March 28, 2004
Morning Worship
Text: Romans 10:17
Subject: Hearing the Word
Title: A Change of Attitude
Have you ever considered how people learn? There have been many studies done on that subject. People learn in different ways. It doesn’t mean that one will learn from listening and another from reading, but that people assimilate information in different ways. That is one of the problems that teachers have; they must attempt to teach in a way that students with different learning techniques can be taught appropriately. One thing that experts do agree on:
We retain 20% of what we read.
We retain 20% of what we hear
We retain 30% of what we see
We retain 50% of what we see and hear.
Scientists have spent many hours and dollars on this topic. And I find it interesting that there is such a variance in the ability to learn. Perhaps that is why, as we read the Bible, we retain mostly what we have heard repeatedly i.e. “you are saved by grace and not by works.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” How did you come to memorize those passages? For some it was constant repetition in Sunday school. For others it has been from continually hearing those passages in church or while reading them. Repetition is one of the best ways for us to learn.
Now let’s skip to another subject. Believing! We have read all the aforementioned passages repeatedly. We can quote them frontward and backwards. We read, we study, we talk, and we do Bible studies. But at what point does knowledge turn to faith? We learn by retaining information… but Faith Comes By Hearing the Word of God.
Romans 10:17, “So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” NIV, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
I. THE PURPOSE OF THE WORD
A. To Teach You God’s Will For Your Life. . 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness… that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Bible has been given to you as God’s revelation of Himself to man for equipping you for ministry (every good work). Last Sunday night I spoke about the ministry gifts that God has given the church. “Some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” The purpose is to equip the saints for works of ministry. How are these people who are given to you supposed to get you to that point? By teaching you the word of God. “FAITH COMES BY HEARING…”
B. To Bring You Back to God’s Will for Your Life. Psalm 119:11, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” What does it mean to hide God’s word in your heart? It requires study. Repetition. Memorization. Those are all good things, but if that were enough wouldn’t it say, “I have hidden your word in my head”? There is nothing wrong with memorization; in fact, I believe we are required to do that, so the Holy Spirit can bring to our remembrance the Word of God. But we are not told to hide it in our heads. But in our hearts. How do we transfer what we have in our heads to our hearts? By faith! FAITH COMES BY HEARING.
C. To Confirm God’s Will For Your Life. Do you know what God’s will for your life is? I’m not talk about generalities but specifics. Generally speaking we know the word says we are to be witnesses, to love one another, to care for one another. But what is God’s will for you specifically? How can you know God’s will for your life? There are many ways to discern God’s will for you and every one of them deals with what God has to say. 1) Be familiar with the word of God. If you feel led in a direction that does not line up with God’s word back off, you are going the wrong direction. A case in point – A man at a revival meeting walked up to Kenneth Hagin one time and said, “Brother Hagin, I know that it is God’s will for me to marry this certain young woman. Now how do I go about getting her divorced from her husband?” Friends that’s not God’s will. 2) We can know His will through prayer. It is when we sit and listen and experience the peace of God as it rules in your hearts (Colossians 3:15) that we can know we are in His will. Again, line it up with God’s word. 3) Through godly counselors. Proverbs 19:20, “Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days.” 4) Circumstances, the inner voice of the Spirit speaking to us, dreams. All must line up with the word. FAITH COMES BY HEARING!
