What is speaking in other tongues?
Part two.
Hi.
Welcome to today's Little Lesson.
Thank you so very much for joining me.
On our last Little Lesson, we began to talk about what the Bible says about speaking in
other tongues.
And if you didn't see that video, please stop wherever you're at right now and go back and
view that one, because we're going to build Little Lesson by Little Lesson and cover a
lot of ground.
This is going to be a significant series of Little Lessons, and you don't want to miss
a single one if you're interested in this subject of speaking in other tongues, a thoroughly
biblical subject, and an experience that has been enjoyed and experienced by literally
millions, and tens of millions, of Christians currently living on the earth.
Okay?
And I say that to kind of pique your interest a little bit to think, "Well, maybe this is
something that I could experience."
And who wouldn't want to experience anything that's biblical and that God has for His children?
Who wouldn't?
You'd have to be out of your mind.
It's interesting that the folks who fight the speaking in tongues ... Those of us who
are trying to help people to understand more about it and actually promote the idea that
it's not just something for the apostolic age, but it's something for today, those that
are vocally opposed to it, the preachers and the ministers and the theologians, if you
can get them in an unguarded moment and ask them, "Have you ever prayed to speak in tongues?"
And 95% of them will say, "Yes."
It shows they desired it.
They desired to experience something supernatural like speaking in other tongues, speaking in
a language that they had never learned whereby they could pray and praise God and intercede,
but it didn't happen to them.
And so then they make the conclusion, well, it's not for today, or it's not for every
believer, or they'll find Bible verses to support their positions.
And we'll look at all those Bible verses that they use to support their positions and look
at them in the light of the entire Bible, not just yanking verses out of their context.
So what is speaking in tongues?
Speaking in tongues is speaking in a unknown language, a language that you haven't learned
or studied.
It's supernatural, and I'm not making this up.
On the day of Pentecost when the original apostles and about a hundred other believers
all spoke in tongues, they were speaking all kinds of different languages, praising God
in languages that they never learned.
And people who were in Jerusalem for that feast from all over the Mediterranean world,
rushed together and heard all of these 120 or so believers speaking in their languages,
and they were astounded by it.
So, that's what speaking in tongues is.
It's speaking in a language by the power of the Holy Spirit that you didn't learn.
The Holy Spirit supernaturally gives you the utterance.
And I'm one of those tens of millions of Christians who experienced speaking in tongues.
It happened to me back in 1976, and I would venture to say that hardly a day has gone
by since then when I haven't spoken in other tongues during my private prayer life, or
just when I'm out walking or driving or something.
It's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful gift that anyone who's experienced it, and who's
a Christian, of course, you can only experience it if you are a Christian, they would want
to share it, like I'm doing right now.
They want other Christians to know about it and to receive that blessing because it's
such a huge, huge blessing.
All right, so let's start by looking at the Bible.
Let's look at what Jesus said.
It is recorded in the last chapter of Mark's gospel that Jesus mentioned speaking in other
tongues.
And I'm going to, first of all, read you a very familiar verse that you've probably heard
quoted Lord knows how many times in your Christian life, if you've been a Christian for very
long.
This is Mark 16 and verse number 15, "He," that's Jesus, "said to them, 'Go into all
the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved
shall be condemned.'"
You never hear that those verses are somehow controversial, do you?
No, you don't.
Those are hallmark verses of evangelicals and those who ... anyone who believes the
Bible.
You don't have to be an evangelical to believe the Bible.
"Go into all the word, preach the ..." You got to believe.
You got to be baptized if you're going to be saved, and if you don't believe you're,
you're condemned.
Now, the very next verse, the very next verse fits right into this one, because he's talking
about, if you believe, you'll be saved.
If you don't believe, you'll be condemned.
And the very next verse, he says, "These signs will accompany those who have believed."
And so here's what to look for if you're looking for the believers, according to the head of
the church, Jesus Christ.
God in the flesh spoke these words.
Now, because of what he said, there are theologians who try to say, "Well, there are some manuscripts
that don't contain," because remember, nobody has the original gospel of Mark.
