Hearing and Doing

The Two Kinds of Hearers and the True Meaning of the Rock

0:03 We have just completed several studies in the concluding parable of our Lord Jesus Christ, the concluding parable in the Sermon on the Mount, that parable in which our Lord sets before us two kinds of men, a wise man and a foolish man, and he depicts the basic character of these two men in terms of a picture, one building a house upon sand and the other building a house upon a stable foundation. And we have seen in our studies that the basic principle or meaning of this parable is that our Lord is trying to show to us the two different kinds of hearers. Wherever the truth of God is proclaimed, and particularly wherever the Sermon on the Mount and its principles have been expounded and laid before the minds of men, there are only two kinds of hearers. There are only two kinds of hearers. There are only two kinds of people, those who hear and who do what is revealed therein, and those who hear but who do not perform what they have heard. And the wise man is not the man in this passage who places his faith in Jesus Christ, but the wise man is the man who does the will of Christ.

1:20 Now, you can never do the will of Christ until you've been born again by the Spirit of Christ, and unless your faith is put into the will of Christ, placed in the sufficiency of the atonement of Christ. But that's not the teaching here. The teaching in this passage is not dealing with the ground of our salvation, which is the infinite merit of Jesus Christ put to the account of repentant, believing sinners. Not the ground of our salvation, but the teaching of this passage is the practical evidence and fruit which will always attend the work of grace, namely practical, determined, and obedience to the revealed will of God through the word of our Lord Jesus.

2:03 Now, we must keep that before us, or we'll miss the whole boat, as of the whole point, and miss the boat, as does that little chorus that we were taught to sing in Sunday school. The wise man built his house upon the rock, the foolish man built upon the sand, and then they make up that next verse, so build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is not the rock in this passage. He isn't the rock.

2:28 Here, he is elsewhere. And the truth is, build your profession upon a vital experience of union with Christ that brings your will captive to Christ. And anyone who builds the house of Christian profession on anything less than a work of grace that has seized hold of your will and brought it captive to Christ, you're building on sand. And the rain, the storm, the floods of present circumstances, the floods of present circumstances, and future judgment will utterly sweep away that profession which you've made.

Introduction to Psalm 119:59-60: How to Hear and Do

3:05 Now, in meditating on this and seeking the mind of the Lord for our study in the Word today, as some of you know, I was off at Camp Susquehanna last week, and that's no vacation. I take one week of my vacation to go there, but it's not a vacation. You speak as a chaplain there about 20 times, and then as you try to go out and mix with the boys, you end up hobbling yourself and practically breaking a leg. And I do not feel that I'm going to be able to do that.

3:28 I do not feel that it would be wise for us to move on to those two concluding words in the Sermon on the Mount, sort of an epilogue there. But I want to enlarge upon the principle that we've studied in verses 24 to 27 by turning your attention to a passage in the 119th Psalm.

3:48 We've considered the truth that our Lord has laid out for us here, that he that hears and does the Word of God is the wise man. And I trust that the question has arisen in some of your minds, how does one hear and do the Word of God? Does the Bible teach us not only the what of obedience, but the how of obedience? And I'm sure that it does in many places, and the passage that we're going to look at this morning, I trust will be very helpful to us along these lines.

4:21 Psalm 119, verses 59 and 60.

4:29 You remember this entire psalm is a prayer, and it's a prayer that relates directly to the child of God and his relationship to the Word of God. It's the longest prayer recorded in the Bible and the most instructive prayer. And the whole theme of this prayer is the relationship of the child of God to the Word of God. Now notice what David says in this prayer in verses 59 and 60.

4:57 I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste. Haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

5:14 David has been exposed to the truth of God. He has heard the Word of the living God. Now he says, after I've had exposure to divine truth, what do I do? He said, well, the first thing I do is I think upon my ways, and then I turn my feet to thy testimonies.

5:34 I make haste and delay not to keep, thy commandments. So David had learned the secret of how to be a hearer and a doer. And if we can watch him as he hears and as he does, perhaps the lesson will be helpful to us as we hear and seek to do the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice the first thing that David said he did after he had been exposed to the Word of God.

The First Step: Serious Reflection (Conscious Mental Activity)

6:04 It's found in those few words in verse 59, I thought on my ways. What is this? Well, let's call it for the sake of just a working definition. He's telling us that he engaged in serious reflection.