II. THE POWER OF THE WORD.
A. The Word is God Breathed. I really appreciate the way the NIV translates 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed…” In the NKJV, it says, “given by inspiration of God”. The Greek word is Theopneusotos and is a compound word. Theos=God + pneo=to breathe. The scriptures come straight from God’s mouth. That is the reason I appreciate the bumper sticker that says, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” Liberal theologians have a problem accepting the Scriptures as God literal word. They say we have to take so much into consideration when we study. It is true that there are some things that we need to consider. For instance, in 2 Samuel 5:19 David inquired of the Lord if he should go up against the Philistines and the Lord said, “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.” Does that mean that we are to attack the Philistines? NO, but we have a promise that we can go up against our enemy because the battle has already been won. We can be sure that the promises of God are ours to own. Many years ago in a Moscow theater, matinee idol Alexander Rostovzev was converted while playing the role of Jesus in a sacrilegious play entitled Christ in a Tuxedo. He was supposed to read two verses from the Sermon on the Mount, remove his gown, and cry out, "Give me my tuxedo and top hat!" But as he read the words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," he began to tremble. Instead of following the script, he kept reading from Matthew 5, ignoring the coughs, calls, and foot-stamping of his fellow actors. Finally, recalling a verse he had learned in his childhood in a Russian Orthodox church, he cried, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom!" (Luke 23:42). Before the curtain could be lowered, Rostovzev had trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. FAITH COMES BY HEARING.
B. The Word is Christ Accepted. Jesus knew that the scriptures were from God. He quoted them with authority. Jesus affirmed that what He spoke came from the Father. John 7:16, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” Jesus knew that the new covenant would bring and end to God’s inspired word, but fulfillment. Even when being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus used scripture to defend Himself. “It is written!”. He knew that what He spoke was the word of God. When Jesus called Lazarus from the grave whose word was it? Paul says it is “God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.”
C. The Word is Spirit Inspired. 2 Peter 1:20-21, “…no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of men, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The words written in the Bible are not the words of men. They are from the Holy Spirit. I want you to understand how that worked though. These were God’s words spoken by the Holy Spirit to men. But these men of God were not just writing tape-recorded messages. They wrote in their own style, influenced by their own personalities. Does that make the word any less real? NO! To me it becomes more real. Why? Because men with different personalities, and different backgrounds, and different abilities, wrote what turns out to be a book that influences lives without contradicting itself. What other book has been written by at least 40 authors over 1600 years with such perfect unity of thought? They had faith that came by hearing.
III. THE PERMANENCE OF THE WORD.
A. The Word at the Beginning of Time. If you go back to the Genesis account of creation, each day of creation had something in common. “God said…” The creative word of God has always been, but became evident on earth during creation. God spoke – it became a reality. God’s word is still a creative force in the world. Men and women, boys and girls all over the world are being transformed by the word of God as we speak.
B. The Word in History. God has been speaking to man from the beginning of time. At first it was speaking and walking with Adam in fellowship in the garden. Then He called Abraham to be the father of many nations. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He spoke words of correction through the prophets. We have God promises to help us in our Christian walk. And we have the prophetic word of Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah and John the Revelator of the things that are yet to come. God began history by speaking and will end it with a word. Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” God will have the last say.
C. The Word in Eternity. What happens when the world as we know it ends? When we see Jesus face to face and stand in the presence of Almighty God will the words written in the Bible still be relevant? All we need to do is turn to Matthew 24 to see the answer. In verse 36 Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” Jesus was sure about that, He even said that every minute detail of the word would stand. “Not one jot or tittle will by no means pass away from the law till all is fulfilled.” I fully expect that our time in eternity will be restored precisely to what God intended the Garden of Eden to be like. God will walk with us and talk with us. The interesting thing to note is that whatever God says will never contradict what is written in the Scriptures. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” You can trust that is true because God said it. “FAITH COMES BY HEARING AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD.”
The following letter was found in a baking-power can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada’s Amargosa Desert: "This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. P.S. Don’t go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you’ll git all you can hold."
Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, The Edge of Adventure.
Folks, people spend their entire lives trying to find the meaning of life, fulfillment in their lives, and searching for God. That’s religion. But God has done something very different than most people would ever consider. He has spent all of history searching for you. That’s Christianity. Even as Christians, we seek answers. We want to hear from God. We want to know His will. He has provided for that. It is the book that graces many a coffee table. Pick it up. Blow the dust off of it. Open it up and read the very words of Almighty God. “Prime the pump and you’ll git all you can hold”! Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
