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Take Care How You Listen
It is one thing to hear; it is quite another to listen. Hearing is the recognition of sound. “Did you hear that?” someone might ask after a mighty clap of thunder. But listening is hearing with attention and understanding. “Are you listening to me?” is what the wife wants to know when her husband is reading the paper while she’s telling him about her day.
When it comes to His word, God wants us to listen. While Jesus preached, “the multitudes were pressing around Him and listening to the word of God” (Luke 5:1). That was what all of His miracles and parables pointed to: spiritual truth. He came to “seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). That involved attention to His words. Above all, God wanted men to “listen to Him” (Luke 9:35)!
During the lectures next week, we will be given the opportunity to listen to the word of God for four days, morning and evening. Our objective should be to take care how we listen (Luke 8:18). What does this kind of listening involve?
Listen with responsibility. When we listen to gospel preaching, we are not just receivers but receivers of “the word” (James 1:21). We are not simply hearers but hearers of “the word” (James 1:23). That puts a serious responsibility on our shoulders. These words are not the thoughts of our favorite author or the opinion of some motivational speaker. They are the mind of God revealed to man. As Paul wrote, “when you received from us from the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).
We have a responsibility to listen for accuracy. The Christians in the First Century were warned about the dangers of error and following false teachers to their own destruction. How much more ought we to be watchful when we have the word of God so easily accessible to us? We have every right to demand book, chapter, and verse preaching. It is part of fulfilling our obligation to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
Listen with humility. “In humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save yours souls” (James 1:21). It takes a humble heart to be a good listener. When a sermon is preached on a sensitive topic, the easy reaction is the refusal to admit that we struggle in that area. “That’s their problem,” we might say about the people across the auditorium. Humility causes us to stop and consider how the passage applies to us.
One of the greatest compliments the preacher can receive is for someone to say, “I needed that.” That means they weren’t looking for someone to teach things “in accordance to their own desires” (2 Timothy 4:3). Neither did they focus on his stage presence or admire his suit and tie combination. It means that the word of God found its mark in a receptive heart, a heart that in humility received the word implanted.
Listen with honesty. “Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). Those who are hearers only are satisfied only with hearing. There is no effort to put into practice what has been heard. They may follow along in their Bibles, jot down notes in the margin, and even give a hearty “Amen” to the sermon. But that is as far as it is penetrates. It takes humility to receive the word; it takes honesty to make use of it.
The worst kind of deceit is when we deceive ourselves. We might think that we have done our part simply because we have listened well to what God has said. But our responsibility extends to applying that same message where it needs to go. The alternative is the man who thinks himself to be religious “but deceives his own heart” (James 1:26). Let us be willing to confess our sins when the word of God convicts us. To do any less is to keep deluding ourselves.
Listen with accountability. “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25). What will this “blessed” man do with what he has found in the law? He will “bridle his tongue,” “visit orphans and widows in their distress,” and keep himself “unstained by the world” (James 1:26-27). His conduct reflects his understanding that he is accountable to God for following His will.
Jesus said, “the word I spoke” (John 12:48) is what will be the standard of judgment on the last day. Not what was politically correct, not what a preacher said about the Scriptures, but every word that proceeded from the mouth of God. That fact alone should cause us conform our life to the Book of Life.
Four days. Sixteen sermons. Take care how you listen to each one.
