Vance Havner was one of my favorite preachers when I was growing up, because had a wonderful, witty way of putting things that really made you think. He went home to be with the Lord quite a while ago, but I remember a story he told about two Indians who from a distance had been watching a lighthouse being constructed over a period of time. When the thing was finally completed, they came over to see it on its grand opening. It was all set up with the lights and the bell and the horn; but the day it was due to open, the worst fog of all fogs came in. One Indian said to the other, “Light shine, bell ring, horn blow, but fog come in just the same.”
Vance Havner commented, “We've never had more lights shining, and bells ringing, and horns blowing in the church than we have today. We've never had more fog.” (Vance Havner, On This Rock I Stand; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, even though this was said probably more than 30 years ago, it still rings true perhaps even more so today than then. We’ve got a lot of bells and whistles in the church today, but so many people seem to be in a fog. These are dark and scary days for a lot of people. The lights are going out, but so very few know what to do.
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 50, Isaiah 50, where the prophet Isaiah talks to some of God’s faithful people who faced the dark prospect of Babylonian captivity. There were some dark days ahead, but Isaiah gives them and us some clear direction on what to do when the lights go out.
Isaiah 50:1 This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. (NIV)
God is speaking to the children of Israel, and He makes it very clear that He did not divorce Israel or sell her out. Even though she had committed “adultery” (so to speak) by going after other gods, God never gave her a certificate of divorce. “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce,” He asks. The answer is, “Nowhere, because God never issued one.” Even though Israel had been unfaithful to Him, God remained faithful to Her. She left the Lord; the Lord didn’t leave her.
It reminds me of the story of the old couple following in a car behind the car of a young couple sitting very close together. The two old people are about as far apart on the front seat of the car as they can get, and she muses, “Remember, when we were young like that. I miss those days when we sat so close together.”
The old man simply grunts a two word reply: “Who moved?”
In this case, God didn’t move away from Israel; Israel moved away from God and faces Babylonian captivity as a result. Even so, God has not abandoned His people.
He has not divorced her, and that’s what those who feared the Lord in ancient Israel could count on. They could depend on God’s unfailing love, and that’s what we can count on today, those of us who fear and obey the Lord. When the lights go out, we can and we must…
RELY ON GOD’S UNFAILING LOVE
We must depend God’s faithful commitment to His own people. We must trust in His loyal devotion to those He calls His own.
The book of Hebrews in the New Testament was written to a group of people facing severe persecution because of their faith. But in the midst of the darkness, the author of Hebrews reminds them of what God had said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). God will never leave us no matter what, and He will never stop loving us. Depend on that love, and it will get you through the darkest times.
Skye Jethani relates a story about holding a series of meetings with college-aged students. The topics ranged across the spectrum – doctrine, hell, dating – but each conversation had three rules: be honest, be gracious, and be present. On one night the students wanted to discuss habitual sins. Although they struggled with a variety of sinful behaviors, they all agreed on one thing: God was extremely disappointed with them. One student said, “My parents were students at a Christian college in the early '90s when a revival broke out… They were on fire for God. And here I am consumed by sin day after day.” Often through tears, many other students shared similar stories about how they believed God must be disappointed with them.
After listening to their stories, Jethani asked, “How many of you were raised in a Christian home?” They all raised their hands. “How many of you grew up in a Bible-centered church?” All hands stayed up. Shaking his head in disbelief, Jethani said, “You've all spent eighteen or twenty years in the church. You've been taught the Bible from the time you could crawl, and you attend Christian colleges, but not one of you gave the right answer. Not one of you said that in the midst of your sin God still loves you.”
Jethani concluded: “I did not blame the students for their failure. Somewhere in their spiritual formation they were taught, either explicitly or implicitly, that what mattered was not God's love for them, but how much they could accomplish for him.” (Skye Jethani, With, Thomas H. Nelson, 2011, pp. 80-82; www.PreachingToday.com)
You see, the only thing that will get us through the darkness is NOT our faithfulness to God, because that is so fickle. No. The only thing that will get us through the darkness is His faithfulness to us. We can count on that no matter what happens.
I like the way John Piper put it in his book, The Pleasures of God. He said: “Sometimes we joke and say about marriage, ‘The honeymoon is over.’ But that's because we are finite. We can't sustain a honeymoon level of intensity and affection. We can't foresee the irritations that come with long-term familiarity. We can't stay as fit and handsome as we were then. We can't come up with enough new things to keep the relationship that fresh. But God says his joy over his people is like a bridegroom over a bride. He is talking about honeymoon intensity and honeymoon pleasures and honeymoon energy and excitement and enthusiasm and enjoyment. He is trying to get into our hearts what he means when he says he rejoices over us with all his heart.
