Foundational Considerations

Introduction to the Command: Take Heed How You Hear

0:01 Will you follow, please, in your own Bible as I read this morning from the 8th chapter of Luke's Gospel, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 8. And it came to pass soon afterwards that he, that is, our Lord himself, went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God, and with him the twelve, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary that was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chusus, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who ministered unto them of their substance. And when a great multitude came together, and they of every city resorted unto him, he spake by a parable. The sower went forth. The sower went forth to sow his seed.

1:03 And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden underfoot, and the birds of the heaven devoured it. And other fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And other fell amidst the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And other fell into the good ground, and grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold.

1:28 And as he said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him what this parable might be. And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this.

1:56 The seed is the word of God, and those by the wayside are they that have heard, then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved. And those on the rock are they who, when they have heard, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among the thorns, these are they that have heard, and as soon as they go on their way, they are choked with care, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. And that in the good ground, these are such as, in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with patience. And no man, when he hath lighted a lamp, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed, but putteth it on a stand, that they that enter in may see the light. For nothing is hid, and nothing is lost. For nothing is hid, and nothing is lost.

3:03 For nothing is hid, and nothing is lost. Nor is there anything that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known, and come to light. Take heed therefore how ye hear, for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he thinketh or seemeth that he hath. The text which will form the basis of our study in the word of god today, in all likelihood, Lord's Day morning and evening, next Lord's Day, is verse 18, in particular the first part of the verse.

3:46 This command of our Lord, take heed therefore how ye hear.

Context of Jesus' Preaching and the Parable of the Soils

3:56 But before we come to the text, we want to feel something of the context, the setting in which our Lord uttered it, and this is why I have read these 18 verses. According to verses 1 to 3 in this chapter, our Lord is engaged in a preaching tour in company with the twelve disciples and with these choice women who ministered, the scripture says, of their substance. Now it's very interesting that on the one hand we have those in the feminist movement who tell us that it is the Bible that has given birth to the downgrading. The downgrading of the dignity of women, whereas just the opposite is true.

4:37 It is a fact that in the society of our Lord's Day, women were downgraded, and one of the noble fruits of the Christian faith and its penetration into the Roman Empire was to raise womanhood from its chattel-like existence to its true God-intended nobility. But you see, that nobility...

5:02 Nobility is not found in the blurring of distinctions of the sexes, nor of apportioned and designated functions and responsibilities. And the Holy Ghost is careful to record that Jesus is preaching with the aid of his twelve and the support system, as it were, is to be found rendered by these women. So their role was significant, but it was not parallel to, or of the same kind, as the role of the men. Well, I just had to say that by way of a little aside, because it's there in the passage.

5:41 Now, as a result of this preaching, you have these who seem to have a greater measure of hunger coming together from the various cities, and when this great crowd comes together, our Lord then gives, according to verses 4 to 8, what we commonly call the parable of the sower, probably better entitled the parable of the sower. Because the focus is not upon the sower, nor upon the seed, but the various kinds of soil. Then, from verses 9 to 15, our Lord is alone with the twelve, and no doubt in company with these women, and he interprets the parable to them. And the great message, of course, of his interpretation is simply this, that it is the state of the soil which determines the fate of the seed. The soil in the parable is the human heart. Verse 12, Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word from their heart. Verse 15, And that in the good ground are such as in an honest and a good heart.

6:50 So the soil is the human heart, the seed is the word of God, according to verse 11. Now, the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. So whenever the word of God impinges, upon the human heart, you have this parable reenacted. And the great lesson of this parable is that it was the state of the soil, that is, the condition of the heart to which the word came, which determined the fate of the seed.

7:23 The seed did not determine its own fate. It was the state of the soil that determined the fate of the seed. And after making that point very emphatically and clearly, our Lord then, in verse 16, says a word about the intention for which the light of truth is given, that is, it is given not to be hidden, but to be displayed. And then he gives a word concerning that day which is coming, in which a man's response to the word will be fully displayed before the entire moral universe, in all likelihood a reference to the day of judgment.

8:03 Then comes, follows the command of verse 18, Take heed, therefore, in the light of these great principles which our Lord has established concerning the reality of this great concept, the state of the soil, that is, the heart, determines the fate of the seed, that is, the word of God. And a day is coming in which the interaction of the word upon the human heart will be established. It will be fully manifested in the day of judgment. In the light of that, he says, Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.

