HEARING AND SEEING
Scripture: Acts 4:16-20 "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
INTRODUCTION: Taken from the book "The Holy War" by John Bunyan ---Diabolus (Satan) attacked Mansoul (symbolical for a person) at the Ear gate and the Eye gate. Scripture: Acts 4:16-20 "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
INTRODUCTION: "The Holy War" by John Bunyan ---Diabolus (Satan) attacked Mansoul at the Ear gate and the Eye gate. The mistake was made by listening. Captain Resistance was mortally wounded in the head. Then, Lord Innocent collapsed and could not be revived. After gaining entrance into Mansoul, Lord Understanding, the mayor of the town, and Mr. Conscience were removed from office. When the Prince (Christ) began to retake Mansoul, His first attack was at the Ear gate. (pg. 101)
I. THE EARS
A. Attacks on the Ears --- T.V., Music, filthy language, possibly educational institutions, false religions, philosophies, etc.
B. Scriptures:
1. Proverbs 15:31 "The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.
It is the character of a wise man that he is willing to be reproved, and therefore chooses to converse with those that, both by their words and example, will show him what is amiss in him. (M. H.)
Those that learn well, and obey well, are likely in time to teach well and rule well.
2. James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
3. Eccl. 5:1 "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
a. Keep thy foot --- lest thou take a false step
b. Ponder the path of thy foot
c. Keep your thoughts and affections from roving and wandering
d. Giving sacrifice of fools --- bring not the torn, lame, and sick for sacrifice
4. Luke 8:15 "But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
5. Matt. 13:19 "When any one heareth the word of the kingdom , and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in the heart. This is he that receiveth seed by the way side."
If we break not up the fallow ground, by preparing our hearts for the word, and humbling them to it, and engaging our own attention; and if we cover not the see afterwards, by meditation and prayer; if we give not a more earnest heed to the things which we have heard (Heb 2:1-3) , we are as he that received seed by the way side. (M. H.)
Man's heart is like soil, capable of improvement, of bearing good fruit; it is a pity that it should lie fallow, or be like the field of the slothful. (M. H.)
a. How was the seed sown? When one heareth the word.
Rom. 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God."
b. Where was the seed sown? That which was sown in the heart.
C. Divisions of Man
1. Heart
a. Webster's --- the whole personality including intellectual as well as emotional functions or traits --- one's innermost being.
b. Vine's --- the word came to stand for man's entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements.
There is a pathway from the ear to the heart.
2. Soul --- the invisible part of all living beings that feels --- the seat of his affections, emotions, passions, and desires, and that which gives him self-consciousness and makes him a sentiment being.
3. Spirit --- is that invisible part of all living beings that knows --- the seat of his intellect, mind, and will, and that gives him self-determination and makes him a free moral agent and a rational being.
D. The Heart
1. Mark 7:20-23 "that which cometh out of a man"
What goes up must come down and what goes in must come out?
2. Prov. 4:23 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
(Something is flowing out.)
3. Luke 6:45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."
E. More Scriptures on Hearing
1. Mark 7:16 "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."
2. Acts 13:7 "Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.
v. 12 "he believed"
3. Acts 13:44 "And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God."
4. I Tim. 4:16 "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee."
5. Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29 "let him hear"
F. With this wicked world, there leave only one thing we want to hear --- I Thes 4:16-18
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first."
II. THE EYES --- Blessed are they that hear and see.
A. Attacks on the Eyes --- T.V. , advertising, billboards, pornography, books,
opposite sex---immodest attire
(80 % of learning comes by our vision.)
B. Scriptures:
1. Ps. 123:1-3 "Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens."
Ps. 25:15 "Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
The eyes of the servant are:
a. To his Master's directing hand, expecting that he will appoint him his work, and cut it out for him, and show him now he must do it. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
b. To His supplying hand. Servants look to their Master for their portion of meat in due season. And to God must we look for daily bread, for grace sufficient; from Him we must receive it thankfully.
c. To His assisting hand. If the servant cannot do his work himself, where must he look for help but to the master? And in the strength of the Lord God we must go forth and go on.
d. To His protecting hand. If the servant meet with opposition in his work, if he be questioned for what he does, if he be wronged and injured, who should bear him out and right him, but his Master that set him on work? The people of God, when they are persecuted, may appeal to their Master, we are thine; save us.
e. To His correcting hand. If the servant has provoked his Master to beat him, he does not call for help against his Master, but looks at the hand that strikes him, till it shall say, "It is enough; I will not contend forever." The people of God were now under His rebukes; and whither should they turn but to him that smote them? To whom should they make supplication, but to their Judge.
f. To His rewarding hand. The servant expects his wages, his well-done, from his Master.
