LIGHT
[p. 304] LIGHT
2 Corinthians 4: 5 - 7; Ephesians 3: 7 - 10; Matthew 6: 22
I have in mind to speak about light, the first great element that God spoke of and brought forth in creation as we know it. According to what I read, the apostle Paul says, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. The idea of light is thus plainly before us in the scriptures read, and it is urgently hoped that each here may be concerned about it, and about what is said in Matthew in the verse read, “if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light”, or, as we might say, luminous. This brings out the importance of the believer’s body, and leads to the truth of the assembly, in which all believers have part, and, in order to have part in it, we must be luminous. Each one is to be luminous, each is to be light. Light is of very great importance, as its place in the order of the present creation shows. God commanded that light should shine out of darkness, and it did shine; that was on the first day, and besides that we have the further statement that the light was called Day. Later we have two lights set in the firmament of the heavens, or the expanse, and they were to govern, they were to rule; but this is not said on the first day. What is said of it on the first day is that “God called the light Day”. God thus divided the light from the darkness; but on the fourth day we have the two luminaries set in the expanse, the greater and the lesser luminary, and they are said to rule.
Now I am saying this especially at the outset, because of what I have in mind to bring out. “God is light”, but we are not luminous if our bodies are not light, and if we do not value the light that is available to us, then we shall not belong to the ruling class. The ruling class of [p. 305] the present world come into being now on the principle of election, which is based on the assumption that power belongs to the people. That is simply an assumption; not that I am here to say a word about any government, but I would point out that the governing class according to God are those who have light. That is plainly brought out in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, where we read of the assembly being a city, which is a political thought involving rule, and are also told that she has light. “Her light was like unto a stone most precious”; that is light par excellence. There is nothing to be compared, in that sense, save God Himself, with the idea that is in the heavenly city, and we belong to that. The heavenly city is just ourselves; not that we form in any sense the totality of it, far otherwise, because it is an immense thing. The immensity of it is conveyed in the measurement, a cube, twelve thousand furlongs in length, breadth and height. It is next to inscrutability and yet it is not inscrutable for it is human, it is composed of human beings, supremely formed, and formed into a city. We are told of its measurement, and that it lies foursquare, meaning that it is universal in its bearing. In the light of it, the question arises at once, Who are to rule? The ruling class are there. This question is of supreme importance; not indeed that we enter into politics at all, because we do not, except in the sense that our citizenship is in heaven. We do not deny that, we glory in it, and we await the time of its display; but in view of that time we are to be luminous in a moral sense here on earth. We have the thought of rule in the two lights that God set in the expanse on the fourth day. They involve, as in the expanse, what is nearest to the earth, and they are to give light on the earth. As set in the expanse, they are in touch with the earth. There is a certain inscrutability in them, but yet they are not beyond the reach of understanding; the expanse is not beyond the reach of understanding. It is called an expanse, because it is great and wide; but [p. 306] it bears on the earth. It is not far from it; in fact, it touches on the earth.
Referring again to what I have already said, there is great importance in the matter of light, and that it should affect our bodies, not simply our heads; “thy whole body will be light”. Now that bears on what has often been remarked, that the saints as the temple of God are viewed as growing. Ephesians 2 shows that it is not yet final, for we are, as it were, in the making. The epistle to the Colossians points out that very thing, for there it is a question, not of what has been done, but of what is being done. It is a question of the working of God, and of faith in it too, for what is currently done by God is on the principle of faith. If we are to come into the light that I have spoken of, and rule, then the thing is to be active in getting all that we can. Many have made long and expensive journeys to come to these meetings. They have braved the difficulties and they have come; carried safely, thank God, for we have heard of no losses in that sense, and we thank God for it. The enemy would cause losses, for he hates the brethren; those who are the brethren of Christ. “One is your Master”, says the Lord Himself indeed, “and all ye are brethren”, Matthew 23: 8. The devil hates Christ and he hates His brethren, and would damage them; but then, as I said, the work is proceeding. We are all here tonight, I suppose, certainly the one who is speaking, having in mind to give a little light or to freshen the minds of the brethren as to this matter of illumination, or radiancy, as seen in the heavenly lights. They are set in the expanse which God called Heavens. The expanse was something added by God in order to effect His thoughts at the present time, so that presently it will be said, “What has God wrought!”. God would say to us, as it were, ‘Well, you have been in what I have wrought’. Paul makes much of it; that he was in it there is no doubt; he says that he laboured more abundantly than all. He was in it in the greatest way as an individual.