8:42 And then he buttresses that command with two considerations, for whosoever hath to him shall be given. How we hear determines what we'll have. And then furthermore, he says, How we hear reveals what we really are. For whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that, which he seemeth to have.

The Solemn and Constant Duty of Believers to Hear Carefully

9:08 Now it is this command to which I want to direct your attention as the basis of this brief series of studies today and next Lord's Day. The command counts in the words, Take heed, therefore, how ye hear. Our Lord speaks in what some of you first-year students will soon be learning is a present imperative. That is, be continually paying attention to what you are continually hearing.

9:42 So our Lord then is laying upon the disciples this solemn responsibility to take care as to how they hear the word of God. And we extract, therefore, from this text this statement. It is the solemn and constant duty of believers, carefully to regard the manner in which they hear the word of God. Do you see it?

10:14 This command of our Lord sets before us the fact that it is the solemn and constant duty of believers carefully to regard the manner in which they hear the word of God.

10:32 Now it is the opening up of this duty which will be my task, this Lord's, today and next. Now you may ask, Pastor Martin, why give four entire messages to something so elementary as the duty of being careful as to how we hear? Well, I have two reasons for doing so. Number one is the general reason.

10:55 Jesus said, Make disciples, baptize them, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. Now did he command his own, to take heed how they heard? Now he says, Wherever you go, teach them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. And one of the great tasks of the official teachers in the church is to teach the precepts of Christ.

11:25 Granted, we are to teach the promises, we are to hold out the provisions, we are to set forth the wonderful glories of the inheritance of believers in Christ, and that we seek to do continually. In fact, it is precisely that into which we will move when we get locked into our regular study two Lord's Days from now, as we pick up the series in the morning, the Here We Stand series, and we consider some of the great privileges of redemption. And we'll get into such matters as calling and regeneration and adoption and justification and sanctification and glorification. But we must never forget that when Jesus gave the Great Commission, He said, Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. And the second reason has to do with where we are in our own present life as a congregation. With the fall now before us, we'll be locked into a more regular course of instruction, concurrent series going along in the morning and evening, and then if we consider the adult class, as a third series, there will be this systematic, plodding, line upon line, precept upon precept exposure to the Word. You children have started a new quarter in Sunday school.

12:49 You'll be exposed to new materials, new dimensions of biblical understanding. Well, just as surely as there is a solemn responsibility upon every one of us who teaches to teach nothing but the pure Word of God, so there is a solemn responsibility upon every hearer to hear as he ought to hear. And so for those reasons, I am directing your attention to this duty, this solemn duty. Remember, Jesus couches it in this language.

13:24 There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed. I may not be able to see with my eyes how you are receiving the Word of God, but there is One who does. And a day, this coming in which your eternal destiny will be determined by the manner in which you interacted with the Word of God. And likewise to him that has shall be given.

Foundational Consideration 1: No Automatic Blessing in Hearing the Word

13:52 It is only as we are proper listeners that we will improve what we already have and gain more. As we then embark upon the opening up of this duty, all I propose to do this morning is to set before you three foundations and foundational considerations. That is, certain facts which deserve our serious reflection as we seek to understand the duty of carefully heeding the manner in which we hear the Word of God. Now the first foundational consideration is this.

14:30 It is the frightening fact that there is no blessing automatically given or received in the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. The frightening fact that there is no blessing automatically given or received in the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. Now as a congregation standing in the stream of historic evangelical Christianity, we have no sympathy with what is called sacramentalism. Now you kids don't be scared by that big word.

15:10 All it means is the belief that the grace of God is so tied up with the sacraments, particularly baptism in the Lord's Supper, that if you get in touch with the physical materials, you'll have the grace that they convey. And so the sacramentalist teaches that when water is put on the head of a little infant, grace is put into his heart. So if he has water on his head, he's got grace in his heart. Now that's not so difficult, is it kids?

15:46 You know what a sacramentalist is? Someone who teaches if you've got water on your head, you've got grace in your heart. If you have the wafer in your mouth, you have forgiveness in your heart. If you have the wine in your mouth, you have forgiveness before the bar of God.

