Charles Stanley - How to Listen to the Word of God
Why is it some people come to church on Sunday morning or go to church and they walk away uplifted and feeling confident and comforted and assured and excited about life and looking forward to the coming week and just find out what God's gonna do in their life? And then there are those other people who come and they just go away unmoved. They carry out the same old load of guilt they brought with them, the same feelings of emptiness that they felt when they came in. They walk away with the same sense of uncertainty, insecurity, and often times fear and dreads of facing the week that's ahead of them. What is the difference in these two groups?
Why is it that both of them hear the same message, same Word of God and yet they walk away somehow with totally two different attitudes. Is it because that second group of people have no interest in the Word of God? I don't think so. Is it because that they've just shut it out, shut it down, closed it out and have decided that they do not really have any real interest in the things of God and therefore no one's gonna get to them, they're not gonna get under conviction, not gonna change any, anything in their life. There could be a little bit of that in some people's lives, but I don't think that's the primary reason.
There may be a number of reasons, but I think there's one reason that often times we overlook, probably hadn't even thought a lot about it, why two people could sit by, side by side, one receive so much and the other receive so little. Or, hundreds and hundreds of people and a large group of them, large number of them walk away so excited and a large number walk away just sorta ho-hum. I think there are probably some reasons but there's one reason I want us to talk about in this message. I want to talk about "How to listen to the Word of God".
And I want you to turn if you will to the book of Nehemiah and the eighth chapter. The eighth chapter of Nehemiah, and I want to give you a little background before we read these first eight verses together. Remember that the people of Israel have come back from Babylonian captivity. Now Nehemiah's come back to rebuild the walls and to rebuild the gates and his fellow servant, Ezra, was there about fourteen years before, and now the walls have been rebuilt and the gates have been rebuilt. And the time of a great festive has come and they're going to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles. And in this eighth chapter in their celebration are all I believe of the elements that are necessary for us to understand. And all of it's here as to how we're to listen to the Word of God.
And so, they have assembled now, to listen to Ezra and to Nehemiah as they lead them and I want us to begin in this first verse of chapter eight. And the scripture says, "And all the people gathered as one man at the Water Gate," or, "at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could understand," or who could listen with understanding, "on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood," all of these men whose names I'll not pronounce.
"And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground". And also, here another group that are going to help explain it says, "Explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. And they read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading".
Now, let me say two things right up front. First of all, this is not a magic book. There's nothing magic about this book at all. It is the revelation of God. It is the mind of God which He gave to men, control in those men by the Holy Spirit. And here we have from Genesis to Revelation the mind of God. This is God as He works among men and how He works among men. Nothing magic about it but there is something powerful about it. But what I want you to remember is this. That reading this, or being able to repeat it, is not enough. Unless you and I understand what it says and what it means, just reading it is not sufficient.
So, what I want to talk about is how do we listen to the Word of God? We read it, yes. How do we listen to a message from God? It's very evident in this passage of scripture that these people understood how to listen to the Word of God. Remembering now, that they came from Babylonian captivity, many of them had never even seen a scroll like this before. And when we talk about it, we're talking about the law of Moses which was more than likely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Probably what he was reading was more than likely just a portion or maybe the book of Deuteronomy. Maybe not all of those. And yet they stood awesomely inspired by what was about to happen.
So, in the light of all this, I'd like to give you eight words. And I want us to talk about how to listen to the Word of God because you go to church, or you listen to a television program, or you listen to a tape, or you come to church, and the question is, how much difference does it make in your life? What real difference does it make in your life? I believe one of the reasons it makes a little difference in some people's lives is that they do not know how to listen to what they're hearing. They don't know how to hear what God intends for them to hear. So, the first word I want you to jot down is eagerly. And that is a person should come to church or go to church, their attitude should be to listen to the Word of God eagerly.
Now listen to what happens here. It says in chapter eight, verse one, "All the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to them". So, they're the ones who were asking, "We want to hear from God's Word, remembering now that many of them had never heard". They had only heard what the Word of God said. Remembering now of course, they don't have Bibles, they don't have pads, they don't have copies of the scroll.
