Tongues, Healing and Baptism in the Spirit by Michael Penfold

Good afternoon, all. Shall we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, verse 4:

"They, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, 'Ye have heard of Me. For John truly—John the Baptist—truly baptized with water, but ye should be baptized with the Holy Ghost, or in the Holy Spirit, not many days hence.'"

When they, therefore, were come together, they asked of Him, saying, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And He said unto them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."

So, you notice in verse 5, the baptism in the Spirit—the Lord Jesus says it’s "not many days hence," just about to happen.

Now, over to chapter 2, verse 1: "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."

And now to verse 22, Peter’s words about the Lord Jesus: "Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved"—notice the word there, "approved"—"of God among you by"—this is the purpose for miracles—"wonders, and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know."

Now, a couple of verses from the first epistle to the Corinthians, please. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13: "For by"—literally "in"—"one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink in one Spirit." Notice, every believer has been baptized in the Spirit—all.

Now, look down to verse 30: "Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?" The answer to all those questions is "no." So, we can see quite clearly that all are baptized in the Spirit, but not all, even in the New Testament, spoke with tongues.

Chapter 14, verse 22, is the only place in the Bible that tells you what tongues were for—well, it explicitly gives you one of the purposes of tongues. Verse 22 of chapter 14: "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, finally, Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 18: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit."

Now, may the Lord bless those scattered readings to our hearts this afternoon.

As you read your Bible, you will come across miracles, healings, speaking in tongues, and other things that make you think to yourself, "I don’t see that happening around me today." And so, perhaps in your mind, there’s a disconnect: maybe we’re not living a true New Testament-type experience. Then, the next thing, you bump into someone at school or college, and they say, "Well, in our church, we have all these things, and God is doing wonderful things today. I’d like you to come with me to this Spring Harvest convention," or whatever it is, "or go on the Alpha Course with me." And there, you’re introduced to Christians who believe that these things should be with us today.

If you’re familiar with the Alpha Course, which runs in many churches in this country, in the book Questions of Life by Nicky Gumbel, there’s an instruction manual in chapter 9 on how to speak in tongues. Millions of people all around the world, and perhaps hundreds of thousands in England, have gone on this course, and on the middle weekend, they are instructed how to speak in tongues.

Here we are: "Ask God to fill you with His Spirit and give you the gift of tongues. Go on seeking Him until you find." This is the sort of instruction:

1. Open your mouth and start to praise God in any language—English or any other language known to you.
2. Believe that what you receive is from God.
3. Don’t let anyone tell you that you made it up.
4. Persevere—languages take time to develop.

And so it goes on.

All around us, in Christian bookstores and even in music books—I was just looking through Mission Praise the other day, and in number 226, it talks about "Healing Christ, Healing Spirit, Healing Church," and it prays: "Renew your wonders as of a new Pentecost." We’re living in an age where people want to see signs and wonders, miracles, and tongues reintroduced.

Now, I believe absolutely firmly that the tongues people speak today are merely naturally produced sounds that anyone can produce under the right circumstances. I won’t give you a demonstration of it, but you can practice it quite quickly and easily and become quite adept at it if you want to. I don’t believe real healings are happening today either. In these big crusades they have in Earls Court, with Benny Hinn and Maurice Cerullo and so on, people are not being healed of AIDS and cancer.

However, despite the fact that what’s on hand today is counterfeit or merely natural, we still need to look at what the Bible says, because we need to have answers, and we need to be ready to give answers to those that ask us. People have been swept up by the thousands into this movement and even deceived by these things—even within our own assemblies and families, there are those who have been caught up in these kinds of things.

So, what is the baptism in the Spirit? We don’t have a lot of time today to go into great depth—this subject alone could take a week of ministry—but what is the baptism in the Spirit?

The New Testament uses this expression just a handful of times. Here we have it in Acts chapter 1. The Lord Jesus says, "You will be baptized in the Holy Spirit very shortly." John the Baptist mentions it, doesn’t he? He says, "I’m going to baptize you in water, but when the Lord Jesus comes, He’ll baptize you in the Holy Spirit." And so, in chapter 2 of the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost, that special feast day 50 days after the Passover, the words of the Lord Jesus were fulfilled. For the first time in history, the baptism in the Spirit took place. There was no baptism in the Spirit in the Old Testament—this is something new, unique, inaugural, and very special.

