In the sermon 'Tongues Were For a Sign' by David Green, the speaker delves into 1 Corinthians 14:20-25 to discuss the original purpose and context of speaking in tongues, emphasizing that it was intended as a sign for unbelievers, particularly unbelieving Jews, heralding impending judgment. Green criticizes contemporary churches for their reluctance to engage in hard-hitting, introspective preaching that addresses internal sins and issues. He juxtaposes the immature, divisive behavior of the Corinthian church with the expected spiritual growth and maturity that should be nurtured through solid biblical teaching and community. The sermon also explores the historical and scriptural basis for understanding tongues as a temporary sign, meant to signify a transition from God's work primarily with Jews to a broader mission including Gentiles. Green argues that the modern tongues movement misrepresents the biblical intent and necessity of tongues, asserting that the practice should have ceased with the establishment of the early church's foundation.

1st Corinthians chapter 14 The universe 20, and We'll go down to verse 25 today. Brothers, Do not be children in your thinking, rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written, by men of strange tongues and and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people even so they will not listen to me says the Lord So then tongues are for a sign and not to those who believe but to unbelievers. But prophecy is for a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe. Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues and uninformed men or unbelievers enter will they not say that you are out of your mind but if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an uninformed man enters, he is convinced by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed and so he will fall on his face and worship God declaring that surely God is among you.

Ours is an era when many churches say they want hard preaching, but what they want is hard preaching about everybody else. But when the preaching gets hard about sins in the church or problems in the church, he's labeled as a troublemaker or even a narcissist. The men of the New Testament, the preachers of the New Testament, Paul, being the one who wrote 1 Corinthians, The others, what we find is that they did not beat around the bush on what was going on within the congregations that they addressed. Congregations that they addressed. They did not write to the church at Corinth and say to Corinth, you know what the problem in churches, I'll tell you what the problem in churches is, and go on to write what was going on in Galatia.

Paul didn't write to Galatia and say, you know what the problem with churches is? I'll tell you what the problem with churches is, here's what's going on in Corinth. That's the style of a lot of preaching that happens in our day. So men will make a habit of hard preaching and go from church to church to church and preach about other churches except for the one where they're at. They'll say, oh what a great What a great hard preacher he is.

But Paul and the others, the New Testament pattern was that they wrote these letters, they got up and they preached, and they addressed the sins of the people. And that's what we find here in this text, in this letter. It's what we found time and time and again. This is what hard preaching is. It's why people don't like true biblical preaching that pricks the heart, that hurts the toes.

That's why I dare say that if Paul were around today, he would not be a very popular preacher. Paul, as he's writing to this church at Corinth, he tells them, he says, brothers do not be children in your thinking. He starts out this indictment against them by calling them brothers, for they were, they were brothers, but he goes all in and this would not have been lost on them. He's telling them to stop being children. In other words, they needed to grow up.

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking, rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking, in your understanding, be mature. The church at Corinth had a problem in so far as that they were the opposite of this. They were children in their thinking. They were mature in their evil. They shouldn't have been like that.

In their understanding, they were immature. They were like children. The context of all this is in their use of tongues, this gift of the spirit. There were children in their understanding what a terrible place to be, unable to understand solid doctrine. Understand solid doctrine.

Sadly, sadly there are there are some like that too who try to make it look like they are mature, but when problems come, it's evident that they don't have a clue in this text. In this text. Well, go with me over to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. I promise I'll get there in a moment.

Verses 11 through 14. Says, and he himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, so that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head that is Christ, from whom the whole body being joined and held together by what every joint supply is according to the properly measured working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So we see that the church and the giving, The gift that has been given by the ascended Christ as He gave apostles prophets and yes, pastors and teachers is for the growth of the saints.

That's why it's so curious to me. When I meet somebody and they say, oh, I don't need the church, I've got my Bible and I read my Bible. Well, when they tell me that, that's proof that they don't really read their Bible. Because if they read their Bible, they would know they need the church. They need a pastor.

