May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let's turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah chapter 9 and we'll read verse 2. The prophecy
of Isaiah chapter 9 and reading verse 2. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. The Word of God really gives
us a wonderful view of the typical life of the child of God. And that view is set forth especially
in the Old Testament as we pursue the lives of the children of
Israel. And it gives us some understanding
of the life that the true Christian will pass through as they journey
in this wilderness. And we should not think, therefore,
that such an account, such a full account, such a lengthy account
as we have of Israel's history is just a position that satisfies
our natural understanding. There is, I'm quite sure, in
these wonderful truths that deep which coucheth beneath, which
directs us to have some understanding of the soul and the dealings
of God with that soul. And so as we read words like
this which we read here this evening, it did of course apply
to Israel naturally in the days which are referred to here. There
was much darkness. And it was only when they were
delivered from that darkness that there was any light that
shone. But the truth is that spiritually
God's people walk in a way so similar to this. And we have
here a statement which is really so relevant to the Church of
God. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light, They that dwell in the land of the
shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Now by nature,
we all walk in darkness. But it's a great, wonderful favour
when God shows to us that we are and have been walking in
darkness. And that many people think that
they're walking in the light. They think they're walking in
their own understanding and they're pleasing themselves in the way
that they want to walk and the things they want to do and the
things they want to say. But when the Spirit of God comes
into our lives, into our hearts, and what does it show us? It
shows us the darkness that we are in by nature. and that we
cannot relieve ourselves from that darkness. Because the cause
of that darkness has been the sins which you and I have committed. And it's because of our sins
that's brought us into that condition of darkness. And in that dark
situation, we may perhaps almost give up any hope that there will
be any light. We may be brought to a situation
where we have to so earnestly cry out to God for light. And I believe that's often not
perhaps spoken of in just words like that, but it's spoken of
in words pleading to God that he will have mercy upon us. And if we don't realise We're
walking in darkness. We don't realise, put it another
way, our lost condition. There will really be no need
to pray, or at least no need to pray from our heart. Many
people do pray after natural things. The Lord is gracious
and does sometimes answer those natural prayers. But it's a very
different thing when the Spirit of God comes and enlightens us
to our condition so that we feel and know to be in a place of
darkness. and there doesn't appear to be
any light. And that's why then we have to
cry out to our God that He will have mercy upon us. The statement
in this particular verse is different than others but here it says
the people that walked in darkness. So there is that walking, there
is that continuing. It means that we don't just stop
We do press on. We press on hoping that God will
have mercy upon us. Indeed, perhaps we might even
say we hope against hope that God will remember us, that God
will not deal with us as our sins deserve, and He will bring
us out of that condition of darkness. Because until the Lord comes,
and does shine light into our hearts, but we are in a dark
place. And really our prayers, which
we may seek to pray earnestly, do not seem to have any real
effect. It's only when the Lord comes
and shows us perhaps the way of access, the way of access
unto God, We may have prayed not knowing the way of access. We may have prayed realising
that we had a need but don't seem to find the avenue for access
to our God. And what a blessing it is when
the Lord comes and it is when the Lord comes and opens our
understanding and shows us there is only one way And that way
is a new and living way. And that way has been brought
about, brought out by the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So there is access to the Father
through the merits of His Son and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, Isaiah speaks in these very
great terms. And he tells us, the people that
walked in darkness have seen a great light. And I believe
when the Lord comes and graciously shows us the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the way to the Father, what a light that that is. How
that shines. How that shines very wonderfully. And how we're able then to discern
that there is a way, there is a right way to pray and that's
for the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Darkness is turned into
light and that is a glorious light and it brings with it freedom
because it brings with it access whereas previously we were bound
we were unable to release ourselves really. It's very similar to
the words that the Apostle Peter speaks in his second epistle. And he describes the situation
really when he tells us the great and important truth. And he says,
we have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do
well that ye take heed unto a light that shineth in a dark place
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. It's when the day star, the Lord
Jesus Christ really, shines forth in our hearts. What a difference
that makes. What a wonderful revelation it
is from Almighty God. And how clear it is then that
we have passed from death to life, from the power of darkness
unto the power of light. And it is of course a very wonderful
light a light that we rejoice in. The people that walked in
darkness have seen a great light. And I believe, as then with the
Lord, the Spirit may have directed us to the way of access, the
way of access to the Father. How often people can glibly pray,
but when the Spirit leads us, from darkness to light, what
a privilege it is to be able to come to our Heavenly Father
through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we get a little view
of something of part of the great plan of salvation. And we rejoice in the wonder
of it. It's as though the curtain's
been pulled back There it was, dark, and now the curtain's being
pulled back and the light shines and we see there is an access
unto the throne of grace. Just like it was really in the
Old Testament, you know, there was an access into the holy place
through the rent veil. But there in the holy place,
oh, there was light. My friends, there is light. And
it's a glorious light that you and I have as we approach unto
the majesty on high. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. And this really is a very separating
word, isn't it? It separates those who are in
darkness and those who are in the light. Those who are dead
and those who are spiritually alive. And it's a wonderful blessing
if you and I have proved and know the favour of this light
shining and that we have seen it. We've seen the light. really by the light of the Holy
Spirit directing us to the Lord Jesus Christ as our great and
glorious High Priest. How often the Old Testament can
be interesting and pleasant to read in many parts, but when
the Spirit of God applies to us the great truths it contains
and shows us today the great need we have of a high priest,
no earthly high priest, that has passed away, but we have
today a greater high priest, a glorious high priest, a one
who is always there to intercede for us, always there to take
our prayers and present them unto his Father. Is it therefore
not a great light? The Spirit of God has shone into
our hearts and shown us this light that there is access, Bad
as we are, sinners as we are, there's none too bad, there's
none too evil. David proved it, didn't he, in
his life, how thankful he was that there was a merciful God,
a God who heard and answers prayer. And my friends, are we not thankful
today? We have such a merciful God who has turned darkness,
our darkness, terrible darkness, into a great light. And by His grace, we can enter
in through the blessed Saviour into the presence of Almighty
God and to present our prayers into this great light. The people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Now, we also
read in the Psalms of this light and how good it is to... Well, there's many, many places
you can read of in the Word of God. We won't go through only
just one or two tonight. There are so many of them. But
in the 107th Psalm, which is a very beautiful psalm, the psalmist
speaks and he tells us of this light and he says, such as it
in darkness and in the shadow of death being bound in affliction
and iron." That's true. That's spiritually true. We are
naturally bound in affliction and iron. And the psalmist tells
us The reason? Because they rebelled against
the words of God and contend the counts are the most high.
Well, that brings darkness, doesn't it? If you and I rebel against
God's work, rebel against God's word, disagree with it, turn
from it, what does it bring? Does it bring liberty and freedom?
It brings darkness and the shadow of death. And we're not able
to free ourselves. We're bound. Bound in affliction
and iron because they rebel against the words of God and contend
the counsel of the Most High. Well I wonder if you can look
back and I can look back in our lives to behold scenes like that. That we've been like that. We've
been in this darkness bound in affliction and iron and we know
the reason. But you see we're not able to deliver ourselves. What did the psalmist tell us?
Therefore He brought down their heart with labour. The Lord brings
His people down. He brings them down in their
own estimation. He brings them down in their
own abilities. He shows them the rebellion and
hardness of their heart. He brings us down. What a mercy,
isn't it? The Lord doesn't leave us. He
doesn't forsake us. He doesn't cast us out. It doesn't
cut us off. Therefore He brought down their
heart with labour. They fell down and there was
none to help. Naturally there's no person that
can help us in this situation. It's between our souls and God. But God knows the way He's leading
us. And he tells us when he's tried
us, we should come forth as gold, and that will shine brightly. And what was the result in this
psalm? And what is the result in your
life and my life? It must echo, I'm sure, the experience
of the psalmist when he's able to say, Then they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. What does it mean? It means this.
