Romans 10:14b
"…and how shall they believe in Him of who they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?" We know the Greek has a better definition, we think its, proclaimer. Someone that proclaims the Truth. How can they hear without a proclaimer? Now verse 15.
Romans 10:15-16a "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? (now Who is involved? Well, God. The Holy Spirit, see?) as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach (or proclaim) the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel…."
Regardless of what good news it was. Now, remember, when Abraham believed God, He didn’t believe the Gospel as we understand it. He didn’t believe that Christ would die and be buried and raised from the dead. How could he? It hadn’t happened. But, he believed what God said. And what did God tell him? "Leave Ur and I will make of you a great nation." And, Abraham, in Romans 4 says, believed God! That’s all! He believed God! And what did God do? Called him a righteous man. Just on the basis of his trust. That’s where we get our little cliche "Faith + Nothing!" It all began with Abram/Abraham. It dropped out of sight for centuries, but now in the Age of Grace, it comes back again. And we, like Abraham, are saved by trusting His faithfulness + nothing! So, how do we hear it? Well, we have to have someone proclaim it. We have to have the Holy Spirit behind it. Alright, now then, verse 17. Here is the answer to our dilemma. This is the place for the key upon which Jesus said that His Church would be built and Peter received the inspiration by way of revelation, the faith of Christ. (Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16, 3:22, Revelation 14:12)
Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
So by trust in the Truth, or just, taking God at His Word, comes our hearing. We’ve got to hear it to understand it. That’s why we’ve got this Book. That’s why God gave it to us. That’s why we don’t have to put your Bible on the shelf and say well, "I’ll just wait for the preacher to tell me." No! You may have to have someone explain some of these things to you which is pertinent but we’ve got the Word of God in your hand. Search the Scriptures, and see if these things are true.
Lets stop here a moment and look at the word "hear":
Strong's Greek number G189 with a base G191 we'll look at the base word: akouō
Thayer Definition:
1) to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf
2) to hear
2b) to attend to, consider what is or has been said
2c) to understand, perceive the sense of what is said
3) to hear something
3a) to perceive by the ear what is announced in one’s presence
3b) to get by hearing, learn (Matthew 11:25-30(29)
3c) a thing comes to one’s ears, to find out, learn
3d) to give ear to a teaching or a teacher
3e) to comprehend, to understand
Part of Speech: verb
One more word for us to consider Word of God: rhēma
Strong's Greek number G4487 form the base of G4483
Thayer Definition:
1) that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word
1a) any sound produced by the voice and having definite meaning
1b) speech, discourse
1b1) what one has said
1c) a series of words joined together into a sentence (a declaration of one’s mind made in words)
1c1) an utterance
1c2) a saying of any sort as a message, a narrative
1c2a) concerning some occurrence
2) subject matter of speech, thing spoken of
2a) so far forth as it is a matter of narration
2b) so far as it is a matter of command
2c) a matter of dispute, case at law (Jeremiah 31:34)
Alright, so verse 17 again.
Romans 10:17
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
And it’s only the Word of God that can bring salvation to the human race. And again, I guess we should use that verse that we've referred to many times over in Acts. Acts chapter 16, and Paul is up there in the area of Northern Greece - today’s Macedonia, which is in the news again every day. He’s up in Northern Macedonia, in the city of Philippi. Now verse 14, and we think it is apropos for every believer to pray the same thing that we do, on the basis of this verse. Lord, give us Lydias. Alright, here it is.
Acts 16:14
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, (see, she had a certain amount of religion, but she didn’t have salvation) heard us; whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul."
Now analyze that verse. Had not the Lord opened her heart, even a man like the Apostle Paul - would he have gotten through to her? No way. Great preacher, evangelist,and missionary that he was, had the Lord not opened her heart, she would have been just as lost the next day as she was the day before. But, God intervened and opened her heart. Let’s go back to Matthew 16. Alright and here we have Jesus dealing with the Twelve. And, we have Peter’s confession of his trusting by an inward knowing. Matthew 16 verse 16.
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