Sermon for Lord's Day October 1, 2023 "Guard the Good Deposit Entrusted to You"

Our great God and King, our Lord and our

Father, as we come before your throne this morning as a body corporately together, we have much to be thankful for.

Lord, I know each and every heart and each and every mind has in their own individual thoughts and in their own individual lives, challenges and issues and trials and tribulations that they face.

Our prayer today, Lord, is this, that as only you can do, dear

Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, we pray that you would meet the needs of your people in this place.

Dear God, having maybe already answered prayer and already encouraged hearts and minds today, dear

Lord, may we pray that you continue to do your great work in us as your church, in the saints of God that you daily mold us,

Lord, that you daily make us into your likeness and into your image. Lord, it is today that we are thankful,

Lord, not only for the strength and the strong days, but we are thankful for our weakness in the weak days, for we understand and we know that in our weakness, as you told the

Apostle Paul, that your strength is made perfect. We pray that you would help us to constantly rely upon you, for we need your grace every hour of our lives.

Again, God, we thank you so much for this privilege to be gathered with the saints of God and to open up the

Word of God. I pray, Lord, that as the psalmist declared in the psalm that we read earlier, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be acceptable in your sight this day,

O God. For it's in Jesus' name we pray and ask these things humbly. Amen.

All right. I'm going to say something here that may throw at least one of you off,

Tyra, but I would like to ask with you as you stand to turn in the

Scriptures to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1 is where we are going to be reading today.

And some of you may be thinking, I thought we were going to finish in Luke. Well, this is exactly what we're going to do.

We're going to finish Luke's Gospel by reading the section here and then doing our best to kind of recap, resummarize, and to exhort you in the

Word of God on our next steps. So 2

Timothy chapter 1, we're going to be reading two verses, verse 13 and verse 14.

2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 13 and 14. These are the words of the living

God. The Apostle Paul in writing to young Timothy says this, follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Thus far is the reading of God's Holy Word. You may be seated this morning.

If you would like to put a header on the top of your notes, I have put this simply from the text of Scripture.

I want to exhort you today to guard the good deposit that has been given to you.

Now, ultimately, we know the good deposit that has been given to you is the

Holy Spirit which abides and dwells in the believer. He sanctifies us, he assures us, he reminds us, he leads us into all truth, and he leads us into all righteousness.

However, as individual believers, we still have a responsibility, the discipline, if you would have it, to always be on guard, to always, as the

Apostle Paul told the church at Ephesus, to redeem the time, to understand what is good, to understand particularly the will of the

Lord, then redeeming the time, then he says, for the days are evil. So the

Apostle Paul, here to Timothy, in this second of the past, the third of the pastoral epistles, really we have

Timothy, Titus, and then, yeah, I'm sorry, the second of the pastoral epistles, we have 1

Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. But here Paul really begins to go in and to give some detail and begins to give specific instruction, and we're going to look at this passage in a greater degree throughout our time this morning.

But as a reminder of where we have been, we have gone through the entire book of Luke, and what we have seen in Luke's gospel is this, how that one event on top of another simply does this.

It testifies to the glory and to the majesty of God Almighty. This could be said of any and every book of Scripture.

We see his preeminence. We saw his preeminence in the book of Luke. We've seen his providential intervention in the affairs of men.

We've seen it in the lives of Zacharias and Elizabeth. We saw it in the lives of Joseph and Mary.

We saw it in the lives of the disciples. We saw it in the lives of Pilate.

We saw it in the lives of the Sanhedrin. God providentially intervened in the affairs of men.

As well as what we have seen in the gospel of Luke is the powerful, omnipotent, holy one that condescended to become a flesh and blood man.

This is what we have seen in the book of Luke. Now, again, we understand it's a great mystery, likely never to be understood, how that God became man and yet remained fully

God. It's a mystery that we'll probably never, never be able to grasp.

I would say, I would go so far as to say that we'll never even in eternity begin to grasp the triune nature of God because God is above and beyond us.

So in theological terminology, we've heard this term used, this mystery of God and man, two natures, one flesh united.

This is referred to as the hypostatic union. Nevertheless, remember this, that God in Christ became a man.

And he did so to suffer in our place the wrath of God. Again, we see the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement in Luke's gospel.

Now, were God, were Jesus not truly a man, his life nor his death, would it have been an acceptable sacrifice?

