Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. One of the well-known parables of Jesus is the parable of the sower. All three of the synoptic gospels contain this parable. You can read about it in Matthew 13, Luke 8, and Mark 4. And this is the parable where a man sows seed which falls on four different types of soil, but only the seed that fell in the good soil sprang up and yielded fruit. All of the other seed failed in one manner or another. And Jesus explained this parable to his disciples. And he told them that it's a depiction of different ways that people respond to the preaching of the gospel. Some people hear the word of God preached to them, but the devil takes the word out of their heart and they don't believe. Others hear the word and they receive it with much joy, but they're not rooted in faith and so they quickly fall away when temptation or persecution comes upon them. and still others receive the preaching of God's word, but they're so encumbered with the cares and riches and pleasures of this world that they fail to produce the fruit of genuine Christianity. It's only when we respond to the word by faith, Jesus says, that fruit is born in our lives. Some will bear fruit 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 100-fold, but everyone who responds by faith will produce Now, after explaining this, Jesus said in Luke 8.18, And Jesus is giving a warning here, right? He goes on to say that if you listen to the preaching of the word of God in one way, then you will be given more. But if you listen in another way, then even what you have will be taken away from you. And what Jesus is telling us is that the way we listen to the preaching of God's word is a life or death activity. A person can receive eternal life from the triune God if he takes heed to how he hears. Sadly, however, there are many who hear the gospel preached, but they don't listen in a manner which leads to everlasting life. Our takeaway from the parable of the sower is that listening to God's word being preached is a risky business. Listening to God's word being preached is a risky business. Sermons, evidently, have power, they are powerful things, and they're going to make an impact upon you. God has designed it so that they make an impact upon you. Every biblically faithful sermon that you hear is either going to soften your heart and make you more submissive to God, or it's going to harden your heart and make you more callous towards God. And the one thing a faithful sermon won't do is leave you unchanged. Hence the reason Jesus warns us to take heed how we hear. In 1940, Mortimer Adler wrote a book entitled, How to Read a Book. 32 years later, in 1972, Adler collaborated with Charles Van Dornen to substantially revise and then republish his book. And since then, How to Read a Book has become a classic guide to intelligent reading. Now, I've often mused at the irony that a person would read a book to learn how to read a book. And it seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? But it works. How to read a book has been so successful at training people to be intelligent readers that it's become mandatory reading in many homeschools, many high schools, many colleges. Well, today, I'm going to do something that might appear equally counterintuitive. I've entitled today's sermon, How to Listen to a Sermon, because we need to be people who are not only intelligent listeners, but faithful listeners as well. In other words, we need to take heat at what we hear. We need to be people who receive the seed of God's word like the good soil in Jesus's parable. We need to be people who respond by faith to the preached word so that mature fruit is produced in our life, 30-fold, 60-fold, or 100-fold. Now in Acts 17, we have a positive example of Christians who took heed to what they heard. In verses 10 through 15, we see that the Bereans listened attentively as the apostle Paul preached the word of God to them. The Bereans, therefore, are a model for us, showing us three positive ways for listening to a sermon. And to set the context, the events described in our sermon text happen right in the middle of Paul's second missionary journey. Paul and Silas, after having left the Council of Jerusalem, which we read about in Acts 15, Paul and Silas revisited the churches in Southern Galatia, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. It was there, I think in Derbe or Lystra, that young Timothy joined them. Then the three of them, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, went to Troas, where Paul experienced a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to come. And as they reached Macedonia, they passed through the port city of Neapolis and stopped in Philippi. That's where Paul and Silas were put in prison for a short while. And after God miraculously delivered them from prison, they went on to Thessalonica. Paul preached the gospel in Thessalonica, and many people believed and were saved. And this upset the unbelieving Jews quite a bit, so much so that they gathered a mob together and set the whole city in an uproar. And they were intending on killing Paul. And so we read in verse 10 of our sermon text that the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And as you can see, Berea is just a short distance from Thessalonica. And the rest of verse 10 tells us that when Paul and Silas arrived in Berea, they went into the synagogue and began to preach. The Bereans listened to this preaching and like the Thessalonians, many of them believed. But there was a notable difference between the Bereans and the Thessalonians. Look at verse 11 of our sermon text. It says that the Bereans were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Now, it would be easy for us to read this and conclude that there was something woefully deficient about the Thessalonians, and therefore the Bible is using them as an example of what not to do when listening to sermons. And there is some truth to that, but it's only a half-truth. And yet, a half-truth often leads to missing the whole truth. And so let us be diligent here to understand exactly what is being contrasted between these two sets of Christians. We're told that Debarians were more fair-minded