Well, good morning. If you would,
open your Bibles with me in Matthew chapter 11. Our lesson will begin
this morning in Matthew chapter 11. And before we begin, let's
bow together in prayer. Our great God, our high, holy,
heavenly Father. Lord, we bow in your presence
this morning, thankful that we can come into your presence in
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. pleading his obedience
as our righteousness and pleading his blood that cleanses us from
all sin. Father, we beg of you that you
would hear us for Christ's sake. Father, we bow before you a thankful
people. Even in this time, we have so
much to be thankful for. How we thank you for your mercy
and your grace to your people. How we thank you that you are
God alone. that nothing happening in this
world is outside of your control, but it's according to your direct
will and purpose, not an accident, but according to the eternal
will and purpose of our Father. And we are thankful. Father,
we're thankful for this opportunity to be able to hear your word
and to worship you. This is a very difficult time,
but Father, we are thankful that your word is not bound. And Father, I beg of Thee this
morning that You would bless Your Word as it's preached. Bless it to Your glory. Bless
it to the hearts of Your people to save Your people, to comfort
and help and instruct Your people, to draw us ever closer to our
Lord Jesus Christ. Reveal Christ to us through the
preaching and teaching of Your Word this morning. Father, all
these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is
above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. All right, Matthew chapter 11.
The title of the lesson this morning is What Hearing Ears
Hear. What Hearing Ears Hear. I took
my title from verse 15 of Matthew chapter 11. Where the Savior
says, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, it's obvious
from what the Lord says here that not everyone has hearing
ears. Now, hearing ear doesn't just
mean ear that hears audible sound, but a hearing ear is the ear
of faith. It's the ear that believes Christ
when we hear Him preached. And you can tell if you have
hearing ears or not. If we have hearing ears, we will
obey the gospel, and we will believe Christ, and we will rest
on Him just like the gospel commands us to do. We do not have a hearing
ear if we hear the gospel But somehow we still believe that
our works can contribute to our salvation in some way. If that's
what we think, if that's what we believe, then we don't have
a hearing ear. We haven't heard and obeyed the
gospel. Well, how can I know for sure if I have an ear that
hears? I want to look at seven times
that the scripture talks about hearing ears and see what it
is that a hearing ear hears. What is it that a person believes
if they have hearing ears? Everyone who believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. They hear these seven things
and they believe them. If you believe these seven things,
God has given you hearing ears. Now I want you to look first,
hold your place there in Matthew 11. We'll come back in a minute
to Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy chapter 29. Deuteronomy chapter
29. Here's my first point. If you
have hearing ears, you are dependent upon God to give you ears that
hear. Deuteronomy 29, beginning in verse two. And Moses called
unto all Israel and said unto them, ye have seen all that the
Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, unto Pharaoh
and unto all his servants and unto all his land, the great
temptations, which thine eyes have seen, the signs and those
great miracles. Yet the Lord has not given you
in heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto
this day. Now Moses told the children of
Israel, you've seen all the miracles, all the wonders, all the signs
that God has performed from the time you were in Egypt until
right now. He left, he led you out of Egypt
all the way through the promised land. You saw all these miracles. These people saw the Passover,
the first Passover, when God passed through the land in judgment
and he killed every firstborn child that was not under the
blood of the land. They saw the Red Sea part and
went through it on dry ground. And then they turned around and
they watched Pharaoh and his army destroyed in that very same
sea. They came to those bitter waters
and God turned them sweet. They ate manna from heaven. They
drank water from the smitten rock. They heard God speak from
Sinai. They saw the mountains shake
and tremble in darkness and blackness and tempest. They heard God speak
from Sinai. They saw all those miracles and
wonders Yet they still did not believe the Lord. They still
did not believe that God would keep his promise and give them
the land. I point that out because you and I are just like them.
