Part of the chapter that I wanted to look at was there in verse 18 where the Bible said,
And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to harken
unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they
might punish them, because of the people. For all men glorified God for that which was done.
And the title of my sermon tonight is Seen, Heard, Declared. Seen, Heard, Declared.
And if you want to turn to 2 Samuel chapter 18. We see in this chapter of chapter 4 of Acts,
the word of God starts to get spread abroad. We see the apostles, the disciples, they start
preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. They start testifying that he's the Lord. We see, you know,
the first bout of people going out really just preaching Jesus after he'd been resurrected.
We start seeing the movements of Acts. We see the apostles, the disciples and more people
getting on fire for God and going out preaching the word.
But the thing is, is we're all affected by what we've seen. We're all affected by what we see.
What you see is going to affect every part of your life. And I'll read for you in Matthew chapter 6.
The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be
full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.
So your eye controls a lot. And if you have your eye focused on the light,
if you have your eye focused on the right thing, it says you're going to have, you know,
you're going to be full of light. But if it's not focused on that, you're going to be full of
darkness. But look at 2 Samuel 18, look at verse 27. The Bible says, and the watchman said,
Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Sadat.
And the king said, He is a good man and cometh with good tidings. And Ahimaaz called and said
unto the king, All is well. And he fell down to the earth upon his face before the king and said,
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my
Lord the king. And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaaz answered, When Joab
sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw the great tumult, but I knew not what it was.
And the king said unto him, Turn aside and stand here. And he turned aside and stood still.
And behold, Cushai came. And Cushai said, Tidings my Lord the king, for the Lord hath avenged thee
this day of all them that rose up against thee. And the king said unto Cushai, Is the young man
Absalom safe? And Cushai answered, The enemies of my Lord the king, and all that rise against
thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. And the king was much moved and went up to the
chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son,
Absalom, would God I die for thee? O Absalom, my son, my son. So we see an interesting story. We
see that David, he was threatened by his son Absalom. And we see that Absalom, David didn't
want him to die. And he had sent out his troops to go, you know, capture his son but not to kill
him. And whenever the troops went out from Joab, they actually did kill Absalom. We see Ahimaaz
was supposed to come and give tidings to the king. And Joab didn't want him to give tidings,
but he just wanted to go anyways. And so he comes and he talks to David and he's going to give him
this report. And we know when he gives him this report, he's lying. We know that what he's saying
is not true. He actually knows what happened. He knows that Absalom's dead, but he's just not
commanded to give that report. But inside of his lie, we see a great truth. We see there in
verse 29, he says unto David, he says, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was. So he's
saying, look, I saw that some commotion was happening, but I didn't really see what happened.
And what does David just say? Turn aside, turn aside. You can't speak what you haven't seen.
You can't speak the things that you've never seen, that you've never witnessed.
Being a witness, being someone that's seen something is of great power. It's of great
worth. It has a great importance. And we see, you know, even though he was lying about this,
he knew that he couldn't testify of something he hadn't seen. So he builds up this lie and says,
well, I saw there was a commotion, but I knew not what it was. I knew not what happened. I didn't
really see what happened. I didn't see if he lived or he died. So he couldn't really testify.
And don't we know like the best thing in any story is an eyewitness testimony. I mean,
think of a great battle story. Do you want to hear from some guy that was there? He was on
the front lines. He saw the action. Or do you want some guy that was home? You know, he didn't get to
see the battle. He didn't see what happened. He can't give you a good testimony of what really
happened. You know, reading history books when they're like second, third, fourth witness,
you know, there's a guy from a guy from a guy. That's not a good history book. You're not going
to learn anything good. You need the eyewitness testimony. You need the guy that was there on the
front lines. And we see that Ahimaaz knew that. He was like, well, I was there, but I didn't really
see it. And we know that he was lying, but we see the great importance that you can't speak
what you haven't seen. So turn if you would to John chapter 8. Go back to your New Testament,
John chapter 8. When Jesus was talking with Nicodemus, he said in John chapter 3, verse 11,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you
received not our witness. When Jesus Christ was on this earth, when he was giving testimony,
he was giving testimony of what he had seen. He wasn't talking about things he hadn't seen.
You know, when you get to, when you think about people that stand on a jury or they're going to
give some kind of judgment. In God's law, were they supposed to be someone that just heard about
some bad thing somebody did? No, it was supposed to be two eyewitnesses. And even in our court
system today, and many times they need an eyewitness testimony to, you know, make a verdict,
to make a judgment, to be without reasonable doubt that the fact that this person is guilty of
whatever they're being accused of. And we see that an eyewitness has power. They have value,
they have importance, whether it be for murder, whether it be for, you know, theft, whether it
be for anything. That an eyewitness testimony is what really matters. Think about many of the great
things that have happened in our country. Think about the September 11th attacks. I mean, if you
really want to know what happened on that day, would you want the guy that was there in New York
that witnessed what happened? Or do you want to hear somebody's story about what they heard,
they heard somebody say? No, the person that has the value, the person that you can get some good
insight from is the person that was there, the person that saw it. And you say, well, what makes
a great soul winning pastor? I mean, how do you get a guy that's a really good, you know, soul
winning pastor? It's someone that's a soul winner. It's someone that's seen the soul winning. It's
somebody that stands in front of the gap, sees the person that's lost, and they see that soul,
and they preach them into the gospel, and they believe it, and they get saved. That's what makes
a good soul winning pastor. That's what makes someone a good man of God is someone that's
actually seen it. I mean, how much, you know, credibility are you giving to a pastor that says,
y'all need to go soul winning. You know, I haven't really seen it, but I think it's really good.
You know, or think about the guys that really like to attack soul winning. You know, they don't
actually go out and do it. They say, well, you know, I've heard that y'all have done this, or,
you know, y'all say y'all do this, but I don't think that's the right way to do it. You say,
well, what's the right way to do it? Well, I've never seen it done this way, but this is what I
think you should do. I mean, that's just garbage. That's not any value. You're not going to put any
respect under that opinion. You're going to put respect under the opinion of the guy that saw it.
You're going to put respect on the opinion of the guy that experienced it. That's giving
eyewitness testimony. Hey, I went out, I preached this gospel to somebody and they got saved.
There's power there. You know, and you got to think about just even the person standing there,
the person standing at the door. Obviously it's the gospel that gets the person saved.
Obviously it's the word of God that they hear, that they believe they get saved.
But you standing there, when they physically see a person there that has a Bible in hand,
that's caring about them, that's compelling them, that wants to preach them of the gospel,
that's compelling. You say, hey, I've seen what this Bible says you have to do to be saved.
And I want to tell you, there's power there. There's, you know, there's importance,
there's value. That person can say, hey, I might want to believe what this guy's saying,
because he's seen it. He's going to show me what he's seen. He's going to show me the experiences
that he's had. There's power, there's value there. Why do you think these Jehovah's Witnesses
get anybody to ever come to their church? It's not because of the book they preach. It's just
because there's power. There's importance of somebody coming to your door, showing you what
they've seen, giving you testimony. There's power there. And we see that if you want to ever be a
great soul winning pastor, if you want to be a great man of God, if you want to be a great
evangelist, if you want to be a great missionary, you got to see it. You got to have the experience.
You know, if someone, if I were to go to some mechanic and say, hey, I have a problem with my
car. He's like, well, I've never looked at your car before. I've never even seen your engine.
I've never even looked at anything that has anything to do with it, but I'll probably fix
your car. You're like, whoa. You know, what if you walk to the other guy, you walk to another
candidate who says, I've seen your car a hundred times. I've seen all the problems in it. I,
I probably know exactly what to do. You're going to have a lot more confidence because this guy's
seen it before. The same thing goes with the Christian life. It goes with every part of your
life. You can't speak what you haven't seen. So what you see is important. I had to turn to John
chapter eight. Look what Christ said there. And he said, I know that you're Abraham's seed,
but you seek to kill me. Verse 37, because my word has no place in you. I speak that which I
have seen with my father. And you do that which you have seen with your father. They answered and
said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would
do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me. A man that had told you the truth, which I
have heard of God, this did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father. Then they said to them,
we may not be born of fornication. We have one, even we have one father, even God. Jesus said unto
them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God,
neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because he
cannot hear my word. You hear of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father, you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speak of the lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. So when he says that in verse 38, he says, I speak that
which I have seen of my father. Was Jesus Christ just giving a testimony of the imagination of
his heart? Was he just making it up as he goes? No. He said, look, I'm not preaching of myself.
I'm preaching what I've seen of my father. I'm just preaching you the truth. I'm preaching what
I saw, what I've seen, what have I experienced? He's not preaching to some made up garbage.
He's not, you know, he's not Joseph Smith. He's not looking into a hat and just making up the
sketches as he goes. No, he's preaching what he's seen. He's not reaching what he hasn't seen.
We see, go to John chapter 20, flip over just a couple more chapters.
In John chapter 10, Jesus said the same thing. He said, say ye of him whom the father hath
sanctified and sinned of the world, thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the son of God.
If I do not the works of my father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe me not,
believe the works that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I am him. Jesus
Christ said, look, even if you can't even believe my testimony, even if you can't even believe the
words, you can just believe the fact that I'm the son of God just by the works that you saw me do.
You can just know the fact that, you know, me rising like raising lasers from the dead
after four days. Me, you know, the miracles of the fish, the miracles of walking on water,
the miracles of the blind and the lame being healed, all these things that were a testimony
of Jesus Christ. He said, you can just look at those and know I'm the son of God from what you
see. I mean, we see that what you see is powerful. What you see can have great impact. Jesus Christ
was saying, what I've done is so powerful. The works that I've done are so mighty that just
seeing him, you could believe that I'm the son of God. Look at John chapter 20, verse 27.
Then say thee to Thomas, reach other thy finger and behold my hands and reach other thy hand and
thrust it in my side and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him,
my Lord and my God, Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou have seen me, thou has believed,
blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. So obviously seeing is not believing
and obviously seeing is not the whole, the whole issue. Jesus said, blessed are they which have not
seen and believed, right? But what we see has impact, has value, has importance. And we see
that even Thomas, once he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, it restored his faith. But let's go to
Psalms 101. It's interesting because the Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight. And so
somebody would say, well, you know, what we see is not important. It's walking by faith.
