Advent 2019 (Pt. 1)
Text: Isaiah 9:2-7
Well it’s that time of year once again… the time when we do our Advent sermons. And I love how Advent comes right after Thanksgiving, because over the last week there have been a lot of things we can surely be thankful for… but also… that attitude of Thanksgiving helps us celebrate and be glad, and give thanks for the birth of Christ. If there’s one thing we should be thankful for it’s that God sent His Son to become a man. That Jesus – God the Son, became a man, and was born a little over 2000 years ago. That He came to us in time and space… in history. In-fact; that’s what the word “Advent” means… “Coming”.
So during Advent we remember Jesus coming into the world… but also… we are reminded that He is coming again; maybe soon. So we look back at His first coming, and we’re looking forward to His second coming. With that in mind, I want you to turn in your Bible’s to Isaiah chapter 9 verses 2 through 7, and we’re going to keep coming back to this text throughout our Advent series, but today I’m going to specifically focus on verse 2 for the most part.
So let’s go ahead and read from verses 2 to 7 (READ Isaiah 9:2-7).
Now it’s interesting how Isaiah starts this prophesy out… There in verse two he says, “The people who walked in darkness…” And then he says, “Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness…”
Now if we’re going to rightly understand and appreciate what Advent is all about, we’ve got to understand that this world is in darkness. It was in darkness during the time of Isaiah, and it was in darkness during the time of Jesus birth… and it’s in darkness today as well. And the reason this world is in darkness is because of sin. More on that in just a second. But that’s the setting for what Isaiah is about to say, and it’s going to set up everything he’s going to say, he wants us to understand that the world, and everyone in it, are in darkness. The world was plunged into darkness after the fall of man. Adam and Eve sinned against God, rebelled against Him, and opened the door for sin to come flooding into this world. We read that way back in Genesis… so by the time we get to Isaiah chapter 9, there’s been over 3000 years of spiritual darkness in the world. Over 3000 years of sin and sorrow and sadness dominating the history of mankind. More than 3000 years of man stumbling around in darkness, trying to find his way, but continually failing.
Now again; we need to understand… Isaiah has been called by God to be a prophet to the people of Israel. And he’s been called to prophesy during a time of rebellion by the people against God, and God is about to bring judgment. God is going to bring the Assyrians to conquer them. If you go back to Isaiah chapter 1 you’ll see it. Let’s just look at Isaiah 1:1-4 (READ). So they’re in a predicament… they’re in bad shape… they’re in darkness. And then; if you jump ahead to the Gospels… to the time when Jesus would be born. Again, we see that the people are still in darkness. So from the fall of Adam to Isaiah it’s around 3000 years, but when we get to the birth of Jesus, we’re looking at nearly 4000 years. And during that time, God has sent His prophets, He’s given His Word, and His Law… He’s given little glimmers of light here and there, but the darkness of sin has remained on the earth. The people of Israel are in darkness, it’s been over 400 years of silence from God. God’s last words to His people were in the Book of Malachi and He hasn’t sent a prophet or spoken to them in over 400 years. And from Isaiah’s time, all the way to the birth of Jesus, the land of Israel has been under occupation. First it was the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, and then the Greeks… Now, The Roman Empire was ruling over the land, and they were oppressive rulers, and they were pagans. And in Israel itself, Herod had been appointed king of the land. He was a wicked man, an evil, corrupt, perverse man. He was cruel murderous man, and just a vile human being. In-fact; it’s reported that Caesar Augustus once said, “I would rather be Herod’s pig, than his son.” Because the man had a reputation for murdering his own family members…
If you crossed him, or ended up on his bad side, he’d just have you killed… I mean; the list of people he had killed rivals the Clinton body count… Herod of course was the man responsible for the murder of all the infant boys in Bethlehem after Jesus was born. So not only was there just this generalized sin in the world, there were these specific leaders who seemed to exude their own darkness… the leadership was in darkness, and the land itself was darkened by sin and sinful people. The people themselves were more interested in their own things, than they were with God and God’s will. They were selfish, self-centered, hedonistic, and entitled. And their religious leaders were in darkness… Their religion was just a process of going through the motions, and not from the heart, so to speak. Legalistic, man-centered, not rooted in the truth, or in love…
The overarching condition was idolatry, and rebellion… they were in darkness.
And when you get right down to it, it doesn’t sound so different than us today in 2019. When you get right down to it… the reality is that our world is in darkness. And to make things even worse; the darkness not only surrounds us – it is in us!
We are rebellious, we don’t understand, we are sinners… sinners by birth, and sinners by choice. Hard hearted, unthankful, unkind, unloving… estranged from God, and people don’t even know it.
In other words – in darkness.
And so; when Isaiah writes, “The people who walked in darkness…” And “Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness.” He could easily be speaking to, or referring to us.
Our land is in darkness… Corruption and wickedness in the government… lawlessness, hatred, immorality… and there’s corruption and wickedness in the Church… Think about it with me.
