The Coming of the Dawn

Friday, January 22, 1999

Isaiah 8:11-9:2

Romans 13:8 The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Introduction:

Advent is the time of year just before Christmas when believers think about the coming of the Lord Jesus. We think about the light and the love that His coming has brought into the world. And we wonder, if we had been living before His coming, would we have heard and heeded the promises of Messiah?

Advent is a time when we look to the promises of the Old Testament prophets, especially Isaiah. We see his message as beautiful poetry signifying the coming of Jesus Christ into a benighted world. We try to think of how it must have been to be in the darkness before Christ came. We wonder if we would have had the faith to look to the east for the streaks of dawn.

All this is excellent. But Advent is also a time to do more than speculate about the past. It is even more than a time to recall with joy and wonder that Jesus came. Advent is a time to hear for ourselves living promises that speak about light that overcomes darkness.

And Advent is a time to be looking toward Christ's coming again. Advent is a time to make certain that we are not blocking our hearts from one of God's most priceless gifts the gift of hope!

I. THE WORD FROM ISAIAH REGARDING A LIGHT IN DARKNESS

  1. ISAIAH'S MESSAGE SAID, "YES, THERE IS DARKNESS!

    But God's people do not need to live in fear of the darkness!! (Isaiah 8:11 13) God says "DON'T walk in the way of the people...in fear of death and dying. RATHER, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Be more afraid of displeasing Him than you are of what the darkness can do to you! And this faith/fear will be your sanctuary!"

    How can we describe "fear" of God? Does it mean terror? Does it negate the fact that God is full of loving-kindness and tender regard for His children?

    The fear of God is a healthy respect for Holy POWER tremendous regard for the sheer POWER of God's hatred for sin and injustice. God IS tender. But God is HOLY. The closer men and women are privileged to approach to God, the more they will regard Him with awe and holy fear.

    To come closer and closer to God does NOT mean becoming more "casual" and "familiar" with Him, or becoming more careless regarding living to please Him! There is no contradiction between tender, giving, sacrificial love and the demand for high ethical and moral standards of conduct!

  2. ISAIAH'S MESSAGE WAS THAT GOD WILL GIVE HIS PEOPLE LIGHT TO WALK IN!

    The times may be dark, but God is interested in leading His own people where they ought to go! And God is particularly jealous about NOT having His people looking elsewhere for guidance!

    (8:19) DON'T look to secular or un godly sources for directions on how to live!

    (8:22) When God's people look to earthly sources for help they find trouble and darkness. It is insulting to Almighty God to profess to love His light, and to profess to be people of light and then (1) to stumble along exactly like un believers; and (2) even to look to God's enemies for guidance in the affairs of life and living.

  3. THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH IS, "IT IS NIGHT NOW BUT DAYLIGHT IS COMING!"

    It may be dark, but Isaiah proclaims: (9:2) You cannot keep the sun from rising! The light of God is coming! If you are faithful– Messiah will come!

    If you are NOT faithful Messiah will still come! But those that look to God for light will NOT be disappointed.

TRANSITION: WE CAN AND DO SEE THIS AS BEAUTIFUL POETRY SIGNIFYING THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST INTO A BENIGHTED WORLD.

We think of how it must have been to be in the darkness before Christ came. We wonder if we would have had the faith to look to the east for the streaks of dawn. But this is MORE than beautiful poetry. It is talking about living in a world that is AGAINST God and holiness and light, and yet living victoriously in HOPE in the loving fear and holy fellowship of the God of LIGHT!

Paul sounds this note in our text this first Advent Sunday

II. A WORD FROM PAUL ABOUT DARKNESS AND LIGHT (TEXT)

  1. THE STATEMENT OF FACT: THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT, THE DAY IS AT HAND.

    When Paul wrote these words it was still night, but he could see daylight coming. We could be cynical, and say, 'See, 2,000 years have gone by and it is still night. Paul was mistaken.' But for Paul, and the generation of Christians he served, there was already an abundant dawning. They were people of the morning. And every generation of Christians since has had the opportunity to be children of light.

