Expounds on the Holy Spirit's outpouring at Pentecost, as described in Acts 2, emphasizing that this event was a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy and a sign of God's power and presence. It details the reactions of the crowd—confusion, curiosity, criticism, and concern—and contrasts these with the conversion of those who received the word. The message clarifies that the initial outpouring was primarily for Jews and proselytes, setting the stage for the gospel's spread to Gentiles, and highlights the temporary nature of sign gifts like speaking in tongues, which were meant to confirm the Word before the full canon of Scripture was available.
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and verse one, Acts two, and verse one. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were compounded. because that every man heard them speak in his own language. They were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia.
and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, about Sardinia, and strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes, Crete, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another, What mean of this? Others mocking said these men, are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judah, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words.
For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and paper of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call, and the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now we'll be continuing our studies, Lord Willing, next Sunday night. When you see something in the Bible, it's always wise to look at the context or the chapter in which that verse is found. Then it's a good thing to examine the whole book, where you find that subject in that chapter. Look at the whole book.
Then again, Look at that subject in the light of the whole Bible, and if you do that, there's hardly any possibility of your going astray. We've gone through this passage time and time and time again over the last few or four weeks with a fine comb trying to find every bit of truth we could, and I trust that some help to you has been a blessing to my own soul. We didn't give you the outline this morning. It was in the paper, but I didn't mention it distinctly, although those points were covered, such as they were confounded when they saw this mighty display of the power of God.
They were confounded, and that could also mean confused. They had never seen anything like this before. And quite often you have people come to your meetings, and they hear the old-fashioned gospel. and they are kind of confused because they say, I hadn't heard this before. They were brought up possibly in ritual and tradition, believing their good life or their good works would take them to heaven. And then when they heard a plain old-fashioned gospel of the grace of God, they are kind of confused. I can't understand. I wasn't brought up this way. This is new to me.
Well, it's a wonderful discovery. when that is exactly the case. Then we have the second point, the curious. Why, they said, what mean of this? They were curious about what had happened. Then there are those who were critical. They said, why, these men were full of new wine or drunk. Don't pay any attention to them. Then there were those who were concerned. What mean of this? What's the real cause of this? What's the understanding? What's the explanation? They were concerned. And then you have they were converted. They that gladly received his word. Now this morning we touched on one or two points, but I'm going to go over again tonight because I think it's necessary and it's in line with the truth that we want to present.
In other words, we want to speak on the book in which that chapter, where we have the most said about the tongues in the entire Bible, chapter fourteen of first Corinthians. Now let us look at the book of Corinthians. Next Sunday night, God willing, we'll speak on that one chapter trying to give a word-by-word analysis or verse-by-verse analysis of that one chapter. We trust you be present. I'm pointing out this morning the fact that about the first seven years of the church's history were practically Jewish.
We do not have any evidence of a Gentile being saved. They were practically all Jews. And all you have to do is see at the top of your Bible the chronology where you find the day of Pentecost and then, I think it is AD, And you find that in tenth of Acts, it was a Gentile who received the gospel, A.D. thirty-nine or forty. And some may bring up the point, well, what about the Samaritans? Well, the Samaritans who were reached for the gospel in chapter eight were a cross of Jew and Gentile, and they were called the Samaritans.
Then you have the unity, the Ethiopian unity, He was a proselyte to Judaism. He was an Ethiopian, so he was not a Jew. And so we have the first seven years of church history taken up primarily with Jews, to such an extent that some Bible scholars have said they believe there's a Jewish church and there is a Gentile church. I don't believe it because in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond or faith. In other words, the reason you find... the Gospel going to the Jews for the first seven years, fulfilling their scripture to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles.
And so in the opening chapters of the Acts of the Chapter Ten, you find the Gospel going onto the Jews. Then when Chapter Ten comes along, Cornelius is saved. You see the gospel starting out to the Gentiles, and as Peter, the apostle to the Jews, passes out of a picture. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, comes in and takes up the latter part, the major part of the book called the Acts. Now you can think of a lot of thoughts here. In chapter one and verse two, you'll notice it's to the apostles, the apostles.
