Preached on Sabbath, 2nd September, 1917.
THE occasion on which Jesus Christ spoke the words of our text was when He left Nazareth and came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim (verse 13). He quoted an Old Testament scripture, spoken by the Prophet Isaiah, as now fulfilled (Isaiah ix. 2). The reason of His leaving Nazareth was that He heard that John the Baptist was cast into prison (verse 12), and if the enemies persecuted John, they would also persecute Him unto death, but as His time was not yet come, He fled to a place of safety, as an example to His followers to take all lawful endeavours to preserve their lives, which He commanded them to do when He told them, if they were persecuted in one city, to flee to another. In Isaiah, Galilee of the Gentiles is mentioned as in the vicinity of the place to which the Saviour came. If the Jews rejected Him, others would receive Him. Isaiah spoke of the event as if it had been fulfilled in his own day, to show the certainty of the fulfilment of prophecy in due time.
In speaking from our text, we shall notice:—
I.—The condition in which the people spoken of were.
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They were in darkness. A state of sin is spoken of in Scripture as darkness, and the practice of sin as works of darkness. All the fallen race are by nature in this condition. (1) To be in darkness is to be in misery; “liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.” (2) Darkness means ignorance. We are by nature ignorant of ourselves, and ignorant of God and of the way of salvation.
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They were also in the region of death. They were spiritually dead, and dead in law. They could not be in a more dangerous condition in this world. They are described as sitting in darkness and in the region of death, which means that, notwithstanding their deplorable condition, they were careless and indifferent about the salvation of their precious souls. They made no effort to flee from sin and from the wrath to come. Not only that the heathen, who never heard the Gospel, are in the darkness which we have described, but the great majority in the land of the Gospel are in this darkness. If you examine these on their state by nature, you will find that they are ignorant of it. They do not believe the testimony of God’s Word concerning them, and they cherish the false hope of going to heaven when they die; and they are confirmed in this view of themselves by false teachers. If you speak of the necessity of being born again, you will find them as ignorant of that change of nature as Nicodemus was before the Saviour explained it to him. If you examine them on the way of salvation, you will find that they are resting on their own works and not on the finished work of Christ. Nothing can take the covenant of works out of their heart but the grace of God. If you examine them on the subject of eternal punishment, it will be seen that they do not believe that there is such a thing. They say that God is not so cruel as to punish sinners with an everlasting punishment. Although they admit it as a right thing to punish the thief and the murderer, they deny God’s right to punish the transgressors of His law.
Not only that many in the land of the gospel are ignorant of God’s works of grace, but they are also ignorant of His works of providence. This is to be clearly seen in our own day. In connection with the present terrible War, how few in our nation acknowledge God’s hand in it! They look only at second causes; they speak of the cruelty of the Germans and their Allies, but do not consider that these were rods in God’s hand to punish us and other nations for sin. For years before the War began, the young men of our country were indulging in football and other plays, as if these were the chief end of their life. If ministers advised them to give up these pursuits and “to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon his name while he is near,” they would not listen to them, but God took another way in His providence to deal with them: He brought them to face the sword by which many of them were killed, and their souls cast into everlasting perdition. We do not mean that all who were killed perished in eternity. Some of them were brought to repentance, and others were godly men before they were called to the front. We do not wonder at all that God works in such a terrible manner in His providence, for the wickedness of the nations has come to a great height.
II.—The great thing God did for them.
He sent light to those that were in darkness. When the Lord sends the Bible to a people, He sends them “a great light.” It throws light on the state in which they are by nature, as guilty and corrupt, without any good thing dwelling in them; and in order that they might see the darkness in which they are, He opens the eyes of their understanding by His Spirit to see their condition. They cannot sit in indifference any longer in that state. They arise and begin to ask, “What must I do to be saved?” He sends them the word of the Gospel to show them the only way in which they shall be saved, namely, “to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” How dark we as a nation were before the Gospel came to us! We were sunk in the darkness of idolatry, but, when the Gospel was sent to us, its light dispelled that darkness in the case of many who were made “light in the Lord,” although it is sad to observe that we as a nation are going back into that darkness again. The light of the Gospel is still shining to some extent, but the darkness comprehends it not. “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehends it not” (John i. 5). The blind cannot see the light, although it is shining around them.
