The way that you listen to the word of God — whether that be passively or whether that be defensively or whether that be eagerly and gladly — tells you about your relationship with God right there. It reveals what your relationship with God really is. God’s friends hear his word gladly. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. Colin, you’ve brought up an interesting point here. If we really know God, we’re going to hear his word differently than if we don’t know him. But even as a believer, there will be times when we’re eager to engage with God and times when we aren’t. Isn’t that right? Yeah. Well, Jesus speaks to us very clearly about this. Be careful how you hear. How you hear. So, there are different ways of hearing, and I think that it is very obvious from the fact that it is possible to listen to the word of God being proclaimed, to read it and to be unchanged over long periods of time, still to be stuck with the same deficiencies of character, the same Achilles heel, not to be making progress. And with all my heart, I do not simply want to become an older version of the person that I was before, grow in grace. And that’s what we’re called to. And the word of God produces fruit, but it depends how it’s heard. And we don’t want to be like those who are receiving the word of God, and then it gets choked like the seed that grows up, but nothing much comes of it. We want to see the seed of the word of God bear fruit in our lives. So how do we hear? That’s the question. We got to know how to answer. We’re going to see the answer to that today, so I hope you’ll open your heart as well as your Bible to Romans chapter ten as we begin the message, Listening to the Word of Christ. Well, we’re continuing our series entitled The Anatomy of Faith. What does it mean to have faith, and what does it mean for us to grow in faith? How can I do that? How can you grow in your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? And we began last week by saying that faith is the bond that unites us to Jesus Christ. It is the way in which Jesus Christ becomes yours. It is the bond by which we become His. It is the union in which we trust Christ and in which we love Christ and in which we follow Christ. We do not do any of these things perfectly. I want to trust Christ more fully than I do. I want to love Christ more deeply than I do. I want to follow him more consistantly than I do. And I’m sure that you feel the same. We do not do any of these things completely or perfectly. But by God’s grace, we can all stand if we’re in Christ with Peter when he said in all his failures, do you remember Peter said, Lord, You know that I love you. You know Lord that I trust you. Despite all my inconsistencies, my many failures, that I stand here today as your child as one who wants to follow and serve You. So we’ve been learning then that faith is more than bare belief. The devil knows that Jesus is the son of God, he knows that he died on the cross and he knows that he rose from the dead. But the devil does not trust Christ and the devil does not love Christ and the devil certainly does not obey Christ. Faith unites us to Christ, it is the bond of a living union in which his life flows into us. That’s what it is and we have been asking the question then, how do I get that kind of faith? And when I have it, how do I grow in that kind of faith? And I have a sense of urgency about this series because this is a moment where our faith is being stretched, perhaps like never before. I feel a need to grow in faith in my own life. I feel a need for us to grow in faith as a congregation. And so I asked you last week to join me in two prayers throughout these two months. Lord, increase my faith, and Lord, increase our faith. And this series is about how that can happen. Now please turn with me, would you, to Romans chapter 10 and verse 17. Romans chapter 10 and verse 17. We’re praying Lord, increase my faith, Lord, increase our faith and here is what God says to us in the scripture. Faith comes from hearing. That’s Romans 10, verse 17. He says to us faith comes from hearing, that’s where it comes from. And hearing, that is the capacity to hear, comes from the Word of Christ. That’s where we have to begin. We’ve called this series the anatomy of faith and we’re beginning with the ears, listening to the Word of Christ, faith comes from hearing. Now you find this all the way through the Bible. Remember how our Lord Jesus stated it, man shall not live by bread alone. But how are we going to live? How do we live the Christian life? What sustains us? We live on every Word that comes from the mouth of God, we live on the words that come from the mouth of God. And the words that come from the mouth of God are given to us in the scripture. And Jesus says, you live on this Word. That’s how you live, that’s where faith comes from, this is how the life of Christ is communicated to you by the Holy Spirit. Faith unites us to Christ and Christ nourishes us, sustains us, feeds us and he does this, he says through the Word. So this word is to your life, like bread is to your body, that’s what Jesus says. And Paul puts it this way, faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of Christ. So faith comes by this word and yet here’s the fascinating thing, there’s an enigma in this, faith comes through the Word and yet God calls us to bring faith to the Word. Both these things are very clear in the scripture. If you turn over with me in your Bible to Hebrews in chapter 4, Hebrews in chapter 4 and you will see there that the writer is speaking about the Israelites back in the Old Testament who did not enter the Promised Land. And he says in chapter 3 and verse 19 right at the end of chapter 3 there they were not able to enter because of their unbelief. That’s why they didn’t get into the Promised Land. That’s why that generation died out in the wilderness wondering round and round for 40 years. Why was it? Because of their unbelief. Now in Hebrews chapter 4 in verse 2 the message that they heard was of no value to them because those who heard did not combine it with faith. So the writer to the Hebrews says way back in the Old Testament, these people heard the message. In fact he says they heard the Gospel just as we’re getting the Gospel. Isn’t that interesting? They heard the Gospel in the Old Testament. But the message they heard was of no value to them. Why? Because they did not combine it in faith and so they spent years just going round and round in circles and died in the desert. So Christ sustains my life through the Word of God. This means I need to hear it. But I need to hear the Word with faith, because