Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Mark chapter 4. Gospel of Mark chapter 4. Here in these verses, our Lord
both exhorts us and warns us about hearing. He said, take
heed what you hear. Now certainly we're not to give
an ear to false doctrine or to false prophets or anything that
these men are involved in. We're told that plainly in the
scripture. In John's second epistle we're told, whosoever transgresseth
And it is a transgression when you come with a false doctrine. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. We're not to look
at this man as a reverend. We're not to look at this man
and even acknowledge him as a minister of God. Or even to consider him
a brother in Christ. This man has not God. That's pretty clear, isn't it? John didn't do a lot of talking.
It was usually Peter or one of the other apostles who were doing
a lot of talking around the Lord. But when John did speak, he was
very pointed and easy to be understood. And here he said, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's feed. Now, I'm hearing this so much
in our days. Have a blessed day. Don't you,
I hear it at McDonald's, everywhere I go, I hear it at the grocery
store. They'll hand me my receipt after I buy my groceries and
say, have a blessed day. That's what this is talking about. This was simply the phrase of
the day, if you will. Godspeed, God be with you along
your way. And he said, we don't do that.
Don't bid him God's speed or the Lord bless you. For he that
biddeth him God's speed is a partaker of his evil deeds. You're saying
the Lord bless you in your false doctrine. The Lord be with you
and guide you as a false prophet. That's what we're telling them
when we bid them God's speed. And certainly we're not to give
an ear to false doctrine, that goes without saying. But this
is not what our Lord's warning his disciples of or exhorting
them to do here in Mark chapter four. These men were under his teaching. They were being spoken to by
the Son of God. They were told time and again
that they were blessed of God to have ears to hear, eyes to
see, and a heart to understand. And He was time and again speaking
to them, giving them the parables and the meaning of the parables, giving to them the writings of
the prophets, And so it would come to pass
that after his resurrection, they'd say to one another, didn't
our hearts burn within us as we walked along the way and he
opened unto us the scriptures. Take heed what you hear. So what is he talking about here?
Well, he's saying don't hear my words as a mathematical equation. Don't hear me the same as you
do your math teacher. Don't hear me the same way you
hear the reporter on the six o'clock news. Don't hear this as a mechanical
fact. Don't hear it as a scientific
theory. Hear it for what it is. It is
the word of life. That's what he's telling them. Born again, Peter said, Not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. Take heed, he said, what you
hear. His word is quick and powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged
sword. It can divide us under soul and
spirit. It's a discerner. Talking about
this book, he's talking about his word. Both his written word
and his word preached. It's a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. The word of God says that we're
sinners. Fallen sinners. Hopeless sinners. Sinners by nature, by choice,
and by practice. None righteous, none good, none
that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. Better take
heed to that. That's what he's telling them.
Take heed to it. Don't you treat this as another
fact and just lodge it up there with the rest of the stuff. They weren't hearing everybody.
They were hearing him. Well, what had they heard? What were they to take heed to?
What had they heard? Well, they had heard that the
Son of Man, I'm just taking this from the first few chapters of
Mark that we've already studied. They'd heard that the Son of
Man had power on earth to forgive sins. How many people know that today?
Huh? Not very many. Not very many. He has power to forgive sins. They heard this from him also.
Behold, need not a physician, but sick. Came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. They heard that you can't put
new wine in an old bottle. You can't take this word of life
and stick it in this old nature. It won't work. Number one, it
won't receive it. Number two, it wouldn't know
what to do with it if it did. It'll misuse it, misapply it. You can't put this new wine in
an old bottle, and you can't patch up that old garment with
a new piece of cloth. You can't take grace and patch
up that hole in that old garment. Grace ain't a patch. It's a whole
suit. And they heard that the Sabbath was made for man and not man
for the Sabbath. They heard that the strong man
arm keepeth his palace in peace until one stronger than he should
come upon him and bind him. and spoil his goods. And they
heard of the true family of God and of the priority that it's
to be given. They heard about the gospel sower
and the prepared ground. They heard about the gospel candle
and the purpose for which it was given. And now he said, take
heed to it. Take heed to what you hear. Now let me ask you something.
Myself is included in this, but I'm asking you this as your pastor.
What have you heard? What have you heard? I'll let
you make the list. What have you heard? How did
you hear it? Isn't that what he's asking them?
Take heed what you hear. But you say, you're just a man.
