I want you to turn with me back to Isaiah chapter 6. I want us to have a look at what it is to hear the Word of God and how the Lord used this passage of Scripture more than any other Old Testament passage of Scripture in the New Testament. And it's extraordinary, the words that are used. And the context, obviously, we've looked at it many times, but it is the revelation to Isaiah of the Lord. Isaiah chapter six, verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. Anyone who sees the Lord is going to see him sitting upon a throne. They haven't seen him sitting on a throne, they haven't seen him. High and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And above it stood the seraphims, each had six wings, with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain did he fly.

And one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.' And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me. This is the preparation of a preacher by God Almighty.

Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged.

He's a man of unclean lips. And that's where the cleansing was. But it's all a picture of the glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the altar about? all about the Lord Jesus Christ. The fire on the altar is the fire of God's wrath that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. This is the cleansing work.

And I also have heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then said I, here I am, send me. This is the sending of a preacher. The first is the making of a preacher and the servants and all the children of God go through something very similar. And then he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed and understand not. See ye indeed and perceive not. make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. And Isaiah's response is, exactly what we would then say.

Then said I, Lord, how long, how long do we preach? And how long is this the response of preaching? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the houses without man and the land utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. Isn't it extraordinary?

That is the verse from the Old Testament which is used most commonly in the New Testament and it's in all four Gospels. And I just want us to have something of those thoughts in mind as we go and look at those New Testament references to that. If you could turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 13. It's in all four Gospels. We'll just look briefly at all four Gospels. And each one of them has a different message to us. It's in all four Gospels and it's also in Acts.

And obviously referenced in many other places, but I just wanted to just, I want us in terms of hearing the word of God, I want us to hear what God says about hearing his word in reference to what Isaiah had just said. And don't forget, Isaiah was talking to a people, that nation Israel, who had stood before God at Mount Sinai, and over and over again, before and after the giving of the law, they said to God, you tell us what to do and we will do it. They were in a covenant of promise and God entered into a covenant with them. And that covenant is the covenant of works. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And they entered, as Nehemiah says, without any hesitation, they entered into what Nehemiah said, we've entered into a curse.

They had no idea, because they had no idea of who God was, because they hadn't been through Isaiah's experience of God. And they're the people that had seen all the plagues in Egypt. They're the people that had stood before Mount Sinai at all of the thunderings and all of the voice of God. And they said, don't let God speak to us any longer.

Moses was terrified. So those are the people that Osiris is talking to. And the Lord Jesus Christ is talking again to those people. but his word is living and active, and his word is alive. Listen to what Hebrews 4.10 says about the word, verse 12, Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is alive. is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God's word. God sees. God knows.

And so let's read in Matthew chapter 13. And we don't have a lot of time. We don't have time in verse 14. We can start reading there. He's talking about the parable of the soils, and you know about the parable of the soils, and he keeps saying at the end of it in verse nine, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Lord, give us ears to hear what you are saying. That's what all the letters to the churches are. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's start in verse 10 of Matthew chapter 13.

And the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables, because seeing. because they seeing, see not.

They saw God for three and a half years. They saw God in human flesh, proclaiming himself to be God, doing the miracles that God alone could do, revealing God in a similar way to how God was revealed to the Israelites in Egypt and at the Red Sea and all of those remarkable places. What an amazing testimony God gives of God and yet these people saw it and didn't see. And from him shall be taken away even that he has.

Therefore I speak I to them in parables because they seeing not They seeing see not, and hearing hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, by hearing they shall hear, and shall not understand. And seeing they shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them. And then he says, but blessed are your eyes for they see and blessed are your ears for they hear.

The first reference to this passage from Isaiah in Matthew 13 talks about blessed. What a blessing it is to hear from God. What a blessing it is to see God. What a blessing it is to have the eyes of our understanding open so that we see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory and we see us. To be blessed is to be happy. That's why Paul's saying he's thankful to these people. To be happy, blessed to be happy, to be fortunate, to be well off, to be supremely blessed. God has blessed his people. to hear and to see.

God has blessed his people so that we can say, blessed with Ephesians 1 verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All of my spiritual blessings are in Christ and they're in heaven. They're very secure in heaven, thank you very much. No one's going to take them away from me.

According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. These are blessed words to hear, aren't they? God's children find this a cause of happiness and rejoicing. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Is that a blessing? Is that a blessing? There are multitudes of religious people who find those same words that you've just heard so offensive that they gnash their teeth. It's a blessing. So the first reference in the New Testament is these verses is about a blessing.

If you turn with me over the page to Mark 4, and these are repeated, but there is a difference, as you'll see, I trust, there is a difference in each of them, which I think is just so wonderful. But Matthew and Mark, and it's the same context, but in verse 12 of Mark 4, he says, let's go back to verse 11. And it's similar. And he said unto them, unto you is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are outside of the kingdom, do you want to remember in 1 Thessalonians, he's called you into his kingdom and glory.

But unto them which are without, these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. Then he goes on to say, if you go down with me to verse 24. Let's go back a little bit. In verse 23, if any man have ears to hear, then let him hear. And then he said, take heed what you hear. There are many voices in this world. Take heed what you hear. With what measure you meet it shall be meted unto you. Take heed what you hear.

We need to hear the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to hear the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the means by which the word comes to you. And if you're going to hear from God, you're going to have to hear the gospel. And without the gospel, the gospel of the sovereign grace of God, the gospel that we read about in Ephesians chapter 1, You're not going to hear from God.

You can be as religious as Saul of Tarsus. You can be as religious as Gamaliel and Caiaphas and all of those religious people. You can be religious and not know God. That's why Paul is such a wonderful example. There are so many people who are religious and they don't know God. They haven't met God as Isaiah met God and as Daniel met God and as Job met God and as Peter met God. He met God when God revealed, he said, depart from me, Lord. I'm unworthy of being in your presence. You are holy and I am a sinner. We need to hear the truth of who God is. We need to hear the truth of who I am as God sees. me. We need to hear the truth of God's salvation. It's all in Christ. It's all by blood redemption. It's all by grace. It's all in a covenant ordered and sure in every detail. It's all to the glory of God the Father, the glory of God the Son and the glory of God the Holy Spirit.

No wonder The Lord's people say, Lord, keep me from lying lips. He says, buy the truth and sell it not. Take heed what you hear. It's a blessed thing to hear. Turn with me over in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. And for want of time, I'll just read these couple of verses here in Luke chapter eight, verse 10. And he said, unto you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but others in parables, that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. And he speaks what this parable is, the seed is the word of God, which is sown into this world. And you know the result of that in verse 18, He says, take heed therefore how you hear. Mark said take heed what you hear. Matthew said there are blessed ears that hear. The only blessed ears that ever hear. Take heed therefore how you're here. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to have.

There are so many people in this world, so many religious people in this world that seem to have something, don't they? They have the esteem of men. They have a righteousness before men, a righteousness in their own sight. They believe that they are saved. Not only do they believe that they are saved, they believe of God rewarding them in heaven for how good they are. Now how much did they have done?

How do we hear? Mark, Luke says, the Lord says, take heed how you hear. Well, how do you hear? To go back to Isaiah chapter six, you hear with reverence. You hear with fear and trembling. You are hearing the words of God, almighty of God, as I opened your ears. You hear with a desire for obedience.

If he says, come, we say, Lord, I come now. Now is my response. If he says, believe, and the believe is a command. He says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The response of a believing heart is, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Take heed how you hear.

God's children hear in such a way that they want to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ in communion. They want to know him. to know him more and to be more like him. They want to have their eyes, as Hebrews 12 says, fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's children say, you fix my eyes on him. You raise him up so I can see him and you fix my eyes upon him. And in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We want to walk in reverence. We want to walk in a desire to be obedient. We want to walk in communion. We want to walk to know him better. We want to love We want to love it when God says you can go this far and no further and he stops our mad rush to hell.

I need his rod and his staff. I want to hear his warnings and I want to hear them as coming from a shepherd who loves me so much. I want to love his truth, the truth that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That verse should cause you to go to the Lord with fear and trembling. He talks about the false teachers and talks about Satan and all the Second Thessalonians chapter two. I'll just read it. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not The love of the truth.

We want to hear such that we love what God says. We love all of God's word. We don't argue with God about any of it. We acknowledge openly that there's so much of it we don't understand. And the issue is not with God and his glorious word, the issue is with me.

And the answer is in the scriptures. And the answer is found so much as those difficulties in the scriptures are causes for us to go to our knees in prayer and say, God, open these scriptures to me so I can see Christ in them. Because he is the key. He is the answer.

They receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Listen to what God does to these people. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. the lie of free will, the lie of man-made works religion.

I want to know the truth. I want to hear so that I hear it as the truth that comes from God. I want to hear in such a way that I can rejoice in the absolute sovereignty of God. I want to know and I want to love the fact that my times, all of them, are in his hands.

Lord, guide my steps. You will. You promised to guide my steps. Guide them in such a way that I am kept in the fold of the shepherd. You promised to preserve me. Preserve me. I need preserving. You promised to keep me. Keep me. You've got to do the keeping. I'm wandering all the time. I'm wandering like a stray sheep. Lord, be a shepherd to me. My times are in your hands. Guide my steps.

I want to be kept and preserved until the end of this life. I want to be kept in such a way that my life and my hearing in this world is a testimony to his grace and his goodness to such a vile wretch." I love it, Alan says, there is not one atom of any righteousness of my own in anything I have before God. Isn't that lovely? Who gets all the glory?

Take heed how you hear. I want to hear in thankfulness that he has spoken because he doesn't speak to everyone. and he sends a strong delusion to billions of people. Billions and billions throughout time have lived in a delusion. They've had a lie in their right hand and they hold that lie until they meet God and are condemned. His silence, his judgement, speak Lord. Don't be silent. He hides. Our God hides things from the wise and prudent. He reveals them under babes. Make me a babe, hearing thy word. I want to hear with prayerfulness. I want to let his meditations be sweet. I want to hear such that the eyes of my faith are fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ only, always.

I want to hear such that the glory of the gospel is good news. If the gospel doesn't feel, it doesn't come to me as good news, I haven't heard the gospel. He says it's good news. It's good news of how God saves sinners like us in his son for his glory and for our good. I want to hear that the gospel is good advice, not good advice, it's just good news.

And he will work, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 2, he'll work in the hearts of his people and knit them together. I want to hear such that his words are echoed in my words. Matthew 12, 37 says, for by your words thou shalt be justified. It's just confessing the Lord Jesus Christ at the heart of it without having time to go into it. And by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

What's our confession? The Lord Jesus Christ is our confession, isn't it? It's the confession of the of the Philippian jailer. It's a confession of the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip said, If you believe with all thy heart, thou mayest be baptised. He answered and said, This is a confession, isn't it?

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I want to hear such that God's words about his Son are echoed in my words. He that believeth on the Son of God hath his witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God has given to us, eternal life. And this life is in his Son.

I want to hear in such a way that my desire is to hear it and hear it again. I want to hear the same old story. I want to hear again. Tell me about the saviour. Tell me about the sin-bearing substitute saviour who successfully saved all of his body. I want to hear in such a way that I hear spiritually. I want to hear in such a way that I'm joined to his glorious body as it's revealed in this earth. I want to hear in such a way that I worship God in spirit and in truth. Now just in closing, I want us to turn to John's gospel very briefly, because I want us to see that the Lord has used this in these various ways in the scriptures.

