He wanted me to speak to you about during this time. The Lord made it very clear to me that he wanted me to speak about fire. And I pondered about this and was not at all sure exactly what I was to say about fire. But one thing I know: that without fire — and this is the point of this first talk — there will be no light. If we are to be light, we've got to have fire.
Now as I was pondering about this, that the message the Lord was laying on my heart — and in fact at that stage I was not at all clear what the theme of this conference might be, and even less what kind of Bible studies had been planned by the planning committee — what was my surprise, but not very long afterwards, when I got the Bible passages, the first of which you've been studying this morning. The Bible passages were sent to me by the planning committee. And when I looked at it, I said, "Lord, your ways are incredible. They are unbelievable." And just the other day, I phoned Helen Sin, and I said to her, "Can you tell me when you people, those of you who had the responsibility of choosing these passages, when you chose these passages, what did you have in mind?" And after some conversation, I could see that whatever they had in mind, it wasn't the point that I was about to make.
You see, when I looked at these four passages — and I wonder when you, and especially the Bible study group leaders who had two retreats on this, whether you have noticed the one element that occurs in all four of these passages. That's what I gave you the key right at the beginning, right? You will notice that in every one of these passages, there is a reference to fire, directly or indirectly. And I challenge you to try and pick another four passages and see if you can get that same element into all four. Consider Isaiah 6 that you did this morning: the angel took a burning coal from off the altar of the Lord and touched Isaiah's lips — a burning, fiery coal. The fire was to purify him, to cleanse him. Romans 12, which you will do, I presume, tomorrow: sacrifice. There is no sacrifice without fire. You are a living sacrifice, or should be. When I come to 1 Corinthians 3, I need to make another comment on that: every man's work will be tested by fire. And 1 Corinthians 13: what is it? The fire of love. "If I give my body to be burned, but have not love" — because fire is love. If I don't have the right kind of fire, I am nothing. It is all of no avail.
And yet I noticed that those who chose the passages hadn't chosen that with this in mind at all. They hadn't, I believe, even seen it at that point. And yet I say to you, the wonder of it all is that as I prayed to the Lord about what he wanted me to speak of, the Lord said, "The fire. Speak about my fire to the people. Let them know the fire that they must have in their lives." And that is why I say — what was my amazement! My mouth dropped open in astonishment. Because, of course, since the Lord gave me the key, not because I was so bright or so brilliant by any means — he had already told me about the fire. Because if he hadn't told me this, I doubt if I'd have ever seen it in those four passages. Then when I had already seen that, and I looked at these four passages — now you can see why my mouth dropped open in astonishment. Every passage, there was fire in it. And the Lord confirmed to me, that is what I wanted you to speak about. What is so amazing is God works often through us, even when we don't even realize it. Like those dear brothers and sisters, in their love for the Lord, choosing the passages without even realizing that fire was in it.
Now, how important is fire when you ponder about it? If it were not for fire, none of us would be here today in this meeting room. If you think about that. Inside the engine of that bus or that car that drove you here, the whole thing works by fire. No fire, no movement. When I was in England, my car — I could not afford to take it too often to the garage. They charge such a fee to fix a car today. So I learned to try and do everything on the car myself — repair it, service it, and whatever else needed to be done. And there is in England — I don't know whether it exists here — a certain instrument which you screw into the cylinder block of the engine in the place of the sparking plug, and you see something very interesting. As you look down the scope, you see the engine actually firing. The combustion is going on in front of your very eyes. You take out the spark plug and you screw that thing in, and the idea of this special type of scope is for you to test, to be able to see the spark plug, to see the firing of the engine and adjust the mixture of the fuel on the carburetor accordingly. I could see the fire inside the engine. Now, this is the thing: you don't see the fire, you don't think about it. But without that fire, you wouldn't be here. I think some brothers and sisters coming from Montreal had some problem with the fire yesterday. Their bus stalled somewhere on the road, I believe. So you can see how important it is.
But it's more than just moving that car to come here. Because without that fire, there wouldn't even be a car to sit in. Think of it. Without fire, there wouldn't be glass. There wouldn't be steel. There wouldn't be metal. There wouldn't be anything. There wouldn't be a car. All these things are made possible by the fire, which is able to melt down the metal so that they can be made into sheets, to melt the glass so that they can be made into sheets of glass and all the equipment — the screws, the bolts, everything. Without fire, you wouldn't have any of those things. And yet, we never stop to think about it, isn't it?
