We're going to start at verse 30. I want you to watch what God says is going on in the hearts of those who have gathered around the prophet Ezekiel to hear the Word of the Lord. Notice what's really going on. Ezekiel 33, verses 30-33. As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses say to one another, each to his brother, come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord. And they come to you as people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear what you say. But they will not do it. For with lustful talk in their mouths, they act, their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument. For they hear what you say. But they will not do it. When this comes and come at will, then they will know that a prophet has been among them. And now go to the gospel, according to Mark, chapter four. The gospel, according to Mark, chapter four. And we're going to start reading at verse 10. Let me give you a couple of preliminary thoughts here before we jump into this. We're going to start at verse 10 through 25. First off, Jesus is told the parable in verses one through nine of the sower who plants seed in four kinds of soil. And now he's coming to explain it. But all of this section is tied together. There is one major theme and you will hear it. I will try to emphasize the word, the one word, the one, yeah, the one word that said eight times from verse 10 through 25. And then there's something in verse 15 that is said again in verse 25. Now, the reason why I'm bringing that up is because you will have heard some of this from Jesus in other contexts. And it means something a little bit different than those other contexts. But the things you're going to hear in verses especially 21 through 25 in this context have to do with what Jesus is saying about the four kinds of soul. Mark 4, starting at verse 10. And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables and he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables. So that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. And He said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path where the word is sown when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy and they have not they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among the thorns. They are those who hear the Word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and desires for other things enter in and choke the Word and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the Word and accept it And bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. 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. 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." The Word of God. Let's pray. We acknowledge, O God, that all flesh is like grass. The grass withers and the flower fades. But Your Word remains forever. May Your implanted Word take root downward in us and bear fruit upward, that we would not only be hearers of the Word, but doers also. We ask this because of the lavish love that You have displayed for us in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. I quoted this chap last week. Let me do it again. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his book he wrote in the 70s called Preaching and Preachers, wittily stated that, quote, preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. End of quotation. You didn't catch that. I could tell by the eyes here, OK? Let me say it again. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. I love that statement. He's absolutely right. And so we saw last week that the pulpit is like the prow of a ship. So that whichever way it is pointed is the way that the ship of the church is going to sell. And so we dove in and studied pretty intensely 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 5. If you weren't here last week, go listen to it online. It's been fixed. It wasn't doing too well. Monday was kind of lumping along sickly. The recording was. And so it's been fixed. I would encourage you to listen to that because there we heard about the preacher's obligation. The preacher's obligation. But now, today, we must ask the next question. And, dear friends, I know this is going to put me in hot water because nobody in America dares ask this question, especially in North American Christianity. But here's the question. Do parishioners, do hearers, do listeners have any obligations? Is there some requirement that sits upon our shoulders as listeners? Now, why do I say that, but get me in hot water? You know, you know what's going on out there in our world around us. How many times have I heard people say, what do you mean, preacher? What do you mean I have an obligation? No, no, no, no. The obligation lies on you. You're the one who's supposed to tickle my fancy. You're the one who's supposed to draw me in, woo me, entertain me, excite me. I'm just kicking tires. You know what I mean? I'm a consumer. Fill me up. What do you mean, is there a responsibility that lies on me? Well, is there a responsibility that lies on the hearers? Jesus answers that here in His explanation of the parable. Keep your Bibles open here to Mark 4, because you won't have a clue what I'm talking about if you don't. Mark 4, 10 through 25. Now, as Jesus begins explaining this, Notice that he's telling them why he's speaking in parables. It has something to do with those outside really see and hear, but they don't perceive and understand. And so I'm teaching you these things, I'm telling you these things because you already know some of these things. Now, starting in verse 14, as he begins explaining the parable, he starts out with no explanation. The sower sows the word. There's almost no explanation in that statement. That's because Jesus intended that they already knew what that meant. What word is the sower sowing? Well, look back up to verse 11. There he says, to you has been given the kingdom, the secret of the kingdom of God. Jesus has been talking about and preaching the kingdom of God since day one. That's the word. Let me show you what I mean. Go back to Mark chapter 1. Hold this and go to chapter 1, verse 14 and 15. Right in the middle of verse 14, after John has been arrested, here's Jesus' whole preaching series for three and a half years. Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Notice that he has been declaring, he has been sowing the seed of the gospel of the kingdom of God, of the dominion, the rulership, the reign of God, that it is near, it is this close. When he says at hand, he means this close. You could reach out and touch it. It's that close. That's the Word being sown, but then who's the sower? Notice Jesus doesn't tell them who the sower is because they should already have got it all figured out. Jesus is the sower. Jesus is the one sowing the Word. Now, I want you to think about something. We know that we say this, it sounds kind of trite, it's not meant that way, but we always would say to people, you know, who's the senior pastor of the church? And the right answer is, Don't say John. If you say John, you've failed. You're going to go sit in the corner. Who's the senior pastor of the church? Jesus. Now let me ask you then the next question. Who is the chief preacher of the church, in the church? Jesus is. Yeah, and the Holy Spirit. That'll work too. Jesus is. He is the sower. You go look at Hebrews chapter 2, you might want to write this down, we're not going to look at it, but Hebrews 2 verse 13, as the writer of Hebrews is showing that Jesus is the man of Psalm 8, who now has dominion over all creation. He then takes words from Psalm 22 and he puts them in Jesus' mouth when Jesus says, To God the Father, he says, I will proclaim your name to my people and I will sing your praises in the church. Jesus is the chief worship leader, but he is also the primary, the chief, the sole preacher of his church. That means all true Christian preaching, mysteriously by the work of the Spirit, is in some way part of Jesus sowing the word. Now, that changes the way you hear preaching, at least it changes the way I hear it. It changes the way I think about what I'm doing. It's not about me. What you should be hearing is the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ planting the seed in your heart. If you walk out of here thinking only about Mike Philiber or John Butler, we have failed. Jesus is the preacher. Now, the sower sows the word. Then, notice he starts out in verse 15 talking about four kinds of receivers. Four kinds of receivers. And he's just using an analogy that would work very nicely in an agrarian culture where they do a lot of gardening. And I do gardening, so this all rings in my head here. The first kind of receiver is the non-receptive receiver. Look at verse 15. This is the one who is like the hard dirt on the side of your garden that you pack in so tight the weeds can't even grow there. So there goes the seed of the word and it just lays on the surface. And what happens? The grackles and the crows and the sparrows of the devil, as it were, come along and pick up the seed on the ground. Now look at verse 15. Look at that phrase. Satan immediately comes and takes away the Word. If you've got your Bible and you've got a pen, circle takes away, and underneath that write verse 25. We will get there in a minute, but I want you to see that now. There's another connection here in this whole explanation of this story. So there's the first kind of receiver, the non-receptive receiver. Then starting in verse 16 and 17 is the momentarily receptive receiver. This is like that shallow soil that has lots of rocks underneath so that there's no place for the roots to grow. And so the seed is sown there. And as soon as the sun comes out, it germinates and pops up and goes, whoo, here I am. And then all of a sudden the heat turns up and the roots ain't got no place to go. And it just kills over and dies. You've seen that, haven't you? Do you know what I'm talking about? When people come, they're coming to church, they cry out, oh, I believe in Jesus, and they just get excited. And then about six months later, you go, where's Bob? I haven't seen Bob in a coon's age. Those momentary receivers who sprout up quickly, Hearing the word, receiving the word, they sprout up quickly. But then as soon as there's a little pressure over what Jesus says, what Jesus has proclaimed, then they just melt away. And the third kind of receiver is the cluttered receiver, the cluttered receiver. It's there in verse. Verse 18 and 19, this is where the word is sown in a in a cluttered soil, this cluttered soil of someone's heart. where there are other contenders for the loyalty of that person's heart. The cares of the world, the seedfulness of riches. And if that doesn't cover everything, then let's do this one. Desires for other things. There are all these contenders in their heart. And so, as the Word is sown there, they hear it. It sprouts up, but then, because there's no room for it to grow, there's no nutrients left in the soil of their hearts, so to speak, because everything else under the sun is sapping out the vitamins and the nutrients out of its heart, it's just kind of a scraggly thing, looking rather anorexic and sickly, and it won't ever grow anything. And then, there's the fruitfully receptive. Now I want you to look at verse 20. Notice what makes them fruitfully receptive. Notice what Jesus says, they hear the word and accept it. And third, they bear fruit. So the four kinds of receivers, the non-receptive, the momentarily receptive, the