Let us turn to God's Word in
Colossians chapter 1 and we read again at verse 12 reading verses
12 and 13 Colossians chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 giving thanks
unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son." And particularly that 13th verse for our text
this morning then, We turn here to Colossians chapter 1 and verse
13, "...who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." I want to address
then the subject matter of darkness and deliverance. Darkness and
deliverance. What is the darkness that is
being spoken of here in the text? And we can give at least a fourfold
answer to that question as we seek to understand from the word
of God what is indicated by such an expression as this. First
of all, do we not associate the darkness with the kingdom of
Satan? And you will observe in the text
it's not just darkness that he's spoken of but the power, the
power or the authority of darkness. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
in the course of his ministry speaks of the power of darkness,
does he not? The prince of this world cometh,
he says. He is that one who is the prince,
the power of darkness in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 2, we have
mention of the prince, of the power of the air, that spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now the whole
world lies in the wicked one. And so the child of God, that
person who has known this great deliverance that the text is
speaking of, who is a partaker of that inheritance of the saints
in light, the believer finds himself in a warfare, in a conflict
with all those powers of darkness. When the Apostle writes to the
Ephesians there at the end of chapter 6, he speaks of course
of that provision that God has made for his people, the armor
of salvation and how necessary it is because theirs is a great
conflict. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, he says, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. And as I've already intimated,
we see how those forces are at work during the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When they come to arrest Him
there in the Garden of Gethsemane, we know that this is all part
of the great purpose of God, that the reason for His coming
into this world is that He might make that great sacrifice for
sins, but that does not excuse those who were the crucifiers
and the murders of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were culpable in
their wicked opposition and hatred of Him. and he says to them as
they come to arrest him, this is your hour and the power of
darkness or the darkness end of this world, this world which
is so very much associated with the kingdom of Satan, this world
that lies in that wicked one. And in contrast, of course, to
all the darkness that we associate with the great enemy of souls,
we have that light of God. Now John speaks of him there
in the opening chapter of his first epistle, God is light,
he says. and in him is no darkness at
all. First of all then we can say
that this darkness is associated with Satan. And as it is associated
with Satan, so in the second place we see it as that that
indicates to us something of the domain of sin. Sins are often
committed, are they not, under the cover of darkness. how men
vainly imagine that because these things are done in the dark,
they're unseen by God, they're unknown by God. See how the wise
man speaks of that darkness in the book of the Proverbs, there
in Proverbs chapter 7 and verse 6 following. He speaks of the
folly of the sinner. Proverbs chapter 7 verse 6. At
the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld
among the simple ones I discerned among the youths a young man
void of understanding passing through the street near her corner
and he went the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening,
in the black and dark night, and behold, there met him a woman
with the attire of an heart, and subtle of heart. How this
sin is associated with the blackness of darkness, the twilight, the
evening, the black and dark night, how sentencing, are associated
with that domain of the darkness. And so when we come to the New
Testament we see how the same figure is employed, it's employed
by the Apostle Paul when he writes to the Thessalonians there at
chapter 5 and verse 7 he says they that be drunken are drunken
in the night. Now it's not only wantonness
and that that is associated with the harlot, the drunkenness,
is associated with the night. And so, he says to these Thessalonian
believers, ye are all the children of light and the children of
the day. We are not of the night, nor
of darkness. The darkness, I say, is associated
with the realm of sin. And so we have those exhortations
Paul time and again in his epistles when he comes to that more practical
aspect, the outworking of the great doctrines that he's been
setting forth in the former part of these great epistles. When
we come to the concluding chapters, you know, we spouse out the implications. If we're those who really embrace
the truth of the gospel, it will be seen in the manner of our
living. And so we have exhortation after
exhortation. Ephesians 5.11, he says, have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them. Darkness is associated with sin,
is it not? Again, when he writes there in
Romans, in Romans chapter 13 and verse 12 through to the end
he says, the night is fast spent, the day is at hand, let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness, let us put on the armor of light,
let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but
puts ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and might not provision for the
flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." Or what is this power of darkness? It is the kingdom of Satan, it
is the domain of sin. But I said there are a number
of solemn things associated with
the darkness here in Scripture. Because thirdly, we see that
the darkness is often spoken of in terms of the ignorance,
the ignorance of men, the spiritual ignorance of men. The psalmist
in Psalm 82, he says, they know not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness, have
no understanding. What is the condition of man
by nature? He's in the dark. His mind has been blinded. This
is the awful consequence, is it not, of the rebellion of our
first parents when Adam and Eve sinned there in the garden. How
they fell from light. How they became ignorant. They
had such a knowledge of God. And yet, how all that is sadly
beclouded, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their hearts. That's the description that we
have in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 18. Now I know that the
apostle there in particular is speaking of the Gentiles. The
Jewish people, of course, in the Old Testament were favored.
