Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
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 Knoblett, 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 .com. Pastor Ken Ramey. Whoops. It's an honor. Ken, thank you. I accidentally had you on mute. I'm sorry about that.
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 LA, 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 just—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 were 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.
No, that's all right. It's a curiosity of mine, because I have appreciated the guys over there, but in particular, Trinity Baptist Church and Al Martin and—.
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, having been trained at the Master's Seminary and mentored by John MacArthur, we are very like-minded with Grace Community Church and the convictions there.
In fact, we actually got permission from Grace Community Church when we planted the church to steal their doctrinal statement and just change it up a little bit, but we're essentially on the same page there.
Well, if the Framers of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith could steal the majority of 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.
He was, yeah, he was in town to speak at another conference at Richard Caldwell's Church Truth and Love Conference. And so I...
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 him and his Southern Belle 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. 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.
And we have the opportunity to talk about the nine maxims of the 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.
So 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 shelves 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 laypeople 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 Beeky, 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 Beeky 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 and put it into practice. Two very powerful endorsements from two very powerful ambassadors for Christ in the kingdom of God.
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 have 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 Linbrook Baptist Church, a Christ-centered, gospel-driven church looking to spread the gospel in the southwest portion of Long Island, New York, and play our role in fulfilling the Great Commission, supporting and sending for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We're delighted to be a part of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron radio advertising family. At Linbrook Baptist Church, we believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God's will for salvation and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak.
We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was purchased by Christ on the cross, and is received through faith alone, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual.
Salvation in Christ also results in righteous living, good works, and appropriate respect and concern to all who bear God's image. If you live near Linbrook, Long Island, or if you're just passing through on the Lord's Day, we'd love to have you come and join us in worship.
For details, visit linbrookbaptist .org, that's l-y-n-brookbaptist .org. This is Pastor Keith Allen of Linbrook Baptist Church reminding you that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not a result of words, so that no one may boast of the Lord's blessing in the knowledge of himself.
I'm Brian McLaughlin, president of the SecureComm Group and an enthusiastic supporter of Chris Arnson's Iron Sharpens Iron radio program. The SecureComm Group provides the highest level of security, close-circuit television, access control, and communication systems for Manhattan's top residential buildings, as well as churches, commercial properties, municipalities, and more.
We custom install exactly what you need to protect yourself, including digital recording, off-site viewing, and connectivity from most smart devices. From simple code-activated systems to the latest technology using facial recognition, the SecureComm Group has it.
We also provide the Intercom and IP telephone systems. In addition, we provide superior networking platforms. We'll create, maintain, and secure your local network, whether it's a Wi-Fi or hardwire network.
We'll implement the latest secured firewall, endpoint solutions, and cloud backup. I would love to have the honor and privilege of helping protect the lives and property of Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners and their associates.
For more details on how the SecureComm Group may be of service to you with the very latest in security innovations, call 718 -353 -3355. That's 718 -353 -3355. Or visit securecommgroup .com. That's securecommgroup .com.
This is Brian McLaughlin of the.
Advertisers to keep Iron Sharpens Iron radio on the air. Here at Iron Sharpens Iron radio,.
Praise God for the generous monthly financial support of Royal Diadem Jewelers, educated by and affiliated with the American Gem Society, Jewelers of America, and the Gemological Institute of America.
For the perfect custom-designed engagement ring or any one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry created exactly according to your imagination and specifications, Royal Diadem Jewelers has you covered. No matter where you live in the world, Royal Diadem will walk you step by step through every stage of the process and even hold a high-tech internet virtual visit using state-of-the-art jewelry design technology to serve you.
They start by listening carefully to determine your needs. They're interested in making what you want, not what they want to sell you. From rough design, to digital model, to photo-realistic image, to wax prototype model, to the finished product, they're continually listening to your input, likes and dislikes, making any changes necessary along the way.
This will ensure that your custom jewelry will turn out exactly as you dreamed and well beyond your expectations. Visit royaldiadem .com. That's royaldiadem .com today. Sterling Vandewerker, owner of Royal Diadem Jewelers, his wife Bronnie, his business partner and manager Brian Wilson, and the entire family thank you all for listening to, praying for, and supporting the work of.
Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. And do not forget folks, royaldiadem .com is still offering Iron.
Sharpen's Iron Radio this mind-blowing opportunity. They are giving Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio 100 of the profits from any sale of jewelry to an Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio listener, simply by that listener mentioning Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio when they're making their purchase.