cluttered receiver, and then the fruitfully receptive soul. Then Jesus moves on, and starting in verse 21, He goes from preaching to meddling, as we would say in Oklahoma. He makes application of why He told this parable and explained it. So you've got to look at verses 21 through 23. He starts talking about lamps and baskets and bushels and all that stuff. You've heard that before. In fact, we even sing a song, you know? We sing that song. That's a fine song. Don't get me wrong. But here Jesus is telling it with a different intention than the way you normally sing about it. Listen to it again, this time thinking about the four kinds of soul, the four kinds of receivers. Here it is. Is a lamp brought 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. Jesus is challenging you. and all the hearers. The point is, the kind of receiver you are will soon come to light. The kind of receiver you are will come out. It will be exposed. And for example, notice that Jesus is talking to His disciples and sometime later it was obvious what kind of receiver Judas was. You know what I mean? It came out. It was finally exposed. The kind of receiver you are will finally bear out. It will be obvious. And so then verse 23 is the challenge driven home. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now some of you may think that's a throwaway line. But in this context, especially, this is number six and seven, the sixth and seventh time the word here is used, H-E-A-R. Did I get that right? Yes. Here. He who has ears to hear. Hear! Don't be like those people back in 11 and 12 who were on the outside, who have eyes to see, but they cannot perceive. They have ears to hear, but they cannot understand, so that they would turn and be rescued. No, I want you to hear. You've got two of them, one on each side. Use them. Did your teacher ever say that to you? Mine did, all the time. Hear! He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And then so that there's no confusion, then we come to verse 24 and 25. Now listen. Let me take verse 23 and jump into the first phrase of verse 24. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus said to them, take heed. Pay attention to what you hear. That's the eighth time the word hear is used. Pay attention to what you hear. Pay attention. And that Greek word there, actually that Greek phrase, blepote te kouete, is watch what you hear. We don't talk like that. So the translators are wrestling to try to give you what this word, this Greek word, blepote, means. Pay attention. But I think that's too weak. It's watch what you hear. The NIV tries to do better, and it says something like, be careful with what you hear, or something like that. But the New King James Version translates it this way, take heed what you hear. I know what heed means because my mama used to use it with me, you know what I mean? And some of you parents probably use this with your kids too. Junior, you better heed what I say. When you said that, wait, am I the only one that ever heard that? Come on. Okay. When you said that to your kids, you didn't mean pay attention as in sit up straight, take notes and regurgitate it to you. When you said, take heed, you want a junior to sit up straight, look you in the eye, take mental notes, if not physical notes, tell you back what you just said, and then have a conversion. You want him to change. Right? And Jesus is saying just that. Take heed what you hear. Don't just write notes about it, but get up and go be it. Take heed what you hear. That's the point of this whole section. Take heed what you hear. And then Jesus goes on. Notice the next part. The measure you use in taking heed, the measure you use is the measure that you will receive. To him who has, more will be given. To him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Now, let me try this. You know what this is? You can't see it because it's all black. This is officially, it says on it, an eighth teaspoon. Now, you cooks know what this really is. It's a smidgen, right? Or a pinch, right? And Jesus is saying, if you use a smidgen heart, that's all you will get in receiving. Now, what's this? This says it is a three-quart or twelve-cup measuring cup. The measure you use is the measure by which you will receive. You come to church and you say, oh Jesus, I just need my batteries charged. I just need a pick-me-up. That's about all you'll get. But you come and you say, Jesus, I am empty to the gills. Fill me up with all that I can have of you. He promises, you will have and you will have plenty. That's how we should be coming. That's what it is to take heed to the Word. You come saying, I'm not going to have a miser's heart. I'm not going to have a pinched heart. I'm not going to have a stingy heart. I want all of Jesus I can get. Lord Jesus, You are the sower. Sow the Word in my heart. Sow the Word in my heart. And so he who has, more will be given. But from him who does not have, What he has will be taken away. And notice that phrase in verse 25 comes right out of verse 15. Satan comes like a grackle or a crow and picks up the seed and takes it away. So he who does not have what he has will be taken away. It's a challenge. Jesus is challenging you and me. Let me put it to you this way. Jesus is telling us, don't be satisfied with skimming the surface. Like the folks in verse 11 and 12. Don't be satisfied with skimming the surface. Just kind of treading water. No! Be a pearl diver! Go for it. Take heed what you hear. And that should be the desire of the heart. Is there an obligation for those who hear? Yes, take heed what you hear. Now let me say, there are some things, there is something that can actually distract you and keep you from being able to take heed what you hear. We addressed it a little bit last week. Let's go back and look at it again. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1-5, we talked about the preacher's obligation, but you remember verse 3 and 4, when Paul told Timothy, here's why, Timothy, you need to hold the line, because the time is coming when people will no longer put up with sound teaching. But because they want their fancies tickled, they will spin off and hunt down the spinmeisters. And they will accumulate them, they will pile them up to satisfy their passion. Notice that what distracts us from taking heed to the word, taking heed what we hear, are entertaining enticements. Entertaining enticements. Let me just spend a little time on that for a minute. Wanting our fancies to be tickled. Think back to our Old Testament passage, Ezekiel 33. Don't answer this, okay? At least not out loud. You can tell me at the church. But have you ever read that passage before, Ezekiel 33? Every time I read that, it is convicting. Here's a faithful priest and prophet, a man of God, Ezekiel. He is laboring in proclaiming the Word. And yet, how did the people perceive him? How did they listen to him? If you need to, you can cheat and go back and look at that. That's okay. Ezekiel 33, verses 30 through 33. How did the people perceive Ezekiel? How did they listen to what he had to say? They started going door knocking. They went to all their neighbors. Oh, Sally Mae, you've just got to come to church. We've got one of the preachers you never would be able to imagine. He's wonderful. Come on. So they were biting everybody. And then God tells us in the next verse, in verse 31, he tells us, though, they hear the word, but they don't want to do it. They're not taking heed to the word because they are set on their own game. But then verse 32. They hear Ezekiel. Like a singer, like a player of instruments. They are stuck in the rut of entertainment. My, oh my, how he talks. I mean, he just puts the light to my candle. Woo! I mean, he can talk. That boy can preach. I mean, it's fun to watch him. But they don't hear what's really going on. They will not listen. They are not taking heed to the Word. Entertaining enticements. Or look over and go with me here. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. When you get there, just look at me for a minute. So I'll know who's there. Okay. Before we read it, let me tell you some things. The Corinthians were Greeks. Greeks were in a promiscuous, adulterous love affair with professional speakers. They had an un... They had an overemphasized dependence upon style and craft. All the way back to Demosthenes in the 3rd century or so, and Plato back in the 5th century. They loved rhetoric in all of its abilities, its techniques. And so, there rose up schools to teach young men how to be great rhetoricians, great craftsmen of speech, to learn how to use language to manipulate the listeners. And with them went philosophy, various kinds of traveling philosophies, the newest thing on the street. Keep that in mind as we read this, because Paul is comparing his preaching to the professional talking heads out there in his day. And the Corinthians' inordinate dependence upon style. So here we go. And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. I didn't come to you as one who was trained in the local school of rhetoric or philosophy. I didn't come to you like those traveling teachers to manipulate you. Well, Paul, how did you come? Verse 2, For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. I came in all genuineness and authenticity. Not like those guys that put the makeup on and their hair is perfect every time you see them, and they know exactly when to flash that recently whitened teeth smile. I didn't come to you like that, putting on airs. I came to you as I am with a broken down body that doesn't want to seem to function all the time and my lack of skill. But I came to you with authenticity, with a genuineness, so that you would not think about me, but you would think about Him whom I'm proclaiming. And so the next verse. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit of power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The entertaining enticements that are wiggling around in our hearts wants us to put all of this weight on how happy we feel when we leave church and how the preacher made us feel really, really cool and good and happy. And we lean so heavy on that, that then our faith is actually in the skill and in the emotion and not in Jesus Christ. We're not able to take heed according to the Word because of those entertaining enticements. Brothers and sisters, if you walk out of church, here or anywhere, and you're thinking something like, well, I'm so glad time's up, because he was boring. Or, I'm so glad time is up because, you know, I didn't like the way he presented that. Or if you walk out saying, wow, I've been blessed today, and somebody were to ask you, what do you mean? And you were to say, well, he just made me happy. He made me, you know, he got me excited. And Jesus is nowhere in that conversation. You need to stop and start asking, have entertaining enticements kept me from taking heed to the word? So now I'll go off my soapbox, OK? Take heed what you hear. Now, you may be asking, how do I take heed what I hear? Look at the front of your bulletin. This is from the larger catechism. Last week, if you weren't here, last week, we looked at Catechism Question 159 of the larger catechism that talked about the preacher's obligation. Today, this one talks about, 160, talks about the hearer's obligation. Let's take a moment, and I don't want you to hear this as a sledgehammer beating you in the head. As we go through this, I want you to hear this as what it is meant to be. A help. Right