We are born dead in sin. We're born spiritually deaf and
spiritually blind so that we can't hear and understand and
believe and love the gospel. We're dead so we don't have the
ability to believe God. We don't have the capacity to
come to Christ. We don't have the ability to hear the gospel
and to make ourselves trust Christ. Any one of the children of Israel
could make themselves trust God and believe. We're dead. So we don't have any ability
to give ourselves life. Is anybody more dependent than
a dead person? Now here's the lesson for you
and me. Seeing signs and wonders, those things won't give us life.
not spiritual life, seeing signs and wonders will not give us
faith and make us believe on Christ any more than it did for
the children of Israel. Simply hearing the audible sound of
the gospel being preached, that won't give us life. We are totally
dependent on God to give us life. God must save us. God must give
us a hearing ear and God must give us the heart of faith. We
are completely dependent on God to do that. Solomon told us that,
Proverbs chapter 20, verse 12. He said, the hearing ear and
the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Only
the Lord can make the hearing ear and we're dependent, completely
dependent on him to give it to us. Now, if you've heard the
gospel with hearing ears, you believe with all of your heart
that you're a sinner. that all you can do is sin, that
you have no hope in anything that you do being able to save
you. Nothing you can do can make you savable, more savable or
save you, but you are completely dependent on God to save you,
to call you, to give you life and to keep you. Now, if that's
what you believe, how totally dependent you are on God to save
you and keep you, then God's given you a hearing ear. All
right, now look back in our text, Matthew chapter 11. Here's the
second thing I want to look at. If you have a hearing ear, you
seek Christ and you will refuse anything but Christ. You'll seek
Christ and you'll keep seeking him. Matthew 11 verse 12. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, this
is Elias. This is the spirit of Elias.
which was for to come. Now he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. God said, now you hear. The Lord
said, you hear what's been said here. All of God's preachers,
they have one message. They all preach Christ. That
was true of the prophets all the way up to the last Old Testament
prophet, John the Baptist. That was true of the apostles
through the reformers, through all the preachers, God's preachers
up till today, they all have one message. Their message is
Christ. Look to Christ and be saved.
And people who hear the gospel of Christ and believe it, if
they've got a hearing ear, they seek Christ violently. The word
means with force. The violent are forceful in seeking
Christ. They seek Christ with zeal and
they refuse to go away. They refuse to quit begging God
for mercy because Christ is the only hope they have. Christ is
the only hope they have of salvation. He's the only hope they have
of forgiveness. He's the only hope they have of life. Christ
is their only hope of everything that they need and everything
God requires of them. Then they won't go away. They're
going to keep begging God for it. And if you need Christ, you
need him so that you seek him with all of your heart and you
won't quit seeking him because he's your only hope. That means
God's given you a hearing ear. If you need to hear the gospel,
And you'll do whatever it takes to be able to hear the gospel
because you need salvation for your soul. If you need to hear
the gospel, you do whatever you can to hear it because you need
spiritual bread for your soul. You have to have it. That's the
evidence God's given you a hearing ear. Everybody who has a hearing
ear seeks Christ zealously. All right. Thirdly, Matthew chapter
13. If you have hearing ears, God has made the difference and
he has given you spiritual life. Matthew chapter 13 verse three. And he spake many things under
them in parables saying, behold, a sower went forth to sow. And
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside and the fowls
came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where
they had not much earth and forthwith quickly they sprang up because
they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they
were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked
them. But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit,
some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears
to hear, let him hear. Whoever has ears to hear, let
him hear and believe what this parable is teaching. Well, how
do we know what this parable is teaching? Well, the Lord told
us what this parable means. If you would have spiritual life,
the Lord's telling us in this parable, there are three things
that are necessary. Number one, we must have the
seed that will give life. That seed is the word of God.
We must have the seed, the word of God. If we're gonna have spiritual
life, spiritual life comes from this word. Number two, we must
have a preacher to plant that seed. by sowing that seed, by
preaching Christ to us. This is how God saves sinners.
This is how God gives life to his people. It's through the
preaching of his word. The preaching of God's word is
the sowing, the planting of his word. It's done through preaching. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Faith comes by somebody preaching
to you the word of God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. We've got to have a
seed and somebody's got to plant that seed. Then thirdly, God,
the Holy Spirit has to make good ground. And that good ground
is a new heart that God gives in the new birth. You know, we
talk about the spirit making good ground. Good ground is not
God plowing and making your old heart of stone to somehow be
good and ready to receive the word of God. That old heart that
we received in our first birth is nothing but flesh. It's dead,
stony flesh. It can't be anything but dead,
stony, cold, dead flesh. Good ground is God not fixing
up your old heart. Good ground is giving a new heart.
A new heart that will receive and believe Christ when we hear
His word preached, when the seed is planted. But now God has got
to give this heart. God's got to give it. Otherwise,
the word preached is just going to bounce off of our heart like
seed bounces off of unplowed ground. It's just hard and it
just lays there. The birds come and scoop it up. It can't grow
into anything just on that hard, hard ground. It can't sink down
in there. The birds come and scoop it up. God's got to give
this new heart. Otherwise, we'll be like the
shallow ground here. We'll get all excited at first.
We'll get all excited about hearing this new doctrine. We think this
is what I've searched for forever. This is it. Oh, we're so excited. Now, we don't believe Christ,
so we don't have any root in Him. We're just excited at hearing
a new doctrine. We don't have any root in Christ
because we're too shallow. The ground's not been prepared.
All we have is a head knowledge, a fleshly excitement. And if
that happens, we'll leave the gospel. We'll leave Christ just
as soon as the going gets tough. If we would believe Christ and
we would bring forth fruit, if we bring forth the fruit of the
Spirit, the fruit of faith, God's got to be the one to make a difference.
God's got to give us a new heart that believes Christ when we
hear Him preach. And if you believe, you know
that the only difference between you and Judas Iscariot is God's
distinguishing grace. If you know that about yourself,
that's the evidence God's given you ear to hear. All right, now
the fourth thing in Matthew chapter 13. God has given you hearing
ears if you are righteous in Christ and not in yourself."
Matthew 13 verse 24. Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
who sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when
the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, sir, Didst not thou sow good seed
in thy field? For whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said
unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But
he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root
up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the
reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles
to burn them. but gather the wheat into my
barn. Now, what does that mean? What does that parable mean?
Well, if you look over in verse 36, the Lord explains it to us.
Matthew 13, verse 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and went into the house and his disciples came unto him
saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He
answered and said unto them, he that soweth a good seed is
the son of man. The field is the world. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tears are the
children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers
are the angels. As therefore the tears are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.
The son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend and then which do
iniquity. and shall cast them into a furnace
of fire. There should be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Now the wheat and the tares, they looked exactly alike while
they were in the world, the believer and the unbeliever. The wheat
was the true believer, looked just like the tares while he
was in the world. Because he's in the flesh, he's exactly like
the unbeliever. And from looking at the outside,
looking at the flesh, you can't see a difference between the
tares and the wheat. They've got the same flesh. They've got
the same sin. They've got the same sin nature. They're subject to the same diseases
and sicknesses and effects of sin in the flesh. So they look
just alike to the natural eye. But the difference between the
wheat and the tare is the nature. of the wheat and the tare. The
difference between the wheat and the tare, the difference
between the believer and the unbeliever is a new heart that
we looked at just in the previous points, the new heart, the new
nature that God gives his people. Now the wheat and the tares are
going to grow together. They're growing together now.
in the world and even in the church. The wheat and the tares.
We don't know who they are. The wheat and the tares are growing
together. Well, don't try to separate them. Don't try to separate
the believer and the unbeliever now. Don't try to tear up and
kill the unbeliever and, you know, root them up and run them
off. Because we don't know the difference. We don't know who
the believer and unbeliever is. We don't know which one's a wheat
and which one's a tare. Just leave them alone. Just leave
them to God. All we are called to do is to
preach God's word. We're not called on to sort out,
to make the separation between the wheat and the tares. All
we're called upon to do is to preach the word and leave the
results, leave the separating to God. If we try to do that,
we will make a mistake every time we'll end up hurting so
many God's children. Just leave them alone. Preach
the word to them. If they're God's, the word will
bless them. If they're gods, the world will cause them to
bear fruit. Just leave them alone and preach the word to them.
Leave the separating to God. And in the end, the Lord will
reveal his people. He will reveal who his people
are and who they are not. And listen, not one of God's
people, not one of them is going to be mistakenly cast into hell.
God's not going to cast any weed into the fire. All of God's people
in that day, he says, will shine forth as the sun. Now, why in
that day will they shine forth as the sun? Because they've been
given the glory of Christ. They've been sharing in the glory
of Christ. They've been made righteous in Christ. And the
Savior identifies His people, the wheat, as the righteous. That's what He calls them, righteous. Then that's exactly what they
are. They're righteous. They are actually righteous because
they've been given the righteousness of Christ. And in that day, they'll
shine forth Because they're going to have cast down this flesh.
They're either going to be raised in incorruptible flesh, or their
flesh is going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and
they'll shine forth righteous, because God has made them righteous.
And they're going to know, they're going to confess, and they confess
this now. I'm not righteous because I've
sinned less than the tares. I'm not righteous, I'm not accepted
by God and loved by God because I've sinned less than the unbeliever.
No, sir. I look just like them most of
the time. Far too often I look just like them. The righteous
are righteous because Christ has made them righteous. He's
made them righteous through His obedience to the law for them.
He's made them righteous by His sacrifice for them, which has
taken away all of their sin. And if you know, you believe,
you claim this, Christ is all of my righteousness and none
of my works have added to my righteousness at all, if that's
what you believe, and God's given you ears to hear. Whoever has
ears to hear, hears. Christ is our righteousness.
He's the one who made the difference. So I fifthly look in the book
of Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four. If God has given you ears that
hear, you have light to see Christ. Mark four verse 21. And he said
unto them, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under
a bed and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid which
shall not be manifested. Neither was anything kept secret,
but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. Now the candle is the light of
the gospel. It's the light, it's the gospel,
which declares Christ the light of the world and putting a candle
under a bushel or under a bed, hiding the light of the candle.
That is, to preach the gospel in such a way that you don't
tell the whole truth. You don't tell the whole counsel
of God. You hold part of it back. Or maybe you say it in such a
way that people don't really understand what you're saying,
so they won't be offended and leave. If your goal is to build
a bigger audience, a bigger following, and not offend them so they won't
leave, the only way you can do that is by hiding the offense
of the gospel. Hiding the light of the gospel. The gospel offends the flesh
every time we preach it. Every time the gospel is preached,
it offends the flesh. So if we're trying not to offend
people, what we're doing is we're putting the light under a bed,
under a bushel to hide it, to hide what we're saying. And God's
servants don't do that. God's servants plainly preach
Christ, the light of the world. The only way that we can see
our sin, the gospel declares, We're sinners. I can tell you
that you're a sinner and I'm a sinner until I'm blue in the
face and will not believe it until we see our sin in the light
of Christ. When we see ourselves in the
light of Him who is righteous, who is perfect, who is holiness,
then we'll see our sin. The only way we'll see our need
of Christ the Savior, I can tell you how much you and I need Christ
the Savior until I'm blue in the face but will not believe
it. until we see in the light of
Christ, until we see Him as He is. Then we'll see our need of
Him. The only way we can see how is
it that God can be just and still justify sinners? How is it that
God can still be just, can still be holy, can still be God and
save the likes of me? The only way we can see how God
can be both just and justifier is in the light of Christ, who
He is. And if you understand that the
only way God can save you is in Christ's obedience to the
law for you as your representative, if you know the only way you
could keep the law is in Christ your representative, and the
only way you could be made righteous, the only way you could be justified
is through the sacrifice of Christ, that His precious blood would
put away your sin, if that's all your hope, then God's given
you ears to hear. If you believe the gospel, even
though it offends your flesh, When you hear the gospel, it
offends your flesh. It calls you the low down, dirty,
rotten sinner that you are. And it offends your flesh, and
it makes you glad you heard it one more time. That's the evidence. God's given you an ear to hear.
All right. Sixthly, if God has given you
ears to hear, you know that salvation is a heart work. Salvation is
not in your works of religion. It's not in your morality. Salvation
is a heart work that God does. Look at Mark chapter 7. Mark
chapter 7, verse 14. And when he called all the people
unto him, he said unto them, hearken unto me, every one of
you, and understand. There is nothing from without
a man that entering into him can defile him. But the things
which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. Now, salvation
is not in the outward acts of religion. It's not in walking
an aisle. Somehow that has become the litmus
test, getting people to walk an aisle. Salvation is not in
walking an aisle. You can walk up and down an aisle all you
want. You might get some exercise, but won't do your soul any good.
It's not in the outward act of religion. Salvation is not in
living a more holy life than your neighbor. Salvation is not
dressing in funny, outdated clothes. Salvation is not acting like
you don't enjoy the things of this life. Salvation is not going
through a bunch of religious activity so that men will see
how faithful you are. You and I cannot make ourselves
righteous by anything we do with this body. We can't make ourselves
righteous by putting something different in our body. Not drinking
alcohol, not smoking cigarettes, to the Jews not eating pork.
What you put in your body can't make you holy. We can't make
ourselves holy by anything that we would put into our body or
not put in. We can't make ourselves defiled
by putting something into our body. You're not defiled by drinking
alcohol. You're not defiled by smoking
a cigarette. My friend, something you put
in your mouth cannot defile your flesh because you came into the
world that way. You're already defiled. You came
into this world defiled in Adam. We're already defiled in our
nature. Putting something in us is not
what defiles us. The defilement is what flows
from us naturally. That's what the Savior says here
beginning in verse 17. And when he was entered into
the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable. And he saith unto them, Are you
so without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him?
Because it entereth not into his heart, but it enters into
his belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats."
Don't you see that? What you eat doesn't go into
your heart. Your heart's already defiled. It just goes into your
belly and goes out to sewer. And he said, that which cometh
out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things
come from within and defile the man. What we do from the outside
doesn't defile us. We're already defiled from the
inside out. So the only way that we can be
made pure, we come into this world defiled. The only way we
can be made pure is not by what we do. is by God washing us. God's got to wash us in the blood
of His Son to make us pure. God's got to give us a new nature
and make us partakers of the divine nature if we would be
pure. That's the only way. It can't
happen by a religious activity. And if none of your hope of salvation
is based upon your religious activity, none of your salvation
is based upon your morality before men, but all of your salvation,
all your hope of salvation, is based upon the doing and the
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, then God's given you years to
heal. God's given you years to heal. I don't know who all will
be listening to this message, but I say to this congregation,
Hurricane Road Grace Church, you're a moral people. I mean,
there's nobody I like being around, nobody I trust more than this
congregation. And I hope all of you who are
listening, I hope you are a moral, honest person. I hope you are.
We ought to be. But if God's given us ears to
hear, we're going to be like the Apostle Paul, and we're going
to count all of our works, all of our morality as done so that
we can win Christ and be found in Him. To have the righteousness
which is of God by faith. I hope you are a good citizen,
a good moral person, but you and I both know that's shot for
the holes. There's no hope in it, is there?
The only hope we have is the righteousness which comes of
faith. believing the Lord Jesus Christ. And a hearing ear believes
that Christ really is all it takes to save me. It's Him alone.
All right, seventh, look in Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. If God has given
you ears that hear, you are committed to Christ. You're committed to
Him. Luke chapter 14, verse 34. Salt is good. But if the salt
have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither
fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it
out. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Now, salt is a preservative. And of course, the first thing
that comes to our mind is our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
the preservative of his people. Christ makes his people where
they can't spoil because he makes them righteous. But Scripture
tells us believers are also the salt of the earth. The earth
is preserved for the elect's sake. But that salt, salt that
would be a preservative and add flavor to something, make it
better. Salt is worthless. If it's lost
its flavor, if it's lost its salty edge, it's good for nothing. And in context, what the Savior
is saying here is believers have become useless, but good for
nothing if we've lost our commitment to Christ. That's what he means
in context here. Go back and pick up reading in
verse 26 of Luke 14. If any man come to me and hate
not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren
and sisters, yea, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of
you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Last, happily,
after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth,
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against
him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever be of
you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. If Christ is not the most important
thing to us, we've lost our saltiness. We've lost that preservative.
We've lost our usefulness. If our focus as a local church
becomes something other than Christ, we become worthless. We become as worthless as salt
that's lost its savor. And if you need Christ more than
anything or anyone else, then God's given you a hearing ear.
And by that, I mean this. You don't have to hate your family.
That's not what the Lord is saying here. He obviously means the
Lord comes first. Seeking Him comes first. Having
a relationship with Him comes first. And you don't have to
sell everything. You don't have to forsake it.
What this means is, if you're not willing to forsake all of
your good religious activity, if you're not willing to forsake
everything that you've done in the name of God, if you're not
willing to forsake everything that you've done trying to make
God happy with you, then you don't have a hearing ear. But
if you're willing to forsake everything that you've ever done,
to not have it contribute to your salvation, and you trust
Christ alone, that's the evidence that God's given you a hearing
ear. If God's given you a hearing
ear, you believe Christ, and you'll be committed to Him, committed
to Him. Oh, may God give you and me a
hearing ear. Make us believe upon the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing to your hearts.