It’s also mentioned in chapter 11, but even there it’s referring back to chapter 2: "Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'Ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.'" And the last reference to the baptism in the Holy Spirit is found in 1 Corinthians 12:13.

If you have that passage open, 1 Corinthians 12:13, what is Paul trying to say there in the context?

I remember Tom Bender, years ago, spoke to a young man in a Bible reading and said, "Would you like to have been in the assembly in Corinth?" Well, I was such a young man, I didn’t know what the assembly in Corinth was like, but I found out later that it was a terrible assembly. They were all fighting each other, struggling, wanting to show off their gifts, and splitting in all kinds of directions.

So, Paul, in chapter 12, says, "Now listen, the assembly is a body. We can’t all be an eye, we can’t all be an ear. The body has to work together to function, and Christ is the head, and we are the body." Then he brings in the baptism in the Holy Spirit in the middle of this discussion. He goes right back to the beginning and says, "Look, all of us"—whether you take this to mean on the day of Pentecost or at conversion, it doesn’t really matter—"all of us have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, every single one of us." The result of this action of the Lord Jesus Christ in baptizing us in the Holy Spirit is that He has put us into one body.

So, Paul is using this illustration here, bringing in the fact of the baptism in one Spirit, to say that all God's people are one in Christ.

Years ago, God only had one people—the Jewish nation—but now, as the exalted head in heaven, His body is made up of Jews and Gentiles. Something new happened at Pentecost: a body came into existence. How did that body come into existence?

The Lord Jesus took some converted sinners, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, and put them all into the Holy Spirit—literally immersed them in the Holy Spirit—and brought into being this new thing, the body of Christ. So we now have the church linked to Christ in heaven, baptized in the Holy Spirit. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, we are all together in that one body.

Now, interestingly, just on our way through here, in the book of Acts, there are at least a couple of places where there's a gap between people getting saved and receiving the Holy Spirit. One is in chapter 8 with some people called the Samaritans, and another is in chapter 19 with the disciples of John the Baptist. The reason for the gap is to preserve what we've just been talking about—the unity of the body of Christ.

The Samaritans, in chapter 8, lived in a place called Samaria, where they hated the Jews. That's still a troubled spot today—it's in the West Bank, in a place called Nablus. They hated the Jews, and although they got saved, the Lord set it up in such a way that they wouldn't actually receive the Holy Spirit until they had allowed the Jewish apostles from Jerusalem—the place and the people that they despised—to lay hands on them, not in a sort of charismatic impartation way, but simply as an identification. A Samaritan wouldn't even let a Jew touch him. To allow these Jews to actually lay hands on them, as if to shake hands and say, "We're with you," and then the Holy Spirit came so that there wasn't two churches, a Samaritan church and a Jewish church—there was but one body.

In chapter 19, the people who were still confused about the baptism of John, and the Lord said no, that dispensation has passed; we're now in the church age. And as they accepted believers' baptism, then they were filled with the Holy Spirit. So, those temporary delays and gaps in the book of Acts all have their contextual explanation. But for us today, the normative experience is that the moment a person is saved, they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. They come into the good of that very act on the day of Pentecost and become part of the body of Christ.

Now, we must distinguish, and it's on your handout, between water baptism and spirit baptism. For every baptism, there are four elements. You have a candidate, an element, a baptizer, and a result. So, in water baptism, who is the candidate? The person being baptized is the saved sinner. What is the element? The element is water; they’re going to be immersed in the water. Who is the baptizer? Another Christian, perhaps an evangelist or an assembly elder, who will be doing the baptizing. And what is the result? That person has obeyed the Lord Jesus, they have a good conscience toward God, and they go on their way rejoicing.

Now, think about that in relation to spirit baptism. Who are the candidates for spirit baptism? Again, it is those who have repented and trusted in Christ—it’s those who are saved. What is the element? Into what are they baptized? See, this is where we need to get our terminology right. You all talk about people saying, "Have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit?" Now, the Holy Spirit baptizes nobody. What did John the Baptist say? "I baptize you in water, but there cometh one after me mightier than I; He will baptize you." It is the Lord Jesus who baptizes repentant sinners in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the element. Who is the baptizer? The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And what is the result? The result is that you become a member of the body of Christ, of which He is the head.

You see, if you're not baptized in the Spirit, you're not a member of the body of Christ, because that is what happens to someone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit. So, the moment a person gets saved, they become, at that moment in time, a member of the body of Christ, and they can say of themselves, "We've all been baptized into one body."

