As we renew our occupation with the message of Isaiah 60, there are just two preliminary things I want to say at this point.
First of all, if there are any who were not with us this morning, let me say that they may be a little mystified unless we make it very clear that, in a great deal of the Old Testament Scriptures, there is a double meaning. There is that which is historical and primarily related with Israel and their future; and there is that which lies behind the message to Israel, which is the larger message for the people of God in a spiritual way, for now and for the future.
We are not going to argue that out again, but we are this afternoon occupied with the second of those interpretations. We are not spiritualizing everything historical out of existence; we are seeing that the historical has a spiritual meaning which is not historical, but eternal.
The other thing that I want to say is just following the last word this morning. We are going again to use the word church, and we are going to find that the things being said concern and relate to the church.
Now, here in this quite small company, there are those who come from many places. Some are not very far off; you will probably be going back there. Others are from points nearer or farther between those distant places.
If, in your places, you are scattered, and many of you are just individuals or two or three, you might have somewhere undefined in the back of your mind, as you are speaking, “Well, that is for the church. He is talking about the church. All that is concerning the church. But then I am just one lonely one somewhere, or we are only just two or three in some remote place. We cannot be regarded as the church. Therefore, to some degree, all this can hardly apply to us.”
I feel it necessary to say a corrective word about that. The best way of doing it is to remind you of Paul’s final letters, mainly to and about the church. He did not write them to any one collection of Christians in any one place. Neither did he write them just to several large companies or assemblies. They were for all Christians, whether in companies or scattered and alone, and they have remained that ever since.
Paul thought comprehensively and inclusively of all believers, and just called them the church—that is all. It may have been just here and there, or in many places, just one or two, or little groups; or there may have been larger assemblies. But they were all the church where he was concerned, and what he had to say applied to them all.
For this reason, as we shall emphasize presently, he never at that time thought of them finally as on earth. He had got completely away from earth conditions, so far as geography and time were concerned, from the merely physical; and he was seeing the church from the standpoint of God and heaven.
And so this whole matter of scatteredness and individual place and position did not come into the thing at all, except in this way: every fragment, wherever it was, was part of the whole as in heaven. So that everything applied to every fragment.
The practical value of that, dear friends, is this: as I said this morning, we are all, wherever we are and however alone we may be, involved in all that the church is involved in. You may be in a remote place, alone; yet you are bound up with all that relates to the church—what the church is knowing, what the church is suffering, and what the church is called to. You are bound up with it. You are in it. You are not apart from it, whatever you may be.
It is necessary for you to grasp that and take it back with you, and say, “I am here, as though alone, or with another, in this remote place, as much a part of the whole—the church—as that group in one place, or any other group.” Well, that is what it means.
In the Spirit and in the heavenly, you are always in the whole congregation of the church. You may not see them; you may not have, perhaps, the extra personal benefits of association with all the others on the earth; but you are in the whole church, wherever you are—a part of the congregation.
You see, we are come:
unto the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.
— Hebrews 12:23
That was not just a few somewhere in one place, or a big crowd in one place. That is all the children of God. We are all come unto the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
So, what we say this afternoon is not to be regarded as something said to an imaginary body called “the church,” meaning something remote. It is said to us all, wherever we are.
Now, having said that, let us come back to the message which we get through Isaiah 60:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
— Isaiah 60:1
We have said quite a bit about the ground and nature of this light. Now we go on to ask, and in a degree seek to answer, the question: What is this light? What is the light which is come, and the glory which is risen?
I have no hesitation in saying inclusively that it is that which has peculiarly and particularly come through the instrumentality of the Apostle Paul. I know, of course, that that light has come through others, but the full light concerning the church—the spiritual Israel—has come through Paul.
It is gathered into, stored up, and concentrated in his fuller and concentrated ministry through his last letters. The prison letters of Paul—that is, his church letters—are undoubtedly the light which God has given concerning and for the church.
That is the light which has risen, and that is the glory which has come. Those two words are characteristic of those final letters: light and glory. Not only are the words themselves there, but the truth is there.
Ah, light! You find no such light anywhere else in the Bible. Indeed, you are amazed at this man. Take the sweep: light shining right back into eternity past; light shining right on to eternity to be; light shining right down into this dispensation. How great is the light!
And as for the glory, again it is a characteristic word; it is a characteristic feature, is it not?
Unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
— Ephesians 3:21
What glory has arisen through that ministry! And I take comfort by saying that this is not all the light that has come, nor all the glory; but, in its meridian, it has come through this channel.
Well, let us look at it. First of all, it is light and glory concerning the church’s calling to be the resurrection vessel of the Lord.
