I invite you to turn back to
my text in Matthew 13, which I read to you a few moments ago.
It begins with a parable of the
sower, and then the seven verses which follow, which I'll use
as my text, verses 10 through 16. And these things are all about this wonderful working of Christ
in the believer. That's what he's talking about.
That's his subject. That's his subject. And this
work that he's talking about here is a hearing. It's a hearing. Verse 15 tells us what is needed
is to see with our eyes, eyes of faith, and hear with our ears,
and understand with our hearts, and be converted, or as he says
in the original text in Isaiah 6.10, this is where he's quoting
from, and convert. Convert. A change be brought
about. A turning. Going one way, ain't
going another. The fall of Adam was the spiritual
death of humanity. That's just so. That's where
we have to start, Russell, because that's where we're at. There's
no need for me to start up here on the ladder somewhere. You're
not on the ladder. You're down here. The fall of Adam was the spiritual
death of all humanity. By nature, he's a barren field. That's what our Lord's showing
us here. He has some seed. He has some seed. He's the husband
man. He's purposed to plant some seed.
He's purposed to glean some fruit. He's gonna raise something. He's
gonna accomplish something. He's gonna take this tiny seed
and he's gonna raise it up into a glorious, beautiful crop. That's
what he's talking about. And he's telling us here that
by nature, man is a barren field. If left to himself, he can produce
nothing. He's a hypocrite. What did our
Lord say to the most religious men on this earth? He called
them hypocrites and blind, didn't he? If the blind lead the blind,
they're both gonna fall in the ditch. If left to himself, he
can produce nothing but weeds and thistles. To produce anything
beneficial, some ground has to be set apart Something has to
be done. It has to be broken up. You don't
just go out here and cut down some trees and start throwing
seed out there. You got to remove the stumps.
More Westerns I used to watch, they'd be out there digging and
digging and digging for days to get one big stump out. I can't
imagine how long it took to clear a field. But once they got it
cleared, then they'd plow it up, and then they'd take all
the rocks out. They'd take everything out that
was gonna be a distraction, they'd get rid of it. And they'd plow that field, and
they'd dish that field, and they'd hoe that field, and then they'd
throw the good seed in. To produce anything beneficial,
the ground must be broken up, beaten fine, and good seed sown
within. And this is a parable that he
gives. He tells us that at the very beginning. A parable is
an earthly story with a heavenly lesson. And don't try when you
read these parables to find six or seven things that this parable
is saying. This parable is just saying one
thing. One thing. Every parable teaches one thing.
One thing. It's an earthly story with a
heavenly lesson. And the lesson here is about
hearing. It's about here. Paul told the
Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, 9, we are laborers. Now listen
to this, this is God talking, this ain't me. I'm reading to
you the word of God. We are laborers together with
God. Now listen, ye are God's husbandry. What's he talking about? His
crop. His crop, his field, his field. He set apart in all humanity,
all this barren ground, he set apart in there a strip of land. And the husband man, God, is
gonna raise a crop. He's gonna raise a crop where
his husbandry. And according to God's eternal
purpose of grace, there are places where his seed will grow and produce fruit, and there's places
where it won't. That's just so. That's just so. Just cause you plant seed don't
mean it's gonna come up and produce fruit. And he gives us a few examples
of this in the parable. He talks about the wayside. You're
sowing seed. Maybe the wind's blowing, whatever.
Some seed gets over on the wayside. What's the wayside? That's where
people walk. That's where they drive the wagons, that dirt out
there as hard as a bullet. Not only that, but where people
travel. This is a wayside. Just try to
vision in your mind what he's talking about. He's talking about
a wayside. People have been running up and down this road out here
all morning. Cars, cars, cars, cars. Go out there and walk down
the edge of the road, you're gonna see somebody stopped at
the drive-in, got a hamburger, and ate part of it, didn't like
the rest, and threw it out the window. You reckon those birds
know what that is? After all these years? They know
exactly what it is. And they're looking, they're
looking, they're looking. They're looking for something
that looks edible, here they come, they grab it, they're gone.
They're gone. Wayside hearers are hearers who
hear, and they treat it like scraps of information. They didn't
know what they heard, had no understanding, and therefore
they let it drop. And just like the fowls come
along the highway and eat those scraps of food, the wicked one
comes and he snatches away the seed. It's gone. Gone. He took it away. You had it. What'd you do with it? You let
Satan have it. He took it away. And then there's
some stony ground here. I'm from Kentucky. Boy, you can't
run a plow up there. There's rock that deep. You're in rock. That's why it
grows such good grass. It's limestone, grass like lime.
And that's about all it's good for. You can't hardly get a place
to grow a garden or raise a crop. Stony ground hearers are those
who receive the word, but because of the hardness of their hearts,
the seed never takes root. It never takes root. It swells
up. We used to soak our seeds. I don't know if you all do that
or not, but we'd soak them before we planted them, give them a
head start. Well, these seeds would swell up. They'd swell
up. But they couldn't produce a root
because there wasn't enough dirt, wasn't enough ground. And then
when the sun rises, it burns them up. And they said that's
persecution. That's what our Lord said that
was, persecution, tribulation, opposition. And then there's
some thorny ground over there. You're sowing these seeds, and
there's a big patch of thorns over there. And wind blows some
of that seed over among them thorns. The thorns grow up and
choke out the seed. I thought I put some seed in
there. How come there ain't nothing in there? Thistles choked it
out. He said, the thistles are the
cares of this world. Let that go in. Let that settle
in. The cares of this world. How
long will you hold what you hear today? You won't get out of the building
before you start talking about the cares of this world. And the deceitfulness of riches. I gotta have this. No, you want
that. You don't have to have it. You just want it. And so we go
after it. And then when you get it, it's
old hat. Don't take a long year or two.
That car you couldn't live without, it's just a car now and all you
got's a payment. Huh? The cares of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches chokes out the world. Chokes
it out. You ain't got time to think about
it, Russell. Ain't got time to consider it. I gotta get to this,
I gotta do that, I gotta go do this. Only that sown in good ground
prepared to receive the seed produced any fruit. God has a people, a people He
chose to save through His Son to manifest His glory. He chose them and He blessed
them with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Nothing withheld,
nothing kept back, nothing left to chance or subject to change.
Just as that farmer set apart the lower 40s, we'll call it
that. He set apart the lower 40s. He
said, I'm going to raise my prize wheat in this ground. He prepares
it. He dungs it. He tills it. He
watches over it. He digs out the stumps. He picks
out the rocks. That ground is ready for seed.
It's ready for seed. All these blessings, all these
blessings that God has blessed us with in Christ, they come
down, James 1, 17, from the Father of lights, now watch this, with
whom is no variableness. No variableness. Neither shadow
of turning. He's not changing. Jesse, he's
fixed. What he's doing, he's not gonna
change, he's not gonna vary. Well, what about this? That's your water bath, that's
got nothing to do with him. He's not gonna change. He's not
gonna change. These are good and perfect blessings
called gifts in James 1, 17, and among these gifts is the
word of truth by which he begats his sons and daughters. That's
what he said. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. That's what he says after he
talks about these gifts coming down in James 1. Now listen to
the next verse. Therefore, let every man be swift
to hear. Ah, let him be swift to hear. Slow to speak. Some of you men who have some
wisdom, don't you just hate it when you're trying to tell somebody
something and you know they don't know? And he can't listen for
talking. I've been a builder all my life.
I know how to build. I helped build all this. I know
how. But I sit and try to tell somebody
how, and they can't hear me for talking. Come on now, I'm 71. I have some
experience back here somewhere. You might just give me the benefit
of the doubt. Be swift to hear. Nothing's going
to happen unless you hear. Let everything be arranged for
my hearing. I want to hear. That's why we
don't have babies in the assembly. I can't out-preach a baby. Put
the baby in the back. It ain't gonna hear anything
yet. It'll get old enough one of these days and come out here
and hear. Meantime, it needs to go back there. Everything
in here is good for hearing. I have to hear. Let every man
therefore be swift to hear and slow to speak. Lord of wrath. To accomplish this great work,
our God chose us in His Son. In His Son by an eternal union
so that we're always before Him holy. We've been holy since He
put us in Christ. Before we was ever made, before
we ever had a being. From the day He chose us in Christ,
we were holy and we always will be. We're in Him. We're in Him. He chose us in Christ that we
might be holy. And listen, without blame. Not
one sin has ever been laid to the charge of God's elect. It
was all charged to Christ. All charged to Him. We're in his Son by an eternal
union so that we're always before him holy and without blame and
always being loved. His love doesn't change. And
the only way that it can't change is because he put us in Christ.
Nobody can separate us. That's what he says in those
last verses of Romans 8. What can separate us from the
love of Christ? And he goes through this big
long list. Anything you can think of is in that list. Nothing,
he said, shall be able to separate you from the love of God, now
listen, which is in Christ Jesus, the Lord. He chose us in Christ
that we might ever be before him in love, that is being loved. And in being loved, we love him
in return. Isn't that right? That's right. Everything God eternally purposed
for us, for us to have, is secured in his Son. He mentioned some of these things.
That He secured, He secured these things, Ephesians 1, 5, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. He made
us accepted in the blood, in whom we also have redemption.
Redemption through His blood. and all of these things according
to the good pleasure of his will and to the glory of his grace.
And so when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman. Now we're predestinated, you
remember what I just said to you, we're predestinated under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself. He did that when
he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law. Now listen, that we might receive
that adoption. That we might actually become
adopted. Adoption was purposed back yonder.
It was secured in Christ. And now it comes to you. Comes
to you. And because your sons, here's
the next verse. This is in Ephesians four. Galatians
4. Here's the next verse. Because
you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. You reckon there's any way you're
not gonna hear if you're one of his? You're gonna hear. Why? Because it was secured for
you in Christ before the world was. That make sense? That's
exactly what the scripture teaches. He talks about this in Ephesians
2. He tells us that as he was raised
up from the dead, that we were raised up together with him and
seated together with him in heavenly places in Christ. That, that
is in order that. In times to come, in times to
come, that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. The elect of God is the ground
into which God has purposed to sow his seed. Sowing is preaching,
that's what it is. That's preaching. Watering. What's
that? That's preaching. That's preaching. Paul said, I planted, and Apollos
has watered. God gave the increase. When our
Lord had finished the parable, he said, who hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Let him hear. He was surrounded
by what Stephen called stiff-necked people who were uncircumcised
in heart and ears and who did always, just like their fathers
did, resist the Holy Ghost. Christ was surrounded with the
same kind of people. We're always surrounded by that
kind of people because that's how man is. A people who thought
they knew God but didn't. Raised in religion but never
questioned the validity of it. He was surrounded by people who
had a lot to say, but none of it for the glory of God. And
this whole thing is about his word, the gospel seed, and why
it's received the way it is. This whole parable. And there's
several things he tells us about true hearers. Let me give you
a few. First of all, he tells us that
hearing is the means of faith. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear. They hear. And listen to this, Matthew 13,
11. It's given unto you to know the
mysteries of God. Given unto you. Know these mysteries
of the kingdom of God. It's given to you. You know what
he says about these mysteries? They've been hidden from the
world from the beginning. Even the Jews who studied this
book, who knew this book forward and back, even the Jews didn't
understand the mystery of the Gentiles. They didn't understand
the mystery of God coming into the flesh. Great is the mystery
of godliness. God come into the flesh. Who
would have thought that? Nobody would have thought that.
That's a mystery, Russell. It's hidden. was hidden. God gonna save a people by grace
through faith. Who would have ever thought that?
He gave a law. He separated a whole tribe just
to take care of the things of the law. He set apart a high
priest to read the law. He gave them prophets to tell
them what the law was. And they come away believing
salvation was by obedience to the law. That's the way we'd
have come away. Why? They didn't understand the mysteries. It's given unto you. And that
faith, he says, comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And I know this is a very unpopular doctrine. It always
has been from the beginning. You mean I have to hear somebody
preach? I didn't say it. God did. Take it up with Him.
What He said. Well, I don't have to hear that
preacher. You do if God sent you that preacher.
You'll hear Him or die. Was there anything in the Jordan
River to cure leprosy? Nothing. Was there other rivers
clearer than the Jordan? Oh, yeah, many. If Naaman hadn't
went down and dipped in the River Jordan, he'd have died a leper.
Why? Because God told him to go into
Jordan. That's why. That's why. Well, I don't have to hear a
preacher. I can read the book. Go ahead. Go ahead. Thousands thought that very same
thing, woke up in hell. The Jews, for sure. For sure. You search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they that
testify of me, but you won't come to me that you might have
life. Paul said, Apollos and I are
ministers by whom you believed, even as God has given to every
man. Does that mean what that says?
That means exactly what it says. Now this hearing of the word
is not the cold, dead hearing of the law being read or the
account of creation or the genealogies of men. It's not the frivolous
telling of fables out of the story of Noah and Samson and
Moses and David. And it's not just a simple, casual
reading of the Word. Peter said, His Word endureth
forever. His Word is the semen by which
believers are born. Now what does it say? 1 Peter
1.23. That's exactly what he said. And this is the word, he
says in verse 25, which by the gospel is preached unto you. Gospel preaching is the seed
of regeneration. It's the seed by which God's
husbandry shall be produced. If there's no seed sown, there's
not gonna be a crop. Not gonna be a crop. I've been
raising a garden for years, and I know if I don't plant lettuce,
I ain't gonna eat lettuce. It ain't coming up. You can't
throw a handful of seed out there and expect lettuce and corn and
beans. You have to get the right kind of seed. That seed, you're
gonna look on there, and there it is. There's the image that
it's gonna produce. Christ is the image of God. That's
what he's gonna produce. That's the seed we sow. If you
don't sow that seed, you're going to get another image. I've done
that before. Planted beans this spring. I
thought I was planting bush beans, and they were pole beans in the
wrong sack. And I put them in, and I had
to pull them all up. They were eating my tomatoes. It's the seed by which God's
husbandry shall be produced. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name who were born of God. And there's nowhere else to get
this seed. A sower must be chosen and sent forth to sow. What we preach is not being declared
in the average pulpit. The eternal appointments of Christ
are a mystery hidden from generations. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. He's a high priest after the
order of Melchizedek without beginning of days or end of time.
He's the eternal mediator of God and so mediates the will
and purpose of God. There's only one in all of heaven,
in all of eternity. who could walk to the throne
where the book of God's purpose and decrees were and take the
book and unloose the seals. Jesus Christ, the Lord. He's the Lord. He's the eternal
mediator of God. He's the creator of the world.
All things were created by Him and for Him. He's before all
things. All of this wasn't here. There
was just Christ. And He created it. He created
it. And He's the Lord of Providence.
Ephesians 1.10, that in the stewardship of the fullness of times, He
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven, which are on earth, even in hell. Somebody said that
word dispensation there means economy and not stewardship. But economy is nothing more than
what's been put under the steward, isn't it? It's the steward, he's
the stewardship of all things, and he's the steward of time,
of time. He's the one gathering, gathering. Time and providence are in his
hands, under his authority, he arranges these things. We preach
Christ, is all. That he alone is the manifestation
of God, of God's will, of God's purpose. One source of acceptance
with God. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That's what he said. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
him. One source of righteousness.
One source of redemption. And this book is a mystery to
natural men, none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God.
And he said, how you gonna call on him in whom you have not believed?
I know you believe in a God. Well, the Lord will sort it all
out when we all get together. We all ain't getting together. You hear me? God's not gonna
save everybody. He's gonna save his people. His
people. Now how you gonna call on him
in whom you have not believed? And how you gonna believe in
him of whom you have not heard? And how you gonna hear without
a preacher? And my goodness, how in the world's he gonna preach
if God don't send him? Hearing is the means of faith.
Secondly, he tells us that hearing is the gift of God. It's given
unto you. Oh, myself. How come you believe
and your neighbor don't? How come some of you believe
and your wife don't? Or your children don't? It's
given unto you. That's why. That's why. Oh, we've been geared to this.
I read a thing on Facebook the other day. It just made me mad.
This woman who ought to know better. said, until a man chooses to
do something, it'll never get done. What it is, is when God shuts
you up till you got nothing else to choose, then you'll choose
Him. That's so, ain't it? Sure it
is. He wipes off everything out there,
every avenue, every exit, anything else that you could do, He chops
it away and He leaves you there naked before Him. You know, he found one of the
disciples, and he ran and told his brother. He said, I found
the Lord. Well, it tells you in the verse
just before that that the Lord found him. He knew who he was,
and he found him. And then he went and told his
brother, I found the Lord. Well, he did, and I guess you
could say, you'll find him when he finds you. You'll find him.
You know it. Oh, my soul. It's given to you. It's given
to you. Well, what's that mean? That
means that everything in your life and everything in eternity
has been governed to that end. That's what that means. I go
select a gift. I know who I'm buying it for.
I know when I'm going to give it. I know why I'm going to give
it. And I'm going to see to it that they get it and somebody
else don't. It's no different with the Lord.
Everything in your life, everything in eternity has been governed
to this end. You have a being and God has
determined the times, he said before appointed, Acts 17. and set the bounds of your habitation
that you cannot pass. And everything from the creation
of Adam to the day you hear the gospel has been and shall go
on being for your good and his glory. Everything. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works lest any man should boast. And when a person believes
it, that's God's seal on him. That's God's seal, that he's
a true heir. When the prodigal son came home,
he had his little speech all worked out, didn't he? When I
get home, I'm gonna tell dad, just put me out there with the
rest of them and I'll just, you don't even have to tell them
I'm your son, I'll just come home and I'll go out there and
I'll be like a servant and I'll hoe the potatoes or whatever
you need done and I'll go do the uh-uh. He was a son. He was a son when he left. He
was a son down in the hog pen and he's still a son. And he
comes and the father runs out to meet him and the son is just
overwhelmed. Here's the father and he hugs
him and he kisses him. He wasn't expecting that. He
wasn't expecting that. What did he do next? He took
that ring. You know what that ring was?
They had important documents and they'd melt that wax and
they'd take that ring, that was the family seal, and they'd seal
that document. He put the seal on his finger.
You're my son. Oh, that's hard to believe it. You're my son. He sealed us with
the Holy Spirit, now listen, of promise. You can't perceive
the promise, you can't hear the promise, you can't believe the
promise, without the Spirit of God. But when he gives it to
you, it comes in the Spirit and it never goes away. You're sealed. That's what Paul said, we're
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Oh, my soul. We're sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise and this is the earnest, he said,
of our inheritance. What is that promise? Oh, I thought
the earnest was How I felt. The earnest is who you believe.
That's the earnest. That Holy Spirit of promise and
all those promises, the promises of God in him are yea and amen.
Thirdly tells us in no uncertain terms that they did here. How contrary this gospel is to
this unbelieving world. Salvation by substitution, salvation
accomplished by representation, blood atonement, free justification,
salvation by grace through faith, totally contrary to what's being
preached. 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the preaching
of the cross to them who are perishing. They're perishing. You look up that word, to them
that perish, and the sense of it is this, who are perishing.
Every day, perishing. Whole world out here running.
We know that the whole world, the whole world, oh my soul,
they're all perishing. And to the perishing, the gospel,
the preaching of the cross is foolishness. But unto them that
are being saved, it's the power of God. How important then is that hearing?
God's elect really do hear. They hear what's devoured by the wicked
one and others, what's destroyed by persecution and temptation
and others, and what's choked by the cares of this world. They
really hear. How do you know if they hear?
Because they sojourn in this world as in a strange land. They're looking for a city. that
have foundations whose builder and maker is God. They live in
this world as a temporary place and they know it, that's how
they live. They refuse whatever royal titles
and privileges the world may offer and they choose rather
to suffer affliction with the children of God. You know Henry
Mahan was being, he was being set apart down at Tennessee Temple
University to be another Billy Graham. They were grooming him,
teaching him. They saw in him a real talent,
a real affection for people. They're going to train him and
make him another Billy Graham. He chose rather to suffer affliction
with the children of God. They esteemed the reproach of
Christ's greater riches than everything Egypt had to offer. I know they hear when they submit.
They submit to be taught. They don't come in here knowing
everything. They come in here hungry to hear.
I want to be taught. They submit to baptism. They
submit to the Word of God. They submit to the means of God,
to the providence of God, and to the commandments of God. They really do hear. Fourthly,
faith, or the hearing that brings it, is a blessing. Blessed are
your ears. Oh, man. You know, I've had people
come in here and listen to me and run out the door like they
just figured out that they ate rat poison and they're running
out for a cure. That's not how the believer hears.
I'll tell you when I know. When you hear, for the very first
time, when you hear, man, they're big tears. I'm rolling down that
face. God spoke to me. God spoke to
me. I told Henry, I said, I wouldn't
trade that message and that hour for all the rest of my life. I wept like a baby. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. Oh, his hearing is immediately
perceived as a blessing. Blessed are your eyes. He said,
for verily I say unto you that many prophets, many righteous
men have desired to see those things which you see and have
not seen them and to hear these things which you hear and have
not heard. Hearing is a blessing. And this
blessing is a blessing of grace. He allowed you to hear. He arranged for you to hear.
And he enabled you to hear. One more thing and I'll quit.
It's a work in us that lives and grows and matures that we
go to be with the Lord. I want you to listen to this,
Matthew 13, 11. 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, verse 12, now
watch this, for whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he
shall have more abundance. He gonna give him a little, but
then he ain't gonna close up the sack and put it up. He's
gonna give him a little. Ain't gonna give him a little
more. Ain't gonna give him a little more. Ain't gonna give him a
little more until he gets it all. 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. That
seed that he had for a short time, the wicked one gonna come
and snatch it away. Gonna snatch the cares of this
world, Choke it out. And I don't know who's being
saved and who's not, but I do know this, those being saved
grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. They submit to his means,
they're easily corrected, they listen to the warnings of God,
and they obey our Lord's commandments. His pastors speak the truth in
love so you may grow up into Him in all things. And they preach
till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God until we see Him, the perfect man. Perfect
in righteousness, the perfect Savior, He's perfect. When Christ had finished telling
them about this blessed hearing, He said in verse 18, hear ye
therefore the parable of the sower. Now hear, hear what I
said. And he explains it to them in
detail. Years ago, there was a missionary. Oh, he was so far
back into the jungle, this was a new tribe, they'd never, nobody
had ever, this was the first white man they'd ever seen. And
this missionary came in there and he had his little dog with
him and he set up his tent outside the village and he'd go in there
and he was just struggling for some way to tell them, to get
it across to them who Christ is and the importance of hearing
this gospel, why he was there. And he was in there one day,
and he's just struggling and struggling and struggling. I
did that. I went down to Mexico and went
out in those little pueblos to preach out there with Walter
Gruber. And I sit out there, and up here you can talk about
washing as white as snow. Ain't nobody in Yucatan ever
seen snow. They don't know what snow is. You can talk about being
washed in the stream, that flowing water. There's no water flowing
in Yucatan. It's all underground. No streams. I don't know what you're talking
about. It's difficult. And you're sitting
here with this people that, I mean, you just don't have anything
in common with. And you're trying to preach the
gospel to them. And that's what this missionary's doing. And
as he left, he noticed his little dog wasn't with him. And he turned
around and he whistled for his dog. Man, here comes that dog. He come flying through that little
Indian village, and one of them natives looked at that dog going
and said, that dog all ear. He's all ear. That's what the believer is.
He's all ear. He's all ear. He hears his voice. He hears. That's what this whole
thing is all about. He gives seven parables, every
one of them about hearing, hearing this gospel. Thank you.