[p. 307] Now I come back again to what I have already said, that unless we take account of all this and go in for it, we shall not become the ruling class. It is not that we wish to be that now, but presently. Paul says that the building, which in the coming day will be a holy temple in the Lord, is growing, and when it is completed it will be seen above. The holy city Jerusalem will come down from God, from above; it is the assembly. Let us not forget that, and that it refers to ourselves. The Lord would impress upon us what we are, and that it is the time of growing and acquiring things, in view of being what we should be. It is the time of putting on everything needed, and putting off everything that should be put off, everything that would dim the light in us. Paul speaks of the saints as the temple of God, and stresses that it is holy. The word is, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God?” 1 Corinthians 3: 16. It was said to the Corinthians, “ye are the temple of God, and ... the Spirit of God dwells in you”. But then Ephesians, which is, you might say, the supreme epistle for the truth of Christianity, for it deals with the truth as the truth, tells us that the assembly increases to a holy temple in the Lord. It is not that yet exactly; in that sense it is not completed. Paul uses the word complete, and in writing to the Colossians says it was given to him “to complete the word of God”. He has in mind here in Ephesians that we should understand that the assembly is not yet completed; it is being continually added to. The adding began at the first day of the Holy Spirit coming down. What a day it was! And what a day it is, because it remains in its effect. It says, “the Lord added to the assembly daily those that were to be saved”. There were three thousand of them on the first day, as if God would say to us, That is what I can do. But then how much more can He do? It remains for the future day to disclose all, when things are revealed or manifested; we shall then see the wonderful thing that is going on. The wonderful thing that began on that day, which we [p. 308] call the day of Pentecost, and which is going on now, eighteen hundred years or more after. Then the word is “What hath God wrought!”. That cannot be just said now, although what He has wrought can be spoken of. It is not complete, because He is still working, and that working is by the energy of God.
All is a question of faith now, not so much what we shall be eternally in heaven, but what we are now. The mighty power of God is operating now, and it is to complete something, and oh! what a glorious thing is to be completed! The Spirit of God reserves it for the Apocalypse; that book, which the Lord received from God, has a peculiar place in the Scriptures. His receiving it from God, gives force to the Lord’s word in Mark 13: 32, “Of that day or of that hour no one knows, neither the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father”. We must not go beyond that, and just say the Son does not know everything. We must not say that. What He says is, “Of that day or of that hour no one knows neither ... the Son, but the Father”. What is known thus is undoubtedly in mind in the beginning of the book of Revelation; the book is full of interest and to it is added a premium for the reading of it and the meditating on it. “Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it”, Revelation 1: 3. We need to belong to those classes of people that are so distinguished in Scripture, and especially to those who read and understand. Then in relation to that, and consequent upon it, we have the idea of the saints, as builded together, growing to a holy temple. It is not an indefinite matter; it is a creature thought, of course, for the temple is a creature, resulting from the growth of the saints together to a holy temple in the Lord. The Lord, of course, has part in it, for He is the Head of creation, as it says, “firstborn of all creation”, but He is not a creature.
