Periods of Darkness in the Christian Life

Q: What does the Bible say about walking in darkness as a Christian?

The Bible describes walking in darkness as a lack of spiritual comfort and understanding, especially for those who fear the Lord. Walking in darkness, as described in Isaiah 50:10-11, refers to the experiences of true believers who might encounter periods of spiritual barrenness or dryness, where they feel a withdrawal of God's presence. This darkness is not synonymous with moral sin but represents a state where one feels confused, abandoned, or lacking understanding of God's dealings. Christians who fear God and obey His voice may find themselves in these circumstances, leading to deep questions about their faith and assurance.

Q: How do we know that God is with us during periods of darkness?

We trust in the character of God, as revealed in His names, even when we cannot feel His presence during dark times. During periods of darkness, we are called to trust in the name of the Lord, which reflects His character and attributes. Isaiah 50 instructs believers to stay upon their God, leaning on His everlasting promises and the truth of His nature. Even when God's face seems hidden, we can rest in the assurance that He remains sovereign and faithful. As believers, we can find comfort knowing that God does not change and that His grace continues to sustain us, even when we feel distant from Him. This act of faith allows us to hold on to our hope, trusting that His light will eventually break through our darkness.

Q: Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

The fear of God is foundational for saving faith, motivating believers to walk in obedience and seek His approval. The fear of God is an essential attribute of true believers, as it reflects a deep regard for His holiness and majesty. In Romans 3, the Apostle Paul highlights that a lack of the fear of God marks humanity's natural state of opposition to Him. However, for Christians, the fear of God fosters a desire to live in a way that pleases Him and avoids disobedience. This fear leads to an earnest pursuit of righteousness and holiness, as believers recognize that their greatest longing should be for God's smile of approval. The fear of God is thus intrinsically linked to genuine faith and obedience, forming the bedrock of a vibrant spiritual life.

Q: What should Christians do when they feel spiritually dry or in darkness?

Christians are advised to trust in the Lord and wait for His guidance without seeking to create their own light. When faced with spiritual dryness or darkness, Isaiah 50 encourages believers to trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon their God. This involves resting one's weight upon God's truth and character, affirming that He remains steadfast even when His presence feels distant. Rather than succumbing to impatience and trying to manufacture their own spiritual light through disobedience or human reasoning, Christians are to seek God's light continuously and wait for His will to be revealed. This period of waiting is a crucial test of faith, cultivating deeper reliance on God and eventual guidance.

