Love-Light

One of the finest evidences that the Light of God has begun to shine in someone's life is an outpouring of love.


Scripture: John 1:1-5, 1 John 1:9, 1 John 2:9, Romans 5:5, 2 Corinthians 5:14, John 8:12

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends, how in the world are you? Aren’t you glad you can be in the world but not of it? That’s the background of the little corny question I ask which establishes who and what we are. You can be in this world, but you can be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation; kept clean, kept pure, kept victorious, kept for God’s use. Yes, you can! So that’s why I ask, how in the world are you? And I trust everything’s going well at your house. If you’ve struck a rough day, look up and say, “Lord, I don’t like it but see me through victoriously.” Ask God to see you through the situation and He will. He hasn’t brought you this far, beloved, to drop you now. He said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” And you can trust His blessed Word.

We’re talking about the description of the Lord Jesus Christ as found in these opening words of the Gospel of John. And we got as far as the idea of creation, being first and then creation. And then he said, “In him was life, life in itself. As the Father hath life in himself, He hath given to the son to have life in Himself, Jesus said.” There is no other entity in all of the universe that possesses life as a proprietary gift over which we have control. Now, I’m alive, thank God, [chuckle] especially when you consider the alternative, as the man said. But I don’t have control over my… I don’t have life in myself. That is to say, I can’t say, “Now, today, I will be alive or 10 years from now, I will be alive, or whatever.” You don’t have that right. God has life. In Him, was life. Read the early words in the Book of Genesis, and you find it said that God, Almighty God, breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. And that clay then became a living being but is possessed of intelligence, and emotion, and will. A human being, alive because God gave him life. In Him was life.

Now he says, “The life,” that is, the quality of God that is particularly His own, life, “was the light of men.” What’s He talking about? Well see, he’s telegraphing to us something that is opened up later on in the book. And that is, that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into your life as Lord and as Savior, the life He brings is His own, eternal life. Eternal life is not a matter of duration. How long is it? Eternal life is a matter of quality. What kind is it? And so when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, commit yourself to Him and ask him to forgive your sins and make you a child of God, He brings His eternal life into you. Paul says the secret, the open secret, the now revealed secret that we preach among the nations is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

He said when he wrote to the people at Galatia, “Nevertheless I live, yet not I,” not the old Saul of Tarsus with murder in his heart. Not I, “but Christ liveth in me.” Said to the people in Corinth who admittedly were in need of some overhauling in their conduct and their attitudes, what he said, “What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which ye have of God, and you’re not your own for you’re bought with a price wherefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which belong to God.” And so our Lord Jesus Christ, when you give yourself to Him, and if you haven’t done that, my dear friend, don’t wait until you’re an hour older. If you’re driving, pull off the road somewhere and bow your head and say, “Jesus, save me. By your grace, make me a child of God. Have mercy on me and forgive my sins.” Pray that prayer and commit yourself to Christ if you haven’t already done it.

But if you have, if you do know the Lord Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior, then He brought His own wonderful life with Him, didn’t He? And that then illumines your whole life. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shineth in darkness.” John in his first epistle says the same thing. He said, “This is the truth about it, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” So that when our Lord Jesus becomes your Savior and your Lord, and the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit comes into your life to implement all of the grace of God in your life, the lights go on. “The life was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness.” I wonder if you know about this in your own life. Do you? Have you let the Lord Jesus light up your life? Popular song that was all the go some few years ago, “You Light Up My Life.” People tried to make that apply to our Blessed Lord, but it’s pretty close to being a love ballad and it’s hard to make it theological, but the title, bless God, is so true of our Savior. He does light up our lives, doesn’t he? Oh, yes. How does that happen? How does that happen?

Well, the whole question of the light of God has to do with revealing and removing sin, anything that is against the will of God. Let’s go over to 1 John for a minute. I’m turning the pages here. “This, then, is the message.” Said he, “That we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” Now, how does this work? It works, first of all, in changing your lifestyle. “If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.” Lord Jesus changes your lifestyle, the way you live. The word “walk” means “live every day.”

And verse seven, “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, cleanses us from all sin.” Constant cleansing from the mistakes and shortcomings of the flesh. And then, this has to do, also in your relationship with other people. He said, this is 1 John 2:9, “He that says he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness, even until now. He that loveth his brother, abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him, but he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walks.” Means live every day, “Lives every day in that darkness and knows not whither he goeth because darkness has blinded his eyes.”

So this matter of lighting up your life, what is it? It changes your lifestyle. It gives you fellowship with the Lord Jesus. It gives you constant cleansing from the mistakes and shortcomings and sins of fallen human nature, and it changes your attitude toward other people, your brother, and sister, other human beings. It takes away hatred and puts in Calvary love instead. One of the finest evidences that the light of God has begun to shine in a person’s life is to see the outpouring of Calvary love, genuine Godly love from the heart. That’s how He lights you up. This is always a shock to unbelievers. I sat next to a high government official, just the other day, at a banquet, and the conversation turned to religious matters. And this government official had been brought up in another culture and went on to tell me that when some missionary had said, “God loves you and I love you too,” these were the words, “It came as a great shock to me, and I did not know what to say.”

One of the evidences that somebody has been in the presence of the Lord Jesus is real love. Romans 5:5, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who has given onto us.” 2 Corinthians 5:14, “The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, and then we’re all dead and that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him who loved them and died for them, gave Himself for them.” See, these are the evidences, a changed lifestyle, a changed way of dealing with human mistakes and failures prayed and confessed up to date, minute by minute. “He waiteth not for penitence but hasteth to begin the restoration of a saint, the instant of his sin.”

That’s the heavenly side of it. Don’t you wait a moment. When you’re conscious of being out of line with the will of God, right then and there, say, “Lord God, forgive me for Jesus’ sake and cleanse me and restore me and get me in your will once again.” Pray your way through the day, and when you’re conscious of having stepped out of line, confess it immediately and let God cleanse you. If we confess our sins, John says, in 1 John 1:9, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all.” Not some, “All unrighteousness.” The light shines in the darkness. There been any shining in your life lately? I’ve given you the three very simple criteria. Changed lifestyle, moment by moment praying and cleansing, and the outpouring of divine love for people around you. That’s what lights up the life, isn’t it? Well, is anything happening in your life?

You say, “How do I do it, brother Cook? How do I get started?” Talk to him. Talk to your blessed Lord, confess your needs to Him, ask Him to rearrange your lifestyle, ask Him to launch you on a life of constant cleansing and blessing, ask Him to fill your heart with love for others. He will. Oh, yes, He will.

Now, the next time we get together, we’ll get that last phrase of the Gospel of John Chapter 1 Verse 5, “The light shineth in darkness,” and then, this phrase, “The darkness comprehended it not.” We use the English word, comprehend, to mean understand. I don’t comprehend what you’re saying. That means understand, I don’t understand it, I can’t take it in. But the word that’s used here, if you go back to your Greek Lexicon means, “it wasn’t able to put it out.” The light shines in darkness and the darkness wasn’t ever able to put it out. Hallelujah. [chuckle]

You can’t put out God’s light. You can put people in prison. You can shoot them. You can torture them. You can try to brainwash them. You can burn the Bible. You can do all these different things but you can’t put the light out. Why? Because the light of the world is Jesus. He said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” We’ll get at this the next time we get together.

Father God, today, oh, may the light be shining in our lives. Fulfill in us that word that says, “Let your light so shine before men.” I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today, and be a blessing!



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