Periods of Darkness in the Christian Life

Introduction: The Common Experience of Darkness for God's Children

0:04 But now tonight, Isaiah chapter 50, verses 10 and 11. 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. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.

0:43 This shall ye have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow. May we pause again for a moment of prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to be our teacher as we study this portion together.

1:01 Lord, we would consciously recognize again that without thee we can do nothing. Amen.

1:09 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:09 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:10 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:10 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:10 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:11 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:11 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Teach us, O God, by that inward teaching of the Spirit, which always is marked by clarity and by power. O Father, speak now, we pray.

1:34 Amen.

1:40 It is the common experience of the most seasoned children and saints of God. That there comes to them in the course of their Christian experience periods of great darkness, periods of great oppression, periods where it seems all of life could be summed up in one big, black, ugly question mark, where all we know is that we don't know. Those periods when it seems as though the face of God has been withdrawn, when the smile of God is healed. hidden from us. Times when we may even have serious doubts about whether or not we truly belong to the Lord. Times when we have serious questions about just where we stand with Him. Times when in the discipline of God upon our lives, we don't understand what God is trying to show us. We find

2:43 ourselves hemmed in and hedged about by circumstances and pressures that seem to be utterly meaningless. And when we cry for light, it seems all we do is increase our darkness. If you're not in that place as a child of God, I've got news for you. If you live too much longer, you'll be there.

3:02 For as one of God's dear servants said, God isn't going to take us to heaven all wrapped up in cellar vein like a Christmas package. He's going to drag us through the fire and purify us, burn out the dross. And one of the peculiar things that God uses in the lives of His children is to purify us. He's going to purify us. He's going to purify us. He's going to purify us.

3:21 To burn out the dross, to purify faith, and to deepen their roots in Himself is to allow the periods of darkness to come. The periods when life is just one big question mark. And I have found in my brief experience of seeking to be a physician of souls, a counselor to the people of God, that this passage which I've read to you has been perhaps of more help than any other, that I know of. For it deals exactly with these kind of situations. Now let's think our way through the passage tonight, considering first of all, who are the subjects of this passage? Well, I believe it's obvious from the first two phrases that the subjects of this passage are the true children of God. Who is among you? Then two things, that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant.

The Subjects: True Children of God

4:22 And these two phrases are descriptive of the covenant children of God, of those who are the children of God by His grace. Those who are united to Him in the covenant of His grace. It's interesting to note how the prophet describes the true children of God. This makes an interesting study. You can find it in other places. In this immediate context, in chapter 51, you read, Hearken to me, ye that follow righteousness, that seek the Lord. The children of God are marked as those who pursue righteousness, who seek after God. But here, they are described as those who fear the Lord and who obey the voice of His servant. Now let's establish it that whatever this passage is talking about, whatever instruction it's giving, it is giving it to the true children of God. Those and those only who have been born of the Spirit and are worthy of the Lord. They are walking in that relationship that we know in New Testament terminology as the sons and daughters of God through grace. Now notice the description he gives of the Christian. First of

5:36 all, he calls him the one that fears the Lord. This is the earmark of all saving religion. It brings men and women into an experience of walking in the fear of God. When the Apostle Paul is describing the state of all men by nature and by practice in the third chapter of Romans, having dealt with every major class of humanity, he summarizes the condition of the whole world in Romans 3, 10 to 18. And he starts off in verse 10 by saying, There is none righteous, no not one.

6:15 And until you've come to realize that, you know nothing of salvation. You're as lost as the devil, my friend. Until you've seen that by nature and practice, you're not righteous. You don't need a Savior. Christ has died in vain as far as you're concerned.

