Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn again with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Again, a reading
here in verse 76. The Scripture says, And thou,
child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shalt
go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way. to give knowledge
of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins,
through the tender mercies of our God, whereby the Dayspring
from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace." Now, these words are spoken here by Zacharias,
the father of John the Baptist. You remember, the angel came
to him and told him of John's birth. He told him that he would
be used of God to turn many in Israel unto the Lord. And he will go before the Lord
in the power of Elijah and prepare the way of the Lord. But you
remember, he did not believe. His unbelief, and because of
that, the angel made him dumb. He was not allowed to speak because
of his unbelief. And at the time of his birth,
when he was born, you remember, they were trying to give him
another name. And in the passage here, in verse 61, I think, Kendra
said, well, they don't have anybody in our family named John. You
can't name him John. And he said this, or he wrote
it down on a tablet. He said, no, his name is John. His name was John before he was
born. That's what the angel told him
his name would be. And in faith, he said that. His name is John. And at that
moment, he received his voice. His voice. And in our text, he
began to praise God in verse 64. He spake and praised God. I thought of this. He didn't
murmur about being dumb. He wasn't complaining about what
happened to him. He was thankful that God had
loosed his tongue. And he praised God. And fear came on all that were
dwelt around about them. And all these sayings were noised
abroad throughout all the hill of the country of Judea, and
all they that heard laid them up in their hearts. What manner
of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was
with him, and his father Zacharias filled with the Holy Ghost prophesied."
All of these things that we're going to be talking about tonight,
these things were noised abroad. They were astonished. He who
was dumb now spake. And what he spake, he praised
God. And this is what he said being
filled with the Spirit. He said, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people. He praised God for the fulfillment
of His promises. He praised God. He said God had
visited and redeemed His people How? By the coming of Christ. The coming of Christ was not
at hand. The birth of John was the first
spring of light concerning Christ's coming. And in rejoicing, he
said, the Lord visited us. He's redeemed us by the coming
of Christ. And he said, the horn of salvation.
Who else is that but Christ? He hath raised up an horn of
salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spake
by the mouth of His holy prophets, which had been since the world
began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the
hand of all that hate us, to perform them the mercy promised
to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which
He swore to our father Abraham. He praised God for His covenant
mercies and grace that He was to fulfill. That Israel should
be saved. He said this, in holiness and
righteousness, that we should serve before Him without fear
in holiness and righteousness. What a blessing that there was
this salvation that was promised is coming so that we, sinners,
may worship without fear in holiness and righteousness before God
all the days of our life. And in verse 76, now in our text,
we see that he turns now to the child. He turns now to the child. And he says, Thou, child, shalt
be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before
the face of the Lord and prepare His ways. Here, Zacharias, for
the benefit of those that heard. Now, the child couldn't. He didn't
expect the child to understand what he was saying, but he was
saying it to the child for the benefit of those to hear. That
he was the forerunner of the Christ. That he was the forerunner
of Christ, that he was the prophet of God, the preacher of the Gospel
to Israel. In Matthew chapter 3, it reveals
that John's birth was a fulfillment of prophecy. In Matthew 3 in
verse 3 it says, this is that which is spoken by the prophet
Isaiah, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the
way of the Lord and make his path straight. Now what is a
forerunner? What is a forerunner? Well, at
this time any earthly king who was to go into another country,
he would send forth forerunner, a person of authority, to prepare
his way. He was to visit that place and
that that place should be prepared to receive the King. He was to make all the accommodations
for praise and adoration the moment he was to arrive. How
much more now seeing the King of Glory was about to come into
the world. He was to send this man John
as his forerunner to preach and declare that long expected King
who was to come. John was to prepare his ways. That is, he was to preach to
Israel. He was to preach to Israel the
way of Christ, the purpose of His coming. A king, when he came
into a place, he had a purpose. Any king that was wise, he didn't
willy-nilly go anywhere. He had a purpose. And our king,
Christ had a purpose. And John's whole life was spent
preaching that purpose. Declaring to Israel the purpose
of Christ coming. He did this by preaching. What did he do? Look at your
text. For thou shalt go before the
face of the Lord to repair his ways and by preaching, what did
he do? Give knowledge of salvation unto
his people by the remission of sins. He would preach to them
the remission of sins. How? That this king was to come
for the remission of the sins of Israel. This knowledge of salvation is
not natural. It's not natural. This knowledge could not be earned
or merited by men. And this knowledge of salvation
must be purchased by the remission of sins. That's how this knowledge
should be given. It's only through the remission
of sins. He must preach. The cause of
such salvation is not the works or merit of men, but the tender
mercy of God. Give knowledge of salvation.
