grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened. And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Holy Father, we do ask that you give us hearing today, that we be hearers and doers of thy word. We thank you for the Holy Bible, for we know, God, that we have to have a preacher. And you've given us this Holy Bible full of inspired preaching, Father, and we want to proclaim it from the rooftops. And we do ask, God, that you help the preaching today. Keep us from error. We thank you for your goodness. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. when hearing goes to the birds. There's a passage of scripture that comes to my mind when we read this. We're looking at old age and the command is to remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. Whatever time you've got left is your youth compared to tomorrow, whatever age you are. David has a prayer in Psalm 71 where he says, cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength faileth. And that's what we're looking at here in Ecclesiastes 12, the strength failing, whether it be the strength of the eyes, the strength of the bones, the strength of hearing. He says, for My enemies speak against Me, and they that lay wait for My soul take counsel together. O God, Thou hast taught Me from My youth, and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works. Wouldn't it be wonderful to say that in old age? That's what I want you children, you young people, to grab a hold of. I want you in old age to be able to say, hitherto, Up to this point, I have declared thy wondrous works." What's more wondrous than the death of our Lord and resurrection, the gospel, the cross, the ascension to heaven, and the coming again of our Lord? Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come." He's basically saying, Lord, don't let me die until I've told this generation. Because there's a new generation out here and they need to hear it. And praise God, he's even in old age, ready to preach, ready to tell a new generation about God. Oh, I pray that is something that we'll grab ahold of. Now remember, we've been looking at this text where the grinders cease because they are few. We looked at teeth, and we looked at ways that we might renew our youth, that we might make the most, if he's telling you, remember your creator in the days of thy youth, how important it is to try to preserve your youth in whatever way you can that's holy and right. Those that look out of the windows be darkened. That's the eye sockets, the eyes looking out of the windows, the eyes going dim in old age. And then we have verse four, the door shall be shut in the streets. The door shall be shut in the street. Either a figurative description of the doors of our ears and the doors of our mouth David didn't want the doors of his mouth shut. But sometimes there is this gradual loss of hearing in old age and the doors are shut in many ways. Or maybe it means that the man is literally keeping his doors shut more now, not going outside as much. Or else this is what it sounds like to him. It sounds like everybody shut their doors. It sounds like there's nothing going on whatsoever in the streets. So obviously, this is the hearing loss that can occur in elderly years. Then he says, when the sound of the grinding is low. That's as plain, I believe, as can be. I do not believe it refers to the grinding of the teeth as before, but to the common sound in that agricultural-based society where you would have mills everywhere. You would have large mills. You would have your home mills that are smaller, your grain mills. And it was a common sound. And Solomon is showing that there's going to be a time when the common sound of life, these mills, will will be very low. It's saying that this man, in his extreme elderly years, has obviously lost some degree of hearing. But then he says, all the daughters of music shall be brought low. We're going to jump ahead for a moment. Listen to that again now. All the daughters of music shall be brought low. One of the greatest pleasures of life We know David sang. We know young men should sing. One elderly person said, David, I'm not going to go with you. I don't want to be a burden with you. Can I hear any more of the voice of singing men and singing women? Wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden to my Lord the King? He's talking about going out and wandering around the wilderness. He knew that would be hard and he didn't want to be a burden as they needed to sleep in caves and that type of thing. But I want you to notice he talks about hearing the voice of singing men and singing women. It's a great pleasure to have singing. God says we ought to exhort one another in these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And that should be a vital part of our life. And I believe we've perverted that. I believe the things that people are listening to today is not what God intended. It's not edifying. But nevertheless, it talks about the daughters of music being brought low, not being able to appreciate it, not being able to hear it. Few things in life can surpass the blessings of a godly sweet sister singing to the Lord and in the Lord. What a blessing that is. The flowers and sunsets and beautiful things of life. And that is one of the most beautiful things of life. Now he says, he shall rise up at the voice of the bird. Many apply this to elderly people rising up very, very early. So they say the bird must be a rooster. But in looking at the Bible and history, it was common for almost all people to get up early. And having done a lot of camping on the property here, there are birds that wake up very, very early, way before sunrise, and start chirping. However, many that adopt the view that this is the elderly person rising up early in the morning, they don't even seem too confident in their view. Some refer it to a general insomnia that comes with old age. and there is a loss of melatonin in old age that they've discovered and it certainly can lead to that. The Bible speaks of grape juice and dreams and this deep sleep that comes from grape juice and that type of thing. It was in 2006 when they discovered that grapes had melatonin in them and grape products and grape juice and just as date fruits boost serotonin and we're starting to see some of these really the Bible diet, how amazing it is and how it equips us and supplies our every need. But I lean toward the idea that the phrase, rise up, isn't limited to merely rising up from sleep in the morning. We have this phrase throughout the Bible, and perhaps that's the problem, is they're limiting it to the idea of waking up early in the morning. And it says bird, it doesn't say rooster, though we know the rooster is a bird of type. But it says in Ecclesiastes, if the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for yielding pacifieth great offenses. It means don't cop an attitude, stay in your place and things will go better for you. We need to learn that. So in this type of rising up, maybe it's saying that grumpiness, a temptation to grumpiness will increase in old age. However, there's a lot of grumpy teenagers and a lot of grumpy younger kids today in this generation that ought not be. Maybe the mere sound of a bird is causing the person to rise up in