6:30 And so Paul says there is none righteous, no not one. None that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. Then he describes the state of all humanity and he puts the capstone on all of this in verse 18 when he says this, There is no fear of God before their eyes. He says the capstone mark of men by nature and by practice is that they do not walk in the fear of God. Oh, they may have some fears of God's judgment. They may have some fears of a hell that they've got a sneaking suspicion might await them when they die, but they have no fear of God before them in the true sense of the fear of God. What is the fear of God? Lord willing, I'm going to bring a series on that next fall, but suffice it to say that I believe that there is no fear of God before their eyes. There is no fear of God before their eyes. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

7:24 I believe this is basically what it is. It's that regard of God in which His smile of approval upon my life is my greatest longing. His frown of disapproval is my greatest fear. It's that regard of God for His smile and His frown that always produces a practical desire to have my life lived as before His eye and under His precepts.

7:55 Now, that basically is what the fear of God is. The person who lives in the consciousness that he wants above all else to have the smile of God, he'd rather die than incur the frown of God, and this attitude produces a practical concern for the commandments and precepts of God, not merely in external things that can be seen of men, but in all the circumstances of his life, for he knows he lives before the eye of God. And so, Christians are marked as those who fear God. We read in Acts 9.31 that the disciples were walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and you never have one without the other. You say you have the comfort of the Holy Ghost and don't walk in the fear of God, you're deceived. You have the comfort of a deceiving spirit from the devil who's attempting to damn your soul saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. For the comfort of the Holy Ghost and the fear of God are the same.

8:57 For the comfort of the Holy Ghost and the fear of God are inseparably united. We're exhorted to carry out our holiness in the fear of God, 2 Corinthians 7.1. All our service is to be in the fear of God. Hebrews 12.28, let us have grace whereby we may serve him acceptably with reverence and with godly fear.

9:17 No service is acceptable to God unless it's done under the consciousness that my service must receive him. His smile, if it means it must receive the frown of the world, my service must be framed by motives that are pure before his eye. That's the only service acceptable to God. Now the Christian is one who walks in the fear of God. This is the fruit of grace in his life. And then he's described in this text as the one who obeys the voice of the servant of Jehovah.

9:55 And the servant of Jehovah is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. And the child of God is described as one who obeys the voice of his servant. By nature we don't obey his voice. Romans 8.7 tells us the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

10:16 But our Lord said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. My sheep hear and they follow. Hebrews 5.9 says he became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obeyed.

10:29 He doesn't obey him. That's a mark of a Christian. He obeys the voice of the servant of Jehovah. He doesn't obey the dictates of his church. He doesn't obey the external standards set up by his particular fellowship.

10:43 If he's a young person, he doesn't simply obey the standards set up by his mother and his dad. But his heart has been brought subject by the grace of God to the will of God as expressed in the word of God through Jesus Christ. And that's the way it is. That's the practical description.

11:01 So the subjects of this passage, whatever circumstances are described, whatever counsel is given, remember the subjects, the true children of God. And if you're here tonight and you are not walking in the fear of God and obeying the voice of the servant of God, the Lord Jesus, this text has nothing for you. For you to dip into this barrel of sweet morsels for the children of God is to put your hands where you have no business.

The Problem: Walking in Darkness and Having No Light

11:31 These are the choice meats and sweets of the children of God who fear him and obey the voice of his servant. All right, so much for the subjects. Now, moving on in the text, notice the problem. What is the problem?

11:46 Well, here's the child of God who fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, but he has a problem. That walketh in darkness and hath no light. The problem, you see, is one of the lack of spiritual comfort. The lack of spiritual illumination upon given points.

12:09 Now, the word darkness is used in different senses in the Scripture. Some places it means sin, where the Scripture says, He that is born of God does not walk in darkness. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth. But this is not speaking of that, for we've already seen it's talking about the one who fears God.

12:30 And Proverbs says the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. So a man who fears God doesn't walk in darkness. It's talking about the one who obeys the voice of his servant. And if I obey the voice of Christ, I'll not be walking in darkness, for he leads where?

12:45 In paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And so it's not speaking of darkness in the sense of moral darkness, but it's speaking of darkness in the sense that the psalmist spoke of it. When he said in Psalm 4, 6, Lift up the light of thy countenance upon me. It's that darkness that comes when there is a seeming withdrawal of the face of God from us.

