Exposition/Application of Luke 8:18

The point: Take heed how you hear, as this mandate is critically important for spiritual growth.

Martin asks how the archenemy of God would thwart His saving purposes, concluding that the devil would undermine preaching or, failing that, hinder profitable hearing, as Jesus explains in Luke 8:12.

the archenemy not only of God in his person, but in his saving purposes, if you were that foul fiend of hell called in Scripture the devil, and you were determined to thwart, to hinder, to frustrate, or even attempt to overthrow the saving purpose of God, how would you go about your nefarious task? How would you set out to give vent to your fiendish and soul-destructive purpose, to overthrow the purpose of God to save and to sanctify? And how would you justify his people? Well, you say, if I were the devil, I think the answer to that question would be quite obvious. If God has ordained the pre...

4:42 - 6:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Those who truly possess spiritual understanding by taking heed how they hear receive yet more understanding. ... Those who seem to possess spiritual understanding by refusing to take heed how they hear lose even what the…

Martin shares his observation over 33 years of ministry, seeing some grow into 'mighty oaks' and 'flowerbeds of grace' by taking heed, while others who seemed to have something lost it by neglecting this duty.

how he hears what he seems to have possessed is lost and he is ultimately revealed for what he really is. A man a woman a boy a girl utterly devoid of any true saving spiritual apprehension of the Word of God. And dear people thirty three years in one time enough for me to see this principle worked out again and again and again and again and I fear I see it being worked out yet more before my very eyes. There are sitting in this place today some who over three decades they are being heed how they hear and they undeniable ornaments of this solemn principle that taking heed how they hear what th...

22:27 - 23:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides a brief exposition of Luke 8:18, identifying it as a perpetual command to 'take heed how you hear' and articulating the solemn principle that those who truly…

He compares those who lose spiritual understanding to a dried-up tree that retains its external form but is dead, bears no fruit, and has no green leaves, illustrating the hollowness of apparent spirituality without true life.

And while like a tree that has dried up from the roots for a number of years may occupy the same place in the backyard or in a field and have all the same external dimensions that it had when it was a living tree, it is dead, brings forth no fruit, it has nothing, no green leaves. It has merely the form of what it once was when it was a living tree.

27:00 - 27:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses why this duty is necessary, first by examining Ezekiel 33:30-32, where people enthusiastically heard the prophet but treated his preaching as mere aesthetic…

Martin uses Ezekiel as an example of a true prophet, whose mouth became the organ of God's words, to highlight that even such powerful preaching could be heard unprofitably.

me. Look at the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 33. Now Ezekiel, as you know, was a prophet.

39:30 - 39:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You have become high class, inexpensive concert entertainment.

He asks listeners to imagine overhearing conversations in a warm climate where people are eagerly discussing going to hear the prophet Ezekiel, setting up the contrast with their actual heart condition.

Now let me ask you something. If we had, as they had in those days, in the climate that made it possible, open holes in the side of the houses where we have what we call windows, where we have glass and double glazing as they call it over in the UK, and we would say storm windows or Anderson or Pella windows with two or three panes for insulating purposes. But imagine. Imagine where all the windows are. It's open, a warm balmy climate, and you're walking down the street and you overhear the conversation coming out of the houses on your street. And everyone is saying one to another. Notice what...

41:11 - 42:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Become better listeners, for all the preacher's endeavors will come to naught unless the people become better listeners.

God tells Ezekiel that his preaching has become like a 'lovely song' or 'love song' to the people, who enjoy the aesthetic experience but have no heart for obedience, treating it as 'high class, inexpensive concert entertainment'.

world would they continue then to hear the prophet, who would expose their sins and cry out against the state of their hearts? Verse 32, And lo, you are become unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not. Ezekiel, you see what's happened? They have become content to hear you preach the word of God. And because the word was coming through Ezekiel in terms of the way God put Ezekiel together, and it was coming through him with dimensions that satisfied aesthetically and intellectually, he sai...

45:22 - 46:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Become better listeners, for all the preacher's endeavors will come to naught unless the people become better listeners.

He compares hearing Ezekiel to attending an Itzhak Perlman concert, where people seek aesthetic pleasure and ecstasy, not moral impact or ethical demands, illustrating how preaching can be enjoyed without spiritual transformation.

well on an instrument. When did you ever see anyone going to Lincoln Center to hear Itzhak Perlman and stop him and say, sir, where are you going? Oh, Lincoln Center, why? Well, don't you know Itzhak Perlman is going to be playing tonight, and he's going to be playing this and that and the other, some of my favorite violin pieces. He's even going to attack Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Violin, and then say to him, why are you going? Well, sir, I'm going because I want my heart ripped. I want to know my sin. I want to know my sin. I want to know my sin. I want to know my sins. I want to face mysel...

47:23 - 48:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Implement the word's demands in your life, such as loving your wives, submitting to husbands, and keeping short accounts with God and others, rather than fighting like 'cats and dogs'.

He compares a hearer who does not do the word to a man who looks in a mirror, sees a smudge on his face, puts down the mirror, and immediately forgets what he saw, illustrating self-delusion and lack of practical change.

That somehow you must be the better for both that exercise and that association. And that is pure self-delusion. You are not the better for that discipline or that association. For until that Word becomes part of you, by faith and obedience, it has done you no good. It has done you no good. You are like the man who picks up the mirror to see where he has smudged his face while doing his tasks in the garden, before he goes out to a proper social setting in the evening that demands a clean face. He looks in the mirror, he sees a smudge on his left cheek, a streak on his forehead, and he sees a s...

58:21 - 59:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines the specific duties of hearers from the Larger Catechism, including diligence, preparation, prayer, examining scripture, receiving with faith, meditating, and…

Martin indulges in a 'holy fantasy' of having two banners in the church: one for the preacher saying 'Preach!' and one for the congregation saying 'You hear!', to constantly remind both of their respective duties.

We're not given to banners, to overhead projectors. They may have their place in the teaching situation. But will you permit a little indulgence of holy fantasy this morning? If I could persuade my fellow elders and deacons and then I think we'd have to persuade the congregation and have them have a congregational void or boulder, you'd boycott it.

67:58 - 68:20 Read in full sermon