Speaking in Tongues: Key to Salvation or Misunderstood Tradition?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of
Walk With Me.
I am your host, jj.
It's so good to have each andevery one of you here.
Thank you all for taking amoment to listen to this podcast
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(00:23):
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visual sermons and stuff likethat.
But I'm just waiting to seewhat else God has in store for
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I do appreciate each and everyone of you.

(00:46):
Thank you all so much.
Um, one other thing before weget started.
Uh, if you have any questionsor comments, you can either
leave them on the youtube pageor you can email me, especially
questions, especially questions,because a lot of people prefer
to have their questions private.
Um, and that's fine, and what Ido is I just answer the

(01:08):
questions, but if it's a long,drawn out sort of an answer, I
will.
I can use them here on thispodcast on this show.
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just put your name in thesubject line.
In the subject line, that way Iknow to say hey, jim, this

(01:28):
question is, this is yourquestion and I'm answering.
If not, I'm going to naturallyassume that, that you would
prefer to remain anonymous andthat's just fine, because I,
even though a lot of people havequestions about the Bible, know
a lot of people have questionsabout the Bible, about the Word
of God.
They prefer, they sort of takeit, you know, like a personal,

(01:50):
private matter and that'sabsolutely okay.
It is absolutely okay.
As a matter of fact, my firsttime in the church I got born
again and I had a question andI've seen this same question
several times come across inthis podcast.
So it just sort of confirms alot of people do have questions

(02:13):
and today we are going to answera question and, like most
biblical questions, it seemslike a simple answer, but it's
not and this is why I decidedwe're going to use this question
for today's episode.
The question is do I have tospeak in tongues to be saved?

(02:34):
Do I have to speak in tongues?
Basically, that was the entirequestion Do I have to speak in
tongues?
Now let's have something here.
We have to go over one of therules of the podcast.
The rule of the podcast is, whenwe go over a scripture, you
want to read a verse or twoabove or a verse or two below,
but preferably the whole chapterbecause context is key.

(02:56):
With that in mind and I want toget right into it, because,
while this may seem like a verysimple yes or no answer, it is
absolutely not a yes or noanswer, and I'll explain what I
mean the simple answer is yes,speaking in tongues is necessary

(03:18):
.
But the problem is is that whenyou say speaking in tongues is
necessary, people get the wrongidea and start chasing tongues
and start making up tongues, andthis leads to kind of a weird
scenario where they thinkthey're speaking in tongues but
they're really just utteringgibberish.

(03:39):
And once you get the Holy Ghost, you can kind of tell when
someone is kind of gibberish.
So let's go back and really diginto why the yes is the correct
answer.
So first thing we're going todo is we're going to take the
words of Jesus and we're goingto go to John 3 and 3 and 3 and

(04:01):
5.
And three and three and five,now just the.
The scenario of this situationwas when jesus was talking to
nicodemus and nicodemus wasbasically trying to ask a
question of jesus without askingthe question, and that
generally tends to end up notgoing very well, because jesus

(04:21):
already knew the question thathe was trying to ask.
So before Nicodemus even gotinto the question, jesus just
cut him off and answered thequestion and John 3 and 3 said
Verily, verily, I say to you,except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
So the whole idea of getting toheaven is being born again.

(04:43):
Okay, not being born, notspeaking in to heaven, is being
born again.
Okay, not being born, notspeaking in tongues, but being
born again.
Please stay with me for theanswer.
You've got to stay all the waythrough because I know I just
it's seemingly like I justcontradicted myself, but you've
got to stay through to the end.
So Nicodemus came back with howdoes a man get born again?

(05:04):
Because it doesn't make anysense.
Jesus said except a man be bornof water and of spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God.
And there's the key right therebeing born of the spirit.
So how does one become born ofthe spirit.
Well, first off, we got to eventalk about how it was even

(05:27):
talked about in the Bible, aboutwhat being born of the Spirit
is.
And in the Bible, in Joel 2 and28,.
It shall come to passafterwards that I will pour out
my Spirit upon all flesh.
There's that again being bornof the Spirit.
Your sons and daughters shallprophesy, your old men shall

(05:49):
dream dreams and your young menshall see visions.
So you say, oh, okay, so that'sgoing to be a sign of the
spirit being born out.
Now then, when you go to theother reference and that's going
to be in Isaiah 28, 11, forwith stammering lips and another

(06:14):
tongue will he speak to hispeople so this is still in the
Old Testament, prophesying aboutwhat's going to happen when
people get the Holy Ghost or getborn of the Spirit.
And, just as an aside, beingborn of the water means being
baptized in Jesus' name.
And we're going to get there.
But I just don't want to getahead of myself because this is

(06:35):
important.
So, that being said, that beingsaid, jesus then spoke to Peter
and when he told Peter exactlywhat he was doing and what was

(07:02):
going to happen, he told Peterthat, in Matthew 16 and 18,.
And I say unto thee that youare Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church, and thegates of hell shall not prevail
against me and I will give toyou, given the keys.
Given this to peter, I give toyou the keys of the kingdom of
heaven.
Whatsoever shall you bind andearth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever you shall loseshall be loosed in heaven.