Then in verse fifteen of chapter one, you find the hundred and twenty in the upper room. Now they're all Jews. The apostles were Jews. The hundred and twenty in the upper room were Jews. And in verse six, only Jews would ask the king or the Christian, what does this mean? Why, you couldn't, in other words, expect a Gentile in those days to understand the prophecy of Job and the references made to the patriarch David. But if you would understand these things, only Jews would ask, will thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
Well, that's what you find in verse six of chapter one. Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? They were still, even after the resurrection of Christ, they were still looking for the establishment of Christ's kingdom here upon the earth. They were so steeped in Judaism. And yet now they have discovered Christianity, but they tried to mingle the two and thought that God was even yet going to destroy the kingdom at that time. No, that time is future. The church has come into existence, and the setting up of the kingdom has been postponed already in nineteen hundred years.
It's still in the future, and it will be at the beginning of that time that that prophecy is fulfilled about the Spirit being poured out upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters and your handmaids and all shall speak and prophesy. That's still future. We haven't had the moon darken, or the sun darken, and the moon turned to blood. on all these signs that we read about in those verses. They're still future, and yet that's the context of the tongues given on the day of Pentecost. You'll notice these verses, five to eleven, that a chapter we read, chapter two, begins with Jews and proselytes.
The rulers there are both Jews out of every nation. That list ends with Jews and proselytes. It ends with Jews and proselytes. The nations are the Jews of the dispersion. You find that in the Old Testament in many scriptures, how the Jews were dispersed throughout the whole world into almost every nation on the face of the earth. And here we have this occasion. They've come back to Jerusalem. And it's very significant here that when James writes his epistle, who does he write it to?
And now he's writing to Christians some twenty years after, or longer, after Pentecost. And this is what he's writing. He says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ of the twelve tribes which are scattered above. He's writing to those Jews who came to Jerusalem. on the very pentagons they found Christ they went back to their country and James is writing Peter the same thing in first Peter one and one feature an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius Galatia and Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia well what is the inference as you look at these sets of scripture it simply means these means this that these Jews have been in these other countries, possibly if it were since the dispersion, possibly four or five hundred years.
Having gone to that country, they took out their nationality or citizenship papers, as we say. And if they came, that part of that country, they adopted that country. And that country adopted them. But they were still Jews, not by nationality, but by religion. You've got American Jews, you've got Polish Jews, you've got Russian Jews, all kinds of Jews in the world. Meaning this, they've gone to these certain countries and they've taken out their citizenship. And they no longer are Jews by nationality, they're Jews now by religion.
And that's why we first and then choose and develop them from every nation. these nations referred to. And you take a family that went to one of these countries of the time of the dispersal. Their children were born and brought up. Others were born and brought up. The next generation, the next generation, the next generation. You have it right in America. You'll find plenty of American Jews that don't know a word about Hebrew. You ask them, What national? I'm American. I picked up a boy one time, and first thing he did when he got in my car, he was a Jewish young man.
He said, can I turn on your radio? I said, sure, great. Turn on, boy, you ought to have to look at the program he had on there. He had rock and roll and everything else. I waited for a while, and I said, well, what's your nationality, aren't you, Duke? No, he said, I'm American. I'm a Jew by religion. That's the point. And these people have been scared throughout all these nations that we read about. Now they've come back to Jerusalem. They still remembered some of those feasts. Some of them were still to a measure Orthodox, and they wanted to come back to their feast, their feast of Pentecost.
And it was when they came back to their feast of Pentecost that the Spirit of God was poured on upon the men in Jerusalem. Because it was definitely the men you find that, as we'll notice in our text, they were nationalized citizens of these countries. On up all these that speak Galilee in Jewry. Well, you say if they came from Galilee, All these that are speaking in tongues, are not all these that speak in tongues, Galilean? Well, Galilean was the Gentile province. Judea was the Jewish province.
But when you think, and when I read that, I thought, well, that's strange, isn't it? Are not all these Galileans? What about the group that went out, just about the same group that went out to Mount Oliver, then the Lord Jesus went up into heaven? And the angels up there and said, Ye men of Galilee, what time ye gave nothing to them? They were Jews. And so here's the same truth. Ye men of Galilee, are not all these that speak in tongues. Galilee and Jews from that area. And only Jews would know and listen to these Old Testament prophecies concerning Joel.
and concerning the patriarch David. Notice some of the language further in these chapters. Ye men of Israel, in chapter two and verse twenty-two. Ye men of Israel, he's not speaking to any Gentile. Also verse fourteen, ye are taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain, and verse twenty-three. On that verse fourteen in chapter one. chapter two, verse fourteen in chapter two. But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, that all ye that dwell at Jerusalem be this known unto you and hark unto my voice.
