During the Sermon, Part 3

Gratitude for Mid-America Family Conference Ministry

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 25, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now before we turn to the Word of God, I do want to take this moment to express my gratitude to you, the Lord's people, for your prayers for me and for the other men who had the privilege and responsibility of ministering to the thousand or so people gathered at the Mid-America Family Conference in Huntington, Indiana, this past Monday through Friday. Since I'll be preaching at the family conference conducted by our brethren in North Bergen this coming Wednesday night, I'll not be with you at prayer meeting to give a report. Suffice it to say that God wonderfully helped His brethren in the family conference and His brethren in the family conference. My own soul was ministered to by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson and our beloved brother, Pastor Andy Hamilton, and I was conscious of God's help in the delivery of the material that it was my responsibility to bring.

1:15 And as we asked you to pray, especially for the Thursday night evangelistic message, I have been very encouraged by some of the reports that have been filtering back. It was evident. It was evident that God was present in that meeting in a very unusual way. I saw some young men and women, not teenagers, but young adults, who did not leave the building after the meeting was over, but sat where they had sat, some of them in tears, went over and sought to minister to them and pray with them.

1:50 And then I had to meet with some pastors and found out afterwards that there were dozens of young people who spontaneously gathered for a prayer meeting until one in the morning, crying to God for the outpouring of His Spirit upon their peers, and heard of one pastor who had no fewer than half a dozen of his own young people seek him out in the night hours, asking him to help them as they sought to close with Christ. And so we are very grateful for God's mercy, and yet stretching forth His hand, and a dear mother came to me with tears and embraced me Friday morning, and she said, Pastor Martin, I believe my daughter was brought to birth last night spiritually, and I want to thank you for that ministry that was instrumental. And I told her that one of my prayers in the afternoon hours, particularly of that Thursday, was that the prayers of many years of godly parents and godly pastors would be answered in bringing many, many, faith and to repentance. So we do thank you for your fellowship in prayer, and also on behalf of my wife, who has returned home safely from Florida, and we thank you for your fellowship in the special concerns that you bore with us as she spent that time with her mother.

The Command to Take Heed How You Hear

3:18 And now we return again to the text that has been the basis and framework of our recent series of studies together, I refer, of course, to Luke chapter 8 and verse 18. In this particular portion of the Word of God, Luke has given us his spirit-inspired record of the parable of the sower and the soils, and has recorded the fact that our Lord, alone with the inner circle of His disciples, expounds the basic significance of that parable, and then addresses some what may be rather difficult to understand words to His own in verses 16 and 17 of Luke chapter 8, but then speaking to the inner circle of His disciples, He says in verse 18, Take heed, therefore, how you hear, for whosoever has, to hear, from him shall be given, and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he thinks or seems to have. Now in these words of our Lord Jesus, read in your hearing,

4:47 we are given a clear command focusing on the duty to carefully and constantly pay attention to the manner in which we hear the Word of God. This duty announced by our Lord is pressed home to the conscience by the statement of a very solemn principle. 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 possess, clearly indicating that bound up in our response to this command are the most vital issues of possessing true spiritual and saving light, or losing the apparent possession of true saving light, and a grasp upon the truth of God. Having then established this duty of taking heed to the manner in which we hear the Word of God, I have been seeking to open up this theme

Hearing During Preaching: Sobering Facts and Directives

6:12 under three major divisions. Taking heed how we hear prior to the preaching of the Word, during the preaching of the Word, and subsequently, prior to the hearing of the Word preached. We have completed our studies on the subject of what it means to take heed how we hear with respect to the preparation of our hearts for the hearing of God's Word. And now we are concerned with the matter of taking heed how we hear under the actual hearing of the proclamation of the Word of God. And I have suggested that our duty to take heed how we hear with respect to hearing the Word itself warrants our consideration of two categories of concern. First, a sobering fact to be faced while hearing the Word of God, and then some specific direction of directives to be implemented while hearing the Word of God. The sobering fact to be faced is this,

7:35 that the insidious and soul-destructive influences of remaining sin and of the devil himself are neither suspended nor negated under the preaching of the Word of God. We shall see the result of this. We spent one whole message opening up Galatians 5.17 and Romans 7.21-23 to demonstrate the fact that the influence of remaining sin is very much with us under the preaching of the Word of God. And in our last study, two Lord's Days ago, we considered from 2 Corinthians 2.11, Luke 8.12, Ephesians, 6.10-12 and 1 Peter 5.8