That's what He's to preach. Unto the people by the remission
of sins, How should this come? Through the tender mercies of
God. Look at that in verse 78. Through the tender mercies of
God. He was to preach that salvation
was by grace. By grace. And the great proof of God's
mercy is found in that next part, whereby. You see, this is where
remission of sins and salvation should come from. Whereby the
day spring from on high hath visited us. We know that this
is Christ. We're going to see this more
clearly in a minute, that this is Christ. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son. God sent His Son, the Dayspring,
from on high. And notice to whom He was to
preach. He was to come and preach Christ. And the Dayspring was to come
to give light to them that sat in darkness in the shadow of
death. to guide our feet in the way
of peace. You see, the day spring has come
to give light to a certain group of people, those who sit in darkness. Now then, it's my desire to delve
into these things. I just kind of threw it out as
an overview, but now I want to take these things and we're going
to work from the bottom up. We're going to work from the
back, going backwards here. And I want to do this by posing
just a few questions, four questions here. Who are these people that
sit in darkness? Who are these people that sit
in darkness? The day spring, He has come to
give them light, but who are they? Who are they? Second of
all, who is the day spring? Who is the day spring? Thirdly,
what is His purpose? And fourthly, what is the source
of this salvation? What is the source of this salvation? Okay, so to whom is the prophet
then to cry and preach and prepare the way of the Lord? It is to
those who sit in darkness. Who are these sitting in darkness?
Now it's clearly and plainly stated in Holy Scripture that
the natural state of man is spiritually dead. We know this very plainly. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 1, And you hath equickened who were, what,
dead in trespasses and sins. We are perfectly, completely,
absolutely and utterly dead in trespasses and sin. This is how
men come into the world. Therefore, by nature, no man
naturally knows or understands the righteousness of God. The
righteousness of God. No one understands the holiness
of God, what God demands of us. The scripture says that we're
not even seeking God. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understand them. There's none that seeketh
after God. We are all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. This is our natural condition.
And you remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the Apostle
says this concerning the Gospel. Now, John was to preach the Gospel.
He was to give life, knowledge. And that's what preaching does.
We expound on the things of God to you. But Paul says when we
preach, we speak of the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the
hidden wisdom of God which God ordained before the world unto
our glory, which none of the princes of the world knew, for
had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory." None of us by nature knew the things of God. We were
blind, we were dead in sins. In verse 14 of that chapter in
1 Corinthians 2 it says, "...but the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God." I can preach all day long and
be as plain as I possibly can. You can put me aside and put
the best preacher that ever was right here. Christ Himself, consider
this, Christ Himself preached the Gospel to man. And the majority
of them did not receive it, the natural man Receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, and two reasons. First of all,
there's foolishness to it. Now men think this. Well, I don't receive it because
I think it's foolish. Well, naturally that's how it
looks, doesn't it? When man says, I just don't believe
it. I think it's dumb what you're preaching. Well, to the natural
man it is. It's foolishness. But there's
something deeper. Neither can he know them because
he's spiritually discerned. He's spiritually judged. He's
spiritually condemned even because he is plunged into the depths
of sin where there is no light. We are naturally and completely
in darkness under the shadow of death. You remember in Genesis 1, the
Lord pictured this in the creation, didn't he? He said, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Now, when he describes
the earth, what does he describe? How does he describe it? He said
the earth was without form and void. And notice this, and darkness
covered the face of the deep. What was he doing by this? He
was picturing our nature. We are by nature without form
and void of any righteousness. Darkness covers the face of the
heart of man so that he cannot see or know the things of God. Men understand that physical
death is approaching, but the depravity of man is clearly seen
by his not being concerned, that he has to face God, stand before the eternal justice
of God. But listen, no man can know or
feel this darkness upon his soul unless God reveals it. And in that Genesis account,
remember, it was not until God said this, let there be light. And what? There was light. There was light. That's the same
way it is with a man's soul. A man's soul is covered in darkness
until God says, let there be light. Have you ever witnessed
to someone and seen that? That you just ain't going to
