Luke chapter 1. The text will be found in verses
76 to verse 79. The title of the message this
morning is, THE DAY SPRING TO THOSE IN DARKNESS. THE DAY SPRING to those who sit in darkness. Verse 76, this is Zechariah speaking,
he 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
to his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring 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, in this chapter, these words
of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, he's the one that
spoke these words. Now if you remember the story
of this, the history of this, it was the angel Gabriel was
sent of God to Zechariah. He was sent to prophesy of the
birth of John the Baptist. He told him in this prophecy
that he would be used of God to turn Israel to the Lord their
God. That he would go before the Lord
and God, he would go before his God in the power of Elijah and
prepare the way of the Lord. But you know this, because of
his unbelief he was given that dumb spirit. He was made dumb
and unable to speak until the birth of his son. And now in our text he speaks. He speaks praise to God. Look at this in verse 67. being filled with the Holy Ghost,
he prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for
He hath visited and redeemed His people. He hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant
David. He's praising God for the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. the power of God's salvation
toward Israel, that He should come from the house of David.
He said, you've not forgotten the house of David. Remember,
that's the lineage in which Christ has come. And that's raised up in verse 70,
and 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 them that hate us, to perform the
mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant."
He praises God for the remembrance of the covenant of grace that
He made with Abraham. that Israel should be saved,
that they should dwell in holiness and righteousness before Him. And then in Artekh, now, he turns
to his child, this infant, and he speaks to his child in verse
76, and he says, And thou, child, shall be called the prophet,
Now listen, he wasn't talking to his son. His son could not
understand him. His son could not receive what
he was saying. He was prophesying to all those
that were gathered there. He was prophesying concerning
the work that God gave John. He was prophesying concerning
the OFFICE that John the Baptist was to hold, and that was to
be the LAST PROPHET in Israel AND the FORERUNNER of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'll tell you what, this man
was BLESSED. This man was blessed with an OFFICE that no other
man had ever had, BEFORE or SINCE. He was chosen for this one purpose,
to be the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was to be the
prophet of God and the preacher of the gospel to Israel. Now there are many people who
preached the gospel before. but none preached it with such
clarity and revelation as John did. Why? Because he came right
before the Lord Jesus Christ. He went before Him declaring
He was come. And when he came to him that
day to be baptized, he declared, this is the one. This is the
one who was preferred before me and was before me. The Lamb of God. In Matthew chapter
3 it says, For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet
Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight. What is a forerunner? A forerunner
in this day was when a king would go into a country. He desired
to go into a country and he would send an ambassador. He would
send a man to make preparation for his visit. He would make
it known to all those in the country the king was coming. so that that state or that country
should make preparation for him and his visit. They should bow before him, that
they should sing his praises. And this is what John was sent
to do. He was sent as a forerunner to the king of kings. The long
expected prophet of Israel was imminently to come. And John
was the one declaring this. John was the one sent to say,
He's coming. He's coming. He's here. He's
here. The King is here. And He was to prepare, look at
that, He was to prepare His ways. Prepare His ways. What does this
mean? It means He was to preach. He
was to declare. The message of what the Messiah
was come to accomplish. And look at His ways. This is
the way of the Messiah. This is what He was sent to preach. He was sent to preach to give
knowledge of salvation unto His people. Jesus Christ, friends, is the
knowledge of salvation. No man, without knowing Christ,
you cannot be saved. He is the knowledge of salvation. Sent to give knowledge, which
is not natural. It's not natural. Salvation by
grace is not the natural thought of man. The natural thought is
to merit salvation. That's the natural thought. But
the thought of true salvation, the knowledge of true salvation
is grace, mercy. That He must purchase redemption,
look at that, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people
by the remission of sins. We must preach the cause of such
salvation. The remission of sins, and we
know this, we'll see this, that the remission of sins is not
by any way but blood. You can't have remission of sins
without blood. That the knowledge of salvation,
then, is through the death of the Son of God. Isn't that what
John preached? Behold, what? The Lamb of God, to take away
the sin of the world. That's what John was to preach.
He said, Behold the Lamb, the knowledge of salvation, Jesus
Christ, and by the remission of sins comes salvation. Behold
the Lamb of God. which beareth away the sin of
the world. And what is the cause that he
is to preach? What is the source of this salvation? Look at verse 78. Through the
tender mercy of our God. In other words, this is by the
grace of God. This salvation, knowledge of
salvation, by the remission of sins through the blood of Christ,
is through the tender mercy of God alone. The tender mercy of
God. What's the proof of God's tender
mercy? I know how the world views his
tender mercy. They say, well, if I've got food,
and I've got clothes, and I've got money, and I've got fame,
that shows God loves me. No, that's not true. That person
doesn't have any knowledge at all about salvation. The proof
of God's salvation is this, look at verse 78, "...Whereby the
dayspring from on high hath visited us." This is how we may prove
the love of God. "...For God so loved the world,"
what? "...that He gave His only begotten
Son." This is the proof of God's love, of His tender mercy, is
that He sent His Son. And notice who He sent His Son
for. What for He sent Him for? 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, it is my intention by the
Lord this morning to look at these verses a little more closely.
