Before the Preaching of The Word

Introduction: The Command to Take Heed How You Hear

0:01 Our meditation in the Word of God this evening is, in a very real sense, but a continuation of the study which we began this morning. The basis of this very brief series, which will conclude, God willing, next Lord's Day evening, is the commandment given by our Lord Jesus Christ in the eighth chapter of Luke's Gospel in verse 18. And having considered the flow of thought in the immediate and more remote context of these words, we then focused our attention upon the Lord's statement in verse 18 of Luke 8, Take heed, therefore, how ye hear. We noted from an examination of the words of that command that it is the solemn and the constant duty of believers carefully to regard the manner in which they hear the Word of God. Our Lord, speaking to disciples, that is, to true believers, commands them to take heed, that is, to give solemn and constant carefulness with regard to the manner of how they hear the Word of God.

1:30 And I intimated, that that commandment and the principle which undergirds it would form the basis, the framework of a brief series of studies with respect to this great question of how may I hear in such a way as to profit my own soul. And in opening up that subject, I gave you three foundational considerations this morning, couched in three statements of fact. First of all, we considered the frightening fact that there is no blessing automatically given or received in the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. And that fact was established as we examined four key passages in the Word of God. Then the second foundational consideration was that of the encouraging fact that the Word of God, under the blessing of the Spirit of God, can and does, does create conditions favorable for its acceptance. Though we will be primarily preoccupied with the human responsibility couched in the command of our Lord to take heed how we hear, there is another and balancing doctrine of the Word of God concerning the power of the Word to create its own favorable hearing.

2:59 The Word of God is a rock and a hammer, and a sword, and it can take the most unfavorable soil and make it into good soil for its own reception. And then the third foundational consideration was the assumed fact that when our Lord gave this commandment that the pure Word of God was the content of what was heard. When He said, take heed what ye hear, He was speaking to those who were in the presence of the pure, the pure preaching of the Word of God. And therefore we are coming to this matter of our responsibility and duty carefully to regard the manner in which we hear, assuming that what we are hearing is the undiluted truth of the Word of God. Now tonight we begin to take up this subject in its more formal and positive manner. How shall I hear, so as to profit from what I hear? What actually constitutes obedience to the commandment of Christ, Take heed how ye hear?

Chronological Framework for Profitable Hearing

4:15 Well I shall divide the materials which answer those questions into three major groupings, and they will follow a chronological division. We shall consider the elements essential to a proper hearing of the Word of God, We shall consider the elements essential to a proper hearing of the Word of God, We shall consider the elements essential to a proper hearing of the Word of God, God, first of all, before the act of hearing the Word, then God willing, next Lord's Day morning, during the act of hearing the Word, and next Lord's Day evening, after the act of hearing the Word of God. And some of you may be saying at the outset, well, Pastor, if you're going to load us down with directives that impinge upon us before we come to preaching, while we sit under preaching, and after we leave the exercise of hearing preaching, isn't that an awful lot of work? Yes, it is. But remember, this is the primary means which God has ordained both for your salvation and your sanctification. And if salvation and sanctification are of any concern to you, then surely no pains and no efforts biblically launched.

5:31 Be considered burdensome to the true child of God, for the Scripture says His commandments are not grievous, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. First of all, then, some guidelines with respect to a profitable hearing of the Word before the act of hearing, that is, spiritual exercises in which we must engage before the Word of God. Second of all, we come to the very time that we are found at now. Whether we consider that time more remote, that is, in the early morning hours of the Lord's day or during the week as we anticipate the Lord's day, whether we consider it more proximate to the act of preaching, when we come and sit quietly before the service, or even closer yet during the offering, or even closer yet when the Word is actually opened, and it is announced. It is announced that that Word will be preached. These particular spiritual disciplines and exercises cover that whole time span before the act of hearing the Word of God. And I should like to couch these directives in the form of some commandments, if I may be given liberty to do so.

Duty 1: Consciously Cultivate a Fresh Awareness of God's Word

6:54 And the first one is this. Consciously cultivate a fresh awareness. . . .

7:01 We will be dealing with the very Word of the living God. Consciously cultivate. And I've chosen my words carefully. Consciously.

7:13 That is, this is something that must rise to the level of conscious activity. All of you have been breathing since you came into this building. You were breathing before or you wouldn't have come. But you have continued that activity.

7:29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7:31 having a spasm of asthma or a severe case of bronchitis or something else that is seriously impinging upon the normal activity of your breathing, your breathing has been an unconscious, albeit continuous, and very real activity. Well, you see, the thing we're dealing with is not something that is unconsciously done. It must be brought to the level of consciousness. When you were asked to turn to hymn number such-and-such, that was not an unconscious act. It involved some conscious activity integrating the eye and the hand and the brain, and you engaged in a conscious activity of turning to such-and-such a hymn. So I'm suggesting that if we are to fill out in some degree of practical obedience the command of our Lord, take heed how ye hear before we ever come to you. To the act of hearing, we must consciously cultivate a fresh awareness that we will be dealing with the word of the living God himself. The scriptures make it very plain that what is

8:49 recorded in this book that we call the Bible, though God no longer speaks audibly, is as much his word as when he first gave it. To the prophets, and to the apostles, and to the other inspired writers. Our Lord can say, as he does in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4, quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Now, what are the words that proceed from the mouth of God?