Now, we need to distinguish at this point between the baptism in the Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. It's staggering to find even theologians and Bible commentators who make no distinction between those two. Dear old R. A. Torrey, and even in more recent days, Walter Martin and others, I've read some of their books—they say it's a synonymous thing. There’s no difference. Call it what you like, it's the same. Well, you can say it's the same, but the Bible quite clearly teaches it’s not the same, and it cannot be the same.

Let me give an illustration which I hope even the youngest will understand. If I fill this cup, what do I do with it? I put something inside it. If I baptize this cup, what do I do with it? I put the cup inside a tank of water, let's say. They are actually very, very different concepts, and as you see on your sheet in front of you, there are very strong differences between the baptism in the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit.

So, when we think of the filling of the Holy Spirit, we're thinking that the Holy Spirit is in me or in us. When we think of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we're thinking that we are in Him. It might be two sides of one coin in that sense, but they are different concepts. For instance, perhaps at home, you've got a goldfish in a bowl. That goldfish, to live and be a fish, depends on two things: the fish needs to be in the water, and the water needs to be in the fish. For us to live, for human beings to survive and thrive, we need to be in the atmosphere—the air—but the air also needs to be in us. We need to breathe. Fish life, human life—that analogy holds true for spiritual life. For spiritual life, you need to be in the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Holy Spirit the moment you're saved, but also the Holy Spirit needs to be in you.

That is spiritual life. So, to be filled with the Spirit is not to have more and more and more of the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is for the Holy Spirit to have more and more of you. Because you cannot have half the Holy Spirit or three-quarters of the Holy Spirit when you get saved. Yes, you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, but you're also filled with the Holy Spirit, and that is an experience that brings you into fellowship with the Godhead. And throughout the rest of your life, it is urgent and impressed upon us there in Ephesians that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, what does that actually mean? Well, of course, it's something literal. The Holy Spirit literally fills the believer, but we can think of it in this way. Perhaps this week, somebody did something terrible to you, and you lost your temper, and at that moment, you are filled with rage. You are filled with anger. Now, what do we mean when we say "filled with" in that context? It means that you're controlled by that emotion. It means that you're taken over by anger at that point.

Or perhaps you've just started going out with a young lady, and you're greatly in love. You're filled with love. You can think of nothing else all day long, only this new relationship that you're in, because it's taken over. Now, that's the same thought here in the filling of the Spirit. For a believer, it's to be controlled by, governed by—not the world, and the thinking of the world, and the ambitions of the world—but by the Holy Spirit.

So, just look there on your sheet, and let's go down those little columns in the middle section to compare the baptism in the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit. The baptism in the Spirit is a fact to be believed, to accept that that happened to you when you got saved. It's something that has been done and dusted, as it were, to use a normal expression. But the filling of the Spirit is a command to be obeyed. The Bible never says, "Be baptized," does it? But it does say, "Be filled."

Secondly, the baptism of the Spirit is true positionally of all saints. By "positionally," we mean it's a fact—whether you feel it or not, whether you remember it or not, or whether you understand it or not, it's true positionally of you if you are saved. But the filling of the Spirit is not positional truth—it’s conditional. It's a daily experience. It can be true conditionally of all saints.

Thirdly, baptism in the Spirit refers to one's standing in Christ—how one actually appears before the Lord, that you are in His body—that's where you stand. But the filling of the Spirit relates to your state, your daily condition.

Fourthly, the baptism in the Spirit is an unrepeatable, once-for-all act. Now, there is a dispute whether it's at conversion or at Pentecost. I don't want to get into that debate today, but to say that it’s happened. You see, the Pentecostal movement—I was just listening this week to sort of refresh my mind on how people in this movement think. I clicked on a website and listened to Terry Virgo. Terry Virgo is the head of the New Frontiers Church movement, a very big charismatic movement. Stuart Townend, who wrote the hymn How Deep the Father's Love for Us and one or two other hymns that are floating about, is a member of the New Frontiers Church. And as I was listening to Terry Virgo, he was saying we need to remember that the baptism in the Spirit is something separate from conversion. It doesn't happen when you're saved. It's a second experience that you have to have. No. It's an unrepeatable, once-for-all act that's already happened. And if it hasn't happened, you're not saved because you're not in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).

