[0:00] 1 John chapter 1, we read in verse 5, this then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
[0:15] Well, this is a verse with which perhaps we might want, if not, to quibble our questions, certainly think, well, surely you have to sort of adjust that slightly, you have to kind of qualify that, are we saying there's no darkness in the Lord?
[0:30] I mean, surely what about all those occasions when, you know, the Lord commands whole swathes of population to be wiped out, what about when he wants a city destroyed, what about all the stuff you read about in Revelation, and all the cataclysmic, you know, confrontations that are there, surely some of that is darkness.
[0:49] Well, not really, because what is being attacked, and what is being destroyed, is itself darkness.
[1:01] Now, the only thing that can cause darkness to dispel is light. Darkness is, by definition, the absence of light. There's not such a thing as darkness in the substantive sense.
[1:15] There's no sort of entity which is, by definition, darkness, except possibly in the spiritual sense. But all that darkness is, is the absence of light. The more light there is, the less darkness there is.
[1:29] Now, insofar as God is pure light, then you could say, so if there's no darkness in him, then if you might say, let's give an example from nature.
[1:40] If God were to say, make the dawn arise, and then when you just look at that kind of grey twilight, you say, well, look, this is a wee bit dark, you know, didn't God do this?
[1:52] God made this sort of level of darkness? Well, yes, God has made it, but the reason there is darkness is because the light has begun to come, and it's not as dark as when it was pitch black before.
[2:04] The reason that it's now grey kind of dawn is because light has begun to infuse the darkness. Before it was just pitch black. Before it was just the remnants of night, and now the reason you've got the grey dawn is because of the presence of light.
[2:21] And yes, God has done that. God has brought that greyness in because there was blackness before, and that greyness will soon give way to the morning, to the fullness of light, as the light increases.
[2:36] But the only thing that can roll back darkness is light. Darkness is, by definition, the absence of light. Where the Lord is at work, the darkness will recede.
[2:50] Where the Lord is present, the darkness must, as it were, run for cover. Therefore, Jesus himself, of course, says, in John's account of the Gospel, you know, as he says, for example, in John 8, at verse 12, in spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.
[3:09] He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Of course, the Pharisees then said, oh, you're bearing witness of yourself, so your witness isn't true.
[3:20] Jesus answered and said unto them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go.
[3:31] You judge after the flesh, I judge no man. He says, I am the light of the world. And then, of course, in the following chapter, in chapter 9, in verse 5, when he's about to open the eyes of the man who's born blind, of course, another example of darkness that was in that man's life.
[3:49] We've never known anything except darkness, and then the Lord opens his eyes, and he sees the light. He sees Jesus. And he alone, you might say, of so many of whom Jesus heals, is unafraid to testify to what Jesus has done.
[4:05] Remember the man at the pool of Bethesda, when he is healed by Jesus after 38 years of being infirm and being left there, and then when he picks up his bed and walks in, and the Pharisees say to him, oh, you're not allowed to do that.
[4:21] It's a standard thing. You're not allowed to carry a match. Well, the person who healed me, he told me to take up my bed and walk. And I say, well, who is he? And he's gone by then. So when he did find Jesus again, then he went and told them it.
[4:32] Then he went and told the Pharisees. Look, it's him that healed me. That's why I'm in trouble. Whereas this man in John 9, he is prepared to say, well, here's a strange thing. You don't know whence he is?
[4:43] And yet he's opened my eyes. It was never heard from the beginning of time that anybody opened the eyes of one born blind. And so he testified to who he was.
[4:55] And Jesus found him later on and said, dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Jesus said, I have done that, thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
[5:07] And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped it. The physical light simply pointing the way to the spiritual light. As in everything that the Lord does in nature and in the physical realm, it is pointing us to the fulfillment in the spiritual.
[5:25] The two are connected. There is a natural link between the two, and God intends it to be so. It's not just being clever with illustrations. It's not just sort of a similarity or simply an example.
