We've been singing a lot of wonderful Christmas songs lately, and it's one of the reasons I love this time of year. We've also been reciting the Nicene Creed every single week, which is a mouthful, so, encouragements, you all sound great. But I do want to call your attention to a particular line that's been in several of our songs, and is in the Nicene Creed that perhaps you've never really thought about. The Nicene Creed calls Jesus Christ, the one who is the only begotten Son of God, God of God, Light of light. And this phrase finds its way in a few Christmas songs that you cherish as well. What we just sang, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, talks about Jesus in this way. It says, Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way as the light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day. Also, O Come, All Ye Faithful has the same line. It says, God of God, light of light, lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb. What does this little phrase, light of light, mean? What does it have to do with Christmas? What does it teach us about Jesus? And where does it come from, you might be wondering? We're gonna figure out all those questions this morning, but I can answer you one. It comes from this psalm, Psalm 36, actually. And this morning as we study this psalm, may we learn more about the history of our faith, the nature of our Savior Jesus, and its significance for Christmas. So I invite you all, before I pray, turn in your Bibles to Psalm number 36. Psalm number 36. Hear the word of the Lord which we just sang. Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and to do good. He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light do we see light. Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen. They are thrust down, unable to rise. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that the grass withers and the flower falls, but your word endures forever. Lord, I pray that as we open your word this morning, that you would open our hearts to treasure that which has been given to us. Father, I pray that we would be those who treasure the light, who love Christ, and learn from this psalm what it means to be discerning of the darkness in this world, and yet always turn from it to love the light of Christ. I pray this all in the name of our Savior. Amen. So this song this morning has a three-part structure, which you might have noticed. In the first four verses, David talks about the nature of the wicked person. Unbelievers, those who do not follow the Lord. We're gonna call this, he's discerning the darkness. He discerns the darkness in verses one through four. And second, David, he turns from this to speak about the nature of God himself and his attributes. We're gonna call this, he loves the light. He loves the light of God in verses five through nine. And then he closes the psalm with a prayer, a prayer for protection, that the Lord would continue his kindness and protect David from the wicked men he talked about. So let's look at these first four verses, discerning the darkness. This first half of the psalm focuses upon the unbelievers in the world. Those who do not cherish Jesus. Those who do not care for Christ. And as a side note, for those of you who are well acquainted with the Psalms, this is a distinction that you find all over the place in the Psalms. And this is another reason why Christians must study the book of the Psalms. Because from the very beginning, you see this distinction. The Psalms teach us to look at the world and all the people in it through God's eyes. Because all the way from Psalm 1, you learn there's only two types of people. There are the righteous and there are the wicked. They are the believers and the unbelievers. And this can be an uncomfortable truth for us to really wrestle with sometimes. And yet, and sometimes the reason why Christians don't pray as earnestly for the salvation of others or practice evangelism is because deep, deep down, you struggle with this truth that every person in this world is either in Christ or out of Christ. either a believer or an unbeliever, and yet the book of the Psalms shoves it in our face. You can't avoid it. So let's see how David describes the wicked man, the one who is far from God. There are eight ways, eight things that he uses to describe the wicked man as he discerns the darkness. I'll walk through these eight ways and then make some points and applications for us this Christmas season. Number one, in discerning the darkness, He says, transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. This can be a difficult phrase to understand, but basically what David is saying is that although he sees unbelievers who seem very confident and very sure in what they're doing, he's saying that deep in their hearts they know that the Lord is right. They know that deep down their lives are wrong. He's making a bold claim about the consciences of unbelievers. Essentially pointing out that the human heart is a factory of sin as Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 17 9 He says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick Who can understand it? Number two he says there is no fear of God in before his eyes and So David further describes the reason why transgression speaks to the wicked person deep