In the sermon 'Good Hearing,' Peter Allison focuses on the theme of hearing as described in Luke 8. He emphasizes the importance of how we hear and respond to the Word of God, which is likened to a light that reveals truth and brings responsibilities. The sermon draws connections between the parable of the sower, where different responses to hearing the Word are depicted, and the proverb about lighting a lamp. Allison highlights the responsibility that comes with receiving God's Word, as it requires obedience and practice, paralleling the idea that knowledge without action is lost. The sermon also touches on the distinction between earthly and spiritual family, asserting that true kinship with Christ comes through obedience to God's Word. The message concludes with a call for personal reflection and a reminder of the ultimate accountability to God.

Luke chapter 8. I'd like to begin reading at verse 16. No one when he has lit a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed but sets it on a lamp stand That those who enter may see its light For nothing is secret that will not be revealed nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. Therefore, take heed how you hear, for whoever has, to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have, will be taken from him." Then his mother and his brothers came to him and could not approach him because of the crowd, and it was told him by some who said, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered and said to them, My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

May Jehovah grant His grace that we not turn aside from His law in the face of the derision of the proud. Heavenly Father, we ask for Your Holy Spirit to give us understanding, for the natural man does not understand spiritual things. We need your enlightenment, we need the work of your Holy Spirit. We ask that you would teach us this morning and grant to us to see, we ask for your blessing on the hearing of the preaching of your Word. I ask that you would preserve me from error and cause the chaff to blow away and sanctify these sinful lips to proclaim What is holy and good and beautiful.

In Jesus' name, amen. Luke, as we've seen, often puts things together by theme because there's a connection in the message, a connection in different events that happened in Jesus' ministry, different sermons, different engagements. He puts them together around a common theme. And so here again we have another example of that. We've had the parable of the sower, the seed that is scattered that falls on these different soils that we've looked at each of those soils.

We know the seed is the Word of God, the soils are the heart Jesus told us. He explains this parable. And then immediately following it is a little Not exactly a parable. It's more of a proverb More of an obvious truth, right? If you light a lamp you don't cover it up because the purpose of lighting it in the first place was to provide light to all that are around.

So when you light a light, you look for the highest pole, at least I do, so that you get the most benefit out of the light. And the light that's even sitting on the ground is very, is often less useful. It casts long shadows and can often be as difficult as no light. But a light that's set up high provides light all around. And that's an obvious truth.

And Jesus states this obvious truth. And he talks about secrets being revealed and so forth, and you might think, well what's the connection here? Well the connection is this theme about hearing. Hearing. That's what the parable of the sower was about.

It was hearing. Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Right after he told this parable. And he talks about why he talks in parables so that hearing they don't hear, understand. But he said to the disciples, it was given to them to understand.

And then each of the seeds as it falls on the different soils is how people respond to the hearing of the Word of God. Those that fall on the wayside, those are the ones who hear. But then Satan takes it away before it can even sink into the ground. The ones that fall on the rock are the people that hear. And then something happens.

The ones where the seed falls on the thorns, the weeds, they're the ones, they're people who hear. But then they hear and they go out and don't do. And then the seed that falls on good ground is again describing a different kind of hearing. Those who hear the word with noble and good heart and bear fruit. While this is continuing to talk about hearing.

The significance of this section here, this next couple of verses is take heed how you hear. Therefore take heed how you hear. And then there's this visit by his parents, by his mother, his father is not mentioned. Most people assume that he has died at this point. His mother and his brothers come to see him, come to visit him.

And they can't get in, so they pass the word in and tell him that his mother and his family is here to see him. His family is here to see him. It's like it was on the submarine, if you were working down the submarine and family would come, people would quickly find you and tell you, well your family is here, they're topside. That was the day before, cell phones, you can't text each other so easily. So that word would get passed in.

Well, that word was passed in to Jesus. His family was here. And Jesus didn't respond the way they were expecting. He talks about hearing the Word of God. He connects this with hearing.

