The Lord would help me this evening and grant you prayerful attention. I'll direct you to a text you'll find in the portion of God's Word read. The Gospel according to Mark, chapter four. I'm reading again at verse nine. The Gospel according to Mark, chapter four. I'm reading again at verse nine. And Jesus said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Mark's Gospel, chapter 4 and the 9th verse, and he said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. You'll find a very similar word repeated in the 23rd verse, if any man hath ears to hear, let him hear. And this chapter is largely taken up with that subject of hearing. How do we hear the preaching of the word? Oh friends, the evidence that we've heard is that we are not only hearers of the Word, but doers also. And that is the fruit which is to be brought forth in the heart and in the lives of the hearing soul. Another year has passed. Oh, that means that if you regularly attend here, you will have sat under 150 sermons, possibly more, and if you go elsewhere to hear the preaching of the gospel, how many sermons have you heard? Oh, friends, oh, those of us that have to preach the gospel, how many sermons have we preached? But oh, a searching question, how many have we heard as we read in our text? How many have we preached? Oh, friends, such that they have had an effect, upon us, left an indelible mark. It is a searching question to take stock and to call to mind. Oh, how many sermons you can remember over the past year, how many of them you've gone out to the house of God and you've been changed. Your life has been changed. The course of action has been changed. You've been rebuked, you've been exhorted, you've been taught, and you can remember it. Oh, friends, what poor hearers we are. We live in a day of which I fear it can be said, a famine of the hearing of the word. The Lord would help me this evening. Oh, we might feel this subject upon us to bring before you that it might be an exhortation to you. Oh, that it might be a concern as you start another year as a church and people. Oh, that you might hear, that you might have ears to hear. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, friends, we must begin here that in order to hear, we must have ears. No ears and we cannot hear. This is the conclusion of that parable of four types of ground and we find that those four types of ground or four types of hearer, they are divided down the middle. Two types of ground on one side and two types on the other. And they correspond to whether we have ears or not. You see, friends, there is some ground that will never grow anything. Some ground will never bring forth any fruit. It's got no soil. Or it is found in such an inhospitable climate, or whatever it may be, that nothing is ever brought forth on it. And if it brings forth anything, it is small, it's weedy, and it very quickly is taken away and destroyed. There is other ground that brings forth. It may bring forth weeds, it may bring forth good plants. Friends, the ground is divided on whether there is any fruitfulness, any growth on it, or not. And that is the difference between those that have ears and those that don't have ears. Friends, if you have not got ears this evening, you will never hear. If the ground of your heart has not been broken up, if your heart has not been opened as Lydia's heart that we read of in the Acts of the Apostles, Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, and opened it to receive the word, then there will never be any bringing forth of fruit." And we can consider those two types of ground for a moment. The first that we read of here, it is said, it came to pass, he sowed, some fell by the wayside. And the fowls of the air came and devoured it up, and some fell on stony ground where it had not much earth. And it immediately has sprung up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched. and because it had no root, it withered away. And as Jesus opens that account, he says, these are they by the wayside where the word is sown, but when they have heard it, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. Those who may hear the preaching of the gospel, may have the word of God put in their hands, those who may read the text outside as they pass by, or those that you may, are from time to time being able to speak a word of season to, but they do not hear it, they do not receive it. Satan has shut their ears, he takes it immediately from them. Oh, friends, there will never be any growth in their heart, there will never be any fruit in their heart. You can all, I'm sure, think of those in your work situation at school, those you've come across in your life. Friends, they may hear, they may listen to you, but it never takes any fruit. No, no root. They do not hear it. It immediately passes away. And then there are those that appear to hear for a time. Those likewise which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive a gladness and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. We come across those, they hear the word, and they appear for a time with joy to receive it. I remember one man who came into one of our chapels attended, I think for some months, it may have stretched into a year, appeared to have really heard the word and to have received it with joy. And those around had good hope of him. But all of a sudden, that question took hold of him. If there is a God, why is there suffering in the world? Ah, friends, he got no root in him. He left the Lord's house, and as far as I know to this day, he goes nowhere. There was no root in him. He appeared for a time to receive the word with gladness, appeared to understand it, appeared to have entered into the experience of it, but he had not got the root of the matter. Now, our friends, he would never bring forth any fruit. Oh, it's by enduring fruit, you see. He that endureth to the end, by their fruit she shall know them. And there are many like that. Those who perhaps come in for a few weeks to the Lord's house and hear the sermons, or those who come in and they'll tell you at the end of the sermon, what a wonderful sermon it's been, but you never see them again. They never come back. Ah, friends, they have not got ears to hear. Now, you may sit in the Lord's house. You may have sat in the Lord's house over the past year. Ah, friends, Has the word been snatched away by Satan? Are you sitting there this evening in unbelief? The things that are said, the things that you've heard said from the pulpit over the past year, but you do not believe them. You have not received them. You cannot receive them. You have not yet got that ear that's open to hear, that heart that's open to receive the word. Now, there are those that are perhaps here for a time, particularly the law and that which is legal. Oh, they apply themselves to it. They perhaps try to walk in it in a legal way, but they have not received the truth that it is in Jesus. And how quickly they're drawn aside. How quickly that word is plunked up. How quickly that which has no root, oh, they are offended. Afterward, when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. But the other two types of ground that we read of in this passage. Oh, friends, things grew on those ground. Now, it may have been weeds. The good seed was sown among weeds and the weeds came up and choked it, but it was fertile ground. It was ground which there could be growth on. Oh, friends, it speaks of those whose ear has been opened, whose heart has been opened. Oh, friends, there is growth. The seed enters. It comes into the ground. It springs up. All plants are polliced waters, and God gives increase. Oh, friends, has your heart been opened to receive the word? Has your ear been opened? Have you ever heard the word? Has it ever entered in? Has it ever been brought forth fruit? Oh, before we can hear the word, we must have an ear given. We must have the ear opened. We must have the heart opened by the Lord, and it's his word. Nobody else can perform that work. Our friends, he uses instruments. The preaching of the Word, blessed by the power of the Spirit, opens a heart, opens the ear, but, our friends, it's his work. It's the application of the Spirit of God. It's not the work of man. I can't give you a hearing ear this evening. I can't open your heart. And all parents have to prove it regarding their children, and pastors have to prove it regarding their flock. And you may have to prove it regarding one or another. Or you may bring them to the word of God time and time again. But, ah, friends, until the Lord opens the heart and until he gives the hearing ear, the word will not be received. It cannot be acted upon. They may receive it for a time, but ultimately, ah, friends, it has to be proved they have not got the ear to hear. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But then, friends, come into those, ah, that have ears to hear. those who have that ground within their heart to receive the word. We read of two types of hearers. There are two types, two classes of the Lord's people, and these are not permanent classes. It's not this evening that we're either in one or the other, but they describe the Lord's people at various times in their experience. As we go hot and cold, as we are found spiritually exercised and carnal and indifferent, At times in our life we may be a thorny ground hearer. At other times we may be amongst those who hear the word and it brings forth fruit. Some thirtyfold, some sixty and some a hundred. Friends, what is the difference between these two types of grounds? It's the weeds. It's the weeds. That's what separates these two types of ground. The weeds. Oh, you know, if you've given some seeds to plant in your garden, what's the first thing you do? You go and dig up the weeds. You go and clear the ground. You prepare the soil to receive the wood. There's a picture here for us. Ah, friends, your heart this evening, is it weedy? Dear Berridge said, my heart with weeds is overgrown and oft as lifeless as a stone, nor careth for thy ways. Ah, friends, does that describe you this evening? Can I ask you, if you look back over the past year, and you have to confess, there are those times you come in and out of the Lord's house, but how rare are those hearing times been? Is it because the weeds have gone rampant? Is it because you've not been concerned about the weeds growing up in your heart? Oh, you see, friends, if the seed is sown amongst weeds, though it enters into the ground, the weeds very quickly choke it. Oh, the plants have come up amongst the weeds. Oh, how thin they are. They grow tall and very thin to try and get above them. Or they become smothered and you lift up the weeds and look underneath and their leaves are all pale. Oh, the sunlight has not got to them. They're weak. And ultimately, oh, except the weeds are pulled up, they'll die. Choked, cut off. Oh, friends, what