Join Ronald L. Dart as he delves into the complex topic of spiritual manifestations in the church. Are all spiritual experiences indicative of divine presence, or could they be misleading? Drawing from the writings of Paul, particularly his letters to the Corinthians, Dart explores the existence of false apostles and the masquerading of the devil as an angel of light. This insightful episode challenges listeners to question the very nature of the spiritual powers they encounter and to discern their true origins.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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If you visited a church some Sunday evening and in the course of the service, people began to stand up and dance in the aisles, perhaps stand on the pew, perhaps speak in unknown tongues. Some might be falling on the floor helplessly, supposedly under the power of the Spirit, unable to move. Would you feel that you had come into the presence of a spiritual power? A lot of people would think so. And they would think the spiritual power was the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. But why would they think that? Maybe it’s because they’re in the church. Maybe it’s because the name God is on the sign outside. Or maybe it’s just because, well, there’s obviously a power here, and it has to be of God. But hold on a minute. Are we to be persuaded by mere power? Is there only one kind of power in the spirit world? We know there’s a Holy Spirit, of course. But isn’t there also a spirit that is not holy? The Bible tells us there’s a devil who appears like an angel of light. How do we know that a manifestation of ghostly power is of God, the Holy Ghost, and it’s not of the devil? Paul was warning of this possibility, and he said that there are spiritual leaders who have power and are headed in a wrong direction. He said they are false apostles who Deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. That’s 2 Corinthians 11, 13. That’s a sobering scripture when you think about it. Because it tells us that out there in Paul’s world, and presumably in ours as well, there were false apostles. And there were deceitful workers. People who were pretending to be apostles of Christ when Christ didn’t know them and wouldn’t speak to them. Well, Paul continues to say, that’s no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. And you look around you in the world and you think you see angelic beings, you think you see people who are angelic in their nature, and he says, hold it, hold it. The devil looks like an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed into as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. So you can have powers out there. You can have spirit powers out there. And they aren’t necessarily of God. They could be, conceivably, of the devil. And so my question is, how do you know who you’re dealing with? If a preacher walks up to a row of people standing in the church, the service is all heated up, and everybody’s singing and clapping hands and dancing, and he’s laying hands on people, and they’re falling, and the power of the Spirit, as they said, slain in the Spirit, and lying inert on the floor, unable to move. And he walks over and touches the forehead of one person on the end of a row of people and collapses the entire row like a row of dominoes. How do you know… He’s doing this with the real power of the Holy Spirit. How do you know it’s not some other power? Now, I’m not saying this to impute motives or to impute satanic powers to anybody. I’m just asking a question. How do you know? When people start speaking in tongues that no one understands, how do you know this is the Spirit of God and not some other spirit? I don’t mean to put down anyone’s religious experience, but I am asking a fair question. How do you know? Now, I know the gift of tongues was given to the apostles when they were empowered. But when they were empowered, and the story is found in Acts 2, and I talked about that last time. They spoke recognizable languages, and they had a clear and understandable message. The people who heard them speak said, oops, how do I hear this guy speaking to me in the language wherewith I was born? I’m a Parthian. I speak that dialect, and I’m hearing these guys talking in my own dialect. How is this happening? Because these fellows, they’re just ordinary people. They’re Galileans. I don’t get it, they said. Not only that, but they understood what exactly the message was about. They said, we hear them speak in our languages the wonderful works of God. So it was a qualitative message. They knew what it was. So they weren’t speaking the language of the Holy Spirit, were they? They were speaking the language of the Parthians and Medes and others. Now, here is my problem. If the language people are speaking when they speak in tongues is a heavenly language, a prayer language, the language of angels, why? What are they doing it for? What’s the purpose? What’s the point? Why would God do that? It surely is not because God doesn’t understand English or French, is it? I mean, why would God give me the language of angels or a prayer language to talk to him when in fact he understands English just as well as I do? So God doesn’t need to give me his language in order for us to communicate. And it would really be strange indeed if in the process of giving me this language and I’m able to speak to God, I don’t even know what I’m saying. We’re not communicating. Now I’m sure it’s very gratifying to the person who receives this miraculous gift of tongues. But is that why God does it? So we’d feel good? So perhaps we would believe in him. But aren’t we supposed to believe in God in faith without having to be shown a whole lot of spectacular things? We know why the initial gift of tongues was given. There’s no question about that. The story is told to us in the second chapter of Acts. It was given so the apostles could take the gospel into other lands and other languages. It became plain that the gospel was not just for the Jews. It was for everybody. And if these Galileans are going to have to go down to Parthia and preach, we’ve got to give them the language so they can be understood when they get down there. Now, I have to ask one more time. Why would God have us speak in unknown tongues? I mean, languages that are not known by anyone on this planet. Now, there does appear to be an instance of this in the Bible, and it’s worth a look. We’ll talk about that when I come back after these words.