9:31 Why, they are the words that are recorded in Scripture. Our Lord at that very moment was quoting a word that was recorded in Scripture. Not a word that was spoken in his own lifetime, not a word spoken into his own ear by God the Father, but a word spoken by God through Moses centuries before, and yet he says at that particular point, that he has spoken the word of the Lord. In his own lifetime.

9:47 Not a word spoken into his own ear by God the Father, but a word spoken by God through Moses centuries before, and yet he says at that particular point in his own history, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. The word that proceeded from the mouth of God. He regarded the words embodied in the text of the Old Testament. He regarded the words embodied in the text of the Old Testament.

10:15 He regarded the words embodied in the text of the Old Testament. words proceeding from the mouth of God. And that thought, of course, is taken up by the apostle in 2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture is breathed out of God, is God-breathed. Scripture is the breath of God. Holy men, Peter says, spake as they were born along by the Holy Spirit. So when you turn to the Scriptures, you find such little units of words as these. God says, it is written. Scripture says, the Spirit spake by. All of that terminology pointing to the fact that though we are dealing with a book, though we are dealing with words that are the result of the activity of a scribe upon parchment, or the printer's art upon paper. We are nonetheless dealing with the very words of the living God. And you see, we become so accustomed to handling a book and seeing printer's ink that we imperceptibly move away from something of that sense of awe and of wonder that when there is an impingement of

11:34 these words from this book upon our minds, this is the impingement of the Word of God. This is the impingement of the Word of God. This is the impingement of the Word of God. This is the impingement of the Word of the Living, the Almighty, the Eternal God. The God who is our Creator, Sustainer, and one day will be our Judge. Now if we come to the act of preaching, having freshly cultivated that awareness, it will inevitably bring us to the Word of God with this two-fold attitude of reverence on the one hand, and of the other hand, of reverence on the other. It will inevitably bring us to the Word of God with this two-fold attitude of reverence on the one hand, and of the other hand, of reverence on the one hand, and believing submission on the other. You see, we cannot see the Word of the living God in its intimate relationship to the living

Reverence and Believing Submission to God's Word

12:24 God of the Word and not sense something of an attitude of true and holy reverence. Turn, please, to Isaiah 66, for one of the clearest statements of this principle to be heard today. Isaiah 66, let us read a passage. Isaiah 66, verse 1.

12:40 The Word of God. Chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 2.

12:40 Chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1, verse 2.

12:41 Chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1, verse 2. be found anywhere in scripture. Isaiah chapter 66. Thus saith the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What manner of house will ye build unto me? And what place shall be my rest? For all these things hath my hand made, and all these things came to be, saith the Lord. In other words, God is saying, where can you build some structure that will be some monument to my presence and some assurance that I will be there? Since the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, what can you build on my earth that can contain me, that is worthy of me? And the answer is obvious, nothing. Well, then, if there is no house that can ensure the presence of God, then there is no house that can ensure the presence of God. Is there any condition or any situation which can?

13:48 And the Lord answers that question. But to this man will I look, not to this house, not to this temple at Jerusalem, not to this ornate structure with all of its paraphernalia of religious performance and activity, no, to this man will I look. Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, that is a man who is a man of a contrite spirit, that is a man who is a man of a contrite spirit, that is a man who is a man of a contrite spirit, who feels and owns his sinnerhood, and trembleth at my word. To this man will I look, to the one who has on the one hand a present sense of his sinfulness, poor and contrite of spirit, and yet on the other hand, filled with such a conviction that Almighty God deigns to speak to sinners. That he trembles before the word of that God. And that trembling is the trembling that has as its constituent element something of dread. It is the mighty Creator speaking to the creature, the dread that came to Mount Sinai and those who were there when they heard

15:08 the thunderings and the lightnings and the trumpets and the voice of God. And yet, and aten to it, it is God. In fact, God. There is the fact that the Lord of tracking hearts knows all things. He knows all things of evil, all things evil. When God is looking through a crowd, there is the sparkling lamp of growth on the broken twig of that Child. Whenever, whenever my word is found where there is a man who trembles at that word, to that man will I look. Now may I ask you the very simple question, do you know anything of what Isaiah is describing?

16:02 When you come to the preaching of the word, do you know something of that trembling at God's word? Well you see if you come with a cultivated awareness that in coming to the word you are coming to the living God who stands above and over that word and whose word it is, then it cannot help but produce something of that reference. But then on the other hand it will always be productive of a believing submission and perhaps the clearest example of that, and I love it because, it comes from the lips not of a profound theologian such as the great Apostle Paul, but comes from the lips of a little boy, and that little boy's name was what? Can you kids think of what I'm going to refer to? A little boy and God was going to speak to him, and his attitude was one of believing submission. I'm referring of course to the little lad Samuel.

