⬇ EPUB

THE SPEAKING OF DIVINE PERSONS

J. Spinks

I wish to say something about the speaking of divine Persons. In the first scripture we have the Father’s voice, then we have the speaking of Jesus, and in Hebrews 4 we have the voice of the Spirit. I think that these scriptures would bring out that each divine Person would have something to say to us. These three disciples, Peter, James and John were brought into a very favoured position, an area where they were able to behold the glory of Christ and to hear, the Father’s voice concerning Him, “This is my beloved Son”. In some respects a gospel preaching is like that. There is no more favoured spot on earth than where you can hear,

“God’s glad tidings ... concerning his Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 1: 2–4. This was a unique occasion, of course, and these three men were specially selected, but God will speak to you and show you something in a gospel preaching if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. There was one man in the Old Testament who said, “Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory” (see Exodus 33: 18); think of a man making a request like that to God. God will never disappoint persons who make that kind of request. He is prepared to show you great things.

Men have built up a system of things independent of God, and they have made great advances in the field of education, science, etc., but what is man’s vaunted glory compared with the glory of God. In assuming to be able to go on without God they really glory in their shame; that is the truth of the matter, and God will sweep it all away finally. In spite of all man’s opposition and rejection God is still announcing His glorious glad tidings; it is God’s glad tidings concerning His Son. God has found His full delight in the blessed Man who is in His presence and through the gospel He is bringing others into it. He would love to bring you into sharing, in some measure, His joy in Christ, the One who has accomplished everything for His glory.

God has never left Himself without witness; right from the beginning God had a witness in creation, which still stands of course. Men seek to set it aside, they bring forward their foolish theories and ideas, all with a view to setting God aside. Think of man assuming to pit his puny mind against the mind of God, when the whole testimony of creation stands as a glorious witness to the eternal power of God. In creation, every day, every night, there is a powerful testimony to man to the glory of God, to His eternal power and divinity. Then in the flood God rendered testimony to man that He would not tolerate sin. The flood was God’s righteous judgment against all the violence and corruption that had come in, and those who populated the earth after the flood had that testimony. It says, “knowing God, they glorified him not as God ... but fell into folly in their thoughts”, Romans 1: 21. That was not just knowing Him as Creator, but as One, who because of His moral attributes, could not tolerate sin, and that testimony was rejected. It is sobering to think of how men went right in the face of the knowledge of God into folly, bringing forward creatures as objects of worship. Think of men doing that, deliberately rejecting God, and glorifying the creature more than Him who created it.

Yet God went on with men in the face of that. He will not be thwarted in His thoughts of blessing. He chose a people for Himself; displaying His power in redeeming them and bringing them out of Egypt. He gave them a law which would have brought great blessing and prosperity had they been able to keep it. In the end it only brought out the incorrigible nature of the heart of man, constantly rejecting the God who has nothing in His heart but blessing for His creature. Finally, after man had rejected every overture of God. He sent His own Son. What a wonderful testimony! Not a testimony to a God of judgment but a God of love. At the cross of Christ the great work of redemption was accomplished, so that God is able to extend forgiveness to the vilest sinner. The cross of Christ bears witness to the love of God, and God is now speaking in the person of the Son. It is the final testimony; everything is finalised in Christ. So these three disciples are brought into this area where the Lord Jesus is being honoured by the Father, and in the gospel God would desire to bring you into the appreciation of the blessed Man who has accomplished everything for His glory.

Peter says here, “let us make three tabernacles, for thee one, and for Moses one, and for Elias one”. There are persons who do that; they give a certain place to Christ but would place others on the same level. It is a sorrowful thing that there are books that profess to be Christian, where Christ is placed alongside so-called Christian leaders. Not that I am saying that Peter belongs to that element, he was quickly adjusted, but there are those who would place fallible human beings alongside the glorious Son of God. Let us beware of these things.

Christ stands in His own uniqueness, “This is my beloved Son: hear him”; there is no speaking after the Son. Formerly God spoke in many parts and in many ways through the prophets; in His grace and long-suffering He has pleaded with men, but now there is only one Man before God and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter makes reference in his epistle to being with Him on the holy mount and hearing the Father’s voice, “such a voice”, 2 Peter 1: 17.

The Father is speaking now; He is pointing to Christ and inviting you to share His joy in His beloved Son. The invitation goes out, it is the great celebration of subsisting righteousness.

Nothing really subsisted before Christ, everything was provisional. It says, “the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, John 1: 17. After the Lord came everything was established on the basis of His death and resurrection. As we were saying this afternoon, resurrection is the great platform on which God is going to recover everything, the whole universe, for His pleasure. He was delivered for our offences and raised for our justification; that is to say we are justified on the basis of the resurrection of Christ. God justifies us for another world; a world that is centred in Christ, and populated by persons who have an appreciation of that blessed Man. Every circle in the world to come, and through the eternal day, will be centred in Christ. What a wonderful thing! Will you not come? Is anyone here going to refuse the invitation? I wish I could speak more feelingly and with more heart as to the greatness of Christ. How glorious He is! Would to God that everyone here would hearken to the Father’s voice, and come into line with His thoughts about Christ.

I would like to refer now to the Lord’s voice. In Mark 10 we see the Lord moving in testimony, very close to the time of His death. An aspect of this passage is that the day of grace is drawing to a close. We are coming to the end of this century; God has kept the door of mercy open for almost two thousand years, but we are drawing near to the day when it will be closed. Men make great plans for the millennium. They refer to the millennium celebrations, but how futile it is to make plans without reference to God; they will all come to nought. God has His own plans. I do not say that they will coincide exactly with the end of this century, times and seasons are in the Father’s hand, but we can be assured of this, that all God’s plans will come to glorious fruition. So here the Lord coming to the end of His pathway and a blind man is brought in through mercy. It is a beautiful section of scripture.

Think of that blessed Man, having in His heart the resolving of the whole question of sin on Calvary’s cross, standing still at the voice of a blind beggar. What a wonderful expression of the grace of God. What I had especially in mind in this passage are the beautiful words of the Saviour, “What wilt thou that I shall do to thee?” Here is the blessed Man into whose hands the Father has entrusted all power in heaven and earth, and He is making this request to a blind beggar, “What wilt thou that I should do to thee?”.

I wish to speak simply; whatever problem you may have, the Lord Jesus is able for it. This man had a specific problem; for you it may be that the question of your sins has not yet been resolved. I would appeal to you to have to do with the Saviour today. Be like this man, cry out “Jesus, have mercy on me”. Then there may be other matters that burden us, but here is One who is able for all our problems; let us learn to trust Him, to trust Him completely. Men make promises, and political parties put forward proposals and promises which they can never fulfil; even when they seek to do good their power is very limited. Here is One who has unlimited power and He is expressing it in the grace of God towards a poor needy sinner. I say again, let us learn to trust Him. It is a question of faith. Do we believe that He is able for everything? Some exercises burden us for years, but here is One who is able for every matter that we have to face. How wonderful this dispensation is! The Lord Jesus is no longer on the cross. He is no longer in the grave. He has been given honour and glory. All the power of God is in the hand of a Man who desires your blessing. He is looking round this room, I speak simply, and He is looking into your heart; He is seeking to gain an entrance there so that He can fill it with His love.

I pass on now to Hebrews where we have the voice of the Spirit. It is a rather complicated passage to read but what it really means is that the people had come so far but they did not go the full way. Mr. Raven spoke about the danger of coming short of the purpose of God. I would make an appeal to the young people to ask themselves the question, What is God’s purpose for me? God would love to disclose to you the purposes of His love; these great thoughts of blessing that were in His heart before the foundation of the world. There are many things that hinder us from entering into the enjoyment of them; the attractions of the world, the lust of the flesh, things that we find in our own hearts. These are real difficulties, but there is power in the Spirit of God to overcome them.

I would like to close with an appeal to hearken to the voice of the Spirit, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”. You say, I would not harden my heart. But it is so easy to turn a deaf ear, to let other things crowd in to take away the effect of the word. The voice of the Spirit is really for those who are set for the will of God. In the book of Revelation the commandments of, the Lord Jesus are set out very clearly, then it says, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”, Revelation 3: 22. I would like to bring it home to every one of us, right now it is a question of, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”. We must look beyond the weakness of the vessel and see that it is the Spirit who is speaking. The point in this passage is the great matter of entering into God’s rest. God has found His rest in Christ, and there is a great realm of blessing available for the believer. It will soon be entered into in a full way, but it is important to realise that everything lies in the Spirit. We referred today to the realm of the Spirit; there is the realm of the flesh, we all know well what that is, but there is also the realm of the Spirit.

It is an area that is permeated by the love of God. We are enjoined to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21). How can we do that? Only by the Holy Spirit of God.

Do not turn aside the message, however feebly spoken. The Father is speaking, He is drawing attention to His beloved Son and the glorious work that He has accomplished. The Son is speaking, He is appealing to come. Come to Him, come to the Saviour. The Spirit is speaking, He is speaking in tones of great love and urgency too. I firmly believe that. There is a certain urgency about the present time because we are drawing near the end of this wonderful dispensation, and the appeal is going out, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”. Come into the blessing. I speak to myself as much as anyone, because I know my own heart and the many things, that hinder the full enjoyment of these things. The Spirit would open up the glories of Christ to us. It speaks about the unsearchable riches of the Christ”, Ephesians 3: 8. Who of us can say much about these things? I would desire to know more about them, as I am sure we all would. It says, “the word of the report did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard”. The report has come to us, it has come from heaven, but it must be received in faith. When mixed with faith the Spirit comes in and helps us, joins its help to our weakness. I have been thinking a little about that. In Romans 5 it says, “we being still sinners, Christ has died for us” (Romans 5: 8). That is very wonderful; it shows how God has met the whole question of sin to His eternal satisfaction when there was nothing in us to merit His favour. The believer stands on the ground of God’s righteousness and nothing can alter that. Then there is another verse which says, “for we being still without strength, in the due time Christ has died for the ungodly” (Romans 5: 6). That is a very searching thing because the matter of being without strength, in a certain sense, never leaves us; the weakness of the flesh, the weakness of the human condition never leaves us as long as we are here. Thank God that in His grace He has made full provision for this. The Spirit joins its help to our weakness; not only to fulfil righteousness, but to strengthen us in order that we should enter into the realm of divine purpose where God has centred everything in Christ. Well, I just leave the message, and trust that it will come home to every one of us, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Dundee
25 August 1996

Edited and Published by J. Strachan, 59 Frederick Street, Dundee, DD3 9DE, Scotland Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ, (T) (01277) 650661

← Previous 4 of 4 Next →