The Lord appeared. The Lord appeared. The people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Suddenly,
the light appeared. And so he goes on, he brought
them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break their
bands in sunder. What was it? Deliverance, freedom,
liberty. The Lord's work was accomplished. And as he brought them out, what
did he do? He showed them the way, the right
way. and the way was through the Lord
Jesus Christ. He goes on, O that men would
praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to
the children of men. Because this is the work of God. This isn't the work of man. This
isn't something that you and I would produce ourselves. We
would never have considered such an application, such a way of
deliverance. about the way the Lord does it
is very good and wonderful because He receives the praise and the
adoration. And we do fall down and we do
praise God for what He's done, for the light that shone into
our dark heart, the time of deliverance, the time of favour, the time
of blessing. The people that walked in darkness
have seen great light and of course here in this particular
case we read the people that sit in darkness there are those
sometimes who have no movement at all and they're so hard-hearted
and so rebellious they don't want to do anything and what
they're really saying is we will not have this man to rule over
us darkness My friends, what a wonderful liberty there is
when the Lord opens our spiritual eyes to behold ourselves so foolish,
so stubborn, so wretched, so undone, so unlike our great and
glorious Saviour, and to bow down and to fall down before
our kind and gracious God. The Lord breaks these bars off,
these afflictions of iron, bound in them. We can't free ourselves. If we could free ourselves, we
wouldn't praise God. But you see, God comes and God
frees us from this dungeon, this dark place, and brings us out. into the marvellous light, into
this great light. What a favour to realise that
the hand of God has been upon us. It's a wonderful evidence
that God's hand is upon us when he deals with us like that, in
love to our souls. At the time it's not pleasant.
At the time it's very hard. But you see, we look back and
we thank God. We thank God for what? For His
great love toward us. He didn't leave us in the dark
place. He didn't forsake us. He was
watching over us. Just like He watched over Israel
all those years in the wilderness. How they rebelled against God.
How He provided for them. How they rebelled against God.
Oh, what a merciful God He was. He didn't deal with them as their
sins deserve. And I'm sure when the Lord comes and grants us
that deliverance and liberty, we realise what a merciful and
kind and loving God we have, who hasn't dealt with us as our
sins deserve, and hasn't cut us off, but is merciful to us. The people that walked in darkness
have seen great light. And of course the wonderful thing
is that these words are repeated in the Gospel, in the Gospel
of Matthew. And I love to be able to follow
these prophecies through and they come so wonderfully described
in the New Testament and we see the fulfilment of them and we
can praise and bless God. In the fourth chapter of Matthew
we read Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison,
he departed into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came
and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast in the
borders of Zebulun and Nethulim. You may remember that the first
verse speaks precisely of that, the land of Zebulun and the land
of Nethulim. And then he says that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
the land of Zabun and the land of Nephilim, by the way of the
sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which
sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the
region of shadow of death, light is sprung up. Now we see that
position. which was really the beginning
of the Lord's ministry, because we then read from that time,
here was the Lord described as this great light. It was a great
light, wasn't it, for John the Baptist? It was a great light
for the people of God as they beheld the Lamb of God. And we read what Jesus did. From
that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Here was this great light shining. And this great light was preaching
the wonderful truths of the gospel. He, of course, was the gospel. He was the one who was to save
sinners. And therefore he comes preaching
as he began his ministry with words like this, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. And really, these words which
we refer to in the 107th Psalm, what does it show? It shows that
God gives repentance. Until God gives that repentance,
until we do repent, we remain hard-hearted, we remain in darkness.