if I do not hear the Word of God with faith it will be Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2 of no value to me. I will derive no benefit from it. I’ll simply be a person who comes to church and hears sermons maybe for 10, 20, or 40, or 50 years and it all kinds of goes over my head and never really changes my life and I never really grow in faith. Now this truth of course you remember was made very, very clear by the Lord Jesus in a parable that he told that most of us know very well. Remember the parable of the sowers. There’s one seed in Jesus story, but there are four different kinds of soil. Jesus says the sower goes out to sow seed. The word of God is cast into the ground of people’s lives. In other words, he’s describing exactly what is happening right now as we’re gathered in the place of worship and we are hearing the word of God. And Jesus explains in his parable that the same seed has different affects in different people’s lives. For some the Word of God makes very little difference. Their hearts are hard. Jesus says, Satan snatches the seed away so that really any good that it might have done is gone within a very short time and the Word is of no value to them. For others the Word of God only has a temporary affect or perhaps only moved at a surface kind of emotional level. Their hearts are shallow, and when pressure comes these folks shrivel. Then Jesus says for others again the Word of God is choked by competing priorities, which he defines as worries in life and particularly interest in money. And also, he says, desire for other things. They can, competing priorities, choke out the effect of the Word that is heard in many people’s lives. It happens every week. For some of us Jesus says the Word of God produces a great harvest, a bumper harvest, 30, 60, or even 100 fold. The seed in the good soil flourishes and becomes very fruitful indeed. Now most of us know the parable, but here’s what Jesus said about the parable, just shortly afterwards. It’s only recorded in Luke’s Gospel in chapter 8 in verse 18. Jesus said this after the parable of the sower. He said, consider carefully then how you listen. How you listen. Because here we are. We’re all hearing the Word of God and Jesus says you be very careful about how you listen. Because the Word of God has radically different effects in different people’s lives. It’s of no benefit to some because they do not hear it with faith. Hebrews 4, 2. We have to pause right there. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message called Listening to the Word of Christ is part of our series, the anatomy of faith, and if you missed any of the series, or if you want to go back and listen again, you can do that by coming online to our website openthebible.org.uk. Going back to the message now, we’re in Romans and chapter 10. Here’s Colin. So, today’s sermon, I’ve never preached a message like this before from the Bible. Today’s sermon is about how to listen to a sermon. You know, pastors study how to speak the Word of God. We as a congregation need to learn how to hear the Word of God, to consider how we listen, so that the Word of God will be fruitful in our lives and through our ministry. So that this will be increasingly a place where the Word of God flourishes, not a place where Satan snatches its value away or where its life is choked out. Consider, says Jesus carefully, how you listen, how do you listen? I want to suggest from the Scriptures some principles for deriving maximum benefit from the Word of God because faith comes from hearing. So consider how you listen. Here’s number one. come with a settled conviction that God speaks through His Word. If you want the Word of God to bring change in your life, if you want a great harvest to come from God’s Word in you, if you want the Word of God to create hearing and to create faith and for you to really grow, come with the settled conviction. You’ve got to settle this in your mind. You’ve got to know this, that God speaks, present tense, through His Word. Now, I smile whenever I think about this. Some years ago, I was taking a wedding in the south of England. The couple who were from my church but they were being married in another place, were concerned for their unconverted relatives in the family and they said to me, Colin, when you do our wedding, we want you to preach the gospel. It’ll perhaps be the only time that these folks have heard it, or the first time that they have heard it. So, I preached the gospel, as they had asked me to do, for about fifteen or twenty minutes in the wedding. The photographer had not counted on this and he was desperate to get on withhi work. Our Andrew, our oldest boy, was just a baby and while I was speaking, Karen took him outside of the church, where she met the photographer, who was pacing up and down like a caged lion. He said to my wife, who is that man in there who is going on and on and on. To which she said, he’s my husband. The photographer stood up, did his camera, and said, oh no, he went such a color of red, I can’t describe it to you. He said, I can’t wait to tell my wife that one! Listen, to many people that is all the preaching of the Word of God is. It’s a man. He’s going on and on and on. Quite honestly if that is what you think the preaching of the Word of God is, there is no reason to listen is there? Now turn with me in the Scriptures to 1 Thessalonians and chapter 2 and verse 13, 1 Thessalonians and chapter 2 and verse 13 because I want you to see there something completely different 1 Thessalonians 2 13, Thessalonians is fascinating because in that time people’s lives were quickly and radically changed by Paul’s ministry of the Word of God and here is what he says about it in 1 Thessalonians 2 13. He says we thank God continually, he says we are always thanking God when we think about you because here is When you received the word of God, that is when Paul came and he preached the scriptures, proclaimed the gospel, when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the Word of men but as it actually is the word of God which is at work in you who believe. You see what he’s saying? You heard the Word of God. That time of course it would have been the Old Testament scriptures being proclaimed by the apostle Paul. You heard the Word of God from us. But you didn’t receive it as the Word of men. You didn’t just think this is a man talking. You received this as the Word of God because we were speaking the Scripture to you, and it is the Word of God. That’s what Paul is saying. You grasped that God speaks through His Word. That’s how God speaks. That’s how you hear His voice. What He says