Todd George Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com
Now here's our pastor, Bob Nyberg. In Matthew 11, verse 15, we read,
these are the words of the Lord Jesus, He that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Now this is one of six different
occasions that the Lord made this statement. He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. The obvious implication is not
everybody has ears to hear. Now, if you have ears to hear,
if you've been given this gift, hear, he's talking about the hearing
of faith. The Gospel is actually called
in Galatians chapter 3 to the hearing of faith. And we read
in Romans 10, 17 that faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the
Word of God. So, oh, if I have this precious
gift, ears to hear, oh, may I be enabled by God's grace to hear. Now, the natural man is spiritually
deaf. He cannot hear the Word of God. Now, what do I mean by a natural
man? I'm talking about a man who has not been born of the
Spirit, someone who has not been born again, born from above. He lacks the ability to hear
the words of God. We read in John 8, verse 43,
where the Lord said to the Pharisees, Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. You lack the ability to hear
my word." Now, they heard them audibly, and they knew what the
words meant, but they were unable to hear with the hearing ears
our Lord is speaking of in the text. He said in John 8, verse
47, He that is of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear
them not, because you're not of God. Now, the problem is not
an intelligence problem, it's a sin problem. That's what renders
a man unable to hear. It's a sin problem. Now, the evidence of being of
God is hearing, understanding, and rejoicing in God's words. Our Lord said the hour is coming
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and they that hear may live. Now, it's my prayer that this
morning the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and they
that hear shall live. Now, Proverbs 20, 12 says, the
hearing ear and the seeing eye, God hath made them both. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Did you know that the word obey
is taken from the word hear? The hearing of obedience. obeying what God says in His
Word. That's the kind of hearing that's
being spoken of. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. The hearing ear is an obedient
ear to what God says in His Word. Listen to this verse of Scripture
from 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, Paul said to the Thessalonians,
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
when you received the Word of God, which you heard of us, You
received it not as the Word of men, not as the preacher's opinion
or this denominational distinctive or this denominational doctrine.
You didn't receive this as the Word of men, but as it is in
truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that believe. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. I pray that you and I will both
have the attitude of Cornelius. When He said to Peter, in Acts
10, verse 33, we're here to hear. all the words which God hath
commanded thee." Ears to hear. Now, what led up to the Lord
making this statement in Matthew chapter 11, he that hath ears
to hear, let him hear. I'd like to begin reading in
verse 12 of Matthew 11, 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 in the law
prophesied unto John, and if you will receive it, this is
Elijah, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear." What in the world does that mean?
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take
it by force? What does that mean? When people
use violence, oh, it's a horrible thing, isn't it? But when people
use violence, it's because they know that they have no right
to what they're wanting to obtain. Therefore, they try to take it
by violence and force. Now, what does our Lord mean
when He says the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent
take it by force? People who enter the kingdom
of heaven know it is not theirs by right, but they must have
the king and his kingdom. They must have the blessings
of his kingdom. They must. It's what our Lord
meant when He said, Strive to enter in at the straight gate.
Strive. Press in. Now, I realize that
there is a very real sense in which we're passive in salvation. A dead man cannot act. He must
be acted on and then he'll act when he's given life. But God
has to give me life before I can believe. God has to give me life
before I repent. Now, I'm not excused in not believing
or not repenting. I can't say, well, God didn't
give me life. No, I'm held responsible to believe the truth and to repent
of my sins. God holds me responsible to do
that. But it's still true that the natural man is dead in sins
and cannot even come to Christ unless he's drawn by the Father.
But when you're given life, you must have the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you strive to enter in at the straight gate. Now, do I
know positively that I'm one of the elect of God? Perhaps
not. Do I know for sure that Jesus
Christ died for my sins? No. Do I know for sure that God
loves me? Perhaps I don't. Do I know for
sure that I've been born of the Spirit and have a new and holy
nature? Perhaps I'm confused about that, but I know this.
