Good morning. If you will, turn
with me to Proverbs chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20. And just a reminder, our pastor's
away preaching in Danville, Kentucky at Grace Baptist Church, and
he'll be back, Lord willing, to preach to us tonight. Proverbs
chapter 20. Our text will be verse 12. It says, the hearing ear and
the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Now, I can't think of a better
text we just looked at and a better song we just sang to lead up
to this message, Look and Live. Turn your eyes upon the Lord
Jesus. I want to talk to you this morning
about the hearing ear and seeing eye. Now, physically speaking,
it's a great blessing. It's a wonderful thing to be
able to see and to hear. I thought of our baby when she
was born. Almost immediately, you notice
her looking, you notice that little baby girl looking into
the eyes of her mother, and then looking into my eyes. It's such
a wonderful thing, the most precious moment of my life. And then very
shortly after that, we discovered that she could hear, and it's
such a blessing. And I think of myself, I wouldn't want to
go through this life not being able to hear and see, that would
be very difficult, it'd be very complicated. And I can't help
but think that there are some people who don't have those abilities. Some can't hear, some can't see,
some can't hear or see. So first, I don't want to take
that ability for granted. But upon that thought, as great
as it is to have those abilities physically, neither one of those
is necessary. It's not vital to life on this
earth. We could make it without both
of those abilities. But spiritually speaking, that
is not the case. Spiritually, we must hear. Spiritually, we must see. It's absolutely critical. The
hearing ear and the seeing eye. Now as we go through this, remember
this, the Lord hath made both of them, all right? Let's not
forget that as we go through this. Now turn with me to Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. I want us
to see from God's word the importance of the hearing ear and the seeing
eye. Romans 10 verse 13 says, for 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? 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 and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Faith cometh by hearing. This is why hearing is so important. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Salvation is by grace through
faith. We've got to hear. Isaiah 55
verse three says, hear and your soul shall live. Now, the hearing
that I'm talking about, the hearing that we're reading of here, it's
not merely a hearing with the ear. A deaf person can be saved
too. Our Lord saved deaf people. Our
Lord saved blind people. The hearing that must take place
in order for us to be saved, in order for us to have faith,
it's a hearing in the heart. We must hear God in the heart. God speaks to the heart. I think
our brother mentioned salvation doesn't take place in the head,
it occurs in the heart. I thought of this at Pentecost
when our Lord Our Lord had gone and he had revived Peter after
his resurrection. You know, Peter said, I'm done.
I'm not gonna go preach anymore. I just, I can't, I deny the Lord.
I just, it's time to move on. And the Lord came, he said, Peter,
you go feed my sheep. I've got some people that I'm
gonna call out. And Peter went, and one of the first places he
went, Pentecost. And what a wonderful day that
was by God's grace. It said 3,000 souls were added
to the church that day from the message Peter brought. And what
I want us to understand is what it says there. It says that Peter
preached the gospel to them. Peter said, this same Jesus whom
you crucified, God has made him both Lord and Christ. It said,
when they heard that, they were pricked in their heart. They knew they had crucified
their Lord, but now they knew Him to be their Lord. They were
pricked in their heart. They were pierced in their heart.
And that's what we read about God's Word. It pierces to the
dividing asunder of the heart. It breaks our heart. If God ever
speaks to us, it'll break our heart. That's the hearing ear we must
have, a new heart that truly hears God's word, that hears
God's voice, that believes on God and the seeing eye. If I
could separate it, they're really one and the same. But if I could
separate it, the hearing ear is a new heart, and the seeing
eye is faith. It's a heart of faith, and that
heart of faith sees Christ. That heart of faith that God
must give believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It calls upon the
name of the Lord for salvation. It looks upon that brazen serpent
on the pole representing Christ on the cross and lives. That's
where faith looks. Turn with me to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, verse 22. God commands us to hear and he
commands us to look. Isaiah 45, 22. And this is without a doubt the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, look unto me. Now we know faith is the evidence
of being saved. We read about that in the Hebrews.
It's the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things
not seen. We know that. We must see Christ. That's how
we walk through this life. That's how we live our life.
Not walking by sight. If we walked by sight, we'd be
a miserable people, wouldn't we? The things that go on, man,
they just drown us in sadness. But praise God by His grace,
as a result of the heart of faith that He's given us to look to
Christ, we walk by faith. We walk looking to Christ, the
author and finisher of our faith. What does faith do? John the
Baptist said, Faith beholds the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
who took our sin away. That's why we look to Him, we
don't look to ourselves. I can't take my sin away. Christ put
it all away by His one sacrifice of Himself. Faith sees Christ
on the cross. Faith sees Christ in the Scriptures.
When we opened this book, what a, you know, it saddens me to
think there are so many people that can open this book and read
it time and time again and not see Christ. Our Lord Himself
said, search them, search the Scriptures. They speak of Me.
You think you have life? Brethren, life's seeing Christ.
Life's looking to Christ, believing on Christ in all the scriptures.
Faith has one object. This book, does it tell you how
to live? Well, sure, but life's looking
to Christ. We need to look to this book
to see Christ. It's the sole purpose of this
book to behold Christ. Faith believes on Christ, believes
Him to be all our hope. He's the only hope, brother.
Now, naturally, we don't have this faith. Naturally, we don't
have this heart that hears God's word. We don't have the will
and we don't have the ability to open this word and see Christ
and believe on Him. We just don't. I'll show you
this. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
2. First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. And the reason we don't have
this hearing ear and seeing eye is because we're born without
it. We're born spiritually deaf and
spiritually blind. And we see that so clearly here
in 1 Corinthians 2.14. Paul said, Now that word, Here's what that means. It means
to embrace, to receive favorably, to approve of, to make one's
own, to give ear to. The natural man, that's you and
me, that's all of all mankind, the natural man receives not,
embraces not, does not approve of, does not make one's own,
does not give ear to the things of the Spirit of God. We have
no desire for it. We have no interest for it. Brought
a message here a few weeks ago, no God. That's all of us by nature. We're just fine where we're at. We don't think about God. We
don't desire to worship God. We just care about me. That's
all of us by nature. We will not give ear to, we do
not want to have anything to do with the things of God. It's
all of us by nature. No God. We all naturally reject
God and his word. The biggest thing we can take
for granted is word of God and the ability to come here faithfully
proclaimed. Oh, may God not let us take that
for granted. Consider when Christ walked this
earth, it says he came unto his own and his own received him
not. A prophet's not accepted in his
own country. None of us accepted him. We all rejected him. I just mentioned the people Peter
preached to whom the Lord saved. He said, you did this. And that's
right, brethren. The Lord saved some of the very
people who crucified him. And we can put ourselves right
there, can't we? We know we're just as guilty. His blood is
on our hands. We all rejected him when he walked
this earth. And even now when the gospel is preached, when
God's word is declared, this is the natural response. This
is a hard saying. In John 6, we read some in, our
Lord told them what we read earlier, that He said, I'm the bread come
down from heaven, except you eat my flesh, drink my blood,
you have no life in you. He that cometh to me, you must come to
me. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
John. The Lord preached these things, and they said, that's
a hard saying. They were offended. They went back and walked no
more with Him. That's our reaction when we hear the gospel preached.
We say, no, that's too offensive. That's foolishness. Is that not
our natural response to these things? won't give ear to it,
will we? We will not give ear to it for
many reasons, but ultimately because it's offensive. It's
in opposition to us. It lays us low and it gives God
all the glory. That's not the message we want
to hear. And even so, it takes the spirit of God Almighty, it
takes the power of God to cause us to truly hear what God has
to say. You know, people love to stand
and say the scripture, say what they don't say, make them say
what fits their you know, belief, what they want it to say. We
gotta believe God, and we gotta believe His Word as it is. May
God the Holy Spirit cause us to believe. Now look here at
verse 14 with me again, 1 Corinthians 2. Not only will we not give
ear to, we cannot hear the things of God. It says, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. Because they
are spiritually discerned, we won't hear it. God says we can't
hear it. He says we can't, we will not,
and we cannot. Now without a doubt, we can certainly
hear it with the ear, can't we? You can go, you can hear anybody
preach, you can hear it with the ear. But we can't hear God
speak until God speaks to the heart. God must give us a new
heart. We must hear with the heart.
It doesn't matter how much we hear, how much we know in this
flesh, it's spiritual knowledge. There are so many people that
have a lot more knowledge of this book and the historical
matters of it than I do. I can guarantee that. But all
the religious knowledge in the world without a knowledge of
Christ is totally useless. We read in Isaiah 45 verse 20
where it said, they have no knowledge which set up the wood of their
graven image and pray to a God that can't save. Paul said in
Romans chapter 10, he said, brother, my desire to God and prayer to
God for Israel that they might be saved. He said, I bear them
record. All these Jews, his family said they have a zeal of God,
they're so religious, but it's not according to knowledge. He
said they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, they go
about to establish their own righteousness, having not submitted
to the righteousness of God. They don't know Christ. We gotta know Christ. We've got
to know Christ. Religion's not salvation, salvation's
knowing Christ. In our ignorance, we think we
can be saved without knowing Christ. We think it's okay just
to, well, yeah, we use his name, we talk about him, that, we gotta
know Christ. We gotta be found in him, Christ
is our salvation. And we need to understand what
we are apart from Christ, without Christ, and that's hopeless,
absolutely hopeless. Let me show you this, turn with
me to John chapter nine. Here our Lord confronted some
men who, thought they were as sure of heaven as if they were
already there, and he taught them that was not the case. John
9, verse 39. And Jesus said, for judgment
I am coming to this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto
him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin. But now ye say, We see. Therefore
your sin remaineth." These Pharisees, these religious people, they
never knew themselves to be blind. The fact of the matter is they
were blind. They just had no idea they were
blind. They would have said, we see, oh, we believe God, we're
saved, yes we are. But see, had they known they
were blind, they would have begged the Lord to give them sight.
Open my eyes that I may see. That was not their prayer. They
didn't have it. It's like the prayer of the Pharisee in the temple.
I this, I that. No need of God. Do you need God
to open your eyes? Do you need God to give you a
new heart? I do. That's all my hope. Our Lord said, you think
you see. That's the problem. You're yet
in your sin. Do you have sin that needs to
be forgiven? Christ forgives sin. Christ puts
sin away. It's only in Christ, brethren.
We must have Christ. Matthew 13 verse 13 says, seeing they
see not and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Our brother read it for us. Our hearts are waxed dull. Our ears, we can't hear. We can't
believe. We can't see. We need God to
do something for us, don't we? You think of that song we sing,
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now
I see. Do we really mean it when we sing that, when we say those
words? Just about probably every funeral
I've ever been to, we've sung that song, whether it was a believer
or not. I don't want to sing these songs
of praise to God, not believing what I'm saying. I pray God has
truly taught us on our own we are lost, we are blind, and only
by His grace are we going to be found and see Christ. Turn
with me to Revelation chapter 3. This is a passage I hope we can
really enter into. Revelation 3 verse 17. Because thou sayest, I am rich,
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked. That's us by nature. Not only
by nature, that's us until God saves us. all the religion we
can work up on our own, that's all we are, wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, naked, lost, okay? Now, here's the good news. Here's
Christ, verse 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou
mayest see. Christ was tried in the fire
of God's wrath for us, brethren. He established and brought in
an everlasting righteousness, and that's our hope. That's the
only way we're gonna stand before God. I pray God has given us
a heart to believe that, and given us eyes to truly look to
Christ. If you find yourself believing
on him, this will be the conclusion for all of us. God did it. You don't have to turn back,
but our text says, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord
hath made both of them. Both of them. I'm glad it doesn't just say
the Lord hath made one of them. Well, you got it here, and then
God will do the rest. Or, well, God will cause you
to hear, but then you got to believe. Brethren, it's all of
the Lord. Praise the Lord. We get to preach
a finished work. You mean God chose, God saved,
and God caused? Yep. I love how our pastor points
it out all the time. He says, it's just a notification.
The call goes out and God's people find themselves believing. It's
amazing, isn't it? You find yourself believing and you keep coming
back and you keep thinking, Lord, could it really be? Have you
really saved me? If he did it, then yes, he has. It's all of him, brethren. I
love this. Jeremiah 24, seven says, I will
give them a heart to know me. Oh what a blessing. That I am
the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God. Amazing. God starts the work
and God finishes the work from start to finish. Salvation is
of the Lord. Let me show you a couple verses
in the Psalms. Turn with me to Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Verse 3 Know ye that the Lord He is God
It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves We are his people
and the sheep of his pasture He made us and not we ourselves. Don't you love that? Don't you
love thinking about Him being the potter working the work on
the wheel, and we're the clay? We're in His hand. He does whatsoever
He will. What if God willing to show forth
His mercy, His power, His grace? Oh, my. We're His workmanship,
aren't we? Created in Christ Jesus. He has
made us to be new creatures. Old things are passed away. We're
new creatures in Christ Jesus, saved in Christ. Look back just
a page at Psalm 98. Verse one, it says, oh, sing
unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory.
Who hath done marvelous things? Were you telling me about the
great things you've done to save yourself, what a great Christian
you are? Oh, no, we know that's not the case. He hath done, the
Lord hath done marvelous things. Christ has gotten us the victory.
Brethren, a battle had to be fought. Sin had to be punished. It had to be defeated. And Christ
fought that battle for us, and He won that battle by Himself. Praise the Lord. Look here at
Psalm 98 verse 2. It says, Here's what that's telling us.
Christ has been revealed. We just read in verse one, the
marvelous things God has done, how Christ on the cross got the
victory. And in verse two, we read God's
been pleased to manifest, to reveal that blessed victory. Where has He revealed it? In
the sight of the heathen. He's revealed Christ to sinners. Amazing. Paul said, when it pleased God.
He said, I was a Pharisee. I was persecuting the church.
I was so exceedingly zealous. He said, but I didn't know Christ.
He said, but wouldn't it please God who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in
me? Oh, when God did that, He said
immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood. When he
said, Paul, you're a chosen vessel unto me, he said, Paul, I'm going
to open your eyes. It said scales fell off his eyes,
and he saw, and he went, and he straightway preached Christ
in the synagogue. That's what I'm talking about,
brethren, when Christ opens our eyes to see him. And when He
does that, we don't confer with flesh and blood. When the Lord
said, Peter, who do men say I am? He said, well, some say you're
Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you're John the Baptist.
He said, but who do you say I am? He said, thou art the Christ.
And He said, you're blessed, Peter. He said, flesh and blood
didn't reveal it unto you. He said, my Father which is in
heaven, He showed you who I am. When God shows us who He is,
we're gonna see who He is. Even those dead, dry bones in
Ezekiel 37, whenever they stood upon their feet in exceeding
great army, they knew the Lord did it. And brethren, so we know
the Lord does it. We know when God calls, we shall
come. I love this, 2 Timothy 1.9 says,
God hath saved us and he hath called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works. but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. God ever calls you, you're gonna
come. Make us willing, won't we, brethren? How does he call
us? Through the preaching of his
gospel, the preaching of the word of God, whereunto he called
you by our gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2.14. And turn with me to 2 Corinthians
4. Wonderful verse this is, 2 Corinthians
4 verse 5. Paul said, for we preach not
ourselves because there is no hope in ourselves. We preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. and ourselves, your
servants for Jesus' sake, for God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's why we preach Christ.
That's why Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. He's a stumbling
block. It's foolishness until God in
His power causes us to believe it. He said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. That's the power of God unto
salvation to His people whom He causes to believe it. He said,
I determine not to know anything else. I'm not going to preach
anything else by God's grace but this, Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. It's the power of God unto salvation. God uses this gospel, this blessed
gospel, to save His people, to call His people out of darkness
into His marvelous light. Again, our brother read for us
in Acts, he read where Paul was preaching the gospel. He was
preaching a lot similar message to what I'm preaching. Your heart's
waxed cold, you won't hear, you won't see, you can't. And it
said, some believed and some believed not. What was the difference?
Really, what was the difference? He was standing there preaching
and teaching the kingdom of God, the things concerning Jesus Christ.
What was the difference? I'll tell you what the difference
is. We just read it. God commanded the light, Christ, to shine in
our hearts. That's the difference. Why you
believe and someone may not believe, it's not you. It's not me. It's the Lord. His people will
hear and they will be saved. He said the Gentiles, they're
gonna hear. All Israel shall be saved. God's people are gonna
hear, they're gonna believe, they're gonna be saved. And if
Christ ever shines in our hearts, if the love of God is ever shed
abroad in our hearts, brethren, nothing's gonna be the same.
We're never gonna hope or look or trust in anything else but
Christ and Him crucified. And so I ask you today, have
you heard Him? Have you heard his voice? He
said, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead, dead in
sin, shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. Oh, have we heard his voice? He said, my sheep hear my voice.
They're gonna hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. Praise his name. Do you find yourself coming to
him? I mentioned those disciples that got offended and walked
no more with him. Our Lord turned to his disciples,
said, will you also go away? What did Peter say? Lord, to
whom shall we go? If left to myself, yes, I will
go away. We saw that with Peter, didn't we? He said, Peter, Satan
desired to have you, that he might sit you. We don't look to Peter, do we?
Just put our own name in place of Peter. Don't look to yourself.
May we look to Christ. Whom shall we go up? He said,
come to me. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Come to me, whosoever
will, let him come. Do you need him to save you?
Do you need Christ to put away your sin? Come to him. Come to
him. Are you trusting in him? I asked myself this question. Are
you trusting in him? Today might be the day he returns.
I hope it is. I really do. We better be found
trusting in him. May God give us a new heart and
faith to trust in him and him alone. Praise God, the hearing
ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made. He's been pleased
to make both of them. Amen.