But now tonight, Isaiah chapter
50, verses 10 and 11. Who is 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. 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 ye have kindled,
this shall ye have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow."
May we pause again for a moment of prayer and ask the Holy Spirit
to be our teacher as we study this portion together. Lord, we would consciously recognize
again that without Thee we can do nothing. And we plead as the
psalmist pled, Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous
things out of Thy law. Teach us, O God, by that inward
teaching of the Spirit, which always is marked by clarity and
by power. O Father, speak now, we pray. Amen. It is the common experience of
the most seasoned children and saints of God that there comes
to them in the course of their Christian experience periods
of great darkness periods of great oppression, periods where
it seems all of life could be summed up in one big, black,
ugly question mark, where all we know is that we don't know.
Those periods when it seems as though the face of God has been
withdrawn, when the smile of God is hidden from us, Times
when we may even have serious doubts about whether or not we
truly belong to the Lord. Times when we have serious questions
about just where we stand with Him. Times when in the discipline
of God upon our lives, we don't understand what God is trying
to show us. We find ourselves hemmed in and hedged about by
circumstances and pressures that seem to be utterly meaningless.
And when we cry for light, it seems all we do is increase our
darkness. If you're not in that place as
a child of God, I've got news for you. If you live too much
longer, you'll be there. For as one of God's dear servants
said, God isn't going to take us to heaven all wrapped up in
salivain like a Christmas package. He's going to drag us through
the fire and purify us, burn out the dross, And one of the
peculiar things that God uses in the lives of His children
to burn out the dross, to purify faith, and to deepen their roots
in Himself is to allow the periods of darkness to come, the periods
when life is just one big question mark. And I have found in my
brief experience of seeking to be a physician of souls, a counselor
to the people of God, that this passage which I've read to you
has been perhaps of more help than any other that I know of,
for it deals exactly with these kind of situations. Now let's
think our way through the passage tonight, considering, first of
all, who are the subjects of this passage? Well, I believe
it's obvious from the first two phrases that the subjects of
this passage are the true children of God. Who is among you? then two things, that feareth
the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant." And these two
phrases are descriptive of the covenant children of God, of
those who are the children of God by his grace, those who are
united to him in the covenant of his grace. It's interesting
to note how the prophet describes the true children of God. This
makes an interesting study. You can find it in other places.
In this immediate context, in chapter 51, you read, Hearken
to me, ye that follow righteousness, that seek the Lord. The children
of God are marked as those who pursue righteousness, who seek
after God. But here, they are described
as those who fear the Lord and who obey the voice of His servant. Now let's establish it that whatever
this passage is talking about, whatever instruction it's giving,
it is giving it to the true children of God. Those and those only
who have been born of the Spirit and are walking in that relationship
that we know in New Testament terminology as the sons and daughters
of God through grace. Now notice the description he
gives of the Christian. First of all, he calls him the
one that fears the Lord. This is the earmark of all saving
religion. It brings men and women into
an experience of walking in the fear of God. When the Apostle
Paul is describing the state of all men by nature and by practice
in the third chapter of Romans, Having dealt with every major
class of humanity, he summarizes the condition of the whole world
in Romans 3, 10-18. And he starts off in verse 10
by saying, There is none righteous, no, not one. And until you've
come to realize that, you know nothing of salvation. You're
as lost as the devil, my friend. Until you've seen that by nature
and practice you're not righteous, you don't need a Savior. Christ
has died in vain, as far as you're concerned. And so Paul says there
is none righteous, no not one, none that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God. Then he describes the state of
all humanity and he puts the capstone on all of this in verse
18 when he says this, there is no fear of God before their eyes. He says, the capstone mark of
men by nature and by practice is that they do not walk in the
fear of God. Oh, they may have some fears
of God's judgment. They may have some fears of a
hell that they've got a sneaking suspicion might await them when
they die, but they have no fear of God before them in the true
sense of the fear of God. What is the fear of God? Lord
willing, I'm going to bring a series on that next fall, but suffice
it to say that I believe this is basically what it is. It's
that regard of God in which His smile of approval upon my life
is my greatest longing. His frown of disapproval is my
greatest fear. It's that regard of God for His
smile and His frown that always produces a practical desire to
