Hold your finger there in Mark
chapter 4 and turn to Luke chapter 10, if you would please. I've entitled this message, Take
Heed Concerning Hearing. In verse 38 of Luke chapter 10. Now it came to pass as they went,
that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman
named Martha received him into her house." Now you can imagine
what that must have been like, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ
into your home. She knew who he was, and I can't
imagine what all must have been going on through her mind. And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. I like to picture that in my
mind, her sitting at his feet and listening to what he said. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. Now I can say under every circumstance,
it's wrong to tell the Lord what to do. No one has any business doing
that. I love the way when in John chapter
two, she said, well, I can't remember. It's when he said,
woman, what have I to do with thee? But I can't remember the
exact scripture, but she was telling the Lord what to do.
And you don't do that. He's the Lord. You don't tell him what
to do. But Martha did. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and trouble about many
things. I'm sure there's some people
in here tonight, careful, anxious, troubled about many things. But one thing is needful. Mary has chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her. And what was that good
part? Sitting at his feet, and hearing
his word. Romans 10, 17 says, faith cometh
by hearing, what we're doing right now. Faith, saving faith,
the gift of God's grace cometh by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. James said, let every man be
swift to hear, slow to speak. Slow to react, listen to what's
being said. Slow to wrath, slow to pop off. Hearing what? What Mary was hearing. The word of God. The word of
Christ. Now I can see somebody thinking,
well, she was listening to Christ. I'm listening to you. I can see the difference. But
the Lord did say, he that heareth you, heareth me. And that's how important this
is. God has manifested his word through
preaching. Titus 1.3, which is committed
to my trust. First Corinthians 1.21, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I want to be one of those people
who are described as in that believe, don't you? Now, look
in our text in Mark. Look what it says in verse 24.
And he said unto them, take heed what you hear. And in Luke's account, he says,
take heed how you hear. Both are incredibly important. But what he goes on to say in
verse 24, take heed what you hear, with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you and to you that hear shall more be
given. Now, think about this statement. The measuring cup you bring is
how you're gonna hear. You know, he said this with regard
to three different things. Number one, he said this with
regard to judging. Judge not that you be not judged. For with the same measure you
meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now, what does the
Lord mean by that? Does he mean that if we judge
people, he's gonna judge us? Well, I don't have any hope of
being saved if that's what it is. I'm a judgmental person.
I kind of got the idea that you are too. We all are. We don't
have any business being judgmental. It's hypocritical. But all of
us are judgmental to one degree or the other. But what the Lord
is saying, and you've experienced this in your own self, when you
feel like someone's judging you, You see every flaw, you see every
bad thing about them. Not only do you see it, you're
looking for it. When you find somebody judging you, and if
somebody's not being judgmental toward you, you like them. They
may be having all kinds of contradictions, it's okay. That's what the Lord
is saying. With the same judgment you judge,
you should be judged. With what measure you meet, it
should be measured to you again. And he said the same thing regarding
to giving. Luke chapter six, verse 38, give
and it shall be given to you for with the same measure you
meet with all it should be measured to you again. Now, he that sows
sparingly shall reap sparingly. He that sows bountifully shall
reap bountifully. It's the same principle in this
thing of giving. You give and you'll be blessed in your giving.
You give bountifully, you will have bountiful blessings. You
give sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. The Lord tells us that. And then
here in our text, he says, take heed what you hear with what
measure you meet, it should be measured to you again. What's
that mean? You come with an uninterested
ear, you'll leave with an uninterested ear. You come with a critical ear,
and you'll be able to find a lot to criticize. I don't have any
doubt about that if that's the way I come. You come with an
empty cup, you're gonna have your cup filled. With what measure
you meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now take heed what
and take heed how you hear. Now let's go back up to verse
21. Let's see what set up this statement. And he said unto them,
is a candle that's a light, that's what they saw by when it was
dark, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under
a bed and not to be set on a candlestick. Now the candle is for light.
It represents actually the same thing that the seed was in what
we consider last week on the parable of the sower. The seed
is the word of God, the light of the candle is the word of
God. The light of the candle is the gospel message. It's the
word of God that we hear. I love saying this. I've said it many times over
here. The word of God is the word, the message from the written
word, the scriptures that reveal the living word. I love the way
Christ himself is called the word of God. Now, We see by light, don't we? What if all the lights were turned
off in here and there wasn't any light outside, you couldn't
see a thing, could you? It's only by the light being turned
on that you know what is in this room and who's in this room.
Ephesians 5.13 says, whatsoever maketh manifest is light. Now, when the Lord said, I am
the light of the world, Now this is talking about the candle.
He's the light. He's the word of God. When the Lord said, I'm
the light of the world, there was a particular context given.
Would you turn with me to John chapter eight? John chapter eight. He says in verse 12, then spake
Jesus again unto them after what took place, saying, I am the
light of the world. Now let's see what took place
that made the Lord say this. I love this passage of scripture.
Verse one of chapter eight, Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives
and early in the morning, he came again into the temple and
all the people came unto him and he sat down and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken
in adultery. And when they had set her in
the midst, they said unto him, Master, the woman was taken in
adultery in the very act. Now, if she was taken in the
very act, the man was taken in the very act as well, but somehow
they just avoided that. They just bring this woman. Now
Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. And
you know, that's what the law says concerning the adulterer.
Stone him, put him to death, man and woman. That is what Moses
said. But what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him. Now, they thought they had
the Lord in a no-win situation. If you say stone her, what is
all this you're talking about compassion and mercy? It's all
talk and there's no reality to it. If you say set her free,
where's your respect for God's law? Where's your respect for
what God says to do? You have no respect for the law
that God has given. They thought they had the Lord
in an unwinnable statement. Anything he said, would condemn
him, how carefully they crafted this scenario. I think it was
all set up. They set this woman up, caught her in the very act,
brought her to the Lord. They planned all this out. This
is how we're gonna catch him in his words. But Jesus stooped down and with
his finger wrote upon the ground, as though he heard them not.
I love that. Don't you hear us? Nope. Nope. He was riding on the ground.
And there's been so much speculation regarding what he was riding. But I feel like this is as close
a guess as we're going to come up with. Thou shalt not commit
adultery. Not she shall not. but thou shalt
not commit adultery. That's the finger of God. That
was the finger of God riding on the ground, wasn't it? It
was the finger of God who wrote in the law, thou shalt not commit
adultery. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said, He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped
down and wrote on the ground. Remember, this is the finger
of God writing. And I know that the only other
time in the scriptures we read of the finger of God writing
was when the finger of God wrote on the wall In Daniel chapter
five, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. I have no doubt that every one
of these men were guilty of the commission of this sin. And everybody in this room is
too, if not literally, in your heart. Because the Lord said,
whoso looketh on a woman to lust after in his heart, hath committed
adultery with her already. That's what the Lord said. Verse 9, and they which heard
it being convicted, not by the Holy Spirit, because if
they would have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, they would
have come to Christ for mercy. But it says they were convicted by
their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the
eldest, even unto the last. They couldn't throw a stone. And Jesus was left alone and
the woman standing in the midst. Best place me or you can be is
to be left alone with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing better
than that. When Jesus had lifted up himself,
now he stooped once, he lifted up himself, he stooped again,
And he lifted up himself again. And I have no doubt that this
represents the two stoops of Christ, his incarnation when
he became flesh, and his stooping to be made sin on the
cross. And this second time up represents the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's now speaking to this
woman on resurrection ground. And look what he says. When Jesus
lifted up Himself and saw none but the woman, He said unto her,
Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? There wasn't anybody there to
condemn her. They were all gone. You see, if the Lord Jesus Christ
died for you right now, There's nothing to accuse you of. You
have no sin. Oh, may the Lord give us grace
to enter into that right now. Before God, I have no sin. Where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus
said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again to them,
saying, I am the light of the world. Christ is the light as
to how you can be guilty and yet be justified by him and not
condemned. The only way you'll ever understand
that is through the light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, it's light that exposes
this candle, this light. It exposes love and hatred. The Lord said in John 3, this
is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and that
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil. John tells us in 1 John 1 5,
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now, Turn with
me for a moment to 1 Corinthians 1. And I don't know if you like
to write things in your Bible. I don't, but I think this would
be a good thing to write down. Remember that candle, that light
represents the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Scriptures,
the Gospel message. We read in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 for the preaching. Now that word preaching is the
word that's generally translated word, the logos of the cross,
the word of the cross. And here is the light that is
to be put on the candlestick, the word of the cross. Christ is that great light, the
lamb is the light thereof. Now, The cross is the light and
the only light to the true character of God. God cannot be known. I mean known personally to where
I know him and he knows me. God cannot be known apart from
the cross of his son. Now, Christ going to the cross
is the most God-like thing God ever did. I want you to think about that.
I love saying that. Christ going to the cross is the most God-like
thing God ever did. In the cross, he manifests all
he's pleased to manifest concerning himself, and I believe he manifests
all concerning himself. I mean, you look at the cross.
You look at Christ nailed to that tree, and you see the eternal
purpose of God, the reason God created the universe, You see
all of the attributes of God on full display. You see His
justice. He's not going to let sin go
unpunished. You see His wisdom. He's made
a way to be just and justify and embrace me. I see that. I see how God can embrace me
and accept me and love me. We see His power on the cross. His power was manifested in making
my sin to not be anymore. He's not just covered up somewhere
that's going to come back up one of these days. No, He's God.
He made it to not be. He made me the very righteousness
of God. Oh, we see His love, His mercy,
His grace. Every attribute of God is manifested
in the cross. That's the light of the world.
That's the light that's to be put on the candlestick. You know,
the cross is really the only light that me and you are gonna
see with regard to ourselves. Now you may be conscious of much
sin and you may feel very bad about yourself, but you know
that doesn't tell one millionth of the story about you. The reality
about you and me is seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if God left you or me to ourselves, we'd do what they
did to Christ on the cross. We'd put him to death. We'd put
him out of business. That is the natural man's hatred
of God, the living God, the God of the Bible. Somebody says,
I don't hate God. Well, you might not hate the
God that you felt comfortable with, but the God of the Bible.
Men's hatred for that God is seen when they hear the gospel.
And it is the cross that manifests the sinfulness and the enmity
of man, but how the cross manifest the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to think of his obedience
to the Father. Not my will, but thine be done. How the cross manifests his love
to his people. Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. And how the cross represents
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody had to believe God,
he believed him perfectly. He said, though he slay me, yet
will I trust him. Now that is the light of the
gospel. I sure can't see why Paul said,
God forbid, we sang it, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this light is to be put on
a candlestick for all to see. Truly, he is the light of the
world. And what does the candlestick
represent in the scripture? We'll go into Revelation 1, and
he tells us the candlestick is the church. This is the message
that the church is to uphold. Not just the preacher, but the
church. Every believer is involved in
this. This is the light that the church
is to uphold in this world. the light of the word of God,
the word of the cross, the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's whoever is bringing,
this is not just talking about the preacher. This is the church
and this is whoever is bringing the gospel message. When you're
talking to someone with regard to the gospel, you are that candlestick
upon which the light is to shine. Now, look what the Lord says.
Let's go back to our text in Mark Chapter four. He said unto them, verse 21,
is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, a vessel, or
under a bed not to be set on a candlestick. Now you don't
take a light, a candle, and put a vessel over it. That obscures
the light. What I thought about was we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, vessels of clay, jars of clay,
and I sure don't want the vessel obscuring the light. It certainly
can. I don't want the vessel obscuring
the light. And we don't put it under a bed.
Why did the Lord talk about a bed? I've never heard of somebody
putting a candle under a bed, but I think it has something
to do with we don't obscure the light with our own complacency
and laziness. No. We put the light on a candlestick
so all can see. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. Now, if they glorify you, the
works weren't any good. They were just self-promotion.
That's all they were. They were ugly. They were wicked. If men
glorify you, that's what you wanted. That's what you were
looking for. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your father,
which is in heaven. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter 25. Verse 31. When the son of man shall come
in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory. I love the majesty of that. And
before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate
them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. Now, let me remind you of something.
Your eternal destiny is in the hand of Jesus Christ. He's going
to make this final judgment, not you, he is. Before him shall
be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from
another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
his left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Now this is a very familiar passage of scripture. People have used
it for years to show how your works need to be brought up on
judgment day to prove that you're saved. And look at this. Remember, let your light so shine
before men. Look at this as the preaching
of the gospel. And this is something that every
believer is involved in. If you're a believer, you're
just as involved in the preaching of the gospel as I am. You might
not be staying behind this pulpit, but you're just as involved as
I am. And look at this as the preaching of the gospel. Then
shall the king say unto them, on his right hand come ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world, for I was hungry. and you gave me meat. That's
the preaching of the gospel. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. That's the preaching of the gospel.
I was a stranger cut off and you took me in. That's the preaching
of the gospel. I was naked and you clothed me. That's the preaching of the gospel.
Our nakedness is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
I was sick, and you visited me. That's the preaching of the gospel.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. That's the preaching
of the gospel. Then shall the righteous answer
him, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered, or fed thee, or thirsty,
and gave thee to drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? When saw we thee
sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you've
done it to the least of one of these my brethren, you've done
it to me. Now, I'm all for doing these
things literally, but that's really not what it's talking
about. This is talking about the preaching of the gospel.
If you go on reading, these other people thought they'd done these
things while we started hospitals, we had food banks, and we did
all these things. When did we not do these things?
They never preached the gospel. Now this good work is the preaching
of the gospel. Let your light so shine, the
light of the gospel before men. This is not talking about showing
how generous you are and how good you are and how kind. I mean, I'm all for us being
that way, but that's not what that's talking about. Let your
light, the light of the gospel, so shine before men that they
may see your good works in the preaching of the gospel and the
living of the gospel. and they may glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. Now back to our text in Mark
chapter four. This light that's put on a candlestick,
and then he says in verse 22, for there is nothing hid which
should not be manifested. anything kept secret that should
not come abroad. You know what that means? On judgment
day, everybody will be either exposed or justified. On judgment
day, there's nothing going to be secret. You're going to be
seen as perfectly just and righteous. That's what justification is.
If you're justified, that means you have no sin. You're going
to stand bold in judgment, perfectly righteous in God's sight, having
never sinned because the righteousness of Jesus Christ is your personal
righteousness before God. Or you're going to stand to be
exposed to be nothing but evil. One of those two things will
happen. Now, look what he says in verse 23. If any man have
ears to hear, let him hear. Now, he said this after the parable
of the four types of hearers, or the parable of Sower. Look
in verse 9 of this chapter. After he gave this parable, he
said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now,
here's a plain fact. Not everybody has ears to hear. If you leave this place not believing
this message, God never gave you ears to hear. If He gave
you ears to hear, you'd believe. We're so dependent upon the Lord
for hearing. You know, it takes more grace
to hear than anything else. It takes more grace to hear than
just to preach. That's the critical thing. Oh, the place of hearing
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If any man
hath ears to hear, let him hear. And you think of that parable
previously in the parable of the sower, there are four different,
it's not talking about people who didn't hear the gospel. This
is talking about people who actually heard the word of God. Not people
who were in false religion, but people who were actually hearing
the gospel, the word of God. Three of four didn't have ears
to hear. Only the good ground hearer. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. And he said unto them, take heed
what What measure you meet, it should
be measured to you and unto you that hear shall more be given. Take heed what you hear. Make sure you're hearing the
gospel. You know, we're awful careful about what
we eat. We don't eat poison, do we? If
we know it's poison, we're not going to eat it. We're awful
careful about what we drink. I'm not going to drink Drano.
I'm not going to drink Antifreeze. I'm not going to drink some kind
of, I mean, we're judicious. We all want to drink something
that's good for us. We're judicious. We're careful about what we eat.
What about the way we take medicine? We're careful about the way we
take medicine. I mean, you're not going to just take any old
kind of medicine that could end up hurting you and just, oh,
well, it's kind of funny. I take my pills every night.
