Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Revelation chapter 3, the
chapter that we read, and verse 6. Verse 6. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Revelation chapter 3, verse 6. And of course you will find that
these words are repeated after each of the letters to the churches. So seven letters and seven times
you hear this same message. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. In these seven
letters, Though it is literally seven churches that they are
addressed to, yet they are addressed to them as representative of
the churches of Christ. Not with the thought that one
church is like one of those here and another like the other one,
but through the history of the churches, we find these characteristics
in each local individual church and each church it has its own
pastor or angel as set forth here and it is the Holy Spirit
that speaks to the churches and the way the Holy Spirit speaks
to the churches is through the Word of God which is the inspired
Word of God that we have now the Bible from Genesis to Revelation
And by blessing the ministry with power to souls, to those
who don't just hear in an outward way, they do hear in an outward
way, but they have an ear, a spiritual ear that is given to them. And that's why our text says,
he that hath an ear. Not everybody has a spiritual
ear. In fact, by nature, when we are
born, we are dead in trespasses and sins. We do not hear. We
can hear outwardly and not really realize what is being said. Sometimes in even a natural way,
we can be talking to someone and tell them something, and
we see from their countenance that they haven't taken on board
what actually we're saying. And we might say to them, do
you hear what I'm saying? Do you hear what I'm saying?
And it might be that perhaps there's some arrangements being
made of being able to go somewhere, and something is being told us
that seems to be not connected with that, but that something
that seems not connected is connected. and has implications that at
first are not grasped, they're not really heard at all. And so in a natural way, we hear
the word of God, we hear the gospel, we hear the warnings,
we hear these things, but we don't realise the implication,
we don't realise what it means, we don't realise how it applies
to us and how it concerns us. And so the blessing here is to
have, while we are in the church or hearing the Word of God in
the churches, that we have an ear. And even those that do have
an ear, those that are spiritually alive, that are capable of hearing
the Word, the Word of our text says, he that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So maybe they're
God's children who have a spiritual ear, but they're not listening
to what God is speaking to the churches. So that is the message
that is here. And the way, and I come out with
it straight away as to what is upon my spirit on this, and I
felt this, how does the Lord bless his people when they're
backsliding or in the first place? How does he, does he move them
as like robots? Does he just by his power cause
them to be blessed? Or how does the means, how does
that blessing come? And if we're far off from the
Lord, if we're worldly and carnal and ensnared or entrapped or
fallen into some, habits and sins and besetting sins. How
are we to get free from that? How will the Lord bless us and
deliver us out of that? And I believe this is how we have come
to this text this evening. Because this is how the Lord
does it. It is through an open ear and
that ear hearing the Word of God and obeying that Word. Now, before we come to some points
in this, I want to begin with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Begin with Him as the Lord's
servant, as the one that is prophesied in the Holy Word of God, we have
in Isaiah 42, behold, in verse 1, behold my servant, whom I
uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my
spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now, is speaking of the Lord
as a servant, and Then when we come to the Psalms, if we come
to Psalm 40, then we have in that Psalm a setting forth again
of the Lord Jesus Christ in prophecy. And if we go from verse 6 in
Psalm 40, Psalm of David, Sacrifice and offering that is not desire,
mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
thou hast not required. Then said I, though I come, in
the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do
thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. And then he goes on, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. And our Lord, his ear was opened. He obeyed, he heard his father's
will. He came, whatsoever the father
gave him commandment, what he should do, what he should say. And then he speaks to his people
and they hear him. Here's a very interesting law,
no doubt many of us, we've read it many times and we've puzzled
and it seemed to be a strange law regarding servants. In Exodus
chapter 21, we have regarding servants, if thou buy, in verse
two, if thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve and
in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came
in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married,
then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given
him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out
by himself. And if the servant shall plainly
say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go
out free, Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, he
shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost, and his
master shall bore his ear through with it all, and he shall serve
him forever. And you know that ties in. Our
Lord who was made himself of no reputation, He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. The testimony, really,
of our Lord is He shall be a servant forever. He shall always do His
Father's will, do His Father's bidding. And the example for
the Church of God, for the people of God, is the same. As if the people of God say,
and it is said to them, I love the Lord. I love his people.