a picture. What a picture of us left to ourselves. the weeds go rampant, they grow up, and oh, the work of grace, the good hearing times, the word that we hear, how quickly it's choked. We come into the Lord's house and we hear profitably. Oh, while we're sitting in the Lord's house, we're moved. Oh, we're sitting in the Lord's house, we're refreshed, but as soon as we leave the Lord's house, Ah, friends, the weeds appear to choke it and to cut it off. And the Lord describes the weeds, the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things. Enter it in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Oh, friends, these are the weeds, you see, that the Lord's people have to watch, the cares of the world. How often has that weed in your heart kept you from a good hearing, How often have you come into the Lord's house? Oh, you know, friends, I had to rebuke myself last evening because one of my congregation, I asked him before the service whether he could help me on a certain matter and I explained what I needed doing. At the end of the service, he told me a better idea. You know, friends, he hadn't been listening. He told me he hadn't been listening. He'd been working out what he was going to do to solve the problem that I'd put to him. Oh, friends, planted a weed in his heart. Ah, friends, the cares of the world. How often we come into the Lord's house and the cares of the world, they've got the upper hand. Some of you may have come in from work this evening. Have you brought work in with you? Or the concerns of the family, your children, school, the problems, perhaps with your age, parents, whatever it might be. Oh, friends, we bring those things into the Lord's house, they're like weeds. They choke the hearing time. Our mind is taken up with them. Our heart is drawn away by them. The word is good. Oh, friends, the gospel, there's no problem with that. But our heart is overgrown with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches. Oh, friends, how often that chokes the word. what we have tried to set before you this afternoon, that which sustains the Lord's people. Grace, mercy and peace. But are, you know, friends, the rich man. Oh, the strong man. He hears such things in the Lord's house, but he goes out of the Lord's house. He's got his bank balance to rest upon. He's got his health and his strength to rest upon. He's got friends and helpers to rest upon. He forgets the grace, mercy and peace. Our friends, it grows up as a weed. Those things grow up as a weed, but they're deceitful. Oh, and when they pass away, he's forgotten the grace, mercy, and peace. He needs the Lord to revive it again. Oh, the deceitfulness of riches and how often they take our attention. Our heart is set upon them. And we're more concerned about increasing our riches than we are about growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. and the lust of other things entering in. Oh, friends, do you sit in the Lord's house this evening, lusting after things, things you want? If only I had, if only I had this, if only I had that. It chokes the hearing time, chokes the seed. Oh, they enter in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And so we enter in to the Lord's house, and we leave the Lord's house. but no fruit, no springing up. Oh, friends, what does a good gardener do? As we've already said, a good gardener clears the ground in preparation for the sowing time. Oh, can I ask you, if you have to search yourself and say how rare are the good hearing times, can I ask you how much gardening you do? Oh, friends, how much time do you spend rooting up these weeds? How much time do you spend trying to clear the ground, as it were, for the good seed? Can I come firstly to the Lord's Day? Now, friends, keeping to the Lord's Day seems to be at an ever-increasing low ebb, and I have no stones to throw. Now, friends, I must begin with myself. But how easily the cares and the concerns of the weak slip into the Lord's Day. How easily we allow those things to drift into the Lord's day. Things that we need to do and we give all kinds of reasons, the busyness of life, the way of modern society. The incessant call upon our time by modern technology. These things creep in and they're as weeds. They take your good hearing time. I've had to prove it myself, even with preaching. You carry your phone around with you and you've got good cause, you say, to carry it around. And I'm not arguing against the good use of technology this evening. But, ah, friends, you only need to see one text message. You only need to see the heading of one email that's come in. And what you've heard in the Lord's house is gone. It's gone. Ah, friends, are we sensitive to these things? Do we realise they're weeds? Are we waiting? Oh, if we allow those things to creep in, friends, if we are not found trying to seek in grace to root those things out, then you'll prove they choke the word. And it'll be barren preaching, it'll be barren hearing. Oh, to bring to an end the cares and the concerns of the weak and to look to Jesus regarding the cares and the concerns of the weak to come as he says, take no thought for the morrow. Well, friends, that's what you did. Look into Jesus, casting your cares upon him. He will sustain you. Well, friends, you can leave Monday morning in his hands. You need not worry about it on his day. He has said, the hymn writer summarises it, cast, he says, on me thy care. It is enough that I am near. I