8:31 the fact that Satan's influence is not suspended under the preaching of the Word of God. In one sense, it is accurate to say that Satan is never more active than in a company of gospel hearers or in the place where the pure Word of God is being preached. Now, having considered the sobering fact to be faced while hearing the Word of God, namely, that the influence of indwelling sin and of the devil are neither suspended or negated, we come now to this second division of our study, some specific directives to be implemented while hearing the Word of God. If I'll remain, meaning sin is active, and if the great enemy of our souls is active under the preaching of the Word, then there are certain directives that you and I must implement in dependence upon the Spirit of God if we are to profit in the midst of that insidious activity of remaining sin on the one hand,

Directive 1: Hear with Resolute Fixation of Mind

9:55 and the devil on the other hand. And I have but two basic directives to set before you. I am not going to lay before you a lengthy litany of duties that would be excessive in their demands, but were I to give anything less than these two directives, I believe I would be untrue to the Word of God and a poor physician of souls. Coming into the preaching of the Word, sitting under that preaching right now, in the light of the fact that indwelling sin and the devil are present to negate, to neutralize in any way possible the effect of the preached Word upon your life, what must you do? This is not something the preacher can do for you. This is not something mom or dad can do for you, husband or wife can do for you, your elders can do for you. It is not something you can expect the atmosphere to do for you, and I say it reverently, the Lord Himself will not do for you.

11:14 These are directives for you to implement. And what are they? The first is this. We must hear, we must hear the Word of God with a resolute fixation of our minds.

11:32 We must hear the Word of God with a resolute fixation of our minds. Now why have I chosen the words resolute and fixation? Well, to be resolute means to be set in one's purpose, to be resolved, to be tenacious, to be inflexible, to be unyielding and unbending.

12:08 Occasionally you may have opportunity to watch a horse race on television. If you ever watch one, I hope that's the only place you watch it. And they're trying to load the horses into the starting gate. And lo and behold, one of those horses plants his horse, four feet and he is resolute in his determination that he's not getting the starting gate.

12:33 And there are two or three fellows on his rump pushing and one or two in the front pulling and people on the side cajoling. But his four feet are planted. The gate is not going to receive me. He's a picture of utter resolution.

12:52 Now that's what I mean by the use of the word resolute. Not just a passing notion about something. Not just a fleeting inclination. But to be set in one's purpose.

13:05 To be resolved. To be tenacious. To be inflexible, unyielding and unbending. Now by the word fixation, what do I mean?

13:15 We say that guy's got a fixation with this or that. We mean he's got an obsession. His mind is taken up with an issue and nothing will draw it aside. And I'm using the word deliberately to reflect that connotation.

13:31 That when we come to the preaching of the word if we're to obey the word of Jesus take heed how you hear. Believing that indwelling sin and the devil in their insidious soul destructive influences are neither suspended nor negated then the practical counsel to you and to me is this. We must hear with a resolute fixation of our minds. He's fishing for an illustration.

Illustrating Resolute Fixation with Velcro

14:09 The matter of Velcro came to mind. You know how Velcro works?

14:14 You kids that have sneakers that instead of having regular laces, you've just got a Velcro strap, you pull it over, sneakers on, stays that way.

14:25 Velcro, an amazing invention. But have you ever asked yourself, how does the Velcro work? Have you ever looked at it under a magnifying glass? Well, basically this is how it works.

14:34 The one side of the Velcro fastener has what looks like little nylon fish hooks. Little stiff pieces of nylon that come out and curl up in the shape of fish hooks. The other side of the Velcro fastener is like a very dense woolly substance with all little loops. And when you put the two together, the little fish hooks embed themselves in the nylon loops. And that's what causes the Velcro to fasten. And when you pull it off, the little hooks unbend and they are free, but then they snap back into their hooked shape. That's how Velcro works. Now what I'm saying is this.

15:19 When you come to the preaching of the Word of God, between the preacher and you, there ought to be the two sides of a Velcro fastener. He ought to be reaching out with the hooks of God's truth, well studied, carefully prepared, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the truth in his own heart, utterly dependent upon God the Holy Spirit, ready to give himself body, soul, mind, and spirit in every cell, of his being, from the soul of his feet, to the top of his head, to the tips of his fingers, ready to pour out the Word, to have the hooks of God's truth reaching out to take hold of you. But now listen. If you come like the coated Teflon interior of a frying pan, no preacher under heaven can do you an ounce of good. And that's the way some of you come.

