In "During the Sermon, Part 7," Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Luke 8:18, "Take heed therefore, how you hear," shifting focus to the post-sermon duty of retaining the Word. Drawing heavily from Proverbs and New Testament imperatives, he argues that believers must not merely hear the Word but actively treasure it in their hearts and allow it to profoundly influence their lives. Martin emphasizes that this retention is not about memorizing outlines but about internalizing the essence of God's truth, allowing it to dwell richly within, and guarding it against spiritual adversaries.
Primary Texts
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Luke 8:18This verse is the overarching theme for the entire sermon series, specifically the command to 'take heed how you hear,' which is the foundation for discussing post-sermon duties.
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Proverbs 2:1-7:4Multiple passages from Proverbs are extensively referenced and quoted to establish the Old Testament emphasis on retaining God's words in the heart.
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Colossians 3:16This verse is expounded as a New Testament imperative for the Word of Christ to 'dwell in you richly,' serving as a central command for post-hearing retention and influence.
Introduction: The Duty to Take Heed How We Hear After the Sermon0:02
The Old Testament Emphasis on Retaining God's Word (Proverbs)5:53
The New Testament Imperative to Let the Word Sink In and Dwell Richly11:45
The Nature of Retention: Essence, Not Outline16:23
The Greater Need for Heeding in Imperfect Ministries17:36
Historical Exhortations: Guarding the Word from Negligence and Satan19:03
Key Quotes
“Therefore, with these words of our Lord Jesus in Luke 8 and verse 18, forming both the foundation and framework of our concern, we have been focusing our attention upon the duty each one of us has to take, to take heed how we hear the Word of God preached.”
“Having heard the Word preached, it ought to be our most crucial concern to retain that Word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives.”
“My Son, my Son, I entreat you that you take my words and retain them. And retain them with what end in view? Not merely to show off how much of my words you can remember and quote to others, but with a view to having them ready at hand in the center of your being, in the citadel of your humanity that is in your heart, with a view to obeying them. Keep my commandments and live.”
“The Son of God does not say, since I speak in the fullness and plenitude of the anointing of my Father, and I speak as incarnate wisdom, and I speak as God's great and final prophet, my words will automatically sink into your ears. He said, no, you let them sink into your ears. It's your duty. It is my duty.”
“Let the word set up shop and live like a king in your heart. That's what he said. Don't treat it like some suspicious stranger that you put out in the potato bin where you keep your potatoes over the winter and throw in a cracker.”
“But what I'm saying is that the word preached the essence, the substance of what has been expounded by means of that particular outline attended with those particular illustrations etc. that we are under a solemn obligation by the grace of God to retain that word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives.”
“When the word is preached there is more company present than is visible there are angels and devils in the assembly whenever the sons of God meet together Satan is present with them the devil is present to divert the mind by wandering thoughts by raising prejudices that he may cast out the word or by excuses delays evasions putting it off to others when we begin to have some sense of our own sin and danger the devil is loath to let us get too far lest Christ get us subjected to his kingdom oh therefore labor to get something into your heart by every sermon some fresh news a notion or consideration is given out to set you a work in the spiritual life a conscientious waiting upon God will find something every time”
Applications
All listeners
Retain the Word in your hearts and experience its appropriate influence upon your lives after hearing it preached.
Have a jealous concern to retain the Word in your hearts and experience its appropriate influence upon your lives.
Let God's words find a deep and permanent lodgment in your heart.
Retain God's words with a view to obeying them, not merely to remember or quote them.
Lash God's words to your heart, binding them continually, so they regulate your life.
Do not be content until the preached Word has been written upon your heart and is taken into a beloved relationship.
Actively 'let' the words of Christ sink into your ears, recognizing it as your duty.
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, taking over every room and living like a king in your heart, not as a suspicious stranger.
Do not be content until the Word dwells in you and dwells richly.
Be under a solemn obligation, by the grace of God, to retain the essence and substance of the preached Word in your hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon your lives.
Do not hear slightly, but hide the word in your heart, laboring to get something into your heart by every sermon, guarding against negligence, forgetfulness, carnal distractions, and the devil's attempts to snatch it away.
Take all care and pains that the influences of the preaching of the word do not slide from you, being faithful and diligent in using means to fix them in your hearts to avoid dreadful judgment.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 43 paragraphs, roughly 22 minutes.
Machine transcription
Introduction: The Duty to Take Heed How We Hear After the Sermon
Now we turn again this morning to the text that has been the basis of our meditations through these weeks of summer ministry, Luke chapter 8 and verse 18. Luke chapter 8 and verse 18, words spoken by our Lord Jesus to the inner circle of his disciples, having uttered and expounded what we commonly call the parable of the sower or the parable of the sower and the soils, and having added to that interpretation some very cryptic words of announcement to his own, the Lord Jesus, speaking to his disciples, said in Luke 8 and verse 18, Take heed therefore. How you hear, for whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he thinks or seems to have. The words of our Lord that have been the focus, the framework of our meditations together, are those opening words.
The words of verse 18, take heed therefore, how you hear. It is a sad but tragic fact that in every age and in every place, there has always been a relative dearth of genuinely Christ-like, accurate, clear, earnest, spirit-filled preachers of the Word. It is equally accurate to assert that in every age and in every place, there has also been a relative dearth of those who, sitting under rare, godly ministries, attend to that ministry as they ought. If a competent ministry of the Word automatically secured a godly ministry, a godly attendance upon that ministry of the Word, then surely the ministry of our Lord Jesus would have secured such a godly attendance upon His ministry.
However, it is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who with respect to the response of His disciples to His own, ministry, says to them, pay constant close attention to how you hear. Therefore, with these words of our Lord Jesus in Luke 8 and verse 18, forming both the foundation and framework of our concern, we have been focusing our attention upon the duty each one of us has to take, to take heed how we hear the Word of God preached. Our examination of this intensely practical duty has led us to consider what it is to take heed how we hear, first of all, with respect to our preparation for the preaching of the Word of God. And then we have considered what it means to take heed, how we hear, as it applies to what we do during the preaching of the Word. Now this morning, and God willing for the next several Lord's Day mornings,
we'll take up the third and final category of this duty enjoined upon us by our Lord, namely, taking heed how we hear in connection with what we do after the preaching, the preaching of the Word. Having heard the Word preached, it ought to be our most crucial concern to retain that Word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives. Now there's nothing profound in what I've stated, but I'm convinced that the Word of God supports the assertion that this, this is the concern that each one of us ought to have. To retain that Word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives. That ought to be our concern in response to the Word of our Lord. Take heed how you hear.
It is not enough. So long. So long to hear is to have an immediate heart response to that Word. But there ought to be a jealous concern to retain that Word in our hearts and having retained it in our hearts to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives.
The Old Testament Emphasis on Retaining God's Word (Proverbs)
The book of Proverbs. Here you have the Father instructing His Son.
And in the midst of this, in the midst of that instruction, notice how frequently this emphasis comes through. Chapter 2 and verse 1. My Son, if you will receive my words and lay up my commandments with you, not enough to receive them and then to let them leak out, but you must, having received them, lay them up with you. As a precious treasure.
Chapter 3 and verse 1. My Son, forget not my law, but let your heart keep my commandments. He's not saying, hear my Son, listen to me. No, no.
Now he's assuming the Son has listened. And he is saying, don't forget them. Don't allow them to slip. My Son, forget not my law, but let thy heart keep treasure up.
Now, my commandments. Chapter 4, verse 1 and following. Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding, for I give you good doctrine. Do not forsake my law, for I was a son to my father, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
And he taught me and said unto me, now listen to what his father said to him, let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding. Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, for she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. You see the emphasis. Let your heart retain my words.
My Son, don't let my words merely strike the outer vestibule of the ear. Don't let them merely glance over. These surface tables of the heart. My Son, let my words find a deep and a permanent lodgment in your heart.
My Son, my Son, I entreat you that you take my words and retain them. And retain them with what end in view? Not merely to show off how much of my words you can remember and quote to others, but with a view to having them ready at hand in the center of your being, in the citadel of your humanity that is in your heart, with a view to obeying them. Keep my commandments and live.
