We turn in the Word of God to Genesis chapter 5 and then Luke chapter 8. Let's stand together. Here is a reminder that we were created in the image of God. This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created him, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, blessed them, and called them mankind. in the day that they were created. And now we turn to the gospel of Luke and Luke chapter 8. I'm on the heels of the parable of the sower. We'll read the last verse of the parable of the sower as it connects to the next section. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the 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 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 brother are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered and said to them, my mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. And this is the Word of the Lord. We turn again to the Gospel of Luke in Luke chapter 8, really verses 15 through 21. Looking at the nature of the true family of God, or what it means to belong to Christ's Kingdom, to be a citizen in that Kingdom. What does a true follower of Jesus Christ look like? It's clear from the text that this idea runs all the way through the parable of the sower and also through the parable and the words that follow. In verse 18, Jesus says something, perhaps the center of this section, which is, take heed how you hear. Give careful attention to how you listen to the Word. And then he says these words, for to whoever has, and whoever has rightly received the Word, to him more will be given. But whoever does not have, even what he seems to have, maybe he thought he had salvation, even this will be taken away. These words are penetrating. The penetrating teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. And surely uncomfortable for all of us to hear. They penetrate deep into our heart. But they're about the Kingdom. And this whole section is about the Kingdom. You remember verse 1, Jesus was preaching the good news of the Kingdom. In verse 10 of this chapter, He was revealing the mysteries of the Kingdom. And that reminds us of a few things here in the Gospel of Luke. That Christ is the King. He's establishing a kingdom and he's revealing, particularly in this chapter, what it means to be a citizen of that kingdom or a member of God's family. There's two aspects to citizenship. One is to become a citizen of the kingdom. Some years ago, some of you know that I went through a naturalization ceremony where I took some citizenship, well, I took a citizenship oath and so became a citizen of these United States of America. A number of you came to witness that. It was a great honor for us and for our family. But that was just the beginning. That was just the beginning. And the beginning is followed by a kind of life. And that life is dictated by the laws of this land and also the privileges granted in that citizenship. And Christ has the same sort of thing in mind when he teaches here in the parable of the sowers, not only becoming a citizen, but life in His kingdom. What does kingdom life, citizenship life look like? Family life? Later on we'll see Jesus uses a different metaphor. He talks about the kingdom as a family. And when He teaches about Christianity, what it means to follow Him, He always teaches both aspects. Entering in, and then walking in. The beginning, and then the life that follows. And here He teaches A citizen of the kingdom is interested in doing good, in obeying the word. Walking according to the revealed will of God and everything He does. As a matter of fact, that's the close of the parable in verse 15. We'll get to that in a moment. But we're going to look at a few things. We're going to be reminded that the scene that we are in here, beginning at verse 16 through 21, the backdrop of these two sections that follow the parable of the sword, the gospel of Luke have been placed here because they fit the scene and the parable. They are connected in principle. This is actually one section, verses 1 through 21, with a common theme if we look carefully. Verses 16 to 21, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the gospel writer Luke has placed here together. And so it would be helpful to get the original scene in your mind. It's Jesus Christ preaching, the glad tidings of the kingdom, there's great crowds, there's the 12, there's the women who have followed Him, there's many more who support Him, and then there's the great multitude from every city. A great multitude. There are crowds, there's very thick crowds. Matter of verse 19, His mother and His brothers came to Him and could not approach Him because of the crowd. They are thronging to Jesus. And He's preaching, He's proclaiming. The Greek word kerex is there. He's evangelizing, declaring the good tidings, the good news of the Kingdom of God. There's forgiveness of sins and peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Indiscriminately, He's preaching the love and power of God and calling men and women and boys and girls to come to God through Him. The parable of the sower is what we looked at last week. A quick review. There's a sower, there's seed, and there's four types of soil. And the sower is Jesus Christ, the great preacher, and those who are called to preach under Him and by His grace and by His Spirit. The seed, which is the Word of God. And then the soils are four different kinds of responses. The first one, no response at all. Those who hear the word and Satan snatches it out of their hearts. Then the seed that falls on the rock, they hear the word with joy and then the heat of this world comes, trials come, it withers away. Those who fall among the weeds, the weeds spring up, chokes out the word. And then that last in verse 15 is what we really want to focus on. Verse 15 connects to the next section very clearly. We'll look at some phrases we didn't look at in detail last week. Verse 15 is the believing response to the gospel of the kingdom. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who having heard the word with a noble and good heart. It's a believing heart described here. Noble, beautiful, attractive, lovely, good, good, pure and right. And if we remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19, the Scriptures clearly teach that only God is good. This heart clearly has been, if we compare Scripture with Scripture, made receptive to the Word of God by the mysterious power of the Spirit of God. And that Word then is received and believed and held onto. A heart that has been first touched by God in the mighty work of regeneration. This heart receives the word, welcomes the gospel, believes the gospel, but more, keep reading, and this is critical for the next section, keeps it and bears fruit with patience. that the word enters in and then there's a response. I was trying to think of things that might illustrate this so you would remember it. The word goes in and then there's a response. I was thinking about baseball, that strange national pastime that I was reminded of again this week. You wonder how we came up with a game with all the rules that baseball has. It had to be a bunch of boys in a field somewhere that never grew up and kept playing. But there's one part of that game, the pitch and the hit. Ball's sent in, the response of the batter is to send it back out and hopefully a home run or a grand slam. You want to win. There's an action, an incoming action, and then there's an echo or response. We were in Idaho and the place we were camping in this gorgeous valley, back country, way off grid. If we called out, the mountains were shaped just such that when the word went out, an echo came back. I'm trying to get a simple picture of the word goes out and something happens, an echo must return. Something goes in and something comes out. The word goes into the heart, It's grabbed hold of, believed, and then kept, and fruit is born. There's the echo with patience. Fruit is born with patience. The Word is grasped and kept. It has an inward effect. It finds good soil. The promises are believed. The warnings are heeded. And then the commands are obeyed, and a new kind of life ensues. And the symbol principle here in the parable of the sower at the end of it is that this new heart receives the Word with faith, and immediately begins to live by that word with a new kind and quality of life. Fruitful. Crop. A hundredfold in the original parable. A completely new existence marked by a restoration of the image of God and a life that's lived to God's glory. A new kind and quality of life. The echo of the word in the life of the believer. And this principle now, this simple principle right here at the end of the parable of the sower is amplified in verses 16 to 21. It is that last phrase which is opened up by the next two sections and we'll see how that is. The first amplification is the following. It's another parable. Parable of the lamp. And simple action here is lighting a lamp. And none of you, probably most of you, unless you like camping and you have a propane lantern, haven't really lit a lamp, now everything is just flip a switch. It's even easier. You flip a switch, we all take it for granted unless we lose our power for a week and then all the switches don't work. And what are you doing? You're stumbling around in darkness. Well, Jesus says something very obvious in this parable. No one flips the switch on the light and then runs over and covers it. If somebody did that, you would understand there's certain insanity there. You turn it on so you could see. And this simple idea that this would be impossible to light something and then run and cover it up, it would be completely against the nature of the thing, is what Jesus is saying about the nature of the Christian life. It's impossible to have your heart penetrated by the light of the word of God as it were lit and then not to shine. Impossible. As a matter of fact, to say we have Christ and believe in Him and love Him and then not shine to His glory would be against the very nature of what it means to have Christ. The purpose of the parable is a little harder to discern. I've intimated it a bit, but we do some careful thinking here and compare Scripture with Scripture. We see that light reveals truth, for nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. And Jesus says here that the light is connected here to truth and conduct. Light reveals truth. Secrets hide in the darkness. God will be the great judge of all and bring all things to light. That general idea is here in the text, chapter 12. Jesus reminds the Pharisees not to be hypocrites, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. The writer of Ecclesiastes says the same thing. Every work will be brought into judgment by God at the end. So fear him, and including those things which are done in secret, as an aside, you can't, you can lie to people, you can't lie to God. You can hide your sins from people, you can't hide them from God. But if he's made you new in Christ, he intends for you to shine, to be the light of the world. A similar use of this metaphor of Jesus in Matthew chapter five is you are the light of the world. And he says the same thing. If you're light, you are not hidden, but you shine. And let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is within heaven. These are the principles here behind the text. A lamp has been lit. A lamp is to shine. Truth brings light and life. If you declare and say that I have followed Jesus Christ and there is no light, then there will instead be a judgment coming. And that becomes clearer in verse 18. Therefore take heed how you hear. This is connected to the parable of the sower. Put the two together. There's four ways to hear. The verb of hearing is all through the explanation. The seed that falls on the path, that's the one who hears, and immediately Satan snatches it away. The seed that falls on the rock, it's he who hears. and the trials of this life cause the seed to shrivel up. He who hears, he who hears, the idea of hearing. And now Jesus says, be careful how you hear because you hear in order that the light of the gospel might shine from your life with integrity and according to the gospel that you've heard. Moreover, he says, how you receive the word, what is taken in must shine out again. It can't be in you without an effect that is visible on the outside. Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You were once darkness, Paul would say, but now you are light in the Lord. This metaphor for salvation includes the following, being engrafted into Christ who is the light of the world, having the light of His Word, the lamp of His Word shining in your heart, having it shining out of your life, having that same Word testing your life. The test is made clearer here at the end of verse 18, for whoever has, take heed how you hear, Whoever has has what? The word in your heart bearing fruit. Verse 15. Whoever has this will receive more. Whoever does not have this, that which he thinks he has. Here's a sobering phrase. Think of the seed on the rock which withers away when times get hard, or you think of the seed in the weeds that cares of this life and the seedfulness of riches, choke it out, love of pleasure. Those people still think they have Christ. Jesus says, but if there's no fruit, there's no light, then what he thinks he has will be taken away. Therefore be careful how you hear." First amplification. Reminds me of Jesus in Matthew 7, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, in that day. And Jesus will say to them, because they were not obedient to the word, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Second amplification is the arrival of Jesus' family. Now, in the other Gospels, this is in a different place. In the narrative, it's hard to know exactly when this happened, but Luke has placed this here because it is a connected principle. Second amplification of the principle, a new heart receives the word and immediately begins to live a new kind and quality of life, light and obedience. The narrative picks up, his mother and his brothers came to him and could not approach him because of the crowd. A little aside here about the Roman Catholic Church and one of its follies. The Roman Catholic Church asserts the perpetual virginity of Mary and says that Mary had no relations with Joseph and never had any children. Texts like this are a problem for that view. As a matter of fact, it says very simply, Jesus' mother, Mary, his mother, and brothers came to him. Now, the language of brothers is used in Mark chapter six, in John chapter seven, in Acts chapter one and verse 14. And in case you're wondering, there is another word for cousin in Greek that is not used here. What the Roman Catholic Church wants to do with this text is say that Mary, the word mother applies to Mary, but the word brother does not apply to his brothers. Try to divide the text in half. and brothers are supposed to be common friends or cousins or some other thing, but Mary is the mother. And what are they doing? They're elevating an unbiblical dogma above the word of God and so demonstrating that they have rejected the doctrine of sola scriptura. They've also tried to elevate Mary to a place that has no accord with the scripture. She said that she needed the salvation of her own son in Luke chapter one. She was a sinner, not sinless, and she had other children. Psalm 69 in verse 8, it's a prophecy of this reality that Jesus had brothers who would reject him. In Galatians 1 in verse 19, Paul testifies to the same thing. The whole of the New Testament says one thing, that Joseph and Mary had other children, and Jesus had half brothers and sisters. Mary is not to be worshiped, she's not a co-redemptrix, and she did have children, in a natural way. That aside, back to the text. What do Jesus' mother and what do Jesus' brothers want? They appear to just want to talk to him. It was told to him by someone who said, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. They want to see him. And to see him means they're going to interrupt his ministry, the preaching of the kingdom of God. And how does Jesus respond for the third time The same emphasis, verse 21, he answered and said to them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. A new heart receives the word and immediately begins to live a new kind and quality of life. Now Jesus says, my family, the family of God, intimacy, the language of family, my mother and my brothers are those who take the message of the kingdom, believe the salvation proclaimed, and embrace the commands and the way of life given. These are my family. And so rebuking his mother and brothers implicitly for interrupting his ministry. And very simply, Jesus is stating, faith without works is dead. Something for consideration. When we think about this great principle, and another little aside here is, in the providence of God, you heard a sermon last Sunday night on good works, and Pastor Mooney and I did not coordinate this, but you're hearing a sermon on a similar topic this morning. And Paul wrote to the Philippians, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious but safe, and Peter in 2 Peter said, I'm gonna remind you, I'm gonna remind you again, I'm gonna write it down so you have a reminder after I die. And in God's providence, you're having, in a sense, a