I want us to look in the book
of Isaiah this morning. Isaiah chapter 9, beginning in
verse 1. Nevertheless, the dimness shall
not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he likely afflicted
the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. and afterward did
more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan
in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nations. and not increase the joy. They
joy before thee according to the joy and harvest, and as men
rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the
yoke of his burden in the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his
oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior
is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood. But this shall
be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it, to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform it. Now that's a glorious passage
of scripture, often read around Christmastime, and I certainly
don't have any objection to that. But it's a shame that it is often
only read around that time because actually this is the revelation
of the gospel of the Lord unto his people, the coming of the
Redeemer. Without the Redeemer, there is
no gospel. Without one to come as a deliverer
of the people of God, they would not be delivered. By their own
power, they had no understanding to deliver themselves. We see
that from the beginning. As the Lord chose the nation
of Israel as a nation in the earth, and He chose those people
in Jacob, He said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.
And so even from the beginning, the Lord made a distinction between
His people and those who were not His people. Now, that has
caused men great consternation down through the ages, so much
to the fact that some people even would deny or tacitly deny
that such a passage of Scripture is even in the Bible. I remember
hearing the story of a man who, and I think I might have shared
this with you in times past, I'm kind of like a broken record,
I keep saying the same things over and over, but he stood up, the preacher stood
up, as a man had great objection to what he was preaching, so
he said, he read the ninth chapter of Romans, And the man stood
up and said, well, I don't believe a word that the preacher said.
He said, well, all I did was read the scriptures. And he said,
well, I don't believe the way he read it. Now, some people
think that if you read the Bible a certain way, that you can make
it fit what you want it to say. The truth is that the Bible is
the word of God. And whether we like it, or whether
we can explain it, or whether it makes us feel comfortable,
or whether it makes us feel uneasy, it's still the word of God. And
we have to bow before it, whether we understand it, like it, or
like somebody preaching upon it. And so it is that as we come
to this passage of scripture, the people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. Now, you know, if a man is in
darkness, he does not know it. You can be, I know that we've
all heard here over the past few days the sad tale of the
submarine that went down and was destroyed in the depths of
the ocean. There's a certain depth, I forget
exactly how many feet, not really as many as you might think, that
when you get to that point in the depths of the ocean, that's
as far as light penetrates. And when you get further down
in the ocean, there is no light at all. And so the only light
that can be seen is that which is generated by some source other
than natural light. Man, by nature, is in that exact
situation. He is in a place where he has
no light. Now that doesn't mean he can't
see all the things around him. He can see the glory of God revealed
in creation. The book of Romans tells us that
very thing. He can't deny it. He may want
to deny it, and he may deny it. But he can't deny it because
of the fact that it has been shown to him. But yet a man can
see all of those things and yet remain in great and unpenetrable
darkness. And such is the nature of man,
all men. There's no man that has understanding. There's none that understand
it, the Lord said. No, not one. Now some would object
and say, oh, but we understand a lot of things. Sure we do.
But you see, the one thing that we cannot understand is the one
thing that only the Lord can give a man eyes to see. And that's
what he told Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, some people like to think
of the new birth as being something that man participates in. And
of course, the very definition of a birth would put the lie
to that, would it not? I mean, how did you participate
in your own birth? You were acted upon. You had
no choice in the matter. And you came forth from your
mother's womb at a time appointed by Almighty God. And you didn't
make a decision to do so. And you couldn't go back in and
change the fact that you were born. And the Lord said such
it is with the Spirit of God. It blows where it lifts. And
you hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell where it's coming
from. So is everyone that's born of the Spirit of God. And what
a mercy it is when the Lord is pleased to give a man that light. because it is in that light that
he can see that one who is the Redeemer and otherwise he cannot.
Now he can learn as you can teach any child to know that Jesus
died on the cross. I was taught that from, I can't
remember when I wasn't taught that. I know there was a time
when I didn't know it and I was taught it, but I don't remember
when that was. Even knowing that, I was still
in the darkness. Because the one thing that I
needed to see that I couldn't see was the glory of the one
who hung on that cross. It's not enough that we just
talk about the fact that Jesus died on the cross. That's a wonderful
thing. I mean, we rejoice. Paul said that he would preach
nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified. and we desire
to do that, but we know and understand this, that you can believe that
Jesus died on the cross and not have any love for the one who
died on that cross. You can believe that and not
have any respect unto the one. You can have a knowledge of that
and not have a overwhelming desire to fall down on your face and
worship at his footstool. Well, that man who has seen this
great light that he speaks about here, he cannot do that because
he has seen a light. Now, the Apostle Paul, he as
Saul of Tarsus, he walked along his journey to Damascus thinking
in his mind what a great servant of God he was and how obedient
he was in going. this way. Now we don't really
know what might have been going on in his mind beyond that. Because it does appear that this
was not the first time that the Spirit of God ever whispered
in Paul's ear. Because he said, Saul, Saul. Is it hard for thee to kick against
the pricks? Now evidently, the Lord had pricked
Saul, but he still was going on in his darkness. But you see, it doesn't make
any difference how long a man is in darkness. When the giver
of light is pleased to come on the scene, he will see. And that's
a glorious thing. And so we see a man who was religious
to his core being shown the light. And I think that probably of
all positions that a man can be in that causes him to be the
farthest from hope in the righteousness of Christ is to be self-righteous.