17:06 We read that account in 1 Samuel chapter 3.

17:11 You'll remember most of you I'm sure, you'll remember the details. Old Eli at his post in the tabernacle at Shiloh. Young Samuel who's been dedicated to the Lord and Samuel hears the voice and he thinks it's his, probably he called him Uncle Eli if he was like us. He wasn't his real uncle, but there was an intimate relationship and he goes out and says and answers, Uncle Eli you called me and he says, no son I didn't call you, go back to bed.

17:42 You remember this happened several times until old Eli, realized that God was speaking directly to Samuel and he says, now you go back and when you go back verse 9 of 1 Samuel 3, therefore Eli said to Samuel go lie down and it shall be that if he shall call thee, that thou shall say speak Lord for thy servant heareth. Now you see Eli could put the right words in Samuel's mouth, speak Lord for thy servant heareth, but Eli could only put the right words, in his ear and in his mouth. But when we read the account of what happened, we realize that those words became expressive of the disposition that flowed from the heart of this young lad. For when he goes back and he lies down and the voice speaks again, then Samuel said verse 10, speak for thy servant heareth. And in those very words, he was confessing, Oh Jehovah, God of my, fathers, if you will deign to speak to such as I am, then I must assume but one posture, confidence that your word is truth, and that it binds me as your bond slave. Speak Lord,

19:06 thy servant heareth. And that that young lad was not just parroting words put in his ear and in his mouth, is indicated from the subsequent account. For God, put some very difficult words in the mouth and mind of this young lad. And the first official responsibility he had, was to tell Uncle Eli, you and your family have had it.

19:33 Imagine, what a terrible thing. But you see, when he said, speak Lord, thy servant heareth. He wasn't just parroting, what Uncle Eli had told him, the good little spiritual boys are supposed to do, if God speaks. He had some inward conscience, that he was having dealings with Jehovah, God of his fathers.

20:02 And therefore he listens, not only implicitly with that reverence of Isaiah 66, but in believing submission to the word of God. And oh happy is the preacher who can say to a people, who thus prepare themselves, before the act of preaching, who come with that fresh consciousness, that they are to have dealings with the living God himself. Happy is the preacher who can say with Paul, in 1st Thessalonians 2.13, And for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not, as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe. I say happy is the preacher, happy is the teacher, happy is the father, who gathers a family to family worship, the Sunday school teacher, who gathers children around her or him, and can say of those hearers, when you receive the word from us, you realize, you were not merely dealing with your Sunday school teacher, with one of your elders or pastors or teachers in the church, you were dealing with the living God,

21:29 who came to you in his own holy word. So I would say to you, who come to this place, as your regular place of attendance upon public worship and ministry, I say to you in the way of an entreaty, if you are not in the practice of seeking to cultivate, before you come to the ministry of the word, this awareness, this sense that you are coming to have dealings with God, that you begin immediately to do so, and if you've been in the habit of coming in a spirit of unbelief, and haughtiness, and carelessness, that you will cry to God, that all of that will be satisfied, that you will be swept away, and that you may come in the spirit of Isaiah 66, trembling before the word of God, coming with the disposition of young Samuel, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth, and even though that word may bind you to difficult duties, even though it may lay upon you arduous tasks, you gladly acknowledge yourself to be the bond slave of speaking God, whose voice is heard in the scriptures. But then in the second place,

Duty 2: Consciously Repudiate All Hindrances to the Word

22:56 if we are to obey in some practical way the command of Christ, take heed how ye hear, there must not only be this cultivation of a fresh awareness that we're coming to the word of the living God, but there must be this conscious repudiation of all that would hinder us the reception and assimilation of the word. You must consciously repudiate all that would hinder the reception and the assimilation of that word. Will you turn please to 1 Peter chapter 2, for what is perhaps along with James 1.21 the clearest statement of this principle to be found anywhere at least in a succinct form. In the previous chapter, chapter 1, Peter has reminded these scattered Christians of their divine begetting by the word of truth. Verse 23, having been begotten again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible through the word of God which liveth and abideth, for all flesh is as grass and the glory thereof is the flower of the grass, for the grass withereth and the flower faileth.

24:20 But the word of the Lord abideth forever and this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you. Do you see this word centered language? Peter is describing their divine begetting through the instrumentality of the proclamation of this living, this abiding word. A word that finds its expression in the gospel and this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you.

24:48 Now, he wants to exhort them to the effect that having received initially their life from that word, their new life is to be sustained and developed by the continued assimilation of that same word. The word which brings them into life is the very word which is to sustain and to develop life. And so he's going to admonish them as newborn babes to long, to crave, for the pure milk of the word that they may grow thereby unto salvation. That is, unto salvation in all of its full dimensions of glory.