You've heard this before. It would not have been an acceptable sacrifice. And were he not truly

God, he could not have borne the wrath of God in our place.

So throughout Luke's gospel, we have seen the biblical doctrines of God's sovereignty, that God rules and reigns over all.

As the psalmist declared, God sits in the heavens and he looks down low.

The psalmist declared the earth is his throne. I'm sorry, the heaven is his throne and the earth is his bookstool.

What else have we saw in Luke's gospel in our time going through Luke's gospel?

Well, we saw, again, as a reminder, the providence of God. We have looked at in depth and in detail the doctrines of grace as we go through, have gone through Luke's gospel.

The doctrines of grace are that man is totally depraved, that mankind is, that the saved are unconditionally elected unto salvation by God, meaning we do nothing to, we have nothing to offer to God.

We have no reason to jump up and say, ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me. God unconditionally elects us unto salvation.

We also have looked at and saw the doctrine of, in the two of acronyms, it's referred to as limited atonement, definite atonement is definitely a better word, how that Christ's death was certain, how

Christ's death was sufficient to save all those whom he would call unto himself.

We have seen the doctrine of irresistible grace or effectual grace throughout

Luke's gospel. We have saw this, that those whom God sets to choose to set his mind and his heart and his word upon, he undoubtedly, they undoubtedly are saved by God's grace.

Lastly, what we have seen in Luke's gospel is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints of God.

And the wonderful and the beautiful news is this, that we do not keep ourselves, but we are kept by the

Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul said this, you are sealed until the day of redemption by the

Holy Spirit of God. It is the earnest of our inheritance. Among other biblical doctrines that we have seen in Luke's gospel, we have looked at the doctrine of heaven, the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of angels, we've looked at the biblical doctrine of Scripture itself, that the

Scripture is authoritative, that the Scripture is sufficient, that the Scripture is infallible, that the

Scripture is the highest standard for righteousness and goodness. It is our sole and infallible standard of authority.

Now, the Scriptures themselves teach us this, that not only is Jesus God incarnate, the

Scriptures also teach us even the more technical and the more difficult doctrines of our faith.

I know for certain that there has been more than many of you who have heard terms that have been used throughout these last four years that you almost want to go cross -eyed and you almost think to yourself, oh,

I can't even pronounce that, much less spell that. But it's very, very important, it's very, very important that even these technical, difficult doctrines of our faith, they are vital for our understanding and not only for our understanding as believers, but for our articulating of these doctrines with our friends and with our family, for we are to be talking about the

Lord as we go along. So, that being said, Luke's Gospel is the longest book in the

New Testament. Now, some of you may be ahead of me here and you'll say, what about Matthew and what about Acts?

They have more chapters. Ah, yes, they do, but Luke has more words than any chapter in the

New Testament. There are 19 ,482 words in Luke's Gospel.

We have given four years to examining each and every verse in Luke's Gospel account.

Four years we've given to examining Luke's Gospel account and our hope, our expectation as pastor and elders and teachers has been to teach and to preach through this book so that you, like Theophilus, might have a more perfect understanding of the person and of the

Word of Christ. That has been the goal. Now, I know it's certain that there are no unimportant or lesser sections of the

Bible that are to be studied and I know that some of you were here when we began in Luke's Gospel while still in the building up on Ford Hill.

I have no idea why I remember this. I remember sometimes strange things, but I remember the first Sunday that we began into Luke's Gospel up on Ford Hill.

Some of April's family came to visit. Bruce and them had come to visit that Sunday, strangely enough, but four years ago we picked up and we began into this.

Some of y 'all have came in into the middle of this series of sermons. Nevertheless, whether you were here when we started in Luke and you're here now, no matter what time you came in,

I believe it's safe to say that we have all grown in the faith and in the knowledge of our

Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, during this time. With having been given, you say this, so we've been given such a large amount of biblical instructions over these last four years.

That being said, that being said, I would ask you these questions for serious consideration.

So having been given, you having been given such a large amount of instruction over these last four years,

I want to ask you some questions for you to consider. First question is this.

The first question is how have you stewarded or how have you managed this knowledge?

How have you stewarded? How have you managed this knowledge? The next question that I would ask is this, have you given thought to each sermon as it was preached?

Now this is not something that I can answer for you. This is something you have to genuinely as we are taking the time here and now to consider.

Have you given thought to each sermon as it was preached? The next question

I would like to ask you to consider is this, have you discussed with family and friends what was taught in the sermon?

