Mark 4:23-24

Take heed what ye hear.

Instruction from the Lord to hearers

In these days we have many instructions as to preaching; but our Lord principally gave directions as to hearing. The art of attention is quite as difficult as that of homiletics. The text may be viewed as a note of discrimination. Hear the truth, and the truth only. Be not indifferent as to your spiritual meat, but use discernment, We shall use it as a note of arousing. When you do hear the truth, give it such attention as it deserves. Give good heed to it.

I. Hear is a precept: “Take heed what ye hear.”

1. Hear with discrimination, shunning false doctrine (John 10:5).

2. Hear with attention; really and earnestly hearing (Matthew 13:23).

3. Hear for yourself, with personal application (1 Samuel 3:9).

4. Hear retentively, endeavouring to remember the truth.

5. Hear desiringly, praying that the Word may be blessed to you.

6. Hear practically, obeying the exhortation which has come to you.

Note-this hearing is to be given, not to a favourite set of doctrines, but to the whole of the Word of God (Psalms 119:128).

II. Here is a proverb: “with what measure,” etc. In proportion as you give yourself to hearing, you shall gain by hearing.

1. Those who have no interest in the Word find it uninteresting.

2. Those who desire to find fault, find faults enough.

3. Those who seek solid truth, learn it from any faithful ministry.

4. Those who hunger find food.

5. Those who bring faith, receive assurance.

6. Those who come joyfully are made glad.

But no man finds blessing by hearing error; nor by careless, forgetful, cavilling hearing of the truth.

III. Here is a promise: “Unto you that hear,” etc. You that hear shall have-

1. More desire to hear.

2. More understanding of what ye hear.

3. More convincement of its truth.

4. More personal possession of the blessings of which you hear.

5. More delight in hearing.

6. More practical benefit from it. God gives more to those who value what they have. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The gospel demands and deserves attention

I. Here is implied the authority of the speaker.

1. He had all the authority which is derived from knowledge. Religion was the subject He came to teach. He knew the whole perfectly.

2. He had the authority which is derived from unimpeachable rectitude.

3. He had the authority flowing from “miracles, as wonders and signs.”

4. Consider His incalculable dominion. There is no place where His voice does not reach.

5. Consider the dignity of His character-“Where the word of a king is there is power.”

6. And does He not stand in relations the most intimate and affecting? Shall such an authority be despised?

II. The importance of the subject. Jesus Christ is not afraid to awaken attention; He knows that He can more than repay it. His instructions are important. But in order to this, they must be true. How pleasing is truth. Whether we consider the gospel with regard to man in his individual or social existence, it demands attention.

III. It is an appeal to impartial consideration. The demand supposes the subject to be accessible. In heathenism there were many mysteries from a knowledge of which the common people were excluded. Error needs disguise. Trash glories in exposure. Be sure that it is the gospel you are conveying, and not any corruptions which have blended with it. Nothing is more adverse to this demand than dissipation. Attention is necessary. But it is of little use to apply a mind already biassed. Impatience disqualifies us from religious investigation. So does pride. Examine the character given by the sacred writers of God.

IV. He demands a practical improvement of his word.

1. The danger of delusion.

2. The precarious tenure of the privileges.

3. The happiness of those who receive the gospel in power.

4. These means unimproved will be found injurious. (W. Jay.)

Light by hearing

The increase of spiritual knowledge is dependent upon the temper in which we approach the study of Christian truth. According to the measure of our faithfulness and diligence as hearers and students we shall receive illumination.

1. There must be intellectual preparedness. This is often wanting in those who listen to the teachings of Christianity.

(1) Sometimes the world and its cares fill the mind and prevent illumination (Luke 12:13).

(2) Sometimes our intellectual tastes unfit us for the reception of spiritual truth. This is an age of study and reading; but much of our reading unfits us for the reception of Divine light. Thousands cannot get at the truth because of the fiction, the heresy, the jest book, which is so constantly in their hand. Amid the “Vanity Fair” of the mind, with its leerings, jesters, and scorners, the voice of love, truth, purity, cannot be heard. To “him that hath” seriousness, sympathy, expectation, “it shall be given.”

