"LIGHTS"

“LIGHTS”

James 1: 17; Acts 16: 29; Acts 20: 8

These scriptures speak of “lights”, the plural thought, and I wish to speak about them. The subject is in the Bible in Genesis 1, where it says that God made two lights, a greater and a lesser, the one to rule the day, and the other to rule the night. This dual character of lights from God runs right through His creatorial works, His dispensational movements, and His evangelical service. It will be seen peculiarly in the millennial day, as the heavenly city is seen “coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God”, Revelation 21: 10. She will be resplendent with His glory, and of her, that is, of the assembly, it is said, “night shall not be there”, Revelation 21: 25.

In speaking of Genesis 1 in this relation it will be seen that we have an allusion in James 1: 17 to the “Father of lights”; it may be an allusion to the sun, which rules the day, and of which the light is taken on by other bodies. We cannot be too sure, for the word in Genesis 1 is ‘light-bearer’, nor do we know of what these bodies are made; yet we can see in the creation the idea of fatherhood, God is the “Father of lights”.

It is well worthy of the subjection of our minds to bring the truth into our thoughts. We have the word, therefore, that “God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine” (2 Corinthians 4: 6), as if He would not leave us in the dark; and so it is, that no one should be in the dark. The question is, for anyone here today, whether he is in darkness. So John says in his first epistle (chapter 2: 8), “The true light already shines”. It is the light of God, and of Christ too, as Man in this world. John also says in his gospel, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1: 4. Of no other being could that be said; it is true ^[p. 406] of God, of course, and peculiarly true of Christ. “The life was the light of men” means that God has brought it down and focussed it upon men.

Here we are, a goodly number of us, all needing light, and I say it again, “In him [Christ] was life, and the life was the light of men”. Paul says, “one died for all, then all have died” (2 Corinthians 5: 14); the question then is as to life, and the light needed for it. What is stated there is of God, and the thought in one’s mind is that, as Christ became Man, life was in Him, but that life was the light of men, of our own family, men; the light of the life of Christ was for men, not angels. This would bring down to us the lowliness of Christ as here amongst men; He did not come to judge, but to save them, and that men might live. So the gospel affords life today, not only because we are in the dark, but because we are men, of that family; and so these gospel meetings are current in this country, and they afford light in every room where they are held, where there may be anyone who has, so to speak, his shutters down. The question is whether he will let the light in, just as the eye is the window of the body and lets in the light of day.

The first word I read speaks of “the Father” coming within our range, that the light should shine for all of us. It shines in certain parts of the earth, you say, but for whom? The Father of lights has considered for His creatures. There “is no variation nor shadow of turning” with Him. It is He “with whom we have to do”, Hebrews 4: 13. He is the Originator of light, and the Father of it; and so it is that light is shining in this room tonight. Christ is not here personally, but the Holy Spirit is here; most of us here are christians, and so it is that the light is shining now, the saints being here. As I look down on your faces I see the light radiating from nearly every one. There may be exceptions; maybe you are the exception, but then the light is for you! The ^[p. 407] light of the glory of God shines “in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4: 6), and so it does in the saints; their faces are radiant with light and life. It is like Moses’ face shining, so that Aaron could not look upon him, for he was afraid of him. Think of being afraid of Jesus! No true saint will ever harm you. They tell the authorities they do not want to take life; they ask the king and he grants it. They are saints, and there is nothing in God, or in Christ, or in the Spirit of God, or in the saints, to harm anyone. So it is that God has brought about conditions for the administration of the gospel for the relief of men, and therefore there are constant convictions; I do not say they are always conversions; I do not know how many times a day it occurs. Is there anyone here who has not been convicted of sin? Well, you are not in accord with God, with Christ, or the saints. It is time you changed your mind. You have been living like the world, in its fashions and its ways. Here most of us are believers, and have everlasting life; we will not come into death, but into life, a very wonderful thing! The Spirit of God is here today and He is striving with you now.

