Blessed Are Those Who Hear The Word and Do It

[0:00] Luke chapter 11.

[0:16] We have made this turn. Jesus has made this turn as he had been in Galilee for a year and a half or so now was on his way to Jerusalem to die.

[0:27] And he took some time getting there, spent a lot of time teaching his disciples. And he did spend a lot of time speaking with crowds.

[0:39] And as he was going in, well, first in Galilee, he was a very popular preacher. People came from all over. They loved to see his miracles. They loved to hear him preach. And as time went on, even as he traveled towards Jerusalem, and we're seeing this already.

[0:55] We'll see it today. We saw it last week. Jesus is becoming less popular. Now, it's not because he's turning bad. The human heart is being revealed.

[1:08] And we're in the middle of a situation today where there are men who are very opposed to him. He answers them.

[1:19] And he shows us a truth about himself that's important to see. Today, I'm going to go back and read what I preached on last week.

[1:33] Because really, the whole section is one unit. It's built that way. Luke meant it to be that way. There's a center point that he's pointing to. And so we're going to read the whole thing as we go into looking at verses 27 to 36.

[1:52] Starting back in verse 14. Now, he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.

[2:03] But some of them said, He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. While others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided house fails or falls.

[2:23] And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For I say to you that I cast out demons by Beelzebub.

[2:36] And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

[2:51] When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when a stronger than he attacks him, and overcomes him, he takes away his armor, in which he trusted, and divides his spoil.

[3:06] Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest.

[3:18] And finding none, it says, I will return to my house from which I came out. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself.

[3:29] And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. And as he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed.

[3:45] But he said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, This generation is an evil generation.

[3:57] It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

[4:09] The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

[4:21] And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will raise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

[4:33] And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

[4:48] Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.

[5:00] Therefore be careful, lest the light in you be darkness. And if your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

[5:15] Let's pray together. Father, I thank you. I thank you for your word. And I thank you that the Lord Jesus was very direct in his speaking here.

[5:30] I pray that his directness would be used by the spirit in our hearts to point to what's going on there.

[5:42] And I pray that you would help us not to be an evil generation, but may we be hearers of the word and doers of it. I pray that your spirit would be with us as we look at this this morning.

[5:56] I pray that he would guide and empower that we might understand and we might do that which you command us to do in this passage. We pray in Jesus' name.

[6:07] Amen. So last time, we looked at this situation where as Jesus has come down, he does this miracle of casting out a demon. Some are accusing him of doing it by Beelzebul.

[6:20] Jesus shows them the foolishness of their thinking and shows that his casting out of the demons is indeed him showing himself to be the stronger man who defeats the strong man and takes his captive, his spoils, and spoils those spoils and brings people unto himself.

[6:46] And in the end of that passage, he says, you're either for me or you're against me. There's no middle ground. And as this whole passage is built, we find this situation before that we've looked at last week and we see how Jesus defended himself, proved that he was indeed the Son of God and was doing that which God had sent them to do and told them they needed to listen to that.

[7:10] Then we have this little slice of something going on in the middle and then he argues with the crowd again. And it's interesting when Bible authors put things together and put something odd in the middle, we really ought to pay attention to that odd thing.

[7:27] And it's so interesting. He gets in the middle of the scene and in this scene, there is a woman who shouts out to him. Now, we're going to find twice in this passage and we found it before.

[7:39] Jesus is very sympathetic to women. He wants women to know that they are as welcome in the kingdom as men and there's no difference between them and God's sight.

[7:55] So here's this woman intimates the crowd. She's the only one that we know of that says anything. And out of the blue, after this fiery exchange between Jesus and these people who are claiming he's casting out demons by Beelzebul and there's words said and there's words said and, you know, there's this kind of discussion.

[8:17] Sometimes you sit there and go, ooh, you know, you're just a little, if you're the kind of person who doesn't like confrontation, you're like, ooh, I wish I could back off from this. But things are said and things are said and things are said and a declaration's made and I picture that there was just this brief moment of silence and this woman shouts out something.

[8:42] A woman who's begun to see the value of who Jesus is and that his word is worth hearing and doing. And she shouts out something that would be odd in our day.

[8:57] He shouts, she shouts out, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nurse. Do you do that today?

[9:09] Do you go around, my friend, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. We don't do that. That's an odd thing in our day.

