LISTENING TO CHRIST

Matt. 7:24

Morning Meditation 9/4/2012

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:"

These are words spoken by Christ to His disciples. We have to hear to do. But we can hear without doing. Jesus said in Matthew 7:26-27, "And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

When I was a boy and my parents corrected me, they would sometimes say, "Earl, are you listening to me?" I would answer," Yes." They would say, "The next time you do this you are going to get a whipping. Do you understand that?" I said, "Yes ma'am." It was usually my grandmother. She would then say, "When you do this again, you are not going to say, "I did not understand that this was a crime with capital punishment attached?" I said, "No ma'am. I understand." I did understand and I did say, "grandmother, I did not understand the rule." I was a young liar. But it did not work on my grandmother and it will not work on God. I've heard a lot of kids say they never told me that I would get a whipping if I ever did that again. Well I've learned to be truthful. I never told the truth. That is, if it would get me out of a whipping. But it never really worked with my grandmother. She knew me better than I knew my self. I lied my way out of a lot of whippings. But take my word for it. That won't work at the meeting in the sky. We will face the judge that has all the facts. He can replay our understanding of the problem. He can also replay the scene of our laying plans to get out of the spankings. My grandmother loved me and expressed that love with a hickory stick.

After we become Christians, we come under a new Lord. His name is Jesus and absolutely nothing gets by Him. He is merciful but He has become our personal Saviour with the intention of growing us into spiritual maturity. And this is a job that requires chastening at times. The first thing I want to point out is,

WE NEED TO LISTEN TO JESUS AS OUR TEACHER

Luke 9:39-42 says, "And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father."

Jesus immediately took care of the situation. The young man's body had become the resting place of unclean spirits. Jesus had given the power to His apostles to cast out unclean spirits. But they had failed on this occasion. Jesus immediately put His finger on the problem. He said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you?" The disciples suffered through the episodes where they could not use the power Jesus had given them to cast out unclean spirits. This really bothered Jesus. I can really understand Jesus pain over the disciples lack of the use of this power. What would they do after He went to heaven and they had the same problems. Jesus talked to one of the twelve. He said, "O ye of little faith." He did not accuse them of having no faith. They were interested in being right about this mighty miracle of restoring the life of this young child. He also wanted them not know of a certainty what had happened. He had worked a miracle. Then next Jesus wanted them to see the miracle that he had preformed upon this young man. If Jesus had preformed a miracle of casting a demon out of this young man, He just might be the Jewish Messiah. So next,

LET'S LOOK AT JESUS AS OUR CAPTAIN

Hebrews 2:10 says, "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

"For it became him" The verb is an imperfect active indicative, and comes from a word that means, "It is fitting, it is appropriate." The imperfect tense would be brought out like, it kept on being appropriate that action taken to help man should include suffering, since suffering is mankind's common lot.

"For whom are all things" Col. 1:16 is a good commentary on this statement. All things were made FOR Him. See Prov. 16:4; Isa. 43:21; Rev. 4:11. "For whom" sets before us God as the final cause and for whose glory all things were created.

The words, "By whom are all things" set forth Jesus as the ultimate cause of creation; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6.

"In bringing many sons to glory" "Bringing" is an aorist active participle. The active voice means He did it. The aorist tense means it is a past fact. He did that at a point of time in the past. The rest of the verse tells us how. The word "many" refers to all the saved. Because every person that enters heaven will have to do so through Christ; John 14:6. The word "glory" is used of heaven or the happy estate of the saved.

The next our text says, "In bringing many sons to glory." The word "Bringing" is an aorist active participle. The active voice means He did it. We did not bring ourselves to glory. A religious institution did not bring us to glory. Jesus did it. He met the conditions mentioned in this verse. Then the aorist tense means it is a past fact. He did that at a point of time in the past. The point of time has a twofold meaning. First His sufferings on the cross where He paid the penalty of the sinners sins. He did that at a point of time. His birth qualified Him to live the life that he lived, i.e., perfect. The life He lived, qualified Him to die the death He died, i.e., substitutionary. The rest of the verse tells us how. The word "many" refers to all the saved. Because every person that enters heaven will have to do so through Christ; John 14:6. The word "glory" is used of heaven or the happy estate of the saved. This condition is a free gift given by Jesus to the unsaved when they call on Him for salvation. This place is given as a result of what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus lived a perfect life so that His father could look at Him and say in Matthew 3:17 when He began His public ministry, "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Then later on, well into His public ministry, the Father said in Matthew 17:5, "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." I do believe there has never been a man on earth with the exception of Christ, who ever lived one single day without sin, when sin is measured the way God measures it. The human race needed a Saviour and we got it in God's only begotten Son; John 3:16.

Then the resurrection of Jesus was God's silent approval of the perfections of Jesus His Son from birth to the resurrection, and His testimony that He was well pleased at the offering that Jesus made for the sins of the world. Jesus deserves our worship and our praise because He did something for us that we could have never done for ourselves, i.e., save us.

Then in the final part of our verse, Hebrews says, "To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The word "captain" is from a word that means, "leader, pioneer." In Greek writings it was used of a HERO who founded a city, gave it its name, and became its guardian. It also denoted one who was HEAD of a family of FOUNDER of a philosophic school. The term also had a distinct military connotation referring to a commander of an army who went ahead of his men and blazed the trail for them. The idea here is of a leader who opens a new way. The words "to make perfect" is the translation of one in the Greek and is an aor. act. infin. meaning, "to perfect, to qualify." The Linguistic Key of the Greek New Testament says, "To make Jesus fully qualified as the 'pioneer of their salvation,' the training required involved passing 'through suffering'."

The words "perfect through suffering" might suggest to some that He was less than perfect when He came in the incarnation. "Through sufferings" is the means by which Christ was made perfect. Christ in His essential being is absolutely perfect. He cannot become what he already is. However, though sinless, he did finish a purpose for which He came. He could not have accomplished this through his incarnation. That was necessary. He could have not suffered as a man without becoming a man. So in this sense he became perfect through sufferings. The word "sufferings" is in the plural. Christ's sufferings were manifold. This plural word accumulates all the sufferings that were necessary, of which, God alone knows, and, with which, He is the one person who must be ultimately pleased. Isaiah said, "He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied..." Isa. 53:11.

What Jesus is we are. The apostle John said in 1 John 4:17, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: BECAUSE AS HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD."

So as God looks at the believer in Christ, that believer is the same as Christ right here right now in this present world. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The believer is made new in Christ. This is accomplished by Christ through His death on the cross. Jesus was made perfect through His suffering, and when we put our trust in Him we are also made perfect through His suffering. God is satisfied when He sees the travail of His soul and is satisfied. And God is also satisfied with us who have been instantly cleansed by that precious blood and made new. The old things are permanently behind us and we will never be charged with sin that has been put under the blood. And all our sins have been put under the blood when we trust Him as our Lord and Saviour.

There is no way that we can ever thank Him enough for dealing with sin as He did and thereby put our sins away forever. I am unspeakably thankful for what Jesus did for me when He died for me on the cross. I could not go to where He is because I was a sinner. So Jesus came to where I am and gave me the gift of righteousness; Romans 5:17, "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ)" My sins are all gone washed away through Calvary's flow. What a Saviour both now and forever. Someone hold my mules!!! Hallelujah!!!

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White