Amen. Well, if you have your Bible tonight, go to 2 Peter chapter number 1. 2 Peter chapter number 1. And I didn't think I was going to be back in time. I told Brother Travis to be ready. And where are you sitting at, Brother Travis? Wave at me. There you are. And I want to say this. I appreciate him being ready to preach. I appreciate all the men that I asked to be ready to preach and be able to fill in that gap. And if you're not a preacher, I'll just tell you, you don't know the pressure that gets put on you when someone asks you to preach, especially when there's very little notice. But I appreciate them being willing to fill in the gap. I pulled in the parking lot about 10 minutes ago and a full parking lot on a Wednesday night. And he said, Preacher, it don't look like it in here. Well, listen, this ain't everything that's happening on the property tonight. There's tons of stuff that's going on the back. But I pulled in, and the parking lot was full, and people was in here praying. And it's a wonderful sight to see on a Wednesday night. I'll tell you, you're not going to find that in a lot of places nowadays, but I appreciate that. And Jenny has come out of her surgery. She's doing well. And she wanted me to let the church know to thank you so much for praying for her. And if you're newer to our church, she's a shut-in. And we often will go there on Christmas time and sing to her. But she's doing well. They didn't want to do the bypass surgery. They thought it was too risky, so they put the stents in and she was awake. I told her, I said, I'm getting ready. I'm going to drive really fast through Charlotte, get on 85, and I'm going to tell them for you that you appreciate them praying. So she will know that she appreciates that, all right? If you'll stand to your feet, 2 Peter, chapter number 1. 2 Peter, chapter number 1. 2 Peter 1, if I have to split this in two messages, I will, because I don't want to lose you. But if I have to do that, if I feel like I'm starting to lose you tonight, I'm just going to end it and we'll pick up on Sunday night. 2 Peter 1, look with me, verse number 18. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard. Now, I want you to notice, there's a voice. They say we hear a voice. When we were with Him in the Holy Mount, But now notice what Peter says. We have also a more sure word. That word sure means a more certain. Sometimes you hear things and it's hard to discern what you're hearing. He said we heard something on that Mount of Transfiguration. He says, but let me tell you something I'm definitely certain about. a sure word of prophecy. Jump down to verse 20. Knowing this, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I want you to understand what Peter's talking about. He's recalling when he heard a voice in the Mount of Transfiguration. He says, we heard it, we heard a voice. He said, but let me tell you something I'm real sure about. It's the Word of God. You realize that we're living in a generation of times where people say they hear things. Can I tell you, sometimes I hear things and you hear things. But can I tell you, sometimes I'm not so sure about what I hear, but I want to tell you what I am certain about, and it's the Word of God. We've been dealing with this series on where do we differ tonight. We're going to deal with the holiness movement. the holiness movement. Let's pray. Lord, we love You tonight. Lord, I ask God that You would be glorified. Lord, as we've been going through this series on where we differ with different religions and denominations and cults, Lord, it's not that we'd have a proud heart to say that we're right and they're wrong, but God, that we would be mighty in the Scriptures. God, that we would point others to the truth and love. Lord, I ask God that you help us to be good stewards of what we learn tonight. Lord, we'll praise you for it in your name we pray. Amen. I had a man sit in my office and he had a Pentecostal background and he wanted to know what I thought about sign gifts. Now, if you understand your Bible, you'll know that sign gifts are gifts that we would say would be in the times of the apostles. Gifts of healing, gifts of speaking in tongues, things of that nature. And the reason we would call them sign gifts are this. They're gifts that point people to someone. That's what a sign does. When you look at a sign, the sign does not tell you about the sign. The sign portrays a message that points you to something else. The sign gifts were healings. They were speaking in tongues. They would be exorcisms that pointed people to believe the message of the gospel. That was the purpose of them. And I want to say this tonight, that God can still heal, by the way. Amen. He can still heal. God can heal on any aspect that God wants to do. If we didn't do that, then we wouldn't pray for God to heal. But can I tell you, He does not use a man. He does not use a specific individual by giving them a gift to exercise that healing. He does it because that's His will. And He does it because people pray for it. These are signed gifts. So I told the man this in my office, I said, what do you think about these gifts? And I said, well, number one, it does not matter what I think. It matters what the Bible says. And I told him this, I said, the only way that I would discuss this with him is if he would agree to place himself into the subjection of God's Word instead of what he felt or believed. That's a pretty good attitude, right? We should place ourselves under the submission of the Word of God. We need to let the Bible make up how we feel, how we believe. And