13:12 It's that darkness that comes when in the course of doing the will of God, we come into areas where there's no understanding of what God is seeking to teach us. Where when we pray, it seems the heavens are brass and there's no answer. When we wait, it seems that our prayers simply mock us. It seems as though God is forgotten.

13:32 It seems as though the Lord, no longer remember to have mercy.

13:38 And so darkness is used in this sense. And I want to apply this. And the text is general enough that I believe we can do so without doing violence to it. I believe God gave it in this general sense so that we could apply it in the various circumstances of our lives.

13:54 The problem could be, first of all, the lack of spiritual comfort in a general way. We find that when we pray, we get into those dry spells. When there's no light, when there's no light of His countenance. How easy it is to pray when the Lord lifts up the light of His countenance upon us.

14:12 Prayer is no burden then, is it? It's the greatest delight in the world to be carried out in prayer, sensing that you're being enabled by the Spirit and you're conscious of the smile of God upon you when you pray and the face of God is beaming brightly. Prayer is a delight then, isn't it? Do you know anything about that?

14:33 If you don't know anything about that, I'd begin to check. I'd build my foundation, if I would.

14:40 If prayer is just a ritual by which you give some religious mumbo-jumbo and try to somehow throw it up in the direction of the deity, now, dear one, I fear that you perhaps never have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. But the true child of God who's tasted the reality of that is the one who experiences the bitterness when it's withdrawn.

15:06 I believe this is what David had in mind and this is what gives me comfort. Because I find that when I get in these situations, I have good company.

15:16 For I read him praying, Wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? Here's the psalmist crying out, conscious that the face of God is hidden and when he prays, there aren't those sweet, satisfying revelations, revelations of the presence and the face of God.

15:45 Psalm 22, though we know it refers to Christ, David had to pass through a situation in which he could write of that, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The psalmist entered into a situation far less extreme than David's greater son, the Lord Jesus, but nevertheless one in which he felt he'd been forsaken of God and he'd been praying. He says, I cry unto thee in the daytime, in the night seasons, I'm not silent. And he says, God is death to me.

16:16 And so the problem of our text is that one where we walk in darkness and have no light in the general state of our spiritual condition, especially when we seek the face of God in prayer. Then I believe there's an application, secondly, to those times when we enter into a trial of faith and we can't seem to understand what God is trying to tell us. Maybe it's a physical trial. And as the children of God, we recognize that God can chastise, chastise us and discipline us and try to teach us through physical affliction.

16:48 We know this. Woe be unto the person who's got a theology that won't let him have God big enough to use sickness for his own ends.

16:58 Beloved, I have no sympathy with this idea that every time I get an ache or a pain, I'm to claim deliverance as though the devil is trying to harass me and gain the victory on me. Some people have too small a God. They've got a God too small that he can't, he can't do sickness to his own ends. And so they say every sickness ought to be prayed against as though it were some foul enemy.

17:23 Beloved, I don't believe that. I don't see it taught in the Bible. This sickness is not unto death, but that the glory of God may be revealed. That's what the book says.

17:36 My grace is sufficient. My strength will be made manifested in the midst of conscious physical weakness. Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the Lord will be with me. All the power of Christ may rest upon me.

17:50 2 Corinthians 12. Now that doesn't nullify that God will and does desire in instances to bring supernatural and glorious deliverance. But there are times when God is allowing a physical trial and we can't seem to get the answer. Job is the classic example of this.

18:07 Here was a man bowed down with extreme physical pressure and he couldn't seem to find the reason. And all his comforters came and all the ones who were going to expound the reason and all they did was press him deeper into his darkness.

18:23 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant? Hath no light. Walks in darkness. Can't seem to find the reason for the physical trial.

18:33 If it's chastisement, Lord, what have I done that you want to speak to me about? If it's a lesson, what is it, Lord? And there seems to be no answer. Maybe it's in a situation of guidance.

