RESPONDING TO GOD’S REVELATION

MARK 4:9

Mark 4:9 NASB 2020

And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Recap:

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Revelation of God

REVELATION OF GOD Content and process of God’s making Himself known to people. All knowledge of God comes by way of revelation. Human knowledge of God is revealed knowledge, since God, and He alone, gives it. He bridges the gap between Himself and His creatures, disclosing Himself and His will to them. By God alone can God be known.

GENERAL AND SPECIAL REVELATION

(General Revelation)

General revelation is God’s testimony to his character and works given to all human beings indiscriminately through the created order.

(Special Revelation

Special revelation is the teaching about God and his works that he has given to us through the prophets and apostles and which is now contained primarily or exclusively in the Bible.

What is “General Revelation”?

What is “Special Revelation?”

God must reveal himself for us to know him. God has revealed himself as Creator through his works of creation and providence but has especially revealed himself as Redeemer through Scripture and its Spirit-inspired testimony to the saving work of Jesus Christ.The lesson today deals specifically with special revelation.

CENTRAL IDEA

God requires and imparts a frame of mind that receives and responds to what he has made known. Let’s consider this proposition by looking at the text of Mark 4:1-9

Mark 4:1–9 NASB 2020

Again He began to teach by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat on the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Summary: In Chapter 4, Jesus teaches a large crowd by the sea using parables. He tells the Parable of the Sower and Soils, explaining that the seed represents the word of God and how different types of soil (representing people) receive it. Some do not understand, some receive it with joy but fall away in times of trouble, and some let worries and desires choke the word, while others accept it and bear fruit.

Special Revelation requires a particular “Frame of Mind”

See 1 Cor. 2:14

1 Corinthians 2:14 NASB 2020

But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Explanation: Hearing and Listening are different.

Hearing is physiological: it involves the physical process of sound waves being detected by the ears and transmitted to the brain.

Listening is psychological: it requires mental engagement, attention, and interpretation of the sounds to understand their meaning.