"And Blessed Are Those Who Hear...."

              "He who has ears to hear....let him hear..." That is how we usually read it in God's Word. Jeremiah described the ears that cannot hear as "uncircumcised." (Jer 6:10) Ezekiel put it this way..."Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear, for they are a rebellious house." (Eze 12:2)  Of course there is this in the parable of the soils...."Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matthew 13:8-9) Peter quoted Psalm 34...."For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer." (1 Peter 3:12) Isaiah wrote of the LORD's command...."Make the eyes of this people dull, and their ears heavy..." (Isaiah 6:10) He also penned at the direction of the LORD...."And he said, 'Go, and say to this people. Keep on hearing, but do not understand'." (6:9-10) There are about sixty such verses about ears and hearing in God's Word.
                A friend in another state keeps sending me a sermon and asking me to have his brother sit down to listen to it....and I have been able to at times. Indeed....I recommend sermons in these posts all the time.....and I am giving a strong message right now on Donald Trump....a curse and not a blessing....a false prophet and an antichrist....who has pushed his way into the church....and drawn us into this great delusion....but ultimately....any potential listener....has to have ears to hear! I mentioned my mother a few posts back....on how it took thirty-two years of my talking....until she had ears to hear.
                Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones both would remark in a sermon from time to time how there were people in the pews listening to that sermon....who were not able to hear it because they did not have ears to hear. In fact much of prophecy is based on having ears to hear....for when in God's perfect timing....they will hear....but before that they will not. That is why there has been such a great emphasis on the end-times in the past fifty years or so....because we are now in the last of the last days!
                 I know that surely some readers took my advice and listened to a sermon that I had recommended....and saw nothing special in it at all. That is because they did not have ears to hear the power of such a sermon. I have spent most of my Christian walk without ears to hear so many warnings....and so many wonderful truths. If someone would drop a grape on the floor I would hear it....but read to me...."Trust in the LORD with all of your heart....lean not on your own understanding"....and I could not hear what it was saying to me. (Proverbs 3:5)
                 In the second and third chapters of Revelation there are what are known as....'the seven letters to the seven churches.' I know that we in evangelicalism generally would hurry and read through those chapters so that we could get to the good stuff....the four horses of the apocalypse....and the beasts from the earth and from the sea....and 666....but we did not have ears to hear what was even more important....which was God beginning the ultimate letter on prophecy by giving all of us readers a stern warning beforehand to see where we need to repent or else we will not even be a church. Indeed...the third verse in Revelation reads...."Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it. for the time is near."