18:44 And every single door seems blocked. Oh, how I remember some of these instances in my own life. Where it seems every purpose that perhaps you thought was born of God was frustrated. And you feel God called you to this or to that.

18:57 And as you moved into that door, it slammed shut in your face and you cried out, Lord, what's the meaning of all this? And you got no answer. Darkness. No light.

19:08 You aren't in that place. You're going to be someday, if you're earnest about knowing the will of God.

19:15 Perhaps it's a situation in which there's some providential dealing. God touches some aspect of your life, your business, your loved one. And again, in the providential circumstances of God, you can see no rhyme, no reason. Absolutely makes no sense whatever.

19:35 You walk in darkness. You have no light. Then perhaps the third area where some may experience this is in the matter of their own assurance of whether or not they're the children of God. Now, we live in a day when it's assumed that the unpardonable sin is to doubt whether or not you're saved.

19:52 I've got news for you. That might be the greatest virtue that some people could ever engage in. To begin to doubt whether or not they're really saved. It might begin to lead them to true Bible conversion.

20:08 But we live in a day the minute anyone begins to question, am I really yours, Lord? He's got a thousand people around to stick a verse under his nose and say you're all right. Beloved, my Bible says examine yourself. Prove yourself whether you be in the faith.

20:23 My Bible says make your calling and election sure.

20:28 For some, for some of you to doubt your salvation would be the first ray of light that might lead you out into the full blazing light of true acceptance with God in Jesus Christ. And the child of God who may come under the reigning power of a certain lust or sin will begin to doubt his salvation. If you as a Christian can live in known sin and not doubt your salvation or as a professing Christian, you better question your so-called Christian experience. For this is how God deals with His children.

21:01 He withdraws the comfort and witness of the Spirit to His disobedient, erring children. And there begins to be a shaking. Though there's a basic fear of the Lord, though there's a basic heeding the voice of His servant, there may be areas that cause us to begin to walk in darkness and we wonder, am I really His?

21:26 Now these three areas, the general state of spiritual dryness especially manifested when we go to pray, those trials of faith, physical matters of guidance or the general providential arrangement of our lives where there seems to be no sense whatever in what God is doing or in that area where we begin to question our own acceptance with God in Christ. The problem is one of walking in darkness and having no light. And the longer I read my Bible and the more I read the biography of the great saints of God, I've come to the place where I think I'm rather dogmatic. That no true child of God who lives any length whatsoever on the face of God's earth is going to be bypassed in this experience.

22:14 And I don't believe it's a wilderness that you go through once for all and get out of it into something else.

22:21 For I read the mature Apostle Paul saying that he was in distresses all, in fears, in anxieties.

22:32 Perhaps he hadn't attended the convention that told him he never needed to have any anxieties anymore. Well, I know one thing, he never would have organized one.

22:42 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in trembling.

22:50 Isn't that what he said?

22:55 He said, I had pressures without fears within the care of the church upon me daily.

23:06 You see, the true children of God experience these periods of darkness for the simple reason that they have tasted the reality of God's face and His fellowship and they're satisfied with nothing less. See? The true children of God have known what it is to live under His smile and they can't be satisfied just to live day by day quoting texts to themselves without having the God who gave those texts reveal His glory to their souls.

23:37 I'm going to say something that may not be understood. I prayed that it would be.

23:42 I'm convinced that we've cursed many people at the very outset of their Christian profession. I didn't say possession.

23:54 For in our effort to move away from an extreme of getting people to think they're saved by their feelings, we have reared a brood of people teaching them that you're saved apart from any inner response of the soul to God. And so they're made to take three little texts and they're told, believe it, whether you feel anything or not, believe it, believe it, believe it, and we brainwash them into saying, all right, God says it, I've got it, therefore, I'm a Christian. There's been no vital contact of the soul with God. There's been no gaze of the soul upon the glory of His face in Christ.