But the filling of the Spirit—that's something that must be maintained daily. As we read the Word of God, as we pray, as we fellowship together, and as we obey the Lord, we let the Holy Spirit fill every aspect and avenue of our life.

Finally, the baptism in the Spirit is something that brings us into Christ's body, the Church, whereas the filling of the Spirit doesn't bring us into anything.

It fits us and empowers us for daily service for Him. So, I trust that has been helpful—very brief, but an outline of what the baptism in the Spirit is. It's something that's happened to every believer. It puts them into the body of Christ. It's an act done by the Lord Jesus. It doesn't have to be waited for or prayed for. There should never be any delay in our day and generation.

But the filling of the Spirit is that daily allowing the Spirit of God to have His way in our lives as we obey the Scriptures. Now, let's move on to this question of tongues and healing. Where do they fit into this whole equation? Tongues and healing are gifts. You'll see at the bottom of your sheet a list of 21 gifts. By the way, that's where we get the term "charismatic" from. In Greek, the word for gift, when you're reading in the New Testament about gifts, is charisma. So, if you believe in the gifts, you're a charismatic. That's where the name comes from.

In that sense, we should all be charismatic because we're not afraid of the word "gift." So, tongues and healing and the other things on your list—all 21—are gifts. What is a gift? A gift is a divine capability, a divine capacity that's given to every believer to enable them to serve the Lord. And everybody in this room who's saved has a gift—or more than one gift. "I don't know what my gift is," you might say. Well, maybe you'll find out today. Every believer has a gift, or more than one gift. The moment you're saved, you're gifted and given capacities and capabilities for service.

So, let's look at three things: the recipients of gifts, the reason for gifts, and the range of gifts.

First, the recipients of the gifts. All believers. Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and Ephesians chapter 4 tell us that all believers are given gifts when they're saved to fit them for service.

Why is that? The reason for gifts is, number two, to edify one another and to equip us for service. Remember, Ephesians 4 tells us that when the Lord Jesus went back to heaven, He gave gifts for the equipping of the saints. Mind you, the meetings would be dull if nobody had any gifts. And Christianity would be dull if nobody had any capabilities or divinely granted ministries from the risen Christ. Don't we all look back on ways in which others have blessed, edified, and strengthened us as they used the gifts that God had given them?

What about the range of gifts? Well, here's the range on your sheet—21 different gifts. Notice they're divided into two columns: passing gifts and permanent gifts. The word passing there means temporary. They've passed away; they were there for a while, now they're gone. They're passing gifts. You have different groups of gifts: passing servant gifts, passing service gifts, and passing sign gifts. All of these gifts have ceased. That's why, if you believe that, you're called a cessationist. If somebody calls you that one day, don't be frightened. It's a perfectly normal thing to be a cessationist. It means you believe the gifts on the left-hand column here have passed away. They ceased. There has been a cessation.

If you believe that, you're called a cessationist rather than a charismatic. Now, just look at your list and see if you can find tongues and healing. What box are they in? They're in the bottom left-hand box in the passing sign gifts. Why do we call tongues and healing sign gifts?

In the old days, we used to try and follow the signs, and it was terribly annoying when you got to that crucial roundabout, and there was no sign there. There never seems to be a street name when you're looking for a certain street! A sign is a pointer, something that points the way and indicates a certain direction. So, these gifts—these sign gifts—indicate something. Somebody gets healed. What does it mean? Somebody speaks in tongues. What does it mean? It indicates something.

What does it indicate? In Mark chapter 16, when the Lord goes back to heaven, He says, "These signs shall follow: They shall speak in tongues; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." And so, as Mark 16 says, they went forth preaching, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. So, when the apostles stood up on the day of Pentecost and spoke in languages—real languages—that would normally take at least six months to learn, and they were instantly, supernaturally able to speak in these languages, it was a sign. God is at work. These men must be messengers from God.

When Peter and John were able to heal the man at the beautiful gate, it stunned the people. The Jewish nation, which was seeking signs, was able to say, "These aren't just ignorant fishermen. God is with these people." And to the Jewish nation at that time, those were signs indicating God at work.

Now, the word sign isn't the only word used in the Bible for miracles. Sometimes you get the word wonders. Do you remember we read in Acts 2:22: "signs, miracles, and wonders"? Do you know the other places it's used?

Now, as I move into the closing section, I want to divide this section on the sign gifts into four. I'm going to give you four headings. I want to talk about the purpose of the sign gifts. Secondly, the power of the sign gifts. Then we'll look at the pattern of the sign gifts. And finally, the period of the sign gifts.

What was the purpose of these sign gifts? We've already mentioned it. It was a token of God's authority and approval. You know that wonderful passage in John chapter 3 where Nicodemus comes to the Lord Jesus. We're all familiar with "You must be born again." Do you remember what he says in verses 1 and 2? "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God because nobody can do the miracles that you do unless God is with him." So, the purpose of the miracles Jesus performed wasn't to solve all the world's health problems. When He went to the pool of Bethesda, He only healed one man.

If you think the healing and gifts were to solve the world's health problems, you'd think Jesus was terribly cruel to only heal one man. But Jesus did those miracles for a reason. When He turned water into wine, was it a party trick at a wedding? No! This beginning of miracles did Jesus and manifested His glory. The purpose of signs was to show God's glory, approval, and authority.

In the New Testament, no Christian was ever healed by another Christian. These were individual miracles performed on unbelievers as a sign that God was at work.

Now, let's look at the power of signs. If you go back to Acts chapter 2, just before we started, what are the disciples doing? Peter has denied the Lord. Judas has betrayed Him and hung himself. They thought their world had come to an end. "We thought this had been the Messiah!" Fast forward a few weeks, and those same men have turned the world upside down. Eight thousand people have been saved, and suddenly the whole of the Middle East is alive with the gospel. What's happened? They've been empowered with power from on high. They've received the Holy Spirit and were able to speak in tongues and perform mighty miracles. God bore them witness with signs, wonders, and miracles. On the day of Pentecost, people said, "How is it that we can hear these people speaking in the languages we were born into? This is incredible!" It opened their minds and ears to hear and understand the gospel.

Now, let's look at the pattern of signs. You would think, when talking to charismatic folks, that there were miracles all over the Bible. There were miracles in the Garden of Eden, miracles in heaven, and miracles everywhere in between. But where are all the miracles? Where would you find them? There are only three main groups of miracles, with the odd one here and there in between. Samson did a few, and so on.

But there are actually three groups of miracles in our Bible, and there's a recycling pattern that we can observe. What were the first signs in the Bible? They were the signs connected with Moses. There's a law in Biblical interpretation called the law of first mention. The first time a thing is mentioned usually sets the pattern for how that is seen through the rest of Scripture.

What's the first miracle in the Bible? Moses! He's sent to go and deliver Israel. And Moses says, "Lord, they won't believe. They won't be convinced. They will not follow." The Lord says, "Listen, put your hand into your coat, take it out, put it back in, take it out again." It went leprous and not leprous within seconds. "Throw your rod on the ground, pick it up again," it turned into a snake. "Strike the water and it turns into blood." Armed with these signs, Moses heads for Egypt.

He comes to the elders of Israel at the end of Exodus chapter 4, and they scratch their heads and look at him as if to say, "Huh, you think you're going to deliver us from Pharaoh? Have you ever seen what those taskmasters are like? Have you ever seen how many chariots he's got? How many soldiers?" And Moses throws his rod on the ground, turns the water into blood, and makes his hand leprous. You know what it says in Exodus chapter 4? When they saw, they believed.

That's the pattern. The pattern is that through signs, God overcomes unbelief in the nation of Israel. In conjunction with that, He reveals scripture upon scripture. So, here we have Moses and the signs, and he writes the Pentateuch. When that is done, the signs dry up. They go into the land—no more signs. Scripture, as it were, for that period of time has been completed, and we move on.

A long, long time goes by. The second period of signs begins. A thousand years before the Lord Jesus was born, there was a man called Elijah the Tishbite. Elijah and Elisha come on the scene. Elijah does twice as many miracles as Elijah. What is the context there? A nation in unbelief, where everything is Baal, where the people are bowing down to idols. God says, "There's going to be no dew, no rain." Another period of signs begins.

These unbelieving Jews, in apostasy, are dragged up to Mount Carmel, where Elijah prays, and the fire falls down. When they see it, what do they say? "The Lord, He is the God." These were the signs and miracles used, and what happened at that point was the prophetic word was ushered in again. Isaiah starts to write, along with all those prophets—Amos, Hosea—ushering in the prophetic word during the period of Elijah and Elisha. Then it all falls silent. No more signs, no more miracles.

