After the Sermon Part 2

Introduction: The Duty After Hearing the Word

0:02 Now those who have been attending regularly upon this ministry in recent weeks are conscious that we have been engaged in a series of studies based upon the duty laid upon all disciples by the Lord Jesus in the words of Luke 8 and verse 18.

0:24 Here our Lord says to the inner circle of his own, I want every disciple to pay constant and close attention to the manner in which he hears the preaching of the word of God.

1:06 And in setting forth a pastoral and practical description of what this duty involves, we have considered the duties that are laid upon us before the preaching of the word, if we are really taking heed, how we hear the duties that are ours to perform during the preaching of the word, if we are taking heed, how we hear. And we are now concerned with those duties that pertain to our activities after we have heard the preaching of the word. And last Lord's Day,

The Central Concern: Retaining and Influencing

1:48 I stated that in opening up various aspects of biblical and practical truths, touching this duty, we would do so under two broad headings. First, the central concern identified and secondly, the specific means prescribed. And last Lord's day, we took up that first heading, the central concern identified. If we are serious about taking heed, how we hear with respect to what we do the word has been sounded in our ears, there is indeed a central concern which we must

2:32 identify, understand, and lay to heart. And I express that concern this way, that 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. We will not know its influence upon our lives unless it is retained in our hearts. But if it is retained in our hearts, it is to the end that it might influence our lives. For the scripture says,

3:11 guard your heart above all that you guard, for out of it are the issues of life. Or the words of our Lord Jesus, the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And he says, make the tree good and the fruit good, or the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. And therefore, this order must never be ignored, but neither must these two things be separated. If we are taking heed how we hear, our central concern after

3:47 we have heard will be... To retain that word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives.

Introducing the Specific Means: Repetition

3:59 Now this morning, we begin to take up that second category, the specific means prescribed. Having identified the central concern, what are the means prescribed? And over the next couple of Lord's Days, I want to address...

4:18 I want to address those means, describe them, each one under a simple one word heading. Repetition, supplication, meditation, and implementation. This morning, we address the first of these means prescribed by God. Remember now to what end? That we might retain the word in our

4:46 hearts and take steps to see its proper use. And we will see that the first of these means appropriate influence upon our lives repetition repetition let's look at several clear biblical examples of repetition as a means ordained of god to assist us in our commitment to take heed how we hear as that applies to what we do after the preaching of the word turn please to second

Biblical Example 1: Peter's Use of Repetition

5:20 peter chapter one second peter chapter one and beginning in verse 12 second peter chapter one and verse 12 wherefore i shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things though you know them and are established in the truth which is with you and i think it right as

5:58 long as i'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle he's using language to describe his impending death comes quickly even as our lord jesus signified unto me yea i will give diligence you that at every time you may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance three times in this short compass of peter's letter he says putting you in remembrance stirring you up literally bringing you to a state of thorough wakefulness

6:42 he said even though you know these truths and are established in them i want you to be stirred to a greater conscious awareness of them and how does he do it by repeating them he said i'm not telling you something new i'm putting you in remembrance though you know them though you're established in them and i do so because by putting you in remembrance they are brought up outta the stuff of filed raw truths that you believe and are retained somewhere in the и in the archives of your inner being, but I want them to be brought up and become front and center truths

7:27 that stare you in the eyeballs, that call out their proper demands upon your thinking and upon your living. And furthermore, I'm going to put these things into writing that after my exodus, after my decease, they will be there to constantly remind you of these great realities. Notice the principle again in chapter 3. This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you.

7:59 And in both of them, same word as we had in the first chapter, verse 13, that I write unto you in both of them, I stir up... Now notice, he doesn't say your carnal mind, your living, your lazy mind, your indolent mind.

8:21 He is not stirring up people who are sinfully neglectful of truth, but he's stirring up people who as human beings naturally forget if certain things are not repeated.

8:38 He said, I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance that you should remember the words that were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. So you see, Peter is operating with the consciousness of the tremendous importance of this principle of repetition. He is using it as a tool to provoke remembrance, knowing that the truth that presently holds the mind and the heart, is the truth that molds the life.

Biblical Example 2: Jude's Use of Repetition

9:23 The truth that presently holds the mind and the heart is the truth that molds the life. You have a similar emphasis in Jude 5 and 17. I simply read the verses without comment. Jude 5, I desire to put you in remembrance, though you know these things, once for all.

9:52 You have received them as part of the body of revealed truth. But I'm going to put you in remembrance. He's using repetition as a pastoral tool. And again, verse 17 of the same epistle, But ye, beloved, remember the words that have been spoken before by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.

10:17 And then he quotes the specific words that he wants to say. He wants them to remember. He is using repetition.

Biblical Example 3: Christ's Use of Repetition in Revelation

10:26 And then there is a marvelous example of this in our Lord Himself. I wrestled with going into the Gospels and showing how there were certain things concerning which the biblical writers say the Lord repeated Himself again and again and again.

10:44 But I chose rather to turn to the book of the Revelation because it puts us more in our present situation. Christ was not bodily present with the seven churches of Asia Minor. He's going to speak to those churches through the letter that John will send to them, a letter which will contain things that he both hears and sees from the risen Christ. Verse 4 of chapter 1, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace.

11:18 And then those churches are named later on in the chapter and in each of these messages in chapter 2 and 3, the seven messages to the seven churches that were real churches in the real geographical area of Asia Minor. As one would read this, as a reader, an elder, whoever was appointed to read the letter, read the book of the Revelation as we now call it, in these seven churches, there would have been a tremendous impress by repetition of certain concepts from these seven letters. Every one of them begins with these words, I know.

12:02 Verse 2 of chapter 2, once the Lord Jesus identifies himself taking some dimension of the revelation he had made to John of himself in chapter 1, some aspect of that vision of the risen Christ is highlighted in the introductory words, but the first, the first words he directly addresses to every church are these, I know. 2, 2. 2, 9. I know.

12:33 2, 13. I know. 2, 19. I know.

12:41 3, 1. I know. Every single letter to every single church begins with the words, I know. I know.

12:54 I know. I know. I know. Seven times you would have sat there on a hidden Lord's day when whoever read this epistle, read it, you would have gotten the message if he knows all the peculiar circumstances at Ephesus and at Smyrna and Thyatira and Pergamos and Philadelphia and Laodicea, whatever I am, whatever we are as an association, assembly, whatever there is in the state of our hearts and lives, all things are naked and open before Him whom John saw in that vision as the one with eyes

13:37 as a flame of fire. Jesus, by repetition, wants to get through to all the churches. I know. I know.

13:47 Because another thing that is common to all seven letters is the entreaty, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit not is saying to your particular church. It says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church as plural, to seven. And then again, all the way through in every single one of those messages, he that hath an ear, verse 17, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. This is the burden.

14:26 This is the burden of the Lord Jesus. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And then there is a peculiar promise to the overcomers. To him that overcomes.

14:44 To him that overcomes. To him that overcomes. Now what would have been the impression that our Lord intended to leave upon all of the churches? He that hath an ear, he intended to leave this impression upon all of the churches that he knows.

15:04 And that blessing is promised to the overcomer, and that all within the churches should give serious attention to everything that is being said to all of the churches. And the Lord Jesus does it by repetition, by repetition, by repetition. I know he that hath an ear, he that overcomes. So from general revelation and from the book of special revelation, and I have only given you just a surface of the sampling that is to be found in scripture, we see that God sublimates, God brings into the orbit of his

The Preacher's Task: Fastening Nails of Truth

15:49 purposes of grace this principle of learning. Namely, repetition is a means to force what has been heard in the preaching of the word that it might be retained in the heart and from that position exert its influence upon our lives. Surely you see why anyone worth his salt as a preacher will not at all be embarrassed in his actual preaching to indulge in repetition. In fact,

16:32 it is the same as in the early capitulation. Moving from one head to another, articulating the first head again, by repeating, by reviewing. Why? Because in Ecclesiastes 12, 11, there the task of the preacher is very graphically set forth.

