7/01/07 – 26LAW “Speaking in Tongues” - Part 1
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Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today’s message is “Speaking in Tongues” - Part 1

Before we begin, let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, as we begin this most important subject regarding speaking in tongues, I pray that You bless those listening today with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that we may understand the difference between the true speaking in tongues and the false; we pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding so that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, as we ask in Jesus Name, Amen.”
Right now, I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.

Speaking in Tongues
When the disciples pressed Jesus for the signs of His coming and the end of the world, 4 Times in Matthew 24 Jesus warned about great deceptions. Verses 4, 5, 11 and 24. One of the clearest, last-day signs revealed in the entire Bible is the build-up of spiritual and demonic forces for a final all-out struggle which will settle the destiny of every living soul. God and Satan will meet in the climactic war of Armageddon, and the age-long controversy between good and evil will be resolved for all eternity. 
The Bible indicates that Satan will work feverishly through all the artful devices that appeal to the human mind, seeking to deceive the whole planet into his camp. John says that he "is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Revelation 12:12. In preparation for this encounter, which he has been planning for over 6000 years, the adversary will manipulate both political and religious forces. Centuries of groundwork have been laid in the development of counterfeit ideas and doctrines, just as we have been exposing for the last 6 months. The fiendish genius of Satan is aimed at developing a strategy which will keep people from being saved. The ultimate goal of the devil is to make people sin, because sin is the only thing that will keep anyone out of heaven. 
The Bible defines sin as "the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. Paul further clarifies that it is the breaking of the Ten-Commandment law which constitutes sin. Romans 7:7. It is no wonder at all, then, that the focus of the final contest will be over obedience to God's great moral law. Satan despises the government of heaven and its law. He broke the concord of angels long, long ago by charging God with requiring too much. He accused God of being unjust by demanding obedience to a law that could not be kept. Ever since that time he has tried to make his accusations come true by leading people to break that law. For non-Christians the devil had no problem whatsoever, but how could he unite all the great religious bodies in a program of disobedience? 
His grandiose design for the final deception was to lead everyone to transgress against the authority of heaven, even the religious world. Obviously, some scheme would have to be devised which would make Christians comfortable in their transgression, which could be promulgated in the name of Christ, and which would operate across all the boundaries of denomination and creed. Somehow, the plan would have to destroy the traditional view of the Bible as the final authority in matters of faith, and establish some other authority which would still retain a respectable Christian image. In order to encompass all churches and faiths, the program would have to be outside of any doctrine, prophetic interpretation, or standards of living, since these would produce only division and disagreement. 
To achieve success, then, in his fantastic goal of harnessing the Christian world in disobedience to God's laws, Satan had to meet four elementary requirements: 
1.	Make Christians feel secure in breaking the law. 
2.	Lead them to distrust the Word of God as the acid test of truth. 
3.	Establish another test besides the Word that would appear genuine and appealing. 
4.	Leave out all doctrine, prophetic interpretations, and Christian standards that would prove divisive. 
It is not hard to see that all these elements would have to be incorporated into any vast trickery to unite Christians in disobeying the Ten Commandments.
Are Miracle-Workers of God?
Now let's study the actual inspired description of how these conditions will prevail at the end of the age. Incredibly, the deceptive powers of the master counterfeiter will achieve all these objectives. 
First, notice that Jesus confirmed how many would lightly disobey His law in the name of religion. 
"Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:21, 22. 
Try to understand the alarming significance of those words of our Lord. These people were making great claims of being Christians, even to exercising the extraordinary power of prophesying and casting out devils. They did these miracles in the name of Jesus. But Jesus said He did not even know them; so they were not exercising the apparent spiritual gifts through the power of Christ. Then who gave them the supernatural power to do such miracles? There are only two sources of such power - God and Satan. Since Jesus called them "workers of iniquity," they had to be healing and prophesying in the power of Satan, the author of iniquity. 
This establishes that there will be counterfeit manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit in the last days. Outwardly they will appear exactly like the genuine gifts, and will be performed in Jesus' name in the atmosphere of religious fervor. Then how can one tell the difference between the true and the false? Jesus made it very clear. Although they cried, Lord, Lord, they were not doing the will of the Father in heaven. What is the will of God? David answers, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." Psalms 40:8. The people who appealed to Jesus on the basis of their many wonderful miracles were rejected by Him as Satan's workers because they were breaking God's law. They really did not know Jesus, because to know Him is to obey His commandments. 
"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:3, 4. 
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3.
Only the Obedient Spirit-Filled
This brings us to another tremendous truth concerning obedience: Only those can be filled with the Spirit who are obedient. This means that the spiritual gifts cannot be demonstrated in the life of one who is breaking God's law. Jesus said, "If ye love me keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." John 14:15, 16. 
The sequence is distinctly set forth in this text. Love leads to obedience, and obedience leads to the filling of the Spirit. No one should overlook the relationship between obedience and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The most basic fact about the Spirit is that He leads into all truth and convicts of sin. 
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26. 
Again Jesus said, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John 16:13. 
What is included in "all truth" and "all things" which the Spirit will guide us into? The Sabbath would be there, along with all the other nine commandments. In fact, the very first work of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin. Christ described that ministry of the Spirit in John 16:8. "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." 
What is sin? "Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. Obviously, one could not be filled with the Holy Spirit without being reproved of breaking the law. Lying, stealing, adultery, and Sabbath-breaking will not abide in a Spirit-filled life. The deliberate practice of those sins will effectively frustrate the operation of the Holy Spirit. Willful sin and the gifts of the Spirit are just as alien to each other as God and Satan. In fact, Jesus taught the startling truth that offending the Holy Spirit leads to the unpardonable sin. 
"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Matthew 12:31, 32. 
The most serious mistake anyone can make is to reject the guiding, convicting influence of the Spirit as He seeks to lead into obedience to God's law. 
The principle was eternally settled by Luke when he wrote under inspiration, "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him." Acts 5:32. 
How clearly we can now see why the miracle-workers were turned away by Jesus as "workers of iniquity." Having rejected the will of the Father, His law, they lost access to the power of the Holy Spirit. At that point Satan stepped in to supply a continuation of power by producing the same apparent miracles as the Holy Spirit produced. 
Lulled into a fatal blindness by grieving the Spirit which convicted them of disobedience, the professed Christians lost their sensitivity to the violation of God's holy law. Under the exciting emotional stimulus of Satan's spirit they continued to exercise a counterfeit religious power, based on feeling rather than the authority of the Word of God. Christ taught in Matthew 7:22 that the end time will produce a phenomenon of Christians' claiming the Spirit's power in miracle-ministry, but who are actually manipulated by the devil.
Well time is up for this week. Next week we will continue our study on speaking in tongues part 2.
If you would like to worship with seventh day Sabbath-keepers, come to the Victory Seventh Day Adventist Church new location at the Hampton Inn Conference suite in South Hill, VA at the exit 12 interchange of Interstate 85. We meet at 10:00 am and will be meeting there until out new building has been completed.
Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Come Lord Jesus.