Brother Scott's scripture reading
goes with our text today. That wisdom that God gives is
from the light of His countenance and that light grows. He said there in verse 18, the
path of the just is as the shining light. It shineth more and more
into the perfect day. But without the light of God's
countenance, the way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not
at what they stumble. Now today, you could be turning
to Psalm 31. Today we're going to remember
God's saints here, the believer. We gather to remember our Lord
Jesus as we partake of His table. That's the purpose of His table,
is to remember Him. That's where our hearts and our
minds should be focused when we partake of this table, is
Him. The night when He was betrayed, He took bread and He gave thanks
and He break that bread. And He gave it to His disciples
and He said to them, this is my body. This is a symbol, a
picture, a reminder of my body which is broken for you. And
then what did He say? This do in remembrance of me. And He took the cup of wine And
he said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. And when
we drink that wine, we are to do that remembering the Lord,
remembering His precious blood. So today I want to try to just,
if God will enable me, I don't know if this is going to come
out like I hope it will, but I hope God will get Go past these
stammering lips and bless your heart to see what I'm trying
to convey here, what He's shown me. It was such a blessing to
my heart. This Psalm 31, if you've been
with us, we've preached several messages through this psalm.
This is a prophetic psalm, as all the psalms are. It's speaking
of Christ. And this particular psalm is
speaking of Christ on the cross. In Psalm 31 5, we have Christ's
last words on the cross. He said, Into thy hand I commit
my spirit. And we know these are the words
He spoke on the cross in Luke 23, 46 when He said, Father,
into Thy hands I commend my spirit. And He gave up the ghost. So
this psalm is speaking of Christ and it's speaking of Christ on
the cross. Now today, our text begins in verse 16, and here
Christ says to God His Father, Make thy face to shine upon thy
servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake. You know, when Christ humbled
Himself, He took upon Him the form of a servant. He became
a man, He took upon Him the form of a servant. He's the last Adam.
And He's representing all God's elect given to Him before the
foundation of the world. And as God's servant, he was
totally dependent upon God his Father. He looked to the Father
and experienced what it is to be an obedient servant in the
flesh. That's why he knows everything
about his people because he's walked where we walked. He knows
the feeling of our infirmity. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmity yet without sin. And so, He says here, Make
thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake. Now, I want you to focus on these
words. He asked the Father, Make thy
face to shine upon thy servant. Make thy face to shine upon thy
servant. Go to Matthew 27. We know when
this took place. Matthew 27, verse 45. Christ prayed this while He was
in darkness. He's asking the Father, Make
Thy face shine upon Thy servant. He's in darkness. And we know
the time here in Matthew 27, 45, it says, Now from the sixth
hour... This was when He was on the cross,
hanging on the cross. Now from the sixth hour, there
was darkness. over all the land until the ninth
hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus
cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that
is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now what caused this darkness
over all the land for three hours? Now brethren, This is holy ground. This is deep water. We are like
little children playing in a shallow end of a baby pool and we start
waiting and we get out sometimes and we get too far out in the
deep end and we can just tiptoe a little bit and we have to get
back into the shallow end. This is deep water. This is holy
ground. So we are only going to say what
Scripture says. But if you'll notice there, the
Holy Spirit connects that darkness with Christ crying out, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He connects that darkness
with God forsaking Christ. Now already that's beyond anything
we can comprehend. Martin Luther said that famous
phrase when he read this, God forsaking God. Who can understand
that? Who can fathom God forsaking
God? But to give us some idea of what
Christ was suffering, when God the Father forsook Him on the
cross, there was darkness over all the land. That gives us some
idea of what He was suffering. There was darkness over all the
land. And to show us what caused that
darkness, and I am talking about the darkness that was over all
the land, but more than that darkness, I am talking about
the darkness Christ was experiencing Himself. To show us what caused
that darkness, Christ cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? Being forsaken of God resulted
in Christ being left in darkness. Being forsaken of God, God turning
His face from our substitute, the light of His countenance
was taken from our substitute, from shining upon our substitute,
and He was left in darkness. And Christ prayed to God in Psalm
31.16, ìMake thy face to shine upon thy servant.î And then again
in this Psalm, Christ shows us that this darkness was from God
turning His face from Him. He said there in Psalm 31.22,
ìI said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.î
You see, itís the light of Godís countenance. the light of His
face turning from Christ. Now here's what I want to try
to show you. Now listen carefully. This is my point of the whole
message. The death of sin, you know the wages of sin is death.
