No Tongues = No Holy Spirit?

I'm Dr. Andrew Farley, host of The Grace Message. Got a Bible question, struggling with a personal issue, wondering about a tricky verse? At BibleQuestions.com, you'll get clear, grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No fluff, no confusion, just practical, biblical truth. Ask anything, anytime, and experience the power of God's love. Visit BibleQuestions.com. That's BibleQuestions.com, your go-to for biblical clarity. Jesus plus nothing, 100% natural, no additives. Andrew Farley is celebrating your freedom in Christ. Call in and ask your questions at 877-655-6755. That's toll-free at 877-655-6755. By a satellite from Texas, it's The Grace Message with Dr. Andrew Farley. Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Grace Message. I'm Andrew Farley. So glad you're joining us tonight. That number to call, 877-655-6755. Right now, we got wide open lines, four open lines for you. You'll be sure to get in if you call right now. Maybe you've got a question tonight about a scripture passage. Perhaps you heard something. Maybe you heard something this past weekend in a church service, and it stood out to you. For good or for bad reasons, it stood out to you. And you either want to celebrate it or question it. Well, whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind tonight, we want to hear from you. Let's make it a conversation together right now, 877-655-6755. If you're a first-time caller tonight, you got to know, we love it. We love to hear from our first-time callers. We want to hear from you.

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Talking gibberish making no sense at all benefiting. Nobody. Nobody can say amen You need to find a new church. That's not church church is when we encourage each other in the gospel Church is not when you tell a Christian they don't have the Holy Spirit. That's not church That's tearing people down not building them up When the scripture says you're blessed with every spiritual blessing and your church says you're not get out of that church When the scripture says that you have everything you need for life and godliness and your church says no You don't get out of that church You can do better. It's just like an abusive relationship. You don't need somebody beating you up every Sunday So you show up to church you show up to Bible study and they tell you you're dirty you're distant You don't have the spirit. You don't have the right gift. You're not like us. You're not good enough You don't have enough you need to get get get and finally when you finally submit to all that they're saying what they want to do is push you in a corner put their hand on your head and try to Get you to turn into a ventriloquist and the reality is there's no life in that. That's not the gospel That's not the true gift of tongues All it is is repeat after me nonsense. You do not learn a spiritual gift. It is not taught in a class It is not taught through imitation It is not taught through repeat after me and the gift of tongues is not gibberish when I go to Acts chapter 2 what I see is the authentic gift of tongues, which is Everybody heard the gospel in their own language to which they were born So if folks at your church are speaking Russian and Speaking. Oh, I don't know Italian and French and Russian and German and Spanish great well then go out into the streets and find people that speak those languages and just Talk away in German and Russian and Spanish and then you'll be doing what we see in Acts 2 but if you're gonna stay off the streets and only use it in church and if you're gonna interrupt church and if You're gonna do it by more than two or three people then already you're disobeying Paul You're disobeying Paul when more than three people do it You're disobeying Paul when there's no interpreter and you're disobeying Paul when it's nothing but a distraction and nobody knows what you're saying It's a disobeying the Scriptures all the way

It's even worse when they abuse you and tell you you're not good enough and you don't have Jesus yet Oh, maybe you're saved somehow in some generic sense, but you don't have the Holy Spirit Well, that's hogwash as we say in Texas If you're saved you got the Holy Spirit if you have the Holy Spirit You're saved. The only way to be saved is to have the Spirit Romans 8 says whoever has the Spirit belongs to God and Whoever does not have the Holy Spirit does not belong to God. It's all or nothing. There's no middle ground There's not a single person listening to this broadcast who is a believer, but somehow lacks the Spirit No being a believer means being born again born of the Spirit born of God And then it's true of you that you have everything you need for life and godliness You're blessed with every spiritual blessing So tongues is one spiritual gift and quite candidly when you see the list in the New Testament It appears dead last it appears dead last in the list. It is not the big deal and yet what's happening at your church is they're making it number one. They're making it the number one most important gift and they're saying if you don't have it you might not even have the Holy Spirit at all and then when you finally submit to their methods they're basically gonna pressure pressure and guilt guilt until you let them finally when you say you haven't gotten the buzz there's been no electricity through you you just don't have it you just don't have it well they'll finally they'll tell you to repeat after them and that's the last resort but the truth is 1st Corinthians 12 tells us this all are not apostles are they all are not prophets are they all are not teachers are they all do not speak in tongues do they all do not interpret do they and he goes on to say there's a beautiful variety and diversity in the body of Christ but your church where you're currently going they don't care about that they don't want variety and diversity they want you to have tongues and they want you to have tongues right now because it is the one and only evidence of you having the spirit well again nonsense garbage get away run for the hills you can do better get away from that abuse it is abusive teaching it is not the gospel and you can do way way better so I hope that helps some at least it gets us started Tony I'll put you back on and see does that make sense to you my friend yes it