here on the front. Right here on the front. What is required of those that hear the Word preached? It is required of those that hear the Word preached that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer. Now let's stop. Notice that you attend upon it. That means what? You're paying attention, but also you're where the Word is being preached. You attend upon it. Please never say to me, and if you ever say this to me and you hear me scream, understand why. But the next time I hear somebody say to me, well, I go to church once a month whether I need to or not. You ain't attending to the Word preached. Attend thereunto. How? With diligence, preparation, and prayer. Let me give it to you in three Ps. With persistence, preparation, and prayer. You make it your all to try to be where the Word is being proclaimed as often and as regularly as possible. That's persistence. Preparation. You know, you got an email this week. Some of you who get email. Got an email that told you what the Scriptures were going to be this week. Reading them ahead of time. Actually spending time thinking about those passages. Preparation. Being prepared the night before so that way you're not rushing in on Sunday morning. Prayer. As you're driving to church, telling the kids to pop the earbuds out of their ears. And maybe pray on the way into church. Preparation with persistence. Preparation of prayer. Then it goes on. Examine what they hear by the Scriptures. One of the things you'll notice is that we try to give you other passages, so that way you are learning to read Scripture through Scripture, to have Scripture help you interpret Scripture. And so then, that's what you should be doing. As you listen today, as you go home and you look at the study notes again, think about other passages. You are high-tech, pull up your Bible search engine program and do your little search there. But look at Scripture through Scripture. Next, receive the truth with faith, love, meekness and readiness of mind. Faith, love, meekness and readiness of mind. My friends, none of us are engineers of the Word. None of us are to be judges of the Word, as it were. All of us, even myself, sit under the Word, praying that God would speak even to us, to me, to you. We receive it with faith, with meekness, with love, with readiness of mind. If you ever hear a sermon preached and it's right out of Scripture and you automatically find the arms of your soul crossing themselves and you're saying, I can't believe he said that, you better stop. If it's right there in Scripture, you better stop. I receive it with meekness and love and radiance of mind. And it goes on. Meditate and confer of it. Meditate and confer of it. Now maybe some of you do this. I don't know you well enough. I've only been here three weeks. Give me a break. I don't know you well enough to know if you do this, but I'm sure there are some of you who do this, but this is something that we do as a family. Every Sunday, we've done this since our girls were at home, and they're all grown up and adults now. After church, we go home and at the lunch table, the very first thing we ask when everybody's done getting their food is we say, what did you learn in Sunday school? What did you learn in Sunday school? Now let me stop a minute. You Sunday school teachers, we ask that question because we believe you are part of Jesus sowing the seed. You have a valuable and important vocation. Thank you for putting yourselves in that place, and I appreciate that. And those of you who teach my boys know that we're asking them, why did they learn in your class? What did you learn in Sunday school? And then we talk about when we're in Sunday school, what we learned in Sunday school. And then we go through and we say, now what did you learn in church? And we'll take now those questions. We didn't have these in Midland, but these questions that you have at the end of the sermon notes there, we will take those and we ask those questions around the table. We're conferring of the Word. Let me tell you why this is beneficial. Because one of the things that it does is it takes the sermon and it takes the Sunday school lesson out of the church building into the very first place it needs to go. Your home. Does that make sense? Meditate and confer of it. And then finally, hide it in their hearts, or next to last, hide it in their hearts. Brothers and sisters, memorize the Scriptures. Hide it in their hearts. and they bear fruit of it in their lives. There's a helpful guide, and I would encourage you to take that, cut that out, and stick that in your Bible. There's a way, there's a valuable way for you to take heed what you hear. And so, brothers and sisters, last week we examined the preacher's obligation, and this week we have heard about the hearer's responsibility. May all of us hearers be enriched, able-bodied listeners who discern true Christian preaching from its cheap imitations. Taking heed what we hear, so that the Word would take root downward in us and bear fruit upward, some thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundredfold. Dear brothers and sisters, men and women and girls and boys, take heed what you hear. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, we are grateful that this is here in Scripture to pull us up short because, Lord, we're Americans and we know what it is to be consumers who have an inordinate love affair with entertainment. We are grateful, oh Lord, that you have challenged us, that you have reminded us again that we are to take heed what we hear. We ask you, our Father, that you would bless the reading of these scriptures and the preaching to our benefit, that we may be fruitful receivers, O Lord God. Fruitful, fruit-bearing receivers. In Jesus' name, Amen.