reminder. Something for your consideration. There is a relationship in the word. There is always a relationship between word and act. Philosophers have always recognized this. That words and acts ought to have, even by the light of nature, a logical and ethical harmony. That there's something wrong The way things ought to be is that your words and your actions match. That is what is right. We have sayings about this. A man is only as good as his word. We're saying that a good man is honest and reliable in what he promises he will do. And we all fall short of this and we have to ask for forgiveness and God's mercy. But at the deepest level, what this is saying is that what is in the heart, which comes out in our words, It needs to be matched by our life so there is an integrity about our following Christ. An integrity about our following Christ. The Word of the Lord shows that integrity in Him. The Word of the Lord is truth, Psalm 33. The voice of the Lord is powerful, Psalm 29. And God says about His own word, so shall be my word that goes from my mouth, that shall not return to me void, but shall accomplish all that I please. That when God speaks, that He acts. There's no tension, there's a perfect holy correspondence. The Bible demands that word and act be in correspondence. Now it's a little different with us, because the word in this case, is God's Word. But the sign that it has been received by faith is that it echoes out in light and life and obedience. The sign that we submitted to the Word, it found good soil, it made a crop, it shines with light, and we hear and do it, verses 15, 18, and 21. The actions. Demonstrate the reception of the word. Your word of a hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 37 says the law of God is in his heart that none of his steps shall slide. The word, therefore, is embedded in the heart. And wasn't this the promise of the new covenant? I will. I will sprinkle your hearts and make them clean. And then I will inscribe, not on stones to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant, in the temple in the center of Israel, but I will inscribe on your heart, by my word and spirit, the way that you should go and give you the power by the same spirit to walk in that way. Because the gospel is the promise of the freedom from the guilt of sin and the power of sin together. This is the message of the kingdom. Spirit breaks our hard heart and inscribes as God did on the tablets of stone, but within us. So that again, James, faith without works is dead. As a matter of fact, verse 18 says, if we think faith can be faith without works, what we think we have will even be taken away from us. The principle of verse 15 is amplified twice. Clearly important. Let's apply the principle. What does your life look like as a follower of Jesus Christ? Does following him make you different from the world? Has it caused a war with your sinful flesh within? Do you recognize and resist the devil? Are you going a different way than you used to go? Are you living a different life? Some lessons. The word of God is of great spiritual usefulness to the believer in two ways. A little repetition here, but let's focus. It is the word that brings the light of salvation to your heart. The God who said, let there be light has shone into our hearts, the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, Paul writes to the Corinthians. The Word, when it first comes with its converting, life-giving power to the believer, it opens our eyes, plows up our hearts, reminds us of our sin, turns our eyes to Christ. This is called conversion. When we, with repentance and faith, look to Him, the new birth, the Word is mixed with faith. It's received as the very Word of God as the Thessalonians received Paul's preaching. As the very Word of God. It's promises grabbed hold of. You should always be praying when you hear the Word, that God would work powerfully within you. Pray before, and during, and after. There's something powerful about this Word. Life-changing. The power of God unto salvation. But then that same Word brings us under the kingship of Jesus Christ, who is our Lawgiver, our Commander, the Captain of the Army of the Lord. J.C. Raw. The Gospel is not only to be believed, but practiced. It was not meant to reside merely in our intellect, our memories, our tongues, but to be seen in our lives. There's an outflow of that grace and glory. That's why Jesus says, verse 18, take heed how you hear. What are you listening for? Lord, remind me of your promises of grace and mercy and the supply of that grace that enables me to live a new life. And one more thing. Lord, teach me that new life. Help me embrace your commandments, not out of a legal fear, but that I might offer my life back to you in love for your glory. How we receive the word and its spiritual usefulness, two ways, our conversion and our life in Christ. Take heed how you hear. Second lesson. The word rightly received will inevitably produce the fruit of good works. What are good works? Works that God commands in His Word. They're not devised by men. They're not driven by our passion or our blind zeal. They're not defined by good intentions. They're simply obedience to God's revealed will. He gives you a command, you say, yes, Lord, and then you do your best to do what He says, knowing that your best works are still mixed with sin, but sincerely offering your life to God because of His love to you. You believe that the word is living and powerful, that it's instructive, that the commands of God are clear. I was listening to Sinclair Ferguson's podcast this week, Things Unseen, and he had this little phrase I thought so interesting. He said, there's 10 commandments God gave us, 10, it's not that many. In our creaturely simplicity, he gave us a list