16:31 Triple Teflon and nothing Why? Because you've got a lazy kid. This man, this woman, this boy, every hook of truth that comes out, it will be met with a loop of spiritual nylon in my soul and will be like Velcro to my spirit.

17:23 So when I say we must hear with a resolute fixation of mind, that's what I'm talking about. I've defined the words. I've illustrated it. You say, it's all very well and good, but give me Bible.

Biblical Basis for Resolute Fixation

17:39 Alright? I'm going to give you Bible. Consider the biblical basis for this directive. Number one, from the first and great commandment.

17:48 Number two, from the specific commandment. Number three, from the clear directive of the Apostle Paul. First of all, from the first and great commandment. Turn to Matthew chapter 22, if you will please. Matthew chapter 22, verse 35. And one of them, a lawyer, not a lawyer in the sense that we think of lawyers in our day, but one who was well versed in the law of Moses and in rabbinic tradition, and the application of those things to the life of the Jewish nation, asked him a question, trying him, putting him to the test. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Teacher, among

18:48 all the commandments given by the God of the covenant through Moses, the great instrument of delivering that law to our nation, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. Our Lord Jesus said that the commandment that stands above all other commandments on a scale of importance is the command to love the one true God with the whole of the heart and the soul and the mind. And without attempting to make hard, fast, categorical, and medically precise distinctions between these various departments of our humanity, one thing is clear. We are under solemn obligation to fix the affection of our hearts and our

20:15 souls and our minds supremely upon the one true and living God. Now the question is this. How will that love to God with all of the mind, express itself? Well, surely, one of its paramount expressions will be this, that when God is speaking to us in His Word, whether in the private reading of that Word, in family worship, but in a special way, when by God's institution that Word is being expounded and preached by one whom He has furnished and given to His church as a teacher of that Word, one sent in His name, then surely to love God with all my mind is to give my mind with presentation to the preaching of the Word of God. Determine that my love to God with my mind will mean that Colossians 3.23 kicks into my listening disposition. Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do with all your might as unto the Lord and not as unto men.

21:45 In that context, it is the directive for servants to be obedient to their masters and that when their master gives a command, they are not to give half or two-thirds or seven-eighths of their energy to their task, but all of their strength to the task at hand. How much more when the great God of heaven and earth who is condescended to speak to hell-deserving creatures who could have left us locked up in the deep, inky darkness of our own spiritual ignorance has spoken in His Word and by His own strange and marvelous providence lays His hands upon men whom He fashions into able ministers of the new covenant makes them in the language of Jeremiah 3.15 shepherds after His own heart who shall feed His people with knowledge and understanding how much more in that activity that you attend to it with all of your might namely your mental might that when a servant of God comes with the right side of the velcro with the hooks of divine truth set before you that you meet the servant of God and the Word of God through the servant

23:13 of God with the loops of this resolute fixation of mind and heart to receive the Word of God, to say that you love God with all your heart and with all your soul while you carelessly and indifferently attend to His Word with a wandering, dull and lazy mind is to insult God and to prove you don't truly love Him listen to the language of Deuteronomy 32.46 this is not just a deduction from the first and great commandment, Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 46

24:11 back up to verse 44 and Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people he and Hosea the son of Nun and Moses made an end of speaking all these words to Israel and he said unto them set your heart unto all the words which I testify unto you this day which you shall command your children to observe to do even all the words of this law for it is no vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land whether you go over the Jordan to possess it, he says it is your very life, it is the very term of covenant blessing, set your heart unto all the words which I testify this day and it is impossible to set one's heart upon the words of God without being determined to hear the word with resolute fixation of mind but then from the first and great commandment as the biblical witness to this practical directive, look at the specific command of our Lord one chapter

25:39 over from Luke 8 Luke chapter 9 Luke chapter 9 the Lord Jesus has just performed an amazing miracle on an epileptic verse 43 of Luke 9 says and they were all astonished at the majesty of God but while all were marveling at all things which he did he said to his disciples now get the picture, everybody is look what he did look what he did amazed at what they could see of this marvelous display of the mighty power of God through the Lord Jesus he turns to his disciples and says let these words sink into your ears and then he begins again to explicitly lay out what lies before him for the son of man shall be delivered up into the hands of men but they understood not this saying, it was concealed from them that they should not perceive it and they were afraid to ask him about this saying, on the one hand the text is unashamed to say they did not understand understanding at this time was withheld and yet wonder of wonders the Lord begins the section by

27:08 saying you're responsible to understand, let these words sink into your ears don't allow them merely to glance obliquely off the outer vestibule of the ear but let them sink down into your ears that is hear them and receive them with resolute fixation of mind you cannot let the words of God sink down into your ears given the activity of indwelling sin in the personal devil without a resolute fixation of your mind upon those words as they are being read and as they are being preached then you have thirdly the clear directive of the apostle Paul 2nd Timothy chapter 2 turn there if you will please with me, 2nd Timothy chapter 2 writing to his precious and favorite spiritual son and he was that and Paul was unashamed to make it known if anybody got jealous that Timothy was Paul's spiritual pet that was their problem so long as they could not charge him with being unrighteous in his dealings with others he had every right to make it known, Timothy had a special

28:37 place in his heart the same way the Lord Jesus made it known that Peter, James and John had a special place and among Peter, James and John John was the only one that leaned upon his bosom so this notion that you can't have special friends and make it known because others may get jealous, the jealousy is their problem sinful favoritism is to be condemned but special affinity based upon spiritual and intangible chemistry that makes for intimate friendships is a purely innocent Christ like reality of human relationships and Paul made it very plain that he had no one, he said I have no one like Timothy, no one among all of the preacher boys that have come into my life and out of my life, I have no man like minded like Timothy but that's another whole subject but nonetheless it's good to know that here's a man who had this peculiar intimacy with Paul and if that intimacy would in any way make it as it were relatively easy to grasp what Paul says it would be in the case of Timothy, he was in that inner circle of the apostles thought and affection and after writing some directives to Timothy, calling him to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, giving him the task of passing on the legacy of the apostolic tradition

30:04 to faithful men, calling him to suffer hardship reminding him that he labors in the gospel not only as an athlete but as a soldier then he says in verse 7 of 2nd Timothy chapter 2, this very interesting thing consider what I say for the Lord shall give you understanding in all things now the word consider is a present imperative of a verb which means Timothy gather up all the stuff of your grey matter and focus it upon the things that I've said Timothy, give with resolute fixation of mind your attention to what I've said think upon it think upon it continually concentrate it, focus spiritual way gather faculties of your mind focus them like a laser beam upon what I've said consider what I say for the Lord shall give you understanding in all things well wait a minute if the Lord gives the understanding if no in truth in its saving, sanctifying power is a matter of the Lord giving understanding then don't I just sit back and wait for the heavenly zapping

31:31 Lord bring the light, put the lights on I'll thread the words through my head backwards and forwards Lord, flip the switches no, that's not the way it happens he said, Timothy, you think you consider you take all of your cognitive mental faculties and with resolute fixation of mind and with resolute fixation of mind give yourself to the contemplation of what I've said and as you do in the midst of and through the instrumentality of your own endeavor the Lord will give you understanding in all things you see the Holy Ghost was never given to put a premium on mental laziness and lack of mental fixation the Holy Ghost was never given to put a premium upon any form of laziness he was not given so that preachers can just amble up in neutral in the pulpit and begin to talk and hope that somehow the Holy Ghost will pick them up and just carry them out and the truth will do its work no he was given that as the preacher gives himself to his task with all of the faculties of his redeemed humanity God might be pleased to take his pathetic efforts and make them the instrument of spiritual light and life and energy to the souls of men

32:59 but his working does not cancel the necessity of ours but his working makes our working effectual and that's precisely the same with listening to the word of God take heed how you hear take heed how you hear and in the light of this sobering fact that the insidious activity of indwelling sinning of the devil are neither suspended or negated under the preaching of the word it surely demands that we hear with resolute fixation of our minds the first and great commandment demands it the specific command of our Lord let these words sink down into your ears demands it the clear directive of the apostle in 2nd Timothy 2 7 demands it do you see this is not some legalistic activity look at the evangelical motive with which we do this we come into the place where the word is to be preached and having offered up our sacrifices of praise and of worship and I trust as we read this morning the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart and the sacrifice of our prayers and supplications and intercessions our gifts and offerings to the Lord also called a spiritual sacrifice in Philippians 4 18