[5:41] It is a connection. God intends the physical and material to be linked into the spiritual, to be an outward declaration of that which is itself invisible in this world.
[5:54] He opened the eyes of one born blind. Light flooded into his body, and light also flooded into his soul because he was prepared to acknowledge the one who had done it.
[6:04] So as Jesus said, I am the light of the world. But in verse 5 of that chapter 9, he said, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And I think, oops, oh well, that's a problem then, isn't it?
[6:15] Because Jesus isn't in the world anymore, is he? So he's gone into heaven. He's left us. So that means now, we don't have the light of the world anymore. Well, of course we do.
[6:26] Because if you remember that Jesus prayed in John 17 for his disciples, he said, I in them, and thou in me. They will be in me. I will be in them.
[6:36] And remember what he said in the sermon on the mount. He said, You are the light of the world. Why are we the light of the world? When only the light of the world of the Lord dwells in us and shines out from us because there is no darkness in God.
[6:50] No matter what he commands or intends, what seems to the world, ooh, that's a destructive thing, God. He said, ooh, that's a bad thing. He's crushing this city. He's destroying this people because they are literally hell-bent on evil.
[7:06] God will punish sin. He will punish darkness. He will punish evil. He will destroy evil. But of course, there are those who say, oh, you shouldn't destroy anything.
[7:16] That's bad. That's not a good thing to do. No loving God will do that. Of course he will. A loving God will seek to eliminate darkness. A loving God will seek to bring the light of life.
[7:30] He will not treat as equal and neutral two things. If one is good and the other is definitely evil, he will destroy the one and free the other because he is light.
[7:43] God is light. And in him is no darkness at all. This is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
[7:53] Now, it's not just, oh, we've heard it, so we're happy to be passing it on. Remember how the chapter begins? That which we have heard from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.
[8:09] That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may also have fellowship with us, that truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. These are his witnesses, the apostles.
[8:21] And they tell those who then receive their word, and they tell others, and they tell others, you think, well, surely it's getting weaker all the time now. Surely as it gets more and more removed from the original source, then it must be getting weaker.
[8:33] Well, is a river at its mouth, is it weaker than the little spring was way up on the hill, miles and miles away, when that first little stream began to bubble and flow down the hill, and then was joined by other little rivulets, and became a bigger stream, and then became a little river, and then became a wider river.
[8:52] Is it less powerful at the mouth of the river, than it was at the spring, way up on the mountainside? No, it's just as strong, it is just as full.
[9:03] Not because of anything that is in us, but because the Lord continues to live with the presence of his spirit, and the light of his spirit, in each successive generation, in each individual believer.
[9:19] Because they are not just inheriting the leftovers of a previous generation, they are not just taking what is spare, from the person that was instrumental under the Lord's hand in converting them, they are being each time, literally, in the spiritual sense, born again.
[9:39] So it is a fresh new start of the God's spirit each time. It is just as strong, just as filled with light, as it was in the first generation, of the disciples, of the apostles, of the apostles, and so on.
[9:54] Because it doesn't get weaker and more diluted. It's not passed on, as it were, from person to person to person, and so it's getting weaker and weaker, and more and more diluted. Because it's not that we are having to deal with a more and more diluted presence of Christ and his spirit.
[10:10] It is fresh each time, born again, each individual time. In God there is no darkness. Yes, there's darkness in us.
[10:22] Yes, there is the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and so on. These two are contrary one to the other, so you cannot do the things that you would. But, the light grows and increases.
[10:35] Not so much even like a little lamp in its stand, but rather as the dawn gives way to the morning. You know, remember how Jesus is described in Revelation as the bright and morning star.
[10:48] It is only going to get brighter. The light is only going to get fuller. Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am.
[11:02] No. This then is the message, which we have heard and have declared unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Now we may be inclined, of course, to think, well, surely there are cases where, where, you know, God, God does a bit of darkness really, because, because he disappoints his people, and they are, they are saddened, because they, they looked for more, and they were hoping for more, and, and, and sometimes God's people are disappointed.
[11:32] I think, well, what are you thinking of? Well, think of Luke 24, for example, you know, when you've got the two disciples on the road to a mate, and then we have this verse, and, and they're telling that the stranger, of course, who proves to be Jesus, but we trusted, that it had been he, which should have redeemed Israel.
[11:51] And beside all this, today is the third day, since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also, of our company, made us astonished, which were there at the sepulcher. When they found not his body, they came, saying, it's in a vision of angels, saying, it was alive, and certain of them, which were with us, went to the sepulcher, and they found it, as the woman said, but him they saw not.
[12:09] In other words, there's all this hope, and there's all these stories, but, you know, we trust that it would have been him, but hey, we won't. we hope this was going to be the kingdom of Israel coming. Then he said, I have a low, fools, and slow heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
[12:25] Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory, and beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expanded unto them, and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And they thought, well, we had hoped, and we pinned our hopes on Jesus, but now he's dead, and now the tomb's empty, and other people say, and seeing each other, you know, we haven't found anything.
[12:47] There's nothing. So, yeah, Lord, we are disappointed. We did pin our hopes on you, and look, this is what happened. And then he expounds to them, first of all, the scriptures, and then that very same day, they go back to Jerusalem, found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with him, saying, the Lord is risen indeed, it hath appeared to Simon.
[13:07] They told what things were done, and the way how he was known of them, and breaking of bread, and as they thus speak, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said, he's still here. So, in other words, they start with this broken hearted belief, that God has, if I can say it reverently, let them down.
[13:25] They believed that Jesus was it, the Messiah. They weren't wrong, but perhaps they were wrong in what their expectations were, because their expectations, basically, were too small.
[13:37] Their expectations were national. They were earthbound. They were hopes for an immediate fulfillment, that Jesus was going to bring in this kingdom of David, this new Israelite resurgence, not unlike when Jesus is about to ascend, into heaven.
[13:55] In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, we read from verse 6, you know, when they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
[14:06] You were dead, now you've come back again to life, that's brilliant, is it about to happen? Are you now about to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father put in his own power.
[14:19] But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
[14:32] And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and the cloud received him out of their sight. In other words, they are thinking, will you restore the kingdom to Israel? Will you make it good for us here, and now, in this day, in our generation, in this land?
[14:48] Jesus says, well, that's not for you to know about that. But what I can tell you is, you're going to be my witnesses to a kingdom that's not just going to be here, not just Judea, not just Samaria, it's going to be to the uttermost parts of the earth.
[15:01] In other words, it's going to be huge, it's going to be worldwide, and it's going to outlast all of your lifetimes. It is so much bigger than you ever imagined.
[15:13] You see, their disappointment at the idea that God hadn't actually come through of what he said he was going to do. They thought they were going to get a messianic kingdom.
[15:24] They thought they were going to get all these things, and they hoped they'd look for light, and instead there was darkness. They hoped there would be Jesus, and instead he was crucified. But then what happened after that?
[15:37] What comes next? You see, if there are times, friends, when you're inclined to think, well, you know, I trusted the Lord for this, and I don't want to be irreverent, but you know, Lord, I am disappointed, because I thought you would do this, and this, and this, and in all reverence, Lord, you haven't, have you?
[15:57] You know, I've trusted, and I've prayed, and I've done everything you've said, and this, and this, and this, and nothing's happened, or it hasn't happened, as I prayed, and as I hoped, and so on, and we think, well, and then you start beating yourself up, and thinking, what a bad Christian you must be.
[16:13] Imagine thinking that, oh, you must be so unspiritual. You may be unspiritual, to make step, but you're not unbiblical. Let's look at what it says, in Exodus there.
[16:25] Moses and Aaron, went and gathered together, all the elders of the children of Israel. Aaron, speak all the words, which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs, and the sight of the people, and the people believed, and when they heard, the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and he looked upon their affliction, and they bowed their heads, and worshipped.