get through. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much you
do, no matter how much convincing or logic you throw on them, or
ability, or the way you speak, or how you speak, it doesn't
matter. You and I cannot remove the darkness, just like you and
I cannot raise the dead. This is man's condition. And
the only way is that God say that... You know, Paul in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, you know what he said? You know why he understood these
things? He said this, "...because God
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." That's the only
reason we understand any of this, is that God revealed it. How long for God to reveal Himself
to sinners, don't you? Do you know any sinners? Do you know anyone that's dead? How long did God give them life? They're in darkness, under the
shadow of death. I pray that God will reveal this
to all who sit in darkness under the sentence of death. For only
those who sit in darkness is this promise given. You notice
that? Listen, the promise of the day spring, the promise of
salvation, the promise of life and light are only given to those
who what? Sit in darkness. Only to those
who sit in darkness. Only to sinners is this promise
given. Only the dead need life. Is that correct? That makes sense? If you're not
dead, do you need to be raised? No. Only the blind need sight. Only the prisoner needs to be
freed. Only those who sit in darkness
need light. Listen, if you see that your
salvation, I want you to understand this, if a man sees, claims to
see, say a man claims he sees, and yet this man claims that
his salvation is somehow a mixture of God's grace and his works,
that man is blind. That man is blind. If a man says
the blood of Christ and His will, the righteousness of Christ and
His obedience to the law, that man is claiming something that's
not true. That man's still in darkness.
Remember what Paul said about his brethren in the flesh in
Romans 10? He said this, I bear them record they got a zeal for
God. You know what I bear record? I bear record that Armenians
have a zeal for God. Boy, they do. Catholics have
a zeal for God. Don't they? Man, you can't walk
by an abortion clinic and not see the masses of people out
there trying to pull those women out. It's not a bad work. They're killing their children
and surely that's a good thing. We're not saying it's an evil
thing, but they're zealous. You know what they're zealous
for? They believe that that's going to help them with God. But the problem is they're blind.
Now how do I know that? How can I be so adamant to think
and know that they're blind? Because I see. Now how can I
be so adamant that I see and they're blind? Go to John chapter 9. How can
we be so adamant? How can we know? You know what?
I want to know if I'm blind. Don't you? I mean, that's...
I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to be deceived. You remember our Lord in this
John chapter 9, He healed that man born blind. And we're talking
about darkness. Those who sit in darkness. This
man, he sat in darkness, didn't he? From his birth. Just like
us spiritually. He sat in darkness. This man
wasn't looking for Christ and neither was I. Christ found this
man and gave him sight. Same thing with me. found me
and gave me sight simply by his own will and grace." You remember
what happened? They kicked him out. That religious
group, they said, well, this man's a sinner. He said, I don't
know that. I don't know what this man is. I know this. I was
blind, but now I see. That's all I know. And they kicked
him out, and Jesus found him, and he said to him, he said,
does thou believe on the Son of God? He said, Lord, who is
he? And he said, you're looking at him. You're looking at Him and I'm
the one talking with you. And He said, Lord, I believe.
He believed. And Jesus said this in verse
39. He makes a declaration now. And He said, For judgment I am
coming to the world. Judgment. Judgment. What do you mean by
that? Because I know this, He is going
to sit upon the throne and He is going to judge. He is making
a division. Isn't that what judgment does?
Makes a division? Sure does. He said, I have come
to satisfy judgment. That's what He's come to do.
For judgment, I am come into this world to satisfy the judgment
of God for the sins of my people. And this will be the result,
that they which see not, what? Might see. Those who sit in darkness might
see. Those who are blind might see. And look, here's another division.
He's making a division, isn't He? That cross makes a division,
friends. He died for who? Those that sit
in darkness, that they might see. And this same death is also
going to condemn another group. He says, and they which see might
be made blind. Those who profess to see. That's
what He's talking about. Those who claim they know. And
those Pharisees, they were upset with this. They heard these words
and said, are we blind also? Do you see their refusal concerning
this blindness, concerning this darkness? This is what natural
man does. He refuses the doctrine of his
depravity. He refuses. He says, no, I see. I'm not depraved. I'm not blind. Are we blind also? Listen what
Jesus said. If you were blind, if you were sitting in darkness, if you would see that you're
in darkness, what's the result? You shall have no sin. But now you say, we see. Therefore, your sin remaineth."