So with Valentine's Day coming up and perhaps you're going to pop the question and get engaged, or perhaps it's your wedding anniversary, or a multitude of other reasons why you would purchase jewelry, please go to royaldiadem .com soon, in fact today, to at least get the ball rolling on your purchase of jewelry or your customization of a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry.
Whatever it is, please go to royaldiadem .com at least to get the ball rolling today and mention Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. The reason why I'm asking you to do this soon is because we have no idea when royaldiadem .com is going to pull the plug on this amazing offer to us where we are receiving 100 of the profits from any sale of jewelry to an Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio listener.
And keep in mind, that's on top of their monthly financial support. They're already financially supporting Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio generously, and on top of that, they're going to give 100 of the profits from any sale to an Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio listener by mentioning the show.
That shows you how much they love this show and want it to continue to exist. So please go to royaldiadem .com today, start the ball rolling on your purchase, and mention Iron Sharpen's 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 Beakey, 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.
But, 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 this, 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 so, 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 not ever 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 for 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 I thought, 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 expiatory preaching, teaching men how to exposit God's Word.
And so as most preachers' 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 expiatory 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 what is the, 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's 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 expiatory 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 got the proper airtime that it deserved. 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 want to do is do some kind of project that I'm going to be doing off the corner somewhere that has no relation or application to my daily ministry here at Lakeside.
I said, if you're with me, I'm going to attempt to preach a series of sermons on the listener's responsibility in preaching and take everything that I've ever learned about expiatory 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, the one, you know, 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, you know, 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 tickled.
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, old 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 4, 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, different, big difference. But so we live in the shadow. We live and minister in the shadow of that 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 today, you know, 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 application. 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're 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 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 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, 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 its work to believe.
And so I think it just starts with an appreciation, like the believers in Thessalonica, they, 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, you know, 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 is, 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 when you look at the parable of the soils in Luke chapter 8, you know, 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.
You know, 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, you know, the Scripture talks about sometimes our hearts can be hardened to the Word. Hebrews 3 talks about that. Sometimes they need to be harrowed up or broken up and softened and ready to receive the Word.
Jeremiah 4, 3 talks about breaking up the sallow ground. And, you know, 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 know, 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, you know, 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 harrow 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, you know, what are some practical things you can do to prepare your heart before you hear God's word preached.
So, for example, plan ahead. I mean, something as simple as planning ahead, you know, Sunday morning starts Saturday night. And so, instead of, you know, 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, you know, rush into church and get the kids dropped off at the nursery or wherever they plop down to the worship service, their heart is not ready to receive the preaching of God's word.
And so, hey, plan ahead, you know, do some simple things like set out your clothes, set out the diaper bag, pack the car up, you know, 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.
You know, 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, you know, 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, you know, 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 so, and then just other things, you know, like, you know, fighting off distractions and things like that. That's kind of what you need to do while you're sitting there, you know, pick a spot in the church where you're going to have the least amount of distraction.
You know, 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 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, and 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 not, 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 were 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 just 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 fed 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 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 Iron Trepans Iron Radio. That should go a long way to convince them that their money is being well spent.
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. We teach families to worship together as families. Puritan is committed to teaching the whole counsel of God so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.
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.
Puritan Reformed Church. Believe. Build. Fight. Puritanphx .com.
When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the NASB.
This is Darrell Bernard Harrison, co-host of the Just Thinking podcast, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Pastor Tom Buck at First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Pastor Kent Keller of Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Andrew Rapport, the founder and executive director at Striving for Eternity Ministries, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Mark Romaldi, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Greenbrier, Tennessee, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Christopher Cookston, pastor of Prineville Community Church in Prineville, Oregon, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Matt Tarr, pastor of High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, Pennsylvania, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
Here's a great way for your church to help keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew Bibles tattered and falling apart? Consider restocking your pews with the NASB, and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
Go to nasbible .com, that's nasbible .com to place your order. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors.
It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the NASB.
I'm Dr. Joe Moorcraft, pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Anthony Uvino, founder of thereformrookie .com and co-founder of New York Apologetics, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Pastor Tim Bushong of Syracuse Baptist Church in Syracuse, Indiana, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Eli Ayala, founder of Revealed Apologetics and staff member with the Historical Bible Society, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Pastor Josh Miller of Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
I'm Joe Bianchi, president of Calvi Press Publishing in Greenville, South Carolina, and the NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Jake Korn of Switzerland Community Church in Switzerland, Florida, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.
Go to nasbible .com, that's nasbible .com to place your order.
