I'm sorry, Larry. I just want us to look at one
verse here in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy chapter 1, because it has four
principles here that we see throughout the Word of God, especially in
the New Testament. And I want us to look at them
just for a few minutes this afternoon. These four principles. Look in
Deuteronomy chapter 5 and look in verse 1. And Moses called
all Israel and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes
and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that you
may learn them and keep them and do them." Now, here they
are. Hear, learn, keep, and do. I want us to look at those just
for a few minutes because you will see these all through the
Scriptures, and especially as it regards our salvation and
the Gospel. First one, let's consider this.
Here. Here. You know, that's what we're
about here, isn't it, tonight? That's what we're doing here
tonight. That's why I've opened up the Bible and say, Here. Here and your souls shall live. The first thing First and foremost,
the thing that precedes salvation, the thing that precedes eternal
life is hearing. That's why we insist on being
in order in our services. This is why we insist on quietness
and not so much racket and running and moving because we know the
necessity hearing. Hear, and your soul shall live. Why do we put such emphasis on
hearing? I'm going to quote a verse of Scripture, and you could quote
it, and some of you may already be thinking about it, in Romans
chapter 10 and verse 17. Faith comes by hearing, doesn't
it? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. And I wish that we wouldn't limit
Romans chapter 10 and verse 17. Though it seems to be limited
there to human instruments. We hear it through a preacher.
We know that's so. But I wish we wouldn't limit
faith to just hearing from a preacher or a teacher. You know faith
can come by reading the Bible. You remember the Bereans? when
the Apostle Paul had preached to them. And they went home and
got their Bibles out and they studied the Scriptures. They
read the Scriptures. They heard what the Scriptures
said. And the Bible says, therefore, many of them believed. They searched the Scripture.
So faith comes by reading the Scriptures, doesn't it? We know
the primary way that faith comes to lost people And I really don't
know from the Scriptures how somebody could be saved without
hearing. But you know, the Scriptures are preachers. The Scriptures
do preach to us. I told you a few weeks ago about
the man who was in the motel room, hadn't even thought of
salvation, and he picked his Bible up and began to read, and
the Lord spoke to him in His Word. He heard the Word and believed. He was amazed by it. So hearing
is not always just hearing with these ears. It's always hearing
with the heart. We may hear with these ears and
never reach the heart. But it's when the heart hears.
Hear with your heart. Hear with an inward man. I want you to look over here
Ephesians. Hold it around me. And look in Ephesians chapter
4. You know the Lord Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, didn't
He? My sheep hear My voice. I have
other sheep that I have not brought yet. I have not saved them yet.
They are Mine. The Father has given them to
Me. But they shall hear My voice. Now we know that none of us hear
that audible voice. The Savior is in heaven, and
we don't hear His audible voice in our ears. That's not the way
we hear Him. We hear Him through His Word,
don't we? He gave us this Word. The Holy
Spirit gave us this Word. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
preached. We've got that recorded. And
He's saying no more than what He has said in His Word. He's
still speaking through His Word. And when the Word comes to us,
that's His voice. He speaks through His Word. We
hear Him through His Word. My sheep hear my voice. Look
here in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17. Paul was speaking here
and says in verse 17, chapter 4 of Ephesians, This I say therefore
and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity, the sinfulness, the emptiness
of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
hardness, the blindness of their heart. Now, man is ignorant,
isn't he? He doesn't know the way of salvation. He thinks he
does, but he doesn't, you see. He's ignorant and his heart is
blind. There's but one person that can
teach him the way of salvation and savior. He must share the
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he said in verse 19.
These are past feelings. They have given themselves over
to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not so learned Christ. Look in verse 21 now. This is
amazing. If so be that you have heard
him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus. My sheep hear My voice. You have
heard His voice. But it's not an audible voice.
