So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith for salvation comes by hearing God's word proclaimed by those sent to preach it, for calling on the Lord requires believing, believing requires hearing, and hearing requires preaching, while the Spirit works on heart and will to make the truth the means of conversion. Faith does not start with human beings but is God's gift, founded on His word and finished by it, and it grows by being exercised in receiving and appropriating what God has promised. The heard word profits only when it is received into a good and honest heart and mixed with faith, searched out in the Scriptures with prayer and a willingness to lay aside human opinion, rather than shut out by evil surmising, criticism of the messengers, and picking at the message. It is to be believed on the strength of trustworthy testimony and the word itself, not by waiting for feeling, emotion, or sight, for the Spirit impresses the mind through the promise and gives new life to resist the tempter. Received with the whole heart and obeyed, that word becomes life itself, transforming thoughts, feelings, and motives, sanctifying character, connecting the believer with heaven, and giving strength through Christ to resist temptation and every sinful trait.
Faith Comes by Hearing
Faith in Christ for salvation comes by hearing God's word proclaimed by a preacher, for belief in Christ is the world's only hope. Calling on the Lord for salvation requires believing, believing requires hearing, and hearing requires preaching, through preachers sent to preach the gospel of peace. The truth must be made known in order for people to believe and be saved, and God uses it as the instrument of conversion while the Holy Spirit works upon the heart and will.
Faith to grasp God's promises comes by hearing the word of God and not by feeling. No one should wait for some great change to take place or expect to feel some wonderful emotion, for the Spirit of God works by making an impression on the mind through the word. Believing the promise and saying I am the lost sheep Jesus came to save brings a new life that gives strength to resist the tempter. Faith does not originate with human beings nor proceed from them, but is a gift of God. God's word is both its foundation and its finisher, and faith grows by exercising it in receiving and appropriating the word, for God's gifts are contained in His promises so that receiving a promise means receiving the gift contained in it.
Faith now comes through hearing the word of God in the testimony of others, without seeing Jesus with one's own eyes. To refuse trustworthy testimony until personal sight is demanded is unbelief. People are to be won to belief through preaching and teaching the Bible, not forced to believe, as when Waldensian missionaries spread the gospel by teaching the Scriptures.
Receiving the Heard Word
Faith comes by hearing present truth that is now due, the message of the third angel, and hearing means searching the Scriptures, laying aside human opinion to be governed by Bible teaching, and seeking God in prayer in order not to be deceived. Unbelief rejects the very truth necessary for salvation, as was seen at Christ's first advent, and it is a barrier to spiritual prosperity that must be abandoned while faith is encouraged.
The Bible must therefore be studied in faith, with drawing nigh to God, humbling the heart before Him, and asking for an understanding heart to know and believe and obey every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Earnest study gives correct knowledge of God's character and will, defines human duty and destiny, and states the conditions for eternal life and the doom of those who neglect salvation. The word must be received with the understanding and the whole heart as life itself and be incorporated into a person's very existence.
The heard word gives faith only when it is received into good and honest hearts and mixed with faith in those who hear it. When hearers cherish evil surmising, talk at random, criticize the messengers and pick defects in the message, they bar the word out of the heart so it does not profit them and they receive no blessing but fall into unbelief and disobedience to the gospel. Every human agent is responsible to God to educate himself aright and to use his reasoning powers to know what he ought to know and believe what he ought to believe. God's governmental laws and the terms and conditions of salvation are authoritative, plain, decided, and far-reaching, and cannot be evaded, changed, or lessened by complaint, by false training in belief, by questioning, doubting, and criticizing, or by a plea of innocence and irresponsibility. Educating oneself in questioning, doubting, and criticizing strengthens infidelity and leaves a man bound and unable to recover himself from Satan's snare, yet doubting a truth does not change the fact or repeal God's law or release a man from God's claim upon him.
Studying God's promises and taking them as one's own builds abiding confidence in God, steadies the believer against temptation, and roots the life in the truths that sanctify character and shape life. Gospel preaching gives spiritual nourishment as food for hearers, but overly long discourses can weary them while a shorter presentation can benefit them more.
Transformed Life by Faith
Faith that comes by hearing God's word is the great agency by which the Spirit brings thorough change of heart and life, working with human cooperation to sanctify the believer. When the word is studied and obeyed it subdues unholy traits and forms new thoughts, feelings, and motives without destroying personal identity. Receiving its truth with an open heart transforms character, and the believer's works then testify that he is born of God.
The faith thus arising in the heart works through love for Christ, while the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and conforms the whole person to Christ's image. That inward work does not end with the individual, but leads those who have received truth to share it with others.
This faith connects the soul with heaven and gives strength through Christ to resist temptation, the powers of darkness, and every sinful trait. God has provided in Christ the means to overcome all such temptation and sin. Those who feel helpless, unworthy, or lacking in faith are therefore not to stay away, but to come helplessly to Christ trusting His mercy rather than themselves, and He will receive them.
Such hearing keeps believers steadfast in the faith once delivered to the saints, walking with Jesus in a pleasant life of piety and devotion without becoming careless or deficient. It enables parents to stand together as united, wise teachers of their children, always acting from principle and never from impulse.
Hearing the word of life softens hearts and leads to accepting Christ as healer of the soul, as when patients hear it in a sanitarium church. Received with the understanding and the whole heart as life itself and incorporated into one's very existence, the word humbles the person at the footstool of mercy and separates him from every corrupting influence.