does can I ask one more question 100% sure okay it's in line with that one also here about praying in our heavenly language right what is that yeah that's something that they made up and they made it up from 1st Corinthians 14 what they did was they twisted it I'll read it for you 1st Corinthians 14 right there at the beginning of the chapter you know it says this the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God for no one understands and in his spirit he speaks mysteries but the one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself but one who prophesies edifies the church so what they've done is they've said this entire six verses is a good thing and that's not what Paul is saying Paul is correcting the Corinthians so when Paul says if you speak in a tongue in a church service you're edifying yourself Paul is saying that's bad stop edifying yourself that's not what church is church is not you edifying you so stop it stop edifying yourself instead think about edifying the church that's what spiritual gifts are but see 2,000 years later the folks in your congregation there who are leading you they're gonna take this passage and they're gonna say see Tony you should be sitting in church edifying yourself and they say look at verse 4 one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself isn't that fantastic and your answer to that should be no no Paul doesn't mean that's fantastic he means stop it stop edifying yourself in church nobody can say amen nobody understands what you're saying see the Corinthians were taking the the true gift of tongues and they were taking it off the street into the church service it became a distraction it became a show-off and it became about people edifying themselves and Paul says stop it stop it now 2,000 years later people have taken this same passage and they've somehow twisted it into you're at home there you are at home in your prayer closet you're all by yourself and you should just be chatting away edifying yourself well I'm sorry but that's not the context nobody is alone at home in 1st Corinthians 14 the entire chapter is about church the entire chapter is about church and he is saying if you're in church talking in tongues then look at you you're just

edifying yourself you sound like a barbarian you're speaking into the air nobody can understand you nobody can say amen nobody has a clue what you're saying stop it and then he says okay look if there's an interpreter then two of you three at most but never more than three and then what do you see this same passage where he says two or three at most and only with an interpreter and by the way don't ever do it if nobody can understand you well this same passage 2,000 years later is used to justify the fact that 27 people on the front row are jibber-jabber in a way, with no interpreter, in church, and they become the focal point, and everybody's looking up at the front row. Oh, man, I wish I could be like them. Oh, they are super spiritual on the front row, interrupting everything. Look at them. Well, Paul is saying, don't do that. So I'll tell you what I would call that on the front row. I'd call it disobedience. It's disobedience to the Scriptures, and it's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't disobey the Scriptures. So, number one, tongues is not a meaningless gibberish. Tongues is known languages. It's human languages. Acts chapter 2, languages of the world and languages to which we are born. That's what Acts 2 says. Number two, it should not distract in a church service, and Paul allows for a concession. Okay, two or three, if there's an interpreter. If. And then, lastly, his biggest preference is don't do it at all. Like, nobody understands. You know, if there's no interpreter, do not do it. Because everybody's just sitting there going, what the heck are you talking about? And Paul wants to prevent that, and that is exactly what we see today. People who are disobeying this passage, they're taking it out of context, and when Paul is chastising them for edifying themselves, puffing themselves up, you know what? People turn that into a good thing. They twist the Scripture, and they say, see? You ought to be sitting in church edifying yourself. No, no. He is saying the prophet does better, because the prophet edifies somebody else. But you tongue speakers in Corinth, you are fixated on edifying yourself, you're a bunch of show-offs, and you need to stop it. So, Tony, I'll put you back on again. Does that make sense? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yes, thank you so much, Andrew. You gave me Scriptures, I have reference, it makes complete sense. Good, good. Yes, well, don't expect them to agree with you, or for you to be able to fix their situation. Isn't it interesting, though? I mean, the folks who say they have a special language with God are the same folks that are telling you you don't have the Spirit. So is that what God told them? Did God tell them that when they had a special pipeline, that you're inadequate, that you don't have every blessing in Christ, that you don't have everything you need for life and godliness, that you still need more? So in the special pipeline, God told them something that contradicts the Scriptures? Huh. The folks with the special pipeline and the special angelic language, they can't seem to encourage Christians in their completeness in Christ? Hmm. Again, I think you ought to find a better place where you find that the cross and resurrection are proclaimed regularly, and the Scriptures are taught in context, and what you will find then is that you're encouraged in the truth, and the truth will set you free. Thanks, Tony, call us back anytime. All right, let's go now to California, and we'll talk with Mike. Hey Mike, what you got for us tonight? Thank you for taking my call. I I'm a little confused about something. When I was born, I was baptized as a Catholic when my parents were married. When my parents got divorced, my mom found Christianity in the mid-80s, and around eight years old I was baptized and saved. And as a child, I guess that doesn't really make sense because I would have gone to heaven anyways if I passed away around that age. Then as I became an adult in my early 30s, I chose on my own free will to be saved and baptized by my pastor at my Christian church. My father is a strong devoted Catholic, along with his seven other siblings on that side of the family, and he was baptized as a baby, but he never got saved. But he is very much into his Scripture reading, his prayers, he goes to church, he's in his younger years, he did a lot of work for the Church, but then you have that thief that was on the cross that asked Christ to forgive him. Okay, yeah, I hear you Mike, and I hear your concern. I got it three minutes, maybe two. I want to jump in and help. I mean, your dad has his story and his history, and you have your story.

And your dad's history involves the Catholic Church and, you know, things like, I'm sure, confirmation class and things like that, and then later on Bible study and prayer and has a sincere interest in God and believes that Jesus is the Son of God. You have a story that involves baptism as a child, and then later a conscious decision to say, you know what, I trust in Jesus as my Savior, and I want to get publicly baptized in water to celebrate that. You both have your story, and I'm sure you're asking me, you know, both a little bit about yourself and more probably concern for your dad. And what I would say is this, Paul says it, do not say, who will descend, he's talking about hell, do not say, who will descend, do not say, who will ascend, instead just know this, that the Word is right up here in your ear. It's right there. Whoever hears this gospel and believes it, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I am not saved by perfect theology. I am saved by Jesus Christ when I trust Him with my salvation. So my question to you or to your dad would be, does Jesus Christ live in you? Have you trusted Jesus to save you? Does He live in you? You know, I could have all kinds of messed up ideas in my head, but if I've got Jesus in my heart, that's a start, and that's what matters most. So remember Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace you are saved through faith. It is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. So let's take water baptism, let's put it over on the side. It is valuable, it's just like the Lord's Supper, it is valuable, it's a celebration, but there's nothing about water that saves you or your dad. Now let's take all our Bible study and all our serving at church, which you mentioned a little bit there for your dad, let's take service at church and quantity of Bible reading, let's put that over on the side. You are not saved by that either.

You are saved by grace through faith. It is a gift of God. So the only question for you and for your father, if you're concerned about him, is does Jesus Christ live in you? Have you trusted what Jesus has done? Have you trusted his cross and his resurrection? Do you trust his blood to have taken away your sins forever? Do you trust that he rose from the dead to give you everlasting life? It's not about what did you do at church, it's not about what did you do in a baptismal pool, it is not about how much you served, it is did you let Jesus serve you? Did you let Jesus serve you through the cross and serve you through the resurrection? Jesus says, if I do not serve you, you have no part with me. And so it's humbling to let Jesus cleanse you. It's humbling to let Jesus save you. And that's the question for you and for your father. You probably have a solid answer to that yourself. You say, yes, Andrew, I've trusted Jesus. Well, that's your focus with your dad. Does Christ live in you, dad? Have you trusted him? Do you believe he is who he says he is? Do you believe he did what he said he did? Have you put your confidence in him? So that's the conversation to have. Friends, thanks for joining us tonight. Don't forget about the grace message and our special offer this month. For more information on the broadcast ministry of Dr. Andrew Farley, please visit andrewfarley.org. That's andrewfarley.org. Join us next time as we invite you to celebrate the grace message with Dr. Andrew Farley. This program is sponsored by your generous financial support.

Hi, I'm Andrew Farley. I hope you enjoyed today's program. And if you have more questions, whether it's about a Bible verse, a personal struggle or anything on your heart, biblequestions.com is here for you. You'll get clear grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No confusion, no judgment, just practical truth that meets you right where you are. Whatever's on your mind, you'll find real answers rooted in God's love. Visit biblequestions.com. That's biblequestions.com. you