Sleepy and Prejudiced Hearers

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, the unbelieving life

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. – Romans 10:17,13

Sleepy hearers are not likely to be led to faith. Eutychus may fall from the third loft and be taken up for dead, but he is not likely to become a believer by sleeping, even though Paul should be the preacher. We want attention in order to the real reception of the Word. Oh how pleasant it is to preach to earnest hearers who lean forward to catch every syllable, anxious to know how they can be saved. Wandering hearts lose the benefit of the truth, and vain minds trifle away the privilege of a gospel ministry. Take heed how ye hear, otherwise ye may remain hearers only, and so perish in unbelief.

With many a want of candor is another reason why faith does not come by hearing. If a man hears with a prejudiced heart, making up his mind before hand what he will believe, he is not likely to be convinced, he puts himself as far as he can out of the reach of benefit. When the heart rebels against the Word: when it says, “If this be true, I am living a bad life, and I shall have to give up my pleasures, therefore I will not accept it.” Well then, faith does not come and cannot come by such hearing. Faith comes by hearing when a man does, as it were, give himself up to the Word of God.

When it is the soul that is concerned, I would say to the preacher, “Sir, do not flatter me, do not tell me that which will please but delude me; I do not want your flattery, I do not want your fine words. Sir, tell me what I am, and where I am in the sight of God, and how I can be saved; for it will little satisfy me to wake up in hell and remember that I used to hear a fine orator. I want to be saved in deed and of a truth.”

How Can I Obtain Faith? by C. H. Spurgeon

Unbeliever, Are You Hearing the Gospel?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, the unbelieving life

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. – Romans 10:16,18

Many persons come to hear, but they have no wish to be led into faith. Like the butterflies which flit from flower to flower, they extract no honey because they come not for such a purpose: while the bees dive into the cups and bells of the flowers and come up loaded with their luscious food. Oh, if men came to hear, praying to be endowed with faith in Jesus, faith would surely come to them by hearing. Many persons in hearing a sermon, are like children looking at a cornfield—it is full of yellow garlic, or perhaps of scarlet poppies, and they cry “What a lovely field;” but the farmer thinks not so, he is looking for the wheat. Many a hearer watches for pretty speeches and flowery metaphors, and cries, “How well he puts it! What a well-turned sentence! How sweetly he quotes poetry!” and so on. Bah! Is that what you come to God’s House for? O fools and slow of heart, is this your end in hearing the life-giving gospel of the bleeding Lamb? I assure you it is not this that we are aiming at in preaching to you. If you came to look after the good corn, you would care little for the gaudy poppies of a flaunting eloquence so much regarded by the men of these days. Come with the intent to find faith in Jesus; cry to God to make His word effectual to your salvation, and then hearing will be quite another business with you. Alas I fear you will perish, let us preach as we may, while we are regarded by you as mere orators to be criticized, and not as witnesses whose testimony is to be weighed.

How Can I Obtain Faith? by C. H. Spurgeon

The Gospel’s Authority

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Romans 10:13

Faith has come not so much through hearing the statement of the gospel as from hearing of its authority. I may believe a statement because it looks like truth. I may, on the other hand, accept it not at all because I have myself perceived the apparent truth of it, but because of the person who tells it to me. And this is a very right and acceptable kind of faith. What has God said about my salvation? Before I hear it, I am prepared to believe it on the testimony of God. He says it, and that is enough for me. I believe this Bible to be His book; I hear what it says, and whatsoever the Lord God hath said I must and will receive, whether it appears plain or not. There are persons who when they have heard the gospel preached have not at first believed it, but if it has pleased the Spirit of God to lead the minister to show that the gospel is of divine appointment, that the way proclaimed is ordained by God Himself, and that God has set the sanction of His promise upon it—”He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved”—and has also set upon it the second sanction of His threatening—”He that believeth not shall be damned”—then they have yielded and given over all further question. God bids them trust in Jesus, and they do so through His grace. Without canvassing the statement itself they receive what God teaches, and since He hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation for sin they receive Him us such: since He has said, “Look unto Me and be saved,” they look because God bids them look, and they are saved. To believe in Jesus is a command from God’s own mouth, and is, therefore, to be obeyed, and the more so, because “he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son; and this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”

How Can I Obtain Faith? by C. H. Spurgeon

Saved by Hearing of the Pity and Love of Jesus

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. – Romans 10:17

In many, I do not doubt, faith has come through hearing of the condescending pity and the melting love of Jesus. Oh, that we dwelt more on this; that He loved His enemies, that He died for the ungodly, that His heart yearns over the lost sheep, that He is willing to receive prodigal sons, for He is full of grace and truth.