Again, chapter 6, verses 20 to 22. I say it's an oft-repeated command. My Son, keep the commandment of thy father. Forsake not the law of thy mother, bind them continually, where?
Upon your heart.
Lash them to your heart. As sailors might lash one another to the mast of a ship in the midst of a turbulent storm, that they be not separated from their ship and dash into the waves. He says, lash my words. Lash them to your heart.
Bind them upon your heart. Tie them about your neck. When you walk, it shall lead you. When you sleep, it shall watch over you.
When you awake, it will talk with you. For the commandment is lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. What's he telling his son to do this for? Not simply that he might be this big storehouse of the knowledge of the word of God, which has been preached to him by his father, but that his life might be regulated by it.
So you see, the principle is again set before us that our great concern ought to be to treasure up the word we have heard in our hearts and to find its appropriate influence upon our lives. One other passage in Proverbs chapter 7, verses 1 to 4. My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments with you.
Keep my commandments and live. And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them upon your fingers. Listen to the next instruction.
Write them on the tablet of your heart. Well, I thought only God can write his law upon our hearts. I thought God said, as one of the provisions of the new covenant, I will write my law upon their hearts. Now, the writer here says that you are to write them upon the tablet of the heart.
How can I write anything upon my heart? Well, that we'll address. And we come to the subject of the means ordained. But the principle is we're not to be content until the word to which we have been exposed in the preaching and teaching of that word has been written upon our hearts and is taken into a relationship beautifully likened in verse 4 to that of a beloved sibling and of a beloved familiar friend.
Say unto wisdom, you are my sister and call understanding your familiar friend.
The New Testament Imperative to Let the Word Sink In and Dwell Richly
So when we ask the question, what's it mean to take heed how we hear with respect to what we do subsequent to the preaching of the word, I've asserted that the central concern must be to treasure up the word in our hearts and then to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives. And I say, the biblical witness this rests down upon the oft-repeated command in this very direction. In the New Testament, I could, if time permitted, look at a verse that's been fascinating me through this entire study, Luke 9, 44. I'll just mention it and you can meditate upon it.
The Lord Jesus talking to his disciples about his impending death and knowing that these words were strange to them. He said, let these words sink down, into your ears. Let these words take up residence in your memory, in your thinking, in your heart. Retain them.
Don't let them bounce off and let your present prejudices have a rejection factor. Let them sink into your ears. And it's an imperative. It's a duty he lays upon them.
The Son of God does not say, since I speak in the fullness and plenitude of the anointing of my Father, and I speak as incarnate wisdom, and I speak as God's great and final prophet, my words will automatically sink into your ears. He said, no, you let them sink into your ears. It's your duty. It is my duty.
But remember Matthew 28, 20? The Great Commission? Look how clear it is on the surface of the passage. Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe.
Remember? All things whatsoever I have commanded you, teaching them to keep. Tereo, that means to guard, to keep, to observe. That is, retain in the heart.
And then to express in appropriate manners in the life all things whatsoever He has commanded. And then another text, Colossians 3 and verse 16, just the first part of it. This again, these are all imperatives.
Colossians 3 and verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Here we have an imperative, a present imperative, of a verb which means to live in, to make yourself at home in, to dwell in. And the imagery is rich. Paul is saying, let the word of Christ, not so much the word of, of Christ, but the word of which Christ is the giver and author.
That is all of Scripture, for it was the Spirit of Christ who spoke in the prophets, Peter tells us. And it is the Spirit of Christ who speaks through the apostolic writers. The Spirit of Christ that is the author of the whole of Scripture, Old and New Testament. And we are told, let this word not merely come and knock at the door of the house, of the inner life.
No. But let it dwell. Let it make its residence. Let it take up its permanent abode in you, and to do so richly.
And the adverb for, translated richly, pluseos, means lavishly, extravagantly. Let the word set up shop and live like a king in your heart. That's what he said. Don't treat it like some suspicious stranger that you put out in the potato bin where you keep your potatoes over the winter and throw in a cracker.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let that word come in and take over every room and live like a king in your heart.