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Is there an example in the Bible of where somebody speaking in a tongue in church in a language nobody understands? Well, apparently so. We learn about it. We don’t have a record of actually where it happened. We learn about it indirectly through a letter of Paul. It’s his first letter to the Corinthian church. Something has happened in Corinth since Paul was there because whatever they’re doing in relation to tongues, they weren’t doing when Paul was there. because he’s having to straighten out some questions on it. Word has reached Paul about it, no doubt with a question as to what to do about it. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we can understand a lot by reading between the lines of Paul’s letter. He’s been talking about spiritual gifts, one of which is tongues. In 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 28, Paul says, “…and God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” And what he’s talking about in 1 Corinthians 12 is spiritual gifts, that you have all kinds of different gifts, some given to this person, another gift given to that person. One of them is diversities of tongues. And what Paul means by this is diversity of languages. How do I know that? Well, if a person who speaks in tongues is speaking the language of the Holy Spirit, as it’s called, or the tongues of angels, or speaking God’s language, well, that’s one language. That’s what God, the angels, the Holy Spirit all communicate in, right? It’s not a diversity of languages. It’s one. And so, consequently, the gift of a diversity of languages is something, in Paul’s mind, like what happened in the second chapter of Acts, where 14 different languages, I believe, are named there as being understood by people on that day. Then he continues to say, Is everybody an apostle? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Does everyone work miracles? Do all have the gift of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Now, plainly, the answer to this rhetorical question is no. Not everyone is an apostle. Not everyone is a teacher. And not everyone speaks in tongues. It’s a gift that’s given to individuals for them to use. Now, mind you, these gifts are all considered tools for the purpose of carrying on the work of God, for spreading the gospel, for getting the work done. They are not merely for display or for personal entertainment or for just personal edification. That’s not why God gives them. One of the errors of some Christians is to assume or insist that you haven’t really been converted until you speak in tongues. And Paul says, no, sorry, everybody doesn’t speak in tongues any more than everybody is an apostle. Paul sees the gift as something given to different individuals to do a work. And then he continues by saying this. But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. And that leads us into 1 Corinthians 13, which is the marvelous love chapter of the New Testament, where Paul concludes that the greatest spiritual gift of all is love. But when he finishes that 13th chapter, he turns to the problem at hand. He says, follow after love and desire spiritual gifts, but I prefer among these spiritual gifts that you may prophesy. For he that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not unto men but unto God, for no man understands him, even though in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. Now, several things to understand about this. One is, the language of Corinth was Greek. The person who stood before them speaking Greek was unremarkable. So when Paul says, he that speaks in an unknown tongue is talking about somebody who’s speaking a language other than Greek. The word unknown, by the way, is probably in your Bible in italics, if it’s there at all, because it’s not in the original Greek. He says, for he that speaks in a tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God. And in so saying, he is talking about a tongue other than Greek. Otherwise, as I said, it would be unremarkable. Now, since the language he is speaking is not known to his listeners, they don’t understand a word he’s saying. What he is saying is a mystery to his audience. Only God knows what he is saying. Now, this is not the same as saying the man spoke the tongues of angels, only that he was speaking in a language that no one in Corinth knew. Was it a gift of God? Or was it something else? Well, Paul doesn’t seem really to know. He’s simply addressing a problem that has arisen in dealing with spiritual gifts. Then he says, But he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. To prophesy in Greek did not mean to foretell the future. It meant to speak under inspiration, to preach, as it were. The man who does this conveys knowledge and encouragement and enlightenment. What was happening in Corinth, whatever it was, was not accomplishing that. He went on to say, he that speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he that preaches edifies the church. Now that’s easy to see. In theory, at least, the man speaking in a language with a message from God is helped by the message. But no one else is. Imagine for a moment that we’re sitting in an English-speaking congregation and God gives to a man sitting in our group here with us who speaks only French. He gives him a message. And the man stands up and begins to proclaim the message God has just given him in French. Not a single person here understands it. So he that speaks in this language edifies himself. but he’s not edifying