25:32 But before he gives the positive injunction, he gives what we would call a negative word. Putting away therefore all wickedness and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking, as newborn babes long for the spiritual milk of the word. You see what Peter is saying? He's saying if there is to be growth by means of the further assimilation of the word, two things are needed.

26:09 Number one, wholesome food and a healthy digestive system. Now if any of us is to grow and to develop physically, we must have at least those two things. Wholesome food and a healthy digestive system. You see you may take a man with a medically perfect gastrointestinal system.

26:33 For you kids, that just means your tummy and all the other organs that chew your food up, break it down and assimilate it and turn it into fingernails and hair and energy and everything else. All that goes on in your gastrointestinal system from the stomach downward. Begins in the mouth, yes, but the real work goes on down here and through the intestines. Now here's a man that has a medically perfect gastrointestinal system.

27:00 Feed him sawdust and he won't grow. I don't care how good his digestive system is, it's got to have something good to work on or he doesn't grow, he doesn't develop. It will not be long before even that system will be out of whack if you feed him sawdust. No.

27:14 He must have good food to go into that good digestive system. On the other hand, you can take the best, the most carefully, the most wonderfully preserved and from all external pollutants and organically grown food and no artificial fertilizers and all, I mean the best possible food that you could imagine. But you put that food into a man who has an ulcerated stomach and obstructed colon and all kinds of problems in the gut and the gastrointestinal system and it will not be turned into wholesome nourishment. You see, the two must meet in the same person.

27:58 Wholesome food and a healthy digestive system. Now isn't that exactly what Peter says? If you believers are to grow, two things are necessary. The wholesome food, which is nothing more than that same word by which you were brought to life, that word which lives and abides forever, here he likens it unto pure milk.

28:22 And the concept of milk here is not parallel to the usage of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 or the writer to Hebrews in Hebrews 5 where he says in a very derogatory censure like little babies still feeding on milk when you ought to have solid food. No, no. Here he likens the full range of the spiritual diet to pure milk, wholesome food. And he says long for it that you may grow.

28:48 But he says be sure your gastrointestinal system is prepared to digest it and assimilate it. Get rid of the ulcers. Get rid of the excessive bile of what? Look at it.

The Danger of Unrepudiated Sin

29:03 Wickedness, guile, hypocrisies, envies, evil speakings. And into that healthy spiritual gastrointestinal system receive the pure unadulterated milk of the word of God. Now the precise meaning of the words that Peter uses is difficult to ascertain. The most satisfactory rendering I have found is one of the translations that renders it this way.

29:32 Putting away all malice and deceit and pretense jealousies and slander long for the pure spiritual milk. Now you see those of us who teach have an awesome responsibility upon them. And the question which we must ask again and again and again is this. Are we bringing to the mouths of God's people nothing but the unadulterated milk of the word of God?

30:12 That's why we must give ourselves to the labor of studying words and the meanings of words and wrestling with grammar and examining texts we may have quoted a thousand times in passing but before we'd ever dare preach upon them. Going back to examine them as though we'd never read them before. Not forcing upon them a traditional concept but to see if indeed they say what we thought they said. An awesome burden is upon us that we feed you nothing but the pure milk of the word.

30:51 But my friend it is ours to bring the milk to your lips. It is yours to make sure the digestive system is prepared to receive it. Putting away therefore all of these things malice, deceit, pretense jealousy and slander. Why?

31:13 Because the most wholesome unadulterated milk of the word coming to a digestive system full of this stuff will never be digested and assimilated into spiritual growth. If it goes down at all and stays down it'll just turn sour on your stomach and give you spiritual heartburn. And my friend that is your responsibility. Speaking to all who've experienced the divine begetting he says putting away law.

31:52 And so I suggest that if we're to obey the command of our Lord take heed how ye hear. Before we come to the act of teaching and preaching before we sit beneath the preached and the taught word we must not only consciously cultivate the fresh awareness that we're coming to the word of the living God himself but we must consciously repudiate all that would hinder the right reception and assimilation of that word. James 1.21 is a parallel text and I will only allude to it briefly but notice the same structure you have exactly the same word in the original with reference to the putting away. Wherefore having spoken of their divine begetting by the word of truth in verse 18 wherefore putting away all filthiness every single form of moral uncleanness putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness again a difficult phrase to exegete and to ascertain

33:18 its precise significance but the overall thrust is clear there's to be this putting away of filthiness and wickedness received with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. The putting away must be attendant upon or precede the taking in and the receiving with meekness the implanted word. You see where sin is willfully entertained cannot be profitably received. It will be both difficult to perceive what is preached and morally impossible to receive what is preached. May I give you that again? Where sin is willfully entertained it will be difficult to see what is preached that is to understand and morally impossible to receive what is preached. Why?

34:27 For the simple reason that God's truth is always at war with sin and unless the heart comes in that disposition of turning from all that it knows to be displeasing to God and is in the language of John 3 coming to the light that its deeds may be made manifest. You see there is an aversion when there is lurking in the heart the willful the deliberate design to cover some sin there is a reflexive withdrawal from the light of God's truth. There is a mental and spiritual unwillingness to understand and a moral unwillingness to obey. Those of us who were in the opening days of the academy will remember how vividly Pastor Chantry laid that principle before us the relationship between truth and godliness. You say well I just can't see that. My friend no you can't see it.

35:36 You know why? Because because of some sin that you're harboring which if you were honest you know that sin would have to go before the weight of that truth that you can't see so you excuse your clinging to the sin by saying I can't see the truth which would drive it out. Wasn't that the problem with the Pharisees? We can't see that he's the Messiah.

36:01 Oh yes people getting raised from the dead and blind people seeing but we can't see it. Can't see it? How much light do you want man? Oh we want to see the clouds play hopscotch with one another and we want to see the moon and the sun chase one another around the heavens we want some great portent in the sky then we'll believe we can't see No they couldn't see it why?

36:29 Because they had hearts full of the love of the praise of men the love of sin the love of hypocrisy they couldn't see. My friend could not this be the answer to why some of you wrestle with some things that are plain to babes but they're so muddy to you you can't receive some doctrine of the word why? Because you have not put away all guile and malice and hypocrisy and slander even if there is a little bit of intellectual perception there is no yielding to the pressure of that truth. My friend that's a dangerous point to be with any issue whatsoever because it's the first step of the second Thessalonians chapter 2 these frightening words frightening words we're not going into the identity of the anti-Christ the lawless one we want to read concerning a principle that is at work in his deception of men we read in verse 9 of second Thessalonians 2 even he who's coming is in accordance with the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders when he comes With all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish because, now notice,

37:57 they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Now why would they not receive the love of the truth? Well, read on. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error that they should believe a lie that they all might be judged who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

38:19 You see, they so loved their sin that they could not see nor credit the truth unto a believing response to that truth.

38:33 And it's the love of sin that blinded the eye and entreebled the will.

38:41 Dear child of God, it is an awesome responsibility to hear the word of God.

Duty 3: Consciously Acknowledge Your Need for the Spirit's Illumination

38:47 And part of that responsibility is to take heed how you hear. And I suggest this second axiom. This night, if you and I are to hear or write the word of God before we ever come to the act of teaching and preaching, the cultivation of the fresh awareness we're dealing with the word of the living God himself, secondly, the repudiation of all that would hinder the reception and assimilation of that word,

39:20 then thirdly, and here I'll be more brief, we must consciously acknowledge our need for God. Your need of the Spirit's ministry of illumination and enlightenment.

39:35 Consciously acknowledge your need of the Spirit's ministry of illumination and enlightenment. In the larger catechism there is a question concerning how the word of God is to be read. And the answer, question 157, the Holy Scriptures are to be read with a high and reverent esteem of them with a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God. When I read that I said, well, I'm in good company.

40:11 And that he only can enable us to understand them. Just as there must be a firm persuasion that they are the words of God, there must be an equally firm persuasion that the God who spoke them alone can give us understanding in them. Now who was a better teacher or preacher than our Lord Jesus Christ? Never man spake as he spake.

40:45 To him the Spirit was not given by measure. He was the great prophet, the final prophet. And yet you read again and again in the Gospels, they understood not this saying. They understood not this saying.

40:57 They understood not this saying. Well, what's the matter with them? Dummies? Sickheads?

41:04 Isn't it play? Well, there came a time when they didn't understand. And I want you to look at this text. And this is what made the difference.

41:12 It wasn't that our Lord went away to a seminar on ten effective methods of making truth plain. And he began to implement a new teaching method. He got a new pedagogical wrinkle and began to insert it into his teaching. And then their eyes just popped left, right, and center.

41:29 No, no, no, no, no, no. Not at all. We read the difference in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24. Beginning with verse 44.

41:39 And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. He says, Now look, I've been telling you all along the thing I'm going to tell you now. Nothing different in the content of his teaching. But it was concerning those very words that the Gospel writers said.

42:04 Now look, I've been telling you all along the thing I'm going to tell you now. Nothing different in the content of his teaching. But it was concerning those very words that the Gospel writers said. Nothing different in the content of his teaching.

42:08 But it was concerning those very words that the Gospel writers said. They understood them not. They understood them not. You remember one time, a passage we looked at a few weeks ago, when he told them these very things, the Son of Man must suffer many things, be killed, the third day be raised up.

42:14 Peter said, Never, Lord, and be. Now he says, Look, I've been telling you right along this same message. But now look at the difference at this point in our Lord's dealings with them. Verse 45.

42:18 Then opened he their understanding, or their mind, that they might understand the truth. And he said unto them, Now look, I've been telling you all along the thing I'm going to tell you now. Nothing different in the content of his teaching. Now he says, Look, I've been telling you right along this same message.

42:25 But now look at the difference at this point in our Lord's dealings with them. Verse 45. Then opened he their understanding, or their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures. And said unto them, Now look at the difference at this point in our Lord's dealings with them.

42:41 Verse 45. Then opened he their understanding, or their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures. And said unto them, Why now they sat there and said, Why this is so plain and so simple. Anyone who can't see, that's a foe me.

42:47 What was the difference. The Lord who spoke the word spoke on them. That's what it was. now actively ministered to the understanding so that they could perceive the words.

43:03 That was the difference.

43:06 Now you see, the same thing is true with us. We can thread the words of Scripture through our eyes. We can have them thundered into our ears, even as believers.

43:18 But unless there is that divine efficiency, the putting forth of the energy of Christ Himself by the Spirit, it will be as blind to truth as those people.

43:33 Therefore, it behooves us, before we come to the act of preaching, consciously to acknowledge, O God, we pray for those who will teach us. We trust that they've not been out on a golf course or sitting around in front of their television playing games, but they've been in their studies, laboring in the Word and in doctrine. We trust that they will come prepared to feed us the pure milk of the Word of God. We trust that they will come to give us nothing but wholesome words, pure divine seed.

44:06 But, O Lord, O Lord, if You do not operate in my mind and spirit, while Pastor Fisher or Mr. Garlington or Mr. Leather, or Pastor Martin or Pastor Clark, whoever it be, Lord, if there's an activity that doesn't go beyond theirs, I'll not truly understand.

44:26 Lord, You must open my mind. Then how precious...

44:31 and how frequent will the prayer of David become to us? Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. Literally, undress my eyes, Lord. The film is over my eyes.

44:48 It's not that Your Word is unclear, granted. As Peter says, there are some things written hard to be understood. But, Lord, the problem is essentially and fundamentally with me. There is this...

45:01 There is this veil over my eyes, Lord, undress my eyes. And you see, as you consciously acknowledge your need of the Spirit's ministry of enlightenment, and as it becomes almost a reflexive attitude, never to come to preaching, never to sit under preaching without praying, Lord, light, Lord, light, more light, Lord. Perhaps some of you have heard that incident that came to birth in the Reformation, when one of the Reformers was debating with one of his Romish opponents. And someone noticed that he was continually writing while the other man was speaking.

45:43 And later on, they wondered, their curiosity was killing them. What is it that he kept writing? Thought he was writing down profound answers that would undermine his opponent's propositions and the rest. But he found two words repeated all over the page.

45:58 More light. More light. More light. More light, Lord.

46:03 Actually have communion with Christ in the sense of the outgoing of your soul and your spirit to Him, saying, Lord, illuminate. As I concentrate and give myself to follow the track laid out in the teacher's mind as he opens up the Scripture, Lord, give light. They may lay the tracks, and they may set the engine of truth upon it, but, Lord, you've got to put steam into those tracks, those pistons, and drive it, or it'll never move. I'll sit here and receive nothing.

46:43 You see, God says in Jeremiah 17, words that have such a far-ranging application that they are not out of place in this context. In Jeremiah 17 and verse 5, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah. God says, Cursed is upon the man trusting man. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, for in so doing his heart, the seat of his being, the citadel of what he is as a man, has departed from Jehovah.

47:20 And God says, The punishment will be this. He shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when good cometh, shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, or salt land, and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose trust the Lord is, he shall be as a tree planted by the waters.

47:41 Do you remember a parallel passage, Psalm 1? Who is likened to the tree planted by the waters? The man that meditates in the law of God day and night. But you see, it is not meditation in the context of self-confidence.

47:56 It is meditation, exposure to the preaching and heralding of the Word in the context of dependence. A context of dependency. A context of reliance upon Jehovah. That man shall be blessed, like a tree planted by the waters, spreads out its roots by the river, shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall it cease from yielding fruit.

Warning Against Idolatrous Confidence in Preachers

48:32 I have said it before, and I will say it again, and I will have to say it more frequently, if the Lord gives us more years together. The more God knits your heart to trusted guides in the truth of Scripture, the more you are in danger, falling into an idolatrous confidence in those guides. For instance, I've told people that I'd walk any day of the week, twenty miles, to hear my good brother, Pastor Walter Chantry, preach. Now, he'd be embarrassed right through the floor if he were sitting here and heard me say that.

49:09 But I'm not at all, exaggerating when I'd say that. If it were a clear day, and if it were raining, I might sing twice. But on a clear day, on a clear day, and if it were not the Lower East Side of New York or some other threatening situation, why, all other things being equal, I'd walk twenty miles any day to hear him preach. Why? Because again and again, under his ministry, my soul has been fed with the bread of life. But I've noticed how subtle that relationship can become. And I can just stick a tape in my tape deck in the car when I have to make a trip somewhere of one of my brother's sermons and just assume, because it's my trusted, prudent guide in the Scriptures, he'll be an instrument of blessing to me. And I can come away dry as dust.

