After the Sermon Part 5

Introduction: The Command to Take Heed How You Hear and the Duty of Implementation

0:03 In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, our Lord Jesus, speaking to the inner circle of his own intimate associates, said, 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. Take heed therefore how you hear. Pay close, careful attention. And serious attention to the manner in which you attend upon the preaching and teaching of the word of God in the ordinance of preaching. It is this clear command of our Lord Jesus that has formed the basis and framework for a series of some fourteen messages preached over the course of the past several months. All of them culminate.

1:15 In the opening up and application of this very basic duty, we have considered how we are to take heed to our hearing of the word of God under three major categories. We are to take heed to how we hear. With respect. To our preparation for the hearing of the word preached, or what we do prior to preaching.

1:54 We are to take heed how we hear during the actual hearing of the word preached. And thirdly, we are to take heed how we hear with respect to our actions subsequent to the hearing of the preaching of the word of God. And it is this third area of concern, namely, how we are to take heed to our hearing subsequent to the preaching of the word that I propose to address in our final two messages this morning and, God willing, next Lord's Day morning. I have suggested that there are four key words which embody at least the major biblical directives. Relative to how to take heed to our hearing subsequent to the preaching of the word. And these four key words are repetition, supplication, meditation and implementation.

3:06 Having taken up the first three with you in previous messages, we come this morning and God willing next Lord's Day morning back to normal. into this fourth essential element of taking heed to how we hear as that command focuses on spiritual activities subsequent to our hearing of the Word of God. No amount of repetition, supplication, or meditation has come to its proper fruition unless we are found implementing, that is, putting into practice what we have heard in the preaching of the Word of God. Is it your duty, is it my duty, actually to implement, to reduce to personal, practical obedience the truths heard in the preaching of the Word? Well, the answer of this negative example, is a resounding yes, it is my duty, and failure to do so meets with the frown of God as it did in the days in which Ezekiel preached. In Ezekiel chapter 33, we have the accounts beginning in verse 30

The Duty of Implementation: A Negative Example from Ezekiel

4:34 of the experience of God's professing people under the ministry of Ezekiel. Verse 30 of Ezekiel 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, and hear what is the word that comes forth from Jehovah. And they come unto you as the people come. And they come unto you as the people come.

5:12 And they come unto you as the people come. And they come unto you as the people come. And they sit before you as my people, and they hear your word. They come, they sit before you, and they hear your word.

5:28 Well, what more could you ask? What more could any preacher ask for than to know that throughout the week, amongst all the houses of all his people, the topic of conversation was going to hear the preacher the next Lord's Day. That would be heady stuff. That would be heady stuff for most preachers, wouldn't it?

5:46 And then to find that when the Lord's Day came, the parking lot was full, and the pews were full, and the people were sitting there, riveted, listening to the word of God. You say, surely any preacher wouldn't go home and fall upon his knees and say, Blessed be your name, O God, for creating such widespread interest in the word, such widespread hunger and thirst for the word, such widespread desire to attend upon the word, blessed be your name, O God. But Ezekiel had no such grounds to go home and fall upon his face and thank God, for listen to what the Lord says. Though they do all of this, they come before you, they sit before you, they hear your words, but do them not. It does not matter how much enthusiasm, as preceded our coming to the place where the word is to be preached. It does not matter how diligently we find ourselves to the place where the word is preached, or how attentively we give ourselves to listen to what is preached.

The Duty of Implementation: A Negative Example from Luke's Gospel

7:08 If the heart engaged the word of God, we stand under the patent, constantly, with the condemnation of the living God. The duty of implementation is established first by this negative example, so clearly articulated in Ezekiel chapter 33, and then the negative example articulated by our blessed Lord in Luke's gospel chapter 6. We are trying to establish the duty of implementation, as part of what it means to take heed how we hear, subsequent to our hearing the word preached and taught to us. The first negative example from the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel. Now the second negative example from our Lord Jesus, in the gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verses 46 to 49. In a section that has been translated into English, it has many parallels to what we commonly identify as the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7.

8:34 Toward the close of our Lord preaching similar themes, we read in verse 46, and why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Every one that calls me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say. Every one that calls me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say. Come unto me, and hear my words, and be doing them.

8:59 Come unto me, and hear my words, and be doing them. I will show you to whom He is like. I will show you to whom He is like. He is like a man building a house, who digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock.

9:17 And when a flood arose, and the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it because it had been well built, But he that hears and does not is like a man that built a house upon the earth without a foundation against which the stream broke and straightway it fell in and the ruin of that house was great. Here in this passage, our Lord is addressing the people who seriously and solemnly profess a saving and submissive relationship to him. Look at the language of verse 46. Why do you call me Lord, Lord? Now the precise significance of the double address, Lord, Lord, is difficult to ascertain.

10:25 And the commentators, responsible Bible-believing students of the word, differ. But this much is clear. These who address him, address him with the language that on the one hand points to the uniqueness of the identity of his person. Why do you call me Lord?

10:50 Why do you address me as? Sovereign. Why do you address me as Jehovah Jesus? Why do you call me?

11:03 Why do you take upon your lips the language that confesses me to be the Lord? And by the double usage, it probably is underscoring that that is not the language of mere, what we would say, doctrinal acknowledgement of the uniqueness of his person. For many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied? You see, and in that day, the parallel passage in Matthew 7, anyone addressing the enthroned Lord in the day of judgment is acknowledging him as the sovereign God, who is disposing their eternal destiny.