anger. However, we do see Matthew 10, the brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the father of the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. Again, a different usage of this phrase. But notice Proverbs 31, her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also and he prays with her. That's the virtuous woman. Now this can refer to growing up, her children grow up and call her blessed, but likely it refers to the respect that children should give to parents, a rising up to greet and to listen to. There is certainly a respect of rising up, not merely before the elderly, but to anyone that knocks on your door, a guest, anyone who comes calling. If it's not an enemy or a wicked wolf, the Bible tells some sisters not to bid certain false teachers Godspeed. But under other occasions, it's normal to greet somebody, to rise up. It's a sign of selfishness to be on your cell phone when somebody is addressing you or somebody comes calling. It's a sign of selfishness to be occupied with other things and not with your guest. And so, how much more so to that respect that should be given parents. God forbid there's a child in his room or on his computer game or whatever it is and the mother's trying to get in touch with him, trying to get contact and he's so involved in what he's doing or maybe he does hear but he really doesn't hear and we'll be talking about that today. I think the main point is this, that the aged person will often have problems hearing as we have seen. And this not only makes the sound lower, but it also sometimes brings confusion in discerning the sound. So, it appears to me that the man is seen rising up at the sound of the bird. He's rising up, opening the door because a bird chirped. He thought he heard somebody calling. Genesis 27, he also had made savory meat and brought it unto his father and said unto his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's venison that thy soul may bless thee. But if you're not sure who's knocking at the door, what if there's not even a knock at the door? What if you hear somebody calling, but it wasn't somebody calling? Maybe he thinks an old friend has, surely he's heard the voice of an old friend, but it was only the bird chirping. Maybe he thought the king was visiting today, and the king was knocking upon his door, but it's not the king, it's a mere bird. Keep this in mind, rising up to greet, a mere bird, hearing that is growing difficult to discern sounds, to discern words. I think the first thing we need to examine in relation to all of this is how does the Bible describe hearing loss? Oh, the Bible has a lot to say about hearing loss, but it has to do mainly with spiritual hearing, with the hearing of the word of God and the hearing of authority, and that is what we are going to aim for and conclude with today. But let's look at hearing loss in a physical sense. Or at least the physical being a picture of the spiritual. It's very interesting. I want you to notice something. It says in Isaiah 59, behold the Lord's hand is not shortened. You don't want a hand that's deformed. And he's saying the Lord's hand is not deformed. that it cannot save, it's not weak in other words, it's not lame, but then it says neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. You would expect it to say your eyes heavy, meaning the eyelids, you know, when your eyes just feel like drooping when you're tired and that type of thing. We understand the Bible teaching the eyelids being heavy, but the ear heavy that it cannot hear? I believe this is very interesting. Isaiah 6 says, make the heart of this people fat. That's not talking about a good thing. And make their ears heavy and shut their eyes. Isn't that interesting? When he talks about ears that don't work well, he says the ears are heavy. Now, today, here is a fellow with goldfish hanging from his ears, literally. This poor fella has heavy ears. You know, we're living in a very strange day and age, aren't we? But you know, it's not as strange as you think. We're just really going back to trash everything. We're going back to bizarre, crazy, and trash your body. Just the strangest, the way you can offend anybody, just offend them. And we're really going back to Philistine culture. Are you understanding what I'm telling you? Because they've dug up some Philistine artifacts, and they've seen some things from ancient Philistine. And I'm telling you, It's trashing. It's for the gods. Just as they cut themselves, they trash themselves in every way possible. Talk about heavy ears. Oh, there he is again. Here's somebody. They've got heavy ears. I'm telling you, I'm not putting, even if he has a tie on, whatever, I am not putting this before you as a model. Do you understand? I do not want anybody in this church looking like that. You understand? Please don't look like that. Please, I've talked about feminine adornment, but don't ever, don't even do your hair like that, okay? I don't want to see Philistine hairdos and all that crazy stuff that comes from rebellion, that comes from somebody you saw playing basketball somewhere or whatever it might be, some movie star, some pop star. Let's have a culture that speaks of decency and honor and respect for God and respect for your body. And let's not go back to that. God didn't make you like that, you understand? He didn't make anybody. But we have some strange things going on today. Now what about this heavy, heavy ear? Heavy ear. We know that the same type of language describes many afflictions today in regard to hearing loss, ear infections. Here's one from healthgrades.com. It says ear fullness. Ear fullness? That sounds like heaviness to me. God's saying a lot of hearing loss is dealing with heavy ear. Something is full that should not be. Well, this is modern science. They certainly understand what that means. Ear fullness is usually the result, usually, of a cold or a flu that blocks the Eustachian tube and may lead to ear infection. In some cases, ear fullness may be a symptom of severe infection of the bone behind the ear, which is serious or life-threatening conditions. Healthline says, why won't the pressure in my ears go away and how to relieve it? Modern ear fullness, ear pressure, Meniere's disease is a result of fluid retention and buildup in the inner ears. So this idea of heaviness is in accordance with modern science, but it's in your King James Bible. It goes way back. And probably there's more to this than we've even begun to realize in regard to hearing loss. But what are some common problems? I'll show later from Laodicea that it's not only eye problems that people are going to have in the last days, spiritual eye problems and physical eye problems, but also hearing issues. Spiritual and even literal hearing issues in the last days. Some of the causes are due to this age of concerts with rock and rap music blaring, and I come from a culture, I come from a history of Marshall Stacks, you know, Randall Stacks, whatever I could do, the more Stacks I had, the better, the more exciting the concert, and I lived much of my life in front of these Stacks. And if I put cotton in my ear to try to protect it because everybody warned me, I couldn't hear the high sounds. And I would try for maybe half the concert and I would just