[16:43] So far, so good. And then, Pharaoh, of course, has his backlash, and so then, they go out, and say to Moses, you know, the Lord, look at us between you, you've put a sword in the hand of the Egyptians, to slay us, and Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil, entreated this people?
[17:03] Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh, to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.
[17:15] That's Moses saying it to the Lord. Now, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. The Lord gives them another message. He goes back to the elders of Israel. Chapter 6, verse 9, But Moses spake so to the children of Israel, but they hearken not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
[17:34] In other words, they had trusted, they had believed, they had hoped, and look what happened. It got worse. It didn't get better.
[17:44] It got darkness. It didn't get light. Why can we say, and God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all? Let me suggest this to you, because what God is going to do in Exodus, bears no comparison to their just initial little feeble hopes.
[18:05] What God intends to do by way of power, and deliverance, and glorifying in his name, and bringing the children of Israel out, not merely as impoverished runaway slaves, but remember that when they go out, they go out laden with booty, laden with the riches of the Egyptians.
[18:24] They spoil the Egyptians. They go out into the desert, wealthy, as it were, with all the accumulated, if we can put it in this way, all the accumulated wages of 400 years worth, of all their slavery there in that land of Egypt.
[18:40] The Lord sends them out with a high hand. The Lord sends them out with power, and with blessing, having devastated their enemies behind them, and ultimately destroying, of course, those who chased after them.
[18:54] They haven't seen anything yet, but because they haven't seen anything, they think that the initial announcement is the fulfillment.
[19:06] They think they are getting darkness from the Lord, but instead what they are getting is the beginnings of light. It is the beginnings of the first glow of dawn on the horizon.
[19:20] It is even, if you like, the twinkling of the stars in the blackness of the sky, by which, of course, you can navigate and be guided, but they thought the Lord had let them down.
[19:32] But, of course, he hadn't. Even Moses thought the Lord had let them down. Wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people.
[19:46] Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.
[20:02] And when Moses goes back and speaks, of course, they don't listen initially because of anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage. We can go back further.
[20:14] We go back to Abraham. And Abraham, who has had this word from the Lord all the way through from his younger days or even his old age, saying, You'll have a son.
[20:25] You'll have an heir. You'll have an inheritance. And he waits. And he waits. About 25 years he waits. Still it doesn't come. And he could be forgiven for thinking, Maybe I got it wrong.
[20:37] Maybe the Lord didn't actually speak. Maybe I was just imagining it. Or maybe God didn't actually see it after all. In Genesis 15, After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham.
[20:52] I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of thy house is this Eliezer of Damascus.
[21:04] Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And lo, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir.
[21:16] But he that shall come forth out of thy own bounds shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars that thou be able to number them. And he said unto them, So shall thy seed be.
[21:28] And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to them for righteousness. Now, of course, in the fruits of time, ultimately, the spiritual children of Abraham, as Galatians tells us, and so on, and other parts of the New Testament, are those who are those of faith, like faithful Abraham.
[21:46] And that is an untold multitude of millions and billions throughout the world. But even in, God wasn't just saying, Ah, well, you know what I'm saying is, but really I mean in a spiritual sense.
[21:58] Remember that God fulfilled his promise to Abraham in a physical sense, in an earthly, a material sense, and not just Ishmael. And then Isaac.
[22:09] Remember that after Sarah died, Abraham remarried, somebody called Keturah. She had, I think, six sons. So all their children as well. Then after Ishmael's children, he had, was it six or twelve children?
[22:21] I don't get the references for me just out. Then Isaac, of course, has Jacob and Esau, and then they have about twelve kids each, and so on. So it begins to multiply even in Abraham's time, even in his physical lifetime.
[22:36] And so all the physical children of the Ishmaelites and all the tribes of Israel and the descendants of Esau and the children of Keturah, these are all physical descendants of Abraham.
[22:49] They're not of the covenant line, of course, except for Jacob's children. But all the other physical descendants as though to say, God is no man's debtor, Abraham must have gone through most of his life feeling a certain, not inadequacy, but always regret that there were no physical children, no posterity which to pass on either his name or his accumulated goods or his wealth or any estate that he had.
