TEXT: Mark 4:24-25

SUBJECT: Hearing and Heeding the Word of God #1: Introduction

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas ran for senate from the state of Illinois. Leading up to the election that fall, the men met seven times for debate—and always to a packed house. In Galesburg, Illinois (population 5,000) between 15,000 and 20,000 showed up to hear the candidates.

In one way this does not surprise me. The men were first-rate orators and they were debating the most explosive issues in American history. But, in another way, it is very surprising. Each man spoke for ninety minutes without interruption, and so the debates lasted a full three hours with a break of no more than the time it took for one man to sit down and the other man to take his place at the podium.

What sort of people came to the debates? Farmers, for the most part, some of whom could not read, with most having no more than four or five years of formal schooling. Whatever they lacked in book learning, however, they made up for by knowing how to listen.

Listening is fast becoming a lost art. If the Lincoln/Douglas debates were held today, how many would come out for them? And how many would stay to the end? We have become poor listeners. Partly because we’re lazy, partly because we’re busy, and partly because the culture is against good listening. Television and the Internet are paid for by advertisers, and the last thing they want you to do is listen to their ads! If you did, you wouldn’t buy their products…unless you really believe drinking Budweiser will make you popular with gorgeous girls in bikinis!

Seeing how well advertising works, politicians have co-opted its techniques and thus the most serious issues of the day are ‘debated’ in slogans, symbols, and soundbites, what Shakespeare described as--

We need to become good listeners, not only to see through the nonsense all around us, but more importantly, to be better disciples of Jesus Christ. If our Lord rules the Church at all, He rules it by His Word, and that Word deserves and demands a good hearing.

And so, I hope to begin a short study called Hearing and Heeding the Word of God.

Before going to our text, let me briefly define my terms: By the Word of God I mean—not the Bible read at home—but the Bible taught and preached in church. By hearing I mean learning how to listen to the Word of God with profit—not just hearing the sermon with your ears, but ‘getting it’. And, by heeding the Word, I mean believing what it teaches and obeying what it commands.

Let’s move on to our text. Our brother read the first twenty-five verses of Mark chapter four, but the text is only the last two, Mark 4:24-25—

The speaker is our Lord Jesus Christ and He’s speaking to His disciples. This means the message is for Christians. It’s not something others need to hear, but we do.

The command is: Listen to the Word of God. Hearing it, even with excitement, is not enough.

The positive reason to listen to the Word is: If you do, it will bless you now, and getting into the habit of listening to it, it will bring you more and more blessing in the future.

The negative reason to listen to the Word is: If you don’t the Word will do you little good now, and forming habits of inattention, it will bring you even fewer blessings in the future, until, at last, it does you no good at all.

The message is: What you get out of the Word of God depends on what you put into it. If you listen with care and faith and a mind to obey it, it will be the greatest blessing you will ever receive. But if you don’t listen, it won’t bless you.

What blessing is our Lord referring to? The Parable of the Sower makes it clear: salvation is what He has in mind. In short, if you hear and heed the Word of God, you will be saved. If you don’t, you won’t.

If my interpretation is hard and demanding, it is also true. James 1:21 teaches the same thing.

The Word of God saves all who receive or welcome it into their hearts. Those who only hear it with their ears—the next verse says—are only—

Hearing the Word of God is a matter of life and death—and the life and death it’s a matter of is eternal. If we paid more than lip service to this, we’d listen better than we do.

Listen to what? The Word of God both read and preached. At one time most Christians thought the sermon they heard on Sunday morning was the Word of God. In recent years, however, preaching has gotten so bad and people have gotten so skeptical, that this old belief has been given up, for the most part.

I still believe it. I don’t mean I or any other living preacher is inspired or that our sermons are infallible or inerrant or belong in the Bible. Of course I don’t mean any of this. What I mean is this: Preaching that is faithful to the Word of God is the Word of God. The Word of God does not reside in the words of the Bible, but in its Message. Thus, uninspired men can preach in the Lord’s Name, and like Paul, we can say—

This is why a conscientious preacher is always scared in the pulpit. It’s not speaking to people, it’s speaking for God! Who is he to speak for the Lord? But that’s what the Lord has called him to do. For Jeremiah, there were times he wanted to chuck it all and become an innkeeper. But he could never quite pull it off. When he tried to, he said—

While the most faithful preacher is not God, faithful preaching is the Word of God.

If preaching is the Word of God, it is also the gift of God. Ephesians 4:11 says the Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors who are teachers are the gifts of Christ to His Church.

What are these men given for? They’re given to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to prevent us from being children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and to unify and mature the Lord’s People till He comes.

Preachers are the gifts of Christ to His Church. Keep this image in mind: Gifts. Here’s the story that goes with it.

The father in this story is Christ, the son is the church, and the gift is preaching. If our Lord is a wise, generous, and loving father, the gift of preaching must be a good one. And if it is, what does it say about us if we listen to no more sermons than we have to, and those we have to, we listen to without interest or gratitude?

Preaching is the gift of Christ.

Preaching is the carrier of countless blessings. While some gifts come apart from the Word, the best ones come by way of the Word. What does preaching do for us? A great many things, only two of which I can name.

First of all, preaching is God’s usual way of saving sinners. When asked to do something more relevant to the times (or maybe we’d say, ‘cooler’), Paul answered, ‘no can do’—

The wisdom and power of God are so great that ordinary preaching—even less than ordinary preaching—saves people when nothing else will. What our Lord said of His own preaching applies to the preaching of lesser men, too—

If preaching is God’s usual way of saving sinners, it is also His way of turning them into saints. In other words, preaching (when received) makes the believer holy and builds up the church. The verse is well-known, John 17:17,

While preaching is no substitute for personal Bible study, personal Bible study is no substitute for preaching either! The two do not contradict each other, but are complementary. While you can see with only one eye, the one-eyed man lacks the perspective a man has with two good eyes. If you want to see clearly, open both eyes. If you want to grow in grace read the Bible and go to Church.

If preaching is God’s Word, God’s gift, and the carrier of God’s grace, let me remind you it is all of the above for you.

Thousands of sermons are being preached today, only you’re not hearing those sermons, but this one. Do you know why? There are secondary causes, of course: Maybe your parents made you come to this church and not some other, and so you’re stuck hearing my sermon and not someone else’s. That’s why you’re here.

In part. The deeper reason you’re hearing this sermon and not some other is because God wants you to! In the first chapter of Ephesians, Paul says God

I take the word, ‘all’ in it’s most Arminian sense—all things without exception! One day our Lord said not even a sparrow falls without your Father and the very hairs on your head are numbered.

One of the things He has willed for you is for you to be here today and to hear this sermon. Now, why do you suppose He would do that? Since the Word of God is chiefly a carrier of His mercy, I believe He has sent you here to receive what you need. Maybe not what you think you need, but what you really need. The sermon, therefore, is God’s gift to you.

If preaching is the Word of God, the gift of God, the carrier of His blessings, and meant for you in particular, you—in particular—need to hear it and heed it.

You need to come to church—not only when it’s convenient—but whenever you can. It should be your Sunday priority, and not what you do when you’ve got nothing else to do.

You need to listen carefully to the sermon. If you don’t know what I’m saying, tell me you don’t know what I’m saying, and I’ll do what I can to say it more clearly. If you still don’t know what I’m saying, get what you can out of it. The most confusing sermons have a flash of clarity now and then.

You need to pray for a hearing and heeding heart. Only God can give you this, and He will give it to you if you ask Him in faith. If you don’t know how to pray yourself, pray another man’s prayer, David’s, Psalm 119:18—