They were God's peculiar people, they were a typical people, yes,
but amongst that typical people there were those who truly knew
the Lord, to whom He came and revealed Himself. Those that
He delivered from all their dark ignorance. That Paul writes of
the Gentiles there in Ephesians 4, but there's a principle, it
applies to all. That is, yet the condition of
Jew and Gentile is it not to die by nature, having the understanding
darkened, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them, because of the blindness, or as the Margin says,
because of the hardness of their hearts. Well, that's how we're
born into this world. But it's not what our parentage
is. We are those who by nature are ignorant. born dead in trespasses
and in sins. We're told, are we not, of the
awful state of the world into which God is pleased to send
the gospel of His grace, a glorious light of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Behold, the darkness shall cover
the earth. That's what he says even in such
a book as the prophecy of Isaiah. He speaks of the awful darkness
enveloping all the world into which God is pleased in His grace
to send this gospel. Behold, the darkness shall cover
the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall
arise upon them. and His glory shall be seen upon
thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings
to the brightness of thy rising." Well, this is the situation then. These are the circumstances into
which God, in His grace and in His mercy, is pleased to send
the Good News of that salvation, the light of the Gospel. Again,
we have it there in Isaiah 9, nevertheless, the dimness shall
not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly
afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and
afterward did more grievously afflict her by way of the sea
beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nation. The people that walked
in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwelt in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them at the light shined."
And of course these words, speaking of the situation there in the
north of Israel, Zebulun and Naphtali, they are fulfilled
in the gospel. Christ's ministry in the main
is there in the regions of Galilee. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light, you see. Those who were ignorant. It was to them that the gospel
was sent, it was to them that the gospel came. Oh, the light
of the gospel, that good news, that knowledge of sins forgiven. Is it not life eternal, says
Christ to those who are the only true God? And Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent, the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not. Oh, darkness then, it's not only
associated with the kingdom of Satan, the power of darkness,
not only associated with the mind of sin, those things that
are done under cover of the night, but also that ignorance. To be
in the dark is to be ignorant. And then ultimately, of course,
ultimately, how it sounds. is spoken of, is it not, as that
terrible realm where darkness rimes. The solemn words that
we have in Jude's epistle concerning the disobedient to whom is reserved,
he says, the blackness of darkness forever. What a dreadful description
it is of hell. The blackness of darkness forever. They know not God in that place.
They're ignorant of God. And yet there's no unbelief in
that place. They are ever aware that there is another place.
All the torments. To be in that place where they
are eternally separated from God and His light. God is light. In Him, we read, is no darkness.
at all. Here then we see something of
what we do understand by this description in the text, the
power of darkness. But what does Paul say? He speaks
of giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and that translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. And so, in the second place,
let us consider more particularly this deliverance and this translation
into Christ's kingdom. Whose kingdom is it? It is clearly
the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ that is being spoken of.
We read here in the text of the kingdom of his dear son. Whose son? Well, in verse 12,
thanks are being given unto the father. It is him who is the
son of the father. It is his kingdom then that is
being spoken of. Now, what do we learn here concerning
this kingdom of God's dear Son? First of all, are we not reminded
here of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ? And we see
that sovereignty in the first place in terms of His deity. His sovereignty is the sovereignty
of God. because he is God's manifest
in the flesh. His sovereignty is therefore
an absolute sovereignty. Look at what it says here at
the end of this 13th verse. It is the kingdom of his dear
son, or is the margin. The margin gives us a literal
rendering of the word order as we have it in the original. It
is the kingdom of the son of his love. the kingdom of the
son of Islam. And that reminds us, does it
not, of what John writes in his second epistle. John, who of
course in his Gospel, and in his epistles, is the one who
is having to contend, at the end of that apostolic era, he's
contending against certain heretical views that had already begun
to manifest themselves. He calls it the spirit of Antichrist,
and these erroneous views concern the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so John, in his gospel, he
asserts, does he not, the truth of the deity of Christ. We've
seen it, we've looked at it in times past, those great I Am
passages, where Christ clearly declares that he is God, and
how offensive that is to the Jews, certainly to the scribes
and to the Pharisees, and they would accuse him of blasphemy.
Because he, being a man, they said, made himself to be God.
John asserts so plainly the truth that Christ is God. He is divine. But then also in his epistles
we see, and we have to make it plain, that he who is God is
also man. He speaks of the reality of the
human nature of Christ. There were some who denied that,
who spoke of Christ as but a phantom. Not a real man, not true flesh
and blood. the very opening words of his first epistle, of course.
He plainly asserts the truth, the reality of Christ's human
nature, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled of the Word of Life. He was a real man. John then is the one who has
so much to say concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and there in that second epistle we have this expression so similar
to what we read here at the end of our text here we have the
kingdom of the son of his love and what does John say? there
in verse 3 of the second epistle of John he speaks of the son
of the father in truth and in love the Son of the Father in
truth and in love. He is the real Son of the Father.
He is the eternal Son of the Father. He goes on to say, Whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ. He hath both
the Father and the Son. And here we have it you see.
Thanks unto the Father, who hath translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son, into the kingdom of the Son of His love. O Christ, He is the eternal Son
of the eternal Father and as God, of course, as God, His sovereignty
is absolute. Psalm 45 and verse 6, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. and heaven. The scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter. What does the throne speak of?
What does the scepter speak of? It speaks of authority. It speaks
of sovereignty. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
One who is a King and He is that One who is the King of Kings,
the Lord of Lords, because He is God. these gods. We sang, did we not, in the Metricle
Psalm, the second psalm, and we were considering part of that
psalm only the other lords died and those significant words of
the psalmists. Verse 6, Yet have I set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion, I will declare the decree. The Lord
hath said unto me, Thou art my son, This day have I begotten
thee. Thou art my son. This day have
I begotten thee. And we did on that occasion some
weeks ago refer to the remarks of the Protestant Reformer Martin
Luther. He says it says neither yesterday
or tomorrow. But this day, Luther says, it
is a present time, it's today. And he goes on to speak about
the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is ever being born. He
is eternally begotten. That's the significance of those
words he says. This day am I begotten, always
begotten, the eternal Son. What he speaks of there is that
eternal generation of the Son of God. for He is God. He is God of God. He is Light of Light. And therefore
as God is sovereignty is an absolute sovereignty. And He is strong.
And He is stronger than that strong man. We have here the
power, the authority of darkness, and we've spoken about how that
darkness refers us to Satan and the kingdom of Satan, the domain
of Satan. But remember how in the Gospel
the Lord Jesus speaks of that strong man armed, but he goes
on to make mention of one who is stronger than he, He's speaking of his own ministry,
he's been accused by the Jews of casting out devils through
Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. What a wicked blasphemer! And
this is what the Lord says, If I with the finger of God cast
out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth
his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than
he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his
armour, wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. Satan, you see, is a strong man
armed. Oh, he has a kingdom. He has the power of darkness.