But when the Spirit of God comes and breaks down the barriers,
the barriers that you and I perhaps put up, and we can't break them
down, but when the Lord comes and breaks them down, they're
done with, they're cast away. and there is then that great
light. Well, should we not be thankful
then that we have a record in the Gospel of Matthew of more
or less precisely these same words? Prophesied so many, many
years ago, isn't it encouraging for us tonight to think that
the Lord ordained Isaiah should write these words and the Saviour
should speak of them when he was on the earth, clearly showing
the fulfilment of them. The Lord Jesus Christ indeed,
who is that great light. And we read, do we not, in the
Gospel of John, where Jesus said, I am the light of the world. There's no light outside of Christ. If our religion is Christ-less,
we remain in darkness. The only true light is through
the Saviour shining into our hearts. And as the Saviour shines
into our hearts, what is it? Well, we see the glory of it
in the face of Jesus Christ. A verse which I often refer to
is in the 2nd Corinthians in the 4th chapter and the 6th verse. It's a very beautiful verse.
where we read, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. And God commands the light to
shine. What a mercy if you and I know
the Lord commanded that light to shine into our hearts. And
here is how it occurs. Who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, what light there is, surely,
as you and I view the Lord Jesus Christ, as we view what He has
done, does the light not shine into our hearts? Do we not see
something of the great and glorious plan that God devised to save
rebellious men, to save our souls, to deliver us from the power
of darkness, from the power of hell, and it's through the light
that shines, through the Saviour, has shined in our hearts. It's
not something which is just a theory in our minds. It's the blessed
work of God in our hearts. And that work which God does
in our hearts remains. It is an eternal blessing. It's
that which will stand us in good stead when we come to the day
of our death. It's that which will be the light
for us. This light, remember what it
is. The glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Well, do we see the glorious
light shining in the Saviour's face. As by faith we view Him
suffering on our behalf, we see Him leaving that upper room to face that tremendous ordeal,
that trial, that wrong accusation. He was accused and he bore the
punishment not due to himself, the punishment due to you and
due to me. Think of him when he was in Gethsemane's
garden. It's hard for us to appreciate,
isn't it, the great debts, but I believe if the Lord gives us
a view of the face of Jesus Christ, we shall see something of his
agony. If it be possible, Let this cut
pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done. Total submission to the will
of His Father. And oh, if the light shines out
of darkness, and we view the blessed Saviour suffering on
our behalf, enduring such agony, His sweat as it were, remember,
great drops of blood falling to the ground. He was in agony
and it was done so that you and I might view the light of the
glorious gospel because it is portrayed in what the Savior
did. It's portrayed in his life, portrayed
in his death, portrayed in his sufferings. All that great and
glorious light and the apostle tells us, but we have this treasure. What a treasure it is. It's not
an earthly treasure, is it? It's not something we can count
in monetary terms, but it's an eternal treasure. It's far more
valuable than anything that this earth can give us. It has an
eternal value. If that light is shined into
our heart and revealed to us that Lord Jesus Christ has brought
us out of that darkness, out of those bonds, out of affliction,
and he tells us we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
That means nothing to boast of in ourselves, that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. And surely it is and
it has been the power of God which has shone light into our
dark hearts It's good to just go back in
our little lives if we can, and to ponder what God has done for
us, and to be able to look carefully and see how the light has shone
into our dark hearts. And what do we observe? It's
through the excellency of the power of God, and not of us. We could not have done it, but
God did it. And the result must be that his
name is honoured and glorified. And the apostle though, you know,
we have this light and we bless God for it. But it doesn't mean
to say the journey is going to be an easy one. It means usually
the journey is going to be a difficult one because the devil will always
be assaulting us. always bringing into our lives
things to distress us, things to perplex us, things to cast
us down, things to make us more earnestly pray to our God. And
so he tells us, we are troubled on every side, but not distressed. Why? Because the light has shone. We are perplexed. Sometimes we
don't understand things. But not in despair. Why? Because
the Light has shone and told us all things work together for
good to those who love God and to those who are called according
to His purpose. The Light has shone and therefore,
although we find these situations, we can still have confidence
in our God and still believe that that which He has done for
us will not disappear. persecuted, not forsaken, cast