24:35 There's been no amazement at the wonder that a holy God would ever send His Son for such a sinful wretch. They know nothing of this and so they're brought into the profession of Christianity in terms of three little verses with no hard encounter with God and they're made to feel you'll live the rest of your life like that. And if you get discouraged, just claim a verse and just say, ah, sort of, and it'll help you out. They know nothing of these struggles of walking in darkness.

25:09 They know nothing of these psalms. They can't read them with any sympathy. Oh, Lord, hast Thou clean cast off forever? Why hidest Thou Thy face from me?

25:21 Do you know what that is to pray that? Do you know anything about that?

25:26 Do you know what it is to have the face of God hidden? That's the greatest agony for a true Christian.

25:33 The man who wrote that no informed Christian need ever pray the 51st Psalm ought to have his heart if not his head examined.

25:42 And the so-called mature Bible scholar wrote that. No mature Christian ever need pray the 51st Psalm. Take not Thy spirit from me. Cast me not away from Thy presence.

25:58 Beloved, if you haven't prayed that, better check your foundations. For the child of God knows what it is when he's fallen before his reigning sin as David did, before his besetting, to have the sense of the withdrawing of the operations and power of the Spirit. And he cries out, Take not Thy spirit from me. Sure, theologically I know I'm sealed in the day of redemption, but the child of God takes no comfort from his positional experience, his positional standing when he's barren in his personal experience.

26:37 Right?

26:41 Small comfort I get saying I'm sealed in the day of redemption. When I go out and face the day with no sense of the presence and power of God upon my life. Small comfort I can take from knowing I'm sealed in the day of redemption if I can't stand and experience the powers of the world to come as I minister the Word of God.

27:05 And so the true Christian will go through these times when he walks in darkness and has no light.

The Counsel: Trust in the Name of the Lord and Stay Upon His God

27:12 In a general sense, in terms of a trial of faith, perhaps in terms of his own acceptance before God, in the Lord Jesus. Now let's hurry on. What counsel does the prophet give? The subjects of our text, the true children of God.

27:28 The problem? Spiritual barrenness, lack of light, lack of illumination. No way out of the situation that's discernible. Now what is God's counsel?

27:40 Here it is. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God.

27:49 Now I don't believe we should make a hard, fast distinction between these two things and try to find something distinctly different about both phrases. Trust in the name of the Lord, stay upon his God. But let's just take the meaning as they stand and the light that they'll throw upon the general thing that God is counseling us to do. Perhaps we ought to start by saying what we're not to do.

28:12 Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Know what some of us do? We push the panic button and say, well, since the Lord hasn't refreshed my soul with the sensibility of his presence, I just won't bother to obey him. I've met so many, at least professing Christians, with whom this is a tremendous problem.

28:35 The minute the Lord withdraws the sensibility of his presence and they come into a period of darkness,

28:43 they get careless and say, what's the use of obeying him? They throw in the towel.

28:49 Nobody here ever does that, though, do we?

28:53 Anybody here? I think the few people that have given me this impression are in this congregation.

29:01 I think. I don't think I've met them all elsewhere. In fact, I think I live with one of them.

29:08 He walks in my shoes and puts my suits on.

29:14 Isn't this the temptation? Since the Lord has withdrawn the shining of his countenance, then I'll withdraw my covenant of obedience.

29:25 For what's the use?

29:28 Hmm? Ah, that isn't what the prophet says to do. He didn't say, push the panic button. He didn't say, run to a Bible conference either.

29:39 He didn't even say, run to your preacher.

29:42 No, he said, something else you can do. Look at it. He says, in this situation let him trust in the name of Jehovah. Psalm 9-10 says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.

29:56 The righteous runneth into it and is safe. The name of God, as we saw in our studies of the Lord's Prayer, is the speaking of his character. God's character and his attributes are revealed in his names. And so the psalmist says, when I'm in that situation of darkness, I need to trust.

30:18 I need to commit myself to Jehovah as is revealed in his names. This would be a topic for a series of sermons. What names has God taken to himself? The name Jehovah, the eternally existent one, the ever changeless one.