16:02 Sacramentalism teaches that the Savior and His grace is so tied to water, wafer, and wine that if you have the water, wafer, or wine, you have the grace that is in the Savior. Now evangelical Christianity has stood against sacramentalism and said no. In the Gospel, the Savior in His mighty power to save, and the sinner in his naked need come together in the embrace of faith. And the sacraments then are only significant as pledges, seals, confessions, acknowledgements of the faith and the grace already given. So we have no sympathy for sacramentalism when it comes to the water and the wine. When it comes to baptism in the Lord's Supper, we say no, no. There is no automatic blessing given in baptism or the Lord's Supper.

17:06 There must be faith preceding and attending both baptism and the Lord's Supper if there is to be in any sense a right calling of them a means of grace. But you know we can become pure sacramentalists when it comes to preaching. And we can assume that simply because we are in touch with preaching, we are in touch with grace. And we can become pure sacramentalists with regard to the ordinance of the preaching of the Word of God.

17:41 And this foundation, this final consideration must grip us this morning and continue to grip us throughout all of our days. It is a frightening fact that no blessing automatically is given or received in the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. And I want to give you four instances from the Scriptures which support that assertion. There are many more.

The Aesthetically Pleased Listener (Ezekiel 33)

18:09 These are only specimen portions. First of all, I am pleased to Ezekiel chapter 33. And here we have described what I am calling the aesthetically pleased listener. The aesthetically pleased listener to the Word of God.

18:30 Ezekiel 33 is one of those watchman chapters where the prophet was reminded of his tremendous responsibility to warn the nation that sin which had already brought the judgment of captivity would bring an even further measure of divine judgment. The prophet is, as it were, pouring out the moral and ethical demands of having a covenant relationship with God. He is calling the nation to forsake its sins. Verse 11, As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that ye turn from his way and live.

19:13 Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways. And then in the subsequent part of the chapter he enters into some of the false reasoning of the nation of Israel and he explodes it with truth and then he calls upon them again and again to repent or face further judgments from God. And then we come to these amazing words in verse 30 through 33. And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah.

19:57 In other words, if you were to walk through the town or village to which our Lord was referring, he said you would hear the people as they spoke with one another. If you went into their homes, you'd hear them saying similar words. Come, let's all go together. Let's go attend upon the Lord.

20:14 The word of Jehovah. Let's go and put ourselves beneath the ordinance of preaching. Now notice the frightening situation in which they were saying this. Verse 31, And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words.

20:36 You see, they weren't there giving catcalls. They weren't there jeering. They weren't there heckling. They sat before the servant of God.

20:45 And they heard the words of God. But now notice, they hear thy words, but do them not. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their gain. Now why in the world would any people whose heart is set upon sin want to come again and again to hear the prophet who was condemning their sins?

21:15 Why? Well, the next verses tell us. They found an aesthetic pleasure in listening to the prophet Ezekiel. And lo, thou art 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.

21:41 Do you see what had happened? They had cultivated an aesthetic pleasure parallel to the pleasure of the person who goes to a recital or to a concert. Now, when you go to a recital, say, so-and-so soprano who's going to give a recital at Carnegie Hall or Alice Tully Hall in New York, and you pay your money, and you go and you sit down on row six, seat number B, and then the lady comes out and her accompanist comes out, what are you there for? Are you there to have your sins exposed?

22:19 Are you there to have your conscience prodded? Are you there to be made conscious of the claims of the Almighty over you? Of course not. You're there to hear pleasant sounds upon your ear that will give you a corresponding pleasant feeling in your soul.

22:37 And when the night is over, you express that that end has been realized by clapping and clapping and making the poor girl sing a couple of encores, and then you go home and say, wasn't it a lovely evening? Now, maybe a week later, you'll go in to hear a violinist, and when he comes out and sticks his fiddle under his chin and gets all tuned up with the piano, and he begins to play, what are you there for? What do you hope to receive as the sounds of the violin come to your ears? A challenge to deal with areas of corruption in your life?

23:08 No. Do you expect to receive anything that will prod you on to holiness? No. Anything that will make Christ more precious?

23:16 No, no. No, no. To receive an aesthetically uplifting experience, and if you're a Christian, you will give God thanks for that, for he's given us all things in his world richly to enjoy. But now the problem is that is not why God laid his hand upon Ezekiel.

23:34 He said, I've set thee a watchman. I've sent you into the nation of Israel to be my mouthpiece. For I look upon my people in their present state, and I realize if they continue in this present state, there is only one thing that can come to them, further judgments that will make the present captivity seem like child's play. Upon them will come a judgment that will disperse them among the nations forever, root them out of their land, and totally dis-covenant them.

24:08 That's the warning in this very chapter. But now when the prophet came, as it were, into the concert hall to announce that before him, people conscious of their covenant relationship to God, longing to hear the word of Jehovah, that they might know their sins, that they might repent and know the mercy of God, know they came like people come to a recital or to a concert. And can't you see them sitting there when Ezekiel would be caught up in the message of God, nudging one another, saying, wasn't that a fine phrase? Who didn't he say that well? Ooh, that sounded nice. Thou art become unto them as one that hath a lovely voice, as one that can play well upon an instrument. They hear, but they do not.

25:15 You see, there was no automatic blessing in the preaching of the word. Even when that preaching came by this medium of prophetic utterance in which the mouth of the prophet became the very tool of God to say in the name of Jehovah, the very words of God, there was no automatic blessing. How much less is it true by the more ordinary means of preaching in which instruments who claim no special direct inspiration seek to open up the text and the word of God and explain it and apply it to the conscience. We can become like those in Ezekiel's day merely aesthetically pleased listeners. And the more richly God is pleased to endow any congregation with the diversity of able speakers, the more keen is this danger present. Or the more real is this danger. The more keen is our temptation.

26:33 Sit in the class and say, Oh, doesn't Pastor Fisher lay that out so simply and clearly? Wouldn't that sound nice? And Mr. Garlington's opened up a passage when he's done with it.

26:46 You say, well, you ninny, that's so plain. Why didn't you ever see it? That's the way I feel when he's done opening up a section of the word. Well, that's so plain.

26:54 It sounds nice. It feels so good coming. And I like the way Pastor Martin can tell where you've been and where you're going. He has point one and point two.

27:04 I like it. But my friend, let me ask you a question. What are you here for? To have pleasant sounds come to your ear to give pleasant feelings?

27:15 Or do you come conscious every time you pass through those doors? Does it become an exercise in aesthetics? No automatic blessing given or received in the preaching of the word. We can become mere aesthetically pleased hearers.

The Forgetful Listener (James 1)

27:48 Or in the second place, we can become the forgetful listener that James describes. Turn please to James chapter one. Remember now, I'm only attempting to do one thing, establish this first foundational consideration. The frightening fact that there is no automatic blessing given or received in the preaching and hearing of the word.

28:11 James chapter one. We'll have occasion to come back to verse 21 in a subsequent study, hopefully this evening. But now the exhortation of verse 22 and following. Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

28:35 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. For he beholdeth himself and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing. Ah, you see where blessing comes?

29:11 Here is a situation in which you have two men, both exposed to the same word. One is blessed and the other is deceived. Isn't that what it says? Verse 22, verse 25, blessed in his doing.

29:35 Deluded? What's the difference? The difference is the case of the one. The interaction with the word is like the fleeting glance of a rather plain man when he sees himself in the mirror.

29:55 But he so longs to think he's Clark Gable reincarnated that he looks and for a moment the ugly reality of his homely face sticks him right in his two eyes. Then he goes away and starts dreaming. And before long he's Clark Gable again in his own eyes. Totally out of touch with reality.

30:18 Why? Because he won't stand there and let the message of his eyeballs sink in. Whereas he says, the man, look at the language now, the man who looks into the perfect law and continueth. That is, he regulates his life by what he sees in reality from that word.

30:42 This man is blessed in his doing. And the tragedy is when a man encounters the word and does not implement it, becomes the forgetful listener, he's open to the terrible, terrible possibility of self-delusion because he says, well, I don't listen to liberals. I don't listen to humanism just dressed up in the language of the Bible. I wouldn't go and submit myself to the ministry of a Norman Vincent Peale which is nothing but humanism with a little bit of a flavor of the Bible in Christianity.

31:18 I would certainly not identify myself with radical liberalism and those who deny the authority of the word. I'll go where they believe the book and where they preach the book and where they believe that God's word is authoritative. You see, because you put yourself under a true ministry, you automatically think you're a true hearer. And you can be on the high road to self-delusion according to this text.

31:46 You see, there is no automatic blessing given or received in the preaching and hearing of the word of God. We can become the aesthetically pleased listener of Ezekiel 33. We can become the forgetful, self-deceived listener of James 1. Where do they come from?