within their hearts. The reason it doesn't change their actions is because they don't fear God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Because a person can admit deep down in their conscience that what they're doing is wrong and yet still not change. It's almost like a child growing up in a household can still obey his parents and yet not fear or respect them. While this is talking about the wicked person, this should be something that we all understand. Because in Romans chapter three, Paul takes this very verse and applies it to the whole world, Jew and Greek. He's saying all people by nature do not have a fear of God before their eyes. But the difference for Christians is that we progressively, day by day, grow in that fear. And we have progressive victory over sin. The wicked person, however, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Number three, it says at the beginning of verse two, he flatters himself that his iniquity cannot be found. Literally, this word can mean that the wicked person divides his mind. He divides himself, separating the way he's thinking from reality. How does he divide himself? Just look at the next phrase. It says, he flatters himself that his iniquity cannot be found out and hate it. So David is saying that the wicked person knows what he's doing is wrong, but he convinces himself that it'll never be found out. Once again, almost like the child who steals the cookie from the cookie jar thinking, there is no way my parents will ever find out about this. No, the wicked man is not being rational, logical. There is a God and he sees all things. As a quick application for all of us, this is something I talked about in my last sermon on Jonah as well. This is teaching us that we should be confident and remembering that however bold unbelievers seem to be, their conscience testifies against them and deep within their hearts. This can be hard for us to challenge that their own fearful conscience deep with something we can't see is testifying to them that they're wrong. And that's something you should call people out. When you evangelize, when you speak to unbelievers, you should tell them God sees everything. There will come a day when every act will be brought into judgment. Let's move on to number four. As David discerns the darkness in the world, he says that the wicked's person words are trouble and deceit. He's saying that unbelievers, their words are filled with lies towards man and towards God. Towards man because unbelievers, they connive, they do whatever they can to get ahead in the world. They do whatever they can to be the best, to get the better of others. And even towards God, the wicked person in his heart convinces himself that he's right before the Lord. He ignores the fact that there is a God who sees everything. Number five, it says that he has ceased to act wisely and do good. For such a person, for the unbeliever, their philosophy is inconsistent. There's no spiritual wisdom in the wicked man. He does not connect to the dots of reality that someday he will die and face the living God. And this is a curious phrase, because look, notice what he says. It says he has ceased to act wisely. So perhaps David is talking about someone who once was a friend, who once walked with the Lord and then fell away. And I don't know about you, but those are some of the most painful moments in life. when a good friend or family member who once came to church and was faithful walks away. Perhaps that's what David is talking about. Number six, David just keeps going. There's good news beyond this, I promise, but he just keeps going. Number six in verse four, he says that the wicked person plots trouble on his bed. Why does he say this? He's saying that according to David, The wicked person not only does evil things that we all can see and perceive, but he thinks about them when he's alone. He ponders them when no one else is around. Things like sexual perversion, lust, deceit, how to hurt or get the better of others, personal gain, greed, pride. These are the things that fill the minds of the wicked person when no one else is around, while they are on their bed. And oppositely, this should be a powerful mark of those who are believers in Jesus. What do you spend your time pondering when no one is around? Hopefully good things, how to be kind to others, attributes of God, fighting the battle of the mind, even when no one else is around to notice it. Number seven, it says he sets himself in a way that is not good. The wicked person does not discern the end of their deeds, as I said. Number eight, he does not reject evil. The wicked person does not accept the penalty of what they do. These are the people who cherish their sin, cherish the darkness rather than accepting the light. And if we were to sum up everything David has just said, not the most exciting parts of the Psalms, but if we were to sum it all up, I think John 3 19 does the trick. It says this, the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light. Why? Because their works were evil. No one turns from Christ simply because they're indifferent. They turn from Christ because they cherish their evil works. You might be thinking, Jack, what does this have to do with Christmas? I'm glad you asked. Just think of the Christmas story with me. Before there was the good news of Christ's coming, there was a lot of bad news. Before the light of Christ came and shone upon the world, there was a lot of darkness. Friends, before the gospel of Matthew began, there was 400 years of total silence between God and his people. No prophet spoke, no visions, an unprecedented time of silence in Israel's history. And not only was there silence, but their land was being tossed back and forth between powerful empires. So there was no peace either. There was no king. The priesthood was in shambles. There were no prophets. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees were oppressing the people with the law. Where was God's goodness in this time? I'm sure some of the Israelites were thinking, this world has a lot of darkness. God, where's the light? I mean, even Mary and Joseph before Jesus was born, what did they experience? They were rejected by their peers from what looked like a shameful pregnancy. They were misunderstood. No doubt they felt loneliness. And they were even rejected from Bethlehem. There was no room for them in the end. Surely they were thinking, Lord, there's a lot of darkness. Where's the light? And I truly believe that this tension that David is wrestling with in these first four verses is one that every Christian feels and struggles with. Having to wrestle with the darkness of this world while still believing that the light of God is true. Because has life ever been easy for the faithful of God? Perhaps you have co-workers who don't know the Lord, and it's burdensome to deal with them. and the way they think and the way they interact. Perhaps some of you here have family members or children who are far from God. Doesn't that pain you? Doesn't it fill you with the sorrow that you see here when David is speaking? Or maybe your own struggle with sin, be it lust or greed or pride, weighs you down. You hardly have time to even think about the darkness in the world because you're too busy wrestling with the darkness in yourself. Or perhaps just the illnesses of the body, the fear of death, are the things that plague your conscience. Friends, this is something we all deal with in the world. And as we move to this next section in verses 5 through 9, we all would do well to follow David's example. to follow David's example in our prayers. Because what does he do here? He shows us a visceral and painful picture of wickedness in this world. But he also shows us how we should respond to it. David focuses upon God and his attributes. He discerns the darkness so that he can better love the light of God. And just think about Mary and Joseph during the Christmas story. How do you think they made it through all of the hardships of their early years? Being pursued by Herod, fleeing to Egypt, having no home, resettling. They had to rest in the promises of God. Rest in the light. So let us learn from this passage what it means to be of good faith and to respond to the darkness of this world by turning to the light of God. So let's look at verse five, where David does this beautiful turn in his prayer. This is what he says. He says, your steadfast love extends to the heavens, O Lord. Your faithfulness is to the clouds. I don't know about most of you, but growing up, setting up the Christmas tree in my home was a deep experience for me and my siblings. We always did it the day after Thanksgiving. We always would set it up and my dad would put the lights on the Christmas tree. And like most children, I had a small fear of the dark when I was young. I think most children have that at some point, if you were honest. And yet I loved coming down early in the morning or late at night when the Christmas tree was on. Because something about the presence of the darkness made me appreciate the beauty of the light of the Christmas tree. And I think that's kind of what David is doing here. By dwelling in discerning the darkness, he's better understanding the preciousness of the light of God. So this word here in verse five, he says, your steadfast love, O Lord, steadfast love. Depending on your Bible, there are several translations for this word. Some might say loving kindness or mercy or unfailing love. This is an incredibly important word to the Old Testament. Chesed, God's covenant love, his covenant promises to his people. And it's all over the place. When Mary in her song sang about the goodness of God, this is what she said. She said, his mercy is for those who fear him, his steadfast love. So David is shouting in his heart in this turn. He's shouting, the wickedness in this world is great, but your goodness is greater. What strong faith we see in David. Do you realize how high the clouds are? That's pretty high up. David didn't live in a time of skyscrapers or airplanes. And so essentially he's saying, God, your steadfast love is greater than I could possibly, anything I could possibly imagine or conceive. What a powerful response to wickedness, saying that God's light is greater. And he continues in verse six, read with me. He says, your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a deep, a great deep man and beast you save, oh Lord. So David right here, he compares God's righteousness to great mountains. And to say that God is righteous is to say that he is perfect. He is flawlessly just, there is no impurity in