"TO A WORLD IN DARKNESS!"
Written and preached by David P. Nolte

ISAIAH 9:1-7

  

When Isaiah spoke of darkness he referred to the oppression of Israel. God's people had sold themselves into idolatry. They followed sexual, Satanic idols, indulged in cultic and occultic practices and had forsaken their allegiance to God. God sent them to captivity in Assyria. It was a dark time. Later, the Roman occupation brought darkness. The oppressive taxation, the indignities heaped upon the people, the sacrilegious activities in the temple environs added up to make it a time of somber darkness. We live in a dark time, too. Cultic proliferation, the new age movement, secular humanism with its self deifying hokum, rampant immorality and the cheapening of human life, all compound to create a grim darkness. It was a dark time in the life of Herman Lange, too. Herman was a German Christian who was imprisoned by the Nazis and condemned to death. The night before he was to be shot he wrote a poignant note to his parents describing his optimistic feelings. yet, it was a dark time. But as in the beginning, when at the dawn of creation God said, "Let there be light" He spoke again through the prophet, looking down across 740 years of yet-to-happen history to the promised advent of the Savior, Jesus, the Messiah, the Light of the world. God said, "Let there be light!" to a world in darkness.

  1. AND WHAT A GREAT LIGHT IT IS: V2:
    2.
    1. Isaiah speaks of a light that dispels the night of gloom and sorrow!
    2. But why is it so great a light? The apostle gives us insight: John 1:4-5, 9 "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ... there was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man."
      3.
      1. It is a great light because all the darkness in the world cannot comprehend it! That word can mean "understand" and it can mean "seize, overcome, take control of." In that latter sense, darkness cannot dominate light!
        2.
        1. Ignorance and superstition can't.
        2. Careless unbelief can't.
        3. Hostile atheism can't.
        4. Cultic and occultic untruths can't.
        5. Nothing in all existence can overcome His light!
          6.
      2. It is a great light because it is the true light:
        3.
        1. This is the genuine in the midst of the spurious, the authentic in the midst of the counterfeit.
        2. His word is truth in the midst of error and He lived truth in the midst of hypocrisy.
          3.
      3. It is a great light because it lights every person.
        4.
        1. The young and the old, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the powerful and the weak.
        2. It lights every man, woman, child in every generation, every place, every situation!
          3.
    3. The psalmist said, "For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light we see light." Psalms 36:9.
      4.
      1. We haven't begun to see anything like light until we see God's light! In His light we see light!
      2. What man calls light is really darkness by contrast!
        3.
        1. The apex of human wisdom, human intellect, so called, is not great light compared to the least of God's wisdom.
        2. The aggregate of human learning, knowledge and discovery is darkness compared to what is yet to be known.
        3. All these are like a flickering birthday candle compared to the sun when you hold them up against God's light.
          4.

The world was dark when Isaiah wrote, but he looked forward to the light. In his dark situation, Herman Lange looked toward God's light and wrote to his parents, "I am, first, in a joyous mood, and, second, filled with great anticipation." A joyous mood? Great anticipation? On the night before his execution? That's what the note said. And that's what the prophet spoke to a world in darkness.

  1. AND WHAT A GREAT JOY IT IS: VV3-5:
    2.
    1. Isaiah compares the joy to:
      2.
      1. The joy of harvest: you who grow crops know the distress of a poor yield and the exhilaration of a good crop.
      2. The joy of men splitting spoil: stuff they've pillaged from surrendered people; riches for the taking and they sit and sift it through their fingers, counting and recounting it and giggling at their good fortune.
      3. The joy of people delivered from oppression: Imagine the joy of the French when the Allies marched through the streets ending the Nazi reign of terror; or the people of Kuwait when Sadam's troops were given the boot during the Gulf War.
        4.
    2. Why is it so great a joy? Jesus said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you." John 16:20-22.
      3.
      1. It is a great joy because it replaces sorrow:
        2.
        1. The Psalmist says, "Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning!" Psalms 30:5. Joy is the last word, not sorrow!
        2. You mothers know that the pain of childbirth diminishes and is forgotten in the joy of motherhood!
          3.
      2. It is a great joy because we will see Jesus:
        3.
        1. People stand in line for hours to glimpse some super star and fainting at a mere glimpse. We hope for some-thing far better: to see Jesus himself face to face!
        2. We anticipate the day that faith will become sight and hope a possession and joy unspeakable reality!
          3.
      3. It is a great joy because no one can take it from us: You know how some people are kill-joys? How when they walk into a room it's like somebody turns off the lights? They are the ants at the picnic, the rain at the parade! Just when joy abounds they know how to strip it away! Well none of that can touch the joy Jesus gives!
        4.
        1. Affliction can't, for it works for us an eternal weight of glory if we abide it in faith.
        2. Persecution can't, for it brings us great reward in heaven if we are faithful.
        3. Sorrow can't, for He promises to wipe away every tear from our eyes.
        4. Death can't for it is the doorway to heaven and eternal life for all who believe!
          5.
    3. Listen to what Peter says about it: 1 Peter 1:3-9 "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls."
      4.

The world was grim, but Isaiah spoke of joy! Lange's note spoke of joy and anticipation. He said, "I am, first, in a joyous mood, and, second, filled with great anticipation." But he continued, "in Christ I have put my faith, and precisely today I have faith in Him more firmly than ever. Read the new testament for comfort. Look where you will, everywhere you will find jubilation over the grace that makes us children of God. What can befall a child of God? Of what should I be afraid? On the contrary, rejoice!" And that's what we do as we, too, believe the promise of God to a world in darkness!

  1. AND WHAT A GREAT PROMISE IT IS: VV6-7:
    2.
    1. Isaiah predicted 740 years before the event the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God incarnate, God with us. The promise is for the advent of God among men as man!
    2. But why is it so great a promise?
      3.
      1. It is a great promise because it promises a Godly government:
        2.
        1. There will at last be real justice, real righteousness, no corruption, no special interests perverting decisions.
        2. It is God incarnate Himself Who rules: the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, the Prince of peace.
          3.
      2. It is a great promise because it promises a Godly peace:
        3.
        1. Not peace as the world gives; not fragile, fleeting, based-on-the-happy-circumstances sort of peace.
        2. Not political, contractual treaties with those who really despise one another.
        3. it is peace that heals marriages and other broken relationships
        4. It is peace that calms troubled souls and minds
        5. It is the peace of God that surpasses human understanding
        6. It is peace with God that transcends our sin and alienation as we are reconciled to him in Christ!
          7.
    3. May it be said of us as it was of Abraham, "with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform." Romans 4:20-21.
      4.

God is able!  God is reliable!  What He says, He will do!  So we can go on "In the hope of eternal life, which God, Who cannot lie, promised long ages ago!" Titus 1:2.  We can "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful!" Hebrews 10:23. There is no darkness His light won't dispel; earth has no sorrow heaven's joy cannot heal; there is no promise of God that will fail. Hear the prophet, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Isaiah 60:1. The light of the world is Jesus! Come to the light! Capture the joy! Claim the promise! That's God's offer to a world in darkness and it's His offer to you.

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