The death of sin is being cut off from God by God refusing
to shine the light of His face upon us. That's the death of
sin. It is by God refusing to shine
the light of His face upon us. But the life of righteousness,
the life of righteousness is being received into God's presence
by God shining the light of His face upon us. Everything that
lives has got to have what? Light. You don't have light. You got to have light. And just
the opposite, the death of sin is being cut off from God by
God refusing to shine the light of His face upon us. But the
life of righteousness is being received into God's presence
by God shining the light of His face upon us. It's called beholding
the glow, the glory of God, the light of God. Now first of all,
let's remember Christ suffering the death of sin for us. Now let's remember here the death
of sin that Christ suffered for His people. Now, sin entered
this world when Adam, in disobedience to God, transgressed God's law
in the garden. Adam disobeyed God by transgressing
the law of God in the garden. Scripture says, Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. That's what sin is. It's the
transgression of the law. God imputed sin to Adam only
after Adam He transgressed in disobedience and broke God's
law. That's when God came to him and
God charged him. He accounted him with sin because
Adam disobeyed God. That's what imputation is. God
imputing to you what you are by something that's been done
beforehand. And God imputed sin to all Adam's race. Scripture
says, by one man sin entered the world. and death by sin. And death passed upon all men
for that, or as the margin says, because in Adam all have sinned. The reason God imputed sin to
us and the reason death passed upon us is because we really
sinned in Adam when He sinned. It's not just as if we sinned
in Adam. What He did, we did if we were in Adam. Now, let's
remember our holy Lord Jesus here just for a moment. Let's
remember Christ the last Adam, the Son of God. His name is Jesus,
Savior, for He shall save His people from our sins. That's
why He came. He came to save His people from
our sins. He came to establish the law
on behalf of His people. You know what that means, to
establish the law for His people? That means He came to justify
us from our sin, making us the righteousness of God in Him.
That's what He did. That's what He came to do. That's
what He accomplished. Now the first Adam became sin
by disobedience. That's how the first Adam became
sin. But Christ was made sin by obedience. Christ is that Holy One formed
in the womb of a virgin. So He is holy in conception unlike
all His people. He is the last Adam. The only
other person that came into this world that way was the first
Adam. But Christ is the last Adam. He is that Holy One who
knew no sin and would not commit any sin. So He can't be made
sin by transgression. Therefore, in obedience to God..."
Now think about this, obedience. This was what he agreed to from
the foundation of the world. When he entered into suretyship,
just like Judah did for Benjamin, he said, he said, if I don't
bring them back to you, you count it to me. Just like Paul said
of his friend, he said, if he owes you anything, you put that
on my account. That's what Christ said as the
surety. Now when it came to pay that debt, brethren, Before God
will impute that sin to Christ, listen carefully, and I'm telling
you I can support this with Scripture. I preached it to you before.
Before He'd impute that sin to Christ, He really made sin, made
Christ sin for us. Scripture says, in obedience
to God, Christ presented Himself to God without spot. He presented
Himself as the spotless Lamb of God. And 2 Corinthians 5.21
says, and He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And He didn't
just make Him one sin. It wasn't just for one transgression
that He was made sin. It was for all the iniquity of
all His people. The Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. Now believer, I want you to remember
now, I want you to look to Christ and remember Christ, and I want
you to see the obedience that God is pleased with, the obedience
of Christ. This is obedience. In obedience
to God, Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, presented Himself
to God His Father, so that before the judgment seat of God, He
would be made exactly what Adam became by his disobedience. What is that? Worthy of death. worthy of death before the just
judgment seat of God. Why did He come? He came to manifest
the righteousness of God. He came to manifest that God
will in no wise do anything that's not right. God will do what's
right. God's justice is strict justice. He will by no means clear the
guilty and He will by no means pour out justice on a man that
is free from sin. He won't do it. So He made Christ
sin. And in justice then, He numbered
Him with the transgressors. He imputed sin to His Son because
He made His Son to be worthy of death. That's why He poured
out death upon Him. Now get what I'm saying. Christ
didn't commit sin. Christ would not commit sin.
He didn't transgress against God. The agreement between God
the Father and God the Son was Christ would present Himself
to God and He would make Him sin for us. He would lay on Him
the iniquity of His people. So now He is fit to die. The fact that He died shows you
He was made sin because it wouldn't have been just for Him to die
otherwise. So now He is worthy to die. Because before the judgment
seat of God, in obedience to God, in obedience, this is not
disobedience, to save us from our sins, He had to come where
we are. There's a picture of it in Adam.
You remember Adam? When he came and he saw that
Eve had taken of the fruit, in his love for his bride, you know
what he did? He plunged himself into sin for
her. And Christ, when He saw His bride,
His elect, plunged in sin, what did He do? He plunged Himself
in sin for His bride to save us from it. Now, when Adam became
sin, the wage that he earned was death. The wages of sin is
death. When he became sin, the wage
he earned was death. Death entered by sin. Romans 5.12 says, "...as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Have you ever
thought about what that death was? What was the death that
Adam encountered? And what was the result of it? Adam's death was by God turning
His face from Adam. Adam's death was by God cutting
off the light of His countenance from Adam. It was God leaving
Adam alone in spiritual darkness. He lost communion with God. Psalm 107, look there with me.
This is a description of what Adam became, right here. Psalm
107 verse 10. He became such as sit in darkness,
and in the shadow of death being bound in affliction and iron
because they rebelled against the words of God and contemned
the counsel of the Most High." That's what Adam became right
there. One that sits in darkness in the shadow of death. And that
darkness that Adam encountered in the garden, that's a foretaste
of the death of hell. That's called in Scripture the
second death. We're going to die physically
because of sin. That's part of that wage of sin.
We're going to die physically. But then there's, for those that
meet God outside of Christ, there's a second death. And you know
what that second death is described as? Listen to this. 2 Thessalonians
1.9 says, Those outside of Christ on the day of judgment shall
be punished with everlasting destruction, and here's what
it is, from the presence of the Lord. from the glory of His power,
the light of His power. Christ called it being cast into
outer what? Darkness. To be separated from
the light of God's presence. We don't realize, even sinners
that are spiritually dead right now don't realize that it's the
light of God's countenance that prevents you from doing what
you otherwise would do. and preventing other sinners
from doing to you what they otherwise would do. But you just think
of a place where God totally removes the light of His presence,
the restraining hand of His light, the restraining presence of His
countenance, so that there is nothing hindering you and nothing
hindering anybody else. That is why Christ said, it is
outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. I can't even imagine. This world
is bad enough just seeing what sin has done to this world. Imagine
God taking off His restraints, removing the light of His presence.
That's the everlasting destruction. When we see the fruit of this
spiritual darkness, we see the condemnation of this darkness,
of this death, by what happened to Adam immediately, when after
he sinned, immediately God's presence was removed from him.
The light of his countenance was removed. He was left in spiritual
darkness. And we see what that darkness is by what Adam did. We see the death of it. Christ
described it. When Christ walked this earth,
He said this is the condemnation. This is the death right here
of death. That light has come into the world. And men love
darkness rather than light. because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Go with me
to Genesis 3. That's exactly what Adam did
when he died. When he encountered this darkness,
when God cut him off and turned his eyes from Adam and removed
the light of his countenance from Adam, and Adam entered into
the spiritual darkness, that death, That is the wage of sin. That's exactly what Adam did.
Genesis 3.7 says, Their eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. They suddenly became religious,
vainly religious. They saw they had messed up,
they saw they were naked now, they were ashamed, whereas before
they were not ashamed because they didn't know sin. Now they
know sin. Now they have impure, corrupt
thoughts going through their mind. And what do they do? They
try to fix it. They made them fig leaves and
try to cover their nakedness. It's as natural as anything in
the world for a man to try to make himself right with God.
That's natural. But he always does it the wrong
way. He tries to make the covering. But look what else he did, verse
8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden. He hid himself from the light. The light came. The light came and he loved darkness
rather than light because his deeds were evil. Both his sinful
deeds in breaking God's law and his self-righteous deeds in trying
to make himself right before God. Both were evil and he knew
they were. And what did he do? He hid himself
in darkness and he would not come to the light. He loved darkness
more than light. That's death. That's spiritual
death. Now, brethren, Let's remember
Christ. Let's remember Christ our Head
who was obedient, what does Scripture say, even unto the death of the
cross. Do you know what we see when
we see that darkness cover all the earth? We get a little glimpse of the
death of the cross. I'm not talking about when Christ
said it's finished and gave up the ghost and physically died.
I'm talking about the death, He was dying while He was alive
in darkness on the cross. The second death of hell, being
cut off out of the presence of God, being cast out from the
light of His presence into outer darkness, that's not a dead death.
That's a living death. That's a death that never dies.
