This was Christ’s word and warning in the days of his ministry when he taught the people in parables: “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.” Christ by his Spirit speaks the same word to all the seven churches of Asia Minor and so also to the church of Christ in every age.

The faculty of hearing is intricate, mysterious, and wonderful. Crucial for that sense in man is the ear. The ear is the instrument of hearing. Sound waves enter the ear. The mechanical movements in the ear are translated into electrical pulses and sent to the brain. There the sounds are interpreted and discerned.

Hearing is mysterious because it is a work of God. He formed the ear. There is a mysterious power in hearing. The slightest sound can alert the watchful. A moving piece of organ music or an inspiring piece of rhetoric can deeply affect the listener. Performers bring audiences to tears by their music. Generals rally their flagging soldiers by their stirring speeches. Doctrines are sunk down deeply into souls by hearing. A child learns language almost exclusively by hearing. The ear tries words like the tongue tastes meat. 

It is no wonder that hearing should be able so deeply to affect man. God is the Word. The Word became flesh to reveal God.

So there is a more wonderful sense of hearing. It is the spiritual faculty to hear the Spirit of Christ. He is the breath of Christ by which Christ’s word comes to his church. Faith comes by hearing. The physical sense? Yes. People must hear the gospel preached.

But more deeply in the spiritual sense, to hear in that gospel the very word of Christ carried on the breath of the Spirit. How blessed is he who hears! To hear is to have heavenly instruction, wisdom, guidance, and comfort.

And where does hearing come from? From the Word of God, the living and abiding Word of God, which is Christ. All men are deaf to the Word of God. But when in love God addresses men, women, and children in the very depths of their hearts, calls them out of darkness, and gives them ears to hear, they hear, and hearing they believe. Believing, they understand what the Spirit is saying.

The same Word of God comes by the gospel. Many have heard the word of the gospel. All through history God has spoken. The sound has gone out into all the earth. But hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Not hearing they are not converted or healed. Not hearing they take no warning, pass on, and perish in their unbelief and other sins.

Whoever has an ear has that ear by God’s sovereign work of grace. With that ear they are able to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Constantly, Christ speaks to the churches. Those who have an ear will take heed to Christ’s instruction, rest on the firm foundation of the gospel, be alive to every danger and error, refuse to give heed to seducing spirits and false doctrines, try every spirit whether it be of God, listen to Christ’s warnings and callings, suffer every reproach, engage in every battle, and endure every opposition, constantly directed by the Lord.

For the Spirit calls the churches constantly in the midst of a wicked and perverse world to be faithful to Christ and to his word alone.

“He that hath an ear, let him hear”!