He's speaking to the men of Judea. Then again he speaks of Verse twenty-nine, Men and brethren, I speak unto you of the patriarch David. He's talking still to Jews. And also in verses thirty-six and thirty-seven, let all our hosts of Israel know. Well, they're Jews. They're not Gentiles. And then you find verse forty-six after they were saved, they were in the temple right here in verse forty-six of chapter two. Well, you see, what significance is that? Well, as I read it, I immediately thought of what you've got in Acts twenty-one, when they caught the Apostle Paul in the temple.
And it was a great uproar because they accused Paul of bringing Greece, Gentiles, into the temple. That was the cause of the uproar. At that time, no Gentiles were allowed in the temple. But here you find them in chapter two, and within the temple. Say, Jews now. They're not practicing Judaism. They're saints. Now they're in the temple. And no Gentile would have been allowed in that temple. Even then, it would have caused an uproar from those on the outside who were Jews, but not converted as yet. So you have these various references. And also you have Peter, the apostle to the Jews, the apostle to the circumcision.
And you also have a philip. He was the messenger of God to the Samaritans in chapter eight. Then you have Paul, saved in chapter nine. Peter opens the door of the Gentiles in chapter ten, as we've already said. But we're told that just as God raised up Peter to be the apostle to the circumcises in which was to the Jews, he raised up Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles, the uncircumcised. These two men have their spheres of service. Peter's sphere, the opening chapter of the Acts, among the Jews. Paul's sphere, his sphere was among the Gentiles, and he was patient with them until the last chapter when his patience got the better of them.
He says, I will, I'm going to turn to the Gentiles. I've given you Jews after he met with them in Rome. I've got to talk with them. And so he finally... turn from the Jews and gave themselves almost full heartily unto the Gentiles. So we have these references, making it plain that they were Jews. I said a while ago, old in them, well, I'd like to prove everything from Scripture. Notice verses seven and eight and verse twelve. verses seven and eight.
And they were all amazed and marvels, saying, run to another. Behold, I'll not all these which speak Galileans. And how dearly every man in their own tongue were in when we were born. Verse thirteen, others mocking said, These men are full of new one. There's no reference here to a woman. or even a young man, these men, mature men. And thus we know it's not that the criminal of what you've got in Joel about on my handmaiden, and my daughters have I poured out of my church. The reference here is to the men on the day of Pentecost who were speaking in tongues and thus giving the gospel, the new message of the gospel, to all those nationalities.
who are there test. Your daughters, he says, and your handmaidens are now poured out upon all flesh. In verses seventeen, eighteen, refer to it. I've already mentioned that the period after the church is gone. Now here's the text. I've quoted once before. Acts fifteen, four, sixteen, fourteen and sixty. After the taking out of the church, the Lord will restore the kingdoms of David. to Israel, and then will come world revival and conversions, as plainly stated. Now I'm going to read it to you. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.
Now that's this present age, taking out of the Gentiles a people for his name. And to this degree the words of the prophets, as it is written, after this, that is after the church age, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which has fallen down, and I will build again the rules that are off, and I will set it up. And notice the next word. And the residue. What does residue mean? The residue means something that remains after something or a part has been taken out, a quantity, a number has been taken out. And what's left is the lesson.
You have God visiting the Gentiles and taking out of them a people for his name. And what's left? That the residue of men might seek after the Lord. And all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, say to the Lord, who doeth all these things. You want anything any plainer than that? That's what your Bible says. here we find the order of events and the time of the pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh when men and women, young men and young women also will be witnessing it will be a time of pleasure, a time of rejoicing at the beginning of the millennium.
So I trust that has helped the situation in your mind. All the tongues spoken here at Pentecost were evidently represented. Some people have gotten the idea, and I sat down, and I thought this thing through time and time again recently, trying to picture the day of Pentecost. I must admit that I entertained some of these thoughts here in my lifetime for a while, so up till now. Some people think here this great mass of people, probably a few millions, who have come from Pentecost, from all around these various nations. And all of a sudden there was a big outburst of excitement. Here was a man preaching, and he was preaching one time.
