I observe here in this passage
the span of a full day from the first statement
in verse 5 when the Lord bids Abram look at the stars. Obviously,
it's in the night when the stars are shining. He could see the
stars probably early morning before the dawn. And then in
verse 12, We read, and when the sun was going down, a full day,
from before daylight, looking at the stars in verse 5, until
the going down of the sun, verse 12, a full day's experience. And we read here in verse 12,
that there fell on Abram, as he's called
here, and horror of great darkness. And that's the title of our message
this morning, and horror of great darkness. Beginning in verse
1, we read, after these things. After what things? Well, in the
previous chapter, chapter 14, Abram had rescued his nephew
Lot who had been kidnapped, he and his family, and taken away.
And all he had, Abram had delivered them from captivity. And he brought
his nephew Lot back home with his family and his children and
friends and maybe even grandchildren to get on with his life. And
I can imagine that Abram who at this point is childless. He has no child, no seed he calls
it here. I can imagine this time with
Lot and his family. Abram is on his way home now,
goes back home. I can imagine he feels a little
sad, a little low in spirit. And he's thinking, here I have
delivered Lot. to go on with his life and his
family, children, grandchildren, and I have no heir. This man
Abram had money, he had servants, he had flocks and herds, he was
very wealthy, but he had no children. The devil is having a heyday
in Abram's mind. He's saying, you've done right.
You've obeyed God. You've honored God. You're rich
in every way. You've risked your neck for Lot,
who's got plenty to live for. And what have you got? Not one
child, not even one. No heir. I can imagine Satan
telling him, what a fool you've been to follow God. He don't care about you. You
have no heir, not a single child. And this is weighing heavy on
Abram's mind and it's on his heart. Now, Abram hadn't said
a word out loud, but the Lord knows what he's feeling. And
when you and I get like that, the Lord knows what we're feeling. Verse number 1, after these things,
the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear
not, Abram. I know where you're at. I know
what's going on. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. Abram, I want you to know that
I am to you and for you what all else is to other men. I am
thy shield. I am thy exceeding great reward. And in verse two, I don't believe
Abram is being argumentative, but he says, Lord God, what will
thou give me seeing I go childless? And the steward of my house is
this Eliezer of Damascus. He went on to say, Behold, to
me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. This number one servant of mine
is the closest thing I have to a son, to an heir. But he's just
a servant, one born in my house. And the Lord goes on to say to
him, Abram, no, he'll not be your heir, but in verse 4, He
says, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir. Now that's a very interesting
statement. And in this statement, Abram, no doubt, is thinking
of an Ishmael or an Isaac, one to come forth from his own loins. But God Almighty is not thinking
about Ishmael or Isaac. God Almighty is referring to
His own Son, introduced in Matthew 1.1 as the Son of David, the
Son of Abraham. God is ever mindful of His Son
throughout the pages of Scripture. And He says to Abram here in
verse 7, I'm giving you all this land to inherit it. And then
Abram asks the Lord, Whereby shall I know that I'll inherit
it? How am I supposed to believe what you're telling me? Then
in verse 9, Abram is instructed to offer a sacrifice, and he
does so. And then coming on down to verse
12, this is the verse which has my attention this morning. Verse 12, where we read, And
when the sun was going down, A deep sleep fell upon Abram,
and lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him. Now, first of
all, we would consider this statement, and horror of great darkness
fell upon him. This is Abraham, a man who believed
God, who obeyed God. who the scripture says staggered
not at the promise of God. A man which modern-day religion
would say should never see a dark day, should never be discouraged,
should never be down, should never feel low. This is a man,
Abram, that people would think surely he's shouting the victory
all the time, he's on the mountaintop all the time. No, we read here
that an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And note also
that it was when the sun was going down. You know that's a
lonesome time of day when the sun is going down. And darkness
is coming on. It means another day is done. Another day marked with failure
and faults and depression and defeat. And you cannot go back
and redo it. The day is done. The night is
coming on. And all that comes with it, there's
