Title: Baptism of the Holy Ghost – 3
“Why Tongues – 2”
Text: Mark 16:17
Moody was to have a campaign in England. An elderly pastor protested, “Why do we need this 'Mr. Moody'? He's uneducated, inexperienced, etc. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?” A younger, wiser pastor rose and responded, “No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”
Speaking to a large audience, D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked, “How can I get the air out of this glass?” One man shouted, “Suck it out with a pump!” Moody replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass.” After numerous other suggestions Moody smiled, picked up a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. “There,” he said, “all the air is now removed.” He then went on to explain that victory in the Christian life is not accomplished by “sucking out a sin here and there,” but by being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Last week we set a foundation for this series. I spent some extensive time explaining that tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Holy Ghost. We also learned that we don’t receive the baptism at the time of salvation, nor do we need the baptism in order to be saved. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a necessity in the believer’s life. However, it comes after salvation. Last week we talked about the believers who were filled in Samaria, the believers who were filled in the house of Cornelius, the believers who were filled in Ephesus and also talked about Paul’s experience of being filled with the Spirit. This morning we started talking about 10 reasons why every believer should speak in tongues. We are going to go a little further in this evening’s message. This morning we got to 3 reasons why every believer should speak in tongues.
The first reason every believer should speak in tongues is because tongues is the initial sign that you are filled with the Holy Ghost. It is also important that every believer speak in tongues because tongues are for spiritual edification. We learned that edify is actually to build up or to charge like a battery. Speaking in tongues builds you up in your Christian walk. Speaking in tongues also reminds us that we have the Holy Ghost residing on the inside of us. It reminds us of the Spirit’s indwelling presence.
A minister’s twelve-year-old daughter once lost her temper and was talking rudely and hatefully to her mother. A visiting evangelist overheard the scene. When the girl looked up and saw him, knowing he had witnessed her tantrum, she was embarrassed and broke into tears. “I’m so sorry you saw me act this way and heard what I said,” she cried. “Honey,” he said, “there is One greater then I am who saw you and heard you. You are a Christian aren’t you?” “Yes.” “And filled with the Spirit?” He asked. “Yes.” “Well then, the Holy Ghost is in you. He knows what you said and how you acted. But if you repent, the Lord will forgive you.” They prayed together. She repented and in a little while began to worship God in tongues.
Then he said to her, “Here is a secret that will help curb your temper. If you will pray and worship God every day in tongues, it will help you to be conscious of the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost. If you will remember that He is in you, you won’t act that way.”
Some years later the evangelist returned to preach at the church, and the pastor’s daughter told him, “I have never forgotten what you said. Every day for the past few years I have prayed and worshipped God in tongues and I have never lost my temper again.”
We can learn a lot from that story. Unfortunately, we all know people who have been filled with the Holy Ghost, yet still lose their tempter and say and do things they know they shouldn’t. Have you ever met anyone like that? It is so easy, when we are not aware of the presence of the Holy Ghost and resides in us, to become irritated and frustrated. It is so easy to lose our cool when we forget that the Lord is with us everywhere we go and He hears everything we say. When you are constantly aware of the Spirit’s presence in your life, it becomes a lot harder to sin. Tongues remind us of that indwelling presence.
IV. PRAYING IN TONGUES IS PRAYING IN LINE WITH GOD’S PERFECT WILL
Romans 8:26-27; ¶ “Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
Speaking in tongues keep selfishness out of our prayers. A prayer out of our feelings and our thinking has the potential of becoming unscriptural. Too often our prayers are like the old farmer who prayed, “God bless me, my wife, my son John, his wife, us four and no more.”
In the Scripture above, Paul never said that we don’t know how to pray. We do know how to pray. The Bible tells us to pray in the Name of Jesus in order to get results. We all know that. We don’t ask how do we pray, but just because I know how to pray doesn’t necessarily mean that I know what to pray. Have you ever been to a point in your life when you are simply lost for words? You try to find the words to pray and it seems as though nothing ever comes. Have you ever been so low in life that you wonder if God hears you pray anyway and you ask yourself the question, “What’s the use?” nothing happens anyway? Even if I wanted to pray, I don’t know what to say. I know it is hard to believe, but I have been at that point in my life from time to time. I am lost for words. The more I try to pray, the more there just seems to be nothing there.
Paul said, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (NIV)
P.C. Nelson, a scholar of the Greek, said that the Greek literally reads here: “The Holy Ghost maketh intercession for us in groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech.”
Articulate speech means our regular kind of speech. In other words, there are times in life that we are so weak that there is no language upon the face of the earth that can describe what we are going through. In those weak times, sometimes we make some extreme mistakes, that is why it is important not to pray according to our feelings or our thinking, but in the Spirit.
I Corinthians 14:14; “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.”
When you pray in tongues, it is your spirit within you praying. The Holy Ghost within you gives the utterance, but those words are escaping your lips. You do the talking. He gives the utterance. By this way of praying, you can be sure that you are always praying according to the will of God.
Some of us have a misconception of the Holy Ghost. This is not something that the Holy Ghost does for you or apart from you. He does not possess your body so that you have no control as some people think He does. Those groanings that cannot be uttered comes from inside us and escapes our lips. The Holy Ghost is not going to do the praying for us.
Many times people have prayed out of their own minds and they end up receiving something that is not the will of God for their lives. If we insist on getting our own way, even if it is not best for us, a lot of times God will permit it because we have a free will. God did not want Israel to have a king, but they kept insisting on it, so He permitted them to have a King. However, it was not His perfect will. So, tongues help us pray according to the will of God.
V. PRAYING IN TONGUES STIMULATES FAITH
Jude 1:20; “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,”
Ephesians 6:18-20; “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; 19 ¶ And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
Paul is telling us to pray always in the Spirit. He knew the importance of praying in the Spirit. He even said, “I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than ye all.” He knew that there is a secret to praying in the Holy Ghost. When we begin to pray in the Spirit, a whole new boldness comes over us that we have never had before. There are times that I get praying in the Spirit and before I realize it I am getting louder and louder and bolder and bolder. There is a boldness to a Spirit-filled believer.