In fact, for 400 years between the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, there was absolute and complete silence—no miracles, no scripture. Suddenly, the eastern sky is lit up with the voice of a multitude of angels: "This day is born a Savior, a Messiah, the prophesied one of old. What will He do? He will set at liberty the captives. He will bring pleasure to the oppressed. He will perform miracles, wonders, and signs because He is the Messiah."

The Lord Jesus and the apostles bring in the final wave of miracles and signs. What goes hand in hand with this? Scripture. Within a very short space of time, the entire New Testament is written, and when it's all over and the apostles die, God says, "That's it." For the last 2,000 years, there have been no new scripture, no signs, miracles, tongues, healings, or wonders. Why? Because there's a pattern—a pattern that explains when and how these intense periods of miracles and signs occurred.

The emerging pattern is this: a nation called Israel. God deals with them by signs. "The Jews require a sign," as 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22 says. What did they come to the Lord Jesus and ask? "Lord, show us a sign." God dealt with that nation for thousands of years through signs. So tongues and healings, they're not only gifts—they're also signs, and not just any signs. When we connect them to Moses, God's man; Elijah and Elisha, God's men; and to Christ and the apostles, we find that tongues and healing are apostolic signs.

Now you ask, "What do you mean by apostolic signs?" If you were to go to your local charismatic church—I'm sure there's one within striking distance—it wouldn't be long before you would probably get the impression that perhaps you could do miracles, speak in tongues, and lay hands on people. There are groups in our town who, every Saturday morning, go down into town, set up a banner saying "Healing," play music, set out chairs, and spend hours trying to stop people and get them to sit down so they can lay hands on them and pray.

I'm presuming these dear people believe that God can use them to heal—that He can use Stan, Fred, Mary, and all the rest of them. They've all got this gift, they think, and the Lord can use them. But that turns scripture on its head because these gifts, in the bottom left-hand box on your list, are not just signs—they are called in scripture "the signs of an apostle." They're apostolic signs, not just gifts. It might be worth turning to scripture now. Come with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

Why did Paul write 2 Corinthians? You might say, "I've always found it a difficult book." Well, that makes two of us! As Paul writes 2 Corinthians, he is defending himself. False teachers have come in and said, "You don't want to listen to Paul. He's just a little myopic chap who thinks he knows everything." So Paul writes to them, saying, "For all these reasons, I am a true apostle." He could have taken money from them but didn't. He had the right, but refused that right. He gives all the reasons why he's genuine and not a fake, as they claimed.

Then he says in chapter 12, verse 11, "I am become a fool in glorying." In other words, "I shouldn't be doing this, talking about myself, but you've forced me to do it by following these false teachers." Paul continues, "For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles." Then, feeling embarrassed to say this, he adds, "Though I be nothing." Verse 12 follows: "Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds."

Now let me say this clearly: if everyone had been able to perform miracles and signs, that verse would make no sense at all. Paul is saying, "I must be an apostle because I can do miracles." If everyone could do miracles, everyone would be an apostle—but they weren't. Every miracle in the New Testament was performed either by an apostle or someone closely associated with an apostle. That is powerful because if tongues and healing are apostolic signs, and we don't have apostles today, guess what? We don't have those signs either.

Now, let's imagine that in 50 years, the world runs out of oil. A hundred years from now, you're writing a history of the world. You get to the chapter about when oil ran out and write, "Yes, 2060, oil ran out, and it was a terrible time." Someone might say, "But you didn't mention the petrol stations closing!" Well, that's obvious. If the oil ran out, everything related to oil changed. In the same way, in the New Testament, when the apostles are gone, the signs of the apostles are gone.

This is fundamental. We don't have to debate whether "that which is perfect" in 1 Corinthians 13 refers to heaven or the Bible—I'm quite happy to say it's the Bible—but we can step back and ask, "What were these signs?" They were signs of an apostle. The apostles have gone, and if the apostles are gone, the signs of an apostle are gone.

How do we know the apostles are gone? Some might think apostles are still here. The Roman Catholic Church believes in apostolic succession, but there is no such thing. Yes, Judas was replaced so that we began the church age with 12, but when James was killed in Acts chapter 12, he was not replaced. None of the apostles were replaced—they were the foundation. The apostles are gone, and if the apostles are gone, the signs of an apostle are gone too.