(07:22):
Now, why did Whatsoever youshall loose shall be loosed in
heaven.
Now, why did Jesus do that?
Because he knew that Peter wasgoing to be a no-nonsense type
of guy.
And we see all through thescriptures that Peter was really
a no-nonsense type of guy andhe wasn't as old as we would
like to think.
You know, we've seen in movieswhere they kind of depict Peter

(07:45):
as, like this, 40-year-old guy.
And no, I'm starting to believethat Peter had to be somewhere
in his late teens, and we'lltalk about that maybe on a
different podcast.
But I'm starting to believethat Peter had to be somewhere
around maybe 15, 16 years old.
So this is a huge bit ofresponsibility to lay on a kid.

(08:08):
But Jesus knew Peter's heart.
So when Peter Peter got thosekeys and it took a while for
Peter to really sort of get intowhat having those keys meant.
Peter, all of a sudden and thishappened in the day of Pentecost

(08:31):
, and this was the everythingfinally came full circle.
And if you read the book ofPentecost and it starts off with
, they were all in one place,one accord, and suddenly they
became from a sound from heaven,as a rushing mighty wind, and
it fell upon the house, fellupon the house where they were

(08:52):
sitting this is actually Acts,chapter two and they appear unto
them cloven tongues as a fireand it sat upon each of them and
they were all filled with theHoly Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spiritgave them the utterance.
Now here's where we first startseeing that someone actually
spoke in other tongues, and thisis in the New Testament.

(09:15):
Before then they didn't.
They were prophesied about it,but they didn't really do that,
especially, especially on alarge-scale basis, a widespread
basis.
You know what I'm saying?
So it was more like Jesus wasgiving Peter an opportunity to
fully come into the truth thathe was actually going to give to

(09:39):
Peter.
So Peter's dead in there.
And then he went into about a 34minute, 34 verse sermon.
It wasn't very short, it wasn'tvery long at all.
Well, basically, becauseeverybody started mocking them.
These people are saying, hey,they're drunk and they're just
making up words and there'ssomething's wrong with them.
They're crazy.
And Peter said no, these, thisis what was spoken of by the

(10:01):
prophet joel, what we just readit.
I read about june 28.
And then he said but you guyscrucified the guy that joel was
prophesying about, and everybodygot convicted.
And when they got convicted,they said well, what do we do
now?
Here's where the most important, the, the most important thing

(10:24):
that was said in the NewTestament well, outside of the
gospel, this was the mostimportant thing that was ever
said in the New Testament,between the book of Acts and the
book of Revelation.
And I say this because this isthe key to being born of the
water and of the spirit.
This is actually that beingexplained because Jesus had told

(10:47):
Peter to say Acts 2 and 38.
Peter said unto them repent.
Here's where you are dying outto your previous sins, you're
dying out to your old.
You Be baptized, each and everyone of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ, so that your sinscan be washed away and you shall
receive the gift of the HolyGhost.

(11:08):
So you have a death bit there,you have a burial and baptism
and you have resurrection andreceiving the Holy Ghost.
Now, each and every time, eachand every time that they
followed that formula, that theyfollowed that formula.
Now, it didn't necessarily haveto be in that order, because
there's a situation in Actswhere Peter came across people

(11:30):
who had already repented butdidn't even know that there was
such a thing as the Holy Ghost.
This was in Acts, chapter 10,and we're going to start at
about 44, because Peter'spreaching yet again, and while
Peter yet spake these words, theHoly Ghost fell on them, which

(11:52):
heard the word, and they of thecircumcision, which means those
that were Jews which believed,were astonished.
Which the people who wereactually Christians already, who
were Jews but are notChristians, were surprised.
Why?
Because that on the Gentilesalso was poured out the gift of
the Holy Ghost.
Now, how did they know thatthey had the Holy Ghost?

(12:15):
Because it's a spiritual thing.
You can't really see it.
Let's be honest, you can'treally see it.
It's not like painting a reddot on your ear or something.
See it.
It's not like painting a reddot on your ear or something.
But the next verse was thetelltale sign that they had the
Holy Ghost Acts, chapter 10,verse 46.