Over here, fifteen or twenty feet, another man preaching another time. But over here, what confusion? What confusion? God is not the author of confusion. Well, I thought, how could this have come about? And the idea I received and I think, It's logical and sensible. Supposing a thousand people, Americans, were going to a great convocation. And you were going under you with others to this convocation. And when you got there, right here there are a group, a thousand Polish people.
Over here, another thousand of Chinese. Over here a thousand of Russians. Over here a thousand of Japanese. And there you have seventeen thousand people. All of a sudden, seventeen thousand. One thousand out of each group. Where would you be? Would you be in the midst of the Chinese group? would you be in the midst of the Russian group? No, you wouldn't. You'd be staying with that group that speak your language, the English.
That's where you'd be. You'd find the English together. You'd find the Chinese together. You'd find the French together. And so on. And as far as I can see to make sense, with the rest of the Bible, that God is now the author of confusion, let everything be done decent and order, one of the apostles, must have been very close to that. Each group, a gift from the one of the apostles, and some of those hundred and twenty would be near that group. And the one would have the gift of the Russian language, and he would be speaking nothing. The other would have the gift of the French language to use modern names that were created with, and he would speak in the French language.
And in that way it would be known to be that thousand would hear the gospel in their language by a man was led by the Spirit to use that language. And each seventeen thousand, each one in the seventeen thousand would hear the gospel in their language. I don't think it was a language used on the day of Pentecost that there wasn't a representation of that language there. The gift of the Holy Spirit came upon men to speak a language They're paralogians. Otherwise, there would have been a lot of domination, non-intelligent, confusion.
That's the only way you can, as I see, explain the situation. There'd be there in their group the seventeen nations mentioned here in Acts chapter two. And they said, Will you all hear a man speak in our own language? wonderful works of God, and a Galilee. Galilee. What a wonderful thing. Well, that's what you have here in this chapter, and I trust it will be of help to you to look at it in that life, for I believe that's exactly how it happens. Normally, into this book of Corinth, give the background a bit.
In the word of God you have foundation, signs, or gifts which are permanent. They're the foundation. They are in the foundation, the apostles and prophets. The Bible tells you that. Christ has built his church upon the apostles and prophets. He himself is the chief cornerstone, and in the foundation of the church are apostles and prophets. Now there they administer his plans. Then comes evangelists, pastors, teachers.
Let you get that in Ephesians. Here he has a superstructure of the church, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. These are the permanent gifts from the beginning of the church until now. We don't have the prophets and the prophets today. We have evangelists, pastors, teachers. The evangelist goes out with the gospel. He wins souls to Christ. The pastor and the teacher wouldn't have anything to do were it not to the evangelist. The evangelist... When sold, the pastor, pastors were sold, and the teacher, teachers were sold.
The evangelist, he deals primarily with the souls of men. The pastor, he has to do with the sheep, and the teacher has to do with the student. And some may have to have a little of all three, but I've yet to see the man. who didn't excel in one. I get to see the man who excelled in all three. An evangelist has to do some task for it. He has to do some teaching. Nevertheless, there are other men that can do far better teaching than the evangelist. The evangelist is the one that lays the foundation, if you will, like the Apostle Paul says.
Speaking of the church at Corinth, I have laid the foundation. In other words, I've got this church established and let every man take heed how he builds along. You build according to the foundation. For the principles that were used to establish that assembly, you fall in that trade. And Paul warns against building upon another man's foundation. Here you have these gifts, evangelists, pastors and teachers. For then there are some gifts that are only temporary taught in the New Testament.
You have the foundation gift. Then you have the permanent gifts, the evangelists, pastors and teachers. But you have some temporary gifts that didn't last long. And what are they? Sign gifts. All right. I'm going to read them to you. Mark And these signs shall follow them that believe, in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was seized up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth, preached everywhere, and the Lord working with them, confirming the word with signs following. They didn't have the Bible to them, like we have it today. Not until, as we'll see a little later on, the Scriptures were at hand and present, and people could read them. Up until then, God convinced people by signs, by miracles, by demonstrations. You know those who want the tongues.