Faith for salvation comes by hearing God's word proclaimed by those sent to preach it, for calling on the Lord requires believing, believing requires hearing, and hearing requires preaching, while the Spirit works on heart and will to make the truth the means of conversion. Faith does not start with human beings but is God's gift, founded on His word and finished by it, and it grows by being exercised in receiving and appropriating what God has promised. The heard word profits only when it is received into a good and honest heart and mixed with faith, searched out in the Scriptures with prayer and a willingness to lay aside human opinion, rather than shut out by evil surmising, criticism of the messengers, and picking at the message. It is to be believed on the strength of trustworthy testimony and the word itself, not by waiting for feeling, emotion, or sight, for the Spirit impresses the mind through the promise and gives new life to resist the tempter. Received with the whole heart and obeyed, that word becomes life itself, transforming thoughts, feelings, and motives, sanctifying character, connecting the believer with heaven, and giving strength through Christ to resist temptation and every sinful trait.
Faith Comes by Hearing
Faith in Christ for salvation comes by hearing God's word proclaimed by a preacher, for belief in Christ is the world's only hope. Calling on the Lord for salvation requires believing, believing requires hearing, and hearing requires preaching, through preachers sent to preach the gospel of peace. The truth must be made known in order for people to believe and be saved, and God uses it as the instrument of conversion while the Holy Spirit works upon the heart and will.
Faith to grasp God's promises comes by hearing the word of God and not by feeling. No one should wait for some great change to take place or expect to feel some wonderful emotion, for the Spirit of God works by making an impression on the mind through the word. Believing the promise and saying I am the lost sheep Jesus came to save brings a new life that gives strength to resist the tempter. Faith does not originate with human beings nor proceed from them, but is a gift of God. God's word is both its foundation and its finisher, and faith grows by exercising it in receiving and appropriating the word, for God's gifts are contained in His promises so that receiving a promise means receiving the gift contained in it.
Faith now comes through hearing the word of God in the testimony of others, without seeing Jesus with one's own eyes. To refuse trustworthy testimony until personal sight is demanded is unbelief. People are to be won to belief through preaching and teaching the Bible, not forced to believe, as when Waldensian missionaries spread the gospel by teaching the Scriptures.
Receiving the Heard Word
Faith comes by hearing present truth that is now due, the message of the third angel, and hearing means searching the Scriptures, laying aside human opinion to be governed by Bible teaching, and seeking God in prayer in order not to be deceived. Unbelief rejects the very truth necessary for salvation, as was seen at Christ's first advent, and it is a barrier to spiritual prosperity that must be abandoned while faith is encouraged.
The Bible must therefore be studied in faith, with drawing nigh to God, humbling the heart before Him, and asking for an understanding heart to know and believe and obey every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Earnest study gives correct knowledge of God's character and will, defines human duty and destiny, and states the conditions for eternal life and the doom of those who neglect salvation. The word must be received with the understanding and the whole heart as life itself and be incorporated into a person's very existence.
The heard word gives faith only when it is received into good and honest hearts and mixed with faith in those who hear it. When hearers cherish evil surmising, talk at random, criticize the messengers and pick defects in the message, they bar the word out of the heart so it does not profit them and they receive no blessing but fall into unbelief and disobedience to the gospel. Every human agent is responsible to God to educate himself aright and to use his reasoning powers to know what he ought to know and believe what he ought to believe. God's governmental laws and the terms and conditions of salvation are authoritative, plain, decided, and far-reaching, and cannot be evaded, changed, or lessened by complaint, by false training in belief, by questioning, doubting, and criticizing, or by a plea of innocence and irresponsibility. Educating oneself in questioning, doubting, and criticizing strengthens infidelity and leaves a man bound and unable to recover himself from Satan's snare, yet doubting a truth does not change the fact or repeal God's law or release a man from God's claim upon him.
Studying God's promises and taking them as one's own builds abiding confidence in God, steadies the believer against temptation, and roots the life in the truths that sanctify character and shape life. Gospel preaching gives spiritual nourishment as food for hearers, but overly long discourses can weary them while a shorter presentation can benefit them more.
Transformed Life by Faith
Faith that comes by hearing God's word is the great agency by which the Spirit brings thorough change of heart and life, working with human cooperation to sanctify the believer. When the word is studied and obeyed it subdues unholy traits and forms new thoughts, feelings, and motives without destroying personal identity. Receiving its truth with an open heart transforms character, and the believer's works then testify that he is born of God.
The faith thus arising in the heart works through love for Christ, while the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and conforms the whole person to Christ's image. That inward work does not end with the individual, but leads those who have received truth to share it with others.
This faith connects the soul with heaven and gives strength through Christ to resist temptation, the powers of darkness, and every sinful trait. God has provided in Christ the means to overcome all such temptation and sin. Those who feel helpless, unworthy, or lacking in faith are therefore not to stay away, but to come helplessly to Christ trusting His mercy rather than themselves, and He will receive them.
Such hearing keeps believers steadfast in the faith once delivered to the saints, walking with Jesus in a pleasant life of piety and devotion without becoming careless or deficient. It enables parents to stand together as united, wise teachers of their children, always acting from principle and never from impulse.
Hearing the word of life softens hearts and leads to accepting Christ as healer of the soul, as when patients hear it in a sanitarium church. Received with the understanding and the whole heart as life itself and incorporated into one's very existence, the word humbles the person at the footstool of mercy and separates him from every corrupting influence.