the church. He goes on to say, “…he that prophesies, he that preaches, edifies the church.” “‘I would,’ said Paul, “‘that you all spoke with languages, but rather that you would prophesy. For greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edifying.'” Now, this verse is very revealing because it conveys Paul’s understanding of the purpose of speaking, whether it’s in tongues or not. The purpose is to edify, and to edify means to instruct or to enlighten. And the whole idea is that we convey an idea from the mind of one man to the mind of another. Just what would this program be worth to you if I were speaking today in a language you don’t understand? Well, not much. You’d be off of it before very long and going off doing something else. And that’s Paul’s point. In fact, he is saying that in order for speaking in languages to mean anything, there has to be an interpretation. And at that point, you have moved it on to the level of prophesying or preaching, which is for the purpose of edifying the church, which means to instruct or enlighten, that they will understand something that they didn’t understand before. Surely, a man speaking Russian in my church would be instructing himself alone. Unless… unless someone is able to interpret, to translate, so we would know what he’s talking about. Now, brethren, Paul continued, if I come to you speaking in languages, what good am I going to do you unless I speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine? And he might have gone on to say, and of what value is all these things that we’re talking about here if you can’t understand them? Now, whatever was happening in Corinth, it didn’t match Paul’s expectations of what was supposed to happen. When one addressed the church, it was supposed to be for instruction or enlightenment. It might be revelation. It might be knowledge. It might be doctrine. And if it was not for one of these, Paul wants to know, what’s the point? As I asked earlier, why would God do that? Paul’s presumption is that the gift of tongues was not merely for show. It was not for a display. It was to teach. It was to teach people who understand the tongue, the language that is being spoken. He continues in verse 7 to say, And even things without life-giving sound, whether it’s a pipe or a harp, unless they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? Now, if you’ve ever been in the military, you know that there are different calls on the trumpet. They actually get up with a bugle and they blow taps at night so that you hear that mournful sound. And it really is kind of relaxing when the time comes to go to sleep at night. And for anyone who’s ever been in the military, it has special meaning. And when they play it at a funeral, it’s very hard not to be moved right to the core of your being when you’ve been put to sleep by that every night for rather a long time. But if they get up in the morning and instead of playing a reveille, they play tabs. Or if instead of at the time to go to meal, instead of playing the call that brings you to food, they play tabs. Or if the call for assembly comes out or to the colors comes out. You know, you’ve got to know what these sounds are in order to know what you’re supposed to do when the thing is piped or harped or bugled. If, he says, the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle? You know, if you’ve never been in the military, you surely have at least seen a movie with the cavalry where they blow the trumpet for the charge. But you see, there is another very distinct sound that’s made by that trumpet called retreat. And it’s really deadly if that thing gets confused and half the fellows listening hear retreat and the other half hear charge. That’s Paul’s point, is that you can’t have somebody up here trying to communicate and give an uncertain sound. He is assuming that the purpose of speech in church is for communication, and that communication or speech that doesn’t communicate has no place there. So likewise you, he said. Unless you utter by the tongue words that are easy to be understood, how in the world is anybody going to know what you’re talking about? You will speak into the air. It will have no purpose. There are, it may be, he says, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore, if I don’t know the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian, and he that speaks shall be a barbarian unto me.” Paul’s a reasonable man. He’s a logical man. He’s bringing classic argument to this situation. He asks, why does God do this? I want to know. What’s the point? The point of speech in church is communication, says Paul. It is not to make a display of one’s spirituality or one’s contact with God or the fact that one is in contact with God and you are not. Even so, Paul says, you, as much as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, and all of us would be, we all would like to see more of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our church. He says, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church. The point of spiritual gifts, folks, is the edifying of the church. That’s enlightening and instructing. Wherefore, let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. Now, I suppose people who pray in tongues and who have no idea what they are saying would turn to this passage as an example of what they are doing. They think that Paul is saying, well, if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit is praying. I’m actually praying to God, even though my mind doesn’t have a clue