I love the Church of God. I don't want to be free from
them. I want to be with them. Bore my ear to the doorpost. Let me ever hear thy word. Let me obey thy voice, obey thy
word, and be thy servant forever. And it is a where you get a judgment
there for Israel that seems to be repeated in Deuteronomy and
other places as well. Seems to be a strange thing,
but when we even have the saying to have our ear brought to the
doorpost, as it were, we're listening. All that is said going in and
out, all that is heard, and this is our Lord. I felt on this what
a blessing to have an ear opened and a real desire and a prayer. Lord, open my ear again. Make
me to know the blessings of a hearing ear. You know, we have the examples
of Joseph. His father says, go, go see how
thy brethren are. Bring them some victuals. And
away he goes and does it. We have David. And Jesse says,
go and see how your brethren are. They're fighting with Goliath.
David, he goes and does it. And those life-changing events,
hanging, as it were, on the simple obedience to the word of a father. I know that we would be the same. Our Lord was with his heavenly
father. And may it be as the Lord says,
your heavenly father knoweth what you have need of before
you ask Him. But the Father speaks and He
speaks through His Son and He speaks through His Spirit, He
speaks to the churches. And so it is in this way when
we look at the prophecies of our Lord and His humility and
that which He did as hearing. Here am I, who shall I send? Here am I, send me. and the willingness
of our Lord to come and to be obedient. And so it is where
we begin with our Lord as an example, that the plan of salvation
is a people following the Lord. The Apostle Paul says, be ye
followers of me, as I also am of Christ. and Christ leaving
us an example. And it is in this, as hearing
his father's word and voice, and being obedient unto him,
what he should say, what he should do. Those are the things that
we should really take notice of. And so I want to look then
this evening at three things. blessings made possible, and
that is through Calvary and what Christ did there. And then secondly,
the means of blessing, an opened ear. And then thirdly, the blessings
through an open Firstly, the blessings that are
made possible. How unjust it would be if we had someone in our land
and they'd taken someone's life or they'd done some tremendous
crime and someone just decided that
Not only would they just pass over what they'd done wrong,
but they'd give them a good education, and they'd give them money, and
give them a house, and they'd favour them in that way. People
looking on would say, where's their justice in this? Not only have they not paid their
own debt, but You're giving them rewards. You're giving them these
gifts. How can that be? I mean, you say there's no justice
in that. But when you think of a holy, holy God, and sinners such as we are, that
are under the sentence of death, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. All are due the wrath of God. We cannot pay the debt that we
owe, and we continually, day by day, add to that debt that
we owe. So if on top of that, not being
able to pay that debt, we were then given the blessings of this
life and the blessings of eternal life and of heaven, then wouldn't we think that that
is terrible injustice? And so the hymn writer says,
every blessing comes to us through Jesus' precious blood. And it
is because the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary has taken the sins
of his people and bore them away, enduring the wrath of God that
was due to them, and paying that debt, past sins, present sins,
sins to come, all of the sins of his people. Thou hast laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. Made sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And it is important
to embrace that the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. The curse is, cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them. And the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And whoso offendeth in one point
is guilty of all. It's absolutely vital that the
Lord Jesus Christ put away sin before he can ever bless a soul. It's important to realise that. You know, we don't have the Lord
saying to the church or to anyone, that person I've put away their
debt and that person I've suffered for and that person I've suffered
for, and telling us who he has died for. He knows, we do not
know. We know it is innumerable, a
company, a multitude, that he's put away their sin. But we also
know that if he has not put away someone's sin, he cannot and
he will not bless that person. But we know where he has put
away their sin, he can and must bless that person. The debt has been paid, They
are redeemed and they are His. We are bought with a price, wherefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are His.
