Let Your Light So Shine ('In Him Was Life; and the Life Was the Light of men.')

Selected Verses:

John 1:4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Matthew 5:14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Opening:

He said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And then He said, "Ye are... Pentecostal people! Do you speak in tongues according to Acts 2:4? You can't go to heaven if you don't! You're Presbyterians, you're Methodists, you're Baptists, you're Lutherans, you're Catholics!" No. He made this statement: "Ye are the light of the world." What a strong and powerful assertion Jesus Christ makes about you! Could I ask your husband?--"Now, wait a minute..."--or your wife, or the people you work with?

Ah, what a marvelous call of God: "Ye are the light of the world." And the Bible has much to say about that light. "Among whom ye shine as lights in the world." You know, if we turned out all the lights in this room, it would be dark. And so everybody would get a chance to say something about the darkness.

I had an argument with Uncle Edwin about darkness some time ago, and we didn't come to any conclusion. He said, "Darkness is something," and I said, "Darkness ain't nothin'." I said, "Darkness is simply the absence of light, and you can give it whatever name you like." Call it Catholic or Protestant; call it Pentecostal or whatever you please, but it's darkness. But oh, light a candle--just one candle--and where is the darkness? It flees in proportion to the size of that light. And that's what Jesus Christ means when He says, "Ye are the light of the world." The Bible says about Him that "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." And there is no science in the world that gives us light like the biography we have of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old and New Testament.

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Selected Quotes:

speaker icon There's nothing that convicts you so quickly as to meet someone that's holier than you are--somebody that lives the life. They may not do a lot of talking about religion. They're not trying to persuade you to be what they are, but they're living the life. And the minute you meet them, or if you have a little time to get acquainted with them, you find they've got something that you haven't got--something out of heaven. Jesus Christ says, "rivers of living water shall flow from within him," because "in Him was life," and He came "that they might have life."

Beloved, that's the thing we ought to look at: "His life was the light of men." And you can take all the wise men, and all the leaders, and all that have tried to influence the world with their doctrine. How many millions are there today? And they all have a name, but they don't have the life. But Jesus has the life! And when you see Jesus, even on the cross... I said years ago, "I'm jealous of you, Jesus. I envy You--hanging on the cross, full of shame, full of the spit of your wicked enemies, bleeding, with a crown of thorns. I envy You, because there's no spot in you--spirit, soul, and body immaculate."

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speaker icon "That ye may be blameless and harmless, sons of God without rebuke..." Oh, my Father, I know You're looking down from heaven upon my life. And it isn't what I say with my mouth that counts, but it's what I let You do within my life. "That ye may be blameless and harmless, sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation." Is it "crooked and perverse"? Well, don't think of that; are you crooked and perverse?

Beloved, "the life was the light," and "Ye are the light of the world." "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Oh, there was a time when we lived differently, but thank God, He has moved in. He has poured in His life. He lives within us. It is Christ that lives, praise God! And people shall see that. They see Christ: "Oh, there's a real Christian--there's one that doesn't talk, but he lives the life." And God will give us that life.

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Illustrations:

The world's defiled idea of life. "They were half drunk, and they were singing, 'This is the life.' ... How often we have failed to live the life." (from 4:50)

A self-righteous believer's ruined witness. "I said, 'Women, he's more saved than you are! If I were your husband, I wouldn't get saved either.' She didn't let the light shine." (from 9:39)

Humble work keeps the Faith Home from becoming a "fake home." "I enjoyed anything for Jesus Christ." (from 12:21)

A young minister who "skipped a notch" by not doing the dishes. (from 18:19)

References:

Robert G. Ingersoll, whom HRW calls one of Christ's "greatest enemies." A. B. Simpson in chapter 3 of Wholly Sanctified writes:

The writer was once tempted to read Robert Ingersol's lectures with a view of answering them, but after reading a single page he felt so deluged with the shower of brimstone that poured from every page upon his whole being that he dared not go farther, and felt that he could only warn his people from any contact with such things, and tell them that "evil communications corrupt good manners," and that God's ground was to abstain from the very appearance of evil and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, not even so far as to hear them. He was once called upon by a young convert, a very earnest Christian woman, who had gone one Sabbath night, under strong pressure, to hear this daring blasphemer. Her face was fairly shining with the light of the pit, and she had called to tell her pastor that she was fascinated and knew not what was the matter, but that she had been so captivated by his brilliant blasphemy that she seemed to have lost her power of resisting. Therefore the very first thing in order to the sanctification of the mind is to separate it from all evil by absolutely ignoring evil and refusing any contact with it.