The responsibility of communicating God’s truth does not rest upon the preacher or teacher alone. Those who refuse to listen and respond in faith to faithful preaching and teaching will be held accountable - not the faithful preacher. Recently I re-read the following exhortation in an edition of John Owen’s “The Glory of Christ”, which expresses the need and nature of our response to God’s Word:
“The loss of a spiritual appetite to the food of our souls is an evidence of a decay in all these graces. Spiritual appetite consists in earnest desires, and a savoury relish; so it is described by the apostle, ‘As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious’ (1 Pet. 2:2-3). There is required to this spiritual appetite an earnest desire of the Word, grounded on an experience of the grace of God in it, to this end, that we may grow and thrive spiritually thereby. And this appetite will give us as just a measure of the state of grace in us as a natural appetite to wholesome food, with due digestion upon that, does give of a good state of health in the body.
This, therefore, we are to inquire into. Does it abide in us as formerly? We hear the Word preached as much as ever; but do we do it with the same desire and spiritual relish as before? Some hear to satisfy their convictions, some to please their fancies, and some to judge of the persons by whom it is dispensed. It is but in few that the necessary preparations for the due receiving of it is found.
‘The full soul loathes an honey-comb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.’ (Prov. 27:7). Men being grown full of themselves, and of a good conceit of their own abilities, have lost their spiritual appetite to the Word of God; and this makes the Word lose its power and efficacy towards them. That Word, which the Psalmist says is ’sweeter than honey, or the honey-comb’ (Ps. 19:10), has little or no taste or relish in it to them. If they were hungry, they would find a sweetness in the bitterest of its reproofs, beyond what they can now find in the sweetest of its promises. They come to hear the Word with sick desires, and low expectations, as if they were invited to eat after a feast, being self-full before. But this loss of a spiritual appetite is an evidence of the decay of all other graces whatever.” (John Owen, The Glory of Christ, p269-70, Christian Focus Publications, 2004).
Oh, how true this is! How I wish someone would write a book on “annointed listening”, rather than publish another book annointed preaching! Jeremiah’s prophetic preaching was infallibly true and annointed, yet the people did not have ears to hear. This is true of Ezekiel as well. The writer of the Hebrews wrote:
“For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” (Heb. 4:2, ESV)
God has a passionate desire for godly, faithful and powerful preachers of his Word. But, he also desires godly, faithful and powerful listeners who respond to his Word with heart-felt joy. Both are a product of the sovereign grace of God, so we cannot advocate some of the man-made techniques designed to provoke “responses”. Only the “methods” found in Scripture are required: both faith-full preaching and faith-full listening.