so he said, I agree. I agree to do that. So I walked him through the pages of Scripture and I showed him what the Bible says. But he continued to reject the Bible. And this is what he said. This is his exact words. But I know what I felt. I see what the Bible says, preacher, but I'm telling you, I know what I felt. And can I tell you tonight, church, that feelings will come and go. The Bible doesn't come and go. The Bible lasts forever. It's eternal. This is the centerfold belief of the holiness movement. It is this, experience over Scripture. Experience over Scripture. So as we deal with the holiness movement tonight, number one, I'm gonna give you a little bit about the origination, how the holiness movement come about. The holiness movement, now when I talk about the holiness movement, it encompasses really a lot of different denominations. But the four most common are gonna be this, and by the way, if you come out of this background or you got family in this background, I'm not trying to throw rocks at them, we're just trying to look at the Bible and see what the Bible says about it. But the four most common of the holiness movement are this, it is the Pentecostal church, It's the church of God. It's the assembly of God. And it's the apostolic church. Those are your four high variants of the holiness movement. And there are some modern, what I would call modern Pentecostal churches that have removed the word Pentecostal or they've removed the word holiness. They are really, they'll use an abstract word and then just say church. Like some of them like river church or The only ones I know of are actual churches in our town, and I don't want to throw out their names, but they'll just use a term like that. Sometimes they're a non-denominational church with a Baptist distinctive to them, but then some of them have a holiness attribute to them. But the holiness movement began. It's actually not even really old. It began in the 1840s. A Methodist leader by the name of Phoebe Palmer began to hold revivals and teach the necessity of holiness. By the way, what I'm getting ready to talk about really lines up with what Brother Vangelis was preaching. But they began to teach the necessity of holiness and how to attain it. By the way, that should be a red flag right there. How to attain holiness. Palmer functioned as a teacher. She was a writer. She was a social activist. Some called her a theologian. She was an evangelist for the cause of Christ. And let me say timeout right here. I believe this lady was a wonderful lady, by the way. I believe this lady did a lot of great things, by the way. But I think there's some things she did that was outside of the Word of God. Can I encourage you tonight? My daddy taught me this. He said, you need to learn how to be critical without being critical. Some people do a lot of great things for the cause of Christ. And then sometimes they go beyond what the Bible says. But can I say this? Don't let all the bad cancel out the good. You say, Preacher, why is that? Because you messed up too. I've taught wrong things. You've said wrong things. You didn't mean it. So don't let all the bad throw out what the good that this person did. But she taught things of the Lord, but she had a desire in her heart to be fully consecrated to the Lord. Can I say that's a good desire? Would you all agree with me tonight? That's a good desire that she had. And so that devotion that she had in her heart compelled her to write, but it also compelled her to preach. Now I know red flags are going up. We don't believe that according to the Bible, according to Timothy and Titus, that the woman can hold the office of a pastor or the office of a deacon. But y'all may throw rocks at me, and I don't know if I should say it, but I'm going to say it anyway. I wish we wasn't on live stream right now. If a woman gives the gospel and somebody gets saved, it does not cancel out their salvation. You understand? They may be in the wrong. I was taught this. I believe it to be true. Sometimes God uses us not because of us, but in spite of us. He'll honor His Word. Does that justify it? No, it doesn't justify it. But praise the Lord if any good thing comes out of it. Amen? Alright, moving forward. Anyway, so Phoebe Palmer, she began to do things and she began to go on this journey to be fully consecrated to the Lord. She began to do this Bible study in her home with her sister named Sarah Langford and they opened up this Bible study and it was in pursuit to be consecrated to the Lord. These Bible studies began to be known as the Tuesday meetings. And it was tried to make known or to attain this holiness. It would eventually become the model for over 200 such meetings around the world. Phoebe Palmer's reputation for teaching and exposition of the scripture began to spread quickly. And as a result, Phoebe found it increasingly difficult to justify limiting her teaching and preaching to women only. So now we're starting to see she's starting to go beyond what the Bible would tell her to do. In 1839, she became the first female Methodist class leader in New York. This is back when the Methodist church understood it was wrong that a woman couldn't be a pastor. So they said, you can't be a pastor, so you can be a class leader. By the way, Methodist churches now allow women to be a pastor. They allow homosexuals to be a pastor. That's wrong, okay? But back then they understood that, so they called her a class leader. By 1840, she was persuaded to allow men into the Tuesday meetings. Here she began to teach on what she would call entire sanctification. In other words, she's pursuing this status of attaining holiness. Palmer combined her knowledge of Scripture and the Wesleyan doctrine to be concerned, to have a full consecrated life. Palmer's ministry spread. There were an increasing number of invitations. She began to speak all across the world. And she began this following of people who wanted to go on to perfection. The holiness doctrine she developed would play a formative role in the Wesleyan holiness and Pentecostal traditions that we see today. Holiness movement's not very old, but that's how it was formed. Phoebe Palmer. You won't hear a lot about her nowadays, but that's where all this comes from. So, here's what I'm really interested in tonight. What do they believe? What are some key beliefs of the holiness doctrine? Well, holiness adherents are typically interested in obedience to the law. and see their obedience as a way to gain closeness to God and gain greater spirituality. What did Brother Van Gouder teach us? Wrong focus. Right? Don't focus on being a good boy. Preacher, really? Yeah, don't focus on it. That's the wrong focus. You focus on being holy, you're getting into religion. But when we focus on Christ, that's when we become holy. Okay? Y'all understand that? Remember? I hope you didn't forget all that he taught us, okay? So... By the way, you cannot be holy without pursuing the Holy One, okay? The holiness movement is related to Pentecostalism in that it says that God helps the believer by giving them these blessings of His Spirit. Holiness believers adhere to the three blessings of the Holy Spirit. Now, this is really kind of encapsulates what they believe. The first blessing is this. When you get saved, justified, that's the first blessing. That's a pretty good blessing, isn't it? Amen, I'm thankful I'm saved. Alright, that's the blessing of the Holy Spirit. When you got saved, you got indwelled by the Holy Spirit. They believe that, we believe that. Nothing wrong with that. But then they believe that you will get a second blessing of the Holy Spirit. And that is, that means that you've been sealed to a state of sinlessness or sinless perfection. Okay? Unfortunately, a sinless state isn't supported by your Bible. While an emotional experience can make somebody feel holy, we still live in the flesh, and that flesh still besets us with weakness. I want you to take your Bible tonight and go to Romans chapter number 7. I want you to look at what Paul says about it. Romans chapter number 7. I want to preface, not all holiness believe everything that I'm teaching tonight, not all Pentecostals, Church of God. There are literally over 200,000 variances of the holiness denominations. So I'm just giving you kind of some foundational things that they believe, but just understand not everybody will believe what I'm teaching tonight. Romans 7, look with me in verse number 14. Romans 7.14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. So understand, Paul says, for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Y'all ever been there? Me too. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it's good. That now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Look at verse number 24. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from, notice this phrase, the body of this death? Then he tells us the answer in verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You know what Paul's saying? He's stating this, that as long as I'm in this body, there's going to be a constant battle against sin and temptation. He says, the things I don't want to do, I do them. The things that I shouldn't do, I do them. The things that my flesh desires to do, I know that they're wrong, I do them. He says, but inside of me, I don't want to do those things, I hate those things. So it ain't the inner man that's doing it, it's the sin that dwells within me. He says, as long as I'm in this body. He's talking about one day God's going to deliver him from this body. But he's saying, as long as I'm in this body, I'm going to battle sin and temptation. So even the Apostle Paul was unable to be completely sinless. He admits by saying that the old law of sin was still alive in his body. And although he served God in his mind and his spirit, Other passages of Scripture you'll find in 2 Corinthians. He talks about having a thorn in his flesh that makes him rely on Christ. Then you get to the end of Paul's life. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, when he should have been the most holy, Paul calls himself, talks about his sin. Now, so here's my question. Had Paul just not received the second blessing of the Spirit and attained sinlessness? Or could we conclude that there is no second blessing resulting in sinlessness? The fact is that none of the apostles ever hinted at the possibility that man can achieve entire sanctification and that there is no mention in the Bible of a second blessing of the Spirit. I'll throw this out there. If we obtained sinless perfection, we would no longer be in need of the Holy Spirit. If I'm entirely sanctified, I don't need the Spirit of God. You know why I need the Spirit of God? Because there's times I get tempted with sin, and I need to access the Spirit. I'm thankful that God's given me the Spirit. We need Him. But because we still live in a body with a sin nature, our only way not to sin is to simply yield to the Holy Spirit. Remember Brother Van Gander? He said, you've got to ask, you've got to thank Him, you've got to take Him. That is our way out. By the way, you want to throw this on your side notes, you can write this down. Salvation involves three things. It involves justification. That means we've been saved from the penalty of sin. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. That is separation. We got saved. It involved justification, but it also involves, present tense, sanctification. That's saving us from the power of sin. So, justification, say, from the penalty of sin. Sanctification, say, saving us from the power of sin. Galatians 5.16, this I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We don't have to give in to sin, but then there's also glorification. One day He's going to save us from the very presence of sin. Church, there's going to be a day when you won't struggle with your body no more and be tempted of sin. That's glorification. Jesus will save us he says and Paul says the Philippians 324 our conversation or our lifestyle is in heaven from it's also we look for the Savior Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like into his glorious body So listen to me tonight. There is no second blessing of the Spirit in which we obtain sinless perfection. You don't need a second blessing from the Spirit. You got all the Spirit you're going to get the day you got saved. We just need to yield to Him. We just need to submit to Him. But they'll also teach there is a third blessing of the Spirit. That is evidenced by speaking in tongues. Third blessing of the Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues. Go ahead and change that slide for me, Zach. What is tongues? Well, the word tongues comes from the word glossa. It means the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations. Now, if you don't get anything out of this message, I want you to dial in right now as I land this thing about tongues. I've preached on it before, but I want you to understand some things. What is tongues? It comes from the word gloss of the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations. Tongues is not some mystical weird thing. It just means languages. That's all it means. Okay? You look it up for yourself. It means languages. All right? In America, our language we speak, our native language is English. Okay? Tongues are mentioned in three books of the Bible. All right? Mark 16, 17. We're going to look at that here in a second. Acts chapter number 2. Acts 10, 46. Acts 19, 6. And then 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. 1 Corinthians 12, 14. By the way, it's not about tongues. It's about the abuse of tongues. Now, When it comes to tongues, there's a law of, there's some hermeneutical laws of when you read your Bible, when you interpret your Bible, and some of y'all know what I'm talking about, there is the law of what we would call the law of first mention. The law of first mention states this, when a person or a subject is first mentioned in the scriptures, the first time you ever see it in the Bible, what is true of that person or subject will be true throughout the rest of the Bible. In other words, we're introduced to Satan in Genesis chapter number 3 verse 1. We are told that he's subtle. That means he's crafty. He's deceptive. When you get to him in Revelation, that old serpent, the dragon, guess what he's doing? He's deceiving the nations. So we see he's deceiving in the book of Genesis. You get to the end of the Bible in Revelation, he's still deceiving. What we found out about him in the first book of the Bible holds true through the whole book of the Bible all the way to the end. The law first mentioned. So what God says about tongues will hold true through the whole Bible. I want you to take your Bible tonight and go to Acts chapter number 2. Let's go there quickly. Acts chapter number 2. Acts chapter number 2. We learn this they believe the three blessings of the spirit of God when you get saved you're in dwell We believe that we agree with that. But the second blessing means that there's a sinless perfection. We don't agree with that We believe we are we are in the process of sanctification Becoming more and more like Christ and we stand before God will stand before him complete. Okay, that's where we differ. I And then the third blessing is they'll say that when you speak in tongues, that's because the Holy Spirit, that means that's evidence of God's Spirit on you. Acts chapter number 2, we're going to find the first time, the first use of the gift of tongues. Look with me in verse number 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Fully come means this, that it came to fruition of what God designed the Feast of Pentecost to represent as it relates to God's plan to the church. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven, that means divided, tongues, or languages. You know, I have seen so many Sunday school illustrations of these men sitting up in a room somewhere with things on top of their head. I'll be honest with you, I don't know what it looked like. I don't think it was a bunch of tongue organs sitting on top of their head on fire. Cloven means split. Tongues means languages. Verse number 4, And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues. as the Spirit gave them utterance. Here we find the first time, the first use of this gift. So here's what I want you to write down. Number one, if you've got any room, number one, the gift of tongues was first employed at the birth of the church in Acts chapter number two. John 14, 16, Jesus says this, that I'll pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter. Okay? And He shall be in you. Luke 24, 49, And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. Remember, Jesus is telling the