Because even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight
of God. And yet men entertain the notion
that they can do something to please God. And they say, well,
we'll do this and God will be happy. We'll do this and God
will bless us. But nothing that a man can do
can precipitate the grace and mercy of God. It is that light
which must shine upon him. And by the grace of God, he does
shine that light on those whom he gives eyes to see. The people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. And not all
men see that light, but those that are in darkness and have
seen the light have an appreciation for that light. A man, you know,
that is totally blind and has never seen in his life, he doesn't
know he's blind, does he? I mean, he doesn't know what
it would be like to see. You know, now, if a man loses
his sight, then he would know, you know, what it was, and he
would have a desire to have that sight back. But a man who is
in darkness, he wouldn't know any different. I mean, he's used
to that. That's the way he goes, and that's
the way the men of the world are. by nature. That's the way
we all are. We're just going down our pathway
without any consideration of what's spiritual. I mean, these
things we hear about going to church and we might say, well,
you know, we need to go to church and we need to raise our family
in the church and we need to do all these things, but we don't
really have any thought that it's of any great value outside
of some carnal blessing that we might receive from it. But
yet the Lord to those people that have walked in darkness
have seen a great light they that dwell in the land of the
shadow of death upon them hath the light shined. Those that live in the shadow
of death. Now have you ever thought about this that A shadow is nothing
but darkness. I mean, a true shadow, there's
no light in a shadow. But you can't have a shadow except
there be light. The light has to shine in order
for a man to see the shadow. Now, I believe that the people,
the men of this world, they might live in the fear of death in
a carnal sense. But they do not dwell under the
shadow of death because the light has not shined upon them. And
they just go through life, all their lifetimes, subject to fear. But you see, the people of God,
those, he says here, that walked in darkness and have seen a great
light, they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death.
Now, dear brethren, we live in a land of the shadow of death.
You see, we can see the shadow. And why can we see the shadow?
Because we've seen the light. But the man who is in darkness,
he can't see the shadow. If a man's blind, he's never
seen the shadow. He doesn't know what it is. But
the people of God, you see, it's the mercy of God to reveal to
us the light, but also to reveal to us the shadow of death. Because
it is in our understanding that the Lord teaches to number our
days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom that we might seek
after thee. It is that shadow of death that
stirs the heart of the man who's seen the light. We know that
our days upon the earth are not long. Jacob said, few and evil
have been the days of my life. And yet he was quite an elderly
man at the time that he spoke that. But as the older that a
man gets, the more that he understands that if he's seen the light.
And the shadow of death grows longer. As you know, as the sun
goes down, the shadows lengthen. But by the grace of God, though
we see the shadow of death, we know the one who shines the light
that makes the shadow appear. Oh, what a glorious God He is.
that in time, in a time, in a time which seemed good unto him, he
sent forth his son made in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, that those whom he has given eyes to see the light and
to see the shadow of death. that they might be as David,
and say, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. My cup runneth over. The apostle Paul, being Saul
at the time, was in darkness. He thought he was in the light,
but when the light shone, he became blind. Isn't that an amazing
thing? I mean, he became physically
blind. He really got into the darkness, did he not? The Lord
would show him that he couldn't see anything apart from the mercy
of God. Well, the Lord restored his sight,
that he might minister to us, even as we read in Matthew 4,
16, this same passage of scripture again. that tells us that there
has been the people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined. And so it is, dear brethren,
by the grace of God, according to the mercy of God. He has given
us eyes to behold the glories of the Redeemer. And the glories
of that Redeemer are seen most clearly when we understand that
he has obtained eternal redemption for us. He didn't try to get
it. He didn't do the best he could.
He didn't do part of it and left the rest up to you. But the Lord
Jesus Christ went to the cross of Calvary. He went to Gethsemane's
garden in our behalf. And he poured out his soul unto
death. And he hung upon a cross. And he said, it is finished.
And he meant every word that he said. It was done. The great transaction was made.
And our salvation rests in him who is the light. He says, I
am the light of the world. If a man walks in me, he does
not walk in darkness. Dear brethren, have you seen
the light? He's that light that shines from eternity, even unto
eternity. You know, eternity's a thing
we can't comprehend. Eternity is that which separates
between God and man. Eternity is the essence of God's
holiness. He inhabited eternity. He dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. He only hath immortality. He
is that one who has life and light, belongs to him. And the
only way that any man will ever possess it is by his grace. And the glorious thing is that
a man doesn't have to know that fact in order for the light to
shine upon him. What he does need to know, or
what he does know, is when the light shines upon him. And he
is made to believe. See, that's the only way that
a man in this world can be known to have seen the light, is that
he believes. And he becomes, as Peter said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou is the word of eternal life.
I mean, where are we going to go? Lord, you have the light.
We don't want to dwell in the darkness. We want to dwell in
the light. Because we see the shadow of death. We know that
death is a real thing. We know that we are but dust. And Lord, he could crush us in
a moment. But according to his mercy, we
have seen a great light. Oh, have you seen the light?
Have you rejoiced in the light? For therein is eternal life,
in that light which he gives in the revelation of Christ as
the Redeemer of sinners.