I invite you to open your Bibles this evening to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse number 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so glad for the Word of God. We're so glad that in times of trouble and crisis and difficulty, we can turn to the book and we can find there exactly what we need. And so I pray today that as we meditate for just a few moments on this great passage, that you'll open our hearts, may they be receptive to the Word of God. I pray in Christ's name. Amen. When Isaiah says, who is among you that walketh in darkness, he's not talking about physical darkness. It's not like a room where all the lights are out. He's talking about dark days and dark times. He's talking about a time when the way is dark. I believe one of the marks of a victorious Christian is what he does when it's a dark time. I was so impressed, and I'm sure you were, with our pastor this morning as he stood before us and gave a testimony of God's grace. It's been wonderful. And then all of you have been a great encouragement to my own personal heart. Now, Isaiah asks a question here, and then he answers the question. He asks the question, who is among you that walk in darkness? And he's saying something here. He is saying you can be a servant of God and still walk in darkness. Now, we have the idea that if you're a good Christian, the lights will never go out. If you're a good Christian, You'll always make sense of everything. If you're a good Christian, you'll always have all the answers. There's a group that I've referred to for years called the Joy Boys. You've heard of the Joy Boys? Something good is going to happen to you. And people have swallowed that false theology. We need to clear up that misconception. If you're saved, you will know some times of darkness. If you're saved, you will know some days of trouble. Darkness will come to the child of God. Somehow we've preached this idea that it's an ever-increasing line of bliss, perfect health, complete success, a happy family, serene old age, and a glorious exit. But that's not the way life is. Christians do have troubles. When you get saved, God does not give you a rose-colored set of glasses and a smiley face to put on your bumper. That's not the way God operates. In fact, many Bible characters went through dark times. Job went through a dark time. There's a whole book in the Bible about a man by the name of Job, and his whole family was lost, except his wife. Some have said she should have been the one that was taken. But his entire family was taken. And Job didn't understand. And the lights went out. John the Baptist had a time when the lights went out. He didn't understand about Jesus. In fact, he sent a messenger, are you really the Messiah or should we look for somebody else? Joseph went through a dark time. I'm sure Joseph in the prison must have wondered what in the world is going on in my life. Moses went through a dark time. Forty years on the backside of the desert. Paul went through a dark time. Paul, in fact, admitted. He said, I'm perplexed, but I'm not in despair. Paul spent days in prison. He didn't know why. Jeremiah was in a pit for preaching the gospel. Ezekiel had a day when his wife died, and then God said, all right, Ezekiel, I want you to go and preach." So all of these men of God that we hold in such high esteem had days of darkness. And I'm sure some of you have had some very dark days. So let me give you quickly two thoughts about dark times. Here's the first one. Just because things don't make sense to you doesn't mean they don't make sense to God. Just because we can't understand what happened yesterday afternoon doesn't mean that God doesn't know why things happen. You may be in darkness, but we serve a God, and the Bible says about God, light and darkness are the same to Him. You know, we have light and we have darkness, but not God. It's always light. His ways are not my ways. His thoughts are not my thoughts. As the heaven is higher than all, God is higher than that. So, we serve a God and just because things don't make sense to us doesn't mean they don't make sense to Him. Here's a second thought. Just because things don't make sense now doesn't mean they'll always not make sense. Just because they don't make sense now doesn't mean you'll always be in darkness. You remember the old song, trials dark on every hand and we cannot understand all the way that God would lead us to the blessed promised land, but he'll guide us with his eye. And we'll follow it till we die and we'll understand it better by and by. And we truly will. One day we will understand the why of what happened yesterday afternoon. Now, we may understand it in this life. We may look back a few years from now and say, oh, now I know why all that happened. But we may never know until we get to heaven. But we will know someday and God will make it plain. I heard of a family and the mother passed away. They had the funeral and the father was left with a small son. It was their first night after the funeral. So the father decided they would sleep in the same room. Well, he turned the lights out and it got very dark And the little boy couldn't go to sleep. He tossed and he turned. And he said, Daddy, it's so dark. Are you there, Daddy? He said, Oh, yes, sir. I'm here, son. He said, Daddy, is your face toward me? And the father said, Yes, my face is toward you. And then it was okay. The little boy went to sleep. And after the little boy went to sleep and he could hear him breathing deeply, the father slipped out of bed and got down on his knees and he said, Dear God, I can't see either, but it's enough to know your face is toward me. And it is. And dear child of God, God's face is toward you. and toward me. So that's the verse I wanted to share with you this afternoon in Isaiah 50. Let me read it again. Who is among you that feareth the Lord and that obeyeth the voice of his servant and walks in darkness and has no light? What do you do? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. May God bless these verses to our hearts this afternoon.