He says, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God. So we see that this whole passage is connected by this theme of hearing. In fact, even the next miracle that is described has this same connection that we'll see, Lord willing, in subsequent weeks. That even the Ocean, the wind hears God's voice and obeys. And so this morning we want to back then at these two accounts, one of the, this light that is lit and set up on a pole, and Jesus' family coming to see Him.

Hearing the Word of God, Jesus is saying here, hearing the Word of God shines a light on us. Hearing the Word of God is like a light shining on us. The Word of God is a powerful light that when we hear it is shined on us. Hebrews describes the Word of God after giving God's people a warning not to fall into disobedience, not obeying God's command like the generation in the wilderness did, and because of their not doing, not following God's commandments, their carcasses fell in the wilderness. He said, don't be like that.

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." When the word of God comes, it shines a powerful light on us. That's how Jesus described his ministry, was as a light to those who sat in darkness. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. Upon these who sat in the region in the shadow of death, upon these people light has dawned.

Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in his prophecy, spoke about Jesus coming to give light to those who sit in darkness. That light, that word as it shines upon us brings responsibility, brings duties with it. We cannot, having seen that light, having Heard the word of God, having had that light shine on us, we cannot remain unchanged. That light falling on us brings responsibilities. First of all, darkness is removed.

The light displaces darkness, just like in a sense truth displaces error. Light has been given to these apostles. It has been given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom. They've been given the gospel and they have a call to preach it. They are being trained by Jesus to preach this gospel, to shed abroad this light.

But there is in this a responsibility. This light has a character of judgment in it. There is nothing, for nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light." This light, when it falls on us, will reveal something about us. It will reveal, as the passage in Hebrews says, the thoughts and intents of our heart. The things that we think are most secret, are most reserved.

The things that we think are only known to us, the thoughts and the intents of our heart, when the light of God's Word shines upon them, these things are revealed. What's in them, what's in us is revealed. What's in us is revealed. The natural man wants to suppress what is true, wants to hide from the light. Those who are in Christ are characterized as those who are walking in the light, as those who do not by the grace of God seek to suppress the truth, to hide from the light.

But That light brings this responsibility. It brings a duty to us now that we have been given light. It brings a duty and a responsibility to what we do with that light. That's why Jesus says, Therefore take heed how you hear. Therefore, be careful how you hear.

You cannot hear the Word of God and be unchanged. Hearing the Word of God brings responsibilities, it brings duties with it. If we hear the Word of God and we ignore it, we come under condemnation because we've been given the light and we've done nothing with it. Therefore Jesus said, take heed, take heed how you hear, because all these secrets, What's hidden is going to be revealed. What's in us, what's in our heart will be revealed.

So the Word of God shines a light on us. That light brings responsibilities. It changes us. It presents before us obligations that we cannot avoid. We cannot avoid reckoning with them.

Just like that passage in Hebrews says, That things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. We must give account. That light when it falls on us will require an answer. What we have done with it. Now knowledge, okay thirdly, knowledge requires obedience.

This light is bringing knowledge, it's truth. And that requires obedience. Now why is that? Well if we hear something and put it into practice, then we learn and grow more. But if we hear something and we don't put it into practice, we lose it, don't we?

We lose it. If we hear something and we don't do anything with it, we don't use it, if you hear a word, a new word, and you don't use it, you probably forget it. But if you hear a word and you start using it, then you will probably remember that word and you will have it to use. But even knowledge itself requires practice. Even knowledge that we already have.

If we know something And we don't use that knowledge regularly, then we lose it, don't we? Even things that we used to know and maybe even know well, and we practice. If we cease to practice them, if we cease to use it, We lose it. What we don't continue to practice, we lose. We lose what we thought we had.

For example, maybe this is your experience, I know it's been mine, you learn a language. And take little children that by three or four years of age are completely fluent in a language, who speak very well, who, for whatever reason, maybe a transnational adoption or something are put into another culture where they never use that language again. By the time they're adults, that is completely gone. They may not even know how to say one word in that language. That they once were speaking fluently.

It's an example of knowledge requires practice, it requires doing. Maybe you've learned a language in high school or college and you were reasonably good at it, but you haven't used it for 20 or 30 or more years. You don't have it anymore. You don't use it. This is true of all knowledge, but it is especially true of knowing God.

We cannot know God and never obey. We cannot know God and never put that knowledge into practice. How do we know what's right and wrong? Well, Hebrews tells us it's because we are continually putting into practice the things that we have learned. The writer here trides these people, He says, by this time you ought to be teachers, but you instead need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God.

And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who needs a pittance of milk only is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Solid food maturity, discernment, Belong to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. That means if we're not living day by day in fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ, if we're not walking in the Spirit, if that is not a daily ongoing activity for us, if that is not a part of our regular life, if we are not exercising those spiritual disciplines, then we lose them and we fall away and we become babes.

And our senses are no longer trained to discern good and evil and so we fall into evil in our ignorance. Into evil, in our ignorance. Psalm 119 throughout the whole psalm stresses this very strong connection between knowing and doing. Between knowing something, hearing something, learning something, and doing it. Psalm, verse 55 and 56 of the psalm says, I remembered your name in the night.

And the reason he could remember God's name in the night is because I kept your precepts. The remembrance of God is tied to obedience of God's commands. The very first eight verses, the Aleph section, that means every verse begins with the same letter Aleph. There are eight verses in a row that all begin with Aleph. And the next, if your Bible has bait, that's because the next eight verses all begin with the second letter anyways.

In the Aleph section, the first eight verses, who are the, it's almost every verse that makes this connection. Who are the blessed? It is those who walk in the law of God. Who are the blessed? Verse 2, it is those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with a whole heart.

They also do no iniquity. They walk in His ways. You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments.

I will praise you with uprightness of heart. When I learn your righteous judgments, I will keep your statutes." very strong link there. We haven't, even to the point of saying we haven't learned them, we haven't learned God's Word, we haven't heard it if we aren't keeping it. This is why work is absolutely necessary to education. I don't necessarily mean knowing how to work, I mean working with what you know.

The two have to go together. When those two aren't put together, we have problems. We have to work with what we know. We have to put it to use. Sometimes that involves, usually that involves working with our hands.

Even esoteric things, or what we might think of as esoteric things, like calculus. If you want to learn it, you have to use it. That means you have to apply it in the world that you live. You have to start using it. If you're studying calculus, and probably maybe some of you are starting or soon to be, hopefully, I would encourage you to learn, use it, to apply it in the world that is around you, to get out your hands and your feet and do something with it.

Use it. That's how you learn it. That shows that you know it. Because everything that we learn, we need to be, we are accountable for. It brings, as we said, a responsibility for how we use it.

We don't want to be those who learn something without learning how to use it. The jails are full of people that learn lots of things, but didn't know how to use what they learned. Part of learning is to know what to do with it, to know how to use it, to apply it. What we learn brings that responsibility, makes us liable for what we do with the knowledge that we have. Maybe you're asking the Lord for something, and you've been praying for it and He hasn't seen fit to give it to you.

Whatever that might be. It might be peace, it might be something for your children, for your home, for yourself. Maybe the Lord hasn't granted it. Well, I don't know, but one reason might be that you aren't using what you already have. The Lord is not going to give more light when we are not using the light that He has already given to us.

In fact, when we aren't using what He's given to us, He takes it away. For whoever has more will be, to Him more will be given and whatever does not have, Whatever he does not have, even what he seems to have, will be taken from him. What is required of a steward is faithfulness. Faithfulness in using the things that we are a steward of. And if we are not faithful in using the things that we have been a steward of, God says He will take them away.