Is this a practice? When you're driving home, when you're sitting at lunch, when you're talking to your family, even later in the week, are you discussing with family and friends what was taught in the sermon?

The next question I would ask is this, are you taking notes? Are you taking notes?

And last question for now is this, are you reviewing the sermon through the week?

Are you reviewing the sermon through the week? So Samuel Ward has said this in his work entitled

The Happiness Practice. He's another of the Puritans. He said this, after the sermon has ended, say not as the common manner is, now the sermon is done, but consider it not done till you have done it.

This is what Samuel Ward said. For we think as soon as the last amen is said, that it's done.

But consider it not done until you have done the sermon. After reading and hearing, he said this, do as men do after dinner.

Sit a while, concoct it by pondering of it, digest it, and after it, afterwards draw it out into action.

So this is really practical application of hearing and understanding the sermons that are preached.

So I would say this, rather than after the doxology has been sung to kind of tag on to what

Samuel Ward has said, rather than after the doxology has been sung, don't immediately start thinking within yourselves,

I can't wait to hear the next sermon that's on my playlist. But rather, consider the word that has been proclaimed to you in the local congregation.

This is very, very important. We are living in a time where celebrity preachers and conference preaching is really coming back to a zenith.

It's like in the old days, conference meetings are like what in the old days revival meetings were, where everybody wants to go and everybody wants to be there.

Now, you didn't have to pay to go to revival meetings. A lot of times you got to pay to go to conferences. And what happens is we get our eyes so fixed and so set on the conference preachers, on the celebrity preachers, on hearing their sermons, where we don't realize that those sermons are preached in a fixed environment, in a fixed setting, where the everyday sermon that the preacher and the teacher prepares for the local congregation is meant and intended to aid you personally in your walk with Christ.

Paul Washer is a fantastic preacher, but he does not know me.

He is a fantastic preacher, but he does not know you. It is your local elders, it is your deacons, it is your pastors who we strive to know you somewhat better and better as we go throughout time so that as we prepare and as we preach that you are spiritually nourished up in the faith and that you have something that you can literally take and digest and look at.

Now, do I, do I as a pastor have a lot of work in honing the craft of preaching and communication?

Yes, I do. But I will say this, we have worked arduously to try to teach and to preach in a way where you can actually take notes, where you can take things down, where you can ponder things, where you can look at them and via technology, now we don't even have to have it on tape recorder anymore.

The sermon's on Facebook. The sermons, the audio sermon is put up each week so you have access to re -listen to it.

Now what happens when you do these things? You learn something that you didn't learn before. You catch what you missed in that moment.

We must learn to, as individuals, though it be a great discipline, to learn to actively listen as we hear the sermon preached.

So it is, as we enter into the next books of the Bible that we will be examining, which will be the book of Zechariah and Haggai, which is not going there today, but I'm going to give more exhortation on hearing and understanding and listening to the sermon, but we'll be going to Haggai and Zechariah.

I encourage you to read ahead in those books. Haggai and Zechariah were instrumental,

I'll use that term, God used them instrumentally in the restoration of the worship and the rebuilding of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed.

So we're going to look at those sermons, which that's really what they are, the sermons of Haggai and the sermons of Zechariah as preached and proclaimed in the days of Ezra the priest.

But as we do this, as we enter into these next books of the Bible, you will be able to put into practice what you learned today concerning hearing and understanding the text.

In an article by Carl Truman, Carl Truman, one of the popular voices of our day, this article is entitled

Keep It Simple, Stupid. And it's about Martin Luther on the Christian life and Luther's approach to the

Christian life. But Truman said this, A Christian life rooted in the simple tools set forth in the

Scripture may well strike against the aesthetic of a world enthralled to the spectacular and the innovative, but it nonetheless arises out of one of the most powerfully gracious aspects of the biblical teaching on salvation and that is simply this, that God is no respecter of persons.

Luther, Truman said, Luther saw this clearly, that God regards humans as either one of two things.

Number one, God regards human beings as either outside of Christ and subject to the penalties of the law.

We've heard this before through the years, right? Two groups, lost and saved.

Luther articulates it that number one, that you're either outside of Christ and subject to the penalties of the law of God, or number two, you are in Christ.

You are either in or you are out. Number two, in Christ and therefore beneficiaries of his person and of his work.