a measure of fear and uncertainty and dread of the night, the dark. Psalm 104, verses 20 and 21,
said, Thou makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the
beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their
prey. In other words, in the night,
when the young lions roar and the bears move and the wolves
howl, The demons of hell spring forth
and make their accusations and create fear in the darkness in
the midnight of our souls. Not midnight literally, but I
said the midnight of our souls. Many as the day in life's experience, when it's dark all day, It's
midnight in the soul, in the hearts and lives of God's fearful
and troubled little sheep. This approaching darkness, it
drives the child of God to despair. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1.8,
our trouble was such that we were pressed out of measure That's
the tribulation we talked about in the class. Pressed out of
measure, the pressures of life. We were pressed out of measure
above strength. It was more than I could handle,
he says, insomuch that we despaired even of life. While the world boasts, no fear,
and they wear it on their t-shirt, and they wear it on their bumper
sticker. No fear! May I say God's little ones fear. Then same verse, verse 12, a
deep sleep fell upon Abram. Here, I would say, is the divine
anesthesia. being administered by God Himself
in order to perform a divine surgery on this His servant. A deep sleep. Genesis 221 is just like that. The Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam. First Samuel 2612, a deep sleep
from the Lord fell upon Saul and his army. They couldn't get
to David. And here we read, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. What does
that mean? He was taken out of himself.
He was taken beyond himself in order to hear God speak. Oh, that God would do that for
me and that God would do that for you. To be where we could hear Him, believe
Him. We hear that saying, full of
Himself. He's full of Himself. She's full
of herself. It's really an understatement
with all of us. It takes what God is doing here
to take one beyond oneself. to get our minds, our hearts,
our interests beyond our sinful selfishness. And then the next
descriptive words here are first after the sun was going
down and then after a deep sleep fell upon Abram. Now we read,
and lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him. I want to just consider three
things in connection with this line of scripture. Number one,
the horror itself. What was it? Here's what it was
and what it is for all God's children. While Abram was so
consumed with the thought of no biological heir, no continuance
for him, and all that's his after he leaves this world, the Holy
Spirit in this divinely ordered darkness and deep sleep reminds
Abram that in himself he has no hope of continuance spiritually
after this life. And he sees the reality of leaving
this life to meet a holy God. And he has no holiness of his
own with which to meet Him. And neither do you, and neither
do I. This man, he had heard of the
destruction of the old world in Noah's time. He had sensed
the awesome and absolute holiness of God. But what had he in himself
to be able to face God? Nothing. How might he flee the
wrath to come? Nothing. The reality of facing
God bore heavy on his mind and heart and conscience. Now in
the light of the Scriptures which we have, this man Abram was the
most godly man of his generation. But he knew and knew well in
his heart that before God, he was awakened. Even though he
fell into a deep sleep physically, he was awakened spiritually to
the truth of being an awful sinner, chief of sinners. And in this
hour, he saw God as the standard, not himself, not reputation,
not religion, but God in his infinite holiness. is the standard. It was God who chose Abram. It
was God who called Abram. It was God who loved Abram. And it was God who brought him
into this day's experience of great horror in great darkness. And God does that in the lives
of His own. in the lives of these people.
You say, oh, so-and-so is such a wonderful Christian, they don't
seem to ever have any trouble. Well, if they don't ever have
any trouble, they're not a wonderful Christian. If they don't ever have any trouble,
they're not even a Christian. Our Lord said, in the world you
shall have tribulation. Hell is going to rise up. Things
are going to go wrong, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. So this darkness is not accidental,
it's not incidental, it is purposed, it is decreed, it is brought
by God for His child to have to experience. Let me read you
something, Deuteronomy chapter 28, and among these nations,
now just listen to this, and among these nations shalt thou
find no ease. Neither shall the sole of thy
foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind." Deuteronomy 28, 65. Well, now
that's not the story I hear from a lot of the TV preachers. I
mean, it's supposed to be a bed of roses here, health and wealth.
