Faith
Comes by Hearing
Romans
10:17
Jim
Davis
A lady was having an elegant party and wanted
to serve mushrooms, but was a little uncertain about the mushrooms, so
she fed some to the dog. He ate them and everything seemed all right, so
the mushrooms were prepared and served. During the party the maid hurried
to the hostess and said, "The dog is dead." The guests rushed to the hospital
and had their stomachs pumped. After the confusion was over, the maid said,
"That car sure did mess up the dog."
We often do not really hear what is
said. President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that
big smile and saying the usual things at all those White House receptions.
So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was paying attention
to what he was saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand,
he flashed that big smile and said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning."
People would automatically respond with comments such as "How lovely!"
or "Just continue with your great work!" Nobody listened to what he was
saying, except one foreign diplomat. When the president said, "I murdered
my grandmother this morning," The diplomat responded softly, "I'm sure
she had it coming to her."
Just having the ability to hear doesn't guarantee
an accurate reception of a message. Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear,
let him hear." (Luke 8:8 NIV)
Hearing the Gospel Is Our Primary Task
After listening restlessly to a long and tedious
sermon, a 6-year-old boy asked his father what the preacher did the rest
of the week. "Oh, he's a very busy man," the father replied. "He takes
care of church business, visits the sick, ministers to the poor.... And
then he has to have time to rest up. Talking in public isn't an easy job,
you know."
The boy thought about that, then said, "Well,
listening ain't easy, either."
One thing that really makes hearing difficult
is that what we already believe and feel affects what we hear.
Matthew 13:13-15
This is why I speak to them
in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not
hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You
will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but
never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly
hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might
see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.' (NIV)
The trouble with hearing is that often
what we believe and feel comfortable with affects how we hear. We endeavor
to interpret everything we hear in light of what we already know. This
kind of hearing rejects what is not consistent with what I already believe.
It is little wonder that Jesus warns us to take heed to how we hear.
Think about the weakness of this kind of approach
to hearing and knowing God. Only accepting what we hear, which confirms
what we already believe, closes our minds and hearts to discovery. What
scientist would go out and on a study in any field of science rejecting
everything that didn't confirm what he already believed? The purpose of
scientific discovery is to validate or invalidate what we know or think
we know.
There was a time when everyone believed the
world was flat. What if no one ever challenged that belief? What if we
were still walking around on what we believed was a flat earth? Too many
are afraid to have what they believe and feel challenged. But challenging
what we believe is never dangerous. It will only confirm or deny what we
believe and feel.
Sadly, too often the world does not encourage
and honest search for truth. We rather remain comfortable with what we
already believe. Galileo an Italian astronomer and physicist (1564-1642)
was the first to use a telescope to study the stars (1610), he was an outspoken
advocate of Copernicus's theory that the sun forms the center of the universe,
which led to his persecution and imprisonment by the Inquisition (1633).
At the time of this theory men believed that man and the earth was the
center of the universe. A continual search for truth is absolutely essential
in religion and science.
The first step to coming to God is hearing
what he says. This should be the purpose of a study of the scriptures.
We must allow the scriptures to validate or invalidate our beliefs.
I know an atheist that was asking a preacher
some hard questions. The preacher told the atheist that he ought not to
ask such questions. The preacher was actually asking the man to close his
mind to further discovery. Of course, that was the end of the conversation.
It's easy to be completely sincere about what
you believe and yet be badly mistaken! There was a physician who was administering
a controlled mixture of oxygen and anesthetic gas to a patient in a New
York hospital. When one of the tanks was empty, the doctor used a new one
marked Oxygen. Almost immediately the patient died.
The coroner's autopsy revealed carbon dioxide
poisoning. Upon investigation the second tank was found to contain pure
CO2 and had somehow been mislabeled. The manufacturer denied any wrongdoing.
No one knew how it could have gotten by the inspectors. The doctor had
no doubt that he was using oxygen when he administered the lethal gas.
No one wanted the tragedy to happen, yet they were all sincerely wrong.
This incident demonstrates that good intentions
are not enough. Likewise, in the matter of salvation, many people are saying,
"As long as I am sincere, I'll come out all right in the end." But they
are sadly mistaken. One must be absolutely certain about eternal matters.
Many things called "Salvation," "Forgiveness," and "Life" are mislabeled.
When these things are mislabeled they prevent
our reception of God's Word. Hearing can only come by the Word of God.
(Romans 10:17)
Believing An Important Part of Hearing
While making a brief Christmas address to
the people of the British Empire in 1939, King George VI spoke of his faith
in God's leading. World War II had begun, and Great Britain faced the onslaughts
of Hitler's reckless military barrage. As the King spoke to the people
on that Christmas day, he concluded his remarks with these lines written
by Minnie Louise Haskins some 30 years earlier: "And I said to the man
who stood at the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely
into the unknown." And he replied: 'Go out into the darkness and put your
hand in the Hand of God.' That shall be to you better than light and safer
than a known way.'"
We don't have to fear. We have Someone to
guide us even in the darkest night. That's why the psalmist could say,
"Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me." God's presence
enables us to face the unknown with complete confidence.
Faith in God is the only thing that
will open our hearts to truth. When we hear something that conflicts
with what we feel and believe in our hearts, it may be time to place our
hand into the hand of God and allow him to lead us out of our darkness.
It is faith in God that will take us beyond the limitations of sense and
feeling. Faith will pick us up where sense and feeling will let us down.
Faith in God is the only thing that will allow us to truly hear what he
is saying.
True faith continually leads us into
the unknown but it always brings us into the presence of God. I
am not talking about some kind of subjective revelation that has no basis
in the revealed, objective, received, written Word. Too many rely on their
own private revelations interpreting the Word as they please. It should
be obvious that people like Jim Jones, David Koresh and the Hale Bob Comet
folks have perverted the truth of God through their own private interpretations.
Someone suggested that their private interpretations had more to do with
indigestion than the leading of the Spirit.
It is the Word of God that leads us
safely through the unknown. Whatever we believe---must be consistent
with God's written Word. If we believe and feel that something is so, but
we cannot find support for it in the Word we must conclude that what we
believe and feel isn't from God.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. (Romans 10:17)
Repentance Is the Key to Hearing
We can only really hear God with a repentant
heart. An atheistic barber, walking through the city slums with
a minister, remarked, "This is why I can't believe in a God of love. If
He is as kind as they say, why does He permit all this poverty, disease,
and squalor? How can He allow these poor people to be addicted to dope
and other character-destroying habits?"
The minister was silent until they met a man
who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck,
and he had half an inch of stubble on his face. The preacher was ready
with his response: "You can't be a very good barber or you wouldn't permit
a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut
and a shave."
Indignantly the atheist answered, "Why blame
me for that man's condition? I can't help it if he's like that. He has
never given me a chance! If he would only come to my shop, I could fix
him up and make him look like a gentleman!"
Giving the barber a penetrating look, the
minister said, "Then don't blame God for allowing these people to continue
in their evil ways when He longs to speak to them and give them directions
for salvaging their lives. They are slaves to sin and evil habits because
they refuse to heed God's word and accept the One who died to save and
deliver them."
Only those who are open to follow God
can truly hear. Only as we follow the light, will we have new light
by which to walk.
Matthew 13:11-12
He replied, "The knowledge
of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not
to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.
Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
(NIV)
Note that Jesus says, "Whoever has will
be given more, and he will have an abundance . . ." This
is spoken in the context of Christ saying, "He that hath ears, let
him hear." Our reception of what we hear determines whether God
will reveal more. Only as we endeavor to live up to what
we already know will we get more knowledge.
In Luke's account, Luke writes in the same
context: "Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will
be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has
will be taken from him." (Luke 8:18 NIV) This is a clear indication
that if we do not properly receive what we have heard we will lose what
we have gained.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain
from every form of evil. (NKJ)
We can quench the Spirit's burning desire
to lead us. If the Spirit is leading us, and we come to a point
that we refuse to follow, it is at that point that we will cease to learn
more of God's revealed will. It is at that point that God will cease giving
us wisdom.
It is true that we can continue to study the
Word of God, we can analyze it, dissect it and even memorize it, but without
a determination to turn our lives in repentance . . . unless their is a
determination to line our actions and thinking up with God's word, the
Spirit of God will cease to lead us. A fleshly effort to understand the
Word through research and history is far different than one's effort to
understand and obey. The results are far different also. If we are not
careful we will only be walking in what we think or some scholar thinks.
There must be a living dependence upon
what is revealed before we can truly hear more. When we commit
in repentance to obey God's Word, God will enable us to understand more.
When we come to God seeking wisdom to understand and apply his word to
our lives, it is at that moment that we will receive understanding from
God. Only as we are open to hear God and receive and act upon His word
can we ever receive further revelation from Him.
Romans 10:8-11
But what does it say? "The
word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the
word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth,
"Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe
and are justified,
and it is with your mouth that you confess
and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him
will never be put to shame." (NIV)
Hearing Must Lead to Confession
The Scriptures are full of expressions like
"the word of the Lord came unto me," and "God spoke all these words." Someone
has counted such phrases and says that they appear 680 times in the Pentateuch,
196 times in its poetical books, 481 times in the historical writings,
and 370 times in its prophetic portions. Never did the Lord communicate
to us more clearly, however, than in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ;
for He is the brightness of the Father's glory, "the express image of His
person." One writer has aptly commented, "Jesus is the best photograph
God ever had taken."
Jesus is the perfect communication of God.
Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the father." (John 14:9)
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, "Let light
shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
(NIV)
All of us have bought an item that needed
to be assembled. The manufacture gives you written instructions along with
a blown up diagram of how everything fits together. That is what God has
done in Christ. God has given us instructions but he gave us a living diagram
of how his word works in the life of Christ.
Jesus' actions and words were so effective
in revealing God's plan that when two blind men followed him they called
out to him, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" (Matthew 9:27) They understood
whom Jesus was when others failed to understand. Jesus made it possible
for even the blind to see.
Matthew 9:27-30
As Jesus went on from there,
two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"
When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them,
"Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be
done to you"; and their sight was restored. (NIV)
It is not enough to hear the word. We
must see how it is to work through the life of Christ.
Romans 10:8-11
But what does it say? "The
word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the
word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth,
"Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe
and are justified,
and it is with your mouth that you confess and
are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will
never be put to shame." (NIV)
Confessing Christ is paramount to declaring
you dependence on hearing what God has to say through Christ. It is little
wonder that John in the opening of his gospel refers to Jesus as the "Word."
Christ is the communication of God and we must hear him.
Conclusion:
When Matthew speaks of hearing he reveals
that Jesus said "He that hath ears, let him hear."
When Mark speaks of hearing he reveals that
Jesus said, "Be careful what we hear."
When Luke speaks of hearing he reveals that
Jesus said, "Take heed how you hear."
Proverbs 2:6-10
For the LORD gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in
store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful
ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair-- every
good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant
to your soul. (NIV)
Steps to salvation: Hear, believe, repent,
confess and be baptized.
