LISTENING TO CHRIST, TO THE SPIRIT AND TO PAUL
J. C. Gray
Mark 9: 7, 8; John 16: 13, 14; Acts 27: 21–25
The principle of obedience really means that we hearken submissively. It is important, therefore, how we hear, but particularly what we hear. Paul says to the Corinthians that
“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world” (1 Corinthians 14: 10), all kinds of opinions are being stated, and persons listen to them; opinions about different things of course, social things, economic things and religious things, and all kinds of worldly things.
Therefore, for believers what we lend our ears to, what we pay attention to, is important, and whether in the listening we are submissive to what we hear, especially as it comes from divine Persons. To the disciples, when here, the Lord said, “Do ye let these words sink into your ears”, Luke 9: 44. That meant that the Lord intended that the disciples should pay attention to what He was saying to them; so that, as men say, it did not go in one ear and out the other. So much that is spoken goes right over our heads. We say that about young people, but, maybe, it is true about old people too. Therefore, the Lord’s words “Do ye let these words sink into your ears” are important. We have to listen carefully, intently, but above all submissively. That is that we are in an attitude of mind ready to hear what the Lord may say.
We have read of the Father’s voice in relation to hearing the Son, “This is my beloved Son: hear him”. It was such an august occasion, and these three disciples, no doubt, felt uneasy in the presence of this exceptional transformation to the Man they had known down here. But the voice of the Father is abundantly clear. Christ is to be distinguished, and He is to be listened to—“This is my beloved Son—hear him”.
I have read in Mark because he is brief. Matthew includes a reference to the Father’s delight in Christ but Mark omits this, and hence there is more emphasis on the words “hear him”.
Mark, of course, had reason for that because at one point in his history he did not listen, and he had to come back to it that he should have listened. Finally he did listen, so Paul says,
“Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry”, 2 Timothy 4: 11. He was recovered. So he writes, and takes account of this One who was distinguished and to be heard. We need to make sure, beloved brethren, that we distinguish Christ. There is so much error around among professing Christians, that we need to make sure that Christ is distinguished. The word is, “This is my beloved Son—hear him”. Now will we listen to the voice of Christ? Who is He anyway? The Father says, My beloved Son. If we are brought into the kingdom of the Son of His love is He not worthy that we should listen to Him?
Should we not listen to Him who is the Son of the Father’s love. He is conveying the whole mind of God. You may say that He has conveyed it already and that is true, but the dispensation is still running on, and He is still speaking, and the influence and effect of it is still amongst us in a living and vital way. Well, is it so in my life? I ask myself whether I am hearing Him; whether I am hearkening submissively to this One who is installed in heaven in glory—this incident being the prefigurement of it.
He is the Son of God. Paul was one who listened to Him, as He said, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”, Acts 9: 5. You think of that voice in all its clarity coming to Paul who was bent on the persecution of Christians, as he headed for Damascus. Paul says, “Who art thou.
Lord?” The Lord says, “I am Jesus”. So that he came to know that name, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. Then Paul was told, “rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, and he did it. He says to king Agrippa, “Whereupon, king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”, Acts 26: 19. By the time he reached that local company in Damascus, he was given light and it was not long before he was preaching Jesus, that He is the Son of God.
What an understanding and revelation he had! I trust that all of us here, as we listen to the voice of Christ, will come to the understanding of Him in His greatness and glory as the Son of God; the One who is about to influence the whole universe for the pleasure of God. He will be the centre.
We sang that hymn at the beginning—‘Thou art, O Lord, the centre’ (No. 259), but is He the centre? Is He the One I hear, or do I listen to other things? Do I listen to opinions that do not come from Christ? We are to hear Him. John says, “we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true”, 1 John 5: 20. That meant that he had listened. So the Lord is bringing to us the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the Father. Giving us an understanding means that it is made clear to us; not that we just hear a thing and do not understand. The Son of God has come that we should be given an understanding, “that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ”. Think of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, making the whole mind of God known, a very far reaching matter. Then He has brought us into a sphere where eternal life is enjoyed. He is Son of Man too, of course. Think of the Revelation to John in Patmos, when he sees a vision of the Son of Man with a garment reaching to the feet. What is He saying? He is speaking to seven assemblies which were still there at that time and of matters which bear on the whole spectrum of church history right down to ourselves. The Lord Jesus has said things to these seven assemblies so that we might listen. The word therefore which came on the mount of transfiguration is very far reaching. It will help us if we hear the Son—“This is my beloved Son—hear him”.
Then we are to listen to the Spirit. John records the Lord’s words about the Spirit coming. It says, “But when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth—for he shall not speak from himself”. Guiding into the truth is an interesting thing. A brother was commenting to me after the reading about the way we gather together for a reading, whether locally or in a fellowship meeting, when something is set on in ministry. A brother says something and another brother says something, and another says something further, and it is built on, but it is essential that the guiding of the Spirit comes in. We have a wonderful arrangement under the influence of the guiding of the Spirit; that involves that He is telling us what He has heard from Christ in heaven.