The Unbelieving Listener (Hebrews 4) and the Ill-Prepared Listener (Luke 8)

32:05 They can only come from those places where the word is truly preached. Or we can become in the third place the unbelieving listener described in Hebrews chapter 4. So remember, those of you who have any acquaintance with the structure of the book of Hebrews, that one of the extended exhortations in Hebrews is found in this section, chapters 3 and 4, an exhortation to beware of the tragic sin of unbelief. And that sin of unbelief is highlighted and exemplified from the history of Israel.

32:46 That people that wandered in the wilderness and did not enter into the rest of God, that is the inheritance marked out for them because of the sin of unbelief. And now it's in that setting that we read in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, Let us fear therefore, lest haply a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed, we have had good tidings preached unto us. We have been evangelized this well, as they.

33:22 But the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. Though there are some very serious exegetical problems if one were to give a detailed exegesis of this verse, in the context, the thrust of the statement is clear. The problem was not with the clarity of God's promise, with the validity of the inheritance promised, there was no mixing of faith with the promise, therefore it did not profit them. You see, there was no automatic blessing coming with the promise, so that when the promise fell upon the ear, it automatically brought the inheritance contained in the promise. No, the word preached did not profit. Why? Not because of some fault in its proclamation, but because of some fault in the ears upon which it fell.

34:25 No automatic blessing, dear people. No wonder Jesus said, take heed, how ye hear. It's possible to be a merely aesthetic listener, to be the self-deceived listener, to be the unbelieving listener, or finally, the ill-prepared listener, and isn't that the whole message of the parable of the sower from Luke chapter 8? There you have the footpath.

34:53 It's never been plowed. It's been beaten down by people walking across it day after day as they made their way through that part of the countryside. And when the seed fell upon the footpath, it was good soil, but it had not felt the bite of the plow for so long that it couldn't receive the seed. It was ill-prepared, no fault in the seed.

35:10 Here, in the immediate context, the sower was the Lord Jesus Himself, giving nothing but the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. The sower was the Lord Jesus Himself, giving nothing but the words of God. But there were hearts like waysides, paths through the field, unable to receive the seed. Then you had other soil that was not fully prepared.

35:32 The rocky shelf beneath the shallow layer of soil had not been plowed up and dug out and pulled out. Any of you who've gone by fields in New England, you know what that's like. Almost all of them have a huge rock pile. Every year, the farmers got to pull out the rocks that come to the surface.

35:49 Now, he may do it primarily to save getting in a welder every other hour to fix his plowshare. But in this situation, it was that rocky subsoil that would keep the roots from going down into moisture. The soil was not prepared to receive seed. And likewise, other areas where you had these thorn bushes already there and the seed fell in between them.

36:18 But as the seed began to germinate, so the thorns grew and choked out its life. It is to tell us there is such a thing as an ill-prepared listener who can hear the very word of God from the lips of the Son of God and not profit. It is only when the seed finds the good in the honest heart, the soft, well-worked, duly prepared soil that it was received and it bore fruit. Now, are not these four lines of evidence enough to convince every rational man, woman, boy or girl of fundamental principle number one, the frightening fact that there is no blessing automatically given or received in the preaching and hearing of the word of God? And is it possible that in this place this morning there are not a few who fall in the category of perhaps the aesthetically pleased hearer? Oh, how you love to hear good preaching and clear teaching! Now, in an effort to avoid the false possibility of aesthetically pleased hearers, should preachers and teachers aim at being poor teachers and present the word of God in such a way that it is not aesthetically pleasant?

37:38 No! To listen to some men preach and teach, you would think that that was a divine mandate to serve the word of God up in such a butchered, chopped up, illogical, unflavorless way that you'd be sure that no one would ever listen to you just to be aesthetically pleased. No, God did not rebuke the prophet that his preaching was aesthetically pleasing. He rebuked the listeners for only hearing to be aesthetically satisfied.

38:09 We who preach and teach must labor to make the word of God clear, seek to serve up the truth of God in a way that is aesthetically pleasing in the structure and choice of words and illustration and the pacing of the content and in the whole complex matter of what it is to teach and preach. The onus is on us to be clear, to seek to be lucid, to make the truth stand out in bold relief and to yield up whatever faculties or powers God has given to be tools in the hands of the Spirit. When that happens, God will be pleased with you. But my friend, is that all you come for to be aesthetically pleased? Or are you like the forgetful hearer of James 1, the unbelieving listener of Hebrews 4 or the ill-prepared listener of the parable of the sower?

