As a society, we've become geared to basing our beliefs on our experiences.
If our experience and our feelings tell us that something is valid and genuine and good, then we automatically assume that that is the measure of absolute truth.
Okay, welcome back to another Truth Time Radio transmission.
We'll pick up today where we left off last week, verse 12 of 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Verse 12, Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
As we've discussed previously, the common thread in this chapter, one that keeps coming up, a very important point Paul is trying to convey to the church at Corinth is, hey, if you're not edifying, you're not profiting anyone.
It's all about edification, never about confusion.
Edifying each other, building one another up with clear understandable language, clear and precise preaching and teaching of sound doctrine.
It's not about a show, not about feeling good, nor is it about your emotional state.
No, the reason to come together is to edify, build up, exhort, learn, and comfort.
To study, to show thyself approved unto God by comparing scripture with scripture, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Carefully studying and giving consideration to what the apostle Paul wrote that we may, 2 Timothy 2:7, receive understanding in all spiritual things.
Not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, 1 Corinthians 2:13, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
So, when Paul wrote, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church, just how would those Corinthians have done that?
The answer lies within the next verse.
Look at verse 13.
Verse number 13, Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. Verse 14, For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. Some teach that tongues in the Bible are to be used as some sort of prayer language.
However, if you will search and study every prayer in your Bible, again comparing scripture with scripture, that's God's prescription to finding our truth, okay?
Search them all, all the prayers, and in every single one, you're going to find a common thread.
Not even one of the prayers in your Bible were prayed in a language that no one could understand, a so-called heavenly language.
No biblical prayer was prayed in an unintelligible language.
Every single prayer in the Bible, every prayer was prayed in a known earthly language.
Even Jesus himself did not pray in a so-called heavenly language.
You'd think that if anyone was going to do so, it would have been him, considering the fact that he came from heaven.
But when Jesus prayed, his prayer was always understandable.
People claim they want to follow Jesus, there you go, pray like he did.
He spoke in words, easy to be understood, so easy that even Satan himself could understand.
Yet you and I have been told that the reason we need this so-called prayer language is so that Satan can't understand what we're saying.
This is man-centered theology, and it's rather odd to find out that this practice is not even biblical.
But hey, do your own research.
Some of you may get tired of me saying that, and that's okay.
I'll continue to try and motivate you to get in this book and discover these truths for yourself, because
I know the freedom it brings.
Hey, let me ask you a question.
Do you spend as much time in front of the Bible as you do in front of the mirror?
Today, there are those who claim to be praying in tongues, and the tongues sound like the pagans of Paul's day.
They practice tongues also, you see, and have always claimed to be able to speak to their gods in their own private prayer language.
By doing this, they thought they were making contact with their gods so that their gods may reveal secret revelations to them.
Well, my Bible tells me that, that which was kept secret has now been revealed, and it's in English. And for us English-speaking people, that's good news.
It's found in a King James Bible.
Paul calls it the revelation of the mystery, Romans chapter 16 verse 25.
I don't need a secret coded language when I pray to God in order to figure it out.
It is written and has already been revealed.
Ever notice when you hear somebody claiming to speak in biblical tongues, they make the same sound as they made last service?
Over and over they make the same sounds as they made the time before, and the time before, and the time before that.
They pray in vain repetitions, and Christ forbids such prayer.
Matthew 6:7, Jesus said, When you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard of their much speaking.
So those of you claiming to follow the red letters, there you go.
Have at it.
And while you're doing so, stop your vain repetitious prayers.
Some today, I'm afraid, are more interested in making, as Paul wrote in one of his letters, they desire to make a fair show in the flesh.
They discovered they can't duplicate the real gift, so they settled for using a sensual aesthetic utterance of ecstasy in unintelligible syllables that no one understands.
No one in attendance is rooted in the faith, built up, comforted, or edified.
They're actually left scratching their head while dazed and confused.
Tongues were never to edify God.
They were never to edify self.
They were meant to edify the church.
Those who twist this and pull it out of its context, claiming it to be a private prayer language, is following an unbiblical practice, a belief that does not fall within the perimeter of scriptural context.
If the gift of tongues is truly a celestial speech, one that is used in prayer between you and God, I find it fascinating that someone else, someone other than God, has to teach you to do it.
You can go to YouTube, type it in, and there'll be someone ready to teach you to speak in tongues. They have classes in churches that supposedly have anointed teachers mandated by God to teach you how to speak in this so-called heavenly language.
But to pray with the Spirit is to pray in line with the Spirit, to pray according to God's word of truth rightly divided.
You'll never be obedient in your prayer life if you don't first study to show thyself approved and rightly divide the word of truth.
A prayer that is not rightly divided is a prayer that was meant for someone else at another time and under different circumstances.
And each time you pray for something that was never meant for you to begin with, that's only going
to bring more disappointment, more discouragement, and what happens is little by little, it'll chip away at your faith.
Back to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, 1 Corinthians 14:14, For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 2:12 tells us We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
So to pray with the spirit would be to pray for spiritual needs.
For spiritual needs as opposed to all of the material and physical needs that religion has conditioned us to pray for.
And religion did not swipe this belief out of thin air.
They got it from the Bible.
In time past, Israel was promised both material and physical blessings if they obeyed God.
You and I never were.
We are Ephesians 1:3, blessed with all spiritual blessings.
Spiritual blessings and physical blessings are not the same.
If we pray with the spirit, in a sense we are praying alongside of the spirit.
Not that he is actually beside us, he is in us, but I say that to make an illustration.
Just imagine praying with someone and they're right there alongside of you, agreeing with you in prayer.
Well, if you left anything out, that person might chime in and add to what you just said.
This is what happens when you pray with the spirit.
Paul tells us in Romans 8:26, Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
So, when we pray, even though there may not be another physical being there in the room present with us, we never pray alone.
Think about that.
No saved individual ever prays alone.
After being indwelt with the Holy Spirit as a child of God, you will never pray alone again.
That's comforting.
We always pray with the spirit.
Always.
Now I didn't say the spirit always agrees with some of our silly prayers, but he is always present.
To truly pray with the spirit, we should pray prayers that line up.
Prayers that are in line with the spirit.
The spirit wrote the word of God, 2 Timothy 3.16, and the same spirit that wrote it also tells us to rightly divide it.
So to pray with the spirit would be to pray according to the rightly divided word of truth, to pray for things that were meant for us to pray for.
Romans 8:27 says that the spirit maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
So to pray with the spirit is to pray according to the will of God.
And be certain of one thing, if you do not rightly divide the word of truth, you'll continue to experience a failed prayer life.
Satan will have you praying for all sorts of things you shouldn't even be praying for.
Prayers that will only leave you disappointed, and he'll take great pleasure in your failures.
If the spirit wrote the Bible, and he did, and we're to pray with the spirit, and we are, then we would do well to know our Bible, would we not?
That's how we would know what to pray for.
Rightly divided prayer life makes all the difference in the world.
It brings a peace that truly passes all understanding.
Now, verse 15, What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
Now some try to make this say something it simply does not say.
This is not saying that to pray and sing with the spirit is to pray and sing without understanding.
It's just the opposite.
It's saying to pray and sing with the spirit is to also pray and sing with understanding.
This allows everyone in the assembly to participate and be involved.
If someone were praying or singing in an unknown tongue, a language you do not know, you would receive no edification, a deer in headlights.
That is precisely what's going on here, and it's why Paul spends so much time trying to clear up the confusion to help him get their services in order.
Chaos was reigning supreme at the church of Corinth.
Verse 16.
Moving right along, verse 16, Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy given of thanks? Seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest.
So we pray in line with the spirit, and we do it in a tongue, a language that everyone in earshot can understand.
Otherwise, no one can agree with us.
He that occupieth the room won't even be able to say Amen if they don't understand the language we're speaking.
Now, it should be coming clear at this point that praying with the spirit, if we're to look at it biblically, not comparing preacher to preacher, but scripture to scripture, it does not mean praying in what some today call, tongues.
Now, another verse I have heard used to justify using tongues during prayers is Ephesians 6:18.
Here it says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.
So is praying in the spirit speaking in tongues?
Well, the verse above it, verse 17, says, Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
So let's think a minute.
If the sword of the spirit is the word of God, and you're praying in the spirit, you're praying according to God's word.
You're praying according to God's word, and that's what praying in the spirit means.
Now, that's simple enough, is it not?
Don't you love the truth?
Don't you love how scripture answers scripture?
It's lessons like this one today that remind us just how important it is to be students of the Bible, students of God's word.
I've heard some say praying in tongues increases our faith.
But what does the Bible say?
What does God have to say about it?
That's what's important.
Romans 10:17, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Faith cometh by praying in tongues?
No.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Trust in Christ and his finished cross work and dive into the word of God.
That's how you increase your faith.
That's God's answer, not man's.
Galatians 5:22 says, They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.
As we are seeing today, the Bible doesn't teach what some today call speaking in tongues.
No.
And the reason some of you have sought after it is your lust for the fleshly things you've seen.
Many would like for us to empty our frontal lobe and have no brain activity.
But the Bible actually teaches to the contrary.
In Titus 2:6, we're told that we should, exhort to be sober minded.
Sober minded is the opposite to an empty frontal lobe.
A sober mind is one that is serious, one that is sensible and of sound mind and reason.
To have a sober mind is to be vigilant, to be alert.
A sober minded person would be someone who is studious and logical, aware and awakened out of the stupor of spiritual delusion.
But there are some who want you to quiet your mind so that they can have influence.
Turn your thinker off so that they can lord their false teaching over you.
Don't fall for it.
Stay sharp.
Be careful, my friend.
Be very careful who and what you are believing in.
Search the scriptures daily to make sure you're on the right course.
Remember when Jesus cast out the many devils of the man in, I think it's Luke.
Let me see.
Let me see if I can run that down real quick.
We get many calls and letters about speaking in tongues, about this chapter here, chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians.
I remember in my early 20s beginning to question some things and tongues was one of them.
And listen, there are some that even when you give them a candid straightforward question about something, instead of giving you an easy to understand answer, they try to bury their answer in a sea of minutiae.
Well, not here.
Not today.
I'll try to be plain, keep it simple.
During a scriptural investigation, we should never speculate, nor should we draw any premature conclusions, but rather through careful study, we'll try to gather as much factual data as we can before rendering a fair and balanced verdict.
Okay, Luke chapter 8.
Here it is.
It starts in verse 26. It's about a man who was possessed of devils, a legion of devils.
This guy was out of control, running around in a fit.
Well, Jesus cast out these unclean spirits and drove them into a herd of swine.
And they then ran violently down a steep hill and went into a lake where they drowned.
People from all over the city ran down to see what was going on and we pick up here in verse 35. Verse 35, Then they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
Praise God, no empty frontal lobes here.
The man, when he was possessed, was acting out, having fits.
But after, after Jesus got hold of this man, he calmed down and was, and I quote, In his right mind.
Right mind.
Not empty mind, but right mind.
He was sober, alert, he was sitting, not acting like a fool.
He wasn't a, "Fool for Jesus, bless God!"
No, he was acting a fool when he was possessed.
But after his encounter with the Lord, he became calm and in his right mind.
This truth, as liberating as it is, many will just not be able to receive it.
You know why?
Because they have had an experience and for some, experience will trump God's word almost all the
time.
They don't want your thinking or judgment to get in the way of what their denominational
headquarters believes and teaches.
They say, just let the Spirit take control.
Hey, if the Spirit takes control, you'll be sober and of sound mind.
You'll be able to discern both good and evil.
You can show them the plain black words on the white sheets of paper and they'll turn a blind eye and
a deaf ear and hang on to their emotional experience.
I know what I saw.
I know what I felt.
I know what my heart tells me.
They had a spiritual experience.
Listen, what many fail to understand is, that there is a spiritual world of darkness all around us and pagans have been tuning into it for a long time now.