The Lord Jesus was obedient as Man to the Father’s will, and answered to it fully. Now in this dispensation we have the blessed Holy Spirit, another divine Person, who has come to be with us that He might convey what is being said from heaven right to where we are, as the word is, “he shall guide you into all the truth—for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”. So the Holy Spirit is speaking. You may say, How am I going to distinguish it? How was it to be known at Corinth that God was among them of a truth? Because they obeyed what Paul said concerning prophesying. The Holy Spirit speaks expressly as Scripture says, “But the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall apostatise from the faith”, 1 Timothy 4: 1. Paul in his journeys wanted to go northwards in Asia, which would have taken him to north Turkey, but the Holy Spirit forbad him. The Holy Spirit spoke and Paul recognised it. Later on he wanted to go somewhere else, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow him. The Spirit was speaking and indicating to Paul where he should go. So Paul was listening to the Spirit. Have we considered fully that the Holy Spirit in all His greatness, because He is God, is here with us and also in believers, and He is speaking? It is of great moment that He is conveying from heaven the mind of God to us at the present time.
Then it says, “He will announce to you what is coming. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”. You think of the things of Christ. These things of Christ really relate to what He has in glory. They are of vital importance. If we are to maintain freshness and vitality in testimony down here we have to know what is proceeding in heaven. Are you in touch, dear brother, dear sister, with what is proceeding in heaven? Are you in touch with the celebration of the victory of Christ, the celebration of the glorification of Christ? The Spirit brings testimony of it to us now that there might be living guidance. The report comes from heaven, and comes through the Spirit speaking. In the addresses to the seven churches, at the end of each of them, he draws attention to the fact that we should hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. I would like to convey in a clearer and fuller way, the great power that the Spirit has as reporting what He has heard from heaven. You cannot limit the Spirit; the Spirit is a divine Person. He is in touch with what is current in that area, He knows what is coming. Peter knew what was coming; Paul knew what was coming; John knew what was coming. They all write of it in their epistles. How did they know? They knew because the Spirit conveyed it. How do we know how to proceed at the present time in the testimony? Only because the Spirit is conveying what He hears from Christ in glory.
I think that these matters of hearing the Son, and hearing the Spirit—in the sense that we do not listen idly to them, but that we pay strict and concentrated attention to them—are important for us at the present time, because Satan is intent on diverting you and me if he could from the pathway of the truth, from listening to the voice of the Son of God, and from listening to the voice of the Spirit of God. He would do his utmost, just as he did at the beginning, to destroy what is for the pleasure of God. If we are faithful and hear what the Son is saying, and what the Spirit is saying, then I think we will find that help will come in.
Then there is the voice of Paul. In Acts 27 we have the voice of Paul in the midst of a storm. What a wonderful thing it is to listen to Paul. You may say, Why particularly Paul? You find that most of the New Testament writings are either Paul’s or persons influenced by Paul. Paul had the light of the mystery. The Lord says of Paul, “this man is an elect vessel to me”, Acts 9: 15. The Lord said this clearly because what came through Paul was a distinct revelation.
Just as Peter was given the light of the kingdom so Paul was given the revelation concerning the assembly. So there is profit in listening to Paul. In a day of breakdown such as this shipwreck depicts, the question is whether we shall get safe to land. Paul had given a word to them but they had not obeyed it. Paul had counselled them not to set sail from Crete, but they ignored him. The helmsman, the ship-owner, the centurion and others thought that they knew better. Do you think that you know better than Paul? Paul who has had a distinct revelation of Christ and the assembly, of the mystery, do we listen to him? There are so many in the public profession that have rejected Paul and his teaching. They may say, ‘You do not listen to Paul, do you?—Paul and his practical injunctions and his mysterious teaching about the mystery and Christ and the church?’
Beloved brethren, the living testimony over the whole of the present dispensation has been maintained in persons who have hearkened to Paul. He said, “Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened to me, and not have made sail from Crete and have gained this disaster”. Sadly many have gone from amongst us, persons who had light, but who have rejected Paul. It is thus important in the present time to listen to Paul. We might say much about Paul’s practical teaching, and what he reveals in his epistles, especially Colossians,
Ephesians and Philippians, that bring joy, buoyancy and vitality of life in the assembly. In the light of the fact that so many Christians today have rejected Paul, are we hearkening? I think our salvation lies, not only in listening to the voice of the Son and to the voice of the Spirit, but to the way in which these voices have been manifested through the ministry of Paul.
These persons in this ship were in desperation as the storm went on for days and days. They threw away the precious cargo and the ship’s furniture, and for a fortnight they never took any food. You would think they would listen to Paul after that. You can just see them despising him in his shackles standing on the deck appealing to these persons. He said, “Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened to me”. What a statement that is, and the point of it remains right down to the present time. Then he goes on to speak about the revelation that he received. Not one of these two hundred and seventy-six persons had a revelation from God on that ship except Paul. How important therefore, to listen to what God has said through the voice of Paul. You may say, Well, sometimes it hurts. It means that maybe there is a little kicking of the traces if it hurts. Maybe when you are young it hurts to listen and answer to the voice of Paul. I can assure you, dear young person, that if you remain faithful and obedient to the Lord and to the Spirit you will find that the voice of Paul is attractive. What he leads into is not just life eternal, but into the mystery, that is as to Christ and the assembly. So he says, You need not worry, you are not going to die. He is announcing to them by the Spirit what is coming. He says, ‘I have had a word from God about it; not one of you will die; you will all reach land’.
Can we be diligent to listen carefully to the voice of Christ, the voice of the Spirit, and hearken to Paul, so that there will be salvation for us; so that we all get safe to land? That is my message that we should listen, and listen carefully. May He help us in it for His name’s sake.
Address at Aberdeen, Scotland
11 March 1995