Foundational Consideration 2: The Word Creates Its Own Conditions for Reception

39:16 Surely the command of our Lord comes with greater power to our hearts after surveying this. Jesus says, constantly pay close attention to how you are hearing. This is our solemn, our constant duty carefully to regard the manner in which we hear. Well, secondly and very briefly, the second foundational consideration is this, the encouraging fact, we've looked at a sobering fact, now we're going to look at an encouraging fact, that the Word of God can and does create the proper conditions for its own reception. You say, Pastor Martin, that's a mouthful. Can you run that by again? Yes, I will run it by again.

40:13 The encouraging fact, and we must not lose sight of this, the encouraging fact that the Word of God under the blessing of the Spirit of God can and does reveal truths. Now, we're focusing upon one duty articulated in one portion of the Word. We must never do so at the expense of losing sight of its balancing principles and revealed truths. Now, we're focusing on the duty to prepare and rightly to receive the Word of God.

40:54 But we must not allow our concentration to be limited to the Word of God. The Word of God is divine seed under the blessing of the Spirit does something no other seed can do. Let me illustrate. You children who went on vacation with Mom and Dad this summer, what would you think if you were just watching for a bit so your Dad pulled the car along the side of the road?

41:34 And as he threw out some seed, you stood there and watched and all of a sudden one of the seeds began to grow and it formed itself into a plowshare. You blinked your eyes and said, no, it can't be. And you kept watching and lo and behold before long that's the most amazing seed I've ever seen. You could write to Ripley on that one couldn't you?

42:13 You say, Pastor Martin, you're telling fairy stories. Seeds don't become plowshares. Ah, there is one kind of seed that does. You see what God says concerning His Word.

42:31 You see it is not only seed but God says through the Word unto a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. God says in Hebrews 4.12 the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. The Gospel is the dynamite of God the dunamis of God the explosive of God can and does under the blessing of the Spirit create its own favorable soil. That's what gives encouragement to everyone who traffics in the Word of God. What's your encouragement as a father when you gather your family around the table or in the living room for family worship and you see a child coming with no desire or no desire and you say when can we have devotions or learn more about the Bible if they don't come with eagerness but coming respectfully but

44:00 grudgingly coming respectfully and obediently but not is the very sword with which God can pierce their hearts. It's the very hammer with which He can break up that rocky heart and make it the most soft, moist, rich loam you ever laid your eyes on.

44:22 Now see, that's our confidence. That's our confidence. That's the confidence you Sunday school teachers should have. You see some of the kids sitting there as if to say, go ahead and teach me anything if you can.

44:32 Try.

44:35 And that look is all over. It's just oozing out of their eyeballs. Oozing out their ears. It's oozing out of every pore of their body.

44:42 You ain't going to get to me. Try. My old man hasn't been able to. Every other Sunday school teacher hasn't been able to.

44:49 And I'm cool. I know how to behave myself. I won't mess around. I won't talk out.

44:52 I won't be smart-mouthing you. I won't get any trouble. But you just try to get to me. That look is written all over their face.

44:58 They don't give you any trouble.

45:01 They're not braddish in terms of speaking out. They know better than that because they know you go to their father or mother and they know what happens when they get home. But the look is there. Oozing out of every pore.

45:11 You're not going to scratch me. You're not going to dent me. You're not going to get to me. Oh, dear Sunday school teacher, let this be your confidence.

45:18 That word that you're giving is a sword. It is a hammer. It is fire. Turn it loose.

45:25 Turn it loose. That's the confidence a preacher has.

45:30 I wish you could see one Lord's Day what I can see from up here.

45:36 Sometimes there are certain faces I only look to once when I preach. To look more than once would drive me right out of the pulpit. And it's not because you're ugly.

45:47 No. It's because in a real sense the eyes are the window of the soul.

45:54 There are times when a man stands and looks into people's eyes and he can see a look of hostility, a look of indifference, a look of what keeps a man going. Looking into eyes like that. I'll tell you what keeps him going. He's turning loose a sword.

46:15 He's turning loose a hammer. He's letting loose fire. You see? Now that foundational consideration must be in the background of all we say or we'd come up with heresy.

46:28 The heresy that unless men prepared themselves in a way suitable to receive the Word, we shouldn't bring the Word to them.