I must have Christ. I must have the forgiveness of
sins. I must have mercy. The Kingdom of Heaven suffers
violence, and the violent take it by force. I must have Christ. Sink or swim, I'm going to Him.
I will not be denied by His grace. I'm going to come to His feet
and sue for mercy, and I'm not going to stop until I receive
it. That's what He means. You know, this armchair Christianity,
folding our arms together and saying, well, I can't do anything
unless the Lord does something for me. Well, that's true. And
you'll go to hell thinking that way. No, I am to call upon the
name of the Lord. I'm to strive to enter in. Well,
if I can't do anything to save myself, I'm not going to do anything.
Well, you stay right there and you'll stay right there that
way into hell. No, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And
the violent take it by force. They must have the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the next time our Lord said
this is in Matthew, chapter 13, verse 9, where he said, He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. And he was speaking with reference
to the parable of the sower. Now, you remember the parable
of the sower. A man went out to sow seed. And some fell by
the wayside, the hard-beaten path, and the fowls of the air
came and gobbled it up. And then some fell among stony
ground. And the sun came, and it was
on the stone that heated it up. It sprang up, and it soon withered. Some fell among thorns, and the
thorns choked. And then some fell on good ground
and brought forth fruit." And our Lord, in that parable, is
telling us of the four different types of hearers. The first here
is that one who hears the word. He hears the gospel. He hears
the truth. And he doesn't understand. That's what the Lord says. He
doesn't understand. Now, once again, the lack of
understanding is not an intellectual problem. It's a sin problem.
You see, if you don't hear the gospel as a sinner, you can't
understand anything that's being said. So this man just went away
and the devil came and stole the word out of his heart. He
brought forth no fruit. The next fellow, he heard the
gospel, the gospel of how God saves sinners by His grace, the
gospel of the Father electing a people and Christ dying for
them and God the Holy Spirit calling them invincibly and irresistibly
and they must be saved. And he says, this makes sense.
This makes sense. I believe this. He received the
Word real quick. He didn't It didn't bother him
or trouble him so much. He just received it just like
that. This makes sense. But as soon as persecution comes
because of the Word, he says, it's not worth this, and he leaves. He quits. That's true, but so
what? I'm not going to go through this
over it. And then that third person is the one who receives
the Word. He believes the Word. And the cares of this world,
the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things enter
in and choke the Word. And he might not leave. He may
sit there in a pew the rest of his life, but he doesn't bear
any fruit. He doesn't really have a... the
Lord's really never done anything for him. It's just some kind
of... there he sits. And then the one who receives
the Word in good ground is the one who understands. Now, how
is it that he understands? Well, the same way the other
fellow didn't understand. This man hears as a sinner, and
the gospel comes to him as good news because it's how God saves
sinners. how God can be just and yet justify
sinners through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What he
accomplished on Calvary 3 makes it to where God can be just and
justify me. The good ground-hearer hears
this and he receives it and the Scripture says he brings forth
fruit. Now, the Lord said regarding this, he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Four types of hearers. They all
hear the same thing. One is the good ground here who
hears from an understanding heart, a heart that God has made new,
and he receives the word. Now, the next time our Lord uses
this phrase is in verse 43 of this Matthew chapter 13. It was
that right after he gave the parable of the wheat and tares.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
of their father who had the ears to hear. Let him hear. Now what
about this parable of the wheat and tares? Let me read it to
you. It begins in Matthew chapter 13, verse 24. Another parable
put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened
to a man which sowed good seed in the field. There's the preaching
of the gospel. But while men slept, his enemies
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when
the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, there appeared tares
also. Now tares look just like wheat. You can't really tell the difference.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir,
didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then
hath it tares? And he said unto them, An enemy
hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt
thou that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while
ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let them both grow together into the harvest. And in the time
of harvest I'll say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the
tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the
wheat in my heart. Now, the disciples didn't understand
this. So. Verse 36, then Jesus sent
the multitude away and went into the house, and his disciples
came to him saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of
the field. He entered and said unto them, He that soweth the
good seed is the son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The field
is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. Believers, those who receive the Word and bear
fruit. But the tares are the children
of the wicked one. They are children of God, and
they are children of the devil. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. You see, wherever the true is, the counterfeit
will be right there with it. The harvest is the end of the
world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares
are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end
of this world. Now, remember, the Lord said
you can't tell the difference between the tares and the wheat.