That is an early statement of the Ephesian letter. Remember, here Paul is dealing with the church. In other places he deals with the individual, referring to the individual union with Christ in death and resurrection. That is the peculiar message to the Corinthians, for instance, because there it has to do so much with personal conduct and personal character.
But when you come to these last great letters, especially Ephesians and Colossians, the idea of Paul is all the time corporate. When he refers to being quickened together and raised together, he means that is the church. It is a quickened and raised church, and as such it is the vessel of resurrection—the vessel of the resurrection power of Christ.
Of course, there can be no church without individuals, though all these things have their personal application. So then, the apostle says that this light which has come, which has risen upon us—this glory which has appeared concerning the church—is to make us know:
what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.
— Ephesians 1:19-20
That is for the church, inclusive of all individuals. The church itself is a resurrection vessel, to be the embodiment of the exceeding greatness of His power.
No one of us individually, nor any number of us as detached and unrelated individuals, can know the exceeding greatness of His power any more than we can know any other aspect of His fullness. But it is easier to realize how the church—the great company of the elect right through all the ages, in its pilgrimage and its warfare, with all that it has had to encounter and does have to encounter, and with all that is set against it—needs the exceeding greatness of His power to get that church up and out, clear and emancipated, and heavenly established.
But here it is. Here is the light which has come, the glory which has arisen: that the church, my dear friends—you and I, wherever we may be a part—are, by this illumination, made to know that we are the vessel of resurrection; that is, of the exceeding greatness of His power.
I do not know how that truth strikes you. I do not think that it is comforting you very much, because you all look very miserable.
But if you had been with me during recent weeks, and seen the terrible, heartbreaking state of Christians—their spiritual limitation and weakness, and all that is set to keep them there, and how little there is that can make it otherwise—you would get very near to where I have got, a point of despair over this matter.
May I say here that this conference is coming out of my experience. Every bit of this conference is very near to my own experience, born of the past months.
If you really did know the state of the church in this world, the state of Christians, and the desperate situation, the limitation, and the lack of that which would bring them into greater fullness in the Spirit, you might even raise the major question: Does God really mean to have a church in fullness? Are we not really attempting something impossible? Have we not committed ourselves to something that cannot be? Is it not going to break up and fail? Is it right, after all, that this is what God wants?
The answer is: the light has been given. The light has been given. It has come. This light means that this is what God wants. And, blessed be God, because He wants it, the power is there; and it is the power of resurrection.
Perhaps we are wanting it all at once. Perhaps we are impatient. But God is going to have it. Vision has been given of the church filled with glory at the end. The light has come. That is how it is going to be, in its final fullness and glory. God is not going to be defeated, and the church is the very vessel, or sphere, of the power of resurrection.
You and I will know that insofar as we apprehend this truth by faith—that we are a part of that and we are on that ground. We stand there. We shall come into the good of this power of resurrection, and it will operate in us wherever we are.
It is the light that has been given: the calling of the church to be the vessel of resurrection life and power. Therefore:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
— Isaiah 60:1
Now, that, as you recognize, was the first thing we said this morning about this light: here in Isaiah 60 we have the other side of the captivity, the other side, so to speak, of a grave. The grave of exile having been passed through, and they having been called up on resurrection ground, the word is, “Thy light is come.”
So, you see, this light is bound up with resurrection. And so the letter to the Ephesians begins with that:
And you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins.
— Ephesians 2:1
and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
— Ephesians 2:6
Unto us is the exceeding greatness of His power, as in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Then the second thing about this Isaiah message, which finds its spiritual fulfillment in this ministry of Paul, is the church called to be the vessel of light—the light for all, unto the nations.
This morning we saw how that light works out, how effective it is shown to be in this chapter, what tremendous impact it registers unto the ends of the earth, and how the nations begin to flow toward that light. The picture there is of flowing toward that light—how effective it is.
How is this made perfectly clear, if not from this ministry of Paul, that it is the vocation of the church to be the vessel and vehicle of this light?
The light which Paul holds in his great prayer is light for life:
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that ye may know.
— Ephesians 1:18
You know the gradual unfolding of that light. What a wonderful fullness it is! How many beams there are in that light in his prayer. What is to be known by this Spirit of revelation opening the eyes of the heart!
The church is definitely called to be—and that means you and me—the vessel of light. If people are wanting to see and wanting to know, the Lord transmits knowledge through us. They will find it amongst the Lord’s people.
That is not generally true, but this is the calling of the church: that wherever people are really seeking to know the truth, to know the Lord, to come into the light, the Lord has a vessel where that light can break out.