[9:21] But this woman was doing something that was common in those days. We have literally already seen it in Scripture. We have already seen it in the book of Luke.

[9:34] Here, this woman is doing what women did in that day that was a way, yes, of honoring Mary, but it is a way of this woman saying, Mary did a great job.

[9:51] You are an excellent man. So this woman is complimenting Mary. She's not holding up Mary for worship. She's not saying that she should be venerated.

[10:04] We should honor her, just as Scripture talks about. But she is saying to Jesus, your mother did an excellent job. God has blessed you.

[10:15] You are a good man. And what she was doing was right. Mary did do, I'll say, a good job.

[10:26] She was human. She was a sinner, just like all of us. But God gave her grace. But Jesus turned out the way he was because he is God.

[10:38] Jesus did turn out well. We find in Scripture that Elizabeth speaks this way of Mary in Luke 1, 42.

[10:48] And she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Before she'd even seen Jesus, she knew that he would be blessed because he was the promised Messiah.

[11:02] And it was appropriate for a woman to speak this way. And it's very interesting. Jesus does not rebuke her. These words are not words of rebuke. Jesus uses this phraseology that says, Yes, but.

[11:19] It's not a but of rebuke. He's saying, What you're saying is right, but let me take it further. Yes, but. What I'm about to say is even more important.

[11:30] That's what he's saying. It's important to raise a son well. And Mary did do a good job. But it is more important that we all be the kind of people who hear the word of God and keep it.

[11:45] It is important that we are the kind of people who hear the word of God and keep it. And I'm going to say, as I hinted at a minute ago, we see this discussion that goes on between Jesus and we know from other passages, scribes and Pharisees.

[12:03] And then we see that discussion continuing later. But in the middle, we have this odd phrase. And Luke has made this the center thought of his thinking.

[12:17] He who hears the word of God and keeps it. The people before weren't. The people he's talking to after aren't.

[12:27] And he's telling them, he's telling us, we need to be people who hear the word of the Lord and do it. Now, again, we mentioned how people today sometimes take this verse and talk about how Mary should be venerated.

[12:43] But that's not the case. Mary, in fact, did exactly what this woman, Jesus' response to this woman, said. In Luke 1.38, as the angel has announced to her that she's to have this child, it says, And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

[13:06] Let it be to me according to your word. And so, Mary was indeed a blessed woman.

[13:18] Was she blessed because she had Jesus? Of course. All the world, for all of time, will know that Jesus is the one, that Mary is the one that God used to bring Jesus into this world.

[13:30] And that will be a praise to her for her faithfulness to the Lord. But what she did right was a person, and I could maybe say more importantly what she did right as a person, was not bearing the Lord Jesus.

[13:47] God could have chose any woman to do that. But what she did right was to hear the word of the Lord in her case, in that situation from an angel, and said, Yes, I hear it, and I will obey it.

[14:03] I will do what God has called me to do. Mary did that. This woman is seeing the goodness of her son, but Jesus is saying the most important thing right now is to remember to hear the word of God and do it.

[14:23] This woman is seeing something that the crowd is not seeing. She's seeing something that the crowd is not doing.

[14:37] They're attributing Jesus' works to demons and wanting more signs. But this woman is seeing Jesus for who he is and blessing him and acknowledging him.

[14:53] So this central phrase is the central principle of verses 14 clear down through verse 36. It is what those who were accusing Jesus of healing by Beelzebul were failing to do.

[15:13] They were failing to hear the word of God and do it. It is what this woman is doing. She is hearing the word of God and doing it.

[15:27] And as we go into this last section that we'll cover today, it is what those who were desiring a sign were failing to do or to hear and do.

[15:41] They were failing to hear the now back up. You say, well, how are they failing to hear the word of God? They have been hearing Jesus preach for near to two years now or better. They had seen him do sign after sign after sign and this is not the first casting out of a demon.

[16:00] We talked last week how Jesus delivered hundreds of people from demons and he had cast out thousands, maybe even ten thousand demons from people.

[16:14] This was not the first miracle. Miracle upon miracle had been done. The word had been preached faithfully, correctly for several years now and many were not hearing it and they should have been.

[16:32] And so Jesus continues with a warning. Now he's warned the people in the last section there's no middle ground. You're either for me or you're against me.

