Luke 8:18
During the Sermon, Part 4
In "During the Sermon, Part 4," Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Luke 8:18, urging listeners to "take heed how you hear" during the preaching of God's Word. He argues that hearing involves not only mental fixation but also rendering appropriate heart responses, particularly brokenness and repentance when confronted with sin-exposing truth. Martin illustrates this through biblical examples like King Josiah, the Ninevites, and the Pentecost crowd, contrasting their repentance with the rationalizing delay of Felix and the murderous rejection of the Sanhedrin, and warning against attempts to discard the convicting Word.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 10 sections · 64 min
- Introduction: The Solemn Responsibility of Hearing God's Word 0:02
- The Sobering Fact and Specific Directives for Hearing 7:18
- Directive 2: Rendering Appropriate Heart Responses 9:49
- Illustration 1: Immediate Brokenness and Repentance (Josiah, Nineveh, Pentecost) 18:39
- Illustration 2: Rationalizing Delay (Felix) 35:12
- Illustration 3: Rejection and Hatred of the Messenger (Sanhedrin) 41:02
- Illustration 4: Attempt to Destroy the Word Itself (Jehoiakim) 46:45
- The Call to Inward Brokenness and Repentance 53:51
- Conclusion: Confession and Forgiveness 57:43
- Prayer for Forgiveness, Repentance, and Revival 60:17
Key Quotes
“Take heed, therefore, how you hear. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away. Even that which he thinks or seems to have.”
“And that fact is that the insidious, soul-destructive influences of our remaining sin and of the devil himself are neither suspended nor negated under the preaching of the word.”
“The heart is the chief guest at every ordinance of God.”
“God addresses our minds that He might affect our hearts to the end that He might transform our lives.”
“God's business to effect his secret purposes is God's business your business is to do what the word of God demands and to do it the moment that word comes to you and comes to me”
“No, you say, that's madness! Sin is moral madness.”
“You say how stupid no more stupid than what some of you do in this place every single Lord's Day.”
“Oh dear people why leave another Lord's day with a bloodied guilty conscience when there is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness and you can leave with the fresh fragrance of the kiss of the pardon of God upon your cheek and a sense of moral cleanness and uprightness”
Applications
Parents & families
- Do not 'burn' the word you heard by immediately turning to worldly distractions like rock music or other pleasures that make you forget God and your sin.
- Do not 'cut out' and discard portions of the word that address your marriage, preventing it from conforming to biblical standards.
All listeners
- Pay close, constant, and careful attention to how you hear the pure, powerful, spirit-anointed preaching of the word.
- Hear the word of God with a resolute fixation of your minds, mortifying sins like innocent daydreaming, mental laziness, and intellectual flabbiness.
- Determine to render the appropriate responses of the heart which the word demands of us.
- When a sin-exposing, convicting word comes, respond with immediate brokenness and true repentance.
- Do what the word of God demands, and do it the moment that word comes to you.
- When terrified by the truth of God's righteousness, self-control, and coming judgment, fall upon your face and cry out for pardon and preparation for judgment through Jesus.
- Do not foolishly think that by cutting out or discarding the word that condemns you, you can rid yourselves of the word of God.
- Do not 'burn' the word by ignoring pointed messages about specific sins, even if you name the name of Christ.
- Let the sin-exposing, convicting word demand an immediate response of brokenness and repentance while the word is even preached, as you are having dealings with your God.
- Do not leave another Lord's day with a bloodied, guilty conscience; confess your sins immediately to receive the pardon of God.
- Go out with a chastened but joyous spirit, knowing that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 116 paragraphs, roughly 64 minutes.
Introduction: The Solemn Responsibility of Hearing God's Word
This sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 2nd, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now as we have done for several Lord's Days past, so again this morning may I urge you to turn, please, to the 8th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, 8th chapter of Luke, and hear the words of our Lord Jesus spoken to the inner circle of his disciples, having interpreted for them the parable of the sower and the soils,
having addressed them with some very sobering, though not too easy to understand words in verses 16 and 17. He then says in what, require no great debate as to their significance, the words that form the basis of our meditation again this morning, Luke 8 and verse 18,
Take heed, therefore, how you hear. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away. Even that which he thinks or seems to have.
Now I am sure that all of us seated in this auditorium this morning are very much aware that this Lord's Day comes to us in the midst of our annual 4th of July weekend. And this particular day is intended to cause us to reflect on that famous document, signed on July 4th, 1776, called the Declaration of Independence. A document that was supposed to announce the determination of the colonies to be free from the rule of the King of England.
And while it is true that we sit here today as a nation under the authority and power, of no foreign government, or no self-imposed tyrant, and in that sense we are the land of the free, it is a sad and tragic fact that while free from the domination of an outside king or government, we are indeed a nation enslaved by our national sins,
and we are a nation that is not free from the rule of the King of England. And I refer to the ongoing wanton murder of millions in the womb, and added to all of this, our arrogant, shameless disregard of God. I have prayed without shame. God said, Send the rain again tonight and frustrate their shenanigans in the school parking lot on your holy day.
Surely if we knew that people were to be murdered, women to be raped, were there to be a mass disregard of any other commandment by this community, would we not pray that God would frustrate such evil designs? So I believe it is right to pray God frustrate the designs of the community of Montville to thumb its nose at the God who said remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But in this community it is simply in microcosm a revelation of the soul of our nation
that thumbs its nose at the God of law and does that which is right. In its own eyes. And if ever there was an appropriate way to begin a weekend such as this weekend in such a context, it was begun that way yesterday morning by those who gathered in this building and cried to God with passion, with tears, and with an amassing of biblical arguments that God would grant to our nation in sin, spiritual bondage, that which it most desperately needs,
namely the pure, powerful, spirit-anointed preaching of the word of the living God. And if God is pleased to answer that cry and to grant this nation what it most desperately needs and yet most desperately does not desire to have the power to do so, the powerful, pure, spirit-anointed preaching of the word, that preaching will do little good unless God is also pleased to grant to multitudes a spirit-wrought ability
to hear that word as it ought to be heard. And while the former concern is often addressed, this latter is so seldom addressed, and so for several Lord's Days we have been addressing the issue based on the words of our Lord Jesus, take heed, pay close and constant and careful attention, therefore, how you hear. And these words lay upon everyone who is privileged to hear the pure, powerful, spirit-anointed preaching of the word,
a solemn responsibility with respect to the manner in which they hear that word. And the outline by which I'm seeking to amplify this clear biblical duty is not original with me. You will find it in many of the old Puritan works that we are to take heed how we hear with respect to what we do prior to the preaching of the word, what we do during the preaching of the word, and what we do subsequent to the preaching of the word. I'm presently addressing this second aspect of taking heed
The Sobering Fact and Specific Directives for Hearing
how we hear, namely, taking heed to our hearing during the preaching of the word. And I have set before you the fact that we must first of all come to grips with a sobering fact while we are preaching the word. And I have set before you the fact that we must first of all come to grips with a sobering fact while we are hearing the word of God. There is a sobering fact to be faced while hearing the preaching of the word.
And that fact is that the insidious, soul-destructive influences of our remaining sin and of the devil himself are neither suspended nor negated under the preaching of the word. And then last Lord's Day, I began to set before you this second exhortation under this matter of our hearing the word, there is not only a sobering fact to be faced, but there are some specific directives to be implemented during the hearing of the word of God. We had time to consider only one last week, and it was this.
We must hear the word of God with a resolute fixation of our minds. We must hear the word of God with a resolute fixation of our minds. I gave you three texts of scripture that constitute the biblical basis for that exhortation. I sought to underscore the gospel motives that ought to move us to comply with that exhortation, and then I sought to identify the specific sins that must be mortified in the light
of that exhortation, such sins as innocent daydreaming, mental laziness, intellectual flabbiness in general, so that in the imagery that apparently stuck with many of you, the preacher's preaching will be like the one side of a Velcro fastener, and your... Your mind and spirit like the other, so that when they come together in the special presence of God, there is that fastening of the word upon the mind of the listener.
Directive 2: Rendering Appropriate Heart Responses
For whatever work God does in the heart and issues in the life, it begins when the word first of all comes to the understanding of our minds. Now, the second major and specific directive that I desire to set before you is this. Not only must we, under the preaching of the word of God, determine to heed that word with this resolute fixation of our minds, but secondly, we must here determine to render the appropriate responses
of the word of God. Of the heart, which the word demands of us. We must here determine to render the appropriate responses of the heart, which the word demands of us. Now, let me explain the directive, and then we'll look at some vivid illustrations of that directive as it is illustrated in the word.
The word of God. Trusting that we have come to the preaching of the word, having made due preparation, as we outlined for several Lord's days, having sought to remind ourselves that when we come to the preaching of the word, it is indeed the word of the living God himself, 1 Thessalonians 2.13, that we must put away everything in our spiritual days, the gut that would indispose us to receive and assimilate that word, 1 Peter 2 and verse 1,
that we must come, having cultivated a disposition of meekness and eagerness for the word, James 1 and Acts 17.11, and having sought to acknowledge our need of the Spirit's assistance, Luke 11 and verse 13, having come, having with that disposition determined that we will give all of our mental faculties with fixation and determination to the preaching of the word of God, what then must we do while that word is being preached?
If it is being preached as it ought, according to 2 Timothy 3.16, it will be coming to us in the form of, teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. For all scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And therefore, if the word is coming to us with its teaching, with its reproof, with its correction, with its training in the life of righteousness, what response are we to?
Well, I answer that there is to be a response of heart while that word comes to us, a response answering to the pressure of the word of God at any given point in the course of the preaching of that word. You see, the whole notion that preaching is a form of one-way communication is sheer. Nonsense. Now, Bible talking may be one-way communication.
When someone casually leans over a pulpit or a lectern and shares his little notions and insights about what he thinks the Bible may say, laced with pop psychology and humor and the charisma of an entertaining, laid-back personality, that may indeed be clever, entertaining, one-way communication. But, when a man of God, equipped by the Spirit of God, stands to declare with sobriety and urgency and in the power of the Holy Ghost, the word of the living God as found in Scripture, it is not one-way communication.
It is a three-fold context of communication. The living God is present in the institution of preaching. So, you have the living God who has impregnated the heart of His servant with His own written word, who is attending the ministry of His servant by the present aid of the Holy Spirit, so that He is speaking not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So, there is the living God, the living God in whose presence we meet, the living God who has impregnated the heart of His servant, and attends the labors of His servant.
Then there are the people of God, who have come with prepared hearts to have dealings with their God as He speaks through His word. And as the God who has impregnated the heart of His servant speaks through His word to His people, His people are to be having dealings with that same God. So, there is the God in whose presence both preacher and congregation meet, there is the God who has laid His word upon the heart of His servant, and attends His servants as they minister. There are the people of God who have come to meet with their God, and they are hearing the voice of their God through the written word of their God,
and they are responding to their God while that word is coming to them. And so, preaching is not a one-way communication, but it is this glorious, mysterious, and yet marvelous God-ordained framework of the living God, His servant, and His people. And all three are active in the preaching of the word of God. Jeremiah Burroughs, one of the old Puritans, addressing this very subject, wrote as follows, As there must be attending to the word of God, so there must be an opening, an opening of the heart,
to receive what God speaks to you. It is true that it is a work of God to open the heart, but God works upon men as rational preachers, and He makes you to be active in opening your hearts. As John Wells counsels, we must deal with our hearts to embrace the word as it is dispensed to us. The gospel is not only to be let in by our apprehension, that is our minds, it must start there, receiving the word with fixation of mind, but it must be locked in by our affections.
And we are to entertain it, not only in the light of it, but in the love of it. He later returns to this most vital of considerations and writes, The heart is king in the little world of man. The inward man must be employed in holy ordinances, not so much the ear as the understanding, not so much the knee as the memory, not so much the tongue as the heart, though as our Savior said, this must be done, but the other not left undone, in a word. The heart is the chief guest at every ordinance of God.
The heart is the chief guest at every ordinance of God. And as God is pleased to address us from His word to our understanding, it is never to the end that our heads may simply be swelled in their understanding. For the scripture says, knowledge puffs up. God addresses our minds that He might affect our hearts to the end that He might transform our lives.
Illustration 1: Immediate Brokenness and Repentance (Josiah, Nineveh, Pentecost)
And that is God's ordained method of carrying on His work in the souls of men. Now let me having explained then what I mean when I say to you as I say to myself that under the preaching of the word to take heed how we hear means that we hear determined to render the appropriate responses of the heart which the word demands of us, let me now come to specific illustrations and applications of this directive. And I want to do so in three categories. The categories are far more
than these three, but I want to give you three to illustrate this as the Bible gives us graphic illustrations of people who under the word respond to it both in a way that is positive and in a way that is negative. First of all, take with me this category. A sin-exposing, convicting word demands an immediate response of brokenness and repentance. A sin-exposing, convicting word
demands an immediate response of brokenness and true repentance. Turn please to the book of 2 Kings and chapter 22 for an illustration of this very principle. 2 Kings chapter 22 Here we see how scripture these Old Testament scriptures with the accounts of various kings and leaders how these scriptures are profitable to teach us how to hear the word of God. 2 Kings chapter 22 and we begin in verse 8.
It is a time of restoration, repairing the temple, rediscovering and reinstituting God's ordinances. And in verse 8 we read, And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought to the king the word again and said, Thy servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the house of the Lord.
And Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. The king is hearing the reading of the word of God. The book of the law had lain in dust and disuse for many years.
Now it is rediscovered. It is read in the hearing of the king. And what does the king do? It came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law that he rent his clothes.
He gave an outward symbol of an inward brokenness of heart and repentance because the word of God had come with its convicting power exposing his sins and the sins of his people that had brought them into their present state. And he takes upon himself in an unashamed way the symbols of that brokenness and that repentance. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and Achbor the son of Micaiah and Shaphan the scribe and Isaiah the king's servant saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah
concerning the words of this book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book to do according unto all which is written concerning us. You see how simple and straightforward and yet how profound was his response? At the first hearing of the mirroring of the book of the law the king received
as the words register on his mind his heart is broken and he symbolizes the broken heart by the rent garments and he takes his position of king assigned to him in the providence of God to use it as a means to bring that same convicting sin condemning sin exposing word to all who are under his influence and there is no patching up with euphemistic statements he says nor great wrath of God is kindled against us
because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book. We find a similar response in a totally pagan setting. This was within the nation with whom God had entered into special covenant relationship but we find that amazing record in the book of Jonah. You children one of the first Bible stories you learned was Jonah being swallowed by the great fish but the amazing thing is not so much that God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah but the amazing work he did
in this pagan nation that strode like a colossus through the then known world and everything in its path was trampled beneath its feet in their military might and power and Jonah is given a second commission according to chapter 3 of the book of Jonah and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey probably meaning it took three days
to walk from one side to another of the main city and its immediate suburbs and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said here was his message yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown apparently there was no promise of mercy no condition that if you will repent there may be mercy he comes as a messenger of God with this sin condemning sin convicting word of judgment forty days Nineveh has had it and what happens
and the people of Nineveh believed God they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them and the tidings reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he made proclamation and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the kings and nobles saying and he calls upon men and beasts to have a season of fasting and humiliation and brokenness based upon one little glimmer of hope verse nine who knows
whether God will not turn and repent and turn away his fierce anger that we perish not this is one of the most amazing things in all of the Old Testament scriptures and that this was true repentance is validated by the fact that Jesus said the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment and condemn the generation of our Lord Jesus you don't have the ungodly condemning the ungodly they will rise up God did a mighty work of converting grace in great masses of the Ninevites what happened a convicting sin condemning word came to their ears
registered on their minds and they granted they gave a responsive heart commensurate with that which the word demanded of them you say ah yes but did not the spirit of God make the word effectual yes but you see God's business to effect his secret purposes is God's business your business is to do what the word of God demands and to do it the moment that word comes to you and comes to me
now when we turn to the New Testament we find a similar example in Acts chapter 2 what are we seeking to do simply to substantiate this principle that we must hear the word determined to render the appropriate responses of the heart which the word demands of us illustration number one a sin exposing convicting word demands an immediate response of brokenness and true repentance on the day of Pentecost Peter was not trying to convince the Jews who slew the Son of God that he was a nice guy and they weren't too bad a bunch after all he wasn't telling a bunch of jokes
to ingratiate himself to them he didn't bring around him an entourage of drum bangers and guitar twangers he didn't have musical groups to somehow gather the crowd no God gathered the crowd by the rushing mighty wind by the tongues of fire that were over the heads of all and by the God given ability to speak the mighty works of God in languages not acquired in an ordinary manner and when God got their attention then he raised up a man to preach he didn't raise up a band to play he didn't raise up a group to sing
he didn't raise up he raised up a preacher to open up his mouth and to speak the word of the living God and when he spoke he spoke what seems to be in some reform a relatively dull unattractive sermon verse 14 of Acts 2 Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice well don't you know it's offensive to speak authoritatively don't you think people will be turned off by this loud preaching he lifted up his voice he had something to say and he said it in a manner that people were arrested
by the fact that this man has something to say and is determined to be heard he said you men of Judea and all that dwell at Jerusalem be it known unto you give ear to my words you see what he says listen pay attention to the conversation of the mind you see that's where he started he said get your heads in this direction and listen to what I have to say and then he started to preach and the first thing he did was give them an explanation of what was going on and he explained it in terms of the Bible imagine quoting large sections
of the Old Testament in a street preaching situation that's exactly what he did he explains what happened in the light of the promise of God through the prophet Joel then he turns and begins to declare that the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of all that God had promised verse 22 and then as he is preaching he then goes on to indict these people with the crime of putting God's Messiah to death and though they had put him to death he says God has exalted this one and put him at his own right hand verse 36
let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly God has made him both Lord and Christ now notice how he gets in the last lick this Jesus whom you crucify I mean Peter if you ever had gotten their attention and were beginning to win them over surely don't drive them away by calling them the murderers of Messiah that's not politically correct that's not ecumenically acceptable but the problem is it was the truth and until they all
when indicted they could never be saved and when he speaks this word what happened verse 37 now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts it's the only place in the New Testament where this verb is used they were pricked in their heart they were stung sharply in their hearts it's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures out of Hebrew into Greek in Genesis 34 7 the reaction of the brothers of that young woman who was violated by one of the pagans in the land
and it says that they were grieved when they heard of it the anger of these brothers when their sister when they knew their sister had been violated sexually that's the word that's used here they were pricked in their heart they were stung sharply in their hearts and what did they do they gave an appropriate response and they said Peter and to the rest of the apostles brethren what shall we do in the indictment you've charged us with murdering messiahs have been pricked as our ears have heard
the convincing message what must we do Peter gives them as it were a band-aid response in verse 38 and 39 it quiets them down and then he finishes his sermon in verse 40 and then they that gladly received his word were baptized and they were added unto them in the same day three thousand souls the sin-exposing convicting word demanded an immediate response of brokenness and repentance and that's precisely how they responded but you see not all respond that way the word comes
Illustration 2: Rationalizing Delay (Felix)
into the outer vestibule of the ear it registers on the mind it makes some inroads into the heart and there is a disruption in the seat of a man's being a woman, boy or girl but instead of giving that appropriate response what do they do well some give a rationalizing response of delay look at Acts chapter 24 a rationalizing response of delay rather than an immediate response of grief and repentance and humiliation Paul is preaching in the presence
of a heathen potentate certain days Acts 24 24 Felix came with Drusilla his wife who was a jewess and sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus and as he that is Paul reasoned you see how he is attacking the mind he is not up there just trying to make a direct assault upon the emotions and the will he reasoned of righteousness and self control and the judgment to come Felix was as Paul reasoned Felix's mind fixed upon his line of reasoning in spite of himself
began to sense that what was registering on his brain was sending tentacles down into his heart and was exposing what he was before God and what he had to do in the light of God's standard of righteousness that he had wantonly broken God's standards of self control which he had totally disregarded in his pagan Roman heathenistic lifestyle as he thought of the judgment to come when every act of lack of self control every deed and thought of unrighteousness would be unfolded by the living God this man was terrified
being terrified what should he have done right then and there he should have fallen upon his face and cried out O God who has a standard of righteousness imposed upon all of your creatures a standard that is reasonable and right and good and holy a standard that I have violated and thereby provoked you to wrath and to anger you the God who commands your creatures to have their faculties and passions and appetites under self control according to the norms of your word and I have abandoned myself to my passions and appetites
O God before whom I must stand in judgment will you not for the sake of this Jesus whom Paul has preached to me pardon all of my unrighteousness cleanse me of all of my deeds and thoughts and acts of lack of self control abandonment to self indulgence and self will and self pleasure and O God will you not for the sake of Jesus prepare me for the day of judgment that's what you should have done right then right there when God mercifully brought the truth out of the mere theatre room of the mind
and so caused its tentacles to wrap itself around his heart that he was terrified but what did he do look at the passage Felix was terrified and answered go your way for this time and when I have a convenient season I will call you unto me he thought but by telling the mouthpiece of God to go away all the realities that terrified him would either vanish or be suspended till he was ready to bring them back
into the theatre of reality what a fool there's no record he ever felt another twitch of conscience there's no indication in the Bible that that man ever again felt the pressure of truth that caused him to be terrified what was his problem he didn't take heed how he heard he didn't take heed how he heard he may have listened with fixation of mind
to the point that what he heard stirred that he could not deny the truth it's so filtered into his affections that he was terrified but he was not humbled and he did not repent and as far as we know he's in hell another thing people do it is not the proper respect which the Bible says and this is where God makes quite a lot of sense in the gospel that's where God makes the most sense
Illustration 3: Rejection and Hatred of the Messenger (Sanhedrin)
for us let's go to Acts chapter 5 I'm here to talk about an incident that took place in Acts chapter 5 what happened in Acts chapter 5 and what that incident was the authorities have already threatened the apostles in the name of Christ and the authoritarians have already threatened the apostles they were not to speak in the name of Christ God has wonderfully delivered them they continued to speak about Christ and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. What nonsense. They already did it. They said his blood be upon us and our children.
It's amazing how people will twist reality. But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men. And then they went right on preaching. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew, hanging him on a tree.
Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, to give repentance to Israel in remission of sins. And we are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to them that obey him. Now look.
But they, when they heard this, they were listening. There was fixation of mind. They were grasping the concepts. And look what happened.
They were cut to the heart.
Now this is a different word than the word in Acts 2.37. This word is found only one other place in the New Testament. We'll look at it in just a moment.
They were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart. And this word is the very word that means literally to saw through. It describes some of the brutal things that David did, recorded in 2 Chronicles 23.
20 and verse 3, when after certain conquest, it says that he saw the people in half.
Do you get the picture? What they heard, sawed them in half. It cut. Through their whole being of acknowledge.
And what did they do? Unlike the heathen potentate who gave a response of rationalizing delay,
their response was rejection and hatred of the messenger. See what it says? They were cut to the heart and were minded to slay them.
Well, did they really think that by killing Peter and the others, they were going to change the realities? That had cut their hearts in half? Would it change the fact that they had murdered the Son of God? Would it change the fact that God had raised him from the dead?
Would it change the fact that he alone was the dispenser of repentance and remission of sins? Would killing them...
No, you say, that's madness! Sin is moral madness.
They did not render the appropriate response of the heart which the word demanded of them. It demanded an owning of their sin as those in Acts 2 who were pricked in their hearts and cried out, what shall we do? But instead, they turned on the messenger and were minded to kill them. By the time we come to Acts 7, that response was not just a purpose.
It found a conduit of actually committing murder. We read in Acts 7, 54 at the conclusion of the sermon of Stephen, Now when they heard these things, same verb as we have in Acts 5, they were cut to the heart and instead of being humbled and broken, what did they do? They gnashed on him with their teeth. Oh, why in the world do you gnash your teeth when your own heart is cut by the truth of your own guilt?
Well, if you gnash your teeth about anyone or anyone, it should be gnashing your teeth about yourself.
That you as a sinner should violate the law of God. That you as a sinner should have exposed yourself to the just wrath of God and despise the gift of His Son. But instead, they turned upon the messenger, cut to the heart, they gnashed their teeth on him. And then they stoned him to death.
No wonder Amos said in Amos 5, 10, they hate him that reproves in the gate. Amos was standing in his generation exposing the sins of the people and they could not turn and say, Amos, you're bearing false witness. You're accusing us of this, this, this, and this. And it's not true.
When he accused them of their sins, they heard their own conscience registered an amen.
Their hearts were pricked. But rather than respond, in repentance, they turn on the messenger and they hate him who reproves in the gate.
Illustration 4: Attempt to Destroy the Word Itself (Jehoiakim)
A rationalizing delay, rejection and hatred of the messenger. Then you find an instance in the Old Testament of an attempt to get rid of the word itself. If it weren't so tragic, it'd be humorous. Look at Jeremiah 36.
Again, a period of time when the word of God had been ignored and it's disproved. Discovered, Jeremiah chapter 36. Fascinating story. Came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, take the role of a book and write herein all the words that I have spoken unto you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations from the day I spoke unto you from the days of Josiah even unto this day.
It may be that the house of Judah will hear you. Hear all the evil that I purpose to do unto them and that they may return every man from his evil way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Jeremiah, write down all that I've said to you and through you over this lengthy ministry. It may be that it'll prove effectual to be the instrument of exposing the sins of the people and causing them to turn in repentance that they might be forgiven.
Then the word of God is read in the presence of the king and what does he do? Look at verse 16. Now it came to pass when they had heard all the words they turned in fear one to another and said unto Baruch, we will tell the king of all these words. And they asked Baruch saying, tell us now,
tell how didst thou write all these words at his mouth. Then Baruch answered them. He pronounced all the words unto me with his mouth and I wrote them with ink in the book. Then said the princes unto Baruch, go hide you in Jeremiah and let no man know where you are.
They went into the king into the court but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elisham of the scribe and they told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudai to fetch the roll and he took it out of the chamber of Elisham of the scribe and Jehudai read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him and it came to pass when Jehudai had read three or four leaves. The king cut it with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier until all the roll
was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. And they were not afraid nor rent their garments neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words. See what God is saying? In the light of what they heard they should have given an immediate response of brokenness and repentance but instead they foolishly thought that by cutting out poor scroll that condemned them and putting them in the fire they could rid themselves of the word of God.
You say how stupid no more stupid than what some of you do in this place every single Lord's Day.
Oh no you don't go home and take scissors and cut out the portion that's been read and expounded and condemns your sin and actually put it in the furnace put it in the fireplace take it out back and put a match to it and burn it. But you do it just as really when the moment you get home and get into your own bedroom though mom and dad don't know it you shut the door and you put on your headphones and you turn on your favorite rock station and that rock station becomes your fireplace where you throw the word that you heard in this place
until it's burned and you don't have to think about God and your relationship to God and your sin and heaven and hell. You go home and sneak your little time with your and some of you may pop your pills and others of you may you complete it. What is it that you do to try to burn up the word of God which if received as it ought would lead you to a broken heart and to true repentance.
Not only do the unconverted do that in this place Lord's Day by Lord's Day there's got to be a lot of you who name the name of Christ to do it.
Certain sins that cannot be hidden continue to master some of you though those sins have been addressed pointedly. The way of deliverance and mortification has been spelled out clearly. The sufficiency and the power of Jesus Christ has been set before you continually and yet your marriage is still marked by anything other than the standard of Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3. Why?
Because every time you hear those portions of the word you cut them out and find a way to discard them. No wonder the word isn't profiting you.
How can it? When you are not giving to that word that response which it demands but all of your attempts to get rid of the word by burying it as it were out of sight out of mind it doesn't change a thing. If it has been an accurate honest fair handling of the text of scripture that's the word of God which lives and abides forever and you could literally take your Bible and burn it till it was nothing but a teaspoon of that. And Jesus said the word I've spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day.
That word will meet you though heaven and earth pass away. My word shall never end. Pass away.
The Call to Inward Brokenness and Repentance
That's a specific illustration of what I mean when I say we must hear determine to render the appropriate responses of heart which the word demands of us.
If we all outwardly expressed inward brokenness as they did at Nineveh as the king did when the book of the law was read if outwardly every time the word finds us in a sin we were to rend modestly some part of our garment.
Oh how much torn clothing there ought to be in this place every Lord's day. Every Lord's day. The preacher wouldn't appear before you with his tie neatly knotted and his shirt all in place.
It would hardly be a Lord's day when he didn't have some buttons when the word rips through my heart at my desk and calls me to have dealings with him. And then that word would be when the word comes to you in this place calling you to have dealings with God.
Not only in terms of its sin exposing power but when the promises come they're to be met with faith when words come humbling us with their high mysteries and those two aspects they'll have to wait for another time. Dear people I trust it's not senility but if ever I've had a sense of determination that these issues must be not merely touched on lightly but preached in by the enablement of the Holy Ghost it has been in these weeks because unless there is a generation of those who take heed how they
hear as God gave us in the beginning of the birth of Trinity Church it's all over.
You weren't around for those beginnings. When people split up their vacations to come back on the Lord's Day so fearful they might miss a word from God.
Yes!
That that's not preacher's exaggeration.
I could say many other things that confirm that Trinity Church was born by and large when God had a people who took heed not only coming with determination fixation of mind to receive the word but coming by the grace of God determined to render the appropriate responses of the heart which the word demands. When the sin exposing convicting word demands an immediate response of brokenness
and repentance that response ought to be forthcoming while the word is even preached as you are having dealings with your God.
Conclusion: Confession and Forgiveness
And as God brings that word to you God willing in a subsequent message we'll take up how we ought to respond to the promises and respond to those high mysteries that come to us in the preaching but may I simply ask you as we close this morning do you know anything of that response that is described in Acts 2? The response of the king that we contemplated the response even of David who in his tragic backslidden state when Nathan came and said thou art the man it is said that David responded immediately saying I have sinned
and the Lord said to the prophet the Lord has put away thy sin. The word of indictment came and out of that heart came the word of confession and from the mouth of God came the word of absolution. Oh dear people why leave another Lord's day with a bloodied guilty conscience when there is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness and you can leave with the fresh fragrance of the kiss of the pardon of God upon your cheek and a sense of moral cleanness and uprightness why go out
another Lord's day bowed down with a thundering conscience that you'll spend the rest of the afternoon trying you could go out with a chastened yes but with a joyous spirit knowing if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh may God help us that in taking heed how we hear we will not only come with that determined fixation of mind while the word
is preached but that we will come determined to render the appropriate responses of the heart which the word demands of us. Let us pray.
Prayer for Forgiveness, Repentance, and Revival
Our Father we are ashamed of the many times when we have acted in such a way as to put off heart dealings with you when you have come not to harm us but to point out our sin and deal with it mercifully as the loving wise surgeon would cut out the deadly cancer as he would excise the gangrenous limb and you have come to cut and to excise and to amputate not to harm us but to do us good. Oh Lord forgive
our folly when we've shoved away the knife when we have clung to the rotting flesh of our sin. Have mercy upon us we pray. We beg of you for those who like Felix have been terrified perhaps even were terrified last Sunday night when your servant preached of judgment and wrath and yet oh God they still are under your wrath they've not repented they've sought to fill their minds with a thousand things that cannot change reality. God will you not deal with them mercifully and graciously and bring them to bow low
at your footstool seeking pardon from an exalted Christ. We ask for your people who in areas of controversy with you have long long since given up honest continuous quick heart dealings with you Lord break up their hearts this morning may today mark the beginning of a whole new entrance into a life of a tender conscience our father we would take the words of Jesus to heart take heed how you hear help us oh help us by your grace so that your word may do
its saving and sanctifying work in all who hear it seal it then to our hearts we beg of you and prepare us for that blessed season of coming together this evening that we may remember him whose death upon the cross has atoned for all of our sins and may we have that forgiveness sealed afresh in the eating of bread and in the drinking of the cup and God if it would please you glorify your name by frustrating those who would defy your day with their fun and their firecrackers and the very things that ripen
us for judgment Lord frustrate their efforts that we may be able to tell them that those efforts were frustrated in answer to the prayers of men and women who love them enough to pray that they might reflect upon the fact that there is a God in heaven to whom they are accountable that we may speak to them the gospel of life and saving mercy hear then our prayers we beg of you our gracious God in Jesus name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This verse serves as the foundational text, providing the sermon's central exhortation to 'take heed how you hear'.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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