Hearing and Seeing

So first Kings 10, I'm going to read the story of the Queen of Sheba coming to see King Solomon. First Kings 10, 6 through 7, here's what it says. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy action, of thy wisdom. How be it? I believe not the words until I came, and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me, thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. And so I want to preach for a little while tonight, hearing and seeing. Hearing and seeing. You may be seated.

You know, Brother Myers mentioned the situation of our society, our culture. And from a human point of view, it looks discouraging when we see such a rapid advancement of an anti-Christian agenda in our own nation. And of course, I won't elaborate. You're aware of how radical and how swift the transgender agenda has come. And just overthrown common sense, science, culture, history, biology. You name it. It seems incredible. And I think probably we're all reeling from the tragic news coming out of Israel of just barbaric, almost impossible to imagine. Over 1200 Israelis killed mostly civilians in cold blood in the worst ways possible. And I will say we do have missionaries in Israel and Palestine. They're safe. We do have saints in Israel, Palestine and Gaza. And to this point, they're all safe to our knowledge. But we should pray for all of them, wherever they are, whether Israelis or Palestinians. We want our saints to be protected and we want souls to be saved. And somehow in the midst of tragedy, we want the gospel to go forward. It's not a political agenda. We do believe Israel does have a right to exist. But our burden is not to support a government. Our burden is for the people everywhere. We don't want any of them subject to barbaric treatment or terrorism. And we know the vast majority of people, even in these places where terrorism originates, the common people are not necessarily to blame. But also what's shocking is to see in our own nation among the media perhaps, politicians and universities, people actually trying to make apologies and cheer that terrorism. It just seems like, as Isaiah said, in our culture people are calling good evil and they're calling evil good. And it seems like a discouraging moment to try to minister.

But to give you some perspective, the apostles in the first century faced an equally hostile culture, if not even worse. And of course the gospel arose in the Jewish community, a Bible-based culture. But when it extended to the Gentile world, it extended to a world where idolatry was the rule of the day. Where sexual immorality was the norm, including same-sex relationships or activities. And not only abortion but infanticide. And Emperor Nero, who according to tradition was the one who ordered the execution of both the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul. Nero was, he was the emperor. He was the ruler of that, the Mediterranean world including the tiny nation of Israel or Palestine. But to give you an example of what kind of ruler he was in a fit of rage, he lashed out at his wife, Papaya, hit her, killed her. Of course he got married again but he was so remorseful that he found a teenage boy, dressed him up as a woman, put makeup on him, had a married ceremony, married the boy and paraded him around as the Empress. So we haven't quite gotten to that level in our government today. But what I'm saying is despite the hostile culture, despite the pagan culture, the first-century Apostolic Church turned the world upside down. They evangelized their world. They had apostolic revival. And if they could do it in the first century, we can do it in the 21st century. We have a message you can hear and see. We have a message that works, that's well suited for any age, especially this age.

In a post-modern culture, people don't accept truth. And so if you say the Bible says this, they say so what? It's a book of ancient myths and fables. If you say God says this, so what? The pastor says this, so what? The church says this, so what? And so they reject authority. But those same people are tuned in to personal experience. They listen to people's story, anybody's story. And what I'm so excited about, we as apostolics, we have the Word of God. We believe absolutely the Bible is the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God. We're not backing down on that. But churches that believe, only believe the Bible, but don't have the spirit, they're in decline. The largest conservative movement in America last year reported 500,000 loss of membership. So they've grown for years because they're Bible based and that resonates with people. But in our day, that's not enough. But I'm thankful that we as apostolics, we absolutely preach and teach the Bible. We win souls through Bible studies. But if somebody says, I'm not sure the Bible is true, we don't have to fold our book and go home. But we can say, let me tell you my personal testimony. Let me tell you what happened to me. Let me tell you what happened to my friend. Let me tell you what happened in our church. Let me tell you about a healing. Let me tell you about a deliverance. And I will show you why we know the Bible is true. Because not only can you hear it, you can see it. We've got a message you can hear and we've got a message you can see. We've got a message you can experience for yourself. Hearing and seeing. Oh, praise God.

