Breaking through the Fog

Judy: Hi, I’m Judy, and I’m from Indiana, and I am a Revive Our Hearts Monthly Partner. One reason I support this ministry is the relevance to everyday life and how it has helped me to be stabilized in my faith but yet help me to grow in the midst of new widowhood. It’s been so encouraging, and I feel like I have friends behind me that are encouraging me and keeping me grounded. Enjoy today’s episode of Revive Our Hearts brought to you in part by the Monthly Partner Team.

Dannah Gresh: Psalm 23 compares us to sheep with Almighty God as our Shepherd. It’s so comforting to know He’s leading and protecting us.

Here’s pastor and author Colin Smith.

Pastor Colin Smith: However dark a valley you may have to walk through, no power can ever snatch you from His hand, and nothing will ever be able to separate you from His love.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author A 30-Day Walk with God in the Psalms, for March 9, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Have you ever gotten lost in the dark? That happened to me once—in Africa, when I was looking for a hippopotamus. It’s not something you want to be doing in the dark. Long story, but I was pretty scared. How did you feel when you were lost? Were you scared? Did you feel vulnerable?

Think about the difference it makes to have someone guiding you, helping you avoid the dangers.

That’s surely some of the emotions King David was trying to communicate when he penned Psalm 23. We’ll hear more about that in a moment. First, let’s get to know our speaker a little better. Here’s Nancy in conversation with Colin Smith.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You mentioned Karen—it’s spelled like Karen, right?

Pastor Colin: Yes.

Nancy: But if you come from Edinburgh, you pronounce it “Koran.” Tell us just a little bit about your family.

Pastor Colin: Thank you. Karen I met when we were studying theology in London. We’ve been married for forty-two years. We have two grown sons, and now we have five granddaughters. They’re aged ten down to four. They’re an absolute delight to us, so we’re richly blessed.

Nancy: I think your family definitely needs to be part of Revive Our Hearts and True Woman because you’ve got all those women in the grandkids—you’re raising the true women.

So, five granddaughters. Do they live in the Chicago area?

Pastor Colin: Yes. One set of the family is in the Chicago area, and the other side of the family is in Indianapolis. So, we’re pretty close to both, and in heart we’re very, very close to both.

Nancy: Well, we’d love to know a little bit about the ministry that has come out of your preaching—Open the Word. Did I get that right?

Pastor Colin: Open the Bible.

Nancy: Open the Bible. Thank you. Tell us what that’s doing and just a little bit more about it.

Pastor Colin: Well, Open the Bible is first a radio ministry. But with that, we also want to try and encourage people not only to be opening the Bible through the program, but to be opening the Bible themselves.

An important part of what we do is take people on journeys through the Bible—different lengths of journeys. We’ll give people an overview of Genesis to Revelation and help people to see that the whole Bible is one story that points to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then, we want to do what we can to try and encourage leaders. So, we put together videos and other resources that we hope are useful in regards to preparing people for leadership in various forms of ministry.

Dannah: Again, that’s our guest, Colin Smith, in conversation with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. There’s a link to Colin’s website in the transcript of today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com. If you missed part 1 of Colin’s message, “On the Valley of the Shadow of Death,” you’ll want to be sure and listen to it.

Colin talked about the deep, dark valley Jesus had to walk through, the darkness of the judgment of God for sin—not His own sin, but ours. As Colin said, Jesus suffered physical death, what he called the first death, and the horrifying wrath of God, the second death. He endured both at the same time on the cross.

Let’s continue with part 2 of this powerful message from Pastor Colin Smith that was given to our staff.

Pastor Colin: Jesus, remember, was on the cross for six hours. He was crucified at the third hour, that is nine o’clock in the morning. That was when Jesus said so wonderfully, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”

At some point during the hours that followed, one of the two thieves who was on either side came to fear God and asked Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). And Jesus spoke that wonderful word to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43).

But then, after three hours in the light, at noon, God turned out the light. Darkness. Thick darkness came down over the whole land. “It was about the sixth hour,” Luke writes, “and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour” (Luke 23:44).