In fact, if you look around in this auditorium, without fire, you would have absolutely nothing in here. There wouldn't be any wood to start with, for me to stand at this pulpit, because without the metal, without the fire which molded those tools, you couldn't cut this wood. You would just have raw logs of wood here. But that wouldn't be too bad in itself, but you wouldn't be able to put up the building. There would be no tools with which to put up the building. There wouldn't be any lights in here because the bulbs are made out of glass, which in their turn had to be put through the fire. There wouldn't be any metal up there. There wouldn't be anything. In fact, when you come to think about it, you wouldn't even have any clothing to put on in the same way, because every stitch you have in your garment is made with metals which have been forged in steel or forged in special machinery designed and tooled so that you have a machine to produce the fibers, to weave out the fibers, to make the garments that you wear. You never think about that, isn't it? In fact, when you come to think about it, without fire, you would live barely an animal existence. You would have no dishes, no bowls, no forks, no spoons, no knives, nothing. You couldn't have any of those things without fire. Even your plates have to be fired in the kiln to produce the things that we use. You would, in other words, without fire, be reduced to living barely above that of animal existence.
Now when you apply this into the spiritual life, think about it. Without fire, you could not have the abundant life in the material world, but without fire, you could not have the abundant life in the spiritual life either. You would barely be existing like so many Christians are today. They barely exist. The Lord Jesus says in John chapter 10, verse 10, "I came into the world that you might have life and have it in its abundance." Not just that you might exist, but that you might have it in its abundance. And the point that we need to understand today is that without the divine fire, you will never have abundant life. You never get beyond existence, if you can even call it that.
If I were to ask you all today, what is most urgently needed in the church? What does the church most desperately need today? I wonder what your answer might be. You might say, "We need more theologians. We need bigger and better churches." What really do we need most, most urgently? "We need more preachers." Sure, we need all of these things. But let me tell you, without fire, you would have none of these things. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I hope then, that at the end of this time of conference together, we'll be able to catch the vision of the importance of this fire. And more than that, not just catch the vision, but catch the fire itself — the divine fire coming down upon us and igniting us.
But I am concerned with Bible exposition. And that's what I aim to do. I want to show you from the word of God, not from my own ideas and opinions, how important is this fire. In John chapter 5, verse 35, what do we read there? The Lord Jesus is speaking of John the Baptist. And he says of John the Baptist, "He was a burning and shining lamp." Think of those words. He was a burning and shining lamp. Now, think of it: without the burning, there would be no shining. I hope that you are clear on this point. You like to shine, but you don't want to burn? Then I am sorry, you will never shine. So many people like to shine, but they don't like the burning bit. They just say, "Let me shine. Maybe I will be a glowworm." And most people never succeed in being more than a glowworm. No, no. Without the burning, there is going to be no shining. And as we go on in the next two days, you are going to see that this burning can be a very costly business. But without that burning, I say it again, there is no shining.
John the Baptist — he was a burning and a shining lamp. "And you were willing for a while to rejoice in his light." How easy we like to rejoice in somebody else's light, because somebody else can do the burning. So long as I can rejoice in his lamp, that is good enough for me. "I do not want to burn. Let him burn. He can burn, and I will rejoice in his light." That is just the way so many people think. But God wants you to be a light. And that is why you've got to burn. And I have got to burn. And when it comes to the burning, it is a glorious process, but it can be a costly and a painful process. It is going to take a certain cost. And that is the reason why so many people are not so keen to burn, and therefore they do not shine.
Now, the Lord Jesus says in John chapter 8 and verse 12, he says, "I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Jesus is the light of the world. What is the light of the world anyway? Well, as we go into the Old Testament, I think we see that the light of the world — another word, another term, the greater light — is the light which is the sun. Jesus is comparing himself, as it were, to the sun shining over the world. When his light breaks forth, those who walk with him don't walk in darkness. They walk in the daylight. They don't walk in the night.
But when you think about the sunshine, what do you think? We look up at the sun, but did you know that the sun is one burning, flaming ball with flames that leap out thousands of miles — not thousands of yards, thousands of miles — huge, enormous flames that leap out into the universe and throw out its light upon us all. It burns with the power of many, many nuclear bomb explosions. The force of it is enormous, and you need only look into an encyclopedia to get all the information of the enormous power of the combustion that goes on in the sun. Jesus is the light of the world. With what fire, what power it burns, that we can be in the light!
The Scripture speaks of all kinds of sources of light — the electric light in the form of lightning, and Scripture has a lot to say about lightning and fire which comes through oil, many forms of fuel. The fuel is not the point in these talks. It is the light that shines forth that is important. And hundreds of times in the Bible there is reference to fire — in the Old Testament alone some 490 times. How important it is for us.
But Jesus is the light of the world, and what is our surprise and astonishment when he says to us in Matthew 5, verses 14 and 15: "You are the light of the world" — using exactly the same words as he applies to himself. This means to say, we, if we are to function as the light of the world, are to have his power, his light, and we are to burn in exactly the same way. Now you see, so many Christians in the church today are just content for themselves to be saved. All they want is their own personal salvation. That is all they are concerned about. Let me tell you this: it will not work like that. We have been saved with a mission, and that mission is that we ourselves become light. Jesus has saved us. We have not saved ourselves. No way to do that. He has saved us, but when we have been saved, he transforms us into light. This is what the Apostle Paul wants us to understand so clearly in Ephesians. He says, "Once you were darkness, but now you are light." Not that you just walk in the light, but that you are light. Think about that. Unless you are a Christian at all, then you must have his light, and that light is going to burn in yourself.