This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth
my praise. So when a soul is blessed, then
we know that Christ has died for that soul. And the blessings are made possible
by Calvary. It's important on that. Because
the Lord is a just God, a holy God, a righteous God, he cannot
just go giving out blessings to those whose debts have not
been paid. And so Calvary, the cross at
Calvary, the blood that was shed there, the empty tomb to prove
that that sacrifice was accepted, makes a way that God can pass
by the transgression of his people and that he can bless them. And I hope that then makes it
that when we are able to identify what the blessing of God is,
then we are able also to be able to trace back from that blessing
to the blood that was shared and to the eternal love of God
that brought that blood to be shared. God commendeth his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. I pass by thee when thou wast
in thy blood and bid thee live. And there's the first blessing
that is coming, life. And so I want then to look in
our second point, the means of blessing. means of blessing. An opened ear. We mentioned right
at the outset that every one of these letters to the churches
finishes with the words of our text. He that hath an ear, let
him hear what this Spirit saith unto the churches. In Revelation
2, we have it in verse 7, verse 11 and 17, and at the end, verse
29. And then in chapter 3, we have
it in verse 6, which is our text, and then verse 13 and verse 22. Emphasized in every single case
in the Church of God, how vital it is to have a hearing ear. Do some people have it by nature
and some not? Is it something that a sinner
can be praised that he has a hearing ear and someone else has not?
Where did it come from? Who opened the ear? Is it only
speaking of natural? Is it really saying that any
blessing is not for those that are naturally deaf? where the word that is to be
heard is the word from the Spirit. And we need a spiritual ear to
hear that, to discern it, to really know what is being said,
how plain the words can be and are, and yet they are spiritually
discerned. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned. So the means of blessing. When God gives spiritual life,
yes, we might say, well, in a natural life, there is all of the senses
of seeing and hearing and feeling and smell. There's all of these
things, but what's emphasized here is the hearing ear, the spiritual
ear. And we read that the Lord gives
grace for grace, and the grace of a hearing ear then is the
means through which other blessings are given. You know, if we were
to give someone a hundred pounds They would say, well, I can't
feed on that, I can't eat that, and I can't shelter from that
when it's pouring with rain. And you say, no, but you use
that money, you can buy food, and you can buy shelter over
your head. You know, this is why when Jahezai
Elisha's servant went and told lies to Naaman, who had been
cured of his leprosy. Elisha wouldn't take any gifts,
but Gehazi coveted them. And he came back with silver
and with gold and with raiment. But Elisha didn't say, is it
a time to receive silver and gold? He said, is it a time to
receive olive yards and vineyards and houses, and he was saying
the things that could be bought with that money. The money was
a means that unlocks those other blessings and that wealth. And
in the same way is the hearing ear that is given by God. Our Lord was very clear on this
in the words that he speaks in the gospel according to John. It is a beautiful word that he
speaks of himself as the good shepherd in John chapter 10. And he says that the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. There we have the opening up
and the way that the blessing can come. But then we have in
verse 27 of John 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them
and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of mine
hand. And the difference was with the
Jews, they did not believe, they did not hear his voice, but he
makes the distinction of his people that they do hear him,
they do follow him. They know not the voice of strangers,
but they know the voice of the Lord. Paul, when he wrote to
the Thessalonians, he said that they received the word, the word
that had been preached to them, not as the word of man, but as
it is in truth, the word of God. He says that the word came to
them, not in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and
of power. In other words, it was a very
authoritative and effective word, a word that profoundly touched
them and entered not just their ear, but into their hearts. Then we have it very clear in
Romans chapter 10. The Apostle here makes it very
clear the importance of hearing. And even in a natural way, but
in conjunction with our text, which is a word to churches and
to the ministers of the churches, The word is, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? 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 and bring glad tidings
of good things. And then he says regarding, quoting
from Isaiah, Lord, who hath believed our report? That's Isaiah 53
verse one. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. That's what we said. At the beginning,
the Word of God is inspired Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Hearing comes through the Word
of God and faith comes by hearing. And that's why the charge to
a minister is to preach the Word. We preach the Word of God. And
so that means a blessing is the Word. I know that we could be
so assured of that. Why? Because if the Lord has
opened our ear, and I remember in my days of unregeneracy, in
my teens and up to late teens, the many sermons, many times
I heard the Word of God read or preached, it meant nothing
to me. It never registered as being
applicable to me at all. I could even argue about it,
but had no love to the word, no love to the house of God at
all. And it wasn't until the Lord
then showed me my ignorance and opened my ear. And you know,
when you first start to hear, then you want to hear more and
more. I couldn't go to enough meetings hear the Word of God
enough or read it enough, there's a real appetite for the Word. Now that I could hear, now I
wanted to hear, and those two go together as well. And then
the Lord uses what is being heard to actually bless that song. So, if we are seeking the blessing
of the Lord, and we have an appetite for it, and when the word is
preached, we are hearing it, and we're like the Bereans, we
take it away, we search the scriptures whether these things are so, we chew over it like a clean
animal chews over the cart, That word is meaning something to
us. And if that is the case, one
thing, it is a token that the Lord has died for us and put
away our sin, therefore he has blessed us with an open ear.
