The word ‘Blessed’ translates the Greek for ‘supremely happy’. If you hear the word of God, you can be supremely happy. Well, you will receive, if you hear it, you will receive from the word of God a context for your life. You will receive from the word of God an understanding of what we're doing here. Who made us? Why we're here? Where we've gone wrong? What's happened to us? The grace of God, what he has done about it, what he can do for us, how to approach him, how to know him, what it is to walk with him, what he requires of you, what he will do for you now and eternally. What a context for life. All that is to be found in the word of God.
That is the way people tend to think. We don't understand until God explains it to us in his word, the Bible. We don't understand about the grace of God. We don't understand that we're all of us in the same position, as far as we could possibly be from God, no matter how superficially privileged we may be. We may be brought up in a Christian family, brought up to go to church. But if we are, we are no nearer to God because of that. Until we come to him and our lives are changed and we have an experience of him which we call conversion, we are no better than any other.
If you and I are not believers in Christ, then we have no power even over ourselves. We can't change our ways. We can't change our nature, our character; only God can do that. When we come to Christ, when we come to God, he deals with us. We say, ‘Lord, forgive me my sin. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died for my sin. Lord, convert my soul. Change me.’ When we come to Christ like that, then the hand of God is upon us, and he does bless us and change us. You see people whose character is wonderfully changed. You see people who were arrogant, bombastic, proud, unteachable: all that is so mellowed and melted. And their tastes change and their appetites change, and their will changes. But unbelief is powerless. Where can you take a BSc or a BA or an MA in changing people's lives effectively? Who's got the technology and the technique? Can that hostile person be made a peacemaker? Can that liar become honest, that wife-beater become gentle, and that selfish person become generous? You won't find people in this world who have any power over human beings and their character. You can't pass laws to make them change. Unbelief is absolutely powerless; it’s only the believer in Christ who gets change.
How do you hear? For years you can hear sermons, you can read the Bible for yourself, and you can be completely without understanding. That is what happens for many when they hear the parables of Christ – they hear and yet they don't hear. It's like hearing somebody speaking a language you've never learned. You don't understand a word they're saying. Then the interpreter comes and you understand. It's like that with the Scripture. I didn't understand the Scripture as a youngster. I didn't get it. It was a mystery to me. Certain things you understand superficially but not its message. And then by the goodness of God I started to see: I am the sinner here; Christ is the Saviour. This is how he did it. This is how I am to receive him and find him. This is what he will do. These things shone out of its pages in book after book. It was like suddenly receiving a new language, understanding the message of God, which is plainly set out. Then you say to yourself, ‘How did I not see this before? How did I not understand these things before?’ Blessed are they that hear the word of God. There's a sense of need in their hearts. Gone are the scorn and the derision for the Christian faith and for the Bible. This is the only source of knowledge about divine things and spiritual things. The woman in the crowd admired him only as a human being, at the level of human accomplishment, but the Christian puts his trust in Christ as his Lord and Saviour.