LISTENING TO THE LORD

LUKE 11:27-36


      Oppressive summertime heat claims more lives than all other weather-related disasters combined, including tornadoes and hurricanes. From 1999 to 2003, the Center for Disease Control reported 3,442 deaths resulting from exposure to extreme heat. Specifically targeting residents 65 and older, Dr. Scott Sheridan of Kent State, found that almost 90 percent were aware a heat warning was issued, but only half took action. (“Do People Listen to Heat Warnings?” Kent State, 7/2/07)


1 Cor. 2:14 [ESV]. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.


  I. Practice of hearers (11:27-28)


1 Tim. 6:20a [GW]. Timothy, guard the Good News which has been entrusted to you. Turn away from pointless discussions and the claims of false knowledge that people use to oppose the Christian faith.


2 Tim. 1:14 [CEV]. You have been trusted with a wonderful treasure. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit, who lives within you.


      A. Open (Acts 17:11)


      B. Obedient


Jas. 1:23-24 [GNB]. If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are.

 24. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.


      “The Bible is a Treasure Book” to receive.


      Mark Twain said, “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”


      The Bible can only be known by obedience.


Jn. 7:17 [CEV]. If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me.


      The Bible will harden the hearts of those in unbelief (2 Th. 2:11). Those in unbelief will lose even the truth that could have been known (Lk. 8:18, 19:26).


      Oswald Chambers wrote, “Spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.” Endnote


      God requires obedience at every stop before He takes one forward on the next step of faith (1 Sam. 15:22).


      Thomas a Kampis said, “Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience.”


Jn. 14:15 [GNB]. If you love me, you will obey my commandments.


      Henry Blackaby said, “Obedience is the outward expression of your love of God.” Endnote Ed Cole said, “The only Scripture a man believes is the one he obeys.” Billy Graham added, “I think it is a waste of time for us Christians to look for power we do not intend to use.” Endnote

 

•          Agreement with a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Lk. 6:46).

•          Acquiring knowledge of a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Ps. 40:8).

•          Advocating the importance of a biblical truth falls short of obedience (2 Cor. 8:11).

•          Association with others who follow a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Heb. 2:3).

•          Adherence to only part of a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Phil. 2:8).

•          Activity in place of authenticity toward a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Mt. 28:20).

•          Action after a delay to obey a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Jon. 3:3).

•          Argument against the practicality of a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Acts 26:19).

•          Avoidance of the clear teachings of a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Num. 14:22).

•          Answering initially but doing nothing afterwards about a biblical truth falls short of obedience (Mt. 21:30).


      Many crowded after Jesus but did not commit to follow Him all the way to the cross. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Jesus occupies in my heart the place of one of the greatest teachers who have had a considerable influence on my life.” Yet, Jesus did not ask men to be impressed with Him but to obey Him.


 II. Privilege of hearing (11:29-32)


      A. Signs


Mt. 16:1 [ESV]. And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.


          1. Wonders instead of the Word


          2. Remarkable instead of repentance


      B. Simplicity


Mt. 12:40 [ESV]. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.


          1. Death


          2. Resurrection


My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the ever living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.


I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.


Enough for me that Jesus saves,
This ends my fear and doubt;
A sinful soul I come to Him,
He’ll never cast me out. (Eliza E. Hewitt)


      C. Seek


          1. Teaching (1 Kg. 10:7)


          2. Preaching (Jon. 3:10; 1 Cor. 1:21)


Amos 8:11 [ESV]. "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land--not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.


      Billy Sunday once preached, "It is a known law of mind that truth resisted loses its power on the mind that resists it. You hear a truth the first time and reject it. The next time the truth won't seem so strong and will be easier to resist. God throws a truth in your face. You reject it. He throws again; you reject again. Finally God will stop throwing the truth at you and you will have committed the unpardonable sin."


There is a line by us unseen;

It crosses every path;

It is God's boundary between

His patience and his wrath.


To cross that limit is to die,

To die as if by stealth.

It may not dim your eye,

Nor pale the glow of health;


Your conscience may be still at ease;

Your spirits light and gay;

That which pleases still may please,

And care be thrown away;


But on that forehead God hath set

Indelibly a mark,

Unseen by man; for man as yet

Is blind and in the dark.


Indeed, the doomed one's path below

May bloom as Edens bloom;

He does not, will not know,

Nor believe that he is doomed. Endnote


III. Purity of heart (11:33-36)


Ps. 119:130. The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.


      A. Single (eye, light)


          1. Shine (Mt. 5:16)


          2. Speck


      John Wesley said, "Our eye then is evil, if, in anything we do, we aim at any end other than God."


     (E-sword) “Anything that corrupts, degrades, or debauches the soul; anything that mars its innocence, or robs it of its purity, will at the same time dull the keenness of its perception as to what is right and what is wrong.”


2 Cor. 6:14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?


              a. Darken (Jn. 3:19; eclipse)


              b. Dim (conscience)


1 Jn. 1:7 [ESV]. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.


      Light accepted exposes darkness, but light rejected dulls the conscience.


      In Rwanda and Uganda, Africa, a prolonged revival took place. When a Christian met another believer and sensed the inner glow fading, he asked, “Are you walking in the light, my brother?” Endnote


      B. Shade (evil, darkness)


          1. Vision


Mk. 8:24 [ESV]. And he looked up and said, "I see men, but they look like trees, walking."


          2. Victory


Rom. 13:12 [WNT]. The night is far advanced, and day is about to dawn. We must therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, and clothe ourselves with the armor of Light.


      A little sin, like a cataract in the eye, will block the entrance of God’s light. The purity of heart determines the amount of light (truth) received. Those who hear Jesus will either attempt to cover dark sins or pray, “Search me, O God” (Ps. 139:23-24).