It is a challenge as well as a statement of fact. It is something that we must, I think, basically lay hold of. You see, it is God’s intention; therefore it must be possible. Therefore the Lord provides what He wants.
It is not necessary for any one of you, dear children of God, if you are standing by faith in the good of that heavenly calling and vocation, not to be a vehicle of light to others. Indeed, it is a failure in your calling if you are not such.
Now, there is enough seeing the light through you. I am not now thinking specifically in terms of your moving about with your Bible, trying to give people light, but of being the light. The church is to be the light which is come. We are to be all light in the Lord.
The enemy’s great work is to try to bring in darkness and shadow, the darkness and the shadows coming by anything that he can do. If he can eclipse the light that the church is called to be, he has greatly succeeded. To a very large degree he has done that, and he is always at it.
The strange thing is that as soon as there comes anything—difference, disagreement, division—the enemy is very busy to destroy the church’s testimony in this way, as a testimony of light.
Although, dear friends, it is a very blessed thing for us really to contemplate, to consider, and to apprehend that, given the conditions required, there can be light which radiates, as in this chapter, to the ends of the earth, and people come to it.
As I said this morning, the flowing is because there is something to which to flow, something that answers the need. Oh, that the Lord would put us in that position where need is being met all the time, right out to the uttermost.
Then the next thing in this chapter, as we pointed out, is the wealth to which reference is made. You have probably, or possibly, looked through the chapter again in this connection, and recognized quite a number of statements here about wealth—so that the whole world seems to be enriched from everywhere.
This is no fantasy of imagination. No, dear friends, this is something that the Lord really has provided for, because He has called to have a people here on this earth, wherever they are, who are the channels of the enrichment of others in all directions. There shall go out through them spiritual riches.
Now you see how true that is of Paul’s ministry, do you not? What riches have been disclosed to us through him! He himself was overwhelmed with the wealth into which he had been brought. He would cry, “Oh, the depth of the riches!” He would speak of the unsearchable riches of Christ, and he has given us light concerning a great deal of that wealth.
Look again into his ministry from that standpoint, with that thought in mind. What wealth there is here! Ought we to be poor? Ought we to be in a state of spiritual penury? Ought we to be living so that it is difficult to make ends meet? Ought that to be our state, or the state of the church, as sadly enough it largely is?
Or ought it to be, in the light of all this wealth—this unsearchable, inexhaustible wealth that has come through this man alone? Look at it again.
Surely you are familiar enough with these vessels of light in his letters to realize that you are being taken out of your depth. The phrase in this chapter, in Isaiah 60, is:
the abundance of the sea shall be turned unto thee.
— Isaiah 60:5
It is a phrase which intimates, as perhaps nothing else could intimate, how vast are the resources that God has uncovered.
If you have read this week about the return of the fishes on the east coast of this country, so great and immense was the haul that the fishing boats had to wait for hours because there were no berths for them. So many had come in already that they simply could not cope with it, and the great haul would have to be put back into the sea.
Well, that is only a little spot on this earth, after all—a mere microcosm of the whole. You cannot cope with the contents of the sea and the abundance of the sea. But, well, that is exactly it, really.
I have been trying to cope with it for half of forty years, and I am conscious yet that I am well-nigh overwhelmed in the sea. I mean, every time you come here in the Spirit, you realize that this is still beyond you.
Can you cope with the wonderful light as to the counsels of God before this world was? Can you cope with all that is said here about what is going to be in the ages of the ages beyond us altogether?
But out of that fullness, out of that fullness, you and I are called to be enriched for the sake of others. The church is called into this wealth. How wealthy we should be!
Ask the Lord, if you do not understand this, to open your eyes to your inheritance in Christ. The church is called to be the vessel of resurrection, the vessel of the light which has come, and the vessel of the wealth that has been disclosed.
And, very clearly, both in Isaiah 60 and in these letters of Paul, it is a matter of government. Something here—just catch the picture:
And nations shall come to thy light,
and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
— Isaiah 60:3
You shall, in a word, have power and authority to govern. Here are the kings, here are the rulers, here are all these people who are supposed to be in the place of authority and government, and they are all bowing before your people. Well, that is superior authority.
Is there anything about that in Paul’s letters? There is, is there not?
far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named.
— Ephesians 1:21
Yes, even over principalities and powers, the world-rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness. The church is called to that position.
We have a lot to learn about that place and power—our governing, ruling ascendancy spiritually. Here we are saying that the part of the light Paul has shown and brought to us is that this is the church’s place according to God’s mind. That is our place: a place of spiritual governing ascendancy.