That's a duty. The word is not simply to come to us and as it were under the preaching knock on the door of our inner life. We are not to be content until it dwells in us and dwells richly. So surely, brethren, this is an oft-repeated command.
The Nature of Retention: Essence, Not Outline
When I say that taking heed how we hear involves this great principle of a determination to retain that word in our hearts. I did not say retain the outline of the preacher. Retain everything the preacher said. I didn't say that.
That would be to lay an insufferable burden on you. I can't even retain my own outlines often by Wednesday. It's very humbling and embarrassing to spend many, many hours trying to hammer out the word in a clear and a simple way and I ask myself by Wednesday what I preach on Sunday and I can tell you the general drift in the room. Many times I can't remember my own outline.
So don't feel bad if you can't. I don't feel bad. But what I'm saying is that the word preached the essence, the substance of what has been expounded by means of that particular outline attended with those particular illustrations etc. that we are under a solemn obligation by the grace of God to retain that word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives.
The Greater Need for Heeding in Imperfect Ministries
Take heed. Take heed. How you hear if the Son of God who spoke as never man spoke to whom the Spirit was not given by measure who could say I don't speak my own words but the words of Him that sent me who spoke only the word and always the word of His Father spoke it in the unlimited measure of the Spirit resting upon Him as God's anointed one if His ministry did not automatically secure a good hearing but He had to say take heed how you hear how much more when we redeemed sinners with all of our imperfections and shortcomings and inadequacies seek in our pathetically weak way to understand the mind of God in this book and to lay it out in a way that is reasonably structured and clear and warm and relevant and passionate yet yet we know nothing of those qualities are so little that were in our Lord in their fullness how much more then do we need to say to you take heed
Historical Exhortations: Guarding the Word from Negligence and Satan
how you hear take heed how you hear I close by letting you hear what some people heard one congregation over 300 years ago this is what they heard their preacher say do not hear slightly but hide the word in your heart that it be not embezzled by your own negligence forgetfulness running into carnal distractions that it be not stolen by the devil that he may not snatch away the good seed out of your soul when the word is preached there is more company present than is visible there are angels and devils in the assembly whenever the sons of God meet together Satan is present with them the devil is present to divert the mind by wandering thoughts by raising prejudices that he may cast out the word or by excuses delays evasions putting it off to others when we begin to have some sense of our own sin and danger the devil is loath to let us get too far lest Christ get us subjected to his kingdom oh therefore labor to get something into your heart by every sermon some fresh news a notion or consideration is given out to set you a work in the spiritual life a conscientious waiting upon God will find something every time
it's sad to consider how many have heard much and laid up little or nothing at all it may be they have laid up the sermon in their notebooks but they've not laid up the word in their hearts another preacher said to his people if then you are not then you would avoid a judgment which strikes not only at your estates and your lives but at your souls if you would prevent that dreadful stroke which may not only reach you but your children and your children's children if you would not have them and yourselves and thousands and millions with you bereaved of the gospel and the means of grace and life take all care and pains that the influences of the preaching of the word do not slide from you that it may not be as water spilt on the ground be faithful and diligent in the use of these directions and all other means which may be effectual to fix them and hereby your hearts are wrought up to such a resolution then he quotes the scripture the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of your hearts
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Passages Expounded
Luke 8:18
This verse is the overarching theme for the entire sermon series, specifically the command to 'take heed how you hear,' which is the foundation for discussing post-sermon duties.
Proverbs 2:1-7:4
Multiple passages from Proverbs are extensively referenced and quoted to establish the Old Testament emphasis on retaining God's words in the heart.
Colossians 3:16
This verse is expounded as a New Testament imperative for the Word of Christ to 'dwell in you richly,' serving as a central command for post-hearing retention and influence.
Texts Expounded
auto_stories
This verse serves as the foundational text for the entire sermon series, emphasizing the duty to pay close attention to how one hears the preached Word.
auto_stories
This verse is expounded as a key imperative: 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,' emphasizing the Word's permanent and lavish residence in the believer's heart.