throw the cotton out because I couldn't stand it. And that's damaging to your ears, folks. It's damaging whether you're out there listening to it or you're the one playing it. It's damaging to your ears. So people lose the ability to hear because of this loud noise. But you don't have to be a musician and go to rock and rap concerts. What about the disco clubs that just invaded everything in the 70s? And then all of these different punk rock clubs and everything where you go somewhere and you can't even talk to the person next to you because the music is blaring to such a degree. And then they get in their car. I mean, I remember when boom boxes were invented. I remember people walking around with these things and, you know, they're just shaking up and down and it's causing walls and glass to shake. And now people drive around in their cars and the whole car is shaking up and down. Isn't it sad? Isn't it a sad thing? I can't believe it. Just the idiocy, but the foolishness of driving around with your eyeballs rolling back in your head because this thing's booming. What in the world are these people doing to themselves? How sad. However, what about headphones? What about earphones now that are causing so much trouble for young people? Modern children are addicted to their iPads, their games, their computer games, and their cell phones, and their music, and they've got these things in their ear all the time, you know, these earbuds and all of that. One blogger, Nav-Han Times, Nav-Hine Times, I believe is what he's saying. But he says, I happened to speak recently with an audiologist. who says more and more patients across ages during this lockdown are reporting hearing-related symptoms ranging from sensations of heaviness, that's right out of our Bible, in the ears, after prolonged headphone use, to hearing ringing or buzzing sounds, tinnitus, that could be transient or persistent. A few of those tested objectively by audiometry have even been found to have some degree of hearing loss. How to protect kids ears from constant headphone use was the headline of an article in the New York Times dated May 21, 2020. Volume is not the only measure to consider. Duration also contributes to damage to our ears. Without proper safety measures, children could end up with hearing loss. Communication difficulties and distressing symptoms of ear ringing, aural fullness, sensitivity and pain. It quotes Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at University of Michigan Rick Neitzel, exposure is not just intensity, it is also how long it lasts and how frequently it occurs. People that work around airplanes, use their hearing, all kinds of workmen and those types. It's not so much like a bomb going off, which can get rid of your ears for a military soldier, but it's just the daily hearing of a hum or something like that takes the ears, weakens them. According to Brian Flegor, a pediatric audiologist in Boston, any ear symptoms are serious, ringing, muffling, fullness, fluttering, thumping, sensitivity, distortion, pain, even if temporary. They mean you have had a warning. Across the board, the unanimous recommendation is for listening breaks for children and adults using headphones, other safeguards. If a sound bleed can be heard by others from the user's headset, the decibel level is too high. The child should be able to hear when spoken to, even when listening to something else on headphones. How often does that happen? Health professionals are nowadays meeting anxious parents with their children complaining of episodic headaches, photophobia, aversion to bright light, eye and ear strain, noises in the ear, vertigo, imbalance, stress, fatigue, insomnia. Parents also mentioned cognitive and behavioral changes, including lack of interest and distraction during online classes. Such a phenomenon was largely unheard of in the past and seems like an emerging issue related to the current trend of virtual learning and gadget use. The natural protective mechanisms of the inner ear are lost with earphones. and the risk of damage to the end organ of hearing is very high with cumulative usage. This is more so in the tender ears of children. I think we got a generation that is cursing the eyes and ears and brains of a whole generation. And oh, just time, it's just gonna be really sad when we see what's really going on. You've only got so many little hairs in your ears, I think 15,000. And it's a horrible thing to cause these things to disappear. Now God can use, just like with the blind, praise God for any weakness that God gives grace to and medical information and blessing to us to be able to deal with. There are inflection, here we go, people listening and not able to hear. We've got stuffy ear clogged infections. One of the things that people have used down through the ages, warm olive oil mixed with garlic. I want you to keep that in mind. Garlic oil eardrops you can study. Let's take a look at ear infection treatment, an evidence-based approach. How can we heal? How can we remedy other than staying away from certain things? How can we remedy hearing loss? Is there a remedy for hearing loss? The typical scenario involves an upper respiratory infection such as cold or the flu. This may produce some discomfort in the ear, even more subtle signs such as tugging at an ear. A quick trip to a primary care provider prompts a peek into the ear and a diagnosis. In some cases, the child actually experiences an earache. More often than not, this diagnosis results in a prescription for antibiotics, usually a broad spectrum second or third generation antibiotic. While this scene plays out all over the country, many parents don't realize that this standard practice is in direct conflict with evidence-based medicine, AAP guidelines, and the standard of care for ear infections across the world. Even fewer parents realize that this standard of practice may be causing our children more harm than benefit. According to the Healthy People 2020 objective, 77.8% of pediatric visits for an ear infection resulted in a prescription for antibiotics. Because antibiotics are overused, In ear infections, we're now having to use stronger drugs than we could have used in previous generations. This means more side effects and more antibiotic resistance, superbugs in other words. A study published in Pediatrics Outlines, a double blind trial using garlic, mullein, calendula, St. John's wort, and lavender infused olive oil as compared to antibiotics, The researchers found that after three days, the group with herbal eardrops had better improvement than those with the antibiotics. This is sad because it's telling you that God has given certain herbs and things that we've already seen. The garlic, here, lavender. God has given ways to treat ear infections and such like. But yet they give these antibiotics. This is why many restaurants are in a rush. Well, not so much a rush, but they say they're in a rush to get the antibiotics out of the food, because we're creating superbugs. And I tell you, a lot of people, like the tobacco industry, are going to be held liable to what these doctors have done, to what these restaurants and food producers have done. Certain antibiotics, these broad-spectrum activity antibiotics, cause significant hearing loss, with