How? In Christ. Oh, that we did actually know more about it in practice! But there it is. May we be moved from endlessly trying to realize that this is not something to which we are to climb by struggling. We have been brought there by Christ.
He has seated us together with Him in the heavens. He has raised us and set us far above all. That is our place by right.
I think one thing that you and I need to learn—though we have got to be very careful about this, for other people have got themselves into trouble in this very matter and developed a phraseology and whatnot in this connection—nevertheless, we are not to be put off by that sort of thing.
One thing we have to learn is how, in prayer together, in our prayer times, whether we be two or three or larger companies, to really stand in our place of authority and government. We are all the time beseeching and imploring, entreating and reaching out, striving and trying to get hold of things; and we very rarely take the position that is ours in Christ to govern situations and spiritual forces.
Here we are called to that in a spiritual way—not as in tone, or pride, or language, or phrases, or voices. It is a spiritual position, but it is a definite and positive exercise that is to be made by us together as the church: authority over other authorities that are at work in this universe.
Then one other thing, as we close for the present. You notice the universality of things in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah—how far-reaching it always is, how comprehensive:
Thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be carried in the arms.
— Isaiah 60:4
The nations, the nations of the earth—it is very comprehensive and extensive, is it not? This ministry, the value of this light, is so far-reaching. When you come to Paul’s ministry, well, here we are. This is not something just for a little few in some corner, or a number of corners. There is something for all, something for all.
Oh, God deliver us from exclusiveness! God deliver us from tying up what He has given to our little circles and to just little companies here and there. God make us know that He has planted us right in the midst of the universe, right in the midst of the nations, and that He has given us enough for all His people.
We do constantly need to watch this matter, lest we should preserve things unto certain people who like this sort of thing. No, no. This light has been given for all, and we must watch carefully against everything that stops us from seeing that all are in the way of heaven and that it is available for all.
For the church’s light is universal; that is, it is for everyone and everywhere. And there is enough of it—enough of it—because we are not going to lose anything. Certainly, we are not going to run out of resources if we enlarge ourselves to all the Lord’s people.
Our own enlargement is the enlargement of our hearts to the Lord’s people. Be careful, then, and watchful against all that which is ever the propensity of people who get light: to reserve it for certain narrow circles, to hold it in those limited realms.
Oh, do always remember that it is not only for people who have seen it and responded to it. To be precise, you will always find many of the Lord’s people in danger of interpreting things in this way. They say, “We have seen the light, we have got the light, and we have come out by the light that we have received. These other people, well, they are where they are. They are in this and they are in that, and they are not in the light.”
The effect of that is division. It is destructive of the very thing for which the church exists. No, the light is for all, as the love is for all. It is for all. Keep the open heart. Keep the open heart and the open mind.
It is amazing how many really hungry and longing people there are, just where there is no light. We have got to be always watchful that the light is available for them all.
I think the warning is very necessary. Oh, let us be enlarged, because the Lord does not make His sun to shine upon the good only. The light gives good to very bad people. Very evil people are getting good from the sun.
No, He does not say, “Only the good people are going to have My sun.” No, it is available for all, and we must keep it there. If the light has come, the glory has risen, and it is like the sun, it is like the sun for everyone.
And we get surprises, do we not? Oh, we get surprises. I, to my shame, say that I have had some startling surprises. Some people—I mean, women with a make-believe hardness, everything that would set you back and make you keep away—you have contact, begin to speak, and find a heart that is hungry, hungry.
That is not exaggeration. That is not fiction. That is true. Surprises: how hungry hearts, needy hearts, are hidden behind things that would repel.
We must keep the light available for all and never be put off. I have spoken of physical things, but even other things—ecclesiastical things, religious things, denominational things, anything you like—do not be put off. Do not be put on one side.
Do not allow your light to be withheld from anybody because of these complexes. God, perhaps you think, does not have the Lord’s full thought; nevertheless, keep open to all. You will be in the way of surprises, and you will find wonderful responses to the light, if only you make it available, from very unexpected quarters.
Oh, the light, the light, is for all. It is a universal light. That is, it is available; it is to be available for everyone. It is a large thing, the light—a large thing, the light.
So:
The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
but the Lord will be thine everlasting light,
and thy God thy glory.
— Isaiah 60:19
That is something very much bigger than natural bodies of light, is it not? How great is the Lord! How great is the Lord! Our sun is great through the illumination and warming of the whole earth—sometimes capable of doing it, at any rate. How much more so the Lord!
The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Do not keep it to yourself. Do not tie it up in any compartment.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
— Isaiah 60:1