The Valley No.10 The End of the Valley

If your memory is very good and your association with us here at the Tabernacle spans four years you might recall that I preached a series of sermons on a Sunday morning on this psalm and we reminded ourselves in the course of that meditation that the man who writes the psalm has a problem. He can't work out why the Lord should deal with him after the fashion that he is experiencing when so many unbelieving godless people seem to get through life with absolute ease and with no difficulty at all. And so he expresses his thoughts honestly and he shows what his problem is.

And it's with this in mind that I want to start reading the psalm from the 13th verse. The 13th verse of the 73rd psalm. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency.

For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus behold I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this it was too painful for me.

Until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then understood I their end. Surely thou did set them in slippery places.

Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation. As in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors.

As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee.

Nevertheless I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but thee. And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth.

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. Amen.

Would you turn with me in the Word of God to the book of Proverbs the fourth chapter. And will you keep your Bibles open please at the 18th verse. Proverbs 4 verse 18.

But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. I want this morning to draw to a conclusion. A series of studies which we commence just after the turn of the new year.

Which you recall I have entitled the God of the valleys. For 12 or so weeks we have been relating the Christian pilgrimage through this world. In terms of a journey along low-lying country.

Surrounded by hills. Surrounded by mountains. Sometimes when on the natural levels a journey like this is undertaken.

The going is often difficult and there are occasions when it is a little easier. Going the narrow gorge is a difficult experience. Sometimes there are obstacles.

When you go across the plain and the river no longer so furiously rushes down the valley. But meanders across the tract of land. Then I say the passage is more easy.

And what is the case on the natural is also I think true to the spiritual. There are times in our spiritual pilgrimage when the going is easier than others. And there are occasions in life when being a Christian is one of the hardest things in the world.

And we come up across obstacles difficulties and dangers. You may recall that our series of meditations were provoked really when we drew our attention to a statement found in one of the historical books of the Bible. When we see a group of captains of Syrian captains talking to their king.

They were reviewing why it was that in their last skirmish with the ancient Israelites they had not been successful. One of the captains offered this as an explanation. Their God is a God of the hills and not of the God of the valleys.

The reason why we didn't win. The reason why we didn't beat them was because we fought on the mountaintops and not in the valleys. And really the reason why I have sustained this series of studies for so long and drawn your attention to many valley experiences in the Old Testament and spiritual valley experiences in the New Testament is because I feel that there are many evangelical Christians today who are under the delusion that I will call the Syrian era.

They feel that the Christian life is a step from one mountaintop to another mountaintop. That always we are to be in the heights. Yet this is not the case at all.

Indeed you remember when Peter and John and James were on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were quite right when Peter speaking for the other two said Lord it is good for us to be here. But they were wrong.

Their thinking was erroneous when they suggested that they should build booths and that they should remain permanently on top of the mountain. But it's not on the mountaintop that the Christian life is always to be lived. More often than not it's down in the valley because it's there that the epileptic boy needs help.

It's there that the demented father needs ministration. It's in the rough and tumble of life in the shadows of the valley. I say that the Christian is to live his life as a praise to the Lord Jesus Christ bringing inspiration and comfort to those who desperately need the message of salvation.

So the Christian life is a journey. A journey of unknown duration between the fixed points of life and death or if you like between arrival and departure. And it is of this journey that my text refers when it speaks of it in terms of the path of the just being as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

My text alludes to the route that is taken the traveler along the pathway and the eventual destination that is in mind for every believer for every child of God. Modern commentators will often speak about our arrival on this planet our birth. They will reflect upon the type of life that you and I might live but they are increasingly silent or so it would seem to me in modern literature to offer any comments about our departure.

Someone has summed up the rapidity with which we live our lives and the absolute purposelessness that there is in much of 20th century living today. In these words we're on the way and traveling fast but few start to ask to where we are going. The Bible does stop to ask and not only does it raise the question it also puts up an answer.

And I think that encapsulated within my text there is the glorious hope that the Christian has within him that anticipation here and now of the things that are going to be his in the in the world that is to come. The path of the just not meandering across the world not going through the valleys in a fashion so that it leads nowhere but rather the path of the just leading day after day year after year to that point where God the Father shall receive us at the end of the valley into his eternal presence where we shall be with the Lord forevermore. Let me repeat this the Christian is not going round in circles he is making progress and as the time goes by so the day is dawning when he shall enter into that city made without hands where he shall shine a son as a son in the kingdom of the Father.