See, Jesus came to give sight only to the blind. Only to those
who see and know their blindness. Notice this phrase. Go back to
your text and notice this. Those who sit in darkness. To sit in darkness implies what? Life. Doesn't it? If you're sitting
in darkness... Now, you lay a dead man in darkness,
he's not gonna sit in it. He doesn't even know he's in
it. Doesn't have any clue or care that he's in it. But these
people, they sit in darkness. They sit in darkness. It implies
life or at least knowledge of this darkness. These sitting
in darkness feel the looming shadow of death upon their soul. Let me ask you this, have you
been made to feel the darkness of your nature? Do you know who you really are? Do you know what kind of man
you really are? Have you been made to see your
blindness? Are you made sensible of your
need of light? And light is what? Light is a
picture of righteousness. It's a picture of life. It's
a picture of holiness. Have you been in darkness so
as to see your need of righteousness, your need of holiness, your need
of light? Are you sensible to it? The Gospel that John was to preach
was to those who sit in darkness, to those who have need of light,
to those who are in the prison houses, have need of freedom
from sin and death. Are you in the darkness? Stop groping in the darkness. This idea of sitting also has
the idea of ceasing from work, doesn't it? Those who sit in
darkness realize they can do nothing to give themselves light. They sit in the darkness and
cry unto God for light. When we know our darkness, We
begin to see things that we never saw before. When a man is made
sensible of his darkness, he begins to see the light of the
gospel and it gives him knowledge and understanding in spiritual
things. I was talking to a man yesterday. He told me, they know I'm a pastor,
I don't know what it is about that. But people have to try
to connect or something. I'm not being mean. I think they
just try to, you know, relate. You know, I'm sure if everybody
finds out that you're a plumber, well, I have a sink. You know, something like that.
Just try to relate. And I'm sure he's trying to relate
to me. But he said, I read through the Bible six times. I said,
well, did you see Christ in it? And as I began to tell him these
things, it's like his wheels are turning, but there's no connection
being made here. Why? He says, darkness. He's dead. He has no feel of
his need. But when a man is made sensible,
he begins to see his need. First of all, he sees this. He begins to feel the affliction
of his sin. When a man is made to see the
darkness of his nature, the first thing he is afflicted with is
his own sin. His own sin. He's not concerned
about anyone else's sin. He's concerned about his own
sin. You know, when some lost man's
convicted, you know what he'll say? He'll say, When a man is
convicted of his own sin, he'll say, Lord, be merciful to me. You know, that other Pharisee,
he was concerned when he was praying with God, praying to
himself, basically. He was concerned about everybody
else, what they saw him do, what this other man did. That publican
was only concerned about his sin. You remember in Hosea, in
Hosea chapter 2, when God gives that picture of of causing Gomer
to return to Hosea. He says, Therefore I will return
and take away my corn, and the time thereof, and my wine, and
the season thereof, and I will recover my wool, my flax, that
covered her nakedness. Now I will discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of
my hand. I will cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her
new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. I
will destroy her vines and her fig trees, wherever she has said,
these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. I will
make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them,
and I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned
incense unto them, and she decked herself in earrings and jewels,
and she went after her lovers and forgot me, saith the Lord.
Therefore, I will lure her and bring her into the wilderness."
Isn't that where God brought us? You that understand the darkness
of your nature. You that now see the light. What
was that? Did you not see this about yourself?
Did God not turn your feast days, your religion into vanity? Did He not turn your righteousness
into filthy rags? Did He not bring us low? God
will ever show us the light of His salvation, He must allure
us to the wilderness. And only then will He speak comfortably
to us. Only then, when we are sitting in darkness,
will He give us life. So when you think of the judgment of God, Isn't
that what God, when God convicted you of your sin, didn't His judgment,
that coming judgment loom over you like the shadow of death?
It did. It became real to you. It wasn't
just a fairy tale, it was real. So when you think of your own
death and how you will immediately be judged of God, did that not
bring great fear? You know, when God leaves a man
in darkness, one thing, he just doesn't fear death. Oh, you don't
want to die. But he has no fear of God. Spurgeon said this about those
that God leaves to themselves. He says, every threatening of
God as well as every promise of God shall be fulfilled. Talk
of decrees. I will tell you a decree. He
that believeth not shall be damned. Don't you know that's a decree? It's an eternal decree. When
a man has been there a million years, listen to this decree.
