“THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD”
C. F. Dadd
The thought in reading these few verses is to draw our attention to the voice of the Son of God. We would, as our brother has said in prayer, desire to hear what the Lord would say to us as we are together. What might proceed here today as to the voice of the Son of God being heard, the word of the Lord coming in, would be directed to “we, the living, who remain” (1
Thessalonians 4: 15). Our brother’s testimony here is finished. His days have been long in the land, but now it is for “we who remain” and what proceeds now would be in relation to ourselves. The Lord intends that His voice might be a known thing amongst us. We are thankful for the fact that with most, if not all, the voice of the Son of God has been heard in our own private histories. This is true as we have known what it is to accept Christ. He said,
“I say unto you, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God”. What a marvellous thing it is that the voice of the Son of God has been heard, possibly in the experience of every one of us, appealing to us as to where we have been in our own lives before God, because the Lord said, “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God”. We are not thinking that He said that of the physical dead. He is thinking of those who are away from God, that do not know Christ. Today we are within the range of the voice of the Son of God and we are to know what it is to live. So God
would appeal to us. Our brother was long in the enjoyment of this, and now it is a question of ourselves. In prayer reference was made to “we, the living”, and what a voice things are now to us, “we, the living, who remain”.
Our brother has been gently and graciously put to sleep by Jesus. Paul speaks about that—
those who are asleep through Jesus. The Lord has been the One by whom our brother has been put to sleep. But we who remain are still in the sphere of responsibility. We are still in the sphere where we have to do with God, where we have to do with the Son of God, so that His voice would be heard at such a time as this, and that those who hear shall live. How important is what John has to say in his gospel; how it bears so much on the desire that we might have life. What a great matter that is; life from a moral viewpoint. Life for the believer is the power to enjoy what God has brought him within the range of. That is the idea of life—
the power to enjoy what God has provided. What a test it is as to our place in the testimony at this time.
In verse 28 the Lord speaks about the time that is coming when “all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice”. That takes us on to a further thought to those that have died in Christ; those that have died generally, too. Every man, woman and child that has ever lived will be raised by the voice of the Son of God. Those that are in the tombs shall hear His voice. Think of the resurrection soon to take place, how private and personal it will be for those who believe—like the resurrection of Lazarus, where the Lord said, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11: 43), and he came forth. That will proceed, with every one who believes; there is going to be the resurrection of the just. It speaks here of the resurrection of life, as it shall be, according to the faith of our
brother who has departed to be with Christ.
How the gospel, how the word of God, how the voice of the Son of God, come within our range at a moment such as this and it would be that we might come into the area of life, enjoying what it is to be quickened by that voice, made to live to God. Paul could speak about that, that if he lived in the flesh, he lived according to his faith in the Son of God.
I would leave this with each one of us now, that the voice of the Son of God, to be heard so vividly at a moment such as this, might enter into the hearts of every one of us and affect us, so that the time we have left might be committed to be here for His pleasure. May it be so.