2. There must be moral preparedness. Men fail to receive truth because of the impurity of their hearts. (W. L. Watkinson.)

A worldly spirit hinders the saving power of the gospel

Preachers are often blamed because their discourse fails to impress, but the great Preacher Himself failed to impress secularized minds! A lay preacher, some short time ago, dreamed a dream, which was much more than a dream. He fancied himself in the pulpit before a large congregation, and, opening the Bible to give out his text, found, to his dismay, that it was not the Bible, but his ledger, that he had brought with him in mistake; in confusion, he looked round, and seized what seemed the genuine book, but it was his stock book; once more he found another book on the desk, but on opening it, to his horror, found it was his cash book, and awoke to find it was not altogether a dream. Is it not often true that we cannot get at the gospel, and its saving truths, because of worldly thoughts and sympathies? The Hebrews are rebuked because they “were dull of hearing;” and the apostle indicates that they had become worldly in heart and practice, and so were the less able to comprehend and receive the highest truth. (W. L. Watkinson.)

A spirit susceptible to saving truth

The grace and light of God come where there is a preparedness for them. In nature the dew only distils where it is useful-the stones are dry, the plants are wet; and so He, “who is as the dew unto Israel,” grants His truth and love to susceptible minds and hearts-to those only which are ripe to profit. (W. L. Watkinson.)

The pure heart the hearing heart

There is an old church in Germany with which a singular legend is connected. In this church, at certain times, a mighty treasure is said to become visible to mortal eyes. Gold and silver vessels, of great magnificence and in great abundance, are disclosed; but only he who is free from sin can hope to secure the precious vessels. This legend shadows a great truth. In the temple of God, in the Word of God, are riches beyond gem or gold; but only the sincere, the pure in purpose, can hope to realize the Divine treasure. There must be in the truth seeker a moral susceptibility and passion for the light. Someone has said that when he goes to church he “lies back and thinks of nothing,” and this saying has been eulogized as representing the true attitude of a hearer. It is not the true attitude. He who lies back and thinks of nothing would most probably go to sleep if Jesus Christ were in the pulpit. John 7:16, teaches us that he who is willing, desirous, anxious to do God’s will, shall know the doctrine that is Divine. Whosoever “willeth to do the will of God, shall know the doctrine that it is of God.” The bent of the will, the purity of the purpose, are the conditions of illumination. To the determined lover of sin, to the indifferent, the truth is hidden from their eyes.

Feel the vast obligation of hearing

It is a serious thing to preach. Robertson said that “he would rather lead a forlorn hope than mount the pulpit stairs.” Is it not a solemn thing to hear? Is not the pew as terrible as the pulpit? The scientist tells us that no substance can be subjected to the sun’s rays without undergoing an entire chemical change; and it is equally true that no heart can be subjected to the action of the truth without undergoing a profound moral change. It is, indeed, the “savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.”

Take heed what ye hear

Listen for the voice of God. In many places we are chiefly interested in the form and expression of things, the subject is quite secondary. If we listen to a great orator, the subject is comparatively immaterial; the voice, the elocution, the rhetoric, the presentment of the subject is everything. So, in music, we are chiefly occupied with the style, composition, execution, giving hardly a thought to the theme. So, in painting, it is the drawing, colouring, grouping which monopolize attention. The aesthetical form, sound, colour, engage attention in the music hall or chamber of arts. But not thus should it be in the temple. There the subject is everything, modes of presentment little indeed. Ceremonies, preachers, buildings, stay not with these; listen for the undertone of God, and however dull your senses, however dull the preacher, you shall hear that still small whisper which is the light and life of all who hear it.

