Before the Sermon, Part 1

The Duty and Principle of Heeding How We Hear

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, May 21st, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 8 and verse 18. Our Lord Jesus, speaking to His own disciples, 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 seems to have. It is a solemn promise.

1:09 It is our privilege to hear the preaching of the Word of God, a privilege that brings with it many serious responsibilities. And one of those serious responsibilities which accompany the privilege of hearing the Word of God preached is clearly identified by our Lord Himself in the words of this text that we began to consider last morning. Lord's Day morning, take heed, therefore, how you hear.

1:48 In our initial consideration of this portion of the Word of God last Lord's Day morning, we saw that it contains a duty commanded by our Lord. Using a present imperative, our Lord says, be continually paying attention to, how you are hearing.

2:13 That would be a literal rendering of the words of this text. We have a serious duty commanded by our Lord. And that duty is followed by our Lord underscoring a very solemn principle.

2:33 Take heed, therefore, how you hear. Therefore, whosoever to him that has, shall be given, and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away, that which he seems to have. It is our response to the command of our Lord to take heed how we hear that is buttressed by this solemn principle that those who truly possess spiritual understanding, as they take heed, and as they continue to hear will be given yet more spiritual understanding. But those who do not take heed how they hear, while they seem to possess some measure of spiritual illumination through careless hearing even that which theyseem to possess, is by degrees, taken from them. And in the light, of these words of the Lord Jesus, we sought to focus on this great principle of the clear

3:51 duty of all who are privileged to hear the word of God preached, consciously and carefully to regard the manner in which they hear that word. And after examining several texts which demonstrate why such a duty is necessary, I stated that we would, in the ensuing messages, consider this duty of taking heed to how we hear in three broad categories. First, that category which pertains to our preparation for hearing the word of God preached. Then, that category that pertains to our actual discipline. Discipline of hearing the word preached. And finally, the category that relates to our actions after hearing the word preached. Or more succinctly stated, our duty to take heed how we hear before, during, and after the preaching of the word of God. This morning

The Heart as the Central Concern in Hearing God's Word

5:06 we begin to address that first category. The disciplines essential to the preparation of our hearts for the hearing of the word of God preached. Now that the heart is the area of great concern in this matter was just made clear to the disciples in the parable of the seed and of the soils. For you will notice, beginning in verse 9 of this chapter, as our Lord expounds the significance of the parable uttered in verses 4 to 8 that the heart is the central area of concern.

5:49 Verse 11. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God and those by the wayside are they that have heard then comes the devil and takes away the word from their heart that they may not believe and be saved. And likewise in the final kind of soil described by our Lord.

6:21 Verse 15. It is again the heart that is central in the issues addressed and that in the good ground these are they such as in an honest and good heart having heard the word hold it fast and bring forth fruit with patience or steadfastness. And so we are to consider together the disciplines essential to the preparation of our hearts for the hearing of the word of God and we shall cover this morning just two of those disciplines and God willing next Lord's Day morning a second couplet of those disciplines. If you and I are to take seriously the word of God from the lips of our Lord Jesus to constantly be careful with respect to how we hear the word of God then sooner or later we will have to come to grips with the fact that that taking heed to how we hear involves our preparation prior to the actual preaching of the word of God. to the actual preaching prior to the actual preaching of the word of God. And as you seek to prepare your heart

Discipline 1: Cultivating a Fresh Awareness of God's Word

7:49 for the preaching of the word my first exhortation is this consciously cultivate a fresh awareness that you will be confronted with the very word of the living God.

8:09 Consciously cultivate a fresh awareness that you will be confronted with the very word of the living God. Suppose an angel were to appear in our midst this morning and after every test to which we could subject an angel though I don't know what those tests would be and we were convinced that it was a bona fide messenger of God and that angel were to announce that in this place next Lord's Day morning the regular hour of morning worship Elijah who stood on the mountain of transfiguration with Moses conversing with the Lord Jesus concerning his coming decease at Jerusalem. If you knew that a bona fide prophet the prophet Elijah was to come and stand in this building and preach do you think it would make any difference in the way you prepared for the hour of worship next Lord's Day morning?

9:20 And suppose the prophet were to tell you that he had been told by the Lord Jesus that on the following Lord's Day that the Lord Jesus himself were to come from his place at the right hand of the Father and were to stand before you in his glorified presence somewhat in manners unknown to us veiled that we would not all be struck dead by the sheer glory of that presence. Would it make any difference in the way you prepared yourself for this hour of worship and ministry?

10:00 Well dear people the only way you're going to hear the voice of any prophet who ever lived and even the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself prior to his appearance in glory is as that voice is heard in the preaching and the reading of the word of God. And one of the problems that each of us faces is that familiarity with this blessed book breeds a subtle form not of open contempt but of a carelessness with respect to taking how we hear. And if we are to overcome that incipient disposition of despising the word of God if we are to overcome that disposition of despising the word of God if we are to overcome if we are to overcome if we are to overcome if we are to overcome if we are truly to take heed therefore how we hear then no limit of the preparation of our hearts for the preaching of that word is consciously to cultivate a fresh awareness that in the preaching of the word of God we are confronting the very word of the living God himself.

11:28 For although that word is now in service and is now inscripturated it is the written word of God it is nonetheless the word of God. For example when our Lord Jesus in his wilderness temptation confronted that first temptation from the tempter and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word he did not say that proceed dead that proceed dead as though it were a word that proceeded and now it just lies there a dead word. But he said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word literally that is proceeding from the mouth of God. In other words Jesus regarded the written word of God from the book of Deuteronomy as the living God in that very situation in the wilderness. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that is come down in the wilderness and speak a fresh word to the Lord Jesus. No!

12:53 But by standing upon that which God had spoken centuries before Jesus is acknowledging that that word inscripturated and written by Moses the penman was nothing other than the word of the living God as much the word of God as though God thundered it out of heaven there in the wilderness.

13:24 And if the Lord Jesus had that regard for the word of God should not we? For the scriptures say of themselves in 2nd Timothy 3 and verse 16 all scripture is God breathed. It is the out breathing of the mind and will of God and is profitable for teaching reproof correction instruction and righteousness and therefore the terminology throughout scripture scripture says God says it stands written all of that terminology is meant to point us to this reality that standing behind and above and beneath and surrounding everything every word of God in scripture is the living almighty God himself our creator our sustainer and our judge and if we are to take heed how we hear we must develop by the grace of God and independence upon the Holy Spirit that ability to cultivate a fresh awareness of the each time we come to the preaching of the word of God that beneath and around and above

14:53 that word that we see in this book that is open to the psalms at the beginning of our worship is read old and new testaments and then is opened up in one area or another and expounded to us that this almighty living God who made us and all things and all things who gives to us life and breath and all things and before whom we shall stand in the last day this God is speaking to us in his word and we ought to go through a kind of internal not openly verbalized soliloquy between ourselves and God sometime before we come to the preaching of the word and say something to this effect to our own hearts oh you creature made by the living God whose very breath is given to you by that God you son or daughter of Adam who must stand before this God in the last day and if you are a Christian you who have been the object of the eternal love and the sovereign electing purpose of this God and the object of the outpouring of the love of this God in the giving of his son oh heart

Result 1: Deep Reverence and Godly Fear

16:22 awake is to speak to you in his word we must learn some kind of an internal soliloquy that will enable us to come with freshness and with the conscious awareness that in the preaching of the word of God it is the living God himself who comes to speak to us and as we so prepare ourselves there will be at least two very practical results from that preparation the first will be a deep reverence and godly fear before that word turn to Isaiah chapter 66 please there will be first of all a deep reverence and a godly fear in the presence of that word Isaiah chapter 66 chapter begins with the Lord asking a question thus saith the Lord heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool what manner of house will you build unto me and what shall be my rest given the greatness of my being

17:49 heaven is my throne the earth is my little hassock where I rest my foot the earth is my little the earth is my little this entire globe God likens to his footstool where then is a house big enough to contain me where is an edifice that will secure the envelopment of my presence the answer is obvious no such house does exist or could exist for all these things has my hand made and so all these things came to be says the Lord but my presence is secured not in any way in any house that's built and dedicated to me or that claims to house and encase me to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit notice and that trembles at my word and this phrase trembles at my word is synonymous for those in Israel who were the true Israel within Israel that reverence remnant according to the election of grace for notice in verse 5 they are the ones addressed hear the word of the Lord you that tremble at his word your brethren that hate you that cast you out for my name's sake have said let the Lord

