LISTENING TO CHRIST

(Part 3)

John 10:27

Morning Meditation 10/4/17

Our text for today's meditation is John 10:27: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:"

Jesus said in this text, "My sheep hear my voice." We recognize the voice of our Shepherd. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice." That is spoken with authority. The phone will ring and I will pick it up and soon as the person on the line speaks I know his voice. It is a well known voice and one that gets my attention. Jesus knows all the languages of the world and knows the accent. When the Apostles spoke in different languages on the day of Pentecost, it was not always a different language. So it was a known language. Sometimes it was a mere dialect that kept one from understanding what the speaker was saying. But when Jesus gave the early Church the gift of tongues it included dialects. This was not a different language but a different dialect. Peter was caught off guard but did not let it hinder him. He was used to seeing miracles and knew languages were no problems to Jesus.

So he got up and spoke the gospel to those present and out it came in a dialect that those in that dialect understood perfectly. To them it was an amazing miracle. The church was trained to understand miracles and one of them that understood was probably included. They fell right into what God was doing and recognized that this miracle was for the purpose of the world evangelism and concerning the growth of the church. It is amazing to me as I read it today. Can you imagine the joy of the apostles when their selecting a disciple to take Judas' place? They were not wrong in what they did or who they selected. God was there to communicate. There He was proving the authenticity of the Church in staying up to date in what they were doing. The Holy Spirit helped them to remember the things that He had told them and He did it through the speaking voice. They were inspired to speak by what the Bible calls the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is God in us speaking His word and by this means, He says exactly what He wants to say. The apostles were learning how to quote God and tell the difference. Do you understand what I am saying? Not everything the Apostles said was inspired. They were wrong at times. So God removed the peace of heart when they were wrong about what they translated. They had to be right when they spoke or they would be lying about things they said the Lord said, when He didn't say it. We need to be very careful in what we say He says. The Lord was inspired to inspire them (the twelve) and He did inspire them, and enable them to preach the truth exactly as is the verbally inspired Word of God.

Matthew 10:14-20, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."

So the Lord assured them that He would be with them and tell them what to say when the time came. He assured them that it would be the Father speaking in them. He said, "take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." What an awesome promise. When God's man has the opportunity to speak before a king, he will not make a mistake because the infinitely wise God will be speaking through them.

Jesus is our helper. Jesus says in Luke 12:10-15, "And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." This is a great paragraph on covetousness. We as Christians, are not to behave as one who is greedy for wealth.

We need to listen to Jesus as our Helper. Isaiah 41:10 says, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Let's look at the above verse. God said, "I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." What does our Lord mean when He says, "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness?" What does this mean? The unrighteous cannot come before God. They will be chastened for their own sins. But the one who is saved has the imputed righteousness of Christ. If I have the imputed righteousness of Christ as to my prayers I have a direct line to heaven. We also have the assurance that we will get an answer to our prayers. This is what grace does. It is the unmerited favor of God based on God's righteousness. Satan does not want us to get answers to our prayers. It will finally come to the place where we find another way to explain grace. The Lord helps us by stepping between a Holy God and His children. Remember we have grace in the matter of salvation and this includes the trials of life as well. So we do not have to worry about being accused even when the accuser is right. We pray like the Publican in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. Luke 18:9-14, "And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

Jesus is speaking of true humility and the attitude of God in forgiveness when one has called and is repentant and does not defend his wrong actions but simply discusses His own problem with Sin. I believe it would be very difficult for one to go to church with the person who has had an adulterous affair with and broken up my home. Yet if that person asked God for forgiveness, should not we forgive? Being a Christian is not easy. It is not easy to forgive. But the fact is, God does not look at sin the way we do. And some of the sins the so-called righteous commit are just as bad as the ones that guilty man is accused of. We just need to listen to Christ and do what He says and do not assume the role of the righteous. God will put you there if you ever are needed. Let's listen to Jesus when He tells us what is right and what is wrong. Let's put obedience to Him first in our lives.

WE NEED TO LISTEN TO JESUS AS OUR SHEPHERD

The greatest passage on this is in Psalms 23:1-6, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

David said, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." Here God uses His name that Identifies Him as covenant keeping God. This is Jesus in the New Testament. The Shepherd talks to his sheep. An illustration was once given as an illustration. I think it would be good for me to use it today. The Shepherd is always in hearing distance from the sheep. He spoke and the sheep raised up from where they were grazing and came running to their Shepherd when He called.

There was in one of the villages two Shepherds who met in the middle of the street and their sheep mixed immediately with one another. The preacher who observed this said to himself, "How will these shepherds ever get the mess straightened up. After a few moments, the shepherds got through with their mid morning visit, one of the shepherds called out his sheep. And every sheep that belonged to him raised its head and came running to him at his call. My, what a lesson. It is the sheeps nature to do this. They know their shepherds voice and come yielding to it when called. Psalm 23 has a good commentary in John 10. It is something to cake a comparison to. We are looking at the spiritual shepherd and His sheep.

There is no want to the sheep who listen to the Shepherd. David said, "The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want." Possibly there would be want if there were other shepherds. But not so with Jesus as my shepherd. I don't know how many times I have had my wife ask me what I needed that she could give me for my birthday? I can honestly say, "I could not at the time think of a thing I needed." God has truly taken care of me, fashioned after the twenty third psalm. Something else. I have no doubt whatsoever if a need arose, He would move to count on the need. He is my Shepherd. The Lord is truly my shepherd and all I have to do is say, "Lord, I have a need. There is something I have a need of, would you please act upon this need and give it to me?!!! I think my Shepherd would give it to me. If He didn't, I think when He got through speaking to me, I would be perfectly satisfied without it.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White

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