Speaking in a New Tongue

Speaking in a New Tongue

Isa 59:1-5 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. 4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. 5 They hatch cockatrice ' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

1 Peter 3:9-10 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

I get accused every once in a while for preaching sermons directly to people. Some times people will come up to me and say "how did you know, preacher, did somebody come tell you?" And I'll laugh because nobody told me anything, but I just felt led to preach on a particular subject and preached what God gave me. That's what I normally do, and it's better to preach without knowledge. But tonight I'm going to break the rules. Over the course of the last three months I've had probably 5-6 people come to me needing scriptural guidance for various situations. Unknowingly to them, the source of their issues was really from the same fountain and it let me know that it's time to preach again on this subject. Please receive this message tonight if for nothing else because it is the Word of God.

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Let me begin by saying that I firmly believe that we serve a God who is absolutely able to do the miraculous. And not just to do so occasionally, but to do the miraculous and the supernatural regularly. Our God is a mighty God. He is a spirit being and so the supernatural is second nature to Him. The Bible teaches, and my own experience teaches that miracles still happen today. So many churches have gotten away from the fundamental truths of the Word of God that they maybe don't see them like they should, and so when people come into a church that endeavors to preach the whole council of God, they come with a trained disbelief in the regular occurrence of the supernatural. People naturally doubt because of their lack of experience in such things and so it's quite a job to grow a church that experiences the miraculous power of God on a regular basis, because we have to combat people's inherited doubt from other religious experiences.

But let me say this. I've seen the blinded eyes opened and I've seen the deaf ears unstopped. I've seen people that I had known for years get out wheelchairs and walk, never needing such things again. And so I do more than believe that God can do the miraculous, I KNOW that God still does the miraculous. But it really doesn't matter whether I've seen it or not, the scriptures -- the Word of God -- say that God still desires to do such things, and so that's the bottom line whether or not I believe it, God still does it! As a preacher I've got to preach the truth of the Word of God no matter if I've actually seen it or not. So even if I had never seen any miracle, I would still preach that God still heals and that God still performs mighty miracles today! We aren't seeing them as we should in our church, but I'm here to tell you that I'm still going to keep preaching the Bible and the principles within it, because if our church believes and lives the way that the Early Apostolic Church did, then we are going to see the things that they saw! And the Early Apostolic Church saw miracle after miracle after miracle! They saw the dead raised to life again and the lame to get up. They saw angels delivering Peter from prison and such. We've got to keep striving, never letting go of moving forward in God and of better submitting to God's Word because in going forward, in any area, we are setting ourselves up to become a Revival church, a miracle seeing church, a church that experiences the supernatural! God's, not dead, but He's alive and He desires to work among His people.

And so the greatest proof that God still does miracles is in the fact that many of you have experienced the greatest miracle, and that is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost! Let me say that God still fills people with the Holy Ghost today, and God still does it the same exact way that He always has, just like Acts chapter 2 when it was first poured out: God fill people with the Holy Ghost and when the Spirit of God comes in, and they completely yield themselves to God, they begin to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. In other words, God performs a miracle and takes control of the person's tongue and causes them to speak in another language, something that is not native to them, and to praise Him in that language. We call it "speaking in other tongues" or "speaking in a new tongue." It is real and it is a miracle from God! Every individual account we have in scripture of someone receiving the Holy Ghost, it is recorded that they spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance, or taught them how. We don't teach people to speak with tongues. We don't have a class or anything like that. When a person yields themselves totally to the Spirit, it is a natural byproduct of that submission. If you've never received the Holy Ghost, it is a promise to you! God still does the miraculous and receiving His Spirit is the greatest miracle of all! When you repent of your sins, are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of those sins, and begin to praise God and yield to God's Spirit, He will fill you with the Holy Ghost, and when it happens -- what God has chosen for a sign and He could have chosen any sign in the world -- God will begin to take control of your tongue and will speak through in a new language. You will begin to speak in a new tongue! I believe that! I've experienced that! I know that to be a fact! God still can do the impossible! God can do beyond what man can do! God can perform the supernatural even in lives today!