is what He says in the Scriptures. And folks, that’s our conviction at the orchard. We believe that God speaks through His Word. Not just that He spoke through His Word but that He speaks through His Word. That is why when we gather, we want to sing the Word, we want to pray the Word, we want to read the Word, we have the preaching of the Word, we want to hear the Word, so that we may go out and live the Word having received that by the Spirit who creates and sustains faith through the Word. God speaks through His Word. God speaks through His Word. Now, here’s the importance of that. We listen differently when we know who is speaking. See when I listen to the adverts, if I really have to listen to the adverts haven’t got the DVR to kind of roll it on and miss the adverts when I’m watching television, you know that thing. If you have to listen to the ad… How well do you listen to the adverts? I listen to the adverts so passively…. If something happens to grab my attention, I suddenly waking up, but I listen passively to the adverts. Candidly, that’s how some people listen to the Word of God. I listen to my enemies differently… I listen to my enemies defensively, you know that thing? Someone who you know has got it in for you, someone who’s against you, someone who’s trying to pull you down. I listen to them, I listen to my enemies defensively. And that’s how some listen to the Word of God. You think of God as your enemy? That’s how you’ll listen to His Word. But I listen to my friends in a different way. I hear them with an open heart because I know that they love me. And when they tell me that I am wrong, I listen to them because I know that they are in my corner. They want to do me good. So the way that you listen to the Word of God, whether that be passively or whether that be defensively or whether that be eagerly and gladly, tells you about your relationship with God. Right there. It reveals what your relationship with God really is. God’s friends hear His Word gladly. So, when you know that God speaks through His Word, you will come to His Word expectantly. Here’s the thing. We all have our ideas about what we want to hear. We all have our ideas about what we think we need to hear. But when God speaks, He chooses what He wants to say. So, let me give you just a very practical example from my own experience this week at the conference that I mentioned to you a few moments ago. God spoke to me through His Word this week through a message from pastor C.J. Maheny from 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2. And what got to me and came to me fresh was this. Preach the Word be prepared in season and out of season. I was familiar with that. Here’s the words that the Holy Spirit grabbed hold of me with. Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season, with great patience. Patience, 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2, with great patience. Folks, I saw some areas in my life, through the Word of God in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2, that calls us to great patience. I saw this week some areas through the Word of God where I am impatient. I did not go into that meeting thinking about patience. I was not feeling a need in regard to patience. I was not particularly aware, going in, of a lack of patience. But God spoke to me about patience through 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2. You see, you may be thinking at this moment, okay, I’ve come to church this weekend, and I’m facing all this stuff in my life and the last thing in the world I need is a sermon about how to hear a sermon. The last thing I need is a message about how to hear the Word of God. Can you consider the possibility, friend, that that may be exactly what you need? That what God is saying to you from the Scriptures right now is that your greatest need is not for a quick fix for the problem that’s uppermost in your mind, but for you to develop a regular pattern of receiving the Word of God into your life with faith, so that you will bear long-term fruit that you have not been bearing for years. You never know what God is going to say to you. You’ve been listening to pastor Colin Smith on Open the Bible and the message, Listening to the Word of Christ. And looking today at how we should listen to His words. We should come with the conviction that God speaks through His word. And next we will learn how we need to come with a healthy appetite and come with a knife and fork. So, I hope you will join us next time on Open the Bible. If you do ever miss one of the series, don’t forget you can always catch up, or go back and listen again, online. Come to our website openthebible.org.uk and there you can hear any of the messages which have already gone out on air. Open the Bible depends on the generous support of our listeners and if supporting Open the Bible financially is something you’ve been thinking about, we have an offer for you this month. If you are able to set up a new donation to Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you a new devotional by Pastor Colin Smith. It’s called Green Pastures, Still Waters, and like today’s message, it’s based on Psalm 23. Colin, why did you write this devotional? This goes back to the pandemic and in these dark days, I guess, along with every other pastor, I was asking the question, what will help and encourage God’s people to get through these difficult days and I turned to Psalm 23 and just found such joy and help in mining the wonderful treasures that are in this marvellous chapter of the Bible and my colleague Tim Augustine has now arranged that material in the form of a 31-day devotional and I’m just delighted that we’re able to offer this. Looking at the Lord Jesus Christ through Psalm 23 will bring strength and encouragement and peace and joy and to do that for 31 days to meditate on one of the best-known and best-loved chapters in all of the Bible and to get our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you need some encouragement, Green Pastures Still Waters is going to be a great help to you. Well we’d love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin Smith’s devotional Green Pastures Still Waters all about Psalm 23, to say thank you if you’re able to set up a new regular donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more. Full details on our website, that’s www.openthebible.org.uk For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pig and I hope you’ll join us again next time. The preacher’s task is to prepare the meal of God’s word for God’s people. But there’s something for you to do too. Find out what it is next time on Open the Bible.