19:18 be glorified that we may see your joy but it is they that they should be put to shame you see it was the true Israel within Israel being glorified persecuted by those who are only Israelites in name so this phrase trembling at the word is synonymous with saving religion to this man will I look even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit who has owned the reality of what he is as a creature and as a sinner in my presence and has cast himself upon my mercy and my covenant in faithfulness and yet far from leading to a cavern to the God whom he now knows as a great and glorious and pardoning God he trembles before the word of his God now it is not the trembling of the guilty criminal who is about to be apprehended and thrown into prison or taken off and hung up on the gallows or about to be dragged off to the gillies or the guillotine and have his head drop in the basket it's not the cringing fear of the guilty criminal it is that deep reverence and godly fear born of the realization that I the creature am in the presence

20:46 of the living eternal almighty all glorious exalted God of heaven and earth and in a very special way when I come under the preaching of his word it is God himself who stands behind above beneath and around that word as it is preached but someone says Pastor Martin does not the coming of the Lord Jesus in all of his gracious tenderness and compassion and in all the outpouring of the love of God in Christ does not that round off some of the sharper edges of the old church testament manifestations of God and what constituted the tenor and flavor of saving religion I answer far from it in fact it intensifies this dimension turn to Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews chapter 12 here the writer to the Hebrews is contrasting what God's people came to under the old covenant circumstances but not verse 18 you are not come unto a mount that might be touched that burned with fire and unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet that's a description of all the circumstances

22:16 surrounding the giving of the law at Sinai and God entering in formally into his covenantal relationship with Israel he says you have not come to those things but rather you have come verse 22 you are come unto Mount Zion city of the living God heavenly Jerusalem verse 24 and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel we have come unto all the glorious privileges of new covenant salvation of new covenant revelation in the Lord Jesus in the light of that look at verse 25 see that you refuse not him that notice now is speaking doesn't say him that spoke now we believe that the canon of scripture is closed all of God's speaking is contained in a book it doesn't mean that he no longer speaks in and by and through the words of his own book see that you refuse not him who is speaking present tense for they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth how much more shall we not escape who turn away from him who warns

23:45 from heaven whose voice then shook the earth but now he has promised saying yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only but also the heaven and this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that have been made that those things which are not shaken may remain wherefore here's the conclusion receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving all of the consummate blessings of new covenant salvation revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus and set out in the documents of this new covenant our new testament let us have grace whereby we may offer service well pleasing to God with lightness and jocularity for our God is a good buddy I fear that's the way the scriptures have been rewritten not officially but experimentally in our day but the writer to the Hebrews under the inspiration of the spirit says receiving such blessings let us have grace whereby we may offer service service well pleasing

25:15 to God with reverence and all for our God not was God is a consuming fire and take but one point in the contrast of the two covenants whatever the thunder and the lightning and the fire upon Sinai did to strike fear into the hearts of men it cannot begin to compare with the unleashing of the fiery indignation of God that consumed his own beloved son upon the cross whatever there was of the revelation of the awesome burning holiness of God upon the shaking mountain there called it pales into insignificance before the darkened heavens in the immolated body and the shrieking cry of dereliction from the lips of the son of God my God my God why have you forsaken me and the answer is he's a consuming fire and when our sins were being formally charged to the Lord Jesus in the court of heaven God gave a manifestation of his burning holiness that exceeded any previous or subsequent manifestation hell

26:44 itself after the day of judgment does not reveal God as a consuming fire as fully as does Golgotha dear people it is this God who speaks to us in his word he's not a God to be trifled with he's not a God that we can afford the luxury of treating him as though he were just an indulgent rather unprincipled old grandfather who just dotes on his grandchildren and pats them on their head and throws quarters at them the God who speaks in his word is a consuming fire and if we take heed to the words of our Lord Jesus to pay attention to how we hear then surely we will seek to cultivate this awareness that in coming to the preaching of the word we are coming to the word of this living God who is not only our loving father but who is a consuming fire it will produce I say a deep reverence and godly fear but it will also produce a joyful expectation and spirit of submission a joyful expectation

Result 2: Joyful Expectation and Spirit of Submission

28:12 and spirit of submission turn please to first Samuel chapter three for an illustration of what I'm trying to capture in the words joyful expectation and spirit of submission you children one of the first bible stories most of you learned was the story of young Samuel taken by his mother up to the temple as a little boy and she would visit him once a year and bring him a coat that was suitable to his growth and you remember that incident when in the middle of the night he hears a voice and he thinks that it's the voice of the old priest Eli and a couple of times he goes in and asks why Eli has called him because at this point we read in first Samuel three seven Samuel did not yet know the Lord neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him God did not yet brought him into that spiritual experience of what it meant for a man to receive the word of God as a prophet you remember the prophets would say now the word of the Lord came unto me and the manner of that is mysterious to us and much of it is not revealed to us sometimes God spoke in visions of the night sometimes in

29:41 strange pictures as we see in the book of Ezekiel when God would catch up the prophet into a state in which he spread before him a panorama of sights and sounds but whatever way God was to reveal his word to Samuel as a prophet he had not yet done it and so the Lord called to Samuel the third time verse 8 and he arose and went to Eli and said here am I for you called me and Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child Eli perceived that whatever voice Samuel was hearing that was waking him up out of a sound sleep was not his voice but was the voice of Jehovah himself therefore Eli said to Samuel go lie down and it shall be if he shall call you that you shall say speak Lord for your servant hears now notice Samuel went and lay down in his place the thought that God might speak to him did not fill young Samuel with great dread and terror otherwise he would have clung to old Eli and said no Jehovah great God of the covenant God who revealed himself to our fathers in his mighty works and in the horrible and frightening sights of Sinai I don't want that God speaking to me no he seems to go

31:11 back with a child like trust and expectancy and every indication is that he lies down in his place with a view to drifting off to sleep if the Lord chooses to speak to him he will now know how to respond and the Lord came and stood and called as at other times in a theophany God comes most likely a pre incarnate manifestation of our Lord Jesus who is God's eternal word and through whom all of his revelation has come to men and called as at other times Samuel Samuel then Samuel said speak for thy servant hears what was he manifesting what I'm trying to describe as a joyful expectation speak Lord if it is you Lord speak he wasn't overcome with a crippling dread he wasn't driven down in a paralyzing fear there was a joyful expectation but coupled with it a spirit of submission speak Lord for your servant here he identifies himself as one prepared to do the bidding of his God and dear brethren

32:40 if under God we are enabled more and more to cultivate that awareness that in coming to the preaching of the word we are coming to the word of the living God himself that God who has manifested his grace and mercy to us in the Lord Jesus Christ then surely we will have something of Samuel's disposition of joyful expectation joined to a spirit of submission speak Lord I have nothing to hide from you I have no area of my life that I've cordoned off and said God don't intrude there don't intrude here don't touch there here I am Lord utterly joyfully expectant that your word will come to me and I'm prepared to submit to whatever its directives may be to believe whatever it demands of me to believe to do in your strength and by your grace whatever it demands of me in the way of duty I'm prepared to have all of my carnal reasonings about reality brought captive to the word of Christ and all of my own desires and my own plans brought into submission to the will of Christ it's a wonderful thing to have no fear

34:10 of what the preacher may bring out of the book of God it's a wonderful thing to sit before the word not like this but like this Samuel speak Lord thy servant and I say that disposition will be ours not automatically it is not native to us and if we do not consciously take to heart the words of the Lord Jesus take heed how you are hearing give constant conscious attention to the manner of your hearing we will by degrees come and sit as we saw last week like the people sat before Ezekiel they were coming to a concert and Ezekiel was both the concert master the orchestra and the conductor but their hearts were not open to the word of God it's a blessed thing when a preacher can say with some degree of confidence what Paul could say of the Thessalonians and I ask you to turn to 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 in verse 13

35:38 but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you brethren beloved of the Lord I'm sorry it's that second verse 2 Thessalonians 1st Thessalonians 2.13 and for this cause we also thank God without ceasing that when you received from us the word of the message even the word of God you accepted it not as the word of men that was a possibility that an apostle bringing the message of God could be regarded as simply speaking his own message and he says we give you we give God thanks that when you received the word of the message even the word of God you accepted it not as the word of men you did not regard it for something that it really was not but as it is true the word of God which works in you that believe blessed is the preacher who can say of his people we give thanks to God for you that when you receive from us the exposition and application of the word of God you receive it not as the word of men oh that's pastor so and so saying his thing that's pastor so and so

37:07 saying his thing that's so and so doing his thing no but in so far as they have responsibly cut a straight course in the word of truth second Timothy 2 and verse 15 they have brought to you that which is the word of God with the word of God with the word of God without claiming infallibility for themselves without claiming that their understanding is complete that their exposition is the most accurate nonetheless if they have not twisted the scriptures if they have handled the word of God with integrity that which they bring to you is indeed and in truth the word of God for God says in first Peter 4 that those who speak are to speak as the oracles of God as the oracles of God and as the oracles of God and you who listen are to receive them as such but then in this area of preparation for the ministry of the word may I exhort you not only consciously to cultivate a fresh awareness that in coming to the preaching of the word you come to the word of the living God himself but now secondly in taking heed how you hear prior to the preaching of the word you and I must consciously repudiate by fresh repentance all that would hinder the joyful reception