will all thy burdens bear. I will all thy needs supply. Ah, friends, are you casting your burdens upon him, or do you carry them into the Lord's house? All your burdens, the impossibilities, the troubles, the mountains, the things that need to be attended to during the next week, and they choke the word. Oh, you do not hear because all those things crowding in. Oh, they take away the hearing time. They are as weeds, and they choke the good word heard. Our friends, you know, it's weeding, spiritual weeding. To cast all those things upon the Lord, to look alone to him, to lay your burdens at his feet, to pray for grace to leave them there. Our friends, that's the problem. How often we look to him and pray to him, but we still keep the burden. We take it to him and show it to him, but we do not give it to him. We don't leave it with him. And the burden, the care, the concern, it chokes. the hearing of the word. Can I come to another type of weed? Oh, friends, differences with your brethren, how often they eat us up. But the Lord says, he that comes to the altar, he that cometh to the altar, let him first be reconciled to his brother. Oh, you know, I don't think I do much of it, and I fear, I cannot speak for my fellow ministerial brethren here this evening, but do we remind our people They ought to confess their faults one to another and pray for one another. Our friends, to seek that reconciliation, but how often division is the weed. These things eat us up, we do not hear. Our friends, we need that grace and it takes grace to confess our faults one to another and to pray for one another. And our friends, if we have gone that way, if we've tried to be reconciled, I believe the Lord will honour it. Our friends, we cannot force our brother to be reconciled to us, our sister to be reconciled to us. But can we be sure as we come to the Lord's house with a clear conscience that we have sought to be reconciled to them? But our friends, there are often divisions, jealousies, or the petty fallings out. Those things, they eat up your hearing time in the Lord's house. You're taken up by them. Our friends, we need to be found weedy. Is that the reason why we've perhaps been so often unprofitable hearers? And then, friends, prejudice is about the minister and about the ministry. That can eat up your hearing time too, destroy the word soul. But, ah, friends, be lifted above those things, to pray for grace, or to lose sight of the man in the pulpit, to have that heart prepared to receive the word, Oh, to be found concerned. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, let him hear. But ah, friends, you're here in time. Have you got these weeds? The burdens that you're trying to carry, the world, the things that crowd in. Oh, friends, to shut them out. They come in a sight. Oh, that's why it's so good to gather together in the Lord's house, with the Lord's people, to shut the world out, as it were. Oh, we bring the world in our heart, I know, but that's part of this weeding. Oh, separation, coming apart, a desire that we might hear the word. There might be nothing between us and the word, but everything that would choke the word, everything that would get in the way might be taken out. And of course, friends, oh, the greatest way, The safest way, the foundation way, is to be found praying. Oh, how often have you prayed for your pastor during the last year? How often have you prayed that he might be given mouth, matter, and wisdom? That his mouth might be open wide, that the Lord might fill it? Oh, friends, our lack of hearing time, is it because we've not been found praying for that preparation of the ground in prayer? Oh friends, prayer for the minister. Prayer that the word might have free course. Prayer that the Lord might bless the word by the power of his spirit. Oh, do you blame this evening the minister's infirmities? Oh friends, do you blame? And they may be true infirmities. Perhaps his repetitions. The fact that he repeats the same things, the same anecdotes. Whatever you may throw at the Lord's servants, whether they are disorderly, whether their thought is broken and their language lame. Have you taken it to the Lord in prayer? All that prejudice, you see, that takes away the hearing time. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Ask that the Lord will bless you. We're only impotent instruments. We can't do anything of ourselves. The blessing is of the Lord. Are you seeking him? Seeking that he would bless you? that he would apply the word with power. Our friends, are you prayerful about your own heart, that the Lord would open your heart? Is it your concern as you come up to the Lord's house, do you pray that the Lord would give you a hearing time, that he'd open your ears? But our friends, how often we come into the Lord's house and we come in unprayerful, or we come in unconcerned. Our friends, the mercy is, And it is mercy, isn't it? It's unmerited favour, it's grace. When we come in with all these weeds and the Lord is pleased, the Lord is pleased to bless his word. Friends, the Lord is pleased to bless his word to this end, that it kills some of the weeds. Friends, it lifts us above the weeds. Oh, do you pray that the Lord might appear in such a way and that he would give you good hearing time. And he said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, you see, both of these grounds, both these type of grounds, they were fertile soil. The difference was the