Well in a world of vast confusion
all around, sometimes it strikes you how to the point are some
of the things that our Lord Jesus Christ said. I know that every
word is filled with value, but sometimes things hit you right
between the eyes because they're so, in this world of confusion,
especially religious confusion, oh, what do you think about this,
what do you think about that, different opinions all around,
how to find the core truth amongst it all, and Christ comes in with
one statement. You know, the word of God is
so economical in the way it portrays the truth of God. And there's
a statement here that I want to look at this morning in verses
27 and 28 of Luke chapter 11, talking about blessedness. And
I want us to see and be reminded of what it is to be truly blessed. Let me remind you of the context.
In this chapter, the disciples have asked our Lord Jesus Christ
to teach them how to pray. So he taught them that disciples
prayer, which we looked at last week. And then he went on from
that to teach them persistence in prayer. You don't just pray
once and then that's it. Why isn't he answered? Keep praying,
keep coming back with importunity again and again. He says, think
of it in worldly terms. If you go to your friend in the
middle of the night and ask to borrow something because somebody's
come to you unexpectedly, your friend will not be very pleased
with you. But if you keep knocking at the door and keep coming,
then even if he's not very pleased with you, he'll get up and give
you. How much more does your Heavenly Father know how to give
good gifts to his children? If you being evil know how to
give good gifts to your children, he knows how to give good gifts
to his children. And then he goes on and he casts
out a devil, as we read so often in the Gospels. And this was
a dumb devil. And when he came out, he caused
this man to be dumb. the dumb spoke, and the people
were amazed at what they saw. And a division arose in that
crowd. They're seeing such gracious
things, and yet a division arises. And some see what's going on
as an evidence of evil. And they say, how is he casting
out devils? It's by the power of the devil
that he's casting out devils. By Beelzebub, he's casting out
devils. And of course, the wise words
of Christ completely confound their argument, a kingdom divided
against itself. And you can imagine there's a
crowd there that's listening. to this man ministering like
no man ever spoke before. He's speaking like they said,
no man ever spake like this man. Oh, not the greatest teachers
or rulers or leaders, no man ever spake like this man. And
some of them there are angry with him. and are finding reasons
to accuse him. And others there are just enthralled
by the gracious words that come from his lips. And there's a
woman there who says she lifts up her voice in the crowd. She
doesn't just mutter it in silence. She lifts up her voice in the
crowd and says, blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps
which thou hast sucked. And he responds to that with
what is true blessing. She was impressed with what she
heard. Isn't it amazing how dark the
human heart is that there are so few who seem to be impressed
with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ? There are so few in all
generations, but especially this generation, that want nothing
to do with what Christ has to say, what the word of God has
to say. How dark is human reasoning that
this woman saw something Blessedness. Blessedness. What's the key to
blessedness? Blessedness means happiness.
It means a feeling of goodness. It means being in a good place. What's the key to blessedness?
We all want to be blessed, don't we? It's much better to be blessed
than not blessed. So what's the key to blessedness?
Now, if you ask what's the world's view of blessedness, then you
know the sort of answer that you'll get will be something
like this. The world, those all around us, with no thought for
God, and with a philosophy that is against the things of God,
will say this. Their philosophy is this. To
be blessed, to be favoured, to be truly happy, are the rich.
Blessed are the rich, for theirs is the kingdom of the earth,
and they'll never ever know poverty, and what a blessed state that
is to be in. Blessed are the rich. That's the view of the
world. Blessed are those that have health and strength. Those
that have health and strength. Because they will know true happiness. They'll be happy. Oh, only those
that have really got their health and strength will be truly happy.
That's the view of the world, isn't it? I'm not saying it's
not a good place to be, to have your health and strength. But
is that really the key to eternal blessedness? Blessed are the
successful. because the successful will get
promotion and good pay and they'll win the X Factor or whatever
other contest it might be and they'll get fame and glory and
lots of money and everything they ever want. Blessed are the
successful is the view of the world. Blessed are the proud. Blessed are the proud. They'll
get respect from others. They'll walk through this life
not being trodden on by anybody else. Blessed are the proud is
the view of the world. Blessed are the unforgiving,
because why should they forgive that wrong that was done to them?
They'll put others in their place and let them remember it forevermore.
