Last month we have utilized Richard Greenham as a Puritan model on how the Scriptures should be read. This month, we use Thomas Watson as our Puritan mentor on how we should hear the Word.

Thomas Watson on Hearing God's Word⤒🔗

Much of what Richard Greenham advocated about the reading of Scripture applies to the hearing of the Word as well (see last month's editorial). Thomas Watson, one of the most well-known and readable Puritans, offers specific help with regard to hearing the preaching of God's Word.¹ As we read this list, we would do well to ask after each item: Am I really hearing the Word of God? Am I a good listener of the pro­claimed gospel?

1. When you come to God's house to hear His Word, do not forget to also prepare your soul with prayer.
2. Come with a holy appetite for the Word (1 Pet. 2:2). A good ap­petite promotes good digestion.
3. Come with a tender, teachable heart (2 Chron. 13:7), asking, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). It is foolish to ex­pect a blessing if you come with a hardened, worldly-minded heart.
4. Be attentive to the Word preached. In Luke 19:48, we are told that the people "were very at­tentive" to Christ. Literally trans­lated, the text says, "they hung upon him, hearing." Lydia evidenced a heart opened by the Lord when she "attended" or "turned her mind" to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14). Such attentiveness also in­volves banishing wandering thoughts, dullness of mind, and drowsiness (Mt. 13:25). Regard the sermon as it truly is — a matter of life and death (Dt. 32:47).
5. "Receive with meekness the en­grafted word" (James 1:21). Meek­ness involves a submissive frame of heart — "a willingness to hear the counsels and reproofs of the word." Through meekness the Word gets "en­grafted" into the soul and produces "the sweet fruit of righteousness."
6. Mingle the preached Word with faith: "The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith" (Heb. 4:2). If the chief ingre­dient of a medicine is missing, the medicine will not be effective; so be sure not to leave out the chief ingre­dient, faith, as you listen to a sermon. Believe and apply the Word. Apply Christ when He is preached (Rom. 13:14); apply the promises as they are spoken.
7. Strive to retain and pray over what you have heard. Don't let the sermon run through your mind like water through a sieve (Heb. 2:1). "Our memories should be like the chest of the ark, where the law was put." As another well-known Puri­tan, Joseph Alleine, advised, "Come from your knees to the sermon, and come from the sermon to your knees."
8. Practice what you have heard. "Live out" the sermons you hear. Hearing that does not reform your life will never save your soul. Doers of the Word are the best hearers. Of what value is a mind filled with knowledge when not matched with a fruitful life?
9. Beg of God to accompany His Word with the effectual blessing of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44). With­out the Spirit, the medicine of the Word may be swallowed, but it will not result in healing.
10. Familiarize yourself with what you have heard. When you come home, speak to your loved ones about the sermon in an edifying manner: "My tongue shall speak of thy word" (Ps. 119:172). Remem­ber each sermon as if it will be the last you ever hear, for that may well be the case.

Under the Spirit's blessing, if these "ten commandments" for hearing the Word are conscientiously obeyed, the preached Word will be a trans­forming power in our lives. If, on the other hand, these directions are ignored, and the preached Word is not effectual to our salvation, it will be effectual to our condemnation. Watson rightly concludes: "The word will be effectual one way or the other; if it does not make your hearts better, it will make your chains heavier.... Dreadful is their case who go loaded with sermons to hell."²

Conclusion←⤒🔗

It should be evident from the foregoing articles that to read and hear God's Word rightly, and so experience its transforming power, we need the application of the Holy Spirit. We need to ask: How may we know if the Word being read and heard is really being applied to us by the Spirit of God? We may know by what precedes, accompa­nies, and follows that application. Prior to the Spirit's application, room is made in the soul for the Word. With the Spirit's application, there is a sense of suitability and power ­be it the power of the still, small voice of the gospel (1 Ki. 19:12) or the thunders of Sinai (Ex. 19:16) ­which persuades us that we are re­ceiving for the welfare of our souls precisely the word and instruction from God which we need to re­ceive. And most importantly, when God applies His Word to our souls_ "the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Phil. 1:11), be­gin to appear. The old nature is mor­tified and the sinful cult of self begins to decrease; the new nature is quickened and Christ's manifest presence in our lives increases. Where such fruit and evidence of the Spirit's working with the Word is lacking, the Word is not being used aright. "For the tree is known by his fruit" (Mt. 12:33b) — fruits such as true conversion (Ps. 19:7a), wisdom (Ps. 19:7b), joy (Ps. 19:8a), peace (Ps.85:8), sweetness (Ps. 119:103), free­dom On. 8:31-32), praise (Ps.119:171), and light for the dying (Ps. 19:8b).

John Flavel summarized it well, "The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying."

We need to become intensely Word-centered in reading, listening, praying, worshipping, and living. In the words of Henry Smith, a great Puritan preacher:

We should set the Word of God alway before us like a rule, and be­lieve nothing but that which it teacheth, love nothing but that which it prescribeth, hate nothing but that which it forbiddeth, do nothing but that which it commandeth.³

Let us pray for grace to read and hear the Word of God in a Puritan way, for that way is consonant with Scripture itself and is able to make us wise unto salvation.