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Some of you are wondering what all of this has to do with our texts. Some of you who are a little wiser "smell a set up." You're right. And so here goes...

We believe all that I just preached. That is, you do if you believe the scriptures. We believe and teach that God can miraculously take a man or woman's tongue and instantly change it's speech through their yielding to the Spirit. But for some reason, most Spirit-filled believers have a problem believing that God can do it with their normal speech. That is, it seems that sometimes people don't have problem yielding to God for a moment and allowing Him to control their tongue for a few minutes, but they do have a problem yielding to God and allowing Him to control their everyday, normal language, speech. They can speak in other tongues like a china man, but never quite overcome that criticism problem. They can talk in tongues and yield to the Spirit in an instant, but are just convinced that when they get angry, that they can't control their tongue because that's just the way they are. They believe that God can speak through tongues and interpretation, but yet that He's not powerful enough to give them victory over gossip. To see some in action and hear some speak, you'd think that we served a God who was powerful enough and supernatural enough to fill people with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in heavenly languages and yet was quite bound when it came to cleaning up our everyday speech.

"Well preacher, the scriptures says in James that the tongue can no man tame." You're exactly right. You can't tame this tongue, and I can't tame this tongue. It really is the "little red devil behind the white pearly gates." But I submit to you that what man can't do, God can! We serve a supernatural God! We serve an Almighty God who is just as real outside of these buildings as inside these buildings. And either He is all powerful or He's not. When you say that you can't control your tongue or can't help but criticize or can't help but cuss or can't help but gossip and run other people down, what you are saying is that you "won't surrender to the Spirit of God outside of church." If God can change our language as we yield to the Spirit in church, then He can also change our language outside of the church house IF we will yield ourselves to the Spirit the same way! The problem when our tongue is out of control, is that we are yielding to the flesh. I serve a God who wants a revival of speaking in a new tongue. Not just the Holy Ghost and supernatural utterances, but a change and reformation of our everyday speech patterns! Yes, I'm preaching on our tongues tonight, and you can say Amen, because I'm not preaching to just one person here tonight but I'm preaching to everybody including Bro. and Sis. Sibley. If God is miraculous then He can change our everyday speech to a new tongue, too! If we will yield to Him in the Spirit.

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I know. I set you up. Forgive me, and let's look closely at some key points and misconceptions of the tongue.

Grasp the significance of the problem, this is not a "side issue" of scripture.

The problem with preaching such a message is also the first point. It's hard preaching on controlling your speech because there are so many scriptures to choose from. Did you know that there are more teachings and scriptures dealing with controlling your everyday speech, than all of the teachings on heaven and hell, combined!? What I am preaching to you is one of the most significant subjects in the Bible. Listen to some of the scriptures that reveal the importance of allowing God to change your everyday speech:

James 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

That may be familiar to you but it's still true! You can be the most religious person in the world, and yet if you don't control your tongue, that goodness is in vain! Maybe you've also heard this one before:

Prov 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Your tongue can bring death or life. You can be responsible for someone's being encouraged or discouraged depending on whether you learn to bridle your tongue. You can cause someone's fall from serving God or cause their coming to serving God, all depending on how you wield that sword, your tongue! Anytime someone leaves church and stops serving God it is ALWAYS because they got offended. About half the time, they got offended at spiritual authority and their teaching and didn't want to submit. The other half of the time, it's because someone hurt them by repeating something or saying something about them. The scripture says that:

Prov 18:8 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Yeah, right. It may make a cute kid's saying but it is not in anyway true! When someone says "their words don't hurt me" they are never telling the truth. Words do hurt. They have the power of life and death, or so says this book we call the Bible!

Your speech is linked to your faithfulness to God.