But the interesting thing about that is when James chapter two, he says, thou has faith and I have
works. Show me thy faith without thy works and I'll show you my faith by my works. So what is he
saying? He's saying, look, if you want to see my faith, you can see it by my works. And the Bible
says that faith is the evidence of things not seen. You say, well, how do I know there's a God?
Well, you can see it by the faith of Christians. You know, the faith of Christians actually gives
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine if I came to you with a book in my hand and I said,
hey, nobody believes this in the entire world. There's nobody that does anything that this book
says, but we just should just believe it. I mean, are you going to have much credence under that?
You're going to be like, what? Did you just make that up? Did you just, you know, Joseph Smith,
did you just look at a hat and write it on a book? I mean, basically that's what he said. He came to
you like, look, every church is wrong. There's only one person that believes it. I mean, it's
hard to have faith in a religion of one guy. And now obviously the Bible says the majority of
people aren't saved, but what's the number one religion in the world? Christianity. What's the
number one best-selling book in the world? The King James Bible. I mean, how many people are
looking to this book? And obviously there's a lot of variations within Christianity,
but the Bible gives perfect testimony of why that is, why we see so many false religions.
And we see so many people that are actually following this book that are preaching the
gospel and that gives testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see that God's real by the faith
in people's lives. The fact that people are willing to die for Christ, the fact that people
are willing to lay down their lives and preach the gospel and just not even care about the cares of
this world, just care about people, care about soul winning, care about these things. It gives us
faith in God because we can see their works. He said, look, you can't show me your faith without
works. Show me that faith by thy works. You know, that's, we live, we walk by faith,
not by sight, but that doesn't mean that your sight doesn't matter. And in the context of
second Corinthians five, when he's saying that he's talking about heaven, he's talking about
the fact that we can't see heaven. We can't see our glorified body. We just walk by faith.
We know that one day when we're absent from the body, we present with the Lord, the fact that
we'll put on incorruption, the fact that life will swallow mortality, the fact that we'll live with
him forever. And we walk by faith, but sight matters, but what you see matters, but what you
put for your eyes matters. Look at Psalms 101 verse three. I will set no wicked thing before
my eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. So we see that, look,
there's a lot of wicked things you can set before your eyes. And I hope that so far you've kind of
seen, look, what you set before your eyes is important. It can have great value. And
unfortunately in the world we live today, there's a hundred times more wicked things to look at
than good things to look at. There's way more bad things to set before your eyes than good things.
I mean, you got things all over the TV, the magazines, the computer. I mean, just everywhere.
You're just flooded with billboards. You go out into the world, you go to the shopping center,
you go to the school, you go to even just most liberal churches. I mean, it's just wicked thing
after wicked thing. There's so many things that you can set before your eyes. There's just wickedness
and we see that when you, when you set those things before your eyes, there's a cause and
effect. It's going to have you turn aside. Keep your finger here because I want to come back,
but go to Exodus chapter 32. I think this phrase turning aside is kind of interesting.
In Joshua chapter seven, I'll read for you about Achan. Said Achan answered Joshua and said,
indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done.
When I saw among the spoils of goodly Babylonian garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of
gold and 50 shekels weight, then I covered them and took them and behold, they are hit in the
earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. Now the interesting thing is Achan,
you know, he sinned and it ended up costing him his life. But the thing about the eyes is many
times it's the first step to a big sin. It's the first step to going down a really bad direction.
He says, look, I saw it. And then after I saw it, guess what? Next big sin, I covered it. And then
after I covered it, I took it. And then after I took it, I hid it. I mean, it just keeps getting
worse and worse and worse. And you say, well, I just set this wicked thing before my eyes. It's
not that big a deal. But what it's going to do is it's going to cause you to want to turn aside
and commit the next sin, commit a bigger sin. Look at Exodus 32 verse 1. And when the people
saw that Moses was laid to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together
unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses,
the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wop not what is become of him. And
Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives,
of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the
golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them
at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool. After he had made it a molten calf, they
said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron
saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast
to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace
offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said
unto Moses, go, get thee down for thy people, which thou brought us out of the land of Egypt,
have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.
They have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed there unto
and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
So it's an interesting story here that when Moses goes onto the mountain and he's left,
he's left the children of Israel alone with Aaron and Aaron's kind of their overseer.
They're like, look, we don't know what happened to Moses, but you got to make us a god. I mean,
we need a god, you know, hurry, get us a god. So Aaron gets all the gold from the people and
he fashions a calf. Now that's a wicked sin. The Bible says that we shouldn't make a graven image.
We shouldn't make a likeness of anything on the earth. We shouldn't make a four-footed beast into
some image and worship it or anything. But that's a bad sin. But then look at verse five. It says,
and when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. So look, he's made the calf, bad sin,
but then look what he sets before his eyes. He sets this golden image before his eyes.
And then look at verse eight, what God says. He says they have made a molten calf, bad sin,
but then look and have worshiped it and have sacrificed there unto. So it just keeps getting
worse and worse and worse. And whenever you set something wicked before your eyes,
it's going to cause you to turn aside and do even more wicked sin. It's going to lead you down
more sin, bigger sins, things that you don't even want to do. You say, well, you know,
I just want to look at this wicked thing, but I don't want to have a partake in it. I don't want
to actually do it. But when you actually look at it, when you actually get it in your eyes,
when you start getting it in your mind, that's going to cause you to then want to do it.