Take heed how ye hear

Upon the how depends the what. Listen for God’s voice in Christ; listen with meekness, with sincerity of purpose, with practical designs to do as you gain in knowledge, and you shall hear the voice which is full alike of majesty and mercy. Light shall enter into your soul; that light shall ever brighten, until all the darkness is gone, and we find ourselves in that land of which God Himself is sun and moon. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Light by obeying

the increase of our spiritual light is dependent upon the measure of our practical faithfulness. If we consider the world about us, we discover the importance of action as a source of knowledge. Men do not expect a fulness of light before they proceed to action; but, with a little knowledge, they apply themselves to action, and with action light increases and problems are solved. And it is this testing and developing ideas by action which distinguishes between the grand benefactors of our race, and the mere dreamers of dreams of progress. Such men as Arkwright, Watt, Stephenson, applied their knowledge; ever verified, corrected, developed it by actual experiment and use, and so became light centres to their own and after generations. Action kept pace with speculation in these great discoverers, and so they pushed out the borders of science, and enriched society with a thousand blessings; whilst men of large speculation and little or no action pass away, their splendid dreamings being as barren as splendid. The world of knowledge has become wider, clearer, richer beyond all precedent, in these modern times, because men have learned that knowledge must be applied if it is to be increased. And this is the order in the moral universe. The Scriptures associate knowledge with action (Colossians 1:9; Psalms 34:8; Proverbs 1:7; John 7:17). The examples of Scripture are to the same effect. Men acted on the little light they had and received more (Acts 18:24). Observe:

1. It is only through obedience that we get knowledge. It is only in obedience that light passes into knowledge; otherwise our light is opinion, imagination, speculation, sentiment. In action-perception, contemplation, speculation-become that real, solid, influential treasure we call knowledge. Anyone can easily realize the truth of this who passes from the circle of speculative and controversial writers to listen to the confessions of the members of the Christian Church. In the merely literary world what universal uncertainty! Philosophers and speculative theologians are as men “who beat the air.” It is cloudland, and any breath of wind changes the entire aspect of the misty imagery; there is no fixity, no solidity, no assurance. Listen to the sincere, earnest, practical members of the Church, and they speak that which “they do know.” There is a definitiveness, depth, certainty, and power in their convictions. “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” etc. “I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded,” etc. “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” “We know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved,” etc. This depth, and fulness, and blessedness of persuasion can only be realized through obedience. Do, and you shall know.

2. It is only through obedience that we retain knowledge. Not to act out what we know is to lose it, as men forget a language they cease to speak. The Apostle recognizes this: “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered (to be comprehended), seeing ye are (have become) dull of hearing.” They were deficient in quickness of spiritual apprehension, and lost their hold upon high spiritual truth, and this was the result of their backsliding life. We hold the light on the condition of using it; and neglecting to use it, the “light within us becomes darkness,” and of all darkness that darkness is the most intense and hopeless.

3. It is only through obedience that we increase spiritual knowledge. The dawn of truth will pass to the noon, only whilst we do the work God gives us to do. Do you wish to comprehend more clearly the love of God in dying for men? You will not gain the light you covet by merely studying the various theories of the Atonement. Believe in God’s love as declared in the cross; imitate the principle in your own life, and you “shall comprehend with all saints the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and know the love of God which passeth knowledge.” Do you wish for more light on the question of the Divine element in the Scriptures? Commune with their doctrines in your heart, act out their precepts, and you shall find what you seek better than by reading a thousand philosophical treatises on inspiration. Do you wish to understand more fully the essential nature of morality? Be moral. Be truthful, honest, just, pure, and your practical goodness will shed most light on the true theory of virtue. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Light by Evangelizing

Some of the old philosophers taught that from the earth continually ascended invisible exhalations, and these vapours, they affirmed, fed the sun and stars, and kept them ever bright and burning. According to this theory, what the earth gave to the sky, the sky gave back again to the earth in light and beauty. Wrong in science, but a beautiful parable of the law of life-what we give to the world around us comes back to our own bosom again in sevenfold brightness and preciousness. To this law Christ refers in the text: “Give, and it shall be given unto you again.” According to your bounty in communicating light shall be the measure of light shed on your own path. Teach, instruct, give forth illumination, and as you do so your own brain shall be the clearer, your own knowledge the more full and certain. Light comes through evangelistic work. Evangelistic work is necessary-