It's His Word. The words that I speak unto you,
they are Spirit and they are life. I tell you, it's amazing
how you can take this book right here. This is amazing. I can
read it to somebody. and read it to somebody, and
it's as dead as it can be. I can take this and stick it
in the fire and do no harm. Do no harm. It's just dead words
on these pages until Jesus Christ takes these words and speaks
to your heart. That's what He does. Haven't
you had this to happen to you? The Word comes to you with power
and assurance. You hear His voice. You don't
ever have to doubt if you've heard the voice of Christ or
not, if you've heard His Word. Because that's where He speaks
to us from. The Word. The words I speak unto you. They
are Spirit in their life. And that's where we hear His
voice. Hear! Hear! Hear! It's so important,
isn't it? It's so important. Hear! Look
in another passage. Look in James chapter 1. And look in verse 18. James chapter 1. And look in
verse 18 and verse 19. James chapter 1 and look in verse
18. Of His own will begot He us. He has begotten us. He has saved
us. He has regenerated us. The Word of Truth. That's the
Gospel. That's His Word. That we should
be a kind of firstfruits of His creature. Now, we've had that
to happen. We have had people to hear and
be saved. God has sent His Word to their
hearts and given them life with it and given them assurance with
it. Therefore, what should we all do? What should everybody
do? Look in verse 19. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, and slow to write." I'll tell you how you can tell if
the Lord has given you an interest in His salvation. I'll tell you
how you can tell. Your mouth is stopped. You've
quit arguing. You've quit fussing. You've quit
telling everybody else what you know. And what you've said in
your heart, O Lord, speak to me. I need to hear something.
I need to hear your voice. Please teach me. Speak to me.
I tell you, you're in good shape if that's where you're at. Let
every man be swift to hear. Why? Because of his will, his
own will, begot he us with a word of truth. Look in another place. Look in 1 Peter. Right on to
your right. 1 Peter chapter 4. Look in chapter
1, but especially verse 2. I tell you, hearing. Not only
are we saved by hearing. And I love Galatians chapter
3 where the Apostle Paul was writing to the Galatians and
they fell back into this works of the law. And Paul said, I
want to ask you one question. And it's about how you were saved.
And how you received the spirit of adoption. Did you receive
the Holy Spirit by the works of the law? Is it what you were
doing? Is it by circumcision? Is it
by keeping the Sabbath day holy? How did you receive the spirit
of adoption? By the works of the law? Or by the hearing of
faith? That's amazing, ain't it? Peter
went down and preached to the Gentiles. And he preached unto
them that through Jesus Christ is the forgiveness of sins. And
they that heard the Word, they heard it. They were all filled
with the Holy Ghost. Share Him. It's so important,
isn't it? Share, and your soul shall live.
And Peter mentions that here in verse 23 of chapter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 23. Look how he says it. "...being
borne again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." the Word. I tell you, I tell people, I
tell people all the time, you're lost. If you're lost, get His
Word out and get off by yourself. And ask Him to open your heart
that you may know Him. That's what I do. That's what
I do. And look in chapter 2 of 1 Peter.
Look at this. Not only does He begot us through
hearing of His Word, but I tell you, we grow through hearing
of His Word. Faith comes by hearing His Word, and faith is increased
and strengthened by hearing His Word. Look what He says in verse
1, "...Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby." Hear! Hear! I appreciate you coming here
and hearing me. Man, if you didn't, we'd stay at the house if you
didn't come here and listen. You know, if nobody wants to
come and listen. But don't limit your hearing
to the preachers and the teachers. Share the Word. Read the Word. Share it. Life comes through the Word.
The strength of that life and the increase of graces come through
this Word. The Word of Truth, the Word of
Truth. And with all due respect to the
poor Pope, I don't care how infallible he professes to be when he sits
in his chair and writes. I don't care what Baptists have
written now and past days. With all due respect, we've got
one thing that we're to hear. It's not men's opinions, it's
not men's convictions, but it's the Word. It's the Word. Hear My Word, the Word of Truth. That's the only thing that's
dependable, isn't it? The only thing that's dependable.
