The Bible Baptist Church located
at 2015 Beulah Road in Madisonville, Kentucky would like to invite
you to listen to a message of the sovereign grace of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ by their pastor David Edmondson. I have a very urgent message
for all who hear my voice this day. My text will be found in
the Gospel of Mark chapter four. I want us to consider verse 24
together. And these words are the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Son himself is speaking
to us. And he says in verse 24, take
heed what ye hear. With what measure you meet, it
shall be measured to you, and to you that hear shall more be
given. In this day in which we live,
there's a church on nearly every street corner, in every town,
in every state across this nation. Two, three, maybe four times
a week, men and women gather together to hear preachers preach
what we call a sermon. And these men, like myself, preach
from the same Bible, though they may use different translations,
it's still the same Bible. All these men, like myself, speak
of God. They all profess to believe in
Jesus Christ. They all claim to be taught,
led, and directed by the same Holy Spirit. Yet they do not
all agree and believe the same things. We live in a time where
preachers give and have many instructions on what it is to
preach the gospel. But in the text before us, the
Lord Jesus himself gives special instructions, special directions
as how to hear what is preached. Take heed what you hear. And what a solemn and urgent
warning that calls for great discernment, judgment, and perception
on the hearer's part. Take heed as to hearing. Take
heed to what you hear. What you hear is a matter of
urgency to your soul. It is a matter of life and death. Now first, let me endeavor to
apply our Lord's warning here in this text to those in religion
who are not hearing the true gospel. It seems today that most
folks assume that just because a building has a cross or a steeple
on it, that inside you'll find a place of true worship that
couldn't be further from the truth. There are many counterfeit
gospels being preached in our day. And when you get right down
to it, sometimes the only differences between true preaching, true
gospel churches and false ones is the message that's being preached.
And what I mean by that is this, in both the true and the false,
you may hear the same hymns sung. You may read the same Bible verses
and even hear similar prayers, but there's life and death difference
between hearing. Hearing a man's sermon and hearing
a word from God can be two different things. Even our dictionary's
definition of what a sermon is should put us on guard. The definition
of a sermon is a talk, address, speech, or lecture on a religious
and moral subject. A sermon is a talk, an address,
or lecture based upon a passage from the Bible. But not all sermons
preached are the gospel. And it is not all hearing that
will be valuable to your soul. Our Lord said, take heed what
you hear. Now I dare say that none of us
would be quick to buy meat from the grocery store that was expired
or out of date. Much worse would we want to eat
it knowing that it was expired or out of date. My wife has taught
me to check the dates on the things at the grocery before
I buy them, the expiration date. Seemingly, we have high standards
today for checking the quality of certain food products, yet
very often we hear about someone consuming some bad meat, whether
beef or chicken, that makes them deathly ill or even causes some
death. On another thought, many of us
take medicine that our doctors prescribe, but I don't go into
the pharmacy and Ask the pharmacist to give me whatever he has a
notion to give me. I don't go into the pharmacist
and pharmacist and say, what do you got on special today?
Or what have you got a surplus of? Give me that care and attention
is given and what kind of medicine we are prescribed and specific
instructions and directions are given to us as to how we take
it. It's written right on the bottle, right on the, on the,
on the medicine bottle. And even then, when we consider
the side effects, we often have second thoughts about taking
the medication because the symptoms of the medication are often worse
than the problem that they're supposed to remedy. And I hate
it when I see these, um, law commercials, uh, an attorney
that says, if you, you are loved one have taken this medication
and more or less died from taking it, call us immediately. And then to see that that medicine
is one that I'm taking, that's a fearful thing. The point I'm
trying to make is this, whether it is expired food or prescription
medicine, we are unsure of. Men and women take great heed
and are concerned as to what they consume and no doubt they
should be. But how much more does that apply
to eternal matters? What about the spiritual food
that we consume? The Lord Jesus said, take heed
what you hear. Why is it that folks who desire
to live a healthy lifestyle will take heed to what they eat and
what they drink, but seem to have no concern about their spiritual
well-being, what they consume? Why are professing believers
so careless about what they hear and consume concerning the eternal
issues of the heart? Men and women, young and old,
need to take heed to what they hear, and you can be assured
that what you digest in order to feed your soul has great consequence
to your spiritual welfare. And should we not be more concerned
with our soul than our bodies? I'm telling you this. Listening
to every religious babbler and running the risk of the contamination
of your souls is a dangerous thing. Giving heed to the misinformed
speculations of men who do not know the God of the Bible. Don't
know him. It's not a light matter. Men
and women need to take heed to what they hear. And I don't know
if I can truly express just how disheartening it is for me when
I hear the reasons that folks, both young and old give for attending
some of the so-called churches and religious organizations in
our town. I think I've heard them all.
