Hear Ye Him
HEAR YE HIM
I want you to note that small fragment in Matt. 3:17: the Voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It must have been a very unique and wonderful experience for those who heard that Voice that day.
John the Baptist came into the world to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. He began preaching repentance in the wilderness, but the message was not an easy one for the people to accept. People came from far places to hear him, and it was not a message to please them that he preached, but a message with the authority of the living God. He made no distinction when he said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Those who heard the message repented of their sins and confessed them and were baptised. Some may have thought that they would receive some sort of blessing by being baptised by such a great prophet. Some of those who came to be baptised were even of the leaders of the nation, and looking at them John exclaimed, “Oh generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruit, therefore, mete for repentance.” He gave the message to all the people, but only a certain number of them responded and were baptised of him.
One day the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came to be baptised. The Scripture says in John’s Gospel, that, till that day, John the Baptist did not himself know who the Lord Jesus really was (John 1:31). Our Lord Jesus Christ came very quietly among the crowd and ‘requested John the Baptist to baptise him. John of course knew something about Jesus naturally, being his cousin, but he did not know that He was the Messiah. When John saw the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus Christ as a dove, then he knew for certain who He was, The next day, be declared: “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”
This tells us that it was only when the Voice of God spoke that John knew who Jesus was, Unless you also hear the Voice of God you will never know who God is, You may have attended many meetings, you may know much of the Bible, and you may have made many Sacrifices, but unless you hear the Voice of God, all these things are of no value to you spiritually,
The Lord did not begin His ministry by doing miracles. Tiff that day He had not performed a single miracle, nor bad He preached a single sermon, It was only after the Voice of God declared His identity that John understood and declared who Jesus was.
If you want to enjoy the grace of God, and to understand His power in fullness, and to know the mind of God every day, then learn the secret of hearing His still small Voice every day and many times during the day. God does speak, the living and the mighty God, and He wants us to hear His voice and listen to Him. May we all learn this secret. We must hear the Voice of God every day saying to us: “This is the way, walk ye in it’ (isa. 30:21). How simple these words are. When you are about to take a wrong turning, either to the right or to the left, there comes that still small Voice saying: ‘Don't go this way, don’t go that way: there is some danger there.” In this way all of us can be guided daily in the night path.
As long as we are in the world all of us have to face temptation, It does not matter who you are, where you are, or what you are doing. As human beings we have to face many temptations and difficult situations and troubles of one kind or another. But when we can hear the Voice of God clearly we can meet these situations victoriously.
God shows us mo His Word, how from the very beginning of our spiritual life we must lear to hear His voice. Study Exod: 19:19; 20:1, 2. In Ezek. 1:24, we read of the ‘Voice of the Almighty’; in Ezek. 10:25 of the “Voice of the Almighty God, when He speaketh’; in I Kings 19:12, of “the still small Voice’.
You may remember the story in I Kings 18, how when Elijah the mighty man of God prayed, the heaven opened and the fire came down (1 Kings 18:38).
In the beginning of chapter 19, the wicked queen threatened to kill Elijah, so Elijah may have thought that God would surely punish Jezebel. He went and sat under the juniper tree, for he was angry with God for failing to punish her. That is how we behave sometimes. That is how we misunderstand God and begin to doubt Him. But God’s ways are not our ways; they are higher than our ways. He will not work in our way. Elijah perhaps thought God was not doing His duty because He did not punish Jezebel, so he told the Lord: “Lord, from today onwards I am not going to be your prophet.” Now, if you are in Government service you have to give three months’ notice if you wish to resign, but Elijah gave just one day’s notice! “Take away Your prophetship from me from today,” he said in effect, “I am not going to speak in Your Name from today. You have gone to sleep and are not doing Your job!”