“And add to this, that with God the honeymoon never ends. He is infinite in power and wisdom and creativity and love. And so he has no trouble sustaining a honeymoon level of intensity; he can foresee all the future quirks of our personality and has decided he will keep what's good for us and change what isn't; he will always be as handsome as he ever was, and will see to it that we get more and more beautiful forever; and he is infinitely creative to think of new things to do together so that there will be no boredom for the next trillion ages of millenniums.” (John Piper, The Pleasures of God, Multnomah, 2000), p. 188; www.PreachingToday.com)
Even when our love for Him fades at times, His love for us remains at the same intensity through all eternity. Count on that love even in the darkness. What do we do when the lights go out? 1st, Rely on God’s unfailing love. 2nd…
RELY ON GOD’S UNLIMITED POWER.
Depend on God’s infinite ability to save. Trust in His great strength to rescue us from any real danger. Listen to God as he continues to speak to the children of Israel.
Isaiah 50:2-3 When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.” (NIV)
God reminds the children of Israel of the days when he rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt. They crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. He turned the “rivers into a desert,” so much so that they walked over rotting fish. God also darkened the sky with locusts all over Egypt in one of the plagues to convince Pharaoh of his mighty power. God has the power to save His people, and He came with a message of deliverance, but no one paid attention. God is able to save His own.
He asked His ancient people in Israel to rely on His power as they faced Babylonian captivity, and He asks us to rely on His power today. Remember what the angel said to Mary when He told her that she would bring the Son of God into the world. He said, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). God can use a virgin to bring His Son into the world to save us all from our sins, because He is all powerful! God can do anything He wants to do, and He wants to deliver us from evil.
Philip Yancey, in his book The Jesus I Never Knew, tells the story of Laszlo Tokes, a Romanian pastor whose mistreatment outraged the country and prompted rebellion against the Communist ruler Ceausescu. Tokes was trying to prepare a Christmas sermon for the tiny mountain church to which he had been exiled. The state police were rounding up dissidents, and violence was breaking out across the country. Afraid for his life, Tokes bolted his doors, sat down, and read again the stories in Luke and Matthew. Unlike most pastors who would preach that Christmas, he chose as his text the verses describing Herod's massacre of all the children in Bethlehem 2 years old and younger. It was the single passage that spoke most directly to his parishioners, who were very familiar with oppression, fear, and violence.
The next day, Christmas, news broke that Ceausescu had been arrested. Church bells rang, and joy broke out all over Romania. Another King Herod had fallen. Tokes recalls, “All the events of the Christmas story now had a new, brilliant dimension for us, a dimension of history rooted in the reality of our lives… For those of us who lived through them, the days of Christmas 1989 represented a rich, resonant embroidery of the Christmas story, a time when the providence of God and foolishness of human wickedness seemed as easy to comprehend as the sun and the moon over the timeless Transylvanian hills.” [And] for the first time in four decades, Romania celebrated Christmas as a public holiday. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, Zondervan, 2002, pp. 39-40; www.PreachingToday.com)
God had demonstrated His power again over the forces of evil.
But somebody asks, “What about those believers who lost their lives during Ceausescu’s reign of terror? Was God powerless to save them?” No! They’re all in heaven. In the end, no real harm came to them as well, because their deaths were only an entrance into the most wonderful presence of Christ Himself.
Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). No power on earth or hell can destroy the soul, and God has promised to save the souls all who trust in Him.
So when the lights go out, 1st, rely on God’s unfailing love; 2nd, rely on God’s unlimited power; and 3rd…
RELY ON GOD’S OBEDIENT SERVANT.
Depend on Christ who became obedient even to the point of death on a cross. Put your trust in Jesus, who, in submission to His Father, suffered and died for you and me. Listen to God’s Servant as He speaks to God’s people facing dark days ahead.
Isaiah 50:4-6 The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. (NIV)
Jesus knows “the word that sustains the weary,” because He listens to God (vs.4) and He obeys God (vs.5) even to the point of great suffering and shame (vs.6). Philippians 2:8 says, “He…became obedient to death – even death on a cross.” And the Gospel record is clear. Before they crucified our Lord, the soldiers “spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again” (Matthew 27:30).
