THE VOICE OF CHRIST
[p. 378] THE VOICE OF CHRIST
John 5:25; Song of Songs 2:3 - 8; Acts 12:1 - 16
What is before me to speak about, dear brethren, is the voice of Christ. I am thinking of it as involving His Person. We have to distinguish between His voice and what He says. His voice reminds the hearer of Himself, as, in a lesser measure, one’s handwriting represents oneself. What one may write is another thing, and so John stresses the voice; he also speaks, of course, of what the Lord says, His word. His word had authority, and it is an important matter for us now that there is a word of authority, even as there was in Elijah’s days, when he asserted that there should be no rain save at his word. He was representative of God. And so in this gospel there is a word of authority. John makes much of the idea of what Jesus said, as if to sweep aside all independent speakers — all persons who speak from themselves. These are all swept aside in this gospel as unworthy of a hearing. One is presently to appear coming in his own name, who will thus speak. This gospel is to preserve us from him — the man of sin — by calling attention to the One who has said, “He that hears my word, and believes him that has sent me, has life eternal, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life”. John 5:24. Marvellous statement! but one which, if weighed and received, saves us from him who will come in his own name.
But then there is the voice of Christ. That brings Himself into view, and so He goes on to say in verse 25: “An hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live”. Now this is one of the most interesting statements that one knows of, that the hour has come — that is, the very hour in which we are — when [p. 379] this voice may be heard. It is the voice of the Son of God. Have we heard it, beloved brethren? The dead here allude to those who are morally so; later on he speaks of those who are literally so; here in verse 25 it is those who are morally dead; and that there is this voice, this living, powerful voice of the Son of God to be heard, and that those who hear it live. What is conveyed in large measure in the Son of God is that there is a mighty, living voice, full of affection. As Son of God He is on God’s side. One here in manhood, a divine Person great enough to convey to us not only the mind of God, but God Himself declared, and so this evangelist introduces us to Him immediately in His eternal personality. “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God”. John 1:1,2. It is a great fact that that One became flesh, and dwelt among us. Think of the grace in that! Then it says, “And we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. John 1:14. We have not the announcement from heaven recorded by this evangelist, “This is my beloved Son”, Matthew 3:17 but we have more than that, great as that is: we have the Son here marked out by what He is, and so believed on and owned by men — the Person dwelling amongst men, so as to be contemplated.
Contemplation is not a passing glance; it is occasioned by something that attracts you. Moses said, “I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt”, and as he turned aside to see the voice from the bush was, “Moses, Moses”, Exodus 3:3,4 He is distinguished now as sufficiently interested to turn aside to look and see. In this gospel the writer says, “We contemplated his glory”. John 1:14. Competent witnesses had an opportunity, and had embraced it, of contemplating the glory of this great Person; and what was that glory? “A glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”,
[p. 380] full of that which was so needed in this world. There He was as become flesh, contemplated by interested minds and hearts; and then the record says, “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1:18 so that we have this Person here apprehended by interested minds and hearts as an only-begotten of a father, and now known as the only-begotten Son, to declare God, as in the bosom of the Father. He is in the place of love. That One whose voice is to be heard is in the bosom of the Father. There is One here now great enough to make known the Father. It is in the manner of the disclosure of the love of God that His voice is heard — the voice of the Son of God. It may still be heard in the din of this world, clear and distinct as among the dead, and those who hear, He says, live, for He has life in Himself, and the Son quickeneth whom He will. Although acting with the Father and being the Son of the Father, He has life in Himself, for He is equal with the Father; He quickens whom He will. How one loves to think of His sovereign movements in the realm of those morally dead, so that His voice is heard, and those who hear live! There are those in this world who may be thus classed — made to live by the voice of the Son of God, and now, if made to live by that voice, in what are we to live? What one would seek to do is to make things practicable and intelligible to the people of God. Paul says, “For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”. 2 Corinthians 5:14,15. We live to Him. Thus we — that is, we who live — have a controlling object at the outset, and that is what John would emphasise, and Paul, too.
