“Light and Darkness, Part VIII”
Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:32 pm
“Light and Darkness, Part VIII” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GGFb6LcX3U
Tonight, we are continuing in our Series, “Light and Darkness.” This Evening will be our Eight Installment. We are going to continue in our more general review of those Scriptures where both Light and Darkness are found together. As we did last week, we will be in the Old Testament, but we are only going to cover a single verse, tonight. The Sermon Bible had a somewhat lengthy, but very insightful comments on that single verse. So... let's begin:
Our only “hit” is found in Isaiah 50:10: “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.”
The Sermon Bible comments on the above: “DARKNESS EXPERIENCED, DARKNESS THREATENED: Who is among you that feareth the Lord, &c. I believe this passage has been generally, if not dangerously, misunderstood. It has been quoted, and preached upon, to prove that “a man might conscientiously fear God, and be obedient to the words of the law and the prophets; obey the voice of His servant—of Jesus Christ Himself; that is, be sincerely and regularly obedient to the moral law and the commands of our blessed Lord, and yet walk in darkness and have no light, no sense of God’s approbation, and no evidence of the safety of his state.” This is utterly impossible; for Jesus hath said, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
If there be some religious persons who, under the influence of morbid melancholy, are continually writing bitter things against themselves, the word of God should not be bent down to their state.
There are other modes of spiritual and scriptural comfort. But does not the text speak of such a case? And are not the words precise in reference to it? I think not; The text contains two questions, to each of which a particular answer is given:—
Question 1. “Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah?” A. “Let him hearken unto the voice of His Servant.”
Question 2. “Who that walketh in darkness and hath no light?” A. “Let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and lean himself [prop himself] upon his God.”
Now, a man awakened to a sense of his sin and misery, may have a dread of Jehovah, and tremble at His Word; and what should such a person do? Why, he should hear what God’s Servant saith: “Come unto me, all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There may be a sincere penitent walking in darkness, having no light of salvation;
for this is the case with all when they first begin to turn to God. What should such do? They should trust, believe on, the Lord Jesus, who died for them, and lean upon His all-sufficient merit for the light of salvation, which God has promised. Thus acting they will soon have a sure trust and confidence that God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven them their sin; and thus they shall have the light of life.—Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.A.S.
All true servants know what it is to feel as if the light for which they looked had for a time failed them, to utter a prayer like Ajax, ‘Give light, and let us die.' The Servant felt it when He uttered, ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:46). For such an one there were the words of counsel, ‘Trust, in spite of the darkness.’ The cry of the forsaken Servant was followed by, ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit’ (Luke 23:46).”
I. A MYSTERIOUS DISPENSATION DESCRIBED. A good and holy man sinking in despondency and dejection—walking in darkness and having no light. Mysterious, according to the ordinary estimate we form of what is right and fit. “No wonder,” you say, “that this should be the doom of the openly ungodly, of the close hypocrite, of the presumptuous Antinomian {the belief that we are set free from moral law by Grace}, or even, perhaps, of the newly-awakened convert;
but how strange that it should be the case with the most approved of God’s people—those who fear the Lord, and obey the voice of His servant!” Yet so it has often been. A horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham. Job said, “My soul chooseth strangling rather than life.” Paul complained of the messenger of Satan. Our Lord Himself said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Let me specify some causes of this despondency; I cannot specify all. 1. When the course of God’s Providence towards His Church is perplexed and clouded. This was the case here. The captives were overwhelmed with their calamities (Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 50:1-3).—When God does not interpose for His church or themselves as they expected, and comes not forward in the path they had marked out for Him, they seem like prisoners in a dungeon without a lamp;
or like midnight travellers in the wood and the thicket without a star (Job 23:8; Psalms 77:7-9).—Again, when their own lot is privation and suffering; when long-continued affliction of body and mind is permitted; when hope after hope is disappointed, and plan after plan is broken; when the interests of others are involved in your own, and a succession of trials takes place each darker and more painful than before, then this sorrow and dejection is felt (see Lamentations3:1)
2. When, in conjunction with outward trials, there is a sense of sin upon the conscience, unaccompanied with adequate views of the power and grace of Christ to save. I lay great stress on this. A sense of sin is the heaviest part of the believer’s burden: and it is the natural and proper tendency of affliction to bring sin to remembrance. Much of this darkness and depression may be intended to embitter sin; to arouse the recollection of past offences and neglects before conversion, or since.
