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  EARS TO HEAR
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon delves into the importance of truly listening to
God's voice without hardening our hearts, drawing parallels to the
parable of the sower and the seed. It emphasizes the need to receive and
obey God's word step by step, allowing it to transform our lives. The
message warns against suppressing the truth, being turned to fables, and
the consequences of not heeding God's voice.

Topics: "Listening to God's Voice", "Obedience to God's Word"
Scripture References: Luke 8:16, Luke 8:17, Luke 8:18, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Timothy 4:4, Hebrews 3:15

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the importance of truly listening to God's voice
without hardening our hearts, drawing parallels to the parable of the
sower and the seed. It emphasizes the need to receive and obey God's
word step by step, allowing it to transform our lives. The message warns
against suppressing the truth, being turned to fables, and the
consequences of not heeding God's voice.

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CONTENT
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So let's turn to the gospel according to Luke and chapter 8. Luke
chapter 8 as continue our study through the gospel of Luke and we looked
at some sections of this chapter last week looking at the sower and the
seed and we missed out a bunch of verses in between and we're going to
now deal with those verses but you need to bear in mind what we dealt
with last week when we spoke about the the sower and the seed. So Luke
chapter 8 and I'm going to read verses 1 through 3 and then jump down to
9 and then jump down to 16. So Luke chapter 8 verse 1 it came to pass
afterward that he went through every city and village preaching and
bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with
him and a certain woman who had been healed of evil spirits and
infirmities Mary called Magdalene out of whom had come seven demons and
Johanna the wife of Cusa Herod's steward and Susanna and many others who
provided for him from their substance.

Then verse 9 then his disciples asked him saying what does this parable
mean meaning the parable of the sower and he said to you it has been
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God but to the rest it is
given in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not
understand and then verse 16 no one when he has lit a lamp covers it
with a vessel or puts it under a bed but sets it on a lampstand that
those who enter may see the light for nothing is secret that will not be
revealed nor anything hidden that will not be made known and come to
light therefore take heed how you hear for whoever has to him more will
be given and whoever does not have even what he seems to have will be
taken from him and so there's a there's a lot that we need to deal with
in this in this section so I'm going to jump through the first few
verses pretty quickly because we we need to deal with the rest of it in
one go because it is all one it is all one unit and so it came to pass
that he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the
glad tidings of the kingdom we spoke about that two weeks ago that he is
preaching the kingdom the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven and
the twelve were with him so they're moving with him the crowd is
changing all the time and remember there three or two different levels
in the crowd there are those who are his disciples who are followers and
then there are the hangers-on at the at the outside who really not part
of of his following and then verse 2 says and certain woman who had been
healed of evil spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene out of whom
had come seven demons and so we will come back to Mary Magdalene at
another time and Johanna the wife of Cusa now the the interesting thing
about these two about these two persons people that are mentioned here
is that you have on the one side you have Mary called Magdalene who had
had seven demons so she is really an outcast she is a demon she was
demon possessed she may have had a questionable background she really
wasn't a particularly nice person and then on the other extreme you have
Johanna the wife of Cusa Herod's steward or Herod's servant so he is
working in the palace he is a influential character and obviously he has
some money because his wife has money and she is helping that using that
money to support to support Jesus and the and the disciples so it's
interesting again if we speak about the detail that Luke or the
attention to detail that Luke does that he he has these two extremes
those that come from Herod's palace on the one hand and those who are
demon-possessed on the other hand and they're united in Jesus remember
we spoke a few weeks ago that there is Matthew the tax collector who is
on one extreme and then there are the Simon the zealot on the other
extreme and they are both united in Jesus Christ and so again we find
exactly the same picture here that while these people come from two
different walks of life they are united in their following of the Lord
Jesus I think it's also important to remember we spoke about the fact
that Luke highlights the the minorities he speaks about the poor the
outcast the woman and women really were not highly regarded those days
and notice here that he spends two verses speaking about the woman who
