We'll be, last week we talked about a mystery of the gospel. This week we're talking about the mystery of hearing and a very important subject. And so I'm looking forward to sharing this with you. And notice now, Well, the one thing that we're going to do is stay in the Gospel of John. I don't want to run over it too much, but we're just going to stay in the Gospel of John, work our way all the way through the Gospel of John dealing with these subjects. And so, next week we'll talk about the mystery of conversion. In other words, hearing and then responding, okay? Very, very important. So let's go to the Lord in prayer, and we'll get started with this tonight. This is the mystery of hearing, number two. Heavenly Father, as we come to you tonight, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for all that you teach us and all that you, Lord, you open our understanding to, and we praise you for that. And now, Father, may we just praise you as you open our understanding and stuff. Lord, we thank you for that. And father, we would just ask now that what's done would be done to bring glory and honor to you and nothing else. We ask it in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. All right, here we go. The mystery of hearing the mystery of hearing. And we start off with the question, John 6, 60. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, this is an hard saying. Who can hear it? And that's the question that we have in religion. And it's the question of who can hear the truth. There's a lot of religious people. They can hear a lot of religious stuff, but they cannot hear the truth. They cannot hear God's words. That's why their response to God's word is almost zero. There's a spiritual response that happens I've watched people, boy, when God saved them, I mean, they were a change in them. And their personality changed, everything changed. And what happened to them? Well, they heard something. And so tonight, what I wanna show you with this lesson, as this mystery of hearing. Because the question is, we say down there, this is a hard saying. Well, when we start talking about salvation, it's a hard saying sometimes. because people want to add to it. They want to idolize something. You know, whether some people idolize their baptism. Boy, that's just, man, that's their salvation. And others, I drive down the street over there and I got all these idols in the yard and all kinds of stuff that people idolize. And so who can hear it? Let me see if I can, in these few short verses tonight, let's see if we can come to a conclusion, who can hear it? Because that's the question that's posed. First of all, we'll go to John 8, 43. Now in John 8, I wanna show y'all something, okay? Let's read verse 43. And John chapter eight. Now, if you have your Bibles, open your Bible up. All right, you're gonna need your Bible. And so I want you to open your Bibles tonight. Make sure you get your Bible out. And because we're gonna, I've got the principle verse printed for you. But we've got to look at the whole thing, okay? Now, listen to me real close. Between verse 38 and verse 44, you have this argument of who the father is. Then it picks it up again, and it goes on to verse 49. You find the comment about the father. Then in verse 53, 54, 56. And so what I want you to do tonight with me real quick is go to John chapter eight, and we're going to look at these verses. I'm gonna put something together for you. I want you to start up in verse 38, okay? Now, we're going to look at the word father, okay? We're going to look at the word father because the debate here is who is your spiritual father? That's what the debate's about. Now, notice this. Verse 38, I speak that which I have seen with my father, And ye do that which ye have seen with your father. So now that's gonna be the debate right there. Verse 39, they answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. Listen, a lot of people profess Salvation of some type, right? But they don't have salvation. And so like here in verse 39, hey, we got Abraham as our father. You don't, salvation does not come through heritage. It's a personal individual thing between you and God and God and you, all right? Now watch this. So they said, but the Lord said, if ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. So the Lord is saying, if you were truly born again, if you were truly Abraham's seed, what you do would be different than what you are doing, okay? Now the Lord says that. The Lord says what you do is gonna be different, okay? Verse 40. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be born not of fornication. We have one father, even God. So now these lost people have claimed their heritage on one side, Abraham, then they have claimed their heritage on the other side, God's our father. And both of those conclusions are lies. And so what we find then is that religious people can lie about their spiritual life. They can assume things in their spiritual life that's not true. We're in John chapter 8. And so what we find then, go to verse 41 now, and you see the word father, father, father, see this? You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God, verse 42. Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceed forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. Now the question in the notes, who can hear? See that? All right. So we see then in verse 43, these very religious people that have claimed a heritage of Abraham, then even said that God's our father, The Lord Jesus Christ says in verse 43, watch this now, why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. Very important. So now the first thing we find, even in your notes there, I got it printed for you. There are some people, even though they're very religious, they can not hear God's word, okay? They don't hear it. They don't hear it. Verse 44. This is John 8, 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And so what you find here now, Father, father, father. So you see the relationship. The key word in these verses, you know, verse 38, father, father. Verse 39, father. Verse 41, father, father. Verse 42, father. Verse 44, father, father, father. You see that? And so what you're looking at here is they're having this debate between Jesus and these religious people about who is their spiritual father. See that? That's this debate that's happening right now. All right, verse 45. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not, which of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? Now, verse 47. I've got that in your notes twice. Okay, now watch this. He that is of God, heareth God's words, ye therefore hear them not because you are not of God. Now, let me finish these couple of verses and then I'm gonna stop and do something here, show you something. All right, verse 48. Then answered the Jews and said unto Jesus, say we not? Well, that thou art a Samaritan and hast the devil. Jesus answered and said, I have not a devil, but I honor my father and you dishonor me. And so it goes on all the way to verse 54 about the father, the father. Now listen to me. Here's what I want you to get out of this tonight, right here, this passage of scripture. In verse 43, he says, Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. So they can't even hear it. But then in four verses later, he tells us why. In verse 47, John 8, 47. He that is of God. Now let's talk about that for a moment tonight. Some can hear, some cannot hear. The word of, it says, watch this now, he that is of God heareth God's words, ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God. Of, in English, shows two things. One, possession, the other, participation or belonging to. Well, he's of that group over there. He's of this mindset He's up it always shows possession. And so what you find in in verse 87 He that is of God hearth God's words In other words what you see here now Those people that are a possession of God They hear God's words And the others do not. That's why it says, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. You're not one of God's possessions. And so we see then, and we started off with John 6, 60, this is a hard thing, who can hear it? Well, verse 43 tells us that there's some people that cannot hear it. But in John 8, 47, we find the answer to the problem. Who can hear it? Those people that are of God can hear it. The others cannot hear it. And so what we find then is this. There is a reality that you and I must deal with. And it's simply this, who can hear it? Only those people that are of God can hear it. Only those people that are a possession of God can hear it. The others cannot. And so why is it that we have religious people, man, they hear it, they hear it all the time, but there's no response in them. You've got to hear something to the point to where it causes in you a response. That's ever so important to us. I've told you before, I met this guy that That man, he was adamant about the fact that I started smoking when I was 10 years old. I'll keep smoking and dipping until I die. And then I saw him and he wasn't smoking and he wasn't dipping. And I said, what's wrong with you? I've got cancer. And you know what? He heard something, didn't he? You see, it's like this. Having ears to hear, they hear not. And so why is it that some people never respond to the gospel? Why is it they never respond to the word of God? It's because they never really hear it. And so they don't respond to it. You say, but they sit there and they hear it. Well, having ears to hear, they hear not. They hear it, but only in a physical sense. not in a spiritual sense. That's the difference. My wife and I was talking about foxhole prayers. You know, there's a lot of people that never pray until some tragedy happens, until some sickness comes, or until some bad thing happens. Foxhole prayers, buddy. Those are not prayers of repentance of sin. They're not prayers of repentance toward God. They're not prayers because you've seen yourself as a sinner needing a savior. They're prayers out of need. prayers out of disaster, prayers out of sickness. God, deliver me from this thing, whatever it is. See, you want God to respond to you, but you've never responded to God correctly. You've never responded to God with repentance of sin. You just want God to be fire insurance for you. Sorry, that don't work. Now watch this. What we have here then is the question, who can hear it? John 8, 43, there's some people that cannot hear it. Absolutely cannot hear it. Okay? And, They're not going to hear it. Why? Well, you are of your father the devil, it says in verse 44. See that? Very religious people, praying people, fasting people, my goodness, with a religious heritage people, But verse 43, why do you not understand my speech even because you cannot hear my word? And then he says, Yah of your father the devil. Whoa, that's powerful stuff, isn't it? All right, now, then we go to John 8, 47. He that is of God, heareth God's words. That's the difference. That's the difference of God. In other words, of in English means possession of, right? He's of this group. He's of that group. He's of the Baptist denomination, right? And you see what that does is, of always identifies you as a possession, There's a possession involved, or there is some type of relationship involved, belonging to. Okay, isn't that right? Every time you use the word of. All right, so now watch what happens. So now in the Bible, we find all kinds of illustrations dealing with our depravity. Animals, death, snake, hearing, I mean, deafness, can't see, I mean, just all kinds of things about our depravity, right? Now, but we're gonna stay in John. So now I want you to look at John 10, verse three, eight, 16, 27. Here the Lord gives us an example of something. And I want you to see this example. All right, John 10, All right, watch this now. John 10, verse three. He said, to him, the potter openeth and the sheep hear his, I mean the potter, the porter. All right. To him, the porter openeth and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. All right. So now you've got this shepherd. He's going to do this calling. All right, verse two. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. And so the shepherd comes in and he calls his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. All right. So now the sheep are going to respond to the shepherd. And why? Because they hear the voice, they recognize the voice. And because they recognize that voice, they're going to respond to the shepherd. Look at verse eight, John 10, eight. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Now, one of the things we've looked at here tonight, and I want y'all to get it, and that's this. We started off talking about the father, the father, the father, my father's God, your father's the devil. All right? Now look at what happens. He says the sheep, did not hear them. Well, the question was tonight, who can hear? We realized then that there's some people that cannot hear, right? Okay, why? Because they have their father, the devil. In other words, so we've gone from the father to selective hearing, haven't we? Selective hearing. Get it? So now watch this. So in John 10 8, all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. So what we have then is selective hearing on both sides. For that one group of people who is religious and lost, they hear not God's words. Then on the other side, if you are of God, you hear His words. On the other side, those that are of God do not hear the words of the devil and the thieves and the robbers. And so we find then, boy, a great place for you and me to praise God. That God will alarm us to what we hear when we hear the wrong thing. But we're gonna hear it, it'll sting us, we'll say, nah, I'm not hearing that like that. But those that cannot hear God's words will hear that lie and respond to it. But the sheep will not. See that? How you doing so far? You doing okay? All right, here we go. Now go to John 10, 16. Another sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. Now I could preach you a whole message on that. We could take a whole hour, hour and a half, no problem. Also I must bring, in other words, now listen to me. Look up here for a second. Jesus said, all that the Father hath given me will come to me. See that? That's why he says, About there in verse 16, another sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. That's some of those that the father had given to the son, okay? And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, one shepherd, amen. and they shall hear my voice. Jesus Christ, the God-man, knows that those people that God the Father has given Him will hear His voice and respond to Him. because the sheep will recognize that. And the sheep will respond to him. And I've told you the story before about me being in Romania and watching that thing. And that was just one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I mean, they must've had 2000 sheep out there. And all these guys around there and man, they look like Dracula's and stuff, black robes, big handlebar mustaches, the whole shooting match. But come morning, one of them stepped up and he yelled something and took off walking and man, his sheep dogs went after him and all those sheep started separating from that whole crowd. And those sheepdogs, buddy, they were right there making it work. And so what we find here then, and they shall hear my voice. That's the one thing that we can be absolutely assured of. If God is working in your life, and you're one of those that God the Father's given to God the Son, you will hear. I can come to this pulpit and preach about Christ, preach the word of God, and you'll hear it. You'll hear it. You'll just not hear it physically, but you'll hear it spiritually. You'll hear it to the point to where you'll respond to it. with repentance and faith. John 10, 27. John 10, 27. Oh my goodness. Now watch this. I'm gonna read it out of the Bible. Now we're gonna look at verse 27, 28, and 29, and 30, okay? This is John chapter 10, starting verse 28. Well, I tell you what, let's back up to verse 25. Let's just get it all in there. Jesus answered them, I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my father's name, but they bear witness of me, but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep as I said unto you. You see that? The sheep, don't see the miracles of Christ. They don't see the miracle of Christ. They don't see the miracle of the blood of Christ. They don't see the miracle of the sacrifice of Christ. They don't see the need of repentance from their sin. Now Sunday I'm going to preach a message on What's the one thing you've got to have to get into heaven? I'm going to preach that Sunday. One word. One word. It's just one word. You might say, I might need Christ. No, that ain't it. Forgiveness. That ain't it. That's just part of it. The blood. No, that's just part of it. Now you're gonna have to wait till Sunday to hear that one word. All right? Watch this now. So he says there, you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Verse 27, John 10, 27. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand, I and my Father are one. Now that's eternal security, isn't it? Now, so we see then, remember now we're trying to answer the question that we started with up at the top in John 6, 60, who can hear it? We understand John 8, 43, there's some people that just can't hear it. And John 8, 47, we see who can hear it? He that is of God. He that is of a possession. They are a possession of God. They hear it. The others do not. The sheep can recognize. They have selective hearing also. So when the thieves and the robbers come up, the sheep don't hear them. Just like when the subject of Christ and repentance and faith from sin come up, those of the devil don't hear that. That's why they don't respond to the gospel. All right, now look at John 5 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, see that? Now that word heareth, it means hearing, comprehending, and responding. He that heareth my word. That means that guy is going to hear it, comprehend it spiritually, and respond to it. All right? They will respond to what they have heard. Very, very important. Verily, verily, I say, and this is John 5, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word. and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. And so what we have now, that word, he that heareth my word, that means in their hearing, they comprehend what they hear, and they respond to it. That's why it says, he that heareth my word and believeth. What are they doing? They are responding to what they've heard. Okay, you see how that works? All right, very important. Now I have printed again, John 8 47, one more time for you to keep this in order. He that is of God, he that is of, remember the English, of means possession or belonging to, okay? He that is of God, heareth. There's that word, heareth, like in John 5, 24. He that heareth my word. He that is of God, heareth God's words. In other words, they're going to recognize those words as being from God. And the power of the word is when somebody recognizes that's not just the preacher talking, that's God talking. So what we find now, he that is of God heareth. In other words, he's going to hear it, comprehend it, and respond to it. That makes a huge difference. He that heareth God's words. All right. He that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. The question, who can hear it? The people that are of God can hear it spiritually. They'll hear it, they'll comprehend it, and they'll respond to it. Now watch this. John 18, 37. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I unto the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Watch this now. Everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice. Now you've got this. On one side, we've got this possession. God's possesses you. You're of God. and knows you're one of God's. See how I said that? You are one of God's. In other words, you'll accept that statement because I'm telling you, you are of God. And you'll say, yeah, amen. I say, well, you are of God's. You know, that's it. You're one of God's children. See that? See how it's possessive? All right, now down here in this John 8, 37, everyone that is of the truth, wow, Now on the other side, I said this, he's a follower of the way. See how that is? You're a follower of the way. That's what Paul said, right? You're a follower of the way. So now what you find, you have that of as possessive on one side and it's recognition on the other. In other words, you're identifying with the followers of the way. Right? You see that? He's a follower of the way, so that's identification. He's a member of Chapel Hill Ridge Baptist Church. See how that works? Of, of. See, it identifies you, doesn't it? Because of who you're with. Now watch this. Everyone that is of the truth, So now you've got this group of people that are going to deal in truth, not lies, truth. What is it? Jesus said his word was truth, didn't he? So if we're dealing with the true word of God, we're dealing with truth. So everyone that is of the truth, in other words, you're one of those people that's, well, he's a member of Chapel O'Ridge Baptist Church. He's a member of the group that does truth. See how it works? All right. Everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice. There's that, heareth again. And what does that say? That means he, everyone that heareth, everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice. Well, the only thing that Jesus Christ is going to talk about is truth. Everything he said is truth. And so we find everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Why? Because there's truth. And now guess what? You got this group of people that's dealing with truth. He speaks truth. Guess what they recognize? They recognize that truth. See that? And so what we have then, the saved born again people. You talk about having a reason to rejoice. That God is not only putting his stamp on you, but he's made you a person of truth. and God's people respond to truth. That's ever so important for you and me. Boy, when we talk about the truth of the Word of God, you're saved by grace through faith that none of yourself is the gift of God. Listen. We, people set up idols all the time. These Jews that we were talking about a while ago in John 8, man, what was their idols that they'd set up? Man, they said, hey, Abraham's our father. There's one of the idols. And then the other, there's one idol over there. We said, Abraham, wherever Abraham stayed, God's our father. Well, who is it? When you start setting religious idols up, you're going to shove the true and the living God out. Because the only thing you're going to hear and respond to is the idols that you've set up. When the true and the living God comes at you with grace, amazing grace, saying, repent of your sin. You're lost and dying and going to hell. Repent of your sin. People say, no, I got this here, and I've got that there, and I've got that there. All that stuff is nothing but little idols. That's all it is that you're hanging on to. That's why you're hanging on to it. So watch this now. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. So we want to end this tonight. We answer the question. This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? He that is of God, heareth God's words. Who can hear it? Everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice. And so the reality of it is this, for you and me, we must understand the reason some people They have this hearing and they comprehend spiritually what was said and they respond to it spiritually. And there's others that hear it physically. That's why they never respond. Remember now, they hear it physically. That's why they never respond to the physical things of the Word of God. The spiritual things I mean. They've heard it physically. And listen, you can hear it physically all you want, but it's not gonna bring you to a place to where you will respond spiritually to it. That's ever so important. You see, what's the difference between a spiritual person and a religious person. You might say, well, they're both the same. No, they're not. No, no. A spiritual person responds spiritually to the teaching and the preaching of the word of God. That spiritual response causes them to say yes to some things, no to other things. That spiritual response is the thing that, it's the decision maker of their life. That's what they do that's ever so important to them. I've told a lot of young people, And I've told a lot of people that was moving from one place to the next. You know, well, we're gonna move out there. Well, is there a church there for you to go to? Well, I don't know. The first thing you should have looked at was that. See, if you don't value your spiritual life, a church will mean nothing to you. And if you listen, a spiritual life is a life of conviction. A spiritually minded person has convictions about things. They're not gonna watch things, hear things, look at things. They're gonna be conscious of the influences of their life. They're gonna be desirous to read the Word of God, pray over the Word of God, live according to the Word of God. A spiritually minded person is not religious. A spiritually minded person, that person lives according to the Word of God. And God to them is sovereign in all things. And the word of God rules in their life. Where the religious person, everything's optional. They don't live according to convictions. They live according to their own desires. They live according to excuses. I like doing this, so I'm just gonna make an excuse for me to do that. The spiritual person says no. What's the Bible say about worldliness? The love of the world is at enmity with God. So that means this. Man, if you and I love the world, that means we are at war with God. A spiritually minded person is going to be ever so conscious of their relationship with this world. A spiritually minded person I'll say no. Can't do that. Why? Because the world is at enmity with God. And so they're going to have some convictions about their relationship with the world. The religious person will not. At all. Who can hear it? Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. What a statement. I hope this has helped you out some tonight, especially that little word of. Gather around, let's pray.