They want the gift of tongues. Oh, boy, they can't wait to get the tongue. And they like to brag about tongues. Well, I got a little question to ask you. To live not only mention tongues in that verse, why not practice all those signs? He says, they shall cast out devils. Bring me the man who can speak in tongues and let him cast out a demon. They shall take up sermons. All right, pick up that raffle with it. Nothing to do. Why not? It says here, that's what they're supposed to do.
And if they drink any deadly thing, Give the bottle a poison. Let me see if I can go up that one down. Nothing to do. Well, what about the other one? Lay hands on the sick. He's a sick man. Let me see if he lays them up. The Lord gives us five signed gifts. Now, why is it people pick out the tongues and avoid all the rest? It's convenient. There's no harm in trying to speak in tongues. Anybody can gather like a fool. But if a man wants to show me his faith, put your hand down there, take up that round.
Take that thorn of poison, deadly poison. Swirl. Cast the demons out of that man. And heal that sick person. Very convenient, isn't it, just to extract the tongue. There's no damage, no harm, no danger, speaking tongue. But it says here that there are five temporary signs that were used in the beginning, and they're right in that verse. It acts like the forty years in the wilderness of the children of Israel, when the children of Israel went from Egypt to Canaan. And the children of Israel went from Egypt to Canaan, and like the church went during the period of Acts about the same length of time around forty-some years, they went from Judaism to Christianity.
And during that time there were signs. God says, I'm going to teach you with signs. And in it until he gave them this word. And I want you to notice, in the wilderness, the people did not have the word of God. There's no evidence that the children of Israel of two and a half million that went through the wilderness had the word of God. Until when? Until the word of God was given to Joshua on the fortieth year of the wilderness, when they were going to cross over Jordan into the land, God then gave his people.
It worked. Up until then, what had they been going by? They had been going by sight. Negative of one. The pillar of cloud guided them. The pillar of fire. The manna came down from heaven. Water flowed from the slitten rock. They had signs. And that's how they lived and were guided by God. I knew there was a living God in heaven. But when they got to the end of the wilderness, God gave them this word. And here's what you have in Joshua one and eight. This book of the law shall not be part out of thy mouth, for thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
And they didn't get that until the end of the wilderness journey. And the New Testament church didn't get the whole Bible, the New Testament until the end of the Acts. And the officials were there. Following Acts, Romans, first and second Corinthians, and so on. Up until that time, they were saying it. People today are living back. In those days, in the time of signs and miracles, when God wants to deliver the whole blaze of revealed truth has given us in the New Testament.
I don't think that takes much faith to believe, does it? That today we walk by faith, not by sin, because they didn't have the word of God then. God spoke to them in miraculous ways. Even Peter they praised Gorkas from the dead. Paul praised the young man from the dead who fell from the upper roof, fell down dead. Yes, there were miracles. Tons, and even at the end of action, the twenty-eight chapters, Paul picks up a deadly viper, casts itself on his arm, and as I look from the drop dead, he shook it up and wondered.
He got the message strong. This man's of God. This man's of God. No man doesn't have to speak tongues today or cast out demons, nor does he have to handle a snake or drink poison or heal the sick. The show is a living God. All he's got to do is quote the Bible. And God says as many of you are looking at things, if you believe in that which is written. God says, I have given my Bible and I am not going back to those signs that belonged to the early days before the church had the scripture. I have only read that one bona fide case of tongues in church history, that was a pastor's seed.
When I was saved, forty-six years ago, I heard a pastor's seed. He was way out in China. in a distant section of the state of China. And he was a godly man, and he went into an area where there were a number of different languages. And this was verified by missionaries who lived in that past, very few of them alive today. But they said that's the only real time for incidents. when it seemed that God gave a man the gift of tongues and he used two or three languages of the people that lived there.
And once they got the gospel and were able to read it in their own language, pastor she didn't have any more speaking in tongues. That's the only case on in history where it can be proven with good evidence that God has poured out the gift of a tongue or a man. Now these are facts, and I trust that you'd be wise enough to accept these facts. Now in Corinth, I don't know whether you know what Corinth was like or not. I do you well to read it. About it, all you got to do is pick up a dictionary.