And you know the story in John chapter 12, the Lord has been anointed in Bethany. The Lord has entered Jerusalem and the people have brought out their palm branches and they've cried out the words of Zechariah chapter nine, behold, thy King cometh. Sitting on an ass's colt, they took branches and they cried, blessed is the King of Israel. Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And then we have what's been on our pulpit for these many years. The Greeks came and they said, Sir, we would see Jesus. I just love that being on our pulpit. Sir, we would see Jesus. That should be the cry of all of the people who hear.

Where's the lamb? Where is the lamb? And in John chapter 12, it's God who speaks. And I love the fact that it's revealed in John chapter 12. The Lord says, my soul is troubled, verse 27. Father, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I to this hour. And then he says, Father, glorify thy name.

And it was a voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. And they didn't know what was said. And the Lord interprets what the voice is. And he's going to be speaking about Isaiah, but he's talking about judgment. He said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And if I be lifted up from the earth, we'll draw all. Man is in italics. Draw all to me. You'll draw all these people to him. signifying by what death he should die.

And the Lord Jesus Christ says, in the end of verse 36, he did hide himself from them. That should terrify people, that God hides himself. But though he'd done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed?

That's the opening verse of Isaiah 53. Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and he spoke of him. And he goes on. The Lord Jesus Christ talks about believing on him and rejecting him. Listen to verse 48.

He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, that same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said it unto me, so I speak.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the word of God. He speaks the word of God. And his word is the word by which people will be judged. And in closing, just very briefly, turn over with me to Acts chapter 28. This is the end of the declarations of Paul and his glorious ministry. I want to hear the word of God. That's what all this is about. I want to hear with hearing ears that he alone can give. And Paul, as you know, is in jail in Rome and is awaiting his execution, but he had this extraordinary time of years there.

And they came. In verse 24, And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. He expounded and testified in the previous verse, the kingdom of God persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. He just didn't stop. He just had one message, the Lord Jesus Christ. And some believed the things which were spoken and some believed not.

That word believed is in the passive voice. God gives the hearing ears. It's a precious thing to hear. seem to hear and believe, and the ones that believe not, that's active. Their unbelief is an active rebellion against God. And then he goes on to say, saying, they departed and after Paul had spoken. And then he says, well spoke the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto us, father, go unto this people and say, hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, seeing you shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and should be converted.

I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that salvation, that the salvation of God, what a glorious description of our Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and listen to what's going to happen, and they will hear it. all the way down to Nowra in Australia 2,000 years later. And to those who might come and hear, they will hear, they will hear. And what do the Jews do? They had great reasoning. They departed and had great reasoning among themselves. So what about the reasoning of men when God has spoken?

May the Lord give us hearing ears and seeing eyes. May we hear as a humble man, may we hear as sinners who need a saviour. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do. Pray that in your wrath you might remember mercy and we thank you, Heavenly Father, for the promised mercy to your people. They will hear, you say, and hear they will. And we praise you, Heavenly Father, for hearing ears and for seeing eyes and for the fellowship that's created amongst them and the love that comes for you and the love that comes amongst the brethren, where you work in the hearts of your people, that we see that salvation is of God, salvation is of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done it all. He cried, it is finished. All their debts are paid in full.

Oh, heavenly Father, work in our hearts to hear what we hear, what is right and what is true. Work in our hearts as to how we hear. Oh Heavenly Father, we just thank you again for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for our friends. We thank you for sending Donny Bell over and Shirley. We pray for travelling mercies for them, Heavenly Father. We pray for that congregation in Crossville that will miss their pastor. and we pray Heavenly Father you'll put the blessings on all of your people wherever they meet. May they be blessed by his going and his returning with good news from a far country and may we hear it as good news from a far country. about our great God and Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless our time together, Heavenly Father. Bless the remembrance of the broken body and shed blood of your dear and precious Son. For we pray in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.