Sermon Tone Analysis

In the New Testament era, the true gift of tongues was the ability to speak a language which was unknown to the speaker but known to someone present.

God had a very definite purpose in it, which we’ll see later on in this message, but in the Corinthian assembly, they had taken the true gift and had twisted it for an untrue use.

They also had added a counterfeit gift to the true gift.

It was common in the pagan mystery religions of that day for the people to believe that they could enter into a state of frenzy or ecstasy.

Consequently, they believed they could slip out of their body and commune on another level with a deity.

And when they did that, they would speak to that deity in an unknown language; they would literally be talking the language of the gods.

They believed that this ecstatic, self-edifying, supernatural phenomenon was a great act of devotion toward that god.

As was the case of the Corinthian church all the way through the book, every part of the world’s system that they knew had come into the church.

This area was no different.

So basically, what we have in chapter 14 is Paul saying to them, “Number one, “grow up, its not about you” you are misusing the true gift, and two, you have brought in this counterfeit thing and doubly confused the issue.”

They were actually believing that the gift of tongues was speaking in ecstatic speech, ecstatic babel, gibberish, or whatever term you want to use.

They were supposedly communing with God in a private prayer language.

So, the Apostle Paul writes this chapter, number one, to dispel the idea that the true gift is that kind of ecstatic gibberish.

Number two, he wrote to make sure that when the true gift was exercised, it was exercised properly in the right context to accomplish the right purpose.

1 Corinthians 14 is a very urgent chapter for us today because Charismatics are telling us all the time that it is necessary for us to have this experience in order to realize the full manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the full expression of His power in our lives.

They’re loudly crying out to us to have this experience, so we need to understand exactly what Paul is saying here.

The Corinthian church, then, had taken the true gift and twisted its use.

They had added to it a counterfeit gift, which just confused everything all the more.

So Paul writes this chapter as a corrective, as he has the 13 prior chapters.

The first 20 verses of this chapter deal with the position of tongues as compared to love and prophesy.

Today, we will notice the purpose of the gift of languages, or tongues, is as a sign.

Now, this is an exceedingly vital area of study, because if we can once and for all determine the purpose of the gift, then we will be very easy to evaluate what’s going on today, or at any time in history, relative to this gift.

It either fits the biblical purpose or it does not.

Consequently, we can determine whether it’s legitimate or not.

Now let me begin by reiterating what is often offered as the purpose of tongues, particularly today among our brothers and sisters in Pentecostal and Charismatic fellowships.

They tell us that the purpose of tongues is primarily for personal edification and devotion.

In other words, they say that it is to be used as a private prayer language because it builds you up and allows you to have devotions with God in a supernatural way, communicating in a language that is your own private language with God.

We saw from our last study that that was exactly what the pagans thought about their ecstatic speech: that it was a private, self-building act of devotion to a god.

That is precisely what Paul is denying insofar as the true gift is concerned.

In a sense, he indicts them for that.

Speaking in tongues is a new way to have your devotions, a new way to edify yourself, a new way to build yourself up, a new way for you to have communion with God and experience something deeper and more meaningful than you could in any other manner.

Because of the singular use of tongue in chapter 14, I believe Paul is referring to this ecstatic language.

Whenever we see the plural, tongues, we are referring to languages, the real spiritual gift.

All gifts are to be used to edify one another.

No where is it taught that gifts is for our own edification.

1 Corinthians 14:2 (KJV 1900)

2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

I believe this is why the KJV supplies the unknown before tongue because of its singular nature.

The translators do not add this word when tongues is plural.

1 Corinthians 14:4 (KJV 1900)

4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

In other words, it’s a bad, self, ego-building edifying.

“He that prays this way is just building himself up,” is what Paul is saying, and that’s wrong.

Because no gift is ever designed with the intention of selfish use.

My gifts are for you, that’s the point.

Why is unfruitful?

Because

You are totally ignoring the people around you, you are selfish, your own mind is unfruitful, the people around you can’t say, ‘Amen.’

As a result,

1 Corinthians 14:19 (KJV 1900)

19 Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

So he has already dealt in great detail with the fact that tongues were never intended for the purpose of edification.

I showed you last time that tongues can’t edify the church in any way because the members don’t understand what’s being said.

And even when they are interpreted, it is the gift of interpretation that edifies, not the gift of tongues.

Further, tongues can’t edify an individual because his mind is unfruitful.

It can’t edify the church, because no one knows what is being said.

If someone is there who speaks that language, and it had its intended use and purpose, it would have to be translated so that it wouldn’t be unedifying, so that the church would gain some benefit.

But then again, it would be the gift of interpretation, not tongues, which edifies.

1 Corinthians 13:8 (KJV 1900)

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

If it’s such a great way to praise, and praise is the very character of Heaven, why would this cease?

Paul says their handling of the gift

Experience is trumping Intelligence.

Much like today.

We are seeing this anti-intellectualism sweeping our nation allowing emotionalism to super cede intellect.

“BUT IT FEELS RIGHT”.

Paul says, “Stop being children and treating people unkindly, and start thinking like adults.”

After having said that and calling them to attention, Paul gives the purpose of tongues.

If we can decide what this is, it would really solve our problems.

1 Corinthians 14:21–22 (KJV 1900)

21 In the law it is written, 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.

22 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 which believe.

Now if you never learn anything else about tongues, you can be sure about one thing: tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe.

You know that.

That statement alone is the heart of this chapter.

That statement, in and of itself, should call any current so-called tongues to task, to deal with the reality of that statement.

It couldn’t be any more simple.

“It is to them that believe not.”

Now basically, the purpose of tongues as a sign is threefold.

Sign of Cursing

“In the law” can refer to the Pentateuch (1st 5 books, written by Moses) or the entire Old Testament.

Here, it refers to the Old Testament because Paul quotes Isaiah 28:11-12:

Then, having stated that Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah to Israel, Paul applies it.

“Therefore,” he says.

“If that was true then, if that was the use in the time of Isaiah, then therefore tongues are,” not were, but still are, “For a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.”

So, Paul draws a conclusion from the Old Testament text.

The conclusion is that tongues are not for believing people, they are for unbelieving people.

Notice this.

It says in verse 22, “Tongues are for a sign.”

Notice the three little words ‘for a sign.’

In the Greek, that’s hoste and hoste indicates purpose unto.

The word is not saying that incidentally they are a sign, it is saying that tongues’ purpose is as a sign to unbelievers.

It is not an incidental thing.

That particular expression ‘for a sign’ appears 10 times in the Greek Old Testament, and every time, it means ‘purpose.’

So the purpose of tongues is for a sign to unbelievers.

What unbelievers?

Well, the phrase ‘this people’ in verse 21 is referring to Israel, so tongues are specifically a sign to unbelieving Israel.

That is carried right into the Corinthian situation.

Now, let me give you a little bit of background.

In Isaiah 28, we find ourselves in the southern kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Hezekiah.