are following Jesus and actually specifying that it was the woman who
was supporting him financially remember Jesus wasn't able to work he was
preaching full-time he had worked for 30 years well from probably 12 or
14 until 30 years of age when he went into the ministry and in in in his
in his father's carpenter shop and obviously it was later on his shop
but now he's full-time for these three and a half years preaching the
gospel and traveling throughout and getting ready to go to the cross and
so he needs some kind of support financial support and not only is does
he need support but the twelve disciples need support and you remember
there was even a treasurer and his name was Judas and he carried the bag
and from that we see on a different occasion that they use the money out
of that bag to be able to buy food Jesus does not as some preachers try
to say that Jesus was wealthy and you know he wore designer clothes and
all this kind of nonsense he just had enough to to live and and and to
meet the needs of his of his disciples now let's jump across into verse
8 so he tells them the parable of the sower and you need to keep in mind
the meaning of the parable of the sower and we're going to come back to
this again in a moment but the purpose of the parable of the sower is to
say the sower sows the word the word falls into the soil of men's hearts
and depending on the condition of that soil either produces nothing or
produces fruit and I'm really summing it all up in a in a few few few
words now in concluding the parable he says others fell on good ground
sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold and when he had said these
things he cried and here's the the key to this whole passage he who has
ears to hear let him hear he who has ears to hear let him hear that was
the purpose of the parable and that is the purpose of the second parable
which we're going to look at the lamp on the lampstand right up to verse
18 I think it is yes all the way down to verse 18 in fact it continues
in the next section as well which we'll touch on next week he who has
ears let him hear and obviously he's not meaning there are some people
who don't have physical ears we all have ears the problem is we don't we
don't hear I don't think it's something that you're familiar with but
when I was growing up and probably had the same thing my mother would
say do you have ears doesn't mean you have things on the side of your
head it means are you listening can you can you hear what I'm saying and
so Jesus is saying if you have ears to hear and obviously these are not
physical ears these are spiritual ears to hear what he has to say he
says then let him hear in other words there's a difference as we've seen
before between hearing and hearing there's a difference between hearing
the words and they don't register they make no impression upon us and
hearing the words and they are life-changing and transformative these
words are very important because ten times Jesus uses these words in the
four Gospels ten times he says he who has ears let him hear as we'll see
a little later on this is this is a important message that goes right
back to Israel and that goes right through the Gospels and right through
the epistles do we have ears to hear do we have ears to hear in verse 9
then his disciples asked him saying what does this parable mean and he
said to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
God but to the rest it is given in parables that seeing they may not see
and hearing they may not hear or understand in Matthew the question is
why do you speak to them in parables why don't you explain to them and
Jesus and obviously that's the question because you can see that by the
answer to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
God now remember what a mystery is a mystery is not something that is
unknown a mystery is something that was hidden in the Old Testament and
is revealed in the New Testament and there are seven if I remember
correct divine mysteries that are listed in the New Testament one of
those mysteries is the mystery of godliness one of the other mysteries
is the mystery of iniquity one of the other mysteries is that we as
Gentiles should be partakers with the Jews of the salvation of God that
was hidden in the Old Testament and remember that when Jesus ministers
to the Gentiles during his ministry they question him because they it
but they were it was it was it was hidden for them at that time but as
time went on the truth became real and as Jesus gives the Great
Commission in Matthew chapter 28 he says then go into all the world and
preach the gospel and so the so the gospel is now made available that
was hidden there was no way that any of the prophets in the Old
Testament even though they prophesied these things could understand that
Gentiles would be partakers with them of God's salvation they they they
just didn't understand because it was hidden then but the mystery has
been revealed now here is the parable and the parable is a mystery if
you don't know the interpretation and so Jesus gives the interpretation
but why does he not give the interpretation to the power of a to the
Pharisees and he gives the answer to the rest is given in parables that
seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand now if you
were a Bible scholar as most of his disciples were they would have
recognized what Jesus is talking about Jesus is quoting Isaiah chapter 6
