Sunday School Address - Hearing. Quality Average

[0:00] when our dear friend spoke of coming here in trembling to speak to you you may have wondered about it but believe me it's true to think that I have a responsibility I've been given a quarter of an hour, twenty minutes to speak to all of you young people and children and I am accountable for what I say it's something which is a very solemn thought and yet it is a privilege those of you who remember when I used to be coming to the Sunday school I used to enjoy coming to talk to you and although there is trembling with it I'm enjoying it today and I thank you for asking me I've been listening as I hope you were listening to what your dear pastor has said to you and

[1:05] I've got to hope that what I have to say to you would in a little measure fit in with it every time you hear not speak those two words I want you will be exercising one of the faculties that has been given to you what would that faculty be if you're going to hear perhaps I've used the wrong word you know we have several senses don't we we have the sense of smell we have one that's called the sense of hearing and that's what I'm going to talk about hearing every time you hear you use your ears and now do we have anything that we can perhaps use as a text the Lord said if any man that means not only men but women girls boys have ears to hear let him hear and the Lord also said take heed how ye hear and

[2:23] I want to talk first of all just a little about hearing what a wonderful provision it is for us you might look at me and say what do you know about it you're deaf I am very deaf I have to wear two hearing aids that I can even hear enough to get by with and yet because I have that disability I believe I have a greater sense of the blessing of hearing than some of you that still have it naturally it is a wonderful thing that is given to us when we are able to hear and as we hear each time we hear it should be something which brings a thankfulness into our hearts that God has given us ears to hear you think of what you can hear can you hear the birds singing I expect you can can't you sometimes can you hear sometimes it thundering and then you think of the rage the deep noise of thunder and the little tweety squeaky noise of a bird singing and your ears are made to hear the whole range and the noises in between and as you hear them you find you get yes information from them you listen to voices you listen to sentences you listen to instruction you also get pleasure you listen to music you can hear the high notes a flute or a piccolo you can hear a double bass or a drum and as you listen to them your ear interprets them doesn't it it says tells you what you're listening to whether it's a word or whether it's a sound as you hear it so your ears convey a message to your mind and that message yes sometimes as I've said it is something pleasurable you listen to music sometimes it is something instructive you listen to a Sunday school lesson a day school lesson you listen to an instruction perhaps under some circumstances you take an order or a command and your ears help you that you can be a member of society as we say that you can mix even in a family what a dreadful thing it is one of my great nieces was born with defective hearing and she had to have a hearing help when she was quite young it was very strange she could only hear when her mum said no why because when mums say no they say it definitely don't they and when mums say yes it is because they expect it to be listened for they don't need to raise their voices and say it but sometimes it's necessary to raise the voice to say no isn't it and this little girl and she was only about two the only word that she could say was no and so she said it all the time why it was because her hearing was bad now you will say what can we get out of this what can we find out of this it's all very easy there's something which is not out of the word of God yet is it but let us take it from the word of God let us come back to those words that the saviour said we find them many times in the words of the Lord at least four times when he was ministering on the earth he said more or less in the same words if any have ears to hear let him hear and when he had returned to heaven he sent the message to seven churches and to each one he gave the same thought he said if any man have ears to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches there was something very important that there should be a hearing not of the birds not of the things which appertain to our natural lives but of the things which appertained to God to the Lord

[7:35] Jesus to the word of God to the words of Jesus Christ now let me tell you a little bit about what it is when deafness comes into somebody's life you begin not to hear and you suddenly find that you have a want a need and yes I probably said I don't think I said it literally but I said it to myself I want to hear more clearly and I went to a chapel once and I listened to a whole service and I could hardly get any of it and I came home very troubled and I thought I want to do something about this so I went to see the doctor he sent me to the hospital and the hospital did a lot of things to my ears and then they gave me my first hearing aid and suddenly I could hear again but why only because

