January 31, 2024 Show with Ken Ramey on “Expository Listening”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer

George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend

Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Wednesday on this very last day of January, January 31st, 2024.

And I am still crawling out from underneath the rubble of yesterday's program.

It seems that many of my listeners and many who heard about my interview with M .D.

Perkins of the American Family Association, who is also author of Dangerous Affirmation, we were providing a very serious but attempting to be loving critique of Alistair Begg's recent comments where he recommended to a grandmother during a podcast to attend her grandson's wedding to a transgendered individual, a man that supposedly believed that he had become a woman.

Obviously, we know that that is impossible, that there's no such thing as that happening. But Alistair gave the advice to a grandmother that as long as the grandson knew that she was a

Christian, that she was very seriously opposed to that behavior and that so -called marriage, as long as the grandson knew that she should not only attend, but give them a gift.

And how that conveys the message that you're opposed to what's happening, I have no idea.

But it's amazing how many people are defending Alistair to the point of being some, not all, but there are a number of people who are being very nasty to me.

And it's quite astonishing that people think that that is okay, that that public rebuke of me is okay.

But no, no, we can never do that with Alistair Begg. But hopefully that broadcast will be archived on IronTroopensIronRadio .com

very soon. I think it's a very valuable interview and I think that MD Perkins did an outstanding job of being as loving and gracious to Alistair as he could and being very appreciative, openly appreciative of Alistair's ministry in the past up until this point.

And so I think it's a balanced response. But anyway, hopefully that will be archived very soon at IronTroopensIronRadio .com.

But today we are discussing something different. Well, it's not all that different because it involves expository preaching and on the other side of the preaching, listening.

We have the author of Expository Listening on the show today, a guest that I've never interviewed before and I'm looking forward to interviewing him because one of the reasons is because my webmaster,

Eric Nielsen, is absolutely thrilled that I have Ken Ramey on today because Eric, my webmaster, has already read his book,

Expository Listening, and highly recommends it. And Ken Ramey is one of the elders at Lakeside Bible Church in Montgomery, Texas.

And we will not only be discussing his book, Expository Listening, but we'll also be promoting the 2024

True Church Conference in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Ken will be speaking alongside

Richard Caldwell, my friend Jeff Knoblet, my friend Jonathan Sims, also known as Jono Sims, Timothy Seal, and Derek Melton.

But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to IronTroopensIronRadio, Pastor Ken Ramey.

Whoops. It's an honor. Ken, thank you. I accidentally had you on mute.

I'm sorry about that. Oh, okay. No problem. That's probably the best place to put me, is on mute.

Well, after yesterday, I'm sure a lot of my listeners think that about me. But anyway, well, tell our listeners, first of all, about this fine congregation where you serve on the

Elder Board, Lakeside Bible Church of Montgomery, Texas. Yeah. Thanks, Chris.

Yeah, we're a church plant. We're about to celebrate our 25th anniversary this coming fall.

And we're about an hour north of Houston. And it was—the

Lord brought me here from—I'm originally from Massachusetts. My wife's from Seattle.

We met in L .A. and we ended up here in Texas, as they say. And so I'm a

Yankee serving down here in the south. But anyway, the church has been very gracious to me.

And some godly men, 25 years ago, approached me and said, hey, we want to plant a church and we want you to be our pastor.

And so we stepped out in faith and rented a little elementary school cafeteria and the rest is history.

And so we are thrilled to see how the Lord has grown His church over the years.

And really, I guess probably my favorite thing about our church is our Elder Board, our elder team.

I just met with them this morning. And just a group of godly men who love Christ, love His church.

And they're humble, gracious, like -minded men who have just stood by my side for most of those 25 years.

And so just the longevity of a group of lay elders is a gift from the

Lord. So I get to do what I love with people

I love. And again, that's just a rare privilege. And can you tell us something about the theological makeup of Lakeside Bible Church of Montgomery, Texas?

Yeah. We're an independent Bible church. And so we don't have any denominational affiliation.

Obviously, we partner with like -minded churches in our area and around the country and around the world.

But I guess we would probably fit, if you're going to put us in a box, more of a

Reformed Baptist -type theology. Thanks for referring to my beloved heritage as a box.

I was actually raised Roman Catholic and, thanks be to God, was delivered out of that false religious system and was saved in a

Reformed Baptist church and continue to be a Reformed Baptist today. Amen.

Well, if you're in that Pennsylvania area, I'm curious, what church was that? Well, the church that I am a member of now is

Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. But I was raised in Amityville, Long Island, New York and only moved to Pennsylvania in 2014 and became a member of Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle then.

But prior to that, I was saved in the 1980s at Calvary Baptist Church of Amityville, which no longer exists because it merged with First Baptist Church of Merrick, Long Island, another

Reformed Baptist church. And it became Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island and Merrick.

But this is not about me. It's about you. Yeah. No, that's all right. It's a curiosity of mine because I have appreciated the guys over there, in particular,

Trinity Baptist Church and Al Martin. Oh, yeah. That's in New Jersey. Yes.

Yeah. He had a huge influence in my thinking and on preaching and ministry.

But yeah, anyway, we're that kind of strange, odd duck, you know, kind of a

Reformed dispensationalist. Obviously, you know, having been trained at the Master's Seminary and mentored by John MacArthur, you know, we are very like -minded with Grace Community Church and the convictions there.

In fact, we actually got permission from Grace Community Church. We planned with the church to steal their doctrinal statement and just change it up a little bit.

But we're essentially, you know, on the same page there. So... Well, if the framers of the 1689

London Baptist Confession of Faith could steal the majority of the Westminster Confession of Faith, I'm sure that's okay that you did that.

Yeah, that's right. I appreciate that. By the way, if anybody is interested in learning more about Lakeside Bible Church of Montgomery, Texas, go to lakesidebiblechurch .org,

lakesidebiblechurch .org. And now let me find out more about this exciting event in which you are participating as a speaker, the

True Church Conference 2024 at Grace Life Church of the

Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. I attended one of their True Church Conferences, which is actually run by Anchored in Truth Ministries, a parachurch ministry of Grace Life Church of the

Shoals. And I loved my time in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and especially my time with the

Saints at Grace Life Church of the Shoals. In fact, as I told you,

I believe, before the show, I had the privilege of having the pastor of Grace Life Church of the

Shoals, Jeff Noblitt, speak for the first time at my most recent Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon.

And the men that were there were absolutely blessed. So many of them told me afterward how much they were thrilled and blessed and edified and challenged by Jeff Noblitt's message to them.

And Jeff blew me away by doing this all at absolutely no charge to me or Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

He paid his own expenses, and I was thrilled that he took time out of his very busy schedule to do that.

And it was also great to see his wife accompany him at the event. But tell us about the event that you are participating in specifically,

February 15th through the 18th there in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Yeah.

And we just had Jeff Noblitt at our church this past Sunday. Oh, wow. Yeah, he was in town to speak at another conference at Richard Caldwell's church,

Truth and Love Conference. Another powerful preacher, Richard Caldwell is magnificent.

Amen. He's probably my closest pastor friend in the

Houston area, very like -minded brother. We're swapping people back and forth from our churches regularly. So he's a blessing for sure.

And so yeah, Jeff did a great job at our church this past Sunday. It was a tremendous blessing. And my wife and I got to visit with his

Southern Bell wife, Pam, and just really enjoyed their company.

And yeah, so we're looking forward to going back. I was there last year at the True Church Conference, and Jeff was very gracious and kind to invite me.

In fact, it really was because of the book, Expository Listening.

And so it's kind of connected to our subject for today. But several years ago,

I received a phone call from this church in Muscle Shoals, Alabama called Grace Life Church of the

Shoals. Never heard of it before, but they said, hey, we got a copy of your book, Expository Listening, and we wanted to know if you would mind if we used it with our small groups and actually develop the study guide to go along with it.

And I said, absolutely. You have my permission to do whatever you want. And so anyway,

Jeff thought it'd be good for me to come and actually preach a message or two.

I actually got to preach two messages last year on the subject of Expository Listening, and I kind of felt like a celebrity there because they'd all read the book and it really made a big impact in the life of their church.

And so anyway, Jeff invited me back this year. And so next month, we're looking forward to being there.

We're actually just in a couple of weeks now. And along with those other guys on the speaking list there and just a great group of like -minded men, we have the opportunity to talk about the nine maxims of a local church.

And I'm going to be tackling the subject about being focused on the glory of God. And I'm really thrilled to be able to speak on that subject and talk about how the glory of God is the ultimate goal of not just the church, but our individual lives.

Yes, we must always remember that, especially when we are tempted to somehow soften or alter the gospel message, either in what we say or what we do, to make it more appealing, more palatable to our audience, which is basically as nice as they are.

If they're not saved, they're enemies of the gospel. And we have to remember that the glory of God is even primary and foremost in importance above the salvation of the lost.

It's more serious, more important. And we have to be more concerned about offending

God than offending humans. And that seems to be a temptation for many people to ignore that truth.

Even amongst we who believe the same things theologically, it's amazing how often this seems to raise its ugly head.

And we have to always remember that. But if anybody wants more details on the

Anchored in Truth True Church Conference at Grace Life Church of the

Shoals in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, February 15th through the 18th of this year, go to anchoredintruth .org,

anchoredintruth .org, and you will be able to click on a tab to get all the details.

Well, I'm going to give our listeners our email address if they would like to join us on the air with a question of their own.

Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

But I'd like to read a couple of endorsements for this book that we are going to address today.

First of all, a much beloved figure in the church who

I have had the privilege of interviewing once at least on this program, John MacArthur, who has also blessed me with an endorsement, a written endorsement for Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

But John says of your book on expository listening,

I have a couple of shells full of books about expository preaching, all aimed, of course, at pastors.

This is the first book I've ever read that offers insight and instruction for lay people regarding how to listen to expository preaching.

It's a superbly practical and long overdue handbook covering the subject thoroughly yet clearly and concisely.

Ken Ramey is a fine preacher and expositor himself with a shepherd's heart and a wonderful gift for teaching.

I'm very grateful he has tackled this subject and given the church such an invaluable resource.

That's John MacArthur, pastor, teacher of Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California.

And also my dear friend, Dr. Joel Beakey, who is my next

Iron Trip and Zion Radio free pastor's luncheon speaker on Thursday, June 6th, 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, which is

Perry County, Pennsylvania. Dr. Joel Beakey is president of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

And he says, good listening is missing today in all kinds of relationships, perhaps most of all in church.

Many books have been written on how to preach well. But surprisingly, few have been published on how to listen well.

Ken Ramey's expository Listening admirably fills this void from establishing a basic need for and theology of listening from the scriptures to offering practical ways believers can prepare to listen, discern what they hear, and apply sermons to their own lives.

I've been waiting for such a book for a long time. Christians everywhere should read it and put it into practice.

And two very powerful endorsements from two very powerful ambassadors for Christ in the kingdom of God.

And tell us about, well, you know something, in order to prevent myself from interrupting you mid -sentence,

I'm going to go to our first commercial break right now. And if anybody wants to join us, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Let's say it is over a disagreement you had with your own church over something we're discussing today.

Or perhaps you're even the pastor and you have a disagreement with your own elders in your own denomination or what have you.

We understand that there will be reasons on occasion where people want to remain anonymous. But if it's just a general question, please give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.

We'll be right back. Please don't go away. I'm Pastor Keith Allen of Lindbrook Baptist Church, a

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Ken Ramey, and we're discussing his book,

Expository Listening, a practical handbook for hearing and doing God's Word. If you want to join us, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence.

And when did it dawn on you, Ken, some of your endorsers of this book, including the two that I read,

John MacArthur and Dr. Joel Beeky, made it clear that they have never even heard of a book of this nature before, where the listening is the subject matter, not the teaching of how to preach.

And this is also, as these men said, more geared towards the person in the pew than the man behind the pulpit.

But it also involves the man behind the pulpit, because they listen to other preachers as well.

Tell us when it first dawned on you of the void that there appeared to be when it came to an instruction manual, a guide, a help, in this very issue of listening to preaching.

Yeah, it really goes back all the way to like 1994, when

I was asked to be the high school pastor at Grace Community Church. And somebody on our student ministry staff handed me a book when

I began that ministry, and it was called A Consumer's Guide to Preaching, How to Get the

Most Out of a Sermon by Jay Adams. Oh yeah, I remember that, I remember that. Yeah. And it was a really funny cover with a guy sitting in the pew with these big ears, cartoon -like ears.

And I thought, this is fascinating. I've never even thought of this subject. And so I read it, and I was so impressed by what

Jay Adams said. And his conclusion was, like these endorsers have said, there's nothing like this.

There's tons of books out there from preachers, but there's no book out there for listeners. And the Bible talks more about listening than it does about preaching.

And so it's the oversight of the century. And so I was really intrigued by that subject.

And in fact, I preached several sermons to the students at Grace Community Church years ago.

And then when I was pastoring here at Lakeside Bible Church, back in probably the early 2000s,

I went on a trip to India and I spent a week and a half preaching or teaching at a seminary about expository preaching, teaching men how to exposit

God's word. And so as most preacher's dilemma is that they're traveling home from their trip and they're landing on a

Saturday and have to have a sermon ready by Sunday. I was contemplating that on the flight home, what could

I preach that next Sunday? And so I thought to myself,

I just spent the entire week teaching on expository preaching. And I thought, what is the application of that for my people?

And I thought, well, it's their responsibility. And the other side of the coin basically is we know what the preacher's responsibility is, but what is the listener's responsibility?

So I crafted a sermon, 30 ,000 feet in the air, heading home from India, and I titled it

Preaching for Dummies. And it was basically a kind of a behind the scenes look at how a preacher prepares a message and how a listener can get more out of the messages.

And then in the mid 2000s, I was invited to pursue a doctorate in expository preaching back at Master's Seminary.

And so I agreed to do that. And then I found out you had to write some dissertation, write something about in the genre of preaching.

I thought, what could I possibly write on that hasn't already been covered? And then I thought to myself, oh,

I remember that book that I read years ago that I never thought got the proper airtime that it deserves.

It was kind of an obscure book that not a whole lot of people had read. I thought, well, maybe I can just write an updated version of that, give

Jay Adams the honor that was due to him for tackling that subject years ago, having the discernment and insight to address that.

And so I told our church, I said, hey, listen, the last thing I wanna do is do some kind of project that I'm gonna be doing off in the corner somewhere that has no relation or application to my daily ministry here at Lakeside.

I said, if you're with me, I said, I'm gonna attempt to preach a series of sermons on the listener's responsibility in preaching and take everything that I've ever learned about expeditory preaching and present it to you from the perspective of the person sitting in the pew.

And so I did like a 12 -week series and that eventually turned into my dissertation.

Each of those sermons became a chapter in the dissertation and then it was recommended by the guy that was my reader, my advisor, reached out to Crest Publishing and said, hey, you should try to publish this.

And thankfully Rick Crest and Crest Biblical Resources had some good editors at the time and were able to take a long -winded dissertation and boil it down to something real practical and accessible and readable for people in the church.

And so I really, at the end of the day, it started really as a ministry to the members of our church.

In fact, I dedicated the book to my beloved flock at Lakeside Bible Church who attentively listened to me preach the word week after week and prefer to have their toes stepped on rather than their ears pickled.

Oh, that's a great line there. I like that. Well, and I got that from, you know, people coming up to me after church as I was standing at the door greeting them and they said, oh, pastor, you really stepped on my toes today, but I needed it.

And so they were thankful for the straightforward preaching of God's word. And then, of course, we know, according to 2

Timothy chapter four, Paul exhorted Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season and to reprove and rebuke and exhort with great patience and instruction because the time would come when they'll not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

And I thought, boy, we live in that generation of ear -tickling preachers, and it's kind of a supply and demand deal.

You know, preachers know what people want. They want to have their ears tickled, and so that's what they do. And we live and minister an hour north of who

I would consider the biggest ear -tickler on the planet today, and that is, of course, Joel Osteen down at his church there.

And in fact, Lakewood, we've been called at times, hey, is this, you know, people will call our church member thinking we're

Lakewood. And I'm saying, no, we're Lakeside, a big difference. But so we live in the shadow.

We live and minister in the shadow of supposedly the largest church in America, and, you know, where the guy holds up his

Bible every time before he preaches and says, you know, this is the word of God, and you're going to be taught the word of God, and then he puts it down and never refers to it.

And so it's just sad. So anyway, you know, I thought, you know, this would be a worthy subject to tackle, and our body has been blessed by it.

And I think it's really helped us have a higher regard for the preaching of God's word.

People at our church realize that they're going to be held accountable by God someday for what they hear and whether or not they put it into practice.

And so it's really heightened our experience on Sunday mornings when the word's being preached. I provide a sermon sheet every

Sunday with the outline for the message that day and then application questions on the back that are used for, you know,

I encourage them to use for either their personal quiet time later that week, trying to put into practice what they heard. And then most of our grow groups, our small groups in our church, are geared around sermon applications.

So the discussion is about those questions and how can we put into practice this message that we just heard so that we could not be merely listeners of the word who deceive themselves, but doers of the word like it says in James 1 .22.

Praise God. By the way, when you mentioned preaching for dummies, I couldn't help but remember a very funny line in the movie

A River Runs Through It. I don't know how many of my listeners have seen that movie about two young men raised in a

Presbyterian household. Presbyterian pastor's household. And over the dinner table, one of the boys asked the

Presbyterian pastor father, what's a Methodist? And he said, a

Methodist is a Baptist who can read. And even though that joke is at my expense and the expense of all my peeps, my

Baptist brethren, I just couldn't help but find that hilarious. But sorry for that detour. I just had that stuck in my head when you said preaching for dummies.

Now, what are some of the initial practical steps when our listeners are in their respective congregations this

Sunday, sitting in their pews, what are the initial steps to get themselves prepared for what they about to hear?

And in fact, that preparation would likely begin even before they're inside the four walls of that church.

But tell us about the initial practical steps behind the best in expository listening.

Yeah. No, that's a great question. You know, the way I think about it,

I've kind of broken it up into four responsibilities. Whenever we listen to God's word preached and these responsibilities, we need to be mindful of, we need to be faithful to in order for God's word is honored and glorified through our lives and that we get the most out of the sermons that we hear and experience maximum life change from the sermons that we hear.

So I think it starts, you know, just number one, having an appreciation for the preaching of God's word.