have my life lived as before His eye and under His precepts. Now that basically is what the
fear of God is. the person who lives in the consciousness
that he wants above all else to have the smile of God. He'd
rather die than incur the frown of God, and this attitude produces
a practical concern for the commandments and precepts of God, not merely
in external things that can be seen of men, but in all the circumstances
of his life, for he knows he lives before the eye of God.
And so Christians are marked as those who fear God. We read
in Acts 9.31 that the disciples were walking in the fear of God
and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and you never have one
without the other. You say you have the comfort
of the Holy Ghost and don't walk in the fear of God, you're deceived.
You have the comfort of a deceiving spirit from the devil who's attempting
to damn your soul, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.
For the comfort of the Holy Ghost and the fear of God are inseparably
united. We're exhorted to carry out our
holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7.1. All our service
is to be in the fear of God. Hebrews 12.28. Let us have grace
whereby we may serve Him acceptably with reverence and with godly
fear. No service is acceptable to God
unless it's done under the consciousness that my service must receive
His smile if it means it must receive the frown of the world.
My service must be framed by motives that are pure before
His eye. That's the only service acceptable
to God. Now, the Christian is one who walks in the fear of
God. This is the fruit of grace in his life. And then he's described
in this text as the one who obeys the voice of the servant of Jehovah. And the servant of Jehovah is
none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. And the child of God
is described as one who obeys the voice of his servant. By
nature, we don't obey his voice. Romans 8, 7 tells us the carnal
mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, indeed, can it be. But our Lord said, My
sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. My sheep hear and
they follow. Hebrews 5, 9 says He became the
author of eternal salvation unto all that obey Him. That's a mark
of a Christian. He obeys the voice of the servant
of Jehovah. He doesn't obey the dictates
of his church. He doesn't obey the external
standards set up by his particular fellowship. He's a young person. He doesn't simply obey the standards
set up by his mother and his dad. But his heart has been brought
subject by the grace of God to the will of God as expressed
in the Word of God through Jesus Christ. And that's the practical
description. So the subjects of this passage,
whatever circumstances are described, whatever counsel is given, remember
the subjects, the true children of God. And if you're here tonight,
And you are not walking in the fear of God and obeying the voice
of the servant of God, the Lord Jesus. This text has nothing
for you. For you to dip into this barrel
of sweet morsels for the children of God is to put your hands where
you have no business. These are the choice meats and
sweets of the children of God who fear Him and obey the voice
of His servant. All right, so much for the subjects.
Now, moving on in the text, notice the problem. What is the problem?
Well, here's the child of God who fears the Lord and obeys
the voice of his servant, but he has a problem, that walketh
in darkness and hath no light. The problem, you see, is one
of the lack of spiritual comfort, the lack of spiritual illumination
upon given points. Now, the word darkness is used
in different senses in the Scripture. Some places it means sin, where
the Scripture says, He that is born of God does not walk in
darkness. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth. But this is not speaking of that,
for we've already seen it's talking about the one who fears God.
And Proverbs says, The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil.
So a man who fears God doesn't walk in darkness. It's talking
about the one who obeys the voice of his servant. And if I obey
the voice of Christ, I'll not be walking in darkness, for He
leads, where? In paths of righteousness for
His name's sake. And so it's not speaking of darkness
in the sense of moral darkness, but it's speaking of darkness
in the sense that the psalmist spoke of it when he said in Psalm
4, 6, Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. It's that
darkness that comes when there is a seeming withdrawal of the
face of God from us. It's that darkness that comes
when in the course of doing the will of God, we come into areas
where there's no understanding of what God is seeking to teach
us. Where when we pray, it seems the heavens are brass and there's
no answer. When we wait, it seems that our
prayers simply mock us. It seems as though God is forgotten.
It seems as though the Lord will no longer remember to have mercy. So darkness is used in this sense,
and I want to apply this. The text is general enough that
I believe we can do so without doing violence to it. I believe
God gave it in this general sense so that we could apply it in
the various circumstances of our lives. The problem could
be, first of all, the lack of spiritual comfort In the general
way, we find that when we pray, we get into those dry spells,
when there is no light of His countenance. How easy it is to
pray when the Lord lifts up the light of His countenance upon