disciples, listen, there's somebody coming that's going to fill you with power. You've got to wait on Him. Where does Acts 2 take place? Look with me, verse 5. And there was dwelling at Jerusalem Jews. So roughly we got 120 people in the upper room waiting for the fulfillment of Jesus' promise. And all of a sudden there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. It wasn't a rushing mighty wind. It's a sound as of a rushing mighty wind. Wind is the emblem or the symbol of the Spirit of God. And there appeared to them cloven tongues as of fire, and it set on each of them a tongue of flame humming over their head. Fire is also an emblem of the Holy Spirit. It is at this moment that they were indwelled with God's Spirit. God was demonstrating that they are now filled with that power that He promised. The power of the Holy Spirit is inside of them. By the way, tonight, we've got the same power that they got tonight, by the way. Everything Christ had told them had come true. Now they're indwelt. Verse number 4 says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Filling of the Holy Spirit is not the same as being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is the Spirit's enablement. It is submitting yourself to God's power. It's Him using you. Verse number 4, "...began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Here's what I'm getting at tonight is this. God was doing something He had never done before. He's doing something new. He's building His church. Remember, the church has not come into action, but God is doing a new program, and He's launching the church out into action. For the last 1,500 years, God was dealing with the world through the nation of Israel. But now he's going to use the church. Matthew 16, 18, he tells Peter, I will build my church. And the gift of tongues was employed to authenticate the fact that God was doing something new through his apostles and the establishment of his church. So you need to know that it was first used Acts 2. The gift of tongues was first employed at the birth of the church in Acts 2. You need to know this. Number 2. The apostles spoke in known languages through the Spirit's enablement. Known. It's important you know that. Known languages. Look with me. Acts 2 verse 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them. Tongues are what, church? What did I say tongues were? Languages. Tongues are languages. The word other means simply this. Other languages. Okay? Right now, at this moment in our text, we don't know what languages they're speaking. We're going to find out here in just a second. But all we know right now is it is a tongue or a language other than their native tongue. Brother Hook, do you speak Spanish? He don't speak Spanish. He speaks English. But if he's gonna speak in another tongue, he'd get up and speak Spanish. It was something different. It wasn't what they normally spoke. Okay? I want you, in fact, write down Mark 16, 17. Zach, can you throw Mark 16, 17 up on the screen for me? Write that down. Mark 16, 17. There we go. Notice what Jesus says. And these signs, that word signs means identifying marks, Jesus is speaking, these signs or identifying marks shall follow them that believe. In other words, Jesus is saying this, this is how you're going to know that these men are from me. This is how you're going to know that what they're going to preach is my message. In my name they shall cast out devils and they shall speak. Notice what it says. New tongues. New does not mean unknown. This is important. New does not mean unknown. It does not mean new in time. But it means new in kind or a different form. Jerry Vine says it like this, these languages however were new and different, not in the sense that they'd never been heard before or that they were new to the hearers, that they were new languages to the speakers, different from those in which they were accustomed to speak. Okay? Like for instance, I'm gonna pick on you Colton. Colton, if I said, Colton, I just learned a new language. Colton, you would probably say something along the lines of, oh cool, what language did you learn? He's probably thinking maybe Spanish, maybe French, something like that. But you're not thinking that I just invented a whole new language, right? If I told y'all that I got onto, what's that old computer software program that used to teach you language? Y'all know what I'm talking about? Yeah, Rosetta Stone. I get on Rosetta Stone. Y'all remember Rosetta Stone? I don't even know what the thing anymore. But anyway, if I got on Rosetta Stone and I learned a new language, okay, you're probably assuming that I learned Spanish. But what you would not assume is that I just made up a crazy language, brand new language that nobody's never heard before. But it's new to me. Because I don't speak it. So when he says new language, it's not that it was a new invented language, but now can speak a language that already existed that I did not know before. Does that make sense or did I just blurry the water really bad? Everybody getting it? Okay. So in Mark 16, that verse up there, Jesus prophesied that those who believed in Him, He's going to give them identifying marks. That's going to prove that their message is His message. He's saying, listen, this is how they're going to know that you're really my apostles. They're going to speak in a new language. Not something invented, but it's new to them. That's going to be an identifying mark. Glossa is either referred to as the literal muscle, the organ of the mouth, the tongue, or a known language. But it's never something unknown. Glossa is where we get the word glossary, dictionary. You go to Revelation 5-9, you're going to see this word tongue. It's talking about people of every kindred and tongue. That means all the languages of the world. You go to Revelation 7-9, you're going to see the same thing. All people of different kindreds, tongues, nationalities, languages. This is why this is important. I'm showing you that anytime we see this word tongue, it's not referring, it's referring to known languages, not gibberish. Every time. You're going to see it. It's not gibberish, but it's a known language. Okay? Number three, write this one down. Jews out of every nation under heaven came together and heard the apostles speak in their native language. Jews out of every nation under heaven came together, that day at Pentecost, came together and heard the apostles speak in their native language. The Feast of Pentecost caused all the Jews to travel to Jerusalem all across the known world. Look with me in Acts 2 verse 5. Acts 2 verse 5. I want you to get down and write in that. Acts 2 verse 5. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under what church? Heaven. Now when this was noise abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? In other words, they're saying, all these Galileans, they don't know my language, where I come from. I'm hearing them in my own native language. And how, verse 8, and how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born? Where we were born, where we come from. They're talking about known languages. How do they know this? Then he starts to list all the different countries and regions. Verse 9, Parthians, Medes, Amalites, dwellers of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, and Jews, and proselytes, and Cretes, and Arabians. We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. I believe they were amazed. These old fishermen, these old Galileans, they're speaking in my native language. Only people where I come from know that. How are they speaking this? By the way, they weren't just speaking anything. They were speaking the wonderful works of God. So we've just established the law of first mention. We discovered the employment of tongues. They're speaking a known language which is unknown to the speaker. When a person or subject is first mentioned in Scripture, what's true of that person or subject will hold true throughout the rest of the Bible. Number four. I want you to write this down. The word language in verse 6 refers to the particular dialect, not just the language itself. The word language in verse 6 refers to the particular dialect not just the language itself. I was sitting there studying in the waiting room at the hospital and the Lord helped me with this. Look, verse 6. Now, when this was noise brought, the multitude came together and were confounded, because with every man heard them speak in his own language. Now, preacher, if tongues means languages, why doesn't the King James Version say tongue right here instead of language? Great question, because I wanted the same thing. If tongues means languages, then why did they use the word language right here? This is why, number one, it's a completely different word. Remember, the word tongue is glossa, but this word languages is dialectos, where we would get our English word dialect. Dialect is the specific way a language is spoken. Emery's from New York, right Emery? And Emery, do you really got a New York accent? Kind of, sort of, yeah. I think the Southerners are starting to rub on her a little bit. Amen. But you go up north and you go to, people say, Minnesota. Y'all know what I'm talking about? That's their dialect. You went on a mission trip to St. Vincent, and they talk like the Jamaican man. That's how they talk. They're islanders. That's how they talk. They still speak English. Now, sometimes they speak so fast, I gotta tell them to slow down. But they still speak, they're speaking English, but they still have their dialect. And a lot of times, in fact, my grandmother, she stayed in this camper over here until her house gets finished. The guy that set this camper up, he's a deacon of a church in Charlotte, but I noticed he had a thick accent, and I can't try to do that accent. He's from Russia. Strong accent. He's been in the US for over 20 years, but he still has that strong accent. That, by the way, you can't teach dialect. That's just something that grows on you as you're surrounded. So here's what I'm getting at, church. This is the interesting part about it. This gift was so wonderful that they didn't just hear it in their own language. They heard it in their own dialect. Listen, you can teach me Spanish, but I'm not going to have a Spanish dialect. You understand that? That's amazing. They spoke it even with the dialect. If they were speaking Chinese, they would sound just like a Chinese man would say it. And they're amazed! They even had not only the language, but the dialect, and they're preaching the wonderful works of God. It marveled them. They said, this must only be from God. Remember, signed gifts point them to something bigger. Confirms the message. It's pointing them that this Jesus must have been the Christ. Because guess what? Peter's getting ready to preach. He's getting ready to preach the gospel. Over 3,000 is going to be saved and added to the church. So number four, the word language in verse six refers to the particular dialect, not just the language itself. I've only got two more. There's six total. Number five, the supernatural gift of speaking in tongues had a specific purpose. Verse seven, and they were all amazed and marveled, saying, what are they saying? They're 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? This was a supernatural miracle with a purpose. Do you realize that every miracle in the Bible had a purpose? Every single one. God didn't just do things with no purpose. Every miracle had a specific purpose. This miracle was to tell the Jews who were still wanting to worship the old way, they were still wanting the temple, they were still wanting the priest, they were telling them that this Jesus that they crucified was in fact the Messiah. 1 Corinthians 14.22. Write that down. Zach, throw that up there for me. 1 Corinthians 14.22. 1 Corinthians 14.22. Write that reference down. 1 Corinthians 14.22. I'm going to start playing Jeopardy music, Zach. Y'all could've done turn there by now. I'm just picking. Appreciate y'all, love you. Got it? There we go. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 22. Wherefore, tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. It's a sign. It was to point the lost people to Jesus. But can I tell you, that's not what we experience today. By the way, please understand my heart. I'm not knocking. I'm just taking us through the Bible and showing us some things. Can I just be real with you? Most of the time you'll hear tongues speak is in a holiness church service, okay? I have never met one person that ever got saved as a result of someone speaking in tongues. Truly born again. But when you go to Acts chapter 2, that's the whole purpose. It was to point those Jews that had gathered all from around the world to Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost to prove to them that Jesus was the Messiah. It's a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Verse 41, Peter preaches, he preaches Jesus. Verse 41, then they gladly received His Word. You know what that is? They got saved. Not only did they get saved, verse 41, but then they were baptized. And in the same day, they were added unto them about 3,000 souls. In one verse, we see salvation, we see baptism, and we see church membership. They were joined unto the church of Jerusalem. This miracle was to evangelize the lost, to confirm that Jesus was who He said He was. They were amazed. Now, I want to ask you a question tonight. Do you believe that if there were true gifts of tongues today, I'm just asking a question, When half of the world has never heard the gospel, why do our missionaries have to spend at least two years in language school to learn how to give them the gospel? Why is that? Couldn't God just give them the gift? If they existed today, I'm just asking you a question. Don't get mad at me, okay? I'm just asking. Do you not believe that God loved the world enough that if the gift was in use today, that He would give it to our missionaries? So they wouldn't have to go to universities. They wouldn't have to go to language schools. They wouldn't have to spend years trying to learn the language so they could reach the people they're sent to. By the way, I'm... Well, let me move on. I ain't going to say that. Sorry. But why would God give people a gibberish gift to lift up and magnify themselves and let half the world die and go to hell? But yet there was a group of people in this movement, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Church of God, even, believe it or not, even St. Baptists, who will say this, being filled with the Spirit of God is evidenced by speaking in an unknown tongue. Because they don't even know what they're saying. Well, you're really being, man, you're just, they'll say God is all over him. God's Spirit. Last time I checked, the Bible says evidence of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. Love, mercy, gentleness, meekness. I think that's what my Bible says when I'm full of the Spirit of God. When I yield the love of God, those are the fruit of the Spirit, not speaking in tongues. How come tongues are not mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit? They're not. Evidence of the Holy Spirit living inside of you is not revealed by a loose tongue. It's evidenced by a controlled tongue, James chapter number three. You want to know if somebody's filled with the Spirit, it's how they control their tongue, not having a loose tongue. Number six, let me give you the last, we'll be done. Gift of tongues. ceased, I believe, now I'm gonna, I'll tell you, there are preachers in my circle that they'll disagree with me on this, I'm gonna give you this, you take it for what it's worth. I believe the gift of tongues ceased with the passing of the apostles. 1 Corinthians 13, would you go there with me please? 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13. Zach says you don't love me to throw it up there, he'll make people turn to it. 1 Corinthians 13. If you study the Bible, you'll know exactly what I'm going to. 1 Corinthians 13. I want you to look. Let's get context really quick. Look at verse 1. What are we speaking about? Look at me. 1 Corinthians 13. 1. Tongues. Okay. 12, 13, 14 is about tongues. Though I speak with tongues of men and angels." Man, Paul said, you could speak heaven's language with tongues. And the sum of this, he's going to say this, can I tell you what's most important? Love. Loving the brethren is the best gift you could ever have. You may not be able to sing, you may not be able to teach, you may not be able to preach, you may not be able to do a lot of things, but can I tell you what you can do when you're yielded to the Spirit of God is love people. And that is the greatest of gifts. Look at what he says in verse 8. Charity or love never faileth. That word faileth means to stop. It means to cease. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. They're going to stop. Why don't we need any more prophecies, preacher? Because we've got all the prophecy we need in the Word of God. They shall fail. Whether there be what, church? Tongues! They shall cease. Whether there be knowledge shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." This is what I believe. And I'm not trying to sound intellectual tonight, but you study the word perfect, it's not a male, it's not a female, a term. It's a neuter term. And the only thing that is perfect in the neuter form is the Word of God. He says, we know in part, we don't got it all figured out. We don't understand it all. You know the prophets didn't understand it all. They didn't understand the church. He said we prophesy in part. We don't understand it. The knowledge will be vanished away. But when that which is perfect is come, Paul understood that there's going to be a day. that the revelation would be closed, the canon would be shut, and there is not a need. You say, Preacher, listen, wouldn't if we had a bunch of miracles right now, don't you just think that people would get saved? No, they wouldn't. That's what the rich man in hell said. If you would just send, if you would just send Lazarus to tell my brothers, If you just send them from heaven to tell my brothers so they don't got to come here. That's a miracle. And you know what Abraham told them? They got Moses, prophets. In other words, they got the word of God. If they don't believe the word of God, they won't believe a miracle. In our minds, we think that a miracle would get people to believe. It didn't for the Pharisees. It didn't for the Sadducees. Jesus said, I would have done a lot more stuff. But because of their unbelief, It ain't, nothing's changed, church. The gift of tongues, I believe, ceased with the apostles. Do you realize that, let me just give you this, do you realize that tongue, that speaking in a gibberish in a church service wasn't even a thing until the 1900s? Wasn't recorded in any of our early church documents. Wasn't even a thing until the 1900s. until this holiness group came on scene. And they do it to impress, to seem spiritual. Can I tell you, church, that what goes on in a modern charismatic church is a lot of it, just to be honest with you, is not godly. They get addicted to the feeling. They get worked up in a service. And I tell you, it's happening a lot of times in our Baptist churches. And I want you to understand, you got to put on your discernment thanking caps with me. I'm all for getting excited. I'm all for shouting, raising my hands. But I'm not going to let the charismatic churches dictate how I worship the Lord. I'm not scared of it. But can I tell you, a lot of times that emotional feeling, like if you get stirred up in a church service, that's great. Praise the Lord. Man, God's exciting. Amen. But did you change when you left? Or did you just emotionally crash and say, well, that was a good service. And then on Monday morning, you're the same that you were on Saturday night before you went to church. It's the preaching of the Word of God that changes things. And so please understand, I hope y'all get what I'm saying. I'm all for excitement, man. Praise the Lord. Amen. But we've got to understand that there's more to it than that. And especially in our southern culture, we chase that emotional high of swinging from the chandelier style preaching. And don't get me wrong, y'all know, y'all've heard me preach. But can I tell you, if there's no substance, all is vain. It's all vain. I want you to write this down. One of the last things that they believe. I don't even know if I got it up there, Zach. Yeah. Most of your holiness movements believe that you can lose your salvation. Most of them believe you can lose your salvation. Write these references down. Romans 8.38. Paul said, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God that which is in Christ Jesus. Write this one down, John 10, 28. And I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. I give unto them eternal life." If God gave you eternal life and then He took it from you the moment you sinned, it was never eternal life. It was temporary life. Because He took it back. But God said, I give you eternal life. And no man shall pluck it out of My hand. That includes you. There's nothing you can do to pluck yourself out of Jesus' hand, much less the hand of the Father. Jude 24, write that one down. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. I'm thankful tonight. You cannot lose your salvation. You may feel like it. You may have done. horrible deed a horrible sin but I'm thankful when I even when I feel like I lost it I gotta go back to the facts of the Word of God it's more than a feeling I'm thankful we can sing that song standing on the promises amen let's pray Lord we love you tonight or I ask God that you'd help us to be good stewards Lord of Lord what your word says Lord again I ask that you'd remind us God not to be arrogant not to ride some high horse that we're right and other people are wrong, but God, that we would be like Apollos, Lord, mighty in the Scriptures, like the Bereans, Lord, searching the Scripture. God, I ask that you help us, Lord, as Tabernacle Baptist Church, that the Word of God would dictate, Lord, to be our final and sole authority for all belief and practice. Lord, I ask, God, that you give us a safe trip home tonight. Lord, we love you. In your name we pray. Amen. You're at liberty tonight.