FAITH COMES BY HEARING
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17).
Real faith comes, not from
listening to or reading the Word of God, but by hearing it. This kind of hearing can only come about when
the Word of God is planted in our hearts, minds and spirits. The Parable of the Sower shows us that many
seeds fall by the wayside, on rocky ground, or among weeds. They are then either lost or choked out. Just hearing the Word is not enough, we must
prepare a place for it to flourish. Every
good gardener knows that soil preparation is essential to having good, strong,
healthy plants that will produce an abundance of produce. It is the seed that is sown in the good ground that will produce fruit 30,
60, and 100 fold.
Many of the Jews in Jesus’
day had studied the scriptures and knew quite well what was written. The trouble was that they weren’t hearing
what God was speaking to them through those scriptures, and they weren’t applying
those lessons to their own hearts and lives.
They had only a form of godliness, but were ignorant of God’s true
righteousness. The words of the Prophet
Ezekiel were true of the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day, “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not;
they have ears to hear, and hear not:
for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 12:2; see also Isaiah 6:10).
The scriptures that Jesus used to set
people free were the same words that the Jewish leaders used to condemn their
Messiah and those who followed Him. You see, the mere letter of the Word leads to spiritual death, but the spirit of the Word produces life (see 2
Corinthians 3:6).
With the abundance of
Bibles printed, Christian books and other literature distributed, and sermons,
movies and other spiritual programming aired continually in western nations,
one would expect to see a greater growth among Christian churches and
organizations. Instead, there is a steady
decrease of those who profess to be Christians.
The trouble is that people are being exposed to the Word of God, but
they aren’t hearing it. The Prophet
Amos foresaw what was coming and said, “Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a
famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but
of hearing the words of the LORD: and they shall wander from sea to
sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the
word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11, 12).
In the Gospel of St. Luke,
chapter four, we read that Jesus went back to His hometown and entered into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day. The
minister of the synagogue brought the scroll containing the Book of Isaiah to
Jesus to read from. Jesus found the
place in Isaiah where it was written, “The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He [the Spirit of God] hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord…” (Luke 4:18, 19; Isaiah
61:1, 2). Clearly, this passage was
referring to Jesus the Messiah whom God had anointed to be the Savior of the
world. Jesus didn’t need to brag about
His ministry or the work that God had sent Him to do: He simply read the words. Then He gave the book back to the minister
and sat down. Something powerful was
happening, however, because every eye in the room was on the Lord. At that point He spoke up and said, “This
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:21).
What an opportunity! People’s lives had the potential to be
changed forever by this man from Galilee; this One Whom God had anointed and
sent to them. I’m very sure that there
were those in the congregation that day who were poor and needed to hear the
Gospel preached to them. Certainly,
there were those present who were brokenhearted and needed to be healed. Without doubt there were some who were held
captive by sin and needed to be delivered.
What about those who were blind (both spiritually and physically), and
those who were bruised and needed to know liberty. And everyone needed to understand that God
was announcing an “acceptable year”
to all who had needs of any kind. To all
the needs of the people in that synagogue that day, Jesus was saying, “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and
in the day of salvation have I succoured [given assistance and support in times of hardship and distress] thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2
Corinthians 6:2).
Did the people of Jesus’
hometown flock to the altar or fall to their knees in repentance and thankful
praise and worship? No, they began to question
Jesus’ authority altogether. After all,
they had seen Him grow up among them, and they saw nothing remarkable in Him. Jesus then rebuked their unbelief in no
uncertain terms. That’s when they
proceeded to grab Him, drag Him out of the synagogue, and try to throw Him to
His death from the hill that the city was built on. Not one person who was there that day was
willing to accept God’s offer of liberty and freedom – not one! They listened to what Jesus read to them from
the Word, but they would not hear even
though God had anointed Him to deliver it.
We must be careful to hear
what the Spirit is saying to the Church in these last days. After speaking very specific things to the seven
churches of Asia in the Book of the Revelation, the Lord told each of them, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” God has very specific things to say to us
also. If we open our hearts to those
things, then God will work ever-increasing faith in us.
As we study the Word, I
know that there are times when it is difficult to discern the relevance of what
we read, or even understand the words!
No, you are not alone in that.
God’s Word is not meant to be understood all at once. As we mature in the faith, our understanding
of God’s Word increases. Like a jig-saw
puzzle, it fits together piece by piece until one day it will be complete; and
we will know even as we are known.
Before Jesus ascended to the Father He told His disciples that there
were many things that He wanted to tell them, but they were not yet mature
enough to handle them. He went on to
explain, however, that He would send the Holy Spirit to them, and He (the
Spirit) would teach them all things as they grew up into Him (Jesus). As we read, the Holy Spirit will bring
portions of scripture to life for us – sometimes whole chapters, other times
just a verse or a part of a verse – and those portions are our Manna, our Bread
from Heaven for that day. If we receive
it, and apply it, then Jesus’ words to the folks in His hometown become true for
us as well: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
There is a story in the
Book of Ezra that speaks to this concept of faith coming by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Jerusalem
had been defeated by the Kingdom of Babylon because they had become very
disobedient to God and indulged in many things that grieved His holy
nature. God gave them ample
opportunities to repent and turn back to Him; but they would not, and so, judgment
fell on them. The King of Babylon sent a
great army into Judea and took the city of Jerusalem, destroying its walls, its
houses, and its temple. He then carried
many of the Jewish population into Babylon, and they became exiles from their
homeland. After several decades, though,
God honored a promise that He had spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah which spoke of
a future king who would allow a large group of the exiles to return to
Jerusalem and rebuild the temple of God.