I know I've given you an overview of them. But I want them to ring
true in our hearts. Because I believe every believer
in Christ can identify with what John was sent to preach. Everybody
that is a believer in Christ can identify with this message. We know this to be true. And this is what we are to preach
as the church of Jesus Christ. We are sent into the world with
the same message that John was given. And so then I want to
see this in four different points. I've got four points for us.
Very simply, just questions. Who are we to preach to? Those who sit in darkness. Second of all, who gives light
to those who sit in darkness? The Dayspring on high. He hath visited us to what? Give light. to them that sit
in darkness. Thirdly, what is the purpose
of the Dayspring? He is sent, but He is sent to
what? Give light, the knowledge of
salvation by the remission of sins. And what is the source
of all of this mercy given to those who sit in darkness? Through
the tender mercies of God. This is the source of all our
salvation, the tender mercies of God. So then, to whom do we
preach? Those who sit in darkness. Now,
who are these that sit in darkness? This morning, I want to preach
to those who sit in darkness. If you're a believer, you've
seen the light and God's given you the light, you can identify
with those who sit in darkness. Can't you? You understand what
it is to sit in darkness. And so then we preach to those
who sit in darkness under the shadow of death. Now, who are
they? The scriptures are plain and clear, and they state this,
that man by nature, the spiritual nature of all man, without exception,
we are born completely and perfectly dead in sin. Dead, my friend, is dead. There is no greater darkness
than to be dead. What Solomon said, a dead man
knoweth nothing. He's dead. He's dead. He can feel nothing. He can love
nothing. He can touch nothing, and nothing
that touches Him will affect Him at all. He is dead. This
is what the Scripture speaks of us naturally. No man, therefore,
naturally knows God, nor does any man understand the righteousness
of God, nor can any man obtain righteousness by his actions.
He is completely, spiritually dead and in darkness. This is because we are plunged
into the very depths of sin in which there is no light at all. We naturally sit in complete
and utter darkness. I was on vacation up there in
Tennessee and went into this cave. They have these big caves
that you can go in and explore. And they have lights in there
that you can see. And you go in and see all of
the markings on the cave and how this eroded. They take us
into the very depth of this cave, the very center of this cave. And they shut out the lights. Listen, I've been in darkness
before, but I don't think I've ever been in that kind of darkness. Literally, you could not see
your hand in front of your face. You could not see anything. And I tell you, there's a fear,
there's a panic, there's a sense where you can feel the darkness. But how much more in darkness
is the natural state of man? God said in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form
and void. And listen, darkness covered
the face of the deep. That is God's first illustration
of our human nature. Without form and void, darkness
covers it. Darkness. And listen, we are under the
shadow of death. Under the shadow of death. Man
knows he must physically die. But surely to him it is only
a shadow of what's to come. It's only a shadow of the dread
and fear that will overcome his soul in the face of eternal justice. No man could ever know or feel
this darkness or the shadow of God's justice looming over his
soul unless God teaches. I can tell you this, and I can
tell you this, and I can tell men this, but they will never
understand it. They will never know it in themselves
unless God gives them understanding. I can't tell you, I'm sure that
there are many people who have all of this knowledge of depravity
in their mind, but have never felt it in their hearts. They've
never known it for themselves. They know all men are depraved,
but they don't know themselves to be depraved. And I ask the Lord God that He
would reveal that to every one of us. You know what? I know, I've known that I've
sat in darkness, but I surely don't know the full depths of
it. I don't know the full depth from
which Christ would save me. Do you? We must be taught this. For only those who sit in darkness
is this promise of light given. Do you realize that? Only those
who know the darkness are promised to give light. He gives light
to those who sit in darkness. You know, only the dead need
to be raised. And only the sinner needs salvation. And only God
can reveal it. By nature, we are ignorant of
this darkness. In fact, even in our blindness,
what do we say? Well, I see. Isn't that what
we say? Isn't that what religious men
say? How dare you suppose that I'm
lost? How dare you preach to me as
though I'm in darkness? Isn't that the same attitude
the Pharisees had? Go over to John chapter 9. Look at this
and tell me if this is the same or not the same attitude. John
chapter 9. Look at verse 39. Remember Jesus
healed that man that was born blind. What a picture of salvation
that is. And in verse 39 Jesus said this,
For judgment I am come into this world. What does this mean? He said,
I've come to satisfy judgment. I've come for judgment. And you know He was judged of
God under the curse when God made Him to be sin for us. God,
His justice, His judgment fell on Him. And judgment was satisfied
in Christ. For what purpose? Here it is.
that they which see not might see, and that they which see might
be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Are you saying we're blind? Are
you saying we're sitting in darkness? Is that what you're telling us?
Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you should have no seeing. But now you say, We see. Therefore, your sin remains. Your sin remains. All friends,
Jesus came to give sight to one particular group of people. Those
who sit in darkness. Those who have no light in themselves. Those who cannot produce any
light by their works or by their actions. And only those who sit in darkness. Now listen, I like this, to sit
implies some measure of understanding. They're not lying in darkness.
They're sitting in darkness. It implies some knowledge of
the darkness. Have you ever been made to feel
your darkness? The darkness of your sin. Are you blind? Naturally blind
or do you say, I see? Are you made sensible for your
need of light? And what is light? Light is a
picture of righteousness. Light is a picture of holiness.
Light is a picture of love and warmth and grace and mercy. Do you need those things? You
are if you sit in darkness. You need light. And darkness
is a picture of shame and guilt and death and gloom and pain
and sorrow. Do you sit in those things? Do
you need light? The gospel that John was to preach
is to those who feel their sense of darkness and sin in some measure
need light. Are you in such gloom and darkness?
Are you ignorant of God and His righteousness? Listen, stop groping
in the dark. This is what religion is doing.
It's telling you to grope in the dark. Maybe God will be satisfied
if you do this. Maybe God will be satisfied if
you do that. Maybe God will be happy if you
just stop doing this and start doing that. Religion is groping
in the dark. I'm not here to grope in the
dark. I'm here to show you lie. I'm here to tell you that there
is something, rather someone, God is satisfied with. Jesus
Christ. So if you're in the dark, stop
groping and sit down. Why? Because light comes to those
who sit in darkness, not work in darkness. Those who cease from working,
cease from striving, who know their need. And once God gives
you a need, you'll begin to see something. You'll begin to see the difference
between true and false religion. You'll begin to see something
is different about the gospel. as opposed to what the world
preaches. You'll begin to see there's something
different about this message. You may not fully yet understand
what's different about it, but you get a sense. When God's ready
to say, they get a sense that this gospel's different. For
this gospel doesn't depend upon you in any measure. but depends
solely upon God, upon Christ, upon His finished work. And nothing
you do can be added to His work. That's different than the religious
world. That's different. And those who
are made aware of their darkness, they begin to see that all of
their religion is vain. All of their works are empty. And they begin to feel a sense
of their gift. Their sorrow over sin. You remember
that's what he did to Gomer and Hosea, right? You remember that
this was a picture, Gomer's a picture of us. Her name means wasted.
She was a prostitute. She had married, that Hosea had
taken her as his wife and loved her as God did us. But by nature, we like Hosea
forsook God. And yet, Even though she left
him, Hosea kept putting those gifts outside her door, and she
thought that it was her lovers doing that. And one day he said
this, he said, I'm going to take away those gifts. I'll take away
her wine and her bread, and I'll take away the mirth of her feast,
and I'll crush her gods. Isn't this what God did to us? He took away the mirth of our
sin. Sin is no longer what it was. ashes in our mouths. Now why did he do this? He said,
behold I will allure her. You see, in order for you to
appreciate light, you must first sit in darkness. If you've never sat in darkness,
you've never seen the light. Someone always tells me this,
I usually run into people, they'll say, well, I've been saved all
my life. And I always say, that's too
long. If you've never been lost, you've
never been found. If you've never been dead, you've
never been raised. If you've never sat in darkness,
you've never seen the light. This is to whom we preach, those
who sit in darkness, that God may reveal their darkness, their
need of Christ, that He may crush the mirth of their sins and show
that death is solemn. You're sitting under the shadow
of death. You that sit in darkness, I'm here to tell you, you're
under the shadow of God's justice. Virgin preaching on the immutability
of God said this that ever threatening every threatening of God as well
as every promise shall be filled I Will tell you of a decree of
God that shall not change he that believeth not shall be damned
That is a decree of God that is changeless I Listen, if you
will not come to Christ, you will read, Spurgeon said, you
shall read those words in fire as the ages roll by, shall be
damned. And those in hell say, I am damned,
and yet the words that you still read shall be damned. Sitting in the shadow of death. Friends, this is not a trivial
thing. Gospel preaching is not trivial. Hell is very real. But I'm here to tell you of the
grace of God. Because those who sit in darkness,
I like this, are under the shadow of death. Why? Because all that God will give
light to, death is nothing more than a shadow. It's nothing more than a shadow.