I don't even know what I'm taking. I'm trusting Lynn to take care
of it. I just gulp it down. And she
wants to kill me one of these days. I guess she can, because
I never even look. I don't think she'll do that, though. I hope
not. But the point is, I'm trusting Lynn to make sure
my pills are good, but if I knew they're bad, I wouldn't be taking
them. Now, we're judicious about these things. We better be even
more judicious about hearing. Hearing the gospel. You see,
you're going to be affected by what you hear. You hear the gospel,
what peace, what rest, you'll be given. All that God requires
of me, I have. You know, when you go away from
a sermon, trying to think about what all you need to do, I'm
afraid you haven't heard the gospel. When you hear the gospel,
you rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. You rejoice in who He is and
what He's done. What a blessed thing it is to
hear. Take heed what you hear. Make sure you're hearing the
gospel. If they speak not according to
this word, it's because there is no light in them. And look in Luke chapter eight,
in Luke's account of this same passage, verse 18, he says, take heed
therefore how you hear. Now this is just as important
as taking heed what you hear. Take heed how you hear. Now, If the gospel is preached, I hope every time I preach, I
preach the gospel. That's what I want. I pray the
Lord would cause me to only preach the gospel and preach nothing
but the gospel. Whatever passage I'm preaching from, I seek the
Lord. If the gospel is preached, every time the gospel is preached,
there's people who are blessed in the hearing of the gospel.
They rejoice. in what they're hearing. And
then there will be some people who will go away not rejoicing. I've done that. I don't know
how many times. I knew the gospel was preached, but I go away not
rejoicing. Now, somebody says, well, the
preacher didn't preach very well. That may be true. But if the
gospel is preached and I go away without being blessed, I'm going
to look to myself first. I'm not hearing as a sinner. That's why. Take heed how you
hear. Every time I hear the gospel,
I don't want to hear in any way but that as a sinner needing
to hear the message of Christ. Take heed how you hear. Your blessing and hearing will
be measured out to you in the vessel you bring to receive it.
That's what the Lord says. It'll be measured out to you
in the vessel you bring. You bring a little cup, you'll
get a little blessing. You bring a big cup, an empty
cup, you'll have a great blessing from the gospel of God's grace.
I love to hear the gospel as a needy sinner. And that's the
only way I can hear. And I love to hear the gospel.
I love what one man said. I like to hear the gospel like
a man reading a will. to see what's in it for me. That's
a good way to hear the gospel, isn't it? Like a man reading
well. Now, I don't know where I got this, but I think it's
good. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. A, hear the gospel attentively. Listen to what's in it. B, believingly. Believe. what God has said in His Word.
This is the Word of God. You know, Eric, when you were
reading out of 1 John 4, 17, every time I hear that, I thought,
that almost seems too good to be true. As He is, so are we
in the world. I want to believe that. As He
is, how is He? Oh, He's so beautiful to the
Father. He's so accepted of the Father. He's so perfect before
the Father. He's so altogether glorious.
Oh, how the Father loves Him. He sees no spot in His Son. He
sees His Son as altogether lovely as He is. So are we in this world. Hear that believingly. To Him
that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness.
Believe. By grace are you saved, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast believingly. C, candidly. Candidly,
that means honestly. That means without prejudice. That means without prejudging. Hear the gospel candidly. And D, hear the gospel devoutly
with reverence and fear. This is the word of God. E, earnestly. Sincerely. Speak, Lord. Thy servant heareth. I love what Samuel said. Speak,
Lord. Thy servant heareth. F, feelingly. Somebody says,
well, faith is not a feeling. I realize that, but faith has
feelings. I'd hate to have a faith that didn't have any feelings,
wouldn't you? I mean, it just wouldn't do anything for me.
This is not an academic lecture. This is about the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's son. Oh, the majesty and
the awe of his person. I was looking ahead in Mark at
the end of this chapter, the last verse is, what manner of
man is this that even the winds and sea obey him? I thought,
I can't wait to preach on that passage. I wanna talk about that. I wanna do so feelingly. And
gee, gratefully, what a privilege to hear the gospel. There is
no greater privilege. The Lord would allow us to hear
his gospel. I like what David said. Make me to hear. I can't hear. Make me to hear. Joy and gladness
that the bones which thou has broken. May rejoice. Take heed what you hear. Make
sure you're hearing the gospel. If you're not, all it's going
to do is hurt you. It may be evidence that you don't
know the Lord in the first place. Take heed what you hear and take
heed how you hear. May the Lord enable us to do
that. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would not pass us by, but that you'd give us hearing
ears, that we might be swift to hear, that we might be just
like Mary, sitting at thy feet, hearing thy word. Lord, give us Attentive, believing, candid,
devout, earnest, ears to hear. Grateful, fearful, ears to hear. Enable us to tremble at thy word. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Matt, come please.