The Light Shined is a sermon teaching us that Jesus is the Light that came into this sin-darkened world. We can choose to reject or receive the light making all the difference in eternity.

 

Key verses:
Isaiah 9:1-7

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to take your Bible and turn with me to the Book of Isaiah, chapter nine. Those of you who like to be ahead of things, we’re going to be in Isaiah again this evening, Lord willing. But Isaiah chapter nine. Last Sunday, we talked about punching holes in the darkness, and I wanted to continue that theme this Sunday. We talked about last week that the world is lost in darkness and that there is a darkness in immorality, there’s a darkness in false religions, there’s a darkness of greed and selfishness, there’s a darkness of political corruption, there’s a darkness of all who are lost in unbelief. The world is lost in darkness.

But God is not uncaring about that. You say that God should do something about it. Well, He has, and He is, and He will. Take a look, if you will, at Isaiah chapter nine, and to begin with, I just want us to read the first couple of verses, and eventually, we will go down to verse seven. But just to begin with, look at the first two verses of chapter nine.

Isaiah 9:1: “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.”

Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

I want to talk to you about the subject “the light shined.”

Truth and Reality

Belief in God and belief in the Son of God is the beginning and the foundation for the understanding and the belief in truth and reality. If you don’t believe in God, then you are on shaky ground to believe in the truth. You’re on shaky ground to believe reality.

I hear people today say, “I just create my own reality.” You do not. You are deceiving yourself if you think that. Could I prove that? I could prove that in a matter of minutes. If you want to get together with me, I’ll prove to you that you cannot create your own reality.

But let’s talk about some people who explored truth and reality. Johannes Kepler, who lived from 1571 to 1630, was a German astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for discovering the three laws of planetary motion. What does that have to do with what we are talking about? A great deal.

The three laws of planetary motion are: Number one, planets all move in elliptical, that is, oval rather than circular orbits with the sun as the focus – talking about the planets of our solar system. Number two, the planets cover the same area of space in the same amount of time no matter where they are in their orbit. And number three, the orbital period is proportional to the size of its orbit. In other words, it takes 365 days for the earth to go around the sun, and other planets that are farther out, Jupiter, for example, would take longer.

But the point is, Kepler wrote this when he wrote his findings on this, this is his quote, he said, “I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after Him. Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it benefits us to be thoughtful not only of the glory of our mind but rather, above all else, of the glory of God.”

Did you hear what Kepler said, a scientist? He said he was only thinking of God’s thoughts after Him. He didn’t say he discovered anything or created anything. He said [paraphrasing], “I just understand what God was doing. I’m trying to learn more about how He did it.”

Light and Darkness

I shared that with you to take you back to the beginning of planet Earth and the beginning of the story of the light that shined in the darkness. In Genesis chapter one is says:

Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Genesis 1:2: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Genesis 1:3: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

Genesis 1:4: “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

There was light. The light shines in the darkness. God made it so. And He made a division between light and darkness. We talked about this last week but let me repeat it to you. You cannot have light and darkness together. They are always in competition with each other.

It’s very simple to understand this. You walk into a dark room, you turn on the light, and the darkness leaves. If you turn off the light, the darkness returns. Light and darkness cannot abide together. You have degrees of the presence of light and darkness in this room right now. But it cannot be totally dark as long as there is light. So, light drives out darkness.

Four thousand years after the Genesis account, the one who created the heavens and the earth and then spoke the words “Let there be light,” and there was light, the one who divided the light from the darkness entered into the world that He had created.

John describes it to us. He says:

John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:2: “The same was in the beginning with God.”

John 1:3: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

John 1:4: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

John 1:5: “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

God promised that the light would come more than 700 years before Jesus entered this world. I want you to listen to the promises of God.

Isaiah 2:5: “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

And remember that the Lord divided the light from the darkness. And remember that Isaiah is a book of prophecy. So, in chapter five, Isaiah wrote of the coming day of God’s judgment.

Isaiah 5:16: “But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.

Isaiah 5:17: “Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

Isaiah 5:18: “Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

Isaiah 5:19: “That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!

Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

“Woe unto them” – think about this in regard to our day. We live in a day when people call evil good and good is evil. And if you speak out, then they want to call you evil. We’ve lost track of truth and reality. We’ve lost track of what is solid and what is not. We’ve lost our understanding. We’ve lost our foundation.

In Isaiah 8:19-22 we were told of a time when people would turn from light to the darkness. Here’s what it says:

Isaiah 8:19: “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?”

“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and” – that is the occult or mediums or similar.

Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Isaiah 8:21: “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.”

Isaiah 8:22: “And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.”

Now, that’s chapter eight, the one preceding the one we are looking at in chapter nine.

The Light that Shined

I want us to look at chapter 9, verses 1-7, and see this darkness and the light that shined. Go to verse one again, if you will:

Isaiah 9:1: “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.”

The Lord is talking about a previous time when there was great darkness, but then He’s talking about a future time when there’s darkness. And look at verse two:

Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

“The people that walked in darkness” – they lived daily in darkness. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,” – you probably remember this time, David in Psalm 23 when he says, “Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil for thou art with me.” Well, you find the same term here, “the shadow of death,” in that “they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

The Lord is telling us here that the light shines in the darkness. Jesus says:

John 3:18: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Why are people condemned? Because of their unbelief. Jesus went on:

John 3:19: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Did you know that there is more crime that happens at night than during the daytime? We live in a day when crime, I should say, sinners are emboldened, and they do things in broad daylight when they would have previously done under the cover of darkness. There is still more crime at night than in daylight. Why? Because people don’t want to be seen when they are doing something wrong.

I don’t frequent these places; I want to make that clear. But if you go into a bar room, a lot of places are very dark. Why is that? The same reason. People know they’re doing something wrong and don’t like to be seen. I could go on with that, but I think you have the idea. “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And then Jesus said:

John 3:20: “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”

We live in a day when people hate the light. They don’t want to be revealed. They don’t want the light to shine on them. People who are doing wrong don’t want to be corrected. Now, you think about that for a moment. Do you like someone to come up to you and tell you you’re doing something wrong? You probably don’t. Most of us don’t like that. Jesus went on:

John 3:21: “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

You don’t mind having the light shine on you if you are not doing anything wrong. You don’t mind having the light shine on you if you are doing right. That’s John 3:18-21.

Here in Isaiah, it says:

Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

The light would shine upon the people but not all of them chose to live in the light. Look at verse three if you would:

Isaiah 9:3: “Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.”

Isaiah 9:4: “For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.”

God has done things for the people of Israel. God has worked in their lives. He’s brought them back again and again. Understand this and know. The stories we have in the Old Testament about the people of Israel are true stories. These are real events that happened to real people. This is history.

But also understand that the stories that are given to us in the Old Testament are given for our example so that we can learn from them because the same way you see God working with Israel in the Old Testament is the way He works with people every day, including you and me. In other words, God is going to work with you just like you read about Him working with the people in the Old Testament.

Again John tells us in John 1:8-10:

John 1:6: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”

He wasn’t referring to himself. He was speaking of John the Baptist.

John 1:7: “The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.”

John 1:8: “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.”

John 1:9: “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

What is John saying? He’s saying the light came. A few years ago, a young man came and said to me, “If this God of yours is real, why doesn’t He come to earth and show himself?” I replied to him, “He has.” He thought for a minute and said, “You’re talking about Jesus.” I said, “That’s right, talking about Jesus.” God has come into the world and shown himself. God had shown himself to us.

John 1:9: “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

Isaiah is telling us, and the Lord is telling us that there is victory. We can have victory in Jesus. Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 15:57: “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Look at verse five:

Isaiah 9:5: “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.”

This is something different. There will be victory, but the victory is not by human accomplishment. It’s not that one people is being stronger or has a better strategy than another. There is something happening that is greater than anything else that ever happened in the history of mankind. This is a greater victory than man can imagine. This is the victory when the light comes into the world. This is the victory; look at verse six:

Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

“For unto us” – for those of us who believe. Unto us the light comes. Again, John writes:

John 1:11: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

Isn’t that interesting? He came to His own people, but many of them did not receive Him. Some did because the next verse says:

John 1:12: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

John 1:13: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

You see that dividing line here, those who receive Him and those who don’t. That’s why Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

We can reject the light, or we can receive the light. We can reject the Savior, or we can receive the Savior. That makes all the difference in eternity.

Going Home

The day is going to come for each one of us when we’ll take our last breath. We’ll close our eyes the final time.

I was listening to a story this morning. I’ve heard it before about Dr. Charles Weigle. Dr. Weigle was the man who wrote the hymn that’s in our hymnbook we’ve sung it here, “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.” He wrote many other songs, but that one would be his most famous one. He was an evangelist and traveled for many years for the Lord. But he went through some hard times, some difficult times, and that’s when he wrote that hymn.

Later in his life, he was given a room to stay at what was then Tennessee Temple College. They had a music building there and called it the Weigle Music Center, named after him. In the back of that building, he had a little room where he lived out his final days.

When he was 90 years old, he said, “I want to live to be 100.” But when he was 95, he changed his mind. He said, “I think I’m tired. I think I want to go home now.” So, he said one day, “I want to go to the hospital.” They said he was fine and nothing was wrong with him. He said, “I want to go to the hospital. I don’t want to die here in my room. That might leave a sad memory for the students coming into this music center.” So they took him to the hospital.

Then his pastor went by to see him. The nurse had called him and said, “I think Dr. Weigle wants to go back to his room. He’s talking about going home.” The pastor said, “No, I don’t think that’s what he means.” The pastor said he went to see him. He walked into the room, and Dr. Weigle was lying in his bed with his eyes closed. He wasn’t sleeping. He just had his eyes closed. The pastor called his name, and he opened his eyes, looked at his pastor, and just pointed up and said, “I want to go home. I want to go home.” You see, he knew where he was going for eternity. He understood that.

All of us are going to come to that point, and the big question is, where are we going to be after that last breath? Where are we going to be after we close our eyes the final time? Wherever that is, it’s going to be forever. There’s no turning back. There’s no changing our minds. There’s no taking a different direction. It’s settled at that point.

A Message of Hope

But this isn’t a message of doom and gloom. It’s a message of hope.

John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Now look at verse six again:

“For unto us” – that’s you and me. “For unto us a child is born.” We celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. This first Sunday in December, I’m going to be talking about that. We celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. It’s right to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Some people object to it, “Well, I don’t see in the Bible where Jesus celebrated His birthday.” You don’t see in the Bible where anybody celebrates their birthday. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t do it. There are a lot of things the Bible doesn’t tell us. But I’m pretty sure people did.

I don’t remember it ever telling us that Moses slept, but I’m pretty sure he did. The fact of the matter is things that are happening in everyday life aren’t always included in a story, and there’s no need to include the things that we already assume happen, natural things, normal things that go on in everybody’s life.

But the point is that the babe was born. He’s not a baby now. He grew up as children do and became a man. We read in Sunday School this morning Luke chapter three, which said Jesus was about 30 years of age when He began His public ministry.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” – not just to people two thousand years ago on the other side of the world, but unto you and me a child is born. “Unto us a son is given.”

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Government Upon His Shoulder

And then it says, “the government shall be upon his shoulder.” I referenced Psalm 23 a moment ago. You know Psalm 23. Many of you can recite it. Maybe you knew this, and maybe you didn’t. Psalms 22, 23, and 24 are written as a trilogy. Psalm 22 talks about the crucifixion of Jesus, a very detailed prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus, in Psalm 22. Psalm 23 talks about the Lord as our shepherd. Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” Psalm 24, listen to part of it, verses 6-10.

Psalm 24:6: “This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

Psalm 24:7: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

Psalm 24:8: “Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

Psalm 24:9: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

Psalm 24:10: “Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

It’s interesting. Every time Psalm 24 talks about the Lord, it’s that name in all capital letters, that name of God, that salvation name of God that is always associated with the Lord is our Savior. So, what is it saying? Who is this King of glory? It was the Savior.

Now, with that in mind, look again at verse six, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” He’s going to be the King. There’s coming a day when Jesus Christ will live and reign over all the earth, in person on the planet Earth from the city of Jerusalem upon the throne of David.

Archaeologists are always making new discoveries, especially in the Bible land but in other places as well. More and more, they find things that do not conflict with the scriptures but confirm the scriptures. I’ve been listening recently to a lecture about recent archaeological finds. They found rings and signets from some of the kings mentioned in the Bible and found other references to one. They found one ring that had the name on it, Pilates, or we would say Pilate.

I saw a plaque when I was in Caesaria. It was a plaque that you would set up many times as a building was being built, particularly a government building. It will have a plaque there that will talk about the governor, the mayor, or whoever, and it talks about that building. It was that kind of plaque. It was written in Latin, of course, but it was still there at the amphitheater and still used, for that matter. I find that amazing.

But this plaque at the entryway talked about the governor at the time of the amphitheater, Pontius Pilate. There were people years ago who said that Pilate never existed, that there was no Governor Pilate. It was made up mythology in the Bible. But there was hard evidence, hard archaeological evidence, that Pilate was indeed the governor of Judea.

But there was a signet ring that belonged to King Hezekiah, discovered not too far away from the city of Jerusalem. And other things like that, other confirming evidence. I mentioned all that to say they found, and I saw this, I saw a set of steps. Those steps were surrounded by ruins, stone steps that had been carved out.

They said that those were the steps to the throne of David. The throne is not there, but the steps leading up to where the throne would have been, have been uncovered. There was a throne of David in that area in the old city of David, not too far from where the temple stood.

But Jesus will someday come and reign on the throne of David in the place of David because, physically speaking, he is the descendent of David. It was prophesied that David would have a son to reign in Jerusalem forever. Jesus will reign upon this earth for a thousand years. Where do I get that? Revelation chapter 20. And they will recognize Him. He will live and reign there for a thousand years. And then comes the new Heaven and the new earth, which have no end. All of this is in your Bible. You just need to read it. You’ll find it there.

His Name is Wonderful, and Counselor

It says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name” – don’t you want to know the name of this son, this child? His name is given to us here. His name shall be called Wonderful.

An old Gospel song, really the chorus, says, “His name is Wonderful, His name is Wonderful, His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord; He’s the great shepherd, Rock of all ages, Almighty God is He; Bow down before Him, Love and adore Him, His name is Wonderful. Jesus, my Lord.”

“His name is Wonderful.” His name inspires wonder in our hearts. His name inspires amazement in our hearts. And his name shall be called Counsellor. Many times, we need counselors. You may need a counselor to help you through a difficult situation. There are grief counselors and other types of counselors.

I was in a meeting some years ago at a police department, meeting with ministers and the police department. And one of the leading officers there, and I’m not to speak against police officers, don’t get the wrong idea. But one of them talked about a young man that he had to arrest, and the officer said he spoke to the young man’s mother. She said, “I don’t understand his behavior. I knew something was wrong, and I took him to my pastor.” And the officer laughed at the idea that the mother took her son to the pastor.

I raised my hand; I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. The officer allowed me to speak, and I said, “Well, officer, I would like to interject to you, most pastors, not necessarily all pastors, I don’t want to say that, but the majority of pastors are very well-educated, they go to school, and they train for many years before they enter the pastorate. Again, that’s not 100 percent true, but the majority of the time, it is.” I said, “We know our limitations. And I know when somebody comes to me with a physical ailment, I will recommend them to go to a physician. Sometimes people come to me with a problem, and I tell them, ‘You need to see a counselor.’ But don’t I offer counsel? Yes, I offer pastoral counsel as a pastor in that capacity. I’m not a psychologist. I don’t want you to think so. But I am a member of the South Florida Association of Christian Counselors, but as a pastoral counselor, not as a psychological counselor. I make that emphasis. I refer people to counselors.”

Sometimes you need legal counsel. We have a need quite often for legal counsel. We support the Christian Law Association and other ministries that reach out that help churches and Christians, whatever the need is.

But I’m going to tell you about the one whose name is Counselor. You go to Him, and His words are the best counsel you could ever have. When you have grief, He has counsel for you. When you are stressed, He has counsel for you. When you are going through financial difficulty, He has counsel for you. In each and every situation, His words are going to be the best counsel you could ever have. But that’s not all.

The Mighty God and Everlasting Father

Look at it again, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God.” Let me stop and interject something here. There are people, religious people, and I’m not talking about an atheist or someone like that. They would, of course, do this. But there are religious people, whole religions, that deny the deity of Jesus.

They’ll say, “Yes, there was a man that lived named Jesus. He was called Christ. He lived about 2,000 years ago in Israel.” And they accept that as historical fact. But they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. He was a prophet, they’ll say. He was a good man or even a great man, they’ll say. He was a great teacher, but He certainly was not God.  Now, will you look at the prophecy again? Start at the beginning of verse six, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,”- that seems pretty clear to me.

This one who comes is The Mighty God. And if that is not evidence enough, “The everlasting Father.” Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” He did not say, “I and my Father as one.” Some have tried to explain that away, “Well, what He meant was, you know, two people are a married couple, for example. They lived together so long that they think alike and talk alike. It’s as almost they were one.” Well, the Bible does say that they two shall become one. So, they’ll say that is what Jesus meant. “I and my Father are just so close in our relationship. It’s like one.” It’s not what He said. He didn’t say, “I and my Father are as one.” He said, “I and my Father are one.”

“Are you sure you understood that correctly?” I am. And so do the people who heard Him say those words. That’s in John chapter 10. And you see what happens next as soon as He says, “I and my Father are one.” The people heard him. It says again that they took up stones to stone Him. Notice it says again that they took up stones to stone him. That means they have taken up stones before to stone him. Where’s that? Go back to John chapter eight. They were going to stone Him there for the same thing, and at that time, He just walked through the midst of them, and they didn’t do a thing.

But on this occasion, Jesus said in John chapter 10, He said, “I have done many works among you, for which of these do you stone me?” And they said, “For good work we stone thee not, but because thou makest thyself to be God.” And Jesus said, “Oh, I’m sorry, you misunderstood, that’s not what I…” No, He didn’t. He didn’t do that at all. Nothing like it. Why were they going to stone Him? “Because thou makest thyself to be God.”

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,” – Who came? God.

John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Prince of Peace

And then His name is The Prince of Peace.

John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

He says [paraphrasing], “I’m going to give you peace, not like the world gives.” You know, we talk about peace. We talk about world peace. I don’t want to discourage you, but until Jesus comes, we are never going to have world peace. What you’ll be hearing people say, talk about is a new world order. What they mean when they talk about a new world order is that they want us to have a one-world government. And the theory is this, if we only had one government over all the world, then we would have world peace.

I’m going to ask you something. Can you think of any country in the world that has a government? Sure, you can. Most countries have a government. Have there ever been any countries in the world that have a government, and within that country that had one government for the whole country, was there ever fighting among the people? Sure. Absolutely.

What I am trying to say is having a one-world government will not bring peace. That’s what I’m saying. We will never have world peace until Jesus comes because He is the Prince of Peace. And he said:

John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

You don’t have to wait until the millennial reign of Christ to have peace. You can have peace with Him right now. You can have peace with God. You can have the peace of God. You can have the peace of Jesus Christ:

John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

The world’s idea of peace is not genuine. Verse seven:

Isaiah 9:7: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”

John 8:12: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

John 11:25: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”

John 11:26: “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Do you believe that?

The Savior is Coming

Back to Isaiah 9:2:

Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

The message of Isaiah is this. The Savior is coming. Isaiah writes in a time of darkness. He writes in a time when the people of Israel had turned away from God. They had turned to idols. The Lord sent Isaiah and other prophets to preach to them and say to them, “Turn to me, come back to me. If you don’t come back to me, you are going to be conquered by other nations.” They did not turn back to God, and they were conquered by other nations. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom. Babylon conquered the southern kingdom. People walked in darkness, but they have seen a great light. All they need to do is turn to Him.

So, I challenge you this morning. Place your faith in Him. Place your faith in the one whose coming was prophesied centuries before He came. If you come back tonight, we’ll look at another prophecy regarding His coming. And Wednesday night, we’ll look at another one. There are at least eight prophecies about the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament. I say at least because there are more than that, but there are 48 that are easily identified. The chances of one man fulfilling all those prophecies are absolutely astronomical. It gets into one in one with a number of zeroes after it that I could not even name.

Place your faith in Him. Place your faith in the one whose name is Wonderful. Place your faith in the one whose name is Counselor. Place your faith in Him, who is the Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, and The Prince of Peace. Place your faith in Him who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Place your faith in Him who said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Jesus said, “Do you believe this?”

The Light Saves

In Philippi, Paul and Silas were in jail. They were in jail for preaching. One day I was at a retirement home where we used to go. We would go in there once a week and have a service. I was in there speaking. As I was speaking, somebody was just outside the door. It had glass doors, you could see. I was speaking there; I saw this person shouting and yelling so loudly it was hard for people to hear me speak. We finished the service anyway, and as I was leaving, I stopped to talk to that person.

But you know what I thought about when that was going on? I was talking from the Book of Acts, chapter 16. Do you know why Paul and Silas are in jail? They were out there proclaiming that Jesus Christ was the only Savior. There was a young lady there who had been demon-possessed. “Oh, preacher, you don’t believe that people can be demon possessed?” Yes, I do. And this young girl was demon-possessed, and she was used by men who were unscrupulous and used her, charged money to have her tell fortunes, and prophesy for people, all because of this demonic spirit.

So, as Paul was preaching, she came up and said, “These men are the servants of the Most High God which have come to show us salvation.” That sounds reasonable and logical, doesn’t it? There’s nothing wrong with what she said, was it? No, there wasn’t. But let me show you what she was doing.

Joe, please come up here for a second, would you? Okay, I’m not going to ask you to sing but I know you can. But I just want you to read the song, everybody knows it, “Silent Night.” You’re just going to read the words there and while you read, I’m going to show you what this young woman was doing.

(As Joe starts reading the words out loud, pastor shouts repeatedly, drowning out Joe.) “These men are the servants of the Most High God which have come to show us salvation.” You are getting tired of that, aren’t you? Three times and you’ve had enough of it. That’s what she was doing. That’s why Paul rebuked her. Paul rebuked her, and the demon spirit left her, and she was saved.

The men who had enslaved her were angry because they had lost business. They didn’t care for that girl. They didn’t care for the people, and they certainly didn’t care for Jesus Christ or His Gospel. So, they had Paul and Silas put in jail.

At midnight they are in jail singing the praises of God, and then there’s an earthquake. The prison doors swung open but none of the prisoners left. The guard who was working for the Romans, it’s not sure that he was a Roman, but he was working for the Romans, he pulled out his sword and was going to kill himself because Roman law was that if you were a guard and your prisoners escaped you would be killed. So, his thinking was, “Why wait for the Romans? I’ll just get it over with now.”

Paul cries out to him and says, “Do thyself no harm; we are all here,” and they were. Then he called for a light and sprang in. He fell down before them and asked a question that is the most important question anybody could ever ask in the history of the world. He said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” That’s the light that shines in the darkness.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that when we are lost in our own sin, we are lost in the darkness and the evil of this world where men call evil good and good evil. But the light has shined in the darkness and the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Jesus has come as the light of the world. We simply need to turn to him.

If you are not saved this morning or do not know if you’re saved, you say, “I think I would go to Heaven.” But are you 100% certain? “Well, I’m not 100% certain, but I think I would.” If you would like to know that without any question or doubt and be 100% certain, the Bible says you can know you’re 100% certain.

I want you to open your heart right now. I want you to call on the Lord and pray. I want you to pray and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that you came into this world. I believe though I’m a sinner like everybody else, you still love me. You paid for my sins on the cross. Lord Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead and I’m trusting you as my living Savior to forgive me, to save me, to give me everlasting life. Thank you, Lord Jesus.”

Maybe you said that prayer with me. Maybe you didn’t. But you can still trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You just call on Him. “Well, I don’t remember all the words you said.” It’s okay. You don’t have to. The Lord knows what’s in your heart. If you believe that He paid for your sins on the cross, you believe that He’ll save you, and He’ll do it. You can trust Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

But I imagine the majority of people here this morning will say, “I’ve already been saved.” Thank God for you. But has the Lord been speaking to you? Have you been going through some dark times living in this dark world? Turn to the light. The Lord will bring you home.

We’re about to sing the hymn of invitation. When we do, I’m going to leave the platform and stand down at the front. If God has spoken to your heart this morning, there’s a spiritual need in your life; that’s why we’re here. We’ll be glad to take the Bible and show you how to be saved and know it. You may say, “That’s not my issue. The Lord is dealing with me on something else, and I need prayer.” Then you come. We’ll pray with you, counsel with you, and help you. I encourage you to come. Let the Lord have His way and His will in your life while we sing.

Father, bless and move now in this invitation time. Bring those who should come and those who need to come. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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