Jeff Schreve - Tongues and the Sign Gifts - Part 2
Now, I interviewed on the radio, a dear lady, she’s 87 years old, Joanne Shetler, and she wrote the book, «And the Word Came With Power». She was a Wycliffe translator, and, when she was in her 20s, she went to part of the Philippines where they had headhunters. She went with another girl in her 20s. These two young girls go to this Balangao people that had never heard the gospel before, and they’re translating the scriptures into their language. And she said, «Now, one of the things they had, you had witch doctors there in Balangao». And, she said, «For people to become Christians, they had to see that God was more powerful than the witch doctors because they lived in fear of the witch doctors». So she said, «That was critical».
And the Lord does show Himself, in those situations, as the God who is powerful and mighty, the God who can cast out demons. And so that doesn’t mean, when we say we’re Cessationists, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t still do miracles. It just means that those miracles don’t reside inside a person. The Lord does that, and He does it as it seems fit. So it was very important, the apostolic era. Now, people today, you have the new apostles, the Kansas City apostles, these people that claim to be apostles, and you have to be suspect of that.
You say, «Okay, well, the signs of a true apostle are signs and wonders and miracles. What are you doing that would show me that you’re a true apostle? Have you seen Jesus? Well, it’s easy to say you have, but have you really»? Because He ascended to heaven; He’s sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. Don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. So that’s the second observation. In the apostolic era, the sign gifts were critical for verification. And, key observation number 3, the gift of tongues is a sign gift, it’s a sign gift. Now, we have said that overall, but that one in particular is something that confuses a lot of people. So, it is a gift that is a sign, and this is what the scripture says about it, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, he said, «Brethren, do not be children in your thinking: yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature».
Now, 1 Corinthians 14 is all about the… he’s chastising the Corinthians because they had gotten everything out of whack with spiritual gifts, and they longed for the sign gifts, the miraculous gifts, speaking in tongues. And he said, «You’re neglecting that which is way more important, which is the preaching gift, the preaching, which brings edification, exhortation, and consolation. And you’re wanting to have this other thing that doesn’t do that». So he says, «Don’t be children in you’re thinking: yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature». And then he says this, «In the Law it is written, 'By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me, ' says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers».
Very interesting because he quotes from Isaiah, and God says, «Listen, I tried to speak to you». He’s talking to the Jews. «I tried to speak to you, and you didn’t listen. So there is coming a nation, and you’re not gonna understand their language, and they are going to speak to you». He is obviously referring to the Babylonians, when they came in and they hauled off a bunch of Jews to Babylon. They did that in 605 BC, they did it again in 597 BC, and then they came in in 586 and wiped Jerusalem out, tore down Solomon’s temple, and took a whole bunch more back with them. And here they are, the Jews, who speak Hebrew, and they are listening to the Babylonians, who speak Acadian, and they don’t understand.
So, tongues in the Old Testament is associated with judgment, and it’s associated with the Jews. Now, tongues, as we read in the book of Acts, that’s when we first come in contact with somebody speaking in tongues. Tongues were known languages. Now, the people today who say they speak in tongues, I’ve never heard anybody say, «I speak in a known language. I speak in Russian. I speak in Chinese». And, in a known language that you never learned, you were just able to speak. And we read about that in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 is the day of Pentecost, that’s when God sent the Holy Spirit to not only be with us but to be inside of us. And that is the birth of the church. And so, Acts chapter 2, they are speaking in these languages, and it says, «And they were amazed», the Jews that gathered around, «and marveled, saying, 'Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? '»
If you were from Galilee, they considered you to be stupid, and, so, it’s like, wait a minute, these are bumpkins from Galilee. «'How is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? '» And then it lists all these different nation or different areas where they came from. «'We hear them in our own language speaking of the mighty deeds of God.'» And they ask the question, «What does this mean»? Tongues were known languages. That’s our first introduction to them, we knew that they were languages, they weren’t speaking gibberish because the people wouldn’t have understood that. It wasn’t a prayer language, it was a known language, a known language that they never learned, and it blew them away. «Whoa, how do you know, how do you know my Parthian language? How do you know, you know, what we spoke at home? You never learned that language».
