The Awakened Ear

From Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. You can't read that verse without crying out to God, Lord give me such a tongue that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. To be able to speak a word that lifts somebody out of despair, to raise somebody from the dead by means of a word which is alive with the light of God.

That's what our Lord did. He had a tongue of the learned. He knew how to sustain with a word him that is weary.

With a word he gave people hope, opened their blind eyes, healed their sick bodies, took away their guilt. It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no avail.

The words that I have spoken to you, they are spirit and they are life. The one outward sign that the Holy Spirit of God had come upon the believers on Pentecost was the fact that these people now had the tongue of the learner, the tongue of those who are taught. Now they knew how to sustain with a word him that is weary.

It was words that drew the multitude together as they were out there proclaiming the wonderful works of God. Peter stood up and began to speak to the multitude and before he was finished, thousands of people found their way into the kingdom. Every one of us in this place who has tasted anything at all of the life of God has tasted it because a living word came out of a human mouth toward us.

Somebody spoke to us and we heard something that we had never heard before. There is nothing we want more than to be able to speak such a word ourselves. To be so full of God's life, to be so given to God's purpose, to be so confident in God's mercy, to be so inwardly prostrate before God's glory that rivers of living water come gushing out of our hearts across our tongue and we know how to sustain with the word him that is weary.

Now to have such a tongue, there's only one requirement. Every man and woman in this assembly today can have such a tongue and every child can have the tongue of those who are taught, can know how to sustain with the word him that is weary. If we will meet this one requirement, which is this.

For God to be able to use your tongue, you first have to give him your ear. And when I say give him your ear, I mean that we, if we're going to be able to proclaim the word, we have to begin by listening to the word. And listening not just occasionally, but all the time, every day, every morning, morning by morning, continuously bathing ourself in this word, committing ourselves to this word, saturating, yielding our wills to it, doing it.

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with the word him that is weary. Morning by morning, he wakens, he wakens my ear that I may hear as those who are taught. The Lord has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward.

In order to have an anointed tongue, I first have to have an anointed ear. An anointed ear is an ear that wakes up when God speaks to it, that doesn't rebel. I did not rebel, I was not rebellious, doesn't turn backward, doesn't pretend it didn't hear part of the message, doesn't become offended when it calls for repentance.

Morning by morning, he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. If you want to understand the distinction between the disciples whose lives changed under Jesus and the multitudes who saw the same miracles from Jesus' hands and heard the same words from his mouth and remain unchanged, it's because the disciples had an open ear.

The disciples listened, that's what it meant to be a disciple. The multitudes heard what they didn't hear. They heard and heard and the more they heard, the more deaf they became until finally they walked away.

If you want to see the distinction between the disciples who stuck with Jesus all the way to the resurrection and the disciples who turned away after the novelty wore off, it comes down to exactly the same thing to the ear, the ear. John chapter 6 verse 60. Many of his disciples when they heard it said, this is a hard saying, who can listen to it? But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples had murmured at it, said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life.

The words that I have spoken to you, they are Spirit and they are life. Are you open to them? Are you taking them in? Are you listening? He's saying. The disciples who kept the ear open stuck with Jesus and the disciples who had the hard, petty, easily offended ear walked away from Jesus.

John chapter 10 verse 22. It was the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.

So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me.

But you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My sheep hear my voice.

It's that simple. My sheep have an awakened ear. So what does it mean to have an awakened ear? Morning by morning he awakens, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

The Lord God has opened my ear. That's all grace. God opens my ear.

God makes it possible for me to hear. If God doesn't open my ear, I can't hear anything from him. Jesus died on the cross in order to open the deaf ear so the dead could hear his voice.

In order that the deaf ear, the sin blocked ear, the guilt burdened ear could be opened up. And so he comes to Mary in the garden and he says, woman why are you weeping? And she says, because they've taken away my Lord. I don't know where they put him.

Woman, why are you weeping? What are you looking for? If you've taken him, tell me where you put him and I'll take care of it. And then Jesus says, Mary. And with that personal address, Mary just absolutely wakes up because this is a word that has cut right through and she comes from death to life.

That evening he stands up among the disciples in the room with the door shut and says, peace be with you. And with that address, the word penetrates to their hearts and raises these men from spiritual death. The same Jesus stands among us today and speaks and by speaking to us, raises us from the dead.

See, but there's another side to this 50th chapter of Isaiah which puts some responsibility also on us. God opens our ear. In that sense, he pours out his grace on us.

But now that the ear is open, if it's going to stay open, that is up to us. And whether the ear stays open depends on how we respond. Morning by morning, he opens, he opens my ear to hear as those who are caught.

The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. I was not rebellious, I didn't turn away, I committed myself to this word and to whatever it cost me to live in it.

Now Jesus takes care of his side of the miracle. He speaks and his word is spirit and life. But then there's our side to the miracle which boils down to three things.

The awakened ear listens daily for a word from God. Two, the awakened ear never turns away from the word. And three, the awakened ear gladly bears the reproach of the word.

First of all, the awakened ear listens daily for a word from God. Morning by morning, he awakens my ear, morning by morning I listen. I make some effort, I discipline myself to put myself under this word, to hear something.

That's how Jesus did it. Jesus himself found this necessary. He listened for a word from his Father on a daily basis.

Every man and woman of God does the same. Oh God, art my God, early will I seek thee. Every day I'm going to seek thee.

Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock, be not silent to me, lest that thou be silent to me. I become like them that go down into the pit. You want to keep your sanity, you want to sustain the vision that you have, or have it renewed, discipline yourself to listen for that word.

In daily prayer, daily soaking up the scripture, daily prostrating your spirit before the glory of God. Secondly, the awakened ear never turns away from the word. Now these disciples in John 6 had their ears open, but then they turned away.

That's a hard saying. Who can listen to it? And off they went. The rich young ruler had his ear opened when he came to Jesus, but the word was strong.

It put his finger right on his idol. Go sell all you have, give the money to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, come follow me. He walked away.

The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, I turned not backwards. Example, you're getting angry with a particular person, you're tired of being ignored, and you feel it's time now to rock the boat. And, you know, there is a time to rock the boat, no question, but now comes this word into your mind, which you know is coming from the shepherd, and he says, have some forbearance, show a little kindness here.

And you know that if you want to keep hearing that voice, you have no choice. You can't turn away from that word, and so you show the forbearance, and even as you do, the shepherd manifests himself somehow at your side. And thirdly, the awakened ear gladly bears the reproach of the word.

Often when we read this passage, we read verses four and five and forget number six, which goes like this, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I hid not my face from shame and spit it. Now this is what they did to our Lord.

They despised him, and they rejected him, and they nailed him to the cross because of the word which came out of his mouth. Every prophet of God, every man and woman of the world, sooner or later discovers that the same word that brings us such life from God also brings us reproach from the world, always. If we want to keep hearing from God, and if we want to continue to live under the word, we need to accept it as normal when the world rejects us because of the word.

Not because we're obnoxious, but when it despises us because of the word. That's the price we pay for having the word alive in us. We need to get used to it.

But if we're willing to listen for that word daily, and never turn from that word, and gladly bear the reproach of that word, we will have as an absolute gift from God the tongue of those who are caught. Without even trying, hardly even thinking about it, the word which has come into us will begin to flow out of the heart across the tongue, and we will know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. So this week, let's just apply this and make effort, special effort on a daily basis to give our ear to God, and then watch what he will do.

Let's wait upon him in silence for a minute or two.