Faith Comes By Hearing the Word of God

King Benjamin (through words delivered to him by an angel) gives us the formula for faith in Christ (and the necessity of) when he asks: has the "knowledge of the goodness of God at this time awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state... (Mosiah 4:5)?  When King Benjamin had finished speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by an angel of the Lord, "he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them" because they had "viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth" (Mosiah 4:1-2). 

I had often wondered about this. How could these people have fallen to the earth? How did they experience their own carnal state? Why had the fear of the Lord come upon them? Why hadn't I had a similar experience? 

I began to wonder how they had come to this experience, and what brought them there. 

As I searched more, I realized that it was caused by the words delivered by the Angel to King Benjamin. 

Could I gain a knowledge of the goodness of God only by and through His Words? 

Could His words cause me to fall to the earth by experiencing my own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth? 

If so how could just His words cause such an experience? 

There had to be more than words, I thought. One day, I was reading in D&C 84 and read with interest the verse which told me to "live by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God" (D&C 84:44). I had read this before and had looked at his word, but only as a guide for me. I had also thought the rod of iron spoken of by Lehi and Nephi as just a guide. But as I read the next verse it hit me for the first time how His words could have caused such a reaction in the people who had listened to and heard the words delivered by an angel to King Benjamin! 

"The word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is spirit, even the spirit of Jesus Christ" (D&C 84:45). I heard His voice in these words and knew that His words, because they are His light and spirit, can, by themselves cause us to fall down in fear of the Lord, and cause us to experience our nothingness and His goodness. 

In other words we cannot separate His words from Him--His words are Him--His light and His spirit! If we fail to immerse ourselves in what He has revealed (and caused to be written) we will never come to a knowledge of (nor will we ever experience) the goodness of God and our own worthless and fallen state. We will run the risk of worshiping an imaginary God, a God we will have created out of the imaginations of our hearts. 

And in doing so, we will stumble on that stumbling stone where all people stumble who have not received the word of God--we will not seek righteousness through faith in Christ and repentance, but will attempt to seek righteousness through behavior, performance, works and religion (Romans 9:31-33). 

I have often been puzzled as to why Paul says that "...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Why didn't he say 'faith comes by reading the word of God?' I had been taught that we should 'read' the scriptures daily, so why didn't Paul say read, instead of hear. Could it be, I wondered, if perhaps we hear His voice in His words? It didn't take much searching of His words to discover that we do, in fact, hear His voice in His words.  

"These words are not of men nor of man, but of me...for it is my voice which speaketh them unto you..." (D&C18:33-36). 

In fact God taught men how to write so His words could be recorded for us to hear His voice, not just read His words. In fact we will not hear His voice in His words if we do not search them and treasure them up. 

It never ceases to amaze me, however, how lightly we treat His words, and how lightly I had treated them. It is no wonder that we are under condemnation for treating lightly the words we have received from our Father in Heaven (D&C 84:54-55). Not only have we treated His words lightly, but we have not believed them (D&C 84:54). "And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me. And by this you may know the righteous from the wicked..." (D&C 84:52-53). 

Keeping in mind that we hear His voice through His words (D&C 18:34-36), if we are not ''acquainted' with His voice, it is because we have not 'heard' His words. 

From the time of Adam, the Lord has made it very clear what our conditions are in this life:  

"Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe. Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth them to worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are shut out from the presence of God" (Moses 6:48-49). 

It is one thing to 'understand' the effect of the fall on us, and yet another thing altogether to experience our own carnal and fallen state. And yet it is only through the experiencing of our own lost and fallen state, that we recognize the need for the atonement, and can exercise our trust and faith in Christ. 

If, however, we harden our hearts against His word, then His word will not "be found in us" (Alma 12:13). The idea of His word being found in us is introduced by Alma, and denotes the importance of the word as truth, light and spirit, even the spirit of Jesus Christ. For when His word is found in us, then is His light and spirit found in us. 

When we receive His light and compare it to our own light, then we begin to experience the darkness within us, and turn to His light by putting our faith and trust in Him instead of in our own meager spark (Isa 50:11).