50:00 And the problem's not with that particular sermon of my brother. The problem is with me. My confidence was in him and not in his God in life. You see?

50:11 Now if that can happen, one preacher with another preacher whom he only hears probably on an average of twenty times a year by means of tape and three or four times a year in person, how much more can that temptation be there when week after week we sit under one or two men who become the main instruments of our understanding and they have proven by the grace of God to be trusted guides in the Scriptures. But oh, my dear people, make sure that there is no subtle intrusion of idolatrous confidence. Because you see, if your confidence for blessing is subtly transferred from God to the instrument so that you no longer really fervently pray and consciously depend on the Spirit for that instrument to be blessed to your heart, it is usually true that you cease to plead with God that he may be blessed in his labor to prepare to feed you. Your dependence upon the creature will also transfer an element in your thinking of that instrument's dependence upon himself. Whereas fervent prayer

51:36 for the illumination of the Spirit upon your own mind and heart will generally be coupled with fervent prayer for the Spirit's enablement upon the vessel. So I entreat you, consciously acknowledge your need of the Spirit's ministry of illumination and enlightenment. Have you wondered why it is that almost every Lord's Day one of the hymns chosen before the preaching of the Word is a hymn addressed to the Spirit or includes some petition to the Spirit? That's not just a ritual, dear people.

Duty 4: Consciously Cultivate a Teachable Spirit

52:14 That is an attempt to aid you as a congregation consciously to cry to God the Spirit that he would come in the preaching of the Word. And then finally, and again briefly, the fourth admonition I would give with respect to hearing rightly the Word an activity prior to the act of preaching consciously cultivate a teachable spirit. And of course, this text you've heard before and you'll hear it again right here tonight and perhaps many times in the years to come. Acts 17 and verse 11 where Luke is describing the activity of the Hebraeans. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all eagerness would be an equally valid translation with all eagerness or readiness of mind examining the Scriptures daily whether these things were so. You see they came with an attitude that said I have so much to learn. There is so much of God and it is truth that is yet to be unfolded.

53:36 They came with an eagerness to receive the Word. You see they didn't come with the attitude saying well I wonder if the preacher will agree with my views on that text. I wonder if the preacher is going to say something that upsets my apple cart. You see many people come to preaching with all kinds of defenses up and they never really as it were give themselves to the preaching of the Word.

53:59 They're backing off inwardly. Oh they're sitting there they may even be leaning forward outwardly but inwardly they're backing off with this attitude I'm from Missouri show me that attitude. These were more noble than they in Thessalonica they received the Word with eagerness. There was the conscious cultivation of a teachable spirit.

54:31 They were prepared to go wherever Scripture would mark out the track even if it meant they had to walk right over a long cherished belief. Or worse yet if they had to trample underfoot a long cherished carnal delight or lust or attitude or action. You see the man, the woman the boy or girl who comes to the Scripture with no defenses and who literally longs to have his mind taken wherever Scripture will lead him. It's amazing how quickly that person grows in contrast to the one who's got the jaundiced eye who's got the arrogant spirit. Who are you to teach me? I can read my Bible as well as you. I can face the commentaries as well as you.

55:25 That attitude. Now you'd never say it that way. But I've met people like this and where they grow by millimeters people sitting under the same ministry grow by kilometers. And if you're a pastor in any place for any length of time you see that phenomenon going on again and again and again.

55:54 And often the fundamental difference is right here. There is an arrogance a spirit of independence that says if I have the Holy Ghost as well as the preacher and I have the Bible as well as the preacher then there's a sense in which I can make any judgment he can make and until I am prepared as it were to cut my own track then I'll go and if the preacher agrees with me fine. But I'm not going to let anyone else cut a new track for me. It's that attitude.

56:26 It's the opposite of a teachable spirit. Now you see it's not to be a gullible spirit for this very text says of the ones who receive the word with eagerness they examine the scriptures not to prove Paul wrong. You see they didn't run off and say here he told us some things we ain't never heard before. He's telling us that that carpenter out of Nazareth is the Messiah.

56:52 Now that can't be so and we're going to prove it from the Bible. The Pharisees were doing that all the time saying he can't be the Christ and they'd quote scripture to prove it. Didn't they? No, no, no.

57:03 When Messiah comes he'll do this. Messiah comes he'll do that. You see they were proven Jesus was wrong from the Bible. But in so doing they were willfully blinding themselves to many portions of the scripture.

57:19 Now Christians can do the same thing. You've never met anyone when you're just trying graciously they come and say we hear you people believe in election. You say well we believe the Bible teaches that and you humbly seek to try to open up the simple truth that God from eternity set his love upon a people for no reasons in the people themselves but freely and sovereignly set his love upon them and the minute you begin to even open up those verses what do they do? They start running to other verses in the Bible saying what about this?

57:55 What about that? What about this? What about that? What about this?

57:59 What about this? What about this? What's the matter? Well you see they really don't want to know if the Bible teaches election.