6:22 He was exposed to the truth of God, setting forth the precepts of God, His will for us, the promises of God, His provisions for us. And having been exposed to truth, David said immediately, I engaged, engaged in serious reflection. I thought on my ways. And I would suggest that you will never be a hearer and a doer of the Word if you're a stranger to serious reflection.

6:57 Now let's break it down as David did. What is this serious reflection? Well, first of all, it is a conscious mental activity. Notice the word he uses.

7:08 I, I thought on my ways.

7:13 If what you hear with your ears doesn't make you work with your brain, you haven't heard it rightly.

7:23 You see, God has not invested His truth with some kind of sacramental, magical, hocus-pocus power so that because you're here and somebody opens a black book with white pages and black letters and articulate some of those words, you're going to go out a better man or woman. There is no sacramental, magical, hocus-pocus power in the Word.

7:46 We are born again by the Word. 1 Peter 1.23 Not begotten of human seed, a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God. We are sanctified by the Word.

7:59 John 17.17 Ephesians 5 But that new birth by the Word and that sanctification by the Word is not by some sacramental power that is in the Word itself. Apart from the Spirit taking that Word and bringing it through the normal processes of thought and choosing and reflection and evaluation all under the canopy of the Spirit's quickening, all under the pressure of the Spirit's ministry, but not bypassing you as a true human being.

8:36 And so David said, having been exposed to the Word, I engaged in serious reflection, which to me, he says, was a conscious mental activity. Remember the first commandment is that we love the Lord our God not only with the whole heart, but with all of our mental faculties as well, all of the mind.

9:01 Now this demands time. This demands discipline. This demands that we have a sense of values that will make time for this conscious mental activity. Well, God says, the God-blessed man, according to Psalm 1, is the man who meditates.

9:20 Not the man who is exposed to the Word of God day and night, but the man who meditates upon the Word day and night. Now this is no reflection. And we have someone connected with Christian radio, and I'm not saying it for their benefit this morning, but I hear some people say, well, you know, I just love to have my radio on all day and hear so many sermons and all the rest. That won't do you a bit of good if you don't seriously reflect upon what you hear.

9:45 There is no magic. There is no magical power in exposure to truth. God says the man who will have his roots deeply rooted in the living God is the man who meditates upon the Word of God day and night. That takes time.

10:00 It takes conscious, deliberate mental activity. Now one of the greatest indications of the fall is that our affections can go a-whoring after a thousand objects far unworthy of their affection, and yet this is what our hearts do. The living God who commands us to love Him with the whole heart, and we find that our hearts go a-whoring after a thousand other loves. Another great indication of the effects of the fall is that this mind that God has given to us to be the receptor of lofty thoughts of Himself and His universe and His world and His truth and His redemptive purposes, it'll go flitting in a thousand directions after the most trivial, nonsensical, things. And the minute you try to bring those vagabond thoughts in and focus your mind upon the truth of God as it relates to your own life, it seems like it's an incorrigible brat determined to have its own way, and it kicks and screams and hollers and fights and throws itself into fits. If you don't believe that, you determine that when you leave this place today you're going to sit down somewhere for fifteen minutes this afternoon and soberly, with real mental diligence, reflect upon what you heard this morning and you watch your mind off in a thousand directions. Why?

11:28 Why?

11:30 If you have the devil's Bible at home, Sunday paper, and you sit down to read that, why, you can just sit there bug-eyed and follow your favorite comic strip right through and the telephone can be ringing, the rose can be burning, but you can concentrate no problem. No problem!

11:49 No problem.

11:52 Why? The minute you turn the mind to serious and sobering, reflection upon things eternal and the mighty and everlasting God, so difficult, why? It's a proof of the remains of corruption even within the best of God's people. And so, if you and I are to be hearers and doers of the Word, we've got to engage in serious reflection, which is going to demand of us conscious mental activity, which in turn demands discipline of thought, a sense of values that will determine to crowd out other things.

Serious Reflection: Personal and Comprehensive

12:25 Someone said a few weeks ago, in the presence of a number of people, trying to teach them what he called the victorious Christian life, and he said, if the victorious life isn't easy, it isn't victorious. That's heresy.

12:39 That's heresy. That's downright heresy. When I read in my Bible, the apostles saying, I buffet my body. When I read in the Word of God, strive, give diligence, and all of these words of a military and athletic figure which speak of consciousness, deliberate, determined activity.