us. Prayer is no burden then, is it? It's the greatest delight
in the world to be carried out in prayer, sensing that you're
being enabled by the Spirit, and you're conscious of the smile
of God upon you when you pray, and the face of God is beaming
brightly. Prayers of delight, then, isn't
it? Do you know anything about that? If you don't know anything
about that, I'd begin to check my foundation if I were you. If prayer is just a ritual by
which you give some religious mumbo-jumbo and try to somehow
throw it up in the direction of the deity, now, dear one,
I fear that you perhaps never have received the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. But the true child of God, whose
taste is the reality of that, is the one who experiences the
bitterness when it's withdrawn. I believe this is what David
had in mind, and this is what gives me comfort, because I find
that when I get in these situations, I have good company. For I read
him praying, Will thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long
wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? Here's the psalmist
crying out, conscious that the face of God is hidden, and when
he prays, there aren't those sweet, satisfying revelations
of the presence and the face of God. Psalm 22, though we know
it refers to Christ, David had to pass through a situation in
which he could write of that. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? The psalmist entered into a situation
far less extreme than David's greater son, the Lord Jesus,
but nevertheless one in which he felt he had been forsaken
of God, and he had been praying. He says, I cry unto thee in the
daytime, in the night seasons I am not silent. And he says,
God is death to me. So the problem of our text is
that one where we walk in darkness and have no light in the general
state of our spiritual condition, especially when we seek the face
of God in prayer. Then I believe there's an application,
secondly, to those times when we enter into a trial of faith
and we can't seem to understand what God is trying to tell us.
Maybe it's a physical trial. And as the children of God, we
recognize that God can chastise us and discipline us and try
to teach us through physical affliction. We know this. Woe
be unto the person who's got a theology that won't let him
have God big enough to use sickness for his own ends. Lover, I have
no sympathy with this idea that every time I get an ache or a
pain, I'm to claim deliverance as though the devil is trying
to harass me and gain the victory on me. Some
people have too small a God. They've got a God too small that
He can't use sickness to His own ends. And so they say every
sickness ought to be prayed against as though it were some foul enemy.
Beloved, I don't believe that. I don't see it taught in the
Bible. This sickness is not unto death, but that the glory of
God may be revealed. That's what the book says. My
grace is sufficient, my strength will be made manifested in the
midst of conscious physical weakness. Most gladly will I glory in my
infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians
12. It does not nullify that God
will and does desire in instances to bring supernatural and glorious
deliverance. But there are times when God
is allowing a physical trial, and we can't seem to get the
answer. Job is the classic example of this. Here was a man bowed
down with extreme physical pressure, and he couldn't seem to find
the reason. And all his comforters came, and all the ones who were
going to expound the reason, and all they did was press him
deeper into his darkness. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his servant? Hath no light?
walks in darkness, can't seem to find the reason for the physical
trial. If it's chastisement, Lord, what
have I done that you want to speak to me about? If it's a
lesson, what is it, Lord? And there seems to be no answer.
Maybe it's in a situation of guidance. And every single door
seems blocked. Oh, how I remember some of these
instances in my own life. where it seems every purpose
that perhaps you thought was born of God was frustrated, and
you feel God called you to this or to that, and as you moved
into that door, it slammed shut in your face, and you cried out,
Lord, what's the meaning of all this? And you got no answer.
Darkness. No light. If you aren't in that
place, you're going to be someday, if you're earnest about knowing
the will of God. Perhaps it's a situation in which
there's some providential dealing. God touches some aspect of your
life, your business, your loved one. And again, in the providential
circumstances of God, you can see no rhyme, no reason. Absolutely
makes no sense whatever. You walk in darkness, you have
no light. Then perhaps the third area where some may experience
this is in the matter of their own assurance of whether or not
they're the children of God. Now, we live in a day when it's
assumed that the unpardonable sin is to doubt whether or not
you're saved. I've got news for you. That might be the greatest
virtue that some people could ever engage in. To begin to doubt
whether or not they're really saved. It might begin to lead
them to true Bible conversion. But we live in a day, the minute
anyone begins to question Am I really yours, Lord?" He's got
a thousand people around to stick a verse under his nose and say,
you're all right. Beloved, my Bible says, examine
yourself, prove yourself, whether ye be in the faith. My Bible
says, make your calling and election sure. For some of you to doubt
your salvation would be the first ray of light that might lead
you out into the full blazing light of true acceptance with
God and Jesus Christ. And the child of God who may
come under the reigning power of a certain lust or sin will
begin to doubt his salvation. If you as a Christian can live
in known sin and not doubt your salvation, or as a professing
Christian, you better question your so-called Christian experience. For this is how God deals with
His children. He withdraws the comfort and witness of the Spirit
to His disobedient, erring children And there begins to be a shaking.
And though there's a basic fear of the Lord, and though there's
a basic heeding the voice of His servant, there may be areas
that cause us to begin to walk in darkness, and we wonder, am
I really His? Now these three areas, the general
state of spiritual dryness, especially manifested when we go to pray,
Those trials of faith, physical matters of guidance, or the general
providential arrangement of our lives where there seems to be
no sense whatever in what God is doing, or in that area where
we begin to question our own acceptance with God in Christ,
the problem is one of walking in darkness and having no light.
And the longer I read my Bible and the more I read the biography
of the great saints of God, I've come to the place where I think
I'm rather dogmatic. that no true child of God who
lives any length whatsoever on the face of God's earth is going
to be bypassed in this experience. And I don't believe it's a wilderness
that you go through once for all and get out of it into something
else. For I read the mature apostle
Paul saying that he was in distresses oft, in fears, in anxieties, Perhaps he hadn't attended a
convention that told him he never need to have any anxieties anymore.
Well, I know one thing, he never would have organized one. I was
with you in weakness, in fear, and in trembling. Is that what he said? He said, I had pressures without,
fears within, the care of the Church upon me daily. You see, the true children of
God experience these periods of darkness for the simple reason
that they have tasted the reality of God's face and His fellowship,
and they're satisfied with nothing less. See? The true children
of God have known what it is to live under His smile, and
they can't be satisfied just to live day by day, quoting texts
to themselves, without having the God who gave those texts
reveal His glory to their souls. I'm going to say something that
may not be understood. I prayed that it would be. I'm
convinced that we've cursed many people at the very outset of
their Christian profession. I didn't say possession. For
in our effort to move away from an extreme of getting people
to think they're saved by their feelings, we have reared a brood
of people teaching them that you're saved apart from any inner
response of the soul to God. And so they're made to take three
little texts, and they're told, Believe it, whether you feel
anything or not. Believe it, believe it, believe it. And we
brainwash them into saying, All right, God says it. I've got
it. Therefore, I'm a Christian. There's been no vital contact
of the soul with God. There's been no gaze of the soul
upon the glory of His face in Christ. There's been no amazement
at the wonder that a holy God would ever send His Son for such
a sinful wretch. They know nothing of this, and
so they're brought into the profession of Christianity in terms of three
little verses with no hard encounter with God, and they're made to
feel you'll live the rest of your life like that. And if you
get discouraged, just claim a verse. Just sort of think on it, and
it'll help you out. They know nothing of these struggles
of walking in darkness. They know nothing of these psalms.
They can't read them with any sympathy. O Lord, hast thou clean
cast off forever? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? Do you know what that is to pray
that? Do you know anything about that? Do you know what it is
to have the face of God hidden? That's the greatest agony for
a true Christian. The man who wrote that no informed Christian
need ever pray the 51st Psalm ought to have his heart, if not
his head, examined. And the so-called mature Bible
scholar wrote that. No mature Christian ever need
pray the 51st Psalm. Take not thy spirit from me. Cast me not away from thy presence. But if you haven't prayed that,
better check your foundation. The child of God knows what it
is when he's fallen before his reigning sin, as David did before
his besetting sin, to have the sense of the withdrawing of the
operations and power of the Spirit. And he cries out, take not thy
spirit from me. Sure, theologically I know I'm
sealed to the day of redemption, but the child of God takes no
comfort from his positional experience, his positional standing, when
he's barren in his personal experience. Right? Small comfort I get saying I'm
sealed in the day of redemption when I go out and face the day
with no sense of the presence and power of God upon my life.
Small comfort I can take from knowing I'm sealed in the day
of redemption if I can't stand and experience the powers of
the world to come as I minister the Word of God. And so the true
Christian will go through these times when he walks in darkness
and has no in a general sense, in terms
of a trial of faith, perhaps in terms of his own acceptance
before God in the Lord Jesus. Now let's hurry on. What counsel
does the prophet give? The subjects of our text, the