Let us keep clearly in mind that He is a divine Person, and if the temple of God is holy, and that the saints are [p. 309] growing unto it, as Ephesians teaches us, to a holy temple in the Lord, it is to come out as available in the Lord’s hand to instruct the millennial world, for the millennial world is to be instructed. In that day, the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. Satan will be bound then; he is not now; he is not even cast out of heaven yet, but in the millennial day he will be. Michael and his angels will cast the devil out. But besides all this, as I said, there will be a temple which the Lord has under His hand and through which He will instruct the millennial world. It will not be our time of instruction then, He is instructing us now, for now is the teaching time for us. I do not believe at all that we shall continue to grow and to be instructed eternally. In heaven we are complete, we are perfect. God is to have a heaven filled with persons who are complete. Paul laboured in his service “to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. It is due to God that we should think thus; for He is God and He would finish things. We have had before us here these last three days how it comes about. There is the mighty working of God through faith, but that will not be said eternally. It is now that that is said, for now is the time for faith’s operations. It is well to think of what faith can do, but then, after all, it is what God does, and God is working through faith, and it is to bring about this growth to the holy temple. So that, in due time, the Lord will have under His hand that by which He can unfold everything according to God to the millennial saints, and, we might say, to the universe. It will be a wonderful time, things will be brought out and be made intelligible to all below. There will be the heavens and the earth; not yet the new heavens and the new earth, for God is reserving this earth in view of the period of a thousand years, in which He will show what He can do with man, just as he is. He will instruct him on the principle of light, coming through the assembly. The assembly is growing to a [p. 310] holy temple in the Lord, and, through that vehicle or means of instruction, the Lord will instruct the millennial world so that “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”, Habakkuk 2: 14.
Now I did not intend to be prophetic simply, but only to try and bring out this great matter of light. We ought to be alive to it and understand that there is to be a governing class, and that that governing class is the assembly. Let men say what they may, or do what they may, or aspire to what they may, all is in the hands of God. It is only a moment and God can change everything, and bring in His thoughts and make them perfect, and that is what we are to be aiming at, dear brethren. These meetings are for that very purpose, and we have come here, and it has cost us money to come, and it has involved travel, and care, and so forth. The thing is to get something, because the greatest things are obtainable, because the Holy Spirit is here in everyone who is a Christian. It is for us to take advantage of the moment and get things, and what we need to get, particularly, is light. “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be light”. What a great fact!
The passages in 2 Corinthians and in Ephesians bring out how Paul was the example of all this. Like Moses, who had the pattern of things, Paul has, you might say, the pattern of things from the heavens, and things are made according to pattern. They are made with exactness, and hence, if we are to deal with them, or if we work at them, we must be exact. We must be like those who built the tabernacle; they were full of wisdom, God filled them with it, and God is filling us with wisdom. “The spirit of wisdom and revelation”, as expressed in Ephesians, is a great thought. Why not be marked by “the spirit of wisdom and revelation”? because these things are obtainable and the Holy Spirit Himself is here to invest us with them. So Paul himself [p. 311] is unique, for the Lord has taken him up as His own particular vessel, “an elect vessel to me”, He says, Acts 9: 15. Then the many things that he tells us about only confirms us in that, how he did things, and now they are done, and the Spirit is here to effect them in us.
So in the first passage read in 2 Corinthians, the first of Genesis is quoted by the apostle Paul. I read it on that account for it serves at this time to show what I am speaking of. It shows that a person like ourselves, a man of like passions as ourselves, was taken up by the Lord to effect what is said, the things that we have spoken of So he says of himself in 2 Corinthians 4: 5, “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. And then he adds a remark, which shows how human he was, not human in the ordinary sense of the word, but what he calls an earthen vessel; that could never be said of Christ, but it is said of Paul: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us”. We thus see where we are, however feeble in our speech, or in our affections, or in our minds, whatever we are doing, we want the excellency of the power to be of God and not of us. Whatever we are doing, we are doing it as earthen vessels, we are nothing more, we must not assume to be anything more than that. I mean to say, we are not divine. I am speaking of Paul, even as of ourselves, in this sense, for he was just an earthen vessel as we are. Although converted and recipients of the Holy Spirit and indeed the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we are yet earthen vessels. God is pleased to use us in spite of the fact that we are but earthen vessels. It is a humiliating thing, in a certain way, but then it is God’s way, and we must not assume to be anything more than that. We [p. 312] are just creatures; even if we belong to the new man or the new creation, it is a creation, and, as believers, we are all of it.
So Paul is the pattern, and I speak of him in this light because it is very important to have a pattern. Moses had a pattern and Israel had it, and it is God’s way of bringing out things. Really, in a way, we must say that Paul is not exactly the pattern, for Christ is the pattern; it is Himself. So Paul speaks about Christ here, “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. What a thought! He says, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. What a terrible thing to be lost! I hope there is not one in this audience that is lost. I do not believe there is. We belong to the saved, we belong to the redeemed. So Paul says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. What an awful thing that there is such a class as the lost! There is no hope of them, no hope of them eternally. It is well to keep that in mind, and to be sober about it. There is much that could be said about it, but I just touch on it, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. It is because Satan, “the god of this world”, has blinded their eyes. We have already been speaking of him and his machinations against God and against Christ, and we have been speaking of the expanse as the area of it and how Satan gets in. We have thus to be on the watch as to him. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”. If there are such, it is because the god of this world has blinded their eyes so that the light should not shine for them. It shines, but it does not shine for them. The sun shines, and we may say it shines on everybody, and, in a way, it does, for the Christ comes in and shines on everybody. But then there is what Satan is doing, terrible thought, for he blinds the eyes of the unbelieving, “that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ ... should not shine forth for them”. There is no hope of them.
Hence the importance of the thought of being [p. 313] luminous, dear brethren, and superior too, as sensibly of the ruling class. We are coming into that; we are not assuming to be it now, although there is moral rule that goes on in the assembly, and the Lord is supporting it too. But the ruling class will be seen presently when the temple of God is in heaven and when it comes out to illuminate the world and to instruct men on earth. The devil then will be bound; but now he is blinding the minds of those that do not believe. It is a most terrible thought. So Paul goes on to say, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord”, showing what a man he was. He was not thinking of himself or his great power as a preacher. He was a humble man, even allowing himself to be belittled by his traducers as we learn in 2 Corinthians. Then he adds here, “And ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake”. Paul’s ministry would leave that impression, and anyone that serves Christ would have that same spirit. The one who in his own little way speaks here tonight, and serves, he is your servant for Jesus’ sake, not for his own sake. Whatever service is rendered to the brethren here tonight, and I hope there is some, it is for Jesus’ sake.
Then the next thing is, as I remarked, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us”. No servant is thinking of himself; if he is, he is not fit to serve. It is a question of God, as Paul said, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us”. Paul tells us that there was a messenger sent from Satan to buffet him, and he besought the Lord three times that it might be removed. It must have been a most excruciating experience to have such a thing; a thorn for the flesh, a messenger from Satan in order that Paul might not be exalted above measure, that is what he says. But then he says more; he says, “Most gladly therefore”, referring to what the Lord was doing in not answering his request, not removing the thorn for the flesh. It was not removed, it was left, and, as far as I know, it remained there till he died. But the apostle was glorying in it. “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory”, he says, “in my infirmities, that the power of Christ”, which is the same as the power of God, of course, the energy of God by which we are affected, raised from the dead, that that power “may rest upon me”. That is a great thought and shows how like Christ the beloved apostle was, although an earthen vessel, as he says, yet he was very like his Master. That is what one would aim to be, and every one of us, I am sure, who is in the service today. There are a good many here, and I rejoice in them myself, a good many young brothers who have ability to serve and they are serving well and serving for Jesus’ sake. I trust it will go on and that there will be no rivalry, for the greatest danger there is, is rivalry. The devil fell because of it; he fell because of his beauty. We are thus to be on the watch, so that there should be no rivalry in the service. It is a question of “for Jesus’ sake”, and the service should go on, and go on, so that the temple should be completed, that the assembly should grow and be finished, because it is a finishing time. Thus the work goes on and we have had all these meetings and we have been greatly encouraged too. We are thankful to God for the number that is here tonight. There is no question of glorying in ourselves, but glorying in what God has; that God has so many children as it says, “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”, 1 John 3: 1.
Well now, I read that passage in the epistle to the Ephesians just to bring out simply that the assembly, as a whole, is the great illuminating vessel. That is what it is going to be, but it is already, as the passage I have read says, “of which I am become minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according [p. 315] to the working of his power. To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, to announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ, and to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, who has created all things, in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
That is what I want us to have before our minds distinctly, to see that the assembly has this place. It has it today and will have it millennially and eternally. I mean to say, its distinctive place will remain and Paul is the minister of it. He is stressing that here, and I brought it in, so that we might all see that it is available to us. Paul being like ourselves, presents the light of the mystery, even his knowledge of it, so that the youngest of us may aspire to the understanding of it. Matthew says, “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be light”. It is a question of the whole body of the believer; it is not simply your mind or your head, but the whole body. We have already spoken of the thought of the whole body, that it is a substantial thought, so that, not merely the mind, but the actual physical body of the believer is to be full of light; indeed, it is to be light, to be luminous.
In closing, it is in mind just to show briefly that the fourth day in creation, as we have it, brings out the two luminaries that I spoke of, and that one is a governing body. Really, it is typically Christ in heaven. It is Christ, of course, in the sense in which we can speak of Him in relation to the testimony of God, for it is a question of the testimony of God. Although Christ is in heaven, He is there in relation to the testimony of God and He is active there. If He wishes to come down to earth, why not? He is a divine Person, and He can do [p. 316] that; He has done it. Then we have the lesser light, as it is called, which is said to be ruling the night. Notice it is ruling, for I take that to mean that through all that is current among the nations, whatever they be, whatever is going on, whatever is being done, whether great things or little things, the Lord is governing everything and the assembly is governing everything. The Lord is governing the day; the Lord in heaven, in the sense in which I have spoken of, as the greater light is ruling the day. It says, “to rule during the day”. I say rule, for it is not simply that Christ shines, but He rules. Let men do and say what they please, that fact remains, that heaven rules. Then, even in the night, however bad things are, and we know what they are, in the great cities of the world, what terrible things are current, at the same time, the lesser light is ruling. It says again that the light is to rule during the night. The whole night is in mind, for God has not given up the idea of ruling. It is in the assembly, for the lesser light is the assembly, and it comes in on the fourth day, as if God would amplify what He had in His mind on the first day. That is to say, He brings in the thought of the two lights, the greater and the lesser. The first one being Christ in heaven, ruling in whatever way He may act in relation to the testimony, the second one being the assembly, whatever it may be, but on earth here. It is ruling on earth, or, at least, the word is “to give light on the earth”. The expanse is near the earth, but it towers beyond it, as we have had it here today already, in Psalm 36. It refers there to the great mountains; there are the Himalayas, five miles high, and other such mountains. Well, they are still all in the expanse. But then there is One that is higher than they. Whatever men may do, and whatever combinations they may form, God is higher than they, and He is ruling every day, and He is ruling every night. He is ruling in Christ by day, and He is ruling in the assembly by night. Then the question is, Do I realise that I belong to that company? How [p. 317] needful it is that I should be luminous to belong to it! If I come into contact with these men who are ruling in the world, I am to illuminate them, as having myself put on Christ. That is all that I need to say now in putting this matter of light before the brethren. First, that if our eye is single, our whole body is light, and then that, collectively, the whole assembly is luminous, as we see it in the book of Revelation. It says, “her light was ... most precious”. May God help us into these things at this time!