Without putting our faith in Christ, we will remain "in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state...and (will be) without God in the world" (Alma 41:11). You may ask how can you be without God in the world when you pray to Him daily and come to Church to worship Him? Without faith in Him, these actions are merely a 'form' of worship, and are not counted unto us as righteousness. 

When, however, we turn to Him by experiencing our lost and fallen state, we are repenting and are, therefore, in a state of His righteousness. When we are not repenting we are in a state of wickedness. There are only two ways, and in order to remain in a state of His righteousness we must be repenting--always remembering our nothingness in comparison to His Goodness. This is godly sorrow, and only godly sorrow brings about repentance. And how do we experience this Godly sorrow? By His words being in us! By hearing His voice! In this way we all have our own "On the Road to Damascus" experience by hearing the voice of God along the way. As we feast upon His words we will hear Him say to us, "I am God, hearken unto my voice!"

Nephi, through the use of the words of Christ, tells us how we enter into the Lord's way. He tells us about a strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life, and that we enter into this strait and narrow path through a gate, which gate, he tells us, is repentance and baptism (2 Nephi 31:17-18). He then asks us, after we have gotten in the way "if all is done" (2 Nephi 31:19)? 

Then he answers his own question: "Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save" (2 Nephi 31:19). 

And it is only by continually being "nourished by the good word of God" that we can stay in the right way "relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who (is) the author and the finisher of (our) faith" (Moroni 6:4:).

So we enter into the way because of His word, and we stay in the way because of His word. Faith comes through hearing His words. We are born again and a mighty change is wrought in our hearts as a result of His words (Alma 5:13). His words bring us to a knowledge of the truth. We truly humble ourselves because of His words  (Alma 32:14). Our souls are illuminated by the light of the everlasting word (Alma 5:7).

Through His words we know that repentance and baptism is the gate by which we enter into His way. 

Through his words we know that we endure to the end through faith in His name relying wholly upon His merits. 

Through His words we know that whenever we begin to 'take strength unto ourselves' we are no longer relying wholly upon His merits, and are therefore not enduring in faith in Him to the end.  

Only His words get us in the way and keep us there because not only do His words tell us what repentance is, but by the power of His words, we are brought before the alter of God, to call on his name and confess our sins before Him (Alma 17:4; 36:24-26).

All too often we allow the precepts of men to color our definitions of faith and repentance, and believe me when I tell you, that these precepts are like noxious weeds that grow in our minds and hearts. These noxious weeds cause us to pervert the truth, and can lead us to believe that we are on the strait and narrow path, when we are, in reality, in the large and spacious building. They choke the good seed of the word of God. And how do we get rid of these noxious weeds? We must replace these noxious weeds with His words. We are only nourished by the good word of God.

Alma makes it clear that "...if (w)e will awake and arouse (our) faculties, even to experiment upon (His) words, and exercise a particle of faith... (Alma 32:27), we will know that the seed is good, if we do not cast it out by our unbelief. How will we know that the seed is good? Because it will begin to grow within you, "it beginneth to enlarge" your soul and "it beginneth to enlighten" your understanding and "it beginneth to be delicious unto" you (Alma 32:30). It "shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life" (Alma 32:41). The tree's "most precious fruit" is the result of faith, diligence, patience, and long suffering in nourishing the word of God (Alma 32:42-43).

The knowledge of Good (God's righteousness) and evil (everything else) is the most basic and most important knowledge we can have, and we only get this knowledge through His word. The word repent, according to His words, is to turn to the righteousness of God, and turn away from everything else.

Turning toward Him and His light is the description of repentance. But what is the effect on us of our turning toward Him? He said "if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me" (Ether 12:27).

Consider this: you are driving east on Interstate 80 in the morning. There are no clouds and the sun is shining on your windshield. You can see all the bugs, dirt and streaks on your windshield. So you stop and 'clean' your windshield, only to find that as you continue toward the light, your windshield is still not clean, and the more light that shines on it the dirtier it appears. Even more light would cause more 'dirt' to appear. If however, you turn back and go west away from the light your windshield will appear to be very clean. It is the same with us. By shining His light on us, turning toward His light or toward the voice which is His words, we see ourselves as we really are. This is what caused the people to fall to the earth after seeing themselves in the light of the words delivered by the angel to King Benjamin. 

Turning away from Him causes us to see ourselves as we think we are. This is the deception spoken of by Isaiah that causes us to 'see' ourselves as being something we are not.

Let me again briefly share my own experience:

I would not have described myself as a Sinner when I was younger or even in my middle age years. Only other people were sinners, those bad people who committed terrible acts and transgressions, none of which I had committed. I had been taught that the Gospel was about my righteousness, my goodness, my worthiness and my works. To have been called as a Bishop I had to be righteous. Right? I lived the word of wisdom, was morally clean, had a temple recommend and paid my tithing.  I had to be good. Right?

I can't remember when I first began to realize that I had been living a perverted gospel, and that I had been deceiving myself into thinking that I was good. But the more I searched His words and listened to them, the more I realized that I was worshiping a false image--an image of myself as a good guy in a world with a lot of bad guys. 

But something changed when I read Romans 10:1-4. I realized I had been going about to establish my own righteousness, and had not submitted myself to the righteousness of God--something I would never have learned had I not 'heard' His voice through His words.

I learned that repentance is the process of turning to God and His Goodness. I began to see myself as I really am. Even though I was born innocent, there were flaws in my nature, weaknesses in my character and evil in my heart. Soon everything I was reading and hearing in the scriptures was telling me: It is not about your righteousness, but about Christ's. I began to experience my own lost and fallen state, and it was then and only then that I realized the need in my own life for the Atonement and the mercy which was introduced to us through Christ's Atonement. And I knew I needed and wanted His mercy.

When I realized that there are divers ways and means whereby we can commit sin, even so many that we cannot number them (Mosiah 4:29), and that one sin no matter how small, subjects me to the Justice of God, hope for me came only in my Savior. I began to rely wholly upon His merits and knew that because of His mercy it was possible that I could be found guiltless at the judgment bar. He would pay for my sins. He would save me from my sins. He would begin to take away my capacity or disposition to sin.

His words caused me to see myself as I really am. Seeing myself in the light of His words, I came to recognize the darkness within myself, and desired to come to the light. Only those who believe they earn their way by performance, will not want to have the light shined upon them. But unless we see ourselves as the Publican, the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep, we will not turn to the light and put all our faith and trust in Him who is mighty to save. Alma does not say that none but the performers or none but the active are saved, rather he says, "none but the truly penitent are saved" (Alma 42:24).

The words of Christ made it clear to me that we do not 'live' our way to eternal life, but that we 'die' our way there by experiencing our lost and fallen state, our own carnal and natural state, and by experiencing the evil and darkness that is within each of us. This requires that we do not put our faith in ourselves, but in our Savior and turn to him with a broken heart and contrite spirit, desiring a new heart and to become new creatures (Mosiah 27:25). 

This requires that we actually believe that He is the way and the only way, and that He sent messengers to tell us of our lost and fallen state and what He had appointed for us in this life, and "made known unto (us) the plan of redemption...and this he makes known...according to (our) faith and repentance..." (Alma 12:29-30). He called on men in the name of His son (this being the plan of redemption) saying: "If ye will repent and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son" (Alma 12:33).

The more we receive of the word of God, the more it transforms us into His likeness. Even as Christ personifies the word of God (John 1:1), we personify that portion of His word which is found in us. 

When His words become our words then we speak with the tongue of angels and by the power of the Holy Ghost (2 Nephi 31 & 32).

This promise comes with a warning, however, that "the time speedily cometh that the Lord God will cause a great division among the people" (2 Nephi 30:10), and this division is caused by His words: those who hear His words and believe them on the one hand, and those who do not on the other. Moreover, don't mistake the words of men for the word of God. 

Men can and do speak His words, but we must know His words to discern when others are or are not speaking His words. For this reason we are told to search and treasure up His words so that when others speak we can know when they are speaking the word of God (D&C 1:38).