[23:16] That this Eliezer of Damascus is my steward, one born in my house, a home-born slave, and he's going to inherit everything. And the Lord says, this will not be the one who inherits.
[23:28] One born of your own body. Well, Abraham believed God. But even when he believed God, still it went on, taking time. Chapter 17, God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarai, in other words, Sarai, or Sarai, meaning my princess, will become Sarai, or Sarai, meaning simply princess itself, definitive, shall her name be.
[23:55] She won't just be your princess, she'll be princess in her own right of a whole set of peoples and nations that will come from her. I will bless her and give thee a son also of her.
[24:06] Yea, I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her. And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old and shall a Sarai that is ninety years old bear?
[24:21] And Abraham said unto God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. Lord, okay, this is what you're telling me, that be somebody of my own body. Fine, Ishmael's there. Let Ishmael live. That's fine.
[24:31] He's not buying into this, if we can say it, rather. He's, he's, you know, I've heard this many, many times, Lord, many years and it's always promised and it never actually comes to pass.
[24:43] It's always just got that darkness, not really the light. And God said, Sarah, thy wife shall be a son indeed and I shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with her for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
[24:59] And that's for Ishmael. I've heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget and I will make him a great nation and my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
[25:16] And when that comes in chapter 18, verse 14, he says, Is anything too hard for the Lord? When Sarah laughs about it, is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son.
[25:33] All these years of promise that seem to be just darkness and God appears not to be fulfilling his word.
[25:43] He can say these things reverently. He appears not to be fulfilling his word because the night is long and the darkness goes on a long time but God is light and in him is no darkness.
[25:58] It's just that we don't see the full picture and we don't recognize the Lord's timing. I've used the illustration in the past.
[26:09] I know, but if you think in terms of the sun streaming in through a kitchen window and there's your kitchen table there, the table leg and so on and as the sun gets brighter than you see it, black shadow of the table leg going across the kitchen floor and the brighter the sun gets, the blacker that shadow gets behind the table leg.
[26:29] Now what makes that black shadow? There's no blackness there of itself. There's nothing substance there if you touch it or run your finger through it. It's just purely the combination of light and what is blocking out the light, i.e. the table leg.
[26:44] What makes that darkness? The light makes the darkness. The fact that the sun is so bright coming through the window makes that black shadow, but there is no blackness in the sun.
[26:57] There is no blackness in the light and yet this blackness appears where the light will not go because it is blocked out. And the brighter the sun, the darker that shadow.
[27:09] And then if the sun goes behind a cloud and it begins to fade down again and suddenly the kitchen isn't so bright from the back, the shadow fades too because the contrast is no longer there.
[27:20] It is only the light that makes the black shadow. No darkness, no shadow in the sun. It's only light, but still darkness is thrown into relief, into sharp contrast, and the contrast is more distinct the brighter the light is.
[27:37] Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Now where Christ is, where Christ is in the world and is in the world in the lives and the actions and the bodies and souls of his people, they are, in his own words, the light of the world.
[27:54] Where they are, there is light being carried around their communities and into the lands they go to and where they dwell. Light dwells there because the Lord dwells in them.
[28:04] That's not my opinion, that's the word of God. And where that light is, it begins to push back the darkness. It doesn't matter how much of a little pinprick of light it may be.
[28:19] You know, if you turn on a torch and you look, if you want to look at the little bulb in the torch, you want to take it apart, it's a tiny, tiny little bulb. Okay, it's putting a great big semi-circular reflective mirror about the mix and a light bit of a tiny little bulb and inside the little bulb is a tiny, tiny little wire.
[28:39] But that tiny, tiny little wire becomes lit up incandescently by that battery power, the electricity that's flowing through it and that, that electricity that lights up the tiny little wire encased in the little bulb which is then reflected off the sloping sides of the circular torch covering the glass.
[28:58] That would be a light which if you switch it on, if you switch it on on this side of the bay here, you see it away over in the finish of it. You can see it for miles across the sea and it's such a tiny, tiny little light.
