We'll turn with me please to Isaiah chapter 50. Our text this morning that I want to reflect on with you is found in the last two verses. But as we read through this chapter, think especially of who is referred to in the first part of the chapter. It is the servant of the Lord, the Messiah, and he's the one who is actually speaking to those in the last two verses. And a great contrast is drawn between the two groups of people. Let's hear the word of our God. Thus saith the Lord, where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, For your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert, their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with the word him who is weary Morning by morning, he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint. I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us rise up. Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, All them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, Walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled. This you shall have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. Well, this ends the reading of God's holy, inspired, and infallible word. Well, beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and also the children also who are here this morning, In this last two verses of this chapter that we've read, there is this contrast that's given to us between light and darkness. As we have gone through the events of this past week, it perhaps feels like a certain measure of darkness maybe has descended on us also as a nation. And this can happen not only in a physical way where children who get to a certain age, we're past that now as parents, but they get to a certain age where they're afraid of the dark. You bring them to the bedroom, you turn the lights off, and they're afraid because darkness is a sense of uncertainty. It's a sense of fear perhaps that can come into our hearts because of not being able to know what's in our surrounding or imaginations can come into play as to what might be in the darkness. There's this natural sense then of darkness that causes us a certain measure of fear, anxiety, and trepidation. But the passage that's before us is talking about a spiritual darkness and a spiritual light. And those who have experience this reality in your life, you can relate to what is mentioned here by the prophet Isaiah and also by the servant of Jehovah. And those who have experienced something of this spiritual darkness in their life and lack of communion, regular communion and interaction and fellowship with God can walk in fear and anxiety and trepidation. It can be because of circumstances around us. It can be because of our own inward corruptions and sin. It can just be in God's sovereign providence. And the heart is crying out to God for light. His light. He is light and His presence is life. And so When we consider this passage before us this morning, I want to lay before you what Isaiah is seeking to encourage the one, the God-fearer, who is walking in darkness. And that's our theme. I wanted to do this from two perspectives. First of all, we want to see this character of this person, a God-fearer walking in darkness. What does that look like? And what are some of the reasons for which a child of God can experience this in their life? And then secondly, I want to talk about what this passage sets before us as the remedy for this darkness. When we look at our text, we can have a good idea of who is being spoken of. as it's moving back and forth between the Lord and the servant of the Lord, and then what he's saying to, at the end of the chapter, two groups of people. Those two groups of people are quite clearly distinguished. Those who are preachers and those who are called to expound the word need to be what we call discriminating as well. They need to discriminate as Isaiah does here between, there are groups of people who may know the light, who may experience darkness and these difficulties and challenges and temptations, but they need to be encouraged to trust in the Lord. But there are also those, as verse 11 describes for us, who imagine everything is fine, that they're walking in the light, but they haven't actually trusted the Lord. They're walking in their own confidence, or in their own light, as is mentioned here, their own burning torches. And their end, as the Messiah says, they will lie down in torment. And so in some respects this morning, this call of distinguishing, this call of separation, this call of which group do you belong to? Because we belong to one or the other. And we will see that the solution, the remedy, is truly the same for both of these categories of people. So who's mentioned here in verse 10? Who among you fears the Lord and walks in darkness? Have you ever experienced, not only as we mentioned, naturally, when we walk in darkness, I remember when our children were younger and there was toys maybe laying around or Lego, and you're walking in darkness and you step on a piece of Lego that's quite sharp, it's painful. You don't realize what's laying in your path. You're more walking with carefulness and you're somewhat, uncertain of what is coming. And these people who the Messiah mentions here, who obeys the voice of his servant, and who are walking in darkness. These are those he mentions, first of all, are God-fearers. They fear the Lord. We're not talking here about someone who is neglecting to walk in the way of commandments of the Messiah. This too will bring darkness to our heart and our soul. That's absolutely true. But he's here talking about those who fear the Lord, who are seeking to walk in the way of God's commandments, in the way of his word, in the way of his testimony, and nevertheless experience what it is to have this darkness in their life. And so this fear of the Lord that's mentioned needs to be understood rightly. And I think most of us understand, but for the young people and children here as well, I want to unpack that a little bit more. This fear, and we use the word fear in various ways, but this word