Now again and again in Matthew 5 he says, "You are the light of the world," but in the next verse immediately he goes on and says, "No one kindles a light" — I am trying to put it very literally in the Greek — "no one burns a lamp in order to put it under a bushel." You don't light a lamp in order to hide it. No, no. It is there to let its light out. But the point that we need to see is that there would be no light unless it is kindled, unless it burns. Are you burning? Are you a light? If you are not burning, it's because you haven't — if you are not a light, it's because you are not burning. And if you are not burning, what's the reason? That's what we want to find out. But the first point, let us establish then: in Scripture it is always the case that where there is fire, there is light. If there is to be light, there must be fire. There is no way you can separate these two. It is most essential that you understand this.
So much so is this the case that the words "light" and "fire" are in fact interchangeable in the Greek New Testament. For example, in Mark chapter 14, verse 54, we find a very curious statement — curious by English standards — which says Peter was warming himself by the light. Of course in your English Bible the word is always translated there as fire. But the Greek word is "light." Because if you said "warming himself by the light" in English, it doesn't make much sense. But the word in the Greek is "the light." Fire and light are interchangeable. So essential is this, so much so is this, that if you are a child of God or a man of God, you will burn because you are light. I hope you understand that.
Somebody wrote, in fact — Leslie Lyall, whom I do know personally — wrote a book on John Sung, and as many of you will know, what he entitled the biography of John Sung: "A Flame for God." He described John Sung — he couldn't think of a better title to describe him than to describe him as a flame for God. Like John the Baptist, a burning and shining light. A book on church history was written by S.F. Luce called "The Spreading Flame." The church is described as a flame which spreads, burning through the world it spreads. But without a flame, how can it spread? If the church is to go forth in this generation, what we need today is fire in the church. What we need is fire. There will be no spreading flame, there will be no light, no shining, without that fire. And that is the burden that the Lord has laid on my heart to share with you in these days.
Now let us consider for a moment what fire represents. And then we want to consider how we should be aware and careful, secondly, of strange fire. And finally in this talk we want to consider how this fire can be kindled. What does God use to kindle this fire in our lives? But firstly then, let us consider fire and what it represents for us in the divine fire. As we shall see, there are various kinds of fire in the Bible, but this first point I want to consider is the divine fire.
Now the connection of fire and light is seen in the Old Testament already in the person of God, and especially in the person of God. God is light. He himself is light. Psalm 27, verse 1, for example, or 1 John 1:5: "God is light. In him is no darkness at all." So the Bible speaks of God himself as light. When we are saved, when we are regenerated, when we are born again by the Spirit of God — not through our own efforts but by the Spirit of God — we are regenerated. Then we are transformed from darkness into light, as I said a moment ago, in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8. That is, we become in character like God himself. That's what we ought to be if we are truly saved.
In one place in the Bible, in 2 Samuel chapter 22 and verse 9, God himself is described as a lamp, a light. But he is also described as fire in so many places as to be almost uncountable. An enormous number of references, which I shall not even attempt to give in full. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 24; Exodus 24, verse 17; Hebrews 12:29; and so on and so forth — our God is fire. God is a consuming fire. Who can live, Isaiah says, with a devouring fire? God is described — notice the conjunction again — as light and as fire. God is light. God is fire. That is why he is light, because he is fire. That is so amazing, so wonderful. Once we have established this point, once we understand this point, then everything the Scripture says about divine fire is perfectly easy to understand. Because in his holiness, that fire can be a consuming fire in the form of judgment, or it can take the form of protection. In Zechariah chapter 2, verse 5, it says, "I will be around you as a wall of fire round about you, and your glory in the midst of you." The fire can consume and destroy the sinner, but the fire protects the righteous as a wall of fire round about. The same fire destroys the one and protects the other. In fact, it can protect the one by destroying the other, the evil.
So all that Scripture has to say about fire is then perfectly easy to understand. In other words, when we say we are ignited by the divine fire, we are saying that God has come into our life in a real and powerful way. That's basically what we are talking about. God has entered into my life and set me alight, because he is fire and he is light. I have no light in myself. I have got no fire in myself. Without him I would be nothing but darkness. Without him I would be nothing but unrighteousness. Without the blood of Christ I would be nothing but uncleanness. Without his power I would be nothing but weakness. But once he comes into my life, there is fire, there is power, and people see and look and they see a glory there — not of yourself, but of him.