58:05 They've come saying whatever the Bible teaches it teaches that. And even if you quote me a hundred verses I know it just can't teach that. Wasn't that the attitude the Pharisees had? You can't be the Messiah because we've already determined that Messiah's going to come on a big white horse.

58:22 Messiah's going to go to club and hit old Caesar on the head. We got it all figured out. And even when the Lord would shut their mouths again and again remember what he'd do? He'd shut their mouths with Scripture.

58:37 What'd they do? Believe? No. Just went off and had another little huddle and said well let's get him in another way.

58:42 Oh dear people what a wicked thing this is. Now no true teacher of the Word of God wants a blind loyalty. I've just preceded all of this by pleading that you not in any way have that with regard to me or any other teacher in this assembly or any teacher in any assembly. But the balancing truth is that Christ is given to the church pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints.

59:09 And if you don't have a teachable spirit if you're so full of faith full of a sense of your own importance under the guise of spirituality that you will walk in no path but one that you've cut by your own independent research and then if the preacher agrees you'll agree with him. My friend you need to go down before God and confess the wickedness of your pride in despising the gifts of Christ given for your perfection and for your growth in grace. Well I suggest that these four duties, activities under the blessing of the Spirit of God can be helpful as we seek to obey our Lord's command take heed how ye hear. You say but Pastor that's going to take time to do all those things. Yes it is. And it's going to take time especially Saturday night.

The Cost of Profitable Hearing and Concluding Exhortation

60:10 It may mean you have to regulate your social activities for the benefit of your soul. We're back to self-denial. You see? But you say that takes so much effort.

60:23 No gains without pains in nature or in grace. Don't you get ashamed when you pick up a paper and you read as some of us read I try to get a paper on Monday on my relaxing day and you read of how our American girls were determined to put the United States back number one in swimming and you read of these 14 year old girls training seven to nine hours a day. And they say most of those hours with burning lungs and aching limbs is they push themselves push themselves drive themselves to the point of pain and then beyond it. And their coaches say the difference between those that take gold medals and those who only win regional swimming meets are those who can push themselves beyond the threshold of pain. You say what's that have to do with the Bible? Well Paul said He that striveth for the mastery exercises self-control in all things they do it to attain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible. He didn't say the difference was to be found in the measure of effort.

61:44 The difference was in the gold. They exercise mastery self-control arduous labor and diligence to attain a corruptible. We exercise ourselves to attain an incorruptible. Oh my dear friend if you're convinced that the primary means of your edification and being built up into maturity in Christ is what you assimilate from the public teaching and preaching of the word then you will count it no unreasonable thing to spend sufficient time consciously to cultivate that awareness.

62:28 I am coming to the word of the living God consciously to search your heart and repudiate all that which would hinder your spiritual gastrointestinal system from receiving the pure milk and digesting and assimilating it into true growth. You are not counted a burden consciously to cultivate a spirit of dependence upon the spirit consciously to cultivate a teachable attitude like the Bereans. And I suggest as we do by the grace of God and the enablement of the spirit increasingly cultivate these activities we shall find a proportionate return far beyond our pain and effort. That will cause us to scratch our heads and say why did I have so many wasted sabbaths sitting under the word with little profit. Why? Because I did not take heed how I heard.

Prayer for Grace and Illumination

63:35 Oh may God help us as a people to take heed how we hear. Let us pray. Oh our Father we are so thankful that we have the scriptures of the old and new testaments as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we thank you that that very book you have given contains this doctrine of how to receive its teaching.

64:09 And we pray that your spirit would inscribe these things upon our hearts and give us grace to implement them in our lives. We pray for the very tender of conscience amongst us who would come under bondage whenever any instruction of this nature is given. Lord help them not to do that. May they not turn good milk into sour milk because of a hypersensitive conscience.

64:36 But teach them how your demands are reasonable that your commandments are not grievous. May they not be overly discouraged as they seek to implement the directives of your word. We pray for any amongst us who have not been profiting because they have had a careless attitude to the scriptures or because there are some cherished darling sins eating away as it were at their spiritual tummies and neutralizing all of the input of the word. Oh God have dealings with them.

65:11 And for any who have had a subtle creature confidence growing up in their hearts slay that tonight we pray. And for any who are proud and arrogant filled with a sense of their own knowledge. Oh God humble them that they may be teachable. Have mercy upon all of us.

65:33 We confess to our shame that our growth is nowhere commensurate with our light. Oh God help us. Help us we pray that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Teach us as a people to be good hearers of the word.

65:55 And then our Father for those whose eyes are still blind who see no glory in your Son be pleased to have dealings with them that by this word they may come to faith in the Savior. Seal now the word of God to our hearts. Receive our praise for your presence with us this day. Be with those who leave us.

66:21 Be with your people as they remain. Further to conduct themselves under the headship of Christ in the matters pertaining to the life of this assembly. Hear our prayer as we come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.