You were the first base, you're like, I would never do that. But then you set it before your
eyes and then it's going to cause you to turn aside. And now you're going to want to do it.
Now you're going to go to the next step. Now you're going to go to the next layer. That's
why David said I'll set no wicked thing before my eyes because he knew it was going to cause
him to turn aside. And when you start looking at that wicked thing, it's just going to start
building that sin. It's going to make it so much easier to then turn aside. It's just like someone
that's on a diet. They can't set that big plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies in front of them
and just be like, well, I just wanted to look at them. They smell so good, they look good,
but I'm not going to eat it. No, you're not going to eat it if you don't set it before your eyes.
That's how you're not going to do it. Go back to Psalms chapter 101.
Now look at verse 6. It says, mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land,
that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. So you see,
David didn't just give a negative command. He gave a positive command. He said, look,
I'm not going to look here. I'm going to look here. I'm not going to look at the wicked thing.
I'm going to look at the faithful of the land. And the thing about your eyes, unless you're blind,
you're always looking somewhere. So what you have to do as a Christian, as a godly young man,
as someone that wants to serve the Lord, is you have to purpose in your heart where your eyes are
going to look. Because if you don't purpose where your eyes are going to look, they're going to look
at the wicked thing. There's just too much wickedness in this world. You got to get your
eyes steadfast on the faithful of the land, on the things that you want to look at. You have to
be purposed in your heart. No, I'm going to look there. That way I don't look at all, you know,
I don't turn aside. I don't start looking at the bad things. Why don't you do what Jesus did? He
was testifying what he'd seen of his father. Why don't you do what a good soul winning pastor did?
I'm just going to testify and tell you what I did about soul winning. That's why it's so important
to have godly Christian friends, to be in a good church, to have a place where your eyes can look
at, to have people that you can look to, the faithful of the land. You know, if I didn't have
somebody faithful in my life that I could look to, I probably should move somewhere to find someone
that's faithful to look to, so that I don't have to turn aside unto sin. So I see the first point
is that it's important what you've seen. And we've all seen stuff. And you know, the reason why I put
that in past tense is so important. You're not going to testify things that you're going to see.
You're going to testify the things that you have seen. And you know, it's just so common. Think
about the workplace or anywhere you've met somebody. They're like, hey, did you see the
show last night? Hey, did you see the game last night? Hey, did you see this the other day? Hey,
did you see the wreck over here? Hey, did you see this? I mean, people just testify what they've
seen. I mean, it's just a common thing. It doesn't matter if you're saved, unsaved. People just
literally, what comes out of their mouth is what they've seen. You know, it's interesting. It's
like we're lab rats almost. And the fact that whatever you put before your eyes, that's going
to come out of your mouth. Now you have the choice of what you put before your eyes, but look, I
don't care what you put before your eyes, that's going to come out of your mouth. You say, hey,
I want to get control of my mouth. Then control what you put before your eyes. That's going to
control your mouth. But the second point is heard. So not only is it important what you see,
what you've seen, what you've heard. Go to Romans chapter 10. When Jesus was talking to his disciples,
he said, when I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light and what you hear in the ear,
that preach ye upon the housetops. Jesus Christ did not come to give a private message.
He did not come to, you know, well, I just want to tell this special 144,000 how to get to, you
know, soul sleep the way to heaven or whatever. I don't know their false doctrine very well,
but look at Romans chapter 10. I mean, the most famous part of the Bible, you know, for soul
winners. Look at verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call him when they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him when
they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach
except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace. But they have not obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord has believed our
port. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We know that hearing is what
gets us saved. I mean, talk about something important. How about we testify what we've heard
because that's what God has saved, hearing the word of God preached. And you want to get somebody
saved? You got to get them to hear it. You got to get them to listen. You know, just as important
it is to see something, to witness it, it's even that much more important to hear it.
Jesus Christ preached under the words, words by which they may be saved. We see that Jesus Christ
is the word. So if you want to, I want to know who Jesus Christ is the word. Well, can you see
the words or well, I want to hear the words. I mean, just think about how much more the word is
when it's spoken. I mean, there's so much more, um, there's so much more dynamic to something
being spoken. Think about a cell phone these days. A lot of people like to text, you know,
I like to text. I think it's great, but you lose a lot in the text than you do when someone's
talking to you. There's so much that you lose. The inflection, the, you know, the dynamics of
speech, the, uh, the volume, the Bible talks about how every voice is different and how it,
you know, it's special. I mean, hearing somebody speak is important. Hearing God's voice,
hearing what he has to say. I mean, just think about John the Baptist hearing God talk about
his son when he baptized him, how great the words of God are. Let's go to Jeremiah 36,
but we see that the hearing is so important because it's what people get saved by.
Says in Luke 12 verse three, therefore whatsoever he has spoken in darkness shall be heard in the
light and that which he has spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
Jesus Christ came to preach a public message and he wants people to hear it. That's going to change
people's lives is what they've heard. In Acts chapter 16, I'll read for you. I said, but Paul
said to them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned being Romans and have cast us into
prison. And now do they thrust us out privily, nay, fairly, but let them come themselves and
fetch us out. And the surgeons told these words in the magistrates and they feared when they had
heard that they were Romans. So another thing about the word is the word can get you saved,
but you know what you hear can cause fear. And we see whenever Paul and Silas are thrown into
prison unjustly, not the people there didn't understand that they were Romans. And when they
told them, look, they can come get us out of prison themselves because they unjustly punished
us and we're Romans. And when they heard that they were like, oh no, I mean, these guys are Romans.
I mean, this is a bad deal. We're not supposed to treat Romans like that. But look at Jeremiah
chapter 36. We're not just supposed to fear man. We're not supposed to fear man at all.
We're supposed to only fear one person. That's God. And how do you get that fear? Let's look
at verse 14. Therefore, all the princes sent Jehudah, the son of Netheniah, the son of Shammiah,
the son of Cushiah, unto Baruch, saying, take in thine hand the roll, wherein thou is red in
the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Uriah took the roll in his hand and came
unto them. And they said unto them, sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it
in their ears. Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both
one and another. And said unto Baruch, we will surely tell the king of all these words. So again,
we see another group of people. They're fearful for what they've heard. But this time it's the
Bible. This time it's God thundering his voice forward and saying, y'all are going to be destroyed.
Your city is going to be destroyed. Punishment is going to come unto you. And they fear because
of the word of God. How do men fear? By hearing the word of God. Go to 2 Chronicles 17. Flip
backwards a few books in the Bible. 2 Chronicles 17. The Bible says in Proverbs 16, it says,
by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
So the only way someone's going to depart from evil, is going to depart from sin,
is by the fear of the Lord. Well, how are they going to get that? They got to hear it.
Look at 2 Chronicles 17, verse 9. And they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord
with them and went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. And the fear of
the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no
war against Jehoshaphat. So we see all the people, they're going out and they're preaching the word
of God. And then what happens? They get the fear of God in their lives. You want to get people to
fear God? You want America to fear God? They got to hear his word. Why is it that America hates God?
Because they haven't heard his word. Why is it they don't fear God? Because they're not hearing
the laws of God being preached. Why have our laws not resemble the laws of God? Because they're not
hearing them. Because they're not hearing the word of God. We can only speak that which we've heard.
How are you going to preach the Bible if you haven't heard it? How are you going to know the
laws of God if you haven't heard it? How is somebody going to get saved if they haven't heard it?
What you hear matters. What you hear is going to affect people. Think about Jonah. When Jonah
entered the city in a day's journey, he cried and said, you have 40 days and Nineveh shall be
overthrown. Now, do they have some great thing to see? Do they have some great testimony? Do they
just heard? They just heard the word of God. And guess what? They repented and sackcloth and ashes
and God spared them because what they hear caused fear to come upon them. God's word is what gives
us the fear. Why do I fear hell? Because of Porky Pig? Because of some movie that I saw?
Because of just some picture drawn? No. Because the word of God says that all liars shall have
their part in the lake which burns the fire and brimstone, which is the second death. That's why
I fear hell. That's why I fear people going to hell. That's why I fear a loved one going to hell
for all of eternity. We're weeping and gnashing of teeth. Because the book says, just hearing it.
Because hearing the word of God preached. That's how you get the fear of God in your life. That's
how you depart from evil. That's how you depart from sin by hearing the word of God preached by
hearing it. First Corinthians verse 15 says, be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt
good manners. Look, of course we've been looking, there's a lot of great ways that hearing stuff
can affect you. Just the same, when you hear bad stuff, it's going to affect you. You can't be
unaffected by what you see. You can't be unaffected by what you hear. And if you just hear garbage,
if you just hear false doctrine, if you just hear worldly music, if you just hear worldly stuff,
it's going to affect you. You say, how does somebody get so worldly? How does someone get so
backslidden by what they've been seeing, by what they've been hearing? When you just go out and
you start hearing the world, when you start looking at the world, when you start getting
in that, it's just going to slowly affect you. It's just going to change your affections. It's
going to change what you speak. You can only speak that what you've seen and heard. If you just sit
there and watch the TV eight hours a day, what are you going to sound like? You're going to sound
like the TV. I mean, shocker, why is the whole world sounding like a faggot? Because the TV
shows are just a bunch of faggots talking constantly. Why is it somebody's going to sound
effeminate? Because they're just listening to a bunch of faggots talk. That's why the world
sounds that way. It's just garbage. But be not deceived, evil communications grow up good men.
Even a guy that's not, you know, he has no desire for men. He's a normal guy. He loves women. But
if he just hears that faggoty speech, he's going to sound effeminate. And if he just sees these
people all look at these, you know, this emo lifestyle and all these people dressed all weird,
he's going to start wanting to look that way, talk that way, sound that way. That's why we have
it. It's not a shocker. God said be not. Why did God say be not deceived? It's so obvious,
but people just wonder like, why is it like this? Why are people like, why are there so many people
like this? Why is our culture just going this direction? Why are so many people being affected
this way? Be not deceived, evil communications, corrupt, good manners, the TV, the music,
this world. It has an impact. It has an effect. That's why people are turning out this way.
It's no shock. You can only speak that what you've seen and heard, whether it be good,
whether it be bad. So the first point was what we've seen affects us. The second point is what
we've heard affects us. So then the third point is declare. And you know, before I kind of finish on
this third point, you know, as I was thinking about things, how you're affected by what you've
seen, by what you've heard, I thought about the topic of speaking in tongues. You know,
and it's kind of a weird thing, but the interesting thing about speaking in tongues,
which is never mentioned in the Bible, that phrase speaking in tongues never mentioned in the Bible.