“His heart is made of tenderness,
His bowels melt with love.”

When such texts as the following have been preached on:—”This man receiveth sinners.” “Come unto Me all ye that labor.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth,” etc. “All manner of sin and transgression shall be forgiven unto men.” “Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely.” “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out,” that melting strain has touched the heart, and led the most hardened to believe in a Savior so kind to the undeserving. Men have found it impossible not to believe in a friend so self-sacrificing, a Redeemer so altogether lovely. The sweet love of Jesus has an omnipotence in it to win souls. They yield “by mighty love subdued,” unable to resist its charms, and as if they could hold out no longer, they throw themselves by an act of faith into the Savior’s arms. I can well understand their singing, “I do believe, I must believe in such a friend as this.” Faith comes by hearing of the free forgiveness procured by the agony, the stripes, the wounds, the death of Jesus, the lover of our souls.

How Can I Obtain Faith? by C. H. Spurgeon

The Suitability of the Gospel

Sherry Christian Life, salvation, Character of Jesus, Attributes of God, promises, confession of sin, Sovereignty of God

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved…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? … faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. – Romans 10:13,14,17

There are minds which God has so prepared that the moment they hear the gospel they respond to it. I think I hear the seeker after truth exclaim when he heard the gospel, “True? Why, how could it be otherwise? It is so divinely grand, so harmonious, so good, so gracious, so unexpected—nobody could have thought of it but God Himself—it must be the truth.” Having long sought goodly pearls of truth, the illuminated eye catches the gleam of the gospel and discerns it to be a priceless gem. Those are blessed indeed who are thus at once brought unto faith by the statement of the gospel.

To some others, the convincing point has been the suitability of the gospel to their case, for while they have heard it preached as a gospel for sinners, they have felt that they were certainly among that class. When the preacher has gone on to describe the misery of the fall, the utter ruin of human nature, its deceitfulness, feebleness, fickleness, and folly, the hearer has said, “Is the gospel sent to those who are thus lost, guilty, and impotent? Why, I am precisely in that condition!” And, then, when its great command is stated, namely, simple trust in Jesus, the soul perceives the suitability of the way of grace. We do not go to heaven to bring Christ down, or dive into the deeps to bring Him up from the dead; we can neither keep the law nor find an atonement for our transgressions; but this simple trust, oh how suitable it is to undone sinners. Nothing to do—I can do nothing; noticing to bring—I have nothing to bring; it suits my case. Glory be to God for devising a plan so adapted to our wants. From the suitabilty of the gospel to the sinner, many have been by God’s Spirit led to saving faith in Jesus, and so faith has come by hearing.

How Can I Obtain Faith? by C. H. Spurgeon

God’s Strange Choice

Sherry sermon

You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy.

Sermon Text

Simply State the Gospel Message

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 1 Comment

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. – Romans 10:17

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. – 1 Corinthians 1:17

Sometimes faith has come into men’s minds by hearing the simple statement of the gospel. They have longed to be saved, and they have been told that Jesus the Son of God condescended to come into this world and to take upon Himself the form of man, and as man to be partaker of our infirmities, and to offer Himself as a sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of sinners; they have, moreover, been told that whosoever trusts in this substitutional sacrifice shall be saved, and straightway they have believed. All they have wanted has been merely to be informed of the way of salvation. God’s Spirit has so prepared them that they have believed almost as soon as they have heard the saving truth. In many cases the only difficulty in the way of salvation has been a want of understanding the Word. I know in my own case I would have given all I had, if I might but have been informed what I must do to be saved. Though I frequented places where the gospel was preached, I did not catch the meaning of believing, it puzzled me much. I do not remember to have heard the simple declaration that to trust in Jesus Christ would save my soul; or, possibly, I did hear it with my outward ears, but I must have been strangely infatuated, for I did not understand the sense; and I have often thought if I could have heard the way of faith simply stated, my soul would have leaped into liberty long before. I will not so say; but I am persuaded that faith often comes by hearing the simple declaration that God accepts sinners, not for what they are in themselves but for what Christ is, and that when sinners believe in Jesus, they are saved there and then and are acceptable with God through Jesus Christ His dear Son.

How Can I Obtain Faith? by C. H. Spurgeon