So then this is by way of introduction what my text is speaking of the path of the just as a shining light that shines more and more until the perfect day and as you inspect the text with me so I think I shall be able to show you something of the nature of our destination and make the point that our destination is sure and that also within my text there is reference to an illumination which increases and finally an inspiration that is constant. But let's attend to the first heading which I have just given you a destination that is sure the path of the just as the shining light moving towards a fixed point. There are three words that I'd like to bring alongside the first part of my text which I think will help you to understand it and those words are signpost and action and unfamiliarity.

As for signpost I think it is necessary that we consider this because again I want to underline that the Christian knows where he's going. There was a moment in his experience when he was confronted by Jesus Christ when he recognized that the Savior is the way the truth and the life. He saw none other but the Son of God as being the signpost that was directing him along the route that he is to take.

There is nothing more tragic I put to you than purposeless living. Jesus's heart moved with sympathy and with compassion when he was confronted with a multitude in the days of his flesh who were wandering to and fro a sheep without a shepherd aimlessly having no objective seeing no destination just meandering around in a purposeless fashion. But I say to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is our signpost.

He is the one who points the way. I am the way. I am the one who who makes out the route for you.

The route along which you are to travel. Once it is true the Christian was lost. He was like the unbeliever but he has been found and he does not go through life in a meandering fashion.

There is a route that has been plotted by God himself which the Christian is to take. But the second word that I suggested was helpful for us to consider when relating our thinking to the first part of my text is action. And so often in the New Testament when it describes the Christian it is in terms of a man who is active a soldier who is marching an athlete who is running a traveler who is walking.

There is no such thing as passive Christianity as armchair Christianity. Christianity is conceived in terms of a progress a relentless progress always moving forward always growing higher in the school of sanctification always advancing in the things of God until the perfect day comes for each of us when we are taken from this life into the kingdom of our God to experience his presence forever. And I ask you do you see activity within your own spiritual life.

Do you see a progression. Are you advancing. What's the rate of your speed.

Are you accelerating as you go along the route that the Lord has planned for you. But one other thought at this point which I think will be of help and it is this the word unfamiliarity is important for us to consider. Why do I say this.

Well you see the Bible is very blunt when it speaks about life. It tells us that we only go this way once. And that's what I mean by the unfamiliarity of life.

Let me put it to you in the form of an illustration and I think you'll understand what I'm trying to get at. Some weeks ago prior to the mission at Canterbury University I had to travel on several occasions to Canterbury and I wasn't very sure of the route. Now generally my dear wife has the AA book in front of her and she's a great navigator.

But when I'm on my own it's hopeless. I have to keep stopping and checking that I'm on the right road. But after I've been to Canterbury on three or four occasions I could dispense with the map.

Why. Well you see the path was clear. I knew the road that I had to take and I didn't get lost anymore.

It was familiar. Now life is not familiar. We go this way once and circumstances crop up that we we don't really understand because we've had no experience of them before.

And when you conceive of your life in terms of a journey through the valleys of this world. So now and again you will be confronted by the problem of unfamiliarity. He knoweth the way that I take.

Yes I believe that with all my heart. But he knows I don't. And the difficulty is caused by this that my only my only indicating indicator of the route that I am to follow comes from the word of God and by my spiritual sensitivity the prompt to the promptings of his Holy Spirit.

And so there is this this degree of unfamiliarity which if I put it theologically means this that we're walking by faith and not by sight. And sometimes I have to confess I think how much easier if it would be if I could walk by sight. But then I would need to have no faith no trust no confidence in God.

But the path that the just take is a path that God plots out. And though it is unfamiliar to us it is familiar to our Lord Jesus Christ for he was if you like like Livingstone the man who opened up the darkest parts of Africa. So the Lord Jesus has come into this world and he has opened up a route through the valleys and it is in his footsteps that we are to follow a pathway that is unfamiliar to us but is known to him.

And there is a destination I say at the end of our journey that is sure. But let me hasten on in my text because it also speaks of an illumination which increases an illumination which increases. Listen again.

The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more increased illumination in this world. Do we not often refer to conversion in terms of seeing the light. Our good friend Dr. Heger who was at our missionary convention two years ago wrote of his experiences in a book which he entitled I saw the light and he records how he moved out of the darkness of the monastic life of the Roman Catholic Church into the full light and the liberty and the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And surely there was an occasion in your experience when you saw the light you placed your trust in Jesus Christ didn't you. And my text suggests this that that light is to continue to increase its intensity becomes more and more as the days go by. This is what you would expect if you're in a right relationship to the Savior.

Is he not the light of the world. Then if I relate to him if I'm connected to him he infuses light into my life. And this I say is what my text is referring to.

The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more. But here I run into difficulty in my exposition because at face value my text is contrary to my experience. And if that is the case then it's obviously my experience that is wrong not my text for the word of God does not err.

But my experience is often defective. You say what is your problem. Well it's simply this that I find that the light fluctuates.

There are times when it's rather dim. There are times when I think that it's gone out. There are times in the valley of shadows when I too am aware that the world is plunged into darkness.

Now what is the reason for this. And I dare to suggest that my experience is is not unique. It is shared by perhaps the majority if not all of you here.

Why is it sometimes that the light appears to be dim. Well my friend I think the important verb that I have just used is the word appear. It appears to be dim not because Jesus Christ and his light has gone out but my sensitivity to receive his light has been dulled.

You see when sin comes into my life then my sensitivity is dimmed very much indeed. And often if I know full well that I am not in a right relationship with the Savior if I am doing things that are contrary to his will then in the valley of the world I can expect difficulty. I can expect much darkness.

I can expect sometimes to come to an end of myself because I am playing fast and loose with God. But there is another reason I suggest why sometimes my light seems to be fluctuating. And it's a very reasonable explanation I think.

And it is this. Sometimes I get physically tired. You know I often say to you from the pulpit and I see no reason to qualify my statement that Christians are not supermen.

We are like everyone else. We are prone to our depressions. We are prone to physical weariness.

And when we've been burning the candle at both ends and our physical strength our stamina our vitality has waned then spiritually we are affected. I've quoted to you the words of a French philosopher that that appeal to me when on one occasion he says I have so much to do I must go to bed. There's wisdom in that you know.

There's wisdom in taking a rest because when the Christian is overtired when he's over fatigued his spiritual light will be dim. His spiritual life will suffer. And then perhaps another reason why sometimes I experience darkness in the valley of this life is that I ignore my spiritual disciplines.

I ignore my spiritual disciplines. Let me use an illustration that I think will be of help. On one occasion Philip of Macedon the father of Alexander the Great gave his son Alexander a horse.

A rather fine creature it was called Buccaphalus. And the difficulty was that this highly spirited horse was so energetic that no one had been able to ride him properly. And all the experts of the of the cavalry of Philip of Macedon endeavored to saddle the horse and they were unable to do it.

The the horse in its frenzy with all its energy dealt savagely with these men who tried to ride him. And then Alexander went along to his father Philip and he said can I try. And reluctantly his father agreed.

And Alexander came along to the horse and he put his saddle on it and he climbed onto the horse and he rode away. Now why was it. Was it because of Alexander's expertise as an as a horse rider.

No it was because he had noticed something that everyone else had missed had missed when they had tried to saddle the horse. The horse had his back to the sun and the horse could only see his own shadow and the shadows of those who were trying to mount him. And the net result was the poor creature who got frightened.

But Alexander had realized this so he turned the horse to the sun. And as he mounted him the horse could see no shadow. And so Alexander mounts Buccaphalus and he rides off pointing towards the sun.

And I put this to you as an illustration of the way that we are to live out our Christian lives the way that we are to walk down the path of the just facing whatever light that we have. When we ignore spiritual disciplines it's in effect turning our backs upon God and the shadows that are caused and the difficulties that come are sometimes shadows and difficulties of our own manufacturer. Oh my friend I tell you face the light for that is what my text suggests we must do.

The path of the just is as the shining light. And as you look into the sun so you will not see the shadows. I recall being in Wales this past weekend and finding there a classic example of a dear man who experienced I think all that this text has to say when it speaks of an increasing awareness of an illumination increasing awareness of a spiritual illumination of the knowledge of of God's presence.

I was given hospitality in the home of a man who had been a miner. His wife looked after me the man was 90 odd years and more. He had retired obviously from from his occupation.

But the thing that struck me as being extremely significant was this that this man could go back to the days of the Welsh revival in his experience. And we spent hour after hour talking together about what had happened years ago in the days of the revival. But the thing that is important that I'm trying to project now in my preaching is this that when that man started to pray when he spoke of the Lord Jesus when he referred to the gospel of redeeming grace there was a very atmosphere in the room as the man was praying.

He knew Jesus Christ not only in the 1904 revival but down the years the light had become more clear as he had lived out his life before God. He could say in the words of the hymn writer I am waiting for the dawning of the bright and blessed day when the dark some night of shadow shall have vanished far away when forever with the Savior far beyond this veil of tears I shall swell the song of music through the everlasting years. Can you say that.

My older friends my dear older friends. Can you say that there's an increasing awareness of the light of God in your heart as you have been in Christ for so many years. It is yours the experience of the hymn writer who continues I am looking for the brightness see it shining from afar of that clear and joyous beaming of that bright and morning star through the dark gray mist of morning do I see its glorious light then away with every shadow of this sad and weary night ride out my friend ride out into the sun facing the sun for that is the direction that God plots even through the valleys of this world for you and for me the path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and more.

Here I say is a destination that is sure an illumination which increases finally and briefly an inspiration that is constant. Is there not inspiration in my text. Does it not do you good even though our meditation has only run for 25 minutes at this point in time.

There is inspiration here I say why. Well listen to the first word of my text but but the path of the just that little word suggests that there is a contrast here. What contrast is being made.

Well the difference between the life of those who have been justified by Jesus Christ and those who have not contrast as the psalmist was doing in the 73rd Psalm your destiny with their destiny says the psalmist afterwards the Lord shall receive me to glory. What does he mean by that. What does he mean by afterwards.

Well he realizes that when his heart starts beating when God calls him into his immediate presence there is glory for him. And when he contrasts his life even though he's known many difficulties as he's gone through the valleys with the life of those who also have gone through the valleys and known little hardship he wouldn't swap his place. Not at all.

He wouldn't change with them. Why not. Well you see because of the glory that there is in front of him.

And it is not wrong for us to think about the glory of the heavenly dimension. We have been robbed from from going through and and delighting in our privileges as Christians by those who have accused us as believers in Jesus Christ of rejoicing in pie in the sky when we die. My dear friend I tell you that it is logical spiritual common sense to glory in what lies beyond Jesus Christ for the joy that was set before him and you would the cross and despise the shame the joy that was set before him.

Do you glory as Wesley did on every anticipation of that day when you shall be before the father changed from glory into glory till in heaven I take my place till I cast my crowns before the lost in wonder love and grace. I say that my text here is an inspiration to everyone whether you're young or old. Because it speaks of the glory that there is for the Christian at the end of the valley.

And what is more here is an unqualified promise. The path of the just is as the shining light. Emphasize the verb the just is as the shining light.

You have the imprimatur of deity the guarantee of God behind the text a God who does not lie a God whose word is always yes and whose no is always no a God who remains true. And this is a promise found in the Bible for you and for me to seize hold upon. Here I say is an unqualified promise.

And what is more as we have already intimated there is a glorious consummation that my text contains that my text describes for the Christian the glory that belongs to the sons of God the glory of being in our father's presence the glory of a society in which sin is obliterated the glory of being face to face with Jesus Christ the glory of renewed acquaintance with our loved ones who've gone on before. Consider this. This my friend is the end of the valley.

The path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and more until the perfect day. Oh yes. God is the God of the mountaintops and sometimes he'll raise us to spiritual heights of glory and ecstasy and give us some some view some panoramic view of his purposes for us.

But more often than not our lives are to be lived on this earth down in the valley. But as I have sought to show you from the Old Testament and New Testament the fact that we live down in the valley is not to fill us with horror or fear because there are tremendous blessings in the valley valley experiences hope in the valley blessing in the valley fragrance in the valley new life in the valley. All this is for the Christian as he lives out his life on this earth.

But one day my friend you get to the end of the journey the end of the route and at the end there is glory and afterwards he shall receive me to glory. May you know more and more that light which God illuminates with in the experience of all those who pass down the valley and one day be received into his glorious presence. Amen.

The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Father may we know the fullness of the illumination that only thou can give and will thou choose the path that we are to travel along until that moment when all our journeying is over and we are received by thy side into thy kingdom. Amen.