He said, No, I will give thee, the Lord shall give thee, a trembling
heart, failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang
in doubt before thee. Not in doubt before Him, but
in doubt before thee. Thou shalt fear day and night.
and shall have none assurance of thy life. You say, oh no,
bless God, I know that I know that I know that I know. You
don't know diddly. Jeremiah said the heart, the heart, the heart,
the heart. He wasn't just talking about
his, he was talking about yours. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You talk about
the fellow that's really deceived as the fellow that thinks he's
above deception. You see? Now the next verse said, In the
morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! And at even
thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! You ever been there?
Wow! Things going wrong in the day,
I wish this day was over. And then when you roll and toss
on the pill at night, You can't sleep troubled, heart torn over
this or that. You say, oh, I'll be glad when
daylight gets here. What do God if we're even? What
do God if we're mourning? No relief. Why? For the fear
of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight
of thine eyes which thou shalt see. God in His time, in His
way, brings every single one of his children into this horror
of great darkness. We could give numerous examples
of this truth in the Bible. The repentant thief on the cross,
awakened by the Holy Ghost to his condition, meditated in those
hours of the utter failure and folly of his life. And now he's
hanging on a cross. It's ending in shame and crucifixion. He's got to meet a holy and just
God, the Philippian jailer. Acts 16,
he experienced a convulsion in his own soul, drew out his sword
and would have killed himself. In Matthew 4, our Lord Himself,
in the temptation of the wilderness, Satan suggesting that He just
end it. Bow down and worship Me and you
can avoid all that you've got to go through in this world.
May I say this morning, unless, unless, unless the Spirit of
God has brought you or does bring you to this same crisis, this
same horror, this same darkness, the consciousness that you must
meet God and you have no righteousness of your own with which to meet
Him. Unless this happens in your heart, then here's what will
happen. You'll play religion all your
days, hold your head high, and rank yourself with the best of
men and plunge into hell without God and without hope. You see, it's not the mercy of
God that lets men live in ease. It's the mercy of God that lets
men live hard and troubled and bring about this horror and darkness. It's the mercy of God, who having
let us live hard, that same mercy will be there to let us die easy. It's the absence of this mercy,
having let men live easy, and that mercy will also be absent,
letting them die hard, screaming, knowing they're going to hell. or to be the subject of God's
mercy. And though life be hard, there's coming a day we can die
with ease, rather than living with ease and dying hard. Oh,
the horror of great darkness. It's the portion of all God's
saints in the world in every generation. Not only the horror,
but second thought, the hope, The hope. What hope does Abraham
have? Now in the context here that
he's talking about, his offspring, he has no heir, he has no hope
in himself. He can only trust what God says
to him. Well, also in the spiritual realm,
he has no hope. He can only trust what God says
to him. And God has something to say
to him. in this deep sleep, in this darkness
and horror. Verse 6, we read these words. And he believed in the Lord,
and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, this is an
amazing verse. Almost quoted again in Romans. And we are not to suppose here
what is generally believed and taught concerning this verse. That would be salvation by works. That Abraham believed in the
Lord, and because he believed in the Lord, the Lord rewarded
him with salvation, with righteousness. No, that's not it. It was not Abraham's faith which
was counted to him for righteousness. That would be salvation by works.
He would have attained it. But now our Lord, in the Gospel
of John, gives us what happened here with Abram, this man. John
8, verse 56, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. This is Christ talking. Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and was
glad. What did he see? What did Abram
see? What did God show him back there
in that darkness, in that horror? Abraham saw that Christ was the
required righteousness of all God's people. And it was this that Abraham
believed. And this righteousness of Christ
is what was counted to him as his own righteousness. See? What
belongs to Christ belongs to you. What he really saw was the
truth of the gospel. Romans 4.21 says of Abraham,
and being fully persuaded that what God had promised he was
able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. It was imputed. The it was not
Abraham's persuasion, it was God's promise. So in this darkness, Abram saw
Christ as his hope. That is why he later said to
Isaac, his son, in chapter 22, you know that story, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb. He'd already seen this thing. Abram saw Christ laden with the
sin of all his people, being made a curse to redeem his people,
bearing the judgment of God for his people. Colossians 2.14, Paul said here's
what he did when he died on the cross. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. All the charges I've heard in
those days they would put on the door of a prisoner's cell. They would put his crimes, what
he's charged with, the handwriting of ordinances
against the reasons for which he was condemned on the door of the cell. Well,
Christ is the door, and on Him were put all the charges against
His people. So Christ blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances against us, which was contrary to us, Paul continues,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. They nailed
Jesus to the cross, but he nailed something to the cross. It was
all the charges against us, and he took them out of the way.