Here's what the Lord Jesus said to them in His day. He said,
This people's heart is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed,
lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted,
and I should heal them." Hear. Hear. Secondly, if you don't
want to turn back over there, I'll tell you what they said
in chapter 5, verse 1. The second principle is this. Learn. Learn. Hear, O Israel, the statutes
and the judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that you
may learn them." Learn them. That you may learn them. Don't
hear them that you may feel good. Don't hear them that you may
experience some comfort and joy or peace or any other emotion. But hear the word that you may
increase in knowledge. in heart knowledge that you may
learn as you hear." Peter said, growing grace and
knowledge. How do we grow in knowledge?
By hearing, don't we? And learning. And learning. I went to school for 12 years.
And I'm telling you, I didn't learn a thing. I honestly didn't. My wife tells me all the time,
how did you ever get through school? I would study in class
and listen to the teacher. But my mind was riding a horse. My mind was swimming. My mind
was fishing. And you know, I didn't learn
a thing. I didn't learn a thing. Hear His Word and learn. Grow in grace and knowledge of
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Listen to this very, very familiar
Scripture. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Learn of Me. We know so little
about Him. The best of us know so little
about Him. Share Him from His Word and learn
of Him. Learn about His glorious person.
He's God and man. Learn about what He's did, His
work, how effectual it is, how wonderful it is, how mysterious
it is. Learn of where he's at now. Learn what he's doing there. Learn of his promises. Learn
of him. And let's read that this way
just for one time. Instead of saying, learn of him,
learn by him. You see, here's what we think
sometimes. I'm just a common person. I'm
not a preacher. I'm not a teacher. I don't have
commentators. I don't have commentaries. So how can I learn? Well, He'll
teach you. If we learn of Him, we must learn
from Him or by Him. He can teach us. I'll give you
My Spirit, He said. And what does My Spirit do? He
will guide you. He will teach you. That's what
He does. You may be here tonight and you
don't have any education either. But I'm telling you why. You
have a teacher. And He's able to teach you. Let
me show you a couple of places in the Proverbs. Look here in
a couple of places, Proverbs chapter 1 and Proverbs chapter
9. If there was one thing, brothers
and sisters, I want to encourage you and our children, our children,
our smallest children that's here tonight, would be to open your Bibles
and ask the Lord to teach you from them. Learn of Him. Look here what He says in Proverbs
chapter 1 and look in verse 20. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 20.
Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the
streets. She cries in the cheap place
of concourse. In the opening of the gates,
in the city, she uttered her voice, and this is what she's
saying, and this is who she's speaking to. How long, ye simple
ones! And that word means naive. We
know what that means, don't we? We know what, when we say, boy,
you're so naive. You're simple. You're simple-minded.
You don't understand. You don't have any knowledge.
How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? Foolishness. And the scorners
delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Now look
in verse 23. Here's what wisdom says to us
who are so naive and foolish we don't understand. Turn you
at my reproof. I will pour out My Spirit unto
you and will make known My words unto you." Now, that's a promise. That's a promise. We can learn. We can hear and we can learn. Look in chapter 9 and look in
verse 1. "...Wisdom hath builded her house,
She hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beast. She
hath mingled her wine. She hath furnished her table.
Everything is ready. She hath sent forth her maidens.
She crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whoso is simple,
let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding,
she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine
which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live,
and go in the way of understanding." Learn. Learn of me. Learn of my salvation. Learn
my ways. The Apostle Paul told Timothy
from a child. You have known the Holy Scripture.
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Some of the most helpful people have been those people, just
like us, that were just common people, just simple people. But
I'm telling you, they began to read the Holy Bible, they began
to read the Word of God, and the Lord taught them. You read
in the days when the Catholics were denying people, the common
people, the Bible. You had some of those common
people that would get a hold of the Bible, and the Lord would
open their hearts and teach them. And those Catholics, those bishops
and those people, their theologians would call those common people
up to those trials and try to confuse them. And I'm telling
you what, those common people would turn those theologians
upside down. That's how the Lord had established
those people in the faith. And He's able to do you and I
the very same way. Share and learn. Share and learn. Brothers and
sisters, I don't want to go through life tossed about with every
wind of doctrine, confused. I don't want to come to my deathbed,
lay my pillow on my deathbed, confused about where I'm going,
who I'm trusting, who I'm trusting in. I want to know, don't you? And we have these promises. Turn
in gear. Turn in here. I'll teach you.