Truman went on to say this, yet there is another liberating aspect to Luther's thinking.

It makes both the ministry and the focal points of the Christian life much simpler.

Truman said, I've read articles and blogs over the last few years which seem to imply that the quote unquote successful minister must embody a remarkable combination of physical fitness, tattoos, an advanced level of knowledge of sociology, the management skills of an

Apple CEO, and the rhetorical skills and wit of a top entertainer. This in the world's view is what a successful minister should be.

However, Truman goes on to say this, those demands, apart from being remarkable only for their absence from Paul's list of overseer qualifications, these are onerous and likely to serve only to depress any ordinary minister working in an ordinary church.

For such a one, the message of Luther is liberation. I want to make this public statement, have this, dear, if you keep me in an urn, put this on the urn.

Luther said this, give the people Christ in word and sacrament, and you have done the greatest thing for your people which you could ever imagine.

You have given them the means of eternal life. One of the striking things about Martin Luther's vision of the

Christian life is its utter simplicity. Again, this goes to studying, to understanding, to hearing the word of God.

Against the background of medieval piety, with its myriad of holy orders, its penances, and its pilgrimages,

Luther presented a Christianity for everyone. And against the backdrop of his own complicated and scrupulous psychology, he discovered the straightforward peace that comes from the sufficiency of God's saving action in the crucified

Christ. This, church, is why we proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified.

This will ever be our marching cry. And last of all, Truman said this,

Greg, well like this, if Augustine freed the church from the back -breaking self -martyring piety of Pelagius, then

Luther freed her from centuries of obfuscating complication. All that to say this, quite simply, it is quite possible for you as a congregation to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ if you will but put forth the effort and put into practice good methods of study.

Good methods of study. We have a mind, by the way, a mind, M -I -N -E, of endless treasure in the

Scriptures themselves. The book of Proverbs, chapter 1, verses 1 through 7, the writer says this,

Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, and he said, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth, let the wise hear and increase in learning.

And the one who understands, let him obtain guidance, for to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.

For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and fools despise instruction.

Over in chapter 2 of Proverbs, beginning in verse 3, the writer says this, yes, if you call out for insight and you raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and you search for it as hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the

Lord and find the knowledge of God. So gaining knowledge and understanding of the

Scriptures is not a passive act, but it is an act in which we must actively be involved.

He goes on to say this, for the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.

He guards the path of justice and watches over the way of his saints.

Then you will understand righteousness. That reminds me of that old song, There's a guiding hand, right? That is always leading a long life's weary way, rough and weary way, but he is always watching over his saints.

The writer goes on to say this, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech who forsake the path of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

So understanding will guard you. Understanding will deliver you, is what the text says there.

For the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

That was Proverbs chapter 2, verse 3 through 15 and verse 20 through 22.

So today, the goal of this exhortation the goal of this exhortation is simply to give you an encouragement.

To encourage you to not be intimidated by big theological terms that have been and will be continued to be used in sermons and in the classrooms.

I want to encourage you, do not be discouraged at the fact that even though you may have never heard such terms before, but rather, think to yourself and write down those words when they come up.

Don't let them unnecessarily deter you. Write them down when the word or the idea comes up.

Then, come to one of the elders or the deacons after the service and even then, if you still don't have a good grasp of the term or the idea, look it up.

Look it up and then come back to us and we'll be happy to sit down and to do what we can to clarify your questions.

Your elders are here. We are here to aid you and to assist you in the knowledge of God.

To serve you, to lay down if it come to it to let you step upon our backs that you might get closer to Christ.

That is our aim. So, like the apostle said in his introduction in his letter to Rome, in Romans chapter 1 verse 8 through 12, this is what the apostle

Paul writes to the church at Rome. He said, first, I thank my God through Christ Jesus for all of you.

Thank God for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing, he said,

I make mention of you always in my prayers. Asking that somehow by God's will that I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

For I long to see you, the apostle said, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you.

That is that we may be mutually encouraged together by each other, both your faith and mine.

This, church, is our desire for the body here at Rev Ramada.

That we may be mutually encouraged in one another's faith.

This is why our mode of preaching, being that of expository preaching, meaning that we go verse by verse through entire books of the

Scripture. We don't necessarily jump around from here to there, but we go verse by verse and we allow

Scripture to interpret Scripture. So that is the intention, that is the reason why we hold to the mode of expository preaching.