I. To the preservation of the truth. If we do not communicate the light we lose it. If we seek to keep the truth to ourselves we lose our perception of it, our hold upon it-our candle goes out in the confined air. Thus Moses to Israel: “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons, and thy son’s sons” (Deuteronomy 4:9). If you are not to forget-if you are not to lose the truth-you must teach it. Truth unspoken “spoils, like bales unopened to the sun.” To seek light in intellectual pursuits to the neglect of evangelistic work is to commit a vital error. The Church needs thinkers and scholars, but it needs, with a more imperative necessity, preachers, teachers, visitors, missionaries, otherwise the intellectualists would soon ruin it. A merely speculative, literary, philosophizing Church would soon lose the truth as it is in Jesus, and substitute the unsubstantial and fantastic shapes of dreamland. If a Church thinks and works, it shall be well with it; its actions shall correct and chasten its thinking, and thus it shall be saved from rationalism on the one side, and mysticism on the other. Unduly exalt intellectual work, and the Church is forthwith afflicted with all kinds of theological vagaries; give the first and largest place to the practical work of saving the souls of men in the field of the world, and the pure gospel shall be conserved, a light and a salvation. We only keep the light whilst we spread it, and this is true alike of Churches and of individuals. Evangelistic work is necessary-

II. To the realization of the truth. In active service the truth is defined and realized. Earnestly striving to save the souls of men, the haziness of mere opinion passes into well-defined and strongly-held knowledge and conviction. Some scientific men say that the sun is a dark body, and that it is only when its dark radiations touch our atmosphere that it realizes itself-only then that it flashes out a globe of glory, only then that its beams become luminous and vital. So it is when the thinker leaves his solitude and speculation, and comes into contact with society, seeking to profit and bless, that his knowledge realizes itself, that it becomes defined, and bright, and vital. A working Church knows, as no merely literary Church can know. A working Christian knows as no mere idealist can know. The “full assurance” for which we cry, comes through the constant application of gospel truth to the world’s wants and woes, through constantly beholding the practical triumphs of the gospel in the hearts, lives, and homes of the people. Livingstone having recorded in his diary how vividly and powerfully he had recognized some commonplace truth, the editor of his “Last Journals” justly observes: “Men, in the midst of their hard earnest toil, perceive great truths with a sharpness of outline and a depth of conviction which is denied to the mere idle theorist.” Evangelistic work is necessary-

III. To the development of the truth. Working for God in the salvation of men, we shall see the truth more clearly, and further discoveries of it shall be granted. Luther, speaking of the truth, declared that he would not “have the eagle put in a sack.” And ever since he gave freedom to the truth, and insisted on its being freely and fully enforced the world over, the “Eagle” has spread a more majestic wing, its golden feathers have shone with a rarer glory, and its eye has kindled into a sublimer fire. The truth spoken, enforced, has grown. More light has shone from God’s holy Word. If we wish to know more we must teach more, work more. The men who gave us the Epistles were not students, but workers and preachers, and light came from their work as the wheel kindles as it turns. Our missionaries teach the same lesson. What light they have poured on many great and obscure questions! The missionaries diffusing the light, working to compass the salvation of men, have poured far more light on a score dark problems than they could possibly have done had they remained to ponder in studies and cloisters. Teaching the pagan, we have in turn been taught. The light we communicated to them comes back to us as from a polished reflector. “We are debtors both to the wise and the unwise, to the Greek and to the barbarian.” There are abounding proofs that love to others, leading us to instruct and serve them, is a precious but much neglected source of illumination. A heart full of pure and practical charity is the east window in the temple of human life, whilst dim and uncertain is the light which filters through a cold and selfish brain. You will not find truth through thinking for thinking’s sake; nay, you will not find truth through seeking for it directly. Truth, like happiness, is “found of them that seek it not” directly and selfishly, but who find it, when scarcely thinking of it, in the paths of charity and duty. Stirred by a glorious discontent we seek to know more, and ever more. Plants turn toward the light, and stretch their branches to reach it; the migration of birds, naturalists tell us, is the result of an intense longing for the light. And so the same instinct, in its highest manifestation, works in man, and he yearns towards the “Day spring.” Hear, with a true heart; do, with a sincere and loyal heart; give, with a loving heart as you have freely received; and the “light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven fold, as the light of seven days.” (W. L. Watkinson.)

Hearing but not heeding

What care I to see a man run after a sermon, if he cozens and cheats as soon as he comes home? (John Selden.)

Heart-memory needed

A heart memory is better than a head memory. It were better to carry away a little of the life of God in our souls, than if we were able to repeat every word of every sermon we ever heard. (De Sales.)

Attention given more to worldly than spiritual things

Alas, the place of hearing is the place of sleeping with many a fine professor! I have often observed that those who keep shops can briskly attend upon a two penny customer, but when they come themselves to God’s market, they spend their time too much in letting their thoughts wander from God’s commandments, or in a nasty, drowsy way. The head, also, and heart of most hearers are to the Word as the sieve is to water; they can hold no sermons, remember no texts, bring home no proof, produce none of the sermon to the edification and profit of others. (John Bunyan.)

Eclectic hearers

Some can be content to hear all pleasant things, as the promises and mercies of God, but judgments and reproofs, threats and checks, these they cannot brook; like unto those who, in medicine, care only for a pleasant smell or appearance in the remedy, as pills rolled in gold, but have no regard for the efficacy of the physic. Some can willingly hear that which concerns other men and their sins, their lives and manners, but nothing touching themselves or their own sins; as men can willingly abide to hear of other men’s deaths, but cannot abide to think of their own. (R. Stock.)

Whom to hear

Ebenezer Blackwell was a rich hanker, a zealous Methodist, and a great friend of the Wesleys. “Are you going to hear Mr. Wesley preach?” he was asked one day. “No,” he replied, “I am going to hear God; I listen to Him, whoever preaches; otherwise I lose all my labour.”

Take heed what ye hear

I. Faith cometh by hearing. This means-

1. Faith comes from knowledge, i.e., there can be no faith without knowledge. “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?”

2. It means that the living preacher, as opposed to mere instruction out of books, is the great means of producing faith. This does not mean

(1) That God does not employ His written Word, etc;

(2) Nor that the proclamation of the gospel is the only method of making the gospel heard, and thus of producing faith.

3. It means that the instruction by the ear, as coming from a living preacher, is the ordinary method of salvation. Proof from Scripture and experience.

II. Why is hearing or the living preacher necessary? Why may not books and Bibles answer for the conversion of men?

1. The sufficient answer to the question is the Divine appointment.

2. Because from the constitution of our nature, what is addressed to the ear has more power in arousing attention, in producing conviction, and exciting feeling, than what is addressed to the eye.

3. There is a law of propagation of Divine life analogous to the propagation of vegetable and animal life. So in the Church it is the general law that the spiritual life is communicated through and by living members of the Church.

III. Two inferences flow from this truth.

1. That we should hear for ourselves, and cause others to hear, the gospel, not being content in either case with books, to the neglect of the living teacher.

2. That we should be careful what we hear and how we hear.

(1) The object of hearing, viz., salvation, spiritual edification must be kept in view, and be our governing motive, not pleasure, not criticism.

(2) The mind must be prepared for the reception of the truth. The Scripture tells us how (1 Peter 2:1; James 1:21). This with prayer includes our duty as to hearing. With this will be connected laying the truth up in our hearts, and practising it in our lives. (C. Hodge, D. D.)