true children of God. The problem? Spiritual barrenness,
lack of light, lack of illumination. No way out of the situation that's
discernible. Now what is God's counsel? Here
it is. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Now, I don't believe we should
make a hard, fast distinction between these two things and
try to find something distinctly different about both phrases,
trust in the name of the Lord, stay upon his God. But let's
just take the meaning as they stand and the light that they'll
throw upon the general thing that God is counseling us to
do. Perhaps we ought to start by
saying what we're not to do. Who is among you that feareth
in darkness, and hath no light?" You know what some of us do?
We push the panic button and say, well, since the Lord hasn't
refreshed my soul with the sensibility of his presence, I just won't
bother to obey him. I've met so many, at least professing
Christians, with whom this is a tremendous problem. The minute
the Lord withdraws the sensibility of his presence, and they come
into a period of darkness, They get careless and say, what's
the use of obeying? They throw in the towel. Nobody
here ever does that, though, do we? Anybody here? I think the few people that have
given me this impression are in this congregation. I think,
I don't think I've met them all elsewhere. In fact, I think I
live with one of them. He walks in my shoes and puts
my suit on. Isn't this the temptation? Since
the Lord has withdrawn the shining of his countenance, then I'll
withdraw my covenant of obedience. For what's the use? That isn't what the prophet says
to do. He didn't say push the panic button. He didn't say run
to a Bible conference either. He didn't even say run to your
preacher. No, he said, something else you can do. Look at it.
He says, in this situation, let him trust in the name of Jehovah. Psalm 910 says, the name of the
Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. The name of God, as we saw in
our studies of the Lord's Prayer, is the speaking of His character. God's character and His attributes
are revealed in His name. And so the psalmist says, when
I'm in that situation of darkness, I need to trust, I need to commit
myself to Jehovah as He's revealed in His names. This would be a
topic for a series of sermons. What names has God taken to Himself? The name Jehovah, the eternally
existent One, the ever changeless One. Is there darkness? Well, you and I were surprised
when we first learned as children that on a rainy day the sun hadn't
gone anywhere. It was just as much up there
in the heavens burning as on the brightest sunny day. What
a revelation that was to us when we learned that. It was kind
of hard for us to believe that, wasn't it? We just couldn't figure that
out. We thought the sun went for a walk somewhere. No, it didn't go anywhere. The fact that some clouds have
obscured the light of the sun from our gaze doesn't change
the fact that it's there. And so the child of God, when
darkness comes, lays hold of this. He trusts in the name of
his God, Jehovah, the eternally existent One, who changes not. Malachi 3.6, I am Jehovah, I
change not. Therefore ye are not consumed,
O sons of Jacob. He has taken upon Himself the
name of Father, of Redeemer. of rock, of fortress, the Lord
our righteousness, the Lord our banner, the Lord our healer,
the Lord our provider, all of the names that He has taken upon
Himself to somehow reveal to us the greatness of who He is.
And so in the midst of darkness, I am to stay, I am to trust in
the name of Jehovah, And I am to stay upon my God. This word,
stay, is interesting. It's the same word in the Hebrew
as is used in Proverbs 3, 6. In all the, Proverbs 3, 5, I'm
sorry. Is it 5? Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart. Yeah, here it is. And lean not
upon thine own understanding. It's the word to lean. It means
to rest the weight upon. Now, we're told in this situation
to rest the weight of our soul, to support ourselves upon the
Lord, our God. And I think this has the connotation
of our personal interest in Him. Is my heart basically a God-fearing
heart? Is it a heart which has been
basically brought subject to the Lord Jesus? then the only
explanation of this is that God in grace has subdued my rebel
heart and put his spear within my heart. This being true, even
though I cannot see his face, I am still the object of his
particular distinguishing grace. And in the midst of this, I am
to lay hold of this fact that He is my God. Let him trust in
the name of the Lord and stay upon His God. Support himself
in the realization that though he has hidden his face, he has
not withdrawn his grace. Though he has clouded himself
from my view, he has not taken his arms from beneath me. And
this is what I must do. And it's only in these situations
that faith is really tried and tested. It's not easy for me
to believe that He's my God when the glory of heaven breaks upon
my soul in the place of prayer. I'd be a fool not to believe
it. When the hallelujahs are rolling in your soul like breakers
down at the shore, it's not easy to call Him your God and rejoice
in Him, is it? I mean, not hard, is it? Is it
or isn't it? Of course not. It takes little
faith. But when there's nothing but
darkness, and nothing but that big black question mark, in the
midst of that thing, to call Him my God, and to stay upon
Him, and to wait upon Him until He breaks in upon my soul, this
is the test of faith. The clearest example of this
that I know in the Scriptures is our Lord Jesus. Have you ever
thought of the tremendous exercise of faith in those last words
that he uttered upon the cross? For three whole hours, every
sensibility of the comfort and presence and support of the Father
was withdrawn, and in its place, there was the positive infliction
of the consciousness of the wrath of God. Not only was the smile
withdrawn, but he saw the frown. Not only was the sky not bright
with the countenance of His Father, it was black with the judgment
of His Father. And toward the end of those three
hours, our Lord cried, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Not,
O God, My God. What was our Lord doing? He was
the One who above all others walked in the fear of His Father
as a man, who obeyed the voice of His Father, and He had nothing
but darkness. There wasn't one ounce of light,
not even physical. God even blotted out the physical
light for three whole hours, for there was darkness over the
land from the sixth hour till the ninth hour. And yet, toward
the end of that ninth hour, our Lord said, In an act of sheer and naked
faith, He stayed Himself upon the fact that this was His God.
And then that faith found expression in His final words, Into Thy
hands I commend my spirit. Without one bit of the sense
of the nearness and the presence of His Father, the waves of the
Father's wrath billowing upon His head, Into Thy hands I commend
my spirit. What a beautiful example of this
text. Trusting in the name of the Lord
and staying upon his God. And involved in this, of course,
will be waiting upon him, not running off into paths of disobedience,
but pressing on until the light breaks in upon our own souls
as the psalmist prayed. And I love this prayer from this
standpoint. He said in Psalm 123 verse 2,
as the eyes of a maiden, as the eyes of a mistress look unto
her maiden and the eyes of a servant unto his master, so our eyes
wait upon the Lord till he have mercy upon us. And that's the
part that we don't like. We think God has no right to
withdraw the light of his countenance for a day. And if we go to have
our little 15-minute devotions and he doesn't smile, we sulk
and we go away angry. Oh, we won't be honest about
it, but that's really what we do. We say it's really not fair
for God to treat me this way. But the psalmist said, I'm going
to seek and seek on and keep waiting until God reveals the
light of His countenance. Isn't that what he said? Until
he have mercy upon me. Now this text closes with a warning.
We want to consider it briefly as we close tonight. The subjects,
the children of God, the problem, darkness, lack of understanding
of what God is doing, the counsel, let him trust in the name of
the Lord, stay upon his God. Now what's the warning? Verse
11. Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves
with sparks. Walk in the light of your fire,
and in the sparks that ye have kindled, This you have of my
hand, you shall lie down in sorrow. What's the picture here? Here's
the picture of people. They've got no light from God,
and they get impatient, so they go out to make their own light.
That's the picture. So they light up some firebrands,
and they walk in the light of those firebrands. They say, oh,
we can see our way around well now. We've got lots of light
now. The Lord said, all right, you go ahead. Walk in your light,
but mark my word, when you do, the end of such practice is sorrow. Do you see the application here? I've proved this to the bitterness
of my own soul when I've been too impatient to wait for God's
light to break open on a given situation. I've been too impatient
to wait for God's countenance to shine upon me or upon that
circumstance. And I've gotten up from my knees
and I've gone and made my own light and made my own plans. And I've had to lie down inside.
You know what this is? You know what it is to do this?
So impatient. We can't wait for God's guidance,
so we're going to get our own. We can't wait for His countenance,
so we're going to go out and somehow make our own little satellite
and shine a flashlight on it and get a little beams of light
in this way. This is what multitudes are doing
with the matter of salvation. We say horrors when a man goes
into a little black box or into a little cubicle. There's a veil. And he tells
his sins to another man who has taken upon himself the name of
priest. And when the confession is over,
the priest says to him that I absolve you of your sins. Your sins are
remitted. And he goes out feeling, well,
that's done and that's over with. And he feels it's all well now.
And we say, poor deluded man, resting upon the word of another
creature that his sins are forgiven. I know something worse than that.
Many people in our day are absolving themselves from their sin. They
are pronouncing themselves forgiven. They've never known what it is
to come before God, smitten by the wounds of Holy Ghost conviction. and seek the Lord until He, who
alone knows when repentance and faith has been worked in the
heart, has whispered peace." No, what have they done? They've
grabbed a text and pronounced themselves forgiven, and they've
gone out in the light of their own absolution, and they've never
heard the whisper of God to a broken heart, "'Son, thy sins be forgiven
thee.'" I'm convinced of that. And it's a delusion that's far
more subtle than the delusion of the Romanist. I ask you a
very searching question tonight. Has God the Holy Ghost pronounced
you forgiven, or have you pronounced yourself forgiven? Do you know what it is to come