And so this was a very, very momentous time for them. And so they were eager to hear. What did God really and truly say to Moses? We've heard what our parents have said, what our grandparents have said, he said that God said, but what did He really say? Because here now they were gonna hear it, they were gonna have it read right before them. And so they were very, very eager to hear what God had to say.
Now let me ask you a question. When you come to church or when you go to church on Sunday morning, why do you go, first of all? Do you go with a sense, or do you come with a sense of eagerness? Are you eager to hear that God may have something very specific and personal to say to you? Do you believe that sermons are just preached and the Word of God is just read in general and maybe somebody may pick up something that God is gonna throw it all out there. Or, do you believe that somehow God has something very specific to say to you each time you hear the Word of God? A sense of eagerness, a desire, a yearning, a longing, a hungering.
You see, if you don't have a hunger for the Word of God, you're not gonna have a hunger for God. If you don't have a real intense desire to know the Word of God, then you're not gonna have an intense desire to know the God of the Bible. And so when I think about eagerness, I think about three things. I think there are three characteristics at least of people who come to church with a sense of eagerness to hear what God has to say. First of all, they come consistently. They don't come every three Sundays. That is, if they have an eagerness to hear what God has to say, they're gonna be in the Lord's house if at all possible. The second thing that's characteristic of people with an eager desire to hear and to understand is they're gonna bring the Bible with them.
And somebody says, "Well, you know, I'm just busy and my Bible's too thick or too heavy or too this or too that". Then get you one that fits you, but bring the Word of God to the house of God to listen to the Word of God explained. And so, secondly, they're gonna have a Bible with them. Thirdly, they are gonna have a pencil or a pen and a piece of paper to jot down, to write down something they've heard that God said to them about their life. Now this is very important because listen. If I have an eagerness to hear what God has to say, if I want to hear what He has to say, I certainly want to remember what He has to say. And remember, that you and I have an enemy. He is the devil who will do everything in his devilish power to enable you to forget exactly what God intended for you to remember. He's always working at it.
So first of all, my attitude should be that I should come to church with a, with what kind of a desire to hear the Word of God? Number one, eagerly. I'm gonna listen to it how? Eagerly. Now come on, let's wake up, come on now. I'm gonna listen to it how? Eagerly. Longing, yearning, or hungering. The second word I want you to jot down is attentively. Look what happens here. So then Ezra, in verse two, "Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women who could listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday".
Now they didn't know anything about one-hour long messages. Thank you! Says, "In the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were," what? "Attentive to the book of the law". Now when it says they were attentive, here's what it means. Listen, that when he stood up, when he stood up to read, they focused their attention upon what was about to happen. That is, they were not about to allow anything else to draw their attention. Now here's the reason. Remember this. This was one scroll. This was the Word of God given to Moses, written down by him.
Now listen, they didn't have any pads. They didn't have any pencils. They didn't have any tape recorders. They didn't have anybody taking shorthand. They didn't even have any piece of scroll so they could write it down. You know all they had is their memory. They listened very, very carefully because they knew what they heard, the only thing they were gonna be able to keep was what they could remember. And at least being able to pass among themselves what other people could remember. And so they knew how very, very important it was. The Bible says that, that they listened how? They listened very attentively. They were focused. Their minds were not wandering.
And I can imagine as they sat there or as they stood there and listened, they were so eager. They wanted to remember exactly what God was saying. Focused upon what was being said. And I wonder when you come to church or when you go to church, are you sitting there thinking about other things and what times is it and what are you gonna have for lunch and is the cafeteria line gonna be long today and what are they serving? And I wonder what's going on in your mind while God is in the process of expounding His Word, explaining His Word, revealing Himself, revealing His ways. What is it that you're thinking? What has your attention?