weeds. Now, friends, is your heart weeded this evening? Have you got these cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things in your heart this evening that are choking the word? Drawing your mind away, drawing your heart away. Oh, to be concerned about it. Oh, that our prayer might be, search me, try me. See if there'd be any wicked way in me, lead me in the way of the lost. Lord, help me. Appear for me. Help me to weed. Break up the fallow ground, Lord. Oh, that I might be a good ground hearer. That I might be a fruitful hearer. And these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Oh, friends, this is the hearer we should be. This is the hearer Jesus exhorts us to seek to be, to prayerfully seek that we might be a good ground hearer. Now, friends, what is a good ground hearer is those that hear the word. that receive it with joy, but it's those that do the Word. Oh, be not only hearers of the Word, but doers also. Our friends, when we hear the Word and it has an effect, it changes us. The fruit is seen in our life. Our friends, firstly, the inward fruit. As the Word convinces us of sin, as the Word brings us to cry to God for mercy, for Jesus Christ's sake, as the Word brings us to that fountain open for sin and for uncleanness, to look to Jesus as He is preached. And our friends, we have to come, and it brings forth fruit. All those fruits which are spoken of, that Jesus exalted a prince and a saviour to give repentance, a remission of sins. Our friends, there's the fruits of those that hear of Jesus. It brings them to repentance, to turn from their sins. Ah, friends, can you remember the good hearing times when you heard the Word and you received it with joy and it caused you to turn from your sins? Ah, friends, hearing times not to be forgotten. Oh, can you remember those times, perhaps, just taken away from the preaching of the Word for a moment when you read the Word of God and it spoke to you? Oh, it rebuked you for a sin. You had to mourn over that sin and confess it Leave it. Oh, the world and the things of the world. Oh, friends, that's what it is to hear the word. For it to have an effect and bring forth a fruit in your life, a change. A change of direction. A turning from those things and a turning to Jesus Christ and a looking alone to him. Oh, could you remember any time when you came into the Lord's house over the past year? And Jesus was made precious. Oh, friends, when a glimpse of him took away the world. As the hymn writer so aptly and succinctly puts it, had I a glimpse of thee, my God, kingdoms and men would vanish soon. Vanish as I saw them not, as a dim candle dies at noon. Jesus says, sanctify them by thy word. Oh, friends, that's the effect of the word sanctify, you see. Oh, when the word is preached, thee word, the living word, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the word of the gospel, and oh, so precious, so sweet. You desire nothing but him, Jesus is precious, and then the things of this world lose their hold. You lose sight of them, even your family, your loved ones, the problems at work. Our friends, all those things fall into their right place. Jesus is all in all. Oh, can you remember those times? Have there been any times over the past year where the place has been made special to you, where you have not wanted to leave it because you've been afraid of the weeds growing up? Oh, you would stay in that place where Jesus has been revealed to you, their good hearing times. And oh, friends, they leave their mark. They leave their mark. Yes, we are poor creatures. Oh, friends, we need to be continually fed. The preaching of the word, the hearing of the word is likened to daily bread. Oh, friends, we don't have one meal and then never eat again, but we have to daily come and eat. And there are those meals that sustain us that we do not remember. Oh, you may not remember what you had for breakfast a few days ago, but it set you up for the day. It kept you going all morning, you did not faint. Our friends, the preaching of the Word is often like that. Don't expect every time to be a special time, but the Word has sustained you. It's corrected you. It's taught you. But our friends, there are those meals that you don't forget. All those occasions when you've had something to eat which has not only sustained you, but it's been a meal to be remembered, and it is so, under the hearing of the Word. Times, oh friends, hearing times that you never forget. Oh, marks that can never be erased. Have you had any of those during the past year? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. How do you hear? How do you hear? Oh, friends, the way you tell how you hear is the fruit that's bought forth. the marks. And you may not think much to the preaching, but if it brings forth fruit. Now friends, if it's corrected you, if it's changed your walk, if it's brought you to cry to Jesus, if it's brought you to cry with renewed hope, God be merciful to me a sinner, it's brought forth fruit. I was preaching last night at home from the account of a David numbering the people. And I could not help noticing how David received the word. Oh, and that plague had come upon the people because of David's sin of numbering the people. And the Lord sent Gad, or the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Orn and the Jebusite. And we read immediately, and David went up at the saying of Gad. Oh, friends, David had an ear to hear. And the evidence that he