People who make it living for God for the long term, all have one thing in common, they began to allow God to help them "speak in a new tongue" in their everyday conversation. People who are a flashing star and shine briefly and then are gone all have one thing in common, they don't let God change their speech. This is scripture. In Psalms 15, the writer asks a question:

Ps 15:1-3 LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. 3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

Of the six things listed here as characteristics of someone who will "abide" or dwell forever in the house of God, four of them deal with the tongue! Jesus said:

Matt 12:34-35 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Your speech betrays your true thoughts. If your speech is vile and ungodly, then your thoughts are too! If your speech is negative, then your thoughts are also. If your speech is constantly criticizing others, then that reveals to everyone the condition of your heart. It's not a minor thing and it will determine your faithfulness to God and whether or not you make it to heaven, because you are what you say. It is the inside that counts, but your tongue reveals what the inside really is! People don't respect the religion of someone who has tongue issues, because people inherently know that the tongue speaks from the heart. Jesus went on to say:

Matt 12:36-37 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

I'm trying to get you to see, that in living for God, words do really matter! And a church of busybodies, gossips, profanity speakers, and evil speakers is not going to have revival and all of our religion is in vain!

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Now I could preach an entire message on the tongue, and somehow most of us would go home thinking "he was preaching to somebody else." I've heard some people preach truth and yet never really broke it down to the level that people lived. I don't want to be such a preacher, and so let's identify exactly what is sin with our tongue. Look at someone and smile and say "he's preaching to me, tonight."

I'm not talking about nor preaching to the entire world tonight. Let's look at very specific problems, actually let's call them what they are -- sins, that Christians commit with their tongue and somehow find a way to justify as "permissible sin."

1. Cursing - I'll admit I have a very low tolerance for profanity in the world and "God forbid" that a child of God would utter such words. Cursing shows a lack of vocabulary and is in such a lack of intelligence. But beyond all of that, let's look at why cursing is a sin according to scripture.

When Peter was at the fire warming himself at Jesus' arrest, we find that others began to notice that he was one of the disciples. Peter denied that and lied which was bad enough, but when the pressure came on and Peter became scared that unless he convinced the people around him that he was not a follower of Christ, that he might be put to death, Peter chose the one thing that everyone obviously knew was the opposite of what a believer in Christ might do: he began to curse and swear. His cursing and use of the words of the day associated with such was a definite sign to all of NOT being a follower of Christ! When you curse and swear, you mark yourself with the true mark of an unbeliever. Simply put, if you can't control your speech to avoid that little four letter word, then I don't want to hear the Words of God from your lips.

That should be enough, but have you ever noticed that EVERY major curse word in the English language is a perversion of a scriptural concept? "Hell" is a literal place and a horrible place. "Damned" is the state of those who are sent to hell and a state that you do not want to experience. "Shittim" wood was the wood that the tabernacle of God, the dwelling place of God Almighty was built of because of it's durability. Jesus rode an "ass" into the city of Jerusalem to indicate that He was coming in peace and not in war. The Jewish people "pissed upon the wall" to indicate their disregard and contempt for God's Word and so that expression came to mean a disregard for God's promises. The scriptural term for sex is "to know" and indicates a special intimacy and the Godly union of two becoming one in purpose and knowledge, but the world has cheapend that union with other words, making it a pleasure and a power kick and not something holy and ordained of God between a man and wife. I could go on and on, but when you use such words as profanity, you are taking the sacred Word of God and trampling in it and cheapening it. I dare say that God will not take lightly those who do such things to this precious Word of God! "Preacher, I just can't control it." That's simply a lie and nothing else. You can control it around church people or while you are around me, you are just choosing not to control it. If you submit to the Spirit, God can change your speech and cause you to speak with a new tongue!

2. Using the Lord's name in vain - This is something that I have to watch in my life. I'm not talking about using God's name in cursing. But just in vain. Using "Jesus" or "God" as a byword. Sometimes preachers read so much scripture and talk about God so much that we will utter the name because it is foremost on our minds. But when someone stubs their toe and says "God..." or "Oh my Lord..." or "Good God Almighty." If you say such things and you are not sincerely in prayer or reacting in prayer, then you are using the Lord's name in vain. It's the third commandment of Moses' Ten Commandments and probably one of the most broken. The commandment is "thou shalt not take the Lord thy God's name in vain." But we forget about what "in vain" means. It means "not really in worship or prayer." When it's just become a by word. With familiarity comes contempt, and most people who use such phrases are slipping in their respect level for the things of God, unknowingly.

