GOD BRINGING IN LIGHT FOR MEN

G. C. McKay

John 1: 1–9; 3: 16–21; 9: 1–7; 2 Corinthians 4: 1–6

The love and the disposition of God lie behind the arrangement of this gospel preaching so that the glad tidings might be brought to bear upon us. In one sense the preacher can simply speak of Christ and the great facts of the glad tidings, but the thought in the glad tidings is that it proceeds with divine love and divine feelings and that God Himself should make an impression. If His word enters our conscience, He enters. It says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light”, Psalm 119: 130. Much comes in as God’s word has entrance with us, so that divine operations proceed.

We were speaking about love in the reading, and I thought now to preach from scriptures connected with God being light. He is said to be love, but it says also that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1: 5). So I would like to speak of the way that light came into this world, and to speak about the present light that is shining, so that we might be affected by what God has done. We know that light is prime in God’s operations. His love lies behind all, but at the beginning of operations in our souls the first thing He does is that He brings in light. The account of the creation helps us as to that. When God was about to work in that troubled and waste scene, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Divine feelings and activity were there but nothing for God, no life for God. The first thing that God said was, “Let there be light”, Genesis 1: 3. So that is the first thing that happens in a person’s soul, light, in view of something further.

John’s gospel makes much of light coming in. He wrote in the face of the most terrible darkness that had ever been in the world, the darkness that resulted from men rejecting Christ. How wonderful it was when Jesus came in! He says, I am the light of the world. What a wonderful light shone then, but what darkness exists in souls that reject the light! I do not know what would be worse than that, than light shining and the person remaining in darkness after the light has shone. Perhaps indeed there might be something worse—someone might profess to accept the light and then turn away from it. That is apostasy; one is always challenged to think of such a thing. That is not God’s thought. God’s thought is one of grace and blessing for men.

John begins his gospel with these statements that assert the deity of the Lord Jesus. The Person of Christ has been attacked and assailed and that is the reason John writes. He is so conscious that persons will seek to deny the glad tidings by attacking the Son of God, that he defends the deity of the Lord Jesus at every turn. John speaks of that One who was in the beginning, the One who was with God, the One who was God, the One through whom all things received being. John is eliminating every wrong thought as to Jesus and the glory of His Person and every wrong thought as to creation. There is nothing outside Jesus; not only by Him all things received being, which would be enough you might say, but he adds, not one thing received being without Him. If you are going to get the gain of the glad tidings and be saved from the error that is abroad you will have to ask the Spirit of God to eliminate every wrong thought, and bring you into the full light of what Christianity is. It comes from God. The light of the glad tidings shines unalloyed. In the hands of men it might be cloudy, it might be distorted and no doubt often is. Every one who preaches feels the test of being able to speak of this matter in a pure and right way. But the divine operations demand that the light should shine; that there should be nothing on your side, nothing on the part of the preacher either, that should hinder the light shining, and nothing in your heart that should hinder the light having its effect.

John says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. A blessed Man was here, who Himself was God, and in Him was life in a scene of moral death, and of literal death too. He was here for men, not to condemn them, it was the light for men. What a blessed matter that is, not that there was some teaching that was the light of men, but there was that resident in Jesus; the blessed living Man here was the light for men. Then it says, “And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”. It is a terrible thing that the natural man cannot apprehend the light. It has been said that this is worse than natural darkness, because light dispels natural darkness; but when Jesus came in as light, the light appeared in darkness and the darkness was unchanged, that is, the darkness of the human heart without divine operations, without any reception of what God is presenting. It is very important what is in your heart. It is important that there should be nothing to becloud the glad tidings, nothing to distract you, no wrong thought and no resistance. It speaks in another verse of those who received Jesus. Are you receptive to Jesus yourself? Are you receptive of the glad tidings? Are your mind and heart and affections open? Is your conscience going to be exposed to the word of God? That is how we should come to the preaching, that thus there might be a result with us.

Then it says, “There was a man sent from God, his name John. He came for witness, that he might witness concerning the light”, he began to prepare the way; he came to help. It was very gracious of God that He sent John the baptist, he was not the light but that he might witness concerning the light, that all might believe through him; he would point to Jesus. He was an excellent servant, a self-effacing man, making everything of Christ and nothing of himself. The Spirit of God puts on record that John was not the light, saying, “He was not the light ... The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”. There is no one else who is the light. Others may help you, they can witness, but Jesus Himself is the true light and He came into the world to shed His light on every man. When Jesus came the light was available, the light of life. Jesus said later, “he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12. We are not speaking of light simply in a cold sense, but it was the life that was in Jesus that was the light of men. The light that you get in your soul through the glad tidings is the light of men. It is a wonderful thing to take the truth into your soul and let it affect you, so that there might be life in your soul, and you might come into the enjoyment of it.

Now I read in chapter 3 in the section that speaks so touchingly of God giving His only-begotten Son, because it goes on to this matter of how people react to the light, as to whether they come to the light or not. You are tested in the glad tidings. There is a great favour, but there is a test. It comes up in every gospel preaching, and at certain times it comes up critically in our lives before we are converted. In the glad tidings God is trying to gain entrance into your conscience and heart. Of course, He wishes to affect your heart—“God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”; and the door is open—“that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. That is in a perishing scene where the power of the enemy is so rampant and where the devil operates in the flesh to bring in death, moral death. There is the possibility that persons may believe on Jesus, the One who was raised up on the cross, the One to whom we can look and have life eternal. Do you feel the darkness around? The darkness in this world is getting worse. Are you conscious of that, young, people? They cannot give you this in the school, even if persons are well meaning; you cannot go to the library and get this. You get divine light among the people of God, you get it in a Christian home, where the Scriptures are read, where these things and Jesus are spoken of.

After this expression of God’s love and disposition the test comes. “For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him”. God is not thinking to condemn. He has provided us with His beloved Son for salvation, that we might not perish. Then, having spoken graciously, He says, “He that believes on him is not judged”. It is settled already, if you believe on Jesus you are not judged. It also says, “but he that believes not has been already judged”. How solemn that is!

He is bringing the matter forward to affect the conscience, that we might not be fixed in that position of being already judged through not believing on the name of the only-begotten Son of God. The scripture presents

the love of God, God’s grace, but also there is the truth. When Jesus spoke in Nazareth of Galilee, they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of His mouth. Later He spoke to them about those outside Israel who had been saved, “But of a truth I say to you.

There were many widows in Israel ...” (Luke 4: 25), but it was one outside Israel who was saved; in other words. He began to bring in not only grace but truth. They resented it and sought to kill Jesus. There is grace and truth in the glad tidings; that is what has come to subsist through Jesus Christ.

So there is the wondrous grace of the gospel. God come in in His only-begotten Son, and then we come to the test. We are in the presence of grace in the glad tidings, but along with grace there lies God’s judgment, “this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light”. It is true of men today, they do love darkness rather than light. You can look at their entertainment and you can see that. It is the human heart, it is your heart and mine according to nature. But then the question is, do we come to the light?

“For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light that his works may not be shewn as they are”. Now, could I read this scripture and say, I will never come to the light, I am not prepared for the exposure? Light exposes all things, scripture tells us, and that is one of the things that is necessary for this process of salvation that God is setting on in the glad tidings. You are going to have to come to the light, a very searching thing, the secrets of your heart have to be exposed in the presence of God. You do not need to tell others about these secrets, you have to speak about them to the Lord Jesus. Maybe some of them come up in your mind and conscience; you have to be exposed by the light. So your conscience is working; if your conscience is not touched by the glad tidings you will not be saved. There is no real result unless there is a moral work in your soul, so you have to come to the light —“he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God”.

Now, some ask the Lord Jesus, What are the works of God? What should we work? And He says, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he has sent”, John 6: 29. In Acts they said to the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? as they were pricked in heart and their consciences were affected. Peter said, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you ... for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, Acts 2: 38. The light comes in the glad tidings, but you have to take your part, you have to repent and believe in the glad tidings. That happens in your heart. God would help you to repent. He would express His goodness to you; He would not frighten you to repentance, although sometimes God has to allow things that would sober us and make us fear. The preacher might have to speak of the judgment to come, and it is coming, finally and inevitably. Judgment is hanging over this world, but it is all being held back because of the grace of the dispensation in which God is delighting, because the sacrifice of Jesus and His intercession are governing God’s attitude at the present time. When the time comes God will bring in judgment; there is no question about that. The secrets of men will be judged. Now, “he that practises the truth comes to the light”.

Would you like to come to the light? Are you prepared for that? As you repent, and as you go along with the glad tidings, you will be able to come to the light. Do not be afraid of your sins being exposed, because the One to whom you are coming is the One who has provided for your sins to be removed.

Now in chapter 9, again it is a matter of the Lord Jesus being in the world as light. He says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”. For that length of time, Jesus was available for blessing and help. But what was hindering this man, what was hindering many others who thought they could see, was blindness.

How am I going to see? How am I going to come into the light of Christ? Jesus would serve us and this man is an example to us of how we might come into the gain of these things. Jesus spat on the ground and made mud of the spittle. I believe that alludes to the humanity of the Lord Jesus. That is, He brings in and applies to this man’s soul the wondrous truth of the incarnation, that God Himself came into manhood, and came near. It is applied to the man’s eyes as ointment, that is as a human touch. Who can understand the incarnation? Nobody really can, it is beyond the scope of anyone, even of a saint, to apprehend the depth of the truth of the incarnation; that Jesus, the blessed One who existed with God in a past eternity, and was God, should become flesh, should take human form and be here as a real Man.

Then the next point with this man is—“And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is interpreted, Sent”. So we have to be marked by obedience. Now, there is another requirement; not that the gospel is a matter of giving you a list of requirements for you to supply, but we would like to point you in the right direction. Certainly God is looking for repentance and faith. Then there is this feature in the man, that he is prepared to be obedient, to go and wash. He might have thought how futile this must be. He might have said, how shall I find my way to the pool of Siloam? No, he just went and washed and came seeing.

You can understand how he would be affected by the One through whom his blessing had come—“A man called Jesus”, he is able to testify. I think something of his affections were in that. He had light that this was no ordinary man as the Pharisees tried to make out, this was One whom God heard. You can understand that already he would have some appreciation of Jesus. Afterwards when he was cast out and Jesus found him, it says, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? And Jesus said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and he that

speaks with thee is he” (vv.35–37). What a moment that was in that man’s history! Now he understood that blessed Man was none other than the Son of God, and he believed and did Him homage.

Are you in the light of the Son of God? You might say first of all that you are in the light of the Man called Jesus, the precious Saviour, the One who came and suffered and died for you, and shed His blood on Calvary’s tree. Are you in the light also of the Son of God? Have you some sense in your soul of the greatness of Jesus as the Son of God? He is the One who does everything for God. That is one of the thoughts in the Son of God; the One who is working on God’s behalf in a situation and relationship of love, yet serving in that relationship of love to bring about all God’s thoughts. Also Paul speaks about Him as the Son of God as for men, saying in Galatians that God “was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations” (Galatians 1: 16). Blessed Man. God’s ideal in manhood!

And the thought is that He might become, as the rejoicing of God’s heart, the Object of ours also, the great and glorious Son of God; the Centre of God’s world; the Centre of God’s thoughts; the Centre of His purposes, the One who effectuates everything for God. Do you love Him, the Son of God? Do we worship Him as the Son of God and do Him homage? We are to have a sense of the greatness of the Person, the One in whom God has effectuated everything for us and for Him. He is to have a place in our affections. “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?” That question could be asked of each one of us.

Now in 2 Corinthians there is light also. In John where we read Jesus says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”. Now He has gone the way of the cross, death and the grave; He has also gone the way of resurrection and ascension. Now the light that Paul is speaking of is shining from heaven. There is a

wondrous outshining from heaven now. Paul points out that he was not hiding the light. He says, “But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost”. It is not veiled in us, he says, because we have rejected the hidden things of shame, we are not walking in deceit, not falsifying the word of God. As a vessel prepared he was transparent and pure, so that God made provision for the light to shine through Paul, and that the light should not in any way be damaged as it came out in Paul’s glad tidings. If there is a veil, he said, it is in the persons that are lost; terrible expression—“in those that are lost”, ‘that perish’ it says in the footnote.

There are such. How urgent we ought to be in the glad tidings, so that none that hear the glad tidings should be among those that are lost. The god of this world has been acting in such persons, the unbelieving, and he has blinded their thoughts; the devil is very active to blind men’s minds. He has many activities, but one of his greatest is to blind men with damaging thoughts. He has vessels that he uses for that, persons who will propagate false teaching, and darken souls. What a responsibility these persons have! How terrible that the god of this world is operating to blind the thoughts of the unbelieving! Paul says, “so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them”, not for them because they are blinded. We need to be obedient and submissive like the man in John 9 so that this radiancy might shine for us. You have to believe the gospel for yourself; it is an individual matter.

The great light shining in this chapter is the light that is shining in the face of Jesus. There was light on earth when He was here. He was the light of the world, but there is a special radiancy in the Saviour’s face now. The shining is in the same blessed Man, but He has been into death and has glorified God in regard to sin; He shed His blood too, and it avails for every sinner. It is a matter now settled, evidently settled, because He went into death and He was raised again by the glory of the

Father. There is full satisfaction in the divine sight, and now the One who has done this glorious thing, who has glorified God in regard to sin and has settled the sin question, has been highly exalted and given glory at God’s right hand. He is there and He is glorious and His face is radiant, because the One who is shining is the One who has accomplished redemption. It is a light that you need not be afraid of. There is the light that exposes and brings about repentance and self-judgment; but this is the light in the face of Jesus, a light that believers are not afraid to look at, indeed, they rejoice to behold the glory of the Lord. It shines there for sinners, an uncondemning radiancy in the face of Jesus. What shines in the face of Jesus is what is in His heart. It is the disposition of God shining out in a blessed Man; it is shining out in the face of the One who died for you, so there need not be any condemnation. You have no need to be afraid, because there is a radiancy and a shining in the face of Jesus that is benign. It attracts the heart, so that you might have your heart and affections attached to Jesus, the blessed glorified Saviour.

The God who spoke at the beginning that out of darkness light should shine is working more vitally now in this closing day. What God does morally and spiritually in the souls of men is far greater than the physical creation. How wonderful it was that God “spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”, Psalm 33: 9. How wonderful the power of God in creation, but the power of the love and grace of God is a far greater power than what He exercised in creation. What He brings to bear is what He is in Himself. God is love and He brings to bear His love and His grace on the sinner as a mighty power that produces results in man’s soul. The God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine, has now shone in our hearts. I used to think that meant He shone into our hearts, but it does not seem to be that. He has shone in our hearts, as if inwardly, in the depth of my being, where it was so dark, God has shone, light sprung up in the heart. No doubt it is through the

work of God; He certainly shone in the apostle’s heart. What for? So that the light might shine forth, that is in the glad tidings, “for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.

What a wonderful light we are in, dear friends, dear brethren, how gracious God is; how propitious the moment! Thus let us face any test the gospel raises; if it is the light that exposes, let us be prepared for the test. God prepares hearts before the gospel, honest and good hearts. That is the kind of person who bears fruit with an honest and good heart, somebody that is prepared to face the light however much it exposes. What makes it easy to face that light, and all the self-condemnation in your heart, is the knowledge that God is not going to condemn you. He is ready to justify you as one of those who is of the faith of Jesus.

How wonderful it is to be justified through faith in His blood. May we all come into the gain of these things for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Dundee
3 December 1995