before God, smitten in conscience, wounded in spirit, at the sight
of your sins, the magnitude of them in the presence of a holy
God, pleading nothing but mercy? And have that same God, through
the Word and by the Spirit, pronounce you forgiven in the depths of
your own heart. Do you know what that is? Or
did you merely snatch at a text that said, whosoever calls should
be saved. I've called ipso facto, therefore
I am saved. Pronounce yourself forgiven and
go your way. You got the question. Have you absolved yourself or
is he absolved? That's the question. That's the
issue. And it matters not how much I
say I know him, but in that day, it matters whether or not he
says he knows me. The warning our Lord gives is
applicable to the matter of salvation. Beloved, your soul is too precious
to trifle with. If you're here tonight saying,
oh yes, I'm saved, why do you say it? Has some man, some personal
worker, or yourself pronounced you saved? Or has God, by the
Spirit through the Word, whispered peace to your heart? Christian, you young people,
oh may God help you to get this. It'll save you some tears that
I've shared. When it comes to finding out
your life work, who's going to be your wife, some of you can't
think of anything worse right now than thinking about getting
married. But someday you'll get a light
in your eyes and you'll be coming to Daddy and Mommy all fumbling
your fingers and kind of stuttering and wanting to tell them, you
know, that you found Miss Right. Or you young ladies, that you
found Mr. Right. Don't you run ahead of God and
kindle your own light and get your own guidance? Oh, how many
young people I've seen lie down in sorrow. Oh, they were so sure! This is the Lord's light! He's
shed light upon the path! He's leading us together! Oh,
how they'd lain down in sorrow. They've kindled their own light,
weren't willing to wait upon God. Get the warning tonight? Far better to go through two
or three years of agony, not knowing, is this the right one?
Is she or isn't he? Is he or isn't she? And wrestling
in darkness and light, and others seem to be able to get guidance
like this. And you say, Lord, why? Why? Wrestle on, pray on,
seek on. And when God gives light, beloved,
you'll lie down in peace, not in sorrow. You can apply it to physical
problems. I have no use for this. kind
of a concept of divine healing that says you pronounce yourself
healed and go out still with the crippled leg and with the
deep pain and say it's done, it's done, it's done, it's done.
That's Christian science. It's not divine healing. Beloved,
whenever our Lord touched a man, it was done. He was healed. And I believe this God's the
same God today. But don't you create your own light.
Ask God for grace to bear that thing. Continue to seek Him.
Ask Him if it glorify Him to release you. And when He gives
that supernatural, genuine touch of His upon your body, the work
will be done and you'll do a good job. Yes, you will. You can apply
it to the matter of circumstances. Circumstances hedge you up and
there's no way to go. You've got to stand still and
know how we hate it. Know how we hate it. We've got
to do something! And the Lord says, stand still.
Don't you go out and force open the door, because if you do,
you're going to lie down in sorrow. Apply it to so many areas, the
warning of God in terms of this matter of spiritual darkness.
Well, I trust the Lord will use this text to help some tonight.
I trust He'll use it to help all of us in the days that lie
ahead. One of the great concerns of
the heart of anyone who at least attempts to be a shepherd after
God's heart is to know what morsels of truth God will bless to the
health of His children. And I'm sure one of the areas
in which I have so much to learn being a young man and having
been limited in my own experience is how to comfort the wrestling,
striving, perplexed children of God. But I trust this will
be a little contribution tonight. Who is there among you that feareth
in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of
Jehovah, and stay upon his Those of you that are about to
kindle your own light, may God the Holy Ghost thunder in your
bosom tonight in such a way that it will send you down on your
knees trembling. And if you've pronounced yourself
forgiven, don't rest! Seek the Lord until, to your
smitten heart, He whispers peace. Don't rest until you know the
light of His countenance. Shall we?

Periods of Darkness in the Christian Life

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about walking in darkness as a Christian?

How do we know that God is with us during periods of darkness?

Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

What should Christians do when they feel spiritually dry or in darkness?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Articles

Featured Authors

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Featured Preachers

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Browse by Format

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About

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Periods of Darkness in the Christian Life

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about walking in darkness as a Christian?

How do we know that God is with us during periods of darkness?

Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

What should Christians do when they feel spiritually dry or in darkness?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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