That’s
exactly where I think our nation is headed very very rapidly. Maybe
that’s all well in keeping with prophetic Scripture.
“Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to
understand doctrine.” Most of the Jews were negative to teacher, teaching, and technique. Because
they were negative, they were plumb ignorant of doctrine. Now mind you: They
were religious to the core. It was religion that was destroying
them. They weren’t discontinuing all of their religious practices. You could
have said, “Oh, isn’t it wonderful? This
fellow has really gotten on the ball here. He used to kill
one animal in sacrifice. Now he kills five every week. He has gotten so active for the Lord. Isn’t that wonderful?”
But when he was negative to teaching, teacher, and
technique; when he was rejecting Isaiah’s instruction, he was
through. He was religious but he was not accomplishing
anything that God was commending or rewarding. So, he says,
“Whom shall understand doctrine.” Why
couldn’t they understand it? Because they were rejecting it. Consequently, the
Jews remained in the babyhood stage of spirituality. It says
they have been “weaned from milk, and drawn from the
breasts,” and that’s where they stayed. He got them far enough
along that they were living off of the basics, and there they stayed. Instead
of growing on spiritually into adolescence and into maturity, they stopped there.
In verse 10, here is the means of growth that they
rejected: “Precept must be upon precept.” The word
“precept” is a principal of doctrine. It says that one
doctrine has to be added to another doctrine to develop a necessary
frame of reference for the classification of truth, precept upon precept. Then
he goes on and says, “Line upon line,”
which means expository explanation of the revealed written Scriptures: word
by word, verse by verse, “line upon line, here a little, and there a little,” meaning that you
keep at it. You don’t just show up for church once in a
while. You don’t just open your Bible once in a while. You don’t just play
some arrogant role and say, “Well, Sunday school is not for
me,” as if you were that capable of getting along without a segment of doctrinal
instruction. It’s a regular thing.
Now ignoring this divinely provided means of spiritual
maturity because it was too much trouble or because they knew all that,
led to the destruction of the destruction of the Jewish nation as it will to ourselves.
Notice verse 11: God says, “Here’s the judgment.” This
is the sign of divine rejection of Israel. This
is the sign. In this verse God says because you’re great for living it up in pleasure and fun
which has led to alcoholism; because I can’t get you out to Bible class to
listen to the Word and to respond to it and learn it and act upon it, you have come to the
point where I’m going to reject you as a nation. Now mind you: This
is hundreds of years before the event has happened that God is declaring this. This
is even before the first 70-year captivity in Babylon.
Verse 11 says, “For with stammering lips and with another
tongue will He speak to this people.” Now
here’s what Isaiah is saying: The expression
“stammering lips” in the Hebrew means a language
which is erratic, jerky, or choppy. A choppy type
of language which has a choppy sound to it. Hebrew has a
rather melodious and flowing sound to it. He is contrasting this with the Hebrew
tongue. “You are going to be taught the
Word of God in a choppy erratic language.” Right away they
knew what that meant—not in Hebrew, not in our melodious psalm-like language.
Then he adds to it: another tongue will he speak, meaning tongues foreign to them; that is,
gentile languages. He would speak to them. What would God
speak to them? The Word of God which they had rejected. He was saying
that the time is going to come when you Jews who have consistently rejected Bible doctrine taught to
you in your own Hebrew language are going to come to the place where I am
going to reject you as a nation, and then I’m going to bring Gentiles
with their choppy jerky gentile-type of languages and they’re going to teach
you the Word of God in those languages.
Now that is so humiliating to a Jew to think that he would
be taught by a Gentile. This would be like somebody coming up and saying, “Do you know what? The
Asian/Afro nations, let’s say China and
Africa are getting together and they’re forming mission
organizations to send missionaries to the United states—Christian missionaries to
the United States.” Immediately there is something
that would cause you to say, “They’re going to send
missionaries to the Unites States? We’ve got Bibles to burn
here. They’re going to send missionaries to us?” And it seems
unbelievable that some nation would going to send missionaries to us. And
that’s the way it was with the Jews. “You
must be kidding, God. You can’t be serious that Gentiles are going
to come and teach us the Word of God.” That was
offensive to them.
The Tower of Babel
And to whom was this to be done? Verse 11 says, “To this people.” Who
are the people, in this context? The Jewish people. Now
that’s very important. God is going to speak in foreign languages to
the Jewish people. Have you got that? Not to Gentiles. A
tongues language to Jews alone. From Adam to Abram was a period of the
Gentiles. All the world spoke in one language. All
evangelization was carried on in that one language. Apostasy set in
after the flood and the people responded to a plan that Satan proposed
for a one-world government in the form of the tower of Babel.
If you read the historical record in the Scriptures
concerning the Tower of Babel, you will see that if God permitted man
to go to one-world government, no evil would be restrained unto him. God
knows that He has to restrain the old sin nature by having nations which can counter one another, in balance of
power to one another, so that no nation can have a totalitarian control to
destroy access to the Word of God. Any time a totalitarian control comes in, a one-world-like government comes in
within a segment of people, the first thing that is destroyed is access to
divine truth and the Word of God. So, that’s why the
Tower of Babel came, because God saw a united nations being formed, a
one-world government, and God knew that no evil would be restrained then to man
in his old sin nature in the governmental authorities. Furthermore,
access to the Word of god and to enlightenment would be destroyed.
