Listening, Part 1

At the last conference I attended in Indiana, I became better acquainted with a minister that I met there before. He is Pastor Larry Lilly. I now regularly receive a devotional he sends out entitled Larry Lilly’s Letter. Here is a quote from his letter of 8April 2008 that struck me. It deals with the subject of listening.

Proverbs 1:5, "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:" Basically the proverb means that wise people increase their wisdom through energized listening. Far too many people appear to be listening but in fact their mind is wandering off to some experience past or desired, they are fondly walking down some memory lane and fail to grasp a mere modicum of what the speaker is saying, let alone grasp any meaning. To be sure the speaker has a responsibility to arrest attention, but only the very best speakers and teachers managed to do this consistently, so the burden for increased knowledge, or wisdom falls to the listener, for even boring speakers often say profound things. Certainly we have listened to tremendously exciting speakers who upon examination have said nothing, but they did say it eloquently.

I can certainly relate to what Pastor Lilly is saying. I have heard men with poor speaking skills set forth very informative subject matter. Even our beloved apostle Paul was “rude in speech, yet not in knowledge” (2 Corinthians 11:6). On the other hand, I have heard men who were lively, witty, eloquent speakers that taught me nothing. Their speeches were only so much fluff. I once knew a Primitive Baptist deacon that had this to say about these kinds of speakers: “They have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the thought.”

I was struck with Pastor Lilly’s point that “the burden for increased knowledge, or wisdom falls to the listener.” That is so true! While a speaker should strive to make his presentation as interesting and arresting as he can, it is ultimately up to you to make the effort to listen.

Now “what saith the Scripture” with respect to this subject? God does indeed hold you responsible to be energetic listeners, as Brother Lilly put it. Consider these verses:

Deuteronomy 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Isaiah 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

You are commanded to hearken diligently. Doing so will bring rich blessings into your life. It should be obvious from these verses that listening has a great deal to do with the quality of your life. Now true to form, let’s define what it means to hearken diligently.

Hearken – To apply the ears to hear; to listen, give ear. To apply the mind to what is said; to attend, have regard; to listen with sympathy or docility (readiness to receive instruction).

Diligently – With constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent application and endeavour.

To hearken is to listen. But this involves more than just letting sounds come into your ears. Hearkening also involves applying your mind to what you hear. It involves the power of concentration. To hearken diligently is to listen with constant and earnest effort. You have to make a serious effort to listen with concentration upon what you hear, and that constantly. Otherwise, your mind will wander and you will miss what God holds you responsible to hear. And the failure to listen will bring judgment upon you as these verses plainly declare:

Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

Deuteronomy 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

This subject matter is expanding in my mind. I shall have more to say about it in another meditation, God willing. The thing I want to impress upon you today is that God commands you to listen with concentration to what He has to say. When a man is speaking to you on behalf of God, you had better listen, even if His speaking skills may not be the best. It is your responsibility to listen. The quality of your life depends upon whether you do so or not.

How Do We Experience God?

I have an overriding thought that I wish to drive home to you in today’s meditation. That thought is found in the following passages:

Leviticus 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

14 ¶But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;

24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

2 Samuel 22:26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright.

27 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.

2 Chronicles 15:2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

Now don’t just rush through the reading of those verses. Think about what they are saying to you. They are setting forth a principle of God’s divine government that applies in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. That principle is the overriding thought I want to drive home to you. And that principle is that we determine by our behaviour how we experience God! If we walk in His commandments, He will walk with us, He will deal with us mercifully, He will be found of us, and He will reward us. But if we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us, He will forsake us, He will requite us our wrong, and we will find God very unpleasant (unsavoury) to deal with. Observe that whether we are upright in our behaviour or whether we are froward (perverse, ungovernable) in our behaviour, we do not escape having to deal with God.

It should be obvious that how we experience God will determine the quality of our lives in this world. Now this principle may not seem to apply in some cases as there are those who rebel against God and prosper in this world. Let these verses tell us about these people.

Psalms 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Again, as God’s children we determine how we will experience God. And it does not matter who you are, what your position is, nor how many past blessings you have enjoyed. In this matter of the divine government, “there is no respect of persons.” Be warned. You shall experience God! There is no getting around that fact. The question is: how will you experience Him?

Remember that we will observe the Lord’s Supper again this Sunday, God willing. How will you experience God in that service? It depends on your behaviour.

Weaned

Thanks be to God, I am fairly recovered from that bout with the flu that I had. I am still not functioning at maximum strength, as today’s workout revealed, but I am on the mend. So with renewing energy and the help of God, I shall try to impart to you a brief meditation for this week. Let’s think about this verse:

Psalms 131:2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

A baby is born seeking its mother’s breast. The baby needs its mother’s milk. While the child is nursing, it will cry for its mother’s breast. It will sometimes pitch tantrums to have the breast, even when it is not hungry. A child that is still nursing certainly does not behave and quiet itself when it wants the breast. But then comes the weaning. Once the child is weaned, it will behave and quiet itself without ever being given the breast. It has learned to get along contentedly without something that was once so necessary. The weaned child has reached a level of growth so that it can do without something it formerly found so necessary.

The Psalmist in the above verse compares himself to a weaned child. He has reached a level of growth in his life in which he can behave and quiet himself even when doing without things that he once found so necessary. As we grow in life, we should be finding out that things we once thought so indispensable to our welfare, are not so indispensable after all. We find that we no longer have to have this job, or promotion, or house, or car, or relationship to be happy. Growing up is not so much an experience of having more as it is learning to be content with having less. It is learning to let go of things we once cried after. As we grow spiritually, it is amazing how much we discover that we do not have to have to be happy. The Christian who is always whining in discontent and pitching temper tantrums over what he does not have needs to grow. He needs to be weaned!

In commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry said it so well: “When our condition is not to our mind we must bring our mind to our condition; and then we are easy to ourselves and all about us; then our souls are as a weaned child.” Amen! What kind of child of God are you? Are you as a little baby crying for the breast? Or are you as a weaned child, behaved and quiet?

Praise

My thoughts take me today to the subject of the praise of God. True to form, let’s begin with defining the word praise.

Praise – To tell, proclaim, or commend the worth, excellence, or merits of.

Whenever we say or sing about how great God is or what great things He does, we are praising God by definition.

Since God’s greatness is unsearchable, we will never be able to give God all the praise that He deserves. The Psalmist asks:

Psalms 106:2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?

Of course, no one can show forth all God’s praise because it is so much greater than we are. But we can at least show forth some of His praise.

God’s reason for saving your soul was that you might show forth His praises. Praising the Lord is an effect of God’s saving grace in our lives.

Ephesians 1: 11-12 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

That being the case, one of the surest ways you can know you are saved is to proclaim the praises of your God. Then you can reason from the effect, showing forth God’s praises, to the cause, the salvation of your soul.

Praising God is a blessing itself. We can only do it, if God lets us. That is why we read prayers like this in the Bible.

Psalms 67:3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

Psalm 67:5 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

Psalms 71: 8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

I am sure you have asked God to let you do many things. Have you ever asked Him to let you praise Him? That is a good prayer to take to church.

How sad it is that we spend more time whining and complaining than we do praising our wonderful God. We would do well to imitate the Psalmist David, who said:

Psalms 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Instead of always complaining about how bad you feel and about how bad your life is, try talking more about how great and good God is. You will be surprised what that will do for you. In fact, consider this verse:

Psalms 147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.

Praising God is good. It is just plain a good thing to do and we all feel better when we do something good. Praising God is pleasant. Something that is pleasant has the quality of giving pleasure. Praise will bring you pleasure and that will offset your misery. It is also comely. The word comely means suitable or beautiful. Praise will make you a more beautiful person. Now who of us would not welcome being better, having more pleasure, and being more becoming? It is no wonder that “the garment of praise” is placed in contrast to “the spirit of heaviness” in Isaiah 61:3. If you are feeling heavy today, start telling your God how great and how good He is. Start singing songs like “How Great Thou Art,” “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Holy, Holy, Holy, or “The Lord Is My Light.” Watch how that will lift your mood and make you a lovelier person to be around.

If you have not been praising God as you should, ask God to forgive you and then ask Him to let you praise Him. Then just set your heart to do it.

Psalms 57:7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

If you are truly praising God, you have God in your life because He inhabits the praises of His people.

PSA 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

So begin praising the Lord today. Keep it up everyday. If you are a child of God, it is what you will be doing for all eternity.

Psalms 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Endless Books

While attending a conference in Indiana last week I had an opportunity to become better acquainted with one of the speakers, Dr. Larry Lilly. Dr. Lilly is a well-read man and made several recommendations of good books to read. Upon returning home I was struck with how much there is to read and how pressed I am for time to just read. I have so many books in my library that I have not read as yet and some that I could stand to reread. And yet people recommend more or give me more to read. And this is to say nothing of all that can be read nowadays on the internet. I am reminded of Solomon’s words:

Ecclesiastes 12:12 … of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

I once took some drawing classes with my wife. I was impressed with the fact that there was so much to learn in the study of art. There are so many different kinds of art. There are so many things to draw or paint and so many different ways to draw or paint them. In fact, one could say that the possibilities for artistic expression are limitless. And this is true of all departments of learning. There is no end to the mathematical calculations that can be made. There is no limit to how many stories or poems can be written. The number of tunes and songs that can be written is inexhaustible. There is no end to the number and variations of scientific experiments that can be conducted. When one comes to the knowledge of the Bible, what can be learned from the Holy Scriptures is unsearchable. There is no limit to the different sermons that can be preached from the Bible or the books that can be written about it. Considering that books are written about all these branches of knowledge and more, it is no wonder then that “of making of many books there is no end.”

All branches of knowledge have their ultimate origin in God. He is the author of all language, mathematics, science, art, music, etc. All the wealth of information that can be explored and developed in every field of study comes forth from God as the following passages declare.

1 Chronicles 29:11 Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
12 Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

Psalms 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

The fact that we cannot fathom any given field of learning points to the fact that our God, the source of all knowledge, is Himself unfathomable.

Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Our ability to fathom the depths of any branch of knowledge is restricted by our finiteness. Our life in this earth is simply too short and our capacity too limited to ever know all there is to know about whatever field of knowledge we choose to study. We can study and learn only so long and then weariness sets in. Our brain just will not cooperate and we must take a break.

Speaking for myself, I am a person that has a tremendous craving for knowledge. I want to know so much more. I love languages. I wish I could learn and speak them all. I wish I were more proficient with the ones I have learned. There are so many books I would like to devour, so many fields of knowledge I would like to explore. But, alas, I am limited in time and capacity. Demands are made upon my time and these demands interfere with study. I would like to discover so many things before I die. At times I feel overwhelmed by it all. And this is where I was the other day, when a thought occurred to me. It is the thought that gave rise to today’s meditation. And that is the thought that God in His wonderful, saving grace has given us eternal life. Beloved, we shall have all eternity to explore the riches of God. Even there we shall never exhaust all there is to learn. But we will have an eternity to explore it. We shall never reach the end of it. There will always be more and new and exciting things to learn. We will never be bored. We will never become weary. We will always be enthusiastic learners without being anxious or annoyed in the process. I am looking forward to it. Are you? By God’s grace I am still eager to learn.