One of the first servants of God I ever met as a very young Christian was a brother by the name of Yang in China, in Shanghai. The first time I set my eyes on him, I noticed there was something quite different about him. I could not understand what it was about this man, but there was something very different about this man. Something radiated forth very quietly but very powerfully. He was a very quiet man, but what power there was there. And I could not understand it. Being a young Christian, I did not know how to understand this. But now looking back in the light of God's word, I begin to understand what was the source of that light, what was the source of that power. God was in this man. He was filled with the Spirit of God, filled with the fullness of God. What power there was in this man, as I was to learn in the months to come as I lived with him, as I learned from him — my first spiritual teacher in the matters of service.
Now this is the thing that we need to understand: unless God comes into your life in all his fullness, you will have nothing worth having at all. You will be the kind of Christian of which there are too many in the churches — Christians in name, Christians with a label, who are nice enough people as far as niceness goes, but it is not niceness that makes a Christian. There are non-Christians who are much nicer than Christians. I can tell you that. I know many non-Christians who are nicer than Christians, and I am sure you know lots of non-Christians who are nicer than Christians. Niceness can be a matter of culture. Niceness is very good and very important to have, in a way, but that is not just what a Christian is about. It is a matter of life. It is a matter of power. It is a matter of light. It is so essential for us to see that.
But let us press forward to the second point. I want to spend a moment about strange fire. In the eagerness of many Christians who see the need for the fire, they go for the wrong kind of fire. The Bible has reference to many sorts of fire. There is a kind of fire that is of God; there is a fire that is not of God. I would like you to be careful about this. You will see as I go on. And I am always careful in preaching the gospel not to play on people's emotions, because one can kindle the wrong kind of fire. Sometimes the fire burns so powerfully in me that I really have to keep myself firmly under control lest I explode into flames, as it were. In fact, literally I feel sometimes physically so hot that I perspire profusely in preaching the gospel, and in this small way I can understand John Sung — he used to be soaking wet whenever he preached. The fire burns inside. But I am concerned that the people who listen will not be moved just by appeals to emotions, because that is the wrong kind of fire.
These are strange fires that the Scripture speaks of — unholy fires, fires that do not come from God but come from below, as James speaks about a kind of fire in his letter that is kindled by hell. There is also a kind of fire that is purely of the flesh, and Hosea has things to say about that kind of fire. Lust is described as fire also in the Bible. We must be careful that we are kindled by the right kind of fire, the fire that comes from God, not unholy fire. We still read about this kind of fire, for example, in Leviticus chapter 10. There we read of unholy fire: two priests who were offering fire upon the altar which was not from God, and they were destroyed. They were destroyed. Be careful of unholy fire.
There are some people who are so keen to get hold of fire. I have seen in some meetings some people, for example, who are so desirous of speaking in tongues — and let me say to you at once, I have nothing against tongues. If God gives you the gift of tongues, then God bless you and may you use that gift to his glory. But I have seen some people so desirous of obtaining this kind of gift that they work themselves into an emotional state, confusing that with a spiritual state. They get themselves all emotionally worked up. I saw one person in a tongues meeting once — oh, he was really in an emotional state, and he was babbling something that was nothing near tongues. And I do know what tongues sound like. He was just babbling. There was no tongues there at all to talk about. But presumably he would go out of there telling people that he was speaking in tongues, or whatever he was speaking in — it certainly was the movement of tongues in his own mouth, but that was no tongues by any definition of tongues. And then he may go out and feel that he is really a much superior Christian to anybody else because he spoke in tongues and you didn't. You see, don't deceive yourself. Make sure that when you are receiving the fire, it is God's fire, not something you have worked up.
There was a preacher once who was telling the people in the congregation to empty themselves, empty themselves, so that they may be filled. Be careful of emptying yourself, because the wrong thing may get into you while you are emptying yourself. I remember a person who was trying to empty himself once, and he was doing exactly that very thing. And he said that as he was emptying himself, in all his sincerity — and I want to say these people are exceedingly sincere in what they search for — but make sure it is God's fire. He said as he emptied himself, he felt something coming into his life. The only trouble was, it was coming up from below. And he said he felt something coming up. "Strange," he said. "Isn't God's power and God's fire supposed to come from above? And here I feel something coming up from below." He promptly and wisely got up out of his seat and ran out of the meeting hall, calling on the name of the Lord, and he was saved from whatever power of evil was seeking to take control of him. Be careful that the fire and the power that comes into your life is God's.
But we need to move on now to the third point, and some of these points I shall develop further in the next two days. We need to come to the third point and ask a very important question, which is this: How does God kindle this fire in my life? What does he use to kindle this fire? What are the means? Well, today we can only look at two basic points. First, he kindles his fire in your life by his word — the word of God. The word of God in the Bible is compared to fire. Now, for example, in Jeremiah chapter 5, verse 14, God says to Jeremiah, "I am making my words in your mouth a fire." And in this case it was going to be a fire of judgment. You see, fire can, as I said, be either judgment or grace, depending on how you accept it. As you listen to the preaching of God's word, that fire is either going to be grace or it's going to be judgment, because on that very day it's going to be the means of your judgment if you disobey it.
# The Divine Fire (Continued)
Because on that very day, it's going to be the means of your judgment if you disobey it. But if you obey it, it will be the means of grace to you. Which is it going to be as you come to this conference? The word of God that you hear, whether it is in the Bible studies, or through the speakers, or through the workshops — is that word going to be a word of grace to you or the word of judgment? In the case of Israel, it was to be the word of judgment. "I will make my word in your mouth a fire," God says to Jeremiah. Again, in Psalm 119, a much better known verse, in verse 105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, a burning lamp, and a shining light." And so when you have that fire, that lamp shining in your heart, you get kindled.
Many people want fire, but they don't want to study God's word. They don't want to listen to God's word. They don't want to feast on God's word. You never get fired that way. The word of God is fire. Now, there is so much of this also in the word of God. For example, Jeremiah says, when he tried not to preach God's word, it was burning in his heart like fire. He says in Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 9, the word of God is burning. Many times when I preach the word of God, I sense the burning of it in my life. When the Lord Jesus spoke to the disciples on the Emmaus road, you remember, as they listened to Jesus, their hearts burned within them. They said, "Did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us?" In Luke chapter 24, verse 32. God's word burns. It is a fire.
But secondly, his word speaks to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Now again, there are too many references to go into here. I just want you this morning to get the idea of it, to catch the vision of it. God's word — a fire that ignites us, if we obey it, if we listen to it. God's Spirit. See, God, we saw, is light and he is fire. We saw that the Lord Jesus — he is light and he is fire. The Holy Spirit, of course, is also light and fire. You remember how in the well-known passage in Acts chapter 2 and verse 3, that when the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples at Pentecost — have you noticed the flames, the tongues of fire sitting upon their heads?
I have often pondered that. And what exactly that was meant to signify? What does it mean? And when you try to conceptualize it and to analyze it theologically, you have certain problems. It is so hard to try and understand. But if you stand back for a moment and look at it through the eyes of a prophet, through the eyes of someone who has vision, what do you see? Look at that scene in that room. Try and picture yourself — all those disciples there, each one with fire, tongues of fire upon their heads. And what do you see? Can you see, as you look at that picture — what you see is suddenly that room in which there was no light and no fire is now transformed into a room full of lights. Each one of them has become a lamp. They have turned into candles, you might say, or lamps, each one. There are the flames standing around their head. You don't have to get bogged down in theology for that. Just use your eyes. Just use your spiritual eyes and have a look and see what happens there. Isn't that what God wants?
Now you look at them and you can see the words of the Lord Jesus fulfilled right before your eyes: "You are the light of the world." Think of it. Isn't that what God wants to do in each one of our lives? That we are turned into light. Oh, that is wonderful. This is what we so urgently need in the church today — that each one of us will have that fire, whether visibly or invisibly, kindled upon our hearts and upon our heads.
In Hebrews chapter 1, verse 7, it says, God makes his ministers, his servants, a flame of fire. Think of those words. God makes his ministers — the word "minister" there simply means servants — a flame of fire. Are you a flame of fire? Let me ask this question again: will you burn? If you have not got this fire, or if you have this fire, how do you know it? We shall speak, as I said a moment ago, further in the next two talks, much more deeply on this. Today, this morning, we are having an introduction to this vital subject.
But let me, in closing, ask you these questions. Have you got the fire of God in your life? How can you know whether you have this fire? Well, the first of these points I have already mentioned: have you been thoroughly transformed from darkness into light, as we saw in Ephesians 5:8? There are so many Christians that say they have become Christians, but you can't see any real difference in their lives. I don't say your transformation needs to be spectacular, but it must at least be visible. After all, light that is not visible — I don't know what you can call it. Have you seen invisible light? Maybe there is such a thing as invisible light, I don't know. But certainly, God has not called us to be the invisible light of the world. And unfortunately, the church tends to be the invisible light of the world, whatever that is. Nobody can see it. Or the light is so dim that you can't see anything by it either.
I remember when I was in China, I was invited to the home of a poor peasant out on the Chongming Island in the Yangtze River. Now, I had never been to a peasant's home before. It was a real experience for me. And the first experience was that I couldn't see very much. At nighttime, the food was put on the table, and I wasn't sure what I was eating. Perhaps it's just as well. It tasted good all the same. Because the light was so dim, I couldn't see anything. The only thing that helped me is that I at least saw something there in the direction of which it looked like food, and I was able to direct it roughly in the direction of my mouth. But apart from that, I had no idea exactly what that was. The light was too dim. I couldn't see by that light.