Jesus did this for you and me. He took the punishment for our sins, so we wouldn’t have to, and He learned how to sustain the weary through listening, through obedience, and through suffering.
Hebrews 2 says of Christ, “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18).
Then later on, the book of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Hebrews 5 says of Jesus, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
We can trust the One who suffered and died for us. We can trust Him to save us from our sins, AND we can trust Him to sustain us in our suffering, because He Himself suffered.
He learned how to help the weary, because He Himself was weary. He learned how to minister to those in pain, because He Himself experienced pain. He learned how to comfort those who have been shamed, because He Himself was shamed.
But that’s not the end of the story. Listen as God’s Servant speaks in verse 7.
Isaiah 50:7-9 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. (NIV)
God Servant listens. God Servant obeys. God Servant suffers; but through it all, God Servant trusts God to vindicate Him in the end. Eventually, all his accusers will disappear like a moth-eaten garment.
You see, after Jesus died on the cross, He arose from the dead and took the place of all authority at the right hand of God, the Father. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter said to the people of Israel, “You, with the help of wicked men (i.e., with the help of the lawless Gentiles), put [Jesus] to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead… Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:23-24, 36).
God vindicated Christ before His accusers by raising Him from the dead. They thought He was the worst of criminals, but God made Him both Lord and Christ through His resurrection and ascension into Heaven. Now, where are all His accusers? They’re dead and gone, while Jesus rules and reigns forever!
This is the One we can trust in the darkness. He suffered for us, then He stood victorious over His accusers forever!
Tom Allen, a former Army Ranger, talks about watching the film, Saving Private Ryan. He says he was extremely proud until the last minute of the movie.
As the movie began, he was proud watching the Rangers take Omaha Beach. Then the story begins when they receive a mission to go deep into enemy territory to save Private Ryan. They hit skirmish after skirmish, and some of them are killed along the way. They finally get to where Private Ryan is holed up, and they say, “Come with us. We've come to save you.”
He says, “I'm not going. I have to stay here because there's a big battle coming up, and if I leave my men they're all going to die.”
What do the Rangers say? “We'll stay here and fight with you.” They all stay and fight, and it's gory and hard, and almost everyone dies except Private Ryan. At the end, one of the main characters – played by Tom Hanks – is sitting on the ground. He's been shot and he's dying. The battle has been won.
Private Ryan leans over to him, and Tom Hanks whispers something to him. Everyone in the theater is crying because Tom Hanks was shot.
Tom Allen says, “I was crying because of what he said—it was so terrible.” Private Ryan bent down and Tom Hanks said, “Earn this.” Tom Allen says, “The reason that made me angry is no Ranger would ever say, ‘Earn this.’ Why? Because the Ranger motto for the past 200 years has not been ‘Earn this.’ The Ranger motto for the past 200 years has been Sua sponte, ‘I chose this.’ I volunteered for this.
“So, when Private Ryan bent down, if Tom Hanks was really a Ranger he would have said, ‘Sua sponte, I chose this. This is free. You don't pay anything for this. I give up my life for you. That's my job.’” (Preaching Today, Tape #200; www.PreachingToday.com)
Jesus CHOSE to listen to God. Jesus CHOSE to obey His Heavenly Father, and Jesus CHOSE to suffer for us, trusting God to vindicate Him in the end. He would never say, “Earn this. I’ve given everything for you. Now you need to gut it out for me.” NO! Instead, He says, “Sua sponte. I chose this. I volunteered for this. Just trust me to take care of you in the darkness. That’s the point of this whole chapter. Look at it in verse 10
Isaiah 50:10-11 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment. (NIV)
If you trust in your own light, you will lie down in torment, but if you trust in the Lord, He will guide you through the darkness into His glorious light.
What do we do when the lights go out in our world? It’s simple: Don’t trust yourself; trust the Lord. Rely on His unfailing love. Rely on His unlimited power, and rely on His obedient Servant – Jesus Christ, who CHOSE to die for us.
Many years ago, King George VI of England addressed the British Commonwealth on New Year's Eve at a moment in history when the whole world stood on the brink of uncertainty. Hitler was on the move. Doom and gloom filled the air. The king's own body was racked by cancer; and before that year was over, his own life ended. Even so, in those dark days, he uttered these memorable words:
“I said to the man at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I might walk safely into the unknown.’ And he said to me, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. It shall be to you safer than the light and better than the known.’” (Ravi Zacharias, “If the Foundations Be Destroyed,” Preaching Today, Tape No.142; www.PreachingToday.com)
Those are good words for us today: “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.”