13:01 I know that such a concept of the Christian life is certainly not biblical.

13:07 If you would be the wise man who builds upon the rock, the one who hears and does the Word, settle it right now, you're going to have to give yourself to conscious mental activity. And then it was not only a conscious mental activity, but he says about this serious reflection that it was a personal activity. Notice, verse 59, I thought, on my ways.

13:33 Now there's one place where the human heart is naturally unselfish. Only one that I've ever found. That's when it comes to reflecting upon the Word of God as it applies to people. And then immediately we want to think on somebody else's ways.

13:51 And we're just so confident that that remark that our pastor had was just absolutely suited like it was custom made for that one over there. And just custom fit for that one. But this isn't what David did. He didn't say that I suddenly made myself head of the union of custom clothes fitters and every time the pastor talked I constructed a beautiful garment of application and I said, ah, that's perfectly suited for this one.

14:20 David said, I stood there wanting God to fit me out with the truth. I thought upon my ways. It was a personal activity. Personal.

14:32 Third, it was a comprehensive, he said, I thought on my ways. Now what did David mean by his ways? You know somebody and someone makes a comment about him, something that's a little bit peculiar. You say, oh well, that's just his way.

14:49 What do you mean by that? You say his ways are kind of strange. Well, we mean by the word way a pattern of action, of disposition, of thought. Now David said, when I began to do this matter, engage in this matter of serious reflection, it was a conscious mental activity directed to myself and it comprehended all of the patterns of my life.

15:18 I thought upon my ways. What does this truth or principle of God have to say about the use of my time, about my action and reaction to my brethren, about the standards that I hold for my conduct, for my thoughts, for my social intercourse, for my conversation with others. Our lives are made up of our ways in these given areas and the psalmist said that when he'd been exposed to the truth of God, he then sought to think upon his ways, his patterns of thought and action and motive and desire in the light of the truth that he heard. Now the minute you do this, you know what happens? You get exposed. You get exposed.

16:11 Unless you claim that you're so perfectly sanctified that you ought to be up there with the sinless angels, the word is going to continually expose you. As you are exposed to the truth and you think upon your ways, you're going to see what I'm doing here in the realm, let us say, of the use of my time does not measure up to what God says, redeeming the time, buying up the opportunity. So you take a few minutes to go through the average day and you start asking yourself, where am I wasting time? And God will be faithful to begin to point out the areas in which you are not buying up the opportunity.

16:49 You're not redeeming the time. You're squandering this precious commodity called time. And so there'll be exposure, exposure of sin, exposure of wrong patterns of thought and action. There may be the revelation of new duty.

17:05 God says, you ought to be doing this. Pray without ceasing. And as you think upon your ways, you say, Lord, I'm not doing that. I'm worrying without ceasing.

17:14 Why? Every time my mind is not busy with a specific task, it's always fretting about what's going to happen tomorrow and six months from now and a year from now. Lord, that's a duty that I'm not performing. So as you reflect upon your ways, the patterns of your life, in the light of the revealed will of God, there comes this exposure.

17:34 There comes the revelation of new duty. And what happens? Well, then, that's got to lead to something else. But before we touch on that, may I suggest that this process that I'm describing now that David talks about here is the pathway to spiritual maturity.

Serious Reflection as the Pathway to Spiritual Maturity (Romans 12 & Hebrews 5)

17:51 You don't become spiritually mature by piling up attendance at certain meetings. Nor do you come spiritually mature simply by conforming to the standards of the particular group in which you find yourself. I want you to look at two passages in the New Testament that clearly reveal that engaging in this serious reflection is part and parcel of coming to maturity in Christ. The first passage is in Romans chapter 12 and then we'll move back to Hebrews.

18:24 Romans chapter 12.

18:39 Familiar verses, but I trust they'll take on a bit new light this morning.

18:46 Verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service. Now notice. And be not conformed to this world.

19:02 I think it's Phillips who renders it. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. It's the picture of the world as an active, aggressively evangelistic system. The world is not neutral to your Christian perspectives.

19:17 It hates them. And it's acting like a mighty hydraulic vice to utterly squeeze you into its mold.

