Date: August 20, 1934, morningPlace: FoochowScripture Reading: John 1:4
Today believers need light. It is absurd for a child of God to have life but be without light. Those who have life should surely have light. John 1:4 says that in Him is life, and this life is the light of men. The life of the Lord is the light of men. When a man receives the Lord's life, he receives light. On the Lord's side, there is first life and then light. On our side, there is first light and then life. The spiritual depth that a believer possesses is dependent on the amount of light he has received.
What does the Bible say about light, revelation, manifestation, and vision? Light is necessary to enlighten God's revelation and to make manifest what is hidden. A revelation is God's removal of a veil to show us something, as described in Revelation 1:1. After there is revelation, there is still the need for God's enlightening. Manifestation is the exposure of a revelation after it has been enlightened by the light. Finally, a vision is what we see after a revelation has been enlightened by the light. For example, Paul spoke of the vision he received from heaven (Acts 26:19), and Proverbs says that the people perish where there is no vision (29:18).
There are a few conditions for receiving God's light. First, a man must be in the proper realm before he can receive light. In other words, he must be in a realm where light can reach. For example, the light in a room can only enlighten that room; if you are sitting in the next room, you will not be able to read with the light from the adjacent room. The psalmist said, "In Your light we see light" (Psa. 36:9). We can only receive God's light in the realm where His light shines. Second, in order to receive light, we must have God's word. The psalmist said that the Lord's word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (119:105). We must spend much time to read God's Word before we will receive light. Light is with God and not within man's heart. This is why the psalmist said that the Lord's word is the light unto our path. Third, in order to receive God's light, we have to draw near to God. We must be one who is near God, and one who draws nigh to Him, because only God is light. He is the source of light. When we are near Him and when we draw nigh to Him, we receive light. Luke 11 says that the eye is the lamp of the body (v. 34). The lamp does not have light in itself; it can only be a means through which light manifests itself. The eye is the means through which we see light, but light itself is God. If the eye is single, the whole body will be full of light (Matt. 6:22). A man must first establish an intimate fellowship with the Lord before he will see light.
Knowledge is absolutely different from light. Those who have light surely have the knowledge, but those who have knowledge do not necessarily have light. There is a big difference between a blind man's knowledge of colors and a child's experience of them. A blind man may have the knowledge of colors, but he has never seen them. A child may not have the knowledge of colors, but he knows what colors are from his experience. It is a pity that believers today pay so much attention to knowledge instead of light.
The realization of sin is not a question of knowledge but a question of light. A student once said to Mr. Bengal, a famous Bible expositor, "I have recently discovered the doctrine of sin from the book of Romans." Mr. Bengal looked at him and said, "Do you mean to tell me that today is the first time that you have known about the doctrine of sin? By now you should have realized that your whole person is sin from your daily experience!"
I once asked a person who prayed frequently with Mr. Sparks, "What words are most often repeated in Mr. Sparks' prayer?" The man answered, "Lord! Let Your church see." What the church needs today is not more knowledge but more light and more seeing.
God works through His light. His work in man begins with light. The work in Genesis began with light. With light there was the separation. On the fourth day, the light took on tangible shapes.
In John 9, the Lord healed the blind man with the spittle mixed with clay (vv. 1-11; cf. Mark 8:22-26). Clay signifies the flesh and the earthly things, while the spittle signifies the Lord's divinity, which produces something of life. This life becomes the light of man. The Lord mixing spittle with the clay means that divinity is mixed with humanity. The Lord's incarnation is the best illustration of the mingling of divinity with humanity. The spittle and the clay signify the light of life in divinity mingled with humanity to produce the anointing, which brings healing to the blind man. After the blind man was healed, he did not see clearly at first; he saw men walking as trees. The Lord touched his eyes again, and when the blind man looked a second time, his eyes were fully recovered. This signifies that believers sometimes receive light but are still not too clear. They become clear only after they have received further light. We can testify from our experience that light is cumulative. The light that we have today is far more than the light we received years ago.
We praise the Lord for the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. If Jerusalem had remained, there would still be sacerdotal sacrifices, and the priestly service after the order of Melchisedec could not have been instituted. If the temple had not been destroyed, the believers would have esteemed the physical temple and not considered the church as God's temple. Finally, when worship centers around an outward physical building, the believers no longer worship in spirit and in reality (see John 4:21-24).
A worker must learn to know God's will and must learn to not work for God. Most workers know that once they have God's command, they should act according to such command. But many people work even when there is no clear command from the Lord. Presumption is working without command, while disobedience is failing to work when there is a command. In either case, this is lawlessness.
Every worker can know God's will in a direct way, and there is no need for us to beg to know His desire. If I assume responsibility for informing my servant about even the smallest task, such as fetching a small pair of scissors, how much more will the Lord be responsible for giving His servants detailed instructions for what He wants to do? Once we are clear about the Lord's will, we should no longer be affected by men. Once Paul became clear of the Lord's will, he was bold to say that he did not confer with flesh and blood (Gal. 1:16). He did not compromise the truth with anyone, including Peter and John. Every worker of God must have a direct and subjective knowledge of the Lord. Paul was able to boast of "my gospel" (Rom. 2:16; 16:25). His gospel was not from men. Every worker should be able to boast as Paul did of "my gospel."
Confession is toward God and not toward men. When we sin, we sin against God. Therefore, when we confess, we confess to God. It is wrong for anyone to confess to men in a loose way. The extent of confession should only be the extent of one's sin. If one commits a sin before God, he should only confess to God. The confession in 1 John 1:9 is a confession before God. It means to call sin a sin. When God considers something to be a sin and we also call it a sin, this is confession. As one believer said, "We should give sin the right name." This is what it means to confess — to call sin a sin.
Many people confess their sins to men. They think that once they confess their sins to men, their hearts will have peace, and they think that everything will be settled. Yet they have only confessed to men; they have not confessed to God. This kind of confession is only a performance; it has no value whatsoever before the Lord. It will not remove man's sin before God. Only the Lord's blood has the power to wash us of our sins. Although confession before men will render a person some psychological relief, it will not remove his sin-record before God.
The Oxford movement in the eighteenth century emphasized confession to men. They only paid attention to the act of confession and neglected man's deliverance before God. Dr. Stearn once said that the salvation they spoke of was only a kind of psychological deliverance; it was not a genuine salvation. Confession alone cannot save men. Only the Lord's blood can save men. First John 1:9 tells us that the Lord's blood can wash away all sins and unrighteousnesses. Many people do not have an opportunity to settle with men the sins they committed in this world. For example, the thief who was crucified beside the Lord did not have an opportunity to confess his sins to anyone. Yet he was still saved, because he trusted in the Lord's salvation (Luke 23:42-43).
