Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October fourth. The Old Testament is more than a collection of history lessons. Today, you'll see how the account of Nehemiah provides the framework that helps us learn how to listen to the Word of God.
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? 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 water gate. And they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to 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. 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. Then, of course, there's a whole idea of coming prayerfully. And notice, if you will, in this sixth verse. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen. They bowed low, worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Think about this. They were so absolutely grateful to God. What does He say? He says, they lifted their hands and praised the Lord. Then they got on their knees and bowed their knees before God. And the next thing you know, they bowed their faces to the ground in thanksgiving for the fact that God had given them the privilege of hearing the Word of God. I think about people who never go to church. I feel sorry for them.
Or people who say, I've been to church, didn't go back. People who are living their lives. Think about people that they're, listen, who are clamoring every day to make more money so they can have more to spend, more to leave to their kids. They're spending their lives and investing their lives in time, talent, skills, abilities to do or to accumulate this, to gain more popularity, more prominence, more prestige, more position, more power. And remember this, when the day comes and God says, this is the day, how much of that are they going to have in the coffin with them?
I mean, look, they spent their whole life getting all this together. How much are they going to have there? Nothing.
Do you want me to tell you what you're going to carry with you? Think about this. Because the truth is that those of us who love the Word of God and read it and apply it into our lives and make it a part of our daily life, we're the ones who are rich. Paul spoke of being rich in the Word of God.
We're the ones who are wealthy. You know why? Because they can take all the stuff we have and the truth is you're going to leave it all and you say, well, I've made preparation. Well, then whether you've made preparation or not, you're going to leave it anyway.
That's not even an issue. You're going to leave it and the only thing you're going to take with you is what's in your heart and in your spirit. You've been saved by the grace of God. So, what's going?
Your spirit's going, your soul's going, your money you're going to leave behind. And you see, the reason these folks fell upon their face, trusting, prayerfully, what were they doing? Saying, amen.
Yes, yes, yes, amen. They were amen in the fact that the Word of God was to be read. Then of course, there's the whole idea that's pretty evident here and that is that they were, they listened patiently.
Look at this. Verse seven says, also, names all these fellows here, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. Now, they read it from early morning till noon. Here's what was happening. What was happening was this, that the law was being read, then these designated men who were likewise priests, they went out among the crowds. And what were they doing? They would probably read a certain amount and they would go out and then translate, interpret what that law said and also what it meant. They weren't about to leave. In other words, they didn't leave because it was a certain time.
Well, I've heard enough of that, so you know what? Because they understood the value of the Word of God. Understood the value of the Word of God. They waited till these gentlemen got to them until they could interpret it. That's why days went by while they read what you and I could read, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. It wouldn't take us long to read that, but to read it a different language, have somebody interpret it for them. But that's the spirit you and I should have, patiently.
God speak to my heart. And so, when I look at this passage and see how God is working, they stood and they listened. It was interpreted, and I'm sure what they did, because it went on for days, they'd go home and they'd say, Look, you heard that part, this is what, let's get this down somehow so we don't forget this. And remember, they weren't sitting there with pads and pencils.
Think about this pressure. He's reading this, they're interpreting this, they're explaining this, and we've got to remember it. How much of a sermon do you remember from week to week? It doesn't hurt my pride at all because I learned a long time ago, you don't remember much.
And this is, you know, I'm just being honest with you. People say, they'll come up to me, maybe it's Monday, I don't know when it is, and say, Pastor, that sermon was fantastic. It just really blessed my heart and loved me.
What was the name of that sermon? You'd be, I know sometimes I caught them off guard, but sometimes they can't tell me to save their neck. Or it may be three or four days, they'll say, well, you know, I can't remember what it was, but it really affected me. Now that part I doubt.
If it affected you, at least you can tell me the subject, right? In other words, if I see you somewhere during this week and I said to you, and see, I see a lot of you who sit on the front row, I may ask you this this week. Did you remember what I preached on last Sunday? Look, if you don't think of anything else, just say, the Bible. You're always safe if you say that because that's what this is all about. Well, one thing, they listen to it very humbly.
How do I know that? Because they fell on their face, they fell on their knees, crying out to God in thanksgiving, humbling themselves, struck in their heart by the realization of what they had missed. When they began to hear the Word of God and how awesome it was, they were struck by the fact of what they had missed and the fact that their forefathers sin had caused them to be in captivity for seventy long years and their friends and their family had died off and they're the ones who are left and so in humility and in gratitude. Let me ask you a question. What kind of value do you place on this in your life?
I can tell you a little bit of that and that's this. If you only pick it up and bring it on Sunday and close it up till the next Sunday, you don't place a lot of value on it. But if you understand that this Book is the most valuable physical thing you own, what else do you own that has this truth in it? What else do you own that'll tell you how to get to heaven when you die? What else do you own that'll remind you the promises of God? What else do you own that'll build your faith? What else do you own that'll show you the will of God? What else do you own that will answer every single human problem you have in order to get a divine answer?
What do you have? Nothing. There's not anything on this life that can give you any promise of eternal life when you set aside Jesus Christ and take Him out of your life. That's what makes this Book so absolutely valuable. And so, why were they so humbled by it, falling on their face?
Because they recognized the value. And then there's another word, and that's purposefully. They listened purposefully. Look if you will in, let's begin in verse twelve. And so he says, So 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. Then on the second day, the heads of the fathers' households of all the people of priests and Levites were gathered to Ezra and the scribes, that they may gain insight into the words of the law. That is, why were they listening? They were listening with purpose. They weren't listening indifferently.
They weren't listening for curiosity. They were listening with a purpose in mind. I do want to understand what this means with purpose.
And I want this to gain insight into the words of the law. They listened with a purpose. When you and I come to church and we listen to the Word of God, our purpose ought to be, God, give me some insight. Let me know who You are in a deeper way than I've ever known before. Show me the truth about Yourself. One of the prayers that I pray for myself every day, Lord, draw me to Yourself and show me the truth. Draw me to Yourself and show me the truth. God will show us the truth. He will draw us to Himself.
It's all in the Word. And when you look to see what's happening here with great purpose, then what happened? The Scripture says in verse fourteen, they found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that sons of Israel should live in booths during the time of the feast of the seventh month.
Now what that was this? They were celebrating, they celebrated their deliverance from Egypt and they celebrated their deliverance from those forty years in the wilderness by building booths. That is, they sent them out and said, build yourself a little hut. This is one of the ways He taught them things. They went out and got branches and so forth. And for that week, they were to celebrate and He said, now this is what you're to do.
Well, what happens? When they saw that, that is exactly what they did. They gained insight in the words. Whatever God says, what they want to do. Let me ask you this. How many of you can honestly say, whatever I read in the Word of God that He tells me to do, I am committed to doing that, period.
You know what? A lot of people listen to the Word of God with a sifter. The words are spoken, the truth is there, and they decide how much of it they want to accept and how much of it they want to apply. Think to yourself this question. Listen carefully.
If this makes you uncomfortable, be glad. If you sit and listen to the Word of God and you purposely decide, well, I'll tell you one thing. That may be true, but that's not where I am in life right now. And you purposely set aside what God has spoken to your heart. You see, if God speaks to your heart, what happens is you feel it, you sense it.
You get it in your mind. And something comes your way that you're doing that's not right in your life. And I may not even say it, but the Word of God says it. And you start sifting, you don't want to sift the Word of God. Because what you're doing is you're making a deliberate, willful decision to disobey God in certain areas and choose to obey Him in other areas.
Now watch this carefully. You cannot please God by doing these things that He wants you to do and failing to do the other things and saying, well, you know, I do enough of what's obedient to please God. I mean, I'm not going to please everything, so look at all the good things I'm doing over here, God. Don't let that bother you. That's not who God is.
You know why? Because He loves you and me so much, He's not going to let us get by with knowing truth, disobeying truth, when He knows He has the best in mind for us. So what you have to ask is this, am I listening to God's Word purposefully? And then, look at this, seventeenth verse, we're to listen joyfully. In other words, we should go to church, come to church happily. If you come negatively, it's your attitude, it's not the preaching.
It's my goal to help you to understand how awesome God is through His Son Jesus Christ and that you want to obey Him, whatever that calls for in life. And so there was great joy and they listened joyfully. And then one last one is they listened with a repentant heart. Look at this in chapter nine, verse one, Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled fasting in sackcloth and with dirt on them. That is, that's the way they expressed their humility before God, put dirt on their head and sackcloth and ashes. The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all the foreigners and stood and confessed their sins in the iniquities of their fathers. And while they stood in their place they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day.
And another fourth of the day they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. I would simply say this, if God brings something to your heart that He's spoken to your heart about in His Word, then for God's sake and your sake, be honest enough to say, Lord, that really hit me, I didn't like it. But I'm not going to blame it on the preacher because it's not his message, it's God's message of God, then you'll get honest.
And I would say to you as a congregation, whoever you are, if you have a pastor who's true to the Word of God, you better be grateful, thank God for him, love him, follow him, support him, pray for him, that he'll just keep on telling you the truth so you can keep on being blessed by God. That ought to be your response. Now it'll be very easy for you to forget this sermon if you don't do something. So I want to challenge you to do something. Think about this.
Anybody can do this. You don't do it right now, but when you go home, I want to challenge you to write those words in one of those flyleafs of your Bible. You can write it in there in mind if you want to. Listen carefully. Write it in there.
Just line them up, one through ten. Then when you come back to church next Sunday and you sit down, before anything goes on, you open it up and you think, okay God, today I want to listen very eagerly, very attentively. Go write down those words and ask the Lord as a prayer, help you to listen to the message in that light. I'll tell you what's going to happen. You're going to start gleaning more from the messages than you ever have.
Just listen to this. Do you think God won't answer that prayer? You don't even have to say, now Lord, I'm going to ask You this if it's Your will. It is always His will for us to be attentive. It's always His will for us to listen with purpose and with a humble spirit and prayerfully.
It's always His will. If you will pray that privately for a few moments when you first come in and sit down, you will discover God's going to begin to speak to you in ways that you probably have never heard. Amen? Well, listen carefully. If you've never been saved, I'm here to tell you, you're wasting your life.
One of these days, you will wish that you had been. And you can be saved by asking God to forgive you for your sins based on the death of His Son Jesus at the cross. And He will forgive you and cleanse you, make you a new person. The salvation experience is instantaneous.
The growing is a lifetime process, and I want to invite you to make that decision. Thank you for listening to part two of 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.