How suggestive the remark on the misconduct of Solomon: “God was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord, who had appeared to him twice!” All sins under or after special mercies will meet at one time or other with special rebukes. Nothing more distresses a believer than the remembrance in darkness of abused light, in desertion of neglected love. —Then, the processes of sanctification are always incomplete.
If not open sins, there may be secret departures from God: pride, bitterness, sins of the spirit.—Suppose these recollections to occur without adequate views of the power and grace of Christ, or without a consciousness of deep and often renewed repentance, dejection will occur. 3. When the promise is very long delayed, and answers to prayer seem to be withheld.
As it happened to the Saviour, so it will happen to His disciples, who are known by their fear of the Lord, and their obedience to the voice of His Son. There will be times when it may be said of them that they “walk in darkness, and have no light.” The rule then is, after the example of Him who said, “The Lord will help me, therefore I shall not be confounded,” to trust in the Lord;
and if the blind man who walks in darkness trusts in the brute that guides him, and goes on his sightless way without a fear and without a doubt, how much more may the believer fear not with such a stay on which to lean!—Keith. 4. When their religious state is after all doubtful. For the pardon may have passed the great seal of heaven, and yet the indictment be suffered to run on in the Court of Conscience.
II. The wicked ironically counselled to walk by the light of their own fire. Antithesis between the light of God and the light of men. The faithful were to be delivered from captivity into light and liberty. But the wicked kindle a fire of their own, and are without God. Isaiah 50:11 is not a first warning to repent, but a warning that destruction, darkness, endless sorrow, are about to descend upon them.—Samuel Thodey. I. The best of men may find themselves walking, as it were, in the valley of the shadow of death.
II. They should then honestly examine themselves. If as the result of that examination they see that “the fear of the Lord” is the governing principle of their hearts, they should walk on in the path of duty submissively and hopefully. The God whom they trust will keep them in the midst of the darkness, and in His own time, which is always the best, will lead them forth into light.
SPIRITUAL DARKNESS: Isaiah 50:10. Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah, that hearkeneth to the voice of His servant? He that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God. Micah 7:8. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
I. DARKNESS AS A FACT OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE, AND THE CHRISTIAN’S PROPER EXERCISE UNDER IT. In the natural world it is not always light; the sun goes down and darkness spreads, &c. So in higher life. The spiritual heavens are not always bright. 1. It may be the light of faith that is darkened. Spiritual realities are withdrawn into shadow. There is a God to rule over all and love all, but where is He? There is a Christ to die for all, but where is the cross?
The cloud has fallen even on Calvary. What is the man to do? Do! He is to believe. Faith is not wholly gone. Both texts call on its exercise. The light exercises sense. It is the darkness that exercises faith. 2. It may be the light of God’s face that is felt to be withdrawn. The soul feels deserted and is in dismay—for God’s favour is its life. The resource against this feeling of abandonment is God’s character and word, and the gift of His Son (chap. Isaiah 54:8; Job 13:15).
3. Darkness may come in the form of the fading away of some Christian hope—personal hopes, or hopes for the kingdom of God. With the sun of hope gone down behind the sky, what are we to do?
Remember (1.) This setting of hope is not for ever. It precedes a glorious dawn. God is the God of hope. He often lets hope wane that it may gather strength. (2.) Though the sun of hope has set for ever on earth, earth is not all.
It may be remarked here that this dark experience gives a striking demonstration that God only is man’s comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). The spiritual helper of the man who sits in darkness feels he may as well throw his words on the dead wall; and the sufferer whom he would help is ready to say of all human helpers whatever, “miserable comforters,” &c.