Finally, let's look at the period of the sign gifts. We looked at the three patterns: the signs under Moses, Elijah and Elisha, and Christ and the apostles. Now I want to focus on tongues. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 22, we read that tongues are a sign to the unbeliever—a sign of what? Let's look back at three instances, or two additional ones, where there’s a pattern in connection with languages.

The pattern is this: God gives a message to the people, they refuse to listen, God causes languages or tongues to be heard as a sign of judgment, and God disperses the people. Where did this first happen? Genesis chapter 11, the Tower of Babel. What was God’s message to the people?

God gives a message: scatter, disperse, and replenish the earth after the flood. That's the command. Secondly, the men refuse. "We're not going to be scattered unless we be destroyed. We want to build a tower. We're going to stick together—one tower, one city, one government, one currency." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? "Let's have a one-world government" here in Babel.

So how did God judge them? He confused their languages, and they're all talking in different languages which they've never learned. The result is they're scattered.

God gives a message; the people refuse; God confuses the languages; and they're scattered.

Genesis 11 is the first instance. The second is in the Kings and the Chronicles. God gives a message to his erring people: "Repent! Turn from your idols! Stop worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth. Come to me!" What do the people say? "We will have none of thy counsel!" They cut Isaiah in half and they killed Zechariah between the altar and so on. They did not listen to the message of the prophet.

So what did God do? You might not remember anything about languages. Well, in 1 Corinthians 14:21, he quotes a scripture from Isaiah just before saying that tongues are for a sign. The scripture he quotes is this: "With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people." This is a quote from Isaiah 28.

You know, if you're a little child—there are some children here today—if you're a little child in those days, you never went out of your village. Certainly, you never went further than the next big town, so you never heard foreign languages. You never heard Hebrew. All of a sudden, one day, you're going out into your backyard, and here's this great big horse coming down the road. In fact, there's a whole crowd of horses, and there are some strange-looking men sitting on those horses, and they're speaking a strange language.

What language are they speaking? Assyrian. They had invaded the land, and the voice of the Assyrians in the land was a sign of judgment. "We've gone too far now; we're going to be dragged off into captivity." The message? "Repent from your idolatry!" The people refused the message; they heard the foreign language of the Assyrian invaders, and they were scattered.

Now, come to the New Testament, and with this we close. What's the message? "Come unto me," says the Lord Jesus, "and I will give you rest. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." They got the message. What did they do with the message? They said, "We will not have this man to reign over us! Away with him! Crucify him!"

So what did God do on the day of Pentecost? He brought in foreign languages. These foreign languages that were heard on the day of Pentecost were a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. To that mass—perhaps a million or more Jewish people on the day of Pentecost—suddenly God is saying, "Do you hear all these languages? That's where I'm going with the gospel! I'm going to take the gospel to every kindred, and every tongue, and every people. You're not going to have the gospel exclusively anymore; the gospel's going out to all nations, and you as a nation will be judged."

What happened was, in A.D. 70, Prince Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem. Apparently, they ran out of trees to crucify them on as judgment came, and the great diaspora took place—the dispersing of the Jewish people—and tongues ceased.

I have just in my library at home a rather large, dusty set of books called the Church Fathers. These are the writings of men who lived just the next few hundred years after Christ: people like Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Irenaeus. It is very interesting to read some of the things they say because it lets you know what went on at that time, at that early time. There are many quotes I could bring, but in this one here, there's a man called Augustine. He's writing in the late 300s, just about 250 years after the apostles were around. He says here on page 498 of volume 7 of the Post-Nicene Fathers: "In the earliest times"—and of course, for us, that's 2000 years ago, but for him, it was 200 years ago—"in the earliest times, the Holy Ghost fell on them that believed, and they spake with tongues which they had not learned as the Spirit gave them utterance. These signs," says Augustine, "were adapted to the time, for there behoved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues to show that the gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away."

It was widely acknowledged in the early church that the purpose of the gifts was temporary; it served its purpose, and it did indeed pass away.

What are we left with? Oh, we've got no gifts, and God has forsaken us, and now we've got to just sing hymns and be boring. No, no, no! Be filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered by that Holy Spirit! Yes, the spectacular sign gifts have gone, but there are plenty more gifts on the right-hand side of that column. Let us be exercised, yes, to see through the falseness around us, but to be filled with the Spirit and to use the gifts that God gives.

Original audio at https://gospelhallaudio.org/sermons/tongues-healing-and-baptism-in-the-spirit-50-min/