Luke's Gospel, chapter eight.
And we're going to read from verse 16. It's not a big reading
today, just verse 16. And this is what the Lord says. No man, when he hath lighted
a candle, covereth it with a vessel or putteth it under a bed. but
setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may
see the light. For nothing is secret that shall
not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be
known and come abroad. Take heed, therefore, how ye
hear, for whosoever hath to him shall be given, and whosoever
hath not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to
have. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading. The Lord had told his disciples
in the previous passage the reason that he spoke in parables, and
that was to conceal the message that they contained so it might
be conveyed privately to those who were given eyes to see and
ears to hear. He said to his disciples, Unto
you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to
others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing
they might not understand. And here the Lord was showing
his disciples that he was distinguishing between them and others. It was given to them to know
the mysteries of the kingdom, but from others this knowledge
was withheld. To those others, the gospel truths
remained mysterious. And so it has always been. There
are some who are given eyes to see and ears to hear. Some who
are given spiritual wisdom to understand the mysteries of the
Kingdom of God. Some who are graciously blessed
with such a divine revelation as to enable them to come to
a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel. while
others are left without this saving knowledge, and they continue,
content in their fallen state and condition, to remain in their
sins forever. Again, what was it the Lord said?
To you it is given to know, but to others in parables that they
might not understand. and this distinguishing choice
of God runs through the whole of scripture. The sovereign counsel
and the eternal purpose of God will prevail to the glory of
his name. However, as we said before, while
this principle remains true, It was not the Lord's intention
that the apostles or indeed the later church should preach in
parables. It is not God's will that the
church of the past or today should conceal the gospel in any way
or hide the message of salvation by the grace of God and the blood
of Christ. On the contrary, this message,
the grace of God and the blood of Christ, was to lighten the
whole world. It was to be shed abroad. It
was to be preached promiscuously. It was to be widely declared
and carried by the apostles and the Lord's later preachers and
messengers to the ends of the earth. And the Lord told his
disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, Ye are the light of the
world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Now, he had said in John chapter
9 verse 5, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of
the world. However, he would not be in the
world much longer in his physical form and the disciples would
take over the role of bringing the light of the gospel to those
who sat in darkness. And here in Luke, the Saviour
is conveying this same message. while the gospel will remain
always a separating message. Paul speaks of it in 2 Corinthians
2 as that the preaching of the gospel, we are the saviour of
death unto death and to others, the saviour of life unto life. And yet the gospel in its telling is
not to be cloaked in mystery or concealed any longer in parables. It is to be openly declared,
it is to be clearly explained, and it is to be simply set forth
in everyday words for the nations to hear. Now no one ordinarily
lights a candle and hides that candle under a bowl or under
a basin. The whole purpose of lighting
the candle is to illuminate. And the disciples were to take
the words that Christ spoke to them, not the parables in themselves
but his explanation of those parables and bring to the world
the message of God's saving purpose, Christ's redemptive sacrifice
and the Holy Spirit's ministry of the new birth. The light that
they had, the light they'd been given was to be dispensed freely
like a candle on a candlestick that lightens the whole room
and their gospel light was to be elevated, it was to be lifted
up and carried about so that the light of the glorious gospel
could shine into the souls of those to whom God purposed to
save and gather to himself from the ends of the earth. You see,
the church is not a secret society. And while I am jealous of this
little group, I would not deny anyone access who wished to join
us. The Gospel is an open secret. It is transparent. It is accessible
to all who are constrained to enter in under its sound. The
Gospel isn't a hidden mystery. Once it was, but no longer. It is to be liberally shared. It is to be freely declared like
the sower who sowed his seed to the left and to the right.
It's to be scattered all around. That does not mean that all who
hear it will understand and be saved. the different grounds
into which the seeds fell explains that part of the parable. There
will be varying reactions in the hearts and the minds and
the spirits of those who hear. Yet the essential message, the
good seed, is the same to all men and women, boys and girls. There's no inner circles in our
group, or there certainly should not be, and there certainly isn't
as far as the gospel is concerned. And that is what the Lord means
when he says in Luke 8 verse 17, He's speaking about the gospel
here. He's speaking about the message that he was teaching,
that he was conveying, communicating to his disciples. That message,
Christ's gospel, the gospel of God, It would not be secret, it would
be made manifest and it would be preached to the ends of the
earth. And we the church, we who are
writers or preachers or witnesses or messengers, we are to hold
nothing back. I like this emphasis of the Lord.
Because some people tell us that certain doctrines ought not to
be preached to sinners, but only to mature Christians who are
able to digest strong meat. In fact, these same people are
often more specific than that. They say doctrines such as election
and predestination, which they claim are part of God's secret
will, but not part of his revealed will should be whispered quietly
if they're mentioned at all. And since God, they tell us,
has not revealed his secret will, we should not meddle in matters
that are hidden or try to discover how God's will works and what
God's secrets contain. Then they add to that and they'll
say things like doctrines such as justification and the extent
of the atonement and the necessity of the new birth or imputed righteousness. They need to be moderated or
soft peddled or played down and de-emphasised so as to attract
as many as possible to partake at the table fitly spread. and receive the salvation that
God sincerely offers to everyone. And the scandal here is that
the very doctrines that mean so much to a helpless, needy
soul are purposefully withheld by these preachers as being unsuitable
for their people to hear. But this is in direct contradiction
to what the Lord says, and I may say to what the apostles did. In preaching God's gospel, nothing
is secret that shall not be made manifest. Yes, we preach the
simplicity which is in Christ, but we preach the whole of Christ,
the whole counsel of God, freely and unashamedly, believing it
to be the power of God unto salvation. This was Paul's practice and
it reaped results. it brought real sinners under
the real gospel to experience real grace and forgiveness and
salvation. The alternative gospel that is
proposed to us by some preachers, the alternative gospel that is
pared down and diluted and sieved to remove anything that might
detract from the free will of man or the autonomy of the individual
in the matter of salvation, does not serve our need because it
is not fit for purpose. And I fear that there are many,
many people who consider themselves Christians, who have been converted
under the hollowed out gospel of modern evangelism, but who
have never truly heard the gospel and sadly would be grossly offended
by it if they did. And this gives greater significance,
I think, to the Lord's final statement here in our verses. He says, Now this was spoken to the Lord's disciples and no
doubt it applies to them in the first instance. The disciples
had to be careful and conscientious concerning the truths and the
doctrines that they were hearing from the Lord Jesus Christ. He
laid this obligation on them. Now it's true, as we've been
hearing in our studies in John chapter 14, the Lord promised
that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance all things
that he had said, everything that he had taught them. But
that did not lessen or remove their obligation to be diligent
and thorough and hardworking when it came to hearing the Lord's
message and applying it appropriately. And as we've seen elsewhere in
the Gospels, the Lord was critical when his students did not attend
to their lessons. But while this applies to the
disciples, I think the application extends to us all. Every one
of us need to be careful how we hear. Take heed, the Lord
says. Don't for a moment imagine that
all Gospels are the same. or that in doctrine anything
goes. Don't imagine that there are
not people out there or even in here who will deceive you. Can you imagine the horror when
someone who has attended church all their lives faces Christ
in the judgment and discovers for the first time that they
have never heard the gospel because it was never preached to them.
Men and women who seemed to have the gospel, but from him shall
be taken even that which he seemeth to have. In this little passage,
the Lord is telling us how precious the true gospel is, and he is
encouraging his disciples and his preachers to preach it clearly,
fully, and widely. And he encourages us all to listen
to it in light manner, that it may quicken our souls and lighten
our understanding. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.