But the interesting phenomenon that none of these people that believe in this garbage can ever prove
is the fact that each church sounds the same, but none of them sound similar to one another.
They all sound different, but each church sounds and looks the same. You want to know why? Because
you can only speak that what you've seen and heard. The only person that learns the speaking
in tongues, they learn it by man. They don't learn it from reading this book. Nobody from reading
this book just says, oh, I'm supposed to, I mean, nobody gets that, but you see people doing it.
You hear people doing it and then you want to start doing it and you just sound exactly like
they do. But you know, it's way different. Some people just sound like gibberish. Some people
sound like Hebrew. Some people sound, you know, like another foreign language. Some people sound
like kids. I mean, it's all different, but when you go to a church that they all kind of do that,
they all sound alike because the speaking in tongues is a man-made false doctrine
and you can only speak that what you've seen and heard. And I looked, there was an article
titled International Mission Board Drops Ban on Speaking in Tongues. Now, interestingly enough,
the Southern Baptist Convention has dropped their ban on missionaries from speaking in tongues. So
in the past, in 2005, the Southern Baptist Convention, they came out and they said, look,
if you believe in speaking in tongues, if you believe in this ecclesiastical speech,
if you believe in what's called glossolalia, you can't even be a missionary. You can't be associated
with a church. That's a false doctrine. But now they say, hey, we're not necessarily going to drop
you just because you believe that, just because you speak that, just because you teach that.
We're going to kind of open the door. I pulled up an article. It said it was a prompting of their
new president, David Platt. Now, I'm not going to preach a sermon against David Platt tonight.
That's a whole other sermon. The guy is a false prophet. The guy teaches the most hardcore work
salvation I've ever heard. He's a false prophet. He hates the sinner's prayer. He hates easy
believeism. He does not think the gospel is simple. He thinks you have to give your whole
life to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the guy is so worldly. He's not a disciple. He's a false prophet.
He's a Pharisee. He's a hypocrite. And he's going to let these people speaking in tongues come in.
Of course he is. He says the only thing that's important is you have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. And if you're just living for him with all your might, whether they have that
wrong or not doesn't really matter. He said under the previous rules, candidates who spoke in tongues
who had a private prayer language were borrowed. But under the new rules, speaking in tongues does
not disqualify missionary candidates. Too much emphasis on charismatic gifts like speaking in
tongues could lead to discipline. So now, I mean, if you just like, that's all you're preaching,
that's all you're doing, you might get disciplined. But we're not going to bar you from being a
missionary anymore. Says the IMB, meaning that their mission board says, may still employment
for any missionaries who practice persistent emphasis on any specific gift of the Spirit
as normative for all. So there is a lot of different articles. I like to sometimes, you know,
try to go to the source to really see what they kind of said. Sometimes articles are misleading.
If you go to their website, International Mission Board, they actually have a statement. They have
like a frequently asked questions where they make a statement on speaking in tongues. And they said
this, they said, there is no official SBC view or stance on the issue. So they go out and say,
well, speaking in tongues, the glossolalia, we don't have opinion. We have no formal opinion.
We can't say that it's right or wrong. No opinion. And they said, if you polled the SBC churches
across the nation on the topic of charismatic practices, you would likely find a variety of
perspectives, probably mostly believing that the gift of tongues that describe the Bible ceased
upon completion of the Bible. So sessionism. And they say some may view speaking in tongues as a
spiritual gift given to some Christians enabling them to communicate the gospel to foreign cultures
in a language the speaker has not previously known. A very small minority might accept what
is commonly practiced in charismatic churches as valid. So what they're saying is they're saying,
look, most of us still don't really believe this junk, but there's some people that do,
so we're not going to take a stand. We don't really know what the Bible says. We can't make
an opinion. They're so weak. They're not Baptist. They're just no opinion because you look at every
single one of the frequently asked questions and it starts with this statement. The Southern
Baptist Convention has not taken official stance. I mean, every single issue, eternal security,
the King James Bible. They said, what's the SBC stance on the King James Bible?
The Southern Baptist Convention has not taken official stance. Well, why even have the bullet
point? I mean, that's just ridiculous. Well, we just don't have an opinion. We don't want to
offend anybody. I mean, it doesn't even make any sense. Hey, here's a question people ask us and
we always just say, I don't know. Can you imagine if Pastor Anderson was going to have his question
and answers call in time and every single question, just like, I don't know. See you later.
I don't know. See you later. I mean, that's just ridiculous. Why ask them a question if they're
never even give you an answer? Just get it off your website. They even had, can women be pastors
or deacons in SBC? And they still said, look, they said Southern Baptists have long valued the
priceless contribution of women as they administer the advanced God's kingdom. The Baptist faith and
message affirms the vital role of women serving in the church, yet it recognizes the biblical
restriction concerning the office of a pastor saying, while both men and women are gifted
for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture.
