Beloved,
Our forefathers were convinced that God’s Spirit “maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means” of the salvation and sanctification of His people (Westminster Larger Catechism A. 155; emphasis mine). It is through the word that God’s children are born again and matured, and it is especially through the preached word that God delights in effecting these redemptive works.
Arguably, the most important part of any given week is when we are sitting under the ordinary pulpit ministry of our local church. When the word is faithfully and prayerfully heralded by God’s servant in God’s house, God Himself is present in and with that word to uniquely bless.
Unfortunately, it is a blessing we all too often forfeit due to a failure to hear the word as we ought. That is why the Larger Catechism goes on to ask, “What is required of those that hear the word preached?” (Q. 160). It is a vitally important question, so important, in fact, that I want to spend the next number of weeks unpacking the answer the divines give.
Here is their answer in full: “It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what they hear by the Scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.”
Yes, God places certain requirements on preachers as to how they must proclaim His word. But have you ever considered that God also obligates us as to how we hear His word? Entire bookshelves could be filled with books on preaching. Hardly a week goes by without another homiletics volume being published. But how few books have been written on hearing! How little the average Christian in our day tends to consider what God expects of him or her while sitting under the church’s pulpit ministry in public worship. How few tremble at the reality that they will give an account for what they did (or failed to do) with the preached word.
Before we begin to unpack Larger Catechism 160 with practical application to ourselves, we first need to reckon with the fact that God cares deeply not only about how His work is spoken, but also how it is heard. After all, it was a failure to listen to God’s voice that led to the downfall of humanity (though Adam also failed to speak God’s word as the prophet-like leader of his bride).
God’s word tells us how we are to hear it, and in so doing, it requires us to hear in a certain way unto our blessedness and joy. For as we saw recently in Psalm 1, it is only as we thrill in the divine word that we can thrive by divine grace both now and into eternity.
If that is true, then it is good for us to regularly examine our hearing. How are we doing in the hearing department? Are we rightly attending to the preached word? What fruis is the preached word bearing in our hearts, lives, and families? This catechism answer with its undergirding proof texts serves as a helpful test in this vital examination, and I look forward to working through it together over the upcoming weeks as we seek together to hear God’s word in the way required by God’s word.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick