All right, brother, let's turn
to Isaiah 50. It's so good to be with you. I think I have a message that I
hope will be a blessing to you. Lord, bless it to our hearts.
Isaiah chapter 50. Our title is A Child of Light
in Darkness. A Child of Light in Darkness. And now this is the Lord Jesus
speaking. Now I want you to get that. This
is Christ speaking. And he describes two people,
two kinds of people, and he gives us command. He gives a command
to each kind of person. Verse one, I mean, verse 10,
he speaks to a believer. This is a child of light who
is in darkness. Uh, look what he says. Verse
10, who is among you that fear of the Lord, that fear of Jehovah,
that obey it, the voice of his servant, that obey of Christ
Jesus, his servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light.
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay up on his God. And then verse 11 is the opposite. This is a child of darkness walking
in light that he has kindled. It's a child of darkness walking
in light that he has kindled. Verse 11, behold, all ye that
kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the
light of your fire and in the sparks that you have kindled.
This shall you have of mine hand, You shall lie down in sorrow. Now let's hear the Lord's word
here first of all to this child of darkness that's walking in
his own light. This is somebody who is a self
born person, a sinner who thinks that he made himself be born
again. by his will, by something he did. This is a self-sanctifying
man who has separated himself and made himself holy by his
obedience to the law. A self-righteous man who thinks
he's made himself justified before God by his deeds. He's walking
in light, he's kindled. Trusting his will and trusting
his works. And the Lord says, behold all
you that kindle a fire. Walk, he's walking in the, he
compasses himself about with sparks. This is somebody that's
confident, never troubled, never troubled. He can tell everybody
else how to live and he can critique others. He's never troubled himself. He's sure he's got light. The
Lord says, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks
that you've kindled. This shall you have of mine hand,
you shall lie down in sorrow. Now hear what the Lord's saying.
Never trust your will. Never trust your own works. Never
put confidence in anything you've done for salvation. Nothing we
do can save us. Absolutely nothing we can do
shall save us. The true child of God, this is
what Paul said, we're the circumcision. We're the circumcision. Circumcision
is not outward. It's not something you do in
the flesh. It's not works that men do to try to be saved. It's
a heart work that God does. And here's the traits of a man
that's circumcised in heart, born of the spirit of God. We
worship God in the spirit. We have a new spirit in which
we worship God. And we rejoice one place in Christ
Jesus the Lord. and we have no confidence in
our flesh. We're not looking to anything
we've done. Everything is in Christ. But now let's hear what
our Lord says to the child of light. Now this is a vastly different
person. He has light from the Lord, been
born again. But listen to the description,
verse 10. Who's among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth
the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath
no light? This is a sinner born again of
God, truly born again of God. We have light because God has
shined Christ the light into our hearts. Paul said that the
same one who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in creation
spoke. He spoke through this gospel
and he shined light into our hearts. to reveal the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. This is somebody
who truly has light, a light from God. God's put a fear of
the Lord in you where you reverence the Lord. You have an awe of
God and you want to be found in Christ. And so you obey the
voice of his servant. That's Christ. That's the voice
of that's Jehovah's servant, the God man mediator. You've
been brought to believe on him and trust him and obey his voice. You want to obey him in everything
you do. And you obey his servant that he's given to have the rule
over you, the man he's given to preach the gospel to you.
This is somebody that hears him and wants to obey him and has
a fear of the Lord. But as God's saints, sometimes
the child of light walks in darkness. We walk in darkness. This is
not the condition of all of God's children. Nor is it the condition of that
God's child suffers all the time. But usually at some point, all
God's children do suffer this darkness. And some of God's children
suffer it much of the time. Some of God's children walk in
darkness a lot of the time, a lot of the time. Now, when he says
it walk in darkness, it doesn't mean you're without the light
of Christ. Christ promised this in John 8, 12. He said, I am
the light of the world. He's the light of his people
wherever they are in this world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Once Christ
shines a light in your heart, you're gonna have Christ's light.
He's not gonna take his light away from you. He's not gonna
remove his light away from you. And that light's gonna shine
more and more as you go through this world, as you go through
this life of faith. The path of the just is as the
shining light that shineth more and more into the perfect day.
When the sun's first coming up in the morning, you can just
barely see. But the sun keeps coming up, and it gets brighter,
and it gets brighter, and it gets brighter. That's what it
is to have the light of Christ. And the more his light shines,
at first you can just see a little of your sin, but you see Christ's
light. But the more that light shines,
the more you see your sin. And the more that light shines,
the more you see your sin. And see, it works like this.
It works just the opposite of how reform religion and these
others say it works. You know, they say you're progressively
getting holier and holier and stronger and stronger and stronger.
What really happens is this for the child of God, as you get
older in your physical body, your strength is going to go
little by little by little by little by little. So you're not
going to sin as much outwardly as you did when you was 20 years
old. Just ain't going to happen. That has nothing to do with sanctification
whatsoever. They hadn't made you one whit
holier at all. You just got too old to sin like
you used to. But the more that light shines
in your heart, as you're not sinning as much outwardly, you're
seeing the sin of your inward man more. And you're seeing more
and more, this is what I've been all along. It wasn't just my
hands and my feet, it's what I am. And that's true growth
in grace. That's, that's really growing.
And so as that light increases, he increases and you decrease.
But most of us know by experience that we have dark seasons. You have some dark times. Sometimes
it's just a dark hour or two. Sometimes it's a dark day. Sometimes
it's weeks and months, and sometimes it may be long seasons of darkness. Every believer still has a sin
nature, so it's only darkness. So you're going to have some
darkness from your sin nature. We live in a world that's only
darkness. There's gonna be cares of this world and worldly cares
you have, things, legitimate things you have to take care
of that are gonna cause you to have some darkness. You're gonna
lose loved ones that you love. That's gonna cause you to have
seasons of darkness. You're gonna have Satan's temptations.
And sometimes we just don't feel the light of God's presence.
That's just how it is, plain and simple. Some seasons we just
don't have any light giving us assurance. We have a lot of spiritual
trials, but learn from God's creation. You look outside and
on some days it's so cloudy. Y'all have June gloom and it's
so cloudy and, and, and you can't see the sun shining, but the
sun's still shining. You just can't see it. And Christ
is always shining even when you can't see him. And true faith,
true faith is trusting him even when you're in darkness. That's
true faith. Now let's see what he says to
us here. In this passage, the Lord Jesus
is gonna use himself as our example. He's gonna use himself when he
walked this earth as our example. He gonna show us what the father
did for him. And by that, he's showing us
what he's gonna do for you. All right, sometimes the darkness
is due to us just not being able to hear the word of our savior.
You come here, you sit down and you can't hear the word. Don't
do what most people do. Most people, when they hear the
gospel preached and they're blessed in their heart, Oh, the Lord
bless me. And when they don't hear the word preached, it's
the preacher's fault. Sometimes you can't hear the
word of our savior speaking to your heart and it's a dark season.
It's a dark season, but remember how we have Christ, Christ the
light. We have Christ the light, the
same way he had light when he walked this earth. It's by the
spirit of God. The Lord God poured out the Spirit
on him without measure, and he's going to give you the Spirit.
He has if you've been born of him, and he will, and that's
how he's going to speak into your heart. But look what he
says here in verse 4. The Lord God has given me the
tongue of the learned. This is Christ speaking. The
Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should
know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth
morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Now God, our father gave our
Lord Jesus the Holy Spirit without measure. That's what the scripture
says. When he was baptized, the Spirit of God came down and lit
upon him and God spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. And he had the Spirit without
measure. Our Savior said, he wakeneth morning by morning.
He wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned. Now don't forget
who we're talking about here. This is Christ when he walked
this earth. But if you look back at verse two, he'll tell you
who he is. At verse two, he said, wherefore, when I came, was there
no man? When I called, was there none
to answer? Is mine hand shortened at all
that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at my rebuke, I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a
wilderness. Their fish stink because there's
no water and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with darkness. And I make sackcloth their covering."
This is the same one that's saying, the Lord God gave me the tongue
of the learned. He's God. He is God, the son
of God who can do all these things. But when he came as a man, the
God-man depended on the father to give him the spirit. And wakened
his ear morning by morning and taught him morning by morning
that he may be able to speak a word to them that are weary.
That's me and you. So when our Lord walked this
earth in John 8, 28, You want to look there, John 828, let's
look and see what he said. He said. He said, when you've lifted up
the Son of Man, then you shall know that I am. And I do nothing
of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me.
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things
that please him. Now listen to me. That's something
Christ could say that you and I can't ever say, I always do
those things that please him. But because Christ came and he
did always do what pleased the father, he did it on behalf of
his people. And if you're one that hears his voice and obeys
his voice and believes him, you've done all things that please the
father and Christ will hear you. He will not leave you alone just
like the father didn't leave him alone. And that's what he's
teaching us. So just like the, Lord God gave our substitute
the Holy Spirit. He's going to give the Holy Spirit
to his child. And he's the head of the church
that he might get the glory fulfilling all in all. It's his glory to
do this. And so by the Holy Spirit, he
going to, he going to birth his children anew. And then as the
gospel is going forth, he's going to teach you in your heart. That's
what he's promised to do. Go to John 17. I want you to
see this. I wasn't going to get you turned
all these scriptures, but it's pretty good to do it. We may
go a little longer because we're going to look at some scripture,
John 17. This is what he did for the apostles. Look at this,
John 17, eight. This is his high priestly prayer.
He said, I've given it to them, the words, which style gave us
me. You see this. I'm trying to show
you that the father gave, opened his ear and gave him the words
as our substitute. And he opened the ears of his
apostles and he gave them the words. That's why the Lord gave
him the spirit, that he might speak a word in season to them
that are weary. So he did that to the apostles.
Look at verse 18. Then he's going to speak of you and me who are
sitting right here. Look at verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word."
That's some of you sitting right here. The gospel came down the
generations to us right here. And what did he do? Verse 26,
he said, I've declared unto them thy name, father, and I will
declare it. He declared it to the apostles.
He kept declaring it to the apostles. He declared it to some they preached
to and they were born again. He declared it some that they
preached to and they were born again. And he did the same thing
till they got to you. And he's hopefully by God's grace
doing it tonight. He said, I'll declare your name
and I'll keep declaring it to them. That's Christ doing that.
And so he tells us in verse four, he said, the Lord, back to Isaiah
50, he said, the Lord God's given me the tongue of the larm that
I should know how to speak a word and season to him that's weary. And so what's our redeemer telling
you and me? He said, when you're in dark seasons and you're in
the darkness, he said, stay on your God. Believe your God. Keep your heart set on Him, looking
to Him. Don't look anywhere else. Wait
on Him. Trust Him, even when you're in
the darkness. Christ will continue to speak
a word in season to you and me who are weary in darkness. Christ said, the Father awakens
my ear morning by morning. He waketh my ear to hear us to
learn. And Christ promises to do the same thing for you that
are his. Listen to this from Lamentations
321. Jeremiah went through a dark season. He went through a dark
season. And he said, this I recall in
my mind, therefore have I hope. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed, because his compassions fail not, they are
new every morning. That's what he said here. The
father woke his ear morning by morning, and Jeremiah said his
mercies are new every morning. His compassions fail not. It's
good unto them that wait for him. The Lord is good to them that
wait for him. He'll put you in darkness and
he won't speak to you and he won't let you know he's there.
Why? For you to wait for him, for
him to speak. You can't just turn this, this
thing of having Christ speak and you know, in his presence,
it's not like flipping on the light switch. We have to wait
on him. And faith is waiting on him when
you don't have anything to convince you that you even have him. Faith's
just waiting on him, trusting he's going to come again and
speak to your heart. I was going to give this a little later.
Let me give it to you right now. This is what Habakkuk said. Listen
to this now. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom. You imagine if you were living
in a time that this is going on. The fig tree will not blossom,
there's no fruit in the vines, the labor of the olive shall
fail, the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut
off from the fold, there shall be no herd in the stalls. That
sounds about like if our whole economy fell flat and there was
no crops and there was no food to eat and there was nothing
whatsoever and we're suffering the worst depression we've ever
been through. No evidences whatsoever that God's anywhere around. Yet
Habakkuk said, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the
God of my salvation. The Lord God's my strength. He
will make my feet like Heinz feet. He'll make me walk upon
my high places. He said, I'll just wait on him.
I'll just wait on him. So you may not feel like coming
to hear your pastor during that season. That's usually when we're
in a dark season, we don't feel like picking the book up. We
don't feel like coming to the services. We have all our reasons
why we can't do it. Listen, if Christ speaks to you
in your darkness, this is how he's going to do it right here.
He's going to do it through the preaching of the gospel. It's
one of the ways the wisdom of God to unite his people together
and make us know how we need the gospel. is to make you suffer
these seasons of darkness. And then him, you'd be sitting
here in a service one night and he speaks and it's like the sun's
popped out. And he makes you know, this is
how he's doing it. This makes you need each other. So, cause
you need the gospel. And this is how he makes you
know, you need the gospel. It's his glory to do this. So
you keep coming, you keep coming to hear, even when you're in
the darkness, this is how he's going to do it. Secondly, sometimes
the darkness is due to trials that we must suffer. But consider
the trial Christ suffered on our behalf. We go through our
trials. And we think they're the worst
thing, you know, they're just terrible. And the devil wants
you to think that you're the only one suffering anything like
you're suffering. That's what Peter said. But he
said, know this, that the Lord is accomplishing the same afflictions
in your brethren. You're not the only one suffering
what you're suffering. All your brethren are going through the
same thing. Go read that first Peter five. He said, cast your
care on the Lord. Resist the devil believing on
Christ because he said he's walking about seeking whom he may devour.
And he he said, and know that the Lord's accomplishing the
same afflictions in your brethren. The Lord's working the same things
in your brethren. The devil don't want he wants
you to think you you're the only one ever suffered like yourself.
So you'll have pride in your suffering. Oh, you'll be so down
and out and everything's so bad and so proud that nobody's ever
suffered like you have. We're a mess now. We're a mess. But think about when you're in
that place, you think about what the Lord suffered. Listen to
this, verse five. He said, the Lord God hath opened
mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. This
is a picture of the willing bond servant. His master was so good,
when it was time he could go, he said, I don't want to go free.
I love my master. I love my bride. I love my children.
I want to stay and serve. And so they took him to a doorpost,
scripture said, and they put all through his ear. They opened
his ear. They gave him a mark to let him know he belongs to
this master. And our Lord Jesus said, That's
called a willing bondservant, the law of the willing bondservant,
Exodus 21. And our Lord Jesus is saying,
that pictured me. That's what he's telling us right
here. The Lord opened my ear and I didn't turn back and wasn't
rebellious. Lord God gave his people to his son to glorify
him in our salvation. But what was it going to take?
What does the Lord mean I wasn't rebellious, I didn't turn back?
It was going to take him coming down and taking flesh like his
brethren. It was going to take him being
of no reputation. the Lord of glory who deserves
all reputation coming down and making himself of no reputation
and taking the form of a servant and serving God in perfect obedience
in the place of his people unto the death of the cross. And our Lord Jesus said, when
he opened my ear and told me that, I said, he said, I wasn't
rebellious. I didn't turn our way back. I
didn't turn away back. Now, if he's given you ears to
hear, he said there, who of you obey the voice of his servant?
Do you hear Christ speaking? You want to obey him? We don't
have to suffer darkness near like what he suffered, but the darkness is necessary.
We do have to suffer some darkness. We have to be humbled. He willingly
humbled himself. We won't willingly humble ourselves.
We have to be humbled. He made himself of no reputation.
We won't willingly make ourselves of no reputation. We like to
tell everybody how long we've been in the faith and how much
we know and all of that. Well, the Lord will humble you
down off of that. He will. How's he going to do it? He's
going to give you some darkness and he's going to make you submit
to him and wait on him and trust him. John Newton said it best. You ever prayed that you want
God to grow you in grace and knowledge and ask him, Lord,
teach me, grow me in faith, grow me in grace, grow me in knowledge?
This is what John Newton wrote. I ask the Lord that I might grow
in faith and love and every grace. Might more of his salvation know
and seek more earnestly his face. It was he who taught me thus
to pray and he I trust has answered prayer. But it has been in such
a way as almost drove me to despair. I hoped that in some favored
hour, at once he'd answer my request, and by his love's constraining
power, subdue my sins and give me rest. Instead of this, he
made me feel the hidden evils of my heart. Let the angry powers
of hell assault my soul in every part. Yeah, more with his own
hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe. Crossed all the fair
designs I schemed, cast out my feelings, and laid me low. Lord,
why is this, I trembling cried, would thou pursue thy worm to
death? Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I
employ. from self and pride to set thee
free. Break thy schemes of earthly
joy, that thou mayest seek thy all in me. That's what the Lord's
doing. That's the reason for the darkness.
When you have nothing else but Christ, you know who you'll call
on? Him. When you don't have anybody
else you can call on. If you got, if a drowning man's
got just one little, one little splinter he can latch onto, he'll
latch onto that one little splinter. And the Lord will take you to
where you don't have anything but him. so that you just trust
him only. But by opening our ear, he makes
his child a willing bondservant too. And the love of Christ constrains
us. We begin to judge that if one
died for all his people, then all his people died. And we live
now that we shouldn't live unto ourselves, but unto him that
gave himself for us and died for us. That's what his love
constrains you to do. You think about what Christ suffered.
Is there anything he could call on you to do that would be too
much after what he suffered for his people? Is there anything
he could call on you to do that would be too much? He said, I was not rebellious.
I didn't turn away back. Some people do. Some people follow
a while, and they make a big splash, and they come up fast,
and they sound like they know a lot, and boy, they're dedicated,
and I'll be here, and I'm behind it, and you know, hurrah, hurrah. The Lord had something like that,
called him king. Oh, we want to make you the king. You rule us forever. And he said,
you can't know me unless my father gives you a heart to know me.
He said, you can't have any life except you eat my flesh and drink
my blood. And they had no idea what that
meant. They said, give us the works, we can work. He said,
this is the work. Believe on him whom my father
has sent. That's the word. And they turned
around and went back. They were rebellious. They turned
their back and they went away. And he turned to his apostles
and he said, you go away too? And they said, Lord, you have
the words of eternal life. We believe you're the Christ.
To whom shall we go? Is he all you got? If he's all
you got, you'll stay with him. Well, sometimes our darkness
is due to being opposed for the sake of the gospel of our Redeemer.
Sometimes that's the reason we have darkness. We're being opposed
for the gospel we stand for. Our savior speaks a word in season
to us who are weary and he tells you to remember, remember how
he suffered for his people. Look at verse six. I gave my
back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Why didn't
he? Why did he just give his face
to such awful treatment? When he had men and women he
was preaching the gospel to and he was walking amongst this world,
when they began to rear back and just pluck the hair of his
beard out and spit in his face, why did he keep on with the work
the Father sent him to do? Why didn't he just quit? Why
didn't he just quit? That's a lot to bear. Utter rejection. People just
plummeting you in your face and then taking you and nailing your
hands and your feet to a cross and calling you every name in
the book, just how much they hated you. Why did he keep on
going on with this work? Verse seven, here was his confidence. For the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that
I shall not be ashamed. You want to talk about some darkness?
Was there any darkness like our Savior's darkness? He hath made him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. And when he bore the sin of his
people, God the Father turned his back on his son. The just
judge of heaven and earth did it. And you know what happened?
At noonday, it went black as night over the whole world for
three hours. You want to talk about somebody
who suffered darkness? People despised and rejected
him. His apostles he came to lay down
his life for, and his people he was dying for, turned and
ran and left him by himself. And God the judge turned his
back on him. He didn't have anybody. In my worst day, I've always
had somebody. He didn't have anybody. The holiness of God demanded
it. Justice had to be satisfied in order for God to show you
mercy. That's why he did it. And though God forsook him in
justice, and he hung there in that darkness, That was his shining
glory. And it takes faith to look into
that darkness and see the most glorious light you'll ever see.
That's what it was. Christ manifesting the wisdom
and righteousness of God. And he accomplished what he came
to do. The Lord said, he shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I'll divide him a portion with the great, he'll divide
the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul
unto death." You know what that means? I'm going to give you
the real simple definition of what it means. He poured out
his soul unto death. He couldn't have given nothing
else. He gave everything he could possibly give. And it took everything for him
to give everything to redeem us from all our sin. He was numbered with the transgressors. We just don't, you know, if you're
falsely accused, that, that hurts to be falsely accused. This is
the sinless son of God, but he wasn't falsely accused. He was
made sin. That's worse than being falsely
accused. And before God who's just, God
looked upon his son as being guilty because he was. He bore the sin of his people.
God doesn't pour out justice on the innocent. He only pours
out justice on the guilty because that wouldn't be justice to pour
out wrath on the innocent. If he ever punished an innocent
man one time, he might do it again. He won't do it again because
he didn't do it the first time. He poured out justice on his
son because he bore the sin of his people. That's why he was
numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and
he made intercession for the transgressors. You know what
that means? It means so much more than he prayed for us. He
did pray for us. It means he did everything necessary
and justified us completely from our sins so that God looks at
you and says what he says of his son. You that believe, he
says, he always does that which is pleasing in my sight. That's
all he's ever done. What about his sins? Your accuser
will go, well, what about his sin? I saw him sin. I know he
sinned. What about his sin? God says,
he's always done everything that pleases me. That's all he's ever
done. That's what he says of his people because that's what
Christ did. We go through our light afflictions
and our little dark seasons and there's no joy and there's no
comfort. And we're prone to think the Lord's removed all his blessings
from us. That's what we start thinking.
But what we're doing in that, you're in a dark season. You
don't feel his presence. You don't feel assurance. You
feel like everybody's against you. And so you don't think you
have God's presence. Providence is bad. Providence
looks dark. He's turned your world upside
down. He's taking your loved ones. He's taking your job. All
these things are against you. And you think, am I God's? And
the devil's just raging on you the whole time in your heart
saying, you can't possibly be God's. You wouldn't be suffering
all this if you were God's. The devil will come to you and
say, I think God's taking you out of the ministry. I think
God's kicking you out of the church. That's what the devil
will say to you. And he'll use men to say it. But when you're in that place
and you don't think God's with you, I'll tell you what you're
doing. You're looking to your feelings. We look way too much to our feelings.
It might be indigestion. I wouldn't look to my feelings. Stay upon the Lord in faith in
the darkness. That's true. That's true faith. The darkness does not mean God
has withdrawn his face or his grace. It doesn't mean
that. His face maybe, but not his grace.
Him withdrawing the light of his countenance from you so that
you don't feel his presence. You go through and do a word
study sometime of the light of his countenance. That's what
it is that makes you have that assurance in your heart. It's
the light of his countenance. Now he might withdraw his face
from you and you don't feel that, but he won't ever withdraw his
grace from you. In fact, him bringing you to
that place is grace to you. to make you trust Him even when
you don't have the feelings. Listen to this what Cowper wrote,
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. He plants
His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in
unfathomable minds of never failing skill, He treasures up His bright
designs and works His sovereign will. You fearful saints, fresh
courage take. The clouds you so much dread. They're big with mercy, and they
shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. His purpose will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter. He will make it plain. In other
words, that's just what our Lord's telling us here. When you're
in the darkness, stay up on the Lord and trust him. All right, look at it, verse
10. Who's among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice
of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Now I want you to catch what
our Savior said in verse eight. Now hang on to these words. Here's
what he said, this is what gave him all the confidence when he
faced the cross. He said, He is near that justifies
me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come
near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Though they all shall wax
old as a garment and the moss shall eat them up. He believed
the word of his covenant, Lord God. And he believed that when
he had satisfied justice, God would raise him from the grave
and justify him. And he did that. And he justified
his people in him. Your life, if you believe Christ,
you died with him and your life is hid in Christ at God's right
hand. But now pay attention to those
words. You see what he said? He's near that justified me.
Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who's
my adversary? Let him come near. He'll help
me. Who's going to condemn me? Go to Romans 8. The next time you're in that
place, you stay upon the Lord and you
just repeat these same words just like our Savior did when
he was going to that cross. That's what he said when he was
going to that cross. Here's the words he gives you
to speak. Look how much they're just like those words. Romans
8, 33. Who will lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
it's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for it. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? A tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it's written,
for thy sake we're killed all the day long, we're counted as
sheep for the slaughter. Nope. In all these things, we're
more than conquerors through him that loved us. That's just
what he said in Isaiah 50 when he went to the cross. So when
you go through your cross, where do you think Paul got that? He
got it from Isaiah 50. He got it from our Lord's word.
And that because of what Christ accomplished. He said, now who's
among you that feareth the Lord? You fear the Lord. Do you have
a reverence in your heart for the Lord? Do you obey the voice
of his servant? Do you believe Christ is all
your salvation and you want to do whatever he tells you to do?
Well, he just told you what to do. Well, he said this, when
you're walking in darkness and you have no light, you want to
obey him? He says, trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon your God. Just keep trusting Him. I pray
He'll bless that. Amen.