Armored Republic exists to equip free men with tools of liberty to defend God-given rights against the twin threats of tyranny and chaos. If you own a rifle to resist tyrants and criminals, then you should own body armor and a med kit for the same reasons.
A rifle stops evil, body armor and a med kit keep you in the fight and preserve your life. Armored Republic is a body of free craftsmen united to create tools of liberty. We are honored to be your armorsmith of choice.
Civilian ownership of body armor is about increasing decentralized power, and by comparison, reducing the advantages of centralized power. The danger of centralized power is often represented by the word king.
As Americans, we hate the word king applied to any mere man. We are Armored Republic, and in a republic, there is no king but Christ. Arm yourself with tools of liberty at armoredrepublic .com.
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 website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show like I do, you can now find it on the Apple's iTunes app by typing Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in the search bar.
You no longer have to worry about missing a show or a special guest because you're in your car or still at work. Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show at any time, day or night.
Please be sure to also give it a good review, and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show. Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news.
Subscribe to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the reformrookie .com podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers.
From Keech's Catechism and the Doctrines of Grace, to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking Biblical truth.
And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed Church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, New York. Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Invinio, and thanks for listening.
This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee. Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron radio financially.
Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course, the end of which we strive is the glory of God. If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior.
Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin. Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org, that's gracechurchatfranklin .org. This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ, today and always.
James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here. If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough, you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity.
And besides that, they feel so good. I'm so delighted I discovered Post-Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding. No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently, but I'll give it a shot. Jeffrey Rice of Post-Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan.
All his work is done by hand, from the cutting, to the pleating of corners, to the perimeter stitching. Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors, like the turquoise goatskin tanned in Italy used for my Nessie Olin 28th edition, with a navy blue goatskin inside liner, and the electric blue goatskin from a French tannery used to rebind a Reformation Study Bible I used as a gift.
The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish, resembling highly polished chrome. Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications, and even emboss your logo into the leather, making whatever he rebinds a one-of-a-kind work of art.
For more details on Post-Tenebrous Lux Bible Rebinding, go to ptlbiblerebinding .com. That's ptlbiblerebinding .com.
I'm Phil Johnson, Executive Director of Grace to You with John MacArthur. I've been a frequent guest on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I highly recommend this show. But today I want to tell you about one of its advertisers, Rare Document Traders.
Far and away my favorite source for quality Charles Spurgeon memorabilia. Are you looking for that special, unique gift for your pastor or missionary friend or a loved one? Why not purchase a piece of church history that any believer would cherish?
Rare Document Traders is your one-step source for Spurgeon's handwritten manuscripts and letters, as well as other rare books and collectible items from church history. In 15 years that they've been in business, they've earned a stellar reputation in the Reformed community with thousands of satisfied customers all around the world, including me.
Visit raredoctraders .com today. That's raredoctraders .com. Don't forget to mention you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. That's raredoctraders .com.
Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops, and local hangouts, Long Island Youth for Christ, staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus.
We are rural and urban, and we are always about the message of Jesus. Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ.
Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959. We have a world-class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world.
Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future. Volunteer, donate, pray, or all of the above. For details, call Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333. That's 631 -385 -8333. Or visit liyfc .org.
That's liyfc .org.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own.
You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future, and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
Since its beginning in 2001, Solid Ground has been committed to publish God-centered, Christ-exalting books for all ages. We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid-ground-books .com. That's solid-ground-books .com.
And see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground. Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
And please don't forget, folks, our treasured friends at solid-ground-books .com are experiencing a book sales crisis. So I'm hoping as many of my listeners as possible will come to the rescue today and go to solid-ground-books .com and make the largest purchase you possibly can afford to make.
They are a premier, a primary, a vital sponsor of this program. And I truly doubt we could continue to exist very long into the future without their financial support. So please go to solid-ground-books .com today.
If you've never purchased from them before, make your very first purchase today. And even if you purchase from them every month, please make today your largest purchase. And keep in mind, folks, buying books from solid-ground-books .com is not only going to be doing solid-ground-books .com a favor, and it's not only going to be doing Iron Sharpens Iron Radio a favor, keeping one of our most important advertisers happy, you're going to be doing yourself and anyone for whom you are purchasing books from solid-ground-books .com an enormous favor of incalculable value because they bring back into print lost treasures from the past, some of which has not been in print for centuries, dating back to the 16th century Protestant Reformation.
And also bringing into print for the very first time the works of modern-day authors, including Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. So you could always rest assured whatever you are purchasing from solid-ground-books .com is an excellent resource for biblical truth.
Please go to solid-ground-books .com frequently, purchase generously, always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnson of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before I return to my guest today, Ken Ramey, I have some important announcements to make.
Folks, if you really love the show and you don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click click to donate now. You could donate instantly with a debit or credit card.
If you prefer snail mail, the old-fashioned way, mailing a physical check to a physical address from your post office, there will also be a physical address that appears on your screen when you click support at ironsharpensironradio .com, where you can mail your checks made payable through Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
If you want to advertise with us, whether it is your church, power church ministry, business, private professional practice like a law firm or a medical firm, maybe it's just a special event, whatever it is, please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line if you have a desire to advertise and we will be delighted to help you launch an ad campaign as long as whatever it is you desire to advertise is compatible with what I believe.
So send me that email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line. Always keep in mind, folks, I never want Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners to cut in to the finances that you have set aside for giving to your own local church where you're a member on the Lord's Day in order to bless us with a financial gift.
In other words, never give your own church less money than you normally give your own church in order to give us a financial gift. Never do that. And if you're really struggling to survive and make ends meet, wait until you're back on your feet and more financially stable before you send us a financial gift.
The Bible is very clear that we're commanded to use the money with which God has blessed us, which is still his money. We're primarily to use that to provide for our church and our family. Providing for this radio show is obviously not a command of God.
But if you do love the show, you don't want it to disappear, and you are blessed financially above and beyond your ability to provide for church and family, you have extra money for benevolent, recreational, and trivial purposes.
Please share some of that money with us if you really love the show. Go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click click to donate now. 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, gives 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.
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 honorable—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 is a little—leaves a little to be desired. They are able to supplement their feeding through other good, godly, 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 know, 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. 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 a 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 gain.
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. And I like MacArthur. I like Sproul.
Or, you know, I like Steve Lawson. And, you know, or did you hear that message the other day by, 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.
Amen. 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 of right, 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 said, it is sad to go to hell loaded with sermons.
Obey the spirit to make the word preached effectually. 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's the judge, the living and the dead, and by his appearing, he 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 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 bounded 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 and 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 handful, I count on 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 at 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 hearing and obeying God's word.
And it will be, 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 Paola 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 was so stood out to me, because I, as a preacher, have preaching heroes, men that I emulate, 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.
And she had written away to all my favorite preachers and got them to 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 Swindoll.
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 even as a preacher, I'm more analyzing their, like you said, 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, 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 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 everybody's got to find what works best for them. And for example, our daughter, 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'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 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, 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? And 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 faith. 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 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 one thing 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 into 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 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, and 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.
Yeah, or if you miss church, you'd 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 kind of 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, you know, so I just love, I think there's, it's kind of a group application process, which is, again, that our people know they're going to be asked that question, you know, 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 hearing interviewed, Dr. Joe Morgrath. I'm Joe.
Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland. Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is Dr. Joe Morgrath. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio, Dr. Morgrath 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 Morgrath 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 heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, that's heritagepresbyterianchurch .com, or call 678 -954 -7831, that's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, tell them Joe O 'Reilly, an Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener,.
And that's how I encountered Gilderoy Sancho. If you love Iron Sharpens Iron radio,.
One of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers. One such faithful advertiser, who really believes in what Chris Hansen is doing, is Daniel P. Patafuco, serious injury lawyer and Christian apologist.
Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission? To foster belief in the credibility of scripture as the written word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts, along with a fascinating presentation by Mr. Patafuco, demonstrating the reliability of scripture.
To advance the cause of the gospel, they created a beautiful, perfect facsimile of the genealogy of Jesus Christ from the original engravings contained in a first edition 1611 King James Bible. This 17th century hand-engraved chart shows the family tree of Jesus Christ going back to Adam and Eve.
This book is complete with gorgeous full-size illustrations of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel, and an explanation of why the genealogy of Jesus is so important for his claims to the throne of the universe.
Originals of this work are in museums, and nobody has ever made it accessible to the public in a large book form before. You can have your own copy of this 44-page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.
Visit historicalbiblesociety .org. That's historicalbiblesociety .org. Thanks for helping.
To keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor. Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens.
Iron Radio has had a long-time partnership with our friends at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. They specialize in supplying Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable for everyone.
CVBBS has been a family-owned book service since 1987, operating out of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They seek to bring you the best available Christian books and Bibles at the best possible prices. Unlike other book sites, they make no effort to provide every book that is available or popular because, frankly, much of what is being printed is not worth your time.
That means you can get to the good stuff faster. It also means you don't have to worry about being assaulted by the pornographic, heretical, and otherwise faith-insulting materials promoted by the secular book vendors.