The passages that restrict the office of pastor to men do not negate the essential equality of men
women before God, but rather focus on the assignment roles. The Southern Baptist Convention
also passed a resolution in the early 1980s, recognizing that offices requiring ordination
are restricted to men. However, the Baptist faith and message and resolutions are not binding upon
local churches. Each church is responsible to prayerfully search the scriptures and establish
its own policy. So they said, look, we know the Bible says that only men can be pastors.
The scriptures say it's really clear. We've even said that before, but if you disagree,
you get to do whatever you want. I mean, they're just like, they can't even like, they're like,
Hey, I know this says this, but you know, we're going to let you search the scriptures. Maybe
we're wrong. I mean, we know what the Bible says, but we'll let you all figure it out.
I mean, how weak. That's not the, that's not the word of God. That's not thundering forth.
Turn to Romans chapter eight. I want to squash real quick. The idea of this glossolalia being
a private prayer language. Now, some people, they say, well, it's just this crazy ecclesiastical
speech. And we just, we just, they just scream in the churches, roll on the floors. That's
obviously just complete garbage. They're like demon possessed in many cases, but a lot of the
conservative Pentecostals, charismatic, they'll say, well, we know that's wrong. We know that's
not right. The Bible talks is that it's just a private prayer language where we go by ourselves
in our closet and we just pray this gobbledygook. And that's some special language I have between
me and God. Well, the thing is they use Romans eight to prove this doctrine. It says in Romans
eight, look at verse 25, but if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait
for it. Likewise, the spirit also help with our affirmities for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the spirit itself make an intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And he searches the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he make
it the intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So what is the Bible trying to
say here? It's saying, look, when you pray, you don't always necessarily know what you need to
pray for. But as you pray to God, sometimes your words are going to matter because the spiritual
is going to make that intercession for you. He knows what you want. He knows your heart. And
with the groanings, he's helping you pray to God. And God is going to bless you sometimes just
because you're praying. I don't know what I need to pray for today, God, but just leave me not in
temptation. I may not know what that temptation is. I may not know what's going to be set before
me. You know, though, and the spirit will help. It'll help make intercession for you.
But look at it says at the end of verse 26 with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now, that's very key. What does that mean? It's saying, look, you can't say it.
There's nothing that's going to come out of your mouth. No noise, no sound, no words.
That is going to be what this is. It's groanings from the spirit. It's some kind of special
miracle that God's performing with the Holy Spirit inside you. So go to Acts chapter two
with that in mind. The interesting thing is, though, all the modern Bibles change that verse.
They change it. They add to it. You know, most of the time the modern versions take away,
they add here. They say which cannot be uttered with words. So they try to prop up this false
glossolalia doctrine saying, well, it can be uttered just not with words. You know, this
blalalalala, some special language that God's given them. But look at Acts chapter two,
look at verse one. And when the day of Pentecost was full to come, they were all with one accord
in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, a rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting. And they appeared in them cloven tongues like it was a fire
and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So how did these men speak that,
you know, speak with other tongues, preach the gospel in a language they'd never known.
The Spirit gave them utterance. But what did we read in Romans chapter eight?
Spirit making an intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered. But what do they want to say?
They want to say, oh, the speaking in tongues is Romans eight. No, even though it doesn't use the
word speaking in tongues, when it talks about speaking with other tongues, it's clear that the
Spirit is giving them the utterance, right? But if you go to Romans eight, the King James Bible
makes it very clear. He destroys this private prayer language and says, look, when the Spirit's
making an intercession, it's not something you're saying, it's not the gobbledygook,
it's a special groaning between the Holy Spirit and God, which cannot be uttered. But those that
would speak with other tongues, whether you call that speaking in tongues or not, I wouldn't use
that phrase. It's the Spirit that's giving them utterance. So we see right there very clearly
that these two things can't be the same thing. But that's what the Charismatics,
that's what the Pentecostals, they want to lump these two things together.
But if we kind of go back, we can only declare that which we've seen and heard.
And see these Charismatics, they're declaring what they've seen, just a bunch of junk, just a
boom, boom, boom, boom. How is that going to help anybody? How is that going to profit anybody?
How is that going to give anybody the fear of God? I mean, when the Bible talks about
1 Corinthians, he says, if you came in and heard that, you'd think they're all mad. He would be
like, look at all these crazy people. I mean, these guys are idiots. They're buffoons. They're
foolish. It's not the power of God. But when you hear for all the sick to come short of the glory
of God, there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth right and sinneth not, that's going
to give you fear. When you talk about liars going to hell, when you talk about burning and fire and
brimstone, that's going to give somebody the fear of God, when they can actually understand
what's heard. Go to Genesis chapter three, go to Genesis chapter three.
Why is it that all these independent fundamental church pastors just sound like the Republican
Party? Because they can only speak that which they've seen and heard. They're just turning on,
you know, Fox News. They're just turning on Sean Hannity. They're just turning on Glenn Beck.
And all just seeing and hearing that, guess what they're going to preach? Sunday morning,
Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Fox News, whatever the government just wants to pump into them,
the Associated Press, because I don't care if it's CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, it's all Associated
Press. It's all Associated Press. They're just speaking whatever the government wants to give
them. The government gives it to the Associated Press. The Associated Press gives it to all the
news channels, and the news channels give it to the pastors, and the pastors just preach the
garbage that the government wants to give them. That's true. Look at Genesis chapter three verse
six. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. So we see the very beginning, the very beginning
sin. What happened? She saw. And then what happened? She was pleasant to the eyes. And then
what happened? A desire to make one wise. Now, why did she think that? Because the serpent told her
he was what she had heard, what she had seen and what she had heard. And then she takes the fruit
and then she gives unto her husband. And I don't think that she just took it and just was like,
here, here, I found this. She probably testified into what she had seen and heard. And guess what?