[16:45] Here he's going to warn them with something different. These people were wanting more evidence. More evidence, more evidence. Just show us a sign. I was thinking about this again this morning and I was thinking yeah, I wonder if it was the kind of thing where sure they'd seen all these demons cast out but they wanted a particular sign.

[17:07] Maybe they want to say Jesus write my name in the sky and then I'll know you're true. Or Jesus make this rock levitate in front of my face and then I'll know you.

[17:17] Something that that you know they were able to command and they were able to delineate but they were people who wanted to sign before they would believe.

[17:29] And Jesus says this is an evil generation that seeks for a sign. If you go around saying Jesus you have to prove to me who you are by my set of standards then I will believe you.

[17:49] That's an evil generation. And Jesus says a sign will not be given to this evil generation. Now Jesus had been giving signs all over.

[17:59] That's why I think the sign was particular. They wanted something that they could dictate and would be done because they asked for it and it was according to their specifications. And there would be more signs that he would do.

[18:14] But no sign would be given these people. And he goes back into the Old Testament and he reminds them of situations that show that they didn't need another sign.

[18:28] As we continue in this passage we see he starts talking about signs. He mentions Jonah.

[18:43] Now Jonah is mentioned by Jesus in another spot or it's recorded in another gospel and there's a different aspect in Matthew that Jesus is talking about but here Jesus brings up this idea of Jonah.

[18:58] You're only going to have the sign of Jonah. And this is an odd thing. What is he getting at? What is he getting at? Jonah was a man who preached to the Ninevites but if you've read the book of Jonah there's a whole lot more to his story than that.

[19:16] Jonah hears the word from the Lord go preach to the people of Nineveh that I'm going to destroy the people in 40 days if they don't repent. Jonah says thank you very much I'm going the other way.

[19:30] He gets in the boat tries to flee from the presence of the Lord. Storm comes up storm lasts for a couple days. They draw straws find out that it's Jonah.

[19:43] What'd you do? Oh it's just God wants me to go to Nineveh and preach and I don't like those people so I'm going the other direction. And they end up casting him over the boat and you would think that would be it.

[19:57] And he falls into the ocean and he sinks down and he's swallowed by a whale. Of course all of that can be brought into it but the most important thing that Luke is emphasizing he's not emphasizing that he was in the whale for three days.

[20:14] Luke is emphasizing that Jonah was a pitiful preacher. Jonah was a man when God says go talk to these people he goes that way. and then when God miraculously brings him to the land and the fish spits him out on land and he ends up going on to speak to the Ninevites he plods through the city and I'm taking this by the reaction that he gives to the Lord.

[20:41] Such words he says to the Lord how could a man be daring to speak to God the way he does and he plods through the city and it's almost as if he just mumbles out the words 40 days and this city will be destroyed unless you repent.

[20:59] And he's preaching in such a way that he didn't want them to hear. He was pitiful. He was an awful prophet.

[21:11] And once he gets done preaching he goes out into the city and he's waiting watching for the fire of God to fall. Not the fire of revival but the fire of judgment.

[21:23] He's thinking I preach so pitifully they'll never hear. They'll never turn. And lo and behold God brings to them repentance and they turn from the king to the animals they put sack off on their body and they lay in the dust and ashes and they repent and thousands and thousands hundreds of thousands of even children turn from their sin.

[21:54] And at the preaching of this pitiful Jonah they hear the word of the Lord and they do it.

[22:08] That's the only sign that they'll get. And certainly they would have known Jonah as that pitiful preacher who preached to the pitiful nation. who were going to be Israel's enemies.

[22:21] We'll talk more about that in just a minute. And God brought repentance to them and even the men of Nineveh repented at that preaching.

[22:35] He says that will be a sign to you. Now he develops that more in just a minute. But then he goes to the queen of the south. We know her from the old testament in 1 Kings 10 or 2 Chronicles 9 that this is the queen of Sheba.

[22:52] Lived a long way. Some say it was the southern part of Saudi Arabia. Some say it's in Africa somewhere. Doesn't matter. She lived a long ways away. She was a female ruler.

[23:04] Now that means nothing to us. It means literally nothing to them. To us. But to them a woman was someone who was despised.

[23:17] A woman wasn't supposed to be a ruler. But here this woman who in their eyes can I say it only for illustration's sake the derogatorily way she's just a woman.

[23:33] They would have totally brushed her off. But this woman who was a female ruler. She was queen of a land far away. She was a Gentile.