This was fulfilled when Cyrus, the King of Persia, ascended to the
throne. He commissioned two men to
organize and lead this effort. The one
was Jeshua (also called Joshua) who was a high priest, and Zerubbabel who the
king named governor of the Judean Province of Persia. Both these men were faithful servants of God,
and they organized and led a total of 49,897 Jews 900 miles from Shushan in
Persia to Jerusalem.
When the Jews arrived in
Judea they quickly built the altar of the Lord and began offering daily
sacrifices. They then began work on the
foundation of the temple and finished it in the second year of their arrival. But trouble was brewing.
“Now when the adversaries
of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the
temple unto the LORD God of Israel; then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the
chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek
your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esarhaddon
king of Assur, which brought us up hither.” (Ezra 4:1, 2). One would think that this sounded like a good
thing. These men said they were seeking
the same God as the Jews, they offered sacrifices to Him, and they wanted to
help in the labor. The thing is, the
Jews recognized these men as adversaries
right away and would not let
them help. “But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers
of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto
our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as
king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.” (Ezra 4:3). These men were actually idolaters; and for a
long time, they had mixed elements of Judaism with the religions of the nations
around them. Therefore, the leaders of
the Jews were discerning enough to know that such men would only be at cross
purposes with their mission. In fact,
they could even influence some of the faithful with their evil practices. The House of the Lord is a holy house, and it
requires holy hands to build it! Jesus warned His followers about such folks
saying, “Not every one that saith unto Me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will
of My Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21). For a more in-depth look at the spiritual
principles at play here, read St. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. As children of God, we must learn to be
discerning also. The devil himself often
presents himself as an angel of light, but his intentions are to destroy us!
Israel’s adversaries weren’t
happy at the rejection. Those who are
secretly our adversaries usually don’t like it when we establish boundaries and
standards either. When they can’t
infiltrate the Church to work their mischief, then they may try using the law
to hinder God’s work. In this case, they
wrote a letter to the king telling him what a bad and rebellious people these
Jews were. They accused the Jews of planning
to quit paying tribute to Persia, and perhaps even rising up against the
king. Many kings of Persia had come and
gone since Cyrus had commissioned the temple to be built, and the current king
knew nothing about Cyrus’ decree. So, he
wrote back and commanded that the work in Jerusalem cease. And it ceased for between 15 and 18
years!
Of course, the Jews had no
secret plans to commit sedition or stage an insurrection against their Persian
overlords. They were only acting
according to the word of King Cyrus and building a temple to their God. Before, they were full of joy and gratitude for
the grace that they had been shown by God; but now they were fearful to disobey
this new king’s commands and return to building. Israel’s faith was at a low point during this
period of time. Instead of trusting that
it was God that had shed such grace upon them to return to their homeland and rebuild
their temple, they began to say, “The
time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.” (Haggai
1:2).
In due course, God spoke
through His prophets Haggai and Zechariah to stir the faith of His people. The prophets called out the people for their
unbelief while at the same time encouraging them to trust God and resume
building.
A few passages in
particular in Zechariah are especially descriptive of the Jews’ situation. In chapter three, Zechariah sees a vision of
Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD with Satan
standing beside him to resist him, or as the King James center reference says, “to
be his adversary.” The LORD
rebuked Satan, however, saying that He had chosen Jerusalem and that Joshua was
one of those who had been “plucked out of
the fire.” Joshua was then stripped
of the filthy garments that he was wearing, and clothed with new, clean
garments. This signified his sins being removed
and being replaced with garments of righteousness from the Lord. In chapter four, God addresses Zerubbabel
saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but
by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who
art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he
shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace
unto it. The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou
shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.” (Zechariah 4:6-8).
“Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of
Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God,
and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him,
and the people did fear before the LORD.
Then spake Haggai the LORD’S
messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I am with you,
saith the LORD. And the LORD stirred up
the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit
of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the
remnant of the people; and they came
and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.”
(Haggai 1:12-14). This indeed was faith
in action! God spoke His anointed Word
to His people, they believed it, and they acted according to their faith. In other words, they heard what the Spirit was saying to them and they were
empowered to obey without fear of the consequences.
The result of the Jews’
obedience was that their adversaries wrote another letter to the king
complaining that building had resumed and that the Jews were arguing that King
Cyrus had commissioned them to do this work.
The king, therefore, commanded that a search be made in the archives to
see if any such decree had been made.
Sure enough, they found the record of it; and the king wrote back to say
that they were to leave the Jews alone to complete their work. Their expenses were also to be paid for out of
the king’s tribute!
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