Hypocrites have their eye to the world's hand; thence they have their reward; but true Christians have their eye to God as their rewarder.
2. Proverbs 27:20 "Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of a man are never satisfied."
Only those eyes that look upward will be satisfied and that with the good things of God.
3. I John 2:15 -16 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
The heart of man is narrow, and cannot contain both loves. The world draws down the heart from God; and so the more the love of the world prevails the more the love of God dwindles and decays. (M. H.)
There is a great affinity and alliance between this world and the flesh, and this world
intrudes and encroaches upon the flesh, and thereby make a party against God. MH
4. Acts 7:55 "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."
Being full of the Holy Ghost no doubt helped Stephen to look up to God at such a
time as this.
It is good for dying saints to look up stedfastly to heaven: "Yonder is the place whither death will carry my better part, and then, O death! where is they ?" (M. H.)
If we expect to hear from heaven, we must look up stedfastly to heaven. (M. H.)
What did he see by looking upward? He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of the Father. When we look up, we can see Jesus.
C. Temptations by the way of the Eyes
1. Matt. 5:28 "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Sometimes, when we look too long at the things we should turn away from,
we begin to lust after them.
2. Job 31:1 "I made a covenant with mine eyes; shy then should I think upon a maid?"
That is, by the grace of God, I kept myself from the very first step towards sin. MH
He made a bargain with his eyes. He would allow them the pleasure of beholding the light of the sun and the glory of God shining in the visible creation, provided they would never fasten upon any object that might occasion any impure desires, in his mind; and under this penalty, that, if they did, they smart for it in penitential tears. Note, Those that would keep their hearts pure must guard their eyes, which are both the outlets and inlets of uncleanness. (M.H.)
3. What we must not meddle with, we must not lust after; and what we must not lust after, we must not look at:
a. Not the forbidden wealth Prov 23:5
b. Not the forbidden wine Prov 23:31
c. Not the forbidden woman Matt 5:28
D. Examples of those who looked, lusted, and fell.
1. The first sin began in the eye. Gen. 3:6 "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
a. She looked --- Pleasant to the eyes
b. She listened
c. She lusted
d. She took (She did eat. Perhaps she did not intend, when she looked, to take, nor, when she took, to eat; but this was the result.
e. She fell
f. She gave to Adam.
As was the Devil, so was Eve, no sooner a sinner than a tempter.
g. She died
Our first parents, who knew so much, did not know this--that they knew enough. (M.H.)
2. Genesis 13:10 --- Lot --- "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar." v. 13 "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly."
Those who in choosing relations, callings, dwellings, or settlements, are guided by and governed by the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and consult not the interests of their souls and their religion, cannot expect God's presence with them, or His blessing upon them, but are commonly disappointed even in what they principally aimed at, and miss that which they promised themselves satisfaction in. In all our choices, this principle should overrule us: that is best for us which is best for our souls. (M. H.)
3. Joshua 7:21 "When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
a. He saw.
b. He lusted.
c. He took.
d. He died --- not only he, but his family as well --- They must have taken part in his sin or went along with it.
E. Eyes affect the Heart
Lamentations 3:51 "Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city."
The more I look upon the desolations of the city and country the more I am grieved. (M.H.)
Or my weeping affects my heart; Or my eye melts my soul.
F. Eyes (and Ears) affect the soul
II Peter 2:6-10 KJV
II Peter 2:7-8 Amplified Version
v. 7 "And he rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless.
v. 8 For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of [their] unlawful and wicked deeds.
G. We Must Guard Our Eyes and Cry Out
a. Ps119:37 "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in the way.
b. "I will set no evil thing before me."
LET US LOOK TO JESUS, THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH
