Thy sun shall no more go down
The world of light
I. THE SOURCE OF THE LIGHT. “The Lord.” This is true even of the present world. The light which reason sheds on our path is a ray of His kindling. But here, in this world of ours, there are generally intermediate sources through which the light we have is conveyed to us. It does not come directly from God. In the heavenly world, however, it will be different. There, every intermediate agency will be done away, and the light that shines will shine immediately from God. There are four things symbolized in the Bible by this word “light, ‘ and all that we shall know or possess of each of these four things in heaven, we shall know or possess through Jesus.
1. Knowledge (Psalms 119:130).
2. Holiness (Romans 13:12).
3. Happiness (Psalms 97:11).
4. Beauty or glory (John 17:24). In this lower world we know how true it is that there is no beauty or glory that the eye takes in for which we are not indebted to the light that shines from yonder natural sun. In heaven Jesus is the Sun that shines on all.
II. THE CHARACTER OF THE LIGHT. Three elements of it are mentioned in our text. When we decompose the light of the natural sun, seven rays or colours are the result of the analysis. But these seven we know may be resolved into three--the red, the yellow, and the blue. Thus there is a trinity of rays of elements in the light which the natural sun is pouring forth continually And it is an interesting thing to find that when we come to analyze the light of the heavenly world, the same feature is found to mark it.
1. There is one ray in this light which may be called the continuous ray “Thy sun shall no more -o down neither shall thy moon withdraw itself.’
2. We have here a perpetual ray. “An everlasting light. To speak of the perpetual, as well as the continuous nature of this light, is not a distinction without a difference. You may have light that is continuous for a season even when you know that it cannot be perpetual.
3. The third ray may be characterized as a joyous ray. “The days of thy mourning shall be ended.” (R. Newton, D. D.)
The saint on earth and in heaven
The words present us with two different views of truth.
I. THEY TELL US OF OUR PRESENT STATE.
1. It is a state of change--vicissitude--perpetual alteration. The sun rises to set; it sets to rise. The moon waxes and wanes.
2. The words point us to our present state of comparative darkness; for the contrast is between the minor light of the sun, the lesser light of the moon, and the glorious light of the Lord.
3. The words present us, too, with a picture of a state of mourning: “The days of thy mourning shall be ended.”
II. THEY OPEN TO US A GLORIOUS PROSPECT. There are two blessings especially pointed out to us here.
1. Perfect light.
2. Perfect happiness. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The present and future state of the people of God
I. THE PRESENT STATE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. A state of darkness and of sorrow. To what causes can such experience be ascribed?
1. To their remaining ignorance, and the imperfection of their present views.
2. This may be the case under a sense of the prevalence of sin, and especially of unbelief.
3. They may be in such a situation also, from the Lord withdrawing from them the sensible communications of spiritual light and comfort.
II. THEIR FUTURE STATE. A state of uninterrupted light, of perpetual cessation from sorrow, consequently of endless joy. The Lord shall be the everlasting light of His people.
1. As He will give them a more enlarged capacity of knowing and enjoying “Him.
2. He will afford them more perfect discoveries of Himself.
3. He will afford them more enlarged views of His works and ways.
4. He will impart to them the fullest assurance of their interest in His peculiar regard.
5. He will be their everlasting Light. (D. Dickson.)
The eternal day
1. Israel of old had light while all the rest of the world sat in darkness. This typical Church of God abode not in the light continually, its history was chequered with alternate brightness and gloom, repentance and relapse, prosperity and adversity.
2. Another dispensation came; Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem, “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel,” and the sun shone upon the earth as it had never done before. A visible Church was called out to walk in the light, which Church still exists upon the earth, and from the days of Pentecost until now its sun has never altogether gone down, neither has its moon withdrawn herself. The light has not been always equally clear, but it has been still day.
3. But there is a Church upon the earth which is within the visible Church, and is its central life. I refer to the spiritual Church. This secret Church, this Church mystical, this true body of our Lord Jesus Christ, may claim to have had this text fulfilled in its experience in a far larger sense. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Yet even to the Church spiritual the text has not been fulfilled in its largest conceivable sense, for I fear me that to the most spiritual some darkness comes. Their light is sown, but it has not yet sprung up to its full harvest.
4. We must, therefore, refer to a fourth form of the Church. If we see it not at all in the typical, a little in the visible, very much in the spiritual, we find it all in the Church triumphant. The full triumph of the Church of Christ shall begin in the millennium.
I. THE LIGHT OF THE TRIUMPHANT CHURCH SHALL BE INCESSANT. “Thy sun shall no more go down,” etc. There will be no intervening nights of darkness, but one long noonday of purity and felicity, “the days of her mourning shall be ended.” And why will this be?
1. Because the light of heaven is independent of creatures. In heaven the saints will need no teacher. When God sends a true preacher he is a star in God’s right hand, and the Church is bound to value his light, which is the gift of heaven, but we shall need no teachers there; we shall see, not through a glass darkly, but face to face. Up there they need no comforters to succour them in the time of their distress, for God Himself has wiped away all tears from their eyes. Poor saints will not then be dependent upon the alms or the consolations of others, though once their generous friends were like sun and moon to them.
2. Because it is cleared of all clouding elements. Here below in the Church of God, whatever by God’s grace may be our light, errors will arise to cloud it; evil men come in unawares and distract God’s saints. There are none such up yonder. Satan himself shall be shut out.
3. The saints themselves shall be so purified that nothing in them shall darken their light. Here to-day Christ changes not, but we change, and hence our joy departs. It shall not be so there. Notice that the text hints that both the major and the minor necessities of saints will be abundantly supplied. Have you not found sometimes that the Lord Jesus Christ has withdrawn Himself from you? Then your sun has gone down. You ore prospering in business; God gives you all that heart can wish, the moon does not withdraw herself, but the sun has gone, and woe beclouds your spirit. It will never be so in heaven, you shall see your Lord face to face without a veil between, and that eternally. Here, on the ether hand, at times Jesus has shone upon you, and as to spiritual things you have been rich, but then earthly trouble has hovered over you, the “moon” has withdrawn herself. Not often have both sun and moon been as flesh and blood would have them. True, you have been able to do without the moon in the presence of the sun, but you would have preferred both spiritual and temporal prosperity. Now in heaven all the wants of our nature will be completely supplied.
4. The Church triumphant will be delivered from the vicissitudes of those seasons which cause the going down of sun and moon. I do not refer to slimmer and winter, but to ecclesiastical and temporal arrangements, such as the Sabbath and times of assembly and Church fellowship. It was a glad day for Israel when the trumpets rang out the morning of the Jubilee, for every slave was free, and every debtor found his liabilities discharged. Back came each man’s lost inheritance, and the whole nation was glad. With sound of trumpet and of cornet they saluted the rising of the sun on the first day of that Jubilee year; but the jubilee year went by, and lands were mortgaged and forfeited, and slaves fell again into slavery, and bankrupts were again, seized by their creditors. We are coming to a jubilee, of which the trumpets shall sound for ever.
II. THE LIGHT OF THE TRIUMPHANT CHURCH IS EVERLASTING. “The Lord shall be thine everlasting light.” Why will the perfection and bliss of the saints triumphant never end?
1. Because the God from whom it comes is eternal.
2. The covenant by which the saints stand in heaven is a sure one.
3. The guarantee of that covenant can never fail, seeing it is Christ Himself. “Because I live ye shall live also” is the great seal set upon the indentures by which we hold our inheritance in the skies.
4. Those who possess heaven are also themselves immortal.
III. THE LIGHT OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT SHALL BE BOUNDLESS. “The Lord shall be thine everlasting light.” The Lord is infinite. If He is our sun there can be no limit to the light in which we shall rejoice.
1. If God is to be our light, then in every separate believer there will be a perfect light of bliss and holiness. You are aged, you feel also that you are full of infirmities and sins; now, these will all vanish, and that weakened form of yours shall be raised in power. Your ignorance will give place to the light of knowledge, your sin to the light of purity, your sorrow to the light of joy.
2. In addition to your possessing personal light, you will enjoy the closest possible fellowship with God.
3. This glorious light will give us the clearest views of Gospel truth.
4. There, no doubt, we shall understand more of Providence. Here our sun goes down sometimes as to the Divine dealings; we cannot make out what He means; the lines are dark and bending; we thought He would have led us by a straight course, but we wind to and fro in the wilderness. All the happiness which knowledge and understanding can bring to intelligent beings shall be at our feet.
5. There we shall receive the utmost endurable joy. Some have thought the joy of heaven would lie in knowledge; they shall have it. Others have rejoiced in the prospect of continued service; they shall serve Him day and night in His temple. The sweetest thought of heaven to me is rest, and I shall have it, for “there remaineth, therefore, a rest for the people of God.” Peace! O quiet soul, do you not long for it? You shall have it. Security and a sense of calm! O tempest-tossed one, you shall have them. Strength, power--some have wished for that. You shall be raised in power. Fulness, the filling up of every vacuum! You shall have it; you shall be filled with all the fulness of God.
IV. THE LIGHT OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT IS UNMINGLED. “The days of thy mourning shall be ended.”
1. The mourning from a persecuting world.
2. There will be no more mourning from the common trials of life.
3. Then shall we be delivered from all mourning caused by our inward sin.
4. We shall be delivered from every kind of mourning as to an absent God, for we shall never grieve Him any more.
5. I find that one version reads it, “The days of thy mourning shall be recompensed,” and I say this to those who have to mourn more than others: you shall have a recompense. (C. H. Spurgeon.)