34:27 as our praise is a sacrifice in Hebrews 13 15 and then we come to the ministry of the word of God should not this be our disposition oh Lord in mercy I'm here in the midst of your people here because by free sovereign love you set your heart upon me in eternity and in time you drew me you gave your son to die for me you've marked me out to make me like your son you've purposed that I should be light and salt in this generation manifesting to an ungodly and cynical and confused world what it is to have meaning and purpose and direction and the dignity of an image bearer of the living God that image restored in Jesus Christ and oh God you've ordained in the preaching of your word one of the major means to make me like your son one of the major means that he might have the reward of his sufferings to see his own image more and more reflected in me surely Lord Jesus having died to make me like yourself as well as forgive me and pardon me and forever turn away the wrath of God from me Lord Jesus I want to be as much like you as a redeemed sinner can be and Lord Jesus your word

35:55 is your great instrument it's your file to rub away at those parts of my heart and life and thinking that are unlike you it is your hammer to beat me more and more into your own likeness it is your shaping instrument and oh Lord Jesus for love of you for the sake of your wounds and your death give me grace in this hour to listen to the word with resolute fixation lest some stroke of the rasp upon my character be missed through a wandering thought some gracious blow that would bring about greater conformity to the image of your son should be missed through mental dullness that some putting forth of the spirit with the truth at the level of understanding would be missed because I've allowed my mind to drift here or there Lord Jesus for love of you in response to your love for me help me to give myself in all of the faculties of my redeemed humanity to listen to your word with resolute fixation of mind you see how gospel oriented

Application: Resist Mental Sins and Cultivate Mental Vigor

37:23 that motive is you see how it is connected to our love to Christ and our appreciation for the grace of Christ now by way of application do you see how vital it is to resist all mental sins while the word is being preached do you see how vital it is to resist all mental sins if God's truth must first of all fasten itself on the mind before it can possess the heart and it must possess the heart before it can mold the life the battle is won or lost between your ears that's made plain in the parable of the sower in the soils the sower sows the word these are they by the wayside the word is sown they understand it not then cometh the devil and taketh away the word lest they should understand and be saved God's saving and sanctifying work I say it reverently begins not between your ribs but between your ears the truth must fasten itself upon the mind now it must go beyond the mind and lay hold of the heart but there is no direct avenue to the heart

38:53 there's always always a road from the head into the heart and if it gets into the heart it's never a cul-de-sac it will then cut a thousand roads out into the life for out of the heart are the issues of life head, heart life by the power of the spirit in a context of responsible resolution of the mind upon the truth that is preached do you see then how vital it is to resist all mental sins while the word is preached what do I mean by mental sins well let's take a couple of them quote innocent daydreaming innocent daydreaming thinking about what may be innocent in itself your vacation that's coming up certain people's people with whom you may be interacting after the service today with whom you're going to have fellowship this afternoon or if you know that Pastor Semerath is going to be preaching tonight saying I've never heard him preach I wonder what it's like to hear Pastor Semerath preach anything sinful with thinking about your vacation anything sinful thinking about fellowship

40:20 with this one or that one this afternoon or Pastor Semerath preaching tonight not a thing but listen if you're thinking about vacation and fellowship and Pastor Semerath when you ought to take here while in the light of the fact that neither the insidious influence of remaining sin nor of the devil are suspended or negated my friend here you may as well and ungodly thoughts because whatever other thought fills your mind but that of the word preached it will not profit you the great battle in preaching and listening is for the mind dear friends there's only so much the preacher can do under God to forge all the nylon hooks on his side of the bell he must study he must pray he must open up his heart to the truth knowing there's a form of internal emotional and psychological immolation you don't have a clue what I'm talking about most of it but take my word for it if I have any credibility

41:48 that truth gets hold of you it consumes you and you're prepared and if it means I'd rather go and you sit around and try to think up silly illustrations of Velcro and you're ready as Paul said to make a fool of yourself make the truth plain and put it to the end and I can't and God knows if I could I would and I can't take the glassy stare out of your eyeballs and I can't cause you and I see your eyes glancing over at someone else I wonder sometime when I see some of you men not looking at me but looking somewhere else are you looking at another woman lusting after her? what are you looking at? looking elsewhere why aren't your eyeballs here?

