Nightime Scenes

Luke chapter 12 and we'll read at verse 15. And he that is the Lord Jesus said unto them take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not of the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

And he spake a parable unto them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. Now verse 19 for sake of time and I will say to my soul soul thou has much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said unto him fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee then who shall those things be which thou has provided. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Now over to John's Gospel please chapter 13 John chapter 13. John 13 this is the upper room the disciples have gathered with the Lord Jesus for the last Passover. Verse 26 Jesus answered he it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it.

And when he had dipped the sop he gave it to Judas Iscariot the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him then said Jesus unto him that thou doest do quickly. Now no man knew at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.

For some thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus had said unto him buy those things that you need off against the feast or that he should give something to the poor. He then having the sop went immediately out and it was night. Now one more from the book of Acts please chapter 16 Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 verse 25 and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. Verse 27 and the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open drew out a sword would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying to thyself no harm for we are all here.

Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said sirs what must I do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and that thy house and they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And that night that whole house was converted. Now it is this time of the year in the northern hemisphere when days are getting shorter and the nights are coming sooner and staying longer.

Many things happen at night. Talk to any sheriff's department and they'll tell you that call volumes peak in the darkness especially at weekends at night. The Bible will give us the reason for that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

So we're thinking tonight well this afternoon of nighttime scenes and we have read of three significant nights in the Bible. We have read about the foolish farmer slave to possessions. This night thy soul shall be required of thee.

We've read about Judas the son of perdition. He went out and it was night. It was night.

That speaks volumes doesn't it? He went out into the night. But thank God we can read of a jailer a man who was saved in prison and happened just after midnight. He was reached by the grace of God and saved and his whole family too that wonderful night.

Now the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 12 he tells the parable about a man a rich farmer. There must have been why so far as this world is concerned. At least he had managed his agribusiness to the point where he had a really good harvest.

The yields were up this year beyond previous years and as a result he didn't have enough storage to put all the crops that he had gotten in his harvest. So he sat down and he thought it over and he pondered his difficulty. He says what will I do? And then like a flash the light bulb comes on and he says ah this will I do.

I'll go ahead and I'll pull down those old barns and I'll build bigger and better and everything will be hunky-dory. Now it may have been a prudent business decision but did you notice that God called the man a fool? Call him a fool. And you might wonder why.

Well it seems that here was a man who was completely absorbed with this world and he had neglected to see that there was a far more important matter that he should have been dealing with and that was the relationship of him to God, his soul with God. And he had totally neglected that. He had totally left that out and he was all absorbed with this world.

He may have been a respected farmer but he was wicked in the sight of God. That's pretty strong. Well listen to this.

Psalm 10 verse 4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. The man was wicked condemned by the Word of God.

Now I bring that home to our audience just now. I think generally speaking people in the world today here in Wisconsin the far too much stuff going on in their lives such that many don't even give a thought about God nor his salvation nor their own soul and where it is going. There's always something else that takes first place in their lives.

You know it could just be a video game. It could be the text message on the phone. It could be something completely legitimate that we would say just like this farmer was all occupied with his harvest but he totally neglected the problem of the need of his soul before God.

I want to challenge you. Have you thought this week about your soul? Have you thought about where you're going? Have you considered the thought that because of sin in the heart, in the life, practiced that in God's sight as a sinner you are wicked? Now that's the language of Scripture. The rich man with all his riches and with the plans for storage for this bumper crop you might wonder well what's wrong with all of that? A man's gotta live doesn't he? Says God you've got to die and all the stuff that you have that distracts you is going to outlive you.

Somebody else will deal with it but you're going to meet God. And because that man had not given serious thought about meeting God, God called him a fool. Now as God looks at your heart this afternoon what does God see? I can't see it but what does God see? Does he see one who is concerned? I wonder what God and love would have to bring into your life to cause concern.

I think of a man from the old country years ago he was in the same village that I grew up in. His name was Jack, Jack McKee. He came to the gospel meetings every Sunday night nicely dressed and I understand he would even go into taverns and fight for the gospel literally.

Jack came for a whole lifetime, heard the gospel and it wasn't until he prided himself actually in his physique he was a he was a strong man and he was very proud of his physique, manly physique and so on but then he got cancer. The flesh walked off him and it was only then that Jack McKee got serious about his soul. I can happily tell you that before he died God did save him.

He finished his days in an assembly Christian home there just outside of Belfast Faith House. God saved him but I wonder what it might take to awaken you or will you get serious before God even just now. I come to John 13 and here's a man who had tremendous privilege this man called Judas.

There's something very sad about the treachery of Judas. He was the chief betrayer of trust even to this day he has that name. Others trusted him, the disciples trusted him I'm sure.

He had the bag, he was supposed to look after the money but you know the Lord Jesus never trusted him. He knew who would betray him. The privileges that Judas had, think of it, he actually saw the miracles that the Lord did.

He saw that, he was there. He heard Jesus literally, he heard his teachings but he didn't believe on him. There was no conviction in Judas's heart.

He was the treasurer and a thief. He was dishonest but there he is at the last Passover. He's there with them all.

He has actually had his feet washed by the tender hands of the Savior and they're taking the Passover meal and the Lord is troubled because he knows that one is going to betray him and he says that and they all wonder who is it. John is laying upon his breast at the table and John close to the heart of the Savior he's at a vantage position where he sees what happens and when the Lord took the sop he gave it to Judas and in spite of that, that was a gesture where the master would give something to a guest. That was a mark of honor for that guest and in spite of that Judas went out.

He went out immediately. He had 30 pieces of silver to collect. He left the comfort and the dim lighting likely of that upper room and he went out and it says it was night.

Something very poignant about that statement because later Judas will go and hang himself and he will go into a night that will never end. The blackness of darkness forever. He's the son of perdition, the son of ruin.

You know I feel sad for for Judas but then I think about my audience and there are some here and you have known all about the Lord Jesus your whole life. Judas had three years, three and a half years with him but for how many years now have you been hearing about the Lord Jesus and up until this time just like Judas you have not come to trust your all to the Savior. You hold back, you hold off and in so doing you are betraying the trust that you ought to have in him.

In as much you're saying that he's not really worthy of my trust. I'll go it alone. I'll stay in my sins and if the Lord Jesus was here this afternoon and you could actually hear his voice he would say this to you.

If you die in your sins where I am he cannot come. Judas the son of ruin went out into the night, into the blackness of darkness and souls that hear the gospel if they die in their sins they'll be in the blackness of darkness forever separated from God who is light and in him there is no darkness at all separated from the God of all comfort. There's no comfort in hell.

There's no light in hell. He's the father of mercies. There's no mercy in hell.

Oh dreadful thought in hell to burn never to come back anymore. Judas what a tragedy. It was night.

But Paul and Silas now are in prison. The location is Philippi, northern Greece. There they are.

They should never have been put in prison. It wasn't just but there they are. They've been treated so unfairly in fact they have actually been beaten with stripes and it wasn't wasn't a bit fair wasn't just at all but you know what they're doing? They're singing praises to God.

They're giving thanks to God. What for? Well it's not for their present circumstances I'm sure. It wouldn't be very pleasant sitting in stocks your feet held there and your back aching with the stripes.

I don't think it was for their circumstances that they were giving thanks. Maybe it was but I don't think so. Could it be that they were giving thanks to God for his son? For the one who loved them enough to die upon the cross to put away their many sins and for the glorious power of the gospel that is able to deliver sinners from that place they're going to from hell and fit them for heaven and take away all of their sin before God and make them right before God and give them a righteous standing in his presence and they were singing praises on to God.

I don't know if they had that in book but if they did they would have been singing hallelujah what a Savior. And about midnight there suddenly was an earthquake and that whole that whole prison began to shake and what was once sure and steady and seemed rock-solid started to shake and so here's a man this jailer now there's an earthquake in his life literally and he's shaking too because he was about to take his own life and go out to meet God. Do thyself no harm for we're all here and that man shaking in his very sandals or shoes or cowboy boots whatever he was wearing he comes in before Paul and says he falls down and there's a man who's desperate he needs to be right with God.

Sirs what must I do to be saved? Well they had been already praising the one who could save them. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ put all your confidence in him and thou shalt be saved. You'll be saved at that moment and they gave him the message.

You know I believe that there are Christians children here, Christian parents try to give their children a secure a stable upbringing and life seems so unpredictable week after week goes through the similar routine and even meetings come and go and it seems like that's just the way it's ever going to be but I can tell you all that can change in a heartbeat and you can come to learn that life is not a sure thing. There's not a one of us is actually guaranteed tomorrow morning. Now let that sink in.

It was 20 years ago at this conference when Dick Rooley on Saturday he came into the dining room down the way here to tell us all that Art Ward had been killed in a car accident. Nobody expected that but it happened and things like that can still happen. You're not guaranteed tomorrow but my friend I want to ask you sincerely before God is your soul right with God? Is your soul saved? Are your sins forgiven? Are you ready for heaven? Thank God Art was.

Preach on this very platform but where would your soul be? That dear jailer, that desperate man trusted Christ that night. The Apostles went on and spoke the gospel to his whole family. They all trusted Christ and he took them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes, tended to their whip backs.

The man was changed from the inside out and then he was baptized and his whole household believed and were baptized and that family circle was complete in Christ. What a night, what a night that was. What a night it would be in La Crosse or wherever your home is if all in your family were safely trusting in Christ.

The Savior of sinners, the one who loved us, gave himself for us to provide salvation so freely, so accessible to you that you could right there in that seat have your destiny changed for eternity from hell to heaven if you trusted the Lord Jesus to be your Savior to put away your sins because Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. God raised him from the dead. God is satisfied with the work that he has accomplished.

When he cried it is finished, that work was done. He enters into death, the payment is made in full and God now is just and he is the justifier of everyone that believes on Jesus. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you too shall be saved.

May the Lord bless his word, let's pray.