down but not destroyed. Well, the Apostle was a wonderful
example, wasn't he, of the grace of God. And how the light has
shone into his heart on that Damascus road, you remember,
above the brightness of the sun. What a day that was in the Apostle's
life. And of course he never forgot
it. And of course it was there. And so although then he had to
endure all these difficulties, he had his confidence in his
God, always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord
Jesus. that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. What does that really mean? It
really means union with Christ. It really means communion with
Christ. And without these situations,
without these things, we would not be blessed in our spiritual
life. No, we would be very poor. The
Lord leads us in this way to show us the greatness of this
light and how it shines into our heart. And so he goes on,
for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake. that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Well, what a blessing
it is to know these great truths and to be able to read such an
account as the Apostle writes in his letters and be able to
trace out the life of God in our souls. To think, well, yes,
I'm a companion with God's servant Paul. I do understand what he's
writing about. And if you and I understand these
things, it's because of the Spirit's work in our soul. These things
are not comprehended naturally. Their foolishness to the natural
mind What a blessing it is when the Holy Spirit of God comes
and deals with us. Remember, it's like this, in
love to our souls. In love to our souls. What a
kind and gracious and merciful God we have. When the Apostle
wrote to the Ephesians, he also wrote some wonderful words, and
he said, Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Well,
is that a real prayer that the Lord would come and awaken us,
and that we may not sleep? We may not sleep spiritually?
It's very easy, you know, to become into a lukewarm situation. That really means a sleepy spirit. Well, we want to be spiritually
alive, don't we? For we were sometimes darkness,
says the Apostle. But now are ye light in the Lord,
and therefore walk as children of light. I believe this is a
concern with those who are taught by the Spirit. We're not content
with anything other than being found walking in the light. And
that really means walking with the Lord. That really means communion
with the Saviour. That really means meditating
on His death, viewing the suffering Saviour, and not only in Gethsemane,
but also in the Judgment Hall, realising what He endured. You know, the opposition. There He is, a just man, being
so ill-treated. So ill-treated. Don't be surprised,
therefore, if you and I are ill-treated. a companion, with a great and
glorious saviour. Then of course he was condemned.
Condemned to death. Condemned to death that he might
die for us in our place and bear the punishment instead. Oh, when the light shines into
our hearts and reveals to us the wonder of this plan of salvation,
Why should Almighty God look upon such an unworthy sinner
of the earth, rebellious, hard-hearted? What a mercy! What a God! What
a glorious plan! Far exceeds anything that we
could comprehend naturally, that Almighty God himself should condescend
to come and to shine his light into our hearts. and therefore
surely we should be concerned and desire to walk as children
of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them. How easily we can be dragged
into the works of darkness. how the devil tries to keep us
there, to drag us there and keep us there. Oh, what a wonderful
thing, if this great light shines. And this great light shines and
alerts us to the position that we're finding ourselves in, that
walk within darkness. I've seen a great light, and
they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them
hath the light shined. And this, the shadow of death
is actually, we read it, I think it's 19 times in the Word of
God, and it really means, shadow of death really means deep darkness. Not something trivial, not just
a little bit of twilight, but deep darkness. And they that
dwell in the land of, in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined. that really indicates there may
be a situation where we appear to be so far off really, so dark. No light at all. Deep darkness. And yet what a mercy to think
that even in that condition, the light shines. Having loved
his own, he loves them unto the end. He never leaves us, nor
forsakes us. We're slow learners so often,
aren't we? In the great truths of the gospel. We're so easily
sidetracked by the evil and the devil, but thanks be unto God
for his unspeakable gift. Thanks be unto God that he is
the light of the world. And my friends, thanks be to
God tonight if he is your light and my light. and it has shone
into our dark hearts and we've rejoiced in the glory of that
light and it's set our feet upon a rock and that we've gone our
way rejoicing with that good hope through grace that it will
be eternally well with our souls. Surely this is the life of the
true child of God, not an easy one, but one that ends in glory. May we therefore be encouraged
by words like this and to be able to trace out our own path
and to thank God that he's not left us to perish in our sins
but has come and shone his great light into our hearts for his
honour and for his glory. Amen.