In other words, we need to understand the gravity of hearing God's word preached. And so, you know, just to, you know,

I think guys like John Calvin, for example, they stress proper hearing with their people because of their high regard for preaching.

And so I think a right understanding of how to properly listen to God's word starts and flows out of a right understanding of how

God's word is to be properly preached. And so I think before you can even address the subject of biblical listening, you have to talk about biblical preaching.

And really when, I like how Wayne Grudem said it. He said, throughout the history of the church, the greatest preachers have been those who've seen their task as being to explain the words of scripture and apply them clearly to the lives of their hearers.

And so essentially they stand in the pulpit, they point to a biblical text, and they say to the congregation, this is what this verse means.

Do you see that meaning? You need to believe it, you need to obey it. For God himself, your creator, and your

Lord is saying this to you today. And so I think he put his finger on the profound gravity of hearing

God's word preached and that God himself is saying this to you. And so whenever a preacher faithfully explains the

Bible, it's actually God talking and not the preacher. And I get that from First Thessalonians chapter two, where Paul said to the, he was commending the church in Thessalonica.

And he said, for this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive 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, which also performs the belief.

And so I think it just starts with an appreciation like the believers in Thessalonica, when they listened to Paul, they weren't listening to Paul, they knew they were listening to God.

And so I think people need to have an appreciation for the fact that really true biblical preaching, when that is occurring, the voice of the preacher is ultimately drowned out by the voice of God.

That's how John Stott said it. And so I think we've lost that appreciation in the church today.

And people, again, really want their ears tickled more than they want to hear sound biblical preaching.

And so anyway, I think it starts there. And then there's a responsibility kind of before you hear the word preached, while you hear the word preached, and then after you hear the word preached.

So really the anticipation, that's the second thing I talk about.

Once you have an appreciation for the word of God, you need to have an anticipation. In other words, you need to prepare your heart before hearing

God's word preached. And I think it's interesting that when you look at the parable of the soils in Luke chapter eight, that whole parable is really about hearing and obeying the preaching of God's word.

And I think the lesson in that parable is that listening to God's word preached has really more to do with our hearts than our ears.

And those four kinds of soil really illustrate four kinds of hearts. The rocky soil or the road soil, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, the good soil, and really how we respond to God's word depends on the condition of our hearts.

And so in order for the seed of God's word to plant itself deep in our hearts and flourish and produce fruit in our lives, the soil of our heart has to be properly prepared.

And so the scripture talks about sometimes our hearts can be hardened to the word. Hebrews three talks about that.

Sometimes they need to be harrowed up or broken up and softened and ready to receive the word. Jeremiah four, three talks about breaking up the sallow ground.

And I grew up in, like I mentioned earlier in Massachusetts and we had this big garden and it was so big that my dad had to get the neighbor farmer to come over and plow up that field every spring.

And then all those big clods of dirt, it wasn't prepared to plant anything yet.

He had to go unhook his plow and hook up his harrow and he'd bring the harrow in and run it back and forth over that to prepare that soil so my dad and I could go out and plant that seed.

And so I think it's, you think about what needs more preparation, the preacher or the hearer.

And Spurgeon was the one who said that. He said, listen, men ought not to hear or men ought not to preach without preparation but at the same time, men ought not to hear without preparation.

And he said, I would have the sower come with clean hands but I would have the ground well plowed and harrowed well turned over and the clods broken before the seed comes in.

It seems to me there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.

And so all that to say, even the most well -crafted sermons will fail to change people's lives if they're not received by well -cultivated hearts.

And so we need to learn to hear our hearts so they're ready to receive God's word. And I actually have a chapter in the book called

Harrowing Your Heart. And it's really all about what are some practical things you can do to prepare your heart before you hear

God's word free. So for example, plan ahead. I mean, something as simple as planning ahead, Sunday morning starts

Saturday night. And so instead of basically trying to eliminate the

Sunday morning scramble, right? When you get up and everybody's running around and trying to get dressed and eat breakfast and get in the car and get to church on time.

And usually it's a very chaotic experience for most families. And by the time they rush into church and get the kids dropped off at the nursery or wherever and they plop down for the worship service, their heart is not ready to receive the preaching of God's word.

And so, hey, plan ahead, do some simple things like set out your clothes, set out the diaper bag, pack the car up, set the table for breakfast, whatever you can do to alleviate that Sunday morning scramble so you can have a much more peaceful, restful, hopefully, experience as you're getting ready to come to church.

But come with your sin confessed. Be reading and meditating on God's word throughout the week.

And your heart will already be tilled up and ready to receive the preached word. Again, there's just a number of things.

Make sure you take advantage of all the preparation for the preaching of God's word, the prayers, the scripture reading, the worship songs, all those things.

As you're engaging in each one of those elements of a worship service, I think they're all leading to the climax of the sermon or the service, which is the sermon and the preaching of God's word.

And then just other things like fighting off distractions and things like that.

That's kind of what you need to do while you're sitting there. Pick a spot in the church where you're going to have the least amount of distractions.

A lot of people like to sit in the back. But when you sit in the back, you see everything that's happening on any given

Sunday morning in the life of your church. Whereas if you sit closer to the front, a lot of the distractions are behind you.

And you can focus better and stay more in tune with what the preacher's saying.

Well, we have an anonymous listener who asks, is there a time when it is the obligation of a member of a church to leave that congregation and find another one if the preaching he is hearing regularly is horrible?

I'm not saying that the pastor is a heretic, but the preaching is just very ill -prepared and also unproductive in equipping the saints who are hearing the message over and over and over again.

Yes. And I would say absolutely. You know, the Bible talks about, you know, we've heard that expression being a good

Berean. Acts chapter 17, verse 11. And, you know, the

Bereans, it says, were more noble -minded than those in Thessalonica for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

And some today might condemn the Bereans for being critical or judgmental or nitpicky.

But Luke commends them for wanting to make sure that what Paul was saying matched up with the truth of God's word.

And again, we're living in a generation, I think, that's being exposed to more religious information, instruction than any other generation in the history of the church.

And, you know, there's lots of false teachings out there.

And again, even if it's not false teaching, but it's more the milk of the word rather than the meat of the word, you know,

Hebrews chapter 5 talks about, you know, the writer was really rebuking his readers because there was so many more things he wanted to go deeper in talking about things like Melchizedek.

