|
WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 2
11 June 2006
Ye Are the Light of the
World
(Message
delivered by Pr Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, June
04, 06)
Text:
Matt 5:14-16
Light is so vital for our lives, animals and plants. God
created light on the first day of His literal six 24-hour days in His
creation. And God saw the light and said that it was good (Gen 1:3-5).
My dear friends, do you and I praise God and thank Him for His goodness
when we wake up and see the light as the Psalmist does in Ps 136:1, 7 “O
give thanks to the LORD; for he is good: his mercy endureth for
ever. To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for
ever.”
As God’s natural light
is free and available, many people take it for granted. They may even
not care for it because they have electric light. But some day they will
surely appreciate God’s natural light and be in great fear when God’s
judgment pours down on this sinful and dark world: the sun became black
(Rev 6:12) and the third part of the sun, the moon and the stars were
smitten, so the third part of the world was darkened (Rev 8:12).
My dear friends, in darkness how can we see each
other? how can we read a book and understand it? how can we find a way
to walk safely in right direction? how can we work and do this or that?
how can we discern a true diamond or banknote from a fake one? and many
more questions that you and I can list.
Seeing that the natural light is good and vital for
our lives, let us now consider God’s Divine Light for our spiritual life
and how we can reflect that light and shine it before men in this world
of sin and darkness.
The Lord
Jesus Christ and God’s Word, the True Divine Light
First of all, we are to realize that
the true source of Light is from God alone. The Bible says that God is
light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), our heavenly
Father is the Father of lights (James 1:17), and our Lord Jesus Christ
is the true Light, the light of the world (John 1:9; 8:12), and the Word
of God is a lamp and a light (Ps 119:105). Therefore, in order to get
the true Divine Light, we are to come to our living and true God of the
Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and to His Word alone. Many human
religions and cults and occult groups also claim that their gods, their
leaders and their books are true light. No marvel, even Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).
Then, how can we discern the truth
from the lies? Only the written Word of God, the Holy Bible, which God
has perfectly preserved for us and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth,
can illumine our hearts (2 Cor 4:6; Eph 1:18) to see the Truth in His
light and then we can show it to others. There is no other way, no, not
one. Through the Bible, we may know some basic characteristics of God’s
Light, which are His glorious presence (Matt 17:1-2; 1 Tim 6:16), His
holiness, His righteousness, His truth and His love (Ps 43:3; 119:105; 1
John 1:5; 4:8; 1 Peter 1:15; Rev 4:8; 16:5), His wisdom and His guidance
(Ps 32:8; 36:9; 43:3; Daniel 2:22; Rom 11:33-35). O
send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me
unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles (Ps 43:3).
My dear friends, do you and I have
this Divine Light in our lives at the moment? We may know the Lord and
His Word the Holy Bible in our head, but that is not enough. Our hearts
are to be submissive to the Lord and His Word. Having the living Lord,
we have His living Light. Without Him and His Word living in us, we have
no living Light shining in us and then shining to others. Without Him
and His Word, we have no glory, no holiness, no righteousness, no truth,
no love, no wisdom nor guidance. Having the Lord, we have all we need.
Like the Apostle Paul, shall we regard all things but loss that we may
know more about Him, win Him and be found in Him (Phil 3:8-9)? Shall we
seek Him and His Word first in all things and live by Him and by His
Word moment by moment and day by day of our lives?
Christians, the Reflected Light
Then what does it mean
when the Lord Jesus says that His followers are the light of the world?
Is it the same meaning as He says that He is the light of the world?
Absolutely no. The original term of light in the Bible may refer
to God the ultimate source of Light (John 8:12; 1 John 1), or the light
of the sun, the moon, the stars (Isa 30:26; Ezek 32:7; Rev 8:12; 22:5),
or the light of a lamp, a candle, a torch, or fire (Mk 14:54; Luke 8:16;
Acts 16:29) or just daylight (John 11:9). As we are sinners and
come short of God’s glory, holiness, righteousness, and love, we can
never be the source of light nor produce any holy light. On the
contrary, we used to be under the power of darkness of sins and Satan.
When the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Saul, later the Apostle Paul, on
his way to Damascus to persecute believers, He chose Saul and sent him
to the Gentiles to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them
which are sanctified by faith that is in Jesus (Acts 26:18). Paul later
gave thanks to God the Father, who has made us qualified to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who has delivered us from the
power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son (Col 1:12-13). Then we have no source of light in ourselves, and we
can be sure that those who claim that only they have the true light are
only telling lies. We should not be deceived by them nor following them.
Thank God that we are now the children of light (Eph
5:8) and can reflect the Light of God and shine it in this world of
darkness like the moon or the mirror reflecting the light of the sun.
When our Lord Jesus says, “Ye art the light of the world,” He expects us
to reflect exactly the same light, the same truth, the same love and so
on which we have received from Him. My dear friends, are you and I
reflecting our Lord Jesus Christ and His truth in this world of
darkness?
Shining and Glorifying God
As being born again, we
have been transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ day by day
and we have a desire and purpose to glorify God in our lives. Our motive
and purpose are different from those of unbelievers, or even the
“Pharisees” and religious leaders who want to show off their good works
or charity or religious duties and so forth to gain the respect, praise
and honour from men (Matt 6, 23). On the contrary, we do all things for
God’s glory. The Bible says that whether we eat or drink and whatsoever
we do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). We will not be
isolated and hiding ourselves in a corner or in a monastery or in a
convent. Our Lord wants us and our lives and our good works to be seen
by men like a city set on a hill and a candle on a candlestick so that
they may glorify our Father in heaven, not ourselves. This is a command
from our Lord: “let shine your light before men that
they may see your good works and glorify
your Father who is in heaven”. My dear friends, do others see
God’s light in our lives? They may see our goodness, our smart
abilities, and our wealth, but more important, can they see the Lord and
His truth, His goodness and His wisdom (wisdom from above – James
3:17-18) in our lives? Do they see our good works as a result of a new
life in Christ? Do they glorify God through our lives?
How to reflect God’s Light
We have
known that only the Lord and His Word are our true source of Light and
that He commands us to reflect His light and shine forth His light in
this world of darkness. Then how can we reflect and shine forth His
light in our lives?
(1) Separation from
darkness
We
are not isolated but separated. After God created light, He separated it
from darkness (Gen 1:4). The first and important step to reflect God’s
Light is to separated ourselves from the darkness of sins, unbelief,
ungodliness and wrong doctrines, even among brethren (2 Cor 6:14-18; 2
Thess 3:6-15), cast off the works of darkness (Rom 13:12-13), and have
no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them
(Eph 5:11). My dear friends, many Christians nowadays like to be
popular, recognized, acknowledged or accepted, so they are compromising
and ignoring Biblical Separation, but how about you and I? Would we
rather follow God or men? The Lord Jesus says, “I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life” (John 8:12). Do we have the light of life at the
moment? Just follow our Lord Jesus and His Word and stop walking in
darkness.
(2) Walking in the Light
The Bible says, God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:5,7).
What does it mean walking in the light? It means humbly walking with
God, living in His holy presence, in His truth and His love, observing
His Word, doing His will, and keeping a close fellowship with Him. Only
living in God’s holy presence will we appreciate the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ as the light lets us see not only more about God and His
truth but also more about ourselves, about our weakness, our
unrighteousness and our sins. How precious the blood of our Lord Jesus
is, keeping on cleansing us so that we may maintain our fellowship with
our holy God in His light! Those who walk in darkness easily deceive
themselves and others, thinking that they are right or even better than
others. How miserable they are!
It is also amazing that God’s light not only
enlightens us and casts out our darkness of sins but also disperses our
dark clouds of doubt, depression, sadness, fear, worry, and stress. I
have experienced that when I was in such situations, I just kept on
looking unto the Lord, waiting upon Him, trusting Him and committing
everything to Him, and His light of peace and joy cast out all my fear
and worry. Moreover, living in God’s holy presence does keep my heart,
my mind, my thought, and my motive pure from sinful desire and
temptations of the world. My dear friends, are you and I walking in the
light? How blessed we are!
(3) Nothing between us and the Lord
The Bible says, “But we all, with open face beholding as
in a glass (a mirror) the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). To have a good
reflection, it requires a highly polished surface such as a mirror.
Holding a mirror facing the sun, we can see a strong reflected light
shining and flaring. How can a mirror reflect well if
it is dirty or its back faces the sun or there is something between it
and the sun?
Likewise, our lives have different levels of
reflection from God’s light depending on how much we know the Lord and
His truth (ignorance is like darkness), how we are submissive to our
Lord and to His perfect Word, and how close we keep our fellowship with
Him in His light. My dear friends, are you and I clear mirrors facing to
the Lord? Is there anyone, anything, any sin, or any idol even our
“self” we hold dearer than the Lord and His fellowship? No wonder, our
light is not stable, sometimes dim and sometimes bright. Moses had a
very close communion with the Lord and his face reflected God’s glory
(Ex 34:35), and so did Stephen (Acts 6:15). Shall we not regard all
things but loss and maintain our close fellowship with the Lord so that
our lives may be transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ
from glory to glory and others may see our Lord and His truth in our
lives?
Another
picture of shining is from the candle on the candlestick as the Lord
Jesus says in verse 15. We do need to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
our holy oil, to be trimmed, to be burned, to spend and be spent
for the Lord so that His light may shine before men
through our lives. If we are not submissive to the Holy Spirit, still
holding back something for ourselves, not willing to spend and be spent,
our light is only dim. John the Baptist is a lamp burning and shining
(John 5:35), how about you and me?
As we are reflecting God’s light
before men, not all may welcome us. Those who do evil hate the light
neither come to the light (John 3:19-20). Then we should be prepared and
not surprised when we may be hated and persecuted while walking with our
Lord in His light. Are you and I ready?
Conclusion
My dear friends,
many people are living in darkness of sins and sorrows and do not know
where they are going. They do not know the truth about God, about
themselves and about God’s salvation for them. They may never read God’s
Word. Can they see the Lord Jesus Christ, His truth and His Word shining
through our lives? Salt has a good influence, and light is a good
guidance. May God use us as the salt of the earth and the light of the
world. Amen.
Top
/ Back
|