Discipline 2: Repudiating Hindering Sins by Fresh Repentance

38:35 and effective assimilation of the word of God we must consciously repudiate by fresh repentance all that would hinder the joyful reception and effective assimilation of that word now in addressing this aspect of our study I want you to consider with me two key texts the first in 1st Peter chapter 2 and this is the most significant passage to my understanding in all of the scriptures on this subject the second passage is a parallel passage not as complete and it buttresses the perspectives 1st Peter 2 verses 1 and 2 putting away therefore all wickedness or malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envy and all evil speakings as newborn babes long for the spiritual milk which is without guile that you may grow thereby unto salvation if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious now you will note that at the end of chapter 1 Peter describes the believers new life in Christ as a life begotten by the instrumentality of the word look at verses

40:03 22 and 23 seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfamed love of the brethren love one another from the heart fervently having been begotten again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides he says your dear divine begetting occurred in conjunction with the instrumentality of the incorruptible seed of the word of God a word which lives and abides it is not a dead word it lives and it abides other things live and die all flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the grass the grass withers and the flower falls but the word of the Lord abides forever and it abides as the word of the Lord which he makes effectual to the beginning of divine life so these were a people who by the grace of God had known what it was to have new life imparted in conjunction with the word of God and that word came in the form of the preaching of the gospel the latter part of verse 25 and this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you so their new life

41:32 was brought to them in the context of the preaching of the word of God now I'm fully aware of the great theological debate as to whether the word is an instrumental cause or whether it is an accompanying context that's not unto edification one thing is clear any believer sitting there among those who receive this epistle would say if I have new life in Christ I have it because God used the incorruptible seed of the word of God and that word came to me in the preaching of the gospel I have new life because the life giving word of the gospel was brought to me and blessed to me by the Holy Spirit now then Peter is saying as you've received new life by means of that word that life must be sustained and nourished by continually feeding upon that word likened in verse two to wholesome milk imparted to an infant there are times when the scriptural writers speak of Christians drinking milk in a way that bespeaks spiritual immaturity but not in this context and the central exhortation of this passage is in verse two the imperative verb is long

43:01 for the soul spiritual milk that you may grow that's the central exhortation you've received life from that word now like little babes hungering and thirsting for that milk which will enable you to grow so you are to hunger you are to long for that spiritual milk that you may grow thereby unto an ongoing and ultimately a completed life salvation in Christ but now notice prior to the imperative long for the spiritual milk Peter says there has to be an activity of putting away putting away therefore and for you Greek students you have an aorist participle preceding the aorist imperative and you know what that means that here is an activity that has the weight of an imperative but it must precede our obedience to the imperative so Peter is saying if you are going to truly long for the spiritual milk and grow there has got to be a spiritual discipline of emptying your spiritual gut of that which will neutralize the benefit of that spiritual milk putting away therefore and the word for putting

44:30 away sometimes indicates being under undressed but he says you must put away put off therefore all wickedness and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings and having done so you are now in a position to long for the spiritual milk that you may grow thereby you see if we are to experience nourishment as living human beings we have got to have at least two things we have got to have nourishing food that can provide the nutriments to replace cells that are dying to nourish us in all the intricacies of what make us what we are in our physical existence we must have nutritious food and a healthy digestive system and you need both to be nourished for example you may have someone who has nothing on his table but organically grown vegetables any meat that he has he knows that the animals from which that meat was taken were not given any steroids they were not given any antibiotics that their growth and development was only on organic foods the best of foods all of them nutritious could have someone with degrees in nutrition parceling out the various amounts in their proper relationship

45:59 to make sure that all of the necessary fiber and vitamins and minerals and all of the things essential to optimum health are there in the diet but suppose the person has an ulcerated stomach does not produce the enzymes that break down the food and enable the body to assimilate it has blockage in his intestines has a malfunctioning gallbladder you see all the best food in the world will not be nutritious to someone whose ability to assimilate that food is being hindered by the physical condition conversely take someone with an excellent gastrointestinal system ready to assimilate and profit from a good diet serve him up hamburgers made of sawdust and he can derive no nutrition from it both things must be present now see the application to our passage Peter is saying to these who have received life by the instrumentality of the word of God that they are to long for the spiritual milk that they may grow but he says your digestive system must be in a good state of health and if it's to be

