Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, October third. Did you know that your attitude toward the Word of God affects the benefit you receive from it?
Let's learn how to orient your thinking to the truth in part one of How to Listen to the Word of God. Why is it some people can come to church? They get all excited. They're overjoyed. They feel complete. They feel like they have been filled. They feel confident. They have been comforted. They've been assured.
They have been challenged. And they're excited about going out to see what God's going to do in their life. Then here's someone else who's sitting right beside them or heard the same thing, who feels very empty when they walk away.
Not really excited about anything. They have the same burdens that they came with, the same concerns. Maybe the same sense of loneliness, even though they've sat in a big crowd.
What's the difference between the two? Well, it could be one of a number of things. But one of the primary reasons I believe that some people have a very difficult time coming to church or going to church and hearing a message and going away unfulfilled, unchallenged, and it made no difference in their life is because they don't know how to listen to this book. They don't know how to listen to the Word of God. And what I want to do in this message is simply this. I want to help you learn how to listen to the Word of God. And so what I want us to do is I want us to turn to the book of Nehemiah.
In this eighth chapter, and I will give you a little background so you'll understand what's happening. Not going to read a whole passage, but we'll go through a passage of verse by verse to help you see that every point in this message is right out of God's Word. And when you think about how do you listen to a sermon, how do you listen to a message of God, somebody says, well, you just open your ears and listen. More to it than that.
Because you see, two people seated side by side heard the same words, same voice, saw the same thing, walked away with a totally different attitude. So, I want you to ask the Lord to help you today to be able to accept these suggestions. Because if you do, it will make a difference in the way you listen. It'll make a difference in what you glean out of it.
How fruitful it's going to be in your life and think about it. If you're going to spend time listening to someone expound the Word of God, if you're going to be, spend time in worship or in a Bible study somewhere, you want to make the most of it. And I'll help you make the most of it if you will listen carefully and beginning in this eighth chapter of Nehemiah.
Let me give you a little background. What's happening here is this, that the nation of Israel was in captivity. Babylonians came in and took them, then the Medo-Persians, the Persians, and so for seventy long years they've been in captivity. And just as the prophets had prophesied and Jeremiah said, that captivity would last seventy years. Well now, many of them have come back to their homeland, to Jerusalem. And things are not very well.
In fact, the walls have been broken down, the gates have been burned, and their enemies are still a problem. Well, Nehemiah, who is the cup-bearer for the king in a Persian empire now, he comes to serve the king one day and the king looks at him and says, What's the matter? And so he says, Well, what's happened is this, that my friends have come from Jerusalem and they tell me that the walls of my city are broken down and the gates burned and the enemies are pillaging. And so he told the king exactly what the problem was.
And so, what happened? He'd been praying and fasting. The king said, What can I do for you? He said, Well, in order to accomplish what I believe needs to be accomplished, here's what it would take. He made a list. He gave it to the king. The king said, Okay, you've got everything you need, plus I'm going to give you an escort to be sure that you get to your homeland safely. And that's exactly what happened. So he comes in, he surveys the area, he sees what's to be done, he begins to talk to people. He gathers around him some faithful, loyal, devoted people who want to see their city returned to its former glory.
And what happens? In fifty-two days out of diligence, organization, persistence, determination, guarding, fighting if necessary, they rebuilt the walls and the gates in fifty-two days. And the Scripture says, Even their enemies said about them.
They had to have the help of God to do this because it was impossible to do in fifty-two days. So now these people are here. And Nehemiah is the governor.
Ezra is the scribe, he's a priest. And they have found the genealogy. And you see, one of the things that is sort of interesting to us is they kept such absolute meticulous records of things because their nation, the nation of Israel was God's chosen people through whom the Messiah would come. And so with them, a name was a very important thing.
So they find this genealogy and they find who were those who came first back to their homeland and so forth. And then the Scripture says that the people said, We want to hear the Word of God. We want to hear the Law of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Now, of course, they didn't have what we have.
They only had the Law of Moses. The prophets had spoken, many people had spoken, but here's what they said. They said, We want to hear that. So, how are we to listen?
Think about this now. How are you to listen to the Word of God in such a fashion that you glean the most out of it, that you profit the most? Now, let me distinguish between something for you. There is a difference in reading this book and hearing a message from this book. If you're listening to a message from anyone, you want to be sure, number one, that that person believes this book from cover to cover. If a pastor stands up in front of you and says, Well, now some of this is true, but there are a lot of mistakes in this book and you can't take it, it's outdated, then you know what?
Get yourself another pastor to change church. This is the revelation of the living God. This is God's unfolding revelation of Himself. You see, the reason people want to compromise the Scripture is because, listen carefully, they don't want to live according to the law of God. And so, they'll twist Scripture, change it all around, whatever's necessary. So, if the pastor's weak and people don't want it too straight then for him to, he has to compromise to please them, you have to remember this.
You don't really want a pastor who's a compromiser. But the simple reason, you'll never know where you are. You'll never whether you know whether you've heard the truth or not. It may come on strong to you, but let me ask you a question. If you are dying and I have exactly what it takes to heal you, do you want it or do you not?
Yes, you do. The Word of God, listen, you have to remember what this is. This is the unfolding written governed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God governed the minds and the hands of the men who penned this book.
It is the revelation of God. If He's omnipotent, we say He is. Omniscient, we say He is and we know He is. If He is the sovereign rule of this universe and has all power, can't He give us a book that is absolutely perfect?
Yes, He can. And what I want you to see is this. It's one thing for it to be the Word, it's something else for it to be a sermon. So, as I can tell you this, as best I know my heart, I'm going to be absolutely as truthful and as honest and as accurate as the Spirit of God will give me the privilege to do so, to always be absolutely honest with you about the interpretation of the Word of God. There are some passages that people don't agree on.
It's okay. But you know what? I don't know of any of those where a man is really, truly committed to interpreting God's Word correctly. There may be some different views, for example, about Jesus coming. Not that He's going to come on a certain date, but exactly what's going to happen here and what's going to happen there. And one of the wonderful things about the Word of God, no one can read it and say, got it.
No one can say that why. God has left us enough to question to do what? To keep us going back to say now, here's what I believe this means. And so, God was very wise in the way He gave us His Word. So, when I'm talking about learning to listen to the Word of God, learning to listen to the truth of the message of God. And I would say again, if you go to a church and you have a pastor, he never brings a Bible and a pulpit, you're in a wrong place because you don't know what the truth is.
That's why it's so very important. And I would say to you, get yourself a Bible, read along with the pastor or read along with your pastor or Bible teacher, whoever he is. And so, what I want us to do is I want us to ask this question. How do I read the Word of God and be able to hear it in such a fashion that something happens to me? The first word is to listen to it eagerly. And if you remember, for example, these people had not heard it for seventy years. Many of them, for example, had never heard it because generations came and generations went. And so, not having heard it, they were eager to hear it.
Listen to what he says. All the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Watergate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given Israel. Bring it, then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. They wanted to hear it.
They were eager. So, ask yourself the question, do you come to church or do you go to church? Eager to hear, what does God have to say to me? Now watch this. This is the Word of God, I'm just a spokesman.
That's it. And so, if you and I come to the worship service eagerly asking God, speak to my heart. Whatever the message is, God, speak to my heart. Not Lord, hmm, I know somebody needs that.
That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about we are personally eager to listen to the Word of God because here's what I want you to remember. If you don't have any desire, no eagerness in your heart to know the truth of God's Word, you don't really want to know Him. If you don't have a hunger for His Word, you don't have a hunger for Him. This is the way we discover who God is. Who is His Son?
What's He all about? Eagerness is this strong desire. I'm anticipating something. The second word I want you to remember is this, and that is attentively. Listen to what the Scripture says. Verse three, He read from it, that is from the law of Moses, before the square which was in front of the Watergate from early morning until midday. Now remember that. Early morning, let's say seven o'clock, six o'clock in the morning until about noon, they listened.
In the presence of men and women, those who could understand and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. So, let me ask you a question. How long can you focus on your favorite TV program without getting up?
Probably a pretty good while. You see, some people say, Well, I just have a short span of attention. Well, remember what this is. This is God's Word. And you see, when you and I come to open God's Word, we're to be attentive. And let me tell you why.
Think about this. This is so absolutely the truth. When the Word of God is opened and the Word of God is preached, every single person who hears it, God has something to say to you. He says, My Word will not return void.
That doesn't mean to some people, not others. He, listen, before this service is over, God will have spoken to your heart. No matter who you are and where you are, God will speak to your heart about something in this message. Because it's His Word. We are to listen attentively. Why?
Because we don't want to miss what He has to say. I can remember when I was in seminary and some of the students who lived right around me were students who had been there longer than I had been. And when we had missions conference, I couldn't wait. I wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear, maybe God would call me to the mission field.
So, I was very attentive. I wouldn't dare miss one of them. There were men who were students who wouldn't dare go to the missions conference for fear God would call them to the mission field. To me, that was spiritual suicide. That is, I'm deliberately not going to be in the place and at the time when God wants to say something to me that could change my whole life, I'm just going to be sure I'm not there because I don't want to do that. Can you imagine having that attitude?
That was a shock to me. Because I just couldn't believe that any man who stood in the pulpit would say, one thing I don't want to do is I don't want to be over there where God's speaking because He may ask me to do something I don't want to do. That is spiritual suicide. When you come to church and you listen, we're to listen attentively, why? Not for somebody else's sake, but we're to listen for our own sake. God, what are You saying to me?
What are You saying to me that You want me to deal with in my life? And remember this, listen carefully. My attention span will be determined by my desire and hunger and thirst to know God and His will and purpose and plan for my life. So, you see, if you have no desire to know Him, no real desire to walk in fellowship with Him, then your attention span won't be very long.
The third word is this. If you'll notice in this fifth verse what's happening now, we're going right through these verses. So, in the fourth verse, as with the scribes stood at the wooden podium.
That's where we get this podium business and so forth, which they had made for the purpose. And beside Him stood about thirteen other guys, six on one side and six on the other, all those names. Verse five, 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.
What does it say? First of all, when he stood up with a book. Now, they didn't have this kind of book, they had a scroll. And part of the reason these fellows were standing on both sides, to help him to hold it. Had this scroll of the law of Moses.
And so, when they stood up, what did it say? We have absolute faith and trust that we are about to hear the Word of the living God. That's why if you go to a church and nobody opens the Word of God, what's the basis of it?
What's the foundation of it? You and I are living in a day when God requires our attention. We should be giving Him our attention and trusting His Word. Not the words and the promises of politicians, but listen, trusting what does God say?
How am I to live according to the Word of God? The fact that they stood up was an expression of what? Expression of the fact that they were trusting in what they were about to hear. They were about to hear from the Word of the living God. And they would, God would give them discernment to know what is the truth and how am I to apply this to my life. The fourth word I want you to notice here is expectantly.
And let's go back to, let's go back to that fifth verse again. 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. These people were expectantly. They expected God to speak to them. They were standing there.
They didn't want to miss anything. They were ready to hear the Word of God. And so, I would simply ask you the question, do you come listening and do you come expecting God to say something to you? This is why people who just go to church for social reasons. I may meet so-and-so, I may meet her, I may meet Him.
And there are a lot of singles these days who go to church to do what? Find them a mate. Well, let me say two things about that. Number one, it's a good place to find one. Number two, that better not be your first primary reason for coming.
Why? Because first of all, your motive's wrong. You better get right with God and ask God to speak to you. Then if He's got somebody there, you may be able to recognize Him. Or, you're going to be there for flesh, lust, sex, and all the wrong reasons. But if you go to a church that's preaching the Word of God and you go because you want God to speak to your heart, you come expecting God to say something to you personally. If you don't, you can listen to the music and listen to this, look around and see who's got on what, what she's wearing, what he's wearing, how do they operate around here. And listen, I've never been to a place like this.
These folks here are so happy singing and carrying on what is this anyway. And be absolutely meaningless. But if you come expecting God to speak to your heart, He's going to speak. Listen to this. You think God is not going to take every single opportunity He can to say something to you about Himself that will help you and help you be the person God wants you to be?
Yes. He's not going to miss an opportunity. Take advantage of every single opportunity to speak to our heart in some fashion, some way. You say, well, now what am I going to hear? I can tell you. Are you listening?
Say amen. I can tell you what you're going to hear. You are going to hear what you are ready to hear.
That's why everybody doesn't hear the same thing. Once in a while, somebody will come up and say, you said so and so this morning and it just so blessed me. I don't have the heart to tell them, I didn't say that. I didn't say it. They'll come up with some fantastic things that I said that I never said. And sometimes I want to say, I wish I had said that. But I didn't. I didn't say it.
You know what? God said it to them. He can take a man's voice and a message of God and speak to your heart and you just know that somebody else said it when God is the one who said it. If you come expectantly, God knows what He's up to in our lives. Thank you for listening to How to Listen to the Word of God. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
