06.05. "Hearing [Cometh] by the Word of God"

"Hearing [Cometh] by the Word of God" In speaking of old time to the fathers by the Prophets, God spoke in many parts and in many ways. He spoke in command, in warning, in expostulation, in reproach, in encouragement, in judgment, in prophecy, in promise, and in grace. Of those who heard, "some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed not," some obeyed and some were disobedient.

God also spoke at many times and on many subjects: and the faith of each one who believed what He said was exercised in a different direction. In the case of Enoch we are not told what God said to him. From the remote context, the last Epistle of the New Testament (Jude 1:14), it would seem that it was about the coming of the Lord with all His saints. Whatever it was, Enoch believed God; and from the still remoter context, the first book of the Old Testament, we learn that His faith in this blessed fact resulted in His walk with God (Gen 5:24). In the case of Abraham, God spoke in command and in promise. The command was to leave his own country; and the promise was that he should have a son. In the case of the Parents of Moses, God must also have promised a son; and must have so described him, that, when the child was born, they knew that it corresponded with what God had said. In this way each speaking of God was the occasion of hearing, the hearing of faith. The responsibility of each was to believe what was heard. The record concerning Abraham "the father of the faithful" is that, "by the hearing of faith... Abraham believed God, and it was accounted (or, imputed) to him for righteousness" (Gal 3:5-6). This must be the experience of all true believers. They must "believe God," and not man. They must believe what God says and has said; and not the traditions of men. To "believe God" is not necessarily to believe or rehearse a "Belief." The popular question, "Do we believe?" is thus seen to be as absurd as it is meaningless.

If we answer this by asking, "Believe what? Believe whom?" the emptiness of the question is at once exposed.

These are the questions for us today.

"Abraham Believed God" Do we believe God?

God has told us that there is "no good thing" in man (Rom 7:18). Pulpit, Platform and Press, with one voice declare that there is some good thing in man.[9] Whom do we believe?

[9] At a convention of "The Alpha Union" for the development of the New Theology, held at Penmaenmaur on August 3^rd, 1907. The founder described it as being "a re-asserting of the essential divinity in man."

God has told us that He created the heavens and the earth and all that is therein (Gen 1:1-31, Isa 45:18). Man tells that it was all evolved, apart from God. Whom do we believe? The Lord Jesus said "no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father" (John 6:65). Man says every man can come. Whom do we believe? The Lord Jesus said, "God is spirit: and they that worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit" (John 4:24). Man says that worship must be by "acts of worship" which the flesh can perform. Whom do we believe? The Holy Spirit declares that "there is one Body" (Eph 4:2-4). Man makes and insists of having many bodies. Whom do we believe? The Holy Spirit gives the solemn charge by Paul, "Preach the word... for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine" (2Ti 4:2-3). That time has come, and man says that "Preachers must find something that man will endure," and "must preach something other than ‘the Word.’" "We can afford to pay for it, why should we not have it?" Whom do we believe?

God declares that these last times are "perilous times" when "evil men and deceivers shall wax worse and worse" (2Ti 3:1; 2Ti 3:13). Man says the times were never more full of promise for good; and are getting better and better every year. Whom do we believe?

"The spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons" (1Ti 4:1). Man, in these "latter times" tells us on every hand that these are not "spirits" (i.e. evil angels) or "demons," but the "departed spirits" of human beings and we are exhorted and invited on every hand to "give heed" to them. Whom do we believe?

God said to our first parents "ye shall surely die" (Gen 2:16). The old serpent said "ye shall not surely die" (Gen 3:4). And all his "ministers" today with one voice repeat that lie, and teach it as God’s truth. Their creed is expressed for them in the words—

"There is no death,
What seems so is transition." Whom do we believe? The Prophetic word declares concerning the resurrection of "the rest of the dead" that they "lived not again until the thousand years were finished" (Rev 20:5). Man declares they are alive all the time without any resurrection. Whom do we believe? The Holy Spirit declares that this world is a dark place, and that, the prophetic word being the only light in it we "do well that we take heed" to it (2Pe 1:19). The vast majority of preachers declare that the prophetic word is the "dark place" and we do well to avoid it. Whom do we believe?

God declares that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1Jn 1:9). The majority of Christians, though they habitually say with their lips, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins," yet refuse to believe God, and tell us that "no one can ever know that he is forgiven." Thus, they "make God a liar," and say, practically, "Lord, I am not going to believe what Thou Sayest in 1Jn 1:9, until I have some evidence in my own feelings, that what Thou Sayest is true!"

They thus believe their own feelings, but refuse to believe God’s pledged Word. Which are we believing?

These examples might well be extended, and other illustrations might be found.[10] For, inasmuch as Isa 55:8 is true, and man’s thoughts and ways are the opposite of God’s, we may always ask: Whom do we believe?

[10] Notably 1Jn 5:12. This was the question for Israel at Kadesh-Barnea. Moses had told the people how God had said: "Go up and possess the land which I have given you, but ye rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice" (Deu 9:23).

We seldom think of the awe-inspiring solemnity of the words: "So we see that they entered not in because of unbelief" (Heb 3:19).

God spoke to Israel and said: "Go up and possess the Land. Go up over the hill-country of the Amorites." It was a solemn moment; ever to be remembered.