And he says, man, I got so much more to say, but I can't do it because you become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you'd need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.

And you've come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he's an infant, but solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

So I think that's really that's probably the biggest challenge when it comes to the listener's responsibility is to pay close attention to what they're hearing and to be discerning and to know that is this milk, you know, am

I just, you know, is my pastor just kind of feeding me milk, you know, week after week, month after month, year after year, or are we going to the deeper things of Scripture, the deeper truths, the kind of the prime rib principles of the word of God.

And I think, you know, there's no more important decision that we make in life than what church we attend.

And primarily where you're going to be well said the word of God that is so vital.

We know that the preaching of God's word is so vital to our souls and to the health of our souls.

And so I think that's just one aspect of exercising discernment.

While the preacher, the pastor may not be a heretic or a false teacher, but if he is not, you know, doing due diligence with the

Scriptures and just kind of skimming over things or maybe just approaching the Scriptures topically, which typically doesn't give people a good grasp of the word of God.

I think, you know, we get people who show up at our church and we've had a resurgence of people in recent months who are just, they're just looking, they're hungry, they're starving for the sound preaching of God's word.

And so they've come from other churches that they felt like they were not being well fed.

So they were out looking for a place where they could be challenged and pushed and through a deeper expository ministry.

And I want to pick up right where you left off there when we return from our midway break. Please be patient,

I should say, folks with our midway break. It's always a little longer than the other breaks in the show because Grace Life Radio 90 .1

FM in Lake City, Florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the

FCC requires of them to localize this program geographically to Lake City, Florida where the station is located.

They do so with their own public service announcements and other local things that they air while we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials.

Please use this time wisely. Write down as much of the contact information as you possibly can for as many of our advertisers as you can so that you can more frequently and successfully contact our advertisers keeping in mind that we cannot exist without our advertisers.

The financial support that comes from our advertisers is absolutely essential to our existence.

So please try to buy their products when you can and use their services when you can and visit their churches when you can but when you can't do any of that at the very least contact our advertisers as many of them as possible and simply say thank you for sponsoring

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And also send in your questions to Ken Ramey about expository listing to chrisarnson at gmail .com

We'll be right back. Please do not go away. Puritan Reformed is a Bible -believing kingdom -building devil -fighting church.

We are devoted to upholding the apostolic doctrine and practice preserved in scripture alone.

Puritan Reformed teaches men to rule and lead as image -bearing prophets, priests, and kings.

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We sing the Psalms, teach the law, proclaim the gospel, make disciples, maintain discipline, and exalt

Christ. This is Pastor David Reis of Puritan Reformed in Phoenix, Arizona.

Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and also the host of the reformrookie .com

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Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Avenio and thanks for listening. This is

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

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Before I return to my guest today, Ken Ramey, I have some important announcements to make.

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Last but not least, if you are not a member of a Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, doctrinally solid church like Lakeside Bible Church in Montgomery, Texas, I have extensive lists of biblically faithful churches spanning the globe, and I've helped many people in our audience all over the planet

Earth find churches, sometimes even within just a couple of minutes from where they live. And no matter where in the world you live, that may be you too if you are without a biblically solid church home.

Send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line.

That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Ken Ramey, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside of the

USA. And we do have another question for you from Valerie in Aquabog, Long Island, New York.

And Valerie says, just to add to the question and answer that was provided before the break when an anonymous listener asked if you were obligated to leave a church where the pastor was not really gifted in equipping the saints gathered as much as could possibly be because he was not very effective or learned.

Don't we need to be a little bit cautious about immediately assuming we need to leave? Sometimes there may be men who are so learned and seasoned as Christians in that congregation that they do not need to leave because of their own personal study and knowledge.

And perhaps a meeting with this pastor, or pastors plural, would help resolve the issue and perhaps these men could improve the way that they present the word of God to the people.

Ken, are you there? Yes, I sure am. And I appreciate the heart behind that question and I hope

I didn't imply that that was a quick and easy decision to up and leave a church just because you're not feeling like you're being well fed.

I do agree with that sentiment about, hey, there's more than one way to skin a cat in that regard and that I think you owe it to your preacher to go and talk to them and sit down and have a respectful, honorable conversation.

And perhaps you could point out the fact that you don't feel like you're being well fed and maybe that preacher would be convicted or challenged by that.

And I'm assuming you would advise that be said privately. Absolutely.

Privately and especially not spreading that around the church and getting other people's perspective or what do you think, don't go serving the rest of the body because then you'll become a factious, divisive person in the church and undermining the preacher, the pastor.

But I think it would be very honoring to God and honoring to those in leadership to go to them, a pastor, and if it's an elder -led church, to go to the entire elder board and talk to them and share your concern.

I have dear friends that have been called to other churches that they, by their own admission, listen online and to other preachers during the week.

They do their own personal Bible study and they feel like they need to really supplement the teaching of the word every

Sunday at their own local church. They feel called there. They feel convicted that that's where God wants them.

Even though the preaching leaves a little to be desired, they are able to supplement their feeding through other good

God, the gifted men, whether inside that church or outside that church than just the pulpit ministry.

Well, thank you very much, Valerie, and please provide for us your full mailing address because you have just won a free copy of Expository Listening, and we thank

Cress Biblical Resources for providing us with a limited number of copies of this book for free.

And we also thank Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com, who will actually be shipping the book out to you at no cost to you or to Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

And by the way, I don't remember if I said the same thing to our anonymous listener in the first part of the program, but if you provide me with your full name and address, of course this will be done without the knowledge of our listeners.

Since you remain anonymous, you will receive a copy of this book too, compliments of Cress Biblical Resources and cvbbs .com.

Yeah, very, very excellent answer. And this very much involves the whole premise of your book that we need to have our mind and hearts and consciences trained through the

Scripture to even know if we are not being fed well.

I mean, there may be people who come to that conclusion just because their feelings are hurt on the summit.

That man makes me upset every week. That man makes me feel guilty every week. And of course, there are true occasions when preachers are very lopsided in their presentations of the gospel and are filled with nothing but condemnation.

But sometimes that is a wrong conclusion that people come to because they're continuing an unrepentant sin and they hate being reminded of it.

So we have to be very careful about coming to conclusions, don't we? Absolutely. And so what would be another step in the preparation of making sure one's mind and heart and conscience is going to be getting the most out of a sermon?

Yeah, I think it's important to remember the responsibility that we all have to put into practice what we hear.

You know, we're all familiar with the expression practice what you preach.

And the people sitting in the pew count on the one standing beyond the pulpit to live out what he's saying. I mean, there's nothing more hypocritical and dishonoring to God than when the preacher doesn't do what he tells his congregation to do.

But I would say it's just as hypocritical and dishonoring to God when a congregation doesn't do what the preacher tells them to do.

So I think people in our congregation have every right to expect me to practice what

I preach. But at the same time, I have every right to expect them to practice what

I preach or in other words, to practice what they hear. And, you know,

I stumbled across a verse in the Old Testament in the process of studying and researching the subject.

And it's Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 30. And God is speaking to his prophet

Ezekiel. And he said, but as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens, who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses speak to one another, each to his brother saying, come now and hear what the message is, which comes forth from the

Lord. And they come to you as people come and sit before you as my people and hear your words, but they do not listen to them or excuse me, they do not do them for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth and their heart goes after their game.

Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument for they hear your words, but they do not practice them.

And I thought, wow, how fascinating that evidently Ezekiel was a captivating creature.

He was the talk of the town and all the Israelites would flock to hear him preach because they were intrigued.

They were impressed by his sermons, but God said they don't, they've never obeyed a single one.

It just kind of all went in one ear and out the other. And so it was more of an experience of entertainment.

It was like, you know, going to the symphony and listening to a beautiful voice or, you know, some gifted instrumentalist and they were just wowed by his ability to communicate, but they had no intention of putting into practice what they heard.

And, you know, I think in, you know, we all have our favorite preachers, right?

You know, oh, I like Piper or I like MacArthur or I like Sproul or, you know,

I like Steve Lawson and, you know, or did you hear that message the other day? But, you know, and we get excited about the preacher and sometimes

I wonder if we're more impressed by how they say it than actually what they say.

And so, you know, I think, so we just have to be careful, you know, that we make sure that we don't delude ourselves, like James said, that we're merely hearing all these sermons, but we're not doing anything about them.

In fact, I told our congregation, you know, the last thing we as a Bible church need is one more

Bible study. We need to take some time to stop and evaluate the truth that we've heard and ask ourselves, what are we doing about it?

And I think, again, Bible churches and people that love preaching and Bible study, that's a blessing.

That's an evidence of God's grace in their life. But, you know, if you keep packing the church's schedule with one more

Bible study, one more Bible study, and no one stops to ask themselves, okay, so what?

You know, I heard this message. How should this message change my life? And, you know, the

Puritans became, I became particularly endeared to the

Puritans through the process of studying for this project because, you know, they talked about this all the time.

And if you were a church member of a Puritan pastor like Thomas Watson, I mean, these guys took no prisoners.

I mean, just listen, this is Thomas Watson. This is something he said in one of his sermons. He said, if you would hear the word or write, practice what you hear.

Hearing only will be no plea at the day of judgment. Merely just say, Lord, I've heard many sermons. God will say, what fruits of obedience have you brought forth?

He said, the word preached is not only to inform you, but to reform you. And if you hear the word and are not bettered by it, your hearing will increase your condemnation.

He says, we pity such as know not where to hear. In other words, it's easy to throw stones at people that go to churches that are, you know, not teaching sound doctrine or, you know, easy believers or whatever.

It's easy to take potshots at them, but it will be worse with such as care not how they hear.

In other words, if you're sitting under good preaching, you're doubly accountable. And he says this, to graceless, disobedient hearers, every sermon will be a stick to heat hell.

He says it is sad to go to hell loaded with sermons. Obey the spirit to make the word preached effectual.

So, I mean, the Puritans, again, they reminded their people regularly that they had a responsibility to put into practice, you know, what they heard and that they were going to stand before God someday and give an account for every sermon that they heard.

And so, you know, they would exhort their people, hey, shake off distraction and drowsiness.

Hey, wake up, you know, have your ears change in the word of God and listen to every sermon in light of that looming accountability that, and I think it's interesting as I thought about Second Timothy chapter four, where Paul told

Timothy to preach the word because, you know, he was going to give an account someday, you know, before the judge, he said, you know,

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and the Christ Jesus who is the judge of the living and the dead and by his appearing and came and preached the word.

So, in other words, preachers are going to stand before God someday and give an account of how they handled, you know,

God's word. Well, in the same context, I think I would submit and suggest that the listeners are going to have to stand before God as well and give an account for how they heard

God's word. And so you're going to have preachers and hearers, you know, standing side by side and giving an account for how they, what they did with God's word.

And, you know, I just think, you know, the greatest, the greatest sermon that was ever preached by the greatest preacher that ever lived is, of course, you know,

Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount and the way he ended that sermon was with these words.

He said, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, slammed against the house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand, the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell in great was its fall.

So essentially what Jesus was saying there was those who had listened to the

Sermon on the Mount, hey, put into practice everything you just heard me say. And again, it's a solemn warning,

I think, that our entire lives and even I would say our eternal destiny is based on how receptive and responsive we are to God's word.

I mean, Hebrews, or excuse me, Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

And so, you know, we can't overestimate or I should say, you know, we can't overstate the importance of listening to the preached word.

And again, I think it is the oversight of the century in light of the fact that I've got tons of books that I can go to to learn how to be a better preacher, but I have a hand, like kind of one hand the books

I know of that help listeners be better listeners. And what's to me the irony of all that is when you look at the pages of scripture, there is far more references in the scriptures about hearing and listening and obeying than preaching.

In fact, at the beginning of this adventure as a church,

I asked one of the guys in our church that was more tech savvy than me. I said, hey, can you do a Google or can you do a search of the scriptures,

Genesis, Revelation and print out every verse that mentions the word hear, hear or listen.

And he came back to me with this huge stack of paper and I thought, oh man, what did I get myself into here?

And it was just kind of like a dump truck of verses and references. And so, you know, really the whole

Bible is all about, you know, hearing and obeying God's word and it will be, you know, at the end, it's going to come down to what we did or didn't do with what

God has said in His word. Amen. And we have either

Paula or Paola. I have a sister -in -law from Columbia who pronounces it

Paola. And Paola or Paula is from Makakilo City, Hawaii or Makakilo City, Hawaii.