[29:11] And if you've had five battery torches together then it makes a bigger light. If you look, so many candles it increases the light as opposed to just one in the place.
[29:22] so where the Lord's people are gathered and where the Lord's people are together not only is the light increased but the spiritual temperature also increases. You know, we all know that where you have an area that is devoid of any Christian presence, where there is no prayer, where there is no worship taking place, and you can sense it's something perhaps in homes but you can certainly sense it in communities, you can feel the deadness, you can feel the coldness and the hopelessness in such places.
[29:59] And likewise, where you have a praying people in a place, you can sense that too. Or maybe you don't know the reason for it but you can feel the difference in the atmosphere because where these people are in contact with the Lord, the light is greater, the warmth is greater, the spirit is stronger, you can sense the difference.
[30:22] Where the Lord is in contact with his people, where that relationship is strong, you walk into the midst of it and you can sense it. You can feel it.
[30:34] And even when the Lord appears to be doing something which seems to cause darkness, God says, I make the light, I create darkness, but he only creates darkness by contrast.
[30:50] He has no darkness for himself. It's like the table light with the sun shining through the window. That's the darkness and it's only the light that makes the darkness, yes, because of the contrast, because where it is blotted out, then you really see the darkness for what it is.
[31:06] But in the Lord himself there is no darkness. You and I may have had times that we probably wouldn't admit to other people where, again, if we can say it without offence to the Lord, where we have been disappointed in God.
[31:22] Where we have felt as if he was letting us down. Where we asked for something or we really depended on us or we really thought the Lord was going to deliver on something and it didn't happen.
[31:34] And we were gutted. Or we were really disappointed. Or we really thought we wanted to stop ourselves from feeling it but we really felt no God was to blame.
[31:46] If we can say that again without offence to the Lord. But that's what we might have felt the Lord's if it's only because we did not see the way the Lord intended it to unfold.
[31:59] Abraham, no doubt, felt a certain sense of frustration that gave way to hopelessness. hopelessness. And yet he still believed God.
[32:11] If God said it he would hold on to it but it must have been ebbing away. Especially when Sarah got to the stage where in the normal way of things she wouldn't be able to have children.
[32:24] But likewise the Israelites in Egypt were initially that yes, okay we believe you no problem. And then the backlash and then the anguish of spirit and the gutted disappointment well he hasn't delivered us after all has he?
[32:39] We had hoped he would have been the one to deliver Israel as the disciples on the road to Amaz said to Jesus. We had trusted that he would be the one. We put our hope in him. We put our trust in him and look look what happened.
[32:53] And he felt let down. But there is no darkness in God. There is no deceit in God. There is no failure to fulfill on his promise in God.
[33:08] It is just that we have not grasped the fullness of the extent of what that promise was actually about. It's as though if you were at a big meal a big Porsche hotel somewhere and there's a big reception waiting let's say five course meal or something and the waiter comes around beforehand and he's milling about the reception here.
[33:31] He's tiny canopy things. These diminutive little biscuits with bits of cheese or something. Oh tiny good. That's very nice. And you eat one as well. That's very nice. Have another one sir.
[33:41] Oh yes. And you have three or four of these little canopies. Oh that's very nice. Okay but you know in terms of five course meal I thought it would be more than just these five little biscuits but obviously anyway I'm off home.
[33:53] And you go home before the proper meal starts. The little canopies were not even appetised. And they were just to sort of keep you going and tide you over before the first course began and then the second and then the third and the big feast that was there.
[34:07] If only you waited. If only you had hung around and realised look you're not going to have this kind of size of reception and this kind of poor surroundings for a couple of wee canopies. They're just there as the little appetisers.
[34:20] They're just there to tide you over. That's not the main event. And Moses and Aaron speaking to the elders of Israel. That's not the main event. That's just a little sort of forewarning of what God is going to do.
[34:34] God speaking to Abraham all those years before. That's not the main event. That's just forewarning. This is what I'm going to do. So you can enjoy it in anticipation.
[34:45] Now in a couple of weeks time when myself and the family will be going south we'll be going briefly to visit my mother down south.
[34:55] We try and do that most of years. We have to arrange it in advance and let her know and so on. And I'm quite sure at her age and also our age with grown up children if you know that they're coming to visit then you can anticipate it.
[35:09] And part of the enjoyment I suppose I trust is looking forward to to somebody coming rather than just turn up on the doorstep and say hi mom here I am.
[35:19] Oh look I'd known you were coming and I made up the bedroom and I moved out the house and so on. So part of the enjoyment is the anticipation. The Lord gives the anticipation by letting us know what he is going to do.
[35:32] But we make a mistake if we think that the moment he tells us is meant to be the moment of fulfilment. And the words that he tells us it with are in fact the main event. This is just a little trailer.
[35:43] This is a little anticipation. This is so you can be ready for it. So you can be looking forward to it. So you can be prepared for it. So you can be psyched for what God is going to do.
[35:55] There is no darkness in him. He's not trying to fool you. He's not trying to deceive you. He's not trying to crush you. Or squeeze out the last of your hopes.
[36:09] The Lord is far bigger and greater than anything we could ever imagine. Remember what Zophar the Nehemiah says in the book of Job. Canst thou by searching find out God?
[36:21] Canst thou find out the Almighty and the perfection? It is as high as heaven. What canst thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
[36:34] You may think there is darkness because of what God has done. But it is the darkness of the shadow behind the table leg because there is so much brightness.
[36:48] You may think God himself has created the situation that is of sorrow or darkness or difficulty but it is only because God is giving the light that the contrast seems so great.
[37:00] Now I don't know each person's individual situation. I don't know what they're going through or may have been going through just now but I do know this. That what the Lord promises he delivers on.
[37:14] What the Lord says he will do. It may not be at the time we think it was going to be. It may not be in the quantities or the proportion or the fulfillment that we thought but it will definitely 100% handle the Bible.
[37:32] I can assure you it will not be less than what you anticipated. It will not be as as hell. Is that all it is Lord? That's a pity because I thought it was going to be this.
[37:44] Rather when we think something is what God is going to do almost always. In fact always without exception. We don't grasp just how deep and great and big and massive and glorious.
[37:59] what the Lord actually intends to do is going to be. Our horizons are too limited. Our vision is too small. But God is greater than all of these things.
[38:12] If you were to rise above somehow the night sky and get beyond our atmosphere what would you see if you looked towards the sun?
[38:23] You wouldn't see that it had sort of gone to bed for that. You'd see this massive huge raging ball of light and fire and the closer you went to it the hotter and brighter it would be.
[38:35] You can't look into it. It's too great. You can't really go round it. You can't really go through it. You can't plumb the depths of it. It is just too bright, hot, massive.
[38:48] But God in his mercy gives us both daylight with the sun and nighttime in which to rest. And when he causes our earth to turn away from the sun for a time it is so that we may rest in the comparative absence of light.
[39:06] But he doesn't leave us completely without light of course does he? He gives us the moon, gives us the stars, created them for us likewise in the night. But he always brings the earth back round again to the new day to face the sun again.
[39:20] If we were to see the sun in its glory it would be far bigger, greater, more glorious, more hot, more bright than anything we could conceive of. The Lord in his mercy deals with us with what we can handle.
[39:35] The Lord in his mercy gives us fear warning, gives us small doses, gives us that which points the way to the fulfillment, gives us that which when it comes will cause us never to have reason to say well actually God didn't come through his promises.
[39:54] Actually God kind of disappointed me a bit, he sure changed me a bit because I thought it would be this and in fact it was only that. If it's only that it's because God has something massively greater to do, to give and to fulfill.
[40:10] You cannot out give God. God is no man's debtor. You cannot out brighten God because whatever we seek to do can only ever be imitation of him, of his spirit, his light dwelling within us.
[40:28] But he is pure light itself. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
[40:47] Let us pray.