42:57 slightest little disturbance and your head goes this way your head goes that way are you committed resolute fixation of mind saying Lord I don't know what particular drop of your truth may be the very truth the very one that causes my soul to flourish I don't know what particular tooth in the rasp of your truth may catch me at the point where I most need it Lord I don't know what particular stroke of the hammer of your word may attack graciously that part of me that is grotesquely unlike your son and hammer it into line and I'm determined so help me God to do it help me God that I won't miss a drop I won't miss a tooth in the rasp I won't miss a tap of the hammer of God I'm going to get it all innocent daydreaming is it innocent? no it isn't you see how vital it is to resist mental sins innocent daydreaming what about the mental sin of intellectual laziness the word comes to us in scripture in the form of narratives with connected events

44:25 it comes in the form of logical arguments with whereas and therefore and for and likewise the Holy Ghost is spoken in a connection of ideas that has a structure of logic and progression and it can only be understood as God intended it to be understood when we catch those connections and the inferences and the logical deductions this demands mental vigor as it demands the mental vigor of the preacher week after week to seek to serve up sermons that are true to the text of scripture that have variety in the introductions and the element of surprise in the manner in which it's laid out so it's not so utterly predictable that it's difficult to maintain mental attention but at the end of the day when a preacher's done all he can given time constraints and given his own capacities and God-given gifts at the end of the day my friend mental laziness is a matter that you've got to deal with not the preacher one from another generation has quaintly said let us not lose those blessed truths by neglectful hearing which Christ has bought by his people for his painful bleeding

45:54 let us not lose those blessed truths by neglectful hearing which Christ has bought by his power for his painful bleeding every truth in this book calculated to teach us the way of heaven and the way of God while we make our way to heaven was bought by painful bleeding shall we lose it by neglectful hearing it says in Proverbs 13 for the soul of the sluggard desires but he has nothing the sluggard lies in his bed saying oh man I wish I had this and I wish I had that and I wish I had the other but it isn't going to drop down by a herd of storks or by a flock of storks at the foot of his bed he's got to get his feet out of bed and and Get himself out to the place of work. You have that picture of the slugger who buries his hand in the dish. He's so hungry, puts his hand in the dish, but he says he will not weary himself to bring it to his mouth. I wonder how many Lord's Days you've made the effort to get up and shower and shave and dress and even have a little time of prayer, and you've come and you've sat here burying your hand in the dish.

47:20 But through mental laziness, you never got it into your spiritual mouth.

47:30 Beware of the mental laziness. Beware of distraction of mind. I often see it from here. It's a little more difficult since they've got these lights in, and I'm graciously agitating, and the deacons are graciously cooperating until we get the lighting such that I can still see your eyeballs again.

47:49 I don't like to preach to foreheads, but to eyeballs. The eye is the window. The soul. It's amazing what you can see up here when you preach to people's eyeballs and how often you feel you're preaching to a distracted mind.

48:03 The mind that's locked in is often read through the eyes. There are times when I feel that your eyes are the hooks on the Velcro, and my soul is the woolly part, and I can feel as if we're your souls attached to me as I preach. The hungry-hearted ones go out into preaching, and you do something for the preacher. There are others I say, you're triple-quoted Teflon.

48:28 Your mind's so distracted, so easily, so quickly.

48:35 And by way of application, I cannot avoid this, and I trust you'll hear me. Do you see how vital is the cultivation and guarding of mental vigor and what an enemy to true religion is anything that dulls the ability to preach? To think, and to think hard, and to think clearly, and to think long if necessary.

49:06 You see, the man who sits around, typical couch potato,

49:11 belting down his package after package of potato chips and junk food, there's an emergency in which he needs to go out and run for a half a mile to save the life of one of his own children. And after the first, three hundred yards, he falls with a cardiac arrest. His days of being a couch potato have left him unfit for the crisis of trying to save his own son. But what's true of the body is true of the mind.

49:46 If your mind is made flabby by sitting and just having images constantly impinging upon it in front of the television, by constantly having on a headset, and sounds impinging on the brain, a passive brain receiving sights and sounds continually, mark my word, if some of you do not radically change your patterns of TV watching and so-called listening to music, you are kissing goodbye your ability to listen to biblical preaching, which will lead to being restive and dissatisfied with biblical preaching, and you'll eventually make your way out of this place. Not that this is the only place where there's biblical preaching, but you won't go to another place where they make mental demands upon you. You'll go where you get lovely little ditties that are of the same intellectual demands as watching a ball. Or a game or a sitcom or listening to your favorite radio station.

51:10 And churches are a vision that are and incorporate into the totality of the so-called worship.