what I am saying. Anyone that comes here to take that is overlooking Paul’s point. What Paul is saying is he doesn’t see that there’s any point in praying when you don’t know what you’re saying. And he says, what am I going to do then? Well, 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. I don’t want to be standing up in church saying words that I don’t know what they are. Else, he says, when you shall bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupies the room of the unlearned say, Amen, at your giving of thanks, if he doesn’t understand what you say? Do you realize what that’s saying? That is suggesting that when you are blessing with the Spirit in a language or a tongue, the reason why this other guy doesn’t understand it is because he’s unlearned. It’s a language he could have learned but hasn’t. You, he said, verily give thanks well, but the other is not helped, is not edified, is not enlightened. And he can’t join with you in your giving of thanks. He can’t share with you in that because you’re speaking to yourself and to God, and he doesn’t have a clue. Note, he says in this, you give thanks well. That says that in the words being spoken, there is content. Paul doesn’t want to speak in tongues that he himself doesn’t understand. Now, why? Why would Paul feel that way? Oh, the answer to that’s easy. Because there are powers in this world that are not of God. Why give your tongue to an otherworldly power when you have no idea what that otherworldly power is saying? How do you know it’s of God? How do you know it’s not a demonic spirit? How do you know your own lips are are not cursing God in a language that you don’t even know. Paul continued to say, I thank God I speak with languages more than you all. I think he probably spoke seven or eight of them. Yet in the church, he said, I would rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others than 10,000 words in a language they don’t understand. According to Paul, tongues are useless unless they’re understood by the audience. I’ll be back in a moment with another very important thing for you to understand.
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Paul said, don’t be children in understanding. It’s okay if you’re children in malice, but in understanding, come on, let’s be men in this area of understanding. If you read the whole epistle to the Corinthians, you get the feeling that Paul kind of thought they were like children. He said, in the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak to this people, and yet in spite of that they will not hear me, saith the Lord. Now that is a real awkward construction. And you can misunderstand entirely what Paul is saying here if you’re not careful. I believe a lot of people read this and they think, well, tongues are a sign. The reason God gives us the tongues is for a sign so that people will see that we are speaking in tongues and they will know that this is a miracle from God. It’s evidence of God’s involvement. And hold it. Wait a minute. That’s you’re begging the question here. Because the very question we are asking here is how do we know that this miracle, how do we know that this sign, how do we know this great thing that’s happening here? is really of God, because there are two sides to the spirit world. There’s a light and a dark side. There’s a true and a righteous side, and on the other hand, there’s an evil and a rotten side. How do we know? The mere existence of a miracle or a sign doesn’t prove anything, because the devil can do miracles of a sort and even give you signs of a sort. Now, the reason why I think many people misunderstand what Paul is saying here is because they are not familiar with his statement in the law. It is written with men of other languages and other lips. Well, I speak to this people and they won’t hear me. Paul is not saying that tongues are a miracle to cause the unbelieving to believe. He is saying that when men refuse to believe that God will speak to them in languages they do not understand. He’s citing the prophet Isaiah. Listen to Isaiah. Isaiah 28, verse 9. Why? Why? to whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. Why? That they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. Tongues are a sign against those people who don’t believe. That’s what Isaiah 28 is all about, and that’s what Paul is citing when he says in the church, even, tongues are a sign not to believers. They’re a sign to unbelievers. Returning to Paul, if therefore the whole church has come together in one place, and they all speak with tongues, and there come in one that are unlearned or unbelievers, aren’t they going to say that you’re crazy? Oh yeah, they will. If you had no background and you walked into a charismatic meeting with everyone speaking in languages nobody understood, you would think you had walked into a madhouse. And Paul says plainly, this is an undesirable outcome. Later he says, if a man speaks in an unknown tongue, let it be by two or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Paul was not of a mind to forbid someone to speak with tongues, but the problem was it had to be done decently, it had to be done in order, and there had to be an interpreter or they were to keep their mouth shut. Paul said, let all things be done unto edifying. That’s to instruction, to enlightenment, not merely for the display of spiritual gifts for your own vanity. Those are the losers. Until next time, this is Ronald Dart, and you were born to win.
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