And what was happening in that darkness was this: God Himself was sealing His covenant with us, His people. Jesus in the darkness became our sin bearer.

“He bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. The Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all (see 2 Cor. 5:21).

That’s what happened in the darkness. And because He bore our sins, He bore the punishment of our sins. And what He bore was actually what was due to us. He endured the hell that would have been ours.

What did Jesus endure on the cross? Let me describe it to you:

• He was in conscience suffering.
• He was surrounded by the blackest darkness.
• He was surrounded by the presence of demonic powers.
• He was bearing sin.
• He was under judgment.
• He could no longer feel the comfort of His own Father’s love.

What does that sound like to you? I would put that in one word. That’s all the dimensions of hell right there, isn’t it?

It’s what would have been ours.

Hell is conscience suffering in the blackest darkness, surrounded by demonic powers, bearing guilt, under the judgment of God, and separated from the comfort of the love of God forever and forever.

God was right there in the darkness doing His greatest-ever work. Right there, God was reconciling the world to Himself in Jesus Christ.

Jesus endured the first death and the second death at the same time. And that, of course, is why the prospect of what He was about to endure when He contemplated it in the Garden of Gethsemane was so absolutely horrendous to Him. But, of course, it didn’t end there. He did endure the hell.

The divine wrath, Ezekiel says, was spent. It was spent on Him. The justice of God, therefore, in regards to our sins, was satisfied in Him. The perfect sacrifice was made, a complete atonement was accomplished.

And that is why, in the darkness, Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, “It is finished” (John 19:30). And then, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

And you see, here’s the really good news: it’s the death of Jesus that has changed the nature of death for each and every one of us. When you enter into death, what lies ahead of you is not the second death. He died the second death for you so that when that day comes, and you enter into that valley, and your Shepherd walks with you, it will be for you an entrance into the glorious presence of the Lord who has loved you and who has redeemed you.

That’s why Paul can say in Corinthians, “Oh death, where is your victory? Oh Ggrave, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55 KJV).

Christian believers will never see the second death. Jesus endured hell so that you will never know what it is like.

Now, here’s what I want to say by way of application on this point: never tire of proclaiming what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Never tire, Brothers and Sisters. This is my word to you today: never tire of proclaiming what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Never tire of it. Keep it always at the center of your ministry. Never tire of proclaiming what Jesus accomplished at the cross.

Years ago I discovered a sermon preached by a man called James Denney. Some of you might have heard that name. He was a Scottish pastor who wrote a well-known book on the death of Christ. Denney had been invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society in Great Britain in the year 1911. (I just promise you I was not there for that particular occasion.)

Now, if you’re invited to give the keynote address at a mission’s society rally . . . This is a big organization for missions. If you’re invited to give the keynote address, there’s a certain expectation that goes with that, and you know what it’s like. What’s the keynote address for a large missionary society likely to be? It’s going to have three points: Pray. Give. And what’s the third point? Go. That’s the anticipation.

I wish that I could have been in the crowd in 1911 when Denney got up before this vast crowd and announced the title for his address. It was one word: “Propitiation.” And for any of you who don’t know, that, of course, is the Bible’s word to describe what we’ve just been speaking about—the wrath of God being poured out on Jesus and Him becoming the sin-bearer, the hell-endurer for us so that we might be saved because of all that He endured. That’s the meaning of the Bible word “propitiation.”

Now, why am I telling you this? For this reason: what fascinated me about Denney’s address in the year 1911 was that just one year before, as anyone who has ever studied the history of world mission knows, there had been a remarkable worldwide missions’ conference in the city of Edinburgh where I was born and raised.

Edinburgh in 1910 was the largest, greatest, most significant missions initiative in the entire history of the Church in 2,000 years. People came from all over the world. People came from a vast array of denominations.

And out of this amazing conference, people were saying, “Nothing like this has ever happened before. We’re going to reach the whole world for Jesus. We’ve got the strategies to do it. We’ve got the people, and we’ve got representation all over the world.”

And here are all these people; they’re gathered. There’s this vast, vast conference. And what comes from it is study groups and analysis and study of culture and so forth and so on—all kinds of important things to be done.

And for anyone who might be interested if you really want to follow this up, you can find all the papers that came from the worldwide conference on missions in Edinburgh 1910. The follow-up commissions that were established and all the work that they did and all the papers that were written are in the Library of Union Theological Seminary in New York. If you care to go and check it out, you will find that there are thirty-three boxes that take up fifteen point five linear feet of shelf space. You get where I’m going here?

Now, Denney gets up one year after this vast initiative, and he makes this observation: “Within the last twelve months, foreign missions have been more talked about in the Church than at any time I can remember.”

He then describes the urgency of the appeals, the urgency of the need, the vastness of the challenge. And he asks, “What has been the result?”

And he answers, and I quote, “As far as I can see, it is neither here nor there. An immense proportion of the people in our churches care little about the matter.”

His point is simply this: after all this excitement, after all this activity, there’s no discernible difference in terms of an increase of giving. There is no evidence of any significant spiritual movement that is actually happening. There is no evidence of people coming forward in greater numbers and saying, “I’d like to dedicate my life to the cause of world missions.”

Then he came to his point (and I quote): “It is not interest in missions we want in our churches at this time but interest in the gospel, because apart from the gospel, I believe we shall look in vain for a response to these missionary appeals.”

Then he launched into his exposition of his text, “Christ is the propitiation for our sins: and not only for ours, but for the whole world” (1 John 2:2 KJV).

Now friends, I love the heart of this ministry. I love what you are about. You are about the right things.

• At the heart of this ministry, we want to see a renewal of spiritual life. Amen?
• At the heart of this ministry, we want to see people moved from apathy and formalism and coldness to discover peace and joy and love in believing. Amen?
• We want to see people moved from passivity to an active and an energetic pursuit of holiness in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• We want to see people set on fire for the first time in their lives to win the world for Jesus.

That’s our goal. I love it!

How’s that going to happen? Never tire of proclaiming what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

If you really believe today that the divine wrath was actually poured out at the cross and that Jesus endured it in your place, that He took the hell that would have been yours and He did it in love for you so that you should never know what it’s like, when you come to the moment of going through that dark valley, it’s going to be an immediate translation into the presence of the Lord.

If you really believe that Jesus has done all of that for you, you are going to today be saying, “I want to give my whole life to Him.” You really are.

And if you really believe that Jesus on the cross died not only to redeem you, but that on the cross He endured all of this in order to redeem a vast company of people from every tribe and language and nation, if you really believe that, you know what you’re going to do? You’re going to say, “Not only am I giving myself to Christ, I want to find every way that I can to engage myself in taking this gospel to the world.”

Because once you grasp what the gospel really is, you have something within you that says, “This has to go to every creature.” It’s the driving force, you see. Never tire of proclaiming what Jesus has accomplished on the cross.

I don’t want my life to be memorialized in a whole bunch of papers. You want your life and your ministry to bear fruit because you have been centered in the cross and the resurrection of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let it ever be so.

We must all walk through the dark valley. Jesus has walked through the dark valley.

And finally, briefly, Jesus will walk through the dark valley with you.

Let’s come back to our verse:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
   I will fear no evil,
for you are with me,
   your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

Death is still a dark valley, but compared to the double death that Jesus died—the first death and the second death combined in one—what’s left for us is really only a shadow. And you know what? You don’t need to be scared of shadows. Anyone have your parents say that to you when you were young? “You don’t need to be afraid of shadows.”

Matthew Henry says beautifully,

The shadow of a snake cannot bite you. The shadow of a sword cannot kill you. And the shadow of death will not destroy you.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

Oh yes, death when it comes will separate you from your work. It will separate you from your loved ones. It will separate you from your own body. But it will certainly never separate you from your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And David knows this. He says, “Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.”

The rod, of course, was a piece of wood like a baseball bat that a shepherd would carry in order to fend off animals that might attack the sheep. And the staff, of course, was the crook that the shepherd would use to pick up a little lamb and draw it into his own arms. The rod and the staff there speak of the strength and the love of the Good Shepherd.

