It's possible to hear God's word your entire life without ever truly hearing it. Today we'll examine what Jesus means when He says, "Hearing, you do not hear."
John 8:43, 47 "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word... He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."
There is a difference, biblically speaking, between hearing the words of God and hearing the words of God.
I know, I said the same thing. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 13, "Hearing they do not hear."
Meaning what?
Well, let me put it to you this way: we say things like, “that went in one ear and out the other."
Why?
Because it’s possible to absorb truth without hearing that truth in your heart. To “hear” the words of God is to obey God.
In John 8:37, Jesus says, "My word has no place in you." That word in Greek is "chōreō"—it means that God's word makes no progress in the heart of someone who still belongs to Satan. In the believer's life, Isaiah says that God's word "doesn't return void."
It pays dividends.
It yields fruit.
It changes, transforms, convicts.
If you're growing in the faith, you'll come to God's word and every year it'll be, "Oh man, this is what the Lord is showing me. I've seen this transformation in my life."
But for the person who is hostile to God, they can hear the truth of His word and it doesn't change a single thing. It's like the seed that fell on hardened soil—it doesn't penetrate, and consequently it doesn't germinate. There's no growth.
Mark 4:9—Jesus says, "He who has ears to hear, let them hear." Why does He say this? Because one of the most dangerous places you could ever be in is hearing the words of God but not hearing the words of God.
One of the things I tell my church frequently is that parents need to counteract the danger of children growing up hearing the truth without truly hearing the truth in their heart. They can grow up with the right answers, the right facts, and yet hear but never hear.
Jesus says this is one of the hallmarks that you've never been changed - if God's Word never has it's effect in your life. However, in the life of a believer, they don't simply hear information—they hear transformation. They don't just accumulate knowledge—they experience conviction that leads to change.
If you can sit under biblical preaching week after week, month after month, year after year, and nothing changes in your life—if there's no increasing love for Christ, no growing hatred of sin, no deepening hunger for holiness—you need to examine whether you've ever truly heard with your heart.
1. Can you point to specific ways God's word has changed your life in the past year?
2. Do you approach Scripture with a heart ready to obey, or are you looking for information to accumulate?
3. When was the last time you were genuinely convicted by a passage of Scripture and responded in obedience?
Stay dialed in.