The Bible should always, that should always be our mode of action.

That should always be our modus operandi as the old saying goes. This should ever and always be our approach to teaching and to preaching.

That our teaching and our preaching should be according to the Word of God. Now, with that being said,

I'd like to leave you with two things. First, the Biblical exhortation to study, which is what we're going to see here in 2

Timothy, the Biblical exhortation to study. And secondly, I would like to offer you from one of the old

Puritans a helpful pattern to follow that will aid you, that will help you, that will assist you in hearing and understanding the sermons and the lessons that are taught and preached to you every week.

So notice, here in Timothy, in 2 Timothy, the first chapter.

Now, we read verse 13 and 14, but I'd like to go back in this, early in this chapter for us to gain a little bit of context as I give you this exhortation from the

Scriptures. So Paul is writing to Timothy and in verse 6 he says this,

For this reason, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The ESV uses the term self -control, which is an accurate rendering.

Therefore, he said, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and who called us to a holy calling, not because of our own works, but because of his own purpose and his grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now he has manifested through the appearing of our

Savior Christ Jesus, who Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel, through the gospel for which

I was appointed a preacher and apostle, a teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

Paul goes on to say, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom

I have believed in, and I am convinced, I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which

I have committed unto him, that he is able to guard, that's the same word that's used in 13 and 14, to guard, to keep, to hold secure, that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

And Paul states, follow the pattern of sound words, by that you have heard from me, in the faith and in love that are in Christ Jesus, by the

Holy Spirit who dwells within us, you guard, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

Again, if we backtrack again, we look at verse 1 through verse 7,

I know it's backwards, but it's very, very important. He said then, you then, my child, be strengthened.

I'm sorry, 2 Timothy 2, chapter 2, verse 1 through 7, you then, my child, be strengthened.

Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses in trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Share in suffering as a good soldier, Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. And it is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

And then in this same chapter, jump to verse 14 through 19. Remind them, he says, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words which does no good, but it only ruins the hearers.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling or rightly dividing the word of truth.

But avoid irreverent battle, for it will lead people into more and more of godliness and their talk will spread like gangrene.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Paulides, who have swerved from the faith.

They have gone out of the way of the orthodox faith. They have gone out of the way of the faith that was once delivered and handed down to the saints.

He said, they have swerved from the faith, swerved from the truth, saying this, that the resurrection has already happened.

They are upsetting the faith of some, but God's firm foundation stands sure, and it bears this seal, the

Lord knows them that are His. Because to my,

I believe it's probably one of ma 'am's favorite songs. How firm a foundation ye saints of the

Lord, it is laid for your faith, in His excellent word.

What more can He say than to you

He has said, ye who unto

Jesus for refuge have fled?

The firm foundation of God stands sure, for the

Lord knows them that are His, and let everyone who names the name of the

Lord depart from iniquity. So there is the biblical exhortation.

Next and lastly, here are directions for how to prepare your heart and your mind before the sermon is given and instruction on how to make the most of the sermon as it's being delivered and after it's preached.

All of these are very very important. Concerning the importance of studying the scriptures and starting with the proper foundation, we must all come to the place where we recognize the glory, the majesty and the holiness of God.

When we begin to even set ourselves in a frame of mind to study the scriptures, we must first know number one, there is a

God. There is a God. William Beaveridge, another of the old

Puritans from I think around maybe the mid to late 1800s said this,

It is necessary to know God's essence as well as His existence.

It's good to know what as well as that He is. What He is in Himself and what

He is to us. That in Himself, He is what

He is. I love that old language. He is what He is. In and of Himself, He is the source of all wisdom.

He is the abyss of all power. He is the ocean of all goodness.

He is the fountain of all happiness. He is the principle of all motion and the center, yes, perfection of all perfections in the world whose nature or essence is so pure.

He is so glorious, so immense, so infinite, so eternal and so every way perfect, transcendent and incomprehensible that the more we think of Him, the more we contemplate upon Him, the more we praise and admire

Him, the more we consider these things, the better we worship

God. Beaveridge said in the highest apprehensions that we can have of Him is still to apprehend

Him infinitely higher than all of our apprehensions of Him.

Meaning this, that no matter how high we esteem and we contemplate God, to understand that our highest estimations and contemplations of Him are still well below who

He is. He is above us. Therefore, we must know that man bestows

God that knows Him to be beyond our knowledge and that knows that we can never know

Him enough. So, as we give this instruction and move to the close here, consider the way that we listen to and the way that we hear sermons, the way that we hear the lessons as they are taught in the classroom.