  2. THE CALL TO ARMS: TO BELONG TO THE CHILDREN OF THE MORNING!

    Paul says "Put off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light." At the very least, this is a call to wake up, to 'get out of bed!' This is no time to be 'sleeping in,' when worlds are being changed, transformed. But for most who hear this message, it is a call for people who would be people of faith to stop living by fears and un faith like people who don't know God!

    'Putting on the armor of light' might be amplified in rereading Ephesians 6:13 18: "Put on the whole armor of God..." And in I Thessalonians Paul speaks of "... the helmet of the HOPE OF SALVATION!" We are at war with darkness!

  3. [RECURRING THEME]

    WE SEE THESE PASSAGES AS BEAUTIFUL POETRY signifying the coming of Jesus Christ into a benighted world. We think of how it must have been to be in the darkness before Christ came. We wonder if we would have had the faith to look to the east for the streaks of dawn.

    But this is MORE than beautiful poetry. It is talking about world conditions and personal situations very similar to the world in which we live, and the situation in which you find yourself this very day!

Can we grasp what the "Evangelist Isaiah" is saying about seeing a great light? Can we understand what Paul says in our text: " The night is far spent, the day is at hand!"?

"Yes this means that Jesus Christ is going to return SOME DAY. That is what we have been taught. That is what we believe. That is what we are supposed to say!" But the facts are: We are not really very much creatures of HOPE!

Perhaps MOST Christians are in a "SURVIVAL MIND SET" rather than being filled with HOPE about the DAWNING! We are not too excited about Christ's coming again and we are not even sure WHY we are supposed to be excited about it! But Jesus Christ is Lord! Holiness shall conquer!

If we are faithful, Jesus will come again. If we are NOT faithful, we can be certain, Jesus will come again!

Whether or not we are people of hope, Christ's kingdom will come! We do not control the movements of the sun and the moon and the stars. Those movements will happen inexorably. But even more unstoppable are the movements of the Son of God! We do not CONTROL the movements of light, BUT WE CAN, BY GOD'S GRACE, BE PEOPLE OF HOPE! We can hear what the Holy Spirit would tell us about hope:

[[ Is it right to make the Gospel

message "fit" the times? (In the 18th century John Wesley did not spend too much time moaning and crying about how wicked his age was he preached instead that God LOVED the common and the uncommon, the rich and the poor. He told people they could be saved and they could know it.) Like John Wesley, I don't propose we spend too much time with negatives, crying what's wrong with our times. We are in charge of the Church and we each have a job to do. We have the gifts necessary to carry out our jobs faithfully.

I don't have any special revelation that a new Wesleyan Revival is on the way, and the world may end in chaos before we know it. But I do have revelation that we are called to be faithful where we are.

The results are not for us to determine.]]

(text:) The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light."

And a few paragraphs later, Paul prays (15:13) "(May) the God of HOPE fill you with all JOY and PEACE in believing, that you may abound in HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit!" God wants us to abound in HOPE! And we may! HOW?

(How to be people of hope:)

  1. Center your life around the will of God. Personalize the promises. You can be all that God wants you to be!
  2. Seek ways to share hope with those who look on the dark side. One way to witness is to think of faith and non faith as light and darkness; people NEED light. Believe that Jesus came that He comes! and believe that He is coming again!
  3. LIVE TO THE LEVEL OF JOY! (Rom. 14:17 The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!) And most of settle for the first, or the first and the second.

But JOY is a by product of living that is GOING SOMEWHERE! Joy is the privilege of every believer! Don't "settle!" Delight in the Lord.

We can make a difference in this dark age in which we live! We can, by God's grace, be people of HOPE! LET'S BE AWAKE FOR THE SUNRISE!

#192 Lo! He Comes, with Clouds Descending