“THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING”
C. R. Byng
Christ is shining as the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun, and His shining is available for all. God has crowned Him with glory and honour and He is available to help us to understand that God is waiting to bless. It is one of the great results of the true light that we begin to understand that God wants to bless us. The darkness that Satan brings about would make us think that God is waiting to judge. The glorious truth is that God is waiting to bless. Christ is shining as the light of the morning and as the sunshine after the rain. God is not preparing to bring in rain today; the rain has already come. In the flood (Genesis 7) the rain came for forty days and forty nights, and the only persons who lived were those in the ark. The rain came down until all the mountains under all the heavens were covered. Jesus went into the greatest depths we could ever think of. All the floods came upon Him. There was darkness without parallel. When we speak today of the light of the morning, let us remember that there was a time when Jesus was in darkness. What darkness that was when He hung on the cross of Golgotha! There would be no good news for men if Jesus had not been into the darkness.
The true light began to shine when Jesus came into this world, but men did not want light. You and I do not want the light, according to what we are in the flesh; we shrink from it. We would rather keep in the darkness where, we think, God cannot see us; but let us remember that God sees us wherever we are. However young we are or however old, God knows all about us, and it is the God who knows all about us and our sins who sent His Son as Saviour of the world. When Jesus was here moving about amongst man He was here to bring light into every dark corner. The devil was always in retreat. Lepers were cleansed and the blind were caused to see, dead persons were raised, broken-hearted persons were healed, captives were brought into deliverance. There were men who had groaned under the bondage of Satan for, many a year, but when the light of God’s glorious Son shone upon, them the power of the enemy had to flee, as with the man who was found “sitting, clothed and sensible, at the feet of Jesus”, Luke 8: 35. He had spent a long time in the darkness of the tombs, but found his place in restfulness at the feet of the One who was the light of the world.
One woman had spent all that she had to try to cure her troubles, but was steadily getting worse. There was not one physician in the world who could bring in healing. She came near to God’s glorious Son, the power of Christ came into her, and the weakness in her went out; she became one who could go in peace (see Luke 8). Let us glory in the greatness of Jesus! He was here as the One who had the answer in Himself to every need of every man and He would draw near to us today as the One who has the answer to every need of every one of our hearts. There are needs and sorrows and problems with us that no one knows except Jesus, and He is here today to give His own touch of healing and make us understand afresh that He loves us, and His love is so great that He went into death for us. Can every one of us say, ‘Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me’? That is what held the apostle Paul steady through a life of pressure. He could speak of Jesus as “The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. It is the love of God in a Man that keeps us steady. The wind may come and the storms may blow, but let us remember that every storm blew upon the head of Jesus.
No one has gone through such suffering as Jesus our Saviour went through. There was never a cry from the lips of any man like that which went up from the lips of Jesus, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Mark 15: 34. What a cry that was in those hours of darkness! Mark, as the recovered servant, tells us that the darkness was from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. For three hours from the third hour to the sixth hour the glorious perfection of Jesus shone out for the universe to see; it was the glory of the gathering up of the burnt-offering and the oblation. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour there was darkness. The very sun was darkened in the heavens. There was darkness over the whole land. No human eye could penetrate the darkness when God had to do with Jesus about our sins and sin itself. Jesus was there as in absolute accord with God as to the judgment of our sins. He was the One in whom sin was not and yet for your sake and mine He was made sin itself. The righteous God had to forsake Him as He hung there in darkness on the tree. But the ninth hour came, in which, with the dignity of the Victor, Jesus said, “It is finished”. Men took account of Him as crucified in weakness, but He lives by God’s power.
The cross stands as the eternal witness of the love of God, but the righteousness of God meant that Jesus, had to die and He went into all the darkness of the tomb. He was for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But on the third day the glory of the Father shone; the power of the love of the Father penetrated into the tomb. He wrought by His mighty power in Christ and selected that one Man from among the dead. God knows how many millions there were in death at that time. Jesus came out in all His personal glory and greatness, the light of the morning. The sun rose in the heavens, but the Son of God rose from among the dead. There were those who went to the tomb to embalm Him, as if He were still dead. As they were reaching the place they wondered about the great stone across the door of the tomb of Jesus—an impossible barrier for them. What a difficulty! Have you a difficulty, dear friend? When those beloved women looked, they saw that the stone had been rolled away. If we are with God, we find He removes difficulties. The Father, by raising Jesus from the dead, has shown that nothing is impossible for God. Christ is shining today as the glorious light of the morning. He is able to bring light and joy and power into every one of our lives.
He would tell us first that the forgiveness of sins is available for us. Can every one of us today say, ‘My sins are forgiven’? Can we turn to Jesus and bless Him as the One who died for our sins? If we do not know our sins are forgiven, what darkness there is! Oh do not remain in the dark! The prophet Jeremiah speaks of those who “stumble upon the mountains of twilight”, Jeremiah 13: 16. What a description of men in this world! Oh do not let us be here as persons that stumble, but as those upon whom the Sun of righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings. He is going to rise as the glorious Sun to bring light to the whole world before long. But now Jesus the Saviour is shining into the hearts of men, women, and children. He is bringing in the light that God is just waiting to bless us. He is looking for persons who will be here as those who trust Him and who seek to walk in the light as God is in the light. The enemy will attack. Do not let us deceive ourselves as to that. Do we not all find that sometimes doubts come in? but the blood of the Lord Jesus is the answer to every doubt.
It is said that Martin Luther had a dream at the time when God was using him in an outstanding way to bring back to men the glorious truth that we can be justified by faith. He dreamt that the devil drew near to him with a great roll in his hand. He began to unroll it, and there was recorded, line after line, the misdeeds and sins of Martin Luther. Luther said, ‘Go on, unroll more’ and he went on unrolling metre after metre. When he came to the end Luther said, ‘Is there no more there?’. ‘No’. Then Luther said, ‘Well, take your pen and write at the bottom of the list, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”. Can every one of us say that today? The answer to every doubt is that the blood of Jesus has been shed for us. The answer to every problem of the day is that Jesus is living in the glory on high. He is shining; all the glory of God is in His face, and as we come to know Him we learn to know the Father. We learn that we can speak to the Father as our Father. We find that the Father is over everything. He has given all things into the hands of the Son, but the Father is gloriously supreme.
The Lord Jesus reminded us that the Father makes His sun to rise on evil and good. That is one of the great statements of the Lord Jesus as He was sitting on the mountain in Matthew 5. As we see the sun let us remember it is the Father’s sun. The sun will continue to rise, and if there are clouds at times—and clouds do come—the thing is to get into the sunshine and then we see the bow in the clouds. God has given His own word (Genesis 9: 11–13) that there will never be such a flood again, but when the clouds come there will always be the rainbow. When there are problems and clouds, the rainbow of the faithfulness of God always shines. We are not going.to see it fully whilst we are here. Though we are always getting fresh impressions of the faithfulness of God, we only see part of the rainbow. We shall have to wait till we are in heaven to see the complete circle of the rainbow around the throne (Revelation 4: 3); but let us remember now, when the clouds come, that the faithfulness of God is still shining.
Eternal life means that we live on the sunny side of the road. It is not that we are occupied with the clouds; there are clouds, but we rely on the faithfulness of God, and we keep ourselves restful in the shining of the love of Jesus. As we are kept in the path of faith, we never find ourselves in any circumstance where the personal sympathy of Jesus will not be available to us. He has been tempted in every way in which we can be tempted, sin apart. So Jesus is able to sympathise. He takes account of the tears and the sorrows, He knew what it was to weep Himself. One of the most glorious statements in the whole of Scripture occurs when John, that great lover of Jesus, records, “Jesus wept”, John 11: 35. But as He wept He had the power to bring in life. Let us understand that in every cloud Jesus is able to shine. He is able to save us completely and to deal with every matter that comes into our pathway. He in Himself is the morning without clouds—glorious assurance of the day to come when His glory is going to be seen by all; but today God presents Him to you and me as the One who can be to us the light of the morning.
So let us come to Jesus today. May we understand as never before what a price has been paid. We are not to think we are our own; we belong to the Master who has bought us at a tremendous price. May the Spirit give us a fresh experience of the glorious privilege open to us to be here available for the Master’s use in the very little while that remains until we hear the assembling shout of the Lord Jesus. Then the opportunity for service will be over, and the last opportunity to confess the name of Jesus as Lord will be gone. Are we all confessing Jesus when we can? What opportunities there are in the school, or the office, in the shop, and at the house door, to confess our Saviour as the Lord of lords and King of kings.
The time for confession is nearly gone, let us use it while it is here, until we see the glorious face of Jesus and are with Him for ever. May the Spirit help us to be with Him now, so that when the moment comes when we depart every one may hear the Lord Jesus say, “Well done, thou good bondman”, Luke 19: 17. Jesus is the greatest Servant there ever has been, glorious, holy perfect Servant, but the Spirit would help us to serve the Lord Jesus in that which He gives each one of us to do. May we be here as watching and doing, waiting for the Lord to come, when we shall be with Him for ever. May the Lord bless the word.
Preaching at Cologne, 18 May 1975
Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4QY, England Printed by CLEAR-COPIES Limited, Bowen House, Ilford Lane, Ilford, Essex, England