"Today, if ye will hear His Voice"

They heard His voice that day. He said: "Go up. Enter into My rest. Yet, in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God" (Deu 1:32). As those words of Psa 95:1-11 (called the Venite) are sung week by week (generally as rapidly as the words can be got out of the mouth) how few stop to think of the solemnity of their meaning! "Forty years long was I grieved with that generation!"

Yes! Forty years of wandering. And why? Because they believed the evil report of ten men, instead of two who witnessed to the truth of God’s good report which HE HAD ALREADY GIVEN OF THAT LAND.

True, they did enter at last. After long years of wandering they crossed the Jordan on the East when they might have entered by the hill-country of the Amorites from the South 37½ years before! And when Peter made the proclamation in Acts 3:19-21 and called on the nation to "Repent;" and gave God’s promise that He would send Jesus Christ, and times of refreshing should come from the presence of the Lord; the people were at another Kadesh-Barnea! They were, again, face to face with another command, and promise of the Lord. And a way was open over (as it were) "the hill-country of the Amorites." This was the Parousia or Coming of the Lord, made known to faith in the first and earliest of all the Epistles of Paul, and made known by a special revelation in 1Th 4:13-18; 1Th 5:1-11. This was something better than "the hill country of the Amorites," and it was far, far better than crossing by Jordan. For, this would have been a going up indeed! It was entering the heavenly Canaan without going through Jordan, "the grave and gate of death" to resurrection. This was a hope for those who were alive and remained. That is why the Apostle could say: "WE, which are alive and remain": for, how was he to know but what the nation would Repent; and that he would really be among those who were alive, and would go up over the hill-country, yea, in the clouds of heaven, without dying, or crossing Jordan? As 1Th 4:1-18 was the Kadesh-Barnea of believers in that day, and Israel as a people did not thus "go up." So is Php 3:10; Php 3:14; Php 3:20-21, our Kadesh-Barnea "today, if we will hear His voice."

Thousands of Christians refuse to believe His voice. They agree in affirming that the only way of entering Canaan is by crossing the Jordan, the river of death. Some few of them go on to believe that it is by death and resurrection. But, how few believe that "God has prepared some better thing for us." In writing to the believers in Thessalonica in A.D. 52, while Peter’s offer of the kingdom, made in Acts 3:19-21, was still before the nation, and before its formal withdrawal, in Acts 28:23-28, nothing could be added to the revelation then made in 1Th 4:1-18. But after that withdrawal of the offer from Israel, and the sending of the Salvation of God to the Gentiles, the question is, was any further revelation to be made? Had God exhausted the riches of His grace and of His glory? Had He nothing more to make known to His children? May we not gather our answer to these questions from our Lord’s words in John 14:12, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."

Why could the disciples not bear them at that time? Because He was still alive. The corn of wheat had not yet fallen into the ground and died (John 12:24). Because He had not yet risen again from the dead. On those facts rested important doctrines. Until therefore the events had taken place, those doctrines could not be made known. Was it not even so in the case of 1Th 4:1-18? Had not certain events to take place before any fresh revelation of truth would be made known? Had not the formal withdrawal of Peter’s offer to take place? and then, would not the way be open for further revelations to be made? Ought we not, reasoning from John 14:12, to look for something fresh from the treasures of God’s grace and glory? Surely we ought. And, if we do, we find that, when the Apostle was in prison in Rome, those revelations were given to him; secrets hidden from men for generations, and "hid in God," were made known: The great mystery or secret concerning Christ and the Church. In that Roman Prison precious secrets were revealed for the Apostle’s, and for our own comfort and faith and hope. And the question again arises: Do We Believe God? Shall we be like Israel at Kadesh-Barnea? Shall we believe God speaking through Paul as He spoke through Caleb and Joshua? Or shall we believe the majority, as Israel believed the majority of the spies? Shall we say that when Paul wrote 1Th 4:1-18 God had nothing fresh to reveal, in the face of the fact that up to that time we have not a breath of the mystery? Not a word as to the revelation and teaching given to us in Ephesians? Did Paul himself know anything about it until he was inspired to inscribe it in his book and his parchments (2Ti 4:13)? Does not this tell us that the objects of our faith are WRITTEN DOWN in the Scriptures of truth, and not handed down by the traditions of men? And did the Epistle to the Ephesians contain all that God had to reveal? Is there nothing new in Philippians?

What is the ἐξανάαστασις (exanastasis) or resurrection and translation in Php 3:10, at which the Apostle so desired to arrive?

What is the "prize" of the "calling on high" (τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως (tēs anō klēsiōs?) Php 3:14. The A.V. and R.V. have obscured this by translating it "high" as though it were an adjective; whereas it is an adverb, and should be rendered upward (as R.V. margin) or on high. Was not the Apostle’s goal conformity to Christ in glory? Is this the same as 1Th 4:1-18? or, Is it something additional? The whole context seems to show that the Apostle was reaching forth to something set before him, and forgetting the things behind him. He did not reckon that he had laid hold of it; but he pressed toward the goal. He had not already reached it, but he was following on so that he might lay hold of that, for which he was himself laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

If we read carefully Php 3:10-15, may we gather that we have some fresh revelation of glory hinted at? and, Is it because we have been trying to identify it with 1Th 4:1-18 that the passage (Php 3:1-21) has always been more or less of a difficulty with all of us?

If, then, Faith cometh by hearing what God hath spoken, let us "today hear His voice," that we may enter into His rest.