We have leaders in the SBC who have tied themselves to George Soros, a man who helped Nazi’s round up and murder Jews. A man who prides himself in disrupting economies, and causing chaos for his own gain. At our last national convention the SBC resolved to use something called Critical Theory as a tool to interpret Scripture. This is dangerous to say the least, and in my personal opinion, demonic to be more accurate. Critical Theory has its roots in Marxism… it’s where this idea that if you’re white, male, or part of some other so called “dominant” group, you are automatically an “oppressor” and guilty of whatever sin that dominant oppressor group is guilty of. And to say that it is now necessary to use Critical Theory as a tool to help us “better interpret” Scripture is to deny the sufficiency of Scripture… it’s to reverse Sola Scriptura… something the reformers fought hard for… it’s a blatant attack on the Word of God and the Church. But the SBC resolved to use it and affirm it, and accept it. When the President of the SBC says things like, “Muslims and Christians worship the same god”, and when prominent leaders within the SBC associate themselves with and affirm false teachers and flat out deny, and ignore the clear teachings of Scripture… I think we can safely say that darkness covers the land. This isn’t some fringe group doing this stuff… it’s not some apostate, liberal denomination that’s made an even harder turn away from Scripture. This is the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention.
What I’m saying Church – is that this is real! It’s happening right now. And when you walk in darkness there’s always a consequence. Think about that… if you’re walking in darkness you can lose your way and get way off track… you can trip and fall, and hurt yourself. Or worse! And that can happen to an individual, it can happen to a congregation, it can happen to an entire denomination. For the Israelites, in the time of Isaiah, the consequence was that they would be conquered by the Assyrians. They would be over-run by pagans who worshiped false gods, and they would be taken into captivity. And after the Assyrians came the Babylonians, and then the Persians, and the Greeks, all the way up until the time of Jesus when it was the Roman Empire.
So… there’s darkness. Spiritual darkness… People can’t see where to go. People can’t see the dangers that are in front of them, or that are waiting up ahead. People are getting turned around, and have no sense of direction. We call it being lost. And it’s obvious to some, I’d say to most people… that something is not right. That the world is in darkness. That the world has serious problems and issues… but just because the world recognizes that it is in darkness, doesn’t mean it can fix the problem. They try, but they can’t.
The world offers up as solutions things like man-made philosophies, and man-made reforms… things like socialism, humanism, Darwinian Evolution, social-economic-and political reform. They say, “Well the problem is a lack of education”, so they try to teach, but the curriculum itself is darkness… wrong, corrupted, and built on faulty foundations… They say, “oh the problem is poverty”, and so they try to redistribute wealth, or offer up economic reforms, or some other plan, but it doesn’t work, and it can’t work because it’s coming from the same darkness that everyone is in. And when those things fail, and don’t work, they say, “Well obviously they didn’t do it right… the reason Communism failed in Russia is because they didn’t do it right… the reason it failed in China is because they didn’t do it right, and Cuba, and Argentina, and Venezuela, and everywhere else… but when we do it, it will somehow magically work this time.” That’s self-deception, it’s pride, it’s arrogance. And when it doesn’t work, they offer up something else like false religion, Wicca, Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age, eastern mysticism… and it’s just this process of re-branding the same old things over and over again, calling them by new names, adding a bit more to them, and repackaging them as something new, but they can’t bring anyone out of darkness. They offer flashlights without batteries, , and they can’t bring anyone out of the darkness, because… like I said a little while ago… the darkness isn’t just all around us – it’s in us. So it all ends up being just another way to walk in darkness. And eventually it leads to hopelessness, and depression, and despair.
And this is what Isaiah is addressing here. And if you read through the Book of Isaiah you’ll see it. God calls out His people who have turned away from Him, and He warns them of the consequences and calls them to repent, and as they rebel against Him, they find themselves walking in darkness, but then comes a promise of hope, a promise that He will send a Light.
Look with me at chapter one… (READ Isaiah 1:18). So God offers a promise of hope… a promise of forgiveness. He tells them that He will make them clean and wash away their sin. That’s something we all need. The Bible tells us that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We are in darkness because of sin… we are all separated from God because of our sin, and because of our sin, we are all enemies of God. So we are born at war with God in our hearts, and our minds, and our actions. And so what we need is peace with God. We need to be reconciled with God. We need to be brought out of the darkness, and we need the darkness to be removed from us. And that’s what Isaiah tells us beginning in chapter one, all the way to our text there in chapter nine. But then He says, “The people who walked in darkness HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, ON THEM HAS LIGHT SHONE!”
And we ask, “What is that Light?” What is this Light that’s shining on those who were in darkness? Verse 6 & 7 “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore…”
The Light that God sends is a child, born of a virgin, but He’s also the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is Immanuel – God who is with us. And He is the Light of the World. Jesus says in John 8:12 – “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
And I pray that you hear me this morning. The only hope we have is Jesus Christ, and the light of His glory and grace. The light of the Gospel… The light of the world. We can’t dispel our own darkness. Coming together to work harder for one another is a good thing, but it won’t dispel the darkness. Working harder at being better – won’t dispel the darkness. That’s just behavior modification, but it doesn’t drive out the darkness that is inherent. It doesn’t change the heart. Being kind and sharing with one another and with your neighbor is awesome, and we should do that, but it can’t drive out the darkness. We can’t fix ourselves. We can’t remove our sin. The fundamental nature of man has to change. And it can only change when he is born again, and made a new creation in Christ.
That first sin was like a virus – that has spread to us all, and we can’t get rid of it on our own. But that first Christmas morning, God announced that He had sent the cure for the virus in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the Light that has come into the darkness, and He is the hope of forgiveness and reconciliation. And on that first Christmas morning, the Light of Christ shone into the darkness and began driving it away. It’s still driving it away. He is still shining on the hearts of men. He is still shining into dark places and driving out the darkness.
CLOSING