We just have copies, and copies of copies, and translations that go back a long time.
But in some of those ancient manuscripts, you can't find the next verse.
But in lots of them, you can, and that's why it's included in every Bible.
If you've got a Bible, these verses are in here.
Now they might have a little asterisk or a little number of saying, "Some of the older
manuscripts don't contain these verses," but there'll be there.
"And these signs," Jesus said, "will accompany those who have believed."
Here goes.
"In my name, they will cast out demons.
They will speak with new tongues."
Well, there it is.
There it is.
Jesus, the head of the church, the one who ... All Christians say, "We believe in him
that he's the son of God and he never lies, and he died for our sins and he's coming again.
And he's the great judge of the living and dead, and one day he'll be ruling and reigning."
That person said, "One of the signs that will follow believers is that they will speak in
new tongues."
So I'd say it's worth our examination, wouldn't you?
Now, every believer has the authority to cast out demons in Jesus's name, right?
It's not something that's just unique to a few.
He said, "They will pick up serpents.
And if they drink any deadly poison, it won't hurt them.
And they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover."
Okay.
So there's five signs.
Now, two of them, the picking up the serpents, and if they drink a deadly poison, we don't
find examples of those in the New Testament.
We do find believers casting out demons.
We do find them speaking in tongues in the Book of Acts.
Now, we do find people being healed as hands are laid upon them.
In fact, James wrote in his general epistle and he said, "Is any among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them anoint him with oil."
That's a little different version of laying on of hands, but still a point of contact
and touch.
And Jesus said, "They'll lay hands on the sick and they'll recover," so every believer,
this is a sign that can follow them.
Now, the picking up serpents, we don't have any example of the believers having snake
handling services in the Book of Acts, because that would be testing God, right, and people
that do that get bitten sometimes and they die sometimes and it's nonsense.
But we do find near the end of the Book of Acts, Paul, one time being bitten by a poisonous,
deadly viper on the Island of Malta, and he just shakes it off in the fire and he suffers
no harm.
So that's probably more of what the Lord was talking about there, not having snake handling
services, but if, just like in the next thing he says, "if they drank any deadly poison,"
not that we're drinking strychnine to prove that we have faith, but if someone tries to
poison us ...
I think that the general gist of those things is that these people are going to be supernaturally
protected from harm that others try to inflict upon them.
We do see that in the Book of Acts.
God delivers people.
Now, not every time does He deliver people, but many times He delivers His people, so
for what it's worth.
But we're talking in this Little Lesson series about speaking in other tongues, so I don't
want to spend a lot of time talking about the other five signs that are, Jesus said,
would follow believers.
It's just it's undeniable that Jesus said, "believers."
If you're looking for believers, look for the people who ... one of the five things
you should look for, is there speaking in other tongues?
Okay, so it's biblical.
Don't get mad at me.
I'm just reading from the Bible, okay?
Don't get mad at me.
I love you.
That's why I'm talking about this because I want to see you blessed, and I want to see
God's kingdom expand.
And we all know, everybody agrees about this, that the Holy Spirit is the one who helps
us to expand the kingdom.
Right?
Right.
You know, we should all want, myself included, and I do want more of the Holy Spirit's work
in us and through us, and I'm interested in any way possible that I could get more of
the Holy Spirit.
Okay.
We're out of time for today.
Thank you so very much for joining.
We're going to talk about this more on the next Little Lesson, so don't miss it.
And if you are a Christian, but you don't speak in tongues, if you're spiritually hungry,
I'm going to help you.
And you're going to experience a miracle, a miracle that's going to be ongoing every
day for the rest of your life.
It's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful, and I so much want you to be blessed in that regard, so don't
get mad at me.
Open your heart, open your mind.
I'm not trying to win a theological argument.
I'm trying to get you blessed and more fruitful in whatever God has for you to do, and the
Holy Spirit will help you more.
Okay.
All right.
If you've never been to DavidServant.org, please check out all the free biblical resources
we have waiting for you there to help you in your spiritual growth.
Until next time, may the Lord bless you.