and you remember Isaiah chapter 6 is the chapter in which Isaiah sees
the Lord and the Lord says who shall I send and who will go for us and
Isaiah says Jeremiah send me and the Lord touches his lip with a coal
off the altar and Isaiah is commissioned to go and God gives Isaiah the
message and the message is not go and tell Israel that they need to
repent the message is not to go and tell Israel that better times are
coming but what is the message to Israel hearing you will not hear and
seeing you will not perceive understand or see and so Isaiah's message
is a message of judgment that's way back then God is saying I'm done
speaking with Israel Israel does not want to hear my voice and therefore
I will bring blindness upon them when did this blindness happen I've
spoken about that in the past the blindness already happened at Mount
Sinai when God wants to reveal himself to Israel and Israel turns away
from God and creates a a calf and begins to worship that calf at that
point already God says I'm going to deal with you and I'm going to carry
you away beyond Babylon hundreds and hundreds of years in the future and
according to Acts chapter 7 if you and he speaks about this in a lot of
detail and so what is Jesus saying and I'm going to come back to the
application and the meaning for us but what is Jesus saying why does he
speak to the Pharisees in parables simply because he says they don't
understand and he says basically saying it doesn't matter even if I gave
the interpretation they don't want to hear they don't want to understand
and remember that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the scriptures they
had studied and they knew off by heart and yet they rejected him and
even as he stood before them and revealed himself remember John says we
beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the father he came to his
own but his own received him not and so Jesus comes and he reveals the
father he reveals himself as the second person of the Trinity and Israel
rejects him and Jesus says well it's a waste of time trying to speak to
these people because they don't want to hear now obviously we understand
that there were ones and twos in between them that that did get saved
remember there was Nicodemus and there was Joseph of Arimathea they were
two Pharisees and they they got saved in the end they were the ones who
took the body off the cross and and embalmed it and so on but as a
nation they could no longer hear and in fact they seal their own fate
when they cry we have no king but Caesar the same cry that men are
calling today they're rejecting the headship of Jesus Christ and they
turning to other men for their salvation and for their hope but let's
get back to this to this idea is this a new concept when Isaiah says or
God says to Isaiah hearing they will not hear and seeing they will not
see no in fact it goes right back to Genesis chapter 6 a hundred and
twenty years before the flood already God says these very very
significant words and this really is is the first time this is mentioned
but the idea follows through and I'm going to just pick up I'm not going
to go through all the scriptures because there are many scriptures that
deal with this but he said my spirit will not always strive with man
because he is flesh he says his days will be a hundred and ten other
words he's got a hundred and twenty years and I'm going to wipe them out
this principle that God by his spirit strives with man but his spirit
will not always strive the time comes when God says I have spoken enough
I'm not continuing to speak if you will not listen if you will not hear
I'm going to withhold my voice and you remember there were times in the
history of Israel when God was silent just when Samuel was it was this
young boy in the tent in the temple it says that the word of God was
scarce those days in other words God wasn't really speaking and then we
know that right at the end at the end of Malachi between Malachi and
Matthew there's the 400 years which we call the silent years in which
God doesn't speak at all for 400 years God said nothing because he had
done with speaking and eventually Jesus comes and Jesus begins to speak
again well John the Baptist of course is the first prophet after Malachi
and John heralds the Lord Jesus and they begin to speak for God again
and so in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 9 and I'm going to pick
up a few verses and and as I said these are just a key versus there are
there are many others in the New Testament in 2nd Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 9 the coming of the lawless one the Antichrist is according to
the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders so he's
going to deceive people he's going to deceive the whole world the whole
world's going to follow him many of the so-called church is going to
follow him and so how why do they follow him because he has power he
assigns and he has wonders but they are lying wonders then he says in
verse 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish
because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be
saved I've spoken about this verse many times and yet it is such an
important verse and I need to emphasize it again today because as we as
we've come into 2020 this is becoming becoming more and more relevant
than ever and that is that people will be deceived by the Antichrist