Hear folks say, well, we attend there because that's where our
family and friends go. That's where grandma always went. That's where Papa always went. The question is, what are you
hearing there? Hear others say, we go there
because of all the activities that they have for the children.
But what are they teaching your children? We attend there because
of all the things that they provide for seniors or the young married
couples, the recently whittled and the recently divorced. But
what are they feeding your soul? Oh, I go there because of the
music and the excitement generated from their contemporary worship
services. But what about the preaching?
What about the preaching? I have a loved one who is a cousin
who's much like a little sister to me who told me recently that
she was going to a church because it was like being at a rock concert. She said the lights are low,
the music is loud, everybody's waving their hands in the air
to the beat of the music, but she didn't say anything about
the preaching. Why? Because there is no true preaching,
just little sermonettes, little talks, little lectures about
how to live a successful and victorious life of prosperity. If that's what you like, then
go to a rock concert and hear your favorite musical group.
That won't send you to hell, but to claim to worship God in
a feel-good rock concert atmosphere where there's no true preaching
certainly will. Men and women need to take heed.
Take heed. I've heard others say, oh no,
I don't go for that kind of hoopla. I attend a church that's very
traditional. We sing the old hymns and we
do everything very respectfully. You very well may. But what is
your preacher saying? Is he telling you the truth about
God? Or is he telling you that God
loves everybody and that God wants to save everybody? Is he
telling you that you have to exercise your free will and decide
to follow Jesus? Is he telling you that Jesus
died for everybody, but only those who let Jesus have his
way. Only those who give their hearts
to Jesus will be saved. Is he telling you that Christ
shed his blood for the whole world, but there's still those
who will be lost for whom he shed his blood just because they
didn't let Jesus have his way. What nonsense? Take heed what
you hear. Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. Now the Greek words for taking
heed means to see to it. To see to. Christ is warning
us to see to what we hear. And what an urgent warning this
is. In this day of religious apostasy,
Those who are concerned about what they hear are in the minority.
But didn't our Lord say, even so then at this present time,
also there is a remnant according to the election of grace, a remnant,
just a small part of the whole will truly be interested and
truly be saved. And it's getting far too common.
to find that the vast majority of the population in our country
has no interest in hearing the true gospel preached, no interest
in truly knowing how God saves wretched sinners. But you put
on a passion play, a music concert, or have a seminar on how to financially
prosper in this world, and you'll pack the house. but you preach
the unsearchable riches of Christ and how he died in the place
of wretched sinners, a handful show up to here. The time has
come where entertainment takes precedence over the study of
God's word. But I'll take a handful of true
believers any day over a multitude who desire to only feel good
about themselves and proudly claim that they and Jesus have
a good thing going. To those who claim such a preposterous
statement, I'm telling you that you better take heed to what
you hear. You and the Christ of the Bible have nothing going
for you to make a statement like that. Now let me say to those
of you who love the gospel that these words of warning from our
Lord also apply to you in a different way. Those who love Christ, those
who love to hear the glorious gospel of how Christ came into
the world to save sinners, are to take heed to the truth that
they hear. Remember what to take heed means. It means to see, see to it. We
are to see to what we hear. We're to pay close attention
to what we hear. And these words are a command
from our Savior. If He commands us to do something,
we ought to desire to know what it is. Shouldn't we? Of course we should. We're to
take heed to the truth that we do hear. We're to pay close attention
to what we hear. We're so prone to wonder, so
prone to slumber, we must take heed. We must take heed to hear
God's Word so that we ourselves might be constantly reminded
to be fixed and resolved to trust in Christ alone. We must take
heed to hear God's Word so that we might stay spiritually alert
and never slumber, knowing that He only has the words to eternal
life. You remember when those followers
of Christ left and he looked at his disciples and he said,
will you leave me also? You remember what Peter said?