Blessed are the unforgiving, is what the world thinks of blessedness. Blessed are the strong. Blessed
are the strong, they'll get their own way. They'll fight their
way through and get their own way. Blessed are the selfish. because they'll keep more of
what is rightly theirs. Blessed are the selfish. Blessed
are those, now let's get a little bit more secretive in the heart,
blessed are those without any constraint of conscience on their
own sin. That's the view of the world,
isn't it? Blessed are those who have no constraint of conscience
on their sin, because they can indulge their fleshly lusts without
any pangs of guilt at all. That's the world's view of blessedness,
all around us, all around us. and there's a religious view
of blessedness and it's here this what what this woman says
she says what's the religious view of blessing that was the
world's view of blessedness what's the religious view blessed is
the womb that bare thee she's listening to the gracious words
of this man that spake like never man spake and she said blessed
is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast supped
what she's really saying i don't think she's particularly saying
uh... blessings and honor on Mary. I think what she's saying
is like you might say when somebody comes out of education with a
top class degree and you might say to that person, wow, I bet
your mom and dad are proud of you. I bet your mum and dad are
pleased that you are their son or their daughter because you've
done so well. You know? I think that's what she's saying.
She's hearing these gracious words. Oh, how your mother must
be so pleased with you. How she must be in such a happy
place because she is the one that bore you as a baby and raised
you. And now you're here speaking
such gracious words to her. Blessed is the womb that bare
thee and the paps which thou hast sucked when you were a baby.
And he says, in verse 28, yes, yes, she is blessed. Mary is
blessed. Mary was blessed. Turn back to
Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one, verse 46. This
is when Mary knows that she is bearing the Son of God, conceived
of the Holy Ghost in her womb. The one who is God become flesh. who is coming into the world
to save his people. He is the promised one. He is
the one who is the anointed of God to come and stand in the
place of his people. And Mary said, verse 46 of chapter
one, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of
his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth,
all generations shall call me blessed. It's right, Mary was
blessed by God to be the one who would bear the Son of God.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy
is his name. And his mercy is on them that
fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with
his arm. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and
exalted them of low degree. And so she goes on. She's blessed. Mary truly is blessed. She really is blessed to be the
one who bore the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, indeed, yes, you're right,
says Jesus to this woman. Yes, you're right, she is blessed,
but rather, but rather, but there's something else. You see, Yes,
it was a blessing to be the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
in another place, in Luke chapter 8, when Jesus was ministering
and people were listening to him, his mother and his brethren
came and stood outside the door, they couldn't get in and they
sought to see him. And a message came in to him,
oh, your mother and your brethren are outside waiting to talk to
you. And you know what Jesus did? He looked round at the room
of those that were listening to him, listening to his word,
and he said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, these are they
that are blessed These are my mother and my brethren. These
physical relationships count for nothing in eternity. Blessed
are these who are sat hearing the word of God. My mother and
my brethren, yes, at the wedding at Cana of Galilee, you know,
when she said to him, they've got no wine, you need to do something,
you know, I'm your mom, you need to do something. woman, what
have I to do with thee? Yes, you are blessed, you are
the one that bore me. But there's no other, there's
no other relationship in this world that is stronger than this
relationship of a believer with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
the world, the religious world, and especially the Catholic religious
world, and increasingly the Anglican, Anglo-Catholic religious world,
is filled with this superstition. It's filled with religious superstition,
that blessing resides in a place. Oh, I've got this illness, what
must I? Oh, go to Lourdes in France because there you will
receive a blessing. Why? Because you've gone to a
place. Blessed is the one that is in Lourdes is the religious
view. Blessed is the one that goes to the cathedral and is
able to kiss this relic which might be the kneecap of some
body they made into a saint from five hundred A.D. or something
like that. All of these things they value and they put such
value upon them relics, and worshipping Mary, and praying to saints.
Wherein lies blessing? Oh, I'll have a little statue
of Saint Peter in a corner of my living room, and when things
go wrong, I'll pray to that little statue, and blessed will be the
one who prays. This is the religious view, and
there's so much confusion about these sorts of things. The whole
religious world around us is full of this religious superstition,
and this spiritualist superstition. I know of people that when something's
happening will sit there with their fingers crossed to the
point that their fingers go white for starvation of blood. And
what are they doing? Blessed is the one that sits
there with their fingers crossed, because they'll be in a good
place. Because good news will happen to them. As long as they
do that, but the moment they do that, things will go wrong.
Blessed is the one that doesn't walk under a ladder. Well, I
mean, there's a good reason not to walk under a ladder. If somebody's
up there with a tit of paint, you might get paint on you, but,
you know, bad luck to walk under a ladder. Oh, I mean, in our
house, you know, tragedy should have fallen on us so many times
because we put the umbrellas up in the house to dry. Gosh,
I know people that wouldn't dare put an umbrella up in a house.
Oh, what terrible bad luck comes upon you if you put your umbrella
up in your house. All of these superstitions They're
all the religious view of where blessing comes from. That's what
people say. Well, so and so says this, and
so it doesn't matter. What saith the scripture? What
does the scripture say about where true blessing resides? Let me give you some scriptures.
Ephesians 1 verse 3. God has blessed us, his people. The us is important, you know
who the us is. God has blessed us, his people,
those who believe him. God has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing, all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places,
in Christ. All spiritual blessings. For
the eternal good of our souls, all spiritual. God's purposes
are for the eternal blessing of his people. Are you a believer
this morning? what a blessed place you are
in, what a happy place! What a strong place you are in,
because the God of the universe has promised in his word that
he's blessed you with all spiritual blessings, eternal blessings,
in heavenly places, in Christ, irrespective of the things that
happen to us in this life, because there are times that feel good
and there are times that feel bad. But God has blessed us with
every spiritual blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 1, and
there's a lot in the Psalms, Psalm 1 and verse 1. Blessed
is the man, or the woman, who does not walk in the counsel
of the ungodly. Blessed is that person whose
philosophy of life is directed by God's counsel, and not by
the counsel of this fallen world and a fallen man. Blessed is
that man. Oh, but the world thinks this.
No, what does God think? What does God's word say? Blessed,
truly happy, in a truly good place is the man who is not directed
by the counsel of this world, but by God's counsel. Psalm 65
and verse 4. Blessed is the man, truly, in
the good place, in the best place, because it's caused by God, and
maintained by God, and promised by God, and certain because God
has promised it. Blessed is the man whom you choose. Blessed is the man that God chooses.
God makes a choice from before the beginning of time. Why? I
don't know. just because he's gracious. He
has grace on whom he has grace, and mercy and compassion on whom
he has mercy and compassion. It's not of him who wills, the
man, it's not of him who runs, we're not born of the will of
the flesh, we're not born of blood, we're not born in family
lines, it's of him that shows mercy. Blessed is the man whom
he chooses, oh, to be chosen of God. Oh, to be chosen of God. Do you know when they're picking
sides for different games at school, you know, when you're
picking sides for a five-a-side football, it's always great to
be the first to be picked, isn't it? And it's not so great to
be the last one to be picked, but at least you got picked.
And it's really horrible if they've decided that you're not fit to
play football with them and they don't want to choose you, or
whatever the equivalent of that is. In eternal things, God has
made a choice. He's chosen a multitude that
no man can number, of every tribe and kindred without distinction
on the face of this earth, to hear His Word, to believe His
Word, to be made willing in the day of His power, to trust Him.
Blessed is the man that you choose, and it goes on, and cause to
approach Him. God causes His people to approach
Him. God makes His people willing
in the day of His power, in electing grace. He doesn't leave them
these lost sheep, these straying sheep. He doesn't leave them
to their own devices. Blessed, blessed is the man whom
God chooses and causes to approach Him. Oh, why? Is it not a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God? Is our God
not a consuming fire? Is He not absolutely just and
righteous and holy? Must He not certainly condemn
sin? Must He not condemn me to hell?
Psalm 32 verse 1, blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven. to whom the Lord will not impute,
charge, iniquity. But I am iniquitous, but God
will not charge it to his elect. He looked for iniquity in Jacob,
and he found none. Why? Because Christ has purged
it away. Blessed, truly blessed, are not
the rich, the healthful, the successful, the proud, but the
one that knows this. that they were chosen in Christ
from before the foundation of the world through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. And knowing that, knowing
that Christ came to redeem them from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for them, and therefore their sins are forgiven, Their
sin is not imputed to them, it is taken away. God looks in the
day of judgment for sin in Jacob, in these people, and finds none.
Oh, what a blessed place to be. Whatever other blessings happen
to you in this life, to know in that day, for we must all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to know in that day
the blessing that I have no sin, that Christ has taken it away,
that he's removed it from me, that God has said he will remember
it no more. that God counts me as righteous
as his son and holy, what a blessed thing, what a blessed thing to
know. Blessed are those, Psalm 89 verse
15, we looked at this a few weeks ago, blessed are those that hear
the joyful sound. We look at this world outside,
you know, I have a device in my, now cat
lovers listening to this are probably going to get quite upset
about this, but I have a device in my garden which, when a cat
comes near it, it can't distinguish between cats and foxes and other
things, when I go near it, it does this. And it makes an ultrasonic
high-pitched scary noise which is meant to say to the cat, please,
whatever you had in mind, go and do it on somebody else's
garden and not mine. Whether it works or not is another
matter. But, I, increasingly aging and losing hearing, I don't
hear it, when I go near it, I don't hear a thing. But the children
walk down the garden and go, ooh, what was that? And they
can hear it, they hear the sound of that thing. And others of
us not quite so old can hear it too. And other sounds of that
nature. This world is full of people
who do not hear the joyful sound of the gospel of God's grace,
but blessed. blessed in a happy place, in
a good place, are those that are alive to the sound of the
gospel of grace. You know, has your heart, as
I've been saying about the blessings of having your sins forgiven,
as I've been saying about the blessings of being called by
God from amongst all the rest of humanity, knowing that you've
been called by God to believe his gospel, does it not sound
like a joyful sound in your ears? Is it not a joyful sound? Is
it not a blessing to be alive to the sound of it? Alert to
the sound of grace? To rejoice that there's a substitute
who stood in my place and borne my burden and made me the righteousness
of God in him? Who's got an account of righteousness
that is infinite with which to pay redemption's price. Whose
blood has redeemed me. Whose blood has paid that price.
Whose blood, life blood, the life of the Son of God has paid
the price of my sins. Is that not a good place? Is
that not a blessed place to be? To know that he hasn't just left
it open for anybody that wants because nobody ever would want.
And how on earth would it work anyway? But he's particularly,
effectually accomplished. That's a joyful sound. Blessed
are those that hear that joyful sound. Oh, wouldn't it be good
if I had all this money? If I had all this worldly success?
Oh, how much more? Oh, how much, wouldn't it be
good if I'd been bearing the Lord Jesus Christ? You know,
there's all sorts of Catholic girls get strange, weird sensations
that they're going to be the mother of the Messiah who's coming
again, and silly things like that. Oh, how much more blessed
to hear this joyful sound. What a blessed thing to be there.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes are the blessednesses.
Blessed, not like the world's view, blessed are the poor in
spirit. Blessed have got no strength
in themselves, no riches in themselves. They're poor in spirit. Blessed
are they that are constantly happy. No, that mourn over their
sin, for they'll be comforted. Comfort comes from mourning.
Blessed are the strong, no, blessed are the meek. Blessed are the
meek, not the bullies. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they'll be filled with the
righteousness of God in him. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall be shown mercy, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Forgive us our sins as we forgive
others, not as a condition of our forgiveness, but as a consequence
of our forgiveness. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God Oh God, that I might see you blessed
are the pure in heart, made pure in heart by Christ. Blessed are
the peacemakers. Blessed are they that are persecuted.
That doesn't sound like a good place, does it? Being persecuted,
being persecuted even to martyrdom as they were in the 15th and
16th century. Blessed? Yes, for righteousness
sake, blessed. Verse 28 of Luke chapter 11,
yes Mary was blessed but rather more blessed, more blessed. Now
here's a good question for a Catholic, for a devoted Catholic who loves
to idolize Mary, who loves to idolize Mary. Ask a Catholic
this, is it possible to be more blessed than the Virgin Mary?
You know, marry the mother of God as they blasphemously say.
Is it possible to be more blessed than that? Yes, says Jesus. All that superstition about lords
and relics and all those other things and worshipping Mary and
praying to saints, Christ sweeps it away in this statement. Yes,
it's blessed to be Mary, it was a blessing for Mary, no doubt,
but more blessed. Rather, blessed are they that
hear the word of God and keep it. Blessed are they that hear
the word of God. In the best place are those that
hear the Word of God and keep it. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. But you must take heed how you
hear the Word of God. Jesus said that. We saw it earlier
in this Gospel. Take heed how you hear. Be careful. You can hear these as words in
the English language. You can hear it just as words.
