By Rev. ROBERT ELDER, D.D., West Free Church, Rothesay.
(Continued from p. 147).
“And behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him” (Matt. xvii. 5).
IV. Consider the command annexed to this divine testimony—”Hear ye Him.”—There seems here an allusion to the prophecy delivered by Moses, and applied to Christ by Peter, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken” (Deut. xviii. 5); or, as the Holy Ghost by Peter puts it, “Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you” (Acts, iii. 22).
-
Consider briefly the general import of this command. It proclaims and holds up the Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest and Fulfiller of the law, as also the great Prophet, and the Lawgiver and Head of His Church and people. “One is your Master, even Christ” (Matt. xxiii. 10). You must hear Christ as He speaks in His holy Word, and not “the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought.” You must hear Him and not merely Moses and Elias. They gave forth great testimonies for God and His truth in their day, and for ages after; but these lesser lights must disappear now that the Sun of Righteousness has arisen. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Heb. i. 1, 2). Nay, if you hear their testimony in faith and with spiritual understanding, they will bring you to the feet and the cross of Christ, for the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Him. And further, while you hear those who speak to you in the name of Christ, you are called ever to remember that only so far as Christ’s own truth is in them, and as Christ speaks by them, will there be any true light or blessings to your souls. In a word, you must hear Himself, or all other hearing and knowledge will be vain, and utterly worthless for your soul’s salvation. But this leads us to inquire—
-
What kind of hearing is meant by this divine injunction? Our Lord follows up the parable of the sower with that word of warning, “Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.” Many, alas! hear Christ’s Word, practically to refuse and disobey it, or to treat His warnings and counsels with indifference. Others listen only to speculate and criticise, as if man’s imperfect reasonings and conclusions, and not Christ’s divine revelations, were the standard of truth and right. This hearing in the text is what Moses calls “hearkening,” adding these words of solemn warning (v. 9), “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” It is to hear in the sense of giving “earnest heed,” of “believing with the heart unto righteousness.” It is to commit ourselves wholly to Him, cheerfully and practically to realise and own His authority, when He warns, or invites, or promises, or commands. It is, in short, to embrace and follow Him as our Prophet, Priest, and King, with the trustful, loving, entire obedience of faith. Thus Paul, by the Spirit, writes, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it, not as the Word of men, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (I. Thess. ii. 13). This is that living faith, which by the grace of the Holy Ghost, dwells and operates in every man who is savingly united to Christ, and which, God’s Word declares, is essential to salvation. So the Lord Jesus Himself testified, “He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God” (John iii. 18).
In conclusion, let us solemnly ask ourselves, what think we of Christ? Have our consciences been awakened to a true sense of our sinful and pervailing conditions, and have our eyes been opened to see His glory, as the divine Surety and Substitute, the all-sufficient Saviour of sinners? Have we been brought to the conclusion that our only hope of acceptance and salvation is bound up in the great fact proclaimed in our text, that the Father was “well pleased in Him,” when He stood in the breach, and finished the work given Him to do? Have we, therefore, been “renewed in the spirit of our mind,” embraced Him in our hearts; and are we cleaving to Him with that true “faith which worketh by love?” Are we now seeking to sit at His feet and learn of Him, and to honour and obey Him as our Lord and King? Oh to have the Beloved of the Father as our Beloved, to find our souls rest and satisfaction where the Father is “well-pleased,” to be hearing and following Jesus, this is assuredly the way of life!
Again, let me earnestly exhort those who have truly embraced Christ, to ponder and lay to heart their holy calling, as summed up in these words of my text, “hear ye Him.” He has redeemed you with His precious blood, and has quickened and renewed you by His Spirit, that He might “purify you unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Now, therefore, you are called to hearken to His Word, to watch for the intimations of His will, and, hearing with the obedience of faith, to “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” “I will hear what God the Lord will speak.” “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds.” This is a high and holy calling, beset with many difficulties in this world of sin and temptation. In yourselves you have no sufficiency for it. But surely there is divine encouragement in the first word spoken by the Lord to His trembling Disciples, after the voice from the cloud charged them to “hear Him.” We read (v. 7.) that “Jesus came, and touched them and said, Arise, and be not afraid.” So He says to every believer truly bent on hearing and following Him:—”My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Again, how woeful the state of those who, ignorant and insensible, as to their lost condition, are blind to the glory of Christ, and indifferent to the great things of gospel salvation! Perhaps you make no profession, and are living only for the world. Or, if you do make mention of His name, you have no ear for His counsel, and no heart to follow Him. It may be that you have some vague purpose, at a future and more convenient season, to deal seriously with Him and His truth, but meantime there is no disposition to hearken and no obedience of faith. O, be assured, whatever may be your outward character, that, thus living, you are in the way of darkness and death! Ponder, I earnestly beseech you that solemn version which Peter, by the Holy Ghost, gives of the word to Moses, “And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts, iii. 23). And finally, I press this gracious call on all to whom this word comes. “Hear ye Him;” for there is no other refuge for a sinner, no other Saviour of souls; but as the Lord Himself testified to the Jews, “if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” “To-day, if ye will hear His voice harden not your hearts.” “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven” (Heb. xii. 25). Yea, rather, I beseech you, by the mercies of God, praying that the word may come home to you “in demonstration of the spirit and of power,” “Incline your ear, and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isai. lv. 3).