You say, "Well, you know, I have a short attention span". Well, let's see how short it is. One of your favorite movies comes on and you sit there for two hours and a half and you listen because there are no commercials and I mean, they've got your attention. Isn't it interesting how something can grab our attention and we can sit and hold it. I'll tell you the difference. What determines my attention span is the intensity or lack of intensity, listen, of my genuine interest in what has my attention. If something really has my attention, I can hang in there. There are times when I can sit for two or three hours at a time and study and maybe get up once or twice, why? Because I am so excited about what I'm learning. I'm excited about what God is saying. Nothing else in the world matters at the time.
So therefore, because it's so little time, is it not true that when you and I come to open the Word of God together, to say, "Lord, what are You saying"? That we should give Him our absolute undivided attention. That the truth is that there's not anything else in the world that matters right now but God, speak to my heart. What do You want to say to me? And so, I want to say again. The degree of my attention, the length of my attention span, up to a point, and I realize there's a point at which nobody could stand but so much. But the intensity of my desire and hunger for God will determine what my attention span is. So, the first word is what? I'm to listen eagerly. The second word is what? Attentively. The third word is trustfully. You say, "Well, then, who should I trust"?
If you're listening to somebody open this book and teach the Word, first of all, you make sure he believes every single word of it from cover to cover. Secondly, is he committed to an honest, listen, an honest interpretation of the Word of God, unbiased and not influenced by some denominational tie he has? Is this man committed to an honest interpretation of the Word of God, comparing scripture with scripture, seeking truth, looking for truth, not trying to come up with some pet doctrine of his own.
Number three, is this man committed to at least attempting by his lifestyle to abide by the principles of the Word of God? Number four, does he understand that the Holy Spirit is the one who is the teacher, and not he himself? He may be the spokesman, but the Spirit of God is the teacher. The Spirit of God who lives inside of each one of us, He's the one who does the teaching. Is this man, whoever this spokesman is, is he speaking the truth in order to bring glory and honor to God? And make the truth simple so people can understand it so their lives can be changed. Or is there some personal motive in mind?
If those things are true, if those things are true of him, you say, "Well, now wait a minute". You mean to tell me if all these things are true, I'm to believe everything he says? No, I didn't say that. I'm simply saying at least that's a good start. And then you have to ask. You see, you have a responsibility as a believer. You have a responsibility not only to listen, but to listen, listen carefully now, with a critical heart. I don't mean, I don't mean, a critical mind. I don't mean that you're being condemning but I mean you're asking questions. You're asking the question, well, how does this match some other scripture?
So, I would say to you if I should ever say anything in a message that you think contradicts some other part of the Word of God, then you have, listen, you have the responsibility, not just the privilege, the responsibility to come to me and say, "Well, now, explain that. Or, what do you mean by that"? Because you see, each one of us has the Spirit of God living on the inside of us. Now there'll never be agreement about all the doctrines of the Word of God. That's why we have all these denominations. And I can tell you with all my heart, God didn't start all of that. God didn't divide us up. It's men's interpretation.
So, I understand that even though I say you need to learn to trust the people who speak the truth. You have to decide do you believe the Word of God? Yes. You have to decide how you're going to interpret the Word of God, being absolutely honest with what the Word of God says and not biased by, as I said, some denominational tie or some pet doctrine that you have. And there are those pet doctrines that people have and you'll see somebody, they'll get on one horse and they'll ride that horse to death. Here's what I believe. It dominates everything they believe. It dominates what they believe to the point that they cannot be absolutely honest about other parts of scripture.
And so, when we talk about trustingly, we're talking about listening trustfully. If you, listen, if you cannot trust the man you listen to expound and explain the Word of God, you need to find somebody that you do trust. But for God's sake find somebody that you trust to open the Word of God, to be true to the Word of God, to explain the Word of God so that your life can be changed to the glory and honor of God. That's what this is all about. So you and I, you and I have the responsibility. And so we come trustingly, asking the Lord to give us direction. And we ask Him to show us exactly what to do. But there's another word and that next word is this. And that is we're to come, listen, expectantly. Expectantly.