So, He confounded the languages. He mixed them up and confused them into many
languages in order to ensure national entities which are God’s plan for
society. This protects the race and the access to the Word of God, and it restrains evil.
Now, from Abraham to Pentecost was the period of the Jews. It was a period
of many languages. The Jews were made custodians during that period of the divine revelation, and they were responsible
for bringing the Word of God to all nations. They were the
missionaries. They, however, turned apostate. So, they rejected God’s revelation. They
failed in their missionary responsibility. So, God has sent the Jews into dispersion and He has raised up a new
missionary agency in the form of the Christian church. It is Gentiles
with their many languages who are now responsible as the
body of Christ for the missionary enterprise of reaching humanity. The Jews had failed in it.
Now what Isaiah 28:11 is doing is predicting a national
destruction resulting in the Jews themselves being evangelized in
Gentile languages. There’s going to be a destruction of the Jewish nation so that they are evangelized in turn
by the Gentiles. When did this take place? It took place on
the day of Pentecost. When they stood in Jerusalem from all the
nations of the world and they were Hellenistic Jews. Many
of them couldn’t speak Hebrew. All they knew was Greek, the trade language,
and the local language of the country they came from, and they found
themselves hearing their native country’s speech being spoken to them by
people (Galileans), who weren’t too hot at speaking their own
language, speaking to them in their own language.
That was the fulfillment of Isaiah 28:11, that they were
being evangelized in the stammering foreign tongues of Gentiles. This
(was the) signal to the Jews, that they were no longer God’s custodians of the Word, and that the
church had taken over. It indicated what Leviticus 26
verses 27-46 describe as the fifth stage of discipline that God
promised He would bring upon the Jewish people where they would be brought under a
foreign power and dispersed out of the land of Palestine.
Now this condition of dispersion will continue until the
return of Jesus Christ. The Jews found this prediction with the sign of tongues hard to believe, and they
rejected it. Their whole national failure stemmed from their indifference to doctrine and they’re not going on to spiritual maturity.
So, Isaiah 28:12 says, “To whom ye said, ‘This is the
rest by which ye may cause the weary to rest, this is the refreshing. Yet
they would not hear.’” Here he is offering the rest of the
gospel. The Lord Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest.” In Gentile languages there will be offered spiritual refreshment. This was the low point in Jewish history,
for them to be given spiritual refreshment as Jews in Gentile languages.
Now the response of the Jews as a whole would be negative to
this, as historically was confirmed. They were negative to the New Testament church, to the apostles, and to
the message of salvation. And they would not hear, which is what verse 12 says. “Yet
they would not hear.” In 40 years from Pentecost would come national dispersion in 70 A.D. It
was a grace period for them to escape the curse which was upon them.
Now, if you will turn to 1 Corinthians 14, we’re going to
give you the connection for all that has been said. 1
Corinthians 14, beginning at verse 21: Here the apostle Paul, in a segment of the
book of 1 Corinthians, which goes from chapters 12 through 14: This
segment of 1 Corinthians deals with spiritual gifts, and particularly with the abuse of the gift of tongues
in the New Testament church. In this segment of Scripture dealing with tongues, the apostle Paul in verse 21 connects
the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost with the verses in Isaiah that we just looked at.
The Purpose of the Gift of Tongues
Verse 21 says, “In the law it is written (that is, in Isaiah
28:11-12), ‘With men of other tongues and other lips will I
speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me,’ saith
the Lord.” This passage is the only direct declaration
which we have of the purpose of the gift of tongues. Now
be sure you get that. When you ask, “Why tongues?” Only
this passage, beginning as a matter of fact with verse 20, 1 Corinthians 14:20-22 is the only passage you have
in the New Testament that explains to you the purpose of tongues. If
you miss it here, you’re going to be wrong all the way through in your thinking concerning tongues.
Here’s what it says: Paul places tongues as the gift of the least value in these
chapters. He points out that every Christian would not have tongues. In
1 Corinthians 13 he stresses that what is of value is “agape” love, that is, being
filled with the spirit. That’s what’s important—not some spiritual gift. Then
in 1 Corinthians 14 he points out that the primary purpose of all
spiritual gifts is edification, building up of individual believers in the local
church (1 Corinthians 14:26). A spiritual gift is not exercised for your own edification. It is only
exercised for the edification of other people. That’s its purpose.
So, verse 20 says, “Brethren, be not children in
understanding; however, in malice be children, but in understanding be
men.” This introduces God’s purpose for the
tongues gift. There is here a caution against being immature about this gift, thinking as a spiritual
child—exalting the tongues gift while overlooking its purpose. The word
“men” at the end of verse 20 is the Greek word
“teleioi” which means “mature.” This
is the very failure of the tongues movement today. They have not come to a mature understanding of this gift.