19:26 You know how records are made, don't you? Phonograph records, you know how they're made? The master is cut and then from that master there's a mold made of high quality steel. And then that mold under tons and tons of hydraulic pressure comes down upon melted soft plastic and presses down until every single groove that's in that master stamp, that masterpiece of steel, leaves its impression so that anything that comes out of that stamp, where those two jaws have come down together under tremendous pressure, it'll always play the same tune.

20:05 Always.

20:07 Now that's exactly what the world is seeking to do to us. It's seeking to squeeze us into its mold that wherever we go and whoever we be, we'll all sing the same tune. Have the standards of the world that are under the control of the prince of the power of darkness. Ephesians 2 makes it very clear that this world system is under the control of the wicked one.

20:32 The apostle Paul says, don't you let the world squeeze you into its mold, its patterns of thought, its concepts, its standards. Don't let the world do it. Well, if we're to be kept from that, how does it happen? Notice.

20:45 But, in place of this, be ye transformed by the renewing of your what? Of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. The only way I can be kept from this insidious pressure of the world that will stamp me with its mold is to have my mind renewed day by day so that I discern what is the will of God and then I prove it in my experience. And you can't do that apart from serious reflection.

21:22 Because the world's pressure upon us, though very real, is imperceptible to us. There are some of you sitting here this morning that indulge in things in your practice and in your thought life and in the ways of your existence that five years ago shocked you.

21:43 But as the world's standards have become more and more raw and less and less even reflective of biblical perspective, our nation was never a Christian nation, but it did have its roots in Christian perspective and in some of the moral traditions, standards of the Word of God and at least an outward confession in a belief of a sovereign God who ruled in the history of men. And that foundation was cut away several generations ago and we've been a superstructure without a foundation in our generation. Everyone's alarmed because the superstructure's coming down upon our heads. Well, it was only a matter of time before this would happen.

22:25 And as it comes down, you and I are not immune to this.

22:31 Some of you would be shocked if you were to take an honest hour and refuse to believe and reflect upon your ways in the light of the eternal standards of the Word of God. There's got to be that renewing of the mind. And that cannot come apart from serious reflection. This conscious, personal, comprehensive mental activity thinking upon our ways.

22:58 It's only in this way that we will be kept from being squeezed into the world's mold. Now Hebrews 5, another passage which brings out, essentially, the same principle. Hebrews chapter 5.

23:18 The writer to the Hebrews has come to a part in his exposition of the greatness of Christ in which he longs to teach them some things about Melchizedek as the great type of Christ.

23:33 But he says in verse 11 of Hebrews 5, of whom, speaking Melchizedek and Christ as a type of Melchizedek or Melchizedek a type of Christ, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered. Why? Seeing ye are dull of hearing. Now how did they get that way?

23:53 Verse 12. For when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. Well, how do I know whether I'm a babe or whether I'm an adult spiritually?

24:19 What makes the difference? Well, he tells us in verse 14. Strong meat belongs to those who are full age, even to those who've attended services and listened to sermons for 15 years. No.

24:34 And what he says,

24:36 even to those who by reason of youth have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. You see what spiritual maturity is? It's the ability to discern between good and evil. And this ability is cultivated by use.

24:59 I thought on my ways. Here was the will of God. Good, acceptable, imperfect. Here were some of my ways.

25:08 Sinful, unacceptable, imperfect. And as I thought on my ways and reflected upon them in the light of the eternal word, I saw my ways were evil and I did something about it. That's the way a man becomes spiritually mature. Not by listening to sermons, though that ought to be a part of it.

25:27 Not by attending meetings,

25:30 but who by reason of youth have their senses exercised. The renewing of the mind. So this is the first thing that David would say to us as we asked him, David, how is it? How is it that you became a hearer and a doer?

The Second Step: Specific Action (Turning Feet to Testimonies)

25:45 He would answer us by saying, I engaged in serious reflection. I thought upon my ways. Now if you stop there, you're just a monk. David wasn't a monk.

25:57 For one thing, he had too many wives. Another reason, he was very practical in his experience. And notice what he said. Verse 60.

26:08 Last part of verse 59, I'm sorry. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste and delayed, not to keep thy commandments. So his serious reflection led to the second great thing, specific action.

26:30 I turned my feet to thy testimonies. Now notice several things about this action. First of all, it was personal. I turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

26:42 I made haste and delayed not. Now there's only two feet for which you have any real, basic, responsibility as far as turning them into the ways of God. And that's your own two feet. I can't do it for you.