30:39 Is there darkness?

30:42 Well, you and I were surprised when we first learned as children that on a rainy day the sun hadn't gone anywhere. It was just as much up there in the heavens burning as on the brightest sunny day. What a revelation that was to us when we learned that. It was kind of hard for us to believe that, wasn't it?

30:59 We just couldn't figure that out. We thought the sun went for a walk somewhere. No, it didn't go anywhere. The fact that some clouds have obscured the light of the sun from our gaze doesn't mean that we're not going to change the fact that it's there.

31:13 And so the child of God, when darkness comes, lays hold of this. He trusts in the name of his God, Jehovah, the eternally existent one who changes not. Malachi 3.6, I am Jehovah, I change not.

31:31 Therefore, ye are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

31:36 He's taken upon himself the name of Father, of Redeemer. He's taken upon himself the name of Father, of Rock, of Fortress, the Lord our Righteousness, the Lord our Banner, the Lord our Healer, the Lord our Provider, all of the names that he's taken upon himself to somehow reveal to us the greatness of who he is. And so in the midst of darkness, I am to stay, I am to trust in the name of Jehovah, and I am to stay upon my God. This word stay is interesting.

32:10 It's the same word in the Hebrew as Jehovah. It's the same word in the Hebrew as is used in Proverbs 3.6. In all the...

32:17 Proverbs 3.5, I'm sorry. Is it 5? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

32:22 Yeah, here it is. And lean not upon thine own understanding. It's the word to lean. It means to rest the weight upon.

32:32 Now we're told in this situation to rest the weight of our soul, to support ourselves upon the Lord our God. And I think this has the connotation of our personal interest in Him. Is my heart basically a God-fearing heart? Is it a heart which has been basically brought subject to the Lord Jesus?

32:56 Then the only explanation of this is that God in grace has subdued my rebel heart and put His fear within my heart. This being true, even though I cannot see His face, I am still the object of His particular distinguishing grace. And in the midst of this, I am to lay hold of this fact that He is my God. Let Him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon His God.

33:24 Support Himself in the realization that though He's hidden His face, He has not withdrawn His grace. Though He has clouded Himself from my view, He has not taken His arms from beneath me. And this is what I must do. And it's only in these situations that faith is really tried and tested.

33:50 It's not easy for me to believe that He's my God when the glory of heaven breaks upon my soul in the place of prayer. I'd be a fool not to believe it. When the hallelujahs are rolling in your soul like breakers down at the shore, it's not easy to call Him your God and rejoice in Him, is it? I mean, not hard, is it?

34:12 Is it or is it not? Of course not. It takes little faith. But when there's nothing but darkness and nothing but that big black question mark in the midst of that thing to call Him my God and to stay upon Him and to wait upon Him until He breaks in upon my soul, this is the test of faith.

34:36 The clearest example of this that I know in the Scriptures is our Lord Jesus.

34:42 Have you ever thought of the tremendous exercise of faith in those last words that He uttered upon the cross? For three whole hours, every sensibility of the comfort and presence and support of the Father was withdrawn and in its place, there was the positive infliction of the consciousness of the wrath of God.

35:06 Not only was the smile withdrawn, but He saw the frown.

35:12 Not only was the sky not bright with the countenance of His Father, it was black with the judgment of His Father. And toward the end of those three hours, our Lord cried, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Not, O God, My God. What was our Lord doing?

35:37 He was the One who above all others walked in the fear of His Father as a man who obeyed the voice of His Father. And He had nothing but darkness. There wasn't one ounce of light, not even physical. God even blotted out the physical light for three whole hours.

35:58 For there was darkness over the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. And yet toward the end of that ninth hour, our Lord said, My God. In an act of sheer and naked faith, He stayed Himself upon the fact that this was His God. And then that faith found expression in His final words, Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.