Then in verse 21 he quotes Isaiah 28:11-12. This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. This is when god
sent His messengers to evangelize the Jews in Gentile languages. Then
verse 22: This begins with the Greek word “hoste,”
wherefore. This word in the Greek indicates that a conclusion is being reached on the basis of the verse
just quoted, verse 21. What he says is, “Therefore, tongues are for a sign.” Tongues are for a
sign. This is a Greek way of expressing a purpose. The
purpose of tongues is (to be) a sign, to prove something. Isaiah
28:11-12 revealed to us that the miracle of tongues in the church age was for the purpose of a sign. Paul
connects it to the Isaiah passage. Paul says, “And tongues came on Pentecost—the
purpose of God in the gift was to be a sign.” To whom? This
people, the Jews—not to Gentiles. It has no purpose
beyond the Jews, and it has no purpose beyond the Jews who lived in the New Testament period.
Tongues, also here, has the definite article, “the tongues,”
which indicates the tongues that Paul has been about through these
chapters 12 through 14, the New Testament gift of tongues. It refers as a
sign. The word “sign” means something that is concrete to reveal a
spiritual truth. “Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to
them that believe, but to them that believe not. But
prophesying serveth not for them that believe not but for them who believe.
Verse 21, speaking of this people, identifies that tongues
as a sign gift is to this people which is the Jews. The
tongues would be a sign to them that believe not—Jews who believe not, not to Gentiles who believe
not. In the Greek, the words here “believe not”
express a state of hardened condition that these people are in. They
reject the evidence that God is giving to them through this gift of tongues as a sign.
So, verses 23 through 25 here in 1 Corinthians 14 go on to
indicate that Gentile unbelievers would listen to tongues in an
assembly and they’d say, “You’re crazy.” But
when a Jew listened to it, because he knew Isaiah 28, he would say,
“Do you know what’s happening? What’s happening is Isaiah
28:11-12. We are hearing tongues. We are hearing the Word of God preached to us
in Gentile languages as Isaiah told was going to happen to us. And
it signaled to them that God is through with the nation that He is now turning to Gentiles. And
it signaled to them that the fifth stage of discipline, when Israel is to be dispersed from her land, is
immediately upon them. This was 30 A.D. The dispersion didn’t come until 40 years
later. 40 years of grace. Why?
Well, a Jew is under a two-fold curse. He is under a curse now nationally that God
has placed upon him. He is also under the curse that you and I are under because of our spiritual death. He
could escape the curse nationally and of spiritual death by turning to Christ as Savior. In Luke chapter
21, we have the Lord’s declaration that this stage of
discipline is coming upon the Jewish people. Luke 21, beginning at verse 20. The Lord says,
“And ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies. Then
know that its desolation is near. That’s what happened in the invasion in 70
A.D. Then let them who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let them who are
in the midst of it depart. Let not them that are in the countries enter into it. For these are the
days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe unto them
that are with child, them that nourish children in those days, for there shall
be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people (the Jews). They
shall fall by the edge of the sword” And about a million-and-a-half of them did in
the invasion and siege of Jerusalem. “And shall be led away captive into all nations.” Which is where
they are today and will remain until the return of the Lord. “And
Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
What the Scriptures reveal, beginning with Isaiah and Paul’s
connection in 1 Corinthians 14, is that God is now reaching humanity
through Gentiles. And Jews may escape their position of spiritual death and of the curse of their nation by turning
to Christ as Savior. Gentiles, according to Galatians 3:13, escape their spiritual death by returning to Christ. The
Jew today who rejects Jesus Christ remains under his two-fold curse. The day of Isaiah’s curse began the same day that the blessing
began, because cursing is turned to blessing when we receive God’s solution. The
solution was to receive Christ as Savior.
The picture I want you to understand clearly this morning is
that Isaiah 28 tells you what the purpose of the gift of tongues was. What
was the purpose? To go to the Jewish people and to signal to
them that God was not through with them as a nation; that He was
rejecting them; that He was delivering God’s understanding in the Word of God
to them in Gentile languages; that national dispersion was just over the hill;
and, that they had to turn to Christ to escape the double curse that was upon
them as Jews. You can see obviously that once this purpose was fulfilled, the point of tongues ceased. We
don’t have tongues today because God is no longer testifying to the Jews. You’re
going to discover that when tongues occurred in the New Testament,
there were Jews present. The tongues were directed toward them, not the Gentiles. You could
not have the New Testament gift of tongues operating today. Whatever
is operating, it is not the New Testament gift of tongues.
Now that’s just the beginning point. There is a lot more evidence and factors than
that which we’re going to come to. But I want you to understand that the purpose from Isaiah, as Paul connects
it, was to the Jewish people. It was a sign to them: Get ready,
it’s almost over for the Jewish nation. Turn to Christ. That’s
your only route of escape. The curse of God is upon you.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1971
Back to the Basic Bible Doctrine index
Back to
the Bible Questions index
|