Listen!

What is the most important thing you do in life? I’m sure you do a lot of important things. Perhaps you go to work. That’s important because you provide for your family. Maybe you stay home, and that’s important because you’re there for your kids. Or maybe you would say the most important thing you do is the example you set for others, the integrity you seek to cultivate, or the work ethic you want to pass on.

These are all good things. But there is a more foundational thing. And how you do this one thing reveals the condition of your heart. The state of your soul, and its eventual destiny, is revealed by how you do this one thing. What is it? Listening. Specifically, listening to God’s Word.

How you hear the word of God reveals the condition of your soul. Your spiritual condition, whether you’re saved or lost, whether you’re forgiven or unforgiven, whether you’re justified or condemned, whether you’re a disciple of Jesus like Peter or a fake follower like Judas, is revealed in the way you hear the Word of God.

This is what Jesus taught in his parable about the soils in Mark 4. You’re probably familiar with the story. Jesus tells about a sower who sows seed on four different soils. The seed represents the Word, and the soils are the different responses to it. Only one soil represents the right response. The first three soils all heard the Word, but they did not hear the Word (Mk. 4:12). But all the soils represent different kinds of hearers.

One implication of this parable is that when the Word is preached, the obligation is not merely upon the preacher. God obligates the listener to hear and apply his Word. Have you ever thought of it that way? When Jesus commanded the crowds, “Listen!” (Mk. 4:3) and warned his disciples to “Pay attention to what you hear” (Mk. 4:24), he elevated the ear to be the king of the five senses. In this age, faith does not come by seeing, feeling, smelling, or touching - but by hearing (Rom. 10:17). And it is your responsibility to hear and apply God’s Word.

Being bored of biblical preaching often says more about the listener than the preacher. The author of Hebrews says this: “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For those by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God” (Heb. 5:11-12). A few observations need to be made:

First, teaching is a central part of the Christian life. Christian leaders constantly feel that “there is much to say.” The hardest part of sermon preparation is deciding what not to say. All pastors must be teachers (1 Tim. 3:5), and all Christians must be learners.

Second, sometimes what needs to be said is “hard to explain.” This is because although the gospel is a simple message a youth can understand, there are an almost infinite number of distractions that might hinder the explanation of the Word.

Third, notice here who is at fault. Some things are hard to explain not because the subject matter is complicated, but rather because “you have become dull of hearing.” This is a moral problem some of the Hebrews are guilty of. They have a hard time understanding the truth because they are “dull of hearing.”

Here’s what we can conclude: It is the responsibility of pastors and elders to teach and preach God’s Word faithfully to God’s people. And it is the responsibility of listeners to listen, receive, apply, and obey God’s Word. How much have you thought about your responsibility to hear and respond to God’s Word every Sunday?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones spoke of preaching not merely as something the preacher does, but as something the congregation participates in. Reflect on this, and consider whether you “come prepared” to hear God’s Word:

“It is not merely what the man says, it is the way in which he says it - this total involvement of the man; his body is involved, every part of him, every faculty in involved if it is true preaching, the whole personality of the individual; and, at the same time, as I said, the congregation is also making its contribution. Here are spiritually minded people, they have come prepared and they are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and so these two things blend together. There is a unity between the preacher and hearers and there is a transaction backwards and forwards. That, to me, is true preaching.” When a pastor has soaked in the Word all week and ascends the pulpit with a live word from God, and when the congregation comes to church hungry and prepared to feast, the two come together like gas and fire. Clear away all the clutter of your life to ensure that you come prepared to hear from God. Guard Saturday nights. Keep short accounts. Put away distractions. And cultivate in your heart a love for the preached word and an eagerness to do it (James 1:22).

Grace Rancho, the living God speaks. Are you listening?