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-54-
God Hath Spoken
Chapter 11
TAKE HEED HOW YE HEAR
Read Luke chapter 8, verse 18. "Take heed...how ye hear." If the Bible is not the inerrant Word of God, the warning in the text is not worthy of our consideration because we might fall into error if we take heed to it. But, if this is indeed the very Word of God, "Take heed how ye hear." The authority of all Scripture rises or falls according to whose word this is. Is this book the collection of men's opinions? or is it the Word of God?
The Preacher of the Word
Turn again to I Thessalonians chapter 2, and consider first, the preacher of the Word of God, and second, the hearer of the Word of God. Note verse 13. "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."
Note, that the Word of God works effectually in believers. Its effectiveness is inseparable from the element of faith. So the writer of Hebrews tells of the unbelief among the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt along with the children of Israel when he said, "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it" (4:2). Reader, can you believe? Has God given you faith that believes?
To paraphrase the apostle's text, "When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us," and we are only men, yet, you did not receive it as the word of men, but you received it "as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." This is very critical to our understanding, and I cannot lay a firmer charge upon the reader that this: "Take heed how ye hear;" and let all to whom the precious Word of God is preached take heed how they hear.
The Preacher and the Message
The message of the preacher can be summed up by the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord." It occurs 3800 times in the Old Testament, and it describes as well the word preached by the apostles. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (II Tim. 3:16). We have the same word of God, and although we are not inspired like the apostles, God has preserved His word even to our own generation, and He will forevermore.
The Preacher and the Ministry
God commanded the prophet Jonah, "preach...the preaching that I bid thee" (3:2). No faithful preacher can preach what men want to hear. If God has really called a man to preach His Word, that man cannot please the Lord unless he preaches the Word fully and faithfully.
To Jeremiah, God said, "whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak" (1:7). No preacher is a faithful man who lacks the courage to preach the Word of God rightly. He is a turncoat who speaks "smoother things than God does allow." He is to preach all that God gives him and to diminish not a word.
God commanded Ezekiel, "hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me" (3:17). When a man truly called of God stands to preach the Word of God, he gives people warning from God. He stands in Christ's stead. The Holy Spirit spoke through Paul when he said, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (II Cor. 5:20).
Matthew Simpson testified of the preacher that "His throne is the pulpit. He stands in Christ's stead. His message is the Word of God. Around him are immortal souls. The Saviour unseen is beside him. The Holy Spirit broods over the congregation. Angels gaze upon the scene. Heaven and hell await the issue. What associations, and what vast responsibility!"
When a preacher goes into the pulpit half cocked, and ill prepared, he has little concept of what the ministry is all about. He lacks the real concept of that awful responsibility for which God will judge him. If we as individuals err, we will answer to God, but if on account of what we preach we cause others to err, we will answer to God for them as well.
Spurgeon remarked, "If there be a place under high heaven more holy than another, it is the pulpit whence the gospel is preached. This is the Thermopylae of Christendom. Here must the great battle be fought between Christ's church and the invading hosts of a wicked world. This is the last vestige of anything that is sacred left to us. We have no altars now, Christ is our altar: but we have a pulpit still left, a place which, when a man entereth, he might well put off his shoes from his feet, for the place whereon he standeth is holy."