This is so very important, to come expecting. Now, when you come to church on Sunday morning, you know there are people who, I understand, who go by habit and so forth and they come to church and they, because their husband wants 'em to go. They drag 'em in and their wife wants 'em to go and so forth. And so, they may come for different reasons. Well, let me just say this. If you will come expecting God to speak to your heart, my friend, God desires to speak to your heart. He wants to speak to your heart. God knows what every single one of us needs. There's no question in His mind and heart. Therefore, you and I should come anticipating the God who knows me and knows my needs is going to meet some particular need in my life today. Thank God I can come anticipating that.
Well, what's the first word? We listen how? Eagerly and attentively and trustingly and what else? Expectantly. And, the fifth word is we listen prayerfully. Now a lady said something to me after the first service this morning that really helped me to understand, realize where many people come from. She says, "You know what, this morning," she said, "I learned something". I said, "Thank you very much, I hope so". She said, "Here's what I learned," she said, "I knew to pray about myself". She says, "But I didn't think I needed to pray for you. You didn't need praying for".
Now I want to tell you something, folks. Yes, I do. If you think that all I do is just read the Bible and scratch out a few things and come up here and talk for forty-five or fifty minutes and you know, just rolls off, you don't have any earthly idea the way I live. Because my life is consumed with finding out what God is saying and being sure I understand it in my own life, and committing myself to at least attempt to practice those principles. And then often times, many times, God will so convict me in teaching me that often times I find myself on my face weeping before God. Lord, show me how to apply this truth to my heart before I even think about telling anybody else. And sometimes weeks will go by before I'll come up with that passage.
Let me tell you something. Any man of God who is true to the Word of God and who loves the people to whom he speaks and is committed to being absolutely honest in his interpretation of the Word of God, and who's committed to bring glory and honor to God, desperately needs the prayers of the people who listen to him no matter who he is. And this is one of those things people just overlook. They think, "Well, this guy's educated or he's got experience or he's this or he's that or he just rattles it off and he knows all that. I don't need to pray for him".
Friend, yes, every single pastor, every man of God who stands with this book desperately needs the prayers of godly people asking God to work the truth in his life, teach him the principles, show him how to live it, show him how to teach it, make it simple through Him, God. It is the most important thing. Most important thing. What's the first word? Eagerly. We listen eagerly. Secondly, we listen what? Attentively. Number three, we listen what? Number four, we listen what? Expectantly. Number five, we listen what? And number six, we listen humbly.
You say, "Well, what in the world do you mean by that"? Well, look what happened. The scripture says, "Ezra opened the book in the sight of the people. They stood up," and then the Bible says, "Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, saying, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground". Now what's going on? Here's what's going on. Here's what they're saying. They're saying, "Amen, amen. We concur with you. We agree with you, Ezra, that today we understand the revelation of God".
Then the Bible says what did they do? Listen, by lifting their hands they were expressing their, listen, expressing their need of God, expressing their absolute total dependence upon Him. And then the scripture says, listen, they were so awed by what was gonna happen, they got on their faces and they bowed their faces before Almighty God to express their humility and their humbleness before Him. Let me ask you a question. When's the last time, when is the last time... now, you can sorta brush this off, but if you do you're gonna be sorry. Listen. When's the last time you ever opened the Bible and got on your knees and said, "God, in humility before You in my unworthiness, would You please speak to my heart"?
Have you ever... listen, I don't care what your rank is in life. Have you ever gotten on your knees with an open Bible and asked God to speak to your heart and tell Him that you wanted to hear from Him above everything else? When I think about how many people will trust the Lord Jesus Christ and live their entire life, live their entire life and never at one single time in their life ever honor God or this book enough to lay it on the floor and get down before it, humbling themselves before this Almighty Sovereign Loving God and say, "Lord, speak to my heart, Thy servant listens".