Many a time we also think the same. We want to dictate to God. But God was not sleeping! He took Elijah to the mountain-top and there dealt with him in a wonderful way. First there was a very strong wind; but God was not in the wind. Then came the earthquake which shook the mountain, but Scripture says that God was not in the earthquake. Then there came fire, but God was not in the fire. After that, there came a still small Voice and God spoke to Elijah and told him clearly where and when and how He would judge Jezebel. At the same time He revealed to him many other things about coming events.
Through these many references from the Bible we see God speaking. God does speak, and if you believe in God, you must listen when He speaks. He is not something abstract. He is a person. We can know Him, hear Him, be led of Him, and know Him more intimately than we know anybody else. You may have been living with friends for many years and yet do not know them fully, You may live with your wife and children for many years and yet you dare not tell them everything. There are certain thoughts which we cannot share with others; but we can speak to God freely and tell Him every thought. We can go to Him at any time, anywhere, and hear His voice.
Once, only prophets or high priests were able to hear the Voice of God. If others wanted to hear what God had to say, they had first to go to either a prophet or the high priest. Whenever David was in trouble he had to send for the high priest Zadok to help him to hear the Voice of God. To help man to hear God's Voice Jesus Christ came into the world, and for this reason, at the very beginning of His ministry, the Holy Spirit came upon Him and God spoke from Heaven.
In His baptism our Lord was prophesying bow He must die, be buried and rise again. This He proclaimed in this symbolic way at the very beginning of His ministry, In Mark 8:31, 9:31, He talks of this in a more clear and specific way, and even before His crucifixion, prophesied His death. In baptism He spoke symbolically that He must give His life for sinners and conquer death. Then the heavens opened and God's Voice was heard. Those who know the Lord Jesus by experience see the heaven open everyday: they claim God’s grace, mercy, love and power day by day; and they have the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead them, help them and teach them, because mysteries and spiritual truths cannot be understood by ordinary wisdom.
You too can hear the Voice of God everyday according to your need, and through the inward Voice can know exactly what God expects of you, and wants you to do,
The next question is, how can anyone of us hear God's Voice clearly-and definitely every day? The answer is in the same chapter, Matt. 3:2 ‘Repent ye!’ That was the first message declared boldly and with authority by John the Baptist. The same message was given by the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of His baptism (Matt. 4: 17). In Greek the word ‘repentance’ means ‘right about turn’. First I look straight ahead; then I] turn my back and face the other way. That is called repentance.
As sinners we face the devil with our backs towards God, because we get much more pleasure in obeying Satan than God. By hearing the word of God and knowing the result of sin, we repent and turn our back to the devil and our face towards God. But in many cases it is only half-repentance, or two-thirds repentance! Men want both masters! When they are in trouble they want God, otherwise they want to serve the devil. Repentance is not repentance unless it is full and complete. We require the grace and help of God to
1t repent and tum our back on the devil.
We are told in the same chapter (verses 13 and 14) how John was surprised to see Jesus coming to Him. Unless you humble yourself, you will nat understand the meaning of God’s kingdom. Even though Jesus had Much more power and authority than John the Baptist, He humbled Himself for your sake and mine, and went to John to be baptised, John exclaims, “I have need to be baptised of Thee. Comest Thou to me?” The Lord was saying in a symbolic manner that humility is the secret of divine favour, The more we humble ourselves the more we will be exalted (Matt, 23:12) Not only should we repent of our sins with humility and meekness but we must confess from our hearts, “Lord, I am no better than my neighbour, Even though I occupy a high position on earth, in Thy sight I am a sinner; a great sinner. TI can see nothing in me but corruption and defilement.”.
That is quite true. In spite of all our education and culture, we get defiled by our thoughts and deeds. God's word says very clearly that ‘the heart of man is desperately wicked’. No matter how cultured we are, we cannot change our inward nature. As we become older we become more wicked, haughty, proud and deceptive. Our freedom lies in humility, Only then can we be completely delivered from our sinful nature through Christ.
Our Lord prophesied three things by His baptism. In Rom, 6, baptism speaks of death, burial and resurrection; a three-fold inward change which is expressed outwardly in baptism. In many cases it is only a ritual or ceremony. That is why there is so much barrenness in many who are called Christians, Baptism is a testimony and not a ceremony. Unless we are taught this we live very poor Christian lives. Unless our sims are buried and forgotten, we cannot have real peace. Otherwise we are going to be haunted by the memory of sins committed.
At the time you sinned perhaps you said, “I will never do it again’. You may try to forget your sins by eating and drinking, and others may say sin does not matter, for we do not come into the world again and again, so let us eat and drink and be merry. A day is coming, however, when you will feel miserable. Every memory of your sin will torment you. You may try to smile but that won't help you. You will still be restless and depressed day by day. ‘You will say: ‘After all, what is there in this world?’ We must be purified from our sins, and that is why our Lord died and was buried. Today you can be freed from every memory of sin. He died to take away our condemnation, He died that we may die to our sinful nature.
Just as cancer has to be removed with all the surrounding tissues and muscles, so also by faith we have to take into us the power of death to die to our desires and thoughts. We do not die by saying so. I may say in the morning, ‘I will net do it; E will not do it.” But the brain starts working: it says, ‘It does not matter: it does not matter!’ We go ahead and fall again. We cannot gain victory in our own power. As we receive into us the power of death so also we receive into us a new life called the power of His resurrection, which gives us a hunger and thirst for the things of eternity. In due course we are given ears to hear the Voice of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples in plain - language that He must suffer and die and rise again they became very sad (Matt. 6:21, 22; 17:5), and began ta. wonder why He had to suffer so much when He had such power, In fact Peter rebuked Him. “No, Lord, we will net allow you to suffer in this way.”
After six days the Lord Jesus Christ took them to a high mountain and was transformed before them. Then there came a Voice from heaven saying “This is my be- Loved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God tells us by this means that if we want divine life to come into us, we must die to our old nature. We can never die to ourselves without His help. When the Lord died He died to help us to die to ourselves. The proof is that the more we obey Him the more the divine light is seen upon our faces, This kind of brightness does not came through soap or powder. It is a reflection of the glory of God which shines more and more as we obey God.
God says that if we want to hear His still small Voice, Somebody must die in our stead, for our sins. to take away our condemnation. God's justice must fulfil the divine law to help us to live a pure life. The Lord Jesus Christ rose again to pour into us new life and the power of His resurrection, It is only by that life that we can hear the still small Voice. It is, indeed, a still small Voice. It is not a human voice. and it is only by experience that we recognise it as we follow Him.
I testify to God’s glory that I hear that still small Voice daily. I have been hearing it for the last thirty-seven years. I can go to my Lord at any time and anywhere and call upon Him. He speaks lovingly and says, “This is the way, walk ye in it.’ Follow the simple divine way to have power, and then all your questions can be answered day by day. Come upon your knees and write down on paper all your questions and say: “Lord, here are the questions, Please answer them. Show me the way and guide me today. Give me the Message necessary for this person or that, Help me to live for Thy glory. Show me Thy will for the following matters and speak with me.” Try this day by day.
In order to follow this simple way you have first to repent sincerely. Confess every sin without reservation.
Believe from the heart and say in simple faith: “The Lord Jesus Christ died in my stead for my sins, to take away my condemnation’, Thank Him for dying for you. Say to Him: “Lord, I want to die to my habit of drink, of going to cinemas, etc, I want to die to other habits of bad temper or worrying, and other vices and weaknesses. Lord, bury my sins in Thy burial. Pour into me the power of Thy resurrection for every temptation and trial. Speak to me. Give me a message for my wife, or husband, friend or neighbour. Show me from Thy Word Thy hidden mysteries, and Thy plan for me for today, and for the future.” Then you will find the Voice of God coming into your ears every day.
Chapter 2