We find out that Corinth was one of the most licentious cities of antiquity. The capital of Acacia. founded by Julius Caesar. Proversion, rich and profligate. It was a wicked city. Morally, but... Yes, this was Corinth. Paul visited that wicked city with the Gospel of AD. What did he preach? Do you want to know what he preached? Find it over in the fifteen chapter of the First Epistles of the Corinthians. He said, I declared unto you the gospel how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
He was buried and raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. That's the message he preached to the Corinthians. And they believed him. They accepted it. What did he do then? He established the church. And he spent eighteen months to establish that church at Corinth. Together, a group gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Apostle Paul, he could do it in eighteen months, we need about eighteen years today to do what he did in Corinth. But anyway, here's the Apostle Paul, and he establishes this church in Corinth.
The first epistle, of Corinthians was written to this church. And I want you to notice it. What was the condition of that church at Corinth? The condition of the official to the Corinthians is in four divisions. Dealing with what? First of all, dealing with the division. The fact of division. It tells you that in chapter one, verses ten through. So, the evil of that division. the cause of that division, following men. Some say, I'm Paul.
Others, I'm of Paul. Others, I'm of Peter. Others, I'm of Christ. Of the ones who says I'm of Christ were just as far wrong as the others did. They were using Christ as the head of a party, which was appalled to the other. and Christ would never be opposed to any of his children to be called after another name. He wants them to take this name and his name alone, and if they're going by another name, he has sent them as his children, but he won't recognize the name that they're going by. He's not going to foster or encourage division.
And this is the condition of God, the state of division. And there's nothing that willed up a church like the vision, the vision, strife, the vision. The next section is disorder, magnitude, discipline. A man there was living in moral sin, and they were slack in dealing with the situation. Lawsuits going to court with one another, Christian with Christian. Paul condemns that. and impurity, all the sins that were guilty of been caught. That's the second division.
The third division of that book is difficulties relative to marriage and celibacy, but also the means offered to idols, and also difficulties relative to worship and spiritual gifts in chapters twelve to fourteen. you have the insubordination of the women in chapter eleven, one to sixteen, a desecration of the Lord's supper in that same chapter, the improper use of spiritual gifts. And he takes up three chapters, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen.
It will be in chapter fourteen next week, Lord William. Then the fourth division was division. It was connected with doctrine. The first division... the second disorders, the third difficulties, the fourth doctrine relative to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and our resurrection. That was quite a difficulty there out there. But here they were all based on this subject. And then in that last chapter, the sixteenth chapter, negligence as to church funds. Can you imagine all that? being true of a church, that was true of the church at court.
It's hard to believe this to be true of a church that if you turn to chapter one of First Corinthians, you'll find out that this church, God says you're sanctified. He says you're called saints. He says in everything you're enriched in Christ. He says you're waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says you're going to be unreprovable in a sight. You're called unto the fellowship of Jesus Christ. My, how that group of people involved had been saved and elevated in such a high place.
Now look at them. Only a few years after. From those heights they went down the terrible depths. The depths of worldliness, deline, demorality, and pride. He says, you're part of them. They came behind in no gift as to speaking. Yet he says, you're part of them. You'll tolerate demorality. You'll tolerate these other things. Your knowledge is the knowledge that half of us is the Apostle. It is not the knowledge that any of us. And this is the state of affairs there.
But also, as I've already mentioned, the condoning of sin, the abuse of the Lord's Supper, getting drunk at the Lord's Supper, drinking too much of the communion wine, and the abuse and misuse of public fun. Could you even think of a church falling from such heights presented in chapter one to the depths of what follows in the first epistle to the Corinthians? Well, that's what's at death. And I want to say this without any fear of contradiction. Here the church of also questioned the apostleship with the apostle Paul and sought to reject his authority.
We don't have to listen to you, Paul. How do we know you're genuine, genuine? Paul said, I'll give you the evidence of my apostleship. How did you get saved? Who brought you the gospel? And he says, when I come unto you, I come, and I'm not going to listen to the word very easy and plentiful. I'll not listen for speech. I'll feel the power. I am not in the power of them that are leading this revolt against my authority. That's what he was going to be judged by, determined by, or convinced by, that these men had gone with them, and they didn't.
They weren't in the speaking of the power of the Spirit or the guidance of the Spirit. They were in a vast, slim condition. And when a person is in a facts-written condition, no matter how fluent he may be on the platform, there's no virtuous preaching. It's flat on empty. Words only. Words only. It's the power that counts. Now here is this church, this black, back-written church. And I want to tell you something else, Starley. It's the only church in the New Testament that has any reference. or use of tongues. You can go through your Bible.