(12:36):
For they heard him speak withtongues and magnify God.
Now, here's why I said itdoesn't have to be in
necessarily order, because thevery next verse shows that it
happens, quote-unquote, out oforder.
It happened.
It didn't repent first and thenget baptized and then get the
Holy Ghost.
It can happen in any order thatGod sees fit.
So Peter said Can any manforbid water?

(12:58):
That these should not bebaptized, which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as wehave.
In other words, they had thesame experience as we did back
in Acts, chapter 2.
So they got baptized in Jesus'name and then in Acts 19 and 2,
they had basically the sameproblem Well, not problem, it's

(13:20):
more like the same situation.
And it came to pass.
And this is 1901 we're startingat.
And it came to pass whileApollos was at Corinth, all,
having passed through the uppercoast, came to Ephesus and
finding certain disciples Well,certain disciples means
disciples of Jesus Christ and hesaid unto them have you

(13:40):
received the Holy Ghost sinceyou believed?
And they said we don't evenknow anything about a Holy Ghost
.
So 19 and 3 says Well, how wereyou baptized?
Now, they had already believedall the words of Jesus Christ.
They were already gatheringtogether in a church-like
setting and they were baptizedunder John's baptism, and they

(14:03):
said so in verse 3.
And he said sorry, in verse 3.
And he said unto them how thenwere you baptized?
They said Unto John's baptism.
And then Peter explains thedifference between John's
baptism and the Jesus baptism,which sort of tells us that
there's a right and a wrong wayto be baptized.

(14:24):
Let's read this very carefully.
Then said Paul right, johnverily baptized with the baptism
of repentance.
So they had already repented,saying unto the people that they
should believe on him, whichshould come after him, that is,
on Christ Jesus.
And then when they heard thatby they they mean the disciples

(14:49):
they had heard that they werebaptized in Jesus' name, in the
name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid hishands on them, the Holy Ghost
came on them.
And how did they know?
Because they speak tongues andprophesy.
So these are like like 12 guys.
Now here's the thing, and here'swhy the answer is sometimes

(15:12):
simple.
Answer is sometimes wrong,because you need the holy ghost
to get to heaven, that there'sno way around that.
I mean I, I know what some ofus were taught.
I know what I was taught.
I was was basically you know,hey, just accept the Lord as
your first and savior.
Pray the sinner's prayer, youknow, do this formula every so

(15:33):
often if you sin and believe itor not.
These things, while not beingcompletely wrong, they are
incomplete and being incompleteis a very dangerous situation
when it comes to God.
So I'm saying the Bible issaying that when you get the

(15:58):
Holy Ghost, you will speak intongues, but people can speak
with tongues and not have theHoly Ghost.
I mean I don't want to say it.
Well, you know what Sometimesyou'll have to.
You have to just be blunt aboutit, like this isn't some Hoka
Masai, tie-my-tie, bye-bye-bye.
This is a real plugging into theHoly Spirit, the spiritual

(16:21):
realm, the godly realm.
It sort of seems scary topeople who have never done it
before and it may seem strange.
It may even feel off-putting toyou, and that's okay until the
first time it really happens toyou.
And I'll never forget the firstnight I got the Holy Spirit and

(16:42):
that was, oh my gosh, that wasgot to be at least 30 years ago,
that when I first was praying,and I was praying specifically
for the Holy Ghost, because Ireally wanted the Holy Ghost and
I got to a point where Icouldn't really speak the way I
wanted to and it was kind ofweird to say like that I didn't

(17:11):
remember when I first faked it,I don't remember that part, just
sort of everything sort ofwhited out.
But after that, after thatinitial baptism, you can, but
it's it's more along the linesof kind of plugging in, and I
mean that really plugging in,imagine almost like sticking
your finger in the logic.
You know you will feel it, youwill absolutely feel it, and

(17:32):
once you get the holy, you cankind of tell when people are
just baking, which is a very sadthing.
And this is why I don't just Ididn't just email you back and
say, yeah, you need to speak intongues to be saved, because
speaking in tongues doesn't saveyou.
Having the Holy Ghost saves you.
And speaking in tongues is thesymptom of having the Holy Ghost

(17:54):
and, believe it or not, that'sjust the first symptom of having
the Holy Ghost, because youhave so many symptoms that come
after that the desire forholiness and the desire for to
be in the presence of God andthe desire to just live right.
That's really anoversimplification of it because

(18:17):
of the show, when you get theHoly Ghost, your life does
change.
Even, yeah, and I've seen peoplewho have gotten the Holy Ghost
and backslide.
I backslid, and I'm just beinghonest with you guys, I backslid
for about I don't know about 10years, maybe, yeah, probably
about 10 years.

