Luke 8:18
After the Sermon Part 1
In "After the Sermon Part 1," Pastor Albert N. Martin begins by humbly confessing and seeking forgiveness for a previous misinterpretation of Titus 2:10, emphasizing the gravity of handling God's Word accurately. He then expounds on Luke 8:18, urging believers to take heed how they hear the preached Word, focusing on the post-sermon duty of retaining truth in the heart and experiencing its influence. Martin introduces 'repetition' as the first divinely prescribed means for this retention, drawing from general revelation and passages like 2 Peter 1 and 3, Jude 5 and 17, and Revelation 2-3. He provides practical applications for individuals and families to engage in sanctified repetition, warning against the devil's efforts to steal the Word and concluding with a fervent plea to unconverted hearers to embrace Christ before the Word judges them.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 11 sections · 70 min
- Confession of Misinterpretation and Seeking Forgiveness 0:02
- Recap: The Central Concern After Hearing the Word 6:14
- Introduction to Specific Means: Repetition, Supplication, Meditation, Implementation 11:37
- Repetition as a Principle of General Revelation 14:53
- Repetition as a Divinely Appointed Means in Special Revelation 18:34
- Biblical Examples of Repetition: Jude and Christ in Revelation 24:32
- The Preacher's Task and the Hearer's Duty in Repetition 32:37
- Practical Suggestions for Sanctified Repetition 36:00
- Repetition in Fellowship and the Danger of Carnality 46:54
- The Seed of the Word and the Cost of Hearing 52:19
- A Plea to the Unconverted: The Word Will Judge 60:10
Key Quotes
“I have never willfully and knowingly mishandled the word of God. But a careless and ignorant mishandling is nonetheless a sin against the God of truth. A sin against the truth of God, and a miscarriage of ministerial duty, and for these things I am ashamed.”
“Understand and lay to heart and I express that concern this way that having heard the word preached it ought to be our most crucial concern to retain that word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives.”
“And to preach without praying for the blessing of God to follow our preaching is a form of presumption.”
“Now grace does not negate nature. Nor does it war with nature. Grace only wars with sin and the devil. Grace lays hold of nature and sublimates it to its own purposes and to the glory of God.”
“It was this truth held before the eyeballs of his soul in that moment. How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
“But nails driven clean to the hilt.”
“Because if you are not active by repetition to fasten the words in your heart. There is another who is very active to make sure it never gets into your heart.”
“the word that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day”
Applications
Parents & families
- When gathering for noon and evening meals, include the main thrust of the sermon in your prayers of thanks.
All listeners
- Follow preaching with prayers, pleading with God that it may be retained in the hearts of hearers and experienced in their lives.
- Ask how to biblically retain the preached Word in your heart and secure its appropriate influence upon your life.
- Cultivate the habit of repeating to yourself the main truths of the sermon on the way home from each service.
- If children are with you in the service, repeat in their presence and engage them in repeating the major and minor points they have grasped, putting truths into their language.
- If you have pre-teen and older children, let them know you expect them to give some indication that they did more than sit quietly during the service, by asking them about the sermon.
- Guide discussion at meal times by asking children what they learned in Sunday school, their memory verse, and Bible truths from hymns.
- Cultivate the habit of approaching one another after church services to discuss what was helpful in the sermon, why it was helpful, and what you intend to do with it, praying for each other and holding each other accountable.
- Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, leading to teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- Prayerfully consider what you can do before God in the area of sanctified repetition, not only to yourself and your family but one to another, to avoid losing the benefit of the preached Word.
- Make it your central concern to retain the truth in your heart and seek its appropriate manifestation in your life, using repetition as a divinely established means.
- Go to Christ, own what you are as a sinner, and plead the mercy and grace of God in Christ.
- Don't be discouraged as you labor with your children; labor on and use the tool of repetition.
- Continue to use repetition with your children, even when they say they know what you're going to say, until you see them doing it and to ensure they keep doing it.
- Plead with God for His Spirit to enable you to seize hold of repetition as a divinely instituted means to implement the concern of taking heed how you hear.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 234 paragraphs, roughly 70 minutes.
Confession of Misinterpretation and Seeking Forgiveness
The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, July 30th, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now those of you who were with us last Lord's Day morning for the morning hour of worship and the ministry of the Word, will remember that before we took up the preaching of the Word, I was constrained to take a few minutes to apprise you of the particular physical infirmity which was to be my companion as I sought to preach to you. Well, before we take up the preaching of the Word this morning,
if I am to do so with a conscience void of offense to God and man, I must, again reluctantly, but I must, take a few minutes not to refer to any physical infirmity, but to acknowledge and to confess to you a sin of an inaccurate and irresponsible use of one of the texts of Scripture to which we made reference last Lord's Day. In seeking to prove from the Scriptures that one central concern that ought to occupy us after the preaching of the Word is that we retain that Word in our hearts and experience,
its appropriate influence upon our lives, I quoted Titus 2.10 as the final New Testament proof text that God commands such a concern. I then asserted from that text where Paul speaking to slaves says they are to act in a certain way that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things, I said that Paul was here telling slaves, slaves to adorn or dress themselves up in the doctrine they believed. And during the week, one of the brethren graciously and thoughtfully questioned this meaning being given to the text
and conveyed his concern to me. And the moment I looked at the text in the original and did a brief word study of the verb adorn, cos meo, it was clear that I had indeed mishandled the text. I expounded it briefly as though it was saying that they may adorn themselves with the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. But the word adorn means to decorate, to put in order, and in the text the object of that adorning is the doctrine.
So it is the doctrine made beautiful by the godly living of the people of God. Therefore, what I taught from the text was not heretical or erroneous, but I should not have used that text in that way. It was squeezed in the margin of my notes as an afterthought. I had made my full preparation of my normal four pages of closely handwritten notes, and Titus 2.10 got squeezed in the margin as an afterthought without consulting the original and the commentaries.
And as a result, I made an irresponsible use of that text and failed to fulfill my duty as it is described in 2 Timothy 2.15. Do thine utmost to present thyself approved. I have proved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed, cutting a straight course or handling aright the word of truth.
And failing in that task, I have sought God's forgiveness, and I ask your forgiveness. I have never willfully and knowingly mishandled the word of God. But a careless and ignorant mishandling is nonetheless a sin against the God of truth. A sin against the truth of God, and a miscarriage of ministerial duty, and for these things I am ashamed.
I have sought the forgiveness of God, and by faith have obtained it, and in confidence I believe you will extend that forgiveness to me as well. Let us pray together. Our Father, you have your own ways of impressing us afresh with the truth of your word. And as I bow in your presence, and in the presence of your people, you know that my heart feels afresh the pressure of the words of James.
Be not many of you teachers, knowing that you shall receive the heavier judgment. And O Lord, we would confess in your presence with shame any careless mishandling of your holy and infallible word. And we thank you. We thank you that you have promised, if we confess our sins, you are faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And now as we would turn to you and to your word again this morning, we pray that the spirit of truth will assist your servant, that he may indeed cut a straight course in the word of truth, and that your people will be given grace to embrace that truth, we thank you that you have given us a climate where, when such things occur as did occur last week, there is amongst your people that liberty to deal with the issues in an honorable and gracious way. And we pray that in this place your truth might reign in every heart.
Recap: The Central Concern After Hearing the Word
Come now and meet with us, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now those who have been attending regularly upon this ministry in recent weeks are conscious that we have been engaged in a series of studies based upon the duty laid upon all disciples by the Lord Jesus in the words of Luke 8 and verse 18. Here our Lord says to the inner circle of his own, Take heed therefore, how?
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. This text clearly establishes the duty laid upon every disciple to pay constant and close attention to the manner in which he, he hears the preaching of the word of God. And in setting forth a pastoral and practical description of what this duty involves,
we have considered the duties that are laid upon us before the preaching of the word, if we are really taking heed how we hear. The duties that are ours to perform during the preaching of the word, if we are taking heed how we hear. And we are now concerned with those duties that pertain to our activities after we have heard the preaching of the word. And last Lord's Day I stated that in opening up various aspects of biblical and practical truth touching this duty, we would do so under two broad headings.
First, the central concern, identified and secondly the specific means prescribed. And last Lord's Day we took up that first heading the central concern identified. If we are serious about taking heed how we hear with respect to what we do after the word has been sounded in our ears, there is indeed a central concern which we must identify.
Understand and lay to heart and I express that concern this way that having heard the word preached it ought to be our most crucial concern to retain that word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives. We will not know its influence upon our lives unless it is retained in our hearts. But if it is retained in our hearts it is to the end that it might influence our lives.
For the scripture says guard your heart above all that you guard for out of it are the issues of life. Or the words of our Lord Jesus, the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And he says make the tree good and the fruit good or the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. Therefore this order must never be ignored but neither must these two things be separated.
If we are taking heed how we hear our central concern after we have heard will be to retain that word in our hearts and to experience its appropriate influence upon our lives. And then I sought to demonstrate the biblical roots of this. And then I sought to demonstrate the biblical roots of this. And then I sought to demonstrate the biblical roots of this.
This concern by looking at some oft repeated commands of scripture. This concern by looking at some oft repeated commands of scripture. A frequently identified virtue in scripture. And then the repeatedly condemned sin in scripture namely the failure to do this very thing.
And then we concluded by considering this concern illustrated and applied. And with the very crude illustration of the man given a very costly diamond. We sought to capture the principle that our true estimation of the worth of an object is manifested in our effort to preserve and protect that object from loss or from harm. And if we truly treasure the word we have received in preaching.
We will be determined to preserve and protect that commodity of great worth. David saying of greater worth than precious gold. Greater worth than thousands of gold and of silver. We will evidence that we truly value it by the spirit directed efforts we make.
Introduction to Specific Means: Repetition, Supplication, Meditation, Implementation
To retain it in our hearts and to seek its appropriate influence upon our lives. Now this morning we begin to take up that second category. The specific means prescribed. Having identified the central concern.
What are the means prescribed? Now for those of us who preach. Surely it is our duty to follow our preaching with our prayers. Pleading with God that it may be retained in the hearts of our hearers.
And experienced in their lives. And one has aptly stated it that to pray without preaching. To preach without praying for the blessing of God upon our preaching is a form of sacrilege. And to preach without praying for the blessing of God to follow our preaching is a form of presumption.
And there is a tremendous responsibility upon those of us who preach. Both to precede and follow our preaching with our prayers for the blessing of God. But we are concerned now not with giving directions to preachers in their unique duty of the proclamation of the word. But to you the hearers of the word take heed how you hear.
And if this central concern has become your concern. And you are asking the question. How may I in biblical ways retain the word I have heard in the preaching. How may I retain it in my heart.
And how shall I secure its appropriate influence upon my life. You are asking a question concerning. What specific means has God prescribed. In order to pursue.
That central concern. Which his word mandates. And over the next couple of Lord's days I want to address those means. Describe them.
Each one under a simple one word heading. Repetition. Supplication. Meditation.
And implementation. And I tried to come up with something that would express those biblical concepts. That would have a vowel. So you would have a neat little remembrance in your brain.
But I couldn't do it. So you will just have to work with what I have. Repetition. Supplication.
Meditation. And implementation. This morning we address the first of these means prescribed by God. Remember now to what end.
That we might retain the word in our heart. And take steps to see its appropriate influence upon our lives. Repetition. Repetition.
Repetition as a Principle of General Revelation
Now the reinforcement of ideas by the repetition of the words which convey those ideas. Is an observable fact of general revelation. You don't need to open up your Bibles to know. That repetition of words.
That contain and express a thought. Is a powerful means of the mind retaining the thought embodied in those words. And I say you don't need to turn to your Bibles to be convinced of this. All who have ever been engaged in any form of teaching recognize this fact.
When you parents are teaching your child to say please and thank you. How do you do this? By repetition ad nauseam. We've been watching our little youngest grandchild Melissa learn to say please.
And for the last several weeks her mom and dad not being convinced whether she understood the concept of say please. For in many areas she manifests a pliant submissive will to their directives. They've just been saying in every situation where please is appropriate. They've just been saying it over and over again.
We've been the most please, please, please bunch of people that I've ever been around for the last couple of weeks. Well in the middle of the last week it all clicked. And now when numma numma that means food. So whatever she sees that she wants is food.
Numma numma numma. Now her mother says and Missy how do you ask for it? And it doesn't come out please but it's something that sounds like that. And you get the idea.
She's trying to say please. She's trying to say please. It's got a P and a couple of other little sounds in there but it's the magic word. Now how did this get into her brain?
By constant almost relentless repetition. And every parent knows who has tried to teach his child some of those most elementary factors of proper manners. Likewise when you as a parent or you who teach little ones began to impart to your child an understanding of the alphabet. The multiplication tables.
You Sunday school teachers in Paris the books of the Bible. How did you get this into the brains of your kids? Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. And all the way from teaching a little child to say please.
When they say numma numma. To those top gun pilots learning high tech maneuvers with airplanes flying at twice the speed of sound. They learn proficiency in what they're doing by repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. Until it becomes so much a part of the mental furniture that triggers the physiological reactions.
And the mental calculations that they do the things by instinct. Now I say that is a matter of general revelation. You don't need to open your Bibles to discover the tremendous significance of repetition. In the minds retention of those things conveyed by these funny things that we call our words.
Repetition as a Divinely Appointed Means in Special Revelation
Now grace does not negate nature. Nor does it war with nature. Grace only wars with sin and the devil. Grace lays hold of nature and sublimates it to its own purposes and to the glory of God.
Now it's a part of nature that repetition. Repetition in the field of the acquisition. Of learning and knowledge in human beings is a critical factor. Now grace does not negate that.
But grace lays hold of it. Grace sublimates it to its own purposes and therefore it should not surprise us. To find in our Bibles that this matter of repetition is highlighted. As a divinely appointed means to retain the preached word in the heart.
And in assisting us to find its appropriate expression in the life. Now let's look at several clear Biblical examples. Of repetition as a means ordained of God. To assist us in our commitment to take heed how we hear.
As that applies to what we do after the preaching of the word. Turn please to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1 and beginning in verse 12. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 12.
Therefore I shall be ready always. To put you in remembrance of these things. Though you know them. And are established in the truth which is with you.
And I think it right as long as I'm in this tabernacle. To stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle. He's using language to describe his impending death.
As quickly even as our Lord Jesus signified unto me. Yea I will give diligence. That at every time you may be able after my decease. To call these things to remembrance.
Three times in this short compass of Peter's letter. He says putting you in remembrance. Stirring you up. Literally bringing you to a state of thorough wakefulness.
He said even though you know these truths. And are established in them. I want you to be stirred to a greater conscious awareness of them. And how does he do it?
By repeating them. He said I'm not telling you something new. I'm putting you in remembrance. Though you know them.
Though you're established in them. And I do so because by putting you in remembrance. They are brought out of the stuff. Of file draw truths.
That you believe. And are retained somewhere. In the archives of your inner being. But I want them to be brought up.
And become front and center truths. That stare you in the eyeballs. That call up their proper demands. Upon your thinking.
And upon your living. And furthermore. I'm going to put these things into writing. After my exodus.
After my decease. They will be there. To constantly remind you. Of these great realities.
Notice the principle again in chapter 3. This is now beloved. The second epistle that I write unto you. And in both of them.
Same word as we had in the first chapter. Verse 13. That I write unto you in both of them. I stir up.
Now notice. He doesn't say. Your carnal mind. Your lazy mind.
Your indolent mind. He is not stirring up people. Who are sinfully neglectful of truth. But he is stirring up people.
Who as human beings. Naturally forget. If certain things are not repeated. He said.
I stir up your sincere mind. By putting you. In remembrance. That you should.
Remember. The words. That were spoken before. By the holy prophets.
And the commandment of the Lord and Savior. Through your apostles. So you see. Peter.
Is operating. With the consciousness. Of the tremendous importance. Of this principle.
Of repetition. He is using. It as a principle. To bring.
To bring. To bring. To bring. To bring.
To bring. To bring. To bring. To bring.
To bring. To bring. To bring. To bring.
To bring. To bring. To bring. To bring.
To bring. To bring. To bring. To bring.
To bring. On the truth. On the past. Still.
That we. Observe. And. Learn.
Through. Your meal. Eating. Life.
To know. Right. Or. görn To know.
Biblical Examples of Repetition: Jude and Christ in Revelation
archived and put away somewhere in the dark, dusty cobwebs of the file drawers of the human mind and soul. But it is the truths that stand out before us in bold relief in any given situation that determine what we will do. You see, it wasn't Joseph's abstract confession of the absolute omniscience, omnipresence of God and his moral obligations to walk with integrity before God that kept him when Potiphar's wife got the hocks for him.
He kept him with what was probably a beautiful sweet nothings in his ears and seeking to seduce a young man. It was this truth held before the eyeballs of his soul in that moment. How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Potiphar's wife, you are here.
But there's somebody else here. God's here. See, you see, it wasn't the abstract confession of the omnipresence of God. It was the present picture of that truth upon the eyeballs of the soul in the moment of temptation that enabled him to stand.
And Peter, with his great emphasis upon the second coming of the Lord Jesus in both of these contexts, he is concerned that they not have. Pushed away. Pushed away into the background of their thinking truths that they believe and are established in. But he wants them stirred to a present wakefulness.
And how does he do it? He does it by repetition without embarrassment. Oh, Peter, you're repeating yourself. He said, you got it.
And I'm doing it deliberately and I'm doing it for your good. And here then in these two passages, we have this clear understanding of Peter breaking through in the manner in which he is. In the manner in which he addresses these believers. You have a similar emphasis in Jude 5 and 17.
I simply read the verses without comment. Jude 5. I desire to put you in remembrance, though you know these things once for all. You have received them as part of the body of revealed truth.
But I'm going to put you in remembrance. He's using repetition. Repetition as a pastoral tool. And again, verse 17 of the same epistle.
But ye, beloved, remember the words that have been spoken before by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he quotes the specific words that he wants them to remember. He is using repetition.
And then there is a marvelous example of this in our Lord himself. I wrestled with going into the Gospels. And showing how there were certain things concerning which the biblical writers say the Lord repeated himself again and again and again.
But I chose rather to turn to the book of the Revelation because it puts us more in our present situation. Christ was not bodily present with the seven churches of Asia Minor. He's going to speak to those churches through the letter that John will send. A letter which will contain things that he both hears and sees from the risen Christ.
Verse 4 of chapter 1. John to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace. And then those churches are named later on in the chapter.
And in each of these messages in chapter 2 and 3. The seven messages to the seven churches that were real churches in the real geography. In the geographical area of Asia Minor. As one would read this.
As a reader, an elder, whoever was appointed to read the letter. Read the book of the Revelation as we now call it. In these seven churches. There would have been a tremendous impress by repetition of certain concepts from these seven letters.
Every one of them begins with these words. I know. Verse 2 of chapter 2. Once the Lord Jesus identifies himself taking some dimension of the revelation he had made to John of himself in chapter 1.
Some aspect of that vision of the risen Christ is highlighted in the introductory words. But the first words he directly addresses to every church are these. I know. 2.2.
2.9. I know. 2.13.
I know. 2.19. I know.
3.1. I know. Every single letter to every single church begins with the words.
I know. I know. I know. I know.
Seven times you would have sat there on a given Lord's day. When whoever read this epistle read it. You would have gotten the message. If he knows all the peculiar circumstances at Ephesus and at Smyrna and Thyatira and Pergamos and Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Whatever I am, whatever we are as an assembly, whatever there is in the state of our hearts and lives, all things are naked and open before him whom John saw in that vision as the one with eyes. Jesus, by repetition, wants to get through to all the churches. I know. I know.
Because another thing that is common to all seven letters is the entreaty. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit not is saying to your particular church. It says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church as plural. Two, seven.
And then again, all the way through in every single one of those messages. He that hath an ear, verse 17, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
This is the burden of the Lord Jesus. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And then there is a peculiar promise to the overcomers. To him that overcomes.
To him that overcomes. To him that overcomes. Now what would have been the impression that our Lord intended to leave upon all of the churches? He intended to leave this impression upon all of the churches that he knows.
And that blessedness. Blessing is promised to the overcomer. And that all within the churches should give serious attention to everything that is being said to all of the churches. And the Lord Jesus does it by repetition.
By repetition. By repetition. I know. He that hath an ear.
He that overcomes.
The Preacher's Task and the Hearer's Duty in Repetition
So from general revelation and from the book of special revelation. And I have only given you just. The surface of the sampling that is to be found in scripture. We see that God sublimates.
God brings into the orbit of his purposes of grace. This principle of learning. Namely repetition. Is a means to enforce what has been heard in the preaching of the word.
That it might be retained in the heart. And from that position. Exert its influence upon our lives. Now having hope I trust established the principle.
Articulated it. Established it.
Surely you see why anyone worth his salt as a preacher. Will not it all be embarrassed in his actual preaching. To indulge in repetition. Recapitulation.
Moving from one head to another. Articulating the first head again. By repeating. By reviewing.
Why? Because in Ecclesiastes 12.11. There the task of the preacher is very graphically set forth.
The words of the wise are as goads. And as nails well fastened are the words of the masters of assemblies. Which are given from one shepherd. A wise preacher will not only seek to see the word of God become goads.
In the consciences and in the wills of the people of God. But nails well fastened. Not nails just barely set in the two by four of the human mind and heart. But nails driven clean to the hilt.
Now that's the task of preachers. That's the task that we must do. We must labor with and labor at until we die. Lord how can I more effectively take the nails of your truth.
And fasten them into the minds of your people. Lord you alone can fasten them on the heart. But I have a task to be a wise builder in the assembly. Knowing that truth is the stuff of which God constructs his spiritual kingdom.
I have that task. And I must continually labor at seeking to perfect the holy art of fastening nails. Well fastening nails of truth in the minds of God's people. And to be sure that they all come from the one shepherd.
That they are the words of Christ. Those words that he has inspired in the old and the new testaments. But now what can you do? To fasten the truth upon your own.
Your own heart. And upon the hearts of your children and family members. And one another. Well I want to descend to some very very practical suggestions.
Practical Suggestions for Sanctified Repetition
To encourage you to the following activities. In seeking to engage in sanctified repetition. Of the truth that you hear as part of the larger duty of taking heed. How you hear.
First of all. Cultivate the habit of repeating to yourself. The main truths of the sermon. On the way home.
From each service where you have sat under the preaching of the word. Cultivate the habit of repeating to yourself. The main truths of the sermon. I didn't say repeat the headings.
Repeat the terminology of the preacher. The main truths of the sermon. On the way home. From each time that you've been exposed to the preaching of the word.
Because if you are not active by repetition to fasten the words in your heart. There is another who is very active to make sure it never gets into your heart.
Remember what Jesus taught in the parable of the sower? It says these are they that are sown upon the wayside. Who when they hear. Then cometh the devil.
He is most active after you've heard. Then cometh the devil. And taketh away that which was sown in their hearts. And dear people how much good from preaching is lost.
Through our failure to repeat to ourselves the main truths of the sermon. When they are most fresh in our minds. On our way home. From a church service.
Or some other gathering where the word has been. Preached. Second suggestion if children are with you in the service. Repeat in their presence.
And engage them in repeating the major and minor points. That they have grasped. Seek to take those things and put them into their language. As I said some weeks ago.
It is not the task of the preacher in an assembly of God's people. To conduct a child evangelism class week by week. And to try to gear. This preaching down to where 90% of it could be comprehended.
In its vocabulary and sentence structure and concepts by a 7 year old. That is not the task of a man of God. If it were. Then our Lord Jesus failed.
And the Apostle Paul failed even more.
When he wrote his letters to the assemblies. There are men who have given a lifetime to master the Greek language. Who still have something close to intellectual and spiritual fits. Trying to sort out some of Paul's complex sentences.
And then to find out the meaning of words. Which are not found anywhere else in the corpus of Greek literature.
So if you have got some notion that that is the work of the preacher. Get rid of it. It is your job as a parent. By repetition.
You take the truths. And you then break them down. And in the very process of fixing your mind upon those truths. With a view to repeating them in thought forms.
And pulling out. Of illustrations from your own family life. In your own personal life. There is a blessed reinforcement that goes on.
Not only with your children. But with your own heart. If you have pre-teen and older children. Let them know that you expect them.
To give some indication that they did something more. Than sit there quietly during the service. Kids. What did pastor preach about this morning?
What did so and so preach about this morning? What was the general subject? What were some of the things that was said about that subject? Any passages that you can remember that were used?
What are you doing? You are engaging in an exercise of repetition. You are on the way home. Before the enemy has had his chance to pluck up the seed of the word of God.
And then when you gather for your noon day and evening time around the table. What a wonderful time for the head of the family. For the wife. For older children who are asked to lead in prayer.
To direct them that whatever else we do when we give thanks for the noon meal. And give thanks for the evening meal. Many of you have a kind of a snackish meal after the evening service. One thing must be included.
The main thrust of the sermon. It must be brought back to God in prayer. Thank you Lord for teaching us. Surely last Lord's day you would have to go home and say.
Thank you Lord for teaching us something fresh. About the beauty of your son Jesus. Thank you Lord for showing us out of Psalm 45. That the Lord Jesus is fairer than the sons of men.
Thank you for showing us that he is not only fair and beautiful. But he is awesome and parable as the warrior king. Thank you Lord Jesus for showing us yourself. Repetition in the prayer.
I seldom allude to. Personal things from the pulpit. I'm breaking my rule. This is the second one this morning.
But one of the precious rituals in our home. Is when we go back home and have our meal. My wife usually has my meal ready at two o'clock. Sunday morning we bring separate cars.
Because I usually don't leave here till quarter to two. She gets home and gets the meal all ready. And it's usually on the table when I come in at two o'clock. As we sit at our little table for two.
In our kitchen in our empty nest. And we hold hands to pray. She leads. In prayer.
Sunday afternoon always.
I feel funny praying in my own sermon for myself and for her. I figured she's heard me enough. And what a joy it is to hear her giving back to God. The thrust and the burden.
Of what I've labored with for hours in the study. And sought to bring to birth in the pulpit by the help of God. Before taking of that physical food. To seek to have the spiritual food taken in to the heart.
To use the imagery of. Solomon to begin to roast that which he took in hunting. It says the slugger does not roast that which he takes in hunting. He spends all the time and effort to prepare his hunting gear.
And to go out and track down a deer. And he brings down his buck. And he guts him. And he hangs him.
Up to drain the blood out of him. And lets him cure a few days. He goes through all those pains. And when it comes time to build a fire and roast him.
He just lets it go until it becomes a big rancid. Bloated, stinking piece of meat. Crawling with maggots. That's the picture Solomon gives.
The slugger doesn't roast what he took in hunting. What a terrible thing to go through all the effort of preparing yourself for the ministry of the word. To sit under that ministry with that resolute fixation of mind. And seeking to render appropriate responses while the word is being preached.
And then through carelessness after the ministry. Through want of repetition to yourself. Among your family members. Through want of repetition in prayer.
Not to roast. So that you might eat and assimilate that which you took in your gospel hunting that day. What a tragedy.
Not to roast that which is taken in your spiritual hunting season. There at the noon meal. May I suggest that you guide the discussion you heads of households. What did you kids learn in Sunday?
What was your lesson about? What was your memory verse? What hymns were you learning? What bible truths are expressed in that hymn?
What are you doing by repetition, repetition, repetition? Seeking the blessing of God to bring what they have heard. So that it is retained in the heart. And then hopefully will then be appropriately expressed in the life.
Isn't this both the spirit and the letter? The letter of Deuteronomy 6, 6 and following. All I've been doing is giving some specific, concrete, practical, pastoral counsels. Growing out of a text such as Deuteronomy 6 and verse 6 and following.
Is not what I have set forth as practical counsels. A natural outworking of both the spirit and the letter of this text. Deuteronomy 6.6.
Deuteronomy 6.6. Begin with verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. And with all your soul. And with all your might. And these words.
Not the generic concepts. The overarching perspectives. These words. Which I command you this day.
Shall beware upon your heart. They shall get inside of you. Take possession of you. In the citadel of your being.
And you shall teach them diligently unto your children. And talk of them when you sit in your house. When you walk by the way. When you lie down.
And when you rise up. In other words, there is not one place and one time. Or two places and two times. Or any number of places and times.
Where we hear. Hear, talk about the words of God. And are concerned to grasp the words of God. No.
God is saying, I've given to you my people. Among all the nations of the earth. I've given you the light of my inscripturated revelation. I've given you my words.
Now there is no place where it is not proper to be repeating my words. So that by constant repetition and reiteration and recapitulation. And reminder and review. These words shall sink in and become part of the very texture of the mind and soul.
And thought patterns. Not only of you. But also of your children.
Repetition in Fellowship and the Danger of Carnality
May I be bold even to suggest.
That we do some practical reformation about what goes on within these very walls. After our church services. None. None of us seems to have a natural reluctance to follow up.
If we know that one or another has been. Had a loved one that's not well. Or had an injury or something. How is so and so doing?
How is this situation? Why are we so reluctant to approach one another and say. Brother. What did you find helpful in the word today?
Would you mind sharing it with me? And how was it helpful? And then to reciprocate by saying. And what did you find helpful?
And why was it helpful? And what do you intend to do with that? Well this is what I intend to do with this. Will you pray for me?
As I seek to implement that. And by the way. Will you hold me accountable and ask me next week how I did? Well brother.
If that's what you want. Turnabout's fair play. You hold me. Brethren.
What loss is going on in these very walls. When we do not do something so elementary as that. Why should we be reluctant to do that? You sit and reverently attend upon the preaching of the word.
Surely it's not that you're uncomfortable with the word.
Is it just a natural timidity? I wish I could write it off to just that. But remember the great principle. Way back when we dealt with.
What we must recognize when sitting under the word. That neither indwelling sin nor the devil. And their insidious influence are suspended and negated under the preaching of the word. They're not negated after the preaching of the word.
There is a carnal.
To speak of the word one to another. A carnal fear. Well some of you think I'm being super pious. I'd rather have someone think that I'm being quote super pious.
Than be super carnal.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Be filled with the spirit speaking one to another.
And I had wrestled with using. In Colossians 3.16. And I've spent considerable time rooting around in that text.
And surely it points in this direction. And my present understanding. And I'm fully aware that Lightfoot is on the other side of the issue. And Lenski is on the other side of the issue.
But Hendrickson is on my side. And a few other good commentators. That when Paul said let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. As the new UBS Greek text has it.
The comma should be there. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That. That's the present imperative.
That's the main burden of the exhortation. And then he says in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another. That's the horizontal direction. And then there's the vertical direction.
In songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. If the word of Christ is taking up its home in us richly. Dwelling lavishly within our hearts.
Then surely in all wisdom we will teach and admonish one another. With respect to that very word that is dwelling in us richly. As well as find ourselves with hearts full of praise. Singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs.
With grace with thankfulness to our God. And you can't separate the horizontal and the vertical. If the word of Christ is dwelling in you richly. Then surely you'll be a singing man or woman.
A boy or girl. But you'll be a teaching and an admonishing man or woman. Boy or girl.
And dear people. You don't need to wait for somebody to authorize you to do that. But you say pastor can't that be abused. Won't there be someone who feels he or she is God's prophet to go around and sort us all out.
If such a nuisance emerges among us. It'll soon be known we'll deal with him or her.
Just rest assured. By the grace of God. We'll take them aside and say look brother look sister. Enough is enough.
You're not the Lord's chief high corrector. No one appointed you the in-house Nathan or Nathaness. Just back off and cool it. But dear people that's not our practical danger.
No that's not our practical danger. Our practical danger is before we ever leave these glass doors on the lower level. By innocent but calm conversation not related to the word preached. We've lost much of the benefit of that word and I'm exhorting you I'm pleading with you to prayerfully consider what you can do before God in this area of sanctified repetition not only to yourself to your family but one to another.
The Seed of the Word and the Cost of Hearing
Now these things are only a sampling of sanctified suggestions or counsels as to how we can effectively use this. Means of repetition in order to pursue the retention of the preached word in our hearts and express its implementation in our lives and as I've wrestled with this subject and how to convey it my mind went way back to the years of World War Two you kids will laugh at this because you just have plain gardens if you had them but we used to call them victory gardens. Everything.
And World War Two was related we are at war and so if you had any gum you separated the tin foil from the piece of paper and you rolled in a little ball until you had a ball this big and you took it to a collection center you were at war we were at war and there was that sense we're all involved in this and so when they urge people to raise their own vegetables so there'd be more food to send to our troops it wasn't just called a patriotic garden it was called a victory garden.
How many of you remember victory gardens am I all good I feel very comfortable now I've got some geriatric friends here amongst me this morning all right victory gardens well I can remember so vividly we had a plot of land across the street where there are no houses and they allowed us to use it for our victory garden and my dad entrusting us to take the little packages that said with regard to this particular vegetable plant in such and such type of soil such and such a time of the year. In.
Rose eighteen to twenty four inches apart and then they tell you how deep to put the seed and if it was a seed that should go one to two inches I can remember vividly after getting the soil all prepared and then we put the little stakes and have a string to mark out our rows and make sure they were all nice and straight and it looked nice as well as hopefully produce some good crops if they said plant the seeds two inches deep six inches apart I can remember using the joints.
My finger as a marker that was one inch that was two inches and very very carefully where dad would place the seed six inches apart pushing them down to the first joint or pushing them all the way down to the second joint making sure that the seed that in place on the ground would not lie there for some predator to take it away for unusually heavy rainfall to wash it away or just to lie there in rock before the burning sun but that it would be. sun but that it would be. sun but that it would be.
well implanted in the soil and then we push the soil back in little hole made by our finger and pad it very gently now trusting that as the soil developed it and God in his mysterious power cause that thing to germinate that there would in a few months time be a plant bearing beans or whatever other thing we had planted well dear people what goes on in this building for the most part. well implanted in the soil and then we push the soil back in little hole made by our finger and pad it very gently now trusting that as the soil developed it and God in his mysterious power cause that thing to germinate that there would in a few months time be a plant bearing beans or whatever other thing we had planted well dear people what goes on in this building for the most part. well implanted in the soil and then we push the soil back in little hole made by our finger and pad it very gently now trusting that as the soil developed it and God in his mysterious power cause that thing to germinate that there would in a few months time be a plant bearing beans or whatever other thing we had planted well dear people what goes on in this building for the most part. putting of the seed on the surface of the soil now it is your task in the power of God in dependence upon the Holy Spirit to use those means
that become the finger that push the seed down into the soil where it can germinate and in due course bring forth fruit don't be with a bucket full of seed and no seed embedded in the soil of your heart how you hear and with respect to how you hear after the preaching of the word I trust you will make it your concern your central concern to retain that
truth in the heart and to seek its appropriate manifestation in your life and the means appointed to that end we've just touched on the first today repetition repetition that divinely established means to fasten to rivet the word to the mind to the understanding and hopefully to bury it in the heart but I can hear someone objecting pastor if I were to do everything you've showed us that we ought to do implied in taking heed how we hear
everything every Lord's day before I come think of those four things in preparation for the ministry of the word when sitting under the word to remember those principles to give myself with resolute fixation of mind to seek to render appropriate responses now you're saying after all that my word's not done why you've turned preaching and listening to preaching into a tremendous task well you know what my reply to you is what are the issues at stake whether or not the word takes root in your heart it's a matter of life and death it's a matter
of your ongoing progress in grace it's a matter of whether or not I say it reverently Christ sees the full reward of his sufferings in you you say it's costly then to be a good hearer yes but what did it cost the Savior that you might have a word to hear what did it cost men who were martyred that we might have a Bible in the common language of the people what does it cost men who've practically driven themselves blind that they might seek to ascertain what is the purest expression of the original manuscripts when men
a man like Togelis literally studied himself blind in his devotion to seeking to ascertain what God's word is what God really said in the original letters and portions of the word of God what has it cost others that we might have a Bible to be preached and a word to which to take heed and we have the promise of God I can do all things through him who strengthens me I give you the words of an old Puritan who faced apparently this objection in addressing
his people concerning this very subject he wrote God's great work was to make the whole world for man and man's great work in spiritual approaches is to give the whole man to God if there will be one wheel missing in a watch it cannot go at all to be an accurate index of time and so in holy duties those who serve God must be must give him their hottest love their highest joy their strongest faith their greatest fear they must act every grace extend every faculty improve every part there must be head work
A Plea to the Unconverted: The Word Will Judge
and hand work and heart work in all of the ordinances of God this is no strange doctrine but you who are unconverted you say look Pastor Martin you're engaged in a work you're engaged in a work you're engaged in a work you're engaged in a work you're engaged in a work you're engaged in a work you're engaged in a work you're engaged in an exercise of futility I've got no desire to retain God's words and the only reason I have to hear even some of them is my mom and dad make me come and you're talking about a concern to retain the word I have no desire to hear it to retain it well that may be true that may well be true and all the efforts your parents may make in implementing some of them I know already do
implement have implemented some of these suggestions and they may implement yet more in their effort to keep you out of hell and to keep hell out of you before you're converted that's why your parents are doing this to keep you out of hell and to keep hell out of you so that if God's pleased to save you you'll have the least amount of scars that will always be left by that cruel master called the devil who's trying to seduce you into his service saying that he's a better master than the Lord Jesus is he's a murderer and a liar and you may resent every effort of your parents to use this tool of repetition to get the word into you
that under the blessing of God hell might be kept out of you and you out of hell but if you succeed in resisting all those efforts and harden your heart listen to me you are going to have that word brought back by repetition Jesus said in John 12.48 the word that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day what a horrible thing to go to judgment and have the Lord Jesus remind you of all of his words that you heard in this place that set before you your sin and the grace of God in Christ
and the provision for sinners and the sincere overtures of mercy and kindness in Christ the tearful earnest pleading that you flee to Christ his word coming through his servants begging you to repent and believe the gospel you thought you pushed all those words away forever no no my friend he'll meet you with them in the day of judgment the word that I've spoken shall judge you what are you going to do then?
where are you going to be your smart aleck peers that can meet with you down in the lobby now and laugh off and maybe even in convenient places mock away the things you've heard where will start sinking into hell when the son of God says bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness where will your buddies and your girlfriends be then?
you better ask that question kids if I can find in my bible that God's got a kiddie hell I'll preach kiddie truths about a kiddie eternity but there is no kiddie hell there's no kiddie eternity and I beg you precious children stop resisting the gracious overtures the gracious entreaties the gracious invitations of the Lord Jesus that come in your Sunday school class in this pulpit that come that family worship day by day that will come to you driving home today when dad
reviews the sermon and seeks to see it impressed upon your heart by repetition that you're not I've said with trembling lips Trinity Church is going to be responsible for some of the hottest places in hell known to any human beings you think that makes me happy to think all my ministry will do for some of you is to make hell all the hotter it's enough to drive me out of the ministry but that's exactly what it will do for to whom much is given of him
shall much be required and that little kid running around the streets in Newark today with a mouth full of curses guys and gals that have lost their virginity before they've had their first teenage birthday may already be sniffing dope and shooting up dope and don't know how to speak without a string of foul oaths but they never had a loving mom and dad teach them the ways of God and the truth of Christ they never had Sunday school teachers that open up the word of God and taught them the ways of God and the songs of Zion and taught them to memorize their Bibles and they never had preachers who were men of integrity and uprightness
and godly life who taught them the word of God and preached the word of God accurately they didn't have those hotter for you and if you go on in your sin and die in your sin no you don't want the word to be put back in your ears by repetition but there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus will judge you by that very word oh I plead with you go to Christ run to Christ say oh God I'll play the fool no longer own what you are
as a sinner plead the mercy and grace of God in Christ and dear people of God don't be discouraged don't be discouraged as you labor with your children some of us have lived long enough to know the last chapter isn't written yet labor on
and use the tool of repetition even to the point where your kids will say oh I know ma what you're going to say now you say fine I'll say it again until I see you doing it and then when I see you doing it I'll say it some more to make sure you keep doing it because God has ordained repetition as a mighty means to get his word into the heart and by the blessing of his spirit into the life let us pray our father we thank you
for your holy word and we thank you that your word reflects so clearly the reality of how you have made us as learning creatures and we thank you for this great tool of repetition we thank how you have used it again and again in the history of your people instituting faith feasts to remind them by yearly repetition of your great works on their behalf commanding their leaders to constantly keep this word in their mouths and parents to speak this word
in every experience and in every circumstance of life to themselves and to their children oh father we plead with you we earnestly plead may your spirit enable us to seize hold of this divinely instituted means that as we take heed how we hear we may find this great concern more fully implemented in all of our lives and in all of our families then lord as you have drawn out our hearts to plead with the children and young people among us oh god in mercy
will they not be given to hear a voice beyond the preacher's voice today and lay hold of the savior who invites them dismiss us with your blessing help us that throughout the remainder of this day we may know the cleansing invigorating even the convicting as well as the instructing influence of our own repetition of these things in our minds and in our families and bring us together tonight full of expectancy full of dependence upon your spirit and bless your servant who will minister the word to us hear us and receive our thanks
for your grace and mercy in this hour we plead 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 passage serves as the overarching theme for the sermon series, establishing the disciple's duty to 'take heed how you hear' the Word.
Expounded to illustrate the biblical principle of repetition as a divinely appointed means for retaining truth, as Peter emphasizes putting believers in remembrance.
Expounded as a foundational text for the practice of repetition within the family, demonstrating God's command for constant teaching and discussion of His words.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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layers Back to Basics at the Beginning of a New Year (1997)
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“Seven Broad Biblical Principles” (nos. 1-4)
Psalm 1:1-3
layers Book Reviews / Healthy Christian's Reading Habits
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