Would you turn in your Bibles then back to the Old Testament passage that we read in Isaiah and chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 9. What has been my custom in when we come to the Sunday before Christmas often is to look at an Old Testament passage which considers something of the promise and the prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus and then in the evening to look at a particular part of the birth narrative that we have in the Gospels and we will be doing that today. So this morning I want us to turn to these words in Isaiah chapter 9 And I particularly want to draw your attention to verse 2. And I will explain the significance of this as we look at it this morning. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 2, where we read these amazing words, these quite incredible words. 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. Isaiah goes on to put this into the context of this great prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, these things are foreshadowed in this here. Now there were signs and symbols all around the people of God in the Old Testament. The prophets gave them the word of God. They didn't have the word of God as we have, as it were, in a printed book or scroll in every sense of the word. Of course, by the time we come to Isaiah, of course, Isaiah's prophecy has not yet been written and most of the rest of, well, all of the rest of the Bible pretty well has not yet been written. So they have limited written records, but there were signs and symbols that God gave to them all over the place. indicating his power and his authority and his glory. Many of these things, of course, are with us today, but people are so blind to the things of God that they do not see them. The Jews had the Word of God in a special way, given to them by the prophets. And the Word of God as it came is always seen in the context of all that is happening to the nations around and all that is happening. And as I mentioned as we came to read this passage in our Old Testament reading, this section from chapter 7 through to chapter 9 hang together in Isaiah's prophecy and is a glorious prophecy of the coming of the Messiah in spite of the sin and rebellion and wickedness of mankind. God's grace. So just for a moment or two, would you cast your eye back into chapter seven and eight? I'm not going to read the whole chapters, but just to give you a little bit of insight. We meet this King Ahaz, son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah. Rezin is the king of Syria, and Pica the son of Remalia. Now these people don't worry too much about the names, but if you know anything of the history of the Old Testament, they are very, very significant names indeed. Particularly Pica, I won't stop with him now, but he has a great... things that we learn about him in the books of Kings and Chronicles and in other parts of the historical account of the scriptures and how God used him and the forces of the enemies, particularly Syria and others, to chastise his people at times. And our Lord comes to this man, this king Ahaz, not to be mixed up with Ahab or any of the other similar sounding kings, and he comes to give him a message. Now Ahaz was greatly afraid that as he faced these great armies of Rezin and Peker that he would be destroyed, that he would be wiped out, that his army would be destroyed and he would be rendered helpless or possibly even killed. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had ganged up against Judah, along with these people. So here was civil war taking place. This is before the first exile of the Northern Kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom was ganging up with these wicked men to fight against Jerusalem and against Ahaz. And Ahaz was very fearful. And in one sense, from a purely human point of view, rightly so. But God comes to Ahaz and tells him that he has no need to be afraid of these great armies. Verse three, thus says the Lord to Isaiah, go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shehoshub, your son, and meet with them and say to him, verse four, take heed and be quiet, fear not, neither be faint hearted, And the words he uses and the description he gives are very dismissive, very dismissive of Rezin, the king of Syria, the son of Remalia, and against Pekah and the others of them. And he says that they are basically, they've taken evil counsel, but I will destroy them. And it shall not stand, verse seven, nor shall it come to pass, and God gives him great promise. And he tells Ahaz that he should believe in God. Verse, the end of verse 9, if ye will not believe, if you, if you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. So believe. Don't dismiss the Word of God that comes to you. And Isaiah, having encouraged Ahaz to believe God, encourages him to ask for a sign, which is the significance of these words in verses 10 to 11. Moreover, the Lord spake again to Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. You can ask anything you like as a sign. but A has will not believe. And the words of verse 12 are not the words of a man who is coming to God and saying, well, look, I wouldn't, I really don't want to, you know, I don't want to put you to the test. It's actually a word of refusal. I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. I don't want a word from God. That's what he's saying. He's not saying, oh, it's not perhaps a very good thing. I don't want to tempt the Lord. And sort of being very sort of super spiritual. That's not the sense