(18:37):
But there was always somethingin there.
There was always something inmy spirit, in my heart, that was
drawing me back to God.
But wouldn't, let me settle forincomplete salvation, wouldn't

(18:58):
let me just go along and getalong.
There's always something therethat just sort of pulling me to
a deeper relationship.
So, and I used to be reallyharsh on some of the other
salvation doctrines that we'veheard.
Some of them I've already goneover.
I used to be real harsh to them.
But then I'm realizing that,you know, people are just going
by what they're taught, and eventhose formulas can be a

(19:21):
stepping stone to a deeperrelationship with God.
And the only way to do that isby going by the Bible.
And the Bible says how do theyknow without a preacher and how
does a preacher get sent?
You know what I'm saying.
So it's one of those thingsthat we have to make sure that
we are.
We keep an open spirit.

(19:43):
I'm not going to say open mind,because being saved is not
about what you know, it's aboutwhat you love.
You know what.
That was the best thing ever.
It's about what you love.
Do you love God or do you lovechurch?
That's a completely differentaspect.
I was sitting in a particularsituation some time ago in the

(20:07):
recent past where it seemed likeeverything was all ritualistic
and it was all a big show andand it was and and you could
tell that people were feelinggod.
They were feeling god but notactually in touch with god, and
that's a very sad situation,because I remember my very first

(20:27):
touch of God actually came inhigh school and I came home I
said, oh my God, ma, I think Ifelt God tonight and I was like
I was singing with the gospelchoir and I felt a touch of God.
But then that touch wears off.
It's kind of like putting oncologne.
You smell good for a while andeverybody says, oh, you smell

(20:49):
good, and they give you allkinds of nice compliments, but
then, unless you keep reapplyingthe cologne, you go back to
smelling the way you weresmelling already before you put
the cologne on.
That's exactly what happened tomy behavior.
I went back to being the sameperson I was, and then I finally
got the Holy Ghost.
I finally got it inside of me,rather than a coating of it, and

(21:18):
my life changed.
I changed, and one of the firstthings I noticed and I'll just
share this with you guys beforewe end is that the first thing I
noticed was that I didn't curseand I'm talking about somebody
who used to have a mouth like asailor and I was in the army and
so we invented curse words.
We invented curse word parties,and not only that the way you

(21:40):
talk to people, the way youinteract with people, just
changes.
And that was the very firstthing I noticed.
And then, you know, I wanted tomake sure that this was really
what it was, so I kind ofdoubted it, and I think
everybody who gets it I don'tknow if they're going to be
honest with themselves at themoment, but when you first get

(22:03):
it, you kind of doubt that yougot it, because there's been so
many.
You probably run across so manyfakes.
You run across so manyincomplete salvations.
You probably had a touch of godbefore, like I did.
But then when you, when youfinally realize that now this
thing is permanent, this thingis real, this thing is inside
you, it's a whole different ballof wax.

(22:24):
So, yes, speaking in tongues Isa symptom of being, of having
the Holy Ghost.
You need the Holy Ghost to besaved.
So a severe oversimplificationOf the answer Would be yes, you
need to speak in tongues Inorder to be saved.
But I caution you.
I caution you against tonguechasing, because it is a very

(22:51):
prevalent thing in the Christiancommunity where we tongue chase
.
People speak and they do theirthing with their tongues and
make up syllables, but you cantell that their lives aren't
different, their minds aren'tdifferent, their minds aren't
different, their hearts aren'tdifferent and certain things

(23:12):
happen.
So, yes, seek the Holy Ghost,pray for the Holy Ghost, repent
of your sins, get baptized inJesus' name and get the Holy
Ghost, and then you will speakthe tongues and the tongues will
be genuine.
So I hope this helps.
I hope, if you have any furtherfollow-up questions, make sure
you email me.
Anybody else listening to thishave any other follow-up

(23:34):
questions?
Be sure to email me.
Trust me, I love questions.
I will put whatever show wehave on hold and answer
questions.
I love answering questions.
If you have any other questions, walk with me Bible study
gmailcom.
Walk with me Bible studygmailcom.
I got to get out of here.
I love each and every one ofyou and I hope you tell someone

(23:58):
else that you see today that Godloves them, because he does.
He literally came down and diedfor us so that we can
experience this little slice ofheaven while I'm here.
Right, god bless you all.
Talk to you soon.