him. So David is saying that awe that you feel when you go out west and you see the Rockies, and all their glory and splendor just going on for miles, seemingly endless, he's saying, that's the awe that I feel when I behold God's righteousness. God's judgments are literally like a great abyss, he says. David is effectively saying, God, you are good, even though I will never fully grasp why you do what you do. He's admitting that ultimately he'll never be able to understand the ways of God. I think this beautifully applies to the Christmas story as well. If you think again to that song, the Magnifica, that Mary sings after the angel Gabriel comes to her, what does she say? She says, he who is mighty has done a great thing. Why? Whoever would have thought about a virgin giving birth? about the God of all things becoming a human. God's judgments are a great abyss. And David recognized this. And his mercy is even so great that sometimes he saves the animals too. It reminded me of the very end of the book of Jonah, this phrase at the end of verse six, where when God is speaking to the selfish prophet Jonah, what does he say? He says, This city, Nineveh, has tons of people and a lot of cows. Should I not show them mercy? And not that he just cares for the cows, but to paint a picture of his mercy for humans is so great that sometimes we need to realize that he saves animals, too, to show that his mercy for humans is magnificent. David continues to love the light of God. Look at verse eight. He says, sorry, verse seven, he says, how precious is your steadfast love. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Once again, this word hesed, the steadfast love of God towards his people. He calls it precious, splendid, wonderful, rare, radiant. He cherishes God's light. He loves God's light. You can just feel the emotion coming forth from David in this prayer. And he uses this beautiful metaphor that I've loved to ponder over. In the same way that a mother bird shadows her chicks, shadows her baby birds with her wings and protects them from the world and guides them. He's saying that's God with us. We're protected under the shadow of his wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, he says. They drink from the river of your delights. David just keeps going and going and going and going. Think about with me real quick how great of a lesson this would be for our prayers. Sometimes in our prayers, I don't know about you, I can get stuck in the darkness of this world and go in many layers into that and then just say, God, you're good and say amen. That's not what David does here. David goes layer after layer after layer after layer about how much the wicked trouble him, but then he goes even more into the loving kindness of God. And that's what I want to encourage you. For every minute you spend pondering the darkness and the sin in this world in your prayers, spend a minute more pondering the loving kindness of God. And now we come to the verse that I mentioned earlier. Look at verse nine. It says, for with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. This is the verse that I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon. You might not know it, but this is one of the most central texts to the Christmas story. This is where that phrase in the creed, in those Christmas songs, describing Jesus as light of light, that's where it comes from. and even on our denominations banner, the ARP. This is emblazoned across the front of it. In thy light shall we see light. It's a powerful testament to the person of Christ. You might be thinking, Jack, it's just a line. So let me dive down. Let me talk to you about why this line is important and rich and beautiful. So David, on the surface, is making a metaphor. He's saying we can learn a lot about who God is by looking at the light from the sun, or the light that we see in the world. The sun, its light, it guides us, helps us discern where to go. It's inaccessibly bright. If you look at the sun too long, don't do it. You'll go blind. And also, it gives life. Every plant on this planet would perish if it was not for the sun and its light. And all of these three things apply to God as well. If you think about it, He is a light to our path, spiritually. His word guides us. The Bible describes that God dwells in unaccessible light. And if you were to gaze upon God as He actually is, you would be destroyed. Which is why no man does that in the scriptures. And also, all life is sustained in our Heavenly Father. So David, on the surface, is making this beautiful connection between the light of the sun that we see every day and the nature of our Heavenly Father. And yet, the early church fathers, 2,000 years ago, saw much more in this verse. Because as we know, Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is called the light of men. And so here in this passage, it's teaching us that when we look at God's light, Christ, we see nothing less than the light of God himself. As Dr. Campbell mentioned earlier, there was a heretic in the third century whose name was Arius. And he went around with this phrase, he believed Jesus was a really great person, but his phrase that he always used was, there once was a time when Jesus did not exist. Basically saying, you know, Jesus has existed for a long time, but he was created at one point, which is really subtle. It's really subtle, but ultimately, is that not demeaning the name of Christ? To say that he is a little less than God the Father? Friends, we need to beware of any doctrine that demeans or to any amount lessens the name of Jesus. Because here, this verse is primarily talking about the true light of God. that we remember in the Christmas story, the light of the world, the light of the Gentiles. Do you remember when Jesus was a small child, his parents brought him to the temple and there was an old man there named Simeon. He said that he had been in the temple for years and the Lord had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. And he held the baby of Christ. And what did he say? He said, Now I can depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation, a light of revelation to the Gentiles. Christ is the light of God. So this verse is saying, when we look at the light of the world, we see nothing less than the light of the Father. When we gaze upon Jesus in the flesh, we behold the wonders of the triune God. When you hear the gospel preached in church, you understand more about the light of God. God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. In the same way that natural light can blind us, but it also guides us, the same thing of the Father's light. If we looked at it in its fullness, we would be destroyed, and yet Christ came that we may know the light of God. So this Christmas season, as we ponder the birth of the God-man, Jesus Christ in the flesh. We can have a temptation to be either unimpressed or indifferent to this story. Unimpressed or indifferent. What do I mean by that? For those who are unimpressed, you might be thinking in your heart or in your minds, well, God didn't come himself. He became a human. Big deal. I haven't actually seen God. I wasn't even there. You weren't there 2,000 years ago. Aren't you being cut a little bit short? No, that is not true. If God revealed himself to you as he is, you would be undone. And yet, through God becoming man and being clothed in flesh, we behold the light of the Father in a way that we can handle it, which is a blessing. You are not being sold short. His coming as a baby was an act of mercy for us all. So that's unimpressed. What about indifferent? Sometimes in the Christmas season, I think it's just easy to be distracted miss the point Think I want presents. There's more important things for me to think about like the start of the new year You know January jobs pick up things are busy again You might be thinking I have bigger things to worry about. No, you don't know you don't If the very light of God is in your midst, you must pay attention to it. I This little baby born in a stall in Bethlehem is the light of the world, and when we look upon this child clothed in weakness, we behold the very light of the Father. In thy light shall we see light. David closes this psalm with a prayer, a beautiful prayer, one that we would all do well to mimic. He prays for his protection. He says, O Lord, continue your steadfast love to me. Continue showing your righteousness to the upright in heart. He knows that God has promised to do these things, but he says, Lord, keep doing it. And friends, this is a mark of the faithful all throughout the scriptures. Those who cling to the promises of God and ask him, almost demand him to keep his word. But David also recognizes that he wants to be protected from the ways of the wicked. Look at what he says. He says, let not the foot of arrogance come upon me. Could also say pride. Nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen. They are thrust down, unable to rise. David closes his prayer, asking God to protect him from the wicked, but also praying, Lord, help me to not be like them. And why? Because pride is what makes the wicked fall. Pride thinking there is something better than Christ in this world. So as I close, when Christ came, and even now today, there's only two types of people. Those who welcomed Christ in, those who loved the light, and those who refused it because their works were evil. Only two types of people. And friends, Jesus Christ is the light of God, and in his light, we see the light of the Father, and he is the greatest gift of God. He is God's answer to all of the suffering and all of the darkness in this world. And I see a lot of kids in this room too, and I want to encourage you guys. You're going to get a lot of presents in a week. Jesus Christ is the greatest present you could ever get. Whatever you're going to unwrap is going to fade away, or you're just not even going to think it exists in a month. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I urge you, repent of your sin. Flee the darkness of this world. Awake from your sleep. and the light of Christ will shine upon you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this Christmas season that we may glory in the gift of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. And Father, I pray that you may resurrect the souls of some here this morning. Help us like Lazarus to gaze upon the light of the day at the calling of Christ. And I pray that as we behold the gospel in this Christmas story, that in the light of Jesus we would see the light of the Father's face. And I pray this in His name. Amen.