Congregation, isn't it true, about this time of the year, you look out of the window and you say, sure, good to see the sun again. And for many years, people have known about this special effect that the lack of light has on people. They've known it for thousands of years, I'm sure, and now the psychologists have a fancy Name for it, and it's quite appropriate, actually, it spells sad. Seasonally affected disorder. And it's quite common if you feel a bit sad about this time of the year. Actually, February is known to be a depression month. People are affected by the lack of light during those darker days of the year, and some of us more affected than others. When it's most dark, we long most for the light. When we most feel how dark it is, we long even more. for the light. Do you know how dark it is in your life? It's an important question. Yes, we have lost a considerable amount of daylight since June 21, about six hours and 30 minutes. And we're hoping that we can gain back those hours of daylight as time goes on. But if we keep going on in the path of sin, how do you regain the darkness that you have experienced and that has taken dominion over your life? The sadness that most people are experiencing is rather a sin-affected disorder. And the season of our life may be one that's very dark. Well, we know what people do in response to the darker hours. So many cultural practices end up turning the lights on. Christmas has sparked this tradition of putting lights all over your house or inside the house, and the Eastern Orthodox religion from focusing on a festivity around January 7. They also have lights. Our neighbors across the road, they have their house full of lights as well, though they celebrate their Christmas on a different day. We know that in the Jewish tradition, there's also the menorah that is lit. This year, from past January 25 to January 2, they're lighting one of the eight lamps on the menorah, one day at a time, and so there is this common practice. In fact, Jesus attended the festivity of lights. You can read about that in John 10, verse 22. It's called the Feast of the Dedication because they're celebrating when the new temple under the rule of the Maccabeans was opened up and dedicated, and so they celebrate that. But what light can be lit by man to solve the sin-affected disorder? And when the light comes, I mean, we've just celebrated that Jesus Christ has come, and Jesus says, I am the light of the world. John starts the gospel by saying, He is that light. Not John the Baptist, but Jesus is that light who should come into the world. And He's the solution. Here's the question I have to just introduce the topic. Why do people not welcome Jesus more? If we welcome natural light so much, and we can hear Jesus is the light of the world, why do people not welcome him? Why doesn't everyone in the world believe in Jesus and walk in the light of his instruction? Let's look at a great light for great darkness. We'll look at an extreme darkness, secondly, a gracious light, and thirdly, a spiritual sight. Let me put it this way. For the extreme darkness, God sends a solution of a gracious light. but we need to be given spiritual sight. Extreme darkness, indeed. And the darkness that is described by Isaiah here, and it's a common theme in Isaiah, actually, if you read through the prophecy, that he often makes the use of the contrast of darkness to light in order to illustrate sin and God's grace. The people that walked in darkness, the prophecy says, have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. What does this mean? Well, it is describing a very severe, a very extreme darkness. In chapter 60, verse 2, the prophet speaks about a gross darkness in the King James, and the new King James says it's an extreme or deep darkness, a darkness that covers all the earth, Isaiah 60, verse 2. And so first of all, we can say about this darkness that it is a global darkness. It's a darkness that affects every human being. And if there's no light, there's no life. And if there's no light in your life, you are dead. and like these foolish pagans who are looking to the dead for answers to their life. We don't know where to go. It's an extreme global darkness, the sin problem. And here we are in Canada, and the area described in this particular passage in the first verses of chapter nine is actually the northern part of Israel. I'm not saying that that was a prophecy of the state of Canada, but it's interesting that the northern part of Canada surely is even darker than the southern part of the United States, if you analyze it spiritually. But what's the situation in Israel? This is a prophecy of something's gonna happen in the northern part of Israel. But it's a global darkness. And yet, this northern part of Israel is favored in some way in this light plan that God has. Sin is the darkness that is spoken of. That is very clear from all the passages that speak of the contrast between darkness and light, and that is that the darkness spoken of is the depravity of man's sin. The sinfulness of his heart. Described in Romans 8 verse 7 that the natural mind is at enmity against God. Man hates God by nature. He has rebelled against Him. He is in a state of enmity against God. And it's for this reason of the rebellion against God that man walks about in darkness. As your heart is, so is your desire, and so will be the direction of your life. Why is it that we feel so attracted to sin, like pornography? Well, here's the solution to that question. John tells us in the Scripture, quoting the words of Jesus, the light has come, but men love darkness rather than light. The natural state of our heart is depraved. The first part of our catechism takes pains to have that taught because we must know how great our sin and misery is in order to begin to long for the solution of that sin and misery. Sin gets a lot of likes today. Sin has gone viral today on the internet. But before that, long before that, it went viral in the human heart. After all, that's why God sent the flood. Because mankind had become so wicked that every imagination of the heart of man was only evil continually. And it grieved God, we read in the first chapters of Genesis, read chapter 6 and 7 and 8 of Genesis, you see how grieved God was with the human race. And aren't we ready for a global event of God's wrath today? The wickedness of man is great. People are walking about in darkness. And another aspect of this darkness, it's global. It's on account of the depravity of sin, but it's also on account of the wrath of God against sin. Notice the text also speaks about the shadow of death. The shadow of death follows. man's choice for sin. In Isaiah 7 verse 1, we read that Isaiah wrote these chapters in a time of King Pekah of Israel in the year 745 BC. In chapter 9 verse 1, we read of these kings engaging in battle in the northern part of Israel. and the language of warfare is talking about the fact that the Assyrians are coming and they are taking the tribes in the northern part of Israel and they are exporting them northward into their own lands and they are exporting their own people into the northern tribes of Israel and you end up with a mixed multitude, a mixed ethnic people in the northern part of Israel. Galilee of the Nations it is called. It is given that name with a bit of looking down your nose if you're living in Judea or Jerusalem. And the elite in the nation of Israel in the time of Jesus had indeed been looking down at Galilee. They have been despising those mixed multitude, Galilee, mixed with the nations of the Assyrians. We notice that that despising is on account of their being uneducated. They don't know the language of Hebrew. They don't speak it the way we do. They have a different dialect, those Galileans. Can anything good come out of Galilee is sort of a motto that they used at the time. And we pick it up in John 1 verse 45, then Philip found Nathanael, we read, and he said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, What's Nathanael's response to Philip's announcement? Nathanael says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? There's this ethnic prejudice against the northern tribes. We read in John 7, verse 52, the Pharisees answered and said to Nicodemus, who was interested in Jesus, They said to him, are you also from Galilee? You can just sense that he'd be dripping with despising arrogance. Are you also from Galilee? Search and look for no prophet has ever risen out of Galilee. And to the Jews, it was most inconceivable that a Messiah would begin to shine his light out of Galilee. Well, it certainly was true. And you see, God does exactly the opposite of what man's wisdom expects. The human expectation at the time was Well, if anything's going to happen, it's going to happen in Jerusalem, you know. We are the religious people. We really do the dos and don't the don'ts of the law. And God delights to seek the despised. He delights to shine exactly where it's darkest. And so it did happen. that the Lord sent his son to be raised in Nazareth and to begin preaching even further north of Nazareth. Well, the people who walked in darkness, indeed. And before we look down our noses at any other people in Canada, who may be walking in more darkness than we do. Let's just examine ourselves. Indeed, Canada is a nation of great darkness. And indeed, there is a lot of the population, a large portion of the population walking about in darkness. And the 100,000 abortions per year are now just hidden in the statistics. The shadow of death has come over our land, and we should not be surprised that God's wrath is visiting our land. And we can continue to talk about the depressing darkness of our land in comparison even with verse 19 of chapter 8 and state that Victoria, BC boasts itself as the witchcraft capital of Canada. And yes, we can even notice that those who worship the sun celebrate the returning of daylight hours. They seek who? Well, this Canada has been dedicated to the Lord. This is the dominion of Canada using the language of Psalm 72, dedicated to the Lord, Jesus. how far we have come. But our personal darkness is to be our first concern, not to look down in self-righteousness upon our neighbors or upon others, but ask ourself, because judgment begins at the house of God, how often, how much are we walking about in darkness? This is convicting. And we need to be convicted because knowing our sin and misery is important in order to prepare us to begin truly longing for the light. The good tidings of great joy, the angels came on that night, and the light pierced the darkness of the shepherd's night, and they announced the glorious news, the good news, the gracious light has come. good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, yes, even the despised shepherd class of the nation. They are the first to hear that's God's way. The northern district of the land, they have priority in God's plan. So let us not despair. God is a God of great grace, and has sent a gracious light. Oh, how we need the light, and how we need revival of people who really long for the light. Do you get up at five o'clock in the morning? Well, don't expect the sun to be on its way up yet. But the time does come when you can see twilight. How encouraging when you start to see twilight at the wee hours of the morning. As watchmen wait for the morning light, the psalmist says, so my soul longs for thee, O God. And Isaiah 59, the second part of Isaiah, has these encouraging statements. We look for salvation, but it's still far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, as for our iniquities, we know them. When people start saying, we know, Lord, that we are sinners. We know that we need salvation. We know that Canada is really in need of revival. When we really know our sin and misery, our part in it, the twilight has started. The dawn is beginning. For Israel of the Old Testament, when they can begin to say, we know God that we have sinned. When my people, he says, who were called after my name, when they return, when will that be? It comes when they know how dark it is and they really long for the true light. Do we look for light? Do we long for light? Our text speaks of a great coming, of a great light. The Messiah has come. Jesus has come. We can sing about that. Do we live about that? Do we rejoice in that? There is good news in Isaiah 9 here for the near future. The first verses up to verse 5 speak of imagery that reminds us of the war is over. Even the garments, the war clothing, the army clothes that have blood all over, they're going to be burned up. We don't need our army clothes anymore. The war is over. This is what the prophecy is foreshadowing, predicting. The time will come because God is faithful. He works. But further, The prophecy looks even further than the immediate future. And we know that from the well-known verses that predict the coming of Jesus, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and all of these other texts. But there are texts connected with these that remind us of Jesus coming as the light. Isaiah 60 verse 1 says, arise and shine or be enlightened for thy light has come. Malachi 4.2, the son of righteousness has risen with healing in his wings. And John 1 indeed announces that he is the true light who was to come in the world. And we read of people who are beginning to long for that light in the time of Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and those in Jerusalem who were met by Simeon and Anna because they looked for redemption in Israel. They long for it. And the Lord indeed is merciful. upon them a light has shined." It's a good thing to have the light shine upon you. Some of us even go to Florida and say, I need some light, and it's a wonderful thing just to lay there. Let the light, the sunlight, you almost feel that the sun that has shone upon you ends up permeating into you. That's what we need. We need the light to come in, to affect us spiritually on the inside as well. The true light. The light of Jesus redeeming truth and the gospel of grace. And turn with me for the fulfillment of this. The fulfillment of this prophecy to Matthew chapter 4. This is where the light has come. It is not simply in the coming of Jesus in the incarnation. But the prophecy is seen as being fulfilled by means of the preaching of Jesus. In chapter 4 and verse 13, the Holy Spirit guides Matthew, who is very much oriented in the expectation of the Israelites. He is all about the coming of the kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount is the constitution of the kingdom of God, etc. So the coming of the king, the coming of the king himself and the kingdom, but this is the kingdom light, chapter 4, verse 13, and leaving Nazareth He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon them who sat in the region in the shadow of death, light has dawned." Notice immediately after, from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's the light. Jesus preaching the good news of the gospel. And He went to Nazareth, and He read from Isaiah, and He told them that He is the fulfillment of that prophecy. The gospel light begins to shine in Galilee when Jesus, at the age of 30, began to preach. He had heard that John the Baptist, who was the one to prepare the way, had now been imprisoned. The official work of John the Baptist is over. He has come to prepare the way, saying, make straight a highway for our God. And so, now Jesus begins to preach. We read in John, John's gospel, Then came Jesus." That's beautiful. He is the light. And the sun rises especially when Jesus begins to preach. And it is this preaching of Jesus that continues ever since that time. The light of the truth of the gospel has been shining upon us ever since then, as the apostles of Jesus are sent out, and then the disciples of Jesus go and preach the word, and then ordained ministers preach the word, and God's people themselves go everywhere. Arise and shine, for thy light has come. Well, God delights to lift the downcast and to shine His bright light in the darkest of regions. And Galilee of the Gentiles was the darkest when it comes to the knowledge of the truth, and God sent Jesus to begin preaching there. These people who lived in darkness were privileged to be the first ones to see the light. Congregation, what about us? Upon us, the light of the gospel has been preached for years. No, Jesus was not born in our town. He was not walking our streets. He is preached to us. And in Matthew 4, verse 17, we realize that it was through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that this prophecy in Jesus coming to Capernaum is being fulfilled when He begins to preach. And now the question is, do we love the light? Jesus said, this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. That's who we are by nature. And if we still love the darkness, we're still condemned. But what a privilege to be under the light of preaching, the light of the gospel. Are we rejecting the light? It is sad, above all sadness, when people who have been raised as young people under the gospel preaching, in Sunday school teaching, in catechism class instruction, and then reveal that in their heart, while the light has shone upon them, there is still no light in them. If they speak not according to this word we read in Isaiah, it's because they have no light in them. Has the light gone in? Or have you been pulling the shades whenever the sun shines? You've been walking away from the truth. You've been avoiding the heart-piercing questions of the light of the gospel. Congregation, do we not love the light? Why is it that so many people can be exposed to the light so long and then walk out of church and never be seen again because they love darkness? The answer is they need spiritual sight. In verse 2, we read, they have seen a great light. Oh, how encouraging it is to read