TEXT: Proverbs 20:12
READING: Psalm 29:1-11
SUBJ: The spiritual gift of hearing and the expected response
AIM: That we should be attentive listeners as we deal with the Word of God and that we should desire to be delighted in His service.
INTR: The hearing ear is tuned to respond to the voice of the Lord, and we do well to listen attentively and carefully to the Spirit’s voice.
1. This is a familiar thought and easy to understand in the context of the New Birth.
2. The disciples (like all of us) tried to understand what He was saying on human terms. Such could never be with them or us.
3. We know that we are not saved by works; however, good works are an expected outcome.
THESIS: Whether in the Parable of the Sower, or the letters to the seven churches, faith and obedience are clearly in view and we do well to seek a responsiveness in ourselves to what we hear.
I. Consider the Source of the “hearing ear.”
1. It only follows that a “New Creation” would be responsive to a new environment. “Ye must be born again.”
2. Consider His words to the disciples that privileged them above the Pharisees.
3. Compare: Deuteronomy 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. AND then compare: Romans 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
4. Since there are those that hear and those that do not, we conclude that the ability to hear is from the Lord.
5. And we would recognize that the Lord does not speak apart from an expression of all that He is and so must be so affected as to bow to all that He says.
II. Some specific applications
1. Of John the Baptist: Matthew 11:14-15 14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. 15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. – John was the forerunner of Christ in the Spirit of Elijah. If they understood that they understood who He was.
2. The Sower (and consider that each of the hearers is in each of us). The fruit grows in the good ground: Matthew 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
3. We would be aware of the coming Judgment: Matthew 13:41-43 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; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
4. We would not be useless salt: Luke 14:33-35 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? 35 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.
III. The warnings and encouragements in Revelation 2 & 3
1. See He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7) – Ephesus; Revelation 2:11 – Smyrna; 2:17 – Pergamos; 2:29 – Thyatira; 3:6 – Sardis; 3:13 -- Philadelphia; 3:22 – Laodicea.
2. A problem at Ephesus – Turn to Revelation 2
1) Works known and maintained – vv 2,3 & 6
2) Be warned to recover something or else! See verse 5.
3) The first love and its object, devotion and fervency.
4) Encouraged by the hearing ear –
3. An Old Testament declaration: Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
4. A New Testament Response: 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
5. Gracious operation: Isaiah 50:4-5 4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. 5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