had an ear to hear is that he did what the word said. The word of the Lord said, go up, set an altar up unto the Lord in the threshing floor of all in the Jebusite. And David went up at the saying of God, which he spake in the name of the Lord. David went up and he built that altar and he offered that sacrifice upon it. And we read that glorious word, David built there an altar unto the Lord. and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord. And he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. And the Lord commanded the angel and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. Our friends, the Lord blessed David with a hearing ear. And David did what the Lord commanded and it was, oh, to the good of his soul, blessing, mercy. Our friends, are you a doer of the word? I find it a question, particularly with young people, that I often get asked, how do I know if I've heard the Lord speak? And perhaps some of you young people this evening, you hear perhaps the Lord's servant, you read in the books about the Lord speaking to people. What does it mean? Oh, friends, it certainly doesn't mean that you'll hear an audible voice. But when the word speaks to you, it'll bring forth fruit. Oh, friends, it will have an effect. The Lord has spoken to you, peace and pardon. It will abort peace into your soul. Ah, friends, it will abort relief from your burden, from your sin. Oh, do you know the difference you see between hearing the word of man and the Lord speak to you? Oh, those who you may try to speak the gospel to, and yet it never has any effect. They can repeat the gospel to you, but they're still in their sins. And they still tell you about their burden and still tell you they're a black sinner. Ah, friends, they have not heard the word of the Lord. But if you're a sinner and you hear the word of the Lord, and the Lord says, son, daughter, thy sins are all forgiven, thee go in peace. Ah, friends, you'll find peace in your soul, and you'll go in peace. You'll go on your way rejoicing. Ah, friends, if you've heard the word of the Lord concerning a matter of direction, then you'll follow what the word says. I won't be a question, have I heard the word of the Lord or not? You'll stand not on your going. David didn't say to Gad, is this a word from the Lord? How's it come? No, friends, he received it as the word of the Lord and he did it. He immediately went up and built that altar. Ah, friends, when the Lord speaks, you see, it has an effect. It has an effect. it brings forth fruit. When that word is received in our hearts, he that hath ease to hear, let him hear. They heard, and it brought forth fruit. They were doers of the word. Ah, friends, if you've heard the word of the Lord in convincing you of sin, ah, sin will hang heavy upon your soul. And if you hear the word of the Lord rebuking you concerning a matter, our friends, it will turn you away from it. You'll have to give it up. You'll have to be parted from your idol and separated from your sin and brought out from the world. You see, where the word of the Lord is, where the word of a king is, there is power when the Lord speaks. Oh, that beautiful psalm on the meditation on the voice of the Lord, mighty are the many waters. makes the hinds carve. No, friends, God's voice, his word is powerful. When he speaks, it has an effect. No, friends, it will change you. It will bring forth fruit, some 30-fold, some 60, some 100. And if the Lord teaches you by his word, no, friends, you won't forget that teaching. Oh, the difference, and perhaps you know it, between trying to study a matter, trying to search it out yourself in the word of God, but when the Lord speaks, oh, when the Lord takes you to the exact verse of scripture which opens it up and it's applied with power to your soul, you don't need teaching again on that matter, you see it then clearly. Oh, friends, when the Lord speaks, the hearing of the word, he that hath ears to hear, let Now friends, have you heard? Oh, have you heard the word of the Lord? Have there been those hearing times? Have there been those hearing times? Oh, it might be an exercise with you as a church and a people over another year, there might be good hearing times. There might be a concern how you hear. I want to just bring in one other point here and you'll find it. In the second place where we read this in the chapter, if any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, take heed what you hear. Take heed what you hear. Oh, you know, friends, if you're concerned about having good hearing times, you'll take heed what you hear. And I'm not now speaking about your pastor's ministry. I cannot, I do not sit under it. But oh, friends, I must speak to each of us. So I tell my people at home, you must bring what I say back to the word of God. Ah, friends, take heed how you hear. If I should stand up and bring another message? Ah, friends, the apostles speak so plainly against such. They aren't to be anathema, they aren't to be cast out. There's only one gospel. We're to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Ah, friends, do you bring what you hear to the word of God? You see, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. If it's your concern to hear, then you want to make sure that what you're hearing is the truth. You want to make sure that what you're hearing is the word of God. Take heed what you hear. Now, friends, what are you hearing? What are you hearing? You younger