"Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17)

 We all have faith in something, but what our faith is in depends on what or who we're listening to. If we listen to the world then chances are we have faith in the world's system. We will let it dictate our thoughts, our actions and even our bodies. However, if we depend on the word of God and what he has spoken to determine our present reality then we operate in an entirely different realm, the realm of victorious faith.

 Hebrews 11:6 says, "without faith it is impossible to please God..." so on this basis we can deduct that faith is what pleases God. The verse goes on to say, "because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him ( Hebrews 11:6 ). Believing in Jesus takes faith. In today's passage Paul tells us that faith comes through hearing the Word of God. Paul is talking about saving faith. The message of Christ is the only thing that can produces this type of faith. We must hear it, receive it, believe it and lastly confess it. This is "the word of faith we are proclaiming: if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved ( Romans 10:8, Romans 10:9 ). This marvelous miracle happens when you humbly receive the word of God planted in you that has the power to save you ( James 1:21 ).

The Word of God is a faith builder. The more you hear it, the more encouraged in your faith you become. The word of God is likened unto a seed that is sown into our hearts. If we receive and cultivate the soil in which it is planted, the seed will yield proportionally to what was sown ( Matthew 13:23, Mark 4:14-20, Luke 8:11-15 ). This is the law of harvest, what is reaped is not a 1:1 ratio of seed to fruit. One seed will bear much fruit if the conditions are right. And the fruit will contain more seed regenerating itself. In the same way, the word of God planted in your heart will bring its abundance into your life proportionally to what has been sown. And the fruit of these blessings will regenerate into the lives of others.

Planting the word of God into your heart is so important. Peter said, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" ( II Peter 1:3-4 ). Through Christ we have great and precious promises but these come through the knowledge of him who has called us. If we don't know what these promises are then we will never escape the corruption in the world. Paul told Timothy, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" ( II Timothy 3:16-17 ). The word of God equips us for this life. It is the breath of God and it is everything we need to live. Jesus said, the words I speak to you are life ( John 6:63 ). Above all else, we need the word of God planted in our hearts otherwise we will not grow in faith, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God ( Romans 10:17 ).

Are you listening to the world as your basis for living? Or, are you listening to God? Faith comes by hearing and if you are only hearing the negativity of the news then that's the faith you will have. If you're only taking in the chaos on the television, set then you will have disorder in your life. The seed determines the crop not the soil. If you don't like what's growing in your garden, then plant something else. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" ( Galatians 5:22-23 ). These fruits come by planting the word of God in your heart and letting it grow.

Reading the Bible and hearing the Word is a wonderful adventure. It is my prayer that you take these seeds of life and starting planting them. Meditate on today's verse until God makes it alive in your heart.  When you do you will see your crops grow, first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head then you will know that the harvest has come ( Mark 4:28-29 ). May you be blessed in abundance, amen!

"But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" (Romans 10:16)

What a disheartening thing to know that not everyone will accept Christ Jesus as Lord. Eventually they will confess this with their mouths ( Philippians 2:11 ) but the timeframe to accept this gospel message is while we are in the world. Christ came to redeem the world, although he knew, not everyone would accept him. John said, "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God ( John 1:11-13 ). Jesus came first to the nation of Israel and proclaimed peace between them and God. However they received him not.

Paul says the same thing in today's passage, "not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" ( Romans 10:16 ). Isaiah foretold that the Israelites would reject Jesus. Paul is quoting from Isaiah 53, which is a passage about Jesus. This is one of the most powerful chapters in the entire Old Testament. It foretold everything Jesus would suffer on the cross. Isaiah starts out this beautiful word with saying, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  ( Isaiah 53:1-3 ). Christ knew that his own people would reject him and esteem him not. Yet he still came to redeem them, what a marvelous thing.

Why did the Israelites reject Jesus? For us we can look back through the Old Testament with Jesus as our filter and identify every passage that was spoken about him. We can even read these passages out loud to others without telling them where they were found and the listener can tell you that it is talking about Christ, often the assumption is that the passage is actually the New Testament. However, the Israelites read these same passages but looked for something entirely different than what Christ turned out to be. They were looking for a warrior king and not a servant. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, that Word fell on deaf ears, fulfilling what Isaiah prophesied about them. " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." ( Isaiah 6:9-10 ).

Jesus spoke about the same truth in the parable of the sower of the seed. There are four kinds of soil and depending on the condition of the soil is whether or not the seed grows and bears fruit. Jesus spoke this parable to this nation and when the disciples asked him what was meant by it, he quoted this passage in Isaiah. He spoke to them in parables because of the condition of their heart which kept them blind and deaf to these amazing truths. If their heart would have been ready to hear it, he would have turned and healed them.

Israel in this case was the first kind of soil. The farmer went out to sow seed but it fell upon the path and the birds ate it up quickly. When Jesus told this parable to the disciples he explained... "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved" ( Luke 8:11-12, Mark 4:13-18 ). Jesus told in Matthew's version the reason the seed is quickly stolen, "When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path" ( Matthew 13:18-19 ). Now the condition of the soil made it easy for the seed to be eaten up by the birds, because the soil fell upon a path. A worn path is hard and compacted. In many cases it is impenetrable by something like a seed. For a seed to germinate it has to get down into the soil. But when it falls upon hard ground germination is not possible. The seed can be easily eaten because it is lying upon the surface.

Jesus said the seed was the word of God and Satan comes to steal it. If we don't understand the word and the word falls upon deaf ears and the condition of the heart is impenetrable than stealing the word takes no effort.  In this case, Israel was the first kind of soil. They were expecting a Messiah that was entirely different than Jesus, so their notions blinded them to the truth of God's word. Like Isaiah said, their hearts are calloused, their ears dull and their eyes are closed ( Isaiah 6:10 ). As Jesus spoke to them, Satan walked right behind him and picked up the seeds of eternal life that he spoke. They allowed him to steal the word of God that had the power to save them because they had not prepared their hearts to receive it.

What a discouraging thing this must have been. But this stands as a warning for us. Paul said in the very next verse of Romans 10 that "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" ( Romans 10:17 ). This is how faith comes, by hearing the gospel and believing and receiving it. This message comes from Christ and just like the hard condition of the heart blocked the words of life, the fourth kind of soil received it with gladness and produced an abundant crop. "But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown" ( Matthew 13:23, Mark 4:20, Luke 8:15 ). The seed is the seed, but the condition of the soil determines the abundance of the crop or even whether it sprouts at all.

This is a good word for us today; we can prepare our hearts to receive the Word of God. It is my prayer that you keep your heart soft and pliable before the Lord ready to receive his word. Be the fourth kind of cultivated soil and receive this word with gladness. Let this seed penetrate and germinate in your heart yielding much eternal fruit, amen.