at all. We could read it that way. And sometimes we may feel like that. But that's not the sense of the words. And certainly in the original, it's clear that I won't ask, basically. I'm not going to do it. And so God's word comes to him, and these are words of judgment to Ahaz. We see them as great, wonderful words of prophecy, and they are. God says to him, hear now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary God also? Therefore the Lord will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Immanuel. And in the context, he says God will give him a sign that God will be with him. But this is no comfort to Ahaz, because Judah, although Judah will not be wiped out, Ahaz will be judged for his unbelief. And God will fulfill his purposes. A child will be born to a virgin. This child will be God incarnate. But it's going to be a long while before it happens. because of your wickedness, ahas, because of your disobedience. God will fulfill his purposes. Verse 15, butter and honey shall he eat that he may know how to refuse the evil and choose good. Butter and honey were not available during times of war. And verse 16, neither will the present political situation any longer exist. Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings. So you may fear these two kings, but this child will be born long after these two kings have gone. Now, if it hadn't been for your disobedience, you might've had a different story, but that's what's happened. And the Lord will bring upon you and your people and upon all your house, all these wickednesses. Now, what then was the point of this sign? Well, it was not to comfort a house. What it was was to assure the true people of God that God's name and God's purposes will be carried out in God's own good time. In spite of all the war and all the destruction that was all around them, God was still upon the throne of the universe, and His purposes would be fulfilled as He had promised. They thought they would be destroyed, but God assured them that this was still Emmanuel's land. Now without going through all the rest of this, if you just look at chapter 8 and verse 8, what do we read? He shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck and the stretching out of his wings, and shall fill the breadth of thy land. O Immanuel, the same word, Immanuel. Now, if I were tracing through the whole passage and giving you a history lesson, I would show how that was fulfilled so wonderfully and so gloriously. And again, in verse 10, chapter eight, take counsel together and it shall come to naught, speak the word and it shall not stand, for God is with us. Emmanuel, God is with us. Now sadly, the rest of chapter eight show that men still reject the truth of God's word. And when they do that, they were driven into darkness, so much so that they are going after wizards that cheap and mutter, and they should be seeking after God. They should be speaking, seeking life, not death. But what has happened is that they are driven into darkness. Verse 22 of chapter 8, they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish and they shall be driven to darkness. My friends, without going into all this situation, are we not in a situation like that today? Here are men and women in the world thinking that the answer to this jolly corona, jolly, not jolly, this wretched coronavirus is in the vaccine. And now a stronger strain has come, or a different strain, and there are people saying, will the vaccine work? But they've got all the, and they say, we're following the science. Well, of course, there's a sense in which that's right. I'm not disagreeing with that. But my friends, where are they putting their confidence? They're putting their confidence in man. They're putting their confidence in some medical vaccine. Well, that may be the case, and God may be pleased to use that. And I'm not dismissing that or despising that. But there is no sense of calling upon God and acknowledging that this is God's world. And God is in control of the events. And God is not taken by surprise. And God is not overwhelmed by these things. He is still the Sovereign Lord who sits upon the throne of the earth. And we may behold trouble and darkness and dimness and anguish. And it seems like that, doesn't it, in our world today? Not just in our land, but in our world today. But God keeps his word. God keeps his word. But when men reject the truth, all that is left is darkness. And men and women are seeking today. They're seeking to an answer to this virus. They're seeking answers to all kinds of things. But they are not prepared to accept the signs that God has so clearly given. Therefore they are in darkness. And that is the point of these words of our text. The people that walked in darkness. That's the situation. And if you were to literally, to translate the Hebrew, it says the people, the walking in darkness ones. That is, this is their perpetual state. There is no answer, there is no future, there is no hope. It is dark and they've settled down in their darkness and they're satisfied and they're unconcerned. People who have rejected God and they're in darkness. My friends, there is no light when God's Word is rejected. Isaiah 8 and verse 20, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. If you reject the word of God, there is only darkness left and the terrible result of that is given to us in chapter 8 verses 21 and 22. When men and women lose confidence in God and His Word, what is there left for them to do? Well, they're back in the situation of Job's wife, who