But there is one who is stronger than he, who comes upon him and
coming upon him, overcomes him, takes away all his armor. And that's what Christ has done,
is it not? O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth
us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that One
who delivers His people. Who hath delivered us, it says,
from the power of darkness. and has translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son, the Son of Islam. The Lord Jesus
is that one then who has power, who has authority. And His sovereignty
is an absolute sovereignty because He is God. But then also this,
this is what we have revealed in the Gospel, is it not? There
is the covenant of Christ. there is the covenant of grace,
and in that covenant the eternal son of God becomes God's servant. My servant whom I uphold, mine
elect, says God, in whom my soul delighteth. And he comes in to
serve the will of God. He comes to accomplish all that
great work that was given to him in the covenant He comes
not to do his own will, he says, but the will of him who has sent
him, and to finish his work. And as the God-man in the Covenant,
he has an appointed sovereignty also, as the one who is the mediator
of the Covenant. Look at the language that he
employs speaking to his own apostles and disciples there in Luke chapter
22. Verse 29 he says, I appoint unto
you a kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me that ye may
eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. These were spoken to
his apostles. I appoint unto you a kingdom
as my father hath appointed unto me a kingdom he has that authority that is
his in terms of the eternal covenant and having completed all that
covenanted work, having been obedient under the Father's will,
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and then
being raised again from the dead and showing himself to his disciples
for 40 days, we are told by many infallible proofs They witnessed
the reality of his resurrection and they were to bear testimony
to that in their ministry. In the Acts of the Apostles they
preach his resurrection. And so what does Christ do as
he leaves them, as he ascends to heaven, as he returns to heaven,
the end of the Gospel according to Matthew. He says, all power,
all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And now
I am with you all the way, even to the end of the world. Always
He sends them forth, you see, He sends them forth as that one
who is the mediator. who has an authority in the gospel,
and they are to teach all that he has taught them. And those
who receive this message, what do they do? They confess his
name and they submit to his command, they are baptized. Isn't that what baptism is in
a certain sense? It's the badge of our Christian
profession. It's us showing our willing obedience
to this one who has absolute sovereignty, yes, as God, but
also he has a sovereignty that has been mediated in terms of
that eternal covenant. It is his kingdom that he's being
spoken of. It's his kingdom that they've
been translated into. But then further, with regards
to this kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must observe the nature
of it. What sort of a kingdom is this?
Well, it is a spiritual kingdom. He says to Pontius Pilate, when
he suffers, that mockery of a trial. And he must, of course, be tried,
because his death is to be a judicial death, although everything about
that trial is such a mockery. There's no justice at all in
it. But he suffers under Pontius
Pilate. He suffers under the Roman authority, the powers that
be, that were ordained of God. But what does he say to his human
judge? My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight. His kingdom, then, is not of
this world. Again, Paul, writing to the Romans,
chapter 14, says, The kingdom of God is not meat and drink,
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's the kingdom of God. It's
not earthly things. It's not external things. It's
not meat and drink. It's those internal things. Those gracious workings, those
blessed fruits of the Holy Spirit, righteousness and peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost. What is His kingdom? His kingdom
is an inward kingdom. It's an inward kingdom. Again,
he makes that so plain in the course of his ministry speaking
to the Jews. The Pharisees come and they make
a demand in Luke 17 verse 20. They demand to know when the
Kingdom of God should come. And he answered and said, the
kingdom of God cometh not with observation. And the margin there
says, the kingdom of God cometh not with outward show. Oh, that's
what they were looking for, something... some great political leader who
would overthrow the might of Rome. Remember what he says to
the Roman governor, my kingdom is not of this world. This is
what the Jews expected. Something that they would be
able to observe with their physical eye. The Kingdom of God cometh
not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo, here! Or, Lo, there! For behold, the
Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom of God is within
you. It's an inward kingdom, is it not? It's that blessed
work that God accomplishes in the soul of a sinner. Oh, that's
the great thing, is it not? What God does in the heart of
the sinner, that heart that is deceitful, above all things,
and desperately wicked, is not that, friends, our chief complaint,
our hearts. The hardness, the coldness, the
indifference, the apathy, our hearts. God deals with our hearts. God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts, it says. In our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's a great verse, is it not?
That in 2 Corinthians 4. The enshining of the Gospel.
And that Gospel is brought home to our heart. It's not enough
that we have it here and we consider it as it's laid before us on
the page of Holy Scripture, we thank God for that. That we have
these written records, but we want these things to be brought
home, to be applied, to make real in our hearts. We want to
know something of that inward shining of the Gospel, that great
promise that God has given, the new covenant, the new heart,
the new spirit, Taking the way of the stony heart. We see it so clear, so plain,
that the sinner must be born again. We must be those who become
partakers of the divine nature. We must receive that kingdom.
We must know something of that reign of grace within us. Or
is that what you desire this morning that you might know it?