And so it got their attention, and they asked the question, «What does this mean»? Now, tongues signaled the Word and work of God. It’s a sign, tongues are for a sign. What does the scripture say? 1 Corinthians 14, «Tongues are for a sign». Is it for believers? No, it’s for unbelievers, not for believers, but for unbelievers, to those who do not believe. Who was listening on the day of Pentecost? We had 3,000 that were saved and baptized on the day of Pentecost. So you had thousands there, they were listening. And Peter did not preach to them in tongues, he preached to them in the language they all understood, probably Aramaic, probably not preaching to them in Hebrew, he was probably preaching in Aramaic. That was the language that most of them would speak. That’s what Jesus would mostly speak is Aramaic.
And so he preached Jesus, and they responded. First, they said, because of the tongues, «What does this mean»? And then they said, «Brethren, what shall we do»? That’s when Peter said, «Repent, let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and get right with Him, and make a decision for Christ». And they did, and 3,000 were baptized that day. So tongues signaled the Word and the work of God. Now, when you read in the book of Acts, you’ll find that pattern, Acts 1:8, «But you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth».
So where does the gospel go? First, it’s in Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. And then you have Acts chapter 8. Philip, one of the seven deacons in Acts chapter 6, he goes to Samaria. Samaria is the home of the Jewish half-breeds, half Jew, half Gentile. Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, why? 'Cause they are half-breeds, they have cooties, and so they don’t want to mess with them, they don’t talk to them. They wouldn’t even walk through, you know, Galilee is up here, Jerusalem’s down here, Samaria is here. And, when they would go from Jerusalem to Galilee or Galilee to Jerusalem, they wouldn’t go in a straight line. They would go east so they didn’t even have to walk in the land of the Samaritans. They couldn’t stand those people.
Well, the gospel comes to the Samaritans, and Philip is doing great work, and people are getting saved, but the Holy Spirit hadn’t fallen on any one of them. Why? Because the apostles weren’t there, Philip’s not an apostle. So they call for Peter and John to come and authenticate, «You guys pray, and you authenticate the fact that the Holy Spirit has come to the Samaritans, which we hate those people, has come to the Samaritans, just like it came to the Jews,» in Acts chapter 2. That’s why they had to be there. And then, what happens in Acts chapter 10? You have Cornelius, who is a Gentile, and what happens with him? Well, he responds, his heart is open, he’s seeking the Lord, and the Lord sends Peter to him.
And, before the Lord sends Peter to him, remember, He gives him this vision of a sheet with all these unclean animals, and he says, «Arise, Peter, kill and eat». He said, «No way, Lord, I’ll never do that. I’m not gonna eat that stuff». He said, «What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy». And so God used that vision to help him see that I could go to the house of Cornelius and preach the gospel to him. And he does, and, while he’s preaching the gospel, Cornelius and his household believe, and they receive the Holy Spirit, and they begin to speak languages, known languages, and the people with Peter are blown away. «How can this be that God would give them the gift of the Holy Spirit? They’re Gentiles. And, if you think we don’t like Samaritans, you really need to see what we think about Gentiles, they’re Gentile dogs».
And now all of a sudden, the gospel is going Jerusalem; Judea; Samaria, the half-breeds; to the remotest parts of the world, the Gentiles. And what happens? They receive the Holy Spirit, and you hear them speak in tongues, known languages. And then the last time we hear about tongues is Acts 19, and, in Act 19, you have Jewish Old Testament believers that didn’t hear, they were just baptized in the baptism of John. And they say, «Well, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed»? They said, «We didn’t even know there was a Holy Spirit». And so they explain to them, and they pray for them, and they also receive the Holy Spirit, and they speak in known languages. And then you don’t hear any more about it until 1 Corinthians.
And, so, tongues signaled the Word and work of God. Now, what about for today? Tongues are not something to seek, something to manipulate, or something to expect. He clearly says, «All do not speak in tongues,» do they? But how many times have you seen, maybe on YouTube or maybe personally been in a service, where somebody says, «If you’re really gonna receive the Holy Spirit, you’re gonna speak in tongues». And I have not yet met a person who makes the claim that they speak in known languages that they never learned.
Now, this is very interesting. In the history of Charismatic existence, you know, you have the history of the church. And so the apostles die out with John, he’s the last living apostle, he dies at the end of the first century. And, so, many Cessationists believe, as I believe, that the apostolic era died with John. He was the last of the apostles. Now, the early church believed that until about 1900. There was no dispute about that. And, so, the apostolic gifts, the signs and the wonders and the miracles and the tongues and the interpretation of tongues, that all died out with the apostles. But there was a man named Charles Fox Parham. Charles Fox Parham was born in 1873, and he founded Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, and he was gonna train holiness missionaries. And he told his students that they needed to pray for the gift of tongues and pray for signs and wonders and miracles, that kind of thing.
And so they prayed and prayed and prayed, and they knew, back in that time period, that tongues were languages, known languages. And so, these people, and this one particular lady, Ozman, Miss Ozman, she began to say some things, and it sounded weird, and Charles Fox Parham says, «You’re speaking Chinese». And then she wrote some things down, he said, «You’re writing Chinese». She said, «I don’t know Chinese». He goes, «You have the gift of tongues, and you can speak Chinese». Well, they had some people check it out that knew Chinese, and they said, «That’s not Chinese». You know, I mean, it’s pretty easy to tell, if somebody says you’re speaking Chinese, well, you get the Chinese speaker in there, and it’s like, «Uh, I don’t know what that is, it’s not Chinese».
Well, he so convinced the students that they spoke Chinese, «Forget what anyone else is telling you. You speak Chinese, and we’re gonna send you as missionaries to China». And they did, this is the early 1900s, and they did. And these people sold everything to go to China because they were told they had the gift of speaking in tongues, known languages, and the known language they could speak, unknown to them, but was Chinese. So they get to China, and they start speaking, and the Chinese are like, «Huh, I don’t know what you’re saying»? And then they were ripped potato chip because they’re like, «Okay, I can’t communicate with these people at all». And so they had to go to the Christian missionaries that were there, that did something crazy, in that they learned how to speak Chinese, they went to school, to learn the Hudson Taylors of the world. And so they had to go to them and said, «Help, we can’t do anything here».
And here was the terrible truth of that. Those people, many of them were destitute there in China, they couldn’t get back, and they had put all their eggs in this Charles Parham basket and were let down. And, many of them said, «Well, forget this, if this is what Christianity is, I don’t want any part of it». But here’s the thing: Charles Fox Parham knew that tongues had to be a known language, in the early 1900s. So there was a shift that took place. And, if you talk to people today who say they speak in tongues, they will not tell you they speak in known languages. They will say, «Well, I’m not a Cessationist, I’m a Continuationist». It’s like, «Well, where’s the continuation of known languages, where you can speak that without knowing it»? «Oh, we don’t do that. We speak in a prayer language. We speak in a heavenly language. As Paul said, 'If I speak with the tongues of men and angels.' And so I speak an angelic language».
Well, that’s not what they did in Acts chapter 2. And, this thing I heard John Piper who’s very open to this, but he’ll tell you, «I don’t speak in tongues, but I would like to». And in an interview, he said, «I prayed and I asked God», he used this terminology, he asked, «I said, I asked God, 'God, would You give me this toy? '» And I heard that, and I was like, «Whoa, that’s not what spiritual gifts are, they’re not toys». But he wanted that. Now, John Piper is a godly guy, and no doubt what was motivating him was, «Lord, if there’s something that would draw me closer to You, would you please give me that»? So I have tremendous respect for him. But this idea, you know, Jesus said, «An evil and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given it».
They would follow Jesus by the thousands to see the miracles, to participate in the miracles, to receive a miracle. The biggest miracle that He ever did, in terms of numbers of people, was recorded in John chapter 6, and that’s when He fed the 5,000-plus women and children, 5,000 men, probably 20,000 people, with a little kid’s lunch, five loaves and two fish. So, those people, not only did they get a front row seat, they got to eat of the miracle, they got to experience the miracle. You say, «Well, man, did all those people come to Christ and come to salvation»? No; in the same chapter, as Jesus begins to preach a hard truth, He said, «You seek after Me, not because of the truth but because you had your belly filled, and now you’re coming for breakfast, and you want Me to feed you, and you wanna make Me Messiah so you can do nothing, and I can just always provide food for you».
