09. The Principle of Human Willingness in Illumination
CHAPTER NINE The Principle of Human Willingness in Illumination a. Definition.
1. It is the principle by which a knowledge of God’s truth is guarantee to souls willing to know the truth – John 7:17.
"If a man will to do His will," might better be translated, "He that willeth to do His will." Whatever truth a man or woman knows comes because he or she is willing to receive the truth. This bas reference to the saved man. "Will" – have an absolute mind to it. b. Application – must be illumination.
1. You must be guided by the Holy Spirit.
(a) Our understanding is darkened (God’s Word reveals it, and such is man’s experience); and God alone is able, through His Spirit, to open our understanding and to make us behold the glorious things in His Word. No human teacher can do this. Sin has veiled our understanding, so that it is easier for man to understand many other things than it is for him to understand spiritual things. He may be very ignorant concerning the latter. He may speak learnedly about the laws of nature, but be totally ignorant of how a man may become righteous.
1 Corinthians 2:14 – He who would learn the truth of God must be taught by God alone. Sometimes He lets us study and ponder for hours, days, and even months before giving us a complete revelation by the Holy Spirit. A flood of light comes upon that which has been dark and mysterious.
(1) Matthew 16:16 – No one but God could have shown this to Peter. He had spent many months with Christ but this knowledge came only by sudden revelation.
(2) Matthew 11:25-27 – The little child in the Spirit who comes to God through simple faith, will have revealed to him things which the wise and prudent could never see. What you get from the Scripture you must get for yourself. All any Bible teacher can do is to put you on the right path and start you off. The Bible is a mine, and you can never get anything out of it without digging for it. Sin will bring blindness.
(3) Isaiah 29:10-18 contains visions and prophecies. The learned and the unlearned man alike, untaught by the Holy Spirit, finds the Bible a sealed book which neither can understand, because the Lord has sent upon them a deep sleep.
He has blinded their eyes and veiled their faces because of sin. Sin seals the Book. When you cling to sin, you will find difficulty in interpreting the Book. To the natural man the Bible is full of apparent contradictions. In proportion as a man loves his sin the Book will be sealed to him. And. if you cling to your sin, it will become not only a sealed Book, but a Book which you despise.
2. You must have intellectual honesty.
(a) You must recognize that the Bible is the Word of God, and be ready to submit your opinion to it. Truth is not what you have been taught. If what a man has been taught is truth, then man, who has been taught Mormonism, Buddhism, Modernism, etc., has been taught truth. You may have been taught truth, but truth is not what you have been taught.
ADMIT – the Word; SUBMIT – to the Word; COMMIT – memorize; TRANSMIT – tell it forth.
(b) In studying the Word of God, we must dismiss from our minds what we have been taught, e.g.
(1) The snake and the apple – Genesis 3.
(2) Some say Cain was rejected because he was bad, and Abel was received because he was good.
If Abel was good, why did he need a sin offering? They were both bad. God accepted Abel on the basis of faith, and rejected Cain on the basis of his unbelief.
(c) What you have been taught in accordance with the Word of God is truth, and what you have been taught that is not in accordance with the Word is not truth. When you study the Word take the place of a learner.
(1) Be like Mary who believed the Word, and not like Peter, who (when Jesus said He must go to Jerusalem to suffer) said, "Not so."
(2) One of the hardest things to do is to unlearn what you have already learned.
(3) People run off into fanaticism because they believe what they hear.
3. The supreme authority of the Holy Scripture must be impressed upon the heart.
(a) This is the only safeguard against error and evil. Books written by men are perfectly worthless as to authority. There may be lots of good in them, but as authority they are worthless, no matter how interesting. We ought not to take human authority. Think yourself empty in the Book before you read yourself full.
4. There must be a willingness to obey the Book.
(a) The Bible student, to become a real Bible student, must obey every injunction in the Book which pertains to him. There will be no knowledge until we are willing to obey. After all, the real difficulty in the way of understanding the teaching of the Word of God lies in our refusal to obey the Word. Matthew 13:12 – The people who opposed Jesus Christ had some knowledge, but they refused to make use of it and obey it, and it was taken from them. It is possible to spend a great deal of time in the Word of God and yet be ignorant of it.
(b) There are Scriptures which directly condemn some habits we have, and too often we turn away and will not read because we do not want to obey them, and we will not obey. Do you want to be controlled by God’s will?
(c) God reveals His truth to those who are willing to walk in the light. You will never grow in grace save as you grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must study and then walk in the light gained thereby. If a man willeth not to do His will, then God will withhold the knowledge from him. He who will abuse the light, will receive only blindness.
(d) This is a universal test. If we live up to the light we have, God will give us more, and if we refuse to obey, we will have no more light. Universal sin is the reason for universal darkness. The universal disobedience of man accounts for the spiritual blindness of today. If you desire to be a Bible student, be careful how you approach the Word, and be sure you obey it.