We are under the constraint of His love. “To him who died for them and has been raised”,
[p. 381] and so I read in Canticles because we have there, in spirit, the experience of this by a believer, or, as I may say, by the assembly — at least I am taking the liberty of taking the female speaker there to symbolise in some sense the assembly. She alludes, doubtless, to the coming remnant of Israel; but assembly features, up to a point, can be traced, and particularly what I am speaking of, the love of Christ. If I am awakened from death by the voice of the Son of God, I am awakened to live in that love which He so perfectly expressed in His own way. I begin to apprehend the greatness of the Person, as one who knew better than any what I am speaking of, says, “In that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God”. Galatians 2:20. That is the language of everyone who truly lives.
So you find the experience of the love in Canticles. As Paul began to apprehend the Son of God — His greatness — so the speaker here refers to her beloved as “the apple-tree among the trees of the wood”. The Son of God is necessarily marked off as supreme. Not that the other trees are without value, but the point is the superiority of Christ, and then the experience of the love of One thus known. Thus affection begins to be begotten, leading to the assembly, for it is really the voice of the bridegroom; John the baptist says, “He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices in heart because of the voice of the bridegroom”. John 3:29. The Lord appeals to young hearts, to draw them away and to link them up with Himself, and to establish affectionate relations with Himself. The bride dilates upon the doings of love. “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love”. “His left hand”, she says, “is under my head”. If His love is felt in your heart, you feel your weakness; you question as to [p. 382] how you can stand up in the presence of such love as is disclosed. The left hand supports the head; that is to say, your intelligence is supported in the presence of this great Person, “and his right hand doth embrace me”, as if the affections are kept by the same power, the same mighty hand. It is Himself, and so you come into the knowledge of love, for we can only learn it in Christ. “Hereby have we known love, because he has laid down his life for us”, 1 John 3:16 and as we thus come to know it, you say to the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, to others — the brethren, the saints — “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please”. Till He please. Let love have its own way. She now sees what it does of itself. As I lay morally dead, it caused its voice to be heard in my heart; what will the love of Christ and the love of God not do for me? And then she says, “The voice of my beloved!” See how He comes! “Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”. Dear brethren, one wishes to convey to you what love is in its sovereign activities; it will never be behind or before, it will be just in time. It will not allow you to be deprived of anything for want of waiting; it will teach you in waiting, as Mary and Martha learned by those two days’ delay. It has its own thoughts, and it fulfils these thoughts, and they cannot be improved upon, for they are the thoughts of His love. So it is “the voice of my beloved”, and He comes with great agility.
Well now, I want to speak in the most practical manner of this subject from Acts 12, and what I want to point out, dear brethren, is the voice of Christ in a representative. The circumstances in which these verses are found are most interesting. They come in during the great activity of the Spirit of God at Antioch — between the earlier part of that work and [p. 383] the full result of it. The beginning of it is in chapter 11, and the great result is in chapter 17, and in between is this incident in chapter 12. Peter is in prison; he is bound with two chains and asleep between two soldiers; that is to say, he is imprisoned, and he is unconscious — a state of things, I believe, which has had its answer in our time. The ministry has had its imprisonment; but God has come in in a wonderful manner, as in Peter’s imprisonment and unconsciousness. He was asleep — a remarkable picture! His ministry had stopped, but an angel appeared, and light shone in the prison. Were it not that this light has shone into the prison in which we were, none of us would have come out; we should have remained there in unconsciousness of our imprisonment. Many are there today, and yet it is the divine thought that we should be representative of Christ; so the angel came there, and having smitten the side of Peter, he roused him up, and a light shone in the prison.
How much enters into that action of the angel! Peter here is a man of experience; he had had to do with the side of Christ; he saw that side, and understood, doubtless, what it meant. It is the way of love, and the way of love is to bring in the assembly; as Eve came out of the side of Adam, so the assembly comes out of Christ.
The next action is, the chains fell off his hands; then the angel gives direction. How people in such circumstances need direction! It was not as with Paul and Silas, who in prison prayed and sang praises to God at midnight, and who gave direction to the jailer, and whose voices were heard by the prisoners as they listened. Here it is an unconscious prisoner, but heaven awakens him. It may be there is someone like that here. May heaven awaken you!
Well, the angel smites Peter on the side, and says to him, “Cast thine upper garment about thee and follow me”. He did so, and going forth he followed [p. 384] the angel and passed through a first and second guard, and, when they came to the iron gate which leads into the city, it opened to them of itself.
Need we doubt that there is some spiritual allusion there? Peter’s name is in the foundation of the holy city. Note, the gate opened of itself as he moved out under the direction of the angel. Now he goes through “one street”, and immediately the angel left him. In the heavenly city there is only one street mentioned. The ministry of the Spirit would lead to this thought today. Now Peter being come to himself and having become clearly conscious, he arrived at the house of Mary, the mother of Mark. He was not long unconscious; now he had become conscious in himself. Many of us sleep, as I said, but the word is, “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee”. Ephesians 5:14.
Now Peter having become conscious, he goes down one street and finds the prayer-meeting. An excellent place! I do not dwell upon the unbelief that was there for the moment; I speak for some here whom the Lord would awaken and lead into consciousness — that it is yourself, and that God is having to do with you. Now what are you going to do? Light has shone into your soul; God has been helping you; you have been smitten on the side; you have been reminded of the love of Christ, and now you are outside the gate in the city, and there is that one street, and you take that way. These are the circumstances.
Then Peter appears at the door of the entry of the house of the mother of Mark. Now he is a representative of Christ; that is the thing to apprehend. Many a time he had represented Christ; many a time that voice — the voice of Peter — was the voice of Christ; Who can tell the number of souls converted through that voice — the number that have heard the voice of Christ through the voice of Peter? What a day was that pentecostal day when he “lifted up his voice”, Acts 2:14 as it says. Thousands heard and believed, and so now it is the voice of Christ in a representative. He is knocking at the door, he stands at the entry, and now a little maid comes to listen at the door. This is no ordinary maid; one would speak to the young men and women here; her name is given; “by name Rhoda”, the Spirit of God says. She went to listen, it says, not to open the door. You do not open to everybody; if you do, you are not a doorkeeper according to God. Under David’s ministry there were four thousand doorkeepers, as many doorkeepers as singers. The true doorkeeper will not let in every one. She went to listen, for that is how it should read, and so she recognised the voice.
We have spoken of an awakening voice indeed, and of a loving voice; but now we have Christ’s voice through a representative, for Peter had come into consciousness. It is himself, the great Peter to whom the revelation was made, and whose experience with God and with Christ is unique. It was no less than himself, but himself as recovered. He had come to consciousness. All his vocal powers were available, and Rhoda recognised that voice; it was his, and not that of another. What about the listening ear, dear young people? It is the voice of Christ, but through a representative. One loves to dwell on this maid Rhoda as a representative of keenness of hearing — of listening power. She went to listen; many of us hear things we cannot help hearing, but no one should come to a meeting like this in that way; it is a question of hearing Christ or nothing — the voice of Christ and no other voice. That is what you should have before you. Rhoda coming to listen was repaid; it was the voice of Peter; with joy she ran to announce the glad fact that Peter was there. Alas for those inside! for there decline and decay had set in; they had been [p. 386] praying for his deliverance, and now when it is announced they disbelieve it. These were days of decline — prayer-meetings, but prayers without faith; but there was one girl in that house who could listen and who had faith, and she recognised the voice, that it was the voice of Peter.
Is there not a distinct voice today through representatives — a voice of Christ. There are those delivered from prison, for that is our position today; we have been awakened from sleep, like the wise virgins we have come to consciousness, like Peter; we have come to recognise the Spirit of God, and let me add, we may have the Spirit of Christ and so represent Christ. There is that here, and Rhoda represents that listening ear, and she maintains it. How easily we are turned aside! I speak for young people. You hear the well-known voice, and others say, ‘It is not it’, and they go as far as to say, ‘You are mad’; but you stand for it. This maid stoutly maintains it, and she is victorious; she is indeed an overcomer. It is a wonderful thing to be an overcomer in the testimony of God; we have to overcome in every relation — in our households, in our businesses, but we have also to overcome amongst the brethren. You may not have thought of that, but overcoming is the great feature in the Lord’s addresses to the assemblies. Here they are seen in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, at a prayer-meeting, and they are persecuting this girl, and say she is mad because she hears the voice of Peter and discerns it; and while those inside said she was mad, she maintained that it was so. And so it is that the book of Revelation discloses to us those who overcome. They hear the voice of Christ; there is no mistake as He announces Himself. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”.
May God grant a listening ear to the voice of Christ! Amen.