This darkened world is presently controlled by, and I quote, The prince of the power of the air.
Satan is the 2 Corinthians 4:4, God of this world.
There are many so-called Christian practices taking place today that are actually nothing more than paganism in disguise.
Verse 17, For thou verily give us thanks well, but the other is not edified.
Verse 18, I thank my God I speak with tongues more than y'all.
In part 2 of this series, we explained how that Paul was able to speak in all world languages.
He spoke in every tongue there was on earth at that time.
So, all he is doing here is thanking God for that.
Verse 19, Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
Paul is stressing how the gift should only be used in a way that enlightens and instructs the mind.
It is not to be a mystical exercise that bypasses the mind.
I'd rather speak five words in my understanding.
This harmonizes with verse 9.
Remember, there he said, if you do not speak in a language that is easy to be understood, how shall it be known what you're saying?
You'd just be speaking into the air.
We would be totally remiss to not notice here in chapter 14 just how often Paul uses words like learning, edification, understanding, and the mind.
Many today are anti-intellectual and would have us believe that true spirituality is something that bypasses the intellect and operates mysteriously.
But listen, it should not be the mind versus the spirit, but rather the mind working with the spirit.
In fact, true spirituality for the Christians should involve being Romans 12:12 transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Paul is saying that sounds and syllables that lack meaning are of no use at all.
Think about that.
Give that some thought.
Out of the thousands of world languages there are today, while they may sound different, they all share one common thing.
None of them are without meaning.
Don't let anyone fool you.
Paul is talking about real languages with real meaning just as the Lord Jesus did in Mark 16:17 and Peter did in Acts 2.
Okay, verse 20, Brethren, be not children in understanding. Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Grow up.
This is what our apostle is saying.
This mirrors, let me find it here, this mirrors what he said in the previous chapter here.
1st Corinthians chapter 13 verse 11, When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I become a man, I put away childish things.
We need some grown-up saints that are ready to put away childish things.
Verse 21, In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
Inspired truth began to be revealed by God in languages other than Hebrew.
Keep in mind that tongues were not for believers, but for unbelievers.
For the unbelieving Jews, it was a sign of judgment to come and is why that what Paul wrote here correlated with a prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 28:11.
Okay, verse 22, Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
I find that most just blow through this verse without really analyzing what it actually says.
Look at it closely.
Tongues are for a sign.
Then why might I ask, does your church require tongues?
A sign.
When you're plainly told in 2 Corinthians 5:7 to walk by faith, not by sight, not by signs.
1st Corinthians 1:22.
Now this is in plain English, so we have no excuse.
1st Corinthians 1:22, The Jews require a sign.
You see, they required a sign from the very beginning.
Most of us remember Exodus chapter 4, where Moses when talking to the Lord said, Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice.
For they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
You see, the Israelites refused to believe Moses.
That's why he had to show them a sign.
Read Exodus chapter 4 sometime.
Jews were sign people.
You are not.
You are to walk by faith, not by a sign.
And I'm aware that some of you today say, the Old Testament, it's not for us.
But see, you say that in error.
The Old Testament is absolutely for us.
It's just not to us.
It's just not about us.
But it is most definitely for us.
It is for our learning, just as Paul told us in Romans chapter 15 verse 4.
And for us to compare scripture with scripture means all scripture, not part.
Doing so helps us to connect the dots.
The unbelieving Jews required a sign.
If you're saved, there's one thing you can know for sure and certain today.
Tongues are not, nor have they ever been for you.
Just read the verse.
Tongues are for a sign, comma, not to them that believe, comma, but to them that believe not.
Saved people are believers.
They believe.
But we just read tongues are not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
I tell you, this can get seven flavors of nuts real quick.
And that's what we get when we don't go to God's word for ourselves.
You see, when the gift of tongues were in operation, it was the believer that spoke in them.
But it was for the benefit of the unbeliever.
The reason the believers were given the gift of speaking in unknown tongues was so they could preach the gospel to the unbelievers who spoke in foreign languages.
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