51:30 And it will become increasingly difficult to have places where central to the worship are hymns that demand that you think because they are rich with biblical. content. Instead people will stand there glassy eyed singing kumbaya kumbaya kumbaya. What does that mean? I don't know if it feels so good. Kumbaya kumbaya kumbaya yourself into hell. Gospel ditties and so called entertainment. Why all this clapping now in churches when it's supposed to be worship. You're

52:16 clapping like the music sounds upon you people I'm not getting old and crotchety but I've been around long enough to see trends that scare the liver out of me and if true religion is to flourish for another generation in this country we gotta get converted between the ears and realize that this no with all that mind. You kids don't get mad when mom and dad make you think make you do your homework and hope the time comes when they make you learn Latin. You still love me? Yes and when you learn

53:32 two or three foreign languages like many kids in many countries do our educational system is a shambles and a sham compared to many other parts of the world. Why? Mental laziness. Who's gonna master? Well they can sit and watch the banality that comes over dozens of channels by just sitting there pushing the clicker.

54:12 This noble faculty atrophy and becoming a sinkhole of every form of anti-God perspective. Take heed how you hear. You're hearing on the mental disciplines of Monday to Saturday.

54:37 Mark it. Come and follow the it's point one that leads to it's two. You won't if all you shakil busting down with his slam books and all around.

55:16 You'll sell your soul. Don't think we're just some kind of old fuddy-duddies. Don't want you to have any fun among other things. What is so tragic with the music of this generation is not just the lyrics.

55:32 They are tragic. They're anti-God full of evil smut illicit sex, anger, hate, violence, rejection of all authority but it's the fact that so much of it is drummed in by upon the psyche through without demanding the development of the cognitive faculties and the engagement of the mind.

56:09 Do you see how vital is the cultivation and guarding of mental vigor?

56:16 You know what I found last week at the conference? Listening to two good preachers. I love to sit under men of God. I found after each time Dr. Ferguson was done, I was exhausted. And every time Andy Hamilton was done, I would wore out.

56:35 Why? Because when you give your mind and your heart to follow the track of the preacher, if you're thinking the thoughts he's thinking and they're rooted in the word of God, you're going to start feeling what he feels. And when your thought goes where his thought goes from the scriptures and your feelings go where his feelings go from the scriptures of your humanity, it's engaged. And you'll have both an exhausted preacher and an exhausted auditory, but you'll have an instructed and an exhilarated preacher and an instructed and an exhilarated congregation.

57:15 That's reality, folks.

Application: Maintain a Distraction-Free Setting

57:19 Are you ready to start doing something about the guarding of your mental vigor? And then my final application for this morning is this. Do you see how vital is the maintenance of the distraction-free setting? For preaching? Do you see how vital is the maintenance of the distraction-free setting for preaching? The mind cannot be fixed on two things at the same time with full vigor. The mind can be fixed on many things at one time, but not with its full undivided vigor. Some of you wonder why we're so fastidious about where we have the kids sit who are being trained to sit so that they squat, split, and get them out of here.

58:02 We've had some visitors occasionally get upset with us that a deacon has come over and said, look, we have a place for crying babies. We'll take you downstairs. They didn't like it. If you look at Nehemiah 8, 2 and 3, you see the biblical precedent for what we do. Nehemiah 8, the critical time in the history of Israel. We read that Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly. Chapter 8, verse 2. Both men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month.

58:38 And he read therein before the broad place that was before the water gate from morning until midday in the presence, notice, of the men and the women and all those that could understand. And the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law. Why? They wanted a bunch of crying babies around to distract them. They set up a nursery system. I don't know how they did it, but the Holy Ghost is very clear. That this was a selected group. Men and women and all that could hear with understanding.

59:12 No wonder they were able to pay attention for so long a time.

59:17 We love kids around here. It's very evident. I tell people our parents have babies like old time Catholics.

59:26 And every baby that's born here has a dozen or two or three surrogate moms and dads and uncles and aunties and everything else. We're one happy family. We love one another. But God has so made us that squawking babies and good preaching and good listening don't mix. That's why we have the regulations we do. That's why we have the various stages where you can train the children to sit and begin to learn, to listen and pay attention. You think that's something we inherited? No. We went to our Bibles and hammered up what we felt to hammer out. We regulate the context of preaching. These are some of the passages that God used in our thinking years and years ago. And so I exhort you this morning in the light of our Lord's words take heed how you hear.

60:21 Having shown this tragic fact that neither the influence of remaining sin nor the devil are suspended and negated under the preaching of the word. This then demands of us a resolute fixation of our minds upon the preaching of the word. I sought to demonstrate it from the first commandment the explicit command of our Lord from the directive of the Apostle Paul I sought to apply it to the matter of so called innocent daydreaming I sought to apply it to the matter of mental laziness. The other application will have to wait for another time.

