The Galatians were saved. How were they saved? Paul asks, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:2). They were saved by the hearing of faith, they sincerely believed what they heard about the message of Jesus Christ. Hearing was a gift. Faith was a gift. The Holy Spirit was a gift. This is because the Bible says we were dead in sin and it is by God’s gift of grace we are saved (Eph 2:8-9). Simple enough. They heard the message of the gospel of Christ and believed and were saved.
It is also wise to note that dead people do not hear anything. There is no awareness of sound in the grave. After a loved one has died talking to them at their grave site may be psychologically beneficial for you but really they can’t hear you. Why bring that up? Because God had to give us the ears to hear what he was saying by raising us from spiritual death to life. A person must be born again first then they hear, believe and repent. The Bible teaches, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” (Eph 1:13). God gave us the hearing of faith after regenerating us and brings us back from the dead spiritually and then we heard the word of truth and then received his Spirit!
But can we hear him now? Are we listening to God now? Yes, there is a difference between hearing and listening, just ask my wife. In fact, James insists that we should be, “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” (James 1:19). Notice the idea of being swift to hear and being prepared to listen to God’s Word, with the readiness that cultivated soil has to receive seed. Hearing or listening is a heart issue. It tells us whether we are living in error or not. God spoke though Isaiah, “I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.” (Isa. 66:4). Hearing was connected with the act of obedience, disobedience was seen as not hearing.
Real listening brings prompt obedience. We have so much to repent for. The Christian should praise God everyday for what Christ did on the cross, and justification by faith through grace or we would truly be lost, just for the fact we drag our feet to obey when God tells us what he demands. We should feel crushed at how slow we are to obey. Jesus rebuked his disciples saying, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken…” (Luke 24:45). God wants us to pace ourselves with his Word. In an unagitated manner, in a peaceful heart be ready to receive the Word. “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” (Ps. 119:32NIV). No delays, let me run in the path of your commands. He who has the liberty to obey, being set free by Christ liberating power should run as fast as they can to obey.
The Apostle James states that we should, “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21 italics mine). The word used for filthiness here can refer to a filthy garment and several commentators agree that it actually means “wax in the ear that plugs up the sound.” Spiritual ear wax, imagine that. Ears are one of the parts of the body that adults forget to clean, they also have to be careful how they clean them. But this is not hygiene we are talking about. The people here are not listening, they have so much sinful wax build up, they have neglected their spiritual walk and are deaf to God.
I have had to shout and still was not heard with people who have “ear-buds” listening to their MP3’s. I even see it in some churches where kids instead of listening to the message sit in church “plugged up.” It is like that. Imagine the Pastor attempting to preach with everyone in his congregation with ear buds inserted. They are playing games, listening to music or watching a video. They cannot and will not hear him. They can smile, throw in an amen and hide their yawn, but they are basically deaf. As preachers we cannot really tell who has heard our message every time we preach. Even Isaiah asks, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” (Is 53:1). We cannot visibly see the evidence of the hearing of faith, it only be seen in the fruit of people character. I am sure there is many a preacher who would like to tap his microphone and ask, “Can you hear me now?”
Any time we are unable to hear the voice of God in the scriptures, that is when the flesh takes over and masquerades as religion and spirituality. Sadly, we do not realize that we are stunted. What is worse is that we begin to listen to “voices” other than the Holy Spirit through Scripture. It is not an intellectual issue, or being locked up in a room and being tortured and brainwashed by heretics. It is frightening how easily this can happen. We do not even notice our deafness and suddenly when we need to hear him most-we cannot! God open our ears! Teach us to pull out the weeds from the garden of our hearts. Teach us to change our spiritual oil and maintain a clean heart. As Christians we must make a lifetime commitment to throw off the whole network of evil and malice, the remnants of sin in our lives so that we can hear the Word.
The Spirit brought us into union with Christ so we might hear his voice. He who breathed on the disciples will not shun from whispering to us through the scriptures. But when we develop or are taught human ideas about what pleases God, or it can cause confusion, and deafness or we become sluggish, slow, lazy and begin to do stupid things because we are “dull of hearing” (Heb 5:11). That is legalism. The most dullard thing to do is depend on our strength rather than the Lord’s mighty power. When we are plugged up our love for God and others, our joy and our peace is completely based on what we do rather than on who Christ is and what he has done. For without the Word the Christian is frustrated and discontent. How many times in the beginning of the New Testament did Christ say, “ye have heard, but I SAY?’ We have heard so many man centered things. It is nauseating. Oh that we would shut our ears to all men and be locked in with the scripture. The sad condition of many who have professed Christ is that they are walking in defeat and self worship because all they hear is opinion and bad teaching. They are agitated, anxious and angry. They need to rest in Christ who says, Come unto me all ye who a weary and heavy laden.” Can you hear me now?
Many people just do not listen to God anymore. They have shut their ears to the scriptures. “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.” (Zech 7:11). They listen to MAN and his teachings and their worship is empty (Mk 7:7). We need our hearing checked. How can you test your hearing? We need be careful about the content of what we hear that it lines up with the scripture. “For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.” (Job 34:3). If it is not scriptural reject it and move on. There is no perfection on this side of heaven but there are things which are most surely believed among us as Christians and we should adhere to those things and those things alone. Jesus said, “Take heed what ye hear…” (Mk. 4:24).
Then the way in which we listen should be adjusted. How am I listening? I should be asking, “Did I hear you right? Let go back to the above illustration of ear wax and I won’t dwell on that too much because it would be way to wierd, but let me note ear wax or cerumen can be beneficial against bacteria, fungus and insects. God obviously wants us to protect our hearing, “to discern both good and evil.” (Heb. 5:14). We should not listen to anything that we have not tested to see if it matches up with the scripture and the confessions of the church. He says to “test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thess 5:21ESV). If sin is in our hearts we cannot hear correctly. We should take an inventory before we hear the word like we are taking inventory before the Lord’s supper. We should examine, test the mettle of our hearts and motives, and be in an open prepared state to hear the Word of the Lord in the scriptures. Once again Jesus teaches us to, “Take heed how ye hear…” (Luke 8:18). How we need to tune in to what he is saying and adjust the frequency of our hearts.
If you long to hear and obey Jesus said you will have clarity and peace. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:17). If you are but willing and the Spirit of God has ignited in your heart and fire to hear Christ Words he will teach you and receive you to himself. You will be where he is and walk with him and speak to him as a man speaks to his friend.
He will say, “Can you hear me now?” Good!
“And the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, “No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (Matt. 25:7-13NKJV).
Recently a young lady from Kansas, Kavya Shivashnakar (which is hard for me to even say, much less spell) won the Scripps National Spelling Bee after spelling the word “Laodicean.” 
You must understand Lukewarmers are hard to catch because backsliding is not an overnight thing it is a slow drift away from God where the knot of the soul loosens its grasp on the cleat and the mooring to the shore of obedience (Heb. 2:1). They can still say the right things, go to church, give in the offering, even preach behind the pulpit but they make Christ nauseous. That is the difficulty. They may have a past with God so they feel that they have a present with God. But as the Bible says, “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof…” (Eccl. 7:8). 
I am sure they were surprised at Laodicea when this sharp written rebuke came from Christ when all on the surface seemed to be going well. This means they had no spiritual faculty or sense to discern their true condition. They were deceived. The church was flourishing with people, the city was prospering but Christ saw their pastor and congregation as diseased, impoverished and pathetic despite their success and wealth (Rev 3:17). In fact, they could not discern their own spiritual state and Christ has to use this harsh language in order to open their eyes. 
Recent comments from our Vice President about the swine flu or A1-N1 caught my attention as I am sure it did yours. The Whitehouse had to rephrase his comments (of which I am sure they will do again) about avoiding subways planes, or any close areas and head for an open field and calm the fears of people when it came to this flu which has hit the world in pandemic proportions. Now it seems that the swine flu is old news and we hardly hear about it. But I saw the analogy in many Christians relationship with the world, meaning the people of this world.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
THE 1563 HEIDELBERG CATECHISM ASKS AND ANSWERS: What dost thou understand by the words, “He suffered”? That he, all the time that he lived on earth, but especially at the end of his life, sustained in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind: that so by his passion, as the only propitiatory sacrifice, he might redeem our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and obtain for us the favour of God, righteousness and eternal life.
What is a creed?
Soul Health Care 
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