26:59 You can't do it for me. I can try to preach to you the truth of God so that you'll have a standard by which to objectively evaluate your life. That's my task. Even the Lord Jesus, to whom the Spirit was not given by measure, could say, had to say, some of you who hear me today as He stood upon that table, on that mountain, and preached that sermon of sermons, He said, you're fools because you're hearing but you're not doing.

27:31 You may even be hearing and reflecting, but you're not turning your feet unto my testimonies and unto my statutes. This is a personal activity or action. I must turn my feet to His commandments. And it's a very practical activity.

27:50 He said, I turn my feet, not my notions or my affections, but my feet. Now, this is poetic language. And what he's saying is, I turn my whole being. Where your feet are, you are.

28:04 Any day you're sitting there and your feet get up and walk across the room and leave you there, let me know. And we'll pitch a tent and have a sideshow and raise a little money for a building program. No, it doesn't work that way. Wherever your feet go, you go.

28:18 And where you go, all of you go. Now, this is what is the symbolism of feet here. He's saying, I turn my feet. I turn my whole being.

28:27 To the testimonies of God. That's very practical, isn't it? You see, you can sit here and listen to me preach or anyone else. And you can turn your notions in the direction of truth.

28:43 And you can assent to that and put your imprimatur on it and put the seal of your approval and say, I buy that. But that's not the issue about which our Lord is talking in Matthew 7, nor is David talking about it here. He said, I turned my feet. This was a practical action.

Specific Action: Governed and Undelayed

29:01 And then the third thing about this action, I've fished around for a word, and this is the best one I've come up with. Maybe you can put a better one on it, but just so you get the thought. It was a governed activity. I turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

29:21 He didn't just kick up a little religious dust and say, man, I'm falling short. I better do something somehow pretty quick. No, he said, I fought on my ways when I saw the precepts of God, the precepts of God here and David's life here. I turned my feet, not any direction, but it was an activity that was governed by the revealed will of God.

29:44 I turned my feet unto thy testimonies. It's so easy, dear ones, to turn our feet to the path of convenience. We see the precept of God making demands upon us. For example, our Lord says, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.

30:08 If thy hand offend me, cut it off. Amputation, spiritually speaking, is not a very delightful activity. That sin that's as much a part of perhaps my temperament or an expression of my temperament, that sin that is as much a part of me as my right hand or right eye, to start cutting off right hands and plucking out right eyes, this is not fun, but Jesus said you do that or you burn. Isn't that what he said in the Sermon on the Mount?

30:39 Now, David said, as I seek this specific action, I want it governed not by the path of convenience. I just don't want to put a little anesthesia on my hand and render it a little insensitive or just put a black patch over my eye so that the potential is still there to go back to that sin. David said, if God says amputation, severance, then I'm going to turn my feet to thy testimonies. So easy.

31:14 To govern our response to the word not only by convenience but by the existing standards of our professing Christian community. What's it mean as a body of believers to walk in the light of God's commands so often neglected or ignored when he tells us how to govern the local assembly? What to do if one among us falls into open sin? He tells us that we're to go to that one, seek to restore them.

31:45 If they will not hear, take two or three witnesses. If they will not hear, bring them before the church. If they will not repent, excommunicate them. Where is that being done in our evangelical churches?

31:58 Hmm? Now we're wiser than God. We say, well, we'll just keep them in and after a while the word will work in their hearts. We're wiser than God.

32:10 You see, David's response was governed by the clear revelation of God. So easy to conform our response to the cry of our own lusts and passions. But not so with David. He said, my activity of turning my feet to the testimonies of God will be governed by the clear revelation of those testimonies.

32:33 And then the fourth thing about this action, not only was it personal, practical, and governed, but it was undelayed. Notice what he says in verse 60. This is an amplification of the last part of verse 59. I made haste and delayed, delayed not to keep thy commandments.

32:53 Delayed obedience is disobedience. Now let that sink in. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Let me illustrate.

33:11 I say to my son, Joel, come to Daddy, I want to get you ready for bed. He stays in, plays with his toys. I say, son, what are you doing? He says, well, Daddy, I was going to come in five minutes, but I want to play with my toys.

33:28 That's downright open disobedience. Open disobedience and defiance of parental authority. Delayed obedience is disobedience. If this is true in human relationship, how much more?

33:42 When our sovereign speaks, who are we to snap our fingers and say, God, you wait a minute. I'll make this adjustment when it's convenient. Who are we to say, God, a few more things I'd like to see with that eye and touch with that hand before I pluck it out and cut it off. David said, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commands.

34:07 As he soberly reflected upon the truth to which he was exposed, as he evaluated his life in the light of that truth, he said, my action of response was undelayed. I made haste to keep thy commands. What happens if upon reflection of the truth of God in the light of our words and we're exposed, we're determined to change, we're determined to bow at the issues where God touches us. What happens if all of that transpires but we do not make haste to implement immediately what God has told us?

Dangers of Delayed Obedience

34:45 Three or four things happen and they're spiritually dangerous and in many cases they prove spiritually disastrous. James tells us one of the things that happens, or two of them, in James chapter 1. Notice what he says. If we delay our obedience, notice what he says in James 1 and verse, 22 and then verses 23 and 4 as well.

35:12 Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, in a mirror. For he beholds himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. He looks.

35:40 He sees. He goes away. And the impression is lost. Now that's what happens when you're exposed to truth and you see a discrepancy between what God says you ought to be in Christ and by the power of Christ and what you are.

35:57 And you may even say in your heart, God, by your grace, I will make that adjustment. But if you don't immediately implement it, what happens is very clearly taught here. That impression, which has been made, will be lost. You'll be lost.

36:14 That impression will be lost. And then you'll deceive yourself, as he says in verse 22, you'll mistake exposure to truth for a submission to the truth. And you deceive yourself. You think you're better for having heard and reflected, but unless you do, James says you're deceived.

36:35 Isn't that what our Lord said? He that heareth, and his affections may boil with great fervency at what he hears. And his mind may bow to that and say, ah, yes, that's what I ought to be and do. But if you don't actually put it into practice, Jesus said, he that heareth and doeth not, he's a foolish man and he's building upon sand.

37:02 Now I'm holding off, it's hard, but I'm holding off to bring a, try to trust what will be a searching application of all of this in conclusion. But just stick with me a little bit more while we lay the principle that I trust will make the exhortation a bit more solid and lasting. If you hear, you're exposed, impression is made and you don't do, the impression will be lost, you'll deceive yourself, you'll harden your heart. Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 we read, today if you hear his voice, harden not your heart.

37:36 Why is the emphasis on a word of time? Today if you hear, harden not. Because anything short of immediate obedience is in some measure a hardening of the heart. Anything short of immediate obedience is in some measure a hardening of the heart.

37:55 And then there comes the dulling of the mind spoken of in Hebrews 5. He says, ye have become dull of hearing and I've got to go back and lay the first principles. Why were they dull of hearing? Because they were not by reason of use exercising themselves to discern good and evil.

38:12 They weren't doing what David did. And so they became dull of hearing and the minute you hear about a duty about which one time previously you were disturbed, you say, oh well, I know all about that and you pull down the shade there in front of your mind. All of us have a shade there. And we can, while looking up with a smile on our face, grab that thing a dozen times during the sermon and pull it right down.

38:34 And it's like those laminated shades that we've got for the kid's bedroom to keep out the light. And we do that all the time. And especially will we do it if it's an area where God has once wounded us and spoken to us. We build up a defense mechanism and when that area is touched again, we pull down the shade.

38:53 We become dull of hearing. Now if we're the children of God, God loves us enough to put the whip to us. And where the soft light of His truth won't move us, God has the hard fibers of His rod. For whom He loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives.

39:12 If you can pull down the window shade on areas of your life where God has spoken and God had mercy on you, if He hadn't spoken to us again and again as we've gone through this Sermon on the Mount, dear ones, I've had my heart ripped over I don't know how many times preparing for these sermons for the past three years. And if your heart's been ripped over and exposed and you've fought upon your ways and you've seen the ways of God's standard and you've pulled down that shade and you've said, well, Lord, I know I ought but no more light on that, please. If you aren't experiencing the rod of God because of that, you're in a dangerous, dangerous position because my Bible says, if ye are without chastisement whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. That's what the book says. For whom He loves, He chastens. And if we don't respond to the light of His truth, we'll experience the hard fibers of His rod in one way or another.