estimates of a 20-50% chance of incidence when treating acute infections, says Neurological Disorders and Therapeutics. Wow. Not only that, there's other things. Type in pesticides that are neurotoxins that are in the food today. Not just antibiotics in your food, but neurotoxic pesticides that affect your hearing. Ibuprofen, type in that. Type in some of these anti-inflammatory things such as ibuprofen, however you say it. Anything that hurts your kidneys is going to hurt your ears. Study after study is showing people losing their hearing by taking these things. But it's not only staying away from the antibiotics and the pesticides and the loud music in your ears and all of that. Proper nutrition, believe it or not, will help your ears in many cases. And now they're finding out more and more and more. And now they're finding out, okay, well it's impossible to heal this type of hearing, but this type of hearing can be repaired with nutrition. Now they're finding more and more headlines like, study shows hair cell regrowth with new drug, 2017. Other animals are capable of regenerating those hairs of the ears to be able to hear, or the cells, Here's 2020. Don't shout yet, but drug to regenerate hearing shows early but muted promise in new trial. So now they're finding out, if you can do it with a drug, folks, then there's a plan out there that'll do it, you understand. Diet is one of the few modifiable risk factors. For age-related hearing loss, this is something you can do. Those in the highest quintile of dietary vitamin A intake had a 47% reduced risk of having moderate or greater hearing loss. Vitamin A. Vitamins A, vitamin Bs, have been found to reduce age-induced hearing loss by half, as we've seen. Glutathione. We've already seen garlic. Sulfur is in garlic. And sulfur is required for the synthesis of glutathione. And that is one of the most powerful things that folks are studying today. They're finding out this glutathione can help you restore hearing or at least protect your hearing when you are dealing with noise-induced hearing loss. Here's Noise and Health of 2018, Evaluation of Effective Garlic Age Extracts and Vitamin B on Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. They're finding out you give these animals a lot of noise and try to destroy their hearing. If you give them garlic, if you give them vitamin Bs, if you give them these things like glutathione, et cetera, somehow or another, It protects them from losing their hearing. Creatine, inside your meat and fish that they ate a lot in the Bible, has been found to protect and repair to some degree your hearing. What are we learning? One of the biggest problems today is, and I think this is for our age, this is our age, You say, where are the miracles? I wish I had miracles like in the days of the Bible. Oh, the Antichrist is going to bring many fake miracles and all types of things. So this is all coming in the tribulation period. But we have so much prophecy being fulfilled before your eyes. You said, well, I'm not seeing anybody raised from the dead. I'm not seeing this. I'm not seeing that. Do you understand Israel being restored as a nation in unbelief? Do you understand some of the things you're beholding, stage setting for prophecy? I mean, what more do you need? But not only that. Knowledge shall increase in the last days. And we know that Paul, in a book of Hebrews and elsewhere, quoted millennial prophecy with an application for this day and age. Do you remember when Peter said, this is that which Joel preached? Well, it wasn't what Joel preached in the ultimate situation. Remember when the Lord Jesus says, this is Elijah. John the Baptist is Elijah. This is Elijah that was to come. Yet our Lord assured us that the absolute literal fulfillment of Malachi 4 in regard to Elijah would come to pass. Elijah surely shall first come and restore all things. So what they're telling us is you can have a temporary, in this age, fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, even though it's ultimate fulfillment. It's like a bouncing ball, says Eric Sauer in 1940. What happens is we have tribulation prophecy, millennial prophecy that will be fulfilled in the coming millennium, but you can grab a hold of it now if you're wise and claim it and learn from it. So we know in Ezekiel that the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine. That tells me right now that there is some medicine growing on trees in regard to the leaves. And if this is going to be a fruit tree, then that tells me when I go in the Bible and find Grapes or a fruit tree? What else are fruit trees? Figs are fruit trees. Olives are fruit trees. This tells me when I grab a hold of those leaves, I'm gonna have medicine. Some of the most powerful medicine that you could ever have to heal your afflictions. Revelation 22, in the coming millennium, it says, in the midst of the street of it and on the either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree, not the fruit, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Those are those natural nations that are going to be in the coming millennial kingdom. Well, you know what I say? I say, well, that gives me a good key that right now I can take Bible fruit trees and I could take those leaves and who knows what in the world God, by His wonderful grace, will use those leaves to heal today. So whether we're talking about eyes or bones or ears, I tell you that it's gonna be, if it's ever found, it'll be the leaves of one of these trees that I believe will heal it. Well, what do we have here? We have a grape tree. Ezekiel 15, son of man, what is the vine tree? Remember how Paul told Timothy to drink grape juice for his infirmities? Remember back in the 20s? A woman from South Africa came and was trying to tell the world, I've discovered if you just fast and drink grape juice, you can heal almost anything. You can heal cancer. And this got so popular and got so popular and she dared anybody to prove her wrong until I think it was the late 40s, I believe, where they blast all over the papers, grape cure kills boy. After they had got him with their a common way of healing with their chemicals and all of the things that they've done, and they'd half killed the boy, then the dad, in desperation, gave him grape juice and tried to heal him, but it was too late. So they say grape cure kills boy. Why don't you do that with all the big pharma drugs and all the things they do when somebody dies? Why don't you say pharma drug kill? You'd probably be likely more true than that the grape cure killed anybody. You need to pray, use wisdom in regard to these things. But why bring up the grape? Why bring up the vine tree and the leaves of the vine tree for healing? Because you will find that, here's a study here, 2003, the effects of resveratrol on acoustic trauma. What is acoustic trauma? That's the thing that's in your headphone or whatever it is. It's blaring into your ears. Initial studies in our laboratory as well as other investigators have shown the importance of specific antioxidant therapy. There it is. We've seen antioxidants for the eyes. Now you've got antioxidants for the ear. And guess what? It's the same ones. It's the same ones. Resveratrol is found inside grapes. the skins of grapes and in the leaves