We see the first sin in the Bible. What you've seen and what you've heard is going to affect
what you declare, what you do, what you have in this life. Why are people not preaching the Bible?
Because they're not seeing the Bible because they're not hearing the Bible. They're reading
commentary. They're watching TV. They're not focused on what God's word is. Why is there no
power behind the pulpit today? Because they can't speak of what they've seen and heard. And there's
no power outside this book. If I came and I preached a sermon unto you and I have no Bible,
I have no power. I could yell and scream and get mad and stomp my feet. It wouldn't be powerful.
It wouldn't be the power of God. It might be the power of man, but that's weak compared unto God.
Why do they believe the preacher rapture? Because you can only speak that what you've seen and heard.
They can only speak it because that's all they've been taught. That's all they see. They watch the
left behind series. They hear all the pre-trip, pre-trip, pre-trip, pre-trip. Oh, I mean,
what am I going to say? Pre-trip. You can only speak that what you've seen and heard.
Go to Jeremiah 23. Go to Jeremiah 23 and I'll read for you Jeremiah 14. Then the Lord said unto me,
the prophets prophesied lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them,
neither spake unto them. They prophesied unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of not
and the seat of their heart. So God's saying, look, I didn't show them a vision and I didn't
speak to them. So what are they going to speak? The deceit of their heart. They're going to speak
what they've seen and heard. They just, they just come up with some vision in their mind.
They just like to hear themselves think, and they're just going to preach that. They're
just going to preach the deceits of their heart. Man trusts in his own heart. He trusts
in his own wisdom and he's just going to preach that. That's why we got to lean into God. That's
why we got to trust the Lord with all our heart. We got to look through this book. We got to hear
this book if we want to declare what's right. You want to declare what's right? Don't think of your,
don't, I'm just going to think about the Bible and I'm just going to think of my own thoughts
and I'm just going to, you know, I'm so great and I had this vision. No, go to the Bible.
What does the Bible say? What are you hearing from the Bible? That's how you're going to declare
the things that are right. Look at Jeremiah 23 verse 21. I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel
and it caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God of hands, saith the Lord, and not a God far off?
Look, what did God say? He said if the false prophets had stopped preaching their own heart,
had stopped preaching, you know, the lies on TV, had stopped preaching what they've seen and heard,
and just preached the Bible, the people would have got right. Because you're affected by what you
hear. You're affected by what you see. And the man of God should preach the word of God to affect
people. You want to affect people for good? Show them the Bible. Show them your good works. Jesus
Christ said, you know, to let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and they may glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Show your faith by your works.
And you want to change the world? You got to change it by what you've seen, by what you've
heard. Go to 1 John chapter one, we'll close. We see that so many things that you see, so many
things that you hear can affect you from the negative. I mean, we're not going to sweat wicked
things before our eyes. We can't just hear lies. We can't. It says if a ruler harken unto lies,
all of his servants are wicked. So whatever you hear, whatever you see can affect you very
negatively. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. But then on the flip side,
we see that if we keep our eyes, if we have our eyes on the faithful of the land,
if we're hearing God's word being preached, and we get the fear of God in our lives,
we can declare that which is right. We can change this world for good. We can, you know,
get multitudes saved. We can bring people back unto God. We can get them on the right path.
Look at 1 John chapter one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
of the word of life, for the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear witness, and showing
you the eternal life with the Father, and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen
and heard, declare we unto you, that you may fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And I got my sermon from this verse three,
says you've seen and heard, declare we unto you. What you've seen is going to affect what you
declare. What you've heard is going to affect what you declare. And when you've seen the truth,
when you've seen the Lord Jesus Christ, when you've heard the Lord Jesus Christ,
we should declare it from the housetops. We need to get people saved. We need to go out and preach
the Bible. We need to get people to get back on the word of God. That's going to help people
get changed. I want to change America. I want people to get right with God. I want my kids
to rise up and live in a good country. They've got to hear the word of God. They're only going
to get the fear of God by hearing the word of God, by seeing the word of God as a testimony.
When we go out and live the word of God, when we go out and preach the word of God, it shows them,
hey, I have faith. It's the evidence of things not seen. I can have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
by seeing you going out and preaching the gospel. I can see your faith by your good works. We walk
by faith and not by sight. Amen. But what you've seen and heard is going to affect your life.
And you're always going to be seeing stuff. You're always going to be hearing stuff.
It's so important that we get focused on the things that are important in this life,
eternal things, things of value, because what you've seen and heard, that we declare.
Let's close in prayer. Thank you, God, for giving us your word. Thank you that we can read your word.
We can hear your word preached, and that can help us declare unto people the truth. We can declare
the truth because we know it's in your word. We can trust in your son, Jesus Christ, which is the
word of God. I pray that we would always be mindful of the things that we set before us,
how they can affect us, and that we'd be affected with good things, that we could live a righteous
life, a separated life. And I pray for everyone in this church. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.