Christ was suffering that darkness of death on the cross while He
was alive and He was suffering that for His people. He was suffering
that to declare God just and the justifier of the believer. That's what He was doing. Why
did He do it? Because having been made sin
for His people, He was now worthy to be forsaken
in strict justice. God is of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. And God turned His eyes from
our Redeemer. Christ owned our sin. He so literally
took the place of His people that God strictly looked to Him
to satisfy justice. And to satisfy justice, God forsook
Him on that cross. He forsook Him instead of forsaking
His people. He left Him in darkness instead
of leaving His people in darkness. It was God cutting off the light
of His face from Christ. It was God leaving Christ to
tread the winepress alone in darkness, to suffer death for
His people. And so, from the sixth hour,
there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. Now brethren, this is far too
deep, this is far too holy to say anything but what the Scripture
says. But I want you to behold the
obedient righteousness, that holy obedient righteousness of
Christ as He justified His people from our sins. I want you to
see Him fulfilling the positive of the law while He is fulfilling
the negative of the law. All in one place on the cross
in that darkness. This is the love of the law.
This is the righteousness of the law. This is that righteousness
he talked about when he said, this is it, to love God and your
neighbor as yourself. This was Christ loving God, His
Father, and loving His people so perfectly that He was willing
Himself to be forsaken of God in total darkness that He might
manifest God's righteousness, declare Him just and justify,
and justify His people from our sins. That's the love of the
law. That's the righteousness of the
law. That's why you and I don't dare say we've ever fulfilled
the law. That's the love it takes. Now, when Adam was left in that
darkness, what did he do? He tried to save himself. And not only that, he hid from
God's light. And not only that, when God came
to him and said, if you eat of the tree that I commanded you
not to eat, what did he do? He blamed God. He said, it's
this woman you gave me. If you hadn't given her to me,
I wouldn't have done that. And that's what you and I have
done too. That's what you and I have done as a result of Adam's
sin and our death from him. But in the darkness there, when
Christ was in that darkness, He never wavered from perfect
faithfulness and obedience to God His Father. Even when He
was cut off in darkness. He cried out in that ninth hour. What did He cry? My God! My God! I think that's the only place
in Scripture that He ever addressed the Father as God. He always addressed Him as Father,
but here He stands as the perfect last Adam, and God is God. And He's crying out in faithfulness,
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He didn't say that
blaming God. He said that so that you and
I could see His faithfulness. My God. He said that so you and
I could see the reason He was in darkness. He was forsaken
of God. He said that so you and I could
see what it takes to justify us, what it takes to make His
people righteous before God, what it takes to vindicate God's
justice. He had to be forsaken. He spared
not His own son. Sinner, you think you're going
to be able to come into God's presence on this imaginary thing of saying,
well, I just hope my good outweighs my bad. I'm telling you, it don't.
And he didn't spare his own son when the iniquity of his people
was found on him. You think you're going to spare
a sinner like us? We're talking about the perfect righteous God
here. If he spared one sinner, he wouldn't
be righteous anymore. It means he wouldn't be God anymore.
He won't do that. And not only did he cry out,
my God, my God. Go to Psalm 22. He vindicated
holy God. He vindicated God and exalted
Him in His praise. Look at Psalm 22 and verse 3. This is that psalm after he cried
there in verse 1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Look down at verse 3. He vindicated
God. But thou art holy. O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel, thou art holy. That's why I'm
being forsaken. Thou art holy. And look on down. Look at verse 6. But I am a worm. and no man. Christ, He owned
Himself to be sin before God. He didn't deny
it. Adam did. Adam did not. Adam justified himself. Blame
God, not Christ. Christ said, You're holy and
I'm a worm and no man. I wouldn't say that if it wasn't
in the Scripture, but these are Christ's words. You know this.
You read the whole Psalm. It's nothing but Christ speaking.
Look down the page then. Verse 10. He said, I was cast
upon thee. No, verse 9, I'm sorry. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me whole when
I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Verse 19. But be not thou far
from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to
help me. You see that? He is faithful.
I want you to go home and read the rest of Psalm 22. And it
tells everything He was enduring on the cross. But He vindicated
God. He exalted God's righteousness
and God's holiness. He said, Thou art holy. That's
why I'm forsaken. I'm bearing the sin of my people.
I'm a worm and no man. That's why I'm being forsaken.
You're right, Father. And You're my God. I've been
cast upon You. You made me to be cast upon You
from my mother's womb. And now I'm cast upon you. I
look to no one but you. You are my strength. This is
faithfulness, brethren. Cut off in darkness. And in our
text, go back now to Psalm 31. Our sin bearer is not hiding
from the light of God's face. Adam hid from the light of God's
face. That's not what Christ did. He's desiring the light
of God's face. He says in verse 16, Make thy
face to shine upon thy servant. Let me not be ashamed, O Lord,
for I have called upon Thee. I have trusted Thee. Let the
wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave.
Let the lying lips be put to silence which speak grievous
things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. But He
is saying, Father, shine Your light, the light of Your face
upon me. Back in Psalm 17.2, go back there
with me and look at what He prayed there. Psalm 17.2. Here's what he was praying. This
is what he wanted. He says in verse 1, Hear the
right, O Lord. Hear the righteous, O Lord. Attend
unto my cry. Give ear unto my prayer that
goeth not out of feigned lips. Here's what he wanted. Let my
sentence come from thy presence. Let my sentence come from Thy
presence. Let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal. He
is saying, Father, You pour out the sentence. You
justify me before men. Remember in Isaiah 57, He said,
Thou will justify me. Thou have set my face like a
flint. I know I shall not be ashamed. Thou will justify me. This is Christ in darkness. casting
Himself upon the Father in perfect obedience. And He communed with
Himself in Psalm 42. In Psalm 42. He communed with
Himself upon the cross. He had no one to help Him. He's
treading the winepress alone. God the Father has turned His
light from Him. His people have forsaken Him. All hell is raging against Him.
He's treading this alone. And He says in Psalm 42, 5, Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for
I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. He said, God is going to shine
His light on me. Now before we move on, I want
to remind you of our proposition. The death of sin is being cut
off from God by God refusing to shine the light of His face
upon us. That's the death of sin. It's
to be cut off from God by God refusing to shine the light of
His face upon us. We see Christ bear that for us
in darkness on the cross. But the light or the life of
righteousness is being received into God's presence by God shining
the light of His face upon us. Now, let's behold the life of
righteousness. God's light shining upon the
righteous. When our substitute finished
satisfying justice, when he finished satisfying justice, our faithful
God gave His perfect servant the light of His countenance.
Look at verse 19, Psalm 31, 19. He is praying here now, telling
us what God did for him. Verse 19, ìO how great is thy
goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which
thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons
of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of thy presence.î You'll hide them in the secret of your light,
in the secret of your countenance, in the secret of your presence.
From the pride of man thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion
from the strife of tongues. You see that word presence? You'll
keep them in the secret of your presence. That's translated from
the same word as face up there in verse 16. You'll keep them
in the secret of your face, the light of your face, your presence. Christ, when He was in that darkness,
He feared and He trusted God in holy perfection. He feared
God and trusted God in holy perfection as He bore the darkness of death
for His people. He never wavered. And being satisfied,
being fully satisfied, God the Father raised Christ into that
secret light of His secret presence. He turned His face upon Him and
said, ìWell done, my good and faithful servant.î And He raised
him to His right hand. Look at verse 21. Christ says,
ìBlessed be the Lord, for He hath showed me His marvelous
kindness in a strong city. I said in my haste, ìI am cut
off from before thine eyes.î Nevertheless, thou heardest the
voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.î He was cut
off He was forsaken. He had to be left in darkness.
But all the while, God the Father was being pleased by what His
Son was doing. He was being pleased by the faithfulness
of His Son as He justified His people. And He heard His supplications. And when the hour came that He
said, Enough! He's justified my people. He's
vindicated my law. He's manifest my righteousness.
God turned and shined the light of His countenance upon him.
And Christ cried out, It is finished! It's done! And He said, Into
thy hand I commit my spirit, O Father. And He gave up the
ghost. Our faithful God raised Christ
to His right hand just like Christ said He would back in Psalm 16. Go back there with me. Psalm
16. Look what he said. Psalm 16.10. He said, Thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell. You won't leave me in that darkness
of separation. Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine
Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life in Thy presence. His fullness of joy at Thy right
hand are pleasures for evermore. What did brother Scott just read?
The path of the just is as a light that shines more and more under
the perfect day. Christ said, you showed me the
path, you showed me the light of your presence, the fullness
of your joy at your right hand where there are pleasures forevermore.
Now brethren, listen to this. The darkness of death by sin
passed upon all Adam's race because of Adam's disobedience. You and
I are born in this world in that same darkness that Adam was in.