in that Matthew 4 passage that toward the end, his fame went throughout all Syria. Wow. And they brought to him the sick and the afflicted, the various diseases, the tormented and demon-possessed. And then we read verse 25 of Matthew 4, great multitudes followed him. They were attracted to the light. Children, if you lift up a stone in the summer, there are all kinds of creatures that may crawl away into their little wormholes because they are the creatures of darkness. They love darkness. They don't like the light. And the Lord uses that analogy when he says, there are some who don't have their heart changed and they just crawl away from the light. Don't speak any truth to them because they'll hate you, they'll despise you, because they love darkness rather than light. We need to be given a heart that loves light. Jesus preached in His own town. You would think, well, He was raised in Nazareth. In Luke 4 we read He starts to preach and He reads Isaiah 61. If there's an encouraging passage In Isaiah, it's Isaiah 61, you read that He has come to preach good tidings and He has come to open the eyes of the blind and to give deliverance to the captive. It's just beautiful. And then He closes the Bible, the scroll, whatever it is, at the synagogue in Nazareth. And then He says, today, this scripture is fulfilled. in your hearing." Why didn't he say, you see today, here I am? Because he said, as I preach the word of the gospel to you, I am the very one of whom Isaiah 61 speaks, upon me the spirit of God has come. And I am the Messiah of whom this passage preaches. What did they do? Was there a revival? No, they excommunicated him from the synagogue because he claimed to be the son of God. They were going to kill him. because their eyes were blind. When he spoke, when he preached, the light of truth didn't go in. And in John 12 we read, Jesus says, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light. lest darkness overtake you, overpower you. While you have the light, he goes on to say, believe in the light. He who sees me has seen him who sent me. If you want to see God and see the Son of God, You need to believe. Whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness." Friend, do we believe the gospel when we hear it? You say, well, I'm in such darkness. I don't see the light. I hear the words, but the light doesn't come in and it doesn't give me the joy of salvation. Why is that? because you're like blind Bartimaeus. And it may be that we can hear the gospel and it starts to encourage us, but we need to have sight, spiritual sight. And blind Bartimaeus had heard the encouraging word. And if there's one thing he would love to do is he would love to see this Messiah. When he heard Jesus was coming through Jericho, he shouted, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And when Jesus stopped and called him to him, he asked, what do you want? Here's Blind Bartimaeus' words. Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus healed him. His eyes went open and he saw the Messiah. This is a picture of the miracle of the gospel. The people who walked in darkness, many of them have seen the light. Jesus started gathering his disciples from Galilee. Many of them were from Galilee. Some of them he had met in the southern part, but he gathered them from among the Galileans. What a miracle of grace. And we read in 1 Peter 1 verse 8 that Peter He was given the privilege to go even where Paul was forbidden to go and preach the gospel. And Peter says about these people, where are they? These people from Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia, further north of the northern tribes of Israel, where all these northern people were scattered and some of them still visiting synagogues in those regions, but they were gathered by the gospel, whom having not seen, he says. That is, you haven't seen Jesus with your physical eyes. That is, not with the physical eyes have you seen him, but you love him, whom though now you see him not. Yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible, full of glory. The eyes of their heart were opened, and when they heard the news of the gospel, it went in, and it was embraced, and they loved hearing about Jesus. And they began to show forth, as Peter calls it, you show forth the praises of Him. who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's the calling of those who have their eyes opened, who have seen Jesus in all the glory of his person, in all the perfection of his work, as he is fully and freely offered in the gospel preaching. Oh, what a wonderful thing. to be able to sing, once I was blind, but now I see." Amazing grace, isn't it? A great light has come for great sinners, and their eyes have been opened. And so the Apostle Paul says, we have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. the great light. And when we see that light, when we experience the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, then indeed, verse three is fulfilled as well. You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before you as according to the joy of harvest time. A farmer is pretty happy when he's got the crop inside the barn, and it's a bumper crop. That's when you can see the farmer dancing, you might say. He's pretty happy. Well, that's the comparison. That's the picture. If you have experienced this light of the glory of the gospel coming into your heart, you can look forward, even though you may have your dark times. You can look forward, because one day Jesus will take all His people into that heavenly place where the angels are. And it's described this way in Revelation 21, the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb, that's Jesus Christ, He's given that name, Lamb, is the light thereof, and there will be no night there. No night. No darkness. Never afraid. No more sin. It will be everlasting light and joy. May our heart respond. The Lord Almighty is my light. He is my Savior ever near. Let's pray. Amen.