For unrepentant people there will be no movement in heaven, as there is over one repentant sinner. However little people may think of these tiny meetings, people are affected inwardly; their faces begin to shine, when they have not been shining; the Father of lights is here to give you light and make you live, so that your face shines too. There is no variation nor shadow of turning with Him, and if you are forgiven today, it is for ever; if you are saved today, it is for ever! If you say you have fallen into sin, I can say to you that no one can pluck you out of the Lord’s hand, nor out of His Father’s hand (John 10: 28, 29).

Moses asks Hobab in Numbers 10: 29 to go with them, “and we will do thee good”, he says. The saints can do you more good than even he could; they are God’s people today, and all the good there is, is dealt out to them. “Come with us”, we say, “and we will do thee good”. God can do you good, Christ can do you good, and the Holy Spirit can do you good. So change your mind and link yourself up with what God is doing; it is the saving time; everything is in your favour!

Now in Acts 16, you will see how a sinner gets help. If you are a saint, I want you to remain one, but if a sinner, then change your mind and all will change for you, your ways as well as your mind. The jailor in Philippi changed his mind; he had a hard time, and so will every sinner, unless he changes his mind. God is against the sinner; He will not help him in his business or your other projects; yet He is on the line of saving you. This man had elected himself into a bad calling and bad associations. It is so with some saints, alas, and they find that God is not with them. One day this jailor found he had two men, who were servants of Christ, there in the service of the gospel, and he took them over; he need not have done as he did, but his calling made him hard, he had no feelings; he thought nothing of these men, who were to be put in the stocks. I hardly know how to describe these stocks; the feet were to be made fast in the stocks; and he did his work well, with hardness, and without any love. But it was in the divine mind that he should learn love. What a change awaited him! “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us” (1 John 3: 16), known as nowhere else! Every saint knows love, or he is not a saint at all! A man might give all that he has, and without love he is nothing! If there is a sinner here, then he has not known love. It is in the thoughts of God for him, as it was for the jailor; we are not given his name, his name was “the jailor”. It is the only name we know, and it means hardness and cruelty; but in the heart of God, in the counsels of God, he had another ^[p. 409] name. So with each one of us, we were written down to have love in the past eternity, and to have other things too. If you have no love, you are nothing; that is what the Spirit of God says. I may have the greatest number of gifts, even to working miracles, but without love I am nothing, of no value at all; I may even be a good husband, and father, but without love I am nothing! This man did his job, a loveless one; he was paid for it, no doubt; he did his worst to these two men, and bound them up in the stocks.

Now read verse 25: “And at midnight Paul and Silas, in praying, were praising God with singing, and the prisoners listened to them”. As the prisoners heard, the jail was turned into a temple; the service of God was going on there; it shows how things are done in God’s realm: “The prisoners listened to them”, notice that! “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison shook, and all the doors were immediately opened, and the bonds of all loosed” (verses 25, 26). See the change that is coming as the prison becomes the temple, the place of divine operations, led by these two men, whom the prisoners heard. “And the jailor being awakened out of his sleep, and seeing the doors of the prison opened, having drawn a sword was going to kill himself, thinking the prisoners had fled” (verse 27). This is another kind of work, the devil’s work, for the man to destroy himself. But for the keeper of the prison to see the prison doors opened was God’s work! He drew his sword, and was going to kill himself, “but Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here”. What I have been saying is that there is no harm in the minds of the brethren; so Paul cries out, “Do thyself no harm”; he has just been using that same voice in praising God. ‘No’, Paul says, ‘you must not do that!’. I have no doubt either, that they sang the proper hymn at the proper time, and turned the whole ^[p. 410] place into the temple of God, a merciful temple. “Do thyself no harm”! It is like the brethren at the tribunals; they want to do good, and would tell men to do themselves no harm. ‘Do not commit suicide’, says Paul. Suicide is of the devil; there is much of it today. ‘No’, says Paul, with authority and a loud voice. It is urgent; and so the man is delivered from the suicidal knife or sword; but further, he needs “lights”; that is the word that bears on the position. You may not be saved yet, but why are you here? Maybe your father, or mother, or brother, or sister, has urged you to come. If you now want lights, they are all around you!

So in the next verse he called for lights. Maybe there is one here who is not anxious whether he has the light or not. The jailor wanted lights; all that is necessary to know what he really needed, to know of the Saviour; He is the One the saints speak of, with light in their countenances, for there is only the one Saviour. So in chapter 20 the “many lights” in the upper chamber will tell you about Him. “Do thyself no harm”. Paul knew that he would go to the bottom less pit; I have no hesitation in saying that. It is judgment you must learn to fear, like Felix in Acts 24: 25, when Paul spoke to him of “the judgment about to come”. So he also says, in Acts 17: 31, “He has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed, giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead”. For the unsaved it will finally mean the judgment of the great white throne, when the dead, small and great, will stand before God, and whether you are a big man or a small man, all your things will be clarified there!

Now the jailor calls for lights. Have you ever called for light, or lights? Your brother may have been saved, and this salvation is for you. Paul speaks with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm”; he could speak with a loud voice; “he took the lead in speaking”, it is said (Acts 14: 12). It is an urgent matter; ‘Where shall I get light?’. No one but Paul could bring it to him; he was like the sun, the light-bearer to millions today. We are all light-bearers today as christians, and we shall be able to tell you how to be saved, how to be in fellowship, how to be in heaven, so that you will go there by God’s power, when we all go up there together. He “has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, Ephesians 2: 6. What a wonderful thought!

Then in Acts 20 there were “many lights”. I liken it to what is available now. Some young people have not come to the time of knowledge of salvation. There is much for them, for instance in the readings; there are many lights in the upper chamber for them. It is not the singular but the plural word; there are a good many brothers and sisters to help them. But Eutychus fell from the window and nearly killed himself, as many young people do; they look out on the world, and get badly damaged. He “was taken up dead. But Paul descending fell upon him, and enfolding him in his arms, said, Be not troubled, for his life is in him”. Maybe one here has given up the brethren, and gone into the world and has been mixed up in worldly things. Paul descending says, “his life is in him”. What he needs is to be resuscitated, not raised from the dead. These seven men knew what he was like. Paul was not disturbed, he was a great luminary, and he descends to where Eutychus was, “His life is in him”, he says; he needs to be brought back to life; and that is the way, when young men or women get into the world and fall into darkness. The servant of God knows that life is really there, though for the moment they have given up the Lord. Paul is used to resuscitate him, as we were speaking of it this afternoon, how to get the brethren back into the truth. Paul, it says, ‘enfolded him in his arms’,

^[p. 412] the touch of love was there, and brings him back to life. He may become a good brother and a good preacher. So it says, “they brought away the boy alive, and were no little comforted”. He was brought alive into the christian company. The two lights of Genesis 1 refer to Christ and the assembly, and we must come back to that point in dealing with the gospel to Christians; there is nowhere else. In the world, it is leading “you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit” (Colossians 2: 8), there is no spiritual life, which means no light, for the world is in an awful state, things waxing worse and worse. So the warning to young people is to come into the light; the door is wide open; there are many lights inside. Paul enfolded that boy in his arms, and they came together again, and had a good time; they broke bread, and conversed a long time till daybreak. Things were not quite right at first, hence the need for Paul’s long discourse, which led to the boy’s fall, but all are happily together now.

If things are not quite right with you, or you have never broken bread, remember that He, the Lord Jesus Himself, has asked you to do it, saying, “This do in remembrance of me”, 1 Corinthians 11:24. After that memorable night they “brought away the boy alive, and were no little comforted”. Indeed Eutychus was a comfort to them as he was brought back from death into life!

May God bless the word to us all at this time!