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A Good Hearing

John Bunyan is most famous for having written "Pilgrim's Progress" but that is not the only book he wrote. In another of his books, The Holy War, he compared man to a walled town, Mansoul. And, he wrote, there were five ways in to this town: the Eye-gate and the Ear-gate, the Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate.

Most of the knowledge we receive enters through either the Eye-gate or the Ear-gate. Through Eye Gate we may clearly see the eternal power and godhead of the Great Creator. Through Ear Gate comes the message of life, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ which has brought "Life, Rest and Peace" to millions.

While good and vital truths come to our minds and hearts through these gates there has always been the danger that evil and dangerous things too may come in through the same channels.

It was through Ear Gate that the devil gained access to the mind of Eve. He is the father of lies, and his first lie led to the ruin of our race. Today the volume of matter that may be received is vast, through the printing press, radio and television and some of this presents us with grave dangers.

How important hearing is and good hearing at that!

John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."

Again and again in the Bible God is presented to us as one who communicates. He is there and he is not silent. Isn't that terrific? He speaks and expects us to understand! There is more to it than that merely understanding - he expects to be obeyed.

The Lord speaks in nature and through the conscience, but primarily and most clearly he speaks in the Bible where he gives us answers to life's most important questions. Not only does he tell us that he exists but he also tells us of mankind's standing in relation to him, of how he created man and holds man responsible for the way he lives. He makes it clear to us that man's current predicament is a very serious one – Adam's fall into sin had consequences not merely for Adam but for all of his descendants. We are all born into the rebel camp and are, as Adam's progeny, inveterately opposed to God. Were we to remain in such a camp we would be lost for all eternity. In telling us what our major problem is he prepares us to receive his solution.

Then God goes on to tell us what he has done so that that need not be the case!

God's goodness and kindness may be clearly perceived when we take note of just how much he wants people to listen to what he has to say, to heed it, and to act upon it. When God speaks he does not reserve his word for a small, limited group of people only, nor does he reserve it for those who have a particular standing in society, he speaks and addresses his word to all:

Psalm 49:1 "Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world."

Psalm 78:1 – he speaks to his own people

Hosea 5:1 – religious classes are addressed as are the political classes.

Cf.Deuteronomy 31:28 "Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears…"

Joel 1:2 – rulers and ruled alike God called upon to listen: "Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land!"

Isaiah 1:10 – but he also speaks to his enemies, "Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!"

Jeremiah 9:20 "Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth:"

If men have treated women poorly through the centuries God treats them with respect!

Once more in the Book of Revelation the breadth of his address is brought clearly to the fore:

Revelation 2:7 etc. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

There are many voices in the world today that compete actively for our attention. The prevailing view in our society is that it doesn't really matter which of these voices you listen to because truth is relative: if it works for you fine. We live very much in a pick and mix religious environment.

If this prevailing view is right then it really wouldn't matter whom we listen to, whose opinions we valued and what advice we chose to follow. While many people seem to like to adopt this approach when it comes to the spiritual life they most definitely do not follow it in other areas. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that our decisions have consequences and that there is a difference between truth and error. We must then be careful whom we listen to!

Way back in the book of Exodus Pharaoh, who ruled over the land of Egypt, did not like the word of the Lord that was addressed to him through Moses and Aaron. In fact he found it so distasteful that he simply would not listen to what the Lord said. To begin with, Pharaoh was given a number of signs as indications of the Lord's power but those signs had no effect upon him at all:

Ex.7:13 "Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said."

As Pharaoh continued to resist the LORD he brought disastrous consequences upon the whole land of Egypt as the plagues destroyed the land. Others in his entourage gradually came to understand just how disastrous Pharaoh's continued refusal to heed God's word actually was but Pharaoh ploughed on in his stubbornness.

Frequently in the pages of the Bible we come across instructions from the Lord telling us that we should not pay attention to all the voices that we hear. Specifically we are told not to listen to false prophets to dreamers to fortune-tellers or to diviners:

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

Or again:

Jeremiah 29:8-9 "For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD."

In our day an age this would involve us in listening only with a very critical ear to, for example, television pundits or to scientists who like to speak with such apparent confidence on matters that are not scientific. It would mean that we needn't pay too much heed to futurologists and no attention whatsoever to mediums, to horoscopes etc.

But at times the voices we must not listen to come from much closer to home:

Deuteronomy 13:6-8 "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him,"

And of course it is possible for us to act just like Pharaoh stubbornly resisting God's word and acting as though we knew best – old habits die hard:

2 Kings 17:40 "However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner."

God wants for us to pay attention to him – that is his desire! And that is the desire of all true spiritual leaders.

Standing on the bank of the River Jordan, on the point of crossing over and entering and taking possession of the Promised Land, Joshua encouraged the people with the following words:

Joshua 3:9 "And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”"

God's desire that we should listen to him is so strong that he frequently gives promises as incentives to encourage us to do so!

1 Kings 11:38 "And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you."

Psalms 81:13-14 "Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes."

Specifically, God wants us to listen to his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses wrote about him in Deuteronomy 18:15:

"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers––it is to him you shall listen––"

Peter was to quote this passage in Acts 3:22-23:

"Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’"

God spoke from heaven urging that we should listen to his Son:

Matthew 17:5 "He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”"

Is that what we are doing? There is always a choice. Sometimes it will be a relatively easy thing to do and sometimes to listen to the voice of Jesus will be much more difficult. Sometimes to listen to his voice will mean going against what others want us to do. But this is no new thing! Do you remember the words of Peter when he and John were brought before the ruling council of the Jews?

Acts 4:19-20 "But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”"

How can I be a better listener? We all know the difference between listening carefully and attentively to something or someone and merely hearing a background noise.

Eg. You're in the home and you have the radio on, it's just for company, someone has been speaking for the last few minutes but you haven't a clue what they're talking about because you haven't really been listening. Perhaps you're with a friend having a cup of coffee and they've been talking away and you suddenly realise you've been daydreaming and you've not really listened to a word they've said.

But then there are other occasions where you try to listen very carefully indeed:

Eg. The doctor is telling you what medicine to take or you've asked directions and you want to be able to follow the instructions being given.

In the Bible we read of people responding to God speaking to them in both these ways. Sadly the prophets in the Bible often experienced that people paid very little attention to what God said:

Jeremiah 6:10 "To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it."

Jeremiah 25:4 "You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,"

Ezekiel 12:2 "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house."

Zechariah 7:11 "But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear."

Such indifference to God's word is not limited to the OT - Jesus said in the NT

Matthew 13:15 "For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."

However we also read of how some listened with much attention:

Nehemiah 8:3 "And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law."

Acts 28:28 "Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen."

Indeed the Bible assures us that when God speaks what he says will never return to him without accomplishing that for which he sent it forth. Even if men do not pay it any heed that will not stop God accomplishing his purposes!

But what must we do then to become listeners of God?

1.       Recognize firstly that our fallen human nature has a tendency to stubbornness – until we realise this we are unlikely to make much progress. If indeed this stubbornness did not exist there would be no need for the Lord to constantly repeat certain ideas and phrases such as "hear the word of the Lord" 34 x "he who has ears (an ear) to hear, let him hear" 16 x. Other phrases that you will come across quite often will include "listen" or "incline your ear".

2.       We must cooperate – God wants to speak we must allow his words to penetrate us:

Luke 9:44 "Let these words sink into your ears:"

3.       Don't assume that hearing the word of God will necessarily be an easy thing for you. It may well demand serious application on our part. Yes, we must pray and pray and pray but we must never think that this will exonerate us from hard work. The book of Proverbs, as ever, contains helpful advice as to just what that might mean for us:

Proverbs 2:2 speaks about "making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;" and this is active not passive behaviour!

Proverbs 4:20 "My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings."

Proverbs 18:15 suggests that we must recognise that there is still much more that we have to learn "An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." If you think that you already know it all, or that you do not need to know any more, then you are unlikely to listen carefully any more! Beware of pride! As Jeremiah wrote:Jeremiah 13:15"Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the LORD has spoken." Or again Jeremiah 17:23 "Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction."

Proverbs 22:17 "Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge,"

Proverbs 23:12 "Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge."

We must be diligent about this, being not only willing but eager to put into practice what we hear:

Exodus 15:26 "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer."

This will involve us using our minds and thinking about what we hear, about how what we hear should affect our lives, and how we should put it into practice. Are you ready to do this?

Job 12:11 "Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?"

4.       Finally, we should understand that to hear properly we will need to overcome spiritual opposition. Because we find it hard to listen to hear the word of God we should not give up in the attempt. It is interesting to read in the Book of Revelation where Christ addresses his letters to the seven churches. In each of these letters we find the phrase "he who has an ear let him" and in close proximity we find a reference to overcoming – this is all part of our spiritual warfare.

Employing all of these means prayerfully we should set about the task of listening to what God has to say to us in his word and we should do so with confident expectation. Why so? Because we have Jesus own promise:

John 10:27  "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."

Amen.