He was, too, as he stood in their presence. And I know he was more
than a man. This is the God-man. This is
the man Christ Jesus. He was a man anointed of God
to preach the gospel to poor sinners. He said that. He said,
this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. The scripture that
was spoken of me all them thousands of years ago, it's fulfilled
today. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor, poor sinners, bankrupt sinners, and
to heal the brokenhearted, and to preach deliverance to the
captives, and receiving a sight to the blind, and to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord, that is to preach the Lord's
Jubilee. Yes, He was the God-man. And yes, He was the eternal Word
made flesh, but He stood before them being sin of God to them,
and carried with Him the gospel the same as we do. He sent out those twelve, the
very twelve that He's talking to in this passage. He sent them
out and He told them this, He that heareth you, Here with me.
Take heed what you hear. What you hear. And he sent out
another 70, and he said the same thing to them. Now if it's just facts, you can
read it in a book, you can go online and find it somewhere.
But if God has sent his messenger to you, and that's what the scripture
says he does, How shall you hear without a book? It doesn't say
that. How shall you hear without a CD? It don't say that. I know
what we think and I know how we reason, but I'm just telling
you the word of God don't say that. The Holy Ghost said, how
shall you hear without a preacher? That's what he said. Take heed what you hear. Diligently attend to it. Seek
to understand it. Prove it in the word of God. I don't want you to take me at
my word. I want you to take him at his. Doesn't matter what I
think. Matters what he says. Lay it up in your minds and memories. Why? Well, first of all, because
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's the
first reason. Now, God's been pleased to send
you a man to preach to you here. We've got six of them coming
this coming weekend, the Lord willing. Six men. In the providence of God, they're
gonna stand before you, same as I am this morning, and declare
unto you the gospel. And these are not just six men.
These are six outstanding men. These are faithful men, men who've
been at this a long time. Men who know what they're talking
about. Ah, they're just men. They're
just men. Maybe in body. Maybe in nature. But not in his
office. Not in his office. And if he has this office given
to him of God, then he has the providence of God that's brought
him here and brought you to here. And it's not in the power of
his message, but in the power of Christ's message. And the
gospel is the power of God unto salvation, isn't it now? Listen to what Paul said to the
Thessalonians. Now he told them that he knew
their election because the gospel didn't come and he said, my gospel
came not unto you in word only. What I preached to you didn't
just come to you in word only, but it came in power and it came
in the Holy Ghost. And it was effectual in you. You become followers of us and
the Lord. You abandon your old idols and
sought after the living God. You patiently now wait for that
great return, that great hope that Christ will come again and
raise these vile bodies and give us eternal bodies. And he said, for this cause also
thank we God without ceasing because when you received the
word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the
word of men. That's how most people receive
it, isn't it? Well, that's your opinion. That's your interpretation. Paul said, I thank God you wasn't
one of them. He said, you received the word of God
which you heard of us. You received it not as the word
of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. Now listen,
which affectionately worketh also in you that believe. Take heed what you hear. You know how many men and women
this morning there are in this country and other countries abroad
that have been given over to strong delusion to believe a
lie? They're in their synagogues and
churches and cathedrals and whatever name they put on the door, they're
in there this morning and the music's going and they're clapping
their hands and they're swaying to the music. and they're so
happy to be there and they're gonna go home and rejoice after
a while. Wasn't that so nice in there
this morning? Did you feel what I felt in there
today? They'd been given over to strong
delusion to believe a lie. And then to be damned for believing
the lie that they were given over to believe. God doesn't
owe us a revelation of Himself. If He gives one, it's by His
sovereign grace. It's by His mercy. It's an act
of love and grace and mercy toward us that He would give us a revelation
of His Son and then make us meet to be able to receive it and
rejoice in it, to cling to it, to rest our hope on it. Take
heed, you see what he's saying here? Take heed what you hear. Do we have any idea this morning
how favored we are to hear what we're hearing, to believe what
we believe? Multitudes listen to our Lord. Now you might You might say,
I don't know, preach artist, I can't get first base with what
you're saying. You might be justified in that.
You might be. Let me tell you something, you
wasn't justified when you heard the Lord of Glory preach. And
these men listened to him preach and they said, he's crazy. He's
saying if we don't eat his flesh and drink his blood, we got no
life in us. And his disciples, these followers
of him, hundreds of them, been following him everywhere he went,
they left. The crowd peeled off. Nobody left but the 12. And the Lord turned to them and
said, will you go also? Now, don't you listen to what
they say. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. Maybe we don't understand it,
but we know you have them. If there's going to be an understanding,
this is where we're going to get it. To whom shall we go? We're not going back to those
ceremonies. We're not going back to that
law. We're not going back to that confusion. You have the
words of eternal life. We're going to stay with you.
