One of the benefits of going to bible college for me was learning what makes good preaching good. It’s important to know both as a listener and a preacher. But one of the downsides of having that knowledge is listening with an over-critical ear. It is very easy to always be asking the question, “Is this sermon good?” and the many other forms that question takes.

I’ve been recently helped by a comment from John Owen in this regard. For those of us who might be deemed “preaching connoisseurs,” who regularly listen to sermons on podcast, who put preaching at the top of their non-negotiables for picking a church, there can be an emphasis on intellectual listening. Listening intellectually is good, but only if we don’t stop there.

Owen writes (in Vol. 3 of his works, On the Holy Spirit, p. 389):

“One principal advantage which we have by attendance on the dispensation of the word [i.e. preaching] in a due manner [is]…that by presenting those spiritual truths which are the object of our faith unto our minds, and those spiritual good things which are the object of our love unto our affections, both these graces [faith and love] are drawn forth into frequent actual exercise.

And we are greatly mistaken if we suppose we have no benefit by the word beyond what we retain in our memories, though we should labor for that also. Our chief advantage lies in the excitation which is thereby given unto our faith and love to their proper exercise.” (italics mine)

So the question I must ask myself when I am listening to the preaching of the word is, “Am I believing what’s being said? Am I allowing the preacher’s words to draw me to faith and love for God, in this very moment?” Owen goes on to describe that as we listen to the word, we have the opportunity to exercise “many thousands of acts of faith and love.” What a statement! That is how to grow through the preaching of God’s word.