Afraid of the Dark

Well, I know this tin roof can't keep us from getting electrocuted, but it can keep us from getting wet. Maybe if you've been a rascal you should worry about being electrocuted. Here now, here's my message for us this evening, friends.

When I was a little boy, I always slept with the nightlight on because I didn't want the boogeyman to get me. Studies have proven that three out of four kids from the ages of 3 to 12 are afraid of the dark. Some adults still sleep with a light on because they're afraid of the dark.

Watching a scary movie before bedtime or listening to a scary story can add to your fear of the unknown in a dark room. Somehow, a light left on gives us comfort. But what if there was no light? What if you were plunged into darkness? How would you react? What if it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and an unseen thing brushed up against you? There's even a clinical name for fear of the dark.

It's called nitrophobia. The name comes from the Greek word for night. People with nitrophobia have anxiety of dark places and they have trouble sleeping in a darkened room.

People who are prone to nightmares or a past traumatic event can bring a fear of the dark. Do you have a fear of what you can't see? Does a dark room fill you with anxiety and dread? When you are in a dark room, do you have trouble breathing? Do you have a panic attack? Jesus described the regions of hell as outer darkness. In the parable of the wedding banquet, when the king came in and discovered the guest without a wedding garment, the text reads, Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness.

There should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's a terrifying picture of hell, friend. Weeping speaks of great loss and grief.

Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. The damned in hell are plunged into a region of outer darkness where they experience loss, grief, anger and regret. It's lonely in hell, friend, but it's crowded as well.

I believe the most vivid description of what it's like to die as an unconverted individual is found in the book of Job in chapter 18 and in verse 18, which declares he shall be driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world. The title of my message this evening, friends, is Afraid of the Dark, and this message is not for the squeamish. It's not for the faint of heart.

It's a disturbing message on being cast into devil's hell. My only hope is that if you have mistaken church membership for salvation or if you believe you're going to heaven because of something you've done, like raising your hand or making a decision, or because you're not bad enough for hell, then I pray God's Spirit will come among us here tonight and disturb folks. Let's disturb you out of a false profession of faith and strip you down to the bare bones of a rotten foundation of self-righteousness, self-deception.

If your faith is no more than a hole in the wall, then I pray God exposes that vacuum to your soul tonight, lest you die in your sins and are chased out of this world into outer darkness. I will never, ever forget a true story that the evangelist Mordecai Ham always told. For those of you who don't know, Mordecai Ham used the preacher God used to lead Billy Graham to Christ.

Billy Graham came to a Mordecai Ham meeting, and Billy Graham was a young, clean church member who got offended when the preacher called him a sinner. Mordecai Ham reflected later that he never pointed at Billy Graham or called him a sinner, but the Holy Spirit sure did. Well, maybe the Holy Spirit will point you out tonight, friend, and show you you are undone unless you get to the Christ of the Gospels.

Well, Mordecai Ham could tell a story about hell that would make the hair on the back of your neck bristle. It was a true story he always related in his meetings, especially where he was preaching his famous sermon called Sudden Death, and it was about a girl named Lulu. Here now are the words of Mordecai Ham taken from that sermon.

Two sisters were living in a log hut near the church. Both were just young girls and were dying with tuberculosis. At the start of the meeting, I was asked to pray for them, which I did, but with no apparent result.

I was to visit them on a certain day, and the night before, after I had finished the service and returned to my room in the home where I was residing, I had a overwhelming experience of the Lord's presence. I felt so powerfully overcome by the nearness of the Holy Spirit that I had asked the Lord to draw back lest He kill me. It was so glorious that I couldn't stand more than a small portion of it.

Looking back, I see the Holy Spirit was simply filling me for the experience I would have on the succeeding day, where He caused me to witness the horrible death of one eternally lost. The mother of those two girls met me at the door of the little log cabin and begged me to hasten in and do something. Lulu is dying, the mother sobbed.

I hurried to the girl's bedside and tried to talk to her about her need of salvation. I pled with her for a long time, but to no avail. She refused to hearken.

Then she closed her eyes in death. I called to her, Lulu, how is it? A voice came back, not the voice of one living, but that of one who was in another world. It was a voice that came up from the depths without any sign of movement of the dead girl's lips or throat muscles, a voice that I've heard only once in my life and that I have never been able to forget.

Lost, lost, oh, oh, so dark, so dark. He shall be driven from light to darkness and chased out of the world, our text says, friends. How is it with you, friend? Have you been born from above and washed in the blood? Have you experienced God through saving faith in the new birth? Do you know what it's like to have the life of God in the soul of man? Or do you just have a head knowledge of Jesus like some egghead seminary professor when Jesus was here in his earthly ministry as he passed through towns and villages? Those who encountered him experienced change.

Have you experienced change? Listen, friend, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. I don't care how long you've been a member of a church or how long your track record of service is. If you've never been subject to a work of grace upon the heart by a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, then you die in your sins outside the redeeming blood of Christ.

Even if you are the chairman of the deacons, are you afraid of the dark? Do you sleep with a light on? There's no light in hell. It's dark there, friend, so dark, so dark. That bottomless pit is a region of great thick darkness where demons will brush up against you and they'll have their way with you and you can't escape or do anything about it.

Don't go to hell, friend. I beg you, don't go to hell. It's a terrible place of unending torments.

Let me give you some statistics, friends, on how crowded hell really is. Hear me now. The world population right about now is roughly at 8 billion souls and it's been estimated that every minute 85 people die without Christ and go into a Christless eternity.

That adds up to over 5,000 an hour. That's a hundred and twenty thousand people a day that wake up in hell. Do the math and that comes to 840,000 every week who go kicking and screaming into the darkness of hell on a monthly basis, friend.

That comes to 3.3 million souls crammed into that bottomless pit of darkness annually. That number is over 40 million souls being crammed into the region of the damned. Oh, so dark, so dark.

Are you afraid of the dark, friend? Are you afraid of dying in your sins? Get to Christ, friend. He is your only hope. Listen to me, friend.

Oh, please, I plead with you. Get the wax out of your ears. Please try and hear what I'm trying to say to you.

Maybe God will extend his grace to you now and let you see a revealed Christ. He's your only hope. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, he went about doing good.

Jesus healed the sick. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus gave sight to the blind.

Jesus even raised the dead to life. Yet what happened? Men cried away with him and nailed him to a cross. Look at that man on the cross, friend.

Look at that blessed man on the cross. See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained Savior for sin.

He is the only remedy for sin. But you have to feel your need of him. Listen, the gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty.

Let me ask you, friend, let me ask you here tonight, are you hungry for God? Are you sick and tired of your filthy sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Do you thirst for that living water, dear sinner friend? Oh, I hope you do, if you have need of him.

Oh, what are you waiting for? Why dilly-dally? Come to a bloodstained Savior for sin. Come to the Savior for forgiveness of sin. Don't wait until you're better.

Come as you are and let Jesus make you better. Come as you is. Listen, Jesus is the pearl of great price worth selling off for, so he may be gained.

But you must get to Christ and close with him and surrender all you are to all he is, and he is Lord. He's a living Lord who sits at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross. Listen to this gospel plea, and the Spirit and the bride say, come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.