He said, Lord, where else would we go? Thou has the words to
eternal life. we must take heed to what we
hear, that we might clearly and simply preach and shine forth
the glorious gospel of Christ to others. And it's in that context
that the Lord here instructs us to take heed to what we hear.
Let me show you that. Look up at verse 21. And he said
unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under
a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick? Now if candles are to be lit
and illuminated and brought into a room in the night time where
folks are together to converse, read, or work, is it proper or
useful that the candle be covered with a basket, or when brought
into a bedchamber, that it be put under the bed? Should not
the candle be set on a candlestick, so that it be useful to all who
are in the room? Well, of course it should. Now,
we live in a day of electricity. We flip on a light and the lights
come on. But in our Lord's time, oftentimes
a room was illuminated by candles. And so it is with the gospel,
friends, the candle of the Lord, God's word, the gospel of grace
shines forth upon who and what we are and who and what Christ
is to us. Being illuminated by the Father
of lights, we are to shine forth the light of God's glorious gospel
so that others might see. And it's very appropriate that
the Lord uses candles here to describe us. For even the most
enlightened believers are but candles, as poor lights, dim
lights, compared with the sun of righteousness. A candle gives
light but in a very little way and before just a little time
a candle easily blown out and it's continually burning down
and wasting away but God's elect people Don't put themselves under
a bushel or under a bed. They are to be set on a candlestick
to bring forth the glory of God and the salvation of centers
by the preaching of the truth, the preaching of the gospel.
And that's the reason that our Lord gives us in verse 22. It's
because nothing of God's mercy and grace to centers is to be
hit. or not be made manifest to this sinful and dying world. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ is not to be kept secret, but to
be shared abroad to all that will hear it. That's why we preach
the gospel. We need to constantly hear the
glorious truth and be continually awakened, because we're so prone
to slumber. We need to take heed to God's
word with great attention. Mr. Spurgeon once told the story
about a young boy who sat on the front pew with his mother,
and she looked at her son sitting next to her, and he had his hand
coupled around his ear as though he was attempting to block out
everything but the words of the preacher. And after the services,
when asked by his mother why he did this, he said, mom, I
heard the preacher say that God speaks through the preaching
of his word, the preaching of the gospel. And I sure don't
want to miss anything that God has to say. Oh, for that kind
of hearing, that's the kind of hearing I'm talking about. Picture
this, a wealthy man dies and his family's gathered together
in the conference room of the attorney handling the state,
and the lawyer reads all the legal mumbo-jumbo of the last
will and testament of the man. A little attention is given to
him by the family, but the moment that that lawyer says, okay,
now for the dividing of the assets, the ears of everyone in the family
park up and you could hear a pin drop because of their attentiveness.
That's the kind of hearing I'm talking about. Are you interested
in hearing from God? Are you interested in the reading
of the last will and testament? Are you interested in the inheritance
that you are a joint heir with Christ in? The Lord Jesus says
in verse 23, if any man have ears to hear, let him hear. Now
I don't know much, but I know this much. If I have ears to
hear, It is God that gave them to me. If I have ears to hear,
it's God that lets me hear. And in verse 24, again, he said
unto them, take heed what you hear. With what measure ye meet,
it shall be measured to you, and unto you that hear shall
more be given. Now let me quickly move on to
the next part of this verse. The text says, with what measure
ye meet, it shall be measured to you. Now that word meet here,
M-E-T-E, means to dispense, hand out, allot, or allocate. So what does this mean in reference
to the subject of hearing? This is very important. It means
just this, the hearer of the gospel will get measure for measure. The measure shall be his own
measure. What a man sows, he shall also
reap. Let me give you an example. Those
who have no interest in the word of God will find it uninteresting. If you listen to the gospel without
any interest in the gospel, you will not care at all what the
gospel is or what it isn't. If you read the Bible with no
concern for your soul, you'll find nothing in the Bible that
concerns your soul. If you attend, the preaching
of the gospel or the reading of God's word, and have no longing
to be saved, no wish to escape from the guilt of sin, no desire
for heaven, and no care or love for God, the dullest, most boring
thing in the world to you will be a service where Jesus Christ
is preached. you shall get it back to you
with your own measure. Let me take it a step further.
If you hear, if you hear the gospel with a desire to find
fault, you will find fault. Not long ago, we had a man and
his family visit our church, and it was quite obvious to me
in talking to the man that he had no real interest in the gospel
that he was only there to find fault in the message that we
preached. And he did. He told someone later that he'd
never be back. You see, some attend the preaching
of the gospel with intentions of only finding fault. And I've
come to the place in my life where I have no problem obliging
people who wish to find fault. I'm not ever gonna water down
the gospel to make it more tolerable and palatable to sinners. I'm
not gonna tickle men and women's ears to avoid them finding fault
with the gospel. If men and women are looking
to find fault, they'll always find it. They'll find it in me,
they'll find it in my speech, my delivery, my content, and
they'll find it in how we conduct and do things in the service
of preaching the gospel. But if I preach the gospel, really,
they're finding fault with God. You see, the offense of the cross
has not ceased. It's still a stumbling block
to those who believe not. And those who believe not shall
stumble and fall and be broken to pieces by the gospel. For with their own measure shall
it be measured back to them. Unless God intervenes, what people
fish for, they will catch. But that principle works both
ways. Now listen to me. Whosoever comes
to hear the gospel with attention, Whoever comes to hear the gospel
and desires to know all about how Christ came into the world
to seek and to save that which was lost. Those who want to hear
about sin and the remedy of sin shall be taught of God. If a sinner comes wanting to
hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, he
or she will find an atoning sacrifice for their sin. A sinner who wants
to know something about grace alone through faith alone in
Christ alone and attentively hears, they'll find grace and
faith in Christ who saves. A sinner who desires to know
and to be taught will find much that is worth knowing, much that
will attract them to even closer attention to the things of Christ.
I'm telling you this is so. It is so. Some of you know this
from experience. Every hearer shall receive according
to what he or she brings. Nobody, no one gets saved by
a careless hearing. No man gets saved by a forgetful
hearing. No man gets saved by an occasional
hearing of the gospel. Why? For with what measure you
meet, it shall be measured to you. Now let me finish with a
promise from our Redeemer. If you look at the last part
of verse 24, it says, unto you that hear shall more be given. More what? First, more desire
to hear. It's the sinner who has heard
the gospel who loves to hear it. And I do believe that the
best preaching of the gospel is when the preacher himself
enjoys it and believes it wholeheartedly. I love to hear the gospel from
a man who loves the gospel that he preaches. And those who hear
the gospel again and again and again, get more and more sure
that it's true. Oh, at first they hope it's true.
Then they think it's true. And soon they believe it's true. And farther on, they know that
it's true, and they become so delighted in what they hear that
they would die in the defense of it. Christ says unto you that
here shall more be given. You shall become more and more
sure of the truth that you hear. Isn't that what Paul wrote in
Romans 10, 17? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Now let me ask you in closing,
if a man died for you, gave his life for you, died in your place
when you deserved to die and he didn't, if that gracious,
loving, compassionate man left you a word and a letter as to
why he did so, would you not desire to hear the word that
he left for you? Would you not desire to read
that letter? Of course you would. How much
more should safe sinners desire to hear the word of the glorious
Savior who died the just for the unjust to bring them unto
God? Take heed what you hear. You
have been listening to a message by David Edmondson, the pastor
of Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, Kentucky. If you would like a
copy of this message or to hear other messages of God's free,
sovereign grace in Christ, you can write to our mailing address
at P.O. Box 652 Madisonville, Kentucky
42431 or log on to our website at FreeGraceRadio.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, we meet at 2015 Beulah Road, Madisonville, Kentucky. And our service times are Sunday
morning Bible study at 10 o'clock a.m. Worship services begin at
11 o'clock a.m. Wednesday evening services at
7 o'clock p.m. Please tune in again next Sunday
morning at 10 o'clock a.m. for another message of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.