I'll teach you. Learn of me. Learn from me. Thirdly
is this. Hear, learn, and says thirdly,
and keep them. And keep them. Keep them. When we want to keep some fruit,
we dry it, don't we? Or we can it. We want to keep
some beans, we preserve it. That's what this word keep means.
I looked up the definition. It means to hedge about, to guard,
to protect, to preserve, to retain, to hold fast, to not let slip. And in the New Testament, it
primarily has to do with the memory. Keep these things in
your memory. Get the gospel in your heart,
hear it, learn it, and keep it. Don't let it slip. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he retains them. He it is that loveth me. If a man love me, he will keep
my words." You know what jogs the memory? It's love, isn't
it? If you love something, you know
what you do? You retain it. You'll keep an
eye on it, won't you? You'll preserve it. You'll hedge
it about. This do in remembrance of me? What does the Lord give
us this communion? The bread and the wine. Remember. Remember. Remember what? My broken body. Remember my blood
poured out. Remember He loved you and gave
Himself for you. Keep this in your memory. Paul applies this to the Gospel,
doesn't he? In 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians
15, listen to this. This is a very familiar passage.
Listen to this. I declare unto you, brethren,
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received,
and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep
in memory what I have preached unto you, lest you have believed
in vain. We don't want to just talk about
hearing and about learning. We want to talk also about remembering.
Keeping the Gospel. If a man leaves the Gospel, if
he can lower the hedge and allow falsehood and lies to come in
and take the Gospel from his memory, then he's believed in
vain. He's believed in man. When we have heard the Gospel
and the Holy Spirit has taught us the Gospel, we'll keep the
Gospel. We'll keep the Gospel. There's two things that secure
the Gospel to our hearts. There's two means that secure
the Gospel to our hearts. One is reverence. One is fear. It scares me to death when I
think about losing the Gospel. I tell you, Paul said, I marvel
that you're so soon removed from Him that calls you into the grace
of Christ and to another Gospel. And he finally said, I stand
in doubt of you. And here's why he said, I stand in doubt of
you. You talk about hearing the Gospel and learning the Gospel,
but did you love it? How did you leave it if you loved
it? How did you turn it loose if
you loved it? Two things that secure this to
our hearts, the keeping of something. I'll put my fear in your heart.
And you'll not depart from me and I'll not depart from you.
That keeps the truth in our hearts, doesn't it? I'm afraid to lose
it. And the second thing is love. Love. They receive not the love
of the truth that they might be saved. So it's not just sharing. It's not just learning. But boy,
when you've got it, you keep it. You love it in your heart. Some of you went through a lot.
Some of you went through a lot. You went through some trials.
You went through some struggles in your families, on your workplace,
and other places. Your family has turned on you.
Your family talks about you. Some of them say you're nothing
but in a cult. Why have you cleaved to this
blessed gospel? Because you love it, don't you?