Foundational Consideration 3: The Assumed Purity of the Word Being Heard

46:37 And that would be heresy. So I want to give that balancing principle at the outset. And then the third and final upon which I touch again very briefly is the assumed fact that it is the pure Word of God being heard. When Jesus said, Take heed how ye hear.

46:55 He was assumed. He was assuming that what they were hearing was the pure Word of God. You see, it was Christ Himself who was speaking. It was Christ who could say in John 17 and verse 8, The words which thou, Father, hast given me, I have given unto them.

47:16 In other words, it is not an exhortation to hear anything but hear it properly. It is an exhortation to hear the truth and to hear it properly. In another place, in a parallel passage, in Mark 4, we read that Jesus said, Take heed what ye hear. Now, having settled that I'm determined that I will hear nothing but the Word of God, now the responsibility is, Take heed how ye hear, so that I am not only in contact with the truth, but that I'm in contact with the truth in a proper manner.

Exhortation to Take the Word Seriously and Self-Examine

47:55 Now, then, I look at the Bible, and I say, And I lay before you those foundational considerations this morning, the frightening fact that no automatic blessing is given in the preaching of the Word, the encouraging fact that the Word of God under the blessing of the Spirit can and does create its own conditions for reception, the assumed fact that the duty of right hearing is only in conjunction with exposure to the Word of God. Now, as you sit there this morning, I hope your appetite has been whetted to return this evening, but you may be asking the question, Preacher, everything you've said assumes something that you haven't proven yet. Now, what is that? Well, you say to me, It assumes that even preaching and teaching of the words of a book is a vital matter. Now, if that's what you're thinking, then you've been right on the right wavelength, behind and beneath and surrounding everything that's been said this morning, is that this book is no ordinary book, but that the living God who made you and me and who will judge you and me in the last day has spoken in this Word. And if we do not take what he said in this Word seriously, it's that God with whom we will reckon in the day of judgment

49:22 and find ourselves to be beneath his frown. So I urge upon each of you this morning, whether you're a Christian or whether the whole matter of this sermon or the whole matter of what it is to be a Christian is just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to you, you can't sort it all out, I exhort you this morning, from the most ill or poorly instructed to the most advanced believer, listen to the words of Jesus. Take heed how you hear. And if you're not a Christian this morning, you'll never become one until you start taking this book seriously.

49:58 This is the divine seed by which men are begotten again. And if you know nothing else, my friend, leave this morning with this confidence, I'd better begin to take that book seriously if I have any hopes of attaining to eternal life. And child of God, I hope many of you this morning have been, as it were, nailed to the back of that seat with a fresh awareness. Could it be, could it be, that I have imperceptibly drifted into one of those categories, the aesthetically pleased listener, the forgetful listener, the unbelieving listener, the ill prepared listener there must be some answer to the thing that comes home to us as your elders with frightening pressure time after time that sitting under the same ministries over the same length of time some of you grow by leaps and bounds and others of you seem hardly to be treading water and keeping your mouth above the waves there is no automatic profit from the preaching of the word that's the great truth that undergirds our study may we return unto the blessing of God with the burning desire to know what it is that will help us to hear with profit

51:27 because our great prophet has said take heed how ye hear let us pray our father we bow before you conscious that you know us all together all things are naked and opened before your eyes we pray that out of your perfect knowledge of our hearts you would help us to know ourselves and if we have become those who are aesthetically pleased hearers but who've lost that real longing to have dealings with you under the preaching of the word may that awareness follow us from the bottom of our hearts from this building to our tables through the afternoon hours may we have dealings with you in terms of what you've shown us if we've become like the forgetful hearer of James' words Lord help us to take time to get in front of the mirror and stay there long enough to face reality don't let us deceive ourselves

52:53 oh God don't let us deceive ourselves and where there has been that frightening spirit of unbelief of unbelief oh God help us teach us what it is to believe you send the plowshare through all the paths of our hearts where there is hardness where there is no ability to receive the word where there are thorns oh God pull them out we pray have dealings with our hearts we long that in the coming months if you are pleased to spare us and we are locked in as it were to the regular ministries of the word that we may greatly profit as we bring prepared hearts to that word we know God that ultimately this is your work and this is why we bow in your presence and cry to you to work in us to will and to do of your good pleasure hear our cry and be with us as we leave this place enable us further to sanctify this day to your presence praise and to our profit we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen