Ezekiel 33:30-32
After the Sermon Part 5
Pastor Martin concludes his series on 'After the Sermon,' focusing on the fourth key word: implementation. Expounding Ezekiel 33:30-32, Luke 6:46-49, Joshua 1:8, and James 1:22, he establishes the duty of implementation through negative examples of hearers who do not do, and positive commands to observe and be doers of the Word. He illustrates this activity through the psalmist's haste to obey (Psalm 119:59-60) and Paul's confidence in Philemon's obedience, urging believers to make doing the Word the main business of their lives to avoid self-delusion and experience God's blessing.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 6 sections · 70 min
- Introduction: The Certainty of Death and the Duty to Hear 0:03
- The Four Key Words for Hearing Subsequent to Preaching 5:07
- The Duty of Implementation Established by Negative Examples 8:29
- The Duty of Implementation Established by Positive Commands 33:11
- The Activity of Implementation Illustrated 53:49
- Conclusion: A Call to Be Doers of the Word 67:43
Key Quotes
“Help us to feel afresh that great reality, not with a morbidity that would oppress us, but with a sobriety that will help us to come to your word with something less than careless indifference.”
“But all of this would be abortive if it does not issue in what I've sought to capture in this fourth word, namely, implementation.”
“Though they do all of this they come before you they sit before you they hear your words but do them not. For with their mouth they show much love much love for God and his word and his servant and preaching and prophesying but their heart goes after their gain.”
“Why do you use in your reference to me language that bespeaks a recognition of the dignity of my person and the rights of my government when the pattern of your life negates the profession of your lips that's the question Jesus asks do you see that feel the weight of that”
“To be doers has a force of its own distinct from the simple to do in other words when he says be doers of the word and not simply do the word he says it has an unusual force you feel the expression exhibits a habitual occupation it sets before us as being real Christians persons who make the doing of the word the main business of their lives a business affecting penetrating pervading all other business and all pleasure”
“I made haste and delay to observe thy testimonies once he saw the discrepancy between the ways of God and his ways he said I made a beeline to get my feet into God's ways without delay why because he knew that every moment of delay gave opportunity for his remaining sin to pump smoke and fog up into his moral consciousness”
“Having confidence in your obedience I write unto you knowing that you will do even beyond what I say”
Applications
All listeners
- Preach and listen as one who believes in the reality of death and the grave.
- Feel afresh the reality of death and judgment with sobriety, not morbidity, to approach God's word with seriousness.
- Do not trifle with holy things and never-dying souls; pray for a baptism of holy sobriety before God and His truth.
- Pay close, careful, and serious attention to the manner in which you attend upon the preaching and teaching of the word of God.
- Ensure that repetition, supplication, and meditation on God's word issue in implementation, putting into practice what has been heard.
- Reduce what you have heard in preaching to personal, practical obedience.
- Recognize that crunch time comes when what we hear must be done with our feet, hands, eyes, tongue, and heart, and that a life pattern of not doing God's words makes our profession a house built on sand.
- Make the doing of the word the main business of your life, affecting, penetrating, and pervading all other business and pleasure.
- Avoid self-delusion by not being merely a hearer of the word, but a doer.
- Do not congratulate yourself for doing the word, but rather be most conscious of your failures and sins, seeking God's mercy.
- When you see a discrepancy between your ways and God's word, make haste and delay not to turn your feet to God's testimonies, avoiding the 'smoke of rationalization' that comes with hesitation.
- Implement the clear directives received from preaching immediately, such as praying for spiritual leaders, rather than delaying.
- Strive to be like Philemon, not only obeying explicit directives but also finding ways to flesh out the underlying principles in specific acts of kindness and obedience.
- Confess with shame when knowledge and understanding of God's ways far outstrip meticulous, careful, conscientious, and loving obedience.
- Seek God's mercy and forgiveness for every act of self-delusion, thinking that merely hearing the word makes one better.
- Pray for those who have no heart to obey God because they do not know His Son, that God would subdue their proud, rebellious hearts.
- Take heed how you hear, being not only hearers but doers of the word, turning your feet to God's statutes and making haste to keep His precepts.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 66 paragraphs, roughly 70 minutes.
Introduction: The Certainty of Death and the Duty to Hear
Following message was delivered on Sunday morning, October 8th, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. As I made my way to this building in my car this morning, I was struck afresh with the thought that one day will come when that pleasant ride from Cedar Grove to Montville by way of Horse Neck Road will be made by me for the last time. And when Pastor Lamar said, and now before Pastor Martin comes to minister the word of God, he or someone else will say that for the last time. And you who sit here and hear. You who sit here and hear the words before such and such a one comes to minister the word of God, let us sing, you will hear such words the last time.
Children, young people, men, women of all ages, we're marked for death and for the grave. God help me to preach as a man who believes that. God help you to listen as one who believes it. Let us pray.
Holy Father, we are indeed sobered by the reality that our days pass swifter than a weaver's shuttle.
And should we be privileged to live out a full allotment of years, yet confused. Concerning those years, we will be forced to say with the patriarch of old, Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. We acknowledge afresh that it is appointed unto every one of us once to die. And after this cometh judgment.
Lord, so many things. So many things. So many things pressing upon us to make us forget the one thing that is certain about life, namely that we shall die and go to judgment. Help us to feel afresh that great reality, not with a morbidity that would oppress us, but with a sobriety that will help us to come to your word with something less than careless indifference.
Indifference. God, have mercy upon us, lest we trifle with holy things and with our never-dying souls. Visit us then, we pray, with a baptism of holy sobriety before you and before your truth. We plead in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
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 take heed therefore how you hear pay close careful and serious attention to the manner in which you attend upon the preaching and teaching of the word of god in the ordinance of preaching it is this clear command of our lord jesus that has formed the basis and framework for a series of some 14 messages preached over the course of the past several months all of them culminating in our study today and god willing next lord's day morning concluding this series of studies in the opening up and application of this very basic duty we have considered how we are to take heed to the the
The Four Key Words for Hearing Subsequent to Preaching
our hearing of the Word of God under three major categories. We are to take heed to how we hear with respect to our preparation for the hearing of the Word preached or what we do prior to preaching. We are to take heed how we hear during the actual hearing of the Word preached. And thirdly, we are to take heed how we hear with respect to our actions subsequent to the hearing of the preaching of the Word of God. And it is this third area of concern, namely how we are to take heed to our hearing subsequent to the preaching of the Word that I propose to address in our final two messages this morning. God willing, next Lord's Day morning. I have suggested that there are four key words which embody at least the major biblical directives relative to how to take heed to our hearing subsequent to the preaching of the word.
And these four key words are repetition, supplication, meditation, and implementation. Having taken up the first three with you in previous messages, we come this morning and God willing next Lord's Day morning to this fourth essential element of taking heed to how we hear as that command focuses on spiritual activities subsequent to our hearing of the word of God. We must not only be concerned to have that word fastened upon the mind by repetition, to have it written upon the heart by supplication, and to have the heart inclined to obey it in supplication, but also we must meditate upon it, we must fasten our minds upon some aspect of that truth, and its practical relevance to our own thinking, our own actions, our own relationships. But all of this would be abortive if it does not issue in what I've sought to capture in this fourth word, namely, implementation.
No amount of repetition, supplication, or meditation has come to its proper fruition of the word of God. We must not only be concerned with our own thinking, our own actions, our own relationships, unless we are found implementing, that is, putting into practice what we have heard in the preaching of the word of God. Now, in order to think our way through this issue with some degree of clarity, we'll do so under four headings. We'll take up the first two this morning, and, God willing, the final two next Lord's Day morning.
The Duty of Implementation Established by Negative Examples
With respect to this matter of implementation, I want you to consider with me this morning, first of all, the duty of implementation established, and secondly, the activity of implementation illustrated. First of all, then, the duty of implementation established. When we have heard the preaching and the teaching of the word of God, that it is our solemn duty to implement what we have heard, that is, to reduce it to personal, practical obedience, is clearly established from the word of God. And I want to demonstrate that under two simple subheadings. First, by negative examples and by positive commands. The duty of implementation established by the word of God is established, first of all, by negative examples.
And we shall look at two, and then from positive commandments or precepts or examples, I'm sorry, by positive commands, we shall look at two as well. First of all, the negative examples. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 33, a passage we had occasion to look at briefly in one of our earlier messages. And our concern at that time was not precisely the concern that we have in turning to the passage this morning.
Is it your duty, is it my duty, actually to implement, to reduce to personal, practical obedience the truths heard in the preaching of the word? Well, the answer of this negative example is a resounding yes, yes, it is my duty, and failure to do so meets with the frown of God as it did in the days in which Ezekiel preached. In Ezekiel chapter 33, we have the account beginning in verse 30 of the experience of God's professing people under the ministry of Ezekiel. They have already been brought under the ministry of God. They have already been brought under the ministry of God. They have already been brought under the ministry of God.
They have already been brought under the ministry of God. They have already been brought under the judgment of God for their national sins and have experienced God's judgment in terms of the captivity. Verse 21 of this chapter indicates that very clearly. It came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me saying, The city is smitten.