fear used here is like a child, a son or a daughter, who fears his father or mother. It's a respectful, honoring fear. It can be fear and consequence for things we've done wrong. That's true as well. But there is a certain sense of relationship in this fear. The other kind of fear that we often express and the scriptures tell us is a slavish kind of fear. A fear that has no hope and expectation. It's a fear that's oppressive. It's a fear that rather than drawing us to the person maybe who we've offended or who is close to us, it's a fear that leads us away. And if you think of our first parents in paradise, they experienced for the first time a certain measure of fear. This kind of fear that caused them to run from God. A slavish fear. A condemning fear. But this fear that's mentioned here, who among you fears the Lord, is indeed a fear that is expressive of someone who has a relationship with. Someone who doesn't want to offend and yet is somewhat experiencing this darkness, this distance from the one that they love. And the one who is speaking these words here is none other than the servant of the Lord or the Messiah. Israel here as the, sorry, Isaiah here as the Old Testament prophet is often speaking prophetically of the servant of the Lord. And who he has in mind is of course the Lord Jesus. Just look, if you will, a moment with me. He says about himself, morning by morning I was wakened by the word of God. Verse 4, he opened his ear, he was not rebellious. Verse 6, he gave his back to those who smote him, his cheeks to those who plucked out his beard. He was disgraced and he experienced spitting. They spit on him, spit dripped down his beard and his face as they mocked him. This is what our Lord, the Messiah, experienced. And we will see that in these moments when our Lord, not only in the garden, but is brought before Pilate, he's experiencing something also of this darkness. Not because he sinned, but it was as if there his father's face was hidden. And so now he comes, even to his Old Testament people already, with this prophetic view in mind, and he comes to them, and they are exiles, they're cast out, seemingly forsaken of God, they're living in darkness, and he now comes and he says to them, who among you fears the Lord? Who is desirous to obey his voice? wants to walk in the way of his commandments, and yet experiences darkness. Now, this darkness is something all of the people of God know, because Paul says to the Ephesians, this is what we all once were. We were children of disobedience just like others. We were children of darkness until the light of the gospel shined in our hearts. And all of God's children can look back in their life in one measure or another and understand what Paul is saying about this difference between light and darkness. When you, if you were Grown up and hadn't known the Lord, you experienced something of this darkness in your own soul. You did your own thing. You knew maybe what was right, but you followed your path, which was a sinful path, which was contrary to his path. And you were walking in darkness. You weren't experiencing the joy and the life that is found in Christ. But when His Spirit came and convicted you of your sin at this darkness, He began shining His light. The light of Christ shone in your heart. And this can come in a variety of ways. It can come like the Apostle Paul. He was in darkness even as a Pharisee, even as a child of God in the Old Testament covenant view. He was walking in self-righteousness. He was like one walking in verse 11. He had kindled his own fire. He was walking in his own righteousness until that day on the road to Dabascus and the light shone. That can be some experience of the people of God. And yet there can be others and everywhere in between. It can be like the dawning of a day. You know when you wake up in the morning and it's still dark if you get up early enough and you begin to see the light beginning to pierce through the darkness. Gradually more and more and more until the sun breaks through. And that can often be what takes place in the life of those who have grown up in a covenant relationship to the Lord, outwardly belonging to Him, and yet as they understand the gospel, as they learn the truths of God's Word and the Holy Spirit opens their eyes, they begin to see more and more clearly with the light of Christ and His Spirit guiding and leading them. These, all of those I've just mentioned, whether this side or this side or anything in between, have had the light of the gospel and they've fled to Christ. They believed in him. Know what the Messiah is saying here. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? And so the question I have this morning is this. Are you one of these God-fearers? who seeks to obey the voice of God's servant. Well, that's not the end of the description, their character. They are mentioning here in the continuing of this verse, verse 10, they are at this present moment walking in darkness. That's their condition. That's their experience. And we could say in some respects perhaps also as a nation who have experienced the light of God shining upon us and blessing us from the foundation in many respects of our country through the many years and revivals that have taken place. But the past few decades and in the past week, it's as if darkness has pressed in on us. It's palpable. assassination, not simply of a political person, but of a Christian. One who vocalized his confidence and hope and expectation in the Lord alone and called evil, evil and good, good. As a nation, we can say in some respect, we walk in darkness. Now the darkness that's mentioned here in this passage and the experience of the people of God can be for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons could be they have left off using the means of God's grace. If we've come to faith in Christ, we know and we value and we consider to be precious his word, the preaching of his word on the Lord's day. But as we walk the Christian life, it can be that at times we grow cold, we grow distant, we