And He will give them to somebody else who will be more faithful with His gifts, a more with his gifts, a more faithful steward of his blessings, of his light, of his knowledge. The things Paul told the Philippians, which you have learned and received and heard and saw in Me, these do." There was light that came on them as Paul worked before them. The things that they heard, the things that they received of him, the things that they saw, this was all light that was falling upon them. He is saying, the things you have heard, the things you saw, the things you've received, the things you've learned. Do these things and the God of peace will be with you.

There's a condition to that promise that they practice what they've heard, what they've learned, that they use the light that has been given to them. Because the light brings a responsibility. The Word of God brings a responsibility to us. We cannot be unchanged by it. If you're sitting here today, you've grown up in a Christian home, you've come to church every week, and you've heard these things, don't expect to be like the person who is outside the church on whom the covenant seal has not been placed.

You have a greater responsibility to use the light that has been given to you, to use the word of God. That's why Jesus could say it's more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you Israelites because to you a great light has come. And with that is great responsibility to those whom much is given much is required and Brothers and sisters we've been given much we've been given much Jesus mother and brothers come to him And Jesus says that it's not the people that have the same DNA as I do, because they did. They were both the physical descendants of Mary. Mary was, Jesus was a human.

From, from Mary. He's the descendant of David in the flesh. But Jesus says, those that share my DNA, the woman that gave birth to me, that's not my mother and those aren't my brothers. Who are my mother and my brothers? Those who hear the word of God and do it.

Those who hear the word of God and do it. Those who hear the word of God and do it. These are the people who are in the family of God. John says this repeatedly, just a couple of examples, John 14-15, If you love me, keep my commandments. I mean, if we're not keeping God's commandments, We don't love the Lord.

If you keep my commandments, John, next chapter, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things that I say? Jesus likens that person to a fool. Somebody who builds a great expense, a big building with no foundation.

It's just a waste. It all collapses. Somebody who listens to what God said, hears what he says, and does it, that's like somebody who builds a great building on a solid foundation. Jesus is teaching a principle here too. Principle here too, not only are those who hear and do not part of Jesus' family, but we realize that ultimately in heaven all of these familial relationships pass away.

Even the closest Earthly human relationship, that of marriage between a man and a woman, passes away in heaven. The marriage covenant is only until the death of the first party, spouse. And after that, there's no more marriage. There's no more relationship between husband and wife. In heaven, people don't marry.

They're not given in marriage. They're like the angels. That means that your relationship to the person across the room that isn't in your family and doesn't share any DNA with you, is actually a more ultimate relationship than the relationship you have with the one sitting right next to you from your family. Because that relationship that you have with the brother or sister in Christ will extend into eternity without any change in its essence. Still be brothers and sisters, part of the body of Jesus Christ.

But these earthly relationships, they fall away. They fall away. Away. They fall away. Some people want to talk about what's more foundational, what's more ultimate.

The family, the church, or the state. Well, most people realize the state Is the least important of those two? It's the last to come and the first to go The state was informed until the time of Noah, when man was given authority by God to kill animals, because up until that point, you weren't to eat animals or kill animals for food. You could kill them for sacrifices, but not for food. Animals were not to be eaten.

Only the herb had been given to man for food up until the flood. But at the flood, the civil magistrate was ordained. The civil magistrate exists because of sin. And It's passing away. The family, God established that at creation when He made Eve and formed Eve out of the side of Adam.

And God brought Eve to Adam, and God ordained the family and he established it. So that was established from the beginning. Jesus said marriage existed from the beginning. The church, you could say it began then, but really doesn't begin to take visible form that we can recognize in the sense of multiple families coming together until later. We see a seed form with Noah, a preacher of righteousness.

God saved him and his family. But we don't see God establishing a covenant until Abraham. And God establishing in Abraham the church. God's covenant name didn't come until Moses and Aaron, Jehovah. And so in that sense the family does, you could argue is more fundamental than the church.

But the family ends. And The relationship that we have as brothers and sisters in Christ extends beyond the grave. It extends into eternity. We are forever a part of the body of Christ, brothers and sisters. So we need to think of that relationship as there is a sense in which it is as important as our own family.

We need to see our own family, our own nuclear family as the training ground for the church. How do we love our brothers and sisters? We learn in the home how to love our brothers and sisters, the ones that are with us every day. And when we learn how to love those, then we are learning how to love our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. How do we learn how to submit to the Lord?

We learn by submitting to our father and mother, who we can see who are right there with us every day. And in learning how to submit to them, we are learning how as the church to submit to Christ as his bride. The family then is a training ground for us. How do we practice all these things, all these one another commands that we are to do with the family of God. And there's many of them.

I don't have an exact number, but there's many. 50, 60, 70, 80, it could be more. The things that we're to do for one another in the family of God as brothers and sisters in the Lord. We learn those in our families. Jesus is saying here, He's not ignoring our earthly families.

It would be wrong to say, well, we don't want to have anything to do with our earthly families. Jesus is not at all telling us to forget our earthly families here. But He is giving to us the proper perspective that we need to keep in view. Our earthly family is a training ground and it is going to pass away. The spiritual family in Christ, it's a real flesh and blood family.

That's why we need to meet in person. That's why it's important for us to meet in person. Because this is a fleshly, this is a real flesh and blood body. And Jesus is saying this body, this body is ultimately, finally more ultimate. Ultimately, finally, more ultimate.

That our, what we are with each other in Christ. We don't want to forget the earthly family though. In Jesus' own example, He does not forget His own earthly family. As He's hanging on the cross, you might say, one of the most excruciatingly painful deaths, one of the most distracting things you might be engaged in. He remembers his mother.

He remembers, he looks down, he sees his mother and he provides for her. He asks John to take her in and to care for her because he as the eldest son is no longer able to look after her. So Jesus certainly does remember his earthly family. Our earthly family is important. This is not to denigrate in any way.

This is not to discount. Our earthly family is very important. Because it's important because the honor that we give to our parents is honor that we give to the Lord. The obedience that we render when we're young to our parents is the obedience that we give to the Lord. The love that we give to our wife and the honor that the wife gives to her husband is her obedience to the Lord.

And so these things have great significance. You know, When we as husbands mistreat our wives verbally, emotionally, or any other way, that's how we are treating the Lord. When we fail to honor authority, that is to the Lord. We're not honoring the Lord in that. So the earthly family is important, but Jesus is saying here that there is a relationship that is even more ultimate, and that is the spiritual family of God.

Again I speak to you, especially who have grown up in Christian homes all of your life. You've had a great privilege. You've had a great blessing. You've been given a lot. You've been given a great light.

And there's great responsibility with that. But also, you need to remember that you are not a part of the family of God because your parents were. You are placed into the covenant because your parents are there. You have the seal of the covenant placed upon you because your parents are there. You are reckoned among the believers because your parents are believers.

There is light that is given to you great light great blessing great privilege because you are in This you are reckoned in the family of God, but you are not in Christ family you are not a brother of Christ or a sister if we do not obey the Word of God, if Christ does not dwell in you. Being blood relative of A Christian is not enough to make you a Christian, to make you a Christ follower, to make you one who walks in the path of the Son of God. It's easy to be deceived. It's easy to be deceived. Let us pray.

Almighty Heavenly Father, thank you for the light of your Word. It is bright and powerful, the discerner of the thoughts and intents, a revealer of secrets. And indeed one day we will all stand before you and be judged for the deeds that we have done, for the thoughts that we have had, for the intents of our heart. We pray that we might not be deceived. As those who cried out, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Did we not cast out demons in your name and do other great works, but not know you? Not have your Holy Spirit? Not have your Holy Spirit. Father, we thank you for the assurance of your Spirit, For you are the God of peace, and you have declared to us that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. And so Father, we pray that your Word would sanctify us, that it would set us apart as your servants, as those dedicated to you, And that you would fit us, equip us for your service.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.