Browse the pages at ease, shop at your leisure, and purchase with confidence at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. Order online at cvbbs .com. That's cvbbs .com. Or you can order by phone at 1 -800 -656 -0231.
That's 1 -800 -656 -0231. Please let our friends at CVBBS know that you heard about.
Them on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio. I'm Dr. Tony Costa, Professor of Apologetics.
And Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary. I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love, Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell.
It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Coram, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word, and to enthusiastically proclaim Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.
I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love, as I have. For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.
That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711. That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.
Hi, this is John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnzen and the Iron Sharpens Iron podcast. I consider Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity.
He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions, while always defending the key doctrines of the Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast, knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.
I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised Chris up for just such a time, and knowing this, it's up to us as members of the body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.
I'm pleased to do so, and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting Iron Sharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one-time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?
I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris, if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com,.
Where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com. Chris Arnzen here, host.
Of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. I strongly recommend a church I've been recommending as far back as the 1980s, Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn. Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world.
They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship 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 908 -996 -7654. That's 908 -996 -7654. Tell Pastor Dunn you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
I'm Brian McLaughlin, president of the SecureComm Group and an enthusiastic supporter of Chris Arnson's Iron Sharpens Iron Radio program. The SecureComm Group provides the highest level of security, close-circuit television, access control, and communication systems for Manhattan's top residential buildings, as well as churches, commercial properties, municipalities, and more.
We also provide the latest in intercom and IP telephone systems. In addition, we provide superior networking platforms. We'll create, maintain, and secure your local network. Whether it's a Wi-Fi or hardwire network, we'll implement the latest secured firewall, endpoint solutions, and cloud backup.
I would love to have the honor and privilege of helping protect the lives and property of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners and their associates. For more details on how the SecureComm Group may be of service to you with the very latest in security innovations, call 718 -353 -3355.
That's 718 -353 -3355. Or visit securecommgroup .com. That's securecommgroup .com. This is Brian McLaughlin of the SecureComm Group, joining Chris Arnzen's family of advertisers to keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air.
And I just want to remind you folks listening.
That every day for years now you've been hearing the commercials for the Historical Bible Society. Please never forget that the 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.
So if you are the victim of a serious personal injury or medical malpractice, no matter where you live in the United States, please call Dan Buttafuoco of Buttafuoco Associates toll-free at 1 -800-NOW-HURT, 1 -800-NOW-HURT, or visit his website 1 -800-NOW-HURT .com.
Always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Also, all men in ministry leadership, you heard me hint at the beginning of the program that Dr. Joel Beeke is going to be my guest speaker for the very first time at the next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio free biannual pastor's 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. Beeke, you will also receive a free heavy sack of brand new books personally selected by me and also generously donated by Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom.
It's all absolutely free by the insistence of my precious late wife Julie, who started these pastor's luncheons in the 1990s, and I continue them to this day in loving memory of her and in 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 chrisarnzen at gmail .com and put pastor's luncheon in the subject line. And as I promised, we are now going to a listener question.
Majesty in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and if I've ever heard a name that must be impossible to 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 1, which James says this, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all the remains of wickedness, that word filthiness literally means earwax.
So there's things, and I think the idea there has been, like in 1 Peter it says, therefore putting aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, all slander like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.
So I think there are some hindrances to hearing the word and things that clog up our ears, not literally, but spiritually. And the earwax would be, I think, synonymous with sin and wickedness. And so it says in humility, 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, be quick to hear and slow to speak.
Someone said this, that God gave us one mouth and two ears because he wanted us to listen twice as much as we talk. And I think the context there is saying, hey, 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.
My favorite classes 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 of the quizzes, the tests, no homework. Man, 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, whether they consciously are thinking this way, they're auditing the sermon and they're just kind of maybe even taking the notes, but they're not thinking they have any responsibility afterwards.
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? It's 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 how foolish it would be for us to look in the mirror and get a good glimpse of our sin.
And then we see the things that need to change and we just walk away and then we just forget about it. 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.
And 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 hearer, 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 observe it.
And so I just think we need to evaluate, hey, are there things that are clogging up my ears or hardening my heart.
Towards the preached word? And we are out of time. Time flew by like a bullet. I 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 lakesidebiblechurch .org, lakesidebiblechurch .org. And don't forget about the website to find out more about the True Church Conference on the theme, Maxims of a True Church, February 15th through the 18th in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Go to anchoredintruth .org, anchoredintruth .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 Savior than you are a sinner.