3. Talebearing - That's the scriptural name for it. Other names for it is "gossip," "busybodies," or "slander." Listen to the commandment from Moses:

Lev 19:16a Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people:

The word "talebearer" comes from a practice of ancient times of traveling salesmen that would go from village to village selling goods such as shoes, swords, pots and pans, or whatever. They would often stay the night in each village and so would always find out the latest news and retell what the latest was from the cities that they had just visited. The term evolved until it came to refer to people who went from person to person and repeated the "news" of what was going on in someone else's life and so "sold" the wares of gossip. The greatest myth among Christians is that gossip is only gossip if it is not true. That's a lie! Gossip can be completely and totally true, but if it is being repeated from person to person and has a damaging effect on a situation or reputation or is not lifting a person up, then it is a sin! Such a person is a talebearer. If you find out something negative about somebody else and you repeat it to other people without that party present, then you are a talebearer and it's sin, just as much as murder or whatever.

Listen to the following scriptures about talebearers:

Prov 11:13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

If your conversation begins with "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but" then you sinning by doing so!

Prov 16:28 A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

I hate whispering. If you have something to say someone that should be private, don't whisper it to them or take them from the room, but wait until you are alone. And if it something negative about somebody else, then don't tell them at all, it's sin! You are sowing strife!

Prov 17:9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Prov 20:19 He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Prov 26:20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.

If you have issues in your life between people and there is strife or a "fire of turmoil" in a relationship, then know this: it is because of sins of the mouth that the situation exists! I'm amazed at how many Christians gloss over this sin and yet complain when they have relationship issues with other people. Their problems is them eating the fruit of their mouth.

The greatest justification of this comes through "needing prayer." If you need prayer about something and need somebody to pray then voice it in such a way that you would be comfortable expressing it in church. When you give prayer requests in church, we don't need to know all of the nitty gritty details! Don't say "my uncle and aunt got into a fight and he cursed her while he was drunk and she hit him on the head with a frying pan and then my cousin Lenny came in with his girlfriend that he just got pregnant and joined in and my uncle had to be taken to the hospital. That's gossip. And if we ever succeeded in getting you uncle and aunt and Lenny and his girlfriend to come to church, everybody would know their business! Just say "I've got a situation that I need prayer for in my family, let's ask God to touch my uncle, my aunt, and my cousin Lenny and his girlfriend." And don't go ask people details of their requests unless they volunteer it. It's none of your business!

But how many times do people say "now I'm just telling you this about so and so or about what happened because I need someone to pray." That's justified talebearing. That's sin. Just ask them to help you pray about your uncle and his family just as you would in church. And can I say this? There are no special rules for your family. If they are your wife, son, uncle, or whatever, that does not give you the right to talk to others about their problems and repeat the negative stuff that you know about them. You are not making it better, you are just fanning the flames!

"Oh, but Bro. Sibley, I've always been this way and that's hard. I cannot change that." Yes, you can, if you will submit to the Spirit of God! He can cause you to speak in a new tongue in your everyday speech. Worry about your own problems -- you've got enough imperfections of your own without pointing out others. If I could get some of you to repeat and remember scripture like you do the details of other people's business...

4. Evil Speaking - Some of you might say "what's the difference between talebearing and evil speaking?" I'm glad you asked, but first the scripture:

James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Talebearing, gossip, slander, or whatever you want to call it is when you repeat a specific situation or conversation that is negative toward another person. In evil speaking, you speak down about someone without giving specifics. When someone mentions a name and you go "oh them, hmmmph." That's evil speaking. You haven't said anything specific, but you have let everybody know that you don't think good of that person. Didn't I tell you that I was preaching to everybody tonight!?

For the sake of time, I'll condense the teachings of at least fifty scriptures that deal with this subject and say that evil speaking always speaks of a hurt that you have received.