And also it is an encouragement to us to truly know that the
Lord intends to bless us and bless us through what we hear. What an incentive that is to
hear and to listen, hearkening unto the voice of the Lord. What if we are backslidden? What
if we got far off from the Lord and we're in love with our sins,
we can't break them off, we struggle with them, And we think, how
can we ever be restored? What means will the Lord use? We use the same means. Reopening
our ear, as it were. David needed that after he'd
committed murder and adultery. We need to hear again. Listen again. And that through that, the Lord
will then instruct us and teach us. But I do want to really emphasize
this, that the means of blessing is through an open ear. And what is heard, what is heard. And that is very important. as well. I want to then look,
in the third place, at the blessings that come through an open ear. A blessing that is an evidence
of life, the open ear is a blessing in itself, but then there's those
things, that graceful grace, that is actually given. If also Paul asks a question,
of the Galatians. Now the Galatians are those that
had an open ear. They had been blessed under the
liberty of the gospel, but then they listened to false teachers,
not bringing the word of God, that brought them back under
the law again. And Paul has a question for them. He says in Galatians chapter
4 and verse 21, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do
ye not hear the law? What a question. If you want to be under the law,
under the commandments, listen, listen to the law. What is the law saying? By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all points of the law to do them. That no soul is delivered or
justified by the deeds of the law, Paul says, is evident, for
the just shall live by faith. really the challenge to the Galatians
and to us. Paul says if you have got a hearing
ear, you listen to what the law says and the law will only condemn
you. The law was given that all the
world might be brought in guilty before God. If you and I are
looking for salvation, peace, eternal life through the deeds
of the Lord, we will not find it. And why? Because if we really
know the blessings come through the hearing ear, our ear should
be telling us, no hope there. This is the mount that might
be touched, the burn with fire, the brimstone and the trumpet
sounding long. This is Moses. Moses says, commanded
that this woman taken in adultery should be stoned, but what sayest
thou? This is what the law says. Does
our ear hear what the law says? The Apostle Paul says, I was
alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. Died to hope in self, died to
obtaining salvation, through the deeds of the law. So then what is to be heard?
The message of the gospel, the woman taken in adultery again,
she heard that. What was that? You know, all
that went out, all her accusers didn't hear that. But the Lord asked her, and he
said, where are those thine accusers? She says, is there none that
accuse thee? She said, none, Lord. And the
Lord said, neither do I. Condemn thee, go, and sin no
more. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. Repentance
is a turning from sin. And repentance is a change of
mind, change of life. And the Lord gives that, gives
the will and the power to do so through the word. And bound
up with that is remission of sins, is forgiveness of sins. And it is a gift of God. The
ear that hears the gospel hears a very different word than the
Lord. But remember also, we are told,
that there is a curse on everyone that turneth away his ears from
hearing the law. Because we should always be mindful
that that law stills the sounds out, and there are countless
millions that are being consigned to eternal death and ruin under
that law, and the Lord Jesus Christ was born under that law. He obeyed that law, and he redeemed
us from the curse of that law. So we don't unimagine it is not
there, or sin that grace might abound, Because our Lord was
made under it, suffered under it, delivered us from out from
under it, and set us free. Now it's like one that's been
delivered from a pit, or delivered from a terrible end, perhaps
over a precipice or in the sea. And every time they go past that
place, they look and they see and they think, I could still
be in that. I was delivered from that. Think of that time when I was
so near death, I was in death, in such danger. And realising that position,
what was one in, and how we were delivered out of it, it magnifies,
magnifies the Lord. So what are the blessings then?
