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All right, amen. So you're in Psalm chapter number 22. We're gonna come back to that and break that down a little bit, but go to Matthew chapter number 27. Matthew chapter 27. So again, what we've been doing for the last year and a half on Sunday mornings is going through the book of Matthew. And so what I'm doing now is I'm kind of cleaning up some of the smaller statements, phrases, questions, and things we haven't gotten to before we close the series out. And we're gonna look at something that Jesus said that people took out of context this morning. In fact, they didn't really take it out of context. They completely changed what he'd said. And so the title of the sermon this morning is Selective Hearing. Selective hearing, and basically what this is about, this is about the difference between hearing and listening. And when it comes to listening, we're gonna be asking the question, are we listening to respond to somebody or are we listening to learn from somebody? Okay, there's a big difference. For example, if you say today, hey, you know, I really wish Israel would stop killing innocent civilians. What do a lot of people hear? Oh, you're a Hamas terrorist. You're antisemitic. Okay, you're a Nazi. That's what they hear. Why is that? Why are people like that? Okay, we need to know because we deal with this every single day in life. So let's go to Matthew 27. And look all the way down at verse number 45. Matthew 27, verse 45. So the Bible says this, and of course this is the crucifixion here taking place. Matthew 27, verse 45. It says, now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Verse 46, in about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Okay, and that's why we started in Psalm chapter 22. We'll get to that here in just a moment. Now, kind of a funny note here. I was dreaming about this all night long. I was dreaming about reading this in this very moment, and then Pastor Stuckey calling me and shaking his head like on a screen call, and then all these other pastors are just like, I can't believe you didn't say that right, and you're not listening, and you're not hearing, and you need to let somebody else finish this. Just been a real weird day, so whatever. Those guys can be, no, I'm just kidding. All right, look at verse 47. The Bible says this, some of them that stood there, okay, now notice these next three words. When they heard, okay, so when they heard, so here it is, here's the hearing. When they heard that said, this man calleth for Elias, or the prophet Elijah. So there's what was said, there's what they heard, and then there's what they believed, okay, and we're gonna break that down, we're gonna take a look at that. So there's what Jesus said, okay, he says this phrase here in this language that clearly people spoke in the audience, okay? And then you have some people in the audience, what they heard, they heard, oh, he said, Elias, he said, Elijah, okay? So they're speculating, look at verse 48. And straightway, so immediately, one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. Can't imagine that'd be very thirst quenching, but verse 49, the rest said, let be. Now, look at this, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. So again, keep in mind, because we're gonna come back and talk about this again. There's what Jesus said, there's what they heard, and then there's what they believed, okay? And there's a lot of problems in between all of that. Verse 50, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, okay? So what did Jesus say? Well, he says this phrase here, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. Go back to Psalm chapter number 22. Back to Psalm chapter number 22. You say, well, why would he say that? Well, obviously one reason, Jesus Christ fully man, fully God, in excruciating pain here, bearing the weight of the sins of the entire world, past, present, and future on himself, okay, obviously is very, very distressed. And I've seen arguments online about scholars bickering about what this means, and oh, this is a moment where he kind of, you know, had a moment of weakness or whatever, but you know, we're students of the Bible here, right? That's what we do. We rightly divide the word of truth. And what is he doing here? Well, what he's doing here is he's quoting from Psalm chapter number 22. Now you gotta say, well, why didn't he finish the statement? Why didn't he quote the whole chapter? Well, could you quote a whole chapter under these circumstances, okay? I mean, think about this here, okay? Now, like I said, we're just gonna answer, basically just gonna demonstrate the context here, like why I believe he said this, and then we'll get into the application here of why we need to understand the difference between hearing and listening, okay? So Psalm 22, look at verse number one. The Bible says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And that is the part that Jesus quotes, okay? But he quotes that, and of course, these scholars wanna bicker what language he spoke here. Like, well, this was Aramaic most likely, others say it was Hebrew, okay? The point is not to fight over what language it was, the point was to demonstrate what people heard and why they wanted to hear that, okay? So here, he's quoting from Psalm chapter number 22, which should tell people in the audience some very important facts about what is going on, okay? So look at the verse again, Psalm 22, verse one. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So, I mean, if you're saved, you're there in the audience, you're religious, whatever, okay? This should cue you into something here. This should have sent a message to all of the priests, all of the Pharisees, all of the people that had access to information to actually go and look this up and see why did he say this? What's the point, okay? Well, it's like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, you know? Christ said the first part of that verse there and people for, you know, thousands of years later are bickering and arguing as to why he said that. They're like, oh, we had a moment when he, I heard this, he momentarily regretted dying for the sins of the whole world, okay? That's blasphemy, that's not true, that's not what he's saying. He's actually trying to teach us something here, okay? So let's look at it again, verse one. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Okay, now this is written by David here under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the first thing that I wanna point out here and we've kind of talked about this loosely for the last couple of weeks is that from time to time in the Christian life, you are going to find yourself in this position here where there is something that you need help for, you need rescuing, you need an answer from God and it will seem like you're not getting it, okay? And so the application and the important thing is for us is to understand why does it seem like sometimes it takes God a long time to help us out here, okay? What should our attitude be when we don't get our answer that we want immediately right away? So you have to remember in today's day and age, we live in a society that is plagued with the disease of now. I want everything now, okay? That's how we are, that's how people have always been but I would say it's definitely really bad right now and we need this chapter, we need this teaching because we don't wanna be like the world, we don't wanna be like these people that are like, well, God didn't give me what I want so guess what? I'm just gonna bounce, I'm just gonna quit, I'm just gonna give up, okay? We don't wanna be like that. So look at verse number two. He says, oh my God, I cry in the daytime but thou hearest not. And in the night season and am not silent, okay? Now here's where it changes. So this is how he feels, okay? And Christ is pointing us to this part of scripture here and saying, hey, basically without saying it, go read this when you're in distress, go understand this, don't just hear but listen. Listen to what this is telling you, okay? He's fulfilling prophecy is another thing that's going on here. Look at the response in verse number three. But thou art holy. Oh, thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. So what does the psalmist do here? He praises God anyways. Even though he is in distress, he praises God. Look all the way down at verse number 11. Be not far from me for trouble is near for there is none to help. So what does he do? Well, he acknowledges the fact that God is holy, okay? And then he continues to petition God for help respectfully. He doesn't quit, he doesn't falter, he doesn't fall down, okay? Look at verse number 22. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. So what does he do? He goes from demonstrating that he's in distress, that he feels forsaken, abandoned by God to saying that he's holy and continuing to ask for help and then again to praising God. That is what Jesus, that is what I believe Jesus was doing here when he said this phrase, when he quoted part of this verse. It was to give us a lesson in comfort. It was to demonstrate how we are supposed to act when we get into similar situations, okay? But it was also a message to his disciples. It was also a message to the people of the land that, hey, don't worry about me. This was planned from the beginning. This is how it was supposed to be. It was always supposed to be like this. I have not given up. I did not do these things in vain. All of this was planned for the salvation of the world, for the forgiveness and remission of sins, past, present and future. So you can leave your place there and I'm gonna have you guys go back to Matthew chapter number 27. Matthew chapter 27. So that takes care of what he said and why he said it. So again, we're taking a look at three things this morning. There's what Jesus said, which we now know is scripture. And we know the reason why he said that. So we've got the what he said and the why he said that. Now let's take a look at what they heard, okay? Because there's what Jesus said and there's what they heard. And that is where we're gonna spend most of our time. So Matthew 27, one more time, look at verse number 47. So the Bible says this. Some of them that stood there when they heard that said. This man calleth for Elias. You see how quick they were to just believe what they heard. No clarification, no asking questions, no like, what was that? What was that that he said there? Okay, they just heard some sound. They heard some noise. Some sound waves went inside of their ears, went into their brains and it didn't jive with what they wanted to hear. So they just filled in the blank. And of course, that leads us to number three, which is what they believed. Okay, remember there's what Jesus said, there's what they heard and then there's what they believed. Okay, and this is how people come to the wrong conclusion on a lot of different things. Look at verse 49. So as they're trying to give him this vinegar and a sponge to drink, look at what the rest of the people said. And these are the same people that said he called for Elijah, verse 49. The rest said, let be. Let us see whether Elias will come to save him. So these people here heard something and they heard something incorrectly. They interpreted this sound, this information wrongly and they chose to believe that. Okay, that is the problem. That is the big issue here. So obviously keep your place there, but go to Matthew. Let's see here. I'm gonna have you guys go to, where is it? Matthew 16, Matthew chapter number 16. Matthew chapter number 16. Now, why did they hear this? Why did they hear Elias when he said Eli? Now, if you read the same passage in Mark chapter 15, it's spelt a little bit differently, it's E-L-O-I, but it could be that some of them were like, huh, that sounds like Elias. So it must be Elias, right? And isn't this what most pastors do today? Well, that Greek word sounds like this English word. So we can tie those two together and make a doctrine. Okay, and that's how most of Christianity today has gone way off track, way off base and believe false things is because there's what was said, there's what was heard and they go off of what they heard without checking to make sure it's what actually was said and then they just believe what's easier. And then they just believe what's easier. They just believe the false doctrine. And this is where most people are at today. This is where most people are at today because we live in a society where people do not understand the difference between hearing and listening. We live in a selfish world where people typically only want to listen so that they can respond. They don't wanna listen so that they can learn and appropriately respond and that is the problem that we have to deal with today. So why did they hear that? Some people might've actually thought like, huh, maybe he is calling for Elijah. You know that, that is definitely possible. But there's another reason why they thought that, okay? And I think this is very important to the story here. So Matthew 16, look at verse number 13. So the Bible says this. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? Okay, so he's asking his disciples, hey, what's the word on the street? What are people saying about me? Who do people think that I am? Verse 14, and they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist. Some say Elias and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Now go to Matthew chapter 17, Matthew 17. So what you're gonna find here, we're gonna look at a couple of passages, is that the teaching that was going around was that Elijah the prophet would come back before Christ. And so because that was the teaching, that's not necessarily wrong, but because that was the teaching, that led to several cultural assumptions, okay? And so people were looking for the Elijah of the Old Testament, who did the miracles of the Elijah of the Old Testament to come back, and they were probably expecting to see a lot of the same things. And when they didn't see that, when it didn't happen the way they thought that it would go down, guess what? They weren't able to recognize who was right in front of them, which was the son of God, Jesus Christ. I mean, think about this, he's there raising the dead, he's doing miracles, he's doing things that only God could do. And word about him is spreading throughout the entire region and out through the rest of the world at this point in time. And people still won't believe. Why is that? Well, again, it goes back to what is said, what is heard and what is believed. And the disconnect between those three. So Matthew 17, look at verse 10. And the disciples asked him saying, why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? So that tells you kind of the cultural attitude of the day here, okay? So they're asking, okay, Lord, well, why do the scribes keep harping on this fact that Elijah or Elias is gonna first come? Now look at what Jesus says in verse 11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things. Now for sake of time, we're not gonna read the rest of this, but go to Matthew chapter 11. So go back in your New Testament, Matthew chapter 11. He basically explains to them that what he's talking about is that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elias, of Elijah. And that's what the Old Testament meant, okay? But that's what the scribes missed out on, okay? And why did they miss out on that? Because the scribes during the time of Christ, okay, they weren't saved. They had the word of God that they had obviously, okay? But they didn't understand it. They didn't understand it. I mean, think about this, okay? Think about Nicodemus, John chapter number three. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Nicodemus was a quote unquote scholar, a teacher, a ruler of the people, somebody who had access to the manuscripts, who read the law, who understood what the Old Testament said. He knew all the Bible stories. But he couldn't tell you how to go to heaven. He couldn't tell you how to be saved. Don't you think that's a huge problem? Yeah, that's a big problem. He couldn't do it, nor could most of the scribes, okay? And why is that? Again, this goes back to what is said, or in our case, what is written, what people hear, and what they decide to believe. And the disconnect is between the first two. It's between what is said and what is heard, okay? As God's people, what we are called to do is to hearken. Hey, everybody heard that word before? Anybody heard that word, hearken? Okay, it doesn't mean to just hear sounds, okay? There's the physical act of hearing, and we'll talk about this, but then there's this activity called hearken, or listening, okay? Which is to correctly understand what you're hearing. And that's the disconnect that has always been present, but is definitely more prevalent today. So Matthew 11, look at verse 14 real quick. So Jesus, again, speaking here, and he says this. If ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come, okay? So Jesus teaching here, again, to the disciples. And of course, they didn't even fully understand it because we just read chapter 17, and they're like, why do the scribes say Elias was first come? And he's already taught them this, okay? This was a hard teaching. This was a hard thing to be taught. And of course, our enemies and the world will say, oh, the Bible teaches reincarnation. That's not what this is talking about, okay? I've done a whole sermon on that in the past. I'm not gonna take the time today to get into it. The point is the cultural assumption was physical Elijah would come back. And because people didn't see physical Elijah, they got offended and said, well, this can't be Christ, even though his works scream that he's from God, okay? Look at verse 15. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. What does that mean? Of course, if somebody's got ears, as long as they're not physically impaired or deaf, they should be able to hear. But what is Jesus saying here? Well, after this hard teaching here about the fact that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the prophecy that Elijah would come and restore all things. He came in the spirit and power of Elias or Elijah. Jesus says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Basically what he's saying is that some people hear and some people listen. Big difference. Some people hear and some people listen. And I would submit to you this morning that most people today, and even back then, just hear. Okay? And don't think just because you're saved and because you're born again, that you're gonna get everything the first try. Because guess what? This is Matthew chapter 11. Jesus just got done explaining to them about John the Baptist and the Elijah connection, okay? And they still didn't understand it by the time you read chapter 17, okay? So again, what's the lesson in this for us? The lesson for us is that we need to understand the difference between just hearing and listening. Because if you get that wrong, if you just jump to, oh, this is what I think I heard. I'm gonna run with it. You will believe the wrong thing. And that is what plagues society today. So you're there in Matthew 11. I'll just keep right there for a second, okay? So what is hearing, okay? Hearing is the involuntary process, like I've already mentioned, of sound waves entering in through your eardrums and going to your brain, okay? That's hearing, okay? So that process by itself, it's great, it's good, but it's not listening, okay? It's not listening. Listening is the voluntary action whereby somebody makes the conscious effort to understand what they have heard, okay? Huge, huge difference, okay? Again, are we listening just to respond like the world? Okay? Oh, you said that Israel blowing up a hospital in Gaza was wicked? You're antisemitic, you're a Muslim, you're, you know, they just say all these things, okay? People hear today what they want to hear. Again, Paul told us that people in the last days would be very selfish, okay? That they would begin to glorify themselves. And so people, you know, obviously we have that to deal with and that's a problem, okay? But if we could somehow get people to understand, no, no, no, you're hearing words come out of my mouth, but you're not listening to what I'm saying. It may be that we could break through the barrier to people more often. So let's look at verse 16, okay? So Matthew 11, look at verse 16. So Jesus continues here and he says this, "'But whereunto shall I liken this generation? "'It is likened to children sitting in the markets "'and calling unto their fellows and saying, "'We have piped unto you and ye have not danced. "'We have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented.'" Okay, so he's using this illustration here of how children would play with each other, you know, and one would pipe unto them and they were supposed to dance, okay? And in this illustration here, basically it's children and they're piping to their fellows a certain tune that would make them dance and they're not understanding, they're not recognizing, it's not computing. They're hearing the sound, but