So the Queen of Sheba, the Gentile monarch, she heard about it, but it sounded too good to be true. But it was so intriguing she had to see for herself. And when she came, she saw it for herself. And her testimony was not only was it true, but the half was not told. It's better than what you told me. It's greater than what I heard. I heard it. I saw it. And it's even bigger than what I thought. We've got a message that you can hear. We've got a message you can see. We've got a message you can experience for yourself. And it's better than what we're telling you. It's better than what we can explain. I has not seen. Neither has he heard. Neither has entered into the heart of man. The things that God has prepared for those who love him. And it's not just waiting in heaven, but right here, right now, we can step into the glory of God with something you can hear and see. That's the way God works. You can hear it, and you can see it.

Brother Myers already related it, but on the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church, is why we're here tonight. The believers were waiting. They had already repented. They had already believed. They had prepared their hearts, and they were waiting for the fulfillment. They heard about it, and they were waiting. Suddenly, there came a sound of a rushing mighty wind. It began to fill the whole house. I believe they probably remembered the words of Jesus in John chapter 3 to Nicodemus. He probably taught the same thing many times. He said, you know, the Spirit is coming. When the Spirit comes, it's going to be like the wind. You can't see the wind, but you can hear it. And you can see the effects. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. They probably, when the wind stirred, probably Peter told John, or John told Peter, this has got to be it. This must be what Jesus is talking about. I hear the wind blowing. They probably remember what Jesus said in John 21. When he breathed on them, a parable, he said, receive the Holy Ghost. When they heard that whoosh, they said, oh, that must be what Jesus was talking about. I'm ready. I heard it now. I'm ready to see it for myself. And we too, we heard the sound of the rushing mighty wind. It's time to receive it. In Jesus' name, oh, hallelujah. They heard it, but not only did they hear it. Flames of fire started sitting on each person. I think that was a signal. See, they'd never received this before. They didn't really know what to expect. So the sound of wind filling the room showed the experience had now come. But the flames of fire showed it was not only a corporate experience, it was for each individual to enable them to have personal faith. So I imagine maybe Peter looked at Johnson. Hey, John, you got a flame on top of your head. And Johnson, well, Peter, you got a flame on top of your head. Of course, he tries to see it, but it's kind of hard to see. And then he realized everybody does. It's something you can hear and something you can see. It's not just for the group. It's not just for the crowd. It's not just for the preacher. It's for you. It's for you. It's for you. It's for you. If you believe it, you can receive it. If you can hear it, if you can see it, you can have it. Everybody in this conference, maybe you're a preacher that's well-known. Maybe you're a young person that nobody knows. It does not matter. The wind is filling the house. And the flames are on each person. If you want to win a soul through a Bible study, you can hear it, you can see it, you can have it for yourself. It's something you can hear and see.

Of course, you know, when they believed, the next sign was they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. So there are many signs of the Spirit moving upon people, but the initial sign of the Spirit filling a person is when you speak from the inside. The Spirit has taken residence, taken control, guiding your thoughts and guiding your tongue, and you begin to speak from the inside out. And so speaking in tongues is the initial sign. I've had some people say, well, why doesn't the Bible just say you have to speak in tongues? Why doesn't the Bible just say tongues is the initial sign? Why don't you just come out in black and white and say it? You know, Luke, why didn't you just tell us? If you haven't spoken in tongues, you don't have the Holy Ghost. If you speak in tongues, that means you have the Holy Ghost. If you had asked Luke, why didn't you just say that? First of all, Luke probably wouldn't understand the question. What are you talking about? What's the problem? Because he wasn't, you know, he didn't have all the arguments of the centuries of Protestant theologians saying you can't have it today. So he didn't know that was going to happen. But of course, the Holy Spirit inspired him to speak in tongues and of course, the Holy Spirit inspired him. But if you finally got him to understand what he would probably say, because you have to remember throughout most of history, the number one way to teach is not through a lecture. Point number one, point number two, point number three. Here's a quote to write down that I'll test you over, but it's by story, by what you hear and what you see. So most of the Old Testament is teaching us by stories. Most of the Gospels teaching us by stories. Most of the teaching of Jesus, parables, teaching by stories. Most of Acts teaching us by stories. Most of Revelation teaching us by stories. So if you finally got Luke to explain, why didn't you just say that? I think Luke would probably say something like that. He would say something like, you know what? I'm just a physician. I'm just a nobody. If I just told you what I thought, who cares? But I told you a story, a true story that answers your question. And 12 apostles tell you the answer. Because when the onlookers saw and heard, because you know when someone receives the Holy Ghost, even if you're not close enough to hear him, generally you can see it. You know if somebody, if we're all praying that somebody receives the Holy Ghost tonight or is renewed in the spirit, I'm looking, I can probably see the evidence. I can probably see the jolt. I can probably see the joy. I can probably see the shout. And then I can probably see their tongue acting in ways that don't look like an English speaker. And then if I get close, I can hear it. So when somebody receives the Holy Ghost, they begin speaking tongues. You can hear it and you can see it. That's just how the Lord does it. He wants to give us something we can hear and see.