people will believe that he is the man of God they will believe that he
is the man who's going to save the world is going to be bring peace is
going to bring prosperity is going to sort out whatever diseases and if
it is come then I have to assume that they're going to be other similar
diseases may be worse coming because we know that as we get into
revelation into the tribulation and I don't believe that we go through
the tribulation but as we go as we get closer diseases and pestilences
are proliferate and they continue to multiply and so I I'm not I'm not
prophesying I'm just speculating and I'm saying we think we have a
problem now there may be bigger problems coming and that's not a
prophecy I have no scripture for that but based on understanding what's
going to happen I think that this is just the beginning of the stuff
that we will that we will see as we as we go on so so so here comes this
man and he says I've got the answer I'm going to fix these problems and
he deceives the whole world into following him and how does he get to
deceive the world it's not that he steps on this on the plant on the
platform and suddenly people are just deceived now the problem began
long before that the problem began when they did not receive the love of
the truth so God has been speaking he has been speaking into the lives
of those who are alive at that time he has been speaking for thousands
of years through the through the from the book of Genesis right through
to to today God has been speaking he's been speaking through his word
he's been speaking through his prophets he's been speaking through his
spirit he's been speaking through his church he's been speaking through
his preachers and so God is has been speaking but men loved the lie they
did not love the truth and that's where the problem comes and see and
here's that here's the the nub of this whole thing when we don't love
the we are easily deceived you see because we're not very good at
filtering truth from error the moment we filter truth now let me try and
explain that when truth comes and the truth may be in the form of
doctrine from the scriptures but invariably the truth has to do with God
addressing my life God says you need to change you have problems called
sin I said not me I'm pretty good you see that's the problem is that the
heart of man is deceitful above all things and so we deceive ourselves
into saying well that's not God's word for me and there will be some who
are sitting here this evening just on the law of averages and there are
those who will be watching the videos will be saying that's not me when
in fact it may be you and when I don't receive that truth about myself I
set up a filter so whenever I hear the Word of God I filter the Word of
God because it's convicting me and I don't like to be convicted I want
to feel good about myself that's why the feel-good preachers do so well
because everybody wants to feel good about themselves but the problem is
that once I set up a filter in order to filter out the truth and I said
well I'm only going to filter out certain truths I won't filter out
other truths no we don't have the ability to do that our filters are not
very discreet either we receive the full revelation of God concerning
Jesus Christ concerning his word concerning us ourselves or we receive
nothing it really is an all-or-nothing thing we can't say well I'm going
to receive some truth and I'm not going to receive others and so they
did not receive the love of the truth it's not just receiving the truth
but the love of the truth Lord I want to know speak to me during the
week I had a phone call from a brother and he pleaded with me he said
brother you need to speak to me you need to tell me the truth it's a
brother in the ministry I know the brother he is sincere he wants to
know the truth he loves the truth even if the truth hurts but
unfortunately many others will say brother I want to know the truth but
the moment you tell them the truth you become their enemies remember
Paul says that concerning the Galatians is when I first came to Galatia
he says you would have plucked out your eyes for me you thought I was
even Christ but now that I've told you the truth have I become your
enemy you see that's the problem as long as the truth is positive we
want it as long as but the moment the truth is negative we don't want it
and so they did not receive the love of the truth and that leads to them
following the Antichrist now I don't believe that he is speaking here
about just the world he's speaking here about Christians or so-called
Christians who've been in church and who have heard the gospel have
heard the Word of God may even have been religious may even have been
part of a of a Bible believing Bible preaching teaching church but
because they never wanted to hear the truth they're now open to
deception for this reason I want you to see this this is this is
important I'm going to go to Timothy and see exactly the same thing for
this reason what reason because they did not receive the love of the
truth because they did not receive the love of the truth God will send
them strong delusion so it's not that the Antichrist deceives them well
he does but it's God that sends delusion into their heart so that they
will believe the lie and for kids this this is this is absolutely this
is so serious this is so critical if we do not receive the love of the
truth God will send strong delusion into our hearts I have seen this