You love it more than you love your mother, or your father,
or your brother, or your sister. And you're not going to let it
go. You're going to keep it. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, We can't retain everything that
we read and we can't retain everything that we learn. We can't. We let things slip,
don't we? But I'll tell you there's three
things that you'll never forget if you ever learn them. You'll
never forget this. God is God. And nobody will change
their mind on that. And by that I mean everything
that it sounds like I mean. God is. God, in every sense of
the word. Number two, you'll never forget
this, that Jesus Christ is your only Redeemer. He's your only
Savior. There is none other. If He doesn't
save you, you'll be lost forever. You've taken all your eggs and
put them in this one basket. You'll never forget that. You'll
never forget that. And thirdly, you'll never forget
your sinner. Nobody will ever tell you anything
else and convince you that you're anything but a sinner. And if anything, you grow worse
in your own eyes as you get older. You are a sinner. Jesus Christ
came into this world to save sinners of whom I am sheep. I may teach you that and you'll
go off and deny and forget it, but if God ever teaches you you're
a sinner, you'll never get over it. You'll never get over it. keep in memory. And lastly, and
he said this, and this is the last principle, and we'll close
with this, and do them. Hear and learn and keep, and
now he says, and do them. Look here in James, James chapter
1. Here's the way James says it. James chapter 1 and look in verse
21. He made this statement there
that I quoted to you a minute ago. Let us lay apart all filthiness,
verse 21, James 1, all filthiness, all abundance, superfluity of
naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word which
is able to save your soul. But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man
be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a
man beholding his natural face in a mirror, a glass. For he
beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgets
what manner of man he was. but whosoever looketh unto the
perfect law of liberty." Now, what is that? What is that? Now, anybody could read the perfect
law of liberty and say that's the Ten Commandments. I don't
know. Have you ever found the perfect law of liberty by looking
to the Ten Commandments? I tell you, I've found a lot
of sin in myself by looking at those laws. And that's fine. That's fine. Paul said, stand fast in the
liberty. For with Christ has made you
free. If the Son shall make you free, you are free indeed. What
is this law of liberty? It is the Gospel. Stand fast
in the Gospel and continue therein. You are saved by the Gospel. You stand in the Gospel. You
walk in the Gospel. And you be not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man is blessed in his deeds." You know, it's not enough for
me to hear that a man is justified by faith in Christ. It's not
enough for me to just learn that as a doctor. It's not enough
until I do it. It's not enough for me to hear
and learn, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
saved. It's never enough until I do
it. I can stand and hear how straight
the gate is, how I must get through it. I can come to the knowledge
of that, but it's never enough until I enter that gate. Doing it. A man must repent. It's not enough to hear of it.
It's not enough to say, I believe He must. He must do it. He must do it. It's not enough to hear, I must
follow Christ wherever He leads me. It's not enough to know that.
I can go to every disciple class in the world, but it's not enough. until I take up my cross and
follow Him. Be ye doers and not hearers only. A man told me we have to love
one another. We have to love one another.
Well, we do. But saying it and doing it is
two different things, isn't it? Never enough just to hear it.
It's never enough just to learn it. But we do it. We do it. Look here in 1 John chapter 3,
and we'll close with this passage. This is where I think we have
to be so careful in the doing. 1 John chapter 3, verse 16. 1 John 3, 16. Hereby perceive we
the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for the brother. But whoever, whoso
hath this world's good, and he sees his brother have need, he
sees it, he knows it, it's so evident, and yet he shuts up
his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God
in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth, and hereby we know that
we are of the truth, and shall persuade, assure our hearts before
Him." Where do we get assurance from? How does our hearts feel
with assurance? By doing. By doing. I tell you, if we just share,
and if we just learn, and we never practice it, we never do
it, we're not going to have any assurance. Because you know what the Bible
says, it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do. If God is working in us, we'll
not only hear and we'll learn, but we'll do. We will believe. We will repent. We will love.
We will help. We'll do. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of God, but he that doeth."
Aren't you glad, brothers and sisters, that somebody is working
in you to will and to do? Every one of these principles,
every one of them, has nothing to do with the flesh. Every one of these things are
given to us. by the Lord Himself. And He works
in us all for these principles. Hearing, the hearing ear, and
the seeing eye. The Lord has made both of them.
Keeping them. How do we keep anything? That
which was committed to your trust, keep by the Holy Ghost which
worketh in us. Learn. How do we learn anything?
They shall all be taught of God. Do, do, this is the work of God
that you believe. This is God's work. Ain't these
amazing? Hearing, learning, retaining
it, and doing it. The work of God. The work of grace. And while we do it, We don't
take a bit of glory to it for us. To thee, O Lord, to your
name be glory. For thy mercy, thy truth.