He shall be damned. And when He's there two million
years, this same decree, He shall be dead. But notice this. Go back to your
text and look at this. Those that are in darkness, they
are under not just the sentence of death, but listen, it's described
like this, the shadow of death. The shadow of death. You know
when the eclipse comes? covers the sun and the whole
earth at that place, at that moment is in darkness. But you
notice that that doesn't last very long, does it? Pretty soon
the moon moves out of the way and the sun comes out. Even so
it is with the elect that sit in darkness. Those who are under
the cold sentence of the shadow of death. Here's the promise
of God to all of His elect that sit now in darkness and feel
the shadow of His death. Listen, soon the light will shine. This is the gospel that we preach,
that God's elect, though they were by nature sitting in darkness,
under the shadow of death, that God has promised to give them
life. Now having described those that
are under to whom this promise is given. It is now the message of John,
as well as every preacher, to describe the light that shines
out of darkness. This is what is called the day
spring. Look at the back of your text now. Scripture says, "...and through
the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on
high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness
in the shadow of death." The Dayspring from on high. That's
the second thing. Who is this Dayspring? It is
none other than Jesus Christ. I remember when I was in the
service. You know, there were some times I would have to do
guard duty. And I think one of the worst times
is right at the last guard shift, right before the sun comes up.
It just really is. I mean, because you don't get
that last few hours of sleep. You're up all the time. But I've
always noticed this. It's the coldest and the darkest
before the sun. It just is. And there's nothing more joyful,
I noticed this, when I was doing this, there was nothing more
joyful and pleasant to one who has spent all night in darkness,
who's endured the coldness of the night wind to see the day
spring. To see the sun come up and have
You know, you're just anticipating it. You're cold. You're freezing.
You are in darkness. The shadows are all around you.
And now that you see that brown hue that comes over the top,
and it's not yet daybreak, but you're just waiting for it. You
know it's coming. And the sun creeps up over the
horizon, and when that ray of light hits your face, and you
feel the warmth of it, there's just something about that. It
feels good. It's a time of rejoicing when
that sun comes out. Even so it is, that's why the
Lord, the Spirit of God, has put it this way. When He calls
Christ the Dayspring from on high. In other places He is called
the Bride and Morning Star. He's called the Son of Righteousness
with healing in His wings. And this is what John was to
preach. He was to preach concerning the Day Star. to those that sit
in darkness. This is the hope and warmth of
all those who sit under the shadow of death. Behold, listen to this,
the day spring has this in us. What is this saying? This is
from on high. This is telling us the Son of
God has come down to man. The Son of God has come and visited
us who sit in darkness. He who is light came into the
world, a world full of sinners in darkness. It was Him and Him
alone that all of the elect of God were given. It was to Him
they were given. You know, I like Isaiah 9 and
verse 6, Unto us a child is born, his humanity. Unto us a son is
given, his deity. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders. That means the responsibility,
the salvation of his people will be upon his shoulders. He will be the surety of all
God had given him. He alone was made that surety. Isaiah chapter 42. Listen what
it says of our surety. Isaiah 42 and verse 6. I the
Lord have called thee in righteousness. Speaking of His elect servant
Christ. I have called thee in righteousness.
And will hold thine hand and will keep thee. For this purpose. To give thee for a covenant of
the people. for a light under the Gentiles. And this light He has given to
open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. You
see why the day spring has come? The day spring has come to bring
those in darkness into the light. to set those who are captives
free. This is the joy of the gospel.
Therefore He, being our surety, our covenant, has come into the
world. He must have taken our nature.