Pastoral Encouragement: The Sign of Immediate Action

40:13 One of the most encouraging things to me as a pastor, it's not always a surefire proof, but it sure, it follows through in most cases when people come with a problem and they really come apparently seeking advice and help and direction from the Word. They just don't want to come and have a little psychological blow off and feel better because they found a shoulder upon which they could drop a few tears. Some people come and that's all they want and you've got to try to get them to see that they need something more than that. But there are some people who really come wanting direction from the Word.

40:46 They realize that God has something to say about this particular problem they have as a Christian. And when God has enabled you to bring to bear upon their lives and their situation the eternal truth of God, know what I always look to see? What do they do immediately after they get that light? I had a boy come to me at camp this past week, not one of our own.

41:08 As far as I know, none of our own have this problem quite yet. This fellow's a little bit older, he's one of the workers and he was quite soft on a young lady. He just had a good, plain old-fashioned crush. One of those three or four you get, before the Lord brings into your life the one that's going to be your life partner.

41:26 And I told him, well, you'll probably have three or four more of these and call him by name. And I said, it's pretty real to you right now, isn't it? And I said, God knows that and He doesn't despise it. But he had a problem.

41:38 She wasn't even a professing Christian. She was a nice, moral, upright girl. And so he said, what should I do? Well, I told him what I thought he should do.

41:44 Well, what did you tell him? Well, that's not part of the illustration. We'll leave that for another time. When you get a crush, if you can go back to 16, you know, and you come, then I'll tell you what I told him.

41:56 But you know what thrilled me? His roommate, or his tent mate, they slept out in the tent behind the craft shop. He came to me at the early morning prayer meeting. He said, Chief Al, that's what they call all the adults there, Chief Bob, Chief Al, whatever you are, Chief Dave.

42:10 He said, Chief Al, maybe it encourages you. He said, you know, when so-and-so came back last night, he stayed up a long while and he wrote a big, big long letter to that girl. I said to myself, that's a good sign. The next morning, he said, good morning.

42:25 He had this big, fat letter in his hand. He said, I wrote her a good, long letter. I told her where I stand with the Lord. And he said, I don't care what happens.

42:34 And I said, that's a good sign. He thought upon his ways and in the light of the word, he said, there's a discrepancy between what God says and what I'm doing. And he turned his feet to the testimonies of God. He made haste.

42:45 It meant staying up till one or two in the morning, I guess, but he made haste and he delayed not to keep the commandments of God. For if you won't make haste, when the full blazing light of that truth is still fresh in your mind, what makes you think you will when it begins to turn down a few watts and some of the pressures of the world begin to squeeze in and some of the dullness of your own mind and spirit begin to drag you away from that area of truth? And David realized this, that anything short of immediate obedience was the essence of disobedience. And now, by way of application, as we close our meditation this morning, I want to ask some very personal and pointed questions. This is particularly, or these are particularly addressed to our own people who have been here during the long months of exposition of this Sermon on the Mount. Let me ask you a very searching, pointed question. How many of your ways have actually been changed over the past three years?

Searching Application: Has Your Life Changed?

43:55 Over the past three years as you have listened to this sermon. How many of the ways, those patterns of your life, thought, use of time, use of money, dispensing of your energies, employment of your faculties, how many of them have actually been tangibly changed by the words of Christ? Have you been able to hear him speak of the God-blessed man as the man who mourns, the man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, the man who's a peacemaker, the man who's pure in heart? Have you been able to sit through all of that and have no more hunger for God than you had before? No more holy mourning for sin than you had before? No more purity of heart than you had before? You're in a dangerous place, my friend, because you're hearing and doing naught.

44:54 Have you been able to sit through that searching exposition of the law of God, beginning with chapter 5, verses 28 and 29, through the end of the chapter, where our Lord speaks of anger and bitter words as of the essence of murder and deserving eternal hell? Where he speaks of adultery as the lustful, lecherous thoughts of the heart? Have you been able to sit through that and not have your thought patterns changed at all? You're in dangerous ground.

45:26 When he moves to chapter 6 and says the only important thing when I pray, when I give, when I discipline myself, is to be concerned about the eye of God. Have your motives in coming to church and praying and giving been undisturbed and unchanged as we went through that passage? You're on dangerous ground, my friend, dangerous ground. And then that last great section of chapter 6 where he speaks of his children as those who are able to trust their father to the supply of physical needs and do not live in the continual world of fretfulness?