16:57 The words of the wise which are given from one shepherd. A wise preacher will not only seek to see the word of God become goals in the consciences and in the wills of the people of God but nails well fastened. Not nails just barely set in the two by four of the human mind and heart but nails driven clean through to the hilt. Well fastened.

17:31 Now that's the task of preachers. That's the task that we must labor with and labor at until we die. Lord, how can I more effectively take the nails of your truth and fasten them into the minds of your people. Lord, you alone can fasten them on the heart. But I

17:51 have a task to be a wise builder in the assembly knowing that truth is the stuff of which God constructs his spiritual kingdom. I have that task and I must continually labor at seeking to perfect the holy art of fastening nails. Well fastening nails of truth in the minds of God's people and to be sure that they all come from the one shepherd. That they are the words of Christ.

Application for Believers: Use Repetition for Retention

18:23 Those words that he has inspired in the old and the new testaments. Now it is your task in the power of God in dependence upon the Holy Spirit to use those means that become the finger that push the seed down into the soil where it can germinate and in due course bring forth fruit. Don't contend with a bucket full of seed and no seed embedded in the soil of your heart. Take heed how you

19:08 hear and with respect to how you hear. After the preaching of the word I trust you will make it your concern your central concern to retain that truth in the heart and to seek its appropriate manifestation in your life. And the means appointed to that end we've just touched on the first today. Repetition.

Warning to the Unconverted: Inescapable Repetition at Judgment

19:37 Repetition that divinely established means to fasten, to rivet the word to the mind to the understanding and hopefully to bury it in the heart. But you who are unconverted you say look Pastor Martin you're engaged in an exercise of futility. I've got no desire to retain God's words and the only reason I have to hear even some of them is my mom and dad make me come. And you're talking about a concern to retain the word? I have no desire

20:14 to hear it much less to retain it. Well that may be true. That may well be true. And all the efforts your parents may make in implementing some of them I know already do implement have implemented some of these suggestions and they may implement yet more in their effort to keep you out of hell and to keep hell out of you before you're converted. That's why your parents

20:43 are doing this to keep you out of hell and to keep hell out of you. So that if God's pleased to save you you'll have the least amount of scars that will always be left by that cruel master called the devil who's trying to seduce you into his service saying that he's a better master than the Lord Jesus is. He's a murderer and a liar. And you may resent every effort of your parents to use this tool of repetition to get the word into you that under the blessing of God hell might be kept out of you and you out of hell.

21:20 But if you succeed in resisting all those efforts and harden your heart, listen to me you are going to have that word brought back by repetition. Jesus said in John 12, 48 the word that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day. And what a horrible thing to go to judgment and have the Lord Jesus remind you of all of his words that you heard in this place that set before you your sin. And the grace of God in Christ and the provision for sinners and the sincere overtures of mercy and kindness

22:04 in Christ. The tearful earnest pleadings that you flee to Christ. His word coming through his servants begging you to repent and believe the gospel. You thought you pushed all those words away forever.

22:20 No, no my friend. He'll meet you with them in the day of judgment. The word that I have spoken shall judge you. What are you going to do then?

22:31 Where are going to be your smart aleck peers that can meet with you down in the lobby now and laugh off and maybe even in convenient places mock away the things you've heard? Where will they be to grab you when you start sinking into hell when the son of God says bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness? Where will your buddies and your girlfriends be then? You better ask that question kids.

23:02 If I can find in my Bible that God's got a kitty hell I'll preach kitty truths about a kitty eternity. But there is no kitty hell. There's no kitty eternity. And I beg you precious children stop resisting the gracious overtures, the gracious entreaties, the gracious invitations of the Lord Jesus. No you

23:34 don't want the word to be put back in your ears by repetition. But there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus will judge you by that very word. Oh I plead with you go to Christ. Run to Christ. Say oh God

23:54 I'll play the fool no longer. Own what you are as a sinner. Plead the mercy and grace of God in Christ.