You see, that is how the church seems to function, or how Christians seem to function today in the world. There may be a little bit of light, but nobody can see by it. We need to be bursting forth into a blaze of divine glory — the light of the world. You don't call the sun the light of the world. You can't see very much by the light of the moon. And many of us are perhaps just being moon. We think that's being humble. "We call the moon. My light is very dim, you see. Now praise be to God, you see, I'm not going to boast. No, no. I'm only moon. Very humble light." And don't be so humble. Because you're not doing what God wants you to do. You're not being humble when God says, "I want you to be like me. The light of the world." "He that follows me shall not walk in darkness." But by the light of some lights, you sure walk in darkness. You're stumbling over everything. You can't see by that light.
Many of you have gone out in the dark with a torch that doesn't function properly. It flicks on and off. It's so dim you might as well go without it. No. There must be a transformation in our lives such that people can see: this man is different. And then you don't have to be humble — the glory is God's, it's not yours. If John Sung burns as a burning and blazing light, who gets the glory? God gets the glory. If John the Baptist shone as a burning light, who gets the glory? God gets the glory. Everybody knows the light is God's, not his. And this false humility does not stand us well at all. Is there a clear transformation in your life? By that you know, in the first point, whether God's fire is burning in you — when people say to you, "You know, there's something remarkably different about your life." When people are drawn to the light through your life, not just through your speech, your eloquence, your appearances.
Our brother Joseph was saying a moment ago, what is the measure of a man? Not his hairstyle, I hope, or how nice his glasses look. If these are the things that draw other people, or how heavy is my purse — that draws a lot of people. When I was a non-Christian, I had a lot of friends, so long as my pocket was full. Wait till my pocket was empty, I had no friends. Money is very attractive. And if people are drawn to you, and you say, "What a good Christian I am. Look at the witness I got." Maybe it's just the coins in your pocket that's making a lot of noise. The question is whether they are drawn because of the light that is shining out of your life.
You have fire in your life. How do you know? Let's consider a second point. Do you sense the fire of God's love burning in your heart because of what Jesus has done for you? Do you have a love for Jesus burning in your heart that you can't well explain? It's hard to rationalize. We know that Jesus died for us and took away our sins, but you hear it so often in church, you hear it almost every Sunday, that the words even in themselves, sorry to say, can lose their meaning. But when we cease to think of it as words, when it becomes for us a fire that burns — you see how dangerous? Many children are brought up in Sunday school these days, especially from Christian homes, and I have seen so many of them. For them, finally, the Bible means nothing. They say, "I've heard it all. I know it all." It's not a question of whether you know it. My question is whether you experience it. I don't ask you, do you know that Jesus died for you? I'm talking here in this conference to Christians. I know that you know that. The question I'm asking is: what does it mean for you? Does it mean anything to you? Or are your ears so callous to these words that they don't mean anything to you anymore? "Every time — Jesus died for me — I know that." But when it ceases to be words, when the word of God becomes fire, you don't think about words. You think of what it means, what Jesus is, who he is, what he does for you. You realize that there is nobody in this world who loves you as Jesus does. Your wife never loved you as much as Jesus did. She loves you a lot, but she can never love you as much as he does. Your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your husband — nobody can love you as Jesus does. As you go on in life, you'll understand that better and better.
If that is more than just an idea, a knowledge, a theological understanding — if that is fire burning inside of your heart — that is what makes the vital difference between two people who know exactly the same thing, but one burns, the other doesn't. You see that? Perhaps you know as much about the Bible as I do. Maybe you know even more, I don't know. But one thing is sure, and I trust by the grace of God it will be so: the fire that burns in you will not burn brighter than it burns in me, by the grace of God. I intend to be a light. As Jonathan Edwards once said, "If there is one man who is to burn in this world, if there is only to be one man, then God grant it may be me." That's not mock humility. He wants to be the person that God wants him to be. He wants to be a person after God's own heart. Put away false humility. We don't need that. We want the real thing. And real humility will come only when the fire begins to burn and eat you up. "The zeal of your house has eaten me." The word has consumed me like fire. It burns me up. Does it burn in you? Does the love of God burn in you? Does it constrain you? If nothing is burning there, then you know the fire is not there. It's all knowledge up here.