In his being nailed to the cross, he nailed our sins to the cross. So in that experience of horror,
Abram had Christ revealed to him, and he's given hope. And it was that promise of Christ's
coming at which Abraham never staggered.
He never staggered. I've heard Romans 420 misquoted
many times, and you have too. That Abraham staggered not at
the promises of God, plural. No, that's not what it says.
It says he staggered not at the promise, singular, of God. What promise? The promise of
one to come. The promise of one to deal with
my sin. God's provision. It was the promise
of the coming Christ. That's the promise Abram never
staggered at. And then a third thought, briefly,
not only the horror, have you been there? Horror? Darkness? And not only the hope, do you
have a hope? Do you have any hope? What are you hoping in?
But the third thought, the help, the help. You see, having seen
Christ's day, this man Abram, Jesus said, he saw my day and
he rejoiced to see it, and he saw it, and was glad. Having wrestled with condemnation,
sin, shame, through seeing Christ, he receives consolation. And so it is with all God's elect. After a life of indwelling sin. This little religious mess running
around nowadays says, you need to get the sin out of your life.
You need to get the sin out of your life. Well, you might as
well go ahead and jump off a cliff. But as long
as you're in this flesh, that ain't happening. We're plagued with it from the
cradle to the grave. After a life of indwelling sin,
after a lifetime of inadequate performance, after a lifetime
of inferior feelings, after a lifetime of weak faith and insufficient
trusting, after a lifetime of an interrogating, accusing adversary, After a lifetime, my story never
changes, but my hope and my help remain the same. I say with the
psalmist daily, I will lift up mine eyes under the hills from
which cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. Christ is my help today. and
my hope. And I confess to you this morning,
I'll not leave this world with the testimony of the elder brother
in Luke 15. He said to his father, Lo, these
many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy
commandment. I know a lot of religious folks
this morning talk like that. They'll tell you right quick,
honey, I'm making the grade. I've always made it. I'll be
making it next time you see me. Confession, I've never made the
grade. I can't lay claim to that. I must come home with the words of Him who said,
Father, I have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy
son." But you know what? That's as far as he got. The
father took over and started giving instructions. Bring forth
the best robe. Put it on him. That was the priestly
robe of the home. Put a ring on his hand, the signet
of the king. Put shoes on his feet, the authority
of the house. Kill the fatted calf, it's time
to party. My son, which was dead and is
alive again, he was lost and is found. And I'm confessing
to you this morning, I can't leave this world like the Pharisee
in Luke 18 who prayed, God, I thank Thee that I'm not like this publican. No, no, I must take the place
of the publican. God be merciful to me, a sinner. The literal rendering of that
statement is God be merciful to me, the sinner. That awakened heart felt he was
the only sinner there was. Be merciful to me, the sinner. It's not my business to tell
God how bad you are. That's your job. Making you look bad won't make
me look good. To condemn and crucify you is
not my business. But knowing what little I know
about my own heart, is more than I can handle. I
don't have time for anybody else. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. I'm the only one I know anything
about. So in this horror of great darkness,
the gloom, the doom, the condemnation, Abram is given hope in Christ. And then he's given help. Christ
said he rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Can you rejoice today? Looking
at yourself, you never will. Are you glad today? Looking at
yourself, you never will be. See, this is what the gospel
is about. looking away from yourself and
looking to Christ. The old songwriter had it so
very correct. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Nobody's going to face the Lord with a sufficient resume of how
we've lived and what we've done and how worthy we are that He
should receive us. No, there's not but one way,
accepted in the beloved. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. On Christ, the solid rock I stand,
and all other ground is sinking sand. Let's just sing a line of that.
While the ushers come, receive the offering, okay?