You want all that sin and all that unbelief to be dispelled,
you feel it. But here is one, you see, who
is able to deliver. Delivered us from the power of
darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Oh, this kingdom, it speaks to
us, does it not, of the sovereignty The sovereignty of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a king. God has set his king upon his
holy hill of Zion. And his kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. But then also, what do we see
here? We see the power of it. It's
Christ's deliverance that is being spoken of, is it not? who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sin." Oh friends, observe
again what it is that he's spoken of here. It's deliverance from,
and it's translation to, It's from one condition then to another
condition. It's from darkness to light. It's from condemnation to justification. It's from guilt to the pardon
of all our sins. It's from misery, all from misery,
and it's to happiness and blessedness. its deliverance from death and
its translation to life. We have it again there in 2nd
Corinthians 1 and verse 9, "...who hath delivered us," says Paul,
"...from so great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us." Delivered us, says Paul there,
from so great a death. So great a death. What is that
great death? It's that curse. That curse that
is upon us as those who are sinners. That curse that's upon us as
those who are transgressors. Those who have broken the holy
law of God. The curse is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. The curse is on the transgressor. James says, if a man should keep
the whole law of God and offend in one point, he is guilty of
all. The law requires absolute, perfect
obedience to every one of its precepts. No exceptions. One transgression and you'll
curse. Cursed is everyone. The continuous not in all things. In all things. Rich and in the
book of the law. To do them, we have to do these
things. Ah, but Christ, you say, He has delivered from that terrible
curse of the broken Lord of God. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. because it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree Christ has suffered the accursed
death in the sinners life, in the sinners
death He's not only suffered at the hands of wicked men crucified
under Pontius Pilate in answer to that demand of the Jews crucify
him, crucify him, He's not only suffered at the hands of men,
He suffered at the hands of the Father as He loved. Oh, God has
visited upon Him the iniquity of us all. That's what it says,
He died as a substitute and He dies at a cursed death. So great a death. That's what we're under, the
judgment of God's holy law Paul says there, in that second
chapter of 1 Corinthians, we have the sentence of death in
ourselves. We have the sentence of death
in ourselves, but there's a purpose in it. There's a purpose in it
all. In order that we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God, the rise of the dead. There's the
purpose, you see. There's the ministration of the
Lord, the sentence of death in ourselves, condemnation in ourselves,
curse in ourselves. That we should not trust in ourselves.
For there's nothing in self we cannot save ourselves. All our
salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that great deliverance
of Christ himself is wrought and held. We have to keep on
learning this. You know, we don't learn it just
once and that's it. What does the Apostle go on to
say? 2 Corinthians 4.11, he says,
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. If we're living, if we're living,
spiritually living, knowing this reign of grace, this spiritual
kingdom set up in our hearts, with those who are being always
delivered, always delivered for Jesus' sake. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, says Paul, I live,
yet not I. But Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
That's the life of the Christian, is it not? We live on Christ. He is our life. And we're nothing
apart from Him. if a man think himself to be
something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself or let us
not think that we are anything Christ surely must be everything
to us you see there now there are many deliverances many deliverances
remember those words of the apostle there in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, who delivered
us from so great a death in whom we trust that He will
yet deliver us. It is constant experience that
He is being spoken of. He has delivered, He does deliver,
He will yet deliver. Many deliverances. Deliverances
time after time. The psalmist cries out Oh God,
command deliverances for Jacob. Jacob needs deliverances. Not
just one, but many deliverances. And isn't this true of us, friends?
We need to be delivered. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. But the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. That's what we have to live,
is it not? That life of being delivered, that life of being
those who are truly subjects of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that glorious prospect that
we have spoken of in the Revelation chapter 11 and verse 15, John
says, The seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever. and ever, or that we might know
something of that reign of grace even today, in this day of grace,
to know that reign of grace established in our souls, to be those who
are truly the subjects of King Jesus. And we feel a need of
that gracious power to be demonstrated in us, delivering us from Satan,
delivering us from sin, delivering us from ignorance, or delivering
us from all that is against us, who hath delivered us, says Paul,
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son. May the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us. and twenty-nine, and the king
is Willingdom, eight hundred and fifteen. These souls that
are weak, and helpless, and poor, who know not to speak, much less
to do more, loathe. Here is a foundation of comfort
and peace. In Christ is salvation. The kingdom
is his. One hundred and twenty-nine.