The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-1, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

I would like to ask a question of Luke 8:16-18, "Now no one, after lighting a lamp, covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, in order that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden, that shall not become evident; nor anything secret, that shall not be known and come to light. Therefore take care how you listen: for whoever has, to him shall more be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him." What does it mean?

Answer

I tell you it is a great, great parable. Very simply, when a guy lights a lamp he puts it out where it can be seen--he doesn't hide it, he sets it on a lamp stand. I think, in a sense, what you have here is the Lord, and you and I are kind of like the lamps, and He lights us. Some day He is going to put us on display--the Lord didn't light our lamp to hide us, the Lord lit our lamp to put us on display. It may not be here that we show who we really are, but it will be there and that is verse 17, "nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything hidden that shall not be known and come to light."

What happened to the early church; what happened to the early believers; what happened to the Apostles was the world didn't know who they were, and He says, "the day is going to come when the light is going to show and the world is going to see." It is the same thing He says in the tenth chapter of Matthew, He uses the very same terminology, the very same illustrations basically, He says, "The world may hate you now and the world may persecute you now, but don't fear that, because the day is going to come when the Lord is going to reverse everything and the secrets are going to be made known," which means that the lights are going to get turned on; the world is going to see who the shining lights are, that God has lit, and the people who are to be blessed and who are to be rewarded. "Everything is going to come to be known," verse seventeen, and verse eighteen, so you better listen very carefully, because if you try to get it all now, you know, for it says, "whosoever has," if you have it now, if you have a relationship with the Lord now, if you are lit now your light is going to get brighter, and if you don't have the light now it is going to be just as black then, only blacker.