said, curse God and die, to the wicked. All that remains is unrelieved gloom all around and the hopelessness of many to see any hope for the future. They're living for the present. The attitude is let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. How futile, how pointless, how true. tragic, how empty, because sin brings darkness and punishment and hopelessness and helplessness. Walking in darkness, the walking in darkness ones, that is the very course of their lives. Psalm 1 takes that up, doesn't it? As it speaks about the ungodly who walk in their wicked ways. I won't stop with that now, you can read it and look at it later. The darkness of ignorance, a refusal to accept the truth. The darkness of distress when there's no hope, ignorance. Darkness of ignorance, darkness of distress where there is no hope. So what do they do? They turn around and blame God so often. the darkness of error, which is the direct result of their ignorance, their fear of man, but no fear of God, their fear of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remalia, king of Israel, but no fear of God, the Lord God Almighty. My friends, that is the result of rejecting God. That's the first thing, the result of rejecting God. Secondly, secondly, the possibility of seeing the light. What does our text say? The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light of peace. and the light of blessedness and the light of knowledge which shines into the darkness of ignorance, the light of life which shines into the darkness of death, the light of salvation. which shines into the darkness of sin, the light of knowledge into the darkness of ignorance, the light of life into the darkness of death, the light of salvation into the darkness of sin. Judah was in distress. The sign of her deliverance was Emmanuel. God with us, Isaiah 714. Here was a clear promise in the darkest of hours, the clearest of promise, the most wonderful of promises. A light shines, a light springs up. In days of darkness, my friends, do not despair. Remember Elijah, after that great event on Mount Carmel. And what does he do? He runs for his life from wicked Jezebel. And I think rightly so. Some have criticized him for running. I don't do that. The Bible doesn't. But he is full of concern. And on the way to Horeb, he says, I only am left, oh Lord, and they seek my life to take it away. But he was not alone. That's what he thought. And my friends, we're not alone. There are those who still serve the Lord, and who shall still seek the Lord. There were 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal. God still had his servants, even in those desperately dark days. My friends, there are still those who love the Lord God of Israel, who are saved by the grace of God. And some of us are here today, and there are others in this world. I've been having just recently the privilege of meeting on Zoom with a whole number of people with a great desire to pray for revival and there's a whole group of us yesterday, there were 76 of us, 78 of us on a Zoom prayer meeting praying for revival from all all over the world, people from the States, from Canada, from Mexico, from Germany, from the Philippines, from New Zealand and Australia, all over the world, meeting together with a desire to pray for God's blessing upon this wicked world. My friends, what an amazing thing. I'm sorry, it's only 76, but well, a few weeks ago it was only 30, so it's increased to 76, maybe it'll get to the point where it's too many for a Zoom call, and we'll have to split up. Well, it's wonderful, please God, that he will hear the prayers of his people. Desperately dark days we live in, but what assurance there is that God still has his servants in desperately dark days throughout the continents and islands. The sign that the light of light has come. Emmanuel, God with us. When we turn over to the New Testament, what do we find? Matthew takes this up and rightly applies it to the Lord Jesus Christ in his gospel in chapter 1 and in those opening verses of the chapter in verse 21, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with us. What assurance, what comfort there is in this, my friends. He comes down to earth from heaven, as the hymn puts it. He assumes our likeness and nature. He becomes one of us. He becomes the perfect man, while still being the perfect God. Now if the Lord had intended to destroy us, why would he have assumed our nature? He is God, but he is God with us, with us. He became like us. He takes on our nature and humanity. And so he says as he walks this world, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. What an amazing thing that is. The result of rejecting God. Secondly, the possibility of seeing the light. Thirdly, the position of those without Christ. The position of those without Christ. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death. The land of darkness and deep darkness. This is their position. Intense darkness. That is the sense of the world. We read in the book of Genesis that there was darkness over all the earth at the first. And at the crucifixion, there was darkness again over all the earth. Darkness that could be felt. Darkness which was the result of sin. A dreadful, a terrible, a fearful thing. And these are people who dwell in darkness. Walking indicates their habitual experience. They had settled down in the darkness. They were not looking for any change. It was their settled situation. They were satisfied with their sin and rebellion. They didn't want to be disturbed. Now my friends, that was true in the scriptures on a number of occasions. It was true at the end of the exile for some of the Jews. They didn't want to go back to the land of Palestine. They didn't want to go back to Jerusalem. They stayed, they were very happy in the land. They had settled down and they wanted to stay in Babylon. They were content to be away from God and their homeland and had no desire to return. Life had become very comfortable and they were happy in captivity. Many, of course, had never known anything else. Remember, it was 70 years. That's a long time, a whole generation. Many had been born in captivity and thought that that was normal. My friends, that's the situation today, isn't it? Men think that if you come to church on Sunday, you're some kind of crackpot, that you're some kind of a nutter. We don't want the gospel, we don't want this, you're out of date, you're out of fashion. Well friends, let's be out of fashion, because this is glorious and wonderful and liberating. And men need their eyes opened and their ears unstopped to see the glory of the wonder of the grace of God. Many of them had never known anything else. And that's the situation with people today. The Bible says they're born in sin and shaped in iniquity. They've never known anything else. They've settled down. They're content in their ways. They're happy in their darkness and sin and they do not want change. They're quite content to be in the land of the shadow of death. What a place to be, my friends. What a place that is pointless and futile and despairing and meaningless and destructive. They are, as the Bible says, they're without God and without hope. There's a hymn by Horatius Bonner which has these very moving words in it. Men die in darkness at thy side without a hope to cheer the tomb, without a hope to cheer the tomb. Take up the torch and wave it wide, the torch that lights time's thickest gloom. My friends, how do we wake people up to the light? Don't you ask that question? I spent a lifetime preaching the gospel and I still ask that question. How do we wake people up? How do we shake them out of their complacency and their satisfaction with their sin and with their evil and all the rest of it? Well that leads me on to my final point. The result of rejecting God, the possibility of seeing the light, the position of those without Christ forth, the reality of God's work. Look at the last phrase of this verse. Upon them has the light shined. Upon them has the light shined. Now again the sense of the original is very much this, upon them a light has dawned. It's like the morning when the light arises, when the sun comes up in the morning, the light has come, the dawn has come. What happens at the dawn? The night of darkness is ended. Don't stay in bed. Get up. Don't reject the light. You understand? Now friends, I understand if you're not well and you have to stay in bed, that's fine. I'm not, but you understand. But when the light has come, that's not the time for sleeping, it's the time for getting up and for action and joy and life and vitality. The darkness can be dispelled. But how is it dispelled? It is only dispelled by the action of the sovereign God of heaven and earth. This is the gift of God, the light of the world. This is the perfect fulfillment of the Word of God in the coming of the Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die upon this earth and to pay the penalty for our sin and death, to bring the light to our souls. Matthew chapter 4. And verses 12 to 17, now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt at Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Isaiah the prophet saying, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, the light has sprung up. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the perfect fulfillment of what Isaiah had promised all those years before. God, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ had come into the world, fully God, Fully man, God had shined his light into the darkness. There is hope, there is salvation. Here is the glory when the light shines. Now my friends, God does not reward you according to your rebellion or towards your sin or your darkness. He comes through his grace. Therefore, my friend, do not stay in the darkness because the light has come. The light has come. You know what happens. Our Lord talks about it in John 3. You take up a rock or a stone in the garden and all the little creatures under it run from the light. They're afraid from it. My friend, don't be afraid of the light. Don't run from the light. The glory has come. This glory has come and it has come not to condemn you, not to condemn you, Now there's a day coming when God's glory will be seen in judgment. He will come to condemn you. But not yet. Here is light to give you life. Here is blessing and glory. Hear God's call to come out of darkness into his marvellous light. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. The sun of righteousness arises with healing in his wings. This is God's work, my friend. This is God's glory. This is God's great grace in salvation. May these things be a blessing to you this day. God bless you, my friends. We're going to sing in closing a hymn that takes up these thoughts. I know we sang it the other Tuesday when I was taking the midweek meeting, but it fits so well that I hope you will sing, you will not mind considering it again. Number 225 in the book, the race that long in darkness pined have seen a glorious light. The people dwell in day who dwelt in deaths surrounding light. 225, thank you.