So when the onlookers saw these 120 received the Holy Spirit, by the way, do all speak in tongues? Well, of the 120 that received the Holy Spirit, what percentage of them spoke in tongues? It was 120 out of the 120. That's a pretty good indication right there. And so some of them were marveling because they said, wait a minute, does that guy look to you like a Galilean in the way he's dressed? Probably a fisherman, right? How come he's speaking Arabic? And then, well, the guy next to him is speaking Latin. And the guy behind him is speaking Phrygian. That's where I grew up. How can that be? And so they were marveling. Others saying, I don't understand anybody. They're just babbling. They're just crazy. They're drunk. So they were marveling and mocking. But they all had the same question. What does this mean? The speaking in tongues. And of course, you know the classic answer. The apostle Peter standing with the 11 said, this is that. This tongues you're talking about. This tongues you're marveling or mocking. You're all asking about is that the prophecy of Joel that in the last days says God, I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh and they're going to prophesy. In other words, you want to know the answer to the question. What does tongues mean? If you see somebody speaking in tongues. If you hear somebody speaking in tongues. What does that mean? The 12 apostles say that means they receive the Holy Ghost. That means the prophecy of Joel has come to pass. God has poured out his spirit. We have a message we can hear and see. And that's exactly what the apostle Peter said. Because he proceeded to preach. He used Joel as his text and he quoted until he got to the point whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Which is really what he wanted to get it to. He was trying to preach a message on tongues. And we don't even do that today. Now we're not trying to convince people to speak in tongues. We're not trying to teach them how to speak in tongues. We're trying to preach Jesus Christ. We're preaching half faith in Jesus. Repent of your sins because when you do that, open up your heart. You receive the Holy Ghost and God will cause you to speak in tongues. So we don't have to do it. In fact it's not our fault. Don't blame us. It's not our dear idea to speak in tongues. God is the one who does that. So anyway, he preached Jesus. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Of course in Joel the Lord was Jehovah Yahweh. But Peter, without an extended theological discussion, just applied that directly to Jesus. In other words the Lord God of the Old Testament is the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. And he said, this Jesus, he went around preaching. You killed him. He was buried in the tomb. But that wasn't in the story on the third day. The Spirit of God came back into that dead body and raised him up. That same Jesus that you crucified is the Lord and the Messiah. He preached the simple gospel, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. But I want you to notice in Acts 2.33, he said, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which ye now see and hear. Peter said, you heard it. You saw it. You can have the same thing. Something you can hear and see.