You say, "Well, I don't need to get on the floor". No, you don't. You don't have to. I don't have to bow down to pray. No, you don't have to. But you know what? God honors the spirit of humility. These people put their face to the ground out of absolute awesome sense of unworthiness, they were about to hear God speak to them. And I'm simply saying if you're willing to open this book and get before God, God will make Himself so real and personal to you. Listen, you won't ever want to forget what He said. We come to Him humbly. God, I'm unworthy, I'm unfit. I'm a sinner saved by Your grace, but God, You said You loved me unconditionally. I need to hear from You.
How many words have I given you? Six words. Right? I'm gonna give you two more but then one, I'm gonna give you one more then we're gonna talk about the last one. The next word, number seven, is purposefully. I am to listen to the Word of God with a definite purpose in mind. And that purpose is what? That purpose is that I want to understand who He is, what He's like, how He works and I want to hear what He has to say to me personally. I do not believe that in any given message on any given Sunday, that anybody could sit here, listen to the Word of God without God saying something specific and personal to every single one of us if our hearts are opened. Because it is eternal truth. It's comprehensive truth. It is truth that is personal and intimate. It is truth that, it is truth that affects every single aspect of life. It is to listen purposefully.
Why do you go to church? Why do you come to church? Somebody says, "Well, you know, habit. I've been used to doing it all my life. I enjoy it". That's not a good purpose. The purpose is to hear from God. The purpose is for God to deal with me, to equip me to face life next week or even before the day is over. If I listen purposefully, my ultimate purpose is to hear God speak to my heart about Himself and about myself and about what He wants to do in and through my life. Now, I could give you one more word in those seven, but I want to separate this one. And I want you to write down joyfully, because I want you to notice a wonderful thing that happened here.
The scripture says in this ninth verse, it says, "Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, 'This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.'" They were weeping and mourning because they were under conviction and realizing that those seventy years in captivity was because of their sin and the sins of their forefathers, primarily. "For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law".
And I'm sure they were weeping in joy also. "Then he said to them, 'Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.' So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.' And all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them".
Now what does that say? It says, listen, you and I should come eagerly and attentively. We should come with those attitudes that we've discussed. How should we leave? Joyfully, praising God, and thanking Him for what? Because we've heard the Word of God. Somebody says, "Now wait a minute, now, hold it now. But I came under deep conviction. I came hurting, I came in sorrow. I came needing something". Well, listen. If you have listened to the Word of God then you will have been encouraged. Your assurance will have been strengthened.
And so what happens? No matter how you walk in, you should be able to walk out with a sense of confidence. God loves me, this is the Word of God, He cares for me. He's gonna make a way for me in this coming week. God's gonna show me, He's gonna strengthen me. He's gonna heal my body. He's going to enable me to walk for this difficult time in my life. God is going to do this in my life because this is the God whom I serve. You and I should be able to walk out of here no matter what with a sense of utter joy, deep down inside.
Somebody says, "But wait a minute now. But I came with, I got under conviction over sin. How am I gonna walk out joyfully"? Repent of it, deal with it. If you don't deal with it, you're not gonna walk out of here with any joy. But you and I should be able to walk away with joy in our heart. God has spoken to my heart today. I've been enriched in the Word of God. I have worshiped Him and sang to Him. I have I've praised Him and I'm rejoicing in Him and I'm looking forward to see what God's gonna do in the coming week. So, let's start with number one. How do you listen to the Word of God? Now I want you to say it enthusiastically, even if you have to read it. Number one, eagerly. Number two, attentively. Number three, trustfully. Number four, expectantly. Number five, prayerfully. Number six, humbly. Number seven, purposefully. And we should leave joyfully. Amen? Amen, amen.
Father, for this wonderful precious book we call the Bible, we bless You, praise You, worship You, adore You. Treasure it as our most treasured possession in all of this life. I pray the Spirit of God would just in a very simple fashion, etch these words in our minds and hearts. That every time we listen to a message, no matter what the source may be, that these words will come to our mind. And we, because of our heart's desire to know You and to walk in Your ways, will apply these attitudes to a listening heart. Father, what a wonderful, wonderful complete promise You've made to every person who's willing to believe. We bless You and praise You for it in the Savior's name, amen.