I don't care if you've been to seminary or you've done a master's or a PhD in theology. It doesn't impress me at the slightest. I only want to know: where does the fire burn? I have sat under the names of big lecturers, professors of theology in Europe and wherever they are, the books in your theological library written by these people. I have sat under their ministry, or if you can call it that, at one time or another, and many of them have nearly put me to sleep. Why? Because the knowledge is there but there is no fire. Have you ever listened to a professor of theology giving a lecture? I have heard so many of them. I was once going to do a doctorate in theology in Switzerland, and I thought — I knew this man through his books and I saw that name there and I thought, "Wow, I am going to do my doctorate under this man." I went to Switzerland, to Basel, where he was teaching. I sat in the lecture hall once. Only once. It was enough. Never again. I sat there after that lecture and I thought, "Dear me, what a disappointment." This man came in — of course I do not want to mention any names; anyone who does theology will know his name — and he came in and he sat down. The lecturers in the continent of Europe, they lectured sitting down. That's very good on the legs. I should try that sometime. And he sat down and he began to give his lecture. He did not, when he came into the lecture hall, once look at the students. Not once. For that matter, if there was no student there, he wouldn't have noticed. That was how much interest he had in the people and how much love he had. He did not bother once to look at the students there. He came in, he sat down, his head was forever looking at his notes, which he read, and having read through the whole thing, he got up, never once took another look at the students, and out he went through the door. That's it. That was the lecture. I can't remember a word he said. You see, the knowledge is superb. Oh, he knows it all. Nobody can compare with him in Greek, in rabbinics, in Talmudic knowledge, in the understanding of Mishnah, and go on and on. But one thing: where is the fire? This is professional theology. This is no fire. I hope I'm not being too harsh on this man. I pray that God will forgive me if I am too harsh. But if there is any love for anybody, it will be seen in the way you express that love. If I care for you at all, I hope that you will be able to sense it.
Do you have that fire burning inside of you? Do other people mean anything to you? Are they just a nuisance to you that take your time, your energy? I tell you, pastors tend to feel like that. I am a pastor, I should know. After time, the people forever make demands on your time, on your energy. There is a time when pastors feel thoroughly fed up. "When does anybody ever minister to me? I mean, I am here to minister to others all the time, to give, give, give. Who gives me anything spiritually?" No. Once you feel that sense of being fed up and tired, that means the fire is going low. It's time to get near to God. It's time to say, "Lord, kindle me again. Let your fire come down upon me. Take away this selfishness and lack of love from me." I have to say that to God many times. I'm sorry. I am weak. Many times I have to come to God and say, "I'm ashamed of myself. I'm sorry. I'm getting tired. I'm getting worn. Lord, give me more of that love that cares."
Do you have the fire? Thirdly, how else do you know? Do you have a sense of his presence in your life? Is God real to you? Is God near to you? So many Christians come to me and say, "I've been a Christian so long, but God is not real to me." You know why he's not real? Of course, because his fire is not burning in your heart. You don't experience his warmth, his power, his light. Of course God's not real to you.
Let me share with you a marvelous passage in Isaiah chapter 33. A passage that you can keep on reading day after day in its richness, in its beauty. Isaiah chapter 33, verses 14 and 15. And this is what we read in this passage: "The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless." Now notice these words: "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" Now what is the devouring fire? What are the everlasting burnings? That's just another name for God. Isaiah is saying, who can dwell with God? Who can live with God? Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? God is that devouring fire. Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? God is those everlasting burnings. Who can live with God?
He goes on and says, verse 15, five things about this person who can dwell with God. The first: "He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly." No sin, no impurity that is hidden in your life. If God is not real to you, it may be that you are hiding sin in your life. Have you confessed your sins? Not confessed generally. As John Sung used to say, some people come before God and say, "Lord, forgive me all my sins." What, all your sins? Which? Get down to the specifics. We have a very weak concept of sin. Many people find that God is far away because you have hidden some sin in your life. Let God search out the sin in your life, whatever that may be. Sinful thought that nobody knows about. Something that you have kept to yourself. Money that you have taken and not restored. Do you think saying sorry to God is enough? You are not going to restore what you have taken or stolen? Without righteousness and purity, there will never be the divine fire in your life. Without holiness, without God cleansing away the sin.
Many people say, "Right, the blood of Christ cleanses me from sin." Certainly his blood cleanses you from sin. Nothing else can. But once the forgiveness of sin has been obtained, there is still restitution to be made. There are still apologies to be made. Sometimes it can be a long and painful business. I knew of a gangster who came to the Lord, a Chicago gangster. It was very costly for him. All his sins were washed away by the blood of Christ. He was cleansed and forgiven. But that did not mean he had nothing more to do. He could not live on the loot that he had taken and robbed through the years. He had to restore everything. And being a gangster for so long, of course, all his possessions had come from gangsterism. Can you see how costly it was to become a Christian for him? He ended up with zero. He ended up with nothing. He had to restore everything. So he was left penniless to become a Christian. That's what it means to become a Christian. Did it cost you anything to become a Christian? You think, "I just say, Lord, I'm sorry for my sins, all my sins, forgive me."