But, great as the light of the Gospel is, there is a greater light, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It was when He came to the people spoken of in our text, “who sat in darkness,” it is said, “light sprung up to them.” The Gospel was only a means of bringing Christ to them. It was the white horse which conveyed the Saviour to them. Christ calls Himself the light of the world, and says, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John viii. 12). This light not only came to them, but shined within them. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. iv. 6). What a glorious light Christ is! “He is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person” (Heb. i. 3). If you have Christ, you have light indeed. If you are without Him you are still in darkness, whatever other light you may have.
Christ’s ministers are lights He uses as instruments to enlighten those who are in the darkness of a state of nature. In the book of Revelation they are called “stars,” as lights put in candlesticks to give light. The Church is a candlestick, but, as a candlestick cannot give light without a lighted candle being put in it, so the Church cannot give light to the people unless ministers taught of God are set up in it. The Apostle Paul was such a candle, and Christ sent him to “turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts xxvi. 18). When Christ appeared to him to convert him, a great light from heaven shined round about him (Acts ix. 3) which dazzled his eyes, and left him blind till the light of the Gospel removed his blindness, so that he had then the light of life. As the stars borrow their light from the sun, so Gospel ministers receive their light from Christ, “the sun of righteousness.”
For upwards of a thousand years before the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the nations of Europe were in the darkness of idolatry, and sitting at ease in that darkness without considering that generation after generation were dying in their sins and going to everlasting perdition, but God, in love, mercy, and grace sent them the light of the Gospel, by which means He raised up out of the darkness faithful ministers who were the instruments of enlightening many others by preaching the Word of God—law and gospel. Germany, which is now by its “higher criticism” worshipping the god of war instead of the living God, and thereby endeavouring to destroy Christianity, was the cradle of the glorious Reformation. We do not mean that the light of the Gospel was not in any part of Europe during that long period of darkness. It was in some parts, but those who held the light were persecuted, and had to hide themselves in dens and caves of the earth. The seed of the kingdom was kept in these hiding-places, from which sprang the light that largely diffused itself throughout the nations that sat so long in darkness. The light that sprang up then came to our own country, which made it great among the nations of the world, so that hitherto no other nation, however powerful, has been able to conquer it in war. And, so long as our nation kept to the Word of God as the rule of faith and practice, it excelled all other nations in sobriety, righteousness and godliness, but now we, in common with the other nations of Europe, have fallen away from the faith of the Gospel, so that another reformation is much needed. We pray for it, and we believe, on the authority of God’s Word, that a more glorious reformation shall come, after all the nations of Europe are punished for their iniquities. It shall be a universal reformation, pervading all the nations of the world. Its light shall be so bright and extensive that every form of idolatry, superstition, and spiritual darkness shall vanish out of sight before it.
Application.
The light we have been speaking of has come to you. The Gospel came to you; Christ came to you; and His ministering servants came to you. What effect had all this upon you? Are you still in the darkness of which our text speaks, sitting in darkness and hating the light, because your works are evil? If you continue in that darkness till death, there is another darkness, to which you are going; it is an “outer darkness,” out of which you can never be delivered, an everlasting darkness, without the least ray of light. Or, have you been brought out of darkness and enlightened by the Holy Spirit to know Jesus Christ in His divine person, two natures, and threefold offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King? If so, let your light so shine that your neighbours who are still in darkness may be led to the light. Live not unto yourself, but unto Him “who died and rose again.” If you have received the light, it will appear in your conduct. You will be found walking in the way of God’s commandments, and avoiding every appearance of evil. You will be careful to observe God’s way of worship, according to the rule of His word. You cannot tolerate error in doctrine or worship; you cannot worship in modern churches where the organ is used in the service of praise, or where uninspired and unsound hymns are used, instead of the Psalms in the Bible. You shall no doubt be reckoned by many as peculiar and narrow-minded, but that should not move you away from your steadfastness in serving God according to His Word. You will be thanking the Lord for bringing you out of a state of nature to a state of grace, and pitying those who are still in the darkness of their natural state. And the thought of those that died in that state, and are lost in eternity, is overwhelming to you, as you think of them in the place of everlasting perdition, gnashing their teeth, with unspeakable anguish of spirit and enmity to God for punishing them for their sins. It was this “terror of the Lord” that made the Apostle Paul “persuade men.” You know that, if sinners are saved, they must use the means of grace in order to salvation, and you earnestly urge them to use these means; but not to rest in them as a ground of salvation. A certain minister said that it was difficult to make sinners to begin the work in this way, but that it was more difficult to take them from their works. Some perish by open wickedness; others, by self-righteousness. We leave these important matters between you and God, to whom you are to be responsible.