Episode Details

[AI Generated transcript]

If you want to take your Bibles and turn, we're going to be in Mark 4.

It's a pretty short text this morning, and with communion it'll probably be a shorter than normal sermon.

Just so you're not surprised at the end, I'm not trying to get your hopes up too high about a short sermon.

James chapter 1, beginning in verse 19.

You can turn to Mark 4, but I'm going to begin by reading in James chapter 1.

Verses 19-25 says this, Know this, my beloved brothers.

Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

From the Old Testament, Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8 says, Why is it important to hear from God?

Why is it important to hear the Word of God?

According to those verses that we just read, it's important to hear God's Word in order that we might obey God's Word.

That seems straightforward enough, right?

We hear it so that we can do it.

One of my favorite quotes from the Puritan writer John Owen, he says, the first part of it is, we learn all to practice.

We learn in order to obey.

Simply listening to God's word doesn't have magical properties.

It is the living and abiding word of God.

It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

But James tells us that we must receive it with meekness.

We have to have humble hearts.

Joshua is told to meditate on it day and night in order that we might obey and please the Lord.

But have you ever thought about the reverse?

The rest of that quote from Owen is, As we learn all to practice, so we learn much by practice.

Have you ever considered the absolute necessity of obedience in order to keep hearing the Word of God?

That's the point of the parable that Jesus tells us in Mark 421-25.

Beginning in verse 21, he says, And he said to them, Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?

For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

For to the one who has, more will be given.

And from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Now, I referred to that just a second ago as a parable, and most of your Bibles have it under the heading of a single parable, a lamp under a basket, it says here in my ESV.

But if you read it carefully, those verses actually have two parables on either side, and they're linked in the middle by one explicit command from Jesus.

So the first parable and its explanation can be found in verses 21 to 22.

And the point of this parable is, the light came to reveal.

And he said to them, Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?

For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light.

When we think of a lamp, we don't think of the same thing that Jesus is thinking of.

We tend to think of something that we put on a shelf or over in a corner, gives us nice ambiance, or maybe it's got a specific