[23:48] And if it was southern Saudi Arabia she was the ruler of a nation that would have been one of Israel's more direct enemies. But this queen from a land far away heard about Solomon.

[24:03] heard about him and his wisdom. And she gathers an entourage together. Great entourage. And they travel many days.

[24:17] Why? I heard about a wise man. And I've heard he's really something. And so she takes this entourage and she makes this trek to go and see for herself.

[24:33] And when she gets there there's all this discussion between her and Solomon and Solomon shows him shows her his palace his servants his wealth she gets to watch how he rules them.

[24:52] I'm just dumbfounded. She says even his wives are happy. 300 wives 700 concubines that's a wise man. I would say he was a foolish.

[25:04] But if she looks at him and says I can't believe the wisdom of this man she investigated for herself. She was convinced of the wisdom of Solomon by what she saw.

[25:18] And Jesus says this female Gentile queen can stand up in the last day and be a witness against this generation.

[25:31] She came all those miles with all those gifts looking to see the truth is Solomon truly a wise man. And she was absolutely convinced.

[25:42] Did Solomon work miracles? No. Did he cast out demons? No. Did he raise the dead?

[25:53] No. But she a Gentile woman was convinced. And Jesus is saying this woman can rise up and be your accuser because she was only looking to see the wisdom of Solomon.

[26:15] And Luke says there is, that's interesting, he says something greater than Solomon. I think that's pointing to the fact that Jesus was not only man, but he was the God man.

[26:31] And the God man was in their presence. and they were so wicked. They weren't as wise as this woman from Sheba who said that man is smart.

[26:47] And she was only looking at Solomon. These people were seeing something greater than Solomon. They were seeing the God man preach with authority.

[27:00] They were seeing the God man who was casting out demons, the stronger man, defeating the strong man and taking the spoil from the strong man. They were seeing him going about doing all kinds of miracles.

[27:15] And these people were saying, can you give me a sign? I'm not quite sure I believe yet. A greater person than Solomon was in their presence.

[27:28] They should be all the more, completely convinced that Jesus was who he said he was. But they remained in their evil disobedience.

[27:45] Jesus goes back to Nineveh and he says, now you're also going to have the sign of the men of Nineveh.

[27:55] We've talked about the prophet that went to Nineveh. Now you're going to have the sign of the men of Nineveh. Let me read Jonah chapter 3 verses 4 and 5. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

[28:13] And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. Now we've already talked about how he's this reluctant, disobedient, pitiful prophet, prophet, only preaching that Nineveh would be destroyed.

[28:33] Again, no miracles. He didn't feed 5,000 at one time and 4,000 another time. He didn't still the calm of the sea. He didn't heal people.

[28:46] He didn't raise the dead. He didn't preach with authority. He preached what God told him. But he was just a pitiful prophet. And this pitiful prophet preached and there were a whole country who were a Gentile people, a wicked people, much more wicked than Israel.

[29:15] And Israel was wicked at this time. But a wicked people who in just over a hundred years would come and defeat the northern part of Israel and hold them captivity.

[29:28] And many of them who were taken captive then would never ever go back to Israel. They had little knowledge of the Old Testament. They saw, as I said, no signs.

[29:40] And yet these men, when a disobedient, reluctant prophet who wanted them to die, even as he said at the end of his book, I'm just waiting here for the judgment to fall.

[29:53] I'm right to be angry, he says. This disobedient, reluctant prophet who wanted them to die, preached the word of God to them. They kept it. They repented.

[30:06] All of them, as I mentioned earlier, from the king down, even the animals put on sackcloth, the little ones, all of them repented. And if the men of Judah can repent at the pitiful preaching from the pitiful prophet Jonah, what is the danger of these people?

[30:32] Because a greater than Jonah is preaching repentance to this evil generation, God's people. And yet they wouldn't hear, and they weren't repenting.

[30:48] They are saying instead, he casts out devils by the prince of devils. How awful is that? How wicked is that? They're saying, just another sign.

[31:01] Let me dictate it this time. A greater than Jonah is here. Gentile enemies with an inferior preaching, hear the word of God, repent.

[31:18] And if God gives them the opportunity, someday when that evil generation comes to stand up before God, that generation of Nineveh will be able to say, God, we repented at Jonah's preaching.