than the Thessalonians. Other translations render it as more noble or more noble-minded. And the idea is that Debarians demonstrated a more virtuous response to Paul's preaching. but realize that the Thessalonians were noble and fair-minded as well. It's not as if the Thessalonians rejected Paul's preaching or despised the gospel of Jesus. They believed what Paul preached to them and they were genuinely saved. That's why there was so much of an uproar in Thessalonica when Paul and Silas were there, right? The unbelieving Jews were envious that so many of the Thessalonians believed the gospel that Paul had preached and were converted to Christianity. One of the critical words for understanding the contrast that verse 11 is making between the Thessalonians and the Bereans is the word more. The Bereans were more fair-minded than the Thessalonians. Both were fair-minded, but the Bereans were more fair-minded. Why? Why were they more fair-minded? because the Bereans received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Now, there are two activities listed in this definition or this description of being more fair-minded. The first is that they received the Word with all readiness, and the second is that they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. And I submit to you that it's the second activity that made the Bereans more noble than the Thessalonians. Both the Bereans and the Thessalonians readily received the word which was preached to them. Both the Thessalonians and the Bereans readily received the word which was preached to them. But only the Bereans searched the Scriptures to see whether the things that were preached to them were really true. Now, how do I know that the Thessalonians received the Word with all readiness? Well, it's implied in the fact that they became Christians. But Paul tells us more explicitly that they did in his first epistle that he wrote to the Thessalonians. Listen as I read 1 Thessalonians 2.13 aloud. This is the Apostle Paul describing how thankful he is for the Thessalonians, how they had received his preaching when he first came to them. 1 Thessalonians 2.13. For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. So the Thessalonians were like the Bereans in that they, both sets of Christians were readily able and readily willing to receive the word which was preached to them. Paul says that the Thessalonians were so willing to receive it that they accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. So here we see the first principle for how to listen to a sermon. We're to listen expecting God to speak to us because the preacher who faithfully preaches is not speaking the word of man, but speaking the word of God. We are to listen expecting God to speak to us because a preacher who faithfully preaches is not speaking the word of man, but speaking the word of God. There's a profound truth here, a profound truth that concerns the activity of preaching. God works in exceptional and vital ways through the Bible being preached. I'm sure you place a very high value on reading the Bible, whether that's in your private reading or your family reading or the public reading of scripture that we do here at church. And you ought to place a high value on reading the Bible because it's the inspired word of God. But realize that we live in a time and a place where we have easy access to the scriptures. That's only a recent development in the history of this world. Many, many people in history were dependent entirely upon hearing the word of God preached to them, because they didn't have a smartphone with an app on it. They didn't have a printed Bible. The Gutenberg Press hadn't been invented yet. Romans 10, 13 and 14, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how then shall they call upon him who they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So in God's supreme governance over the souls of the people of this world, both past and present, he has ordained that preaching play a vital role in the justification and sanctification of his people. And so God has vested a significant amount of authority into the enterprise of preaching. God has given the man who preaches the Bible faithfully the authority to proclaim the utterances of God. Let me show you just a few more examples of this from Scripture, because this is a big claim. In 1 Peter 1.23, Peter tells his readers that they have been born again through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. They have been born again, how? Through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Now, there's nothing particularly challenging about this statement because we know that the word of God, which lives and abides forever does indeed cause people to be born again. But two verses later, in 1 Peter 1.25, Peter writes that this word is the word, and I quote, that was preached to you. It's the word that was preached to you. And so Peter is saying that the word which was preached is the word of God which lives and abides forever. The very word of God which lives and abides forever that has regenerated, which has caused him to be born again. And in case you're wondering whether this is only true of the preaching that's done by apostles, Peter shows us that everybody who has received the spiritual gift of preaching is so endowed by God with this authority. In 1 Peter 4.10, writing about those who have received certain gifts, generically at this point, certain gifts from God, Peter says that every Christian is supposed to use whatever gift he has been given to minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, he says. But then he begins to give a few examples of specific gifts and what the ministry of that gift looks like. And the very first example he gives is out of a preacher. He says in 1 Peter 4.11, whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one speaking the utterances of God. Now the word speaks here could have just as easily been translated as preach, as that word is sometimes translated in other parts of the Bible. Peter is telling us that preaching is one of the normative gifts of the Holy Spirit that he gives to people, to men, in the New Testament era. And when the preacher preaches, he's speaking the utterances of God. So we know that the Thessalonians were fair-minded because they readily received the preaching of Paul. We know this because, and I repeat what I read earlier from 1 Thessalonians 2.13, it tells us so. For this reason, we are constantly thanking God that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, Thessalonians, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. And we also know that the Bereans were fair-minded because they readily accepted the preaching of Paul as well. We know this because it says so in verse 11 of our sermon text. What made the Bereans more fair-minded than the Thessalonians is that the Bereans searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things Paul preached to them were really so. To illustrate the difference between the Thessalonians and the Bereans, let me exercise a little bit of narrative license here. If you saw Thessalonians and Bereans both sitting in our worship services, the Thessalonians would be agreeing with everything that was preached from the pulpit. they would be nodding their heads in agreement at each point was made. They would be giving the occasional amen as a profound point was made. And they would leave the worship service with a renewed zeal about whatever the preacher had preached on that day. The Bereans would be attentively listening to everything that was preached as well. But rather than sitting there and listening, the Bereans would have their Bibles open during the sermon, and they would be following along as the biblical text was read and exposited and applied. And they would be making notes of the essential points of the sermon or the applications that challenged them or of the doctrines that were new to them so that they can go and then search the scriptures afterwards to confirm that everything that the preacher said is indeed in accordance with what the Bible says. You see the difference between the Thessalonians and the Bereans? Both received the preached word as the utterances of God, but the Thessalonians received it without going through the effort of verifying the sermon's accuracy. Whereas the Bereans put forth the effort to verify the sermon's accuracy. Or to put it in simple terms, the Thessalonians were passive listeners, where the Bereans were active listeners. Being an active listener is the second principle for how to listen to a sermon. God is teaching us here that there's greater nobility in checking and cross-checking the preacher's statements than there is in listening passively and accepting everything the preacher says. There's greater nobility in checking and cross-checking what the preacher says than to just accept what the preacher says. It's so important for you to be an active listener because every preacher is a fallible man. Even when the preacher is a God-fearing man, even when you know that the preacher has sound theology and noble intentions, it's possible for him to make mistakes. And when these mistakes and misunderstandings work their way into the sermon, He's not preaching the utterances of God at that point. That is not the utterances of God. It's only when the preacher is preaching accurately and in the gifting of the Holy Spirit that he's preaching the utterances of God. But if you're not an active listener, then how are you going to know? There should be nothing casual. about our listening, as if each sermon is just another sermon, or simply what always happens at this point of the worship service. The more fair-minded Christians are going to come to church with the expectation of hearing the voice of God speak to them, and then attentively search the Scriptures to verify that everything that was preached on that day is in fact the voice of God. And he's not going to be staring out the window wondering who those people are that are taking pictures outside. He's not gonna be staring out the window wondering, hmm, I wonder what kind of dog that man has out there. No, the fair-minded Christian is going to be attentive. He's gonna put his phone away. He's not gonna be playing games on it. He's not gonna be texting his friends. He's not gonna be checking social media. He's going to be attentively listening, verifying the accuracy of everything the preacher says, and then accept what is preached, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, where it lines up with the word of God. The third principle for how to listen to a sermon is seen in verse 12. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. And to believe, as it says they did, is to respond with action, with faith. There's a difference between receiving the Word of God and responding to the Word of God. We must do both. James 1, 21 and 22 makes this point very clear. James writes, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word and not hearers only. But be doers of the word and not hearers only. And James goes on to say that the person who is a hearer of the word, but not a doer of the word, deceives himself. He's like the man who looks at himself in the mirror, but then immediately forgets what he just saw. And if you recall the parable of the sower that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, the seed which fell on the good soil was the only seed that sprang up and produced fruit. The fruit is the doing part that James is impressing upon us here. The other soil types received the seed, but they received the word that was spoken to them, but they never responded to the word in a faithful manner, hence no fruit. And here we see that sermons are not intended by God to simply teach people knowledge or to give people moral instruction. Rather, sermons are the means by which the living and active word of God penetrates into the hearts of people to affect change in their lives. When Paul encouraged Timothy to persevere with preaching, he reminded Timothy that his sermons were to challenge people to turn away from their sin and draw close to God. Listen as I read 2 Timothy 4, verses one and two. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just pause right there. That's serious business, right? This is Paul writing to Timothy saying, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching." Note the verbs that Paul uses here to define preaching. Convince, rebuke, exhort, These are the things that call people to respond to the word of God. These are the things which call for a response from those who hear, a doing from those who hear. The same thing is implied about preaching from just a few verses earlier, when Paul provides a description of the scriptures that Timothy is supposed to preach on. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. And so scripture is for doctrine, what we ought to believe. It's for reproof, what we ought not to believe. It's for correction, for how we ought not to behave. and it's for instructions of righteousness, how we ought to behave. Preaching the scriptures, which is what the preacher does, is a comprehensive call to turn away from sin and to draw closer to God. In his book entitled, Him We Proclaim, Dennis Johnson wrote, Christian preaching has at its purpose nothing less than the complete conformity of every child of God to the perfect image of Christ the Son. Christian preaching has as its purpose nothing less than the complete conformity of every child of God to the perfect image of Christ the Son. you must recognize, or you might recognize, that the title of Dennis Johnson's book comes from Colossians 128. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. The faithful preacher, therefore, is God's instrument for the justification and sanctification of God's elect. And if we understand that this is God's purpose for preaching, then we should understand that it's our duty to be actively listening with discernment to every sermon and to respond to every sermon in faith, respond in faith to the doctrine, to the reproof, to the correction, to the instruction in righteousness. Our expectation for every sermon ought to be that we will hear the voice of God speaking to us, to hear Him, God, leading us on to greater spiritual maturity. And then we need to respond in faith. We need to be hearers of the word and not merely doers, or be hearers and doers and not merely hearers. There are different ways that a person could be a hearer and yet not a doer. There's different ways a person could be a hearer and yet not a doer. The Bible gives us some examples of people who heard the Word of God being preached yet did not respond in a manner of faith that produces fruit in their lives. Let me give you just three examples. The first is King Herod. Mark 6.20. identifies a peculiar tension that existed within the life of King Herod. It says that he feared John the Baptist because he knew John to be a just and holy man, but Herod also enjoyed listening to John the Baptist preach. Mark says that Herod heard him gladly, to quote. And that Herod would fear John the Baptist is not a surprise because John was a faithful preacher, a faithful preacher who called sinners to repentance. But Herod was a man who never turned away from his sin. He never demonstrated repentance. Nevertheless, he enjoyed, for some reason, listening to John's sermons. It would seem that Herod was one of those people who was able to ignore his guilt when it was preached upon. He was able to suppress the internal conviction of sin when the Holy Spirit would act upon his heart. And he could hear what the Lord required of him, as John preached, but he never followed through with repentance. He was a hearer of the word, but not a doer. Felix did something similar. We read about him in Acts 24. Felix was the Roman governor over Judea while Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea. And one day Felix decided that he wanted to hear the apostle preach, and so he sent for him. And Acts 24, 25 tells us that Paul began to preach to Felix about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. Well, this sermon began to hit a little too close to home for Felix. were told that he became afraid, afraid of the judgment of God. And so Felix stopped Paul from preaching and said to him, go away for now. When I have a more convenient time, I will call for you. Felix definitely heard what God was requiring of him. It's evident that he experienced actual conviction of his sin. But Felix chose to deal with that by silencing the voice that was exposing his sin. He used his ability to manipulate the situation so that he didn't have to experience the discomfort of guilt and did not have to repent of his sins. That's not the response of faith. That's not the response that leads to repentance in life. Felix was a hearer of the word, but was not a doer. And the third example comes from Ezekiel 33. Beginning at verse 30, God explains to Ezekiel, the children of your people are talking about you beside the wall and in the doors of the houses, and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord. So they come to you as people do. They sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart pursues their own gain. Indeed, you are to them a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but they do not do them. Evidently, Ezekiel was a gifted singer and musician. So the people much enjoyed coming to church to hear the music. They would even invite their friends to come to church, telling them to come and listen to the very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. But what God is revealing to Ezekiel is that the people's hearts were in it for the wrong reason. They were in it for their own personal gain. They wanted to be entertained at church. So God explains to Ezekiel in verse 31, they sit before you as my people and they hear your words, but they do not do them. And God repeats himself again in the next verse. For they hear your words, but they do not do them. It should be evident from these three examples that God holds people fully accountable for how they respond to the preaching of his word. He expects us to respond by faith to what we hear with appropriate action. And he wants us to be hearers of the word as well as doers of the word. So as you contemplate these three examples, we see three wrong reasons why people would come to church or why people would come and sit under the preaching of God's word. Herod was like the seed that fell on a stony ground. He received the word with joy. He was pleased to listen to it, in other words, but the word did not take root in his heart. It was merely his respect and admiration for John that caused him to want to hear John preaching. Felix. He was like the seed that fell by the wayside. Out of curiosity, he wanted to hear about faith in Christ, but when he heard the word of the kingdom, the wicked one came and snatched away from him the seed that would have been sown into his heart. He disbelieved. And the people who came to hear Ezekiel sing and make music were like the seed that fell among the weeds. They were so occupied with the pleasures of this world that they missed the real reason for coming to church. They missed the real reason for hearing the voice of God preached to them. So why do you come to church? Why are you here today? Is it because you would be lonely if you stayed at home? Is it because you enjoy the people here? Is it because we have a fellowship lunch every week? Is it because you're trying to find a special friend? You think you might find that friend here? Is it so that you could tell other people that you go to church? So that you can look religious to other people? Is it because you want to hear the pastor sing and make music? Some of these reasons are not so bad, just so long as they are secondary reasons. It's good to enjoy the fellowship of God's people. It's good to develop close friendships with other churchgoers. It's good that we can escape the loneliness of solitude by coming to church. But the primary reason we come to church is to encounter God, is to worship him, and is to surrender ourselves to him by placing our souls upon his operating table as he conforms us into the perfect image of his son. That's why we come to church. The Bereans are one of the positive examples in the Bible of people who came to church for the right reasons. They came to encounter God and be changed by God. They came to hear the word preached, not just as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. They came to be listening actively, to search the scriptures to verify that the things that they heard preached were indeed in accordance with the word of God, the written word of God. And they came to respond to God with action, action that was established by faith. They believed, they repented, they were saved, they were conformed into the image of Christ. They were hearers of the word as well as doers of the word. There was fruit born in their lives. They were the good soil that received the word that produced that fruit. Some produced 30 fold, some produced 60 fold, some 100 fold, but they all produced fruit. In Deuteronomy 30.15, Moses preached his last recorded sermon. And he said to the people of Israel, see, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. Life and prosperity, death and destruction. The psalmist warns similarly in Psalm 95.7, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. The letter to the Hebrews takes this warning from Psalm 95 7 and uses it throughout chapters three and four of Hebrews as a strong word of urgency to Christians with the emphasis upon the word today. Every time the preached word exposes our sin to us, we're to repent again and trust in Christ again. God doesn't just call non-Christians to repent and believe. He calls Christians to repent and believe, and to do so today, while it is today. As long as it is called today, Hebrews 3.13 says, we need to be challenged not to harden our heart by the deceitfulness of sin. When we become Christians, we don't leave repentance and faith behind. It's not something that we needed back then and don't need today. On the contrary, we enter into a life of constant and consistent daily repentance and faith. Turning our hearts towards God is never a thing of yesterday. Rather, the decision that you may have made yesterday is proved genuine by the fact that you do the same turning of your heart towards God today. The decision you may have made yesterday for God is proved genuine by the fact that you do the same turning of your heart towards God today. And so every time you hear the word of God preach, you must continue to turn your heart away from sin and towards the God of love and grace, our triune God. As James 1.21 puts it, the word of God has already been implanted and has already taken root in your hearts, yet you still need to receive it humbly and urgently day by day. So let me conclude by stating the obvious. Sermons have the power and efficacy to make the people of God Christ-like, but this requires a double miracle. It requires a double miracle. The sinful preacher must be shaped by grace to faithfully preach the truth, and the sinful listeners must be awakened by grace to heed what they hear. Only God can perform this double miracle. So let's pray that he will. Amen. Let's pray. Our dear Lord and heavenly Father, we do thank you that you have taken the effort to redeem your people and to do so through the preaching of the word. Father, we do call upon your name because we have heard and we know because we do believe and we do believe because we have heard and we have heard because you have sent preachers. And so Father, thank you for preaching. We pray that you would use the preaching of your word to show us our attitudes that need to be changed, that you would show us the words that we need to change, that you would show us our actions that need to be changed. Father, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would open our hearts and minds so that we may listen clearly, that we may think clearly, that we may discern clearly whether the sermons that we hear are true. Father, we pray that you would then give us the faith necessary to respond in fitting ways Let us trust in Christ afresh each day. Give us the resolve to put that fresh trust into faithful action so that we may be doers of the Word as well as hearers of the Word. And Father, we pray that you would change us by the exceedingly great power that you work in us. Change us. Change us through the power which you use to raise Jesus from the dead, through your Holy Spirit who lives within us and who conforms us to the perfect righteousness of the image of Christ. Father, work faith and obedience in us by your Word for your glory. For we pray this in Jesus' name. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.