once that ear is opened. We read of it, didn't we, in
Romans 10. Faith, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Now faith, another word for faith
is trust. As we hear the word of God, we
are brought to trust in that word. Many times there'll be a clash,
as it were, between the word of God and between the world. The Lord says in John 17, I've
given them my word, or thy word, the Father's word, and the world
hath hated them, just because they have the word of God. A child of God obeys the word
of God, and that will bring so often into conflict with the
world, with the sin in our own hearts, with our own sinful inclinations. But faith says, I would rather
believe the word of God than believe my own feelings. I'd
rather believe the word of God than believe someone that's dead
in sin or those that are professed atheists and hatred to the word
of God and hatred to the law. Faith sees that which is not
seen, but trusts in the Lord, though it can't sometimes even
understand. Some way we might say, take some
degree of faith, if we turn on a light switch, we believe that
the light will come on. We might not be able to understand
electricity or anything, but we associate turning that switch
and the light coming on, experience tells us that that is what happens. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Creation, it tells us there is
a God, but without the Word of God it cannot show us. God manifests in the flesh The
Lord Jesus Christ. It is through the word that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate word, is made known to his people. It is also the means of a blessing
of guidance. In Psalm 32, we have the beautiful
promise, I will instruct thee and guide thee in the way which
thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. We have it also
in Isaiah, is a way of correction. In Isaiah 30 and verse 21, we
read this, or if we go back to verse 22, and though the Lord
give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore.
But thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it,
when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."
So we have that picture of God's people turning to one way, or
turning to the other way, and then they meet with the Word
of God, turning them back to the straight, the narrow way,
the right way. We easily go to one extreme or
the other, don't we? And so the word is used for warning
as well. It's used to bring us into a
path of obedience. Peter, he speaks of this in his
epistles as being obedient children. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. And
what is obedience to? It's obedience unto the word
of God. We think of Jonah. Jonah was
given that direction, that word of the Lord, command of the Lord,
to go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach the word that
I bid thee. Jonah was given the word. He
was to give the word to the Ninevites. But Jonah second-guessed what
the Lord would do. The Lord would bless them. So
he decided that he wouldn't go and he ran away. And that's why
the Lord sent the wind and the waves and then the fish to swallow
him up and just preserve him really. And then the third day
to vomit him up in the ground And then God gave him the word
again, go. And this time he went. But the
Lord didn't change it. Yes, he brought those things
into his life, terrible chastenings. When those things were done,
the same word comes, not change, go. And we should remember this,
the blessings that come through and open ears. The Lord would
speak, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. If you instruct
us in the doctrines of the most holy faith, if you reveal the
precious truths to us, it is through the word of God. If you
will comfort us, if you will give us a promise, if you give
us direction, if you give us that which to speak to someone
else, It is through the Word of God.
That is the channel that God has appointed. And this is what
then has been on my spirit and the prayer, the desire in my
soul, Lord, open mine ear again. Cause me again in newness of
hearing as if the ears were new again and I was hearing afresh. You know, at the end of John
Baptist's life, we read as he was in prison, and he couldn't
have been far from death, he heard of the works of Christ,
the miracles that he was doing. But he sends his disciples to
Christ and he says, aren't thou he that should come, or look
we for another? And the Lord says to the disciples,
and he works at that time many miracles, He preaches, preaches
the word to the poor. He said, go, show John again
those things which you do see and hear. And they went, how
did they show him? Not literally as to his eyes,
but tell him, rehearse before him again. He'd heard them before. In fact, he'd pointed out the
Lord, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world, but he needed to hear it again. and you and I need
to hear it again as well, with newly touched ears and with the
power and authority of God, and to be persuaded of this. If the Lord returns and if he
blesses our soul and we revise our soul, it will be through
the word of God. It will be through that way. Yes, power attending it, and
the ear opened afresh, but in no other way. May we then pay
attention to the words spoken. May it channel our prayers to
that end. Lord, open mine ear. Cause me
to hear thy word. May it make us to realise why
the Lord has exalted his word above all this name. that a word
of God is so important. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away. And to realise that when we have
an open ear and the Lord speaks to us, and it has an effect in
our hearts and in our lives, and brings forth obedience, it
is a very clear evidence that Christ has died for us. And he's
given us that blessing. It is a blessing. And through
that blessing, he's given us all other blessings. Man shall
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth from
the mouth of God. That is our daily bread. It is
our meat and our drink, the word of God. Thy words were found
and I did eat them. There's Jeremiah, they were to
the joy. and rejoicing of my soul, may
the Lord add his blessing. Amen.