However dark a valley you may have to walk through, no power can ever snatch you from His hand. And nothing will ever be able to separate you from His love.

I end will this: what will it be like when you pass through the valley of death? Let me give you this picture.

The first time Karen and I ever visited the United States, we spent some time with a friend of mine. He was a pastor in California. There were two men in his church who owned small aircraft, and one afternoon they took us for a flight. It was a wonderful afternoon.

So there were four couples in two small planes—Karen and myself, the pastor and his wife, and then the two pilots and their wives. The pilot of the first plane had been flying for thirty years. Our friends, the pastor and his wife, went with them.

When we got into the plane with our pilot and his wife, Karen asked him how long he had been flying, to which he said, “Just a few months.”

Well, we enjoyed the most marvelous afternoon in flying up the Pacific Coast. After we had flown for a bit, we landed at this small peninsula where we enjoyed a meal together. But as we got through the meal, I noticed that the lead pilot began to get agitated. At one point, he got up from the table and left the restaurant. Then just a short time later, he came back running, saying, “We’ve got to go! We’ve got to go! We’ve got to go!”

I thought, Oh my goodness. What’s happening here?

Well, of course, what was happening was that there was a very heavy mist that was rolling in from the sea. Now, can you imagine this? Four couples. We’re running down the cinder track towards this little landing area, the airstrip. The lead pilot gets in first with the pastor and with his wife, and I have never seen a plane take off so fast. My goodness. That was amazing. It disappeared into the mist.

Our pilot was clearly flustered. I’m saying my prayers, I’ll tell you.

Well, we revved up the engine, left the ground, hardly able to see. And then, through the earphones we heard the voice of the lead pilot, “Hold steady. Ten seconds and you’ll be through.”

And we go, “Three, four, five, six, seven, eight . . .” It was scary. But on the count of ten, we burst through the fog into the most brilliant sunlight I have ever seen.

Christ will not leave you in the darkness. He will bring you safely home.

All the way, my Savior leads me,
Oh the fullness of His love.
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song, through endless ages,
Jesus led me all the way.

(“All the Way My Savior Leads Me” by Fanny Crosby)

Nancy: That’s Pastor Colin Smith quoting the well-loved lyrics of Fanny Crosby’s hymn. And that airplane breaking through the fog, what a beautiful picture of what it will be like to finally leave behind the valley of deep darkness as our Good Shepherd leads us home. Wow, it brings tears of joy to my eyes just to think about it.

Pastor Colin will be back in just a moment to pray, but first I want to let you know about his book, Heaven, How I Got Here. It’s the story of the thief on the cross. Pastor Colin wrote this from the point of view of the man crucified right next to Jesus, the man to whom Jesus said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Think about that: his whole life had been lived pursuing what he thought could save him. But it wasn’t until just hours or maybe even minutes before his violent death that he looked to the only one who could. That guilty criminal broke through the fog of the shadow of death and out into paradise.

Well, this week, Colin Smith’s book is our gift to you in thanks for your donation of any amount to help support Revive Our Hearts.

As you know, we depend on the giving of friends like you to continue bringing the message of freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness to women all over the world. So, thank you in advance.

To make a donation, just visit us at ReviveOurHearts.com. You can click or tap where it says, “Donate,” or call us at 1-800-569-5959, and be sure to request your copy of Colin Smith’s book, Heaven, How I got Here.

Tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts we’ll hear more from Psalm 23 and Pastor Colin Smith about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. You don’t want to miss it. Now, let’s pray with Pastor Colin Smith.

Pastor Colin: Father, how blessed are we that You are our Shepherd. Thank You for all that is ours in Christ. Let the knowledge of all that is ours in Him be the driving motive of our lives and of our ministries all the days of our lives until faith is turned to sight. And we, with many others, shall enter into all that You died to redeem us for. In these things we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants you to break through the fog into freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

 

Artist: Kendra Logozar

Album: Quiet Piano Hymns, Vol. 2

Song: All the Way My Savior Leads Me

© 2021 Kendra Logozar

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