Don't you try to pull out the tares and get rid of them, because
what you'll end up doing is pulling out the wheat. We don't have
the wisdom to do that. But at the end, God is going
to make the difference. The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous, Shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father who has ears
to hear. Let him hear. Now, the next time
our Lord says this is found in Mark, chapter four, verse twenty
one. He said unto them, Is a candle
brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to sit
on a candlestick? What's a candle for? It's to
give light. It's not you're not to cover
it up. It's to give light. For there is nothing hid which
should not be manifested, neither was anything kept secret that
it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear." Now, the candle is the gospel, the word of God. It's the light that tells how
a holy God can accept a sinful man through the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious light, how a
sinner can actually stand before God just without guilt, perfect
in God's sight. Oh, what a candle the gospel
is. It gives light as to how God
saves sinners. Now, regarding every doctrine
of the gospel, None of it is to be hidden. None of it is to
be kept secret. It's to be preached clearly and
fully. Don't hold anything back. Now,
if I hold something back, I'm not telling the truth. If I give
99% of the truth and leave out 1%, I've not told the truth. If I've held back anything, I've
not told the truth. And if I hold back anything,
I'll be judged. If you hold back anything, You
will be judged. I see so many preachers, they
preach kind of in a language to keep everybody happy and make
sure they don't offend anybody, afraid of losing church members
because of some kind of disbelief of a doctrine they're preaching.
No, you can't do that. The candle is to be put out so
everybody can see it, not hid. The gospel is to be declared
freely and openly. And the man who keeps secrets
and hides will one day be exposed. Paul said to Timothy, Timothy,
preach the Word. Don't hide it. Don't cover it
up. Declare every truth of the gospel in its naked simplicity. Preach the Word. Now, the next
time the Word is used is in Mark chapter 7, verse 16. The Lord
says, beginning in verse 14, And when he had 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 things that come from his heart, that's what
defiles a man. Now, what does defiled mean?
It means unfit. Unclean, unfit for worship, unfit
for fellowship and communion with the living God. That's what
it means to be unclean. Now, our Lord tells us very plainly,
nothing that enters your body renders you unclean. That's not the problem. The problem
is not in alcohol. The problem is not in drugs.
The problem is not in tobacco. It's not, you know, somebody
says, well, I've never smoked. I've never drank. I've never
taken drugs. I've kept my body pure. And you're
just as sinful as ever. That doesn't do anything for
you at all. That's not what defiles a man. Somebody says, well, what about
substance abuse? Well, the problem is not the
substance. It's the one who abuses the substance. That's where the problem is.
Sin is not in things. It's not in touch, not taste,
not in handle, not. If I stay away from all this
stuff and lock myself up, I'll be OK. No, you won't. You'll
still be just as sinful. It's not what goes in that defiles
you, but it's what comes out of the heart, the wicked thoughts,
the unbelief. What that tells me is what I
need is not a proper environment. I need a new heart. If I'm given
the proper environment, I'm still in it, so it's no good. What
I need is a new heart. A heart that loves God. A heart
that bows before Him. A heart that believes His gospel.