We're going to stay with you. Take heed what you hear. Well, is that how we hear? I'll tell you this. To a hungry
sinner, there's nothing more precious than a gospel message. There's nothing more precious. I can't imagine. Those people
were starving to death back in the days when Joseph reigned
in Egypt. They were starving to death and
they came down to Egypt and Joseph filled that sack. He pointed
to those men and said, fill it up. And they put that corn in
that sack. Boy, how precious was that. watch that gold and grain go
down in that sack, boy oh boy. They went home and told everybody,
there's corn in Egypt. What was wrong with the corn
in Iraq? Wasn't any corn. That's what was wrong with it,
wasn't any. Now go back to our text here
in Mark chapter four, verse 24. He said unto them, take heed
what you hear. Now listen. With what measure
you meet, it shall be measured to you and unto you that here
shall more be given. With what measure you meet. Now the word meet here means
to distribute by measure, to deal out. to deal it out, just
like Joseph, he would give them so much corn, he measured it
out and he gave it to them. He gave it to them. With what
understanding and authority we distribute his word, it shall
be measured to us, and unto us that hear shall more be given. And this is not talking so much
about a man's ability to do these things as it is the enlightening
of the man, the enlightening of his heart to see the reality
of it, the ability to perceive it, and the confidence to teach
it. Don't you ever let somebody say,
well, you know, I really, I believe in election, but I don't preach
it. No, you don't believe in it. No, you don't. No, you don't. You believed in it, you preach
it. And that's what this is talking
about. That man who's been enlightened, given the ability to understand
and to see how precious these things are, he's going to distribute
it in the same measure it was given to him. Given to him by
grace, he's going to distribute it that way. And I'll tell you this, when
a person receives that man and his message, and that has to
do with Christ, his apostles, his evangelists, or pastor teachers,
he'll profit by his teaching. He'll profit by it. He'll profit
by his teaching. He'll be rooted and grounded
and established in the faith because that's why God gave these
offices to the church. He'll glean and store up in his
heart the pearls and the heavenly treasures sent forth in that
man's gospel. He'll remember it. Man, I remember
Henry Mahan throwing out those pearls and those golden nuggets.
I can remember that like it was yesterday. And they're just as
sweet today as they were 35, 40 years ago. But the man who hears to debate,
he hears to argue. All he'll ever hear is facts
and cold, dead, dry letters. That's all he's ever gonna receive. Mark chapter four, verse 25.
For he that hath to him shall be given, and he that hath not
from him shall be taken even that which he hath. Maybe a better
rending of that might be even that which he seems to have. I say that because what God gives,
he doesn't take back. If he's pleased to give it, he's
going to cause that to benefit you. He's going to make it benefit
you. And I say that because it's not
given by condition, but unconditionally by the sovereign and free grace
of God. And also because it's given and
maintained by his sovereign, irresistible spirit. Every good gift, every perfect
gift cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Everything he gives, he gives.
He's not taking it back. and his word not going to return
unto him void. It's going to accomplish that
for which it was sent. And I say that because of the
meritorious works of Christ. And I say that because of the
end of the gospel this man preaches. It is to glorify God. And I say this because God has
sent it and ordained it to accomplish its purpose. Take heed what you
hear. For he that hath, what does he
have? He has an understanding. He has
an unction from the Holy One. He has a joy and confidence in
the word that God's given him. It's real to him. For he that hath, to him shall
be given. That is, given more, given a
deeper, clearer revelation of Christ, given a clearer understanding
of the grace of God in the salvation of sinners. A clearer understanding
of the Word of God. And then Philippians, Paul said
this was his confidence toward these Philippians, these Gentiles. He said, here's my confidence.
He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. Boy, if he don't, you're a goner.
I can tell you that. The word preached is like the
will of a great man being read to his children. What they hear... Let's just say this happened
and you got this relative and you didn't even know he was a
relative and you found out. You found out. This is my relative. And the lawyer sends you a letter,
and we want you to come down to such and such a place, and
there's going to be a reading of the will. And you go in there
and sit down, and he said, Russell Sanders, he said, I've left you
my new Rolls Royce. You're going to get up and run
out the door? Uh-uh. No, I'm going to stay till the
whole will is read, ain't you? Huh? Karma might just be the
first thing. Listening to the gospel is like
listening to the will of God. That's what it is. It's the will
of God. Christ is the testator. He's
going to be sure that you get everything that He bought. It's
coming to you. And He's going to reveal it to
you. He's going to read it to you. He's going to make you understand
it in the Word of God. In the volume of the book it's
written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. And he did it, didn't
he? And now he's alive, and he's
gonna be sure that that inheritance is understood and received and
enjoyed by everyone that it was left to. That's what he's saying
here. That's what he's saying here.
Take heed what you hear. All right, thanks.