And He said, «Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you will not have life in you». And he was speaking spiritually, but they didn’t understand. They said, «This guy, I mean, what, does He want us to be cannibals? We’re not gonna be cannibals». And they quit following Him, and they said, «These are difficult statements. Who can follow this»? And they ceased to follow Him. So, in the same chapter that He performs this huge miracle, and they participated in it, they desert Him. I like what Adrian Rogers said, «Believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus».
Listen, we don’t go seeking after signs and seeking after miracles and seeking after some experience. We seek the Lord in His Word. We pray, and we use His Word, and we’re not to seek a gift like tongues. Tongues are the least of the gifts, as Paul says in chapter 14. He says, in 14, verse 1, «Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. But one who’s prophesied speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself», that’s not what tongues are for, that’s not what gifts are for, «edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church».
Well, spiritual gifts are given for the edification of the common good. So don’t seek that, and don’t manipulate that. I’ll close with this. So, I was listening to a conversation that John MacArthur had, you know, he had the Strange Fire conference. He wrote the book called «Charismatics» and then «Charismatic Chaos» and then «Strange Fire». He got a lot of flak for that because, in the Charismatic community, if you call them out on some of the craziness, they don’t like that, they say, «Well, you’re blaspheming the Holy Spirit». But we have to be discerning. We have to be able to call people out. Anyway, he was talking about, he got invited by a big gathering of Charismatic men, and they were having this big conference, he got invited to speak.
Well, if you know anything about John MacArthur, John MacArthur is a Cessationist. Those gifts have ceased, tongues has ceased. Well, they invite him to speak, and he said, «That’s strange that those guys would invite me». He didn’t understand, but he said, «Okay, I’ll come if you want me to come». Well, what someone had told the organizers of the meeting is, «John MacArthur has received the Holy Spirit, and he now speaks in tongues». They said, «Oh, that’s great. He can share his testimony». Well, that wasn’t true, John MacArthur had received the Spirit, but not in the way that they say, and didn’t speak in tongues. And so he came, and he gets up, and he opens his Bible, and he starts to preach, and he said he was 10 minutes in, and the guy grabs his coat and yanks him off the platform and says, «You’re done». And he said, «Well, I wasn’t finished». He goes, «Oh, no, you’re finished».
They didn’t want to hear what he had to say. And so he said, «Okay,» you know, I mean, he didn’t want to make a scene. But he talked to the guy that was organizing the whole thing, and he said to him, «Hey, can I ask you a question»? He said, «Do you have…» He said, «What is your hope of heaven? I mean, what is gonna happen when you die? Do you have assurance that you’re going to go to heaven»? And the guy said, «Well,» he said, «it’s kind of like this». He said, «It’s kind of like there’s a long staircase, and at the very top there’s a door, and a man stands at the door, and you just hope at the end that he lets you in». And John said, «This is the guy that’s putting on the whole event. He doesn’t know anything about the gospel. He doesn’t know anything about salvation».
He said he went on a radio program with a very well-known female radio announcer that was a charismatic lady, and he asked her at the break, he said, «Hey, tell me how you came to know Christ». And she said, «Well, I got God’s phone number one day, and we’ve been talking ever since». He said, «What does that mean»? She said, «What do you mean, what does that mean»? She said, «How did you become a Christian»?
So he shared the gospel with her, and she said, «Oh, you don’t have to do all that». Hey, here’s the big danger when you go whole hog on these sign gifts is you miss out on what it’s all about. It’s all about knowing Jesus, it’s all about repentance and faith. It’s not about seeking a sign and having your emotions stirred. It’s about giving your life to Jesus Christ who died and rose again for you and sharing that with the world. That is what saves.
Now, listen, no doubt, the Charismatic movement in the 1906 was really the day, the Azusa Street Revival by a disciple of Charles Fox Parham, William Seymour, that took place, no doubt, that took root because so many churches had dead orthodoxy. There was no life, they were just going through the motions. Listen, we don’t need emotionalism, but if you’re in love with Jesus, there should be a passion there. And, the problem in the church is, many of us, we have left our first love, and we need to get back to Jesus and Jesus only and lift Him up and love Him and serve Him and let His life flow through us. We don’t seek after a sign, we seek after the Savior. And, when we’re right with the Savior, we’ll see Him do great and mighty things in us and through us because it’s all to His glory.