Who is going to dwell with the devouring fire? If you want God to become real in your life, make sure that sin has been thoroughly cleansed by the blood of Jesus, yes, and by restitution and whatever else needs to be done. And secondly: "He who despises the gain of oppression." He does not oppress other people. He does not maltreat other people. He does not press other people down to get himself up. His whole attitude to other people changed. Has your attitude changed? And thirdly, it says, "Who shakes his hands lest they hold a bribe." He does not want any unclean money in his hands. He does not want to accept money that comes from the wrong channels. He shakes his hands that nothing might be hiding in his sleeve. You know, we as Chinese people know that — we also use the sleeves. We put our hands in the sleeves. But he shakes his hands in case there's anything — by mistake he took money and it went down his sleeve. Everything is clean. Not one false penny up the sleeve. Fourth: "Who stops his ears from hearing bloodshed." He doesn't want to listen to the filth that goes on. He doesn't like to listen to unkind speech. He does not want to hear anyone being slandered. He doesn't want to hear any bad talk about other people. He doesn't want to listen to this. Do you take pleasure in listening to things when bad things are said about other people? Or even worse, do you take part in saying those things? And fifthly: "He shuts his eyes from looking at evil." He doesn't want to set his eyes upon evil. He doesn't want to feed his soul upon the filth.
That's not easy in these days. Those of us who lived in London, England — down at the subway station, tube, as they call it there, underground or whatever it's called around here, metro, as we call it in Quebec — right there, everywhere you see the posters. They are on all sides trying to speak to you through your eyes. They are trying to get at you, to pollute your soul, to ignite in your heart the fire that is unholy, the fire of lust and passion. Because when you have the wrong kind of fire burning inside of you, you can't have the divine fire. They never mix together. And the world tries to get in first, to get into your life ahead of God, through your ears, through your eyes, through your senses, to ignite the wrong kind of fire. And you know, young people, as most of us here are, that's the way — you know that it's so easy to ignite the fire of passion. Once those things start burning inside of you, the divine fire is nowhere to be seen. And then you say, "Where is God? God is not real to me." Well, what did you expect? Who can dwell with the burning fire? Who can dwell with God, the devouring fire?
But the person who is like that — absolutely clean, pure in heart — only these shall see God.
Did you also notice another thing? The fourth point I want to mention is this. When you look at a fire, what do you see? Just look at a fire for a moment and you see that fire goes upward. The flame ascends. The divine fire goes upward. It comes down in order to lift us up, that we burn upward. Have you got the fire? Then ask yourself, how does your thinking go? Do your thoughts always dwell on the things of the world? Or do your thoughts, like a fire, a flame, always go upward, seeking to reach up to God? Paul says, "Set not your mind on the things of earth, but on the things which are above." God, if the fire burns within us, the things of earth grow strangely dim. Our longings are upward, ever striving towards the high calling, the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. But when I talk to many Christians, I don't notice this upward striving. I notice the concern with things around. They are more concerned with the things — when the exam time, oh, so many people disappear from church. Suddenly the exam is more important than worshiping God. Now it's very important to study and to study well if that's the job that God has given to you right now. But get your priorities also straightened out. But it shows a lot about those people. The people who disappear from church at exam time — I worry about them. The fire is not there. Or if it is, it is too weak. It is not striving upward.
But lastly, let us notice this. Are you always uncertain about God's will? There are some Christians who are always in problems with this fifth point. They never seem to know God's will. They are forever walking in the dark. They always come to me and say, "How do I know God's will?" Just look at how many talks are given about knowing God's will and books written about knowing God's will. They never seem to be certain of God's will. And even after they have heard the talks and read the books, they still don't know God's will. I know a dear brother, a doctor, a good man — never seems to know God's will. No matter how many books he has read, how many talks he has listened to, he still doesn't know God's will. He never knows God's will in any particular. You know why? The fire is not there. When God is not burning in your heart, you walk in darkness. "I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness." That's a promise. You will not walk in darkness.
The trouble with so many people is not to ask the question, "How do I know God's will?" We should go further back. How do I come alight with God? When you've got that right, you know God's will. You don't worry about the other point. But when you haven't got the first thing first, then you are putting the cart before the horse, as the English say. You're trying to get the thing in the wrong order. The question is not to ask how to know God's will. When people now ask me, "How do I know God's will?" I say, let's ask the other question first: what about the fire of God in your life? Is God's fire burning inside of you? Are you walking in the light? If you are, you wouldn't be asking too many questions about knowing God's will. You would understand his will. "That you may understand his will," Paul says to the Ephesians. "My prayer for you is that you may understand it." How? That you may be light. That's what he said in that very same book. Again, in Psalms 78, verse 14, it says, "He led them by the fire at night." Speaking of the Israelites in the wilderness, he leads us by fire, especially when the night is dark. You can be sure his fire is there to lead you, provided you yourself are willing to let that fire burn in your soul, in your heart.
And so by these five things you may know whether that fire is burning in your heart. Ask yourself then through this day whether it is. Be absolutely honest with God. And if it is, is it very dim? Is it burning as God wants it to burn? Can you honestly say that you are a light? Oh, brothers and sisters, let us pray for this — not just to pray that the church may become a fire, a shining light for God in the world today, but that he may start with you and with me. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.