brentsummerhill

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

It does not matter who we are. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (10:13)

And Romans 1-11 make it clear that everyone needs to call on the name of the Lord because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (3:23)

But…

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? (10:14-15)

And yet, they have not all obeyed the gospel. (10:16)

In the language of Paul’s day, the word “obey” is from the root of the verb “to hear”. It meant to place one’s self under what one heard so as to surrender to it. It was used of hearing the door and getting up to open it. It is hearing with consequent action. In regard to the Gospel, it is hearing about Jesus and believing in Him so that the Gospel is obeyed.

Growing up in church I heard the Gospel regularly without hearing the Gospel. Until the night I heard God and hearkened to His voice by believing in His Son. Hearing, I finally heard.

Hearing, do you hear?

“None so deaf as those that will not hear.” (attributed to Matthew Henry)

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

You cannot understand the creation of the universe without faith (3).

You cannot please God without faith (6).

You cannot come to God without faith (6).

The whole of the Christian life is about believing God. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is replete with stories of common men and women, like you and me, trusting God. These are not stories of great people trusting God, but stories of common, sinful people trusting the great God.

The possessor of such faith is so confident in the one in whom he believes, that he gladly surrenders all that he is – body, mind and will – to the person and plan of the one he trusts. Whether it was Abel offering a sacrifice or Noah building a boat or Abraham taking a journey or any of the others named in Hebrews 11, the common link is that they all trusted God. They believed His word and acted upon it.

Hearing God and knowing His perfect will is not about intellect, but about so trusting God with all that we are that we willingly surrender all that we are to Him – our bodies, our minds, our wills on the altar as a living sacrifice.

Do you trust Him that much?

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

We all live in tents. Our bodies are temporary dwelling places. And like aging houses, they begin to creak and groan, worn and weathered by the storms of life. Death looms large and we yearn for something better. We long for this mortal existence to be swallowed up by life (4).

The Christian life is the pilgrim’s life. Never at home in this mortal tent of clay. Longing for our immortal home. Trusting God to get us there.

We walk by faith. Like Abraham, we are on a journey to a place we have not seen. We trust the word of the One who has called us, the One whose spirit indwells us. He has promised and so we walk.

We surrender our body, our mind and our will to Him, trusting that His eternal plans for us are nothing but good. And so trusting Him, “we are always of good courage.” (7)

We are just passing through. We are going home. Jesus knows the way. We follow by faith.

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV)

All other gods are the concoctions of men – carved, forged, hewn, declared. But created creators cannot save. There is no security in them. Created to alleviate fear, they yet leave their creators trembling.

The God of Israel created, called and chose His people. He was not the product of Abraham’s imagination nor was He formed by Abraham’s hand. Jehovah God called Abraham, produced a nation through Him, and even when Israel stumbled, Jehovah God remained their God. This God was not dependent upon the people, rather the people upon Him. (8-9)

And so are we. This God is not who we think He is, but rather who He declares and reveals Himself to be. His existence is not dependent upon us, but rather our existence is dependent upon Him. He created us. He called us to Himself through His only begotten Son. He chose us through Christ Jesus as His people. He is God. He is our God.

When we are frightened, anxious and weak, He is still God. When our eyes are dimmed with tears and the din of the world deafens our ears, He is still God. When we don’t understand and falter on the way, He is still God.

“That’s me!” you say? Quiet yourself and listen for His voice as He says specifically to you, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

… being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ… (Philippians 1:6 NKJV)

When the clouds of suffering, struggle and sorrow are heavy above us, from our perspective God often seems distant. And though our hearts are confident in Him, our flesh tempts us to wonder and doubt whether He still sees us and hears our cries even though we cannot seem to see Him or hear His voice.

The Philippian believers would know suffering, struggle and sorrow. In fact, Paul tells them: For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake… (29)

We, too, will know suffering, struggle and sorrow. But such does not deny our belief in Christ, but rather confirms and strengthens it as we embrace our circumstances for His sake.

Indeed our confidence that God will complete what He has begun in us has nothing to do with our circumstance.

It has to do with God. He called us. He saved us. He secures us. He sanctifies us. He will glorify us.