Yeah. And she says, Earlier, your guest talked about the danger of being more impressed with how a preacher is preaching, which would be connected to homiletics, that may totally eclipse what he is actually preaching in content.

This seems to go hand in hand with the concerns that Chris Arnzen had regarding his interview yesterday critiquing

Alistair Begg's recommendation to a grandmother to attend a transgendered wedding.

It seems to me that there are many people who are wrapped up in the sin of idol worship when it comes to their favorite preachers and are unwilling to hear any criticism of them.

Isn't this an extremely dangerous area to be treading upon? I agree.

Completely. And that's why that verse in Ezekiel stood out to me because I, as a preacher, have preaching heroes.

Men that I try to emulate. In fact, I've got a big painting on my office wall that my wife so graciously had done for me as a surprise as a gift after I graduated with my doctorate.

She had written away to all my favorite preachers and got them to sign put their signature down on a little card and they did that and then she put it in this piece of artwork so I'm looking at it right now and I have guys like Steve Lawson and Al Mohler and John MacArthur and Chuck Sundall and just so I will confess that there are guys that I admire and sometimes we get caught up in the experience of their style or their eloquence or their effectiveness and as a preacher,

I'm more analyzing their homiletics, their pulpit presence and I'm tuning out the truth that they're saying.

The truth that they're saying is going in one ear and out the other. I'm just almost like going to school on their style and what makes them effective and so I agree with that sentiment that we have to be very careful that we don't put these men on pedestals and as someone said, even the best of men are men at best and John Calvin I think was the one who said, even the best theologian is only 80 % right and so I've tried to live with that mindset that I don't think there's anybody including myself that's got it all correct and so that's why we have to be discerning when we listen to preachers.

Well thank you Paula and make sure we have your full mailing address in Hawaii because you have also won a free copy of Expository Listening by my guest today and we thank once again

Cress Biblical Resources for supplying us with a limited number of free copies and we also thank

CVBBS .com Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service for shipping these books out to our listeners free of charge.

We have Trevor in Jean Lafitte Louisiana and Trevor says

I am a diligent note taker during sermons so that I can accomplish what you appear to be trying to convey to the audience today but sometimes taking notes distracts me because I'm writing while the preacher is still speaking do you think it might be better if I take my notes by listening to the recording of the sermon later?

Yeah I think that's a great question I think everyone I do make the point in the book that one of the practical ways to be a better listener and to pay attention during the sermon and not get distracted is to take notes and you know everybody's got to kind of find their what works best for them and for example our daughter like she almost transcribes my messages she's often there in the front row in our church it's such a blessing to have her there and so she will she'll hand me her notes afterwards and it's like she transcribed the whole sermon

I'm like how did you do that? And then my mother which is another blessing she sits just down the row a few seats down the row and my mom is old school she used to be a secretary so she takes shorthand so she takes my sermon down in her old fashioned shorthand that she learned in secretary school and then

I think the person that I'm most impressed with is my wife who has been listening to me for 34 years preaching and every

Sunday she's got her notebook out and she's writing down things that I'm saying and I'm like honey you are so gracious to listen to me all these years she says

I'm not listening to you I'm listening to God and so I appreciate the heart of my wife who gets it she understands that she's not just hearing the words of a man she's hearing the word of God but I just think you've got to find out what works best for you and sometimes it might be best just to you know write down the title and the text and maybe just to work on getting the outline maybe write a few points of application

I think some people trying to write down everything they hear will be unproductive and unhelpful and so again

I do think note taking is a wise practical way to become a better listener but you just got to kind of find your groove and whether it's a lot of notes or just a few notes and then

I would say this and make sure that you don't just write down what the preacher said take some time after the sermon is over to and I think the listener was saying maybe

I should do this after and listen to the recording afterwards and write my notes well

I think the important thing to do after you've heard the sermon is to evaluate and answer the question so what

I've heard these things I took these notes what are the truths that were most impactful how should my life change as a result of what

I've heard and that's why we encourage our small groups in our church to discuss the sermon or families to go home and at lunch or in the restaurant to have the dad say hey so what did you guys get out of the sermon today and what are you going to do about it and I've told our congregation they have to be very careful if I'm standing by the door and they walk out and say hey preacher that was a great sermon

I'll say so what are you going to do about it in other words I didn't preach that sermon just to get an attaboy it's so that our lives would change and so I think one of the best ways you can be a blessing to your preacher but it's also a way to really think practically is when you leave tell the preacher hey pastor this was this was the specific point in the message that was most convicting and this is why and this is what

I want to do about it that's just to help you learn to get into that habit of looking for at least just one way you can change, one thing you can obey, one thing you can do better or differently as you walk away from a message the last thing you want to do is get in the habit of filling notebooks full of notes of sermons and doing nothing about what you've written down I would say take less notes and think more, maybe journal what are the things what are the ways that I need to change how does

God want me to change is it a specific belief a behavior, an attitude what do

I need to do to change and what's the first step I need to take to change where and when will

I start get really specific about how you want to be different as a result of what you heard and of course the value of churches who record the sermons that is a very important thing or resource to have for parents and grandparents in the pews keeping their children or grandchildren in line during the entire worship service because they're being disruptive, fidgety and they may be missing important issues being proclaimed yes or if you miss church, say you're sick, you're out of town, on business or vacation they can catch up on the message especially if you're a pastor or your pastor is a sequential expository preacher, in other words he goes through books of the bible you don't want to miss a message or you lose the flow of that book or that series if the pastor is just doing one -off topical messages from here time to time it's not that important but if you're going through a book of the bible you want to stay on track for example in just an hour or two we're going to have people from our church coming over to our house for our weekly grow group and we're going to have a time of fellowship and some desserts and we're going to sit down we're going to pray for one another and then we're going to say okay, turn to the passage that I preached last

Sunday, let's read the passage let's remind ourselves of what it was about and now let's go through these application questions and let's share with one another how this sermon should change the way we relate to our wives, our husbands, our children how it should change the way we are at work at school how we interact with one another as the body of Christ how we interact with our unbelieving neighbors what are issues in your own life sin issues that you're struggling with so I just love,

I think there's it's kind of a group application process which is again our people know they're going to be asked that question, that they come ready to have to give an answer of hey this is what

I heard and this is how I need to change as a result of what

I heard Amen, and we have to go to our final break if you have a question send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time chrisarnson at gmail .com

chrisarnson at gmail .com and be patient with us Majesty in Hattiesburg Mississippi will start off the final segment of the show with your question send in your emails if you haven't done it already to chrisarnson at gmail .com

give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence, we'll be right back It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world

Here's Joe Riley a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves

I'm Joe Riley a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Italy in County Kildare, Ireland Going back to 2005 one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is

Dr. Joe Moorcraft If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards and Dr.

Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight volume commentary on the larger catechism Heritage is a member of the

Hanover Presbytery built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great

Protestant Reformation of the 16th century Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers

Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone and God's glory alone Their primary goal is the worship of the

Triune God that continues in eternity For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia visit

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Peyton Reed I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would all the details can be found at iron

Sharpens Iron radio dot com where you can click support that's iron Sharpens Iron Radio dot com

Chris Arnzen here host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio I strongly recommend a church.

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God in spirit and truth they endeavor to maintain a God -centered focus and to protect worship from the intrusion of carnal entertainments and Distractions reading preaching and hearing the

Word of God singing psalms hymns and spiritual songs Baptism and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship performed with faith joy and sobriety

Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at GCBC -NJ .org

That's GCBC -NJ .org Or call them at nine zero eight nine nine six seven six five four

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Iron Sharpens Iron radio on the air And I just want to remind you folks

That every day for years now you've been hearing the commercials for the

Historical Bible Society Please never forget that that fine ministry was founded by its president

Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, a dear friend of mine since the early 1990s and An enormous financial supporter of this radio program and everything else that I've set my hand to do in the way of public ministry

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Always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron radio also all men in ministry leadership you heard me

Hint at the beginning of the program that Dr. Joel Beeky is Going to be my guest speaker for the very first time at the next

Iron Sharpens Iron radio free biannual pastors luncheon Thursday June 6th 11 a .m.

To 2 p .m. At Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania Which is Perry County, Pennsylvania if you would like to register for this free event which not only includes a free meal and a free time of fun and fellowship and rest and relaxation and edification and Challenging from the message by dr.

Beeky. You will also receive a free Heavy sack of brand new books personally selected by me and Also generously donated by Christian publishers all of the

United States in the United Kingdom It's all absolutely free by the insistence of my precious late wife jewelry

Julie who? started these pastors luncheons in the 1990s and I continue them to this day and loving memory of her and An honor and tribute to her.

So if you'd like to come you're all invited if you're a man in ministry leadership, send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

and Put pastors luncheon in the subject line. And as I promised We are now going to a listener question

Majesty and Hattiesburg Mississippi and if I've ever heard a name that must be impossible to lift live up to it is majesty, but Majesty asks

Have you come up with any thoughts about things that may be preventing the listener of a sermon that he may be unconscious of that is preventing him from absorbing the information that he most needs to remember yeah,

I immediately think of James chapter 1 which

James says this therefore putting aside all filthiness and All the remains of wickedness that world word word filthiness

Literally means earwax. Huh? So So they're saying there's things and I think the idea there has been like in first Peter It says therefore putting aside all malice all deceit hypocrisy and be all slander like newborn babes

Long for the pure milk of the word so that by you may grow in respect to salvation. So I think there are some hindrances

To to hearing the word and in things that clog up our ears not literally but spiritually

And though those earwax that earwax would be I think synonymous with sin and in wickedness

And so it says in humility you receive the word implanted which is able to save your soul.

So I think if you're prideful and not teachable that could be a hindrance to Hearing the

Word of God or doing the Word of God applying the Word of God It also says in that same context, you know be be quick to hear and slow to speak

Someone said this that God gave us, you know One mouth and two ears because he wanted us to listen twice as much as we talk, right?

And and I think the context there is saying hey, there's even if you may not audibly do this

Sometimes we want to talk back to the preacher We don't like what he's saying and so we just need to have a humble teachable hospitable pure Heart we need to come with our sin confessed.

And then I also think We got to get out of the mode of the auditor.

You know, we my favorite classes and In in in college were the ones

I audited because I got to sit there and take in all the information But I didn't have to do any quizzes the test, you know homework man,

I it was a breeze those classes were a breeze and I think we have a lot of people going to church and they just kind of you know, whether they

You know consciously are thinking this way They're auditing the sermon and and they're just kind of maybe even taking the notes but they're not thinking they have any responsibility afterwards and And and James goes on to say if anyone's to hear the word and not a doer

He's like a man who looks at his face in the mirror. And once he's looked at himself and gone away He's immediately forgotten.

What kind of person he was so It's a very apt illustration, right? what's the purpose of a mirror to show us what we look like so we can see what needs to be fixed or changed and So when the preacher holds up the

Word of God, it's like he's we're looking into a mirror and and how foolish it would be For us to look in the mirror and get a good glimpse glimpse of our

Our sin and then we we see the things that need to change and we just walk away and then we just forget about But that's exactly what we do whenever we hear a sermon right and don't do anything about as a result of what we heard so I Like how it says one who looks intently at the perfect law of liberty and abides by it not having become a forgetful here

But an effectual doer this man will be blessed in what he does. And so That's one of the

I think foundational principles of Scripture Is that God blesses those that don't just hear his word, but do it.

That's what Jesus said Luke 11 28 blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observing and So I just think we you need to evaluate.

Hey, are are are there things that are clogging up my ears or clogging up my hardening my heart

Towards the preached word and we are out of time time flew by like a bullet

Want to remind our listeners of the website for the church Where Ken Ramey serves on the elder board?

Lakeside Bible Church of Montgomery, Texas It's lakeside Bible Church org lakeside

Bible Church org and don't forget about the website to find out more about the true church conference on the theme

Maxim's of a true church February 15th through the 18th and Muscle Shoals, Alabama Go to anchored in truth org anchored in truth org

Pastor Ken you have been magnificent. I eagerly look forward to many future returns to this program

I want to thank all of you for listening and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives Jesus Christ is a far greater