they're not listening. They're not giving the right response, okay? That's what he's saying here, okay? That's what he's talking about here. Verse 18, and so then he says this, "'For John came neither eating nor drinking, "'and they say he hath a devil.'" Okay, this is what people were saying about John the Baptist. John the Baptist, obviously, great testimony, okay? He had an interesting diet of locusts and honey, something we should try here. We should have a potluck of just like bugs and honey and see how we feel. But that might not fly with some people in here. Maybe we'll do that as part of the New Testament challenge, but I don't know, it might get expensive, okay? But nonetheless, John the Baptist, what was his purpose? His purpose was to come to earth and make the way straight, make what had been crooked straight. Because again, you go back to Nicodemus, the Pharisee, the rulers and the teachers in Israel couldn't even tell you how to be saved. So John the Baptist, full of the Holy Ghost, comes on the scene and starts telling people, hey, it's always been by believing and you need to believe on him who comes after me who is Jesus Christ. So he was there to set the way of salvation straight again to prepare people to receive Jesus Christ. That was his job. But what does the religious establishment do? Oh, you have a devil because your message is different than mine. Oh, you're knocking works, you're saying you don't gotta follow the law and follow the commandments to be saved. Well, guess what? You have a devil. So there's what was said, there's what was heard and what was believed. And because of the disconnect between what was said and what was heard, because people want to hear what glorifies the flesh, they wanna hear that, that's what they want. And because of that, that is why most people believe the way that they believe, which is wrong, which is incorrect. Verse 19, the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. And isn't that what people say? Isn't that what people say today? People call me all the time, almost every single week or messages every single week and say, you know what? If Jesus were here today, he would be eating dinner and lunch down at the club and he'd be hanging out with the sodomites and he'd be doing this. It's like, no, he wouldn't. And this verse here is telling you that he wouldn't. Look at what it says. The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, behold, a man gluttonous. So they charge God foolishly. Oh, you're eating? You're not washing your hands? You're getting full? You're eating full meals? You're not fasting 24 seven? Oh, you're a glutton and you're a drunkard too. You're a wine bibber. You're over consuming wine. Oh, and a friend of publicans and sinners. That's what people were saying. Why were they saying that? Because, oh, they would never do such a thing, right? They were perfect. Now look at this last phrase here in verse 19. But wisdom is justified of her children. But wisdom is justified of her children. So in other words, the proof is in the pudding. I mean, that's one way you could put it. The proof is in the pudding. But what I want you to notice here is the connection between verse 15 and the end of verse 19. So real quickly, look back at verse 15. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. So if you're a drunkard, let him hear. So if you understand and you have the ability to be able to listen, to learn, which is what he's saying, then guess what? You are on your way to being wise. So what does that mean? That means if you just listen to respond because you have these opinions and you gotta win every argument and you always gotta be right, then guess what? You ain't wise. You're not wise. And you will believe the wrong things. That is what he's saying here. But wisdom is justified of her children. John chapter 10 real quick. John chapter 10 real quick. I just wanna show you something here. John chapter number 10. So even Jesus in John chapter 10 brings up this concept that we've all heard. You know, the proof is in the pudding. The proof is in what you see. And obviously I'm not saying we don't walk by faith. You know, we know this. We walk by faith, not by sight, okay? But here's the thing, okay? Look at what Jesus says here in John chapter 10 in verse 37. So he's dealing with people here who are rejecting what he's teaching, okay? And he says this in verse 37. If I do not the works of my father, believe me not. Verse 38. But if I do, though you believe not me, now look at this, believe the works. Believe the works that ye may what? Know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. So Jesus is telling these guys like, hey, look, if you don't believe me, can't you at least look at the works? Can't you at least look at the miracles that we've done? Can't you at least look at what my team has done, what the disciples have done, what those whom we've helped have done and believe for that reason alone? And of course, many of these people here could not, and they would not, because of pride and because of the fact that they heard what they wanted to hear so that they could believe what they wanted to believe. Okay, that is not wise, that is foolish. And that gets us in to all sorts of trouble. And so what I wanna do now is have you guys go to Ecclesiastes chapter number five. So right after the book of Proverbs, Old Testament, Ecclesiastes chapter number five. And we're just gonna get some quick applicable things here and then we'll be done. Ecclesiastes chapter number five. So again, Jesus says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Okay, big difference again between hearing and listening. Are we listening to respond or are we listening to learn? And I get it, look, sometimes you're talking with people out there and it's like, you already know you're not gonna agree with their answer, okay? But aren't we wise to actually listen and to see what they're really trying to tell us so that we can better help them in these situations? I mean, I think that's the way it ought to be, okay? Now let's look at what Solomon had to say about this very same subject here. Ecclesiastes chapter number five, look at verse number one. So the Bible says this, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. Here it is, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. So again, Matthew 11, very clear. Jesus says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Then he goes on in verse 19 and says, but wisdom is justified of her children, meaning our actions and decisions that we make based off of listening and learning from the word of God will demonstrate the truth, okay? Remember, our main job concerning the truth is to support the truth. We don't have to prove the truth because the truth is the truth. Even though we speak like that, that's okay, we understand that. But look at what Solomon says here. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be, look at this, more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Keep thy foot, what does that mean? You gotta wear a certain type of shoe, keep your foot in a certain position, like you're in the military, you know? No, he's saying control your movements, control your flesh, control how you are. Behave yourselves, that's what he's saying, okay? Understand, now look, now look, okay? In the Old Testament when this was written, okay, obviously they had places that they would meet, they had synagogues and I can prove that to you, just don't have time this morning, okay? They had a physical nation though, and everybody knows this, okay? Old Testament Israel was a physical nation made up of 12 tribes, blah, blah, blah. We've said this a thousand times, okay? In today's day and age, what is the house of God? Is it these walls, is it this building here? No, it's the people, okay? So really listen to what this is saying. You're always in church, you're always in the house of God, and that is not to say that you forsake the gathering because wherever two or three are gathered at Starbucks, there he is in the midst, okay? That's not church, okay? That's fellowship, there's a big difference there, okay? So listen to what I'm saying. Don't just inject the stuff here, okay? So he says, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, okay? And be more ready to hear. Be more ready to hear than to compare. Oh, that's not one that we have to deal with here, but I've had people do this where they go to church and oh, my church isn't like the big church, it's on the internet, it's real famous. I wish it was. You know what I always tell those guys when they show up? What are you doing to get it like that, huh? What are you doing to get it like that? Yeah, that's what I thought, shut up. Shut your mouth. Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, okay? Now, how does this apply to us in today's day and age in the body of Christ? Well, when we're more ready to hear from each other, the conversations tend to go a lot better, don't they? And what takes place as a result? Edification, people get edified, people get blessed, they get benefited and they get real family back because you know this as well as I do. You come to a church like this for any length of time where we just don't care what the world thinks and we're gonna tell you how it is. You will lose friends, you will lose family, you will lose coworkers, you will lose jobs, you will lose everything at some point in your life. And then what are you gonna be stuck with? What are you gonna have next? Well, hopefully you did a good job at building relationships with the people of God because you're in the house of God and therefore it's not going to affect you the same way that it affects other people. Be more ready to hear than to compare. Be more ready to hear than to fear, okay? What are you talking about? What does this mean, okay? Well, some people, they'll call us and, oh, I started going to this church over here and I'm scared, I can't live up to everything. Welcome to the club, welcome to the club, okay? Look, these sermons aren't designed to stomp you into the ground and just control you, control you. It's to help and teach. Everybody in here is a sinner, present tense, everybody. We're all a work in progress. This should be a place that everybody can come to and feel safe and feel comfortable. And by everybody, I don't mean everybody, okay? I gotta keep throwing these disclaimers out there, okay? But hopefully you all know what I'm talking about here. Not everybody welcome here. I'm just gonna leave it there. But the main point here, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Look at the verse one more time. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. And be more ready to hear than, now look at these next two words. Be more ready to hear than to give, to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Notice the sacrifice here. We'll talk about what it is in a second. The sacrifice of fools, notice, they give it. And you didn't ask for it, okay? Notice it doesn't say they offered it, right? When you're reading sacrifices in the Bible, whether it be the Old Testament or spiritual sacrifices in the New Testament, you'll typically find this other word associated with it, offered, okay? Offered, okay? Fools, you know what they do? They just give, right? Force feed, they're like, here it is, here's my opinion, here's what you're gonna do. And they just don't stop. So the sacrifice of fools is really the motor mouth, okay? Just somebody who's just, and I don't have an example because we don't have anybody here like this, but that's what this is talking about. The guy who just shows up to church, he knows everything, he knows everything, and he's gonna tell you how it is. After the service, hey pastor, you said this was wrong, and really it's this, and Pharaoh, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it just got, you know, just a whirlwind of things that they learned that aren't right, that aren't biblical, but they wanna tell you how it is, okay? And it's like, did you listen to what I just said? No, you didn't. Yes, I did. I preached this sermon one time at the Red Hot Preaching Conference. This guy came up to me and he's like, you know, there's really good information about how to get along with people, but don't you think you should use Bible verses to explain it? I said, are you serious right now? Well, I just think you should use more Bible verses. Did I not do that? Were you asleep? See, what people do is they get maybe hooked on like one preacher, and they're like, okay, he used 42 verses on this sermon. That's the standard. So if you don't use 42 verses, then guess what? You're a heretic. You're wrong. You're not right. You see, they start imposing their expectations on you, and we don't let that happen, do we? I don't play that game. Don't tell me your opinion. Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, which is your motor mouth unsolicited opinion that nine times out of 10 is wrong. So now that I got that off my chest, notice that this sacrifice is given, not offered. Now look at verse two, and here it is. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. So here's another type that will come in, okay? Like, yeah, that's right. This is great. They'll start making all these vows. They'll start, ah, from this day forward, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, and they start vowing in their hearts, like, I'm gonna do all this stuff, not even considering whether or not they're able to do these things or the fact that they even understand them. Be not rash with thy mouth, hasty, quick, forceful. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. So again, keep thy foot, okay? Keep control of yourself. Keep thy foot is what he says in verse number one. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few, okay? So of course, that's the way we should be, right? We should understand, and everybody in here understands this, okay? That God is in heaven, we're down here, okay? But this is good information for a lot of people, a lot of people that you guys are gonna meet and bring to church, okay? And they might need this conversation, you know? They might need this teaching. Verse three, so he says this, for a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. So if you're having weird dreams like I did, it's because you're way too busy, way too busy. And so we know this, okay? You say, how do I learn to recognize a fool? Well, he's known by the multitude of words. Now I don't, this church is already quiet enough. A lot of you guys are like me and just kind of quiet. Okay, I'm not saying that after church, and sometimes I'll preach this stuff and people are like, he's talking about me, and they're just like, and no one's talking to each other after service. I'm like, hey, everybody cool, everybody all right, okay? I'm just teaching the Bible here, okay? It's all good, okay? It's all good. Have your conversations. You'll know this guy when you see him. In fact, everybody in here has probably at least worked with him, okay? You know the guy, he knows everything. If you've done something great, he's done something better, or he knows somebody who's done something better, okay? That's who we're talking about here, okay? Verse four, and again, we're getting close to being done. When thou vows to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. So another aspect of a fool, somebody who says they're gonna do something, or vows that they're gonna do something, and they just don't do it, okay? They just don't do it. And don't be like, oh, crap, I said I was gonna do this for the church, I forgot. That's not what we're talking about. I do that type of stuff. I tell you guys, oh, I'm gonna do this, and forget about it, okay? He's talking about a vow unto God. That's the context, okay? If you're gonna tell God that you're gonna do something, don't defer to pay it. Don't be like, oh, maybe he won't notice, okay? That's not good. Verse six, suffer, I'm sorry, verse five. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Okay, so you're better off just not even making the vow, not even making the promise, not even swearing that you're gonna do this or that. You're better off just not doing that than doing it and not being able to pay. Hey, verse six, suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel, and I wish we had time to take this apart, but we don't. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel that it was in error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? Okay? Again, this is what we do not want to find ourselves facing here. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of God. Verse seven, we're gonna stop right here and go to Matthew 16, but it says in verse seven, for in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God. So again, whether you take a multitude of dreams, a multitude of words, at some point in that situation, there is vanity, and we've all experienced this, okay? We've all experienced this. So again, like James said, you know, the tongue is a whirlwind of fire. It's just who can tame it, right? So the less sad, the better off you are, okay? We're almost done here. Matthew 16, and we'll finish up here. Back to Matthew chapter 16, we're gonna look at three verses real quickly, and we will be done. So again, the difference between hearing and listening. There's what Jesus said. There's what they heard and what they believed. So again, we looked at what Jesus said, and he was quoting from Psalms chapter 22, okay? And if you were to listen to that and be like, oh, wait a second, that sounds familiar. Why does that sound familiar? Oh, just like we do, oh, Psalm chapter 22. Read that, and you're like, wow. Wow, now I understand why he pointed us to this Psalm here. Because he felt forsaken, he felt in distress, he felt abandoned. But yet even when David felt like that in his life, and David wasn't God, David still blessed the name of God, David still continued to pray to God, and David still continued to praise God. So you know that Christ did all of that in his heart. He never faltered, he never sinned, he never felt, oh, I wish I didn't have to die for this humanity. You know, it wasn't anything like that, like your dumb scholar says today. No, we use the word of God, we listen to that, and now we know what we heard, now we know what was said, and then now we know what to believe. That's how this works. Verse 15, Matthew 16. Matthew 16, look at verse 15, the Bible says this. So he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? So this goes back to earlier when Jesus said, hey, what are people saying about me? What are people saying that I am? Verse 16, and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now how did Peter get to this point here? Verse 17, and Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. Okay, so in other words, you got this from the word of God, because Jesus is right there, he is the word of God, he is the one speaking to them, he is the one discipling them, he is the one teaching them. So again, all of that to say this, okay, understand what was said in its context. We need to listen, listen to what was said, not just hear sounds, not just hear noises, listen, okay? Because there's what is said, there's what's heard, and if we can get those two to match up and to fit together, okay, then we have moved from just hearing to listening. That's the stage that we need to be at. We need to be like that as God's people, okay? Then we will know what to believe, because we live in a day and age with a lot of misinformation, unlike any other time in the world, okay? And the way around that, the bit of wisdom that I've got for you this morning is understand what was said in any situation, whether it's a conversation between each other, people at work, people on the internet, wherever you're at, listen to what is being said. Don't be like the modern day scholar, oh, pharmacia, pharmacy, Greek, oh yeah, I can make a whole doctrine now. Well, this Greek word sounds like the Spanish word and that sounds like this Chinese word, so that must mean this English word means this and it doesn't mean what you think it means. We don't play that game here. We go to the Bible and we look at what it says in our language and then we try to understand it and then we know what to believe so that we don't end up like these guys in Matthew chapter 27, when Jesus was speaking the language they should have understood and said, oh, I think he's calling for Elijah. Yeah, let's see if Elijah will come save him. Because again, there's a lot of cultural assumptions that you and I have to spend time hearing, seeing and looking at and we need to take those cultural assumptions and make sure that they're actually what the Bible said and if not, we need to push them aside so that we can believe the right things. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church, for everything that you do for us. I just pray you'd help us to all be great listeners and to be able to serve you, Lord, as you would have us to serve you and I just pray you bless the soul winning after the service and bring us back again safely tonight. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.