It has to do with the Gospel (5). Jesus died in our place for our sins that we might be forgiven, justified and reconciled to the Father. What He did for us will not be wasted in us.

It has to do with grace (7). The gift of the Gospel has been freely shared with us by the Father through the Son. We did nothing to merit it. And we live for Him, and yes even suffer for Him, not to retain it, but because we’ve been given it.

So while we will suffer, struggle and sorrow, God will not fail. He sees. He hears. He will complete what He has begun in us. Of this we can be confident.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2 NKJV)

David had spent days and days with his life in imminent danger. Running. Hiding. Learning patience. No doubt fighting the fleshly urge for personal vengeance. Waiting on God. Crying out to God.

In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God. (6)

In the midst of various and difficult circumstances, we all experience long days that run into seemingly longer days. We cry out in distress, wondering and waiting. We sense what David felt: The pangs of death surrounded me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. (4)

But it is in the waiting that we learn He listens to our cries. He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears. (6)

We then learn through experience what we have known by faith, that the Lord is our rock and our fortress and our deliverer.

And together with David we declare, I will love You, O Lord, my strength. (1)

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)

For the Jewish people in exile, hearing the voice of God would at times seem impossible. The prophecy of Isaiah speaks forward to them:

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God”? (27)

When we feel ourselves in exile, whether of our own making or amidst circumstances beyond our control, we find ourselves given to doubt. We wonder: “Does God not see? Does God not speak? Will God be faithful to His Word?”

If that’s you today, read these verses slowly and hear God’s voice through His prophet to you.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (28-31)

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you would not… (Isaiah 30:15)

The theme of Isaiah 30 is one of a rebellious people and a faithful God. Hear what the Lord says of His children:

…this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” (9-11)

The result of their refusal to hear from God would be calamitous collapse.

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perversity, and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant. And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water from the cistern.” (12-14)

And yet, in today’s “Hearing God” verse, He gives the remedy that would avert the calamity.

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

Walking away from God is always toilsome and tiring. Judah, under threat from Assyria, sought protection in an alliance with Egypt though God had already promised to defend His people. Worried and fretful over their earthly circumstance, they sought comfort in an earthly partnership and turned a deaf ear to God.

Sound familiar? As troubling circumstances close in around us and anxiety builds within us, do we get still and listen for God, trusting His Word and His Will? Or do we begin “grasping at straws,” looking for an easy earthly solution to our problems. Straw grasping is wearying to the soul, taxing on the mind and beleaguering to the body.

The answer? Get still and be quiet. Be confident in God, trusting all that you are to all that He is. Hear Him. Believe Him. Obey Him.

“But you would not…”

These haunting words describe the unwillingness of God’s children to repent of their rebellious ways and let go of their earthly struggles. They would rather drive themselves into the ground than listen to the voice of God.

What will you do?

And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!” So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” (Daniel 10:19 NKJV)

Chapter ten of Daniel’s prophecy begins with a word revealed to Daniel, a word that was true and of which was said “the appointed time was long.” The long appointed time referred to extended conflict and great calamity. Daniel’s response was great sorrow and fasting for three weeks. Even when a messenger of the Lord was sent to him, Daniel could only say:

“My lord, because of the vision my sorrows have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength. For how can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me.”

You don’t have to be a prophet to see things that trouble the soul and tire the mind. Conflicts of all kinds rob us of our strength, leaving us with nothing to say and ears too weary to hear.

In the midst of his despair, the Lord’s messenger said to Daniel: “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!”

Child of God, you too are greatly beloved. God has given His Son for you and His Son has given you His peace. Fear not the circumstances that beset you and calamities that befall you. Be strong. Listen. And you will hear your Father’s voice.

It is Sunday. She is grieving. Not only had He died, but now it appeared His body had been stolen.

Jesus had delivered her from seven demons. She had invested her life in following Him. And now He and His body were gone. Her tears blinded her to the reality of angels and the nearness of her Savior.

Until He said her name, “Mary.”

(John 20:11-16)

It is Sunday. Hearts still grieve. Tears still flow. He still lives.

Listen for your name.