You can derive moral lessons from it. But that will leave
you poverty-stricken. Take heed how you hear. Blessed
are they that truly hear the Word of God. Hear it as the Word
of God. When you hear these words, hear
it as God in heaven. God the creator, God the sustainer
of all things, God the giver of life, God the judge, God the
one to whom you must give an account, God speaking from heaven
to you. Blessed are they that hear the
word of God. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, for this cause also thank we God
without ceasing because when you receive the word of God which
he heard from us you received it not as the word of men they
were men standing up preaching it to them but as it is in truth
the word of God which effectually worketh gets the job done also
in you that believe hear it as the word of God, blessed are
they that hear this word as the word of God Lord, speak. You know, as when the young boy
Samuel at the temple with Eli, and he hears the voice, Eli,
Eli, and he runs to Samuel, Samuel, and he runs to Eli. You called
me? No, I didn't, I didn't. And it
happens again. It's God that's speaking to you.
Say, here am I, your servant. And that's what Samuel says.
I'm here, Lord. Speak for your servants listening.
Hear it as the Word of God, and be silent when God speaks. Don't
be contentious with it when God speaks. Let God be true, and
every man a liar. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 2, don't
be rash with your mouth. Don't let your heart be hasty
to utter anything before God. Don't come back with your contradictions. Submit to what God says. Let
God be true and every man a liar. To the law and to the testimony.
If they speak not, if my opinions are not according to this word,
there is no truth in them or in me. His word is truth. Thy word is truth. Blessed is
he that hears the word of God. Be receptive to it. Seek to understand
it and retain it. Live by it as much as you live
by daily bread. You know we need daily bread
for our bodies to continue working as biological machines. We need
our daily bread, we need that. But man shall not live by bread
alone, says the word of God, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God. Blessed are those, yes Mary was
blessed, yes Mary was, but much rather Much rather, much more,
blessed are they, whether they be Mary or what the Catholic
Church calls saints or whoever, blessed are they without distinction
who hear the Word of God and keep it. But most of all, most
of all, receiving it, hearing it as the Word of God, but most
of all, finding Christ in all of it. Finding Christ. You've
heard the story many times about that young man that preached
and the old preacher didn't like the sermon. And why not? Because
there was no Christ in it. And the young preacher says,
well, there was no Christ in the text. And the old preacher
says to him, young man, there's Christ in every text of scripture.
It's just like every village in England has a road that leads
to London. Your responsibility is to find
that road and get on it. and look in the Scriptures and
seek Christ. What do I mean by that? Without
Christ, whatever you read in the Scriptures, you will hear
no joyful sound and you will not be blessed. Without Christ,
you can read words of moral lessons, but you will not hear the things
that speak of your eternal good and of your eternal salvation.
Everything in God's Word speaks of God's redemption in His particular
elect people by union with His Son. It speaks of Him, His Son,
paying the penalty of His bride's sins, His church's sins, His
people's sins, of Him bearing their sins, of Him not only bearing
but being made the sin of His people. being made sin for us
his people's sins and in him those sins being fully removed
so that his people might be made the righteousness of God in him
that we might be saved to the uttermost from the just condemnation
of the law against our sins that we might be adopted into the
family of Christ and prepared for eternal glory that's what
it is to read this words finding Christ in all of it that's what
a Christ-centered ministry is And without a Christ-centered
ministry there is no blessing. Blessed are they that hear the
word of God, finding Christ in all of it. For these are they,
said Christ, which speak of me. Beginning at Moses and the prophets,
he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. Blessed are they that hear the
word of God. But not only blessed are they
that hear the word of God, Blessed are they that keep it. Blessed
are they that keep it. Not only blessed are those on
whom the word like seed lands, but those in whom it goes down
like seed into good deep ground and bears fruit. Like the parable
of the sower, some fell by the wayside, which was hard ground,
impenetrable ground, and the birds of the air came and plucked
it away. And others hear it and they say, oh, that sounds good.
This is speaking of eternal good. And they appear to be blessed
by it. but really their hearts are still in the world and they
have no root and no depth and the sun comes up and other things
come up and it scorches and withers and dies and others look like
they're growing but the cares of this world and the other things
that they really want come along and strangle them their desire
for ambition and worldly success gets in the way of it but that
which falls in the good ground grows and bears fruit. Blessed
are they that hear the Word of God and keep it. But keeping
it requires us first to get it. You must get it. And it means
me, personally. It means you, personally. Your
family cannot get it for you. Other people that you know cannot
get it for you. You must know the Word of God. You must hear the Word of God.
You must hear the voice of God speaking through His Word to
your soul. And you must keep it. You must
keep it. You must treat it as more valuable
than any worldly bread. Don't get me wrong. There are
things that you should do in this life. You should be ambitious
because without ambition you'll achieve nothing. You'll just
wither away. You should have things and objectives you want
to achieve. It's good to do good things.
It's good to be educated. It's good to get skills and all
of these things. But never ever, at the expense
of this, hearing the Word of God and keeping it. It's more
valuable. It's more valuable than all of
that. It's the pearl of greatest price, as Jesus said. When you're
going through a box full of trinkets, and it's all, you know, if it
went on the Antiques Roadshow, it would barely raise an eyebrow
in terms of interest, but you can see it, you know, the ones
where somebody takes along something that they didn't know was valuable,
and they find out it's worth thousands and thousands of pounds.
This is the pearl of greatest price, Christ says. the gospel
of his grace. Blessed are they that know the
pearl of greatest price. If you've got the pearl of greatest
price, you'll keep it. You'll keep it. That which is
valuable, you'll cling on to it. Blessed are they that hear
the word of God and keep it. You think about the martyrs of
the fifteenth and sixteenth century and the way they endured such
torture and deprivation and cruelty and suffering even to death and
yet that which they hung on to And that which caused them such
blessing of soul was this pearl of greatest price, the gospel
of God's grace. The blessing of keeping God's
word exceeds every other human blessing. I'm not talking about
keeping a mosaic law, for who can keep a mosaic? I'm not talking
about keeping the law as the believer's rule of life. Peter
rightly said at that Jerusalem conference in Acts 15, he said
to those around him, neither our fathers nor we were able
to keep the law. Why are we putting a burden on
these new Gentile believers? Neither we nor our fathers, none
of us could keep the law. We couldn't keep it. It's impossible.
By the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight.
Why couldn't we keep it? Because of the weakness of the
flesh, we couldn't keep it. But rather, keeping the pearl
that gracious pearl of gospel truth in every situation, in
the good things, in the bad things, therein lies true blessing. Not
boasting of outward achievements, the disciples came back when
they were sent out, we saw a few weeks ago, they'd been casting
out demons. And they came back rejoicing,
even the demons said, hey, this is good, the power you've given
us. And Jesus said to them, don't rejoice that evil spirits are
subject to you, rather rejoice in this, that your names are
written in heaven. What a blessing. If your name,
if you know, how do I know my name is written in heaven? I
believe the truth of the gospel. Well, isn't that just a straightforward
thing? No, not for the human heart.
The human heart hates the true gospel of God's sovereign grace
because it thinks it's so unjust and unfair. Yet, to the believer,
he gives his people a willingness, a readiness, a delight to hear
his word and to believe it. Now, rejoicing that your names
are written in heaven, this is blessing. In summary then, Isaiah
55 verse 3 says this, Incline your ear, and your soul shall
live. That's in complete contrast to
what God pronounced to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before
they fell. In the day that you eat of that tree, you shall surely
die. In the day that you disobey,
you shall surely die. In the day you sin, you shall
surely die. But incline your ear to the word
of God, and your soul shall live. Blessed is he that hears the
word of God and keeps it. And you're still, even now, for
today is still the day of grace. It's still the day of salvation.
It's not too late. Oh, don't leave it till it's
too late. Don't put it off till it's too late. Today is still
the day of grace, to hear gospel preaching. for Christ to be uplifted
for effectual salvation to be proclaimed what a blessing it
is when it's so rare in this land and throughout this world
in these days when it's so rare how blessed to hear this gospel
truth this is the truth of scripture blessed are they that hear and
keep the word of God, is that you? do you wish it were you
but you don't know how well you know what you can ask God. Ask God, be merciful to me. Be
merciful and gracious to me. As that publican, sinner, at
the wall, praying at the wall of the temple, the Pharisee,
full of his pride, thanking God that he wasn't like other men
and how proud he was of himself. But that publican, beating his
breast, God, be merciful to me. I tell you the truth, said Jesus,
that one That one, that publican, he was the one that went away
justified by the grace of God. Hearing God's Word, the blessing
of hearing God's Word. In hearing God's Word, every
other apparent curse, as the world considers curses in this
life, can become a blessing. Even the bad times, the diseases,
the sicknesses, the sorrows, the losses, can be a blessing.
Think of Job, but that's another sermon. God says to his people,
surely, blessing, I will bless you. Oh, that he might bless
us with his word, and that he might keep us, might continue
to keep us, and cause us to keep that word of God. Amen.