47:27 in a good state of health then you have got to put away and what does he address first of all he says put away all wickedness and the word can mean wickedness in the most general sense all kinds of wickedness or it can mean as it does in one other setting malice ill will most of the commentators that I consulted said it is probably in the general sense he uses the word all in front of it put away all that could be called wickedness get your wickedness before you seek to take in the pure milk of the word of God and then grammatically the next three things are grouped together look at them and all and hypocrisies and envies all guile that's deceit it's taken from a verb that you would use if you were to describe what you were doing when you were baiting a hook as a fisherman it speaks of the person who is not what he appears to be in his dealings with you he's full of guile and deceit seeking to catch you he says put away guile and hypocrisies pretense weariness hearing of the mass hearing with a smile

48:55 as though all was well and then he says all envy grudging another what he has because you don't have it or you don't want another to enjoy what God has given him because you don't think he deserves it that's envy and Peter is a realist though he could say of these people you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth in your obedience to what we have come to learn to designate as definitive sanctification they had purified their souls in their obedience to the truth yet he acknowledges that so subtle and powerful is the acting of remaining and indwelling sin that he must say to these people put away all wickedness and then grouping them together all guile and hypocrisies and envies and then a final singular thing and all evil speaking speaking literally means speaking against or speaking down we would say running down others with your tongue having no more good to do with your as an instrument down and to destroy the character of others Peter says rid your spiritual digestive system of these things then long for the spiritual food that you may grow

50:23 you see the notion that we can come with all kinds of an old spiritual stomach and all of the digestive juices not functioning as they ought because of sin that has not been dealt by way of honest acknowledgement and repentance and clean to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness and somehow or another there will just be some magical influence of the word and I'll grow Peter says you will not grow by means of that milk on the unless you first of all put away and that putting away is an activity that will accompany us until the day we die James 1 verses 19 to 21 briefly parallel passage James 1 you know this my beloved brethren he's speaking to his brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness here's the imperative now same kind of construction receive with meekness the implanted word

51:52 which is able to save your souls they are already a saved people but the work of salvation is to go on in them and he says if it is you must receive the implanted word but he says you cannot obey the imperative unless you put away same word used as Peter used put off as a garment put away a cloak filthiness there's a debate about the precise meaning of this word but one thing is clear anything that's dirty and defiles any moral uncleanness of any kind James says put it away that you might receive with meekness the implanted word and then all abundance of wickedness and again the commentators differ as to the precise sense of this excess this overflowing of wickedness and it would seem to refer to wickedness of whatever kind in thought word or deed James is a realist knowing that real Christians will fight with an abundance of wickedness wickedness that yet seeks to crop out from the horrible reality of their remaining sin James says with Peter

53:21 get your digested system in order and then receive the word by way of application let me say that as we who teach and preach must ask are we bringing the nourishing food of the pure milk and meat of the word are we doing what in the imagery of last week the banner at the back of the church says to every preacher preach the word handling the word of God aright if we who preach do anything other than that we ought to be called to repentance or put out of our office and function but as surely as we who teach and preach must give ourselves to a constant reminder of our solemn duty to preach the word to cut a straight course in the word of truth to serve up nothing but the nourishing milk of the word of God and the meat of the word of God then you who hear must ask am I bringing a healthy spiritual digested system to that word the preacher can't bring it for you you must bring it Peter speaks to the believers when he says putting away all and then he lists them

The Necessity of a Healthy Spiritual Digestive System

54:49 James says putting away therefore all filthiness and overflowing with wickedness you and I must ask ourselves this morning is my digestive system full of the destructive influence of malice deceit hypocrisy and jealousy or evil speaking is filthiness and abounding wickedness shutting down all of the systems that would enable me to break down and assimilate into my spiritual bloodstream the nourishing word of God dear people the exhortation I'm bringing you for these passages is not something strange to me if you were to have sat in the congregation a little town of England about three hundred and thirty five years ago you would have heard a preacher preach on a text that you've heard in the last two weeks we have the writing of the account of that sermon the second lesson concerns the manner of their hearing take heed how you hear the richest cordial may be lost as it may be taken it will be requisite therefore to give you some prescription how you may take this costly

