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Eugene Prewitt

The Gift of Tongues

The odd type of religions here in America is a type of Pentecostal church where they carry snakes.

You ever heard about the snake handling Pentecostals?

They carry snakes and they handle them as well as speaking in tongues.

And if you might wonder, Nicky, why they would do such a silly thing, it's because of what it says in Mark 16.

Mark 16 and we're looking near the end of the chapter.

Verse 17 says, And these signs shall follow them that believe.

In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, and they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." That Pentecostal Church is perhaps the most thoroughgoing of any, because many of those churches will come to this passage and say that, what is the evidence that you believe?

What's the evidence in this passage that you believe?

But is that the only evidence in this passage?

And Before I go into a Bible study on speaking in tongues, I want to just have you observe a few things in this passage.

If you don't have Bibles, you'll just have to listen so carefully.

Mark 16 is followed immediately in point of time by Acts chapter 2.

That is, if we had this as a chronology, Mark 16, Mark 17 would be Pentecost.

And in the book of Acts, do we find all of these signs?

The signs of speaking with new tongues, the sign of healing, the sign of taking up serpents, and then there's the sign of drinking deadly things and not hurting them.

I will admit for a minute though, until we talk about it, that you don't see that in the book of Acts.

But does anyone take up a deadly serpent in the book of Acts?

Now, let me ask, does he take it up in church on purpose?

No, he doesn't take it up in church on purpose.

And How about when it comes to dispossession?

Does Paul dispossess anyone, for example, in the book of Acts?

You know, he does it after a time when it is important for the progress of the work that he's doing.

If I could say this thought as simply as I know how, these signs don't follow at the moment of being filled with the spirit, at least the ones that, other than speaking in tongues.

And when is it that they dispossess people who are filled with their own spirit?

There's 1 more thing to observe in this passage.

Is there an adjective before the word tongues?

Is it new to the speaker, or new to the hearer, or a new invention in the universe?

If it was a new invention in the universe, it wouldn't be the gift of the tongue of angels.

Does that make any sense to you what I'm saying?

And the only other options are new to the hearer or new to the speaker.

But it wouldn't be anything special to have it be new to the hearer, so it must mean new to the speaker.

And do you see an S on the end of the word tongue?

How many languages were there prior to the Tower of Babel?

And maybe this is just an interesting side point to you, that God had said before the Tower of Babel that God's people were to spread over the earth.

And those that obeyed Him spread over the earth.

Those that disobeyed built the Tower of Babel and God of course messed up their tower and then he scattered them with their languages.

Whereas the scattered disobedient don't have that advantage.

And that's just a side benefit to the sermon to let you know that following God's ways does have unintended advantages.

There are benefits to doing the things that he says that can't necessarily be foreseen.

In the book of Acts, the gift of tongues shows up in connection with the filling with the spirit 3 times.

That's in Acts chapter 2, and Acts chapter 10, and Acts chapter 19.

In Acts 2 it's very obvious that the Adventist position on tongues is right.

And most Adventists are not troubled by Acts 2.

In Acts 2 what's very clear is that the gift of tongues is a gift of human languages.

The people that hear them understand them.

They say, how do we understand in the tongue in which we were born and they all speak like that.

In Acts 10 it doesn't get into those kind of details, But it does say something about it in the next chapter.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 11.

Acts chapter 11, and I'll look for the verse number, verses 15 to 17.

This is the apostle reviewing what happened in the chapter before.

Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

For as much then as God gave them the, what does it say, like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God?

The gift of tongues in Acts 10 Was it the same as or different than the gift of tongues in Acts 2?

The Testament of the Apostle was that it was the same.

But there is a passage that is quite troubling to Adventists in regard to the gift of tongues.

1 that when we read it, we're just so glad we have Acts 2 that we can go read afterwards.

Because it has verses that don't make much sense to us sometimes.

And my goal in the next 26 minutes or so is that you can read 1 Corinthians 14 for the rest of your life happily and without confusion.

Turn with me there in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians.

We're turning to chapter 14, but maybe we should make some observations from 12 and 13 to kind of ease our way into it.

If you'll look in chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're looking at verse 10.

Speaking about the gifts that are given, varieties of gifts to different people, it says, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

Again there's that super helpful S on the end of the word kind and the end of the word tongue.

There ought not to be more than 1, because multiple languages came as a curse.

And here we have kinds of languages, and we have tongues.

And then it has, as a separate gift, interpretation of tongues.

And let's compare the 2 theories for a minute in our minds.

Here's the 1 theory that the gift of tongues is the gift of the heavenly language.

And so the Spirit comes upon the man and he speaks the heavenly language that no 1 understands.

Then the Spirit comes on another man and he interprets the heavenly language because no 1 else can understand it.

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The Gift of Tongues

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