Like an eclipse, it only darkens the sun for a time. But what happens when the eclipse
is over? The sun shines in its strength. And that's what God promises
to those of you sitting in darkness. Here's a promise. He will give
light by one source. Look at your text, the day spring.
He said, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us
to give light to them that sit in darkness. Who is this day
spring? Who is it that gives light to
those who sit in darkness? It is only Jesus Christ. He is
the day spring from on high who visited us. He is the Son of
God, the eternal Son of God. God, very God, and yet God, very
God, who is in Himself like what? Visited us. Oh, this means that God became
man. God condescended to take upon
Himself our human nature. Jesus Christ is the Dayspring. This is what we are to preach
to those who sit in darkness. Look, the day is dawn. Jesus Christ is the day spring
that gives light to all His people who sit in darkness. For God
hath made Him alone to be the surety of an everlasting covenant.
Therefore, He has come into the world from heaven to be our representative. to do for those who sit in darkness
what they could not and would not do for themselves. Jesus
Christ, He says, for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And I tell you, when He came
into the world, how did He find it? Did He not find it in darkness?
He found it in complete darkness. All of those promises that God
had given to the nation of Israel, they were only shadows. They were only pictures. But
what happened when Christ came into the world? It is though the sun had risen,
and all the shadows were forced to flee. All of the pictures
of the Old Covenant became living and enlightened. You know, I can read the Old
Testament and see it just as clearly. How is that? Because the Dayspring has come. Christ has risen and fulfilled
all of the prophecies that were spoken of Him. And so we look
back, and this is why Paul said that God had given us better
things, prepared better things for us than those who went before
us. Jesus Christ is this day spring
by which we may have what the knowledge of salvation This is
what the day spring has come to do. He has come to give knowledge
of salvation What's the first thing we know we sit in darkness? we know our need of him and then
the light of the gospel of Christ shines in our hearts as God commands
it and to give us what? The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Only when the
gospel light shines in the power of the Spirit do we actually
have light, life, righteousness, peace, joy. These are the things
that Christ came to give. He came to give. How should He
give these things to us who sit in darkness? By the remission
of sins. By His death on the cross. That's how He comes. He gives
us the light of who we are, but He gives us the light of what
He's done. What He's finished. His work. So then you who sit in darkness,
do you need light? I'm giving you light. I am setting
forth the light. That's what John was here to
do. He said, Behold the Lamb of God that beareth away the
sin of the world. What does every preacher since John do? We do
the same thing. You who sit in darkness, behold
the light. Behold the light. That's what
Ezekiel was commanded to do. He said, Preach the dead boat. OK, you know what you're going
to do, I'm just going to preach. That's what we do, we just preach.
And we say, look, you blind, see the light. I have no power to give you sight, but I know this, the day spring
will give you light. Oh, when the light shines out
of darkness, Is it not the most wonderful, joyous thing? I remember
when I was in the service, we would spend all night in the
field. Cold, damp, dark. There was nothing more precious
than when the sun rose in the morning and the warmth of the
sun kissed your face. There was nothing. It was beautiful.
It was glorious. How much more glorious is it
when the Son of Righteousness rises up in your heart and you're
able to see? See what? The remission of my
sins by the death of the Son. To see my sins are gone. And
what's the The cause. What's the root cause
that we're to give for this? John, go and preach. Prepare
the way of the Lord. Preach to those who sit in darkness
that the day spring will give them light. That it will give
them knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. And what
is the cause, Lord? Here it is in verse 78. Through the tender mercies of
our God. This is the cause of all salvation, the tender mercies
of God. If God ever touches you with
the light, if He ever kisses your soul with light and life,
it is through His tender mercies He does. The psalmist says of God's people,
we have thought of thy loving kindness. in that what we're doing today
are we thinking of his love and kindness thinking of him and
the purpose that he had to save us we're thinking of his son
and the great salvation the great sacrifice that he had made by
his one offering for sin you remember what he did when
he offered that one sacrifice he sat down you sit in darkness
I'm pointing you to the light. And I'm telling you, He sat down.
He's finished the work. Come to the light. It's shining
for thee. And sweetly the light has dawned
upon thee. Once I was blind, now I can see. But Christ is the light of the
world. Christ is the light and life
of my soul. Can you identify with that? Does that not pluck the string
of your heart? Be thankful for that. Rejoice! Rejoice! You that once sat in
darkness have seen what? A great light. A great light. I pray God will bless you.