And, there had been a period in which God had shut the prophetic mouth of the prophet. And God now again opens his mouth. And he opens his mouth in a setting in which the people are complaining, saying, that the land was given to us for an inheritance. Why is God not standing by his covenant promise to give us the land that he promised in his covenant?
In other words, they had bought into the lie of the false prophets that God's covenantal engagements were unconditional, though that was far from reality. For God had said very early in the history of the nation that the land would be theirs in perpetuity if they would cleave to him and to his precepts, that if they turned aside from him and from his law and his ways and unto us, idolatry, God would then cast them out of the land and scatter them among the nations. Well, in such a setting, God reopens the mouth of the prophet and notice what happens when the Lord does this. Verse 30 of Ezekiel 33. And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that comes forth from Jehovah. And they come unto you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words. And as we had occasion to indicate several months ago,
if all the passage says, said is what I've read up until now, and you and I were neutral observers, we would say, surely the nation is in a healthy spiritual state, if not in the midst of a revival. For as one would move amongst the people, he would find that the talk of the hour was not who had won how many games in the playoffs of the National or American League, not how many games of the National or American League, not how many games of the National or American League, not how many games of the National or American League, not how many games of the National or American League, not how lovely and how sweet the Pope is and was, or not whether or not O.J. is guilty or not guilty.
No, there was something else overriding all of the conversation. Were you to come upon the people, you would find them by the walls and in the doors of the houses speaking everyone to his brothers, saying, there is one thing of importance. God has opened the mouth of the man of God again. Let us go and let us go and hear what is the word that comes from Jehovah.
They had a sense of anticipation. They had what I described under our preparation before the preaching of the word. According to their language, they were coming with expectancy to hear the very words of God himself coming to the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel. And it was not just deep, deep talk.
How many of us in the world trying to witness to people and bring the gospel to them and bring them under the sound of the gospel have worked with them and for them and finally elicited a promise that yes, I'll come to church with you on Sunday only to find that when we called them up according to arrangement they had some flimsy excuse and they backed out of their commitment and our hearts sank in disappointment. But not so at this time in the ministry of the prophet. They not only talked about coming, the scripture says in verse 31 and they actually come unto you as the people come and when they came they didn't simply sit in the place where the prophet held forth and talk about the weather and whisper one to another about who was wearing what kind of hat and who had a new suit on and who just was dated by so and so and the teenagers weren't there passing notes and no, no. They were sitting there and they were riveted to the word of God coming from the mouth of the prophet of God. They come, they sit before you and they hear your words. Well, what more could you ask?
What more could any preacher ask for than to know then throughout the week amongst all the houses of all his people the topic of conversation was going to hear the preacher the next Lord's Day. That'd be heady stuff for most preachers wouldn't it? And then to find that when the Lord's Day came the parking lot was full and the pews were full and the people were sitting there riveted listening to the word of God. You say, surely any preacher wouldn't go home and fall upon his knees and say, blessed be your name oh God for creating such widespread interest in the word such widespread hunger and thirst for the word such widespread desire to attend upon the word blessed be your name but Ezekiel had no such grounds to go home and fall upon his face and thank God for listen to what the Lord says. Though they do all of this they come before you they sit before you they hear your words but do them not. For with their mouth they show much love much love for God and his word and his servant and preaching and prophesying but their heart goes after
their gain. Their hearts were set upon something other than that to which the word of God was directing them. Well, why then did they continue to come and attend upon his ministry? The answer is given in the following verses and lo you are unto them as a very lovely song of one that have a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear your words but they do them not.
In other words Ezekiel all of this excitement by the walls and in the homes and this talk about going up to hear the word of Jehovah all of this ordering of priorities to be gathered when you hold forth and speak in my name all of this apparent attention and riveted concern to know my words Ezekiel don't be deceived they have not come with an intention to have their lives molded by my word to have their sins rebuked with a view to repenting of them to have their duty set forth with a view to performing it their hearts are full of covetousness and there is no desire to repent of their covetousness there is no intention to have their sins challenged and ripped from their breast by deep and thorough repentance and Ezekiel's the reason they talk about you the way they do the reason they prioritize their activities and come and sit under the word is you have become a weekly or a daily spiritual concert to them that's all you have become like one who has a pleasant voice how many of us who've come to some appreciation of that marvelous
instrument called the human voice when it's legitimate can sit for hours enwrapped with that marvelous instrument pouring forth its sounds often in a tongue utterly unknown to us singing sentiments utterly unintelligible to us and yet we're thrilled to the point of goose bumps up and down our back he says you've become like one who sings like one who with a pleasant voice and how many of us with very limited musicology can sit and watch an Itzhak Perlman blended as one with his violin and that smile playing off the corner of his lips and his closed eyes and one with his fiddle playing something that just moves us to the depths of our being he says you have become to many the Itzhak Perlman of the prophets but they have no intention of doing what they hear they weren't at this time after the false prophets apparently they were coming after God's true prophet God's mouthpiece
God's spokesman but by this negative example God establishes God's true prophet God's true prophet God's true prophet God's true prophet God's true prophet the duty of implementing what we hear it does not matter how much enthusiasm has preceded our coming to the place where the word is to be preached it does not matter how diligently we find ourselves to the place where the word is preached or how attentively we give ourselves to the word listening to what is preached if the heart is not in ease to implement the word of God we step under the patent condemnation of the living God the duty of implementation is established first by this negative example so clearly articulated in Ezekiel chapter 33 that God and then the negative example articulated by our blessed Lord in Luke's gospel chapter 6 we're trying to establish the duty of implementation
as part of what it means to take heed how we hear subsequent to our hearing the word preached and taught to us the first negative example from the Old Testament the prophet Ezekiel now the second negative example from our Lord Jesus in the gospel of Luke chapter 6 verses 46 to 49 in a section that has many parallels to what we commonly identify as the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew chapter 5 6 and 7 toward the close of our Lord preaching similar themes we read in verse 46 and why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say everyone that comes unto me and hears my words and is doing them I will show you to whom he is like he is like a man building a house who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock and when a flood arose and the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because
it had been well built but he that hears and does not is like a man that built a house upon the earth without a foundation against which the stream broke and straightway it fell in and the ruin of that house was great here in this passage our Lord is addressing a people who seriously and solemnly profess a saving and submission submissive relationship to him look at the language of verse 46 why do you call me Lord now the precise significance of the double address Lord Lord is difficult to ascertain and the commentators responsible Bible believing students of the word differ but this much is clear these who address him address him with the language that on the one hand points to the uniqueness of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the word of the identity of his person why do you call me Lord why do you address me
as sovereign why do you address me as Jehovah Jesus why do you call me why do you take upon your lips the language that confesses me to be the Lord and by the double usage it is probably is underscoring that that is not the language of mere what we would say doctrinal acknowledgement of the uniqueness of his person for many shall say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied you see and in that day the parallel passage in Matthew 7 anyone addressing the enthroned Lord in the day of judgment is acknowledging him as the sovereign God who is disposing their eternal destiny but here is not merely the language that underscores the uniqueness and the identity of his person but Lord Lord probably points to the language of professed hearty submission to his authority you are not only objectively in yourself the sovereign Lord but I address you as my sovereign Lord the ruler and the governor of my life and my will and that that seems to be the clear
significance is found in the very question of Jesus why do you call me why do you address me with language that acknowledges the dignity of my person and professes submission to me as your sovereign and you are not in the why whose language that if it were an expression of reality would find you in a pattern of universal obedience to me not perfect obedience but universal detailed meticulous conscientious obedience why do you use in your reference to me language that bespeaks a recognition of the dignity of my person and the rights of my government when the pattern of your life negates the profession of your lips that's the question Jesus asks do you see that feel the weight of that it's like a general saying to a bunch of privates all gathered together on a parade field who keep saying general this general that general this general the other will not stand at attention will not throw a salute will not follow
orders why do you call me general general and treat me like I was a common laborer you don't recognize my stars you don't recognize my authority you don't mend my commands sick and tired of general general general if you call me treat me like a general that's what Jesus is saying why do you call me lord lord and do not the things which I say do you see how this establishes the duty of implementation this very negative example indicates that Jesus Christ I say it reverently experiences a sense of holy and sinless irritation and frustration with every person whose lips profess the dignity of his person and the rights of his crown whose life is not a pattern of implementing meticulously and conscientiously the words that he speaks in holy scripture and then he goes on to give an illustration we'll have further opportunity to use this God willing under one
of our heads next week but suffice it to say he then goes on to demonstrate that it's only those who come to him hear his words and do them whose religious structure likened to a house is the real thing and when the floods and the streams of the trials of this life and the great trial of death and the ultimate trial judgment come oh , only such a man will be found to have built wisely and built well all others who may come and who may hear and who may even give assent to the authority and wisdom and grace but they do not implement with conscious meticulous obedience they manifested as fools who built a structure of religious appearance and profession upon the sand of no grace the heart and the trials of this life if they don't reveal it the ultimate trial of the day of judgment
will unveil it so I say from these two negative examples there is clearly established the duty of implementation that when the word of God has been expounded to us and every part of it is the word of Christ for it was the spirit of Christ speaking in all the biblical writers through the old and the new testament as Peter informs us when those words come to us it is not enough that we are there where they are read and expounded and preached and taught it is not enough that we hear them and listen according to Ezekiel's passage even hear them with pleasure crunch time comes when what we hear must do with your foot with your hand with your eyes with your tongue and the bubble with your heart and crunch time comes every time the word of God is read the word of God is preached expounded
The Duty of Implementation Established by Positive Commands
and applied and if the pattern of your life and of mine is not a pattern that can be described in these words we come unto him we hear him and we do his words God says our profession is the house built upon sand so I say implementation dear people is a duty established from these two negative examples one from the old one from the new but now the positive commands again one from the old and one from the new that established the duty of implementation the positive command from the old testament perhaps some of you have already anticipated it we're going back to an old friend that we looked at in conjunction with the duty of meditation we want to go back to him now and our friend is Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8 is implementation a luxury reserved for the few super duper hyper consecrated dedicated Christians while the rest of us can maintain biblical confidence that we're in a state of grace even though we're not in a state of grace even though we're not in a state of grace even though we're not in a state of grace even though we're not even though implementation is not an integral part of our response to the preaching after we have heard it
listen to the words of God to his servant Joshua Joshua chapter 1 remember the setting Moses is dead God says in essence that though Moses the servant of God has died nothing of God has died with him God gives the gracious promise to Joshua as I was with Moses verse 5 so will I be with you I will not fail you nor forsake you commands him to be strong and of good courage gives him a broad stroke of promises with respect to his life's mission and then in verse 8 he says this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but you shall meditate thereon day and night and in our last visit to this text we're going to we focused on the duty of meditation established in this passage but notice what the whole end of this business of the law not departing from Joshua's mouth constantly the object of meditation notice the whole end of all of this this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that you may have glorious marvelous internal thrilling spiritual ecstasy
no no God's end in view is much more pragmatic you're to do this Joshua to this end that you may observe a chord that is written therein for then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success you see this matter of the book of the law not departing out of his mouth which probably has more a reference to the concept of meditation which in the root significance of both of the Hebrew words used throughout the Old Testament has the idea of muttering or mumbling it shall not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate upon it day and night you shall be continually ruminating upon the word of God Joshua turning it over in your mind and as an aid to memory and as an aid to concentration mumbling that word speaking of it perhaps to your close associates giving vent to your internal questions about it it shall not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate therein day and night but here is the great
end in view that you may observe to do and not to do occasionally what is convenient or to do sporadically what you may feel highly motivated to do but he says that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein the great end in view was his universal meticulous conscientious implementation of all that God had enshrined in the book of the law there the duty of implementation is given to Joshua as a positive command and is surely as the promise of the abiding presence of God in verse 5 is picked up and applied to all of God's people in Hebrew and in the Psalms 13 what God now speaks to Joshua he does not speak to him primarily in his capacity as the leader of the armies of Israel but he speaks to him we would say as a Christian man as a true son of covenant fidelity to Jehovah and in his own peculiar task and responsibility this would secure
God's blessing and success upon his own this peculiar task but the duty to observe all that was contained is a generic duty laid upon all of those who stand in true vital saving covenantal communion and fellowship with the living God and then turn to the New Testament for the second positive command that establishes the duty of implementation and here we turn to the book of James James chapter one we had occasion to look in this chapter with respect to our duties prior to the preaching of the word and I hope some of you remember that verse 21 wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing or excess of wickedness or malice received by the with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls and we had occasion to point out that in preparation for the preaching of the word there should be renewed acts of repentance dealing with anything and everything in the spiritual gut that would keep us from properly digesting and assimilating
the word of God we are to put away the filthiness and the overflowing of wickedness before we can hope to receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our souls but our responsibility you see before the word does not end with that preparation to receive it as we ought James goes on to say in verse 22 but be ye doers of the word and not hearers of the word only deluding your own selves and then he goes on to illustrate and to enforce that directive in terms of a common illustration of a man looking into a mirror and beholding his countenance etc but I want us to focus upon verse 22 which comes in a form that unmistakably lays before us the positive commandment to be implementers of the word that we have received with meekness in a prepared heart and the first thing we note in the text is that it is possible it is perfectly possible to be a hearer only and not a doer
and in so doing to make myself a deluded person I can engage in activities which put me in the path of self delusion so that my assessment of myself is not according to reality if I came before you this morning with a 50 point outline seeking to persuade you that I was a long lost undiscovered heir to the throne of the United Kingdom and that I ought to be there in Buckingham Palace as King Albert the kindest thing I think most of you would say is well that trigeminal neuralgia that was bothering in this past week I think has crept up into his brain and he is deluded he's deluded and if I were to gather you next week and the elders even permitted such nonsense and give you another 50 points to try to persuade you you'd still sit there and say the poor man is deluded you see no matter how much I might believe it and no matter how many arguments I might marshal to my own twisted brain that convinced me that I am King Albert this poor man is deluded now listen to what James says be ye
doers of the word and not hearers only deluding your own selves do you want to be as deluded about who and what you really are as I would be were I to claim to be King Albert then just get in a pattern of being a hearer and not a doer that's all that's all you don't need to somewhere beckon the devil and say oh Satan great deceiver and destroyer of the souls of men I want to enter into league with you to help me into a course of self delusion that will wreck and ruin and damn me you don't need to do that just come week after week and here week after week and don't do and you've already deluded yourself John Stone the very perceptive commentator whose commentary on Philippians was a tremendous help to me when I preached through that lovely book and his commentary on James equally helpful listen to his comments on this part of the text to be doers has a force of its own distinct from the simple to do in other words when he says be doers of the word and not simply do the word he says it has
an unusual force you feel the expression exhibits a habitual occupation it sets before us as being real Christians persons who make the doing of the word the main business of their lives a business affecting penetrating pervading all other business and all pleasure so that just as when you speak of an ordinary trade or profession you say that man is a teacher a manufacturer or the like so speaking of character those who know a Christian intimately should always be able to say of him he is a doer of the word of God in every department of his life such a man will show clearly that he makes this the principal thing in matters which men call secular as well as in those that they call sacred for he knows that nothing is really beyond the sphere of religion beyond the sphere illuminated by the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the Bible in health and sickness therefore in his family circle and in general social interaction in the shop or in the counting house no less than at the prayer meeting or in positive and direct laboring and giving for the cause of Christ everywhere in a life of holy energy humility
love and patience according to the measure of his faith he will be a doer of the word that's how you describe him he's a doer of the word how do you explain the way that guy conducts himself in the shop always punching in on time always at his bench undistracted diligent doing what he does with all of his faculties and when coffee break comes he's not found sitting with the guys thumbing through the latest girly magazines listening to the latest jokes he's either entering into innocent conversation trying to engage people at levels of friendship and concern asking questions about the family about their personal lives in ways that are legitimate or he's off in the corner by himself reading a little black book he carries in his back pocket I think they call it a new testament with psalms and when you see him go to his home at the end of a busy day he isn't buried in his easy chair behind his paper with a distraught wife you find him though he's poured out his life in his labor we find him sensitive to her burdens and her needs and willing to assist and help in the caring of those
burdens interacting with his children in a way that expresses they are not an irritant just some kind of a status symbol to be paraded when it's convenient but he loves them and gives himself to them and no matter where you follow him his life is utterly and radically different and you're to ask the question what makes him that way the point that John Stone makes is you ought to be able to say in one phrase he is a doer of the word he knows that the word says whatever your hand finds to do do with all of your might as unto the Lord and not as unto man so when he's at his work bench he's all concentration of the task at hand during the break time he knows that the word says have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness therefore he won't enter in to the passing around of the latest girly magazines he won't enter in to the latest ribald humor because it says neither filthiness nor jesting which are not convenient he's a doer of the word and when he comes to his home and he's engaged with his wife and seeking to know what burden she has carried through the day he's a doer of the word which says husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church no man ever hated his own body but nourishes and cherishes it as Christ the church and when he's involved with his kids he's a doer of the word
because he knows the word says fathers nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord you describe him in that simple terminology he's a doer of the word and there's not a text I've quoted in your hearing that has not been expounded in detail in this place some of them repeatedly and yet I have not described you why not why not you those words you if you name the name of Christ you are self deluded I didn't say it the Holy Ghost said it through the pen of James now does he come to the end of the day that doer of the word and get on his knees and go through a stretching exercise get all limbered up and take both his hands and pat himself on the back and say now God look at me I've been a good boy today I worked hard I did pretty well didn't I Lord it's alright I pat myself on the back and I love my wife pretty well today didn't I God pat myself on the back and I sure did a good job nurturing my kids to death is that what he does no if he gets on his knees
before he goes to bed or while he lies on his bed before drifting off to sleep he reviews the day and says oh God have mercy on me sinner Lord forgive me that even this day I allowed myself to be distracted here or there I allowed that dirty remark to get into my ear and fasten itself on the pages of the soul where memory can so easily have things inscribed and Lord I turned over those words I ought not to have had mercy upon me and Lord Jesus I confess that when I come home and my wife began to share the burdens my inner reaction well look I've carried my own load you carry yours Lord I didn't instinctively and spontaneously want to love her as you love me Lord forgive me and oh God I've not been the dad no you see the man is a doer of the word and because his conscience is so sensitive sensitized by an honest continuous contact with the word is most conscious of how far he falls short in his doing of the word that far from being the one who congratulates himself he has the most sense of his own failure and sin and says even if I had done
all I would yet be an unprofitable servant but he is a doer of the word does nothing perfectly does nothing that leads to self congratulation he does nothing that he thinks will contribute to his salvation but look at the text be doers of the word and not hearers only deluding your own selves you and are to be doers of the word not only because by negative example the lack of it is condemned in the prophecy of Ezekiel in the teaching of our Lord Jesus but because in these two passages Joshua 1 8 and James 1 it is explicitly commanded now I've spent the greater part of my time seeking to establish the duty now more briefly I want you to consider with me the activity of implementation illustrated if these texts did not persuade your conscience I'm convinced it's because you will not be persuaded and to bring five more would not persuade you you are willfully ignorant and willfully rejecting the testimony of God but I believe there are many of you who in your hearts say oh God
The Activity of Implementation Illustrated
I want to be more of a doer of the word but what does it mean how do I actually go about it well let's look at the activity of implementation illustrated and I believe time will permit us to look at three brief passages first Psalm 119 Psalm 119 when I tried to set before you what meditation was rather than clog your mind with technical descriptions and definitions we looked at some illustrations in Psalm 39 and Luke chapter 2 well I want to do the same with you the activity of implementation illustrated Psalm 119 this wonderful passage dealing with various aspects of the believers relationship to the word and law of God look at verses 59 and 60 I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto my testimonies now notice very carefully verse 60 I made haste and delayed not and to observe thy commandments now who is this man who writes such things well he's a man who describes himself in verse 57 saying the Lord is my portion I have said I would observe thy words
he is a man who says I've taken Jehovah the God of grace and covenant faithfulness who's revealed himself in mercy to his people I have taken that God is my portion that's Old Testament language for saying I'm a child of God God is my portion not the land of Canaan not all the blessings of heaven that have come down upon the nation as promised in the covenant but God himself what's the heart of the covenant promise they shall be my people and I will be their God here's a man who says God is my God and because he's my God I have said the disposition of my heart is I'll run my life not by my feelings not by my whims not by my ideas of right and wrong not by consensus from society I will run my life by the precepts of the God who is my portion the Lord is my portion I have said I would observe thy words but no sooner does a man do that when he recognizes it ain't in him by himself to do what he said he would do so what does he do verse 58 I entreated your favor with my whole heart be merciful unto me according to your word no sooner does any
man or woman who has any sense of his own sin and the pressure of the world and the pull of his own corruption say the Lord is my portion I declare my allegiance to him my commitment to obey him and to observe his words but what he or she will feel very keenly it is not in man that walks to direct his steps without me you can do nothing so he says I entreated your favor with my whole heart he asked that God will be merciful to him mercy is pity joined to appropriate action Lord take pity upon me and my weakness and vacillation and come forth with the appropriate action of supporting grace and power as you've promised in your word be merciful unto me according to your word but now then crunch time comes he's reflecting on patterns in his life I thought on my ways our ways are our patterns we say of someone well that's just his way of doing things that's his pattern that's his established routine he says I thought on my ways and implied in that all the while he was thinking on them he was comparing them with God's ways revealed in the word and as a result he says I turned my feet unto my testimonies the indication is as I thought on my ways I saw
that my spiritual feet were establishing a path that was away from or in contradiction to the path marked by the testimonies of God and as soon as I became aware of it I turned my feet unto my testimonies I began to implement what I had discovered of the discrepancy between my ways and God's word now what is crucial is the next verse I continued to meditate and pray over the discrepancy until I was additionally no no no no listen dear people here is the crunch with many of us I made haste and delay to observe thy testimonies once he saw the discrepancy between the ways of God and his ways he said I made a beeline to get my feet into God's ways without delay why because he knew that every moment of delay gave opportunity for his remaining sin to pump smoke and fog up into his moral consciousness you know why some
of you live in a constant fog of ethical indecision not sure what to do about this not sure what to do about that you know what your problem is it's right here God has touched you at point after point and made plain your duty and made for fear of man for love of self for love of money for fear of this that or the other you have hesitated in your obedience and in that period of hesitation your own remaining sin began to pump up the smoke of rationalization into the eyes of the soul into the eye conscience and there is a fog and smarting not because the issue was not clear when God dealt with it but because you did not make haste and delay not to keep his commandments implementation illustrated here it is a man made of the same stuff of which we are made and this was the pattern of his life and if the author was David look what happened when he didn't do this read the sorry sordid accounts in 2nd Samuel 11 and 12
in Psalm 6 32 and 51 how his whole spiritual life became convoluted and his joy is gone and his bones are broken and all is out of joint internally there was a time when this very man the moment he just cut a little square inch off the garment of the king of Israel it says his heart smote him and he dealt with it immediately and he confesses his sin to Saul as well as to God this is implementation illustrated and until you and I can say it's the pattern of our lives that in our devotions in the reading and preaching particularly we're speaking now of the public preaching and teaching and reading of the word of God until this becomes the framework within which we operate we will make little progress in the way of grace those of us sitting here in the previous hour we had our consciences persuaded that we ought to pray for our spiritual leaders didn't we now what are you going to do to implement what you heard I've already been figuring out how I want I want my wife and me to begin to implement
that in our devotional life so that not only is there prayer on Saturday for those who are going to minister and other times to pray for those in places of leadership but more frequent regular intercession for these men who are my shepherds and my pastors I must implement not next week not the week after but today I must make haste and turn my feet to thy commandments there's an illustration of it I leave for your consideration Nehemiah 8 13 to 18 we don't have time to look at it there's a beautiful example of corporate implementation when the whole remnant back in the land when they hear the word of God concerning a feast that had fallen out of disuse for decades the moment they hear the word of God they immediately establish the feast according to the word of God a beautiful example I leave it for your meditation I want to close with one verse out of that obscure little book the book of Philemon and verse 21 that precious little gem someday the Lord spares me I'd love to preach a series of sermons on Philemon this is God's deposit of the richest that I know single
deposit of what holy tact is in a child of God we might have as the subtitle the epistle of Paul to Philemon parenthesis a case study in godly Christian tactfulness and in his letter to Philemon a leading servant of God in the church at Colossae he had a servant by the name of Onesimus who had run away from him and in the providence of God he ends up
converted now Paul is sending him back to his master and in verses 17 to 20 Paul gives some very explicit specific directives to Philemon with respect to the arrangements that ought to be in place concerning this man Onesimus who is going to return to him if then you count me as a partner receive him that's an imperative receive him as you would receive me but if he's wrong to you at all or owes you anything put that to my account another directive I Paul write it with my own hand I will repay it that I say not unto you that you owe unto me your own life besides there's his tactfulness saying if you're going to be cheap enough to go ahead and serve up accounts that's alright but just remember you owe me your life beautiful little stroke yea brother let me have joy of you in the Lord refresh my heart in Christ he's given him specific directives now as he gives them what is his confidence verse 21 having confidence in your obedience I write unto you knowing that you will do even beyond what I say he saw in Philemon such a pattern of implementation that he said I not only have confidence you're going to do everything I directed you to do but you're going to find ways to take the principles that lie behind my
directives and find even more ways to flesh them out in specific acts of kindness and obedience what a wonderful thing when you can have that confidence of a brother or sister in Christ that they will not only take what you've preached and expounded from the pulpit and the applications you make from the pulpit but getting the principles they're going to find ten other ways to flesh out those precepts and principles and applications why because they are implementers in their hearts let me ask you if Paul were writing this letter to you could he say of you could he say of me having confidence in your obedience and I write unto you knowing you will do even beyond what I say it was grace that made Philemon such a man and it's grace that can make us such doers of the word of God take heed how you hear take heed how you hear not only prior to enduring but subsequent to the preaching of the word let there be repetition supplication meditation and all of it issuing in implementation the duty established from the two negative
Conclusion: A Call to Be Doers of the Word
examples from the two positive commands the duty illustrated in these incidents of the psalmist and of Philemon may God grant that we shall be the unnamed illustrations constantly living out the blessed realities that we've trafficked in this morning let us pray our father we confess with shame that our knowledge and our understanding of your ways far outstrips our meticulous careful conscientious and loving obedience forgive us and cleanse us for every act of self delusion when we have thought because we took the time to hear the word we were automatically the better for it when in reality we may have only increased our self delusion have mercy upon those who have no heart to obey you because they know not your son we pray that you would yet in your grace subdue their proud rebellious hearts until from the heart they own your son as savior and Lord and help us your people our father
that we will take heed how we hear that we will not only be hearers but doers of the word seal then your word to our hearts and help us as many of us must think through how we must implement the clear directives we received in the previous hour enable us oh lord to turn our feet unto your statues to make haste and delay not to keep your precepts we ask 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 a negative example, illustrating the danger of hearing God's word with pleasure but failing to implement it in one's life.
This passage, with the illustration of the two builders, highlights the critical importance of doing Jesus' words, not just hearing them, for true spiritual foundation.
This verse is a direct command to be 'doers of the word and not hearers only,' forming a central pillar for the sermon's argument on implementation.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
More from the archive
If this spoke to you, hear also…
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Be Ye Doers of The Word (radio broadcast)
Ezekiel 33:30-32
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