[8:43] I wanted help I sought help and I obtained help you see I felt the need of it it was a want but it was a proper want I didn't covet it I didn't find it as something which was I ought not to have it was something I needed and because I needed it I did something about it and when I had done something about it in due time then I was given a little measure of restoration so that I was able once more to hear yes my family told me I hadn't been hearing what they said for years and there was a measure of truth in it but once more I could hear and now you would say but what is that to do with us we've all got good ears we can all hear and you would be surprised if

[9:44] I tell you that every one of you is born deaf and you would say but I'm not I can hear do you know that every one of us whatever state our natural hearing is deaf to the word of God until it pleases God to open our ears to give to us a hearing ear and we are deaf to the word of God until we are brought like I was in the natural sense into the sense of the wanting to hear it to want to hear the word of God and our natural hearts and minds do not necessarily want to hear it you dear children here have always been brought up to pay attention it is a good thing when sometimes you're questioned on the lessons isn't it whether at school or at Sunday school it shows if you've been listening and it is good when in your mind naturally you're able to store the word of God but until it pleases

[11:08] God to give to you a sense of your want of it you will never truly hear it you may hear it naturally you may have it in your mind you might be able to say with the psalmist thy word have I hidden in mine heart yet until the Lord opens your ears you will not hear it now I must be very quick we can find if we look into the word of God two instances brief ones and where we find a hearing ear was given one of them is very simple do you remember a lady called Lydia who listened to the apostle Paul on the riverside and of her it is said whose heart the Lord opened that she heard the word and now you see there were a lot of people there and they probably all heard

[12:18] Paul but there was something special about the way that Lydia heard she felt she wanted to hear she needed to hear and because she needed to hear the Lord had given to her an opened ear we can see a lovely instance where the Lord the Lord Jesus how many times he shows to us his blessings in a temporal sense that we might understand them in a spiritual sense that is to say he shows us something which we can understand easily it is natural so that we can have a little understanding of what he would do for us as we say spiritually do for our souls do you remember the man that was brought to the Lord Jesus he was deaf and dumb and they brought him to the Lord the Lord cast out an evil spirit he also did something else for him he touched his ears and he could hear and then because he could hear he was then made able to speak and they said of the Lord he hath done all things well he hath made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak

[13:49] I wonder if anybody can remember the word that the Lord Jesus prayed it is given to us in the narrative in the gospel in the Hebrew it is not an English word it is a word that you won't find in your dictionary you'll find it in your concordance I'll tell you what it was because I use it so often nowadays it was Ephatha Ephatha and it means be opened it says the Lord lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said Ephatha be opened isn't that a lovely thought when you feel in your heart you want your heart to be opened to the word of God you can pray that the Lord Jesus will say that word to you

[14:50] Ephatha be opened if I had been asked to choose a hymn I don't expect to be I should have asked if we could have sung 188 I'm going to read you one of the verses and one of the verses the third verse it can also be a prayer I told you there was another we could look at you remember Samuel when the Lord spoke to him he didn't know who was speaking Eli told him and he said if the voice comes again say speak Lord for thy servant heareth and the Lord came again and he said Samuel and Samuel said speak for thy servant heareth and he heard what the

[15:52] Lord had to say to him and then in this beautiful hymn in the third verse we have this verse another prayer oh give me Samuel's ear the opened ear oh Lord alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word like him to answer at thy call and to obey thee first of all now if we can lift up our hearts and ask the Lord Jesus to speak that word a father into our ears and into our heart and then if we can look on those words in our in the hymn I've just read a part of and we can lift them up as a prayer unto God who knows that Lord Jesus who opened the ears of the man in his need he might look into your hearts and see your need and open your ears and then think what the Lord

[17:06] Jesus said to hear the voice of the Son of God that dead not death but dead very death shall hear the voice of the Son of God and what they that hear shall live to think a hearing ear brings life into the soul it is the way that God has decreed that his word shall enter not only into our minds but into our souls that we shall live through it now my time is up may the Lord give each one of us and each one of you especially hearing ears to hear his word the Lord bless you