Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1144 Tongues - 2024/09/10
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Laubek. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's Word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. From the devotional A.W. Tozer pursuing God, 1 Peter 115, as he which has called you is holy, so he shall be ye holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Peter 115, what is the apostle Peter saying to us in the line to us God's exhortation be holy as I am holy and because I am holy. First is our responsibility to bring our spiritual lives into line so that God may settle upon us with the Holy Spirit with the quality of the wonderful and mysterious and the divine. This is not something that can be humanly cultivated. This is something that we will not even be conscious we have. It is this quality of humility invaded by the presence of God which the church of our day lacks. Oh, that we might yearn for the knowledge and the presence of God in our lives from moment to moment so that without human cultivation and without told some seeking. There would come upon us this endowment, this sweet and radiant fragrance that gives meaning to our witness. I am willing to confess in humility that we need this in our day. And this is the third day of the week in God's created order, the 10th day of the 10th month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Heavenly Father, our Dear Lord, if we seriously desire to be holy, the only way we could do so is through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, teach us to walk in the Spirit. We do have the Spirit with us, but are we yielding to the Spirit that's comforting us, that guides us, that are we quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit. We can't do it by our own efforts. If we are to grow, we need the Holy Spirit within our lives to grow and strengthen within the empowerment that you've given us. This would be impossible without the Holy Spirit. For the Bible says no one is righteous. So I pray, Heavenly Father, that you be with our lesson this morning. Strengthen us in your Word as we continue to grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. All right, our subject this morning is the Book of Acts. Welcome aboard it. Let's see. Maybe I can focus this thing before we go. No, not so much better, but we're okay. We're okay. All right. Let's start to the Book of Acts. We left off yesterday with talking about tongues. So the tongue, so one of the, it's not the emphasis, listen, it's not the emphasis of tongues in themselves. We have denomination, or at least one denomination, I know that, that there's a great emphasis of tongues in everything. I mean, within that church, if you think of the denomination automatically, you come to the point of, oh, they speak in tongues, you know, the Holy Ghost language. And they have emphasis and sometimes I'll meet these people and they will, the first thing they will will, well, you know, we've kind of visit Grace Chapel before and we have a couple that we truly love and they are Pentecostal. And the first thing he, he, we met was talking about the tongues. It's not the, listen, it's not the emphasis of the gifts that we receive. It's the emphasis of what the Holy Spirit was doing. This was the Holy Church, or the, the beginning of the church, the foundation of church. This was the Pentecostal, or the Pentecostal. This was the, the up, what we call it, Opala, Apostolic Age. There you go. The Apostolic Age. This is the age that the apostles are, that the foundation of the church. Sterea is a transition going on. And, and for lack of a better word, I call it revolution, a revolution. And when I say revolution, there is just a dramatic change from the old, and when I say old, I'm talking about the, the, the, the dispensation. One dispensation is being put on hold. It's not doing to wait with. The age of Israel is put on hold. There is seven weeks yet to come. Okay. There is a, as in Daniel, when we study Daniel chapter nine, that, I believe it's chapter nine or seven. I have to look at each one and remember which one it is. But I think it's, I think it's Daniel chapter nine, where there is a. That there is prophesied for Israel 490 years, seven weeks, seven of seven works out to be 490 years. The age of Israel is coming to a hold. There's seven more years to be complete for the age of Israel, but the church age is coming in. So there is a dramatic shift from the age of Israel into the church age when the, at some point the church will be, will be taken up. And then there is the age of Israel will, at some point the age of Israel will continue. I'm not sure if they're, they're both. I'm not going to teach yet that if they're both one goes and the other one continues, it might be the. The dispensationalist viewpoint or with the pretrib rapture says that when the church goes, that starts the clock again with the age of Israel. Scripture actually says when the covenant with the Antichrist is signed, that's when the, the seven year clock countdown will continue. But right now something dynamic is happening, and that is the coming of the Holy Spirit. And again, it's not the emphasis of tongues. It's not the emphasis of these spiritual gifts, but they, these, these things bring us to the fact that something, something. Extraordinary, something extraordinary is going on. The emphasis, I cannot say, the emphasis is the Holy Spirit. We may not have the, we don't, the tongues and, and the gift of these, the miraculous gifts, let's just say the miraculous gifts. I will say that they ceased, that they've done away with it. I think that there are, I think in, in a limited sense that these things still exist, like the, the gift of tongues. I do believe that in certain parts of the world where there is, if there are undiscovered languages and, and whatnot. And for the, for the spirit to work in those areas and the gospel to go in their areas, that there are the, that there are those missionaries that are gift with the gift of tongues. I believe that in a very limited sense there may be a gift of healing, not by knuckleheads that come out on stage to bring emphasis upon themselves, to bring people up and knock them in the head, knock them over and, and heal them. But as God, as God chooses to, to bring that empowerment, a God is still in the, in the business of miracles. But we, as a church age has already been established, our emphasis is upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. For our spiritual lives, as A.W. Tozer had said earlier, has to function in the spiritual life with the Word of God, the completed canon of Scripture that we have today. We don't need to be looking outside of that. If God wants to gift us, I mean, I don't put him in a box. If he wants to gift us with, with a, with a gift that goes beyond extraordinary and, and the human sense, supernatural, whatever, that's, that's God's business. But right now we depend, our emphasis is upon the whole, the holy word, the canon of Scripture, being illuminated by the Holy Spirit. There is an empowerment of the Holy Spirit in our spiritual life. Everything that we do and the fruit that we produce in the spiritual life is all in that spiritual life. At the beginning of the church age, at the coming of the Holy Spirit, that, that's the, that was the extraordinary time and was to bring emphasis upon that which is here, something coming. Let's look at our, our passage here. Let's, let's go to Acts 2, 12. And there you can, let's go see where we were at, first of all, okay. And they were, once again, let's go back up to six. When this, when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and they were bewildered because of each one of them hearing their own, hearing in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, why are the, why not all these galleons are speaking, why are not all these who are speaking galleons, galleons. And how is it that each one hears them in their own language to which we were born? Here it is that this is not a bunch of gibberish that they're speaking. They are coherent languages. They're unfamiliar with these foreigners. They're unfamiliar with these languages. Imagine if you've, you've only heard English all your life and all of a sudden you come in contact with, with a, with a Japanese speaking individual. It would be very incoherent at this point. And that's where it is. The Parthians, the Medes, the Ilamites, and the residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Capidocious, Patus, and Asia, Phrygia, Phrygia, and Pampalia, Egypt, and the districts of Libya around Cyrene and visitors of Rome, both Jews and the Postolites, Cretans and Arabs. And we hear them in our own tongue speaking, the mighty deeds of God. Again, these are coherent languages. They're not somebody up on a stage coming up with some kind of what they describe as Holy Ghost languages. And they all continued in amazement, great, great, perplexity, saying to one another, what does this mean? Okay? This is a legitimate answer. Something, something, something, something, something religious is happening. Something, this is God. What is, and they were superstitious people. This is something out of the ordinary. And when something out of the ordinary came, they're looking for an answer of why this is. But others were mocking, saying they're full of sweet wine. I'm wondering, my question here, legitimate question, is who's the others? Are they unbelievers? Are they somebody who, you know, they're laughing at this? And they're thinking, and mocking, let's see what this word "mocking" is. And mocking, this is Caledzo, I'm not going to try. To make fun of someone by joking or adjusting, just scuffed a deer to joke at. All right, so there are those skeptics. Those skeptics within the crowd, were they part, again, part of my question is, are these people part of them? Are they believers? Were they unbelievers going in? Another important factor is that these were believers going in. Those who received the Holy Spirit were already believers. They were believers from the Old Testament. They were believers from the Old Age, the Age of Israel. Those who were looking forward to the cross. And now they are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. So then we come to the point. I don't know how to tell you what, let's do a little bit more work on tongues. I don't know if I want to go here or not. Okay, let's do this. Again, the gift of tongues along with the other miraculous gifts. And I'll go with it because there are questions come up. Why