II. DARKNESS AS A MEANS OF SPIRITUAL DISCOVERY: Perhaps the best explanation of this darkness, and it is a vindication too, is found in the results which it works. In nature the darkness of night lets us see what we cannot see when the sun is shining. The unnumbered worlds of God are not seen under the effulgence of noonday. It is the same with spiritual night in the soul, or may be the man of God may then get great enlargement of spiritual information and understanding—
under the dim starlight of darkened faith and hope may more truly descry the positions, relations, and magnitudes of Divine realities. His experience improves and enlarges his knowledge of God’s ways and of himself to begin with, and from that beginning a great deepening and widening of his spiritual education may be effected. And by and by he shall come forth into the light with treasures of wisdom and knowledge far greater than if the cloud had never overshadowed him.
There are worlds we are told which, having two suns in their heavens, are perpetually in the light. What can the inhabitants of these worlds know of the universe, if their sunlight is of a nature like ours? So with those whose spiritual heaven is always bright. They can on that account perhaps see not so near to the throne of God. In heaven it is always light, but the light there is not the light of the sun. The help of darkness is no longer needed there.
There need be no mystery why all this is so. The man who sits in darkness is by the pressure of his position made a more diligent searcher into Divine things. The mind that feels the darkness spreading immediately around, is made to seek the light that is far away. When a man is always in the light he may be too easily satisfied with the light he has. Darkness brings alarm. It quickens. It shows how easily all our satisfactions may be gone.
III. DARKNESS AS A DISCIPLINE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER: It may secure for it some of its best graces—the mildest, the most mellowed, the most hallowed. There are plants that grow best in a dim light. Amongst those Christian graces that take deeper root in the dark are—1. Humility. It is not when the windows of heaven are open that the child of God feels himself a broken cistern, and looks up and says, “All my well-springs.”
IN CONCLUSION:—Ye servants of God who sit in darkness, beware of two things—impatience and sullen indifference. Don’t fret as if God did not heed your grief. Don’t be callous as if He were not dealing with you. Pray for the light, but will not your prayers be heard the sooner and the enlargement you seek be sent the more speedily, if you long less for the deliverance than for the full benefit of the chastening?— J. Wardrop, D.D.: Homiletical Quarterly, vol. v. pp. 32–34.
GOD’S MESSAGE TO THE DESPONDING: Isaiah 50:10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord? It is not, then, a thing unheard of or impossible, that a child of God should “walk in darkness and have no light.” And when the sadness of such an experience comes upon the saint, it will not be always safe to say that it is the shadow of some special sin. It may not be with him as it was with David when he cried, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,” after committing the great transgressions which stain his name;
Many would say flippantly that a Christian must be very feeble indeed if he is ever in such a state; and some, cruelly, that he who permits himself thus to lie “in heaviness” cannot be a Christian at all. But all such unqualified assertions spring out of a shallow philosophy and a superficial experience. Our salvation depends on Christ, and not on our emotions regarding it.
Hence, they who roundly affirm that if a man be walking in darkness, and finding no light, he cannot be a Christian, are making salvation depend, not on God’s work for a man and in time, but simply and entirely on his own emotions. Moreover, they forget some of the best-known passages in the history even of the most eminent saints (see Psalms 42; and 1 Peter 1:6).
But while despondency furnishes no valid reason for calling the genuineness of one’s religion in question, it is very far from being a comfortable thing in itself. He should be encouraged to get out of it as soon as possible; for it puts everything about him into shadow. For his own happiness, and for the good of others, it is in every way desirable that he should be brought out of the darkness into the light.
II. A GLIMPSE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE: “That walketh in darkness, and hath no light.” This is not the normal experience of believers. They are “children of light, and of the day.” God has called them “out of darkness into His marvellous light” (as we read in 2 Corinthians 4:6). The light, revealing pardon, acceptance, sanctification, future glory, causes us to walk in calmness and conscious security.
Yet it may not shine with uniform clearness. The sun in the heavens is sometimes obscured by passing clouds; but it is shining, all the same. The normal day has the sun shining so that we see clearly the objects around us, and are able to pursue our avocations without interruption.