11:45 But here is not merely the language that underscores the uniqueness and the identity of his person, but, Lord, Lord, Lord, probably points to the language of professed hearty submission to his authority. You are not only objectively in yourself the sovereign Lord, but I address you as my sovereign Lord, the ruler and the governor of my life and my will. And that that seems to be the clear significance is found in the very question, why do you address me with language that acknowledges the dignity of my person and professes submission to me as your sovereign, and you are not, which I sandwich that if it were an expression of reality would find you in a pattern of universal obedience, not perfect obedience but universal,

13:07 detailed, meticulous, conscientious obedience. Why do you use in your reference to me language that bespeaks a recognition of the dignity of my person and the rights of my government when the pattern of your life negates the profession of your lips? He then goes on to demonstrate, that it's only those who come to him, hear his words, and do them, whose religious structure likened to a house is the real thing. And when the floods and the streams of the trials of this life, and the great trial of death, and the ultimate trial of judgment come, only such a man will be found, built wisely, and built well. All others, who may come, and who may hear, and who may even give assent to the authority and wisdom and grace, but they do not implement with conscientious, meticulous obedience,

14:28 they as fools, who build a structure of religious appearance, profession, upon the sand of no grace. And the trials of this life, if they don't reveal it, the ultimate trial of the day of judgment will unveil it. So I say, from these two negative examples, there is clearly established the duty, of implementation, that when the word of God has been expounded to us, and every part of it is the word of Christ, for it was the spirit of Christ, speaking in all biblical writers, through the Old and the New Testament, as Peter informs us, when those words, it is not an expounded, and preached, and taught, it is not enough that we hear them, and listen, according to Ezekiel's passage, even hear them with pleasure.

15:51 Crunch time comes when what we hear, must, with your hands, and above all, crunch time comes every time, the word of God is read, the word of God is preached, expounded, and applied. And if the pattern of your life, and of mine, is not a pattern that can be described in these words, we come unto Him, we hear Him, and we do it. God says our profession, is the house built upon sand. So I say implementation, dear people, is a duty, established, from these two negative examples. And here we turn to the book of James, James chapter 1.

The Positive Command to Be Doers of the Word from James

17:06 We had occasion to look in this chapter, with respect to our duties, prior to the preaching of the word. And I hope some of you remember that. Verse 21, Wherefore, putting away all filthiness, and overflowing, or excess of wickedness, or malice, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save, your souls. And we had occasion to point out, that in preparation for the preaching of the word, there should be renewed acts of repentance, dealing with anything and everything, in the spiritual gut, that would keep us from properly, digesting and assimilating, the word of God. We are to put away, the filthiness and the overflowing of wickedness, before we can hope to receive, with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save our souls. But our responsibility, you see, before the word, does not end with that preparation, to receive it as we ought. James goes on to say in verse 22, But, be ye, doers of the word,

18:27 and yourselves. And then he goes on to illustrate, and to enforce that directive, in terms of a common illustration, of a man looking into a mirror, and beholding his countenance, et cetera. But I want us to focus upon verse 22, which comes in a form, that unmistakably lays before us, the positive command, to be implementers of the word, that we have received, with meekness in a prepared heart. And the first thing we note in the text, is that it is possible, it is perfectly possible, to be a hearer only, and not a doer, and in so doing, to make myself, a deluded person. I can engage in activities, which put me in the path of self-delusion, so that my assessment of myself, is not according, to reality. If I came before you this morning, with a 50 point outline, seeking to persuade you, that I was, a long lost, undiscovered,

19:55 heir to the throne, of the United Kingdom, and that I ought to be there, in Buckingham Palace, as King Albert. The kindest thing, I think most of you would say is, well that trigeminal neuralgia, that was bothering in this past week, has crept up into his brain, and he is deluded. He's deluded. And if I were to gather you next week, and the elders even permitted such nonsense, and give you another 50 points, to try to persuade you, you'd still sit there and say, the poor man is deluded.

20:31 You see, no matter how much I might believe it, and no matter how many arguments, I might marshal, to my own twisted brain, that convinced me, that I am King Albert. You say the poor man's deluded. Now listen to what James says. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

20:55 To be as deluded about who, and what you really are, as I would be, were I to claim to be King Albert, then just get in a pattern, of being a hearer, and not a doer. Now I've spent the greater part of my time, seeking to establish the duty, now more briefly, I want you to consider with me, the activity of implementation, illustrated. If these texts, have not persuaded your conscience, I'm convinced it's because, you will not be persuaded. And to bring five more, would not persuade you.

The Activity of Implementation Illustrated from Psalm 119

21:35 You are willfully ignorant, and willfully rejecting, the testimony of God. Well let's look at the activity, of implementation illustrated, Psalm 119. When I tried to, set before you what meditation was, rather than, clog your mind with, technical descriptions and definitions, we looked at some illustrations, in Psalm 39, and Luke chapter 2. Well I want to do the same with you, the activity of implementation, illustrated.

22:07 Psalm 119. This wonderful passage, dealing with various aspects, of the believers relationship, to the word and law of God. Look at verses 59 and 60. I thought, on my ways, and turned my feet, unto thy testimonies.

22:31 Now notice very carefully, verse 60. I made haste, and delayed not, to observe, thy commandments. I, to observe thy testimonies. Once he saw the discrepancy, between the ways of God, and his ways, he said, I made a beeline, to get my feet, into God's ways, without delay.

23:07 Why? Because he knew, that every moment of delay, gave opportunity, for his remaining sin, to pump smoke, and fog, up into his moral consciousness. Take heed, how you hear. Not only prior to enduring, but subsequent, to the preaching of the word.

23:30 Let there be repetition, supplication, meditation, and all of it issuing, in implementation, the duty established, from the two negative examples, from the two positive commands. May God grant, that we, shall be the unnamed, illustrations, constantly living out, the blessed realities, that we've trafficked in, this morning.