hundreds of times you see a brother maybe even a minister fall into
terrible sin getting to all sorts of terrible heresy and you say how
could he have ended up in that place this is how he ended up in that
place because way back when God began to speak truth to him and he
rejected the truth and God says if you don't want the truth then I'll
give you what you want I'll give you strong delusion that they should
believe the lie notice not just delusion but strong delusion something
that is inescapable we must hear God spoke to Israel God spoke to Israel
through Moses through the pillar of fire through the clouds through them
10 miracles in in in Egypt through the manna every day through the water
from the rock God spoke to them day after day and they said we don't
want to hear God's voice remember right back at Mount Sinai God wanted
to speak to them personally and they said we can't hear God we can't
understand him he's too terrible Moses you can ask him what he has to
say and then you come and explain it to us at that point God already
said if that's the way you want it remember they then put the veil on
Moses's face as Moses then radiates God's glory and book of Corinthians
says that God then takes that veil of Moses's face and he puts it on
their hearts and he said my glory is not going to be veiled the truth
will not be covered but if you don't want the truth I'll veil your heart
and that's what happened with Israel right back then let's go to the
last verse in Thessalonians verse 12 that they may be condemned who did
not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness we must
believe we must receive the truth now look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse
4 the verses before this speaks about itching ears and heaping to
themselves preachers just like we have today listening to this one and
that one filtering out what we want and what we don't want to hear but
then he says they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned
aside to fables look at what he is saying they will turn their ears away
so who turns their ears away the hearers the listeners who have itching
ears and folks this happens in many many different ways but I'm not
going to deal with that because we were going to run out of time but
then look at what happens in the last part of the verse and be turned
aside to fables so they turn their ears away from the truth then what
happens they turn themselves to fables no something else turns them
aside they will be turned can you see the difference they turn
themselves away and then they are turned this is the principle that we
see right through scripture that God confirms our decisions remember
Pharaoh in Egypt Pharaoh hardens his heart and God says if that's the
way you want it I will harden your heart so God confirms our decisions
and he says to these people he says if you going to turn your ears from
the truth not only will I allow you to turn from the truth but I will
turn you to something else to fables stories I'm sorry to get back to
fake book but I I cannot believe the nonsense that Christians are
believing and propagating and sharing and promoting on fake book stories
fables there is no truth in it whatsoever and yet they will propagate
that and they will not even speak once about Jesus Christ he said well
that's a harsh judgment it's not my judgment this is God's judgment how
can people believe the nonsense that people are believing today
concerning conspiracies and all of the nonsense that they believing
because God has turned them aside to fables this is serious he said well
brother that's too harsh that's not possible yes it is possible how can
someone believe the nonsense that some people believe there is no
logical explanation for it even when you prove to them that what they
are believing is stories is fables is nonsense they still insist on
believing it because something supernatural has happened someone has
turned them and we we see this from Israel that God takes the veil puts
it on Israel's heart we see this in Thessalonians because they was
there's not receive the love of the truth God sends them strong delusion
and so while this verse doesn't tell me who it is I can conclude from
the other verses that this is what God this is not the devil we saw that
it was the devil who turned them aside to fables no it is God who turns
them to side to fables folk we must receive the love of the truth all
right we have a long way to go let's go back to Luke 8 verse 16 no one
when his little lamb covers with salt puts it under a bed but sets it on
a lampstand that those who enter may see the light now the the the the
shallow interpretation of this verse is simply that we are lamps and we
need to let our lamps so shine that people may see it but you must look
at the context and I know it's hot and I know you may be a little tired
but what is the context what is Jesus dealing with in this passage he is
dealing with hearing he's not dealing with preaching the gospel he's
dealing with hearing the soul speaks about hearing the previous verse
well we've got a whole bunch of verses in between but let's let's find
it seeing they may not see hearing they will not understand and then if
we go right forward verse 17 nothing is secret I'll come back to that
verse 18 therefore take heed how you hear so the verses before and the
verses after is dealing with hearing so the lamp must be speaking about
hearing so what is that got to do with hearing I don't believe he's
talking about the lamp and while that may be a good analogy of saying we
need to let our light shine as far as the world is concerned but how
does this apply to hearing well look what he what he says no one when he
has lit the lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed when
people do not receive the truth what are they doing with the truth they
are covering it they are hiding it John says because they love darkness
rather than light Romans chapter 1 the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who do what
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness or hold the truth in the King
James so they have the truth but what do they do with it they put it
under a vessel they suppress it they don't want to know the truth and if
you're feeling convicted tonight don't put the light under a cover don't
suppress the truth don't hold it under but say let me let me let me lift
up the truth of God's Word in my life that it might light up my life
that I might be able to walk in the light so no one when he has lit a
lamp covers it with a vessel puts it under a bed he says that's stupid
and yet that's exactly what we do God shines a light upon an area in our
lives some area of sin some area of whatever and we cover it no he says
we need to set it on a lampstand so that we can see all right verse 17
nothing is secret that will not be revealed nor anything hidden that
will not be known and come to the light I believe what Jesus is saying
and I'm going to just go over this very very quickly because I want to
get to the last verse what he is saying here is that the way that you
have listened is going to be revealed you see you see you may be able to
to fool me by nodding and saying amen I'm not hearing of many amens
tonight but but God is hearing God is watching and it's going to be
revealed in fact here's here's the scary thing that this this meeting
tonight every time you have been under the sound of God's Word every
time you've opened God's Word will be called to the day of judgment as a
witness against you it's going to be revealed God will say I spoke to
you there and there I told you to change I called you to repentance I
asked you to do something and you suppressed my word you took the lamp
and you put a bushel over it you put a bucket over it so that the light
wouldn't bother you but we need to allow the light to bother us so that
it can bring us into into all truth verse 18 therefore so you see the
connection nothing that a secret will be revealed therefore in other
words the way that you hear the way that we listen will be revealed
that's scary because we say well you know nobody knows that I'm not
listening nobody knows that I'm rejecting the conviction that's come by
the Spirit or through the Word no it's going to be revealed therefore
take heed how you hear now we need to take heed to what we hear we've
spoken a lot about that in recent recent months but he's not talking
here about what you're listening to he's talking about how you're
listening how you're listening are you listening with a plowed field but
a heart that has been softened where the stones have been thrown out
where the weeds have been killed so that when the seed falls into my
heart it can produce fruit see the connection back to the parable how
are we hearing are you hearing the Word of God with a tender heart are
you hearing the Word of God without preconceived ideas without prejudice
I remember I spoke about Samson Samuel a little while ago earlier in the
message and you remember Eli says to Samuel when you hear the voice say
speak Lord I'm listening speak Lord I'm listening I want to hear your
voice and here's the here's the conclusion of tonight and this continues
in the next in the next section but whoever has to him more will be
given and whoever does not have even what he seems to have will be taken
from him so what does that mean what is he talking about talking about
listening about hearing whoever has how do we have hearing how do we
have his word your word have I hidden in my heart lest I sin against you
when we treasure his word remember again Samuel it says that he did not
let a single word of God fall to the ground he treasured he grabbed hold
of every word of God and he hid it in his heart he grabbed hold of it
any and he clung to it with all of his life no one day becomes one of
the greatest prophets in the Old Testament whoever has more will be
given as we respond to God's voice as we respond to his call upon our
lives he gives us more revelation he gives us more direction he speaks
to us more and more and here lies the difference between some Christians
who never grow and others who grow at a rapid rate the ones who never
grow is because they exactly what he says at the end of the verse even
what he seems to have will be taken from him you see here's how it works
in practice God speaks to me about something and I say well order it's
not convenient I'll speak to you some other time about this thing and
then the next day we say well God I want you to speak to me God says
well I spoke to you yesterday about that other thing no no no Lord I
don't want to hear that I want I need a new word today God says no I
spoke to you and God does not move on to the next word until we've heard
the first one I've spoken before about schools I believe all the kids
are now going to the next grade whether they passed or didn't pass God