Call to Resolute Hearing and Warning to Unconverted

61:09 We must render appropriate responses of the heart while the word is being preached but that will have to wait. We've heard enough for this morning. And I want to ask you sitting here in the presence of God are you prepared to say before almighty God O God who made me great God who in Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit has been pleased to lay hold of me in grace. You are worthy that when your word is read and preached and applied it should have all of the loops attaching to the hooks of this resolute fixation of the mind.

61:56 Perhaps your response to that question is one of the clearest indications whether you're a Christian or not because if you're an unconverted person you know what your determination is? You're going to keep that word as far away from you as you can. You may sit and look at me because you know if you don't your mom or dad will be on your case when you get home. You may feel their elbow in your ribs sitting here.

62:18 I see that sometimes. I see a kid starting to wander and I see a parent and the boy's face is right up there again. Good for you parents. It won't hurt their ribs and it won't hurt your elbow. But you know why you keep putting the word aside? You know why some of you, you may even recite the alphabet forward and backwards and think of a thousand things. He says you're the innocent looking little girl or boy but you are deliberately making your mind think of anything but what the preacher is talking about. You know why?

62:48 Because you're a slave of the devil and he holds you in the prison house of ignorance and error and if he knows that the light of God's truth gets in, he's going to lose you. Don't cooperate with the devil in your own damnation. Boys and girls, men and women, the entrance of thy words give light. It gives understanding to the simple. It is only when the truth of God begins to dawn upon you, it is that truth by which we are gotten again. Oh, I plead with you my unconverted friends. Don't shut out the truth by mental gymnastics and mental trips around the world. I pray that God will help you to think upon his word, to lay his word to heart, to think upon the great issues of the God who made you and the God before whom you'll stand in judgment and the God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

63:49 The God who says to you in the word and promise of the gospel, come on to me and I will give you rest. Him that comes to me I'll in no wise cast out. And I plead with you kids and young people, don't go along with your generation that is making its mind a sinkhole. Not only a vile filth, but of that which paralyzes the ability of the mind. This is why you want us. It takes the truth of your sin. And God and Christ and his cross will not take hold of you.

64:44 If you're sitting here this morning, as some of you may well be, high on something you took even this morning or the aftermath of what you were ingesting last night, I pray in God's name you'll turn from your drugs and your abuse of alcohol that attack this noble faculty where God sets up shop when he's going to do his work and getting hard. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. Now I know and I say this in closing there are times in history when the spirit of God has come in such power upon the preaching of the word that men could do no other than listen even if they didn't want to. And would to God such times would come. The story is told of one man who said that under any preacher, he was a ship builder, he said he could lay the keel in every plank from Sten to Stern, from the port to the starboard side. That's left to right for you non-nautical people.

65:53 Sten to Stern, front to back. Port to starboard. He said he could lay the keel in every plank under most preachers but he said when he got under Whitfield, he couldn't lay one plank. He couldn't lay one plank. What he meant was that the spirit of God so rested upon Whitfield and he preached in such power that he found himself listening in spite of himself.

66:19 Thank God for such times. But that's not God's ordinary way.

66:25 God's ordinary way is that if you don't care enough about the salvation of your soul and the sanctification of your life as a Christian to come to the word with resolute fixation of mind that serves you right to be given over to the damning or the crippling influences of ignorance and of error. Take heed. Take heed. How you hear. Take heed.

66:51 How you hear. Take heed. You hear. Let us pray.

67:08 Oh our Father, we confess with shame how we've abused this noble faculty of the mind given to think your thoughts after you given that we might know of you and of your ways as it is illuminated. By the truth and that through that mind illuminated with truth our hearts might know the power of truth the saving influence of truth. Oh God, forgive our mental laziness. Forgive what we thought were innocent flights of daydreaming that have robbed us of the impact of truth.

67:49 And we pray that by the mighty power of the Spirit you would come and help us to take heed how we hear. Oh, may this word not fall to the ground but may it sink into our hearts, sink down into our ears and then into our hearts and out into our lives. Gracious God, seal it to us. May your blessing rest upon us through the remainder of this your day.

68:22 It may be a day when we are in the business. Of loving you with all the mind. When we are in the business of letting your words sink down into our ears. When we are in the business of thinking upon these things.

68:40 Trusting you to give us understanding. Hear us and answer us we plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.