May God be pleased to bless our
souls this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah chapter 21 and we'll read verse 12. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter
21 and reading verse 12. The watchman said, the morning
cometh. and also the night. If he will
inquire, inquire ye, return come. The watchman really represents
those who preach, who preach the gospel, and this Twelfth verse gives the answer
to the question that was asked previously. The previous question
was, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? And therefore, there was this
answer given. The morning cometh, and also
the night. If you will inquire, inquire
ye return come. Now, we are, I'm sure, aware
that the Bible not only gives a very accurate account of the
historical events which occurred from the beginning of time, but
also, and more importantly, it directs us very clearly to the
spiritual experience of the Church of God as they travel through
this world. And these words direct us to
such a situation. And the truth is that as the
watchman said, the morning cometh and also the night. Surely that
is exactly the situation in a spiritual life. There is the morning. when the Spirit of God comes
and makes his people spiritually alive, what happens? They come into the light, and
the light of the glorious Gospel. And the glorious Gospel of course
directs us to none less than the Blessed Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. And that is the morning, that's
when the light comes. And so we have this description,
the morning cometh. But it doesn't always remain
like that. And that's why under the direction
of the Holy Spirit, the Prophet says, and also the night. Because although we can thank
God for the light and the morning which comes and shines, yet the
experience of the true Church of God is that they will come
into times of darkness, times when it appears to be night,
and how needful it is to experience such situations. We might say,
well, the flesh dislikes the way but faith approves it well. And the reason for that is that
the Spirit of God directs us to the need we have and the constant
need we have of the Holy Spirit being with us, guiding and directing
us and bringing us into the true light and showing to us the true
light. And of course, the true light
is none less than the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who so
beautifully says, I am the light of the world. And yet there will
be then those continual seasons, as it were, of day and night. And when the child of God comes
into those situations, of night, the effect surely will be to
make us to pray earnestly that the Lord once again come and
shine into our hearts. Because how dismal, how sad,
how hard is the journey in the dark. But God's people do find
themselves walking in that path. And it's when the Lord then hears
prayer and brings them once again into the morning as it were.
And therefore this truth is so wonderful to think of. The morning
cometh. The light does come. And it comes
again in our spiritual life. And also the night. And the prophet
tells us really here what we should do. Inquire. Pray. That's why the Lord permits
us to come into these situations. Or we might perhaps say he brings
us into these situations. He brings us into these scenes
so that we then come and we have to inquire of the Lord. And we may find that when we
make these inquiries, the Lord graciously directs us perhaps
to some of the reasons why we have come into these times of
night. It may be that we've wandered
away. We've allowed things to come
into our life. We've allowed our minds to be
distracted. And therefore, instead of being
wonderfully blessed with that communion, union with the Lord
Jesus Christ as that great light, and indeed how beautiful it is
and lovely it is when the Lord is with us, and we do find ourselves
walking in the light, but perhaps we allow the devil to make inroads. Remember, he's always very agile
and always very ready to try and stop us being found in the
light. You see, what he wants us to
do is to despair and to give up our religion. That's his great
aim. And so therefore, the Holy Spirit
does allow us and does bring us into these times of night
time. So the effect is that then we
have to inquire. And the word tells us here, if
ye will inquire, inquire ye. If we will inquire, then let
us inquire. Let us pray. If we will pray,
let us pray. Again, sometimes there is that
position where we realise we need to pray, but we don't pray. We need to pray, but we don't
pray. How good it is then to have a
statement like this, inquire, if ye will inquire, and then
to emphasise that, inquire ye. How needful it is, perhaps more
so than ever, in a day and age in which we live, that we are
found earnestly inquiring of our God, praying to him, praying
to him, beseeching him, that he will come and he will bring
us again into these times of the morning. You know in the
morning often the sun is so bright, isn't it, and shines, and it's
a glorious thing, isn't it, to get up to the sun shining and
the light. Well, it's more glorious when
the son of righteousness shines into our heart, because what
that does is to bring us into the scenes of the eternal day. The eternal day, Christ indeed,
is the eternal light. And when that sun of righteousness
comes and shines into our heart, surely it is morning, isn't it?
Yes, it is. We might think, A morning without
clouds, a morning without clouds. Lovely isn't the sea, the blue
sky in the morning, shining forth without clouds. What a wonderful
thing it is in our spiritual life. Our Lord comes and brings
us into this morning and it seems as though there's no cloud. And
we can find ourselves truly bowing down and worshipping our God. Worshipping the Saviour, desiring
for that communion, that meditation upon his great and glorious name. So here we have this great statement,
the morning cometh, and also the night, if ye will inquire,
inquire ye. And just perhaps running on to
the end, we'll come back to more of the detail, but then he says,
inquire ye, return. return. What does that mean? That means that we need to retrace
our steps perhaps. We need to go back because there
may have been that wandering out of the way. We may have found
ourselves in a calm situation in a broad way and we find it's
Pleasant, but there's not the light there to our souls. It's night, and we need to return
unto our God. Return unto our God. And in that
way of returning, it's often not an easy path because if we
have, which may be the case, we've backslidden It's a very
interesting statement, isn't it? Backslidden. It means really
that we've slid backwards. We've slid backwards. And if
we've slid, it means we're on a slope. And we've slid backwards. And therefore, we need the Lord
to give us that strength to return. Because if the slope is slippery,
we'll need much help to be able to return and to get back into
the narrow way. And so that's why we have such
a statement to inquire, inquire ye for the help and the strength
and the support we need to come back into the blessing of the
morning light. The morning cometh and also the
night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye
return and come. It's a wonderful gospel word,
isn't it? To come. To come to our God. That's the last thing the devil
wants, isn't it? Surely that's why. The Spirit
of God blesses us with such a word like this. Come. There's no time to stay back. There's no time to remain in
the night situation. It's a time to come. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you. And learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and
ye shall find rest unto your souls. Surely there is that gospel
rest when we are found in the light, in the morning, as it
were, and we are enjoying the sun of righteousness shining
upon us, shining into our heart, which dispels the darkness, dispels
the night we may have been there we may be in there today what
a blessing it is when the Lord does favour us to hear the word
of the Lord and to hear his gracious direction to us that if we are
here because the previous verse tells us The question was, watchman,
what of the night? What of the night? We may be
there, we think, well, what is this situation? Why am I here?
And it's not an easy path, is it? When the Lord does not shine
into our souls. And everything becomes a burden. Everything is difficult. Reading
the Bible, praying, worshipping, everything is hard. Is there not then that cry, what
of the night? What shall I do? Here I am, in
this night. Can't seem to be able to deliver
myself. And we need the help, we need
the strength, we need the support, we need the encouragement. of
Almighty God. So we have this great statement. Inquire, inquire ye. Pray, pray ye. Not just a mere theoretical statement. It's a personal one which addresses
you and me. Inquire ye. And how needful it
is surely in this day and age in which we live. to be wonderfully
blessed with this true spirit of prevailing prayer. The Word
of God tells us to covet earnestly the best gifts and one of the
greatest gifts is to be blessed with prevailing prayer. What a mercy it is then when
the Lord gives us that grace to covet it, to seek earnestly
after it. and to be blessed with that true
spirit of prayer. I'm sure it's true, the day and
age in which we live, there's a great lack of providing prayer. And therefore how good it is
to think that here we have, as it were, tucked away in the middle
of a chapter in Isaiah's prophecy, such statements as this, to speak
to our hearts and to alert us to the situation that we're in,
and to direct us in the right way. Well, it's good, you know. And there are words to encourage
us in this situation. In the book of Psalms, we're
told of some encouraging words. In the 30th Psalm, We read these words, for his
anger endureth but a moment. And we may feel that the anger
of God is upon us and we may recognise that we deserve the
anger of God. For this anger endureth but a
moment. In his favour is life. weeping may endure for a night. And I believe if the Spirit of
God is in our hearts, if we're in a time of night, that means
perhaps all our evidences are dark, can't seem to see the spiritual
favour toward us, all our evidences are dark, then what will be the
effect Weeping may endure for a night. I believe again, if
we're brought into a situation like this, we won't just shrug
it off as something of no consequence. We will be concerned about the
spiritual light in our souls. And therefore there may be a
weeping indeed, What does that really mean? It means true sorrow
for sin. Truly sad that we're not walking
in the light as we might desire. We seem to be far off. We seem
to be, as it were, in the wilderness. Weeping may endure for a night,
but here's the good news, but joy cometh in the morning. And isn't that true? When the
morning comes, the light shines, when Christ appears, when we
see something of beauty in Him, what does it do? Does it not
bring joy into our heart? I'm sure it will. I'm sure it
does. Yes, the joy of realising the
Lord has come. The Lord has come. He's come
to us. we may have desire to come to
the Lord, his come to us joy cometh in the morning. Spiritual morning, spiritual
blessing, spiritual life. Well, we need to thank God that
we have a God today who is dealing with us as sons and daughters
of the Most High God. Those who are not the children
of God, I believe, don't understand such words as this. They don't
understand what it is to be found in the night, found in darkness. They think they're in the light
all the time. They think everything's all right. You only have to speak
to them and ask them perhaps about their soul. And they say,
well, I think everything's all right. Well, they're under a
big delusion, aren't they? we're told that there are those
changes, they that have no changes. They know not the Lord. The Lord
brings us into times of spiritual change to draw us near to him,
to cause us to experience the inquiry, the spiritual desire,
that the morning may come and that the night may disappear
as we inquire and as we are blessed to return to our God. There are many temptations in
the world today to take us away from God. Many temptations. And the devil is very subtle
in the way he operates. he pretends to us. There's no
harm in this and there's no harm in that. Well don't forget, as
I remind you sometimes, the words of the Apostle Paul when he said,
all things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient.
We may think we can do this and we can do that and we may do
this and we may do that but does it benefit our souls? Does it
bless us in a position of drawing us nearer to Christ or Do we
find ourselves in a lukewarm and perhaps a cold and indeed
a dark place? A dark place. The devil is darkness,
don't forget that. Christ is light, the devil is
darkness. If you follow the devil you'll
be in darkness. Bless God if you're inquiring
after the Lord seeking after his blessing and seeking after
his favor. We read that chapter in Ecclesiastes
just to indicate to us the reality of these things and remember
that Solomon had spent much time and effort to find out the reality
of religion. And he tells us in the 11th chapter
and the 8th verse. But if a man live many years,
if we become an old person, many years, and rejoice in them all,
yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be
many. Don't think therefore that you
and I are going to journey wonderfully in the light. Well, bless God
when we are in the light. But as this man of God, the preacher,
Solomon declares to us here, the days of darkness, let him
remember, let us not forget, let us remember the days of darkness
for they shall be many. And he tells us all that cometh
is vanity. Perhaps we have to learn such
a truth. Perhaps we will learn such a
truth again and again. We're very bad at learning, aren't
we? We've got a very gracious teacher who again teaches us
the same lesson, again and again, all that cometh is vanity. With all the things in this vain
world, you know, all the things that please our flesh are really
vanity, they're all passing away, aren't they? They vanish away. We need to be blessed with those
things that remain forever. Just to remember, with regard
to night and darkness, in the Word of God, two of the most
blessed occasions came about when there was night. First of course was when the
Passover was instituted and the great deliverance came at night. There was that safety under the
blood and deliverance came and it was at night when Israel gathered
all together and came out of Egypt. Surely our concern should be
that if we are found in darkness in the night time, we should
be looking for the time of deliverance. And the time of deliverance and
the safety was to be found only in the shed blood of that Passover
lamb. And surely if we are to be delivered
from those days of darkness, that the nights of darkness,
it will be when Christ becomes a living, precious reality to
us. And then there will be a deliverance
and the darkness will then fade away. The second occasion was when the
Lord Jesus himself instituted the Lord's Supper. When was it? It was night. and the Lord was so gracious
to his disciples. When he expounded that wonderful
sermon, which is recorded in the Gospel of John from chapter
13 up to 16, and then, of course, the Lord's lovely high priesthood
prayer in the 17th chapter. Those words are so glorious,
but we think of it there in the upper room. It was night. So although we may find ourselves
in a time of night, a time of darkness. We should not despair,
but we should inquire of the Lord to come and to shine into
our heart and to bring us out of that situation. Well, if the
Spirit of God leads us in those times of darkness to the Passover
or to that upper room where the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper,
the light will shine, because what will it describe to us? What will it declare to us? The
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a difference it is when
the Lord comes and draws near to us and touches our heart. Then you see, the things in this
vain world, as it were, they lose their attraction. And we
have to say, by the grace of God, compared with Christ, in
all besides, we don't see any real, true beauty. It's all in
Christ. And my friends, if the Spirit
of God leads us and directs us into a situation like this, you
know we shall thank Him for it. We shall indeed, to realize this
great blessing that we haven't been left God hasn't forsaken
us, but he's been dealing with us in love to our souls. And that's wonderfully humbling,
to think that the Almighty God is such a kind and such a gracious
God to deal with us in such a way. And you know, in Zacharias' prophecy,
which I know is very prophetical in very much of it, but we do
have words of encouragement when he says in the 14th chapter verse
6 and it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall
not be clear nor dark but it shall be one day which shall
be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to
pass that evening time it shall be light and it shall be in that
day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem half of
them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder
sea, in summer and in winter, shall it be. And the Lord shall
be king over all the earth." If the Lord comes and touches
our heart and shows us something of this glorious light, then
I believe the Lord Jesus Christ will be to us as the king of
glory, the king of glory. And what a wonderful revelation
that will be and how that will set our feet upon a rock and
how that will put a new song in our heart, even praise unto
our God. Wonderful it is if many shall
see it and rejoice in it. Well, inquire ye, return come even if we are indeed walking
in this situation of darkness and then there is that well-known
verse in the end of the 50th chapter in Isaiah where the word
tells us who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth
the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and and hath
no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon
his guard." We may perhaps find ourselves in a situation like
that. And we may wonder the reason
for it. We may perhaps question why this
has come upon us. Well, here we have an encouraging
word. And it's addressed to the Church
of God. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord? Do we fear the Lord? It's a great
question, isn't it? That obeyeth the voice of his
servant. Obeyeth the voice of God. Yes,
in doing that which we trust the Lord has told us and taught
us and shown us. And there we are in that position.
So we are fearing the Lord, we're obeying his voice, and we should
think surely, well, I should be walking in the glorious light
of the gospel. Why is it that I'm in this kind
of condition? Well, it's to show us the mercy
of God. It's to show us the favor of
God. And what are we to do? Are we
to give up? Are we to throw away our religion?
Are we to think, well, it's of no value, I must be on the wrong
track? Obeyeth the voice of his servant
that walketh in darkness and hath no light. No, here is the
answer. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord. and stay upon his God. We are
to wait for the Lord's appearing. It's the Lord that's brought
us into this position. We are to inquire of him. We
are to pray unto him that he will bring us once again into
this great and glorious light of the everlasting gospel. And
we are to trust in him. What does this do? It tests the
reality of our faith. You know, we don't walk by sight. We walk by faith. And the Lord
therefore tests our faith. And what a good thing, isn't
it? The Lord does so. Because then we have that which
God has given us. living faith to trust in him. The word tells us trust in me
at all times. You know it's relatively easy
isn't it when everything's plain sailing and everything's lovely
but you see when it's darkness it's not so easy. That's why
our faith is tested and you see as the Spirit of God tests us
and tries us what will be the result? which will come forth
as gold. We may have had to lose some
of our religion, which is of the flesh. We won't lose anything
that God's given us. But there may be one or two things
which are of the flesh. And therefore the Lord brings
us in this way, to test the reality of our religion, to put us through
the fire, to bring us in the times of darkness. But true faith
presses on. true faith, trusts in the Lord. And so here we have this great
statement. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon
his God. Oh my friends, never give up.
Never give up. Realise the Lord has shone into
our heart with the glorious light of the Gospel. He will never
leave us, he will never forsake us. We may fear it is so, but
know God is with us. Israel passed through the wilderness,
many days of darkness. They deserved to be forsaken,
didn't they? So do we. But God was gracious, and he
was with them, and he fulfilled his promise, which was to bring
them safely into the land of Canaan. God's promise is the
same today, to bring his church safely home to glory. And therefore
as we journey on through this life, Let us remember such words
as this. Watchman, what are the night? The watchman said, the morning
cometh and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire
ye, return, come. Amen.