Beaveridge went on to say this concerning his thoughts on hearing as well as eating the sermon.

He said this, but to bring this home more closely to ourselves, consider this, we have all been at church, perhaps performing our service and devotions to Him that made us.

It is true, as to the outward appearance, there have been no great difference betwixt us.

We have been equally present at these public ordinances and we do not know but whether one has prayed and heard the word of God, both read and preached as well as another.

So that, seemingly, our services seem to be all alike as to us, but they are not so to God.

That, Beaveridge said, I much question, for He has taken special notice all along not only of the outward gestures of our bodies, but likewise of the inward behavior of our hearts and our souls before Him.

And therefore, as I hope He has seen many of us serving Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind, so I fear

He has found too many of us tardy, coming before Him as His people come and sitting before Him as His people sit, while our hearts in the meantime have been about our covetousness and have plainly seen that though your bodies have been at church, our souls have been elsewhere.

Thinking, we've been thinking upon our relations or our stakes or something other besides what our thoughts should have been employed about in so solemn a duty as the public worship of God.

Now, while Beaveridge's instructions are not new, nor are they in any way difficult to understand, they are truly quite straightforward.

They are, however, very helpful for us to commit to memory and to apply each and every time that we hear a sermon, each and every time that we hear the lessons taught in the classrooms, and each and every time we go to study the

Bible individually as believers. So, here they are.

Here are the directions if you would write these down. The first set of directions are directions before you even hear the sermon.

Directions before hearing the sermon. Number one, before hearing the sermon, consider what you are doing and who you are going before.

Consider what you are hearing. So, number one, consider what you are doing and who you are going before.

Number two, before hearing the sermon, set aside worldly thoughts. We have it in our confession that we ought to make preparation for this day that has been set aside for the worship of God and for the gathering of the saints.

That we ought to schedule our lives around this day and not schedule this day around our lives.

Number two, or number three. So, we have consider what you are doing and who you are going before.

Number two, set aside worldly thoughts. Number three, before hearing the sermon, consider to yourself this fact.

If you would have God pour out his spirit on you in the preaching, then you must pour out your spirit to him in prayer.

Are you pouring your heart and your mind out to God before hearing the sermon?

Before coming even to the church house? So, what are you to pray for?

Well, pray for the preacher that God would put both you and him in the word.

Pray for the preacher that God may put you and him both in the word.

Number four, before hearing the sermon, come with an appetite for the word.

Come with an appetite for the word. Number five, before hearing the sermon, come with large expectations.

Come with large expectations. And number six, before hearing the sermon, come with a resolution to practice what you hear preached.

Come with a resolution to practice what you hear preached.

Now, that is the bulk of the instruction for how to hear the sermon.

That's before the sermon. And now, after hearing the sermon, as you're hearing the sermon, the direction is simply this.

Listen actively. Discipline your minds not to be distracted with the things that are going on in your life or how many letters are in the word or how bad that I pronounce the word.

But just jot it down. Spell it right or wrong. Then go back to that later. But continue to focus.

And here are the directions after hearing the sermon. Number one, direction for after hearing the sermon, number one, meditate upon what you have heard with yourself.

Now this is no doubt a challenge for me and perhaps for some of you.

But it does, it will require a discipline for you to shut yourself out from things that are going on for a while and meditate on what was preached.

Number two, after hearing the sermon, confer on it. Talk about it with other people.

Talk about it with other people. Number three, number three, and lastly, number three, after hearing the sermon, square yourself according to it so that your life might be as a good comment on the sermon.

Square yourself according to it so that your life might be as a good comment on the sermon.

Again, this is 1800 language, but so very applicable for us today.

And as our closing text, 2 Peter chapter 3. The final exhortation from the

Scripture. 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 14 through 18.

The Apostle Peter reminds the saints that are scattered abroad through the dispersion.

He says this, Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things, be diligent to be found by him without spot or without blemish.

And, he says, and at peace. And count this, that the patience of our

Lord as salvation for justice our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand. The Apostle Peter recognized that even some of the things that Paul wrote were hard to understand.

But he does not say neglect it or leave off from it. He says there are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other

Scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, knowing this ahead of time, is what he's saying.

Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

But grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.