leave off the use of the means appointed that we would be inflamed again and we would be Encouraged and corrected and comforted by this word that comes to us. It is not primarily here that is mentioned because of someone who's necessarily fallen into sin as a child of God. Although that may indeed be the case, this will bring darkness. As I said earlier, David experienced this when he fell into his sin, the displeasure of his father. There can be backsliding in the life of the children of God, which is connected to his leaving off the means of grace and living in coldness. But there's also this which is mentioned in God's sovereign providence. The Puritans in their Westminster Confession mentioned this in chapter 5, paragraph 5 in his providence. It says, the most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts to chastise them for their former sins or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts that they may be humbled and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin and for sundry other just and holy ends. And so our father's recognized there may not necessarily be blatant sin in the life of the children of God, that's God's displeasure, fatherly chastisements are upon them. It can be in his sovereign purpose to grow you in trusting Him. Allowing these times of darkness and feelings and sense of coldness in our relationship to God, that we turn to Him again and again. as we'll see in the remedy, to trust no matter what we feel or think. Trusting in the Lord our God can also be a misunderstanding of what it means to walk by faith. You know, when we first come into the life of Salvation. We often have a... It's like going into a room and turning on the light. Suddenly you see everything. But we expect perhaps, as those who have now seen, that it's just going to continue to grow and continue to be bright. that full brightness will not be seen until glory. And so there can be this confusion in the hearts of people when they experience again, perhaps a light growing dim, if you will, in their spiritual life, they begin to wonder, well, maybe I didn't see the light after all. Maybe God is displeased with me. Maybe all kinds of questions that the devil himself and our own flesh bring to the foreground about our relationship with God. And that brings about darkness. Brackel, you may have heard of him from the Second Reformation, but he mentions something of this in this paragraph I want to read to you. It's in his introduction to his treatment of spiritual darkness. He says, in regeneration man is drawn out of darkness to marvelous light. He receives enlightened eyes of understanding and perceives invisible realities. Isn't that true when we come to faith in Christ? We begin to see and believe things the Word of God has told us we didn't believe before. Now we take them to be true. Those matters which were hidden for natural man and viewed for natural perspective are now viewed entirely different by the person who's been illuminated. He who is in darkness itself becomes enlightened in the Lord, and the Holy Spirit shines in his heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This light gladdens the heart, warms the soul, causes it to burn with love, and changes and sanctifies the entire man. Therefore, they who begin to see this light become so enamored with it that they desire to be led further and further into this light. Indeed, in so doing, they don't take note between the distinction of beholding the light and the light of faith. which is given to those who continue to walk on the earth and able to make their way through darkness with joy. And not considering this distinction, they become satisfied not to walk in the light of faith, but they want to continue to walk by sight. And maybe if you're a child of God, you've experienced that as the Lord has taught you. It's almost your eyes go open to see the light, and you're beholding the light, and you're almost seeing Christ before you, and everything you read, everything you're hearing in the sermons, and then it seems to fade, and it's not the same sense. And what the Lord wants to do in our life is have us to walk trusting, believing his word, Not the experience of seeing with that clarity perhaps that we've seen before, but to trust Him and to rely on Him. But if we're relying on seeing, the darkness begins to unfold. And the Lord needs to lead us to teach us we walk by faith, not by sight. That may be very well also what Isaiah is addressing here as well. This is not any different than many of the saints of old have experienced. I think of Abraham. Yes, by faith, we read in Hebrews, he believed that even though he would slay his son Isaac there on the mountaintop, God could raise him from the dead. But it doesn't take away from the reality of he's raised his knife to kill his son. Must have been a certain measure of darkness. I think of Jacob when he had to send Benjamin. In his understanding, he thought Joseph is gone, now Benjamin is gone too. Almost like complete darkness. And Job. You read this kind of theme repeatedly, even in this very early book of the Old Testament. Job says, I go forward, I can't perceive God. I go backward, He's not there. I look to the left and to the right, I can't see Him. And then I think of our Lord, who had no sin. who comes into the garden and he's so pressed beyond measure in the darkness of that night that he crawls upon the ground, sweating drops of blood. What darkness? And what darkness as he hangs upon the tree and he cries, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He experienced this darkness to be able to speak even already in the Old Testament. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of a servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust. Christ understood, he believed, he trusted his God even though it seemed he was forsaken on the cross. He was silent. It was dark. He trusted. And he was mocked for his trusting. You remember those who passed by the cross? He trusted in the Lord. Let's see what becomes of his trusting now. But he didn't move a single centimeter, a single millimeter. He trusted his God. And what a testimony that leaves behind. when this same Messiah upholds his people. So even with Charlie Kirk, for example, he could hold his testimony to the end. His hope, his confidence was in Christ. But a testimony for us, not from other individuals who God upholds to continue that confession, but our eyes ought to be fixed on Christ, the servant of Jehovah. and to recognize these times of darkness, these times of difficulty and trial are not given to us to destroy us, that we would perish in the darkness, but that God will use them in our lives to strip away and take away all of the confidence we have in anything else so that we rest and we trust and we cling to Him alone. In the words of the Apostle Paul, who knew these times of darkness. 2 Corinthians 4, For all things are for your sake, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. That's the end of it all. But he says here, For which cause we do not faint, though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us. a far exceeding and eternal weight of glory. This present darkness is working actively in God's fatherly hand to make you more beautiful, glorious, perfect. We don't look at the things that are seen. We look by faith. We look at the things which are not seen, the things that are eternal, Paul says. This can be a severe test. If you perhaps may be in darkness or some measure of darkness this morning, it is not easy. It's challenging. It's painful. especially when it accompanies as our fathers in the catechism, the confession of Westminster are stating it, as God reveals to us our own inward corruptions and tendencies and even past sins. But the encouragement from the Messiah this morning is cling to him, to his God. I read a saying that relates to this. It says this, I said to the man who stood at the gate of the years, give me a light that I may walk safely into the unknown. And he said to me, go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God and he shall be to you brighter than a light and safer than any known way. Well, this brings us to the second thing I want to set before you, the remedy. What does he say? He continues, let him who walks in darkness, has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Stay, rest on your God. The text is clear. There can be no mistake about what he is saying to you and to me this morning. No matter what measure of darkness we perceive or don't see, it is clear that the remedy for us is trust. Rely, rest, stay upon your God. There's no one here this morning who can leave this place and say, well, I'm still in darkness. I don't know where I need to go. Because the answer from the one who is light himself says, this is the answer. This is the remedy. Trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. It's like identical parts. They're kind of repeating the same idea of trust and rest and commit yourself to the Lord and the name of the Lord. As you know, the name of the Lord has various meanings, as is revealed to us. We have so much in the whole of the scriptures. Here's an Old Testament saint who's reading this book of Isaiah, and he's reading from the servant of Jehovah. He doesn't even have a clear picture in light as to who that is, but he sees the sacrifices. He see what's pointing to what God is going to do. And he he is called by Isaiah, by the servant of Jehovah. Trust. Rest. Now us in the New Testament have so much far greater. This servant of Jehovah is clear, it's the Messiah. We see it pointed to him even through what we understand in the Gospels happened to our Lord. And he is speaking to us, to you and to me today and says, if you fear the Lord, you obey the voice of his servant, you're yet walking in darkness and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord. Trust in your father. It's one of his names, our God, who cares for you. If you're a father, you know, you don't want to do any harm to your children. You love them. You do what's best for them, even when they don't think it's best. But you do it because you love them. And so it's with our father. The servant of Jehovah as well is the same as they have one heart and one mind toward their people, toward their bride, toward their church. They've loved with an eternal love. And he will bring you to his light. The heathen, the unbeliever, the person in verse 11, has no confidence, have no expectation, no hope. They're walking in their own light. They're eventually going to lay down in darkness and in desperation and torment. But the one who clings, who trusts, who can't let go of the Lord will experience this light of his word, of his face, of his promises, the certainty of His control in our life. To believe that He is in control of all things, no matter what happens. No matter what happens in our life personally, what's happening in our family life, no matter what's happening in our national life, this is our confidence. This is what he is calling us to do in light of all that's happened in the past week, in the past decades, all that's happened. He's saying to you and to me, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. The Lord will bring. Blessing. Psalm 139, if I say surely the darkness will cover me, even the night shall be light around me. Yea, the darkness does not hide from thee, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. That's the experience of one who's walking in darkness, has no light, and they trust in God. It's as if there is light. There is a confidence, there is a hope that though we can't see with our eyes, though all around us in circumstances may seem against us, our confidence is in our God. You know, the disciples on the day that Jesus died lost seemingly everything. Their hopes died. We had hoped it had been He that would deliver Israel. Well, they had a wrong expectation of what He was going to do and it need to be corrected. We have wrong expectations of what God's going to do in our life and how He's going to do it. And sometimes God uses difficult, painful darkness to show us that truth. Trust in the name of our God. Stay on Him. The prophet Micah says, It's by faith. Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be my light. Don't let Satan and your own thoughts and imaginations, while you experience darkness, determine how you respond. The Messiah gives us the answer. to how we ought to live, even when we walk in darkness. Proverbs 3.5, do not lean on your own understanding. Don't trust your own thinking and your own way, but trust him. Trust, as the Messiah says here, morning by morning, he awakened my ear. He taught me. The Lord opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I didn't turn away. Be like your Lord. Morning by morning, open the scriptures. Morning by morning and day by day, listen to what he's saying to you. It may be a word of conviction, may lead us to repentance. It may be a word of comfort. It may be a word of instruction, whatever it is, when it brings us back to him. It's as if the light breaks through. We can't put our trust anywhere else. It's vain, it's empty, it's hopeless. And throughout the Old Testament, they talk about this. Don't hope in horses, chariots. That's what Egypt does. That's what the unbeliever does. That's what verse 11 does. You are to trust in the Lord, to lean on him. Some of you may have heard this story, but I just think it's so helpful to understand what this can look like and what it can mean. There was a minister who, some number of years ago, who had visited a parishioner and she was struggling with this whole idea of darkness and believing for herself and trusting in the Lord and she just couldn't get it straight in her thinking and understanding in her heart. And he visited and he tried to point out things to her from the scriptures and encouraged her, admonished her, nothing seemed to work and finally he had to go to his next appointment and he had to walk away. He had walked to her house and he's walking away and there was this little bridge a little short distance from her house that he had to cross over and get to the other side to get over the little stream and river. And so as he's walking, he's waving to the old lady and he gets to the bridge and he's thinking. And he comes to the bridge and he He puts his foot out on the bridge, and he kind of hops back. He doesn't know if it's going to hold him. That's what he's wanting to portray to this lady. And he goes a little further, and he steps back. He's all in fear, like it's not going to hold him. And she cries out in her Scottish brogue, lippin' it, lippin' it. In other words, trust it. Go across. It's safe. Don't worry. And he turned around and said, lippin' it, Jesus Christ. Trust him. Rest in Him. It's safe. It's secure. It's sure. Don't question it. He's faithful. That's the gospel in a nutshell. This is the answer to this question that the Messiah poses to us. Let him who walks in darkness has no light. Lip in it. Trust in Jesus Christ. in his God. It's his God. It's her God. It's not some kind of God of our imagination. It's the one who is personal, the one who comes near, the one who speaks even this morning to you. Trust me. Rest in me. God sent his son to the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might come to the light. might see the light, might believe in the light, they might be saved. And for those who may seem to be, even in these moments, feeling darkness, sensing dismay, difficulty, temptation, Whatever may be in the circumstance of your life and your heart, I counsel you this morning, keep walking in the way God has put you, seeking to fear the Lord, to obey the voice of his servant, but trust him. Pour out your heart to him and cling to him. Tell him everything of this darkness that you experience, that troubles you, that is difficult. But this is a command. It's not a suggestion. Trust in the name of the Lord, rely on your God. Job said, though he slay me. I will trust him. If you can come to this point where even though it seems like the Lord will Destroy. We'll let you go. Trust Him. He will keep you. He will rescue. He will save. Let him trust in the name of Jehovah. Notice it's Lord, all capitals, Yahweh. Covenant keeping. And so children who are here this morning, as you grow up, he has already set you apart and said, you are mine. And the question this presents to you this morning is, will you walk in this way? Will you trust him? Will you stay? Will you rest in the Lord? Will you turn his promises that he gives to you into prayers and plead for greater light and greater knowledge of salvation and understanding of these things and mature into Christ likeness. You know, sometimes you can ride in a car or in a train and there's a long tunnel. Most of the tunnels have lights today, but if you can imagine, it's still very dark as you're going through a tunnel. And what's it like when you come near the end, you begin to see light and you break through and suddenly it's light everywhere. This is the longing and desire, and there can be moments in our life when that happens, but our hope and expectation is in that great day when all the things of darkness and difficulty we may have experienced, of trial, challenge, sin, will be done away. And we will see him face to face, pure light, never darkness. and his word will prove to be true. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Let's pray. Our merciful and gracious God, The challenge is set before us this morning to trust you, no matter our circumstances. And so often we want to change them in our own strength and we want to do what we think will be helpful. But help us to rest and to trust in the name of the Lord, our God, alone. Lord, bless us, bless us individually, as families, as a nation, and grant that Even though we experience darkness, we can testify with joy, whether darkness or light, it is both alike to you. And walking in obedience to you is a delight. So help us, Lord. Forgive us of all of our sin, cleanse us in the blood of the Lamb, and go with us each day. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.