Peter warned:

Evil speaking is when you have been hurt by someone and so when their name comes up, you try to inflict hurt on them in return. You are giving hurt for hurt and evil speaking for evil speaking. I've been guilty of it, and even recently had to ask someone to forgive me for doing this. But it's still truth and it's still sin. We are to speak blessings in return to hurts. That's just as much scripture as Acts 2:38. When we don't, we commit the sin of evil speaking.

5. Lying - There's not a whole lot to say about this one, and you only need to know one part of a verse of scripture:

Rev 21:8b . . . all liars , shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Lying means not telling the truth. It means intentionally saying the opposite of what is. It means being truthful on your job applications. It means being truthful even when telling the truth will hurt. It means going back and making things right even if you didn't realize at the time you were lying. Where most Christians justify their lying is through deceitfulness. They lead others to believe something that is not true without actually saying an untruth. That's still lying and deceitfulness is a sin, also! To purposefully mislead someone is the same as lying whether you say anything or not. The key to the scripture is "all liars" shall have their part in the lake of fire. Not just sinners that are liars, not big liars, but people who tell "little white lies." Or people who are deceitful and deliberately mislead others. Preachers who lie. Saints who lie. It's tight but right: "all liars." We need God to help us speak in a new tongue!

6. Repeating offences. The scripture gives a very clear teaching of how to make something right with someone when they have offended you. 98% of church problems come from a failure to follow these scriptures. 98% of all our problems within the church, would go away if saints would believe and practice these scriptures as tenaciously as they did Acts 2:38. Jesus said:

Matt 18:15-17 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

If someone has offended you, you are to go to that person one on one, privately and in a good attitude and spirit tell them that they offended you and try to make things right. If they will not hear you, then you are to take someone as a witness and go to that person again and confront them and ask for forgiveness and try to make things right. THEN, if they will not hear, you should tell the church with that person present. This is the scriptural way to deal with offenses and it works, but most Christians won't follow it.

Not one time are you commanded to tell someone else about the offense without the presence of the person who offended you present. If someone offends you and you repeat it to someone else before going to that person and without the person who offended you present, then you have sinned by repeating your offense. You have disobeyed the clear teachings of scripture. The problem with most Christians is that they will say "I don't want to stir up something by going to them, and yet they repeat to someone else." The problem is that they are stirring up trouble by NOT going to the person and obeying scripture because they are letting it harbor in their heart and mind and dwelling on it. I'm amazed at how many Christians will tell others about their offences and yet don't obey the clear teachings of scripture to go to that person. Instead of finding excuses to obey scripture, they find excuses to not obey this scripture. They'll say "I should go to them? Oh it's not that big a deal." If it was a big enough deal for you to tell someone else, then it is a big enough deal for you to go to that person as the scripture says. Yes, I'm preaching to you! But the problem is that this scripture always applies to someone else's situation and my situation is always a special case. There are not special cases. You either obey scripture or you do not.

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In our text, in Isaiah, the prophet likened such people who gave in to gossip, and evil speaking, and cursing, and lying and such to the laying of "cockatrice eggs." The "cockatrice" was a viper, a small very deadly and poisonous snake of the area. It's eggs looked similar to a bird's eggs in the nest and might easily be mistaken for something good to eat. The only problem was that when the eggs were broken, a very deadly small viper came out!

When you sin with the sins of the mouth, you are hatching cockatrice eggs. And you are hurting others! It is a deadly problem and the key here is not only are those who do such things and say such things not right before God, but they poison the people who allow themselves to listen to such things. It takes two to gossip, and two to speak evil, and two to talebear, and two to repeat an offense: one to speak and one to listen. The one who listens to such garbage are like someone picking up that cockatrice egg and breaking it open only to find that they are bit by a deadly viper. Listening to such stuff poisons the listener and makes the listener just as guilty as the speaker! We need God to touch our mouth and let us speak in a new tongue but we also need God to touch our ears! If you listen to such garbage, then remember "silence is consent." And it will kill your walk with God and your spiritual life. It will kill your witness and your praise. God can do the supernatural! We need to yield to the Spirit and Word of God until we, again, speak in a new tongue. But this time our new tongue needs to be in our everyday speech!