He must have become a man so as to be our representative. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered the world, and death by sin, what's the result? Death
passed upon all men for all have sinned. Even so, Paul says, as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The day spring
has come and when he came into the world, it was in darkness. All the promises of God and his
work of salvation were hidden in types and shadows and prophecies
and visions. But now that Christ has come,
the day spring has dawned, you know what? This is amazing. I
can go to any passage in this book, and if God gives me grace,
I should be able to see Christ. Why? Well, the sun's out. The sun's out. Before these things
were hidden in darkness, but now the day spring has dawned. And now I can see the Passover
land, what that really meant. That's a picture of Christ. I
can see there crossing the Red Sea is a picture of Christ. I
can see this, that we are Israel. Murmurs, complainers, all of
that. That's me. I'm the leper. In that law of the leper, I'm
the leper. Christ is my High Priest. Only
He can pronounce me clean. You know what that leper found
out that day Christ came in? I bet he understood the law of
the leper after that day. Don't you? After that day, he
fully understood what that meant. Lord, if You will, You can make
me clean. I will be Thou clean. And I said,
oh, that's what that law is for. It pictures a day spring. It
pictures Him. And so now the Gospel is made
plain. Christ is the Gospel. And behold
the purpose now, the third thing, the purpose. What is the purpose
of the day spring? What is the purpose of the Son
of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings? Listen,
it is to give the knowledge of salvation. Isn't that what light
does? You walk into a dark room, you
have no knowledge of what's there. You cut on the light, And now
you know. Now you know. When God caught on the light
of your heart, what did you find out about you? I was sitting in darkness. I was blind. I'm the sinner. I'm the leper. I cannot merit
God's favor. I found that out when the light
came on. This was His purpose, to give light. Light to know
you're sitting in darkness, but not just that. Listen, when this
light came on, I saw this, that Christ obtained my righteousness. That He, in my place, honored
the law of God. Magnified it and made it honorable. that Christ came into the world
to die in my stead, that He bore my sin, all my sin, in His own
body on the tree. The justice of God fell on Him
at Calvary. And His blood flowed from every
pore of His body and extinguished the wrath of
God that was against Him. God said, I'm satisfied with
that offering. He said, but this man, this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, he sat down for ever. How great was that offering? Can you see it? Do you see how
great that offering is? Do you see how great your need
was? Do you see how greatly He fulfilled that need? Now why
in the world do you see that? Because you have been given light. You've been given the knowledge
of salvation. Salvation is not a system. It's not something you do. It's
something that's already done. Something already finished. The
day star has finished it. The one who visited us finished
it. And it gives light and knowledge
of this salvation. Knowledge of the remission of
our sins. You know, remission? What that
means, they're gone. They're gone. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission. Religion is all about trying
remission by works. Remission of sins by what you
do. You know why I don't believe
that? Because the light's on. I'd be right there with them.
Matter of fact, I was. Until the light came on. Until
God gave me the knowledge of salvation. For God had commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. Isn't that what it was in your
heart? Darkness? Isn't that where He commanded
it? Out of darkness. That's all you had is darkness.
That's all you were is darkness. Until He commanded the light
to shine out of darkness into your heart. To give you the knowledge
of the glory of God. Where is that? Where is the glory
of God? Who accomplished the glory of
God? I see that in the face of Jesus
Christ. You see, He gave us this knowledge.
He gave us this knowledge. Now, why in the world would He
ever give you, sitting in darkness, this knowledge? Look at your
text, verse 78. the tender mercy of our God. The day spring came and gave
us salvation, called us to life and light, simply out of tender
mercy. Why are you still here? Why do you still believe the tender mercy of God? There's no other reason, except
I'm kept by the power of God under salvation, ready to be
revealed at the last time. The cause is the tender mercies
of our God. And notice this, he not only
gives us life, but I want to just mention this. He said he
guides our feet into the way of peace. What's the way? What's the way of salvation?
Jesus said, I am the way. How do you know that? Well, God
guided you into that, didn't he? God showed you that. Christ is the way. The way of
what? Peace. I know as a believer in Christ,
we still have this old man to contend with. And oftentimes
I feel I'm still in darkness. Feeling. That old man is nothing
but darkness. But no matter how I feel, doesn't
matter because Christ is all my peace with God. God is not
angry at us. I think He should be. I'm angry at me, but He's not. For Christ hath made peace by
the blood of his cross. Removing the enmity. What did he do? He took the law
and made it your friend. The law can't do anything or
say anything to you. Why? You've already obeyed. It's
satisfying. I pray that God would Bless this
light of the gospel that John was given to preach. It's the
same gospel we preach. Behold, the Lamb of God that
beareth away the sin of the world. That's what John preached. What
we preach. This light goes out to those who sit in darkness.
Anyone in darkness? Oh, may Christ give you light.
And if you have light, rejoice in the light you're given. Rejoice. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.