And of course the classic promise Acts 2.38, 2.39 is for you. It's amazing to me how a lot of denominational people say, well, you know, you're not going to speak in tongues. You're just going to accept Jesus as your personal savior. You won't really feel anything. You certainly won't hear anything. You certainly won't see anything, but you just assume everything. Is that really what Peter was saying? What was he saying? You just saw and heard this amazing event, which is why you all gathered and asked me the question. And the Lord has now promised this very thing that you see and hear. But actually when you obey it, you're not going to see anything. You're not going to hear anything. You're going to receive the Holy Spirit, but not like us because we're special. Is that really what he was saying? No, he was saying the very thing you are saying the very thing you just heard, the very thing you just saw. The Lord wants to give it to you. You can have your own personal experience and relationship with God. It's not just for the apostles. It's not just for the preachers. It's not just for the 120. It's for you and your children and their children too. As many as the Lord our God shall call. A message you can hear and see. It's well suited for our secular post-modern age because we can say, I've got something. You can hear and you can see. I can tell you about it, but if you'll come to our Bible study or if you'll visit our church or if you'll let me pray with you right now, God can heal your body. God can deliver you. You can feel something. You can experience something you never felt before in your whole life. We've got a message that works. It's in the Word of God, but it's not just for 2,000 years ago. It's for here and now. It's something you can hear and see. Oh, praise God. Praise God.

You know, I had an interesting experience when I was a pastor in Austin, Texas. We had a great, we had a guest speaker on a Sunday night special service. And I was just kind of enjoying marveling because we had this large crowd and of course the preachers preaching in English. And we had a deaf interpreter translating into American sign language. And we'd started over the years several Spanish-speaking churches. So we'd get a group together and they would get big enough they'd want to be their own church. But every time we had set them off their own church or there would still be Spanish-speaking people come to the main congregation. So we had the same problem. What are we going to do? So we're back. We'd already started a couple of Spanish churches out of that, but we had some more coming. So we were using headphones. So we had somebody translating in Spanish on the headphones. And then we had a couple from Africa from Sudan that had been converted. They had escaped the Civil War there across the Sahara Desert. Quite an amazing testimony. And their mother, who was Muslim, was visiting them from Sudan. And so the daughter-in-law was sitting next to her quietly translating the service into Arabic. So as a pastor, I was, you know, kind of enjoying that. This one service, English, Spanish, sign language, Arabic. Isn't that pretty cool? It's like, just like the Lord. Well, at the end of the service, I got to report four people received the Holy Ghost tonight. Well, that's great. Who are they? Well, one was a teenage African-American girl who was listening in English. One was a 70-plus Hispanic man listening on the headphones in Spanish. One was a Hispanic deaf lady who was watching American Sign Language. And the fourth was the Muslim Sudanese listening in Arabic who received the Holy Ghost. Four languages went forth. People received the Holy Ghost listening in all four languages. But it was the same experience. They all spoke in tongues. Hey, this message is for the whole world. This message is for every culture, every ethnicity, every race. It's one church, one experience, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. It's the name of Jesus. It still works today. Whether it's Florida or Texas or New York City or Canada, it's a message you can hear and see.

One more story. Years ago I was preaching in Little Rock, Arkansas. And it was a great move. We got the end of services. Kind of one of those services where you can kind of see a wave. Or you can see people responding visibly across. And so as the spirit was moving at the end, there was this wave. But there was one man on the front row that he was deaf and blind. So, of course, they had an interpreter for the deaf. So I would preach, and of course, the interpreter would translate into sign language. But this guy that was blind couldn't see the interpretation. He was deaf and blind. So a second interpreter sat next to him and put her hand in his hand. And she was signing into his hand. So think about this. I'm preaching in English. The first interpreter puts it in sign language. The second interpreter signs into this guy's hand. That's the only way he gets the message. So when the power of God fell, people started jumping up. Started worshiping, shouting, speaking in tongues, responding. Well, this guy, when the wave hit him, he started jumping up down. Shouting, praising God. And I thought, wait a minute. He can't see everybody else jumping up and down. He can't hear everybody else responding. You know, maybe he could feel a few vibrations in the floor. But why is he jumping up and down, shouting and praising God? Because this message is not only for your physical ears. This message is not only for your physical eyes. But this is an experience that you can hear with your spiritual ears. This is a message you can see with your spiritual eyes. No matter how limited your life or your experience or your ability, God can break through your situation and he can give you a message you can hear and see.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. Open your eyes, not just your physical eyes, but open your eyes to see the angelic hosts. We have a message that works today. We have a message well suited for our culture. Do not be ashamed. Do not be embarrassed. Do not be reluctant. But go forth with a message and an experience that people can see and hear. Oh, let's respond to the Lord right now.