Again, while these seasons of darkness are variations from the usual experience of believers, some are visited by them more than others. The causes are also various. Some spiritual, some physical No Christian’s experience must be made the measure, in all respects, of another’s. When you have mentioned a few things, you have exhausted the essential things of the spiritual life; and even these are experienced variously according to the constitution of the different minds.
Some are exercised with dark experiences, from which others are exempted. Luther seemed at times to himself to fight with Satan as a personal power, living, visible, audible. John Bunyan describes similar experience in the story of his life in the book entitled “Grace Abounding.” The reflex of that experience is in his description of the Pilgrim in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
And as there may be spiritual darkness in the soul, there may be the darkness of uncertainty as to the way of God’s providence. There may be bereavement, sickness, disappointment, loss, a state of things with regard to worldly affairs pregnant with anxiety, through which no way can be seen. Your heart is heavy. You fear the worst.
III. A REMINDER OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE: “Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” It is the Christian’s privilege to trust in God at all times. Observe, you are not to wait until the darkness has cleared away and then trust; but to trust now, in the darkness. For this is always possible, inasmuch as He in whom we trust is ever the same, notwithstanding any danger that may occur in us or in our circumstances.
Be instant in prayer. When enveloped in darkness you can keep hold of your Father’s hand. He will guide and help. He has promised to keep the feet of His saints. Cry to Him out of the darkness. Trust Him. Prayer is the believing cry of the heart that is satisfied that, however dark and dreary the way, He is leading us by a right way to a city of habitation. So long as He is there, what can we fear? Be careful as to your walk. Knowing the perils of darkness, you cannot afford to be careless in your conduct.
The path is narrow and difficult to find. You may miss it and fall on either side. You are not alone in the darkness of sorrow. Christ has been there before you. He will be with you. Prayer shall be heard. Faith shall be honoured. The light of God’s countenance shall be lifted upon you. The day shall dawn and the shadows flee away.—
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE DEVOTED AND OBEDIENT: Isaiah 50:10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, &c.The encouragement here is for the people of God, and for them only. It is sometimes appropriated by those who are merely His people in profession; and in view of it, they are confident that though they have no satisfactory evidence of the Divine favour, all will be well with them in the
end. They make a terrible mistake.
The darkness of which they are conscious, is the result of the hiding from them of “the light of God’s countenance,” a calamity that never befalls those who are truly His people. But God’s people may be in darkness of another kind, in which they need all the cheer here offered them. For example, in the preceding chapters, Isaiah speaks of the Babylonian captivity, and of the oppressions of the Israelites during that dark period of their deliverance and restoration to their own land.
What can be meant by the phrase, “the light of God’s countenance,” but an expression of the Divine approval? When a father is pleased with the conduct of his son, approval is expressed in his countenance. If the son behaves amiss, he soon observes a change in the expression of his father’s countenance towards him, and is generally conscious that he has done wrong.
It at any time he should observe such a change without at once knowing the cause, he will immediately suspect himself, and will ask, What have I done to offend my father? So, when the children of God walk in His fear, and in obedience to His commands; when their supreme object is to glorify Him in all that they do, they enjoy the light of His countenance, i.e., the expression of His favour ( as we read in Psalm 37:23; John 14:21; and Hebrews 11:5).
When He frowns upon any man, it is an expression of His displeasure, telling them by the darkness which rests upon their minds that something is wrong, and that they ought to examine their heart and conduct, and to compare both with His word, in order to ascertain where the fault lies. (See 2 Chronicles 15:2; Deuteronomy 31:16-17; Isaiah 64:7; and Ezekiel 39:23-24).
These passages, and others which relate to the subject, cannot be reconciled with the supposition that the text was intended for the encouragement of those from whom the light of God’s countenance is deservedly withdrawn, and who are walking in darkness as to religious enjoyment, and as to any evidence of the Divine favour and acceptance.
To them He does not say, “Trust in My name, and stay yourselves upon Me, for the darkness will soon pass away, and all will end well.” No; when He frowns it is an unequivocal declaration of His displeasure; it is a signal of alarm; a call to repent, and to do works meet for repentance.
Indolent {or, slothful} and inconsistent professors appear not to understand the reason why they are left to walk in darkness. Instead of ascribing it to their neglect of duty, to their sins, they resolve it into “human imperfection,” “moral necessity,” “divine sovereignty,” “an expedient to try their faith,” or “to make them humble;”—anything, in short, but the true cause.
They say “it is the common experience of Christians to walk in darkness sometimes, and we cannot expect to be always on the mount;” and thus they satisfy themselves, without the present exercise of right feelings towards God or their fellowmen, and without a disposition to do their duty. They are serving, not God, but themselves; they are devoted to this world;
its objects and pursuits engross their thoughts; while they are doing little or nothing for that Saviour who laboured and died for sinners. It is unreasonable, nay, presumptuous for such persons to expect or hope that God will lift up the light of His countenance upon them.—Walton.
1. Any case like that of Joseph, while lying under the reproach of a crime which he never committed, and which he abhorred. We know what a great trial it was to his pure mind, how he stayed upon God, and what was the happy result. 2. The situation of David during the lifetime of Saul. God had promised that he should be king over His people; and yet he was obliged to fly for his life, to wander among the mountains, and to hide himself in dens and caves of the earth.
Thus he was walking in darkness as to any prospect of relief, except from a Divine interposition. But walking in darkness in this sense was perfectly consistent with the most vigorous exercise of gracious affections, and with the fullest assurance of Divine favour; and judging by his psalms composed during this period, we can have no doubt of the spirituality of his mind, or of his confidence in God.
While he feared the Lord and obeyed His voice, he was authorised to trust in Him for the full accomplishment of His promises; and doing so, he was finally delivered from all his enemies, and raised to the throne of Israel. From this result, we see that it was not necessary for him to use any unlawful means, either for self-preservation, or for the attainment of the object which had been promised him. It was only necessary that he should trust in the Lord and obey His voice.
Therefore the Church may be said to be walking in darkness with respect to the conversion of the world; she does not see how the immense obstacles are to be removed. But clear predictions have been given that the world shall be converted, and in Him who made them the Church should trust, obeying His voice... assured that He will as certainly verify these predictions, as He did those which related to the restoration of Israel from the captivity of Babylon.
—William C. Walton, A.M.: American National Preacher, vol. 4:285–292.
II. THE SUPPOSED CONDITION OF THE GODLY MAN. 1. This is not the ordinary condition of the Christian. He is a child of the light, &c. He has the light of the divine (1) knowledge in his understanding, (2) truth in his judgment, (3) hope in his soul, (4) joy in his experience, (5) holiness in his life. He is not of the night nor of darkness. 2. Yet this is sometimes the condition of the best of saints. It is the result of (1.) Providential trials. (2.) Nervous depression.
III. THE REMEDY WHICH THE TEXT PRESCRIBES. 1. The name of God must be our trust. It cannot alter, change, deceive. 2. The soul must be stayed upon God. We are apt to stay the soul on other things—friends, means, experience, frames, and feelings. God in His relationship to us as our God, must be the basis of our confidence and hope. Trust in His wisdom, power, grace, love—His promise never to forsake. —J. Burns, D.D.
The darkness which surrounds us is intended both to call forth our inquiries and to enforce our dependence on the gracious aid of the Almighty. It should inspire a desire of Heaven. It should induce gratitude for the clear revelation which God has made known of the things that belong to our peace. He has thrown an air of obscurity over a thousand things, but not over the means of attaining light and salvation; here all is day. He hath clearly taught us what we must do to be saved, &c.
Apply, therefore, your heart and conscience to the plain, undeniable declarations of revelation. What is revealed is of far more importance to you than what is not revealed. God has withheld the less and given us the greater. There is no knowledge of any kind that will bear a comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. You are called upon, by believing on Him, to lay hold on eternal life; have you done this? —J. H. Walker: Companion for the Afflicted, second edition, pp. 249–270.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Light and Darkness, Part VIII.”
This Discussion was originally conducted “live” on October 9th, 2019.
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