isn't your church? And the Pentecostals will go out and say that unless you're speaking, and you'll hear this, unless you're speaking in tongues, you're not really saved. It's also looking at the second blessing. I think they call it the second blessing. And you might come to the Lord and receive the Spirit here, but the second blessing is coming on the Spirit. At least a confusion. We do not have a God of confusion. But on this early church, there were instructions given. Let's go first to 1 Corinthians 13, 8. Paul is talking to the Corinthian believers because this brought a lot of conflict, the gift of tongues itself. They lost emphasis. When your eyes are off God and you're on self, there comes a conflict. So there were those that were speaking tongues, and those that weren't speaking tongues, and this brought conflict. And they started using this as a status symbol. And Paul addresses this. And he said, because all of this is not done out of love, but it's done in arrogance, eyes on self. And it inflated the gifts, actually, for some who were carnal, inflated their egos, let's say. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and of angels, but do not have love. I've become a noisy, gong, or a clanging symbol. It's useless, is what he's saying. And know all the mysteries of the knowledge. And if I have all faith so that to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. You see, these gifts were purpose. There was a purpose behind these gifts. It wasn't just, okay, you got it. God is a personal God. And these gifts within the church, again, I emphasize, I emphasize so much that only thing that we do here, like in our mornings, in our morning worship, is supplementary. The church isn't just, and it's the most important part of a church. But a church is important in the sense, or the church assembly is just as important. It's not just a pastor and a pulpit, that's all that the church is. But there's fellowship. That point in Nia is so important. The encouraging of one another, the singing hymns of one another, the coming together as one another. This is so important. We come together in the morning, and this is a blessing that we do have the electronics to do this. But the greater thing is to, and again, I say that, only ultimate. Our church is not an isolated place where you sit down in front of a TV set or a cold computer or a listening instrument to hear the word of God being taught. And that takes a check mark in the little boxes. That's it. No, no. The writer of Hebrew says that we are to assemble, do not forsake the assembly of all believers. So the spiritual gifts within the church works within the church. These miraculous spiritual gifts are limited, but each one of you have at least one spiritual gift to function within the body of Christ. And if you isolate yourself into a box and away from everybody else, you are limiting what God has done for you. Also, in your arrogance, if you take what God has given you, and you think it's for your own edification and your own glorification that look at me, then you're wrong. This is what Paul is addressing in 1 Corinthians 13. Again, if I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong on a clanging symbol. If I have a gift of prophecy, and I know all the mysteries of knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I'm nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it promise me nothing. And it goes here. What is love? Love is patient. Love is kind. Again, this is in contrast. He says this in contrast to those with the gifts that they were using them for their own egos, bolster their own egos. But arrogance only loves self, but love is patient. Love is kind. Love is jealous. Not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Does not act unbecoming. It does not speak its own. Is not provoked. Does not take into account wrong, suffered. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things. Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesied in part, it says here, we know in part and prophesied in part. These are tools. They are, this is a partial. This is a partial. This is not the spiritual. Your tongues is not the spiritual life. Prophecy is not the spiritual life. But when we win the perfect, the word to lay us is bringing to completion. I have been taught different things, the completion of the canon of Scripture. That may be a possibility. That is what we have been taught growing up. I guess the question is what is the completion, but perfect is also maturity. It is a word used to maturity. But when the maturity comes, the partial will be done away with. I am thinking more and more in terms of when the Church matures, the maturity of the Church, when it is established. That also includes the completion of the canon of Scripture. Like at this point, the completion of the New Testament hasn't been done. It won't be completed until 96 A.D. And in the prophetical hand of God that brings the book together, brings it together and complete. So there were limited knowledge. This was new things that come. What about this church age? How do we put an all of a sudden, it doesn't get really old, but how do we equate the old with the new? And so new things have come. And so in this, I believe that it's the maturity of the Church. Once the Church is established, once the foundation is laid with the completed canon of Scripture, that these things will be set aside. They will stop. They will cease. Because our emphasis within the Church age, where we are now, and we're no longer in the apostolic age. In this non-oppostolic age, we received the Holy Spirit at the point that we believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And from that point on, we begin to growing under the billing ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, that teaches us the miraculous has gone. Listen, we've already crossed through the part of water. We've seen the miracles of God in the early Church age. And he comes out with a, and the Holy Spirit comes out with a boom. But none, and so to bring attention to the Word of God and bring attention to the new age has come. We must know in faith that we are in that age. We must know in faith that the Holy Spirit is still there. Miracles know that we're no longer looking for the miracles. We're no longer looking for the miraculous. By faith, we are walking into spirit each and every day, knowing that the big boom, the big entrance of the Holy Spirit was in this time on the day of Pentecost. And though we don't see the miracles, or though we don't see the miraculous, I won't say we won't see the miracles. But the everyday miraculous things that are going on, the speaking of tongues, the healing, the gift of prophecies and all those big things that went on at the beta doesn't make the Holy Spirit any less, doesn't mean that we're any less filled with Holy Spirit. But we are walking by spirit. We are walking by faith and not by sight. We are not pursuing the miraculous. We already have the miraculous within us and in the Word of God. Okay, a few more minutes left. So it says here, "Once again, love never fails, but if the gift of prophecies they will be done away with. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away." For we know in part, impartial that, and we prophesy in part, not having the whole yet. But when the maturity or when the mature church comes, or if you want to stay with that, that's fine. I won't argue with you. The completed canon of Scripture comes, the partial will be done away with. When I was a child, here it is, when I was a child, the young church, this is referring to the young church and emphasize our maturity as young as people, when I was a child, I used to speak like a child. I'd think like a child. I'd reason like a child. So the young church had things to accommodate them and their immaturity, when the church was immature. But when I became a man, when I grew up, when I'm mature, I did away with childish things. This is what Paul is talking about in the doing away with the tongues and these miraculous things from the beginning. For now I see in the mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. And here we go, Bob, verse 13. But now faith, hope and love abides these three. But the greatest of these is love. And when it comes to love, there was many miraculous things. And the Lord could have white Satan out. Maybe the Lord had, you ever thought of this, the Lord could have done another thing. When Jesus prayed in the garden that said, "Father, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done." Why didn't the Lord, why was it so difficult that here's God, and for six days all God had to speak was everything. And speak and the earth was creating all this. And so it would have been so much easier if God and all his wisdom would have found a different way rather than to send his son to the cross. But it was the demonstration of love for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That God, that Jesus demonstrated his love and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And that maybe there would be another way, but justice had to be settled, Jesus had to go to the cross. And he didn't, he could have, he should have said, "I can ask a father, he'll call down legions of angels. We can just wipe this out right now." But for the love of you and me, he remained. So people were using this to, the gifts to boost up their own ego while it was God who gave these gifts in order to fulfill the promise and order that his church might be edified in order that the loving kindness of Christ would be seen in the church which is established. Let's close out in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity of understanding your word this morning. We pray heavenly Father that God will open up our hearts to these things. And as we started our toes this morning, I pray heavenly Father that as we were created in him, born again in him, that we should be holy because he's holy. That is to set aside and set apart our lives, to walk spiritually in the, to walk in the light under the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, taking in a word of God each and every day that we might grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. All right, it's another fine day in the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, well, it's Spirit, God, and rapture pain. We're going to be back here in the A.M. We'll see you. Love y'all. Thank you for joining us. You can hear this message again as well as previous lessons. And get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]