"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
In James 1:18 we read, "Of His own will He begat us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures." If you wish to be born again, the way is very simple. Take the Word of God concerning Christ crucified and risen, and drop it into your heart by meditation upon it. Look to God by His Holy Spirit to quicken it, believe it with the heart, and the work is done. If you wish to see someone else born again, give him the Word of God. The process of regeneration on our side is the simplest thing in the world. On God's side it is mysterious, but with that we have nothing to do. The process is simply this: the human heart is the soil; you and I are sowers; the word of God is the seed which we drop into that soil. God quickens it by His Holy Spirit and gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6). The heart closes around the Word by faith, and the new life is the product. The new birth is simply the impartation of a new nature, the impartation of God's nature. But how are we made partakers of God's nature? Read 2 Peter 1:4 (R.V.) and the context: "That through these (exceeding great and precious promises) ye may become partakers of the divine nature." That is all there is to it. The word of God is the seed out of which the divine nature springs up in the human soul. 3. Again, the word of God has power to produce faith. In Romans 10:17 we read, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." You can never get faith by merely praying; you can never get it by any effort of the will; you can never get it by trying to pump it up in any way. Faith is the product of a certain cause, and that cause is the Word of God. It is so, for example, with saving faith. Suppose you want a man to have saving faith. Simply give him something definite from God's Word upon which he can rest. The Philippian jailer asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30), and Paul answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). But Paul did not stop there. Read verse 32, "And they spake unto him the Word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." They did not merely tell the Philippian jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then leave him there floundering in the dark without giving him something to believe, or something for his faith to rest upon. They gave that which God has ordained to produce faith. It is at this point that we often make a mistake. We tell people, "Believe, believe, believe," but do not show them how, do not give them anything definite to believe. The biblical way and the intelligent way is, when you tell a man to
believe, to give him something to believe. Give him, for example, Isaiah 53:6, and thus hold up Christ crucified; or, give him 1 Peter 2:24. Here he has something for his faith to rest upon. Faith must have a foundation. Faith cannot float in thin air. It is pitiable to see men told to believe, to believe, to believeand then give nothing for their faith to rest upon. Not only saving faith comes from the Word of God, but prevailing faith in prayer does also. Suppose I read Mark 11:24, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." I used to say, "The way to get anything I want is to believe I am going to get it." I would kneel down and pray and try to believe, but I did not get the things that I asked for. I had no real faith. Real faith must have a warrant. Before I can truly believe I am to receive what I ask, I must have a definite promise of God's Word, or a definite leading of the Holy Spirit, to rest my faith upon. What, then, shall we do? We come into God's presence. There is something we desire. Now the question is, Is there any promise in God's Word regarding this which we desire? We look into the Word of God and find the promise. All we have to do is to spread that promise out before God. for example, we say: "Heavenly Father, we desire the Holy Spirit. Thou hast said in thy Word, 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?' And thou hast said again in Acts 2:39 that 'the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.' I am a called man; I am a saved man. And here I have Your Word for it. You have promised it. I ask Thee now to fulfill me with the Holy Spirit." We then take 1 John 5:14, 15, and say, "Father, this is the confidence I have in Thee, that, if I ask anything according to Thy willand I know that this is according to Thy willThou hearest me, and, if I know that Thou hearest me, I know that I have the petition that I asked of Thee." Then I rise up, standing upon this promise of God, and say, "It is mine." And it will be mine. The only way to have a faith that prevails in prayer is to study your Bible, and know the promises, and lay them before God when you pray. George Mueller is one of the mightiest men of prayer in this century. But he always prepares for prayer by studying the Word (John 15:7). It is just the same with the faith that we desire instead of doubt. This also comes by the Word of God. Suppose you have a skeptic to deal with, and you wish that man to have faith. What will you do with him? Give him a book on Christian evidences? I have nothing to say against books on Christian evidences. But there is an inspired Book on Christian evidences, and it is worth all the libraries ever written on this subject. Turn to John 20:31, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name." The Gospel of John is an inspired Book on Christian