of grapes a hundred times more than the skins. So God said, hey, it's in the leaves. It's in the leaves. For medicine, it's in the leaves. Eat your daily grapes for your, you know, your daily life. But when it comes to repairing something, fixing something, grab those grape leaves. See, grab those grape leaves. The prevention of noise and age-related hearing loss. The current study demonstrates a protective effect of resveratrol on noise-induced hearing loss. Incredible. Incredible. Here's a 2013 study. Resveratrol decreases noise-induced inflammation, COX-2 level. They are induced dramatically following noise exposure. This increased expression may be a potential mechanism of noise-induced hearing loss and a possible mechanism of resveratrol's ability to mitigate noise-induced hearing loss by its ability to reduce these inflammatory markers. So resveratrol is seen reducing the expression of a protein associated with noise-induced hearing loss, which can lead to reduced inflammation when you're exposed to loud noise. I'm telling you right now, they are on the edge of finding out that the leaves of God's fruit trees repair just about anything. Recent research has suggested that whole grape products Instead of just taking resveratrol out of the grape and then trying to take it as a supplement, why don't you just take the grape leaves? They got everything. Not only resveratrol, but whatever else God has in there that they haven't discovered yet. Recent research has suggested that the whole grape products may help in maintaining heart health, protecting against aging, aging-associated diseases, neurodegeneration, and some cancers. Muscadine grapes, those are those wild grapes growing, are nearly immune to insects and diseases and known to possess one of the highest antioxidant levels among fruits. I mean, they're growing wild. They haven't been destroyed by fertilizers and pesticides and those types of things. And you've got muscadine leaves just sitting there. What power! By God's grace is in those muscadine leaves. I've been telling you this for about 15 years. Wow. Wild grapes on the property. Can't wait to grab a hold of the leaves. Find your muscadines. Find your wild grape. Make sure they're grapes. Make sure they're grapes. Do your research. But praise God for the leaves. We're talking eye health. We're talking bone health, heart health, you name it. Grape leaves have almost 100 times the amount of resveratrol than the fruit does. According to Hearing Review, in 2013, our latest study focuses on resveratrol and its effects on bio-inflammation, the body's response to injury, and something that is believed to be the cause of many health problems, including Alzheimer's, cancer, aging, and hearing loss, says study lead author Michael D. Seinman. director of the division, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Resveratrol is a very powerful chemical that seems to protect against the body's inflammatory processes as it relates to aging, cognition, and hearing loss, he adds. We've shown that by giving animals resveratrol, we can reduce the amount of hearing and cognitive decline. We're talking brain health, we're talking ear health, and all of these other things. Grab a hold of the cinnamon. Grab a hold of the olive leaf. Grab a hold of the grape leaf. And I'm telling you, if I were you, that's what I would do. And I believe that you'll be blessed by it. You'll be blessed. Now while we're on the subject of resveratrol, Oh, hold on now. Second, oh, I'm waiting for these. Nobody come and steal my mulberry. There's a squirrel all day. I tell you what, you can see that squirrel and he will get up at the crack of dawn and he will work all day filling his cheeks. And you just hear him going up and down. What is he doing? He's stealing every mulberry on that tree. And if you get Brother Luke or Jeremy or somebody over and you catch him getting your mulberries, I tell you, you got to watch him. And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up, but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. and let it be when thou hearest the sound of a going in the top of the mulberry trees. Then thou shall bestir thyself for then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistine. Grab a hold of mulberries and grab a hold of mulberry leaves because you would not believe the amounts of resveratrol that are in those mulberry leaves. Why are people taking mulberry leaves right now? They're taking it for metabolism and energy so they can get going. so they can get going. And I tell you, God said when you hear the sound of a going on the tops of the mulberry trees, I tell you, if that's not God saying, hint, hint, hint, I don't know. I take it that way. You want to get going, let's get some mulberry leaves, all right? And what about the sound of the going? When you hear the sound of the going, and now they're finding out resveratrol right there inside the mulberry leaves. and in the mulberries themselves, full of antioxidants for your eyes and your ears and everything else, Church of God. I just wish we'd grab a hold of some of these things. I wish some of you would have grabbed a hold of it 20 years ago and started taking care of your kids. What blessings your children would have. But the Bible says that they are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because you rejected knowledge. And He says, so therefore, your children shall suffer for it. That's what God says right there. He says, because you rejected the knowledge, your children will suffer. You know, that's not just spiritual things, folks. That's physical things. And you better understand that the coming judgment seat of Christ isn't just spiritual, it's physical also. You say, I'm just interested in spiritual things. Well, judgment seat of Christ is physical as well as spiritual. Okay? It's body and soul and spirit. And you better get ready for it. Okay. Now, let me preach at you a little bit now on active and inactive hearing. Some of you now Your hearing is no longer active. It was for a few minutes. I'm finding out that people really have, I'm not talking 30 minutes. They have about three minutes, maybe 30 seconds of attention because they're so used to commercials that blow whistles and have explosions. You can't even make a movie today without just everything blowing up and just having all of these things every second. You've got to have something just to keep their attention. See, they'll get bored with the movie. Think of a Super Bowl commercial. They don't want you to go to the restroom. They must do something to cause you to look and just stay there for a second. Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off. But I want to talk to you about, I want to preach to you about active and inactive hearing. Because it says in Proverbs, a wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. What do you mean he doesn't hear rebuke? Well of course he might hear it, but maybe he doesn't. Because there's more than just the physical aspect of hearing, there's paying attention to what somebody's saying. You can have somebody talk and talk and talk, and you can say uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh, but you're not really listening. You can have somebody read a book to you. You say, can you go back and read the past whole chapter because I wasn't really paying attention? See, how much of a message do you miss? That's why it's good to review sermons. If I have anything to say worth listening to, it's good to review it then, see. It's just important for you to understand things. I'm telling you, I'm not some great person, but I'll tell you, I've been researching plenty of times and finally found out the information I need and says, wow, that is very important information. I'm glad I understand that. And I look down at the bottom, it says Joey Fost. I'm like, what are you talking about? I don't remember this. I don't remember writing that. I don't remember even understanding this concept. So it's very important for us to review. Let's see, what about Proverbs 15? A scorner loveth not. One that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise. There's a reason some folks don't go to church, folks. There's a reason some folks don't go to a certain type of church. There's a reason some folks won't stay in a church. There's a reason some folks get away from their papa as fast as they can once they're able to. This is called active hearing. What about 2 Timothy? For the time will come, we're in it now, that they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having, they got an ear problem. The Bible says they're gonna have an ear problem in the last days. They want their ears scratched. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables. See, they say, I'm not gonna let my ear hear that kind of preaching. I'm not gonna hear it. I'm not gonna hear it. I'm not gonna listen. See, you shut down. You shut down. You shut down externally, and you shut down inwardly. You shut down. Your mother tells you something, your father tells you something, your pastor tells you something, and you shut down. You're not really listening. It says in Acts, the heart of this people is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed. See, they did that on purpose. You got to train yourself to hear. The Bible says you need to be exercised. We'll see that in a moment. But you have to train yourself to hear. You have to train and discipline yourself to pay attention. You put on a movie, they pay attention like you wouldn't believe. They sit there and eat their popcorn and watch the blood and the guts and the fornication and the blasphemy of the Lord Jesus Christ and they just sit there laughing and laughing and eating and just sitting there. How did you pay attention two and a half hours? But you can't pay attention to someone teaching you something that you need to hear as a young man or a young woman. Their ears are dull of hearing. They haven't practiced hearing. Stephen, before he died, says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, as if something grew over your ear. There is something grown over your ears, your rebellion and pride. You do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do you." Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon them with one accord. Even though they had this growth on their ears because of their pride, they nevertheless put their hands over their ears as they ran to go martyr Stephen. I don't want to hear this. You'll see the snowflakes today, even in regard to something political that's conservative, that they just, they scream. They need a safe place. They need a room with balls and teddy bears. They just can't stand it. I can't hear it. That's been going on for some time. It's just reaching culmination now. Luke 14, it's neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill. But man cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Do you see there's a choice in whether you hear something? And whether you grow or not as a Christian, there is your choice whether or not you're gonna hear that young person. Our Lord says, let these sayings sink down into your ears. You gotta let it. You say, I read the whole Bible. Well, you didn't hear any of it. See, you read the whole Bible, but you sure didn't hear any of it. I went to that church. Yeah, you went to that church a long time. The Bible says, I was almost in all sin in the midst of the assembly, in the midst of the congregation. You sat over there and you didn't hear a word. You didn't let it sink down into your ears. Hey, being in the right place where you could physically hear is part of it, but that's not all of it. Y'all awake? Job says, Hear my words, O ye wise men, and give ear unto me. You gotta give it, you gotta give ear, you gotta give. Psalm 17, I've called upon thee, for thou will hear me, O God, incline thy ear unto me and hear my speech. The psalmist is saying, God, will you please incline your ear toward me? See, if your ear is over here and the person speaking is over there, you need to incline your ears toward the person speaking. Of course, that's an inner inclining when it comes to us, as well as a physical. You gotta be in the right place. And not be distracted. Not be distracted. You got all this stuff going on, music, all the types of stuff going on, and how can you hear? How can you sit down and meditate upon the Scriptures and hear what's going on? Psalm 78, give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Now you gotta incline them. Give ear, O people, to my law. Incline your ears. Proverbs 4, my son, attend unto my words. You ask God to be attentive to your voice. Bow thy ear to my understanding. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thy ear to my understanding. The ear that heareth the reproof of life shall abide among the wise. Heareth the reproof. Yeah, my daddy reproved me. I grew up with him reproving me. Did you hear it? Oh, it doesn't mean that you just physically heard it. Did you hear it? Did you hear what your authorities taught you? Did you hear? I went to a fundamental church, all that. Did you listen? Did you hear? It's not just being physically present, Church of God. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips." Isn't it crazy that some people that can't hear preaching and can't hear reproof, boy, they can sure hear the wicked counsel of the world, okay? You don't have a hearing problem. You have a sin problem. You say, well, I heard this, I heard that. Well, you ought not listen to liars. That's showing what type of character you have if you don't give people due process. They giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Proverbs 22, bow down thy ear and hear the words of the wise, of the wise, not the fools, and apply thy heart to my knowledge. Proverbs 25, as an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. Look at the qualifications, not just any reprover, a wise reprover, and not just any ear, an obedient ear. It says the reprover himself becomes your earring. I said some ladies need to adorn themselves, and what a blessing that is and how beautiful it is to have modest feminine adornment. And I tell you, one of the greatest feminine adornments, as it says in 1 Peter 3, is to have that submission and that obedience. And the people that reprove you are here to bless you, if they're wise. And I know what rebels will say. They'll say, well, this reprover isn't wise. My mom is not wise. My daddy's not wise. My preacher's not wise. Because that's what sin does. That's what rebellion does to us. So may God help us. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. There's a lot of abominable prayers today because we have turned away our ear from God's commandments. He says in Isaiah, Hear, O heavens, and give ear. You've got to give ear, folks. O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. They didn't hear God. and God's calling for the heavens and the earth to hear and witness that this thing has happened, how shocking that can be. Isaiah 32, rise up ye women that are at ease and hear my voice, ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech. Rise up, see. Now let's go back to the old man we're looking at in Ecclesiastes. Rise up. What's he saying? He's saying, I come to tell you something. Now rise up and greet me and open the door and be attentive to what I have to say like Mary was, as we see with Martha and Mary. In other words, rise up means take that step to hear. Take that step to put yourself free from distractions that you may hear the one that has come to give you a message. Rise up, you women that are at ease. Jeremiah 9, hear the word of the Lord, O ye women. And let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Boy, you gotta let it. You gotta let it. That's what I'm trying to show you, folks. That's what I'm trying to show you. It says of Jeremiah, yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one after the imagination of their evil heart. Jeremiah 13, hear ye and give ear, be not proud, be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken. It's pride that closes that ear, folks. It's pride that keeps you from hearing the reproofs of life. It's pride that keeps you from enduring sound doctrine in these last days. You say, it hurts my ear. It hurts my ear. I need somebody to scratch it delicately, you know, tickle it, they say. Now let me take you to Revelation 2. If you have an ear, you need to hear what God has to say unto you. Now if you've got any more hearing left, I want you to notice Matthew 13, for this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing, we've seen that in another verse, and their eyes they have closed. Hebrews 5, of whom we have many things to say and to be uttered, hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. But strong meat belongs to them that are full of age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. I'm telling you as a child right now, practice learning how to hear. Exercise learning how to hear. Say, I didn't want to hear that preacher. He got on to me. And I tell you, it was convicting, but I trained myself from a child to learn how to hear, learn how to listen. And I'm not going to stop now. Now that I'm in older age, I've got a character. It's part of my very being to learn how to listen. Oh, what a blessing. I tell you what, you discipline yourself now and learn that as a young person, you're going to go far with God. You're going to grow, grow, grow. You know, you got to practice how to hear. As a guitar teacher, oh, it'd be very difficult sometime. My job was pretty much they bring in a tape or a CD when that was finally invented, and I had to sit here and listen to the guitar part and try to transcribe it and get them out of there in 30 minutes or whatever, however long. and I had to give the transcription, and sometimes I had drum lessons going on in the background, and I had voice lessons and piano lessons going on in the background, and I had all the musical instruments that were on the actual tape, and I had to pick out the guitar part and listen to it. So I trained my ear to hear the sound I was looking for, and I'm telling you, that's possible. That's possible. We have trained our ears sometimes to drown out authority. You have trained your ears to drown out the things that God is trying to bring you, but you hear readily the things of the world. You've trained your ear to be open to those things. We've got it backwards, Church of God. We've got it backwards. Now let's get to these birds real quick. The man had trouble. The man had trouble. What he thought was a guest ended up being a bird. And he rose up to greet the bird, to open the door, and to let his guest in. But it was only a bird. He mistook the sound. Oh Church of God, God forbid that you mistake the sound of God's Spirit today. Do you know there's people that are saying, God spoke to me and I heard God. I'm in fellowship with God and God told me to do this. God forbid that you have the wrong Spirit or the wrong Jesus. Or you have someone who came as an angel of light to counterfeit the voice of God. God forbid. So we've got a hearing problem in this day and age. We've got a hearing problem in this day and age. And our Lord Jesus says in Revelation 3, as many as I love I rebuke and chasten. That's because God loves you. That's why He does that. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. Oh, now our Lord's at the door. It's not a bird. It's the real Lord Himself. He's standing at the door and knocking. He's about to come down, amen? He's about to come down. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. There's an ear problem in Laodicea, not just an eye problem, not just a modesty problem. Laodicea has an ear problem. And I'm telling you, we better make sure that we are allowing the Lord Jesus into our church and allowing the Lord Jesus into our life. In obedience to God, we're hearing His voice, and God says, I will not only fellowship with you now in a special way, but this is millennial, this is millennial as well. At the judgment seat of Christ during the millennium, you're gonna have fellowship with God, with the Lord Jesus, in a way that you would not have had you not been obedient and let Him in. The Bible's saying that you need to rise up, open the door, hear the sound of the Lord, and let Him in and fellowship with God. He wants to fellowship with you right now in this life. You know what a lot of people are saying? They're saying, I am fellowshipping with the Lord. I think you got a strange bird. I think something's wrong with your hearing. I think that was a bird that tweeted and you thought it was the Lord. See? See, there are some birds that have one purpose. To steal your fruit. Did you know that? Did you know that? It says in Mark 4, it came to pass as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and the fowls, the what? The fowls of the air, the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And these are they by the wayside where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their heart. Who was the bird? Satan. The fowls of the air eat the seed. The seed is the Word of God. They have the seed, but Satan takes the seed out of their heart. How does he do that? With distractions, with all types of fake and false and wicked doctrines to cause you to forget it in whatever way he can by his worldly ways. And I'm telling you, Satan is the bird in this scripture. Matthew 13, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside and the fowls came. That's the devils, the devils, Satan and his devils, and devoured them up. And now the interpretation, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, oh man, that's how to not only be saved in eternity, but that's how to reign in the coming millennium. And understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, that's