That's how come this morning we saw that a man born, as he's
born naturally, he just imagines everything that's wrong against
God and he thinks all these wrong thoughts about God. He's just
in darkness. The path of the wicked is this
darkness. He doesn't even know what he's stumbling at. But because
Christ bore this for His people, there is coming a day when He
shall shine His light upon each one for whom He died and they're
going, the light, and the life of His righteousness will be
passed upon them. Listen to this. If by one man's
offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. And that life, brethren, is God
shining the light. Why did He give Christ? Go to
Isaiah 42. Why did He give Christ? Why did
He raise Christ to His right hand? What's Christ doing right
now? Why are we here preaching this
gospel? Isaiah 42.6, God says to Christ, He said, I've called thee in
righteousness, I'll hold thy hand, I'll keep thee, and give
thee for a covenant of the people for a light, for a light of the
Gentiles. And here's what Christ is doing
right now. He's opening the blind eyes. He's bringing out the prisoners
from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. You know why Christ said He came?
Go to John 12. I want you to see this. Everybody
here right now, especially you that are still sitting in darkness,
I want you to read these words right here. John 12, 46. Listen
to this. Christ said, I am come a light
into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide
in darkness. Sinner, I'm telling you right
now on the authority of my Lord Jesus Christ, You believe on
Christ and you shall not abide in darkness anymore. You won't
abide in darkness anymore. Christ promises what God shall
do for every sinner for whom He died. He said back in our
text in Psalm 31 20, Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy
presence from the pride of man. Thou shalt keep them secretly
in a pavilion in a covert from the strife of tongues. Christ
is that covert. That's where the light of God's
presence shines, in Christ. That's where he'll meet with
the sinner, in Christ. That's where the light is, in
Christ. Are you going to sit in darkness?
Are you going to hate Christ and hate the light and refuse
to come to the light because your sins are wicked? When will a man cease hiding
in darkness? When Christ speaks and says to
the prisoner, show yourself. Come out of the darkness, show
yourself. And he speaks that effectually. That's when a man
will show himself. Because you know what happens
then? God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness shines
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He works that work we saw in
the first hour through this gospel. He gives you a new heart and
light to see Christ. And you'll come out of the darkness.
You'll come out of the darkness into the light of Christ. Now
go back to Psalm 31. Let me say one more thing. Now
there may be some believers here who are suffering. Does it seem
like God has left you in darkness? Sometimes we can suffer trials
and it seems like the Lord has removed His light from me, taken
His light from me. God won't ever take His light
from one that He has called and translated out of the kingdom
of darkness into His marvelous light. He won't do it. He won't
do it. Christ's blood is too precious.
Justice demands they have the light, that they abide in light.
What He is doing is He is turning you to Christ the light. That
is what He is always doing. And here is what Christ assures
us in the midst of trial. Psalm 31, 23. We can learn from
what Christ suffered and what God did for our Savior and did
for His people in our Savior that this is what Christ will
do for you. Oh, love the Lord, all ye His saints. Verse 23.
Love the Lord, all ye His saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful
and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage,
and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the
Lord. He is going to give you the light.
You are going to have the light. You are going to dwell in the
light. See brethren, here is what I am trying to tell you.
When you eat this broken bread and you remember Christ's broken
body, you remember Christ suffering that darkness of separation that
it took to justify His people. When you drink this cup of wine,
you think of that precious blood that purged His people of our
sins. All things are by law purged
by blood. Christ gave His life, life for
life, so that we can have this light now and live and it be
done in a way that is just and God's law is not dishonored.
And when you take this bread and this wine, remember our Lord,
and here is the good news, because Christ suffered that darkness
of separation from God in the place of His people, His people
that He's called to faith in Him will never ever again suffer
that darkness. You'll never do it. If you've
been born of God, I can assure you, you've been saved from that
second death. He that has part in the first
resurrection, he won't take part in that second death. God's given
you the light. Here's what He said. Thank God,
our Father, because He has delivered us from the power of darkness
and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. We have
been delivered from the power of darkness. That is Colossians
1.13. And Ephesians 5.8 says this,
You were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Can you think of anything that
makes you want to walk as children of light? Anything that is more
of a constraint and a motivation to walk as children of light
than to see the darkness Christ bore to make you a child of light. Law never made us want to do
that. We could have been whipped by Moses' son up to son down
and it wouldn't make us want to walk in His light. But now,
seeing that we are children of light because Christ bore the
darkness we deserve, that makes you want to walk as children
of light. Honor Him. Alright brethren, believers now,
we are going to remember our Lord at His table.