56:17 physic to your greatest profit he calls the word of God a costly physic and then interestingly this was after I'd already committed to follow this particular outline to thy preparation for it to thy carriage at it to thy behavior after it as to thy preparation for hearing the word I shall request you from God to mind these ensuing particulars number one empty your heart of evil frames and prejudice evil frames the dish must not be put into which we put these spiritual dainties if the stomach be clogged with filth and phlegm it cannot digest and concoct our food he said that's gross well I hope it's gross enough to get you upset enough to do something about it and ask yourself the question what kind of a spiritual stomach do I bring to the word of God James 1 and verse 21 and then the text out of Proverbs the full soul loathes the honeycomb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet dear people of God while none of

57:46 these sins reigns in any child of God they all remain in all of the children of God and unless we can see the true truth that they are real and not the truth the truth is that we are made of the flesh of the earth and the earth is the Take heed how you hear.

Application for the Unconverted: Repudiate Sin and Embrace Christ

58:34 And for you who are not the children of God, I want you to look at one final passage with me. Your disposition to the Word is one described very clearly in John chapter 3. As long as you are in your unconverted state and love your sin, for if you're unconverted, that's why you remain unconverted, because you love your sin. And you know that to be converted, you in sin must come to a radical, permanent divorce.

59:07 The sin of self-righteousness and pride and the love of the world and the indulgence of your appetites contrary to the law and will of God. And our Lord Jesus said in verse 19 of John 3, This is the judgment that light has come into the world. And men loved the darkness rather than the light. Why?

59:29 For their works were evil. For everyone, who does evil, hates the light and will not come to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that is doing the truth, notice not just believing, doing the truth. To believe the truth is to do the truth.

59:46 He is continually coming to the light that his works may be made manifest that they have been wrought in God. My dear unconverted friend, you will not receive the Word with profit as long as you are determined to coddle your sin, and cling to those sins. As long as you are determined to go on a lover of sin,

60:13 you must cry to God that He would enable you even here in this place this morning to repudiate your sins. See them for what they are in the light of God's holy law, in the light of the cross of Christ as loathsome and odious and that which can only destroy you and take you into everlasting darkness. And turning from that sin, cast yourself upon the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to have mercy upon you. And for you, the people of God, I urge you to ask yourself in some quiet place today, Lord, what is the state of my spiritual digestive system? Am I profiting from the Word? Am I taking heed? How I hear?

Call to Self-Examination and Prayerful Preparation

61:12 I would urge you to try on a Lord's Day morning to take at least just five minutes amidst all the bustle of getting dressed and breakfast and the rest. Five minutes alone with God saying, Lord, is there anything in my spiritual digestive system that needs to be purged? Is there any filthiness, any guile, any hypocrisy that needs to be put away that I might long for the spiritual milk of the Word in order to grow thereby? Is there anything that needs to be put away that I might receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save my soul?

61:52 And if through one reason or another you've not snatched that time and availed yourself of it, when you come and spend those ten minutes before the beginning of the service in this place, don't just spend it sitting quietly and having your mind wrong from Dan to Beersheba. But ask yourself, oh God, is my spiritual digestive system healthy? Is it prepared to receive the Word?

62:20 And if not, then and there go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness and ask God's cleansing and purging in the blood of His dear Son that you might profit from the Word of God. Take heed how you hear and in the disciplines of taking heed how we hear before the preaching of the Word consciously, consciously cultivate a fresh awareness that you will be confronting the very Word of the living God and consciously repudiate by fresh repentance all that would hinder the effective reception and assimilation of that Word. Let us pray.

63:11 Our Father, we would corporately confess in Your presence our sins of seeking so many times to receive the Word to our profit when we have not put away those things that have neutralized its benefit to our souls. Forgive our sins of not preparing our hearts. Forgive us for not availing ourselves of all of the gracious provisions that we might as Your people receive with meekness the engrafted Word. We pray for those who sit among us whose love of their sins continually keeps them hardened under the preaching of the Gospel. Indifferent to the loving overtures of Your Son, O God in mercy, deal with them this morning, we pray, that they may turn from their sins and lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the plenitude of His saving grace and power. Seal then Your Word to our hearts and dismiss us with Your blessing resting upon us throughout this Your special day. It please You bring us together again this evening with hearts

64:38 more fully prepared to receive Your Word. And may that Word be preached to the profit of our souls. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.