of 10, and then a summary of two. in order that we might be led by the hand in the way of repentance and to bring glory to His name. The Christian life then is devoted to God, it's consecrated to God. Acts chapter 9, the Apostle Paul wrote to Damascus, Lord, what would you have me to do? Take my moments and my days. Let them be filled with endless praise that grade Him. Take my life, Lord, let it be. I'm going to encourage you about the commands of God. They're for your good. Every time you decide to go against God's commands, it will only bring you grief and sadness, brokenness, ruin. Moses says these beautiful words, Deuteronomy 10, the Lord says, I give you these commands today for your good. He's restoring the image of God that you might reflect. He's making you more like Christ who said, my food and drink is to do the will of my heavenly Father. He's teaching you to live the best life, to use a phrase I don't often use, an authentic life, the only real life to God. Holiness is the happiest kind of life. And we have very thick skulls about this, because when someone gives a command, we either cry, we do one of two things by nature. Legalism. No, it's not what we do. We say, oh, how I love your law, Lord. I'm not under its curse. I've been set free. The other side is license. I'm going to do whatever I want. I don't want to, Romans 7, the command comes up and sin rears up in my heart and I find myself fighting against God, even though I'm a believer, Paul said. Both of those have to be resisted. And we say, Lord, here's my heart. I offer it to you promptly, sincerely. Take my life. We devote ourselves to holy obedience. Lesson number three, the commitment Christ calls you to in following Him in this way is your preeminent commitment in this life. It supersedes everything else. This goes back to the Example of Christ mother and his brothers come to him. What has he been done? What has Jesus been sent to do? To proclaim the good news of the kingdom He himself is the good news of the kingdom and To be the executor of all that is promised in the good news by his death and resurrection Christ and the gospel inseparable What is he doing? He's doing the will of his father on the mission of salvation. What his mother and brothers do, they want to distract him from that. What does Jesus use that as an occasion to show us? No, I will be true to my heavenly father. It's the same thing he said in Luke chapter two. Don't you know I'm about my father's business? Doggedly giving the whole of existence to his father. And he says, now this principle is the principle of my whole family. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. I'm asking for an unreserved commitment to holiness. This is the mark of my family. You hear And He knows imperfectly, stumbling, and with weakness. But you do, and these are my family. Lesson four. There's a third reason why Christ's clear calling here is quickly dismissed by us, or we stumble over it, put it in a different way. The two are that we sometimes cry legalism, so that's legalism, I'm not gonna do it. The other is license, I wanna do whatever I want. Both of those are from the pit of hell, they're satanic lies. But there's another one that often trips us up when we hear Jesus say, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. And what might that be? Your conscience. Because when Jesus says those words, what do you say? If you're honest, Lord, I didn't do it. Not the way you wanted me to. I haven't given myself the way I understand your word to give. My best works have been mixed with sin. My conscience quickly is burdened when you say, hear and do. What should you do? What do you do in that situation? Remember who speaks. It's the Christ who did the will of His heavenly Father perfectly, and then died in your place to pay for all your sins, to cover all your imperfections, to wash you with His blood. so that now united to Him. What makes our good works acceptable to God? It's not our power, it's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the cleansing of those works by the blood-bought pardon of the one who went to the cross. And then more than that, we aren't trying to earn anything because His perfect life to do the will of His heavenly Father in everything is given to us freely. We're wrapped in the robe, clothed in the robe of His righteousness. We do these things freely. There's nothing to purchase. There's nothing to grasp. There's simply a life to give to God. For Christ who first gave His life for you. The place of works is not that we would boast. But rather, they are the fruit of faith union with Jesus Christ. Of truly receiving the message of the kingdom. And it's in that light that we carefully hear Jesus when He says, be careful how you hear. Listen well when He says, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word and they do it. So embrace His words and be careful how you hear. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we are not what we should be, but we are thankful that in Your great mission, in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, that You have declared that You came for sinners, to deliver us from the guilt and power of sin. Lord, help us to believe this, and then to live by its truth and power, to search Your Word, to do Your will, or to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to you, which is our only reasonable service of worship, or that we might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will, your holy will for us. Lord, grant us the grace to pursue this with the glorious liberty that belongs to the children of God. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Go now with God's blessing. Peace to the brethren in love with faith from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen.