THE GOSPEL AS LIGHT
[p. 64] THE GOSPEL AS LIGHT
It is of great importance to present the Gospel as light; as one said, “I have even given thee for a light of the nations”, Isaiah 49: 6. One would aim at that — that in what is presented there might be light, and for this reason I read the passage in the gospel of John — the evangelist who loves to present Christ as Light; indeed he is accustomed to use astronomical figures in his gospel and in his epistle. Allusions are frequently made in his writings to what is known to science as astronomy. But the allusions are of the simplest kind, as the physical things referred to are visible to everyone and indeed living conditions on the earth depend on them — the sun and the moon and the stars. John’s language is far from scientific in the ordinary sense, but extremely spiritual. He is very fond of monosyllables, in which he expresses the profoundest possible truths; so that while the greatest mind may be ministered to, the youngest child also may find interest and food. ‘John’s simple page’ conveys what I am referring to. It is “simple”, and yet, as I remarked, profound.
Well now, I have referred to John in that way so as to bring forward the thought of light, and I want to specially dwell on the word ‘true’. He says of John the Baptist, “He was not that Light”. The Baptist was a faithful witness of the Light. He was like a star. The Lord says of him: “He was the burning and shining lamp”, and that the Jews “were willing for a season to rejoice in his light”, John 5:35. But the evangelist says, “He was not that light”. He was a light but not the Light. And then he proceeds to tell us what the Light is; he says, “The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”. Not every Jew, nor every Englishman or Irishman. The true light knows no special nation; it is impartial. Partiality is a most baneful thing. The true Light is contrary to that; the true Light makes no difference.
[p. 65] It sheds its beams on every man. That is the true Light. That is in contrast to the Jew. The apostle John always slights the Jew, as assuming to be privileged. The true Light was there in their midst. “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. He dismisses them. “His own received him not”. They are dismissed from that point onward. They are out of court. The true Light henceforth is for man as such. And so also in the earlier statement. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. Of men, not of Jews specially. If they take their place as men, certainly, but if they retain their position as a privileged class, not for them. Terrible thing to be excluded from the light. A total eclipse shuts out those assuming to be privileged. John goes back to the beginning. What was there? Wisdom. “In the beginning was the Word”. There was no Jew in the beginning; there was no gentile in the beginning; men were in the divine thought. Wisdom said “I was daily his delight ... rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men”, Proverbs 8: 30, 31. Palestine is not the only habitable part, nor this country. No; there are habitable parts elsewhere. God laid out the earth; Wisdom designed it for men. Wisdom not only builds the house, but she also designed the earth for men to dwell in; and in laying it out there were certain areas specially prepared for men — habitable parts. Hence as to the future we read: “He has not subjected to angels the habitable world which is to come, of which we speak”, Hebrews 2: 5. Thank God, He has put it under the Son of man. Do you not love the thought anticipated of a habitable earth to come — an earth peopled by men like Jesus and ruled over by Jesus? That is the design. As He came into this world life was in Him, and the life was the light of men. It was as if God said, ‘That is the idea, there is my thought as to man living on the earth’. That Man moved about for God’s will only; He did always those things that pleased God. In that Man also all that God is for men was set forth. That was the true Light. I am dwelling on this because of the importance of it. We are living in a period in which there [p. 66] are so many false lights. Now in navigation a false light is infinitely worse than no light at all. Anyone who goes to sea knows that. There are many false lights today. Young people and old people are exposed to them, hence John the evangelist here gives us a guide as to the true Light. Everything claiming to be light should be compared with this passage. Is it partial? The true light is impartial; it makes no sect; it takes account of no class of men specially; it takes account of you because you are a man; that is the true Light. We should test everything that comes to us as gospel by that. Does it take account of you just because you are a man? If it does, it is the true light. When it came into the world it shed its fight on all; it made no selections. Think of the way the gospel takes account of you! Consider the Epistle to the Romans: it finds man just as he is; it tears away all the varnish. When light comes it exposes every contrivance by which men would conceal their true state, and all is “naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”, Hebrews 4: 13. And so also is it naked to the conscience of the awakened one. Have you ever been awakened by the Light? Well, that true Light is shining upon you. Standing before the great white throne no one can say, The fight has not shone on me. It shines on every man that comes into the world.
One word more about the Light. He that doeth truth comes to it. He that does evil hates it. You may not persecute the christians but you have no appreciation of them or the things they cherish. This often marks children of christian parents, and if not judged it develops into hatred of the Light. “Everyone that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the fight that his works may not be shewn as they are; but he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God”, John 3: 20, 21. Thank God, He is working. One would not attempt to preach were it not that one believes this. The preacher presents the light, and reckons on the work of God. If there is a work of God with you, you come to it; you love it. What is wrought of God in you is made manifest; your interest in [p. 67] the saints, your love of the Scriptures, your hatred of evil are evidences of it. But then you not only come to the light, you are to become a child of light. In chapter 12 it says, “While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light”; as a child of light a believer is like a star — he shines as a light in this world.
Well now, I read the passage in Mark, because it shows you how the true Light acts. It says the Lord went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He had gone about doing good in Galilee and Judaea; now He goes out into the gentile borders. Mark presents the manner in which the Lord carried on His ministry. It says He went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon and entered into a house. How many thoughts enter into such a position! The Creator of the world in a house! He was there as light. It says, “He could not be hid”. Do you wonder at that? Has He come into your house? Yea, to come closer home, has He come into your soul? Let that question be answered by each of you. A new day dawns when the light comes into your soul, He finds a conscience there; He finds a heart there; He finds an intelligence; He sets about to put all right, to adjust everything. Romans presents this adjustment, the whole man — body, soul and spirit — is set right. If the Lord has an entrance into your soul He adjusts you; He sets your conscience right. That conscience! It has been an uncomfortable occupant of your house, so to speak. Did you ever thank God for it? God gave man a conscience in His mercy. It is the avenue through which He reaches us as in our sins. Happy the man who is at peace in regard to it as in the light of God. The Lord Jesus sets the conscience at perfect rest; He cleanses it with the meritorious value of His blood. As the conscience charges, the blood of Christ comes in its atoning value to the soul; it “cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1: 7). Mark, it does not only say “sins”. The conscience is set at rest, not only in regard of one’s transgressions; by the blood of Christ it is set at rest in regard of indwelling sin as well. Indwelling sin has no power in the presence of the light of the blood of Christ in the conscience; the conscience is [p. 68] purged; the believer in Christ is thus at rest in regard of sin and sins.
The Lord placed Himself on the frontier of the gentiles in a house, and He could not be hid. A certain woman whose house had been upset and deranged by the devil came to Him. The woman had a house, too; the gentile world had been invaded by the devil and the household arrangements were upset. Mark says, “little daughter —”Matthew says “daughter”. She was one who normally would be the delight of her mother but she had an unclean spirit. How Satan likes to attack the heart of a parent, and this too through the little one who should be its delight. Satan had got in. Mark does not tell us how. Those of us who are parents have some knowledge of how he affects children. Will begins to work with a child. I have remarked lately that the apostle Paul in his exhortations to the christians at Ephesus speaks about the child before he speaks about the parent. Satan attacks through the child; he is the weak point. This was a little one. The mother’s heart takes account of the fact that Satan is there. It was a solemn overwhelming fact that faced her morning, noon and night; her little girl was indwelt by a demon. What havoc Satan had wrought in the households of the gentiles! It says she “was a Greek”; she belonged to an enlightened nation, but all the philosophy and learning in the world will not save her child. Learning, national reputation — all is utterly futile against Satanic inroads. That is what Jesus finds amongst the gentiles. Well, there was blessing in store for the woman and little girl, and there is blessing in store now for us who are parents and for our children; for God does not give us children to become a scourge to us. Satan creates the scourge. A child is a gift from God. “Happy is the man”, it says, “that hath filled his quiver with them”, Psalm 127: 5. Well, there was blessing in store for the woman and the little girl, but in this instance it came through the faith of the mother. But salvation for a child necessarily implies that he has faith in Christ also.
I wish just to dwell for a moment on the manner of it. She “fell at his feet”, a right attitude surely, and she [p. 69] besought Him that He would cast the devil out of her daughter. The Lord says to her, “Suffer the children to be first filled”. She might have said, ‘I am talking to you about a child’, but she did not. Her child did not belong to the children He had in His mind. There were children — think of the grace in which He regarded Israel! They were the children. The Lord is bringing to us in this figure a household scene — a table, children at it, and dogs under it. The dogs do not get up on it and take the crumbs off the table! Nevertheless it was very humiliating to be likened to them. Very. Now the Lord says to her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs”. She answered, “Yea, Lord; for even the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs”. Are you equal to that? It would be difficult to get a finer picture of a truly humble person than this. Sometimes one has to explain things to people, and I often think that too much explanation takes away the edge of the truth. Anecdotes do not help. What is needed is exercise. The more exercise the less necessity for explanation. The Lord did not resort to it at all; He simply brought forward this simile. How simple and yet how forcible. Now He says, Look, is it right to take the bread the children are eating and cast it. Mark you, it says “cast it”. It is another thing to take the bread and cast it. The Lord Jesus was not doing that. He was in the midst of Israel and He was ministering to Israel. He was true to the position and it was the position of a householder. The woman asked nothing as to what He meant. I do not deprecate questionings, for it is a good thing to have questions — but be sure that your questions are conscience questions and heart questions. Sometimes the Lord refused to answer at all. Why? He is thinking of the question and the questioner that is behind it. But when you get a soul really exercised and the truth is put to him, he bows. That is what she did. She says, ‘Yea, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs’. And they were falling thick and fast and they are falling now. I am not saying that there is such a scene today exactly, but see how the Lord comes to where the gentiles were, and presents [p. 70] the household idea to the woman, and now she says, Yea, Lord. Would to God that someone here tonight would say that in his soul before God, ‘That is my position — a dog beneath the table’. Mark you, you are not a vomiting dog, you are not a dog that needs to be guarded by a chain; that is not the idea here; it is the domesticated creature who knows his place. I wonder if you do! We are all apt to be a bit bumptious, every one of us. It is a wonderful thing to arrive at a knowledge of your place before God, and kneel to all that God has set up here. That is the truth of Romans — one is recovered, that is, he respects God and respects every institution of God, whatever it is, down here. The woman says, ‘Yea, Lord: yet the dogs’ — she was one of them. At once the Lord says to her, “Because of this word, go thy way, the demon is gone out of thy daughter”. In Matthew He exclaims at her faith: a wonderful thing to find faith like this! Think of the Lord Jesus Himself exclaiming at it, and yet the woman had just said a word; she said “dogs”. “Thy faith is great”; and when He speaks of a great thing it is a great thing. It was a wonderful thing to Him to find faith like this in the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He says, “Because of this word”. Now I was speaking about one bowing, but the Lord loves to hear you speaking. What have you got to say? You have been given a mouth to say something. Have you ever said anything in regard of Christ? Or in regard of His work in you? The Lord loves to hear that. He says, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not transgression”, Proverbs 10: 19. We say a great many things that are utterly useless, but there are sayings that the Lord takes account of. And he says to this woman, “Because of this word, go thy way, the demon is gone out of thy daughter”. Many a time relief comes to the conscience by a confession. I believe there are a great many private christians; they live in private; they never say anything about the Lord Jesus; they never say anything about their belief in Him — what He has done for them. Be sure that you have a saying that the Lord can take a note of. And it says further, when she was come to her house she found “her daughter lying on the bed” (verse 30). Who did that? I wonder. The demon did not lay her upon the bed. It is the touch in Mark. Mark would interest you in the gospel. He would attract you by it. Matthew does not tell us anything about the bed; Matthew occupies you with the power and with the rights of the Messiah. Mark is engaged with the servant and how he does his work. And how touching it is with this mother, with a true mother’s heart, as she returns to her house; for she had a house; thank God she returned to it. She finds the demon gone and the little girl on a bed. Was that not care? Young people need that. You know when the demon goes he leaves a certain fagged-out state spiritually and you need care; you need rest, the soul needs rest. Mark gives us the picture with the bed, the little girl is on the bed without the demon. What complete victory by the word of Christ! Well, that was all I had to say, but I wanted to make dear to you how the Lord Jesus carried out His service as the Light. It was said of Him by Simeon that He was “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”, Luke 2: 32. He brought them into evidence for blessing. Hence he goes to their borders and into the house and a woman hears about Him who also has a house; she comes to Him and her house is adjusted.
Now I would advise you if you have got similar trouble, come to the Lord Jesus; He is available. I need not remark it is in a different house today, but nevertheless a house. He is available there for the adjustment of your house, for the adjustment of your conscience and your heart; for the establishment of your soul before God.