Take Heed How You Hear
Thoughts on Luke 8:18
Man was in darkness as to the mind of God until He was
pleased to reveal it. Hence His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our
paths. He tells us His mind in His word, which otherwise we could never have
known by research or thought of our own. His revelation is therefore light;
"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the
simple". The darkness is the conclusion of man's mind untaught and undirected
by the word of God. Man follows the bent of his own mind, and makes himself the
centre, just as Cain did at the very first. He builds a city and calls it after
his son Enoch; it is characteristically what is derived from himself. The
children of Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the Cain line, are Jubal, the
father of all such as handle the harp and organ, and Tubal-cain, the instructor
of every artificer in brass and iron. Up to the flood we have man left to
himself, without any revelation from God that we know of, save the promise that
God would through the seed of the woman bruise the serpent's head. We have no
positive record of God's mind save as it was communicated orally. Enoch was
translated that he should not see death, and none of the fathers died before
his translation, except Adam; and Lamech the father of Noah was more than a
hundred years old before the translation of Enoch. I notice this to show how
man was at first entrusted with the oracles of God, and that they were not
committed to writing; but while he was left to himself and to his own
resources, the family of faith, like a silver thread, was preserved through
God's mercy, and Noah, the remnant of it, was saved in the ark.
There
can be no question as to the great difference between man without revelation,
and man with it. The great philosophers at Athens indirectly admitted that the
mind of man, however fertile and able, could not discover the true God. They
had an altar inscribed, "To the unknown God", Acts 17. Thus their research and
learning had only disclosed their ignorance of God, and it is just here Paul
addresses them; he presents to them the light of revelation.
If it be
admitted - and it cannot be denied - that man is in darkness as to everything
that suits God, for I cannot know the mind of the Supreme unless He divulges
it; then if I accept the light of revelation, I must refuse the darkness which
is in principle and practice quite independent of the mind of God. The
darkness, that is man's mind, is solely and entirely set on discovering and
securing everything to exalt himself in departing from God, as we have seen in
Cain. God's light has been given to show to man the way God can have mercy on
him, and how He would set him up anew well pleasing to Himself; and as this
light is received, an entirely new course must be pursued to that which man had
invented or desired for his own benefit and enjoyment. Man's thoughts or plans
at best cannot exceed his own measure, and as it must be limited to himself, it
could not propose anything beyond human power, and therefore it must be finite,
and within the region of human sense.
Thus man is in will a creature
independent of his Creator; he seeks and designs for himself, absorbed in
promoting his own pleasure and profit, though ignorantly, and blind as to his
real profit; which is as great an anomaly as if a bird were to refuse the
instruction of its parent, and attempt to run only, never using its wings. The
blessed God alone knows what is best for man, and He declares it in His word.
He tried man first without law, and then with law, and lastly He sent His Son
"with healing in his wings." In the Greek we have man left to his own mind,
unenlightened by revelation; in the Jew we have man in the flesh with the law
as a given standard. Then grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, God's Son from
heaven, "which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
The simple point is,
does the light from God supersede and supplant in our minds the reasonings and
judgment of man, and is it adequate and sufficient to direct or fit man for his
true relation to God in every position in which he may be set? If this be
answered in the affirmative - and it could not truly be answered otherwise, or
God's revelation would not have perfectly disclosed His mind and will
respecting us - it is plain that there is great responsibility in hearing, and
that the word, "Take heed how ye hear" is a solemn one for us. Every word of
God is light and as its received there is light in him who receives it, and it
is not to be put under a bed or under a bushel but is to be manifested in the
darkness. When the light of God comes to man, it finds him governed and
influenced by his own and his fellows' conclusions, which is simply the light
of his own reason; and therefore if he accepts the word of God, and as he does
so, he must refuse the one while adopting the other.
It is here that
all the difficulty lies, and all the responsibility as to hearing the word. If
the word of God were only to improve and to add to the mind and thoughts of
man, it would be comparatively easy to bow to it; it would be a further step in
the science of human development. But when it introduces an entirely new
principle of action, and not merely new actions, it is evident that if His word
be accepted, it must be fatal to that which is already in existence. If the
same identity, man, is governed by different and entirely new principles, it
follows that as the better and greater are adopted, the former and inferior
must be repudiated. The butterfly was once a caterpillar, but its mode of
action is now quite different, and it could not return to that of its prior and
inferior state.
If I see that man in himself is ignorant of what suits
God, and that at best he can only order for himself up to his own measure, it
is plain that when the light of God comes in, there must be an entirely new
principle of action, as well as a new mode, and that as the word of God gets a
place and rules, so the other must be displaced and silenced. The simple lesson
of Christianity is that it is the word of God, His light, which is to control
and influence me in every transaction of life; and every one of the principles
which I have derived from men, and heretofore acted on, must be feared and
refused. If I say that man has been walking in the twilight of reason, and that
revelation is the light of the sun for him, I give the idea that God's light
only increases the light of human reason; but the moment I see that the light
from God is above the brightness of the sun, and that it reveals Himself, then
I see that everything which He reveals as to His purpose respecting man must be
characteristic of Himself.
To man, fallen and ruined because of sin,
and unable to resist the assault and influence of Satan, the god of this world,
God imparts His mind; and as it is simply received from God, if through grace
there is capacity to take it in (for an eye is this capacity; see Luke 11), the
body is full of light. If the light be but taken in, the body yields to the
force and power of it and expresses it; but if there be any wrong selfish
motive of action, it perverts the light, as jaundice discolours every object,
however good and perfect the light may be. When there is not a clear and full
expression of the light, there is either a defect in the eye or in its power on
the body. In the one case it is the way the light is perverted on receiving it,
and the other is its influence practically; there is a dark part. Now it is a
very solemn thing how I, through grace, receive the light from God; for if I
have not a true sense of the responsibility of hearing and accepting the word
of God, the greatest light becomes the greatest darkness. It is the most
painful fact connected with God's people, that it is men who have been in the
forefront in accepting God's word who have most grievously apostatised from it
and brought reproach on the truth; and it is thus that the house of God is made
a den of thieves.
Cain showed at the outset how little a man, even
with good intentions, could meet the mind of God. And as we come on we see
that, even in a righteous man like Lot, the true ground, Canaan, is no security
against failure; and in the case of Aaron, that occupation in the closest way
with the ways and works of God does not preserve from the people's untoward
influence when His word is forgotten. Again, a later day and with greater
light, Peter would have compromised the truth by refusing to eat with the
gentile saints (Gal. 2). Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tim. 2) were evidently men
of note, or there would have been no use in mentioning their names; and they
damaged the truth more than the most open adversary who was ignorant of it
could have done.
The great damage done to the truth of God in every
age was that it was not faithfully expressed by the recipients of it. It was
placed under a bed without design, out of the way, or under a bushel
designedly, and therefore was not manifested. In every instance it is the man
who has received revelation, and has not been governed by it, but has reduced
it to suit himself and minister to his own advantage, who is at any given time
the most repugnant to God and most opposed to Him. The name of God was
blasphemed among the gentiles through the Jew, and every dispensation has been
marked by the way man has formalised for himself the truth of God without the
power of it. So that every new revelation tested the sincerity of God's people,
for the question was, would they accept what was entirely outside of human
conviction and simply of faith?
God says, "To this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word"
(Isa. 66:2). "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto
you that hear shall more be given." The soul in a right state before God says,
"Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth". And this will always be accompanied
with the sense of the claim His truth has on one. In this day it is not so much
dullness of comprehension we have to lament, as the little sense of
responsibility in hearing. The most conscientious as a rule are the slowest and
most fearful in hearing or accepting any additional truth, because they are
most sensible of its claim when once heard. In divine things, the one who knows
most always feels how little he knows, while he longs to know more of that of
which he already knows most. He listens to the word as that which he needs and
by which he grows; but he hears with the deepening sense that, as he accepts
it, it will impart a more divine tone and spring to every act and movement of
his life; that it cannot be accepted without confirming the truth already
received, and rebutting and refusing in a greater degree the scope and tendency
of carnal feeling and wisdom. It is a wondrous operation of God's Spirit in his
soul, that of implanting the mind of God to supersede the principle of action
heretofore dominant there. He does not know how he may be shaped by it, or to
what he may be appointed; but like the vessel to the potter, or the tablet to
the engraver, or the canvas to the painter, he is ready and prepared for the
wondrous and beautiful touches which will make him a truer picture, or
imitator, or expression of the one perfect Man. And as he hears, so is the
measure of his gain; and more is given where most has been received.
If you do not hear with the sense of responsibility, you are not really a
canvas ready to receive the colours of Christ; but if you are, you will bow to
the truth, prepared of heart, and assured that as it is heard, so must there be
a manifestation of it. It must not be put under a bed or under a bushel. You
must maintain it, or it will not maintain you. If you do not use light, you
will lose it. As you express it, you put on the armour of light. The evergreen
resists the frost. Truth will not preserve you unless you preserve it, and then
it is an armour to you; but if it be neglected, the receiver of the greatest
truth will become like the sow that was washed, wallowing in the mire.