So people of God in Christ, as we find ourselves a reformed church amid a more broadly evangelical church, one question that we might need to address as we think about the way we worship is the question of speaking in tongues. And so I wanted to devote a sermon somewhat to that issue. But since our reformed position and conviction on speaking in tongues is largely based on a very definite and high view of scripture, that's really the issue we need to start with. If we understand what scripture is, and why the Christian faith is based on a book, then I believe we will be far less perhaps envious or less confused by those who claim the experience of speaking in tongues. And this is actually the logical progression of of our own confessions. The first article of our confession of faith contains a statement giving a reformed position on speaking in tongues and that position is specifically that that God reveals himself and his will to the church, obviously over the centuries, but that his way of doing that through the experience, the phenomenon, if you will, the practice of speaking in tongues has now ceased. But it only says so, it only makes that statement having first spoken of God's general and special revelation of himself and his committing the record of such revelation to writing in Holy Scripture. In other words, our confession doesn't just say, oh, we don't do that anymore. It says that has ceased. But the reason for it is because we have a book. So why do we use a book? That's our question for tonight. With apologies to librarians and English teachers, isn't using a book rather boring? And why shouldn't we prefer the experience of speaking in tongues over having God speak to us in a book? Well, perhaps the most basic answer, which is usually the best answer, the best answer to why we use a book is because God says so. We do this with our kids, right? Why do I have to do it? Because I said so. Scripture itself, the Bible itself, says so. The book in question here is obviously, I hope it's obvious, the Bible. The word Bible really just means book. And what the book says is that it is the word of God. What the book says about itself is that it is inspired. It was written by men, but men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit. What the book says about itself is that it is necessary, which we hear in the first article, again, of our confession. In fact, what the book says is that it is not only necessary, but it is absolutely essential. So there are three quick attributes, we say, of scripture, that it is inspired, it is necessary, and not just necessary, but even Essential. And that would make sense, would it not? I mean, that's naturally the case. If this is the Word of God, then it is inspired, it is necessary, and it is essential. Now if that's all we had, we would be left with a neat little example of circular reasoning. We use the book, we base our Christian faith on the Bible because the Bible itself tells us to. But that's not all we have. What we have further is the remarkable content of the book, as well as the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And the first chapter of the Westminster Confession speaks to this as well. In Article 5 it says, I'm just going to read you a portion of it, Article 5 of the Westminster Confession says, We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture, and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God, the full discovery of it makes the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it abundantly evidences itself to be the Word of God. Yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts. So why do we use a book? Number one, because the Bible tells us to. Number two, because the message of the Bible gives us reason to. But number three, because ultimately the same Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit, if we're ever envious of spiritual experience, all we have to do is remember this, that the same Holy Spirit who once moved men or people to speak in tongues, now moves in our hearts to receive and understand the Bible. But as we seek to answer more fully why we use the book, let's perhaps drop back a bit. and take again as a first point, I say again because we've dealt with this before, this will be review, but helpful review, I think. The first point is the God who speaks. Psalm 50 verses 1 through 3 says, The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes. He does not keep silence. So part of that, of course, maybe fits with more you know, exuberant examples of spiritual experience. Our God shines forth, but how does he do so? He does so as he does not keep silence. Throughout the Bible, we hear the revelation of a God who speaks. He speaks far more than he appears. Of course, when he appears, he does so by way of theophany, as we say. He takes on an appearance as a condescension. But far more often than God taking on an appearance is God speaking. Even from creation onward, God is the God who speaks. He spoke at creation, commanding the world to be, commanding the entire universe to exist. so that it did and still does today. He spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden, both before and after their fall into sin. He spoke to Cain confronting him for confronting his brother. He spoke to Noah. He spoke to Abraham. He spoke to Isaac. He spoke to Jacob and later to Moses. And God spoke to all of these men directly, even audibly, so far as we can tell. But there is a There is a progression, we might say, within scripture. While God at one time spoke directly and audibly to certain men, later he made use of prophets and began more and more to speak to his people through a prophetic ministry. Ultimately, of course, God spoke to us through his son. Hebrews one, as we've heard, even says long ago at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom we, whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he created the world. So you get that connection, Christ to the word of God, even at creation. So we need to gain at least two things from this first point. First of all, to see that God indeed speaks. Some people want to say, if there is a God, why doesn't he speak up? Why doesn't he say something? But the problem with that question is that he has spoken. He may not have said what man in his sinfulness wants to hear, And God may not have used the means to speak that sinful man would demand of God, but God has spoken. God has spoken even audibly to mankind. And even more, he has left us with a record of that revelation. So we can say, well, I demand that he speak directly to me. Not to me through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but to me directly. I demand that. But we need to be careful with what we ask for or even demand of God. And we need to see that when God spoke at Mount Sinai, the people even begged that he would not continue to speak to them. They begged that Moses would be their mediator. Exodus 20 verses 18 and 19 says, now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. But the second thing to gain from this point is to see that as God speaks, he does so certainly on his own terms. It's sinful man who demands to say how God must do what he does. Even Jesus, who is the Word of God in our own flesh, even Jesus at times refused to do His miracles, refusing exactly because they were being demanded of Him. Matthew 12, verse 38 records, Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You. But He answered them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And Jesus was referring to his death and resurrection because he went on to say, for just as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so will a son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And Jesus also taught us that even this sign, his own resurrection, would not convince people to believe in him unless the Holy Spirit is at work in their hearts. And so we can say, well, I require more than a book. I require a more clearly supernatural experience, if I would believe. But as Jesus said to James and John, you do not know what you are asking. So could God speak today through tongues or even directly to each of us as he did at Mount Sinai? Well, of course he could, but is that really what we want? Is that really what we need? Would it make some great difference? Not unless, Even then, the Holy Spirit was working in our hearts. Secondly then, the voice of creation. Again, I think a matter of review for us. But we need to see that whenever and however God speaks to His people, it is a matter of grace, a gracious revelation of Himself, because God shouldn't have to say anything beyond the voice of creation. Psalm 19 says, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day by day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the world. So before God utters a single word of special revelation, as we call it, there is the matter of God's general revelation. Creation speaks, says the psalmist. Creation declares the existence and even the character of its creator God. Even more, creation speaks a universal language. All peoples on earth hear the voice of creation. And even further, the message of creation is constant. It's day by day, it's night by night, it's moment by moment, as man lives with his five senses in the experience of creation. So here's the place to see that in one sense, even the natural world, think about this, even the natural world is actually supernatural. Even the natural world should leave us to ponder the being, the existence, the character of a supernatural God. Of course, the evolutionist would have us to believe that in a sense, the universe itself is God. The universe itself is eternal. The universe created itself so that something came from nothing, so that the simple became the complex. But they believe without evidence. While they demand of God that He prove His existence, yet they give the universe a pass. Think about this. They demand of God that He prove His existence, yet they give the universe a pass and just believe what they believe because They want to believe it. Which is ironic, because that's what they accuse Christians of. Oh, you just believe that because that's what you want to believe. But that's exactly what the evolutionists will do. And yet it would seem that very few are willing to question them. So Psalm 19 says, The heavens declare the glory of God. Their voice goes out through all the earth. And if we weren't sure if we're hearing this right, then we can also hear the Apostle Paul as we came through a number of weeks ago in Romans one, in a sense offering commentary on Psalm 19. He writes for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. And then here's the result, here's the consequence of God's clear, abundant revelation of himself in creation, so they are without excuse. It's a sad thing, but on the Day of Judgment, no one will be able to say, but I didn't know. If only God had spoken up. If only He had said something. Instead, He has said something. In fact, He is speaking every day through creation. Because a creation requires a creator. And even further, the glory and splendor of creation speak clearly of the glorious character of its creator. So all of this leads us then to the third point, a gracious word. We need to see that however God chooses to speak beyond what he has already spoken in creation, We might say, beyond what he is everyday speaking, present tense in creation. Whatever God chooses to say beyond his creation, he does so by grace. He is gracious to do it. Think about it, having spoken once, that should be enough. We say this to our children, I'm not gonna tell you again. Once should be enough. The one under authority should hear and know and remember and act on what he or she has been told even once. I once had a coach in high school who operated this way. I don't think he thought he was God, but he operated in this way. If you walked into his classroom to ask, well, what time are we supposed to be there tonight to get on the bus? He would just shake his head and walk away. He wouldn't say it again. Let's go ask somebody else, one of your teammates, if you had forgotten what time. Well, that was his prerogative, right? I mean, and that's the thing about grace. It's grace, it can't be demanded. It can only be offered and received. He would have been gracious to tell me again what time I was supposed to be there. Well, so it is that having spoken once at creation, God is not obligated to speak again. So that as he does speak again, Beyond creation, can we see, it is a gracious word. But here's the thing, that it's not just a matter of God speaking once, having spoken at creation, that same word by which He created the world is still heard today. In fact, the world is not diminished in the least. They say the sun's burning out. some billions of years from now, I guess. But creation has not diminished in the least since it was created. Technically speaking, we can't even say that the voice of creation is an echo. Creation doesn't echo the Word of God. Creation speaks clearly and loudly to all people. The same Word of God that created the world is sounded just as powerfully upon our ears even yet today. And that's what Paul means when he writes in Romans 1, for the wrath of God is revealed. His point is that one of the things man should know, and in a sense does know, is that God is holy, God is just, And God is full of wrath for sin. And why should all men know this? Because it is revealed, says Paul. Not because it was revealed once long ago, but because it is revealed in the present. It is open, it is plain to all men. Because the existence and the character of God is openly and plainly revealed to all mankind, each and every day, each and every night, by the voice of creation. So, when God speaks again, as he did to Abraham, as he did to Isaac, and Jacob, as he did to Moses, and through Moses to the people of Israel, as he did through the prophets, and ultimately, as he did through Christ, when God speaks again, It is a gracious word that he speaks. And how much more gracious of God, therefore, that that word down through the centuries has been given to us in the written word. Our Bibles, what do we have in our Bibles but the very word of God, and it is a gracious word. Our Bibles are grace upon grace upon grace. And now, what will we do? Will we refuse it? I don't want a book. I want spiritual experience. You live in spiritual experience, as you live in God's good creation. So will we refuse the Bible? Will we demand something different, something more? And even if we receive it, will we demand something more than the written word that we have? And so this is the fourth point, the written word. Is it too boring to have to use a Bible? Is the Christian faith boring because it is based on a book? Not if we truly know the book, because the book itself is supernatural. The book was written by men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1 verse 21 says, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And so the book is not only supernatural, it is very practical. In other words, it's what we need. We don't need a spiritual experience. We need the Bible. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So there is a sense that if we think the Bible is not enough, then we clearly haven't spent much time in the book. However, we ought to admit that even spending much time in the Bible is not going to matter without the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As the Westminster Confession says, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of Scripture is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts. But what this means is that again, using a book is even yet a supernatural ministry. If we listen to the message of the book, we will see that no one comes to believe the book except by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said, you must be born again. You must be born from above. You must be born of the Spirit. So if we want a supernatural experience, then we have it. Just look around you now. Not too many people here tonight, but As many as are here tonight, look around you and you are seeing something supernatural as we sit here together as believers in Jesus Christ, believers in the book. You're a miracle, I'm a miracle. Does God still do miracles? You bet he does. And this, to be sure, as we come by the Holy Spirit, to accept, to receive, to read, to study, to know, to love the Bible as the Word of God. The problem is that that is quite humiliating. And so if we If we deny the teaching of God's word, then we are far more likely to demand, well, some other sign. Give me more. I need something more. No, you don't. You need the book. And yes, you need the Holy Spirit. But that's what God has provided and that's what God uses as he does his work. in the church yet today. So finally, this last point, the place of tongues. Clearly, there was a place for speaking in tongues in the early church. Scripture is clear on this point. But isn't that ironic? How do we even know anything about the practice of speaking in tongues? We know it through the inspired record of God's revelation of himself to us. So the question really is, what is the place of speaking in tongues in the church today? And the Reformed faith answers that such former ways of God's revealing his will to his people are now ceased. And that word itself, the word ceased, is a biblical word because 1 Corinthians 13, verse eight even says, as for tongues, they will cease. But shouldn't we leave it to God to decide when tongues will cease? Well, in a sense we have, because here we are, not speaking in tongues, but hearing together the Word of God without tongues. As Paul writes, I think I too have the Spirit of God. Paul writes, no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. So we're not missing anything here. In fact, the Spirit is well at work bringing about faith in those who left themselves would otherwise be dead in sin. And the centuries of church history have borne out, not the perpetual gift of tongues, but the call of Paul to Timothy to preach the word. It's the preaching of the word that has formed the church and edified the church. and sustained the church and preserved the church through times of great persecution and suffering. So what do we do with our brothers and sisters who claim the gift and the experience of speaking in tongues? Well, the first thing we do is to love them. We count them the weaker brother perhaps, but we love them still and do our best not to offend them. We also pray for them because the inherent danger of thinking to continue something that God himself has brought to an end is that it leads to confusion and it leads to distraction and it very often leads to error and a departure from the truth of the word. But since you can neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of another's spiritual experience, the most important thing to do is to stand on the conviction that God would have us love His Word. God would have us love our Bibles. God would have us love and to study and to preach His Word. And in the end, let us pray and ask Christ to give us, by His Spirit, whatever gifts, whatever faith, whatever experience that He knows we need. Let us pray. Your will be done. Even as we recognize that His will is made known to us in the pages of a book. Amen. Let's pray. Grant to us, O Lord, the faith to see that you have given us your word, and that must be our love, our focus, our joy, our time well spent. Grant, O Lord, that we would be men and women, boys and girls of the book, your book, the Bible. Grant that we would hear you speaking clearly to us as your word is read and as it is preached. From day to day, and certainly from Lord's day to Lord's day, each and every week, O Lord, minister unto us, speak to us, care for us, provide for us, lead and guide us by your most holy word. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.