36:30 Without one bit of the sense of the near and near, the nearness and the presence of His Father, the waves of the Father's wrath billowing upon His head, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. What a beautiful example of this text. Trusting in the name of the Lord and staying upon His God.

36:53 And involved in this, of course, we'll be waiting upon Him. Not running off into paths of disobedience, but pressing on until the light breaks in upon our own souls as the psalmist prayed, and I love this prayer from this standpoint. He said in Psalm 123, verse 2, As the eyes of a mistress look unto her maiden and the eyes of a servant unto his master, so our eyes wait upon the Lord till He have mercy upon us. And that's the part that we don't like.

37:28 We think God has no right to withdraw the light of His countenance for a day. And if we go to have our little 15-minute devotions, and He doesn't smile, we sulk and we go away angry. Oh, we won't be honest about it, but that's really what we do. We say it's really not fair for God to treat me this way.

37:48 But the psalmist said, I'm going to seek and seek on and keep waiting until God reveals the light of His countenance. Isn't that what he said? Till He have mercy upon me.

The Warning: Kindling Your Own Fire Leads to Sorrow

38:03 Now this text closes with a warning.

38:07 We want to consider it briefly as we close tonight. The subjects, the children of God, the problem, darkness, lack of understanding of what God is doing. The counsel, let him trust in the name of the Lord, stay upon his God. Now what's the warning?

38:23 Verse 11. Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves with sparks. Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand, ye shall lie down in song.

38:38 What's the picture here? Here's the picture of people they've got no light from God and they get impatient so they go out to make their own light. That's the picture. So they light up some firebrands and they walk in the light of those firebrands and they say, oh, we can see our way around well now.

38:54 We've got lots of light now. The Lord said, alright, you go ahead. Walk in your light, but mark my word when you do. The end of such practice is sorrow.

39:04 Do you see the application here?

39:08 I've proved this to the bitterness of my own soul when I've been too impatient to wait for God's grace. I've been too impatient to wait for God's grace. I've been too impatient to wait for God's grace. I've been too impatient to wait for God's grace.

39:13 I've been too impatient to wait for God's grace. I've been too impatient to wait for God's light to break open on a given situation. I've been too impatient to wait for God's countenance to shine upon me or upon that circumstance. And I've gotten up from my knees and I've gone and made my own light and made my own plans.

39:31 And I've had to lie down in sorrow. Do you know what this is?

39:37 Do you know what it is to do this? So impatient. We can't wait for God's guidance and we're going to get our own. We can't wait for His countenance so we're going to go out and somehow make our own little satellite and shine a flashlight on it and get a little beams of light in this way.

39:56 This is what multitudes are doing with the matter of salvation.

40:02 We say horrors when a man goes into a little black box or into a little cubicle and there's a veil and he tells his sins to another man who has taken upon himself the name of priest. And when the confession is over, the priest says, it is to him that I absolve you of your sins. Your sins are remitted. And he goes out feeling, well, that's done and that's over with.

40:29 And he feels it's all well now. And we say, poor, deluded man, resting upon the word of another creature that his sins are forgiven. I know something worse than that. Many people in our day are absolving themselves from their sin.

40:45 They are pronouncing themselves forgiven. They've never known what it is to come before God, smitten by the wounds of Holy Ghost conviction, and seek the Lord until He who alone knows when repentance and faith has been worked in the heart, has whispered peace. No, what have they done? They've grabbed a text and pronounced themselves forgiven.

41:10 And they've gone out in the light of their own absolution. And they've never heard the whisper of God to a broken heart. Son, thy sins be forgiven. Amen.

41:23 I'm convinced of that.

41:26 And it's a delusion that's far more subtle than the delusion of the Romanist.

41:32 I ask you a very searching question tonight. Has God the Holy Ghost pronounced you forgiven or have you pronounced yourself forgiven?

41:47 Do you know what it is to come before God, smitten in conscience, wounded in spirit, at the sight of your sins, the magnitude of them in the presence of a holy God, pleading nothing but mercy? And have that, that same God, through the Word and by the Spirit,

42:10 pronounced you forgiven in the depths of your own heart?

42:14 Do you know what that is? Or did you merely snatch at a text that said, Whosoever calls should be saved. I've called. It's so factual.

42:23 Therefore, I am saved. Pronounce yourself forgiven and go your way.

42:33 Have you got the question?

42:36 Have you absolved yourself or has He absolved you?

42:41 That's the question. That's the issue. And it matters not how much I say I know Him, but in that day, it matters whether or not He says He knows me.

42:59 The warning our Lord gives is applicable to the matter of salvation. Beloved, your soul is too precious to trifle with. If you're here tonight saying, Oh yes, I'm saved. Why do you say it?

43:14 Has some man, some personal worker, or yourself pronounced you saved? Or has God, by the Spirit through the Word, whispered peace to your heart? Christian, you young people, oh may God help you to get this. It'll save you some tears that I've shed.

43:36 When it comes to finding out your life, work, who's going to be your wife, some of you can't think of anything worse right now than think about getting married.

43:45 But someday you'll get a light in your eyes and you'll be coming to Daddy and Mommy all fumbling your fingers and kind of stuttering and wanting to tell them, you know, that you found Miss Right. Or you young ladies, that you found Mr. Right.

44:01 Don't you run ahead of God and keep on running. Don't you run ahead of God. Kindle your own light and get your own guidance. Oh, how many young people I've seen lie down in sorrow.

44:10 Oh, they were so sure.

44:13 He shed light upon the path. He's leading us together. Oh, how they'd lain down in sorrow.

44:21 They've kindled their own light. Weren't willing to wait upon God.

44:26 Yet the warning tonight, far better to go through two or three years of agony not knowing is this the right one. Is she or isn't he? Is he or isn't she? And wrestling in darkness and light and others, you seem to be able to get guidance like this.

44:40 And you say, Lord, why? Why? Wrestle on. Pray on.

44:44 Seek on. And when God gives light, beloved, you'll lie down in peace, not in sorrow.

44:52 You can apply it to physical problems.

44:57 I have no use for this kind of a concept of divine healing that says you pronounce yourself healed and go out still with the crippled leg and with the deep pain and say it's done, it's done, it's done, it's done. That's Christian science. It's not divine healing. Beloved, whenever our Lord touched a man, it was done.

45:16 He was healed. And I believe this God's the same God today.

45:23 Don't you create your own light.

45:26 Ask God for grace to bear that thing. Continue to seek Him. Ask Him if it glorify Him to release you. And when He gives that supernatural, genuine touch of His upon your body, the work will be done and you'll do a good job.

45:45 You can apply it to the matter of circumstances. Circumstances hedge you up and there's no way to go. You've got to stand still and oh how we hate it. Oh how we hate it.

45:55 We've got to do something. And the Lord says stand still. Don't you go out and force open the door because if you do, you're going to lie down in sorrow. Apply it to so many areas.

Conclusion: A Call to Trust and Wait

46:06 The warning of God in terms of this matter of spiritual darkness. Well, I trust the Lord will use this text to help some tonight. I trust He'll use it to help all of us in the days that lie ahead. Amen.

46:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

46:24 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

46:24 Amen. One of the great concerns of the heart of anyone who at least attempts to be a shepherd after God's heart is to know what morsels of truth God will bless to the health of His children.

46:43 And I'm sure one of the areas in which I have so much to learn being a young man and having been limited in my own experience is how to comfort the wrestling, striving, perplexed children of God. Amen. Amen. And I trust this will be a little contribution tonight.

47:02 Who is there 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 Jehovah and stay upon his God. And those of you that are about to kindle your own light, may God the Holy Ghost thunder in your bosom tonight in such a way it'll send you down on your knees trembling. And if you've pronounced yourself, self-forgiven, don't rest.

47:35 Seek the Lord until to your smitten heart He whispers peace.

47:44 Don't rest until you know the light of His countenance. Shall we?