[31:34] And you can just see how that weighs as the scales are laid there before that wicked generation. Yeah, they heard Jonah preach and they repented.

[31:45] These people heard the God-man preach. They watched him do miracles. They watched him raise the dead. He cast out demons. He spoiled the strong man.

[31:58] And yet, show us another sign. How great a judgment will those people be under at that point? But Jesus doesn't stop there.

[32:14] And he goes next into an odd kind of illustration. He applies the answer to these two questions that he's given.

[32:27] You're either for me or against me. And I'm doing my work by the hand of God. And I'm not giving you another sign. There's sufficient evidence.

[32:38] He applies these two answers to their questions. And so starting in verse 33, we see Jesus use the illustration of two lamps.

[32:52] Two lamps. And I think you kind of have to pay attention to this or you'll think that one lamp is the same as the other lamp. And you'll never understand it if you see it as one lamp being the same as the other lamp.

[33:05] First, he uses an illustration where he talks about taking a lamp into the room. We're talking about physical light. Probably in that day and age, it would be a low flat pot with just a little wick sticking out the one end and they would burn oil.

[33:24] And Jesus says, you know, they don't put that under a basket or in the cellar, which is interesting. Cellar is not in Matthew or Mark. Why?

[33:38] Israel didn't have cellars. Who had cellars? Gentiles, Greeks particularly. Luke is writing to the Greeks, they would have understood this.

[33:49] And Jesus is saying, you don't take a light and hide it. You put it on a shelf in the entryway or in the main part of the room and it lights up the whole room and everybody can see where they need to go and what's there.

[34:01] Jesus in using that is talking about himself. He's basically saying to them, the light is right in front of you.

[34:18] He's right here. I'm not hiding. I've not been put off in a corner where no one can see. I am right here and you can see what you need to see because he is right there and he is revealing the truth to them.

[34:35] But then he talks about a different lamp and this one's not what you hold in your hand. This is something that they're talking about in relation to it's a thinking of the day.

[34:47] Those in that day would say that and the Bible speaks of this in other places that the eye is the light of the body. Now some people had the misjudged thinking that the eye produces light and shines on things and how it sees that was some of the ancient thinking but that's not the case.

[35:03] And I don't think Luke is thinking this at all especially the way he structured it. He said the eye is the light of the body it's what shines light inside. Now it's not literally that there's light on your heart and your lungs and your liver because of your eyes.

[35:19] He's saying that what you see is how you perceive things. It's how you interpret things. And we need to be careful because our eyes determine metaphorically or using as an illustration they determine what we see.

[35:40] If you have good eyes and see clearly what's in front of you it's like going into a room. If you have a lamp there and you have bad eyes you're still going to be stumbling all over the room because you can't see what's there.

[35:53] Your feet are going to hurt your hands are going to hurt if you're falling different things like this. But if you walk into the room and of course there's light there and you have good eyes you're going to walk around you could even skip around that room because you have light going in and the whole body can interpret what's going on and it can act and react rightly.

[36:16] So he's using this picture and he's saying in the end here the light is right in front of you. He's the light.

[36:27] He's not hiding the light. He's revealing who he is and what he's doing and he's been doing that for a couple years to this point. The problem is how they perceive that light of what he is doing.

[36:43] They're looking at him and not liking what he's saying, choosing to do something different. So Jesus is telling him, you don't need more signs.

[36:56] You need to rightly see what's right in front of your face. You need to see who I am. You need to let who I am and what I teach sink inside you and dictate how you should react.

[37:14] And in very real sense we could say in this instance he's saying you need to see who I am and let that shine inside you and dictate that you be people who repent of your sin.

[37:27] You be people who see this is the Savior. This is the greater than Jonah. This is the greater than Solomon. This is the stronger man who spoiled the strong man.

[37:38] This is the God man. This is the Messiah. That's what they couldn't get over. They didn't want the Messiah to be like he was. They wanted the Messiah that they wanted. And so they kept saying no we won't interpret it that way.

[37:52] We won't interpret it that way. And Jesus said I'm right here. You need to look at me for who I am and let that guide your actions and reactions. Jesus warns each person listening to him to deal properly with the light that's right in front of them.

[38:10] Lest the light in you be darkness he says. How many people walk around refusing the truth and they interpret creation the wrong way.