I picked out my commentary and I looked up every reference in the New Testament where a tongue is used. There's not a mention of the Church of Rome using tongues or the Church of Galatia, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Hebrews. No mention of tongues. No use of tongues. Paul's letter to Timothy and Titus, the pastoralian letters, Paul mentions nothing about tongues. Nothing said about them. Then you have Titus, the epistle of Titus.
Titus says nothing, and he labored much in Crete. He says nothing about tongues, and the churches of Crete. had a church in his own house, and Paul makes a letter to Philemon, no mention of Christ. The first and second official of Peter, no mention of Christ. First, second, and third John, no mention of Christ. The spiritual, worldly, fruitful assembly. No mention of Christ. Where is John with you? Or where were they at you? God, Paul didn't write the poem encouraging them to speak in tongues.
He wrote them to control and to reduce their use of tongues. So tongues don't have a very prominent place in the New Testament. A backslidden, calm, baby church that he says you're a bunch of babies when you have to be men. You're a bunch of babies, all they want is nothing. They're immature. Yes, they were calm, immature, worldly, proud. What a group.
Well, that's true of this church. And that's the church, this back-student church. We were all excited about coming. You see, John. That's what they want. Yes, people can be unsaved and want the gift of tongues. People can be away from God, one who speaks and shun. But I tell you, you're not going to be away from God and drink a bottle of poison. God give him more sex than that. You're not going to be away from God and pick up a rattlesnake. I'll tell you, I want the walk right there and them to sleep between me and that right-of-way.
Well, I'm going to pick it up. It's easy to want. Tell me. Put on a display. We'll have a lot more to say about this next Sunday night going on. So you have this church, according to the only place we read about tongues being used and there were being abused at this church. You know, you don't read once in your Bible about the Lord Jesus speaking in tongues. You don't read once in the Bible about the twelve apostles until the day of Pentecost. You don't read once in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about Christ or any of the apostles using or speaking in tongues.
Not once. Christ speaks the simple, plainest language in the language of the people. for he spoke to Jews. And when a sight of an Eastern woman came to him for a blessing, he said, I am not sent, but unto the law of the feet of the heights of Israel. Christ spoke to the Hebrew language, to the Hebrew. He had no incident. He spoke any other language. And so I trust tonight that you listen to this simple language, or the Son of God, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy labor, and I will give you this.
Him that cometh unto me, I will know why is cast out. He that heareth my word and believeeth on him that set me half everlasting life and fell not from the condemnation that is passed from death unto life. God willing next Sunday night to take up that one chapter in court. and seek to analyze it and just see what they were doing with the use and abuse of tongue. And anybody tells you they can speak in tongue, hunt up a rattlesnake, get a bottle of poison, okay. You want to do something that has no danger associated with it.
You've got to weigh a lot of nonsense, you don't know yourself, what they're saying even as anybody else. And there's one word of not the foundation of from all this tongue movement. That is one word, interpreter. God says you're not the youth, unless there's an interpreter there to tell you the long to tell the people the language you're speaking and what you're saying. I've yet to find a church who believes in tongues and practices to come up with an interpreter. I'm never going to cross it. These are plain truth. If you don't want to get singed or scorched, just don't come back next Sunday night.
Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy good. We thank thee for the simplicity of the gospel found in Jesus Christ. Father, we thank thee He had the gospel brought to us in our own tongue, in our own language, something we could read. We do not need the miracles to use in the New Testament to prove there's a living God. You see the miracles in lives changed by the grace of God. Many of them are saved from lives of sin.
It's that singing on the way to heaven. Thank you for thy word. Oh, God, blessed you. If any here unsaved, may be realized, there's no confusion associated with the gospel of thy grace. It's simply presented in Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that this world, believer in him, should not perish, but have over lasting life. Blessed thy word, that one and all receive our thanks in our Savior's name. Amen. Shall we sing two nine-nines, two hundred and ninety-nine.
Jesus shall reign where the sun doth his successive journey from. His kingdom spread from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more. The last verse, people and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song. And infant voices shall proclaim. There are early blessings on his name, so we stand and sing the first and last of his name.