46:02 Be not anxious, be not anxious, be not anxious three times. Seek first the kingdom. These things should be added. Has there been any change in the measure of your anxiety about meeting the bills and getting the kids to college?

46:15 Are you still the same fretful, fussing person you were before? I thought on my ways and I turned my feet. Have you been turning your feet? Not perfectly, but purposefully.

46:34 Not without flaw, yet blessed God with some real determination? That's a pretty personal question, isn't it? How do you answer it this morning? Christ said, He that heareth and doeth shall be likened to a wise man, and he that heareth and doeth not shall be likened to a foolish man.

47:00 How many of your ways have been actually changed? Has it made a difference what you've been able to look at in your reading material, where you've been able to go and spend your time, leisure time? It's just that practical. And I've got a sneaking suspicion that it would be awfully humbling to me as a pastor to find out how many of you are just the same person you were three years ago when we started in this sermon.

47:29 And all those three years of preaching you've done, unless you repent, and by the grace of God begin to be a doer, all they've done is make the fires of hell the more intense. For he who knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with fire, many strikes. Whereas he who knew not and did not shall be beaten with few strikes. You say, Pastor, where does Christ come into all of this?

The Role of Christ and Grace in Obedience

48:01 You haven't said much about him this morning. Well, you see, David was talking as a man indwelt by the Spirit. For he said, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. And no man ever really wants to reflect upon his ways in the light of the Word until his heart has been brought subject to the God of the Word, for by nature it isn't that way.

48:23 Romans 8, 7 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. But the Lord Jesus, in His place of ascension at the right hand of the Father, lives as an exalted, glorified Christ to give repentance and remission of sin to His people. And where the Holy Spirit effectually draws a man to repentance and faith in Christ, there is that basic disposition of heart that is moved in the direction of the will of God as revealed in the Word of God.

48:54 The Scripture tells us He is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Therefore we are to work out with fear and with trembling. I'm afraid some Christians have the idea that maybe their working out will somehow get ahead of God's working in. And they're so afraid of doing something in the flesh, they think somehow their obedience might outstrip God's prevenient working.

49:19 Never. Never. He is ever at work in us to will and to do. We must ever be at work to work out with fear and with trembling.

Call to Serious Reflection and Action

49:31 Do you engage in this that David speaks about? Serious reflection. Do you? Do you think on your ways?

49:42 It would be a terrible shock to some of you to begin to do that today. To think on your ways. Go home this afternoon and sit down and go back and read through that sermon we've been studying for three years. Not just read it through and look at it out here, but each passage you read.

50:00 Then turn it on yourself and say, there's the principle, the precept. There's the standard. What am I in the light of that? Just go over those beatitudes.

50:10 Am I that God-blessed man? Blessed are they that are poor in spirit. Do I really see that I am nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing and stand in need of all things? Blessed are they who mourn.

50:24 Do I mourn? How long's it been since I have, with some real measure of holy grief, poured out my heart in confession to my God? Not for beating my wife. I hope you've gotten beyond that.

50:37 Not for stealing groceries down at the A&P. But you've mourned your coldness of heart, your sluggishness of spirit. Your mind tells you that the God who's redeemed you is worthy of a rushing torrent of holy affection and devotion. And all you've got is a little trickling stream.

50:58 Doesn't it cause you grief? Sure it does if you're a Christian. And you mourn your coldness and your barrenness. Think on your ways and then turn your feet to his testimonies.

51:16 If you ever want to be convinced how much you need divine grace, just determine you're going to do it. And then when you see that you just don't have the stuff in your stock shells, he'll throw you on your face crying for new measures of grace. And then there's his promise. Ask and it shall be given you.

51:34 Grace to do what? Sit around and nod your head to truth? No. Grace to get up and do the truth.

51:39 Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. It doesn't take any grace to have a head full of notions.

51:48 But it sure takes grace to be the kind of man or woman described in the Sermon on the Mount in the age in which we live. Having the heart that you and I have got. And having a devil who's out to do to us what he's out to do. May the Lord help us to become in some measure masters of the art of serious reflection which in turn will give birth to specific action.

52:14 I made haste and delayed not to keep my commandments. Let us unite our hearts as we close in prayer.