[38:23] The way creation come about. They interpret it the wrong way. Why do they interpret it the wrong way? Because their interpreters are set up to say I don't want God. I don't want what he says.

[38:34] I don't want to obey his word. I don't want to keep it. Because they've got these eyes that say that's not what I want. I want this instead. And Jesus tells them you must be careful lest the light in you be darkness.

[38:51] Be careful that you're not refusing to accept the testimony of God's word. You might refuse because you like the life you're living rather than the life the word of God calls you to live.

[39:04] You might be refusing to accept the testimony of the word of God because you're afraid you might not have it right and you want more evidence and yeah I know I'm afraid to take a step because I just need a little bit more light.

[39:18] I just need a little bit then be like the queen of the south. Go look but look with an honest heart and not with a heart that is afraid to see what's really there.

[39:31] So overall be careful that you are interpreting what you are seeing from the word of God properly. The blessing of hearing and keeping the word of God is what he wants them to have.

[39:50] This conclusion that we've just read him telling us to be careful that the light in us not be darkness points back to Luke 11 verse 28 blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

[40:05] The person who's willing to perceive the light the word of God as it is meant to be seen and keeps it, acts upon it as it was meant to be understood and obeyed. That person will be blessed.

[40:17] That's the nutshell of what he's getting at in this passage. And these people have been intentionally blind to it. And he's warning them you're going to pay at the judgment if you don't see that the word of God is to be heard and kept.

[40:35] if you are a person who has heard and kept it you'll be blessed.

[40:49] It will make a difference for good in every part of your life. So friend as you're here as one who's heard are you refusing to hear the word of God?

[41:00] God maybe you've been coming to our church for a long time and you're glad to sit here but you're like I just don't buy it.

[41:14] I just don't buy it. Maybe a little more evidence. That's what it'll take. Will you be one for whom the queen of the south and the men of Nineveh could give testimony against in the day of judgment?

[41:30] will they stand up before God and say they didn't need more evidence? I saw less and believed. And so my charge to you is you need to hear the word of God and keep it.

[41:47] You need the Savior who's come to provide your salvation. You need to trust him today. And Christian do you hear the word of God?

[41:58] God, I'm not just asking if you read your Bible or you listen to preachers. Do you read your Bible to understand it? Do you read your Bible as one who wants it to make a difference in your life?

[42:18] Do you read the Bible to say, God, what would you have me do? do you? And it's clear. So much. People get all hung up.

[42:29] Well, I don't know, you know, ten years from now, what woman I should marry. That'll become evident. There's a lot in here that's very evident right now.

[42:43] Who your faith should be in. Who you should live for. Who you should worship. Who you should spend time in prayer with. Who you should be getting to know by reading his word.

[42:53] It's all there. When you come to hear the word preached, are you listening for what is being said? For what it would have you do?

[43:08] For what it would have you know? Now, all of us come to the word of God with a background. But do you come to the word of God asking that God would show you what is true?

[43:20] truly there? And what you should know? You could have been raised in this tradition or that tradition. You come as one saying, God, and you wouldn't say this necessarily every time, but this thinking, you know, I was raised in this tradition and we thought all these things.

[43:42] Lord, I want to be right. I want to know what your word says. Help me to hear what's here and do it. we need to be people who are coming to the word of God with a desire to truly hear the word of God and with a true desire to keep it.

[44:02] Then, you will be blessed. Blessed in the fact that it will do the work in you that it's supposed to. It will show you Christ.

[44:14] It will show his trustworthiness. it will show what God would have you do. And so, I'll close with these two verses. But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

[44:31] Therefore, be careful thus the light in you be darkness. Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would be with us. We are people who are so often wanting to be convinced a little bit more when all the evidence, ample evidence, is right there.

[44:52] Help us to be people who are willing to hear and do what your word says. And Lord, if there's one here, or five here, or 15, or whatever, who have been sitting here quietly and either not believing Jesus is who he says he is, or who's been saying if God would just show me a sign that I dictate, then I'll believe.

[45:20] And I pray that today would be the day they would see that this is, that's the wrong evidence, or that's seeking for the wrong evidence. The truth is here. And Lord, I pray that you would be with us as people.

[45:32] Help us to be people who know you, who are wanting to know exactly what your word says, and to do it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[45:44] Let's take our hymn books and turn to hymn 493. 493. The hymn is We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought.

[45:57] And, um, We Have