doesn't move us to the next grade until we pass the first grade and if
we don't pass the first grade we don't listen to the first thing he told
us he's never going to tell us anything more until we deal with that
issue and people tell me I can't hear God God doesn't speak to me well
God may have spoken to you 20 years ago and you refuse to hear him then
and God is saying come back to what I spoke to you about then then maybe
I'll give you some more but this is this is the reality this is the
truth whoever has to him more will be given and the faster we obey his
word because you see this is not about just receiving and treasuring up
but it's obeying the word the faster we do what he tells us to do the
faster he gives us the next step it's like that I don't know what they
call that game treasure hunter or whatever it is on TV you you you go
and you find a clue and then once you get that clue you have to find the
next clue and then they give you the next one they're not going to give
you the end result without finding each one along the way and that's the
way God deals with us he gives us one step at a time line upon line
precept upon precept here a little there a little and as he gives us the
first line we obey that he gives us the next line we obey that he gives
us the next line and we grow and we receive more and more and we say
well I don't understand how can how can some brothers grow the way they
do this is how they grow why do others never grow this is how they never
grow and for looking at at Israel and it's interesting that Jesus feels
the need to speak this not just to Israel but to the church because this
is given to us in the church it must have been a hard thing for God to
say I'm not going to speak anymore I'm done I'm through I'll find other
people who want to hear and that's why he came to us as Gentiles because
Israel would not hear you know as a as a shepherd the hardest for me the
hardest thing for me there are many hard things I spoke about that on
Thursday but the hardest thing for me is a shepherd is to watch people
continue in their foolishness when you have the answers but I cannot
correct them because they don't want to listen probably one of the words
one of the sentences that inner hears from me more than probably
anything else maybe not as much as where's the tea is I can't help him I
can't help him speaking of people in the church why can't I help him
because he doesn't listen he doesn't want the truth when I bring in the
truth he will return it back on me when I bring the truth he will find
excuses and there are people that I know the answers to your problems I
don't have all the answers but I know some I can't help you because
you're not listening and God can't help you because you're not listening
you you you you made up your mind and God says that that which is there
he says I'm going to take it away remember the seed that fell on the
roadside why on the roadside because the road was hard and Christians
hearts are hard and the seed lies on the surface and the devil comes and
he snatches it away even what he seems to have will be taken from him
sorry I lied I said it was the last verse here's the last verse 3
Hebrews chapter 3 verse 15 three or four times in Hebrews 3 and 4 we
find these words while it is said today if you will hear his voice
harden not your hearts as in the rebellion you see the connection with
the soil the hard road on which the site seed could not penetrate and if
you've heard me on this before forgive me but I want you to pay
attention to these little words remember we emphasize these little words
today when you hear his voice that what it says no today if you will you
see the hardening does not happen once I've heard the word so I say when
I hear his voice don't harden his heart no he says if you before you
even hear if you want to hear his voice don't harden your heart but come
with ground that has been plowed and dug up and that is soft that has no
stones that has no weeds and that is ready to receive with meekness the
engrafted word that we may grow thereby father we pray that you would
help us Lord it is so easy for us to harden our hearts just because it
convicts us because it tells us what we don't like to face we don't want
to hear and Lord I pray that we may not be like Israel that we may not
be like the many Saul king of Israel that once had a soft heart towards
you and then just turned against you but Lord that we may be those who
are like Samuel eagerly receiving your word whether it's good or bad
whether it makes us feel good or makes us feel sad Lord help us to be
soft help us to be ready to receive your word Lord help us to not be so
defensive about our sin help us Lord not to find so easy easily find
excuses like Adam and Eve but Lord let's be like David and when we are
convicted we will repent Lord because we don't want to be turned aside
your fables we don't want to be like Israel that you cease that you
cease speaking to Lord we want to hear your voice and I pray Lord that
you would create within each one of us and within us as an assembly a
willingness to receive and to hear your word I pray this in Jesus name I
pray that you would go with us keep us and protect us and bring us
together again safely on Thursday I pray this in Jesus name amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/jP54c_DYpw.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/ears-to-hear/
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