people, you live in a generation which perhaps is a generation that has never been blessed so much in one way, but a generation which is exposed to many dangers. concerning the hearing of the word. In a moment you can connect to hear sermons preached by all kinds of men, women, all over the world. Ah, friends, do you take heed to what you hear? Or do you take heed to know what the man stands for before he opens his mouth that you hear? I hear young people speak to me about various ones they've heard. Oh, friends, I could tell them that the ones they've heard are in serious error over this, that and the other, but they listen to the sermons. They're not taking heed to what they hear. When you hear, do you bring it back to the word of God? Oh, friends, we need to take heed to what we hear. And you need to take heed to what you hear in the Lord's house and outside the Lord's house. If you're exercised about being a good hearer, if you're exercised about good hearing times, you'll want to know that what you're hearing is according to the word of God. Take heed what you hear. Oh, friends, I say it in love. I'm not perfect. I need my hearers to bring the words that I speak in the pulpit to the word of God. We are not blessed with infallibility. I've had to Realise recently, oh friends, solemnly, how often as a minister, we blame the Holy Spirit. How often when we're challenged about something that we've said, our first response is, it's how the Lord opened it to me. It's how the Lord showed it to me in his word. Oh friends, if it's not according to the word of God, it's not the Holy Spirit. He's not the author of confusion. Oh friends, we need humility in the pulpit. I need humility to confess that I get it wrong sometimes, I've got an old nature, a heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and who can know it? And we get hold of a text and we rest it to our own ends, and we say it means this or that, and perhaps we say it's come with some sweetness and some power, but it's not according to the word of God. Oh, we need to take heed as to what we speak. Oh, that we might be concerned about how we speak, exercised about these things. We want exercised hearers in the pew, and you want exercised minister in the pulpit. And when those two things come together, friends, then are the good hearing times. Take heed what you hear, take heed what you speak. Friends, these things are vital. We've seen it in the churches. Those that have filled the pulpits, perhaps with whoever they can get, have not taken heed with what was being spoken. They have not taken heed with what they've heard. Oh, friends, it's had an effect. We need to watch. Guard what our ears are hearing. Oh, that we might have ears to hear, that we might hear what the Lord will speak. Oh, friends, that we might hear the word of God. That's what an exercised hearer will want to hear, not what the man thinks, but what the word of God says. And oh, when the Lord's servants come with the word of God, Ah, friends, when they preach according to the word of God, then the apostle Peter tells us they are the oracles of God. They speak as with the oracles of God. Oh, to have such preachers, those that come with the word of God, that stick close to the word of God. And all the discerning hearer can hear it, take heed. What ye hear, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. And oh, there's a blessed promise, isn't there, too, in this chapter, before I just come back to the text. With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you, and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. Ah, friends, to be a hearer of the Word. The promise is, as we hear, oh, the Lord will bless with hearing. The Lord will bless with hearing. Oh, that we might be concerned to hear. Now to come back to our text, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Oh, to be searching ourselves regarding our hearing. And oh, that it might be a prayerful concern to us and a burden as we go forth in another year, a concern that we might be hearers of the word. There might be that fruit seen amongst you as a church and people. There might be that fruit seen in your life. There might be that fruit attending your pastor's ministry. Oh, as there is the hearing, as the ear is opened, as we come up praying that the Lord would bless the hearing, and oh, the heart receives, and there is the bringing forth, and that will be a concern, friends, that Jesus might be preached. Oh, that he might be lifted high. That was what David heard ultimately, wasn't it, in that passage you've already spoken of, the sacrifice, that sheathed the sword. Divine justice satisfied. Where is it satisfied but in Jesus Christ and in crucified? That's what it is to take heed what you hear. To come up with that desire as the Greek says, we would see Jesus. Oh, to want to hear Jesus' name lifted high, to want to hear Him proclaim that He has exalted a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins, that His precious blood is able to cleanse from all sin, that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. But He has said, He that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, friends, that will bring forth joy, in the heart of an exercised hero. That will give remission of sins in your heart, that will separate you from the world. Some fruit, 30 fold, 60, and some 100. Our friends, this fruit is seen in growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Do you desire that fruit? Perhaps I should just come there as the thought came to me earlier in the day, I was intending to bring it earlier into the sermon, but this, Ah, friends, what fruit are you desiring? What fruit are you desiring? You know, I remember reading the account of a godly Scottish minister who said to his congregation, have you come to give or have you come to get? That's a searching question. Oh, you know, friends, we often come, we want to get. We want to have some warm experience. We want the word to come just where we are. But ah, friends, a good hearing time are also the occasions when you come to give. Ah, when you enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, when you're content that he has the top place, that he has all the preeminence. Ah, friends, an exercised hearer will be pleased to leave the Lord's house if Jesus' name has been lifted high because they'll want to give him the glory. And I've had to prove, you know, some very gracious hearers that I have become aware of, they listen for other people. And they're satisfied that there's been nothing particular for them, but there's been something for one that they've been praying about. Something for one they've been burdened about. And they've seen the word applied. Our friends, they've gone on their way rejoicing. They've not received anything for themselves other than the answer to their prayer for somebody else. Oh, friends, have you had hearing times like that over the past year? Are you burdened as you come up to the Lord's house about people having ears to hear? Are there those that you're having to pray over that the Lord would give them ears, that he'd open their hearts? Oh, friends, do you have to pray not only for a good hearing time for yourself, but a good hearing time for somebody else? You want the word to be blessed to them. Oh, you want them. to hear the word. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, friends, that's the path of an exercised hearer too. And it's a precious path, the walking. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Oh, what do you want to hear? What do you call a good hearing time? Now, friends, you know, a good hearing time is not just to be told where you are. As I understand, my predecessor, Mr. Gosden, often said, it's no good just telling a man from the pulpit he's in the ditch, but you need to tell him how to get out of the ditch. Now, friends, some people, they seem to come in only to hear, to be told where they are. They don't want to be told how to get out of where they are, but a good hearing time. Now, friends, it will lift you out of your problems. It'll bring you to Jesus. It'll make him all in all, all in all. It will bring you to cast your cares upon him. The good here in time. Ah, friends, it's when you're here that are led a bit deeper into the truth. Do you come up wanting to be taught? Do you come up wanting to have the word of God open to you? Oh, friends, it's a rejoicing time when you go out to the Lord's house and you've been led a little bit deeper into the truth. Now you've seen something in the word of God you have not seen before. Something's fallen into place. You're growing in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. You see, friends, the Lord is pleased to bless the ministry, to all these ends. To the emptying, to the filling, to the killing, to the making alive, to the laying low, and to the lifting up, to the teaching and instructing, to direction in the way that we should go, to sanctifying us, to preparing us for glory, Oh, to bringing us to rest upon grace, mercy and peace. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Oh, that you might know such hearing times, that it might be your concern and your desire during another year. Oh, can I finish on this note this evening? Have you never heard? Have you never heard? Have you come in and out of the Lord's house? Now, friends, you've perhaps heard many words, but you cannot point to the word having ever had an effect. Now, it has not convinced you of sin, as you feel. Now, friends, it has not released you from that sin by the power of Jesus Christ. Oh, friends, can I ask you this evening, can I come down to that low note? Is it a burden with you that you might be given an ear to hear? Are you groaning? that the word might be blessed to you, that you might not be left to come in as you've been coming in and out, no concern. Now, friends, plead the word of God at the throne of grace. Plead that the Lord would open your ear and open your heart. And if you've heard in the past, but now you seem to have been in a barren time, pray that the Lord would restore your hearing. Oh, friends, that he would show you the weeds. that he would in grace and mercy remove the weeds, that you might have that ear to hear and that you might receive the word and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundred. Well, friends, may your ears be open this evening to hear. Oh, it's a word of exhortation. I'll confess, friends, I don't like preaching words of exhortation because they cut me off. Ah, friends, I must confess this evening I come short. I'm so often a poor hearer and a poor doer of what I preach. But, ah, friends, I need the word. I need the exhortation. And, oh, that it might be blessed to you that there might be good hearers here, good hearers in Zion, and those who are marked out for their fruitfulness to the honour and the glory of our gracious God. Amen.