What Scripture Says

Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house … Psalm 26:8

Part I. The Bible Shows That a Desire to Hear and Learn God’s Word is a Mark of the Christian

• • He who is of God hears God’s words. (John 8:47)

  • Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "if you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." (John 8:31)

  • (The Bereans) received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

  • The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of shekels of gold and silver. (Psalm 119:72)

  • For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectively works in you who believe. (I Thessalonians 2:13)

  • But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:2)

Part II. The Bible Shows That This Desire Finds its Fulfillment in Public Worship in Church

• • I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." (Psalm 122:1)

  • (The disciples) were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. (Luke 24:53)

  • (The Christians) continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. (Acts 2:46ff)

  • Let us … not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some. (Hebrews 10:25)

  • Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells. (Psalm 26:8)

  • Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)

  • Then He (Jesus) went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. (Luke 4:31)

  • So He (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up to read. (Luke 4:16)

  • Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. (Psalm 95:2)

  • One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life … to inquire in His temple. (Psalm 27:4)

  • My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. (Psalm 84:2)

Part III. The Bible Shows the Blessings That Come From Hearing and Learning God’s Word.

• • Blessed are those who dwell in Your house … (Psalm 84:4)

Part IV. The Bible Warns Those Who Do Not Hear Preaching and God’s Word.

• • He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. (John 8:47)

  • Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts … For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, "It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways." So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest. (Psalm 95:7ff; compare Hebrews 3:15, 4:7)

  • Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)

  • He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me. (Luke 10:16)

  • He who despises the word will be destroyed. (Proverbs 13:13)

  • My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you … I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6)

  • Come for all things are now ready. But they all with one accord began to make excuses (piece of ground – se it; oxen – prove them; wife – cannot come) … For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. (Luke 14:17-24)

  • Jerusalem, Jerusalem … how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate. (Matthew 23:37f)

  • Now as He drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. (Luke 19:41-42)

  • We then, as workers together with Him, also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (II Corinthians 6:1-2)

A Prayer for Spiritual Wanderers

Bring them to a knowledge of their need of You, O God, who, rejecting Your grace, are in danger of losing their souls. Open their eyes, dear Lord, to the tragedy that must confront them if they allow their hearts to be hardened to Your gracious invitation. If it be bitterness that drives them on, heal the wounds of their lives; if it be despair of finding the truth, show them the truth; if it be a passion for worldly things, convince them that they pass away and have no profit; or if it be stubborn pride, grant that they may learn the wisdom, the beauty, and the joy of subjection to Your divine and fatherly will. Be patient with them, even as You are patient with us, and grant that they may yet turn from their evil ways and live for You. In Your name, O Savior, we pray. Amen.

"… I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works … He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 2:4ff)