They need to be able to grow properly and not be carried about by every wind of doctrine. There's no good example of a lone Christian in the New Testament. It's just not the way it's supposed to work. Certainly, we are to grow, and there is a pattern for that growth, to be in God's Word, yes, but to be in the church and to be under the teaching of a good pastor. A good pastor.

Sometimes though, even in a church, there are saints who aren't growing, as there is this example here at Corinth. Or even over in Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Sorry, Hebrews chapter 5 and verse Number 11, going down to verse 14. Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become doll of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant but solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil. And so there are times, there are individuals who are children in understanding rather than being mature saints. And the Apostle rebukes them.

It's time to grow up. You've got to do something. It's kind of like if you're a grown individual and you stop eating, you stop exercising, You stop doing those things which are necessary for life. And you go to the doctor and you say, doctor, I've got a problem. My body just ain't doing what it's supposed to do." And he says, well, are you eating?

No, I don't have time to eat. And he looks at you and he writes in his little notebook or whatever and he says, okay, are you exercising? You say, no, I'm too busy. I don't have time to exercise. And He writes that down.

He says, well, do you at least move around a little bit? He said, no, I don't have time for any of that stuff. I'm really busy. He writes that down. And you say to the doc, I need you to do something for me.

My life is miserable. I'm not, my body is failing. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not getting, my body is just, Something's wrong. Sometimes that's the way it is with us as Christians.

We neglect the Bible, we neglect prayer, we neglect the church. There's no growth, there's no movement. We become children in understanding. And then we want to blame God for it. Paul says, Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.

Rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. They should have been infants in malice and evil but they were not. You say well how can you gather that? Well think about it A baby is full of love, gentleness, and care. But what was happening at the Church of Corinth?

They were bickering, they were fighting, they were arguing over silly, stupid things like whether Paul was a better preacher than Apollos, whether Cephas was better than Paul. They were making divisions over that. They had in their midst a fornicator and they didn't do anything about it. They didn't practice church discipline. And oh yeah, in fact, not only did they not do anything about it, but they were glorying in it.

Oh, and by the way, by the time you get to about chapter 6, you read about that some of them were bringing lawsuits against others within the church. So some of them were so carnal that they were going out and bringing others in the church before the court of law in Corinth, a very pagan city. When they came When they came for the Lord's Supper, they weren't coming to worship the Lord, they were coming to have a big old feast. So much so that some of them were hungry and some of them were drunk. So they were out each for their own.

The church was a mess. Instead of solid teaching going on there, there was bickering and confusion. Instead of unity, there was division. Instead of spirituality, there was carnality. Let me ask you this.

A pagan who lived in Corinth, who worshiped multiple gods, and went and hung out with the temple prostitutes, or maybe even one of the temple prostitutes themselves, saw what was going on with the church at Corinth, do you think that they were attracted in any way at all to Christianity based on the lives of that church? The answer is no. Why would they be? The only thing they ever heard about that church was negativity. They were so focused on self, so driven on selfishness.

Even the exercise of gifts, as we're reading about here in chapter 14, was for self-edification and ego-building. They didn't care that there was nothing edifying about it, that it wasn't doing any good for the furtherance of the gospel. They were ignoring the Great Commission. There was no outreach happening from Corinth. No outreach happening from Corinth.

And when anyone happened to visit the congregation, they couldn't even understand what was going on. Nobody could get anything out of the service because of this whole tongues thing. No spiritual growth, no gospel outreach. And you say, well, that's not our problem. We don't have tongues.

We don't do that in Baptist churches. Well tongues are no tongues, the results are the same with an immature carnal bickering church. That's what happens. There's no growth, and it's all a mess. Verse 21 says, in the law it is written by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people and even so they will not listen to me says the Lord." So Paul is rebuking them about their carnality and their lack of spiritual growth and he begins to pull from the Old Testament.

He's taking this text. You notice in your legacy standard Bible, it's all in capital letters. There's a reason for that. This is coming from the Old Testament. Anytime you see it's all in capital letters in your LSB, that's a quote from the Old Testament.

Comes from Isaiah chapter 28 verses 11 and 12. And we're gonna kind of pull this all together here in just a minute, but he goes on in verse 22. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. But prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. He says, all right, so understand something.

As he quotes from Isaiah, and he brings this together, he says, he says, tongues are for a sign, not for those who believe, but for the unbelievers. On the day of Pentecost when we first read about this and they understood the way that they did it was a sign and every Jew who heard it should have known judgment was coming soon. This was a big deal. In Isaiah's time, this is why the quote is so important, in Isaiah's day the judgment came on the northern kingdom as the Babylonians descended upon them with strange language. That's why he put this here.

By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers, I will speak to this people. Even so, they will not listen to me. This is a pattern throughout all the Old Testament, not only Isaiah, but Deuteronomy 28, 49. Yahweh will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth. As the eagle swoops down, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand.

Jeremiah five and verse 15, behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel declares Yahweh. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose tongue you do not know, nor can you understand what they say." And so now, fast forward to the first century, now all of a sudden the day of Pentecost comes. They're all gathered together and they begin hearing. What's it say? Go with me to Acts chapter 2.

This is important, we don't want to miss this. Acts chapter 2 and verse 1, and when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared to them tongues like fire, distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

When this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. So they were astonished, they were astounded rather, and marveling saying, Behold are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born? And So they began hearing all these different languages but understanding. This is something that was key to understand.

And indeed judgment did come upon them. This was a sign for the unbelieving Jews And this is what Paul is trying to tell the Corinthians. This was a sign. Judgment did come. And we see it.

By AD 70, when the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem. With that destruction of Jerusalem, Judaism was destroyed, the sacrificial system, the temple, all of it gone. And even 2, 000 years later they have not recovered from it. And so by linking this all up, We have to understand, the speaking in tongues was never intended for Christians. It was a sign for unbelieving Jews.

So that he would know, they would know, that God was going to act in judgment. We find in the scriptures, Jesus warned him about what was coming. In Luke chapter 13. Verse 35. Behold, your house has left you desolate.

I say to you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Chapter 21, verse 20 says, Chapter 21, verse 20 says, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand." He's not talking about modern Jerusalem, he's talking about Jerusalem then. He's talking about what happened in AD 70 when the Romans came and surrounded Jerusalem and destroyed it. He was warning that generation. Verse 24 and Lev 21, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all nations and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

You see, judgment was coming. And that's why every time that tongues happened in the New Testament, Acts chapter 2, chapter 8, 10, 19, wherever it is, the read about tongues in the New Testament there were always Jews present and yes believing Jews too but but Jews so that they would report back what they had seen and heard. And some say well yeah but the church is involved and that's another piece of this judgment coming to the Jews because there's a transition. A transition that's taking place. Yes, this was a sign of judgment but a blessing too.

The day of Pentecost, what happened? Three thousand Jews were saved on the day of Pentecost, but something different was happening insofar as that Jesus had started a church during his earthly ministry. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is empowering that church, that church. And that church that church. And that church would be both Jew and Gentile.

You see, whereas before, you take your Bible and you see there's a division. Before, God had been working primarily with the Jews. Primarily with the Jews. But when you get into the New Testament, you begin to see what's happening in the New Testament, Beginning with the book of Acts especially, you begin to see that God is moving from Israel to open the Gospel to the nations. And this tongues was a sign, a sign to the unbelieving Jews that God is moving from Israel to open the gospel to the nations.

Now, that's what Paul is pointing out here, that this was for a sign to the for a sign to the unbelieving Jews. At what point do they no longer need the sign? When did we arrive to that point? Well, the church was empowered. We see that.

We see those things. But when the temple was torn down, It's a pretty big indication. Temple worship is done. There's no more sacrifices being made because per the Old Testament laws, there's certain things that have to happen. With great clarity, we see the churches moving forward, and oh by the way, even though modern Israel is back, the land promises are being fulfilled.

Guess what? Where the temple mound is, there's no possibility of them building a temple right now. Because there's a big old dome sitting there. You can go look at it on the map, you can go to Israel and find out about it, that it's under Islamic control at the moment. There's no temple there.

They can't restart the temple sacrifices. All that started in 8070 when the temple was 70 when the temple was destroyed by the Romans and all that was the judgment of God. Tongues were a sign to the unbelieving Jews. At what point do we no longer need a sign? If we're traveling to get home, we're driving along the road, the interstate, And we see a sign that says Brunswick, 100 miles.

That's a good thing. That means we're on our way home. And we see another sign that says Brunswick, 50 miles. That means we're still on the right road. There's another sign that says Brunswick, 25 miles.

We're still on the right road. And eventually we see a sign that says exit 29 Brunswick. We know we take that exit and eventually we're home. We no longer need a sign, we've arrived home. Signs don't go on forever and ever.

We don't need signs all the time. And so it is with tongues. The modern tongues movement is what I'm trying to say is the modern tongues movement is a fraud. It wasn't intended to go on forever and ever. In fact, that's why the modern tongues movement is only about 100 years old.

You won't find tongues going on and on and on throughout all church history. They ceased just like the Bible said they would. The most spiritual of all people, whether you're looking at the Baptists, the Puritans, some of the great reformers as spiritual as they were, the revival men, the great men of history who were close to the Lord, who got into the Bible and studied and looked at these things. None of them spoke in tongues, but there were some fringe group out there about a hundred years ago that started it. It's a fraud.

Started it. It's a fraud. And That's what we find here in the Bible, is it was for a sign. There's no need for it. And all the arguments that Paul was given to the church of Corinth apply today.

They apply today. I don't care what commentator you follow after, as long as it's a good one, whether it's John Gill, Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes, B.H. Carroll, John MacArthur, none of the solid Bible teachers. And these go across some wide variety of individuals, some Puritan, some Baptist, some Presbyterian, it doesn't matter. None of them, none of them taught that tongues taught that tongues were to continue.

And so if you come across some church or some preacher who says, well, you're not saved unless you can speak in tongues. He's lying. He's lying. He's a fraudster. Get away from him.

Go somewhere else. Verse 23, therefore if the whole church assembles together in all speaking tongues, and uninformed men or unbelievers enter, will they not say you are out of your mind? First of all, I want you to notice something here in this text that it is assumed that the church can assemble. He says if the whole church assembles together, this is an assumption that the church is local. Nowhere and no time has any kind of a universal church ever assembled together.

This is assumed that he's talking about a local church. That's the only kind of church there is. If the whole church assembles together, he's talking about a local, a local, visible church. In this case, the church at Corinth meets together in one place. And then secondly we notice that if all speak in tongues, if everyone had the gift of tongues as what the the Church of Corinth thought, And the uninformed or an unbeliever comes in, they will think that you've gone crazy.

They'll think you're out of your mind. Well, why is that you might ask? Well, a Gentile would not understand what the sign is for. Remember this, and I can't hammer this enough, this was a sign for unbelieving Jews. So a Gentile wouldn't understand what this is for, but even a Jew would not understand if there's no interpreter.

It would be chaos, and that's what it is in the modern tongues movement. That's what it was in the church at Corinth. Again, going back to a previous lesson, some commentators thought that the Church of Corinth was using an ancient Hebrew language that hardly nobody understood. Others thought they were using just gibberish, but whatever the case may be, in the modern tongues movement it's chaos. And if you come into a church like that, it is chaos.

People will think that you've gone crazy. There's no edification there. Verses 24 and 25, but if all prophesy and an unbeliever, uninformed man enters, he is convinced by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that surely God is among you." Tongues very limited, very regulated for a time that has long passed. For the edification of the church and the salvation of sinners, they do no good. We must, excuse me, we must as a people and as a church hold up the Word of God.

That has to be our only rule of faith and practice. And so that when an unbeliever, uninformed man enters, he is convinced by all, called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed and he will fall his face worship God declaring that surely God is among you." So with that we'll close