Satan, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receives seed by the wayside. You know why? Because these spirits of the air, Satan is the prince of the power of the air. It says in Ephesians 2, where in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, like them birds, like them spiritual birds, the spirit now that worketh in the children of disobedience. I'm telling you, when you hear anything that's true, When you hear anything that I preach that's true from this church, when you open the Bible, when you are taught at home in your private devotions, your family devotions, when you hear this Word of God, I'm telling you, Satan has one goal and one goal only. He says, oh no, oh no, they've heard it. I've got to make sure they don't understand it. I've got to distract them and I've got to take this away, lest they bring forth fruit with it. It's like when Abram, in Genesis 15, he had to sacrifice for God, he had the carcass down there, and then the fowls came down upon the carcasses, but praise God, Abram drove them away, amen? I tell you folks, just as soon as you leave church, and maybe while you're sitting in here, there's going to be some fowls, some spirits of the air, And they're trying to take away what was sown in your heart. They're trying to take away that conviction. They're trying to take away what God had put in your heart to bring forth fruit and have you fellowship with Him in the kingdom. And I'm telling you, you've got to drive away every imagination. You've got to cast down every imagination and every wicked thought. And you've got to get rid of these people that are in your life. You've got to say, you know, I'm not going to fellowship with you anymore because you drive me away from God. You take away whatever was sown in my heart. And I tell you, you gotta cut off some of these entertainments and amusements and things and some people gotta be cut off, folks. Come out from among them and be you separate. Drive away some of these fowls. Drive away the devil. You say, can I really drive away the devil? The Bible says, resist him and he shall flee. I tell you what, them devils, them spiritual devils will flee just as fast as them birds do. And oh, Abram's out there angry, driving him off of his sacrifice. The Lord wants to fellowship with you. The Lord wants you to hear Him. But I want you to make sure that you're hearing the right Lord. Psalm 95 says, He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. His voice, today, if you will hear. Today, if you will hear. You say, hey, I know I'm a believer, and it says His sheep hear His voice. Well, you know what? I'm glad you got saved. I'm glad you followed the Savior enough to be saved in eternity. But guess what? There's a whole lot of more following and hearing that you have to do after you're saved. Not to be saved in eternity, but to get fellowship with God, to bring forth fruit for God, to please God, to win the prize of His coming kingdom. There's a whole lot of hearing that you've got to do, and there's a whole lot of believers that are not listening. They're listening to some bird they think is Jesus, and it's not. See, they're listening to some worldly bird. They're listening to some worldly spirit. Why don't you prove all things? Why don't you prove all things? I close by telling you there's two ways to stop your ears. One good and one bad. Isaiah speaks of the good way to stop your ears. He says, "...he that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, and shaketh his hands from holding of bride, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood." That is, somebody says, let's go murder somebody. He says, I want nothing to do with that. I'm out of here. I'm not going to hear this. You know, you think sometimes of just going and killing somebody, like an abortion or some murder. But you know what? When you cause people to miss the coming kingdom, that's killing. That's the type of murder if you think about it, you know. There's a lot of people that want to go join together on Facebook and break up a marriage or cause some young person to go astray from their parents and from their church and from their truth. And I'm telling you, that's blood, folks. That is blood. And you need to shake yourself and get away from these people and say, I will not hear any of this destruction. I will have no part of it. He shuts his eyes from seeing evil. That's a good fella. I want you to learn how to stop your ears from hearing sin and hearing wickedness. And say, they just blasphemed my Lord. But I'm into that movie. I don't care. They just blasphemed the Lord. They just took Jesus's name and blasphemed it. I will not hear this. I should have known better. Oh, but can't we at least see what happens next? No, no. Absolutely not. I'm stopping my ears from this wickedness. I'm stopping my ears. Oh, but there's a bad way to stop your ears. The Bible says in Proverbs 21, whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard. There's physical poverty, but there's spiritual poverty out there, folks. There's people that need the gospel. There are believers that are poor in a way they should not be. They're like Laodicea poor, not poor in humility, they're poor in the sense that they think they have God in holiness. They think they're walking in God's truth, but they're not. They're poor, and they need to know what God teaches. They need to know God's commandments. Oh, let's open up ourselves to God. Let's be meek. Let's tremble at His Word. Let's open it up. Let's hear God. As I'm telling you, church, it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise, no matter how painful. We talked about that honey being put on the eyes and it stinging, but bringing forth a blessing than for a man to hear the song of fools. People out there listening to the Song of Fools, they're hearing the Song of Fools. And my final verse for you, as we close Ecclesiastes 12, let us hear the conclusion. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Dear holy God, we thank you for your goodness. I pray many will find some keys to physical health, Lord, as we investigate and search and study your Word that gives us all things. that pertain unto life and godliness. And I pray, Lord, that these leaves of the tree and these wonderful blessings of frankincense and cinnamon and olive leaf and all the things of the Bible, that we will use these in this day and age to find great blessing, Father. But oh Lord, we need something more than just physical health in this life and renewing of our bodies. Oh Father, we need a renewing of our spirits, a renewing of our minds by Thy Word. We need a revival, God. that we learn to hear You and not these things that drag us down. I pray there'll be some victory today, Lord, that people will stop their ears from these things that have been keeping them from having fruit. Lord, they've had some desire to want to be holy, but just something comes and steals their fruit and brings them right back to sin. God, let them drive away these birds, Father. Let them resist these devils, Father. I pray and get away from them and come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. In Jesus' holy name, receive us, Lord. Let us hear you. Bless this church. Thank you, Father. Amen.