A heart that pants after Him. I need a new heart. David said,
create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me. That's what I need. A new heart. It's not what goes in that defiles
you. That's just human tradition, man-made religion. That's all
that is. A new heart is the great need. It's the old heart that defiles
one and it renders them unfit for fellowship with God. The
problem is the heart. And then in Luke chapter 14,
in verse 35, we read, Salt is good, but if the salts
have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? Now, salt
is good, isn't it? Salt makes food taste good. I would be very depressed if
there wasn't any salt to liven up the taste of the food. I put
a lot of salt on the food. Probably shouldn't do it, but
I like it. I like salt. Salt tastes good and salt is
a preservative. Now, salt is good. But if it's
lost its softness, what good is it? It won't do anything for
anybody. It's neither fit for the land
nor yet for the dunghill. But men cast it out. It is worthless. Now he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. That's all's good. But if it's lost its saltiness,
it's utterly worthless, not even fit for the dunghill. Now, if
you have ears to hear what's being said, hear. Now, what occasioned
our Lord to make this statement? Well, Luke chapter 14, beginning
in verse 25, And there went great multitudes with him. And he turned
and said unto them, this big crowd following him, If any man
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple. Now, is the Lord telling us to
positively hate our parents and our children and our brothers
and sisters and just despise them? That's not what our Lord
is saying. He's saying, in comparison to
your attachment, your love, your loyalty, your faith to Me, your
belief in Me, all these have to go if they come between Me
and you. That's what our Lord means. I've
heard people, when they hear the gospel, they say, well, my
mom didn't believe that. My dad didn't believe that. They
were Christians. And I just can't, I can't have that. I mean, surely
they're saved. If anybody's saved, my mom's
saved. And she didn't believe this gospel you're preaching.
Your mom has got to go, in that sense. Your dad's got to go.
Your own life has got to go. You bow to what God says in his
word. And whosoever, he says, does
not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For
which of you intending to build a tower, saith not down first,
and counteth the cost, whether he ask sufficient to finish it?
Count the cost. What does being a disciple of
Christ cost you? It costs something. What? Nothing
from you. Understand that. Nothing from
you. You don't have anything to pay.
You don't have anything that God could accept. Nothing from
you. Well, I'm giving this up or I'm
going to start doing this. Nothing from you. Nothing from
you, but all of you. So likewise, verse 33, whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
my disciple. Now, a religion that does not
cost you anything is in reality of no value. It's of no value
to you and it's certainly of no value to God. There's so much
emphasized in the popular Christianity of our day of making things convenient
and easy and accessible. Let's have services where no
one is bothered. You don't have to dress in any
certain way. You don't have to read the Bible.
Just go watch a play or a skit. Things that entertain rather
than hearing the gospel. Let's just put out Sunday night
services and Wednesday night services, or let's just have
Saturday night services and not have Sunday services. All these
things about convenience, trying to make things easy for people.
The Lord said, Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh
not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Now that's the
demand of the Lord. What does He require of me? Nothing
from me because I don't have anything to give. I'm totally
dependent upon His grace. Nothing from me, but all of me. And where that is not there,
that's like salt without saltiness. It is good for nothing and just
to be cast away. Now, he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Beware of a religion that is without value, that you
won't sacrifice anything for, that you won't sacrifice your
time or your money or your own life also. You see, if I believe
the Gospel, if I really believe, I am willing to die for what
I believe. And if I'm not willing to die,
and I know by the grace of God I wouldn't be willing, I'm not
trying to promote the strength of the flesh, but understand
this, If I'm not willing to die for the cause of Christ and to
live for the cause of Christ, it's because I really have no
love for Christ. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh
not all that he has, that's what it costs you, everything, nothing
from you, but all of you. Whosoever forsaketh not all that
he has, he cannot be my disciple. Question. Has God given you ears
to hear, to where you hear what has been said? Well, if He has,
if God has given you ears to hear, oh, let Him hear. And you know, there's nothing
more pleasurable in this life than hearing the gospel in the
power of God the Holy Spirit and knowing that it's God speaking. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nybert, praying
that God will be pleased to make himself known to you and to give
you ears to hear. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at codsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen. Hmm.